Day Trip to Mulege

A sunrise to die for...

Had to put this in the blog today. Perfect conditions for a colorful sunrise.

What a way to start a day !!!

Our featured beach friends today are Bob and Dianne. They are from Vancouver, B.C., Canada and stay on the beach about four months a year. Their trailer, in the background, is comfortably outfitted, but they do spend much time outdoors. Bob is a snorkeler/diver, taking his inflatable boat out to the rocky shores and islands for fish spearing. He does very well, probably getting the largest variety and size offish around. Diane loves to do puzzles, including Sudoku. They are preparing to return home next week. We'll miss the superb campfires they provide in the evening as well as great conversation.

From Mimi--One winter, while I was still working and John was here ahead of me, Bob's propeller broke on his boat. He and John figured out how to order one in El Cajon where I worked. I had to go buy it and carry it down with me when I flew in! Bob was so grateful, he gave me my own fire poking stick with my name on it. I'm the only person allowed to poke the fire except Bob. What an honor!

Yesterday we needed to go into Mulege for some basics - house water, drinking water, and laundry. We decided to splurge and let the folks at the laundromat do it for us. We just drop it off, and by the afternoon it's magically clean and nicely folded. Costs a little more than doing it yourself, but the people down here need the income. (and we're lazy)




This is a weird, Mexican / Western landscape outside of Mulege. Likely done by some eccentric citizen.



Speaking of eccentric, this RV'r likes to make political points, decorating the RV with spray-painted messages. Crazy gringos !!


Mulege town square. A comfortable, park-like atmosphere. Plenty of benches. You never see "homeless" people or beggars here. Folks have a lot of pride here, as in most other Mexican towns. You see folks out sweeping the sidewalk and street in front of their shops each morning. Although old and need of repair, the streets and buildings are clean and free of litter.

A famous blogger resting on one of the park benches.



A local variety store has the usual sort of stuff, including pinatas for the kids. More modern pinatas reflect popular cartoon characters.


Near the town square is the fire department - Bomberos. Proudly displaying their fire engine.

No self-respecting town is without a Catholic church. Theirs is close to the town square, with Mimi posing on the steps.

There are several corners or "points" where three streets meet. They have memorial statues, with benches and sometimes a little playground for the muchachos.

Our last task in town was getting water. The bladder holds about 40 gallons, which is then pumped into the motorhome for washing and showers. The water bottle holds five gallons - which costs nine pesos to fill (about 65 cents). It is purified water - through reverse osmosis, I think.

We took a ride in the country, looking for a farm which sells produce right from the field. Saw plenty of crops, which use water from the Mulege River for irrigation. This is one happy, well fed burro - munching away in an alfalfa field. Never did find the vegetable stand though.

Hasta luego...

Gillespie--Auxillary Cat?

As our readers know, we have two cats--Armani and Gillespie. The names alone reflect their personalities. Armani, the designer cat, is our poser. There are a lot more pictures of this elegant grand champion than of Gillespie, the humble one. Just before our trip, I had Armani in to our vet who crooned to him, "I'll bet you are your mom's favorite." Started me thinking. When I was still working, I had pictures of each cat in my office as props to get children talking. They would also often ask, "Which one do you like better?" The question reflects one in many children's minds about themselves and their siblings.

It is truly a difficult question. We feature Armani more in the blog. He is our shining star, striking photogenic poses and delighting strangers with his unabashed eagerness to be the center of activity. Many of our visitors don't even know what Gillespie looks like other than a grey shadow scurrying under the couch for safety. And so I have decided to tell Gillespie's story.

She was abandoned at the cafe of Gillespie Field airport as a tiny kitten. We were having a traditional Saturday morning breakfast with pilot friends when a terrified kitten cry echoed through the patio. The waitress told us that she had been found at opening in the trash can with a blanket. Someone had deposited her in this relatively safe receptacle during the night. I rounded up the frightened baby and held her squealing form up as she put tiny paws as much around my neck as much as she could and buried her face under my chin. I was hooked. There was no turning back from this instinctive act.

