Bahia Asuncion Otra Vez

 Again, it must begin with an altar. This version was set up on 16 Septiembre (¡viva la independencia!), the day after larovrev and I arrived in Bahía Asunción, Baja California Sur, México.

And while I have decided to come out in this second blog iteration as the flaming Christian that I am, please know that all I hope -- and, I confess, want -- for you is that you strengthen your connection to whatever/whoever brings out the best in you.

The Peace Palace Migrates

.

The stories of the Dynamic Duo (Susan/a and LaRoVReV) leaving Asunción in mid-febrero for Rosarito, Baja California (one peninsula, two states) to live in a four-bedroom house on the beach (one was devoted to prayer and meditation!) and then abandoning same at the end of agosto for a trek to the USA and then returning here to Asunción a week ago must wait for another time. For now, it’s enough to say that the 4-bedroom was dreamed, oh so briefly, to become “The Peace Palace/Palacio de la Paz” – a Mexican retreat space for USAmerican racial justice workers. Turns out, per the foto, peace needs to be portable and cannot have a fixed address.

i cook some GOOD food in RV3

bodega that used to be a toilet/"shower"

After another gorging of contents, a place was made for everything and everything was put in said place. I need an orderly home almost as much as and as soon as I need an altar to keep my swirling life from driving me  to drink (seriously!). 

 As a treat for both newcomers to Asunción and those readers who may have been around for the first LaRoVReV blog series last year, here are some fotos of why I returned…

view from the bed

el pueblo

eastern sky at sunset

moon top leftish

AND it gets better! As of a couple of days ago, I have TWO beach homes!! Of course, neither has a bathroom, but just look at the second-floor space I get to use as bedroom and writing space and den to watch junkietvinenglish on one of my TWO broken laptops!!! I like to think of it as “The Peace Palace East” cuz it be about three football fields in that direction from RV3 (separated by an empty campground complete with “clubhouse” that I clean in exchange for using the toilet, shower, and washing machine).

i only get to use the 2nd floor

view from the bed

preparing to blog

One of the very, very best aspects of my days here this time around is that they are often completely empty of other people. I can walk from one part of home to the other without encountering anyone, just as I can walk the stretch of beach in front totalmente solita. I can walk into mi pacifico until it is deep enough to take off my bathing suit. I can make a lot of noise when circumstances dictate; I can play my rocknroll LOUD and sing along in a voice only I can love.

 

 All that said, there are people here I cherish because they have welcomed me back with such warmth and support. And probably because they, as anyone who wishes to befriend me eventually must, accept with great grace and good humor that I was born to preach (to hear my parents tell it, I was born preaching!). Mis amigos Berta y Tomás have a loncheria, where we recently discussed lord knows what, and lord knows why I felt a need to go on about whatever that may have been. ¡En español, no less!

And for entertainment, we have The Stuck Truck. It happened a few days ago a few feet from larovrev, and it was the BEST men-being-men event I have witnessed in quite some time. You fellas can be hella entertaining in your natural habitat…

Though I only have a video file of their success (and for the life of me I cannot find a way to insert it), the process took 5 men 5 hours and included about 20 wheelbarrows of sand being packed into the sinkhole, topped with BUNCHA rocks, and even then the huge tow vehicle could not help because there was not enough room to get in front of the stuck truck. In the end, the trusty tractor pulled her out, and she has been coming back every night to park, but not next to that wall! jajajajajaja...

I leave you this time with the unremarkable and yet delightful birds of Asunción. Clearly my amateurish brokentostadotidbits are acceptable only if Señor Stuck Truck isn’t cleaning his catch…peace out, my dears.

WE (royal, editorial, gemini, human and re-creational vehicle -- take your pick) Are BAAAAAAACK!

FIRST THINGS FIRST: There must be an altar

To start smack dab in the middle, Susan/a and La RoVing ReV (reverend, revolutionary – take your pick) were reunited in Rosarito, Baja California, Mexico on 20 Agosto (yes, we will continue to sneak in simple Spanish lessons) and are, as we speak on 2 September, in a state park near Oakland CA USA hanging out with buncha redwoods, a few fellow RVers within sight but not, thank goodness, sound, and a few turkeys of the nonhuman variety.

SECOND THINGS SECOND: Best view from a toilet I’ve seen personally

How did this happen, you ask? What’s next, you wonder? Is that strange child of God being called by the holy or driven by demons, you fret?

Well, join the crowd, cuz three is one, and there’s you, RV3.1, and yours truly in the same state of amused bemusement (when my soul is on solid ground no matter how shifting the sands beneath my feet/wheels), or anxious brooding (in moments of faithlessness).

ATTACK OF THE GIANT MUSHROOM!!!

 NOT QUITE SO SCARY FROM THIS PERSPECTIVE

 After many, many hours spent trying to find a format for the renewed blog – chronological was the first to be nixed – I have settled on at least attempting to move in the direction of letting the fotos have center stage. Because I’ve realized that I cannot possibly tell you very much at all about my life since this reunion (I write now on 20 Septiembre, not quite three weeks later, the rollercoaster ride since March having turned into a mini-tsunami carrying me headlong into my new(est) life.)

 

HELLA
BUNGIECORDING!

TO BE ORGANIZED

POST-TREK from
Rosarito to Oakland

ONE OF THE HOME REPAIRS

(affix wires under valance, make 

*!#QWV&& curtain rod stay up)

I spent my 36 hours at the park taking everything out of larovrev, sorting into 3 piles – need before mexico, need wherever I land in mexico, will need when I have a new home that is not mobile. This is what I got, plus some clothes. And it's a little more (a LOT more in some cases that will remain nameless but how many handbags can even a girlygirl --see below -- use, especially one who goes nowhere special?) than when I bought the RV two eventful years ago!

homemade breakfast

silver stuff

In case it has escaped your attention, I am a true Gemini – split right down the middle in most areas. Female/male; joyous/enraged; sacred/profane…my very own yin and yang all in one package – and thus created spaces for each of my twins in this iteration of larovrev’s bed/sit space…

SUSAN’S SIDE is burntorangechocolatewithfieryeyes; I thought I decorated to the valence, but turns out I was drawn to the valance in the first place because it belonged with this part of my life. 

SUSAN/A is cool, not blazing; greens and golds, but just as true to my nature, though it took a few years in the Baja for me to realize that. I like to remark that Mexico has done what more than 50 years of social pressure/expectation in the USA could not – make me a girl! (Partly I like to say it because it pleases Mexicans, but here is another confession: I enjoy being contrary, and it upsets some of my feminist wannabe friends.)

OK, this really DID start in the middle, and I may post a prequel about the drive from Rosarito, Baja, Mexico to Oakland USA in Agosto…but dont count on it. 

we leave you in the peace of the park with wishes for your own retreat moments asap.