A short drive up the coast from Los Barriles brought us to the wind surfing and kite boarding mecca of La Ventana, a modest and dispersed settlement on the shores of the Sea of Cortez. As we approached the place mostly white buildings could be seen scattered along the shore and hundreds of big kites could be seen pulling boarders across the surface of the blue sea. It was quite a spectacular sight, and also a bit of a surprise. Our guide books description had led us to expect that the place would be undeveloped, with no facilities and with a small population of hardy wind surfer types.

As we pulled into the campground it was clear that the population was anything but small. The place was packed; 200+ rvs and tents of various types were stacked close together to maximize occupancy. We found ourselves a place set up our camp and headed off to the beach to watch the boarding; the bay was like a playground with people zipping across the surface close to shore and off in the distance. It really was quite fascinating.

After a while it began to dawn on us that most of the people we could see on the shore and on the water (when they came close enough to distinguish details) had grey hair (or no hair) and wrinkled skin. As one middle aged man pointed out to us later in the afternoon - everyone here is old, they are all in bed by 9:00pm - and he seemed to be right. The people here are just like Nina and I - boomers at play.

As the days water activities wound to a close we got a steady stream of visitors and learned more about the place. For example many of the people we talked to come to this place every year; one elderly lady has been coming to this beach every year for 25 years. While she was the longest we talked to many said they had been coming for 10 or 15 years. Like we have seen elsewhere on the Baja there seems to be a surprisingly large representation from British Columbia. The wind seems to be at its best for the months of January through March. There are about 50 camping spots in the front row(that is what they call the spots that are immediately facing the water). To get one of those spots one must arrive before the beginning of October. The front row campers are, as a consequence, spending as much a 6 months of the year camped here.

The beach, the warm weather and the activity encouraged us to spend a second night.

We had only one visitor our second evening. Alfonso a Mexican gentleman who is setting up a kite boarding school dropped by and later gave us a tour of his almost complete house and headquarters. His school is kitesurfingplanet.net