Receiving visitors and a watermelon

On day 17 of the retreat the siesta was interrupted by the sound of a car arriving.
A car?
Visitors?
Nobody had been coming for over 10 days.

It was Angel Peraza and two of his friends.

They were of a small agricultural community about 15 kilometres (9 miles) from the lagoon.

Many years ago the Mexican Government has started agricultural communities called “Ejidos”.
Often very far away from cities, as long as there was plenty of water to farm the land.
One strong characteristic of an Ejido is that all the land is communal.
It is owned by the farmers that live in the Ejido.
It was land donated by the Government to landless farmers to give them the opportunity to create a better and more prosperous future.

The “Ejido” not too far from the lagoon, called Ejido # 1, is still communally owned.
It is a settlement of simple houses, a church, a primary school and a shop.
They pump up as much water as they want because there is plenty.
The fields surrounding the Ejido produce watermelons and mangoes.

The land of the Ejido # 1 stretches all the way to the beaches of the Pacific Ocean.
The inhabitants of Ejido # 1 are the owners of 6 kilometres (4 miles) of beachfront property.
That includes the lagoon.

Because in Baja California a land bonanza is going on, the inhabitants of Ejido # 1 also want to sell their land next to the Ocean.
A lot of 20 metres (66 feet) bordering the Ocean by 60 metres (196 feet) into the desert is offered for $ 30.000.

Hence, preparations are made by staking the lots and having a real estate company from San Jose del Cabo involved.

Conclusion is that eventually also this peaceful and beautiful location will be commercialized and loose its virginity.
Fortunately, this will not happen tomorrow.
Until then the beauty and tranquillity of the lagoon and the beaches can be enjoyed and it is only this moment that counts.

Finally the visitors could be asked what was the name of the lagoon.
To know how it was called where the Fuso Szulc has temporarily settled.

This lagoon is called ”Estero del tomate”.
Reason is that many, many years ago an old man used to cultivate tomatoes near the lagoon.
In fact, one of the fields can still be seen.

It was a nice visit of Angel Peraza and his friends.
They told they had the idea when they arrived that they had reached some scientific research centre seeing the Fuso Szulc and the settlement.
In a way they are right.

Angel Peraza and his friends were invited to visit the Fuso Szulc and were very interested in all its characteristics.
From their car came a large watermelon.
Offered as gift of friendship.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

To learn more about Mexican ejido's, click on:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ejido




.