Night: Sights and Sounds

A couple of things we’ve noticed: We’ve always known looking at stars from the city is disappointing – not much to see because of the large amount of ambient light that washes them out. As happens every time we’re outside in the boonies at night, we’ve been simply stunned recently by looking at the stars in the sky. We’re staying in rural campgrounds, and there is simply no light anywhere nearby – no buildings, street lamps, neighbors, anything. It’s shocking how many stars there are, how crowded the sky appears, and how little we know about the constellations. We may have to break down and buy a book. Bob took photos of the stars with a time exposure, and it took 30 minutes exposure in order to have any of the stars show, by which time they had moved in the sky, so they appear as streaks, as you see in the photo. Second observation: now that we’ve gotten far enough south into the “real” Baja, barking dogs and skittish cats have been replaced by braying donkeys and lowing cattle. This may be unique to this campground which is part of a working ranch, hence the name. Last night as we lay in the Chalet with the ceiling vent open slightly, we heard the donkeys and cattle off and on all night, and of course roosters early in the morning. Somehow we prefer the donkeys, cattle and roosters to the dogs and cats, which sounded more frenetic and reminded us of suburban America.