Colorado

We left Moab and drove up the Colorado River on a back road to Colorado. At Grand Junction, we decided to get our tires balanced to see if that would fix our 40mph shudder, so we found a Big O Tire store that could do it, and they found that one of our front wheels was out of true. That could be the problem! By the time they had finished with the tires, a storm had caught up with us and we had a downpour and thunder and lightning excitement! The back door of the Big O Tires suddenly turned into a waterfall, as water poured off the roof and into the store! This is why awnings or porches are nice! We had the Jeep tires rotated and alignment checked at the same time, and the guy drove the Jeep around front close to the door so I wouldn't have to get drenched. They were very nice and inexpensive, too - I'd recommend them if you are going through Grand Junction.

Now we had to find a place that sold propane, as we were pretty much out and heading up to the mountains where we expected cold nights. The helpful folks at Big O spent some time looking up propane places in their phone book and we found one place that was open still (it was after 5pm at this point) at the Junction RV Park. We got there just as the storm let up - perfect timing! Again, people were very helpful and friendly, and it was a nice park, but we had reservations at another RV Park up in Ouray, so we didn't stay. I found a postcard with a poem there, though, that summed up some of my good feelings about the region and the people:

Out Where the West Begins

Out where the handclasp's a little stronger,
Out where the smile dwells a little longer,
That's where the West begins;

Out where the sun is a little brighter,
Where the snows that fall are a trifle whiter,
Where the bonds of home are a wee bit tighter,
That's where the West begins.

Out where the skies are a trifle bluer,
Out where the friendship's a little truer,
That's where the West begins;

Out where a fresher breeze is blowing,
Where there's laughter in every streamlet flowing,
Where there's more of reaping and less of sowing,
That's where the West begins.

Out where the world is in the making,
Where fewer hearts with despair are aching,
That's where the West begins;

Where there's more of singing and less of signing,
Where there's more of giving and less of buying,
And a man makes friends without half trying,
That's where the West begins.

--Arthur Chapman

Isn't that nice?

After the storm, everything was gorgeous with parting clouds and evening light. Delta and Montrose looked like great places to live, and Ridgway was spectacular. We continued up the Uncompahgre River valley, past lovely rural scenery of farms and ranches to Ouray, which feels like the gateway to the Rockies.

Ouray is called "The Switzerland of America" for good reason - it is a lovely little historic town nestled in a valley surrounded by waterfalls and snow-capped peaks. The thing that "saves" Ouray is that it doesn't have a ski area, so it retains its old-timey flavor without pretension. It has a wonderful public hot springs pool, and as we drove in at dusk in the light rain, it looked very inviting with the steam rising up. We turned off of the main street to a dirt side road and 4J+1+1 RV Park, right in town, and right on the river.

Everything smelled wonderful and the air was crisp and clean after the rain. The sound of the rushing river right next to us ensured a good night's sleep here in the mountains. I had to go out for a walk! I walked into town, found a New Orleans restaurant that sold beignets right around the corner - oh boy, can't wait for breakfast! Also found a variety store that sold everything under the sun, and lots of other neat shops. I wandered up to the community center and the courthouse, built in the 1800's. Great views of mountains, waterfalls, and the river. Ouray is quite wonderful!

The next morning, after a peaceful night's sleep, I walked over to Papillon, the "N'Awlins" style home cookin' restaurant, and picked up some beignets and bread pudding, and coffee with chickory, and brought them back to Devin. OMG. This place is a real treasure! We had to stop there for lunch before going out to do some exploring - crawfish enchiladas and a muffaletta sandwich - yum!!

We decided to explore some of the surrounding communities before going up in the mountains further, and went back to Montrose to drive around the neighborhoods and check out the town. It has a neat historic main street section, some nice neighborhoods, and lots of surrounding farmlands and horse and cattle ranches. Some of the new development we saw looked pretty nice, too - not just slapped together strip mall style, but it seemed more like planned and zoned growth. We decided we should add Montrose to our list of potential places to settle, someday. The growth predictions are huge - so investing in real estate there would probably be a good idea either way - if it stayed the kind of town you'd want to live in, or if it grew too much and prices skyrocketed. It's also close to the San Juans (Southwest Rockies), and not too far from Moab and all that southern Utah country we love so much.

