Saturday, November 14, 2009

Swimming in money

Besides the daily running, there is also the daily swimming.
In the Sea of Cortez.
Each morning, after finishing writing and publishing the blog and replying electronic mail, a 15 minutes walk is made along the shoreline to a wide bay.
Where is a sandy beach and no rocks.
For having easy and safe access to the sea.

There are no houses built yet along this beach and rarely in the morning one of the gringo's drive by on their decadent ATV's.
Hence, swimming takes place in the European way: all clothes are taken off and the fish see a human as he was born.

First the swim goes east, away from the beach.
And when a point beyond the surf has been reached, course is changed for the south to swim parallel to the beach.
For about 12 minutes to turn around and go back.
Then total relaxation is achieved by floating on the back with arms and legs spread while releasing Bhudist sounds of relief and de-stressing.
But then once more, the swimming goes south all the way, to return and relax again before coming out of the water.
Total swimming time: about 45 minutes.

These days the water of the Sea of Cortez is not warm anymore.
But not cold either.
In fact, it has a perfect temperature for Olympic Games style swimming.
One thing though is that jelly fish and other vile creatures surprise sometimes the swimmer.
Therefore the throat, the breast and the forearms are marked these days by swellings.
Where jelly fish have touched and burned their tentacles into the human flesh.
But they are unable to create fear and stop the courageous swimmer.

After swimming there is always a visit to the kitchen of the Gonzales for having a cup of Mexican rancho coffee.
They have a mill in which they crush coffee beans and the coffee powder is cooked in a kind of sock hanging in the metal coffee pot on the fire.
They add sugar and serve the coffee with fresh milk from their cows.
But besides the excellent coffee, this moment of day, several more people come to the kitchen for coffee.
And the most interesting conversations take place.
Yesterday Daniel and Kiah happened to be there.
The conversation went from the fishing on his small boat Daniel is doing to the pirates of Somalia who fish for big boats and lives to cash ransom.
Hence, pretty soon it was communally decided that it was an easy and convenient way of making some money.
The idea was born to lock up Kiah in this small house on the property of the Gonzales and ask her family for a ransom so we all could go out for dinner.
Although Kiah had no objection, she claimed her family had no money and therefore wouldn't pay.
And surprisingly, every participant in the conversation believed it was a great plan, and not one objected to be locked up, but all claimed they were worth not a penny.
But then, a smart participant in this fascinating conversation proposed, what if we lock American citizen Kiah up and we inform CNN?
And if they don't respond quickly we send CNN one of Kiah's fingers.
Yes, said Mexican Daniel, and then her ear.
To force CNN to make it a headline story and have all the Americans stand behind their daughter Kiah and donate together millions to the abductors who have to make a living also.
But I want 50 % said Kiah and that greediness killed the plotting.

Time to leave the kitchen and absurdity to continue the work in the Fuso Szulc.


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