laying on her lawn spun and alone and when the morning sun, it rose

two sundays ago, i flew back to phoenix from california to be greeted on monday morning by the news of the swine flu. and the panic that followed. as per usual, the media totally freaked out and created a huge deal out of something relatively small. i understand the concern - really, i do - but panic ... i don't understand. there weren't any cases in sonora or in arizona at the time, and yet people were convinced that the border was going to be shut (explain to me what that would have done? there were cases in mexico and in the US - how would closing the border help that??). amidst all the media coverage, i continued to read the WHO website, which continued to calmly explain the number of confirmed cases and to advise no travel restrictions or closure of borders. at least they can keep their heads on straight.

the mexican government closed all schools for two weeks, and later suggested that all "non-essential" public services close. so, two weekends ago, CEDO closed for five days. i understand these precautionary measures - i just wish that people's first reaction was not to freak out. wash your hands, cover your mouth when you sneeze ... simple and easy things.

BUT.

the good part of CEDO closing was that i got to go to puerto lobos with pesquerias (our fisheries department). since everything was closed, all the fishery peoples' families were going, and since i had nothing to do (there aren't any groups because of worry about the security of the border region (p.s. peñasco and the road here remains safe) and so things are really slow for me), i went along too.

puerto lobos is an ejido a few hours drive south of here. pesquerias is collecting data from various ejidos in the area about the different species of fish fishermen catch, so we camped out right on the beach near where all the pangas are launched.



[the view from my tent]


in the afternoon when the boats would come back, we would head over there along with a lot of people from town and all the birds.





most of what they were catching were dogfish (a small shark) - and these ladies who were there on the beach to chop up the sharks were just incredible. just a few swipes with their knives and the sharks were ready to be sold. leaving shark heads and guts scattered all over the beach. it was ... depressing to watch. a lot of the sharks were pregnant and the little baby sharks were just thrown onto the sand for the gulls. that can't be good for the sustainability of the fishery ....



[shark heads]


it was really great to see what pesquerias does. i am really enjoying my work with the education department here, but i do have to admit that i'm much more interested in the fisheries side of things. it's nice to be exposed to what they're doing as well. even if this was just weighing and measuring and take fin samples and otoliths, it still felt good to be out doing it.

our first night there, we drove over to the other side of the point to watch the sunset. stunningly beautiful sunset. with the colors continuously improving as time went on.







and the next morning, i woke up to catch the sunrise





right along the bay there are huge sandstone cliffs, triangle points right along the beach with sheer surfaces. very impressive. what i love the most about these places is that they are so off the radar, so hidden, so unknown. these beautiful places that aren't over run by visitors. it makes it all that more special to visit.







it was a fabulous weekend. it was such fun to have families there, including kids; i taught people to play ERS and we played cards basically nonstop; went swimming and played games in the sand; made ceviche and had bonfires and drank beers; woke up early to watch the sunrises and listen to the waves.

life is good.