The Pearl

(NOT a Steinbeck-quality piece, be forewarned...)

When I was a child and we visited my grandparents in Pennsylvania during summer vacations, we often went to VicMars Seafood restaurant in Scranton, where I became a huge fan of steamed clams. It's not something one buys fresh in Minnesota, so every opportunity I come upon them, I order them. We often harvest them ourselves here in the Sea of Cortez.  My dad once brought me home 3 dozen in his briefcase on an airplane. The briefcase itself had to be trashed.

At Jorge's Restaurant in Kino Bay, you can order a plate of 70 steamed clams (Almejas al Vapor) for 70 pesos, about $5.50. Sounds like an awful lot of clams, but they're small. You have to ask for the melted butter (Mantequilla caliente) to dunk them in. The second time I ordered them there, back in 2006, I nearly broke a molar on this:

After realizing it was really quite uniform for a pebble, I thought it might be some kind of pearl. It was sort of dark in there, and it looked black to me. Since I'd heard of black pearls (AKA Jack Sparrow's ship),  I put it in my purse intending to Google it later, as I'd thought pearls only came in oysters. But I forgot about it. Three days later on the news, there was a story about a woman in Florida who found a purple pearl in her clams, and it was expected to be worth a LOT of money (I forget how much, MANY many thousands.) I almost had a stroke tearing to get that pearl out of my purse, and sure enough, it was purple. I hollered to Ron "HOLY SHIT! WE'VE BEEN RICH FOR THREE DAYS!"

Much Googling and emailing later, I uncovered these facts:

Clam pearls are called Quahog (pronounced KO-hog) pearls, are NOT truly pearls (only oysters make pearls, that's what I'd remembered) and are always some shade of purple, often shaded from almost white through lilac to purple.

Most sources insist only Atlantic clams make pearls, but I know differently.

They're quite rare, but since that story was on the news, more have been coming out of the woodwork.

They're so rare that there's no market for them yet, no one has set a benchmark for value. A couple of pearls were thought to be auctionable for those "many many thousands" prices, but not yet. Apparently no one wants to go first?

So in 2008 I listed mine on Ebay with a $5000 reserve, just to see, and the highest bid was $104. I put it away. $104 is a good price for something I got free in my dinner, but I decided to bide my time.

A couple of weeks ago someone sold a Quahog pearl on Ebay, very similar to mine, for $545. The market's improving ever-so-slightly. 

I think mine is even prettier than that one. It's tiny though, about 6mm and shaped like a fat M&M.

Here's the Ebay one that sold for $545.
Ebay Pearl

There's another one currently listed on Ebay that's set into a ring. He wants $15,000, down from $18,000 a few weeks ago. It's sort of ugly...
Ebay Pearl Ring

In 2000, a jeweler in Rhode Island bought an old brooch at an antique store for $14 because he thought it might be gold. It turned out it was gold, PLUS it had a huge (14mm) Quahog pearl, and a smaller one. This brooch toured the world, was thought to be worth between $250,000 and a million, but eventually dropped off the grid. No market yet.

So I've renewed my efforts at finding out how the market for Quahog Pearls is progressing.
And I order Almejas al Vapor every time I go to Jorge's.

Fixing to leave

It's been determined that I have to return a tad earlier this year, April 19th. I'm retired except I still work summers (two more) and they terminate me every year and rehire the next spring: with orientation classes mandatory. I've been working for them so long, I'm actually IN a couple of the mandatory compliance videos that orientees have to watch.

So we leave April 9. It'll be different this year, because the RV's not coming back here again. We only sleep in it at night, rarely even go in there otherwise. There'll be an addition built onto the casita by the end of summer, with bedroom and full bathroom, so I only need to take the stuff I'll need this summer in Minnesota. We have a GARAGE now to store the rest!

Today is St. Patrick's Day, with corned beef and cabbage being served tonight at the RV Park. We have to bring a dessert: I made shortcake with fresh raspberries and whipped cream.

Ron's building a leveled driveway to the garage, with a backfilled rock wall on the low edge. He picks up rocks every time we go anywhere. Yesterday he came home and said "Oops! The boulder I got isn't in the bed of the truck anymore". Picturing it in the middle of the road, he backtracked to make sure, but met neighbor Jack, who said he moved it.

Ron will be returning here sometime this summer to build the addition, so that makes "packing for Minnesota" a little trickier. Who gets the vacuum? I really don't want to buy a second one. I do have enough kitchen stuff to ensure he doesn't starve, but we'll have to buy another vehicle, TV, satellite dish, and laptop. Neither of us can do without those for more than a couple of weeks.

So I'm making lists. What to pack, what to leave, what to buy. New stuff occurs to me every few minutes. Camera! There are grandkids to photograph in Minnesota, and casita-progress here. Oh, dear...

So I've been taking some "last pictures" to sustain me. This is our house and front yard. I'm hanging this in my RV.

