Carolina was in Baja California Sur last week. That’s the falling-off-into-the-ocean Mexican side of California for the geographically challenged. Home of the cactus, blue marlin and the Damiana margarita. (If you’ve never had this herb-based aphrodisiac liqueur before, just ask Raphael’s roommates about it.) Lots of sand too. If you ever visit the southern region, don’t skimp on the SUV upgrade—the unpaved roads are so sandy they made driving our subcompact Chevy feel like treading quicksand. And Jamison was so kind to make me acutely aware that the Sea of Cortez is also the home of the man-eating Humboldt squid. But I like calamari so I wasn’t afraid to go into the water. The snorkeling was killer: I saw a brown white-spotted manta ray, a moray eel, yellow fin tuna, dorado (a.k.a mahi mahi, and mostly on my dinner plate), parrot fish, angel fish, rooster fish, puffer fish (alive and dead and dried up on the beach), lots of plain-old-fish and on the sand I saw vultures eating a dead seal. From my room I was able to watch a group of three osprey fish for dinner, communicating to each other in high shrills. It was a treat for me to witness such a thriving habitat up close.

I’d like to thank my amazing production team for taking over while I was away and making sure that nothing really, really seriously bad happened in my absence. (We’ll put that whole “Oops I wasn’t supposed to post that really sensitive document on the Internet” fiasco behind us.) What’s really important is that we have a hard-working group of people who step up to challenges and solve problems as a team.

If you know me, you know I wasn’t tree-huggin’ the whole time on my vacation. With the giddy bounce in my step of a foreigner with a better exchange rate in her pocket, I hit up every Mexican tienda (or “gift store” in Gringo) from La Paz to Cabo (in this sparse area that gets the count up to about 3). Check out my loot.