October 2005
Poppa returned to the Island Rooster in mid-October and began preparations for the trip down the coast of Baja.
February 6, 2006 update by Arie Taal
note: Arie is a raft builder from the Netherlands and a long-time friend of the Floating Neutrinos
San Felipe, Sea of Cortez, Mexico, hot and sunny
Leaving Amsterdam was not hard. It had been freezing cold the last weeks. At the airport of San Diego I met Keith Busha again after 33 years. My long lost American brother had found me last year on the internet. In 1964 I was an exchange student and stayed with his family. He had also been down at the bottom, but managed to straighten out, and is now living on San Juan island, near Seattle. We picked up where we left off, immediately we were close again. He is going to be my camera man in this venture. We'll record Poppa Neutrino as he launches his new raft to cross the Pacific to go to China.
Next day we took the ABC bus to Mexicali and San Felipe. We went into a bar, one of hundreds, and miraculously, who walks in after 2 minutes but Poppa Neutrino. Joyful reunion. We last met near Brownsville, on the border of Texas and Mexico, when Poppa had just completed his descent of the Mississipi by raft, from Minnesota to New Orleans. It was great to see the old sea gipsy again, 72 years old now and still crazy. Turned out he and Keith had a lot of common musician friends from North Beach, San Francisco. Poppa took us to Catalina, wife of Ed, owners of the only bookstore in town. We are staying at their house. Their hospitality is heart warming. Poppa is still working on his raft 23 km south of here. The Sea of Cortez is blue and beautiful. The landscape is desert-like. This place has the largest variety of cacti in the world. What surprised us was the huge number of cars that went off the road down into the ravine. They seem to leave them there as a warning for other drivers. Our bus driver did not seem impressed. He drove so dangerously, overtaking other cars in corners with no view at all, that we decided to stop watching him, and look the other way.
February 8th 2006 update by Arie Taal
Yesterday we went south to Rancho Percebu, 23 km south of San Felipe. Poppa is working on his raft there. He should be ready when the spring tide comes, a week from now. Today we go down again to help him with the work.
February 26, 2006 information received from Arie Taal
Island Rooster left Rancho Percebu today, headed south. The weather was perfect, although without wind, so the raft was under motor power.
More updates will be posted as they come in
Click on the small thumbnails below to see a larger view of each photo.