Now, we had two elderly and sickly Siamese cats are home and the last thing we needed was to bring in a stray. I rationalized that I would simply take her home and then to a rescue organization to find a good home. When I got her home and she recovered her spirits, I noticed that she was jetting around the house on three legs. Oh Oh! Can't send an injured cat to a rescue place. They would probably euthanize her. So I plunged in deeper.

I took her to the vet, hoping it was a dislocation that could easily be put right. That happens easily to cats. No such luck. Her femur was neatly snapped close to the hip socket. In deeper still. Turned out that vet was a master of microsurgery, so for a mere $400, she pinned the tiny leg. During her recovery, Gillespie turned into a grey jet ski on land and furniture. IN DEEPER. I started to look forward to coming home from work to watch the joyful bundle. She was better than Prozac!

Gillespie continued to greet me, begging to be held and cuddling her little face into that same spot under my chin. Today, at better than fifteen pounds, she still tries to do it. I was her mom! POINT OF NO RETURN! John was rightfully angry at first--protective of the well-being of our other cats. Who knew what that thing might be bringing in to our house. I spent two weeks in the spare room, avoiding an icy body and cuddling with my baby. John soon thawed and the kitten was ours. We named her Gillespie after the airport.

The summer after my retirement, Gillespie became desperatey ill with hepatic lipidosis due to major disruptions in her fat life. Overweight cats can quickly go into this deadly condition if they stop eating abruptly. John and I were faced with the decision--pour thousands of dollars into a mere animal just when we had entered fixed income stage or relieve her suffering by gently putting her down. It wasn't just a matter of money, it was also a matter of quality of life. We started by telling ourselves we would do what we could but no heroic measures. That meant doing what we could to force feed her and keep her hydrated. It became increasingly obvious that this would not work. Usually a rational person, I broke into sobs one day and admitted I just couldn't let her go. DEEPER STILL. We went to a specialist and had the feeding tube inserted. The rest in chronicled in summer '07 blog entries. Did I mention we were in Chimicum Washington at the time and living confined in our motorhome with perpetually grey skies outside?

During her recovery, she made her way on to the bed each night, nestled down next to me and purred. I told myself that as long as she purred, I would keep trying. One night she didn't come up. I was preparing myself for the end. The next night, as I was settling in, I felt a movement at the end of the bed. Gillespie was trying to get up but lacked the strength for the jump. I lifted her on the bed and she assumed her usual position and purred as loudly as ever.

We won that battle. I think now that it was preparation for this year's journey with my father as he left the world. This time, I wasn't rescuing, I was accompanying a beloved to the next life. I feel I won both times.

Now--Who do you think is my favorite cat?

Rearranging the deck chairs--again

We would not be traveling like we do if it weren't for John's mechanical and technical skill. My primary role, however, seems to be as the "Finder". Our friends will recognize the familiar call of the husband, "Meeem, where's the....?" Fixing things brings that call out more than anything. So when the home gets to the point that I can't find anything either we are in deep trouble, hence yesterday's cleaning fit.

When we first pack for a long trip, I usually begin with a storage plan that seems logical but as we get to the end we wind up just stuffing things anywhere there is space. I am reminded of a visit to the captured WWII German submarine located in a Chicago museum. I was struck by the bags of onion and long sausages dangling from the overhead pipes. No space was left unoccupied. The closer we get to end of packing the more important every object becomes. When I inventoried the empty motorhome at the start of this trip and before packing, I discovered three desiccated bananas at the back of a shelf--banana chips anyone?.

This morning I was inspired by the emptying of a large box that had contained four gallon jugs of our finest table wine. John was getting ready to throw it out but I saw storage units. There was a nice four-compartment divider in it making convenient cubicles. I cut off the box flaps and used them to reinforce the inside dividers which I secured with the ever popular duct tape (don't leave home without it). I then slid my new storage unit into the closet compartment and put in socks, underwear, swimwear, and workout clothes. There was space beside the box to place rolled up shorts and space in front to stash sleepwear during the day. Pretty nifty!

