The waves just in front of out camp were not the best for swimming, the shore was very steep and the waves broke hard and fast and big, but down the beach to the south (as you can see in the pics) there is a nice little covey part where the water just laps in and out -- perfect for swimming. Just beyond the rocks is another little beach where the surf is a little bigger, and the dogs that adopted us played with us there for about two hours on Saturday afternoon.

We had a great time tide pooling at the southern cropping of rocks. There were veritable mini-aquariums right at the tide line. We saw baby damsel fish, feather dusters, all kinds of algae, some coral, and lots of other little fishies. The dogs even joined us, much to their dismay at getting down. The rocks were pretty steep and if you slip -- off into the breaking waves with you! But they were determined to stay with us. Beebee was delighted.

As we walked back from our swim, we spotted a tall gringo walking our way. He got about five feet from us and hollered, "Hey! You must be Steve and Jocelyn! I'm Brad!" Brad is a guy we've been chatting over email with since about August. He's toured around Mexico before, and we knew he'd be close, so we'd been trying to hook up with him. We chatted for a bit and he set up camp fairly close to ours.

As sunset came upon us, Steve got to the task of building us a fire while the rest of us drank a cocktail and watched. On our way out of Guadalajara, Doug and Steve had picked up a huge log and we had some previously gathered wood. Triumphant just as the sun glowed and sunk behind the clouds, Steve came and sat with us for an evening cocktail.

Brad joined us around the campfire and we had a great time talking and stargazing. Thanks to Kelley and Lori for teaching us some more about the constellations! Everyone turned in, but Steve and Beebee couldn't bear to leave the fire, so we put on jackets and curled up in front of it, sleeping well until about 4 a.m. when we crawled into our tent.

Sunday dawned as another beautiful day. We've named the dogs Negrita and Tawny. Tawny nearly drowned Negrita yesterday playing in the waves with us, so she's a little gun shy, but he's all for it. He followed Doug out on his morning swim. Beebee loves having these dogs around. They follow wherever she goes. Or Steve, or Doug …

We spent the day much as yesterday: swimming, sunning, reading. We left at about 4 p.m. for the drive home, which went much faster than the drive out. Maybe something to do with the daylight? The views were amazing, making us want to go back before we had nearly left. Something about a long stretch of sand, calm sea, sunshine and friends. Makes life worth living it does.

A blurry pic of the boys running with the huge log for our campfire	The futon that Dougles brought for Lisandra's comfort.	Beebee giving Steve a kiss in his hammock	Brad Purdy, our email (and now in-person) friend	Steve building the fire -- one of his favorite camping activities
Doug and Lisandra down at the tide pools	Doug crossing the wee-bit-sketchy bridge. Bb crossed too, but no one took a pic!	The girls reading on the beautiful beach	Can you find the hidden Steve and Jocelyn in this picture?	Lisandra and our adopted pets, Negrita and Tawny

El Faro beach towards the north	Rocks and sea from the tide pools	The secret cove (that isn't really so secret, just empty)	Watching Steve build a fire, while sipping cocktails
Lisandra and Doug heating up tortillas for breakfast	Steve relaxing in the hammock -- his favorite spot	On top of the world with El Faro behind us and Negrita dutifully at our feet	Our palapa and its incredible beach
The countryside opposite the spectacular beaches	Big view, not of El Faro, but a few miles north	Doug, Lisandra, Beebee and Steve	Doug had never had coconut milk! Steve was thrilled to provide

Other than being homebodies, fiddling around on the internet, and reading, we've also rented a few movies (blockbuster is just a few blocks away) and even seen one movie in the theater. Wednesday night shows here are only 15 pesos/person (about $1.60). Unfortunately the only show playing that night was the 6th Day with Ahhhnold. Not a bad movie, especially for a buck fifty, but not a great one either.

We've also been out and about taking care of errands. Spent the better part of a day nailing down car insurance (we had been driving without it). The whole process was a huge hassle and fairly expensive. Sure wish that we could have just bopped down to the AAA office to take care of it! Oh-well, we shouldn't complain too much about it, in the last year insurance has made the difference between deep, deep depression and being able to continue with our lives and our trip…

We also spent the better part of a day downtown, poking around at shops and visiting some of the big tourist sights. We didn't do all the sights yet, but got a good idea of where things are and what El Centro is like. It is odd to be in such a huge city after so many months of small-town life. Especially odd is the presence of so many "American" business names: Walmart, Chili's, McDonalds, Sam's Club, Baskin Robbins, Precision Auto Tune… We skipped most of that stuff (though we did make a trip to Walmart for supplies) and opted to shop for a few hours in the Mercado Libertad- a very interesting concrete stadium-like building that is three stories tall and spans an entire city block, filled with semi-permanent shops hawking everything from sugar-cane juice (delicious) to cowboy boots, stone mortar and pestle sets, aluminum cookware, and palstic gadgets. There is a whole section of watchmakers where we whiled away some time being fascinated by their dexterity. There is also a huge section of eatery stalls where we pigged out on ceviche cocktails for 5 pesos (that's about half a dollar). Yummy!

Buckets of lotion, very exciting shop for Beebee	Cathedral that marks the center of downtown Guadalajara	This shop had bulk-bins full of agates and other pretty stones	The Mercado Libertad- three stories tall and occupies an entire city block	Piles and piles and piles of fresh fruit at great prices
	Beautiful colonial buildings line many streets		An herb stall in the Mercado

Later in the week we attended a birthday party for one of Doug's friends. The party started at about 9 pm at Chili's (you would never know you weren't in the states except that the menu had prices like $55 instead of $4.95- they use the $ symbol for pesos here). After a few beers and some laughs we headed out to some club that has just opened. I don't know how he worked it, but Alan, one of Doug's buddies, managed to get all 15 of us in the front gate- squirming through a crowd of about 200 people to get there! Oh! And the people were fascinating: the crowd included everything from 16 year-olds to 30-somethings, most everyone was impeccably dressed and coifed. Bb was feeling awfully glad that Lisandra had let her raid her closet the day before, somehow she suspects that her travel clothes wouldn't have gotten her in the door.

Once inside, Alan further impressed us by leading us upstairs to a bar that actually had tables for us. We are still a little unclear on how it works, but apparently here in Guadalajara you can get a table for about six people and simply buy one bottle of liquor, for about US$50. Sounds steep at first, but when you consider how expensive individual drinks are, it turns out to be a pretty good deal. The best part is that you get a table to return to in between dancing and what-not. The deal also included a waiter who came by with fresh buckets of ice for our drinks, cokes and other mixers and carried off empty glasses that were taking up valuable table real-estate.

Between the great tables, the really fun friends that Doug has, and the novelty of getting gussied up for going out, Bb and Steve had a BLAST. We all finally stopped dancing around 3:30 a.m. and headed home by way of a burrito place where we all pigged out. Thanks a million to everyone who was involved that night, we haven't had so much fun in a long time.

All dressed up	Steve, Alan, Doug	…and the club is jumpin, jumpin	Beebee and Doug getting down	Our faithful waiter