"Join Dana and friends on their safari from Tijuana--stay in the third lane from the left for the toll road--to Todos Santos. As you experience Baja's transforming magic first hand, you, too, will want to pack up your troubles and learn to turn Cartwheels in the Sand."
--Emilie Winthrop, San Diego Writers' Monthly
"A page-turner packed with the sincerity, passion and color of Mexico!"
--Robert Lawrence Holt, Author of N.Y. Times Bestseller Good Friday
"Cartwheels in the Sand touched my heart. It's an engaging, insightful novel and an accurate guidebook. I relived hundreds of my own Baja adventures while reading it and was spurred on to plan another trip!"
--Shirley Miller, Founder of Mexico West Travel Club
"Ann Hazard invites you to tag along on the tantalizing odyssey of a feminine foursome down the magnificent peninsula."
-- Carol Kramer, Vice President of Discover Baja Travel Club
"An enjoyable read--intimate and passionate, yet full of easily digestible facts, suggestions and insights for the Baja traveler."
--Graham Mackintosh, Author of Into a Desert Place
SNEAK PREVIEW!
Pick up CARTWHEELS IN THE SAND and tag along with Dana, Holly, Camille and Barb as they journey down the "magnificent peninsula." Once you experience Baja's transforming magic firsthand, you too will be ready to gather up your best buddies and head south! Set against one of the most dramatic backdrops on the planet, this is a powerful story about coming to terms with life at midlife---definitely a "City Slickers" for women.
Here's a sneak preview from the book:
PROLOGUE---Encinitas, California August 7, 1997
The phone dropped from her hand onto the speckled gray carpet. She stared at it, her eyes blank, brain whirling. Her ears roared with the sound of waves pounding against the sand.
"He's gone," she whispered to her dog. As the dog, Casey, rubbed her head against her hand, she added, "My dad. He's gone."
She dropped to her knees and rocked backwards in a timeless gesture of feminine grief. A long, low moan erupted from deep inside her. A trail of tears worked its way down her cheeks and dripped, one at a time, onto the bare skin of her thighs.
On the floor next to her, the phone blared. "If you would like to make a call, please hang up and try again. If you need help, hang up and then dial your operator." As it began the endless chant of "Rant, rant, rant, rant, rant" she picked it up and threw it across the room. It slammed against the wall, still ranting, and the dog, who had been licking the palm of her hand, slithered away into the bathroom.
CHAPTER ONE---Baja California Sur August 10, 1997
"Mom, how much longer til our plane lands?" asked thirteen-year-old Ashley.
Dana Wallace leaned across her daughter and looked out the window of the jet. Below her the Sea of Cortez shimmered in the blazing summer heat. Its color shifted from a pale aquamarine in the shallow waters bordering deserted white beaches to an ever-darkening shade of azure blue as the water deepened. Flashes of light sparkled across the moving surface of the sea. She smiled as she remembered the story he'd once told her about the mermaids---how they danced with wild abandon in the refracted sunlight on the tips of the waves.
She counted the bays on the island below her. Twelve on the west-facing side. Recognizing it as Isla Espiritu Santo, she shifted her gaze south, toward the city of La Paz. She felt more than heard the high-pitched whine of the engines as the Alaska Airlines jet cut its power, readying itself to land at Los Cabos International Airport. The "Fasten Seat Belt" sign flashed on and she nudged both of her daughters.
"We should be there in less than ten minutes," she said.
Ashley's twin, Sara piped in. "Will Ellen be here to pick us up?"
Dana smiled in spite of herself. "Who knows?" she said. "She told me this morning she might send Jorge. She said she was going out for a long, long ride on her quad. All the way up to Punta Pescadero, or maybe south to La Ribera. No lo se, mijas---I don't know, babes. We'll have to see who shows up."
Ellen, her father's widow, was 54 years old and borderline eccentric. Her dad had been 71---and definitely eccentric---when he died unexpectedly in his sleep three days before at their beach-front home in Los Barriles. Less than an hour north of the Los Cabos Airport, the East Cape resorts of Los Barriles and Buena Vista were not just places where retired expatriated Americans moved to live their last years in affordable comfort. They were that---yes---but more. So much more.
