Boring doesn't last forever, on the beach in Mexico

Even when I'm bored, something comes along to change it.  I was lounging for yet another day on the beach where I had stopped for one night and still had not left for three months.  This time I was lazy'd out in one of those white, plastic lounge chairs.  I had found it at the dump and propped up the missing leg with a cinder block. To make it comfortable I covered it with a soft tapestry fabric from the traveling gypsies.  They packed up their several kids and several puppies and left the fabric drying over the bushes.  So here I sat, contentedly bored, rifling through a variety of magazines and books that I had found at the dump too.  The pages were a little stuck together as they had water damage from the recent hurricane, but it was something to do.

The sun was starting to sink behind me when two friendly ladies came walking along the sand and asked me if I knew where they could get a massage.  I shrugged my shoulders and said I didn't know of any place near here, but I told them that if they wanted, I could give them massages.  They asked "how much". I wasn't expecting them to be interested nor to get paid but I said "how about thirty-dollars each".  I had never given a professional massage for money nor did I have any professional training or certificates.  I had however, received many of them in fancy spas and resorts and at festivals and without a doubt, I knew what a good massage was!  Hey, I was in Mexico, the rules were different!  I didn't need a training certificate or license or insurance here to practice anything, so why not try it, I thought!  They seemed very happy with the price so we arranged a time to meet the following day.

The next morning they met me on the beach under a shady palm tree where I had use of a primitive massage table made out of sawhorses and plywood with a hole cut-out for the head and a few pads on it for comfort.  I remember thinking --oh no!  What if I am not good enough!?  But I soothed myself as I remembered that I too had paid and received crappy massages in the past and it wouldn't be the end of me.  Since my main reason for doing it was from boredom, if they didn't seem satisfied, I would certainly not make them pay.  So I just did the massages as best as I could, mimicking the best parts about all the massages I experienced in my personal past.  I also included added time and pressure on specific energy points that I had learned about from numerous classes in healing modalities and acupuncture that I had studied in the past.

The ladies were excellent first-time victims and they happily paid me the agreed fee along with a tip!  They wandered away looking dopey and said they felt great.

Yay! This was the beginning of a new chapter in the life of Lulu on Playa El Coyote in Baja de Concepcion Mexico and yet another reason and excuse to stay longer!  I was so excited to have something new to do and a major bonus that I could make money at it.

Inspired, I immediately started the project of setting up a proper massage salon. I cleaned out a space in the nearest group of palm trees for my salon.  I felt like a kid that was building a fort!  It was so fun!  There was a LOT of trash to pick up, dirty sand to shovel up and move out and fresh, clean sand that needed to be moved into the space.  A big hole to be filled.  I finally got to use the little hand-held saw from the toolbox on the back of the Honey,  hacking out the dead palm leaves.  I made it into a partial shade space, just warm enough but not too directly sunny.  A friend who was heading to Cabo San Lucas airport agreed to bring me a real massage table from the big city which was ten hours south of here.   I was even happy to have a reason to buy another ten-dollar wool mexican blanket from my newest, best-friends -the beach vendors!  I hung it up for privacy on the one, open side of the salon.  I didn't want to feel like I was competing with the vendors, after all, I might be working illegally, I thought uncomfortably, so I offered to give their families free massages if they had any injuries or pain.

Now the salon was ready and I wondered if anyone would actually hire me or if I would just end up giving away massages for something to do.  I hoped I would be able to make enough money to at least cover the cost of the table that had been so kindly delivered to me.