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6.La Ciudad
Chapters: Escaping the Heat | El Salto | Into the Valley | Dogs in the Night | Hiking the Valley, Hunger Lurks | Discovery | La Ciudad The short commercial strip of La Ciudad lined the highway. Our mouths watered as soon as we spotted a “Restaurante.” I was first through the door and nearly caught a flying chicken in the face, but all was calm inside. […]
Cyclone!
By October, 1969 the cyclone season on the west coast of Mexico is almost over and it is safe to sail again. Robert and I didn’t know the storm that would hit Mazatlan in October would be an exception. After spending the summer on our sailboat, Valhalla, anchored in Mazatlan harbor, we were looking forward to […]
Mexico by Bicycle Introduction
In 1968 after teaching for two years in an isolated town in Africa, I returned to Oregon to a tumultuous year of violence, civil rights marches and the killing of national figures, protests against the escalating war in Vietnam and women demanding liberation. My home state of Oregon was relatively calm but it was hard […]
A Tanker of Tequila
After entering Mexico at the Tecate crossing, my husband, Robert, and I pedaled along Highway 2. We carried gear for an indeterminate length of time toward a vague destination. In preparation for the trip, Robert had mounted our metal-framed hiking packs over the rear wheels making the loads high and unbalanced, but panniers were not […]
On Hair
I usually keep my hair short because I’d rather not have to think about it, but I did have long hair years ago. I was having an identity crisis. Not that I didn’t know who I was, but other people seemed unable to discern my gender. For most of my life, I have endured the […]
The Cowboys, Frank and the Americans
Two grizzled men rocked and smoked on the porch of the weathered farmhouse in the Sonora Desert. Robert and I were tired, famished and relieved to find people on that empty stretch of Mexican highway. We coasted off the tarmac and climbed off our heavily loaded bicycles. The men watched our approach with no suggestion […]
R&R With Damiana and Her Family
Chapters: Meeting Damiana | Going Fishing … or Not | Exploring | Camp Life | Trips to Town | Looking Back Meeting Damiana My favorite picture of Damiana was taken after we had been camped next to the family’s palm-roofed palapa for a few days. She and Alejandro were grandparents to the many children who came and went during our stay. She has one […]
Valhalla
“Punta Banda. We’re almost there!” I shouted. “Seventy miles more. With this wind, two days, tops.” It was one of the few periods of smooth sailing in the forty days at sea from Mazatlan, Mexico. Hungry, tired and bundled against the cold, I was elated. In November, flocks of cruise boats coast downwind along the […]
Panic
I’m the go-fer. I fetch the tools when my husband, Robert, does the motor maintenance and refitting of our 65′ schooner. I do the painting and varnishing. I get a thrill out of painting the top of the mast. At 60′ above the deck, hanging in my boatswain’s chair, I twirl out and away from […]
Two Dinghies
It began in Turtle Bay, a well-protected and spacious anchorage, a popular stop for small boats traveling along the coast of Baja California. Several sailboats were anchored with us. Most were cruisers on their way south for the season, and the rest were racing boats being ferried north after a recent race to Mazatlan. My […]