To Dana, Baja was a place of exquisite, pristine beauty set against a backdrop of near desolation. It was her favorite place on earth, a place of endless cactus-inhabited hills, sunny skies and see-through water that teemed with brightly colored fish. A smiling place of real-life cowboys and surprise oases. A place where hot springs bubbled up to the ocean floor, burning her toes as she played in the waves under the light of the moon. A place where gray whales came each year to give birth to their young. It was a place of boisterous yet achingly beautiful mariachi music. It was a place of paradox---where joy danced hand in hand with sorrow. It was also one of the premier sport fishing and tourist destinations in the world.
Dana had been coming to Baja since she was eight. She felt more at home here among the Mexican people than she did among her own. She'd never understood exactly why, she just knew in her gut that it was so. It only figured that her father, Bud Wallace, would choose to have his ashes scattered off the back of his screaming yellow panga in the Sea of Cortez. It was only fitting that it would be here, off the East Cape of Baja California---the place he too loved most in the world.
Wiping at a tear with the back of her hand, she reached into her purse for a tissue. She blew her nose. Sara took her hand and squeezed it. "It's okay, Mommy," she said. "It's okay to cry. I miss him too." And the three of them, mother and twin daughters---who had been alone together for nearly seven years since Dana's husband left and married the next door neighbor's wife, then later a dentist he met at a convention in Houston---cried together as the plane screeched to a landing and taxied to the brand new Los Cabos terminal, where it lined up behind a Mexicana jet, an American Airlines jet, two charter jets, an Aero California jet and an America West jet.
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Got your interest up? Here's a bit more info:
Although for the life of her, she couldn't figure out why, Dana's father left her (a very single mom) his '78 motor home. The day she got home from his funeral, a woman she knew slightly came to visit her at work. This woman had landed a contract to write a completely unconventional Baja California guidebook. But to do it, she needed an RV and three women to travel with her for a month.
 Meet Dana---adventure-starved executive chef; Holly---bossy eco-tour guide and author; Camille---outspoken deejay and songwriter; and Barb---straight-laced businesswoman with a deeply-rooted fear of dirt.
This unlikely foursome invites you to travel the Baja peninsula with them. By the time you've finished, you'll know them better than you know most of your real-life friends. You'll be chomping at the bit to take this trip yourself and you'll have the knowledge to do it too....
CARTWHEELS IN THE SAND is a story that will touch your heart. You'll laugh. You'll cry. You'll grind your teeth in frustration. You'll cheer. It's also a bona fide, user-friendly Baja California guidebook, complete with a travel index, map and detailed information for the occasional or avid ecotourist. You'll find out where to go, what to take and how to travel safely and sanely in Mexico. You'll also learn more about Baja's engrossing, unique history, geography and culture than you would ever learn in a lifetime of trips to the tourist hot spots like Tijuana, Rosarito, Ensenada and Cabo!
Some comments from Ann:
So, hey! Order a copy today and join this feminine foursome on a journey you will never, ever forget!!
You may not believe this, but CARTWHEELS IN THE SAND has been read by nearly as many men as women. One guy told me, "I want to meet that Camille chick!" Another said this to me: "I learned more about women from reading your book than from anything I've ever read or heard in my life. And you know what I realized? We're really not so different after all! Thank you!" Another guy said, "It's like being a fly on the wall in the women's locker room." And my all-time favorite: "Hey, I didn't think I'd be able to handle it, but I can barely put it down. This is a non-chick chick book!"
A business associate of my sister's told her that she shared this book with her immediate circle of women friends. Each of the four of them identifies with a character in the book. They've sat around and discussed it for hours---laughing at each other foibles and celebrating each other's strengths. Pretty cool, huh?!
While I wrote CARTWHEELS with an audience comprised of baby boomers and GenXers in mind, I've found that my friends parents and in-laws love it! These are folks in the 50s, 60s and 70s---and they're just as enthusiastic as their kids. Go figure....
Read it. Pass it around. Give it as a gift. Order one today! Email me and let me know how it affected you. If you're really hyped about the book---write a review on Amazon.com!
Que le vaya bien,
Ann Hazard
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Some Reviews: