Lets Taco Bout Mexico

While at Trivia Night with some friends a few weeks back, one guy leaned down the table, craning his neck in my direction to ask, “Hey Katherine, if we went to Mexico in a couple weeks, would you want to go?”

DUH.  Yes.

And we did. 

Admittedly, it’s been several years since I’ve been outside of the country, but it also weirdly didn’t feel like we were leaving the country because we just took a four-hour road trip down south.  No planes, no boats, no crossing large bodies of water of any kind, just driving past a checkpoint.  But at the same time, we were definitely in another country, one with better tortillas and outstanding lunch cheese. 

The house our group rented for the weekend was literally ON the beach, like you walked outside and across the back porch, down some steps, and there was the sand.  And the water.  Porch, steps, sand, water.  Porchstepssandwater.  Porch. Water. Porch. Water.    

I spent almost all of my time that weekend out there, at the edge of the world, feeling small and beautifully insignificant, the ocean and the horizon and the sky stretching endlessly in every direction, unmarred and seemingly infinite.

We did dip into old Rocky Point at meal times (Puerto Penasco if we’re being authentic) which was always for tacos and quesadillas and chips and burritos, with the occasional ice cream cone or churro thrown in. 

But really, being on the beach was my favorite part of the weekend.  We spent hours walking along the sand, searching for shells, letting the water lap gently around our ankles or splashing in up to our knees.  We met some horses and some dogs and got to know the 12 members of our group in a setting outside of church, Arizona, or church in Arizona.  

Also, somehow I managed to not have to sleep in a bunk bed, on a couch, or on a floor, so that was a win. 

Not only were the sunsets magnificent to experience from our front-row seats on the patio, but I was especially enamored with the stars, so bright and vibrant without any light pollution, the Milky Way distantly visible as a murky brushstroke far above us.  Under the cover of darkness and reassuring pinpricks of starlight, the waves rolling leisurely up to the beach just below, we had some really good talks: talks about big things, about abstract ideas, about our concerns and our fears and our hopes and our crushes.  Being so wholly immersed in the privilege of this experience brought myriad things into sharper focus for me – things about myself I want to change, things I need to let go, things I need to do differently with the people in my life.  Maybe the beauty of that insignificant feeling is that your problems become more manageable when the ocean puts them into perspective? Anyhow, I got what I needed. 

Plus, the girls on our trip were outnumbered by boys, which is always a rare and welcome novelty.  

(I call this ^^ photo "Saturday Sunset, feat. Kevin's Head." Has a nice ring to it.)