1000 Americans: Antonio & Sarah, Ciudad Constitucion

Antonio is one of Sarah’s 3 sons. he might not have to go to school next year as they re-registered him to late, so maybe he will end up helping the parents with the fruit trees.

Following is a part of our tripreport, about when we met them:

Only a few minutes outside the city limits I noticed a great garden. The house was deserted, but a little ahead were some people underneath a row of fruit trees. Sure, it was ok to camp and if we needed some sweet grapefruits? They were intrigued by our trip, or tent and our stove, but when Ivana started to cook our daily pasta meal, problems began.

Sarah, the mother of the bunch, looked at our meal and then at us and back at the spaghetti again.

‘Que es eso, sopa?’, ‘What is this, soup’?’

‘Pasta! We eat if every night, good energy and tasty!’

‘Hmm. But how are you going to eat it?’, she replied.

We looked at eachother. ‘Well, we have a very nice tomato sauce today!’

Sarah looked perplexed.

‘Y como lo va a comer?’, ‘How are you going to eat it?’ she repeated, this time a bit louder.

As my Spanish is not so good, I was not sure if I had understood her correctly, but Ivana’s face looked just as puzzled as I felt. Ivana tried a different answer.

‘Well, we have a fork and a spoon, Harry has a foldable plate and I eat from the pot, look.’ and she showed Sarah our limited but useful cutlery and cooking gear.

No, that was clearly not the right answer, either. Sarah called her son.

‘Antonio!!! Come here. Go to the tortilleria and get the gringos some tortillas!’.

A few minutes Antonio came back –on his bike!- with a full kilo of hot tortillas. Sarah handed them over and said that at least we now had something to eat our soup with. She also served us delicious fresh and sweet juice, but clearly was still shaken from the thought that somebody would even think about having dinner without tortillas…

1000 Americans: Roberta from Juncalito

Off the grid

Roberta lives in a small community together with other US citizens as well as locals.

There is no power or fixed telephone, they are ‘off the grid’. Power is generated by solar panel (and generator if really needed, but usually that is off) and much communication is done through radios.

She is a gifted painter and has not only made beautiful portraits of the people and places around her, but also painted her own house, above.

1000 Americans: Bill Enos, Mulege

“@#$%@&*!..”

Bill is a master in entering curses in his sentences whenever he talks about his life, his neighbours, his countrymen, both from the US as well as Mexico, his health or anything in particular. But behind all those words is a nice guy in his late sixties, who spends his time in a small oasis in the Mexican desert, trying to forget about his back pain and loving his 4 cats (‘You’re such a good cat!’), while supplying the other gringos with satellite TV.

He used to live closer to the sea, “but the ‘100-year’ storm was coming every few years and I woke up in the water, while being on the #$%@&*! second floor in the last big one!”. So he decided to move up to a bit higher ground, while waiting for the USA-Americans that keep on building brand new houses on his former land, to get soaked in the next big one…

1000 Americans: Jane Ames, San Ignacio

“I just wanted a place that was more quiet..

..than my home in the US.”

Jane found a nice old house in the centre of San Ignacio, turned it into a small guesthouse/B&B, Casa Leree. While offering a relaxed place to stay, she is busy puzzling the pieces of San Ignacio’s history photographically together.

1000 Americans: Mother and kids selling fruit, Villa Jesus Maria, Mexico

In the middle of a long dusty stretch of road, this family parks their van, fixes a tarp and carves and sells fresh fruit, a small oasis in the desert. The kids just hang out in the car while the parents are working…

1000 Americans: Don Santiago & Alonso Romero, Sonora, Mexico

Don Santiago is in his sixties and lives with his mother in a small lone ranch in the desert of Baja California. They sell animals carved out of marble and onyx.

His son Alonso (one of 9 kids) lives South in Guerrero Negro and visits him when possible.

1000 Americans: Ed & Duffy, El Rosario, Mexico

Ed ‘Eduardo’ Lusk is married with a Mexican woman and they run the well-known Baja’s Best restaurant together.

His neighbour and friend Duffy also originates from Ventura, California, but both like the climate and atmosphere in Northern Baja California much better.

1000 Americans: Areli, Rosa, Yaneth, Gerardo & Michelle, Colonet, Mexico

Gerardo thanks his Lord every minute for his life and the challenges in it. Having been a fisherman and now a small farmer and land worker, he trust completely in his faith and his family to make ends meet.

Shot by candlelight in his small house outside Colonet, built and donated by a church group.

1000 Americans: Dr Viridiana, Santo Thomas, Mexico

Viridiana is a young doctor, teaching the rural population about sexually transmitted diseases like AIDS and prevention of it, birth control and nutrition. Her small clinic helps many poor people from the area.

1000 Americans: Carina, Ensenada, Mexico

Carina works in a nice small coffee shop in the centre of Ensenada, a city where many young people from the US come to ‘party’ as the age restrictions on drinking and drugs are more flexible than in the US.

Meanwhile Carina creates her coffees and pours a wonderful chai to more relaxed guests.

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