November 7, 2018 - Last full day in Muelege - Mision and seafood, so much seafood.

Sunrise over the mouth of the Mulege River

Sunrise and the pre-dawn were beautiful, with a cool breeze blowing out to sea, while the sun alit on the mountains North of the river, setting them blazing orange. It lasted mere minutes.

After breakfast we went to the Mision de Santa Rosalia and toured around. It was 8am and we had agreed to do more active things like hiking well before noon. The dam below the Mision obviously preserves the fresh water above, with a complete oasis to be found. There are fish in the water, so many dates on the ground, and so much abundance, this is a land of plenty. I really wonder how much feeds the locals, how much goes to waste, and how much is exported and sold. I've definitely seen thousands of dates and oranges that are just becoming dirt; not even eaten by bugs, birds, or anything, rather being left on the ground, and ground in by feet or tires.
 

A grave house at the Mision

The front entrance to the Mision

A tree on the Mision grounds. The small lights in it are from dried sap, slowly turning to amber.

The dam beneath the Mision. Freshwater on the right.

We were back at our Airbnb by 9:30am, and it was getting hot out already. We're packed to head to a beach for more, well, time-killing, really. I suspect we'll head to Loreto fairly early tomorrow.

I think it would a bit different if we were staying in Mulege itself, where we could hang out and catch the community going past, although that too would last about a day, I think. If we had bikes or kayaks, it might be more enjoyable... or it might not be.

Playa Santisbac beckoned...

Packing snacks and a pot full of ice wrapped in a towel (in case of fresh seafood being available for dinner) we drove down the Bahia Concepcion to Playa Santisbac. On arriving, Ken and I went for a walk up the Bahia to some shuttered vacation properties, while Anita was in the water right away. When we got back to the car, Anita was nowhere in sight, although a pile of her stuff was behind the car, so Ken and I continued the walk to the South end of the beach, where there was a mangrove-surrounded lagoon. With still no sign of Anita, we started back to the car and had gotten 200m before she popped up and called to us from near the lagoon. She's been snorkelling, may have gone out of sight for a while (as she had lost track of where she was relative to the car), and had finally popped up.

We decided to splurge on lunch, grabbing fish tacos, beer and cevice from the nearer of the two beach restaurants. Thus began the afternoon of eating.

Afetr a swim we got a few clams served local style - raw, in the shell, with fresh lime and hot sauce. The sweet sour of the lime with the bit of the hot sauce, and the sweetness of the meat were wonderful together.

OI also had a chance to talk motorcycles with a man from Colorado Springs who had a Honda Adventure Twin, and so we talked riding in weird terrain and aftermarket mods.

After a bit more relaxing, we were off back to Mulege to get food and drink for dinner and breakfast. I drove in through the town arch and we went to first the tortilleria, where Ken and I watched fresh flour tortillas being pressed, thrown, and stacked to be fried later, and we also admired the corn tortilla machine, designed to do all o this automatically. Anita did the actual work here, of buying the tortillas, cheese (quesa fresca), and Frijole Empanadas.

Next up was the grocery store, then to modelorama to get beers to try. On th way to Modelorama, I told Anita to look across the street. Parked across from us was a car with its trunk open, with two coolers visible, and a hand drawn sign saying "pescado & camaron". We wound up getting a half kilo of fresh shrimp to BBQ for dinner, and put them in the pot with the ice.

Back at the Airbnb, Anita shelled and seasoned these; I washed and roasted the poblano peppers on the BBQ, Ken cleaned them, and, throwing on my hat and best Mick Dundee accent, threw the shrimp on the Barbie.

With fresh guacamole make by Ken, and the warmed tortillas, this was a fantastic meal, and I'm still stuffed hours later.