BajaNomad

Encantada

Osprey - 12-28-2008 at 03:16 PM

Encantada

It really didn’t hit me until we were at 30,000 feet. Big Bob Cleary was asleep on the aisle seat, I had nothing to look at out my little window because of the cloud cover that started right about the Loreto area. We were on our way home from a spur of the moment fishing trip to southern Baja California. We both know summer fishing in the Sea of Cortez is better than winter fishing most of the time but we were tired of the cold and rain in the bay area and just took a shot. Bob called me up at 10:30 at night. We both knew the water was still warm, the fish were biting near Cabo San Lucas – we are both avid members of Baja Nomad chat board so we were up on the fishing, the weather. Sherry was at her folks’ for the holidays and the business had already shown it couldn’t get any slower. I had the boarding passes printed by 11:00 and about 35 hours later we were in the air, destination, Los Cabos.

It was actually hot the first fishing day and we both got a bonus of nearly a limit each of sierra and three nice dorado aboard a superpanga out of Mar Del Sol. The next day we got blown off, the next was likewise windy so we hired a tour taxi to do a little sightseeing. The driver, Javier, took us up in the mountains to some interesting little farming villages. At the second one, Miramonte, we stopped for tacos and beer at a little family joint that was really just a house where they turned one room and the patio into a quaint little café. They were very friendly – the cook was sitting at the next rustic table mixing something in a bowl. I smiled at the woman and leaned over to see what she was making.

“No es comida. Es medicina.”

A short balding Mexican man brought us some more salsa and chips and said. “Martina es una curandera.”

Another glance at the bowl revealed a nasty looking mess of sticks, stems, leaves and dirt.

“Es para té, para rhuma, Señor Scott.”

My hand automatically went to my left wrist – I left my I.D. bracelet in the room. Then it went to the pocket of my T shirt but nothing on me or on my gear could tell the woman my name. Bob and I hadn’t exchanged two words while we ate – the goat meat tacos were that deliciously different, the cerveza a perfect partner for the food.

“You know my name? ¿Conoce me nombre?”

“Si, y su amigo, Roberto.”

Bob said “She knows my name?”

Before I could answer him she said ¿“Son buscadores, como vagabundos, Nomads?”


In my best broken Spanish I asked her how she knew about the Nomads. If I got most of it right she said it was from her friend from another nearby village. She is a real bruha, she can cast spells, heal without herbs. Her name is Delia and she’s from the village of Santa Amalia.

When I asked her how Delia was connected with this internet group she was vague.

“Ella puede encanta muchas gente. Muchas embruhados aqui. Delia no es una hechicera para malo, solamente cosas muy buena.”

I think she said ‘She can charm many people. Many under her spell here. She does her magic for good, not evil.’ – that’s close anyway.

I asked her why Delia would charm Norteamericanos.

“No se, posible para invite aqui, possible para recibe regalos.”

Now, on the plane and almost home I actually questioned myself about this crazy afternoon in a little Mexican village. What about the Nomads? Isn’t it true their posts sometimes show a total obsession with anything to do with Baja California? Don’t some of them make all kinds of trips down here just on impulse – like Bob and I just did? Could there actually be some force moving us around? We don’t all come down for the same reason; some just like to hang on the beach, others love to fish, some are surfers, windsurfers, offroaders. But they all seem to be dying to get back down here no matter where they’re from or when they were down here last, whether they wrecked their rigs, suffered with Moctezuma or lost a truck full of gear to banditos.

Don’t they sometimes go through hell and high water to get here – risk all kinds of problems at the border, run the drug/crime/death corridor, pull huge trailers, boats, toys down a narrow two-lane with no shoulders. Some run down with no real plans as though they were being chased. Diver’s cabin fever when being snowbound is palpable, you couldn’t keep Woody from Baja waves unless you killed him and with Bajacat, lots of others, Baja is their very lifeblood, the sine qua non of their fulfillment – I would think many Nomads would agree there is something pulling them something powerful, ineluctable about the place, the idea of the place. Are they, are we all possessed?

No Scott, you’re not gonna go there. Just something in the goat meat, just a crazy couple at a taco stand messin’ with the gringos. When Bob wakes up I’m not even going to talk to him about it. I might mention the thing about Delia, the village.