When I drug everything out of the shelf, I finally found the bag of limes from my tree at home that had gone missing. I've looked in that closet shelf numerous times, but the limes slithered down amid the tangle of jeans and hid out. I had put them there because produce is often confiscated when entering Baja Sur. Most of them survived--only one really moldy casualty. I guess I'll make limeade next.

John Here:

So what's with the sausages hanging from our ceiling?? Humm... Mimi must be reorganizing again.

Last night turned out to be magical. We were initially disappointed to find out that there wouldn't be a beach campfire. Bob and Diane are the official hosts - and have a nice set-up including a large stock of wood. There was a social gathering down the beach, so we were left to our own devices. As we sat on the patio, we noticed that the waves lit-up as they broke onto the shore. Then streaks and flashes of light in the bay itself. Red Tide! This occurs on occasion, and is a real treat. The light show continued at the rate of about 100 flashes per minute. When little fish jump out of the water or streak along the surface, photo luminescence occurs. Mimi enjoyed splashing in the water. Throwing a handful of sand creates a wide arc of light.

Something not so magical is that Magic Goop stuff. The gas filter started leaking again, having dissolved my ring of sealant I made earlier. Stopped in the hardware store first thing to get a "nipple" fitting. Asking for such a thing in my broken Spanish would create laughter or possibly an international incident as I asked the lady if she had one. After securing one, I stopped at the auto parts store to get a small "generic" gas filter. I showed the counter man the old one, and he disappeared into the back, bringing a duplicate of what I had !! What luck.

The rest of the day was spent repairing the generator, a water leak in our water hauling system, and making an extension arm for the outboard motor out of PVC.

I did bring my 8" telescope down here, and have been considering setting it up. In preparation, I printed-out a map of the stars and planets using Mulege coordinates. Tonight we will just sit back and stargaze with the large binoculars.

Hasta luego...

Tropical Paradise

Today was fabulous. No wind, and temperature in the 80's. A perfect day for fishing.




Headed out about 8 a.m. (very early for me). Here is a shot leaving Burro Beach Cove. The objective today was to check-out the fishing around the two islands right off our beach. It's been two years since I last fished there.



This is a shot of the larger of the two islands. The "snow" is bird guano, a testament to their affection for the island.



This silhouette shot shows good fish structure below. The fish finder confirmed fish surrounding it.

More structure. It's nice just trolling around this area.


A pair of frigate birds. Probably a nest up there. It's unusual to see these types of birds on land, as they are almost always cruising above the water.

These are more common water birds - grebes and gulls, I believe.

Sea cave. The water goes way inside, and makes strange sounds. Even though there was very little wave action, it sounded just like someone moving furniture around next door. Could it be haunted?

See ! I do catch fish here. As a matter of fact, this sand bass was stealing my bait as I took the sea cave picture. Unfortunately, letting a fish fool with the bait too long results in it swallowing it and the hook. I just cut the line and let him loose. The salt water pretty quickly dissolves the hook.

This trigger was luckier. He was hooked in the lip, and was easy to release. One of these days I'm going to keep them for dinner.

Fishing if fun down here. Others were around the island in their small boats, but pretty quickly gave-up after fishing on one or two spots. For some reason, they don't use fish finders to locate them, or at least underwater structure. Also, I use special bait - squid obtained in San Diego. These fish looove squid bits. And squid is virtually unobtainable down here, for some reason. Even though it is pretty easily caught in the Sea of Cortez.

Hasta luego


...

Hola from Mimi. While John was out teasing fish, I stayed in and cleaned. I felt lousy all day yesterday and realized part of the problem was the accumulation of mess, sand and grease. Now, I am not known for my dedication to orderliness or cleanliness but it gets to me every now and then. I listened to sixties music through my MP3 player and danced through the cleaning--makes it an aerobic exercise as well.


