s/v Begone: Agua Verde - A village straddling the past and present

Thursday, February 7 - Tom and I had wanted to spend time in Agua Verde since we first learned about sailing in the Sea of Cortez. The village is home to about 50 people who stem from 2 main families (now 5 families). The sea is the primary way visitors arrive in town, although there is a 25 mile dirt road off of Rt. 1 that is used to bring in supplies 1x per week and the occasional 4 wheel drive vehicle adventurers.

Jan, Janie, Jeff, Tom and Ole (Suzanne is behind the camera)

Jeff & Janie (Adagio) have spent a good deal of time in this village over the past 5 years and offered to take us and Ole & Jan from "Emma Jo" (DeFever 49 Trawler) into "town" for a walk about. We were delighted to learn that Jan was fluent in Spanish giving us an opportunity to learn much more about the community than Jeff and my "spanglish" would offer.

First Stop: Goats.

Goat dairy products are the key business in Agua Verde. Janie & Jeff took us up to the place (up the road and turn left past the casa with lush gardens) and we each ordered a kilo (2.4 lbs) of goat cheese for $40 pesos or ~$3.00 US. They said they would have it for us in about 3 hours. We came back a bit early to watch how they made the absolutely most delicious goat cheese you could ever imagine.

Ramona begins the goat cheese process and knows just when the milk is ready for the next step. The man in the photo is the medicine man. He comes from a long line of family members who learned how to use local plants to heal. This was important since there has never been easy access to Western medicine.

This is the cheese press for squeezing the liquid thus forming a firm goat cheese.

Enjoying our translated conversations and learning about the people and village.

Next stop - The elementary and secondary school - at one time someone got them set up with internet access (solar panels and satellite service) but there appears to be some controversy about why the service is no longer provided...the kids don't seem to mind so much, though.

There are about 20 students at the school. If they want to/can afford to attend high school, they move to Loreto. They often live with extended family members. Many students return back to live in Agua Verde (that's what happened to the teacher in this classroom).

Religion: We were surprised to learn that of the two churches in Agua Verde that the largest is not the Catholic church, but rather the Evangelical Church. It appears that at some point, an influential family member decided to follow a different path.

Inside the Catholic Church - sorry the horizon is crooked.

Two tiendas (little stores) and the Tortilla Lady -- Janie remembered there was someone in Agua Verde who would make fresh tortilla so she bought a bag of corn flour one of the little stores and as we walked through town found this sign:

We dropped off the flour and one hour later we picked up the most delicious, hot corn tortillas (about a 10" tall stack) and divided them between the 3 of our boats. Those tortillas never saw the light of the next day -- too tasty to put away.

It was an amazing day. Jeff & Janie said they learned more about Agua Verde on our walk they had after visiting for 5 seasons thanks to Jan and the visiting student named Sky. Here are some more snap shots and captions from the day...

Jeff, Janie and Sky (from Washington State) - Sky was spending a month in Agua Verde on break from college. She was helping at the school, living with Ramona and her bright, enthusiastic personality had clearly endeared her to everyone in the village. We learned so much from her about the social structure of the village. We'll never forget her.

More pics

Compare the playgrounds -- the top is in the middle of town with crusty chain and overgrown weeds.
The bottom picture is the school playground. Both looked like tons of fun..
Gringos / Cruisers are known to adopt a school and students to promote education, opportunity and fun.