Christmas

on christmas day we wake up to a blue sky and the wind is not too bad. the plan is to go to the Bahia of Concepcion south of mulege and find a beach to hang out on along there. We go into town in the hope of finding breakfast and make phone calls to our loved ones, and the town is completely abandoned. It's before 9 still, so maybe something opens later, but I already have visions of hordes of starving american tourists roaming the streets hunting for food.

fortunately somebody points us into the direction of an american hotel that supposedly serves breakfast, and they do. there is only the waiter and one cocinera, so they are having a hell of a time to feed everybody. the food comes fairly fast, but then we have to wait 45 minutes to get the bill because the waiter is not familiar with the computerized system yet.

By the time we figure out how to make phone calls to the States and to Germany and get packed up it's fairly late again. The Bahia isn't too far, but when we get there, breakfast is really far away and I am starving. We stop at a couple of beaches in search for a wind sheltered palapa, and the one that seemed ideal gets snatched away under our noses. The water is turquoise and the beaches are pristine here, so it's like looking for a parking spot in San Francisco.

After that attempt I really need to eat and somebody points us to Playa de Burro that has a restaurant that is open. Same situation here, two people trying to feed pagan tourists with no regard for Christmas and it takes us about two hours to get fish tacos.

the sun is nearing the horizon again, and when we are about to leave to Mulege for a hotel, a guy on a little 70s Suzuki 50cc pulls up and we compliment him on his cute ride. His name is Clint and he ends up inviting us to his palapa at the end of the beach where he's staying with 3 other male friends.

They are basically doing the same thing, friends bumming around Mexico for 3 weeks, except while we are on the minimalist end of the scale, they are on the maximum end. They are from Bend, Oregon, and they are very equipped. They have everything from ginger infused vodka to fire hoops and fire spinning stuff to harpoons, fishing equipment and unbelievable food, and they can all cook!

Needless to say we consider ourselves extremely lucky, and it turns out to be a very fun Christmas eve with us learning how to wield the fire sticks and burning hula hoops, and generally proceeding to get nice and drunk killing a lot of ballenas. There is skinny dipping in the cold water and howling at the moon rise with some other beach neighbors, which was really exceptionally beautiful in the clear sky, and there are raw clams for dinner that came out of the ocean that day and yellow tail fish tacos that those guys had fished earlier that day.

When we go to bed the moon is about to disappear behind the mountains on the other side. Although I miss my family this is a christmas to remember.