Montrose is the "gateway to the Black Canyon" which is a national park. The Gunnison River cuts right through a mesa and has created the Black Canyon - you drive up to the mesa top and it's just gently rolling countryside and all of a sudden, this huge gash is opened in the earth - must have been shocking for early explorers and quite a barrier! We drove around and took some photos from various viewpoints along the south/west rim of the canyon and headed back up into the mountains.

That night I decided to make beef stroganoff for Devin, since he had mentioned he liked it. I've never made it before, like most things, so I searched online for recipes, and once I figured out the basic principles, got down to business with what I had on hand. Here's my recipe:

Recipe - Black Toad Beef Stroganoff!

Basic ingredients, in whatever proportions suit you (all the recipes I checked first had portions for 4 or 8, so I cut down and just guestimated what would be enough for two): Beef, Onions, Mushrooms, Noodles, (Light) Sour Cream, and ingredients for sauce - butter/olive oil, flour, broth, sherry/wine/beer, seasonings.

• Sautee onion and mushrooms in olive oil/butter
• take out of pan and add meat - brown in more oil/butter and remove
• add flour and brown and mix well with oil in pan to make roux
• add broth and beer or wine, cook down to half
• correct seasonings - most original recipes call for sweet sherry, so since I used Black Toad Beer, which is a bitter dark ale, I added a little raw sugar to get that slightly sweet flavor. I also added salt, pepper, a dash of worcestershire sauce, a dash of apple cider vinegar and a little balsamic vinegar to get that nice sweet-n-sour balance that makes beef stroganoff tasty. Also a little rosemary and thyme.
• Cook the noodles (wide egg noodles)
• add the meat and onions/mushrooms back into the sauce and cover, simmering on med-low for about 5 minutes
• turn off heat and let it stop simmering before folding in sour cream - if it's too hot, it will curdle.
• Serve over noodles!

HINTS: if you end up with a slightly lumpy sauce like I did, I used our Bamix Hand Blender with the whisk blade attached to smooth it out while it was cooking down - worked great! Also, obviously, beef broth would be the best broth choice, but I used chicken broth and a little "better than bullion" added in to give it more body. The beef you use should be super tender - I used stir fry beef, which was a little tough, but okay since it was in small pieces. Vegetarians could use Tempeh or Saitan (or even firm tofu, just braise it nicely). If you don't like the taste with wine or sherry or beer, just use broth, but I think that slight alcohol flavor adds to the stroganoff. I think it might be nice with red wine, too. You can use green onions or shallots, or yellow onions, if you prefer. You can add finely minced garlic, or other seasonings, to your taste.

This was my first time making stroganoff - I made it because Devin mentioned it the other day, so I thought I'd try it. He loved it! My sauce was a little thinner than I've had, but it was so tasty nobody cared. The only negative was the tough stir fry meat, so next time I'll get some tender cut and slice it thin. Not too hard to make in an RV as it only used 2 pans - one for the noodles and one for everything else.

See more photos of these places in our web albums - click here

Navajo Country and Lee's Ferry (5/14/07)

Navajo Country

The road north (89) from Flagstaff goes through some beautiful "Indian Country" - interesting rock formations, mesas, badlands of the Painted Desert ("melting" shale hills of the Chinle formation), and small settlements with their hogans. The Navajo people in this area seemed like they may have been fairly well off or at least comfortable. Hogans were next to "regular" houses, and were framed, stuccoed, cement, paneled, or had siding. I think I saw one or two of the more traditional logs and adobe mortar, too, but most were "modern" hogans. Hogans are round or have six sides and the front doors always face east. Navajo culture is very infused with the appreciation of natural beauty, and many of their healing ceremonies are about restoring ones spirit to the path of beauty. The hogan is their traditional dwelling, but I think nowadays may be used more for ceremony and gatherings than day-to-day living. Or maybe it's the "mother-in-law unit" of the Navajo - ha. I kept thinking of how the US "gave" all this "useless" land to the Navajo - and how it is so beautiful and how that beauty is so important to them. The best natural resource of all, I'd say. It made me think of this Navajo Prayer, which I would quote to my groups when I used to lead loop trips through Yosemite's High Sierra. I would read it to them on Sunday morning, as we prepared for a 10 mile day heading down to Merced Lake from Sunrise, after a tough day getting up the "switchbacks from hell" to Sunrise the day before. The prayer has healing powers, I'm sure!

