A Guide's View

Guide Report 

San Ignacio Lagoon, BCS, Mexico

Feb. 27, 2015

By:  Liisa Juuti

Our guests often ask me, "How come can you receive a new group just a few hours after the current group has left the camp?"  The answer is, planning & coordination, great team work and very high energy and stress level.  I’ll share with you how the “change of the group” day for each of us actually is. 

I.  Catalina, Ceci, Elsa and Pedro wake up at 4:20 a.m. and start preparing the packed lunch to be served on the plane, both for the group leaving the camp and for the new group. Usually this means preparing around 120 burritos. After that they start preparing the breakfast for our 25+ guests, serve it and wash the dishes.

II. Cuco wakes up at 5:30 am to help with the kitchen and then drives the guests in a bus to the airport, accompanies the group during the 2 hour flight to Ensenada, meets the new group in Ensenada, feeds both groups with the sandwiches prepared earlier on in the day, flies back from Ensenada to San Ignacio Lagoon with the new group and brings them on the bus to the camp in the early afternoon.

III. After the group has left the camp, our kitchen team starts cleaning up the 15 cabins and 3 tents one by one. Priscila washes by hand the 30+ sheets, pillow cases and aprons. After that follows the cleaning of bathrooms and showers, and once finished, the kitchen staff hurries up cleaning the fish or scallop for dinner. When the new group arrives around 4 p.m. the margaritas, chips and freshly made salsas are ready to be served.

IV. Meanwhile, Maldo drives for 2 hours leaving early in the morning for Santa Rosalia to buy all the food supplies for the new group.

V. M-T and I wake up at 6 am, get the palapa ready for breakfast, serve the breakfast to our guests and say goodbye to the group that leaves around 8 am. I make the cabin plan for the new group and check their special diets. Sometimes we have up to 19 guests with special diets in one group; my respects to the cooks´ imagination! Then we start cleaning up the palapa and separate the trash produced in 5 days. Thanks to our Eco Certificate we separate and recycle about 95% of all our trash with no need to deliver anything to the garbage dump. After having cleaned up and reorganized the lifejackets and rubber boots I do some office work; sales inventory, weather report, and send off the guide reports. If we have time, we wash our laundry and clean up the camper we´re staying in. Then at 1 pm we put our special staff shirts on and head to the airport to receive the new group with drinks, snacks and a big smile, and there's nothing fake about that smile. We love this!