November 16, 2021 Tuesday

 

         Third full day at the Santispec Playa and it is warmer. It took longer this afternoon for the breeze from the mountains to come up and cool us. It usually seemed to come up by 11:00 am or so and today it was warmer as the breeze did show up till about 1:00 pm. All you need is a walk in the water or a little shade and it is just fine. Today several of us drove to Mulege separately to do errands. Old Mulege is very interesting. One way streets as they are so narrow, much like some old European villages. It is hilly and some areas along the river have flooded so many times, they have been abandoned but a way from the river, the town goes on. Jim and Judy went in to get purified water and had to learn about the congested streets. They are so narrow that one lane is for parking and the remaining space is the street which explains the one way streets. When we got our water, the man selling it to us helped us back out into the traffic from his little parking area. It was 14 pesos for 5 liters of purified water. 

 

       This afternoon George, Mary, Bill, Liz and Jim are going for an hour ride in the bay. Later we are having hour over at Amando’s bar were some are having dinner. Tonight Jim and I are going to eat the salmon that Paul and Kristina hauled from home after it was caught in Alaska and shipped to Woodland by a good neighbor. Last night many of us had the shrimp and scallops we all bought from our vendor out of the back of her car at 7:30 each morning. 

        Interesting side light about Mulege. As I mentioned above, it floods so frequently that the Mexican government built a new town up the hill from the old town. They people of Mulege were invited to move there. It has wide streets, one even paved, homes on good size lots, and, so the sign says, spring water. All the houses here have raised black barrels, usually on the roof, that hold maybe 80 to 100 gallons creating the pressure in the house. Trucks that sell water are very common here. Even on the beach, we have a guy in a pickup that comes each day to sell us water. He is one of the several vendors selling everything from food to hats to clothing and blankets. Colonia Nueva Mulege has small but modern houses of cement block painted in varied colors. One house we saw even had a little lawn on the side. First time we have seen that in Baja. Still lots of room for the old residents of Mulege to move there. We parked in the shade of some small trees in the town and enjoyed some connection to a cell tower to catch up on messages. First cell coverage in a while and none along the beach.