The Golden Van: Camp Life

Tuesday, February 7, 2023

Camp Life

I woke up around three thirty in the morning and nature was calling with some urgency. Layne, who never sleeps very well was as usual breathing fit to wake the dead. There was one thing for it, the emergency exit to avoid crawling over her and waking her up. I pushed the back doors open as quietly as possible and crept out barefoot and without my glasses, relying on memory to find the loo.

The light was off so I turned it on and reached to pull back the curtain. We stared at each other: he from the bowl where he had been sitting silently in the dark, me blinking owlishly trying to apologize and explain I was blind as a bat as though that might help.

After I had recoiled and found a spot to myself I heard him ask: “Do you need paper?” Shit and damnation. “Thank you very much” I replied to the discreet hand pushed through the curtain, the hand bearing the blessed roll.

Later as we were walking up the beach to the campground I heard a voice from a small group of weekend tent campers: “My friend do you need toilet paper” and in cut the bevy of girls started laughing as he relayed the story of my gringo incompetence. Everyone knows in Mexico you bring your own bog roll. Well, I replied he was sitting in the loo in the dark which was enough to trip me up. We must be brothers in the bathroom. Then he posed for the photo among much hilarity.

Life in camp has settled down to exercise early before it gets too hot. Imagine that: too hot in February. Then a swim and this morning the ocean was flat and glassy, the sand on the floor clearly visible as though we were in a swimming pool. Yesterday it was windy and the waves were impudent, slapping me in the face when I wasn’t looking. I wasn’t surprised yesterday we were alone in the water but today was perfect and there were no swimmers.

I think Baja disappointed us because there aren’t that many swimming beaches. The waters are shallow and as often as not we found rocky approaches to the water. We aren’t terribly interested in staring at the water now that we have all the time in the world. We like to swim, take the time to shower and then maybe stroll into town.

There is some American/Canadian breakfast weekdays, a form of fund raising for worthy local causes but on our trek to locate the community center we failed do we stopped for a plate of mediocre chilaquiles in town.

Scrambled eggs, strips of tortilla cooked in a red sauce and a side of beans. It needed hot sauce. Our neighbors were busy waiting for their breakfasts.

Punta Pérula is a tourist town so eating out can be uncertain and we don’t eat out often. Layne has a vegetable tofu curry scramble ready in the fridge ready to eat tonight. It was already scheduled for demolition but we got an invitation to dinner up the beach.

Dogs welcome but the chaos I anticipated on the busiest day of the week persuaded me to leave the boy at home. He wasn’t grateful but I think it was best as the place was packed.

Rock salt, chilis, lime and slices of cucumber offered where in the United States you might get chips and salsa when you sit down. Surprisingly delicious.

We were convinced to try barbecued shrimp on a stick and they were excellent. I have developed a taste for the slightly perfumed coconut rice. And potato salad? Mexico never ceases to surprise.

A moment of drama when mom’s three year old wandered off and half the restaurant hot up to look for her. She was wandering up the beach alone.

An Italian couple who return like swallows to the trailer park every year were getting ready to leave their apartment and their departure was the reason for the dinner. I got to chatting with them and they told me they travel and key for their lives she by painting and he by tattooing. In Italy they live in Genoa with no great enthusiasm so they spend winters seeing the world. An interesting variation on using YouTube to generate income.