That's My Story

SEASONS CHANGE – WESTERN OUTDOOR MAGAZINE BAJA BACKBEAT – DEC. 04

When you live in a tropical place like Baja, it’s often hard to tell the changing of the seasons. Leaves on the arboles de cocos (coconut trees) along the waterfront don’t turn color, although they do drop the occasional noggin’ crunching coconut. Frost does not form on the windshield of your car in the morning and you don’t see the local neighbor kid bundled off to school in a heavy jacket or ditching those butt-crack-displaying-boxer-showing-shorts for oversized jeans. When you don’t live life by the clock down here or watch a lot of TV to know that all the ads are geared toward this-year’s flavor in Cabbage Patch/Beenie Baby/Game Boy (I lost track of all those toys), you just can’t tell! Unless one of my fishing clients reminds me, it’s hard to remember that football season is on and that the NBA has started it’s season. Yesterday it was 85 on the water while fishing. For criminy-sakes, the water temperature was a “chilly” 82. I was in fishing shorts and a torn t-shirt yesterday when I was guiding on the boat and today in the office, I’m in fishing shorts and a torn-t-shirt again minus a few scales and blood stains. Oh, and I have on some sandals instead of being barefoot. My clients caught a bunch of dorado and we had a big dorado taco barbecue on the beach. Yea, it’s real different down here in the Jimmy Buffet zone, amigos!

So, what was that song I was hearing in the grocery store the other morning? Hijole, that sounds familiar. At least the tune sure does. I had a cart full of Pacifico and Tecate beer and several bags of lime (not for MY consumption of course…for a clients’ beach picnic!) and I ran smack into the toy department and there were several kids running around as kids do. Except, from what I could tell, they were singing Jingle Bells in Spanish. I couldn’t quite make out the words, but looking up, I was right in the middle of K-Mart U.S.A. or something similar. Stacks of toys, garland, lights, bikes, ceramic manger scenes, giant plastic lawn Santas (are there lawns here?) and kids, just like kids anywhere tugging on mom and dad to tell Santa what they want.

“Yo quiero esta y esta y esta!” (“I want this and this and this!”) said one little nino who couldn’t have been more than 9 to his bedraggled mom. She looked like she just wanted to get done with the weekly shopping. She had that disgusted look that so many of us have these days that said, “These stores start earlier and earlier every year and I hate them!”

The sound of “White Christmas” wafted…yes wafted.. from somewhere in the aisles with that tin-like recorded sound that comes from one of those “press this button” cherubic Christmas angels or some other chingadera. It made for quite a cacophony with the other kids still charging around parroting the out-of-tune Jingle Bells.

“Puedes comprarme un rifle de BB?” (Will you buy me a BB gun?) pleaded another kid after my own heart. Of course, I heard the standard father-reply. I couldn’t understand all of it because dad was walking away from the kid, but in Spanish it something like “Do you think I’m crazy?” and something else about “What you did to your sister. . .” and few other choice smack-downs to the kid’s request.

The coolest thing is snow flocking. You know…it’s that fake snow that comes out of an aerosol can and is used to stencil snowflakes. Along with the requisite tempera-paint elves, they were decorating the store windows with it. In fact, it’s everywhere. Folks down here have some affinity for snow flocking. The yard can be full of cactus, but darned if they don’t flock their windows with that spray snow! I was in Cabo yesterday and quite a few of the shops were getting their fake snow together too. Nothing like fake snow on the ventanas (windows) to get you into the holiday spirit in Baja where the only ice most folks here have seen was clinging to the side of a marguerita glass. I spoke to an amigo of mine who does the buying for one of the big grocery chains in Baja and he tells me they sell out of the spray cans of snow every year and never have enough. Talk about another contrast, I saw them hanging fake icicles under a palapa (palm frond roof) of a bar. Chingon!

Maybe the most startling thing is seeing the Christmas tree lots popping up. Fresh firs and pines “direct from Oregon!” (It says so on the side of the trucks unloading the trees.) These trees are as fresh and fragrant and verdant as any you’d see in your hometown lot. How they get them down here, I have no idea, but you can’t beat the price. Try buying a 7 foot tree for 10 bucks in the U.S.

Yup, I guess the seasons are changing, but unless I had seen all of this, I probably would never have known. Just goes to show you that folks are the same all over. Kids are kids. The language might be a tad different, but the melody and the messages are certainly the same. Kids are excited. Parents roll their eyes. Jingle Bells is played with a salsa beat. Santa wears a sombrero and serape. I was walking down by the marina and I did hear one kid ask for a panga ( fishing skiff) for Christmas so he could go fishing whenever he wanted. I spun around in my tracks when I heard that Now that is a kid to keep an eye on. I do know that the dorado are still biting and so are the marlin. There aren’t too many places where you can eat your big Christmas brunch and still go catch a world-class fish before coming back for Christmas dinner. That’s Baja. Seasons greetings, Pescadores.