I was thinking about Food Blog Camp 2012 and how we never came up with a place to hold it and then I was up at Miami Beach in Tela this weekend and feeling a little guilty because it’s all right here — just a car ride away.  It’s beautiful with wide sandy beaches, turquoise blue water and so peaceful.

It may be just a tad bit too rustic for the likes of us food blogger types who have to have electricity and internet connectivity at all times and whose expectations of running water are a little more modern than what we find here.

Hands-on cooking could be a great adventure though and while there was a clean-enough bathroom right here off the beach, I’m not quite sure how that toilet worked without running water.

There’s plenty to see and do around these parts, with endless opportunities for great photos, but I’m not so sure we could make it for a week, or even or 4 days without some of the creature comforts of home.

Heat was emanating off this pot even a few feet away.  No problem cooking whatever we can get our hands on.  Sopa de Mariscos — Seafood Soup — was going to town in this pot.

The kids were happy to show me their prowess with a knife, a coconut and a bucket.  Now, that’s determination.  The knife is bigger than his hand and the bucket is 1/2 as tall as the boy carrying it.  And trust me, I did tell him to keep his eye on the knife, although I’m quite sure English is not his first language.

And we’d have enough willing subjects for models, it seems.

I’m not sure I get this scene though?  Do people line up in the hammocks and snooze while people are just below them eating?  Or do you eat your pescado frito and frijoles con aroz and then hop up into a hammock?  One of those thing that make you scratch your head and say — huh?

When it’s time to do the dishes, I think we’ll have to flip for it.   Where does the water come from, I wonder?

We won’t go thirsty — there’s plenty of coconut water!

Coconut water comes right off the tree.

I’m pretty sure she’s enjoying the coconut.

Transportation is always at the ready.

Getting laundry done could be a bit of an effort, but that just means we have to bring enough to last the entire trip.

But at the end of the day, this is the landscape and it’s nearly impossible to find anything wrong with it.  So, even if we aren’t going to have camp this year, my doors are open — although, perhaps not as open as here at Miami Beach.  A fellow blogger I love reading, Rob from Stop Having a Boring Life  is always going on about how you need to seize the opportunity, to make life happen in the way you want it to happen and this, my friends, is life at it’s finest for me.  Uncluttered.  Simple.  Beautiful.

When we returned to civilization — or at least paved roads — I asked Alex to take me to the market so I could pick up a few ingredients for what’s replacing Food Blog Camp, 2012 for me.  I’m attending Eat, Write, Retreat this year and there’s an Iron Chef style cooking challenge.  We know two of our secret ingredients and Watermelon is one of them.  Watermelon is always plentiful around these parts — what to do with it that’s interesting and pairs well with the other “secret ingredient,” Jarlsberg cheese is another story.

Miami Beach in Tela may not be the place everyone wants to head to for Food Blog Camp, 2010, but  I’m pretty happy I have scenes like these just a car ride away.