Cerritos

Cerritos sunset.

October 26, 2004
The weather has turned ugly so we decided to visit Todos Santos again for some tourist action. Dan and I have discovered the joy that is the llavenderia. I may never do my own laundry again. Marc bought some prints and Dan I attended to the blog and phone calls.

Since it was so ugly out we decided to all take a day off of surfing, but we did make camp at the beach. Our intent is to camp at Cerritos for the remainder of the week, and surf as much as we can. “We can” being dictated by how long our arms can stand to paddle out and how strong our will power is, especially since it is still raining out.

October 28, 2004
Life’s a beach


Cerritos beach.


Dan surfing at sunset.


Palapa at Cerritos.


Fisherman.




Our campsite.

We’ve been here at Cerritos Beach for four nights now, and the plan is to stay a full week. Among the amenities offered here are a surf break 100 yards away, free camping a fish taco stand with very odd hours and friendly neighbors. There are no other facilities, but since it is free, who could complain. The big rigs started rolling in on Monday. So far there are five 5th wheels and class A’s, mixed in with the ten or so permanent residents.

Juan is still here, running his infernal generator all day, but thankfully not all night. There is a Texan turned rasta-surfer boy, names Mateo, who lives in a bunker/ palpa dug into the beach. Terry is a guy who came down here on vacation, went home sold everything, bought an RV and returned two weeks later. That was two years ago, he hasn’t left the beach since. Rob lives in a converted ambulance, he is a snow science guy, who rents himself out for various guiding jobs and manages a few months down here each year. Apparently this other guy manufactured all of the acid in the 60’s, “if you did acid prior to 1971, then he had his hand in it”, or so we are told. Finally there is Rick who runs a surf shop here out of the back of his van and camper.

Among the temporary inhabitants, are Troy and Rebecca, who are from Vancouver Island, and are our immediate neighbors to the south. Rebecca cut her foot badly on the fin of her surfboard yesterday and needed stitches, which she aquired from the clinic in Todos Santos for $10. To the north we have Forest and West, a father/ son team from So Cal, who are traveling together, surfing, kayaking, studying Spanish and home schooling for 6 months. And then there’s us, Dan and I in the big rig and our “guard Marc” camped in his tent out front.

Wednesday night we were treated to a full lunar eclipse and a pot-luck dinner for all of the Cerritos beach campers. The moon put on a heck of a show and the campers made a heck of a meal.





Today we had to drive the truck to Cabo to accept our civics award for the year. You see obtaining our absentee ballots has been a real chore, and today after weeks of turmoil we finally got them via an ungodly expensive International Priority Fed Ex envelope. We filled in the appropriate circles (no hanging chads or accidental Pat Buchanan votes) and dropped them off to be Fed Ex-ed back by Tuesday at 7pm.

Ahh but you say two little votes don’t matter, why go to all of the expense and trouble? I have never missed an election since I was old enough to vote and this one is the most compelling election I can remember. I honestly feel that it is my duty to vote, and Dan has succumbed to my infectious civic pride. Also for the first time ever Colorado could vote democratic, so we are registered in a swing state, which means that maybe our two little votes will matter. While I usually choose to not use this blog to promote my own political, social or personal beliefs on this occasional I will ask that since you all seemingly enjoy my little diatribe here, in form of payment I ask that you vote.

Back from the campaign trail we sit on our happy little beach waiting for our evening surf session, a dinner of fish tacos and for Dan to recover from his crushing defeat at chess. Sorry hon.


The eclipse as seen from our campsight.




Special blog shout-outs to the following. Barbara Marie and Patrick Lee Goddard, for the Fed Ex assistance, Deb y Jeffe Shultz for the original plan (what a shame you couldn’t hand deliver them to us down here), and the folks at Cabo Villas for loaning us an address to get packages mailed to.

October 29, 2004
Breakin’ through.

Last night Dan, Marc, myself, Troy and Rebecca played a vicious game of Uno, where Rebecca showed her true colors as a cut-throat competitor. We were all treated to a beautiful sunset accompanied by sounding whales making their trek down south for the winter. Theses were the first whales we have seen.


Rebecca, Troy, Forest and his son West.

This morning Troy and Marc tried their hand at spear fishing but alas the fish proved a tough match. Tonight we’ll be having chicken, not fish, for dinner. Dan and I opted for a morning surf session, which was not exactly ego boosting so I decided to try again this afternoon. It was the best I have ever surfed and I felt like I made some real progress. Of course when I got to see the pictures Marc took of me ripping it up, I realized that I was really on like a one foot wave, but no matter, I had a ball.



Only two more days here at Cerritos, then we begin our trip to the ferry and to send Marc back to Colorado, where he is hoping to ski the day after he returns- go figure, from surf to snow, I am almost jealous.

October 30, 2004
Dolphins.

This morning we got to see a real show. A pod of dolphins surfing the same waves we’ve been trying to catch for two weeks. Needless to say they were much more successful than we have been. We could see them in the waves right before they’d break and then the dolphins would jump out of the water and back through the wave. What a sight. They were the biggest dolphins I have ever seen, and I find myself unable to look away from the ocean, even to write this, for fear of missing a repeat performance.

Yesterday we said goodbye to our buddy Dave, the English gent, seems he has hitched a ride to the mainland on a 60’ trimeran, complete with two beautiful women on its crew. Poor bloke. We wish him well. Today is our last full day here at Cerritos, while I am ready to move on and anxious to see my family, I could just as easily stay here for the winter. Life here is pretty good. Get up to a stunning sunrise, surf, eat breakfast, tan, read a book or crochet a ballena cozy, surf, eat $1 fish tacos, surf, make dinner, watch the sunset, play Uno with the neighbors, go to bed… not a bad way to live.


Expenses
Fuel $23.03
Groceries$61.56
Liquor $15.50
Treats $17.71
Repairs $-
Camping $10.63
Park Fees$(7.09)
Other* $35.43
Total $156.78
Remainder$131.98
This week was our cheapest yet. Still we ate very well and drank when we wanted. Gotta love Mexico! The negative number under park fees was money we won off our English friend at poker, our first Mecian earnings.