Saturday, April 6

North 30° 20.1'
West 114° 38.4'
Distance: 0 miles

Last night was hard. We had howling winds which blew sand in our eyes, faces, hair, and sleeping bags. We had found a half finished abandoned stone building which we used along with three ponchos as a shelter. It helped, but not enough. I woke with sand all over my body - in my ears, hair, etc. I was gritty all over. Last night Mike claimed that if you ask people what causes wind, that many of them will answer "trees." He says that at one point in his life that he thought trees caused wind. I asked him how trees could possible cause wind. He said that people who think that wind is caused by trees stop thinking at that point. It is just trees. This morning we went to town and bought beer, cheese, and tortillas to go with our eggs for breakfast. When we got back, the lady who runs the camp called Mike over and gave us a plate of Carne Asada with guacamole. We ate that, then cooked our 10 eggs with cheese and tortillas and ate that, too. Then we took a bath in the ocean to get all the grime and sand off our bodies. We went to town in the afternoon to look around a little bit. Then we bought a few more beers, called home, bought water, and prepared for departure in the morning. Mike made friends with a kid named Iban who was from Mexicali. He and his brother and some friends are stuck here with vehicle problems. They drove off the road trying to miss a coyote. Iban is 11 years old and seems to have problems in school. He is a pretty smart kid, but seems to have attention problems. He taught us several useful words. Viento is wind. Ventisca seems to be wind blown sand. We used that a lot. Ola is wave. He is a nice, friendly kid and came over several times to talk to us. His father made us a fruit cup each which was very good. In the afternoon the wind started to die down. We hope we will have a good night and good paddling in the morning. We are moving camp back down from the half a building to the beach hoping we will be OK here. Things to do in town: The hot springs are a bust. They stink and hot water isn't the most interesting thing on a hot day. There is a taco place, but it doesn't open for another three days. There is a Pemex station, but it is also closed. There is an airport. One plane landed while we were here - a nice Bonanza. That is about all there is to do in Puertecitos except look at houses or the pretty harbor. It is clearly cheap to live in Puertecitos and it is very pretty.