Just for kicks, the next time we come down, for our regular planned trip in May, maybe we could find the village, look her up, check out the crazy story. Maybe bring her a little something. What would it hurt?

[Edited on 12-28-2008 by Osprey]

Russ - 12-28-2008 at 03:38 PM

Osprey, you're a artist with a pen. It is nice to know at least some of us aren't just crazy gringos. We're possessed:no: There no hope for us. Thanks that was fun!

Pescador - 12-30-2008 at 12:32 PM

I have always wondered why we spend the 9/12ths of the year in Baja and when we come home to our wonderful log home on a lake in the mountains of Colorado, we immediately start shopping and planning what to take with us to Baja. How can a dry, desolate, sandy stretch of land hold such a tenacious hold emotionally to our very wellbeing. Now Osprey has finally let the cat out of the bag. and we find out that it was not free will and volition all of the time, someone has "cast the spell."

Miette - 12-30-2008 at 05:57 PM

Nice story Osprey

Someone/something has placed a spell on me. I traveled through Baja on a whim (hmmmmm?) for 30 days in 2005. I am still trying to return.

I think this guy put a spell on me - he was giving me the eye every day - for 9 days. Hmmmmmmm.

Ken Bondy - 12-30-2008 at 06:16 PM

Wonderful story Osprey, that explains everything :) ++Ken++

Curare - 12-30-2008 at 06:43 PM

Great story thanks for sharing Osprey.

Osprey - 12-30-2008 at 06:48 PM

Miette, the cornet fish is a true magician. Better than a chameleon. He/she changes color in the most amazing way. Swimming along, unmolested, hunting, they have lateral color lines, blue against green. When threatened, possibly when they encounter potential mates or challengers, they change the stipes from snout to tail to "Lifesaver candy stripes" quicker than the human eye can capture. I've spent hours following them to be a witness at Cabo Pulmo.

Sallysouth - 12-30-2008 at 10:10 PM

Yet another awesome tale from the master of pen! That was a cool story Seahawk.Thanks again!:bounce::bounce::tumble:

Bajahowodd - 12-30-2008 at 11:20 PM

I've been all over Mexico. East to West. Our border to Belize. Enjoyed some of the grandest sights and people. But, for whatever reason, it's the Baja that tugs at my soul. It is undeniably a special place. I have often wondered what our Baja would be today, if in 1854, in the treaty of Mesilla, or what our textbooks call the Gadsden Purchase, we had spent $50 million and purchased what was offered to us by Santa Anna. Would there be Starbucks and Subway every ten miles?

Osprey - 12-31-2008 at 07:49 AM

Howodd, don't get me started = Cabo Schwartzenegger, Aunt Joan, Budweiser, South Beach, Pearl City, Bay of WSC (Way Southern California), Madonna Bay

Pescador - 12-31-2008 at 08:35 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Bajahowodd
I've been all over Mexico. East to West. Our border to Belize. Enjoyed some of the grandest sights and people. But, for whatever reason, it's the Baja that tugs at my soul. It is undeniably a special place. I have often wondered what our Baja would be today, if in 1854, in the treaty of Mesilla, or what our textbooks call the Gadsden Purchase, we had spent $50 million and purchased what was offered to us by Santa Anna. Would there be Starbucks and Subway every ten miles?


The only thing that has salvaged parts of Baja is because there is a border. Take southern California and let it run unchecked and you have a pretty good idea of what Baja would look like if they would have had a chance to ruin it. As it is the development is way overdone.

Iflyfish - 12-31-2008 at 08:36 AM

I have wondered if there was some sort of vortex there that pulls at the soul and now I know. Who would ever have expected it to be the Siren call of a gap toothed bruha out of Cabo that I now see so clearly in my mind’s eye? No wonder the pull to go all the way down, deep down and far away, the Siren calls of a gnarled bruha's song seducing the gringo. She is Coyote, the trickster, don’t listen, it’s Illusion, it is all illusion.

Iflyfish

Bajahowodd - 12-31-2008 at 12:30 PM

Development? If they actually bring that Colonet project to fruition, The border to there is going to look like Southern California.