I rolled through La Ventana and into El Sargento at the tail end of Semana Santa. There were a few straggling families set up at the beach, enjoying every moment of the holiday. There was also a lot of trash strewn along the beach, which sadly seems to be the norm rather than the exception down here. The beach at El Sargento offers free camping, but there isn’t much in the way of amenities – a few palapas, three garbage cans and nada mas.

I arrived in the early afternoon. Luna and I headed down the beach for a little stroll. We saw lots of kite-boarders and a few newbies getting lessons. On the way back to our campsite we were blasted by the wind and sand. Once back at the caravan, I pulled out my chair and book, I am truly the optimist. Unfortunately, the palapas offer no protection from the wind and it felt like the wind was getting even stronger. I gave up. We retreated to caravan and sat inside while the wind rocked the rig. It didn’t take long before I came down with a horrible case of cabin fever. I think it is the incessant howling of the wind.

As often happens, the wind set with the sun and we were able to take a nice walk along the beach and the bluff overhead. We discovered the signs for the bike trails on this walk. I decided that in the morning I would put on my running shoes and explore the trails further.

Up before the sun, Luna and I hit the trails. When we came to the intersection of a trail named “Topes” (speed bumps), Luna took off like a banshee. For most of her life, Luna was my wild thing, wild and uncontrollable. When she was about seven months old I took her for our first bike ride in Golden Gate Park. She was thrilled that I could finally keep up with her! She also kept trying to bite my heels as they were going around in circles. One swipe on the nose with the spokes cured her of that. For her next lesson she ran too far ahead of me and got lost. She was so worried (OK, we were both so worried), she jumped into my arms when she finally found me again. That was the last time she ever got lost, it was also the first of many wonderful cycling adventures with my girl.

The Topes trail is a super fun, twisty, turny, whoop-de-doo, single-track rollercoaster. Luna immediately recognized it for what it was and led me down the path at full speed. It made my heart sing! Luna is a big dog, now 10 years old and showing signs of our high mileage. On this day, she was like my seven month old Luna, tongue hanging, tearing up the trails, and wanting more.

After our run, I returned to camp and we endured another day of being sandblasted inside our fiberglass can. I wanted to ride those trails with my Luna girl! I fixed the double flat from my previous ride and we hit the trails early the next morning. Luna’s unerring sense took us up and down some incredible trails. We returned to camp with smiles on both of our faces. Then, we packed up and left. The trails were amazing, but I could not stand another day of cabin fever.

I have many friends that spend the winter in La Ventana/El Sargento. They ride the trails in the morning and kite all afternoon. If I knew how to kite it would be a lovely existence. Sadly, I don’t – yet. Until then, La Ventana is just too windy for me.