Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Today we took a local bus to from Guaymas to Miramar, with the intent of visiting the pearl farming facility. Our plan was the same as it was at ESSA: walk in, flash the business cards around, and ask for a tour. But first we had to find it. The guidebook said only that it was in Miramar, which is not saying much. Miramar is an enclave of loveliness. The houses are just special, like something from the cover of Richer Than You magazine, each more smooth and elegant than the last, with the deep bluegreen water of the Sea of Cortez peeking from behind them. The dogs however, are just as scrawny and bedraggled, and just as prone to lying flat out on the sidewalk dull-eyed and gasping, as they are in Guaymas.

We asked for directions at the fancy hotel and after a long and dusty walk, we arrived at the place. We didn’t know where we were going, exactly, so we ended up at the pearl shop. There we encountered some obnoxious Americans. It was a whole family of them, and the chief of them was a woman with the worlds most grating voice.

This womans voice just reverberated off the walls. Taaahm, Taaahm, what do you think of these? Oh, Taaahm, this is so cute. It was nonstop. Oh, see you can wear those big things. Taaahm's lucky I dont wear gold. There was only one employee working, and she had her hands full with Tom's wife, so we figured we'd wait until they left. Which took forever. The kids whined, but Tom's wife insisted the pearl store wasnt boring. I'm having the time of my life, she screeched. We went to wait outside. We waited a long, long, time. But it wasn't a bad wait. We sat in the shade and it was breezy and we had a wonderful view of brown velvet hills folding themselves into the sparkling sea.

Eventually the family came out. And so did the woman working in the shop. And they went, single file, down the trail toward the pearl farm. On a tour, we assumed. The shop was empty. Oh, we were pissed. So we hung around for a while, and I picked out the earrings that I would buy if I were planning on buying pearls. Then a woman came out and asked us what we wanted. Michael gave the we're journalists speech. She said, Just a minute, and she came back in about five minutes with the owner and one of the founders of the pearl farm, Douglas McLaurin. And he listened to our speech and said, Let's go then, and took us to the oysters. Wow.

We went down to the palapa where the oysters were being sorted and Douglas was explaining all about them and letting Michael take a photo of him with a handful of them, when Tom's wife came back into our lives. Oh, are those baby oysters? Oh, how neat! Oh, I never knew all this! And she stuck her little camera in and started taking photos. I cant hate on her though. It was really neat. And I didnt know about any of it either. But still - please be quieter. Douglas seemed prepared to include her in his explanations, but after she'd admired the cute baby oysters, she lost interest and they all left.

Who knew pearl farming was so interesting? If you learned as a child, as I did, that natural pearls (as opposed to cultured pearls) are started by a grain of sand, that is wrong. They're actually started by digger worms, and every natural pearl you see has a dead worm in the middle. Very elegant.

The farm idea was created by Douglas and two of his classmates as a response to a university assignment. They got a C- on the project, but they went ahead with the idea anyway, and now their Sea of Cortez pearls are some of the best quality in the world.

I feel like we got really lucky to get such a great inside look. We're not unique; they give tours daily and have had up to 500 people come through in a day. But to get so much of one of the founders' personal time and individualized attention after showing up at random was very cool. Plus, it's always a huge treat for me to meet someone who really loves what they do. It's inspiring to know life doesn't have to be five days of lame followed by two days of relief - one of which is ruined by the knowledge that lame starts again tomorrow. Since we started this trip I get up every morning happy about the day to come. I don't want that to end.

 

Post a comment:

Name:
Email:
URL:
A cat says:
Comment: (HTML is allowed)

Floats attached to oyster nets in the Sea of Cortez

Oyster sorting area

Pearl farm employees at work

"Baby oysters" Immature rainbow-lipped oysters

Douglas McLaurin, entrepreneur with an environmential conscience

Gem-quality pearl