Santa Cruz

Said farewell to Andrew and Cheryl as they headed down the road this morning. I’m sure our paths will cross again somewhere down the road. After they packed up camp and rolled out, I went for a paddle around the bay. I went to the point where the throw net guys were working it hard. Three of them were wading out into the surf and tossing their nets, crouching low so that the fish wouldn’t see them coming. A turtle poked his head up to see what I was about as I rounded the point and continued south around the headland.

A pinnacle of rock rose out of the water with tropical foliage as a backdrop. Small schools of manta rays would float slowly by with just the tips of their wings peeking out of the water. I had gone a half hour so I decided to turn back and stay close to the shore on the return trip.

I went along the rocky shore that we had hiked across yesterday. A couple was out waist deep knocking oysters off of the rocks. She acted as his inner tube holding the net to collect the mollusks. The beachfront restaurants were quiet at his hour but some of the fishermen were still idling around their boats talking about the morning’s catch. I dodged the long net that was stretched near the small spit of sand where I launched from and landed on the beach to cool off on a fallen palm branch.

It was a quiet afternoon. A shrimp vendor came by the gate and I bought close to a kilo for 100 pesos. I took the phone over to the restaurant and tried to phone home but had no luck. A ate a sandwich while enjoying the beautiful scenery from the deck. Ready for a nap, I cranked up the A/C for the first time on the trip. With the cool air and white noise, I had a great nap only to wake up and find myself surrounded by a bunch of RVs parking up next to me. I think it’s some kind of a tour group. One lady was hollering directions at the others and they were going back and forth.

There is a ton of open space, big lawn areas with hardly any other people. I moved over to the spot that Andrew had vacated this morning. The Québécois from Villa Celeste, Max and Mary, had arrived earlier. They set up on the far end of the field and Alan’s Van was in the middle. Much quieter and room for Cali to roam.

I sautéed the shrimp with carrots, peppers, mushrooms and onions. Alan and I ate it with beans and tortillas over on the big patio palapa by the beach access. Not a bad dinner. The Swiss overlanders were there tapping away on laptops and it was a peaceful evening with a slight breeze to help cool things off and discourage maybe one or two of the noseums from trying to make a meal of us. Cali was off wandering around the grounds so I figured I’d better go find her and get her some dinner, too.