by Carlos Fiesta
As I write this page I am sitting at the keyboard of a friend's computer at his oceanfront home in San Juanico, Baja California Sur, Mexico. Surfers know this little slice of paradise as Scorpion Bay. The home I am staying in, Casa Juan y Juan, is like a second home for me and a place where I can get away from the many dramas of my primary reality back at home.
It is mid-morning, the sky is clear and warming up nicely, and I am looking out at the spectacular protected bay and a glassy ocean surface. Pelicans and sea gulls occasionally pass between me and the crystal clear horizon line. It's the kind of day that just makes you glad to be alive.
I had just finished listening to the Allan Jackson song "It's 5:00 Somewhere" where Jimmy Buffett sneaks into the second half of the song and helps make it the classic sing-along song sung by youngsters and oldsters all around the country. It's a song a lot of people can relate to...myself included.
Listening to the song this morning struck a special chord with me (pardon the pun) because I had just watched Jimmy sing that song (and many other songs) live the previous Saturday night, prior to leaving for this trip to Mexico. It was a spectacular concert ...the legendary pre-party in the Verizon Amphitheater parking lot in Irvine, California, the great music of Jimmy Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band, plus a wild card thrown in by Mother Nature when she blessed us all with rain showers during the second half of the outdoor show. There wasn't a dry Parrot Head in the crowd, and the concert continued as if the rain was some sort of surprise stage prop (although there weren't quite as many spontaneous little 'glows' in the audience after the rain started, if you get my drift).
CARLOS FIESTA'S QUEST TO MEET JIMMY BUFFETT
Anyone who goes to work barefoot has got to be one cool dude.
Anyway, to make a long story longer, my thoughts drifted towards the fact that I had come close to meeting Jimmy Buffett on several occasions during the last few years, but I never really had the occasion to set the hook. We shared the same views of the Caribbean and Malecon from the Hotel Nacional in Havana Cuba (but at different times), I missed him by a few weeks near the Arenal volcano in Costa Rica, by a day or two at a secluded fishing cove on the east coast of Baja, and by a few hours at Margaritaville Restuarant one morning on the Strip in Las Vegas. Close each time, but no Habana.
I have been a Buffett fan for over 40 years, and just like many other fans, found that my own thoughts about enjoying life and living were put to words so well in his great music. It was because of his belief that he could play music for a living that lead me to believe that my dream of writing travel guides was actually a realistic endeavor. Aside from his musical talents, I've always felt that anybody who has a last name that means "all you can eat" has got to be one great guy.
So I am sitting here thinking that, at some point before one of us passes on to that big final tailgate party in the sky, I'd love to share a cold cervesa with Senor Buffett. I am now 57 years old and, with any luck, I may have another 20 or 30 years left to accomplish this unique quest. Time's a wasting...I've got to figure out a plan to meet Jimmy.
Although he's on a whole different level than me, James and I do have a few things in common. So it is possible our paths might cross. We both love Mexico, we are both pilots, we both have a yearning for boating adventures on the ocean, we both surf, and we both used to enjoy chasing women before settling down with our main squeezes. Because of all the time he spends in, on or arount the water, I'm guessing that Senor Jaime also likes to snorkle and dive, my favorite underwater adventures. Another common thread is that we both like to share our stories with others and try to do so in a way that is fun and a bit unconventional.
But no matter how much a person might have in common with a guy like Jimmy Buffett, there is no getting around the fact that every Parrot Head and his brother would like the same opportunity that I would like... to drink a cold beer with the guy. The odds are indeed slim...just the kind of challenge I can sink my teeth into. If I have any edge at all it might be these on-line travel guides read by good folks like you.
Jimmy may or may not have ever surfed any of the 700 plus pages of my web sites for Mexico travel information, but it is possible that somebody he knows may have. It has been said that we are all several people removed from meeting any person we would like to know. In other words even if J.B. himself doesn't see these words, somebody he knows may see them, or somebody who knows somebody he knows might get the message to him. Comprende? With over a zillion hits a year on these pages the Mexico Expo web sites are not huge, but there is a chance that this grand scheme might be successful. Anyway, it seems like it's worth a shot, which is why I have put together this special web page.
So if there is anyone out there who can put me a bit closer to making this dream a reality, please contact me. When the rendezvous does take place I will update this page with a follow up so others Jimmy Buffet fans can share in the fun. Of course I expect a few cranks e-mails from knuckleheads who just want to drive me crazy with this quest, and I welcome those communications as well. That's part of the fun of this adventure we call life!
As an incentive, I will donate $1,000 towards the designated charity of whoever hooks me up with that last link to Jimmy. Fins to the left...