It’s been more than two weeks since we stumbled upon Lo De Marcos. A long time to most who “overland” travel. But… we do this a lot… staying in places for a week or two… or three… ish. And we get a fair amount of light hearted grief about it whenever we cross paths or messages with our fellow travelers. “What’s the hurry?” I’m always asking.
Maybe it’s because I used to work in the Silicon Valley. Where everything is just so incredibly purpose and schedule driven that my purpose driven scheduler wore out. Between you and me, I think the people who work there are mostly robots. And if they’re not… they wish they were. I mean… you can be so much more productive without those niggling human time wasters like eating, and sleeping, and kids, and relationships.
Getting out of there was like escaping the Death Star… I sure hope that tractor beam has been disabled.
Or… maybe it’s because I reckon that I’ll never make it back to these beautiful places that we’ve found, and before I put the keys back in the ignition, I want to know them. The animals. The tides. The weather. The rhythm of local life. The people… and their stories. At least as much of their stories as my second and a half grade Spanish allows.
The Best Tacos in Town.
I think that someone had better check the apple inventory!
Whatever my issue, slow(er) travel been really good for the morale of our little tribe, and the well being of our vehicles… who also play a large role in the adventure. Each camp like an acclimatization stop for climbers. The world can change very quickly down here in three or four-hundred kilometers… and we’ve found that a more methodical pace helps us to keep up with it. And our longer stays have given all of us the time to develop many great friendships with other travelers and members of the home team.
Over the last few weeks we’ve spent a fair amount of time just a few miles down the coast in San Pancho, a town that I have a good deal of… well, I was going to say history with. But it’s really closer to ancient history now (more than 20 years). I re-connected with some old friends and we’ve had more than one memorable night (if I could only remember them) around a bottle of tequila… or two.
Two Great Explorers Swappin’ Tales
We figured we’d move on to Sayulita… just a few kilometers further south of San Pancho. But then vistied… and thought better of it. Think Santa Cruz, Ca. If you haven’t spent much time there, and like the high end hustling bustling beach scene, I think that you’ll love Sayulita. We’ve spent many, many years of our lives in and around Santa Cruz. That’s enough. So we decided to HQ in sleepy little Lo De Marcos and explore from there.
Happily, there’s still some wildness here in these small coastal towns that are separated by miles of empty jungle and beach. Noises of civilization for sure, but they’re still overpowered by the sounds of the ocean and birds. And it doesn’t take long to find yourself alone on the beach… unless you travel with four other people and two dogs. Then you’ve gotta have skills!
Unhappily, the big fish that used to live here are gone. Chased away by our species. Locals claim that just a few years ago they were able to feed their families for days on only a few hours of spear fishing. That’s no longer the case. Apparently the pressure of just a few hundred was too great on the bay. The fishing boats are idle most days. It’s been the same story everywhere we’ve been.
At the northern end of the beach in Lo De Marcos is an estuary. It’s filled with this incredible assortment of colorful birds… a large turtle, or two, and perhaps crocodiles. Some of the birds I recognize… like herons and egrets and frigate birds. Most I haven’t a clue. Early every morning there’s this game between these crazy little red crabs that are about eight inches across, and the birds of the estuary. The hundreds of members of the crab team dig themselves out of their holes that were filled by the high tide, and furtively dart about for food. And the birds rain down upon them with furious vengeance… and try to make them food.
I think the crabs are losing.
And people complain about their lot in life…