Navajo Prayer

House made of Dawn
House made of Evening Light
House made of Dark Cloud
House made of Male Rain
House made of Dark Mist
House made of Female Rain
House made of Pollen
House made of Grasshoppers

Dark cloud is at the door.
The trail out of it is dark cloud.
The zig-zag lightning stands high upon it.
An offering I make.

Restore my feet for me.
Restore my legs for me.
Restore my body for me.
Restore my mind for me.
Restore my voice for me.
This very day, take out your spell for me.

Happily, I recover.
Happily, my interior becomes cool.
Happily, I go forth.
My interior feeling cool, may I walk.
No longer sore, may I walk.
Impervious to pain, may I walk.
With lively feelings, may I walk.
As it used to be long ago, may I walk.

Happily may I walk.
Happily, with abundant dark clouds, may I walk.
Happily, with abundant showers, may I walk.
Happily, with abundant plants, may I walk.
Happily, on a trail of pollen, may I walk.
Happily may I walk.
Being as it used to be long ago, may I walk.

May it be beautiful before me.
May it be beautiful behind me.
May it be beautiful below me.
May it be beautiful above me.
May it be beautiful all around me.
In beauty it is finished.
In beauty it is finished.

Lee's Ferry

After crossing the Navajo Bridge over the Colorado River, we turned off to check out Lee's Ferry. Lee's Ferry is where the only crossing of the Colorado was for miles and miles for the early settlers, and now it is the put-in for river trips down the Grand Canyon, and the take-out for river trips down what is left of Glen Canyon below the dam in Page. It is a beautiful setting, with the Vermillion Cliffs as a backdrop to the north and west, and other, equally red cliffs to the south and east, with a campground overlooking the Colorado River right above Pariah Riffle. Pariah Riffle is the first rapid that Grand Canyon trips go through, and is formed where the Pariah River enters the Colorado. We had a great campsite with a view of the river and could hear the rapids as we slept. The first night we both laid out in our lounge chairs and stargazed in the warm desert evening. The next night, Devin ended up going out alone and sitting under the stars for an hour or so after midnight. He says it was magical. Warm desert evening with billions of stars and the sound of the river rushing by. We camped there two nights, enjoying the white noise of the rapids, the changing light on the red rocks, and the starry night skies. We went down to the put-in area and watched as the huge pontoon rafts were set up from semi trucks the day before their departure - it was quite the scene! They left the next morning and we could hear the "whoo!" as they went over their first rapid and got a small taste of things to come. We would love to do a Grand Canyon river trip some day!! Of course, you need reservations way in advance, and lots of planning and preparation for those, so we settled on a float trip from Page back to Lee's Ferry the next day.

That night we had a gourmet barbecue feast! We had purchased a "Santa Maria Style" marinated vacuum sealed tri-tip roast from Trader Joe's before leaving, and this was to be its night to be barbecued! So we got out our Weber Baby Q and the grilling supplies, and our new meat thermometer (Christmas Gift from Darby and Jean, making its debut performance) and set to work. Devin enjoyed playing with the Meat Thermometer - it is a remote digital style one, and once he figured it out, it worked great! I got to work making appropriate side dishes - it was hot, so I didn't want to cook inside, so I made some things to share the grill:

Veggie Grill Pockets

This idea came from our friend Anita - she did this out at Coon Hollow last December:

• Take whatever veggies you'd like to grill and place them on foil squares - I put Carrots, Brussels Sprouts, and Onions on the bottom, since they can take longer to cook, and broccoli and mushrooms on top.
• Sprinkle on whatever seasoning you like with your veggies - I used lemon pepper
• Add some dabs of butter
• Wrap tightly and place on the grill
• Leave it on the grill till it's steaming hot - we just left it on as long as the meat, which was about 45 minutes on low heat to get all the way done - the broccoli was a bit overdone, but the rest was perfect!
  