It's also about time to sort through cabinets and see what's left and find things I stowed deep before we left. Found two brownie mixes. Hot dog!

I like to use common products like vinegar, baking soda, and bleach to clean--smells better to me. It also saves on packing stuff. It's quite a challenge to clean well and minimize water use. Guess I'm getting in practice for rationing in San Diego.

We are flush with food. I started an eye-of-round in the crock pot with onion soup (Midwestern standard) then a neighbor came and brought me a huge piece of grouper she caught the day before. Think I'll save the beef and eat fish tonight. Fish should be eaten fresh and beef improves with sitting.

In the afternoon, I put on the headset again with Crosby Stills and Nash and spent hours coloring mandalas. All in all--my idea of a perfect day in paradise.

Agua

Panoramic view of Burro Bay while sitting on our porch. Five pictures stitched together.

If you want some fun while camping, just put a bird feeder out - preferably right by the front window. The birds appreciate the food, and it provides endless amusement for humans and cats.

This botes made for fishing! Our Portabote launched itself this morning. I decided to sleep in, but the bote got anxious and took off. Bob, our good neighbor, spotted it at sun-up and is in the process of retrieving it.

Topic of the day - Agua

Water - the "other" resource that we are constantly dealing with. I wish water was as easy to deal with as electricity. There are several types of water issues to deal with. Fresh water. There are two types down here - town water and purified. Town water is obtained by deep wells in Mulege and piped directly to the water main. Not chlorinated or purified in any way. It's probably OK to drink, but not many do. The nice thing is that it's free and available by taps near the street. We have a 40 gallon bladder in the back of the CRV, and fill-up when we go into town. That water goes into the main tank of Smokey and is used for showering, washing, etc. I usually throw in a few tablespoons of bleach as I off-load into the motorhome. Drinking water is purchased at one of several Agua Purificado stores in Mulege. We fill-up our jugs for a few pesos and bring it home to use.

Below is a shot of the Porter Water Works. A complex of valves for loading water into Smokey by various methods, as well as valves for "expelling" it.

Disposing of used water is an art.. We have gray and black water tanks. The grey water is from showering and dish washing, and it drains by hose into a sand pit in back of the motorhome. Plants love this water, and folks down here use it to support their landscaping. The black water (you can imagine what this stuff consists of) is the toughest to handle. One of the nice things about this beach is the "holding tank" buried in the ground way in back of the beach. I use a neighbors Blue Boy, a twenty gallon plastic tank on wheels to drain our black tank, and attach it to the CRV to haul to the dump. Because of the racket it makes on the way back, these tanks are also called "rolling thunder" Dealing with black water is a nasty job. Whenever Mimi threatens to go on strike from her cooking duties, I offer to "change jobs" for a while. So far it's worked!

Water treatment is an ongoing issue in the Baja. I don't think there is any sewage treatment. Even Mulege saves their sewage in a big holding tank, and lets it go with the outgoing tide. Luckily, the population density is so low that it doesn't cause health problems.

Our latest acquisition is this water dispenser. The older one is cube-shaped and much smaller. Good for traveling, but needed replenishing frequently.

My favorite water type is salt water. Not good for household use, but fun to play on and in. Had a good day fishing yesterday. Trolled along some of the rocky shoreline, picking up several barracuda and a small sand bass. The barracuda look incredibly mean, with a mouthful of large spiked teeth. But the little sand bass takes the cake for pure pluck. Sometimes they will attack a lure that's larger than themselves. I then cruised down to the "hole" where the triggers hang out. Pulled several in. Most fish down here run from one to two pounds. I use light spinning tackle and get a good fight out of them. Yesterday was catch and release, since we have plenty of food that needs to be consumed in the motorhome.

Hasta luego ....

Damn wind

Some people take tranquilizers to relax. We just watch our cats.

