The days slipped by like beads upon a rosary, easily, and semi-contemplatively. (I was going to say “quietly”, but we have three kids; who would I be fooling?!)
While they were not quiet, the days were easy, moving forward with happiness and in that zennish state you get when you are on the beach for a whole long time. It’s like, the beauty of everything around you coalesces and nestles on up inside and the rose coloured glasses get glued to your nose, so the whole world just seems sooooooooooooooooooooooo ‘yeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah dude……‘
I think it’s impossible to not be intensely laid back while wrapped in the magic of the beach.
The Magic of the Beach
Our family was happier than we had ever been.
Getting water from the well, using pit toilets, washing dishes in a bucket (clothes and diapers too, for that matter. Different buckets of course). Life was stripped down to the basics. It should have been hard, but it wasn’t; it was easier. I think that for us, life is easier when pared down to a few belongings, to the few simple tasks that are needed for survival and a modicum of civility.
There simply isn’t any bullshit to wade through.
The campers around us were like-minded. The Mexicans in the fishing village about 200 ft away were friendly with us. Los Frailes was safe place and a sweet spot and sometimes we feel like we could be there forever.*
Unicorns Don’t Hold Monopoly on Magic:
Confession: those shows about animals in the wild usually bored the crap out of me. I have never understood the allure of watching some whale’s tail come out of the water.
I still don’t. Not on TV or on camera at any rate. In real life? HELL YEAH!
Sea creatures are just as magical as unicorns. They are insanely amazing, when viewed all up close, in real life. There is something so different about watching a whale’s tail come out of the water on TV and seeing the same thing in person. Or how it feels to sit on the beach and see little fish flying out of the water.
Whales!
YES! Mama whales and their babies came on by almost daily and they were so close that we really could swim out to them.
I’m posting these pictures that I took but I fully realize they are about at titillating as an evening spent looking through a Japanese couple’s Hawaiian honeymoon photos, but it’s like I can’t stop myself because, HEY! I THINK THIS IS SO COOL NOW!
These guys? They are manta rays – and they leap clear out of the water.
They jump, twist, flip over, FLY. Those suckers seem so happy! I love them. They often came and swam alongside me while I was on that particular empty stretch of beach, running. I felt like they were my buddies and I was half tempted to do like Snow White and start singing to them or something. Maybe they’d leap out of the water for me? Jump on my shoulder? Haha.
I close my eyes and in my mind I can see my arms moving in front of me in the water as they were when I swam. The sand at the bottom was white, stretched on forever. The light came through the water, dappling the world in light. The blueness surrounded me, it felt like it was including me, embracing me, healing.
Schools of fish – sometimes mackeral, sometimes fish of the likes I’ve never seen before – would swim below me or around me. Sometimes we’d brush against each other. So much life, so much magic, so much I’ve never seen and so much I am grateful for.
The moon by night
Maybe I’ll always know we are in the right place when the moon is a topic of conversation… when the people around us find the waxing and waning of the great ball of light in the sky of supreme interest. And maybe it will be of supreme interest because it shines so brightly that when you wake up in the middle of the night – as I did – with your first Los Frailes Full Moon, you think someone is shining their brights on your camper.
So rude!
you think as you step outside to check it out and realize that OH MY GOD, that is coming from the SKY.
Los Frailes
Where grasshoppers land on your finger
Butterflies too
Where you draw your own water
And get to teach your children about water, precious water
And life. Where the life that fills their belly comes from.
Where hermit crabs make treks that you can follow
and other times, simply nod as you pass by
Los Frailes, where the pelicans feel like family
Los Frailes – this beach of divine beauty and magic, this space that brings out the deep cheese in me and makes me think all songs of love and peace make so much sense… kumbaya, man
The future
*Los Frailes is at the top of our list to build our Inn. If we don’t see a better place along the Pan Am, we will return to Los Frailes and make that home.
It has features that make it a fine place to build:
- the Los Cabos International Airport is only 60 miles away
- there is land available
- it is undeveloped
- La Paz (also close by) has a superb disability service centre: things are moving in La Paz towards disability rights and empowerment. The Inn would make a good fit there
- there is a strong tourist industry in Los Cabos – as we worked with training people with disabilities in the service industry, there would be a channel nearby for jobs
- it is a place of magic
mac-daddy of all slideshows…
Meriah Nichols is a counselor. Solo mom to 3 (one with Down syndrome, one on the spectrum). Deaf, and neurodiverse herself, she’s a gardening nerd who loves cats, Star Trek, and takes her coffee hot and black.
One Comment