Speedy Grilled Potatoes

I thought baked potatoes would be good with the tri-tip, but they take so long, so we did this, instead:

• To speed it up, if needed, par boil potatoes
• Slice into "Texas Fries" - slice large baking potato in half, then the halves into lengthwise strips. We made each strip about 1/8 of the large baking russet we had, but if you slice them thinner, they'll cook faster, but they may fall through the grill! Also, if you have a short potato, you can skip cutting it in half. Another way to speed up the cooking is to par boil them all cut up, which is what I did.
• Take potatoes out of water when you can stick a cooking fork in a little easier, and let them drain or pat dry on paper towels (the whole par-boiling can be skipped and then you go directly to the next step)
• Toss potatoes in a bit of olive oil and seasonings - I used Rosemary, Balsamic Vinegar, and some of Trader Joe's "21 Seasoning Salute."
• Place directly on grill!
• Turn over after they start to get grill marks on one side
  

The only problem with these is that it takes a while to turn them all over individually - if you have a larger grill, you could put them in a grilling basket and turn them all at once. Keeping the lid of the 'cue open longer made the meat take longer to cook - but that was okay, because it gave more time for the side dishes! These were DELICIOUS!!!

Day Twenty Two, Friday (Good Friday), April 6, Cataviňa to San Quintin

We woke up and decided that neither of us really felt like a day-long side trip and would rather just head north. Both of us feel quite comfortable with this decision, and it is nice not to feel we have to pack everything into one short trip because we will be doing this for a while, and we treasure our days of just relaxing and reading as much as our days of adventure and discovery, and in fact, both are necessary for appreciation of the other. We will, however, be back to Baja, to explore some areas we liked in much greater depth, and to stay longer so the journey through the peninsula won’t involve so much driving day after day. Of course, we didn’t realize how tiring the driving would be down here, and just how slow we would travel, which makes days of 100 miles about as much as we want to do. That does allow us to get into our campsite early, and enjoy it a bit on travel days, though, so even one night stays at places are a bit more relaxing than the drive all day to get there before dark sort of experiences.

Today we again stopped for lunch in El Rosario at Mama Espinoza’s, a place with a very good vibe, and still got into El Pabellon about 1:30pm. Sadly, Mama's was still out of Lobster, so we didn't get to try the lobster burritos or soup - yet another thing to look forward to for our next trip down here!

We went through another checkpoint today, and this time they wanted to look in our basement storage compartments outside, so I got to get out of the RV to unlock them all. The soldiers all wanted to know about the Jeep, what year it was, how much it cost – they all want one! I asked for a photo and one of the soldiers took a photo of me with another soldier in front of the Jeep. These guys are surprisingly friendly and non-threatening considering many have large automatic weapons casually slung over their shoulders. I think being in the Mexican Army must be a good “job” for many of them, and they seem to like it and take it seriously. The bases and posts are all very well-kept and attractive, and even towns that have a military base seem to be more well-kept than most others. I also think the soldiers have a definite sense that they are part of doing something good for their country, with the “lucha entre las drogas” (war on drugs). We noticed that most of the inspection posts are in places where you can’t see them until you are almost there – over the tops of hills, around corners, etc. We think this is likely on purpose. Some interesting features are the tack strips on ropes – at each end, there is a box with a bunch of large tire-popping devices, attached to a string going to a small booth on the other side of the road – I guess a guy sits in there and if given the order, pulls the rope and the tack strip goes across the road and stops evildoers from getting away. They also have coffee cans full of diesel fuel that they light at night along the road, and all the roads and walkways are lined with whitewashed stones. I also like the hand-painted army guy signs leading up to the inspection posts – each one is different! Most have a flag in one hand, some have a rifle over their shoulder, some hold up a stop sign. We have never had any difficulty at the stops and actually they are kind of fun – an enjoyable diversion and a chance to talk to more locals!

Wow, what a difference in El Pabellon from our first stay here! This is Friday of the biggest holiday weekend in Mexico, and the park is still not full, but has quite a few people – again, lots of families and kids, kites flying, Mexican flags proudly waving over encampments, ATVs with kids in sleds towed behind, kids hanging on to fenders, kids driving barely able to touch the foot pegs and others hanging onto the back for dear life, flying all over the beach, horseback riders in amongst them, their Mexican horses not a bit fazed by all the ruckus. Other families with little kids making sandcastles and forts, digging holes to China, families cooking under huge shade/wind tarps, pickup baseball games happening, kids playing king of the hill and hide and seek in the sand dunes, ice cream truck coming by playing its tune, music playing (but not too loud), and generally a festival atmosphere. It is GOOD to see so many happy Mexican families doing the same things we did growing up – camping in beautiful spots and each enjoying them in our own ways. Devin says this reminds him of Pismo Beach, but with less people. He said there would be way more “sand toys” (ATVs, dune buggies, etc) up there.