This is my garden, with Ella's grave in the back and our fire pit on the right. The aloes are almost done blooming.

And here is Ron's latest catch. These are California golden bass, averaging 5 pounds each.

And one last close-up of the casita.

Village Scenes

We went for a ride to explore the Roca Roja (Red Rock) region.. There's an opening in the fence behind Kino Nuevo that follows a rutted dirt trail. Back, up, back, up. Amazing "finds". There's a crumbled adobe ruin with chimney.

 

The road terminates in a turn-around at the end of a valley. Towering red hills surround you, dizzying to look up. Ron loaded up some big rocks for landscaping borders at the casita, I wandered around looking at the rocks. Quartz veins, crystals, obsidian. 

 

 

The last shot is the view back down the dirt road all the way to the Sea of Cortez. The ocotillo are blooming, flaming red-orange flower spikes at the tips of the branches.

Then we went to the village, and this had sprung up overnight.

Apparently there's to be a circus this week!

I also finally got some pictures of Boojum trees. The Seri Indians north of us believe Boojums are the giants that their ancestors were turned into. Interestingly, the shorter stocky ones are the females, and the tall thin ones are the males... They are very wary of the Boojums, as they believe if you "bother" them, they will call up storms with high winds. Boojums are more plentiful on the Baja Peninsula, and there's a few groves of them between the Seri villages of Punta Chueca and Desemboque. There are only three Boojums in Kino, but I haven't found the third one that's said to be in a private courtyard. Here's one growing naturally in a vacant lot just across from the beach in New Kino.

And a close-up of the leaves and thorns:

The other Boojum is a transplant on the grounds of the Maricultura  (Oyster Farm) just before the "shortcut" to our road. When the guard saw me trying to take a photo through the chain-link fence, he motioned me to come on in to get it!

 

We're used to seeing a variety of entrepreneurs selling from hand carts, bicycle carts, or pulling small trailers equipped to produce a feast, but I'd never seen a mobile Sushi cart before. Sushi and More!

 And Saturday night was the Luau at the Club Deportivo. We had about 16 from "the park" and "the hill" taking three of the 40 tables. They served roast pig and it was terrific!

Harold, Maggie, me, Ron, Michelle

Joan, Chuck, Kay, Sal, Kim, Jill

Allie,  Suzanne, Les Norm, Danielle, Pat

(And the only shot of Morris at the table in the rear, center.)

Ginger, Harold, Maggie, Ron

Ron, Michelle, Darrell, Doug, Harold, Maggie

Norm, Danielle, Bill, Pat, Suzanne, Les

 Al. His bride Sal wouldn't stay put for a photo.


















Ron left early today to go out on a really big boat in the Deportivo Fishing Derby. They said they'd be back tonight, but will go out again tomorrow and probably stay out a day or three. He's over the moon to have hooked up with Frank and Bob at the Luau, and looking forward to some tuna.

My third rug is still outside drying.

Repairs, Flood, and Grandbaby photos!

One morning last week, I'm crossing the space between the RV and the casita carrying the cat at 4AM. (If you don't carry him, he runs off in the dark where there might be coyotes. Don't want him to hurt the coyotes.) I hear water running, and as I step up onto the deck, it's wet. Sure as shit, when I unlock the door, water comes pouring out, like a cartoon. Thinking I'm about to be electrocuted, I go shut off the water and go inside. The top of the new water heater blew it's valve off. It had been installed Mexican-style, plastic parts, lots of glue, etc. So I went back over and woke up Ron, and together we muscle one of the 3 carpets outside. The other two get the shop vac treatment first, then get muscled outside. Those suckers are very, very heavy when soaked. This was the day the RV windows were going to be replaced, and the van-ful of skilled workers arrived shortly after. When they decided the windows had to come out and go to the village to be fixed, he also offered to get the parts required to fix the water heater! What a guy! So we spent the time while they were gone mopping up. When they came back, the windows were installed in 5 minutes, and the heater fixed 10 minutes later. Then I fed them all: fried sea-bass, frijoles, papas, and steamed broccoli. So my carpets are cleaner, my windows are intact, my water heater is installed properly, and the whole thing only cost $137.00 plus food. I love this country!

Two of the carpets were dry by the next evening. The other one is still outside, because it smelled of kitchen/dogs/who knows and I had to go buy carpet cleaner in Hermosillo. That one will get cleaned tomorrow.

And just today I finally got photos from Nora and Dylan's joint birthday party in January. I've been quite a pain with my prodding and begging (they misplaced the cable for the camera) but they're here:

(Yes, it's Photoshopped.) I can't believe they're TOUCHING each other. They usually are screaming "Don't touch me!"

 

These are the scrubs I had made by a craftsperson on the Etsy website.

And our Fairy Princess in her Etsy Tutu

Miss Nora at 2 years old. In her cage.
















I miss those faces SO much. We're leaving here April 15. Should be warm enough to live in an RV in Minnesota by then, don't you think?