The Family Beach Hippie is Happy!

Yesterday morning we went to the tianguis (open air market) in Loreto and stocked up on vegetables. Considering it’s a temporary market, set up and taken down each Sunday, it’s astonishing how big it is, and the variety of wares available in addition to food: clothing, tools, bikes, furniture, some electronics. Shortly after, we pulled up camp in Loreto and drove 15 miles down the highway to settle in at Playa Juncalito. It’s as beautiful as we recall from last year: the spectacular La Gigantas mountains rising sharply behind, immediately on the other side of the highway, the Sea of Cortez with islands beyond in the foreground – a really lovely setting, perhaps our favorite in many ways. There are 3 other groups camped here: Tom and Cindy who are long-term campers and will be here for many months, and two groups in tents who seem to be temporary, including one couple with 4 children under the age of 10.

Bob’s blood pressure continues to plummet, he has become more talkative, and smiles more frequently. He’s happy and in his element camping on a beach! Cathryn was even successful in luring him into the Sea of Cortez for half an hour yesterday afternoon. The air temp was 85, the water must have been about 80, and there was a light breeze. It felt marvelous and cooled us down nicely. In the afternoon we went for a walk down the beach to the nearby “village” of Juncalito, made up of about 20-25 homes – mostly combinations of built structures with older RVs included in the mix. We met Bill and Tey, who called out to us as we walked by, and their friend Steve who lives next door. It turns out Bill and Tey are friends of Jupiter, with whom we had dinner the night before, and they saw him at the Loreto market yesterday, so he told them to expect us to move into the area. Tey called out “Bob! Are you Bob?” and next thing we know, we’re in their home, being handed a glass of wine, taken on a tour of the upstairs open-air bedroom, then the 3rd story “star gazing deck”. Tey is originally from Belize, and Bill and Steve are gringos. Very nice, friendly people who invited us to come back for another visit, use their kayaks and let them know if we needed any help. We’ll take them up on it.

Last year when here, we learned the entire local community has established the habit of turning on their marine radios at 8am daily and covering all kinds of community news. This seems to be an outgrowth of the large boating community that resides, either temporarily or longer term, in the marina at nearby Puerto Escondido. Bob brought our marine radio this year and we listened in for the first time this morning. There’s an official moderator, everyone checks in by name, and the moderator goes from person to person covering arrivals and departures, weather and tides, announcements, lost and found, items for trade or sale, help or rides needed, and a dozen other topics. It was interesting and seems like a nice way to establish a somewhat cohesive community. They even announced a Halloween party scheduled for Saturday.

One of the features we’re enjoying about our new RV, the Arctic Fox, is the solar panel we had installed at the time we purchased it. It’s a 100-watt panel mounted on the roof. Whenever we’re camped without hook-ups, the solar panel keeps our batteries fully charged. Last year we had to be conservative in our use of lights or other electrical devices in the Chalet. This year we’re able to use lights with little thought to conservation, Bob plays music on his iPod while plugged in, and we re-charge our computer daily and camera and other batteries as needed. We feel like we’re living in the lap of luxury! And our refrigerator is sufficiently large (it runs on propane) that we’re even able to keep a jug of water in it, so always have cold water to drink, thus reducing our consumption of beer, the other cold drink available.