On The Beach

Wednesday morning the 18th we left Sierra Vista Arizona amid snow flurries and Friday afternoon I went for a swim in the Sea of Cortez.  It wasn’t a hot tub but I got past the icy stage and I swam and came out fifteen minutes later tingling. Layne stayed with GANNET2 while Rusty trotted between us worried which side of the sand dune he should be guarding. 

Ron from Iowa and his brother Terry led the way into the frigid waters but no one else was swimming, perhaps we all had a point to make, we were glad to be here. I like this wild camp a lot but Layne is looking longingly at Tenacatita Bay south of Mazatlan where the temperatures are ten degrees higher, 80 by day and sixty by night. I suspect a move is in my future. 

It doesn’t much matter I suppose. Ron who is self employed and almost retired has plans to fly to Colombia leaving his van in storage here for a month. His brother has gone home after a two week vacation in a tent here, riding an overnight bus to Phoenix and then a plane to Iowa where it is quite warm he says, two inches of snow and around freezing. He isn’t retired. The two “boys” encouraged their parents to come here a few years back and now every winter starts with an Iowa family campground on the beach in Mexico. Hello neighbor! There are lots of different ways to enjoy the beach. 

They had a spaghetti dinner around the fire our first night. It was perfect timing to get invited to plow into a huge pot of delicious bolognese. 

Is Mexico dangerous? 

Why would that question even come up? Because three people rode by our camp on bicycles from their condo rental and paused to express astonishment that we were wild camping by ourselves. We are not by any means the only people doing that here.  I was slouched in my camp chair reading, the epitome of a victim of violent crime but I tried to reassure them of my safety. A single woman on the beach, unmolested, for example: 

Now that the border entry shambles is behind us we have up to 180 days wandering Mexico ahead of us. In mid April Layne will need to return to Algodones, the border town where she will have her two implants installed. Our plan is to be near Cancun at that point and for her to fly back for the appointment leaving me with Rusty to prepare for our crossing to Belize.  Until then we will zig zag south. Our goal is Panama by June to ship the van to Colombia. 

All that sounds terribly busy. Right now we watch the sun set after another day of not very much. It’s cool enough we haven’t even deployed our Moonshade awning. We are enjoying the winter sun. 

One annoyance has been the number of flies. I may have to get energetic and put up the mosquito netting. That’s the extent of my ambition. 

We have appointments to get my  teeth cleaned and to have Laynes’s hair cut so we will pack up and drive into town one day. Layne also has fish tacos on her mind. It is a torpid sort of life. 

Pete and Shelly from Alberta got stuck briefly in soft sand. They have two energetic dogs and a long handled shovel but I wandered over to their RV with my entrenching tool and helped move a little sand…

…The hole they dug is where Rusty is inspecting the sand. It was more as a gesture of solidarity as they are quite self sufficient. Rusty stayed clear at the time as his presence excited the Canadian dogs inside the RV which shook to their barking.  “RV gets stuck briefly” was the headline that day. I went back to my book.

It’s not a long read, more like a scholarly text written in a rather stilted  style reminiscent occasionally of someone not conversant with idiomatic English, but I am enjoying learning about the stories behind the names -Francisco Madero, Huerta, Carranza, Obrégon and Porfirio Diaz among others- honored on street signs and in city names. It’s an easy read surprisingly. 

Well, that should keep the mind busy as we vegetate in the shrubbery.