The week before Easter, Terry and I took four teenagers (well, Derek will be 13 in July) to Mexico for a week to camp out in a house with no running water or electricity. Were we crazy? Maybe. Did we have fun? Heck yeah!

We were given free use of a house in La Bufadora, just south of Ensenada. The only catch was that it had been abandoned for seven years. The people who built it did an amazing job—they just walked away before they finished it. It’s terraced up the hillside in three levels. The top level has a huge patio at the top of a granite cliff (100 feet up) overlooking Papalote Bay, the Blow Hole and the Pacific Ocean. Yes, it’s a million dollar view. The house is built of block and rock with a solid roof, windows with screens and blinds and one and a half bathrooms. What it lacks is a functioning kitchen, a water supply and electricity. Well, there isn’t any paint on the walls (except some graffiti) and the floors are concrete, but those things are minor.

We brought our motor home down with us. We also brought a camping table and stove, tons of cleaning supplies and permission from the next door neighbor to run a hose from his house into the kitchen and bathrooms.

Terry and I had seen the house before. We told the kids it was full of trash and dead critters, but, hey, we also told them they were gonna love it—after the work was done! Believe me, I’m not opposed to child labor, and six people can clean a place up a whole lot faster than two! We were ready, set, go for an adventure—all six of us. We pulled up on Monday and started taking loads of stuff up the stairs. Terry counted 40-some stairs up the hill from the driveway to the patio and top level of the house. The first things we brought were brooms, rags and black plastic trash bags. It took two hours to clean the place up. Terry’s job was the worst. Only one bathroom door was open at that point, and the toilet in there was way, way gross. He took it off, hauled it outside, turned it upside down and turned on the neighbor’s hose full-blast. Voila!

Derek's buddy, Andrew got the second bathroom open, after which we christened him “Fast Eddie.” The boys screamed bloody murder when they got inside. This toilet was okay, but the pink porcelain tub was full of dirt, dead mice and roaches. They tried to disappear, but I made ‘em get the dead stuff out and then the girls cleaned. By sunset, we had one fully functioning bathroom (if you consider turning on the hose to fill the toilet tank when you want to flush it and bathing with a hose in cold water fully functional!) and another toilet that could be used if flushed with a bucket of water. The Y valve Terry got at Home Depot, to use to run another hose into the kitchen didn’t work, so we never had any running water up there. The camping stove worked great for cooking though, and the house had three barbecues, so we were cruising there! We had two big coolers, a boom box, lanterns and lots of candles. The house had a table and chairs, plenty of patio furniture, a coffee table and five rollaway beds. Gayle and Kristen set up camp in the living room. Derek and Fast Eddie took over one of the two bedrooms. Our master suite was the motor home.

We were set, except for the sink. It had never been hooked up, so we put empty Styrofoam coolers under it and did dishes with water from a bucket. On Day Two we got to the patio. Terry and I pruned the half-dead myroporum tree on the patio, along with all the succulents and natural plants. Derek and Eddie climbed the neighbor’s Eucalyptus trees, sawed off the dead branches and hauled them over to the fire pit. We were knee-deep in trimmings when our friends started arriving. We put down the pruners and saws, opened the coolers and took a Pacifico break! The kids took off—free at last. The boys headed down to the tide pools and the girls to the beach to work on their sunburns. The boys kayaked, jumped off rocks into the freezing cold ocean and swam to shore. The girls shopped at the mall (read that a row of curio stands leading to the Blow Hole) and went hiking. Gayle whooped the other three in round after round of dominoes, using the jail house rules Derek had learned the previous summer. She reigned all week as the Domino Queen. Their conversations during these games were bizarre, although I did my best not to eavesdrop. Every time Terry or I would wander indoors, all we would hear was a chorus of “How ‘bout them Padres?!” followed by raucous laughter.

Oh. One last thing. I forgot to ask the next door neighbor which pila (water cistern) was his. I asked around and we all guessed wrong. We paid $32 to fill the wrong pila on Thursday and ran out of water an hour later. From then on we had to forego the cold showers from the hose and flush the toilets with melted cooler water. But hey, it was an adventure and I’d do it again in a heartbeat!

© 2001 Ann Hazard. No part of this article may be reprinted without permission.
This story is featured in Ann's newest book, Agave Sunsets.
REPRINTED FROM THE COAST NEWS, May 11, 2000

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P.S. Ann and Terry were able to buy this house on May 11, the same day this story came out in the paper! It's obviously gonna be a "project," but we're looking forward to it. After all, summer is the time when child labor is most available! Check out the view of the beach and the ranch from our stairway....