Couldn't stand it any longer today. I had to take the boat out and drag some lures in the water. There is a spot down the bay about two miles, just off shore, that has some nice fish structure. Mostly Triggers. Much of the shoreline looks the same, and the wind was at my back, so I merrily motored south..on and on. Soon I spotted some buildings on shore, and could see the highway. Uh uh, that must be Buena Ventura. Waaay to far south. As I turned into the wind, the waves started pounding on the little Portabote. "Please don't fold-up on me now!" as I throttled down to trolling speed. What took me 20 minutes going south took an hour for the return trip. Of course the wind kept increasing as time passed. Made it back OK, but lesson learned.

Don't underestimate the danger down here! The wind has been a PIA all week. The day starts out with a nice breeze, but picks up midmorning to almost gale force later. The other fooler is geography. The waves build in this long bay, and get bigger the further south you go.

Just yesterday I watched as two guys took off from the beach in a Hobbie catamaran. The wind was picking up, and I thought to myself that these must be pretty experienced sailors. They headed straight out, towards the uninhabited shore about two miles across the bay. After a while I lost sight of them and drifted off into siesta. As I was fighting my way back home today, a larger boat pulled by me as asked if I had seen a Hobbie cat turned-over anywhere. Nope. Turns out those two guys flipped the boat over yesterday, and couldn't get it righted. They were still on the other side of the bay, and swam across it to Buena Ventura, taking several hours. They crawled onto shore exhausted and fighting hypothermia. After recovering, they got a ride back to Burro Beach, and took their truck into town. We are still looking for the catamaran.

I'd like to introduce you to some of the folks that stay or live down here in the next few blogs.

A good person to start out with is Geary, known as the "Mayor of Burro Beach". He lives here full time - even through the hurricanes and sweltering summers. Been here for years, but originally from California. Geary was on the search boat this morning. He is heavily involved in nautical aspects of the Baja, having a website (see the Links section) and doing the weather forecasting also. Geary likes to have everyone up-and-at-em in the morning, so he plays bagpipe music for the beach over his P.A. system. Also has a short wave and marine radio news/weather forecast.

Here is Geary at his control console. (It's OK Geary, all those Wants and Warrants from the States are probably expired by now.) He has internet satellite as well as several radio transmitters available. Probably the most sophisticated private communication station in the Baja.

Geary has a modest, but very nicely finished palapa, located towards the north end of the beach. That camera on upper left portion of the porch is a webcam that shows the bay in real time. Check out his website for more details.

El Coyote

We like to start the day with a success, and so we did. The Goop seemed to work in sealing the leak from the gas filter. Ran the generator for about 15 minutes to heat it up well, and the fix held. I then applied another coat of the Goop for good measure.

My Ace-in-the-hole is pictured below. A fire suppression system ! I had mounted a small bottle of halon, attached to an automatic "sprinkler" device right in the generator. Should a fire occur, the suppression system will kick off automatically, extinguishing the fire and stopping the generator. The motorhome engine also has one, but a larger version. Pretty slick, huh?

It was still pretty windy today, so we decided to go for a hike instead of on the water. The next beach is El Coyote, and gives a three to four mile walk. Below are some pictures taken on the way.

This is some of the landscaping. Anything found around the beach or the palapas makes good material. Even animal skeletons and sinks!

This back yard palapa shot demonstrates the exotic flora seen out here. Think plastic!


As we leave Burro Beach, we go inland towards the base of the hill, near the highway.

The desert flora becomes more prevalent. This is a bird nest built right into a cactus plant. Bet no one bothers her.

The south end of Coyote Beach is nice for RV's and tent campers.

There are three bikers staying in this small palapa. They started from Washington State, and are going down to Cabo. One is sick with Montezuma's revenge. I admire these young folks for their determination and stamina. But, riding on Mex. 1 is foolhardy. There's barely enough room for the vehicles and no shoulder in most areas.We worked-up a mighty appetite from the hike, and decided to go into town for lunch. Doney's restaurant was recommended by the beach locals, so we gave it a try. There is a nice mix of tourists and local Mexicans eating there, which is a good sign.

