LATIN AMERICA
85
Living on a Mexican beach
he first time I visited Mexico, the peso was weak against the dollar, enabling my boyfriend and me to spend the best part of six months living on next to nix in a palapa made out of palm fronds in Rio Nexpa, Michoacán. We were there for so long the owner of the surf camp, Ilberto, became like family. What makes me so nostalgic for this part of Mexico's Pacific Coast was that our lives were so simple. We gathered firewood at dawn. Swept the palapa clear of scorpions every morning. Scheduled siestas in the hammock. And walked miles to the nearest village each week for tortillas, beans, lettuce, coriander and avocados. Beyond writing letters to family, there was no business to tend to. And there was a lot of time spent simply watching the sun rise and fall in the sky. Years later, after a subsequent trip back to Rio Nexpa, we found the accommodation had received an upgrade and Ilberto had passed away. That's when I realised that what.” Si, Ilberto. Estaba muy tranquilo.
