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I turned off the highway onto the beach area and rode over to the row of permanent palapa houses lining the beach. I pulled in and told the first person I saw that I was looking for an Italian girl named Cristina. To which he replied, "Yep. She's around there on my front porch." What are the odds? I got off my motorcycle and walked around to the porch, and when she saw me she became very excited and ran up and gave me a bunch of hugs a kisses. It was really cute. Cristina took me back around and formally introduced me to the friend she was staying with, who turned out to be the guy I had spoken with moments earlier, Geary. It turns out that he owns the palapa, and was actually the first person to build a palapa on this beach. What a totally cool place. After some chit-chat, Geary noticed all the camping gear packed up on my bike and asked me where I was staying. I told him that I would probably just camp on a beach somewhere close by for the next few days, and he said, "You're certainly welcome to stay here." Wow! I could hardly believe it... an offer to stay in this little paradise. I didn't even put up a token refusal. I was very impressed with everyone's friendliness during my stay. Not only that of my selfless host, Geary, but also his neighbors. Everyone treated me like I was an integral part of the neighborhood. It was really fun. I also enjoyed the quaint rituals, such as the 6:00 AM bonfire down the beach every morning where neighbors would sit and visit, sip coffee, and watch the sun rise. Or Geary's ritual playing of a bagpipe rendition of "Amazing Grace" at 8:00 AM every morning, to name a couple. Baja is a surprisingly international travel destination. Somehow, it's easy to take it for granted. One night while sitting around the table, we decided to ask the nationality of the dozen or so people present, and that particular group of people represented seven different countries. Speaking of international influences, Cristina generally didn't wear a top while she was on the beach. This seemed to attract the attention of passers-by from time to time, and the attention seemed to come mostly from males. Go figure. Something I thought was really neat was that a number of the local Mexican residents would come by every morning delivering produce and delicious handmade things right to the door. Of course, the neighbors knew everyone by name. One lady would come around with the most delicious hand made tamales I have ever had the joy of tasting. They were so fresh that they were still very warm. Her trademark was to place two green unpitted olives in the center with the shredded meat filling. They were out of this world. She also had fresh, hand-made flour tortillas. One gentleman would come around in his station wagon loaded with garden-fresh produce. He had heads of cauliflower that were literally the size of dinner plates. I would go buy at least some fresh avocados and tomatoes from him. If you expressed interest in anything, he would immediately slice one up for you to sample. One morning for breakfast I had hot, fresh tamales with sliced fresh avocadoes and tomatoes. Yum! For New Year's Eve, we cooked up two large pots of fresh clams (kindly dug and contributed by neighbors) and invited a group over for dinner. Geary cooked up a heavenly sauce of butter, garlic and herbs that was drizzled over a mountain of freshly cooked clams still in their shells. I cooked up an Alfredo cream sauce and pasta with the other pot of clams. The next door neighbors, know affectionately as "The Wine Fairy" and "The Prez" brought a fresh gourmet salad. We ate, drank and became quite merry. Some classic Fleetwood Mac and Eagles compilations provided the most excellent background music. Afterwards, some of us went to a couple of rather unique nearby clubs, but most of us didn't get too terribly wild. I will disclose, however, that the ritual playing of "Amazing Grace" was a bit delayed the following morning. On New Year's Day, I went snorkeling. How cool is that?! Then practically the entire beach got together for the annual New Year's Day chili feast and potluck dinner. We ate good food, drank cold beer and participated in a number of different game tournaments. I decided to play Bacci Ball, which was quite a lot of fun, despite the somewhat less than perfect playing field!
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