Lots of people that looked like they had been settled in for a week were only out for the day, it turns out. Some people on the beach are now packing up tables, tarps, and all sorts of things and loading up their vehicles with improbable numbers of people and heading out. Next to us, a old small pick-up pulled up and over a dozen people piled out!! Little kids ran up the dunes and slid down or rolled down for hours, some went swimming, they got out a bucket of clams after being out at the water and I asked about them, but they had bought them, not dug them. Ha. Getting everyone back in was like putting together a Chinese puzzle and took quite a while, and I got a photo as they drove off, waving happily.

Semana Santa, for us at least, has not turned into the zoo that was predicted by other RVers high-tailing it out of Mexico as we were just coming in. The worst effect of the holiday for us has been increased traffic on the already difficult roads – coming down, the very little traffic really helped make them not as bad, but now, even though traffic is still SO much less than in the states just about anywhere, we have cars meeting and passing us on a fairly regular basis. Still, the passing system down here, though it seemed a bit sketchy when we first learned about it, works so well we will miss it when back in the states!

Dinner at Cielito Lindo again? Or tunafish sandwiches?

Cielito Lindo!! And the Especialidad of "Jaiba a al Cielito Lindo" – cracked crab – the ingredients for the seasonings the waiter told me are:
Butter,
Paprika,
Garlic salt, and
Pimiento.
I think pimiento is probably just chile powder, based on the flavor – it was quite tasty and topped with orange slices. I could definitely taste the paprika, but I thought there might be some secret ingredient like cinnamon or chocolate because it had a somewhat mole-like flavor. Wait, is pimiento black pepper? I guess I’ll have to experiment! During dinner, a random guitarist came in and played “Besame Mucho” for us. Over the extremely loud music that was already playing –ha! There were these three Texans at the bar. No, that’s not the intro to some bad joke – ha. There really were three Texans at the bar – one had a big white duster to match his big cowboy hat. That place is funny – it has an interesting clientele. From “RICARDO” of last time, to RV tourists, to Mexican families on vacation or enjoying a treat… We liked it.

There was a live band playing at another campsite when we returned to El Pabellon – it was in an amphitheater created by 3 or 4 RVs circled like wagons! Worked very nicely to keep the sound away from the campers on the beach – we can hear music, but it’s pleasant and we’ll be able to sleep no problem, old fogeys going to bed early that we are – ha.

Turns out, this was to be our last night in Mexico. Cracked crab and serenades made a nice send off!

---

Go back to Day One of Baja Trip

Day Twenty, Wednesday, April 4: Guerrero Negro to Cataviňa

Heading north again, we crossed the border into Baja California from Baja California Sur. We took a side trip from Villa Jesus Maria, which is the south end of the “gas gap” after filling up both the RV and the Jeep. Our friend Tonya had told us to go out to Morro Santo Domingo, and it was a short and very worthy side-trip. The beach was nice, and we explored up on the morro in the Jeep – lots of little secret coves with great tidepools, photo ops with the old lighthouse, and even a natural arch with Pelicans and Sea Lions all around! Quite beautiful. Found a neat shell in the desert, and hammerhead and other types of shark and ray heads in the “basurero” (dump) the road passed through on the way out. So that’s what that fishy smell was!

A lady from a little store where I bought us some drinking water told me about a baile (dance) that would be out on that beach over the weekend and asked us if we didn’t want to stay. She was really cute, one of those small feisty middle aged Mexican women I just love. I asked her if she was going to dance and she said oh yes and demonstrated with a few little moves :) She told us to drive safely in the extra traffic, and I assured her that we would, and we were on our way. It would have been nice, probably, to stay and enjoy the “ambiante” (atmosphere, I think) of the beach dance, invited as we were by a local, but we seem to have itchy feet these days.

