El Descanso

Our palapa is located outside the walls in the midst of our own wilderness garden. It is truly a resting place in deep shade during summer, a bird watching station, a conversation or reading place and a place to commune with nature in your very own way.

Everyone should have one...at least, if you live in Borrego! If you look at pictures before you read, you'll know I'm talking about a PALAPA! A palapa fits into desert living like a foot fits into a shoe...it just seems to belong here. We have one and, like everything else, it aged and needed a rehab. A few fronds had blown away over the years and it desperately yelled, " FIX ME".

Easier said than done! When Mr. Creative first built the palapa, he was a bit more agile than he is today...if you had seen him at work, you would also say more foolhardy! The main pole and frame created no problem and was conceived and carried out fairly easily. ( but with a great deal of thought ) It was the second stage that presented problems. Putting on the palm fronds. To prevent injury, the sharp spines have to be cut off. A machete is the tool of choice. And it takes a lot of hacking away and a lot of fronds to make a palapa! There are many ways to attach the fronds to the frame, starting at the outside edges and working towards the top center. We started with the traditional method of looping portions of the leaf underneath a support and tying it securely. Too hard. He came up with the idea of looping bailing wire over the leaf and twisting it under the support. Time consuming, but we only lost a few fronds over a fifteen year period !

Everything went along fine until near the top, where he could no longer reach. My heart almost stopped when he told me his plans to move the RV close to the palapa, span the distance with a ladder and crawl over it to the center of the palapa. Over my objections, this he did. The fronds were attached without mishap.

We were wiser, this year, and hired helpers, who were more dexterous.