Tuesday, May 28 through Monday, June 3

I rested an entire week at the hotel Las Trojes in Loreto. Many great things happened. I ate and drank all the good stuff I wanted. I discovered the internet cafes in town and set up an email account on Yahoo. I met a young police officer named Felix who has been very helpful and interesting to talk to. He is the kind of man every small town needs for the police – more interested in maintaining peace and order than in giving tickets. On Thursday Mike and Megan arrived. It was great to see them again. Gail sent a batch of good home made chili for me and we had a little feast along with a small bottle of Jack Daniels Whiskey. I met a guy named Sam in Tiffany’s Pizza who was the father of the owner, Denise. She made great espresso. He is an interesting old man who was drafted for World War Two in 1943. The town was pretty empty since this is the lull between tourist season and fishing season. I ate a lot of tacos and ice cream and drank a few beers. Finally on Friday night, Heidi arrived. We picked her up at the airport and then all went to dinner. That night at about 3:00am, Mike knocked on my door. “This had better be important, Mike!” I said. “I was just stung by a scorpion,” he answered. I let him in and he told us the story. He was sleeping and suddenly felt a sharp pain in his chest. He got up and tried to figure it out. After a few minutes Megan pulled back the sheets and found the scorpion. He said it suddenly hurt twice as bad. Since he was stung over the heart, he was pretty sure he was going to die pretty soon. Megan captured the scorpion in a Snapple bottle. I looked at it and it didn’t look too bad – just a slight swelling and redness. I asked him if he was having any trouble breathing or feeling any swelling in his throat. He said no, so I gave him an antihistamine and told him to call me if there were any problems. Since my girlfriend is an optometrist, I am qualified to practice medicine. In the morning Mike was still alive, but the scorpion wasn’t. I think Mike’s blood poisoned him. Saturday, Mike, Megan, Heidi, and I took a drive to see the San Javier mission. It is a real beauty way up in a valley in the hills. There are water and fruit trees and a few ranches up there, but the mission is the real gem. On Sunday, Heidi and I visited the mission in Loreto. They have a museum and the church is still very active. We spent the afternoon there and then went out for a nice dinner. Saturday and Sunday went way too fast. Soon it was Monday morning and Heidi and Megan had to leave. They were on two different flights a half hour apart, so we took them to the airport together. It will be another two months before we see them again. Loreto is 413 miles from Pete’s Camp and we have maybe another 325 miles left to go. We hope to meet my dad in La Paz. He will be in Los Barriles June 13 – 17 and may be able to drive up if we can tell him when and where we will be. That is 10 days from now and we have about 150 miles to go to get there, so we will have to average 15 miles a day. Our first day destination is a place called Puerto Escondido. Mike is now under orders not to hurt himself.