To date I’ve covered why we gave up a perfectly nice house on a perfectly lovely hill in perfectly horrid El Lay and I’ve given you the barest inkling of what we did during our last, final cruise. Judging from the silence that ensued it’s time for more meat and potatoes, or in our case, shrimp and lobsters.
Unlike the leg from Punta Baja to Turtle Bay, the wind on the Mag Bay leg didn’t start till long after dark. By 0400 when the breeze is supposed to be at it’s lightest it was blowing a steady twenty-five knots and continued to do so until we finally ducked inside the bay the next afternoon. We sailed around inside for awhile before dropping the hook at Punta Belcher. No sooner than we get the hook set and snubbed than two pangueros roar up, drop a bucket of langosta on deck and tell us it’s quarenta dollars. We hand it back and they drop it back on deck and tell us it’s treinta dollars. We hand it back and they look at us and ask, “how much you pay?”. Five minutes and veinte dollars later the water is boiling, the butter is melting and we’re enjoying the tastiest lobster dinner in memory. They were very mild in flavor and only the largest one is the slightest bit chewy. On our second day whilst working on our todo lists two more pangueros roar over and ask for agua. We’re willing to share our agua with anyone. We toss them a couple of cold bottles and just happen to notice a bucket of camarones in their panga, apparently going to waste. We help them, they help us. It’s the Mexican way. They pass over a dozen or so large ones and its camarones y ajo y pasta for dinner. We would have loved to spend more time here exploring the bay and trading for dinner but Cabo beckoned.
I know you can count but just in case, quarenta is forty, treinta thirty, and veinte twenty. Langosta is a spiny lobster, unlike Maine lobster two small claws. Camarones are shrimp and ajo is butter, melted in this case. A panga is the very common eighteen foot work boat and pangueros are the poor slobs that go out everyday in them to try to make a living. I paid them ten times what they would have gotten for the lobster at market. Did I mention gray whales have bad breath and they’ve been known to snore? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
Slipping Away Blog 