A Quick Update

We are no longer living in Guaymas, we returned to live in Canada some years ago;because of health concerns.

I had the blog set to private for quite a while; but as there are some people who are still interested in reading it I have again set it to public.

We loved the time that we spent living in Guaymas and still miss it at times.

****If you are reading this please, please remember that any information regarding Tourist Permits or any other government things is very outdated and is sure to have changed.******

If you happened here trying to find my art blog you will find that here:  Maas Art   I am still painting in both oils and pastels.

Painting The Patio

This afternoon to our surprise the painters showed up to paint the newly done patio roof and also the walls.
Our landlady had told us that she was going to hire them to do the work; but we had no idea of when they were coming.
A few hours later it was all finished, looks really good.  Now just waiting for the tiles to be put onto the floor and the patio will finally be done.

Dessert Anyone?

Normally neither one of us is big on eating dessert, it is something that I make every once in a while; but not on a regular basis.
I have a bunch of cream cheese in the deep freeze that I am trying to use up so we have been eating some good stuff lately if you like cheesecake type desserts.
I was surfing online for a no bake chocolate cheesecake the other day as I also had some chocolate I want to use up.
I found one and tried it after all how can cream cheese, crumbs and chocolate be a bad mixture, also it was very simple.
It turned out quite well.  When I make a new recipe I always ask Roy if it is a "make again" recipe or a "never again" recipe.  He pronounced this one a "make again".  It is very rich; especially with a dollop of whipped cream, so you don't want a large portion of it.

Morning Coffee and The Cycle of Life

Sitting on the patio having our morning coffee and I thought I would just share a couple of photos of what we look out at daily.
Lovely morning, birds are singing, hummingbirds are eating and fighting and there is not a cloud in the sky.

This photo made me think of the cycle of life: birth, life and death all in one photo.  I love how the new Mango leaves start off such a pretty purple colour, before continuing on to be green and then the yellow as they prepare to die.

Just some of what we look out on as we sip our coffee on the patio.

Have a good day and a Happy Cinco de Mayo if you celebrate it.

Road Trip Part 8 - San Javier to Hermosillo, Sonora and Home

After San Javier we again headed down the road.  We were ready for breakfast so stopped in Tecoripa.  There wasn't much in the town; but we found a small place with two old kitchen tables that called itself a restaurant.  When we walked in we thought there was no place to sit as one table had 3 or 4 men seated at it eating and the other table was full of juice, sodas, etc..  The lady told us to come in and they cleaned off the table and we sat down.
We ordered eggs with ham and as they had no coke we settled for water.  While we were waiting the men at the other table starting talking our ears off.  The cook and the other lady there joined in the conversation and we could barely eat our breakfast when it arrived.
The men went outside to gossip when they finished eating and when we went outside they continued the conversation.  We walked over to the plaza for a few minutes and then came back, said our farewells and left.

Tecoripa.

After that there wasn't much on the road and we didn't make any more stops for awhile.  We passed through San Jose de Pima without stopping.

We came to the small town of La Colorada; but didn't like what we saw so we didn't bother stopping.  Not much to see, a mining town that looked less well cared for than any of the others we had seen on the whole trip.
Scenes along the road.
Just another burro, we saw burros, cows, horses, cowboys, goats, a couple of deer, some roadrunners, lots of birds including some Cardinals.

After this we passed through Hermosillo and headed home to Guaymas.  An interesting trip and some new sights.
Not sure which area we will pick for the next trip around the state or in which direction we will go next time.

Road Trip Part 7 - San Javier, Sonora

San Javier is an old mining town and there are still active mines around the area.  We noticed lots of what looked like small family operations going on in the hills and there are also large company mines.
Sonora has large deposits of many ores/minerals of which copper and gold are two.
We wandered around a bit, talked to a few people and just sat and relaxed in the plaza.

Nice new benches being installed in the plaza.  They were in the process of fixing up the plaza.  Each of the 3 backs on the bench depict a different process in the old time harvest, cutting it with a scythe, raking it and gathering up the sheaves.  Neat benches; although I expected mining depictions rather than harvesting ones when I first went to look at them.

Small operations.

Road Trip Part 6 - Scenes On The Road Between Yecora and San Javier, Sonora

The road was much better between Yecora and the old mining town of San Javier so out came the camera again.
Some shots on the road.  Click to enlarge.

Oak leaves???

Pretty purple flowers on shrubs

On the next 2 pictures, if you enlarge them you will some some very bright green in certain places on the mountain.  I am not sure; but I think this might be exposed copper.  There are lots of copper mines close to this area.

Road Trip Part 5 - Yecora

Back on the road and onto the next town. A couple of the sights along the way.
As always click on the photos to view them larger or hit Control and the photo.
I laughed when we saw these guys just a heading down the road.

The road improved somewhat and then there was this.

We finally arrived at the junction where our "highway", and I use that term very loosely, intersected with the highway that most people travel, from Hermosillo.  It was now only 47 km. to Yecora and the road although it was still one windy, hairpin turn after another was very good.  Lovely pavement without potholes.  What a joy!  It was still slow travelling and took over an hour to drive the 47 kms. because of the terrain; but at least we were not bouncing all over.
We arrived at Yecora, which was our destination for the night.  We found a motel room and checked in.  I never did take a photo of the motel; but it was just a plain building, nothing special.  Hotel Sendero, decent room 400 pesos for the night.
We then needed to find some lunch and kind of stopped at the first place we saw.

Food was edible; but nothing special.  They didn't have any Coke, only Pepsi, so they sent the young boy to buy a couple for us to have with our meal.
After filling our bellies we wandered around the town to see what there was to see.
The Plaza is pretty new, having been re-done in 2010 for the big Bicentennial of Independence celebrations.

Kiosk.

No trees; but lots of shade.  Not my kind of plaza; I prefer big, old trees and fountains; but then I don't live there.

Old adobe.

Local fruit and veggie prices.

We had a light snack in a place at the far corner of the building on the left.  The ladies son was watching an animated movie with his friend on a couch in the same room and he was full of questions.  Every time he thought we needed something he jumped up and got it for us, even if we really didn't need it.  He noticed I was watching the movie also while we waited and he got up and turned up the sound.  He asked if I liked it and I told him yes, that Roy doesn't let me watch movies like that.  He looked at Roy as if to say what is wrong with you that you don't like these shows.  Too funny.  After we were done eating we called him over and gave him a little tip, told him that he was the best waiter in all  of Yecora.  He just beamed.

The next day after a good sleep we were off again on the bottom loop of our tour and headed towards the old mining town of San Javier.