December 2008
18 posts
Gone Clamming
Pete and Sonia invited us to join them and some friends clamming yesterday. We headed out to a beach just past El Requeson, a 45 minute drive from Mulegé. We got Sienna pretty worked up on the drive there and she was jumping out of her seat with excitement by the time we pulled up to the beach. There were about a dozen people in our crew. One person manned the vehicles (vehicle raids have been...
WatchMulege, Baja
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Extreme Cyclists
We met a couple last night who blew my mind. Their names are Sonya Spry (44 yrs) and Aaldrik Mulder (42 yrs) and they are cycling around the world. They’ve been on their bikes now for 2 1/2 years and they hope to continue for another 3 years, or until the money runs out. After completing their education, they worked hard and lived frugally for 3 years while saving every penny. Then...
Old Time Mulegé
I’ve been told that Mulegé is “old time” Mexico in that it is relatively unaffected by the influence of Western society. Mulegé is a quiet fishing village and there is very little in the way of tourist attractions. There are only a few shops and restaurants geared at tourists, so it is relatively easy to find good food at a good price. We’ve had the opportunity to eat delicious traditional...
Symbiosis
We were collecting shells on the beach again today. It seems to be a popular sport out here – you have to jockey for position to get at any of the good stuff. I figured it might be easier if I changed my focus a bit, so I started collecting fragments of sea glass. The glass was striking, weathered down to smooth, frosted shapes in colours ranging from white, to blue to green. A man made object...
The Pits
As you may have heard, or learned from personal experience, toilet paper is scarce in Mexico. “Don’t leave home without it” has become our family motto. As such, we are generally fully equipped when heading to the “office”. This time, however, all I brought was my journal. Pretty poor arsenal when heading to the pit. Being in a bit of a bind, I recalled some great advice my grandfather had...
Spooked
As we headed home from the beach today, we spotted an abandoned building covered with what looked like mounted turkey vultures. The birds had their wings spread as though in mid-flight, like the stuffed eagles you find in the houses of affluent men with too much testosterone and money to spare. There were dozens of them, their red heads peering out at us eerily above their black bodies. The...
Fishing Fiasco
The three of us headed to the beach today so Dave could try some fishing. Sienna and I gathered shells while Dave busied himself on the shore with his rod. As Sienna and I rounded the corner of the small peninsula we chose as our base, I caught sight of Dave wading knee deep in the ocean. I thought nothing of it until I saw him seconds later up to his armpits, yanking hard on his rod. He...
Killer Squid
Baja Steve (see previous post) told us a spectacular fishing tale I have to share. Apparently, squids are very aggressive creatures and have been known to take down whales (he told us the National Geographic has offered $1m to anyone who successfully photographs a squid attacking a whale). Squids have sharp horny beaks capable of tearing out chunks of flesh the size of a golf ball. When they...
Writing
I have resolved to try and write as much as possible during this trip, so please forgive the occasional bizarre post. I tend to run out of normal things to say, so I occasionally need to select themes from my backup material.
Mulegé
We stayed in San Lucas Cove 3 nights before moving on. Our plan was to drive to Bahia Concepcion, however we only made it as far as Mulegé. We stopped there to refuel and to get a few groceries, but, shockingly, we began experiencing problems with the starter on the van and felt that with our track record to date, it might not be wise to continue.
So we found a great RV spot in the parking lot...