Our first solar eclipse was the Great One of July 11, 1991. (Elsewhere I tell the story of how we decided to go to this event.)

The American newspapers were warning that a flood of people would overwhelm Baja's tourist infrastructure. The Mexican government was making schoolrooms available, so we arranged something through them. We would be staying at a technical school called CECATUR, in San Jose del Cabo.

Our room at CECATUR

When we arrived, we found that we shared a room with 12 iron cots and one bathroom. The bathroom toilet was broken, so we had go elsewhere in the school to use a toilet. Barbara and I arrived later than others, so we could only get cots at opposite corners of the room. These accommodations cost us $60 a night! (Later we met Craig Dunning, who had come down on the spur of the moment, and who had found a private room in a local Mexican motel for $8 a night.)

Once, in the schoolroom, I was leaning over my pack and a cockroach, about 1 1/2 inches long, landed on the back of my neck.

With John Game in front of our room at CECATUR

We did see the eclipse; it was longer than six minutes in duration. Here are my notes written that night:

To the beach, near the Stouffer Presidenté Hotel. A forest of tripods. Very festive.

The light dims but becomes crystalline -- no glare! No squinting.

Finally, with a visual "whoosh", totality. Shouts. Tears. The brilliant whiteness and purity of the corona. The wings. Sunset on all horizons -- pink clouds to the south, a few stars at the zenith.

Then a rush, and light, though dim, returns.

Our immediate reaction was "so when is the next one?" and start planning right away. We would have to wait until 1994 to see the next one, in Bolivia.