Arrived at our old familiar campsite in Rancho Santa Inez, outside of Cataviňa, and immediately set up camp – rolled out the awning, put out the chairs, served cold beer and smoothies (not at the same time – ha) got out the binos and cameras and books and proceeded to relax after the days harrowing drive. Roads both north and south of Guerrero Negro are some of the worst we’ve encountered – even narrower lanes and no shoulders at all, wavy lines, rough pavement, and add to that this time the additional traffic of Semana Santa holiday goers..Nice to get “home” to Rancho Santa Inez, greeted by the “peso lady” and cattle wandering through the camp.

To see more photos of Morro Santo Domingo, click here

Smoothies
1 banana (or 1/2)
1 small container (or 1/2) of yogurt (any flavor)
Fresh or frozen fruit - whatever you've got
Protein powder (if desired)
Fruit juice or rice milk

Blend in the glass with the Bamix Hand Blender until smooth. Paper umbrella optional.
Enjoy!

---

Go back to Day One of Baja Trip

Day Seventeen, Palm Sunday, April 1st: Mulegé/Santispac

The sea is like glass this morning – we wish we had rented a kayak last night! Ana’s, the restaurant/store on the beach, is in “summer hours” right now, open from 2pm to 10pm, so if you want to kayak in the morning before the wind, you need to rent one the night before. The spell of this place is that once you are here, you don’t want to leave, even for a little while. Vendors come by to sell you what you need, so there is no need to go into town. Obero came by this morning already with his musical horn – I told him we came back because we missed his morning music – ha. We bought some fresh hot tamales for breakfast – yum! We plan to go into Mulegé this morning to explore the town a bit, but it’s so hard to leave here!! We will camp here one more night, then continue north.

Mulegé is the first place we’ve been where we did not feel welcome. We drove out to the lighthouse, and got friendly waves from a bar near the beach, but that was it. Mostly we got no response to smiles and waves, and even got distinctly cold and dirty looks from some. Never mind the hurricane – what too many tourists can do to a town is not always pretty. The Mulegé Mission was pretty, but after the warm, open, welcoming feel of San Javier, with people inside saying prayers even welcoming tourists into their sanctuary, I think we are spoiled.

Back to Santispac where more happy familias are setting up camps – reminds me of when I was a kid and we camped in Yosemite Valley – kid heaven! Lots of other kids, water to play in, rocks to climb, adventures to be had. Kids are everywhere just having a blast! Kids having a blast being kids sounds great in any language.

God knows why, but my friend Jenny Dodge told me I should add recipes to our blog... but I did make a great bean dip today, so here's the recipe! You may notice similarities in the ingredients to the fish marinade... hey, when you've got ingredients that work, stick with them! Ha.

Bamix Bean Dip
1 can Trader Joe's Organic Pinto Beans (or whatever kind you have on hand!)
Grated cheese - I used some soft white cheese from Mexico, enough to get the dip to the right consistency
Cilantro
Onion
Lime Juice to taste and consistency
Serrano chile to taste
Spices: Cumin, Paprika, Chili Powder, Oregano, Pepper, Salt to taste

Mix it all together and blend with the Bamix * Hand Blender (hence the name, Bamix Bean Dip - ha)
Eat with totopos (chips)!

*The Bamix is a powerful Swiss hand blender that I first saw at a county fair years ago and wanted one ever since! Now I finally have one, and use it to make smoothies on a regular basis, and this bean dip was a new, and successful, experiment!

---

Go back to Day One of Baja Trip

Day Eleven: Monday, March 26: Santispac - relaxing on the beach and meeting new friends

Early (7am) this morning, we awoke to the sound of a horn that played “Oh What a Beautiful Morning” from the musical Oklahoma – a fitting song for Playa Santispac. We had read about vendors selling groceries and other items that came by early, so I quickly got up and dressed to see what they had. Obero was the owner of the truck with the musical horn, and he was really nice – great smile and attitude, and helpful clear Spanish. I like it when people make it easy to communicate! Bought some fresh tortillas from a tortilleria in Mulegé, some limes (limons), garlic, avocado, steaming hot tamales and some empanadas. All was quite good and we were quite happy to no longer have a reason to leave this beautiful beach!

