Back in Mexico

We arrive  here in Ensenada yesterday on the shuttle.  It was the  best border crossing I have had in ages.  We have a LOT of stuff, and it is very heavy.  There is too much to fly back to Mexico, and for a lot of reasons we can't and shouldn't have it shipped in.  So that means we have to cart it back.  We took a shuttle that leaves from West Marine in San Diego and goes to the Coral Hotel in Ensenada.  That way we are not dragging all that heavy stuff by hand across the border.  The shuttle stops at the border, but the driver just talks to customs and then we are on our way.  It is great to be back here in Mexico.  I am glad to be speaking Spanish again.  A lot of the people here remember us - including the woman at the bank counter at immigration! 

I also discovered the answer to something that has been plaguing me for a long time.  I don't remember for sure if I made a big deal about it here like I did on Facebook, but the last time I was here in Ensenada I saw a pink pigeon.  Here is a picture of him or her.

I could not figure out how he or she came to be pink.  Several people suggested the bird had been dyed, and others (myself included) believed it to be a genetic abnormality.  I had never seen one before.  Nobody I asked had, either.  I went and visited the pigeon almost every day during the six weeks we were here before, and discovered he was in every observable way a normal pigeon.  He was feisty during pigeon feeding frenzies, and could hold his own without being overly aggressive. 

Anyway, I never stopped thinking about him even after we left Ensenada, and I determined that I was going to go and look for him the next time I came to Ensenada.  So this morning, Mike and I went lookinbg for him while we waited for the immigration office to open.  Here is what we found:

And also this:

While I was exclaiming over the blue one and getting out my camera, a man standing nearby pointed out a multicolored pastel one and one that was olive green on one side.  I asked him why the colors? He told me there is a man who catches the white pigeons by getting them to eat out of his hand, and then paints them and lets them go.  Finally the mystery is solved.  I do not think it hurts the pigeons.  And I am pretty sure the blue one used to be my pink one because there was a little bit of faded pink on the top of his head. 

So now all we have to do is have a nice time here until we get on the 24 hour bus to La Paz.  There is a race ending here tomorrow - a sailboat race that goes from Newport Beach to Ensenada.  I imagine Hussong's will be exciting tonight and we plan to be there.  I am planning to wake up late tomorrow!