Loving it. December 9, 2008

I am loving all the comments so much- thanks for the feedback and keep ‘em coming. It’s nice to know you are out there!

We brought our little moto down here…It’s a 1970 Honda CT90- we are almost the same age; I feel an affinity. She is cranky whereas I am not, but I am working on our relationship. Today I took her around Pescadero looking for fresh tortillas; from the reaction on the street, I might guess I was the first gringa to ever ride a motorcycle through Pescadero.  I think of the passage from “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” when the grandmother warns the main character to enjoy the catcalls when she is young, because she’ll miss them when she is old and they stop. All my feminist instincts rally against it, but it sort of makes me smile and I’m certainly not here to change an entire culture. At least not today:)

So here is the beast of a moto, and Josh is modeling his very fashionable matching glasses that make him so happy:

I feel like I missed so much information I’d like to share from the long lapse on the way down that I’ll never catch up.  We met a guy who has been camping under the same tree for 22 winters; he is doing an audit of the entire ecosystem in his little cove in  Conception Bay. We should all love something as much as he loves that little section of the world. He walked the beach three times a day while we were there, picking up pieces of micro-trash. He said he had been working on it for the last month; he celebrated Obama’s victory alone on that beach and has been cleaning ever since…

There are giant buzzards here in Baja. We first started seeing them through the massive desert down the spine of the peninsula and there are a bunch that live in our neighborhood. I tried and failed to get a photo of them; they sit on top of the giant cordon cactus, ominous and regal. I’ll try again today.

I have been thinking a ton about the influences that lead us to the places we go. The majority of my influences are books; Poppa taught me to love the written word almost before he taught me to love chocolate. The Lorax, Ranger Rick Magazine…big moments for my young mind. And in High School I would sit in the library and read early Outside Magazines, and dream of all the places advertised in the back, the little postage stamp sized ads promising worlds of bright colors, exotic peoples, strange flavors, huge mountains and bright blue seas. Hot damn! I had to get there. Not that I didn’t love every moment of football-worshipping high school… And I embarrassed by how much sway Richard Bach has had over me; although I suspect that I love his work because he confirms how I feel, what I believe, and I like the confirmation. Really, if you haven’t read Illusions, how can you haul yourself out of bed in the morning? And there must be something to Jonathan Livingston Seagull for the book to have  been banned in entire countries. Juan Gaviaota is now legal in Guatemala, but this was not always the case.

Not only are Mini and Lou right in the swing of things- Josh loves every minute of the slight chaos that is Mexico. Want to build a fire in the yard? Have at it. Hell, throw some gasolina on there so it really goes!  Want to ride the moto on the wrong side of the road, or in the sand on the shoulder? No one is going to stop you. His little slightly anarchic heart beats strongly under the Baja sun….

And I am pretty happy, too.

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