Last night we got some new neighbors in a tent and the palapa next door, Bernardo, from Guadalajara, Mexico, and Alethea (pronounced “Ah-LEE-thuh”) from Alberta, Canada. Alethea had been teaching English in Mexico and she and Bernardo met down here, and now he was traveling with her up to Canada. What a great couple they were! We learned more about Mexico and Mexican culture from Bernardo, who is fluent in three languages and went to high school in England, so speak English with a British accent. We enjoyed chatting with them and ended up deciding to share dinner – there were vendors who drove up to the campsite selling fish, shrimp, scallops, and more. We also arranged to keep the kayak they had rented so we could go out in it the next morning, when they were leaving. The little store/restaurant on the beach was on "summer hours" and didn't open until 2pm, making renting a kayak in the morning difficult!

The Mighty Kayakers Return!

We waded out in the water some- it stays shallow quite far out, collected shells, read, watched birds, took photos, and generally had a lovely day. There are sting rays in the water here, so wading is doing the “Baja Shuffle” to keep from getting stung. Bernardo and Alethea waded out quite far before seeing their first stingray, which made their return wade quite a bit slower! Bernardo then found good sticks to use to test where you would put your foot and brought me one when I was out splashing about. Devin already has one – his cane. The only problem is they get water in them and he has to remember to drain them before bringing them inside – ha. We waded out quite far, looking at the little schools of fish and small crabs that would occasionally startle me by scuttling right across my feet! I think I stepped on one once, because it pinched my toe! Only lightly, but it was still startling.

My mosquito bites were starting to itch fiercely, to the point of madness, and talking with Bernardo and Alethea, we found out about “Vampire Flies” – don’t know their real name, but that’s what they called them, because they act just like vampire bats – injecting some anticoagulant with their bite and then lapping up the blood, rather than sucking the way mosquitoes do. They make a small crater-like wound. Devin had seen one of these on my leg at San Ignacio – maybe I had vampire fly bites!

While we were sitting out on our “patio” watching the Herons, Egrets, Pelicans, Frigatebirds, Ospreys and Vultures, a couple from one of the sailboats motored in close to shore in their dinghy, set anchor and waded up. They introduced themselves and asked if we’d watch their water shoes, after they changed into walking shoes. Tony and Marquita were another wonderful couple, warm, friendly, fun, funny, genuine, and talkative. They had a place in San Carlos in the winter, and lived in Albuquerque in the summer. They said walking was something they didn’t get to do enough of on their sailboat, so they came ashore to go for walks, in addition to going into town for supplies. They went for a walk, came back and got their shoes (we were watching them to make sure no dogs ran off with them, which had happened before, apparently!) and they said we were hired! Ha. Marquita said we’d have to come out and see their sailboat, and we thought that would be great.

It was a great day, and we had a wonderful dinner, too – Alethea and Bernardo made shrimp in garlic sauce and scallops – but they aren’t real scallops, and are quite chewy, though delicious. Alethea was quite embarrassed at their chewy-ness and said they were like bubble gum, but they weren’t ~that~ chewy! They tasted quite good, too! They come from a different creature than what we call scallops. What we call scallops, the Mexicans call “Mane de Leon” (mane of the lion) and they get quite large. What they call scallops come from a spiny large shell that is oblong, and apparently the disks are cut out of a larger organism. They are called Callo de Hacha, and just the adductor muscles are eaten. Atrina maura is the scientific name, as far as I can tell from Google research since then, or Pinna rugosa, or some other species of Pinna or Atrina – sometimes called a Pen Clam or Fan Mussel. I think these type of scallops are meant to be eaten as ceviche, and cured with lime juice rather than cooked, but we didn’t know that then. The next morning, Bernardo fed the leftover scallops to the crabs - he said he heard the crab saying "chewy!" Ha.

We grilled the fish, of unknown variety (just “pescado”) on our Weber Baby Cue, which was the first time we got it out in Mexico. Here’s the marinade, which I got from my former roommate, Tom Wright, who cooked salmon this way – yum!

Recipe for Fish Marinade:
Lime Juice
Soy Sauce
Garlic
Serrano Chiles
Onion (purple is good)
Cilantro

After marinating, wrap fish with some marinade in foil and grill for 10 minutes or until firm and no longer translucent. flake apart and serve with warm tortillas and fresh salsa (tomatoes, onion, cilantro, lime, chiles - basically, the marinade without the soy sauce!)

Go back to Day One of Baja Trip