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 ....