Silence is the rule in the morning when there is no wind. It is only broken by the whales sounding in front of the camp. As the sun rose, we put on our running shoes and headed down a flat sandy road. Capitan, the local beach dog joins us for some of it. When he encounters another dog he bid us adios and heads off to play or most likely try to get some food handouts. On our return to camp, we meet Cameron. After two futile attempts to make it to South America, they have decided to just do Baja. Their first attempt ended in Mexico where they were involved in a car wreck. The second attempt ended in Guatamala when the car they were driving could not make it up the steep mountain roads. Both he and his girlfriend lived in San Francisco and were burnt out on the lifestyle. Yuppies with no kids walked the streets. They were going to try to do work on the internet to see if they could have a travel lifestyle. Returning back to our home for the next several days we talk with our new neighbors. They are a caravan of four campers and trailers. They kept asking if they should take the tour to see the whales here or perhaps visit the other locations where the Grey whale are located. The day was calm and the whales plentiful so we gave them more pros of doing it here. They decided to do it and upon their return thanked us for the encouragement. As we slow our pace and learn about other peoples stories we are intrigued. Four couples make up the group. all have been friends for a long time. There are a set of ex's married to new partners. One of the couples are their grown children. One women is in 4th stage ovarian cancer and is done with the traditional treatment. This trip is to celebrate their time together. Another person has Parkinson's. A lot of laughter comes from their camp as they are living for the moment. The last group of new neighbors we had met briefly in Bahia De Los Angles. When we met them they were on the way to San Quintin where they hoped to find a part to fix their car. Alas the part was not in stock, but the local mechanic down the street could make one. So for 15 dollars they were soon back on the road. They were traveling in a 1980 Road Runner and were planning to visit a place that one of the women had visited 12 years ago and always wanted to return. She thought it was one of the most beautiful places she had ever seen. We will be passing by it when we do our month long kayaking trip. We have decided not to do the whale tour as we did one last year, Seeing them from afar seems just fine with us. Lots of shore birds hang out in the tidal zone. We spend several hours looking at the marbled godwits, willets, yellow legs, whimbrels and a curlew. Watching their eating habits is entertaining. Since we are now in Baja Sur, we get to turn our watches ahead. We might even make it to 9 before we go to bed.
