And then there was the evening we spent in the middle of nowhere. A seaside town called Adolfo Lopez Mateo. A town that is positively kicking in grey whale season. For us, there were whales everywhere… statues of whales breaching high in the air, renderings of whales on the ground beneath our feet, and whale memorabilia dominating the shops. Everywhere that is except for the real ones in the sea. They were long gone. To be fair, given we’d seen the very same grey whales migrating up the California coast about a month earlier, we didn’t really have high hopes of seeing whales.

Whales here and whales there…

Whales galore!

… and not a tour operator in sight – all shut up for the season.

Not only were there no whales in Adolfo Lopez Mateo, there were also no people. We were absolutely the only tourists left in town, and there were no realistic dining options. Not a problem we thought, we’ve got the camping stuff with us, we can go to the supermarket and rustle something up on our balcony.

Welcome to the world of small town Mexican supermarkets! Long story short, I have no idea what these people eat (other than rice and beans). The shoe polish and toilet roll took up a full aisle, the sugary pink pastries another. With the vast assortment of rice and beans, there was very little room for anything else.

We were made up to find the ‘fresh’ shelf and settled on some eggs, tomatoes and tortillas. There was not an egg box in sight, so with nothing else to transport the eggs in other than a flimsy plastic bag, I’m amazed they made it back to the hotel in one piece. I nurtured the bag of eggs like I was carrying a goldfish from a fun fair.

With some intense devotion, we even managed to find the only liquor store in town. With very few options, Darren settled for a few cans of Pacifico. However, I quite fancied a bottle of wine with dinner. I eyed the one single bottle in the store skeptically: a ‘fruity red’ from Carlo Rossi vineyard, product of the USA. Beggars can’t be choosers and all that… so I reached the bottle from the shelf and blew the dust off it. Not a good sign. Noticed it was dated 2008 – also not a good sign (I didn’t think this was the type of wine that would age well!). However, it wasn’t until after I opened it that I read the small print about its sweet taste captivating the senses. Sweet 🙁 Oops. Total wine fail. Oh well, at least the egg tacos hit the spot 🙂