Watching the sunrise my second morning, I met Robin who first did LSD in Norman, Oklahoma, in 1967. Robin mostly writes these days (good Haiku) and gets material by asking new-comers if they have ever met anybody famous or know someone who has met somebody famous. One of the other friendly Zipolites I\u2019d met the night before, a guy named Bo from Sweden, a fan of Shel Silverstein\u2019s, joined me and Robin for coffee, so I thought I\u2019d try Robin\u2019s conversation-opener: \u201cSo Bo, ever met anybody famous or know somebody who met somebody famous?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYah,\u201d he says, \u201ca friend of mine\u2019s mother once shook hands with Albert Hofmann at a psychiatrists\u2019 convention in Germany in the 40s.\u201d You\u2019ve got to be kidding me \u2013 Albert Hofmann was the discoverer of LSD \u2013 but once you know Bo, he\u2019d be the one who\u2019d come up with that for an answer.<\/p>\n
Now you\u2019re getting a feel for Playa Zipolite. I spent the week lying in the hammock, catching the breezes, reading, watching whales breach, drinking coffee, smoking pot and meeting new people. I also enjoyed body surfing, listening to the birds sing in the courtyard on waking, and having waves lull me to sleep. The waves just keep coming by. Pretty great for less than $10 a night. (The actual room was sparse \u2013 no TV \u2013 but clean.)<\/p>\n
![\"Sunrise\"](\"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Sunrise.jpg\")
<\/a>Capucine at Sunrise<\/p><\/div>\n
One of my favorite times was watching the sun set that first night with my new U of C friend. Not only does Zipolite have the best sunrises, it also has the best sunsets \u2013 that\u2019s the advantage of a south facing beach. And not only does Zipolite have a jutting land mass at the east to assist in sunrises, it also has a configuration of rocky cliffs and caverns at its west end, the caverns providing narrow passageways for the water to rush through.<\/p>\n
Think of a journey to the center of the earth starting with a horizontal entrance way. As the sun sets in the narrows, our entrance way becomes firery and red. Our jagged cliffs are pointed. Silhouetted they look like the tip-tops of evergreen trees, so dark and so sharp in the sky. Meanwhile, down below, the waves are crashing like white frosting on the rocks while a not imperceptible milky-way, faint and seeming far-away, of ocean spray goes fleetingly across the sand. Up above the evergreen tips have caught fire! Glowing red-hot embers or maybe the blood of the sun. Then one of the shorter evergreens in the back of the cavern pierces that huge bright ball, and right before our eyes, in the middle of the passageway, all the blood spills and the sun drops into the ocean journeying to the center of the earth. On the beach the denizens clap. (Later I learned it is only at this time of the year you get the double dose of rocks included.)<\/p>\n
That\u2019s how great a day on the beach at Zipolite is \u2013 stupendous at both ends, relaxed in the middle, and music by night. Always 85 degrees and sunny, but the ocean a tetch cooler for comfort (except in the early morning, when it\u2019s a tetch warmer). Buena Suerte all this can last forever.<\/p>\n
Tomorrow: Donde estan las damas?<\/p>\n
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Daniel was the manager\u2019s name. Eight hundred pesos was the rate for una semana ($62 for the week). Mike had not yet told me that the only rule at Daniel\u2019s place was: Do Not Get In-between Daniel and Any … Continue reading