TWENTY-THREE

After two years of missing our Mexico vacation, we were back this year.

2021 week twenty-three

As you can see, where we stay is by default socially distant, so we felt completely at ease.

Early morning walks and fishing on the beach.

The tide was really low the first two days so the kids had fun tide pools to play in.

The crustacean queen caught so many crabs this week. 

While Theo couldn't pass a single sea shell without filling his shirt. He needed a cargo shirt for sure.

On once such shirt-filling beach morning, Theo started to smell really bad. I thought it was a piece of wet (and probably rotting) coral he had picked up and after a tussle I wrested it from him and threw it back into the ocean. But the smell didn't subside. Then I noticed his shirt and hands were turning purple! And the smell was getting worse. I had him empty his shirt (so many tears) and when we got back to the house I scrubbed and scrubbed him. The purple didn't come off and neither did the smell. Luckily we had wifi so I did a little research and discovered it was not the coral. Rather it was the snails that he had been picking off the rocks. Those snails will secrete a milky mucous that stains purple. Furthermore, that very same snail mucous was the original purple dye for fabric discovered by the Phoenicians. Those who dyed fabric were known for being "malodorous", though I feel that's putting it lightly. 

Spying on surfers and sailboats. 

One night we went down to the beach to catch ghost crabs. While we're trying to protect Theo with his wild flashlight from being caught unaware by a rogue wave, he yells, "There's something moving on the beach!" and then he starts running through the dark toward it. We are screaming at him to stop. Turns out it was a sea turtle who came to land to lay eggs. We watched her build two decoy nests before we went in for the night. In the morning we found she had built five decoy nests in the night. 

Bucket of ghost crabs. 

Most of the days were spent exactly like this, reading with snacks in hand, or catching and playing with hermit crabs.

Papa caught a rock crab at Cabo Pulmo where we went to actually swim.

Theo wasn't taking any chances with that crab. 

As is tradition, after we swam at Cabo Pulmo we went to get the best shrimp tacos at the absolute best restaurant location.

I loved the Mexican health labels. They did not play around.

Theo hitting his 3 shrimp taco wall. He ate as much as the adults. 

Theo, not using the hammock correctly. We put a pillow underneath him so he wouldn't crack his head from exuberance. 

The wild hermit crabs were the highlight of the trip however. Every morning and evening the kids would round up as many as they could for the days entertainment. 

She built a little crabitat out of seashells. 

Grandpa Dean helped V reel in her first fish. 

Buddy trying to walk in Grandpas footsteps. 

Matt and my dad went deep sea fishing one day. They caught a few small undesirable fish before fishing in a 600 ft deep trench. 

One of the "undesirable" skipjacks. 

They caught snowy grouper out of the trench. The pressure change from 600 ft to the surface kills the fish and will make their eyes explode. The picture makes me feel sick though so you get the nicer looking photo. We ate this fish that night and it had almost 2 inch thick fillets that were so meaty and fatty it was amazing. 

On our last night we went to a sushi restaurant! I know, a Mexican sushi restaurant doesn't sound like a good idea, but look how close we are to the ocean. And all of our misgivings were unfounded. The chefs had trained in Japan and were so skilled at giving the rolls a slight Mexican touch. 

They were so delicious. They may have been the best sushi we've ever had. 

Theo building his last crabitat before we headed to the airport. 

We had some downtime when we were waiting for our Covid test results before we could board our flight home. So we got cafe and helado. They were very good choices. 

Everyone is always so sad to say goodbye. 

 

This was our best Baja trip yet. I foresee them only getting better as the kids get bigger and we can all enjoy each moment more. Thank you to Gabriela for graciously allowing us to use her beautiful home in Baja for our vacation. That alone took our vacation from fun to wonderful!