Week 2 in Mexico

So, I’m not sure if my play by play is interesting to anyone but my mom and maybe Andy’s dad, so I apologize if this is getting old.  After we get home, I’ll put more thought into what should go into our blog long term, but for now, I hope everyone hangs in.

It’s been a few days and a lot has happened.  On Monday our new friends Robert and Nuria took us to the local Mercado in La Mission.  We bought some fruit, veggies and cheese and then they took us to a little hole in the wall (actually, they’re all hole in the walls down here) and we got some fantastic seafood while sitting by the ocean.  It was appropriately called Splash.

Tuesday we decided to sail down to Ensenada for a few days for a change of scenery.  The weather was beautiful and we had a nice relaxing sail down which took most of the day.  We saw more pilot whales and a Sunfish.  I’ve never seen a sunfish before…it basically looks like a giant fish head with a tail floating on it’s side.  Very strange.  Right as we were trying to call the port for a slip we realized we had two fish on our lines.  Two nice sized Bonita’s.  It occurred to me that probably the most inhumane form of hunting is fishing.  This occurred to me as Andy was bashing the fish’s head against the boat to kill it.  Apparently this is common practice if you don’t have a club.  Hmmm….  An old guy named Andy helped us with our lines so after Jake and Andy cleaned the fish, they gave him a few fillets.  He was a retired Alaskan fisherman who met a “little Senorita” in La Paz and never went home. 

Today we set out to explore the Mercado del Global (Global Market) and after a $10 cab ride (they saw us coming) we found out it was closed.  It’s probably important to point out that we picked the Mexican Independence day(s) to come down here so we’re lucky anything is open.  Mexico takes their holidays very seriously.  So…no one should be surprised that we took a cab to the wine country J.  Very fun.  We went to three different wineries and bought 6 bottles (our stores were low as you can imagine after 11 days away from home).  We had to stop at an ATM on the way home (to pay the cabbie) and we were duped.  Yep.  Andy went to get money and after he put in the card and typed our pin, apparently it didn’t work.  As soon as he walked out some guys started punching numbers and walked out with $375.  Seeing as I work for the bank, I thought it would be easy to make the claim.  4 collect calls, 2 hours later, I found out I have to call when the charge actually posts and “if they deem it’s fraud” we’ll get our money back.  What happened to Bank of Amigo?

 

Anyway, it’s just money right (that’s what we keep telling ourselves)?  So we’re back on the boat about to grill our shrimp we bought from the fish market this morning, our fish we caught fresh yesterday, and the chorizo that we bought from the market on Monday.  All while drinking our newly purchased wine…  typical McKaskle night. 

Note: 
I’m posting this a few days after I wrote it….the shrimp  weren’t so nice to Jake and I…we spent a whole day recovering and doing boat maintenance (scrubbing the bottom, laundry, etc.).  Thursday we came back to Puerto Salina.  There was a lot of fog and the wind was from the wrong direction so we motored the whole way.  We took a shuttle back to the border today and walked back to the real world.  Andy and his family will come down next weekend and sail the boat back.

A few are probably asking..."So really, Monica, can you live on that little bitty boat?"  And the answer is.....  absolutely.  I didn't miss anything except my toenail clippers and another pair of long pants (It was a lot chillier at night than I expected).