Beach Fashion

We all treated ourselves to ankle bracelets.


Beach dresses - Kai, Nony, Donna, Toni. This is the picture that made me resolve to lose 30 pounds.

Toni's Baja Birthday

Today is Toni's 67th birthday so we went to Ray's to celebrate. We walked down the beach 1/2 mile to the restaurant and sat outside the palapa bar to enjoy a delicious dinner. Ray is originally from Cuba and, after visiting this bit of paradise, he moved here and opened a restaurant. He grows the organic vegetables that are served with dinner.
The food is fabulous! I ordered calamari steak and it was perfectly prepared. My mouth is watering as I write this - no kidding.


*** Toni, Kai, Nony and Donna at Ray's ***


When we returned to camp, we surprised Toni with the birthday cake that we had secretly picked up in town this morning. Kai had made her a mobile from shells she had collected on the beach. I gave Toni a bar of dark chocolate that I had been hoarding, since I knew that she is a (dark)chocoholic like me.

Kayak Explorations

We paddled down the coast to check out some of the other camp areas and beaches. Just around the point from us there is a cliff with fancy-schmancy houses on top. We were told there is a hot spring below the white stairway leading down to the beach. Kai and Donna went ashore to look for it and found it, though it's too hot at low tide.

We continued around the next point and went to Eco Mundo, where they rent charming enclosed palapas furnished with beds. The rooms are cooled by fans powered with solar electricity and there are hammocks in front of the palapas. Tracy and her husband are the new owners and they also rent out kayaks and offer kayak tours of the area. We all love the logo on their t-shirts and tank tops, so we each purchased one.
Kai is sitting in front of Eco Mundo checking out the heron.

Just around the next point is Playa Escondida, a beach I would have liked to camp on. The road to this beach goes over a hump and is very rough and full of deep ruts, so it isn't suitable for rigs longer than about 24 feet with adequate clearance. I've only seen vans here or SUVs with tent campers. Most of the camping areas are right along the highway, so you get truck noise. One thing I like about Playa Escondida is that it's farther from the road and over a hill so road noise isn't an issue.
The quiet beach has several simple palapas providing shade at the water's edge.

Beach Scenes

This is the mobile that Kai made for Toni's birthday.


Donna is enjoying the comfy hang-out that she and Toni created at their palapa.


One afternoon we heard a tune from our childhood and this ice cream truck came around the bend and drove down the beach. What a surprise!

These guys were out for a morning boat ride and cruised the beach and the lagoon behind camp.

Got Cake?

Our house batteries got low after parking for a few of days without driving, so we went into town so the drive would charge them up a bit. We all have solar panels, but they don't seem to be able to keep up with the electrical demand. I have the all electric 4 cubic foot refrigerator in my Sportsmobile and that seems to be the big power draw in this heat. Usually my solar panels are able to keep the batteries charged up.

Toni's birthday is Friday and she stayed at camp today so we looked for a bakery to order a birthday cake for her. When we stopped at the ice cream store we asked the woman if she knew where we could buy a cake. She said there wasn't anyplace in town that sells cakes, but she would make one for us in her own kitchen. Great! We ordered a chocolate cake and told her we would be back Friday morning to pick it up.

Bird Island

There are several small islands within a few miles of our beach. I don't know if they have official names, but we made up our own names for them. Our favorite is Bird Island because of the variety and abundance of birds. Pelicans, osprey, gulls, blue footed boobies, oyster catchers, etc. It's odd to see pelicans perched on the bluff amid cacti and other desert plants.

We paddle over there often with our binoculars and cameras. Donna and Kai did some snorkeling there too.

Spotted this oyster catcher hanging out with a pelicano.

This handsome osprey was eating a snack while perched on a cactus.

Bad Company

There were a couple of days when our quiet little beach got invaded by undesireables. One couple in a pickup and camper set up camp near us and played loud country western music. He had started drinking in the afternoon and by evening he was drunk and singing loudly and off key. By 11:30 that night everyone else had gone to bed and he was still drinking and slurring bad singing. When I went over to ask him to please be quiet, he got surly so I said "Just shut up and go to bed you drunken fool". Surprisingly... he did. And fortunately they didn't stick around long.

Another couple had camped there the night before and they got into a fight and walked the beach that night yelling at each other. Arrgggh.

One family brought an a obnoxiously loud jet ski to their picnic. Otherwise they were nice people so we just took deep breaths until they left at the end of the day.

OK I'm just going to bitch about one more thing - the busload of German tourists who stopped for a swim and used one of our palapas for lunch. I know it sounds petty to complain but it felt so invasive. I mean like right next to us...a busload.

Aside from those couple days...tranquillity.