Tuesday, April 16

Distance: 0 miles

This was a long and interesting day. At first light I got up and packed my stuff into my kayak. I got Mike's stuff cleaned up and packed, too. Then I left Mike sleeping on the beach. I paddled down to Calamajue which turned out to be pretty close. The first guy I talked to was a tourist from Tijuana and he pointed me to the local fishermen. Two of them agreed to drive us in a ponga to Alphonsina's in San Luis Gonzaga. A half hour later they were ready to go. I secured my kayak and left in on the beach in their care. Then I went to our camp and finished packing Mike up. The guys agreed to pick up his kayak on the way back and put it with mine. Then they took us to Alphonsina's. The trip took less than an hour. We invited the boys to breakfast with us while we figured out what to do. The Americans there took over! They found a retired EMT from Los Angeles. He looked at Mike's arm and said that because of the previous surgery we needed to go to a real hospital. He said that there are a couple good ones in Baja, but none closer than El Centro. Then they found a guy named Mike to fly us home. Mike has a Cession Sky-chief which really moves. We were driven to Rancho Grande to call Mike's Mom, then after a little trouble betting it unstuck we took off. An hour later we were in Mexicali. He dropped us there so he wouldn't have to go through customs. From there we got a taxi to the border where Linda met us. Mike decided that he would rather wait two more hours and go to a hospital in San Diego, so we drove to Grossmont. There we waited several hours to see a doctor, but when we did he got Mike's shoulder back together after 20 minutes of struggle. Finally, he was released and Linda dropped me off at home. I had told the Mud House Boys that they could use the house, so there was no key. I had to crawl in under the house to get in. They were out having fun and I didn't see them till morning.