Stage 9: Bahia de Kino
May 2-4, 2013

1970

I was just six-years-old when I first visited Kino Bay, Mexico in 1970. Our family loaded up the Ford Country Squire faux wood-paneled station wagon with two adults, five kids, and way too much baggage. Our first stop was Grandma and Grandpa’s house in Roseburg. My Grandma Marge had sewn up ditty bags for each of us kids and filled them with travel toys, games, and candies (think Wrigley’s Gum and Lifesavers). That Christmas we drove the 25 hours from Portland, Oregon to Kino Bay, Sonora, Mexico. It wasn’t until I rolled into Bahia de Kino 43 years later that I realized the two places were one and the same. I don’t remember much about that trip, but there are a few memories that pop out at me. I had my first Mexican “boyfriend”, this I remember from the photo more than my own memories. We ate turtle soup for Christmas dinner, this was before tortugas became endangered. We spent hours at the beach, digging holes and jumping back into them, burying ourselves in the sand, and splashing around in the warm waters of the Sea of Cortez, a huge treat for us Oregon kids. We had a little cactus Christmas tree. We went to visit a Seri Indigenous People’s village where my parents bought me an hand-carved ironwood seal which I treasured for years and is probably still hiding somewhere on my mom’s property. While four of us five kids have curly brown to auburn hair, my brother Paul was a true towhead, with luminous white hair. He was so unusual for 1970 Mexico that the local people couldn’t help but reach out and touch his hair. My oldest two brothers, Michael and Bryan aged 14 and 13, bought a number of items, including leather cowboy hats, leather vests, and contraband cow horns. We were concerned about sneaking it across the border so we put it in the footwell of the very back seat of the wagon and closed towhead Paul into the footwell with the contraband goods. When the USA border agent opened the seat, up popped Paul. He was so flabbergasted, and probably horrified that we would “hide” a child back there, that he waved us right on through, no questions asked.

2013

This trip could not have been more different, or less eventful. While I was relieved to have a bed to lay my head on for my first couple nights in Mexico, Dan’s friends turned out to be a pair of real characters. While they were in their fifties, they were acting like frat boys on Spring Break – beer for breakfast, trying to make the moves on the beautiful 20-something house-cleaner, hanging on the beach with a cooler full of beer and a family-sized bottle Hawaiian Tropic sunscreen… We ventured into Centro for dinner one night. I don’t remember much beyond my papa relleno at the meat heavy restaurant (it was supposedly a baked potato stuffed croquette, but in truth it was a simple baked potato), so the town must not be much to write home about. But, as usual, I was just happy for a place to lay my head and rest up for the next leg of my journey.