Thanksgiving Magic - Turtle Bay (Bahía de Tortugas), B.C.S., Mexico

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Abracadabra

Eric performing magic

The kids in Bahía de Tortugas are all so fun to be around. They are all very happy and playful. They are also the perfect people to practice our Spanish with... since our grammar is much closer

Kids in Turtle Bay

to that of a third grade level than to an adult! In the afternoon, all the kids came down to the beach to play or just hang out. The common greeting was "Mister, mister, let me watch you dinghy" - the "Mister, mister" part holding true if you are a man or a woman. In exchange for watching your dinghy, they expected something in return, preferably candy. Despite their enthusiasm for watching the dinghy, there is really no reason for this service - it is an entirely safe place to leave anything... certainly more safe than San Diego. At any rate, the majority of cruisers feel that it is a small price to pay and give the kids some candy.

However, we were concerned that this

Azucena with little Jose Leonardo

isn't at all a helpful act for the kids. We are guessing that their parents may not approve of the huge quantities of Tootsie Rolls that they consume each afternoon. However, we understand that these kids are just looking for a way to spend their afternoon. SO, we devised a few alternate plans that most dentists would still approve of.

For starters, we decided to teach

Ricardo & Azucena

ourselves how to perform some magic tricks. Once we had them figured out, we thought that we might be able to give impromptu magic shows to little kids - preferably young enough that our Spanish was at their level and our magic was as well. Let's face it, we can't make the Statue of Liberty disappear! We were happy to find that we have a few tricks that at least the kids in Turtle Bay really enjoyed.

Luis & Ricardo

Our magic trick repetoire includes things like turning a solid deck of cards into a blank deck, making coins disappear and reappear, getting a coin to fit through a ring that is too small for it, and taking an empty crinkled up pop can out of the trash saying the magic words and then producing a

1 2 3 JUMP!

non-wrinkled, full and unopened pop can in front of your eyes. They are all simple tricks that kids love! All in all, it cost us 99 cents, a used book of magic tricks and a lot of practice to make dozens of kids smile. Definitely worth it!

In Turtle Bay, the first day we did the tricks there were only a few kids around. They wanted to see a little more so we told them that we would return the next day around the same time. When we showed up, they were there with all of their amigos. It was so fun!

Tofurkey Anyone?

With the boats left in the

Pumkin pie, YUM!

bay, we decided to have a potluck Thanksgiving on the beach. It was a beautiful day, sunny and comfortably warm.

Thanksgiving in Turtle Bay

Everyone brought tasty dishes to share. We supplied the homemade pumpkin pie! Yum! The parties from Merlin's Magic, Tillicum, Majii Rae, and Zebede were all there. We sailed on Merlin's new Laser (a 14' racing dinghy), played frisbee and some even went for a swim in the bay. The water is still a bit nippy up here, so there were less takers than would be expected.

Pulceras for All

After our Thanksgiving potluck,

Angela helping kids work on bead bracelets

we went back into town to share some of our day with the kids. We told them the day before that we would return with the fixings to make pulceras (bracelets) out of beads.

Picking out the right beads

It turns out that sail thread works perfectly and allows them to string beads without the need for a needle. (Yikes! Picture 20 kids with needles!) It is also exceptionally strong thread! Angela had a stash of beads on board that worked perfectly. Most were simple multicolored beads, but we also had a few "special" beads.

When we got in to shore, the kids were all running around wild being kids. When we took out the beads and gear, we were quickly and quietly surrounded by 20 kids, both boys and girls, who all sat down and worked on their own pieces diligently for over an hour! It was unbelievable. We had NO idea that it would be so fun! The first thing we did was dole out the "special" beads by letting everybody pick two that they wanted to use. With 20 kids, there was only one instance where one kid wanted one of the beads that another had, and even then they settled it themselves by making a 2-for-1 trade.

Eric was a hit with two of the youngest

Jose Leonardo & Luis work away while Eric helps little ones with theirs

boys. Little Jose Leonardo and Said just could not get their beads onto their strings. Eric practically made Jose Leonardo's pulcera for him, though he made the little boy feel like he did it all himself. It was very cute to watch! Angela was in the middle of the crowd of kids trying to help make sure everyone was getting whatever they needed and freshly cutting the strings whenever they

Azucena & Cristobol working diligently

got frayed.

After all was said and done, all of the kids walked away with a new bead bracelet and a smile. Any remaining beads were given out with some string to kids with sisters or brothers who missed out. We really hope that the kids had a great time, because we both certainly did!

After the pulcera fun, we played a game of frisbee with the remaining kids. Eric wanted to teach the kids a game kind of like 500 that you normally play with a ball. In 500, one person throws a ball in the air and calls out a number and whoever catches it gets that many points. You win when you reach a total of 500. However, Eric's limited Spanish made it difficult to relay the rules. For starters, he can only count to 10. So getting to a grand total of 500 would have taken decades. So he called the game "Diez" (ten) and made that the desired total to win. Then there was much confusion when it began and some kids thought that they were #1, #2, or #4 depending on which frisbee number was called out. Nobody understood the goal. Finally though, through much hand gesturing and laughter, everyone had it figured out and they all had a blast for a good half hour!

All in all, we had a wonderful time in Bahia de Tortugas - our first stop along the Baja peninsula in Mexico. The people were amazing. We made many new friends... several of them children. We were given the gift of Yellowfin Tuna and another gift of 3 lobster tails by two separate local families. If the people aren't reason enough to love Turtle Bay (& they are), the weather is absolutely phenomenal! We are starting to forget what rain is...

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