Monday, May 14, 2007

This journey and yours.

With fine feelings it was goodbye to the German friends Ute and Andreas.
Warm waves to the psychotherapist William Paff and his partner Denise Jones.
With fantastic memories the friends at the dreamlike bay of Ensenada Blanca were left behind.
A bay soon to be turned into an exclusive beach resort and the friends forced to move to a new paradise.

Memory didn’t store who said it but on one of the many journeys a wise person explained that if one leaves a place and feels nostalgia and some sadness, it is in fact a very good sign.
Because it means that the time and the activities and the social interaction have been of top quality, therefore the slightly painful feelings.
Leaving the bay of Ensenada Blanca came with a range of feelings.
It had been a truly wonderful, magical and exceptional time.

New experiences though were waiting.
And old and new friends looking out to meet and share beautiful moments together.
And this time, family as well.

Today nine hours were spend driving north.
First along the east coast of the peninsula Baja California passing the city of Loreto, booming as a holiday resort with thousands of houses being build, the sleepy town of Mulege and the because of mining heavily polluted town of Santa Rosalia.
Next, crossing from the east coast to the west coast, driving through the Vizcaino dessert, until the most awful city in Baja California, called Guerrero Negro, located at the Pacific Ocean, was reached.

It was travelling from one climatic cosmos to the other.
At the east coast it was warm, over 30 degrees Centigrade (86 Fahrenheit), and a pure blue sky and hardly any wind.
At the west coast was a strong wind from the northwest and a low temperature of 22 degrees Centigrade (71 Fahrenheit).
The man at the Pemex gasoline station in Guerrero Negro was wearing a heavy jacket, a woollen cap and gloves.
Complaining how cold it was and that the day before his ears almost froze off his head.

The place to camp was found at Punta Esmeralda.
Not far from El Tomatal that loyal and fervent readers will remember as the location of the two palm tree leaves parasols where once a Princess was reminiscenced.

Punta Esmeralda was chosen because it is at the Pacific Ocean and in a bay with protection from the strong northwestern winds.
Once the faithful Fuso Santek was installed and the Datastorm satellite disk connected to the Internet, the Skype-phone rang.
Somebody calling and each time it remains a miracle of communication.
“Where are you now?”, the caller asked and the laptop computer’s camera was turned towards the window and somewhere else in the world someone saw the view from the faithful Fuso Santek.
The wildly rolling waves landing on the sandy beach with grey and white clouds in a pale blue sky.


Over the last months serious problems have been experienced with the XM satellite radio.
Reception was erratic and eventually it stopped completely.
Highly regretted because the XM radio is one of the most used conveniences of the Fuso Santek.
It is the key to remain informed listening to the news.
It is the key to fall asleep peacefully and in a relaxed way listening to XM Comedy.
And it is the key for a variety of music to listen to.
Everything possible has been tried to figure out why the XM satellite radio was not working.
Changing cradles.
Experimenting with antennas.
Changing settings.
But it only got worse and today the nine hours of driving were not entertained by the XM satellite radio as it had become silent completely.
The screen saying:

“NO SIGNAL”


Arrived at Punta Esmeralda a flash of higher thinking occurred.
A thought coming from intuition and inspiration.
How about cleaning the contact points of the XM satellite receiver?
Maybe it is just a matter of a bad connection between the receiver and the cradle?
For this a Q-tip was found in the bathroom, the first door on the right in the corridor of the Fuso Santek.
Also found was a small bottle of after-shave bought recently in Tokyo, Japan.
It was suspected that the after-shave might contain alcohol well known for its cleaning capacity.
Gently the contact points of the XM satellite radio were massaged with the wet Q-tip and dried with warm air from the own lungs.
Placed in the cradle, switched on, instead of the so despised message of “NO SIGNAL”, the BBC World Service was heard loud and clear.
Tremendous joy in the Fuso Santek: a problem bothering for weeks and weeks seemed to have been ended.
The dream is now that maybe tomorrow it will be possible to drive with a working XM-satellite radio that will bring tears to the eyes needing to switch on the wipers.

This was a long day of travelling.
And it may seem it was rather uneventful.
But that is a wrong observation.
A fabulous event took place today.
The Fuso Santek arrived safely at today’s last stop.
To travel and arrive safely is something never to underestimate or to take for granted.
It is to celebrate and to be thankful for.
This journey and yours.








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