My friend Maria is a leap year baby so when February has 29 days in it, we celebrate big-time.
Otherwise she and I go to Hotel La Concha on the beach here in La Paz, and have a wonderful time.
We have massages. Then showers. Then a nap under a palapa. Then we have a margarita, a swim. Lunch with another margarita, then a swim, a nap, some coffee to wake us up for the drive home and then we go home. In 10 years we have missed only one or two of these days.

This year we may miss the actual day, but within a week we will have the full-on February birthday the way we like it.
The waiters know us, and when they see us coming they make sure that lounge chairs are under a palapa and the area around them has been raked.

Last year on my birthday, my home was invaded by a band of my friends . They came early on that Saturday morning with a plate of cupcakes each ablaze with a candle, golden balloons, Champaign and a wonderful l breakfast.
It was so much fun. I was totally surprised.

This year I turn 60. My kids and my sister got together and arranged the HoneyMoon suite at
Posada La Poza in Todos Santos for my beloved and me. The owners are our dear friends so it makes it even more special. And Roberto from Todos Santos and Melanie & Gunter from Rancho Nuevo will be joining us for dinner.

We’ll lounge around the painter- palette- shaped pool, and enjoy sunset drinks on the terrace with Roberto, Melanie & Guenter. And an exquisite diunner will be served including birthday cake. My daughter-in-law, Karri stuffed some candles in my Christmas stocking that say: ” It’s the Big 6-0 …Oh No”
They will travel down in my purse with us to adorn my cake.
In the morning, wrapped in my robe, I’ll saunter over to the table in the garden where “Early Riser” coffee, tea and cookies are ther to hold us over until breakfast!

Sunday we’ll take their row boat across the lagoon, and be on the ocean beach. We can watch whales from the shore and feel like we are swimming with them.

La Poza is a special place, I once wrote an article about it calling it a sanctuary, and it is. That the owners, Juerg and Libusche Wiesendanger are our special friends makes it more special. And we always go to La Poza for my birthday, sometime during MY MONTH. The gardens are lush, and diverse, and walking in them is calming, and truly takes you away from your cares. and yor eye is delighted by a special rock meticulously placed, or a scuplture, a colored bit of glass, a gazing ball. all subtle, but evident.

We have also been their guests when the hotel is closed, and have had time to talk and visit with them without interruption.

When we have guests from the US, we always bring them to La Poza for lunch, and they are al charmed , and hate to leave. We send our paying guests there for a day, and they return just as pleased.

Since I won’t be celebrating with my kids or sisters, being with all of these friends-our first friends in Baja- makes my day very special.
Oh, and it will be warm enough to swim…in February.