Yesterday marked the first time on this trip we had to make camp twice in a day. Getting to La Ribera was a piece of cake. That morning we simply hitch hiked from the highway just up the road from where we were camping the night before. We were quickly picked up by a local fisherman named Jesus who drove us all the way into town. He gave us directions on how to get to the beach. I even spoke a little Spanish with him which was fun. I was beginning to improve. We stopped at a mini super in town for some some provisions. Food, toilet paper, water, cigarettes, and a Ballena were on the list today. We also bought some junk food. To get to the beach we had to walk through a 1 km stretch of desert between the town and the sea. You could still see the town but it was a little ways away. When we got there the spot was perfect. There was a very large open palapa hut and we decided to make our camp under it. Since we had a roof we didn't bother putting up our tents. In front of it facing the sea was a sandy road with a row of about 15 smaller palapa umbrellas running parallel on the other side. At the end of the row there was an old wooden life guard tower. The place also had several garbage cans with painted heads of dolphins and seals(not real ones) as the tops. It looked like there had once been a resort or an amusement park here that was now long gone. The place seemed perfect and the sea was beautiful.
Jaime and I climbed the tower to hang our, drink some beer, and smoke a J. I started a fairly poor water color painting on one of the rails at the top of the tower and Jaime juggled some hacky sacks beside me. After a while a truck pulled in near the hut and parked next to a tree in front of it. We said hello to the two men inside and talked about how nice the day was. Shortly after they left and we wondered aloud what they had been doing there. I climbed down to find a place to go to the bathroom and get my cell phone. Near the tree I saw 5 empty Modello cans where the truck had been parked. That answered that question. After the bathroom I got on my cell phone and made a few calls home to make my friends and family jealous of my fortune and just to chat mostly. Then I climbed back up the tower to paint some more. A few hours before the sun was ready to go down another car drove up by our camp. They stopped and parked right in front of our things and just sat there with the music on. The car was a beat up old Mazda with tinted windows all around so we couldn't see what was happening. Jaime was already on the ground after dropping a couple hacky's while juggling and we exchanged semi concerned looks. She walked over to our camp. She said hi to them and they exchanged some more words I couldn't hear. Then the two men inside opened the doors and I saw that they were drinking as well. I decided to climb down too and lit a smoke. I walked by the car and said hello and it was returned. The driver was a chubby faced Mexican with a blank expression on his face and short cut hair. The passenger was in better shape but his entire appearance just said bad guy. He had long black and silver hair with a poorly kept goatee. His face was hard and his eyes especially gave him a mean look. He asked me something in Spanish that I didn't understand. I told him I didn't speak very well. He just smiled and in English said " that is okay" I decided to chop some firewood and thought that if they had bad intentions the sight of my hatchet might make them think twice. Just then a Policia truck rolled by our camp. I thought about talking to them about these guys since I was getting a bad feeling from them. What could I really say though? Excuse me officers but these men are drinking on a public beach and making us feel uneasy. The Policia just waved and drove by. At that moment I realized that there wouldn't be another Policia vehicle by here for at least another day probably more. These two would know this as well and I began to feel more uneasy. The hatchet didn't seem to scare them and they both got out of the car and leaned against the poles of the hut and drank more. Jaime gave me a worried look and I saw the mean looking one go back to the car and reach into the glove compartment for something. Jaime told me she had seen him put on some rings and a necklace. She whispered to me asking if she should get out her pepper spray just in case and I nodded yes. I was glad to know we were getting the same feeling from these guys. They never really did anything unfriendly but we weren't sticking around to see what happened when the beer ended and the sun set. We quickly decided to pick up our things and walked farther down the beach. There were some condos in the distance and we agreed being a little closer to people would be a better idea for the night. We set up our camp quickly and started dinner before sun down. I had some carne asada tacos that a very nice couple from LA had brought us that morning on their quad. I was happy to have meat again. Jaime is a vegetarian and we only had one pan to cook in so I was usually polite and didn't bother buying meat to eat since it would take more time and would have to be cooked separately. This was a treat though. I also made some green onion cakes with some of the flour that Devon had left us and Jaime made a guacamole from a squished avocado in her bag. After dinner we smoked a joint and talked about our experience with the creepy Mexican guys and played a couple games of cards. I fell asleep in my tent and she stayed up to watch the stars.
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