Catherine´s Big Adventure

First, I must start this post with a big disclaimer. I told Catherine that I would give her an invite to post on this blog in order to tell this story. She said that I could post it.

Apparently she has forgotten who I am…

Catherine had been planning to take a trip to the mission at San Javier. After getting all kinds of information about her options she decided she would rent a jeep and drive herself up there. She tried to find a map of the area and got info on where to go and stay from Rafa. She couldn’t find a detailed map so Rafa lent her a Baja map (not so detailed…).

She picked up the jeep on Friday afternoon and left early Saturday morning after dropping Gordon off at Dolphin to go diving (I was on a break!). Catherine had told me that she needed to take the jeep back by about 6 or 7 pm on Sunday so she would be back before that so I could follow her and pick her up after she dropped it off.

On Sunday afternoon, I left around 4 to run errands and ran into rafa at the supermercado. He said he’d be at the dive shop around 6 to fill tanks so I said perfect, I’ll drop off tanks and then pick Catherine up after she drops off the jeep. When I returned back to the trailer I told Gordon that I had to go back and deal with tanks and to tell Catherine that if she comes back to go ahead and return the jeep and I’ll look for her at the rental place before I come home, otherwise I’ll be back soon.

Gordon, while chillin’ in his hammock replied “cool, cool.”

so I left.

When I hooked up with rafa I was mentioning that Catherine wasn’t back yet and he said are you worried. I said (all of the following in Spanish), “well, not yet but if she’s not back tonight I’m going to have to go look for her.”

Rafa (laughing): why? It was her decision. She’s not your responsibility!
Me: well, I guess, cabron! but who else will know to look for her if she doesn’t come back?
Rafa: true. True. if she doesn’t come back you lend me the van and I’ll look for her
Me: cool but be careful it’s not my van
Rafa: oh I’m not driving! You drive! I’ll come with you and bring the caguamas (big beers)!!
Me: perfect! See you tomorrow!

So when I returned home, Catherine’s trip crap was all over the yard, the gate was open, the kids were all inside pushing each other on the hammock and jumping up and down on my air mattress like it was a funhouse (an AIR mattress ON GRAVEL).

“WHAT THE HELL!!!??”

“Caterine dijo que podemos jugar aqui en el hammock”
“pues, si hammock pero MI CAMA!!!?? Ayayayayay! No es un brincolin! Fueranse!”

About 5 minutes later, Catherine and Gordon show up and she says “so, do you want to hear about my trip?” and she’s got this kinda half blushing half shiteating grin on and so of course I’m very curious.

“Of course! Except um Gordon, did you give Catherine the message?”

“oh….yeah, um, well she showed up with the jeep and said let’s go so we…went…”

Greeeeeeeeat. Thanks. lol

Catherine (big smile): “Well, I surfed for three hours today.”
Me (more than slightly confused since san Javier is up in the mountains): really?
C: yeah (half grinning half laughing)
Gordon (has a big smile on his face): yeah, you want to hear this
Me: okk…..
C: well, I didn’t stay in san Javier because of, um, well, um *pause* I got a bad vibe. I was thinking I wished you had been there so I could know more of what was being said because maybe I misunderstood some things…
Me: for real? Why?
C: rafa lent me a map and told me where to go in san Javier and to look for memo (pronounced may-mo, usually short for Guillermo) who has a restaurant and a rancho where I can camp. And I went there and ate there and asked about the hike.

Memo said it was long and hot and that if she wanted to go, he would come back in about an hour. So after she ate she decided that she didn’t want to go on the hike but asked about the grove of old olive trees that are around there. Memo told her how to get there and she took off. After walking around a bit, and taking pictures memo shows up and as best as she can tell (because he doesn’t speak much English, and she doesn’t speak much Spanish) he said that she was now on his ranch and he’s pulling fruit from a tree. Before she knows it, this guy is trying to feed her the fruit, which she tried to take from him with her hand and he wouldn’t let her and kept trying to feed it to her so she took a tentative and mostly toothy bite, so as to not act like she’s, well, being fed fruit... She then said, “and then he tried to kiss me”

Me: NO! WAY!

and after being completely horrified, I started laughing my ass off because for crap’s sake that’s NOT A VIBE! That’s a full-on asshole making an inappropriate move!

So, she took off for san juanico (on the pacific side, and, awesome because there aren’t many other places in the world where you can go between two major and completely different ocean environments) and got there around 6 pm. the minute she pulled up these older surfer dudes showed up and started helping her put her tent up. She said she couldn’t help but think of chris rock* while they were helping her.

They invited her for pizza and beer and she hung out with them and then the next day ended up surfing for awhile before heading back to loreto.

So then she says, “sooo…should I tell rafa about memo?”
Me: hell yeah!

Later we take her by the dive shop so she can say goodbye to rafa and tell him about her adventure. She doesn’t give him the long version, she shows him the map he gave her and said I went here, then here, then here and down here and back this way. And I said, “tell him why you left here and went here.” And she said (blushing madly), “memo tried to kiss me.” Rafa’s jaw dropped “NO!” he starts to laugh thinking we’re joking.

“yes!”

“oh no!”

I said, “yeah nice job Rafa! Gordon and I have been working her for this last week thinking she’d kiss us before she left but now memo has ruined it for everyone! Now she’s all skittish and won’t kiss nobody!”

Rafa’s laughing, mostly because he still can’t believe it. When we were getting ready to leave she gave Rafa a hug (although he didn’t DESERVE IT! HEE!) and then Rafa says, “ and now a kiss!” and he kisses her. That devil is slick.

So that’s the story as best as I can remember. I’m sure Catherine will have some of her kickass photos on her flickr site soon…just not one of the kiss…

yes, i realize you had to be there but you weren´t so bbbbffffffffttt



* Adam had brought two recordings of chris rock’s standup on his computer that we listened to. In particular, there’s one part where he talks about the differences between men and women and the ability to turn down sex. The following is somewhat explicit so you get the joke if you want to…but it’s in white type so you actually have to select the text to see it…

**ok so apparently i´m having issues with the white text. and i´m out of time so i´ll have to try to do this again later. and if you know catherine, make her say it for you.

heh