I think this is my 5th time coming to Reed Nichelson’s Luna Negra hacienda at Playa El Coyote on the Sea of Cortez. There is no power here, so those resouceful enough to rig up solar sytems and have water trucked in are the kind of people that reside here. It keeps the population low and nature the main attraction.

Mesquite Tree - Watercolor on 9”x12” cold press 300# paper

It’s also far away from things like… hospitals, which was unexpectedly needed when my girlfriend Amie ruptured her achilles tendon the night we arrived. We had to drive a couple hours to get to a doctor the next day, and it was nearly impossible to find crutches. We were both losing our minds,….but we played a lot of piggy back in the interim.

Readfing with injured foot in repose….. and borrowed crutch

The watercolor at the top started out as a drawing (below). There’s a lot going on here: Entrance to the old bathroom, rock walls and concrete walkway, mesquite tree with aloe plants beneath and tilted butte in the distance.

Also, we found out this evening that there is even more going on.

A woman died in that bathroom of a “mysterious” head injury. Blend that with tales of her roving the desert mountains barefoot with a pack of dogs before her death, AND the property being taken over by the Cartel for a few years after her death…all that, makes this image even more…..complex

It really is truly stunning here. Desert and Sea. Birds abound. The stones and cactus eminate stoic patience. The ocean water is a plasma that you can float in for hours. All of this resets one’s state to an earthly tempo. Oh, and the stars! We had never seen the Milky way so clearly…and the net of satelites…and the occasional shooting star.

This is both the worst and best place to get injured. There is a different kind of healing here.

Drawing of Plants on the Patio (done during two online DigiPen meetings)

We all leave tomorrow moring. Us, to go to Loreto and La Paz on our way to Oaxaca. And Reed back to Vashon for the summer. Luna Negra will be left to the lizards, buzzards and bouganvillia until his return in October.

I wish we could spend another 2 weeks here, but onward to more… medical testing, and one-legged adventuring.

we’ll keep you posted! moodysteffon@gmail.com

Back in Baja