Fishing in Baja

Dear friends,
I had a wonderful time fishing with Sebastian and Andy, in Baja. We have been to the hotel, Spa Buenavista, on the East Cape, on the Sea of Cortez, about an hour north of Cabo San Lucas, about 5 times over the last 20 years. Pat and her daughter Jenn went with us just before she went to Afghanistan, and we also went the first time with my parents, just before my dad died in 1994, when the boys were very little. It was a new experience to be there with such grown-up young men-- Sebastian brought his friend Josh, who also loves to spear fish. Andy came from San Diego, where he has been staying with a friend this summer. One of the hardest things for me at this time is to convince my sons that each of them have the right to respect for different beliefs and ways of doing things-- we are all so critical, and we are sure we are "right". I want them to both find themselves with room in the world, and able to be good brothers, even with such widely different viewpoints. Andy will always be on the creative-artistic side, and Sebastian will probably always want to do something very useful in the world, and mainstream in content. Andy brought some bauble-goggles, and there was a lady there who was the daughter of a Parisian couturier, who gave him a lot of credit and positive feedback for his fashion-sense. On the other side, there were some very experienced technical fishermen, who were very helpful to Sebastian, and impressed with his spear-fishing skills, and enjoying his and Josh's fun company. There were people from Australia, Canada, France, Switzerland and Germany this time, but not so many Americans. Of course we were there 1 week after their big fishing competition, the Bisbee, which draws fishermen from all over the USA, so that may be part of the reason for a slow week.
I love being able to swim in warm water, and there is a small reef with a jetty about a 1/2 mile down the beach-- a perfect distance to swim and then be able to snorkel, then come back again. I was able to see the fish, and they are so beautiful, swimming suddenly into view and out into the blue-green haze again. Like coke-bottle glass, the color of the water; and when the yellow-tail school of fish flash into view it is just so beautiful!
We went fishing on a boat one day, and Sebastian caught a beautiful Dorado. These fish are gorgeous; aquamarine and deep teal blue on the top, then iridescent fading to yellow on the underside. They fight hard also! We ate it for dinner, and it was scrumptious!
Every day we had fresh fish ceviche, which is like pickled fish with salsa; and cooked fish fixed various ways. The cooks are very good, and it is a blessing to me that I don't have to do anything== and they feed us! :)
The hotel is built on a hot springs, with safe drinking water, and the hot water bubbles up in the ocean floor as you swim, which is wonderful. The water is very refreshing, but warm. When it is so hot outside, the pool water is almost too warm for comfort, but in the winter it is lovely.
I read a lot-- the biography of the great Russian poet, Anna Akhmatova, and all the cruel changes she lived through from before the Russian revolution through to her death in 1966. The harrowing Stalin era was so awful. I have loved her poetry, although I can't read it in the original Russian. I have always been intrigued that she was a devoted follower of Pushkin, and also used Russian fairytales and folklore in her work.
I also read a great book called The Emigrants, by Sebald. This book is wonderfully written, beautifully written-- it was called a masterpiece by the great critic Susan Sonntag. I highly recommend it. It covers the whole century in Western Europe, that the Akhmatova book covers in Russia. It is amazing to think about what that whole century entails, and how people's lives were before and during and after those big wars, WWI and WWII.
It was so great to sleep, take siestas, swim slowly in the pool at night before bed. I had forgotten how to live at that lovely more humane pace. I am especially grateful to not have had to see a tv for a whole week, and no news. It was great. I feel terrible about the outcome of our local special election. Without John Laird winning, I feel hopeless that the budget in our state will ever be solved. I just read that more and more Americans are being what I consider to be falsely informed by Fox news, and turned against the President and the efforts to reform the laws holding the corporations in check. It is a dismal time to be getting old, and to be losing the energy to keep fighting for better laws. It totally feels like the time before WWI in my thoughts-- so I am very afraid of escalation of hatred and fear at Iran, and pro-war activities, instead of beefed-up diplomacy. "when will we ever learn, when will we ever learn?"
Still, it was so good to have that 1 week of a kinder, gentler vacation time, and time with both my sons!