This is Doneys Mexican lunch combination. Some extra cheese quesedillas arrived after the picture. The food was as good as it looks!

We definitely over ate, so a stroll around the streets was in order.

Then home for a nice siesta.....

Slow Day

It started out as a breezy, sunny day. Thought I'd go fishing, but the wind quickly picked up to almost gale force. The wind does that commonly down here. At least it is remaining sunny. When it gets this windy, the best thing is to stay inside and read, or blog, etc. Or go to a palapa that has a back porch in a protected area. We'll probably do that later this afternoon for "happy hour."




Turns out, the morning was dedicated to repairs of the Porter power company. We have a nice solar system which generally provides all the electricity we need. Four solar panels tilted towards the sun can generate upwards of 30 amps per hour. The power is stored in a bank of six volt batteries hooked up in series, then parallel to provide 12 volt electricity.





When we call for power, we turn on our 2000 watt inverter, which powers our 120 volt ac appliances - TV, computers, satellite dish, hair dryer, etc.



In rare cases, such is when it is cloudy or there are special heavy power requirements, the 5.5 KW generator is turned-on. Last nite Mimi needed the microwave to cook some squash, so I turned-on the generator. Figured it would boost the battery, and also heat some water for the showers later. After about five minutes, the generator went off-line. Damn power company! Went outside to reset the circuit breaker in the generator. While doing that I noticed gasoline dripping from the supply line going into the carb. Humm, BIG FIRE HAZARD !!. So I turned the generator off until I could further diagnose the problem this morning.



There is a little in-line gas filter that turned-out to be leaking. Bad news, since a replacement is impossible to get down here. I consulted with Bob, our local expert on such things, and we came up with a plan A and B.









The first attempt will be to fix the leak, using some special Marine Goop which Bob had. Supposed to be amazing stuff. It will take 24 hours to cure, so we won't know if it will work until sometime tomorrow. Your can see the filter in the picture below, with Goop running down the sides. I really shoveled it on!









Plan B will be to remove the offending filter, and splice a generic filter into the line using some clamps. The local auto parts store in Mulege should have a small filter. We will be keeping our fingers crossed.


For those that are curious, our next trip is in the planning stages. Check the Links section on the right of the screen. There is a link that begins with an X.

Foodie

John has given me a homework assignment. He wants me to contribute more to the blog. I guess my vacation is over. I spend a lot of time writing in my head but rarely put fingers to keyboard anymore. I've been wanting to write about my special interest in cooking. I have been a "foodie" since I first had a little toy stove at age four. The process of converting raw ingredients into an edible meal has always intrigued me. Even through my feminist phase, when it wasn't cool to admit to any liking for traditional female roles, I kept on cooking.


Cooking in a motorhome presents a special challenge to produce good food, using fresh ingredients, that also doesn't take too many pots to clean afterwards. Of course I have a well-stocked pantry with all the spices, capers, garlic, real butter, olive oil, and baking stuff. Much of what I make has been in a small wok-pan. Stir frying lends itself well to the small kitchen but can be messy. This time, I purchased a two quart crock pot and today I am experimenting with it. I found a recipe for braised pork with lemon and sage and adapted it to my small pot.


So far the major downside of that has been smelling it all day. Made me real hungry so I put together two shrimp salads for our lunch. I had bought a kilo of shrimp from a beach vendor and have now made three meals from it. We had saute of shrimp and garlic with pasta and (heaven help me) canned asparagus the first night. Fresh veggies are hard to obtain so I fall back on canned just to keep some green in the diet. Last night I put a light breading on the rest of the shrimp, fried those and made rice. Today I used the left over shrimp to make salads with the last of the fresh lettuce I brought from stateside.

I am going to microwave a spaghetti squash to go with the pork to round out tonight's meal.

Dinner anyone?