Dirty Water

Warning: If you are a germaphobe, you might want to skip this.

This post is going to be a heart-breaker, but my good friend Shirley thanked me for keeping it real, and I really try to do that.

I read today that the beaches around and north of us failed the March 28th test by Baja Waterkeepers.  The water and even the sand test positive for some nasty bacteria. This issue has been in the ether since at least 2014, and Tijuana has been sued by locals and at least one city in California, but nothing has happened to clean up the sewage disposal. You may remember that I went wading up to my waist a couple of months ago and ended up with a bacterial skin infection that I feared was a result. Our ocean is beautiful and peaceful, but like the ocean in so many places, it is in crisis. We wear shoes when we walk on the beach, but I won't go into the water at all again, and Don never has.  I won't even take Sofie out there again.

Again, this isn't a brand new thing. We read that there was pollution just north of us, but we also heard that there were only some days when there were prohibitions against swimming. We heard that California beaches had the same problem. Beaches a few miles south of us have not been closed. Not knowing the exact water-flow patterns, we thought we'd miss the pollution most of the time and avoid the beach when informed. I had thought that cold water (59-63 degrees when I was wading in it) would somehow be a protection against bacteria. It is so very sad to me that this beautiful place is compromised as it is.  We will continue to enjoy the high tides and low tides, to watch the sunsets, and to observe nature as it is, but the following pictures tell the saddest part of the story.

This afternoon, we went out to the patio to watch the sea on a peaceful Sunday afternoon.  This is what we saw:

On the left is a guy who is fishing. There are children playing in the water and digging in the sand.  Families are gathered around for picnics.

These two surfers are getting ready to jump into the water. There are no warnings posted.

We went to church today. A lot of people weren't there, but we enjoyed what we understood of the meeting. I may have shared about an African-American lady who recently moved to Rosarito and comes to church. She is from my home town in California. We didn't talk with her today (kind of avoiding people because we're not quite over the bronchitis), but we wonder how she's adapting.

In case you missed it elsewhere, we'll be moving back to Nevada in May. We've decided to do all we can during April to catch up on our "while in Mexico" list.  May will be mostly about renting a house, packing and moving. We'll teach our last English class on May 9th.  We will miss these dear people! We'll really miss our friends Cristi and Jerry and hope they will be able to live in the U.S. in a year or two. 

God bless us all.

Treasure Beach

Across from the Black Pearl (pictured in my last post), is the first in a line of pottery and other treasure shops, each a bit unique and all with considerable inventory. We bought a couple of small items on our first visit, but we went back today, and I got to pick out some pottery for my birthday gift. Thank you, Don!  Pottery was the only thing I really had to have from our time in Mexico.

This is Talavera-style pottery. According to directfrommexico.com, "The rich Talavera pottery heritage was introduced to Mexico by Spanish guild artisans of the Colonial period. Commonly called 'majolica' in Spain, Mexican Talavera draws its name from the 16th century Spanish pottery center, Talavera de la Reina."

It's going to be a pain to haul these pieces to Nevada, but we'll have to make more than one trip, anyway.  First, I will show you some of the selection this particular store has. I am glad I can't afford the peacock because I don't know how I would transport it or display it, but I love it.

 

Now I'll share the pieces I got:

Then there's the lizard I shared on Facebook:

After we shopped, we went to an early dinner at El Pollo Asi, which is a tiny bit like El Pollo Loco.  It's delicious!  We've had a fairly gourmet weekend, thanks to a breaker switch needing to be replaced and our not having a stove, toaster oven, or microwave for almost two days. Last night we went to our favorite non-Mexican restaurant -- Caoba. Don had chicken brocheta, I had a fruit crepe, and we shared a large vegetable salad. We have never been disappointed when dining there.

It looks like we will actually get to church this week.  The antibiotics seem to be working.  Don has a podiatrist's appointment on Monday, and then we will go grocery shopping in California -- if the border doesn't get closed!  

Hope you enjoyed our pottery experience. See you soon!

