Winter in Baja Day 35: Thieves in the night

Somewhere north of El Cardonal  //

Apparently we weren’t alone last night.  Ellie’s missing dog food container and paw prints surrounding the area indicate thieves in the form of raccoons. We’re so focused on sea life when we’re at the beach, it’s easy to forget about the land-based creatures whose habitat we’re sharing.

Mark and I are in a cooking kind of mood today and make three satisfying meals.  For lunch I make a chickpea/egg salad which causes me to open a jar of pickles, a treat we brought from the states just for this occasion as pickles are nowhere to be found in Baja.  The flavors of something more American than the traditional Mexican food we’ve been having is more noticeable and enjoyable than I’d expected.  We quickly return to Mexican for dinner with tacos on the menu.  Now that Mark is making corn tortillas from scratch I’m going to be requesting taco night on a regular basis.

The magnetism of connectivity is strong today and I find myself compulsively picking up my phone. The more I pick it up, the more removed I become from my surroundings and subsequently more anxious.  My chest tightens as the day goes on, my thoughts race in circles, and I finally realize it’s because I’ve been too connected.  Having Starlink (a constant internet connection anywhere) is a blessing and a curse.  I decide tomorrow will be a fully offline day, something I take great pleasure in from time to time but too easily forget just how enjoyable that can be.

After a joint taco night with our friends, we gather around a fire to close out the evening.  We come to the easy conclusion that we’ll stay one more day because we’re all lucky enough to have nowhere to be.  Not to mention, the forecast looks amazing and it’s an unspoken rule of ours to never drive on a perfect weather day. That’s what windy days are for.