was to go and stake out an area behind some bushes or rocks and away from most of the rest where I could have a little privacy. I really didn't want to shock the entourage by letting them discover that whereas Virginia had signed up, Charles had come along. But all went off well. With an air mattress and a sleeping bag we were pretty comfortable. The mattress was important - even though it had a small leak - I had to blow it up a couple of times each night. For those of you who have never slept on sand, it doesn't differ too much from concrete. Regardless of how soft it is when you walk in it, it gets mighty hard about three in the morning.
·
Because of my skin condition, I sunburn very easily, so I took the precaution of buying and wearing a pair of light- weight white pants and took one of Charles' old white sport shirts out of the back closet and wore that whenever I went in swimming or snorkeling. However, I didn't use my head to realize that the weave in the thin white material was very open relative to the wave lengths of ultra violet light; so, in spite of the shirt, I got a good red back - enough to cause everyone else to comment when I took the shirt off. I hesitate to think what it would have been like without the shirt. When you snorkle, you paddle around on the surface of the water wuth your face, with mask attached, face down in the water in order to observe the fish and coral on the bottom. It's all so fascinating and interesting and the water warm enough thatyou could stay out there all afternoon. However, your back and the back of your legs are exposed to the sun all the time. But I survived and we had a marvelous time and some great cookery, especially of some of the fish that were caught. There were the usual campfire song fests, story telling and drinking bouts, but we all became good friends and some of us even learned a few things about the birds, beasts, fish and plant life of the Baja area
After attending DREAM in Oregon, I will be going to China for a trip which will take 35 days. It will not be just the usual tourist trip to the costal cities of China, but, instead, it will include a long trip deep into the interior of the country. (3200 miles west of Peking, as a matter of fact). I will end up onyly about 400 miles east of Alma Ata in the Soviet Union, where I was in 1975. This area in Simkiang province is the most landlocked place on earth. That is, it is furthest from the ocean in any direction you might point. Since I am interested in
-24-