My Baja Home

Virginia Blas


My husband and I have recently retired to La Paz, Baja California after my husband suffered a near fatal heart attack due to work related stress and an unhealthy lifestyle. For more than 40 years now, my husband Michel worked as a CPA lawyer in Houston and over the years of tight schedules and intense physical and mental strain, his body finally gave out and he was hospitalized for 2 months due to a stroke. After almost a year of recovery, it was then that we decided it was time for him to retire and for us to move to a more relaxing and peaceful environment.

To us it seemed like La Paz, Baja California in Mexico is the perfect place to spend the rest of our lives in. The city is an interesting mixture of commercial development and strong local culture, with hotels, malls, condominium buildings, hospitals, and schools side by side with museums, tourist spots, cultural landmarks, and recreational facilities. We sold our two-storey house in Houston that had a one acre garden and a pool and we bought a loft-style condominium unit in La Paz. From the money we got from selling our former house, we got plenty of money left which we saved for the future.

We decided to decorate the modern interiors of our new condominium home with furnishing bought from local craftsmen and artists. Everything major furniture, from the beds to dining chairs, were made of local materials by furniture makers from Baja and the rest of Mexico. The bed for instance in the master's bedroom is a king size four poster bed that features intricately carved Aztec symbols and leaves. The dining table is a rather large oakwood piece that is very sturdy and has very clean lines. We also bought carpets, rugs, pillow cases, throws and window treatments that featured local Baja textiles and patterns.

Although we did not have any gardens now, we placed plenty of potted plants and flower arrangements in every room in the condo so that we can enjoy the refreshing vibrance of the outdoors anywhere we look. My husband also bought several bird cages wherein he placed in each a pair of brightly colored lovebirds of canaries who lent their songs to us all throughout the day.

I have to say that my favorite place in our new Baja home is the little sun room with a terrace which is connected to our bedroom. This is where we usually eat our breakfast together with our two dogs since in the morning the space is filled with a warm and soft glow and the salty air from the ocean pervades the room. At the afternoons my husband loves to nap in a large hammock we hanged in a corner because the terrace makes the room very windy and cool. Late afternoons is also a great time to sip champagne here at our sun room because you can see the Sea of Cortez and the sun slowly dipping under its horizon.

Our new Baja home and the healthy, peaceful lifestyle we are now leading has given us both great peace of mind and a positive outlook in life and i fervently hope that this continues during the entirety of our stay in La Paz, Baja California.