Piñata stuff
My mom has spent this past week with us. We cruised to Isla Carmen, visited an abandoned salt works and ghost town and the beautiful beach in Bahia Salinas. It rained for about a half hour, the first rain we’ve seen since September. The salt ponds are very cool. It looks like a winter wonderland in the desert with electric blue water and salt formations, mostly snowy white but in some places the salt is pink or even green. Last night we had a fire on the beach, barbecued some burgers and destroyed our piñata that we’ve been hauling around since La Paz. Isla Carmen is populated with desert big horn sheep and the island is a hunting destination. We met a fellow from Calgary that’s here hunting, or more accurately, his friend is hunting and he’s along for the ride. He told us his friend paid a hundred thousand dollars to shoot one sheep. Now, there are a lot of animals that he could shoot in Canada for the cost of a hunting license and a bullet, so what makes this particular sheep so special? Could it be the challenge of the hunt? Isla Carmen is not that big and we’re told there’s over six hundred sheep on the island. We’ve seen two and we weren’t even looking for them. So is it that he’s paying a hundred thousand dollars to hang the head of an endangered species on his wall? Apparently the sheep were transplanted on these islands because they’re about to go extinct on the Baja. I also wonder how much it costs to shoot a lion or a rhino. Wouldn’t those be the most sought after by trophy hunters? I guess it’s probably a cash cow for the Mexican government, if there are rich people that will pay it, why not sell them a sheep? It doesn’t seem like good value to me though, a hundred grand to drive around an island for ten days and shoot one sheep. If I paid that I’d want to be picking off every sheep I could find, and maybe some jackrabbits as well, get my money’s worth. Anyway, with a couple days left (as of when I wrote this) till my mom flies out, we’re heading around to puerto Ballandra on the other side of the island to see if we can spot some of these overpriced sheep.
The other day at Puerto Escondido, Willow and I did an epic hike up a canyon with water falls and dangerous rock climbs well beyond our level of expertise. We didn’t plummet to our deaths, so it all worked out. It was like a desert oasis in the mountains with waterfalls and frogs and palm trees. It’s behind the power substation, just follow the canyon up if you find yourself in the area and wanna do some great hiking. Did you notice I used the word epic above? Yup, douchebaggery.
Adventures of Sunshine Three 