Ride with the Tide and Go with the Flow

As Scottish poet Robert Burns wrote, “The best laid schemes o' mice an' men / Gang aft a-gley.” First, “gang aft a-gley” meant “often go astray,” which partly explains why Robert Burns isn’t as popular as he used to be, except with English professors. But I digress, not having properly begun!

It’ll be four weeks tomorrow since my last entry. I’ll remind you of where we were then.

As of March 1^st, I was in the winter doldrums and nursing the knee I injured by slipping on wet tile and falling ingloriously, ending up on my back, writhing in pain.

We had a chilly, cloudy, and unusually rainy (El Nino) winter. Except for one dolphin sighting and the always entertaining industry of the pelicans and sandpipers, there wasn’t much in the way of interesting wildlife. A large seagull died or washed up on our beach. He had a plastic bag over his head. I can’t resist saying that we couldn’t discern whether his death was accidental, but please, people, dispose of plastic responsibly! 

The giant plastic barrel was sliced open by some curious person or persons unknown. Everyone is still stopping to look at it and peek inside of it, but nothing doing, as the baseball announcers say.  The barrel is still on the beach in front of our neighbor’s, and we’re wishing someone would get rid of it.  At least nothing, not even a whale, could ingest that giant piece of plastic! 

I had an MRI a month after my fall.  It showed that I had minor tears of the medial and lateral menisci, plus a bruise of the marrow in my left femur.  I still have pain, but I can walk a bit and know when it’s time to stop.  I have finally gone down the stairs and walked to the tidepool rocks, but I didn’t walk in the water, which is finally back up to 60 degrees, I think. 

While we were walking a few days ago, we met a nice man and his dog, Winston.  The dog is aptly and intentionally named for Mr. Churchill, to whom he bears an uncanny resemblance. The man was very nice, but he does not share our sense of humor.  After confirming that the dog strongly resembles the prime minister, I said, “Just don’t let him take up cigars!”  With the most amazing sincerity, the man replied, “Oh, he won’t.”  At that point, we’d come to the now troublesome barrel and discussed how someone had cut it open.  “No one can pass without looking in,” I told him, “so it’s empty, at least now. It was fun trying to guess what was in it when it washed up. Drugs? A body?”  The man (bearded, middle-aged American) replied with the same sincerity as previously, “No. Someone just lost a water storage barrel.”  If I threw my dream fiesta, complete with a mariachi band, I wouldn’t invite that guy.

No whales have shown up, to my great disappointment. The Spring Breakers did, though. Don and I watch the surfers sometimes, but mostly we stand on our upstairs patio and send telepathic messages to people to get off of our beach.  I know that when the weather is warm, there will be people walking all over the tidepool rocks. “Not my circus, not my monkeys,” but I care.

As I mentioned four weeks ago, our English classes have been whittled down by people’s personal circumstances, torrential rains, and instructor illness.  We’ve consolidated classes and rotated instructors, but I think a relaunch is needed.  I feel bad for the guy who’s administering the program, except that other locations around Tijuana seem to be doing better than Rosarito.  We have discovered that our assistants are very capable (mine is more capable than I because she is an ESL teacher). We’re doing what we can.
 

In the last blog entry on March 1^st, I wrote, “Don has had bronchitis for a month, I think. He's been through a couple of courses of antibiotics, but he's still coughing and blowing. Only Nyquil stops the madness so he can sleep. He's been x-rayed and doesn't have pneumonia. It's just a really stubborn URI.”  Well, yesterday, we went to our favorite doc-in-the-box in Imperial Beach, California, and got a new set of prescriptions – each of us for bronchitis. I went through a week or so of it in February; he really hasn’t stopped being sick for almost two months.  He needs to get back to having gamma globulin infusions. We’ll both be healthier.

Any day now, our insurance adjuster is due to complete her report and present us with a settlement offer. We’re hoping for enough to buy a new laptop, a reconditioned Nikon DSLR camera, and a Kindle.  It’ll be nice to be done with this long chapter.  We are still waiting for our temporary resident visas. At least we’ll be fully documented before we leave. 

I told you that we were planning to move back to Nevada at the end of July, but our plans have changed. We are now going to find a rental in Henderson about one-third of the way into May and moving in on June 1^st. We have two realtors keeping an eye out, and we’re excited about going home … that home. 

