finally back to workable internet

---

We've been away from the internet, but back now so from my journal I'll update life on the road.

Loreto continued

Loreto was our fix of city living for a couple of nights. We stayed at the Riviera Del Mar, which was situated right downtown-in the owner's backyard literally. We were camped right beside their kitchen. Showers were clean, functioning and all tastefully decorated. There was always tons of people gathered, in this casse by the outdoor laundry room with their laptops, often talking to their kids via headphones-these retirees are right on top of the high tech stuff. We're definitely the youngsters around this place.

The downtown didn't have a whole lot to offer, except a dozen tourist traps and mangy dogs-really reminds me of "Lady and the Tramp"-they all seem to know each other, hanging out on the street corners, passive, and for the most part, people ignore them, unless they hit them with their cars, which happens all too often-many have limps, which is quite distressing, but it seems to be a way of life down here. My sister Sandra would have a very hard time down here.

We were here for the Sunday market which was like a huge Mexican rummage sale, if you can imagine that. There were however fresh vegetables-the first that I've seen for a while, meat hanging around-and alot of taco stands. ·It seems that tacos are eaten for breakfast, lunch and dinner ususally for around a buck each, carne, cerviche,pollo. The kids were getting quite adept at ordering tacos in spanish and for lunch we had the treat of eating at "McLulus which supposedly had the best tacos in the area., They had pastry, and bread but all with a weird aftertaste or were very sweet. I passed on the meat, loaded up on vegetables and fled the mobs(no bathroom facilities..)

On the way home the kids discovered a homemade icecream parlour and had icecream for the 2 days that we were there. The highlight of Loreto though was that I bought a coconut head that looked like Neil Young, and will display that proudly when we get home. As well there were a trillion gringos here who were attending a conference on sea turtles-interesting stuff.

Jan 26

We moved from Loreto north and east to Baja Conception, with the goal of staying at Playa Santispac. We were told that this was the most user friendly beach because there was a pump out statiion, hot shower(not) out houses..ackk, and locals came around regularily with all water, veggis, camarone,scallops etc and the charge wass 70 pesos a night.

I can say in all honesty, that I was disappointed when we arrived. All along the coastline was a reddish brown sludge, and the sparkling aquamarine water was nowhere to be seen. It was also cloudy and cool, and the water was cold. Joe parked beside a guy who had a generator that was on, and it was loud, so my vision of sitting on a jewel laden, white sandy beach with a margerita watching the sun set was shattered. Instead I was sitting on a ripped armchair, drinking a Tecate, wishing that I had ear plugs, and watching sludgy orange stuff lap onto the shore. I also made the mistake of going to the restaurant/kitchen and store, with not much of anything and read the temperature for the week. It said that it was going to be cloudy, rainy and cold-just like last week.., so I was going to get my yearly SAD in Mexico of all places. I thought that we left the cold in Utah. Fortunately, in Mexican fashion, the forecast was for last week and my depression was short lived.

However, things changed considerably when we learned that the sludge was red tide. When it got dark we saw blue and green beams shooting from behiund the boats, as fish jumped -spectacular and unusal. I can say, and will say that I blew it and acted like a girl. Joe and the kids weht swimming in it . It was fun to watch them frolicking , diving, laughing their guts out in the quiet night-their glee echoing across the bay(were know the next day as the crazy Canadian kids) They all came in, ecstatic that they were able to swim in the phosphorescence-just like a laser show, while I made dinner. Oh dopey me..Sam and I slept out on the beach that night(and did all week) without the tarp, and without light pollution-the stars were nothing short of awesome, and we were in our element-sand, stars, dreams.

The next day, after a brilliant sleep on the beach, I got up early and hiked over to the next beach to so some exploring, yet another beautiful beach in Baja..We then took the zodiac out to do some island reconnaisance(don't know how to spell) , did some snorkelling -not alot to see unfortunately but beautiful white sandy beaches. I can say however that I can see why people love the BC coast.Here the water is clear and beautiful, but the landscape is stark-more of the same, cacti, dirt, loose rock, not alot of variety and the ever present garbage..

Joe and I rode over later to Play Punta marina, through creek beds with towering cacti, along the beach and the sun was out! We came back to the kids swimming with the zodiac-again, the only people in the water. Under the stars, we had a command performance by an unknown bagpiper on a sailboat, a fire on the beach, fresh fish from out neighbours, dinner , and a beautiful warm night.

"During calm nights , at Santispec, it is common to awake with a strange red-orange scum along the shoreline or in windows across the bay. What you are seeing is a large wind and current, aggregations of a unique one celled animal "Noctiluca Scintillas" of sea sparkle-single celled algae. It is the largest single celled animal in the world. The latin name means "night light" and the species is largely responsible for the bioluninescence we see in our boat's wakes, and the wakes at the water's edge at night whenb the animal is disturbed. The light is the same chemical reaction ween in fireflies."

---