Pilon de Lolita

Pilon de Lolita aka The Pointy Mountain. A friend said to me recently, "I have been reading your blog and what you call "The Pointy Mountain" is really named Pilon de Lolita". I knew that. Once. Forgot. The name and its story long gone in my mind. Now I have a name and a story to go with it. The story goes: there were sisters living and gardening at the base of the mountain. When the Baja lands were divided and ownership designated for each of the sisters, one sister said: "where is my pilon?" One of the definitions for pilon is: a gratuity given by tradesmen to customers settling their accounts. Or as explained to me, it is like getting 13 instead of 12 for a dozen. The sister was asked: "what do you want for your pilon?" and..........she said: "that mountain!" She was given the mountain as her "little bit extra". Thus, the name: Pilon de Lolita. End of story.

Harleys, harleys and more harleys. Saturday night was Fiesta in Juarez Plaza (the town square) for the motorcyclists who arrived in town. Four bands scheduled to play, food vendors and tables in the plaza, motorcycles parked in rows and shoulder to shoulder people ready to party into the night. Looked like a much-needed boost for Loreto's economy. The night before and all day Saturday was an Art Show at one of the hotels. Sunday evening was a Red Carpet party here at Loreto Shores to watch the Academy Awards. Several people had fun dressing in gowns and wearing Bling to "walk the carpet". Wind. Wind and more wind. Today is a blustery day and the sea is rough and white-cappy. Hope to meet friends from Tuczon tonight. Have been doing a lot of reading and staying out of the strong winds and blowing dust.

While at Santispac, I drove out to Ray's place to see if the restaurant was open again after the big Fall storm. Yes, it is open he is adding a sunday brunch to the thursday, friday, saturday schedule. On the way back there was this big bull standing in the road trying to get back to his pasture. The third picture shows a young man jumping the fence to come up behind the bull and chase it home. Ray's Restaurant is located in the agrigultural flood plain 2 miles west of the ice house at Mulege. Once you figure out where to turn off the main highway to get to the ice house, take a left turn and just follow the signs. Ray has managed to put enough signs to make his place easy to find. On each corner where you might question which way to go he has a sign with an arrow. The restaurant is 2 miles on a sand/dirt road and takes you past farms with fields of vegetables and, of course, some cows too.

Valentine's week at Santispac

Fast Eddie and the Slow Learners were the featured band on Valentine's night at Lupe's (formerly known as Ana's) restaurant/bar at Santispac Beach. I went up to the beach Feb 10 and returned to Loreto yesterday. Lupe's served dinner to a packed house for Valentine's night followed by dancing to the live band. The band began slow and easy with guitars, percussion, harmonica and vocals progressing to faster music early on. As usual, these are oldies songs from the 50's - 80's. I went for dessert, listened a bit and headed back to my little home on the shore. Santispac is dry camping, but there are amenities. Two beach restaurants, outhouses, showers for a fee, fresh water (non-potable), venders selling souvenirs, fish, scallops, lobster, vegetables, empanadas and tamales. There is even a weekly laundry pickup and delivery and an ice cream truck. The beaches are filled mostly with Canadians. Not as many Americans on the roads. The general feeling is they are afraid to come down to Mexico because of the bad news being reported. Those of us here in Southern Baja do not have that fear and do not see a reason to stay away from the southern Baja state. Parts of the Mainland Mexico..........yes. Back to Santispac............there are other popular beaches along the Bay of Concepcion and basically the same: Burro, Coco, Coyote, Perla, Requeson are some of them. We have our favorites and tend to go back to a beach with familiar friends. Some people stay a few days or a week or so like me and others are situated for months with solar power and solar heated showers. The new palapa Santispac Restaurant specializes in Mexican seafood and had quite good food. Lupe's has both Mexican and gringo food...some good...other just so-so. Each restaurant has a bar so you can get a beverage of choice. I took some pictures this time of the beach and will post those. My first picture shows my camping spot on the shore. I was able to get one of the palapas and used my tarps to make a wind break. The second picture shows the Santispac Seafood palapa restaurant and the little two door white building in the distance is an outhouse. There are barrels of water and empty jugs to use for flushing in the outhouse. Someone keeps the barrels filled and cleans the facility with bleach daily. The third picture shows a few campers on the SW portion of the beach. Several people have begun their journey north and the beach was becoming empty. In a few weeks, during Easter Break, the beach will be packed (I have yet to see this) with tents 4 deep and 4-5000 campers and carnival rides. The remaining pictures show an orange substance that washed up on shore Sunday morning. Monday morning it was gone from this beach, but I saw it along the shore at Coyote and Requeson. I stuck my hand into the orange substance, pulled it out and there were what looked liked teeny tiny tiny translucent eggs on my hand. the orange substance dripped off. The final picture shows hands coated with these "eggs". Do any of you know what it is? Perhaps roe and sperm from some critter? Just talked with Marine Biologist here at Loreto Shores and what he has seen from a distance looks similar to a Cyano Bacteria he has seen in the open ocean. He said if it is a Cyano Bacteria, what I saw that looked like "eggs" would be clumping of the bacteria. The bacteria is microscopic and as it clumps together it becomes visible to the human eye.

Sunrise this morning during a 6:30am walk with other women here at the park. They are fast power walkers and we walked for an hour. As the weather warms, they will probably begin earlier. It was a fine walk and nice to part of a socialable group. The sun is rising over Carmen Island.

Two postings for today from visit to San Javier. This one has pictures taken on the return drive down the mountain. Cows on the road. They were trotting to get out of our way. A picture of the backside of the "pointy" mountain I see from Loreto. Look closely and you can see the road at the base of the mountain with a car for scale. The last picture shows the Sea of Cortez and Loreto in the distance with the road winding down the mountain

I went back up to San Javier today with some friends here at the RV park. The road is paved all the way to the misson now, tho there are still some washout and one-lane spots from storm damage last Fall. Here are some pictures taken at San Javier. A photo of the centuries-old olive tree and father of all the olive trees there. A couple showing one of the gardens with young shoots of what looks to be garlic or onion. A pretty flower and a picture of the river dam to provide water for irrigation. The community has been irrigating and growing vegies for centuries also.

Have had an invasion of crickets the past month. So far, have not had any in my van, but they are in houses, the shower/bathroom and on the ground. What do crickets eat? Should I be worried about a cricket invasion? I have another bicycle. The one I brought down was stolen over the summer and friends found a good buy for me. It is an old British 3 speed and works just fine. I'll store it in a friend's garage when I leave. He will put it up on the wall out of his way and it will be safe there. Heading up to San Javier tomorrow with a couple from Anacortes. They have not been and I love that journey. Not much else to report, just day to day living. Have made progress on another weaving project that has been milling around in my mind for a long time. Yesterday, did a first conceptual drawing to get it out of my head and onto paper. I'll need to make a trip to Alberta to speak with my thigh-spinner to discuss how to make the yarn I need. I have had some talks with her, discussed and dismissed ideas and now will see if she wants to make the warp I need or if I need to do it myself. The cold winds are gone.