In the next day or so, I will have some photos to share, but for now, there’s just one. We drove by Fox Studios recently and took a picture of the Black Pearl, from Pirates of the Caribbean. It still sits at the movie location. Titanic was also filmed at this location. 

That’s all for now. Watch this space.

Echo Beach

Here's sort of a weekend update. I haven't been blogging so much in the past month because first, we have been in and out of Mexico quite a bit; second, not much new or exciting has happened at our Mexican home; and third, I have been held back by an injured knee.  I do want to touch base, though, lest you think I've lost interest or -- much worse! -- you lose interest because I haven't checked in.

The weather is in flux as we enter March. This week our temps are about 10 degrees (F) below normal. We've had quite a lot of rain this winter, and we are expecting showers again tomorrow and possibly into next week, just here and there. I am still fascinated by the changes in ocean color as the days go by and the weather changes. From bright, sparkly sunny morning blues, to gray cloudy skies over olive green water streaked with "ink," to cloudy skies and turgid muddy brown sea -- we have it all, sometimes in one day. The giant plastic barrel is still sitting in front of our neighbor's property, and people still stop to inspect it when they walk along the beach. The surfers still surf, mostly on weekends, unless the tide is nearly flat, or all mixed up.  I saw a boy take a dip in the cold water this evening, but almost nobody is swimming right now. Eight is about the most surfers I've seen at one time in the water and about the most walkers I've seen on the beach. The whales are supposed to be migrating, but I haven't seen any yet. I'm getting impatient, but March is supposed to be the big month for migration, so I keep hoping.

The English classes have had a rough start, in a way. As I've explained, some people have to travel through mud and flooded streets when it rains hard, so classes have been canceled for rain -- three out of six times!  I had only two students and an assistant last night, so we combined with Don's class.  I think he had around 10. We're going to hand out reminders on Sunday and try to make this next week really special to get the enthusiasm going again. Last night, we had a lady show up who is new to our area.  She doesn't speak Spanish, so I'm not sure what she's hoping to do. She's a little different. Her comment: "English is easy. Babies speak English!" (Picture me responding.)

Our house has had no further catastrophes, knock wood.  We still need an electric blanket and our space heaters, but we know in a month or two, we'll be wishing to have the coolness back.  We still get a thrill from opening the blinds in the morning and looking at the ocean. We still love standing on the balcony and looking at the sea. It's a form of meditation. We still love the beach, our friends, and the food. We are still glad we came.

The commute and crossing have gotten a bit easier in the sense that I am much more confident about driving from home to the other side. The Federales are still stopping cars at the toll booths, the traffic at rush hour is still crazy. I recently realized that I am no longer fazed by California freeway traffic. 

Don has had bronchitis for a month, I think. He's been through a couple of courses of antibiotics, but he's still coughing and blowing. Only Nyquil stops the madness so he can sleep. He's been x-rayed and doesn't have pneumonia. It's just a really stubborn URI. 

It's been a month since I slipped on the wet tiles downstairs and wrenched my left knee.  The first time I went to a clinic, I was x-rayed and found not to have any fractures. Of course, I knew that. I got up and climbed 20 stairs after the injury. I went to an ER because of continuing pain in the knee, and the doc gave me a huge knee stabilizer that doesn't fit right or work. No bandaging has.  I have an MRI scheduled for March 10th in Chula Vista, CA, thanks to my doc in Nevada.  As soon as I know what's torn and what to do about it, I will eagerly await my next walk on the beach. Meanwhile, I'm staying away from stairs.  The doc said to take Tylenol for pain. Hahahahahaha!  Right!  I take Fioricet when the pain is too intense for me to sleep, but mostly I deal with it.

We still plan to leave here at the end of July and move back to Nevada. Apologies in advance to people who might be helping us with a mid-summer move in the desert. We were originally going to stay a year, then six months, and now nine. The blog title will remain, in any case.

We are longing to have guests. No one has yet visited us in virgin Margaritaville. Y'all have about 4-1/2 months before we don't have a guest room on the beach. 

Having nothing worthwhile to add, I'll sign off for now.  Hasta soon!