The East Cape -> Los Barriles //
These last few days we’ve been camped at a surfing hot spot, but you never would have known it until this morning. Not long after sunrise the beach becomes lined with vehicles and the water filled with surfers. Folks set up and sit beneath their beach umbrellas, dogs play in the sand, and per usual, whales breach in the background. It feels like a party, on a Thursday morning in February, and I don’t want to leave. However, temps are steadily rising well in to the 80s, the wind is hardly a whisper, and the sun is getting more intense by the minute. A/C is enticing us in to the truck and so we eventually find ourselves back on the road…destination Los Barriles.
Two weeks ago, while last in Los Barriles, we made ourselves dentists’s appointments. (If you’ve been reading and remember that Mark had a dentist visit in LaPaz, the long story short is that he needed further work done and that wasn’t the place for it.) For the sake of trying something a little different we rented a casita for a few nights while in LB. We previously haven’t loved Los Barriles, with it’s dominant Western influence, but figured we’d give it another shot, under different circumstances, and take advantage of the resources available to us.
Our rental is a beautiful apartment on the second story of a new home in downtown LB. After settling in I sit on the couch, feeling a softness on my backside that I haven’t felt in months, and immediately feel seduced by the ease of it all. I can take a shower whenever I feel like it and use as much water as I want! I can sit on a couch! I can sit all the way up in bed! I can pee inside a room that’s just for peeing and there’s a door! I’m completely captivated…until I step outside. It’s absolutely beautiful out and I had no idea. I immediately go from feeling seduced to feeling perplexed by how willingly we cut ourselves off from the outside world in the name of comfort and ease. In that moment I want to move everything back in to the truck and drive away. Because I know three days from now, when it’s time to leave, I’ll be resistant. That’s all the time it will take for me to get addicted to the drug of comfort.
I read a beautiful newsletter the other day by one of my favorite writers, Nicole Antoinette, and she posed this idea of viewing discomfort as a portal, because usually anything truly satisfying, anything deeply rewarding takes work, and therefore, discomfort to achieve. Living out of our truck camper isn’t easy or convenient by any means but it’s a portal to experiencing the world in a tactile way. Any discomfort I endure or overcome living in 60 square feet is exchanged for a beautifully rewarding connection to the world around me. No couch or shower or decor, no matter how luxurious, could even come close to the satisfaction I get from that. I’m not against living in a house, but think comfort should be approached with caution. It’s so potent that sometimes we don’t even realize we’re sacrificing anything as we reach for it’s embrace.
In a travel memoir I recently read, author Kim Dinan came to a thought-provoking conclusion after spending several months living in India. She said “a hard life doesn’t necessarily equal a bad life”. Which leads me to consider the truth of the inverse…an easy life doesn’t necessarily make for a good life. And so I end the day pondering what it is I want from the future. Because I know with all certainty, that if I reach my 70s and 80s, I will be most proud having pursued the more fulfilling albeit more difficult routes in life rather than letting comfort reign as king.
Our camp site was also a destination for surfers making for great morning entertainment. 
Since we were on our way to a rental and Josh & Darci were running low on water, we passed off our excess to them. 
Our lovely little neighborhood on the beach was hard to leave 
Parker got up close and personal with the whales this morning. I was equally jealous and nervous while I watched from the beach. 
Arriving at the beautiful casita we rented in Los Barriles. 
The view from our second story casita.
Photos taken with the Canon R6.
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So you read Kim Dinan’s book….pretty interesting perspective on life wasn’t it !
It was great. Thanks so much for the recommendation!
That was a great post. It’s to easy to become addicted to the comforts of life and at the same time miss out on so many other wonderful things life has to offer. I love the casita! The views were beautiful from up there! I hope your feeling better today…
Thank you!
Great write up! When I was younger and working any relief from the comfy world was just so welcome that I was stoked for weeks before the trip and bummed for weeks afterwards. The hardness of travel and the outdoor connection were considered over the top fun no matter what happened.
Now, in my mid-60’s, retired and pretty free to craft any trip I can imagine it’s a different feeling to come and go. Today it’s more about exploring and enjoying the trip than escape. And I find I savor the travel and outdoors just as much as the comfy of home. Except now I get to choose how much of each to enjoy and when I get to do so.
I hope you’re feeling better. Safe travels as always. The dog and I are off to Death Valley in several days for some sun.
I can definitely see how the perspectives change with age and experience. It’s a great thing getting to enjoy a little bit of both comfort and adventure. Have a great time in Death Valley!