s/v hello world: bahia concepcion

To say that we "liked" Bahia Concepcion might be an understatement. A more accurate turn of phrase might go a little like this: "we loved it so much we almost bought a palapa on the beach".

We settled into the anchorage at Posada Concepcion and were almost immediately pulled into the social scene on the beach. Some of the nicest people live on the beach at Posado, and all around Concepcion for that matter. They invited us into their homes, gave us beer, invited us to Superbowl parties and generally just made us feel at home.

Randy, one of the Posada-ites, took us into to Mulege and gave us a tour of the town. He also drove us all over town (it's not that big so it didn't take long) to go shopping, run errands, and fill up jerry cans of fuel. We also stopped at the hieleria (ice factory), but it turns out they don't have ice. Ah, Mexico.

After more than a week at Posada, we pulled our anchor up, scrubbed the growth off of it and headed a few miles south to Playa El Burro - Donkey Beach! El Burro is homed to the famed (at least by cruisers standards) amateur weather forecaster, Geary. Geary lives in his palapa right on the beach and broadcasts weather every morning over a ham net frequency. Once the weather is broadcast, he blasts a bagpipe rendition of Amazing Grace across the beach. Not a bad way to start the day.

We went in to talk with Geary as he a.) has wifi and will gladly share it and b.) is just too damned funny not to have a conversation with. While there, we fixed a few website glitches for him including his webcam. We told our families about the webcam and then spent 30 minutes dancing around in front of the webcam like trained monkeys.

Nobody saw us. [sigh]

We walked down the beach from Geary's palapa and ran across a "For Sale" sign on a palapa. We'll just take a gander and... oh crap, this place was cool. The porch on this place was about 10 feet above high tide. It had a spectacular stone floor and just the greatest vibe. Solar panels. Thatched roof. Funny little trailer tucked in under the roof in the back. Outdoor shower. The only thing that stopped us from buying it was the fact that we weren't buying any land. At any point, the land owners could step in and say you're outa here. No more palapa.

However, we've added Palapa On A Beach In Mexico to our list of Interesting Ways To Spend Life. But that list is another blog entry altogether.