Meeting Another Blogger

Yesterday before Spanish class I stopped to visit blogger Cynthia and her husband Mike, shortly after I arrived Bliss also arrived. We had a nice visit with iced tea and cookies. Mike, unfortunately took a picture, so if you really have to you can go over to their blog to see it.
Bliss and I then went to our Spanish class to chat with our teacher for an hour in Spanish. I wasn't feeling the greatest, after picking up a bad cold in Tucson and my brain was totally fuzzy, so don't think I contributed much or got much out of the class. Oh well, hopefully next week will be better.

El Estero del Soldado

El Estero del Soldado

I was out of books to read and the library that I use in San Carlos at Tecalai, is only open on Friday mornings. I had forgotten what the hours were, so had asked on the local bulletin board and been told that it was open from 10 AM to 12 PM. I had a big bag of books, and also my stuff for my spanish lesson later that day, so we took the car. When we arrived at the library I found out that it is open from 9 AM to 1PM, so now I know for next time. I turned in my books and borrowed a bunch of new ones and then we went to lunch at our friends restaurant. We were a little early for the lunch hour and they were not busy, so we had a good visit over our lunch. We were still a couple of hours early for my class when we finished our lunch, so we decided to go out to the estuary and look around.

The estuary, Estero del Soldado is a wildlife area that is protected by the WWF, and is a very interesting place. We have been wanting to visit the area since last winter; but just never seemed to get around to it. The estuary is used by many species of migratory birds and is home to many animals and sea creatures. There are signs posted along the path, telling you about the vegetation, land and animals. The signs, of course are in spanish, so I couldn't understand everything on them; but did get the main ideas. We walked along the path and sat and watched some of the birds. There are lots of Mangroves and the water is absolutely clear. The tide was going out, so we saw all the sandbars and watched the water running back into the sea. We traversed the area and arrived at a lovely, sandy beach and decided that we would be returning to try out snorkeling in the area, when the water warms up enough for us. It was a nice, warm day with a wind blowing; but I had a long sleeved shirt on. We did see some people paddling in the water and in their bathing suits. I guess they were tourists down from the colder climes, as it wasn't warm enough for me to be in a bathing suit. It is a beautiful, tranquil place and we will definately be returning there later on in the summer.

It was time for my spanish class, so we had to leave. Unfortunately, I didn't have the camera with me, so I didn't get any photos this time. I "googled" the estuary and did find some photos from someone else on this site: http://atiniui.nhm.org/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=4367

here are a couple of their photos.

Looks like the tide was out when they were there also.

Some of the mangroves.

Saturday morning, Nancy, the landlords daughter in law, came up. She was selling tamales and barbacoa. I already had meat out for supper, so I didn't buy any barbacoa; but I get get a couple of shrimp tamales to try. I had never tried shrimp ones and they were very good. She had an olive in the center of each one along with the rest of the filling. A strange breakfast; but as they were still hot, I decided to eat them right away. Yummy.
Yesterday it was a nice day so we decided to go out to Empalme, as it was their tianguis day. I needed some new flip flops as mine had broken a week or so ago and I still hadn't replaced them. We caught the bus uptown and then caught the Empalme bus. We wandered around the market and I did find some flip flops. I also stopped at a store and got a couple of squares to embroider. I had finished the ones I had and the store here was out of them. This store had a big selection to choose from, so I picked up a couple. The tianguis in Empalme is much bigger than the one here in Guaymas, so we wandered for a couple of hours. When we got back into Guaymas we went and sat in the park for awhile. Mass was going on in the church and it must have been full as people were standing in the doorway. People were sitting on the park benches visiting, children were feeding the pigeons and running around playing, there was a dance group practising their routines. We sat and watched for awhile before going home. After returning home and relaxing from our hectic lifestyle, I made coco shrimp for supper.
Today it is back to work with spanish class and I need to go and pay the cable/internet bill.

Chores

Chores

Not too much happening here the last few days. I went to spanish class yesterday and then made deep fried shrimp and shrimp fried rice for supper.

This morning I decided it was time to do laundry, so loaded the car and went to the lavenderia. Instead of hanging around waiting while the laundry washed, I walked 2 blocks and got my prescription filled at the farmacia and then walked back to the laundry. I had noticed a hair salon across the street from the laundry before, so I then went and got a haircut. Now that's what I call a good use of my time!

Spanish class this afternoon again.

Tomorrow if it is nice, we may take the local bus to a small town called San Jose de Guaymas. There is an old church there that I would like to see and it is where the city of Guaymas started out apparently. Here is a quote that I found on a site: http://www.si-sancarlos.com/The%20History.html "In 1701, Padres Salvatierra and Kino founded a short-lived mission settlement in Guaymas. The mission was soon destroyed by the Guaymenas Indians, but another attempt was made in 1769. This proved to be successful, and the new town of San Jose de Guaymas was named." We have been through the town with Ciro and Irene; but we have never really stopped and looked around. So, maybe tomorrow.

Spanish Classes?

Spanish Classes?

Spanish class was fine on Monday, on Tuesday I arrived and the teacher did not. She did run in at one point, and say something about her house being broken into and asked us to tell everyone to return on Wednesday to make up Tuesdays class. Well, myself and one other lady showed up on Wednesday and still no teacher. We sat and waited for 1/2 hour and then decided to go home. She asked if I wanted a ride into Guaymas as they had to go into town for groceries. The classes are in San Carlos which is a 2 bus ride trip for me. I said sure, so we headed to her house to pick up her husband and their handyman who they were giving a ride home. It turned out that their handyman only lives a short way from us and is looking for some more work. Before taking him home, they stopped to drop me off and I introduced him to Ciro (who has been looking for someone to do more work here). He and Ciro chatted for awhile and he agreed to come and start work a week from Saturday. He couldn't come sooner because of some work needing to be finished for the other couple and of course, Carnaval. Carnaval is a big deal here, so I can understand that he would not want to start a new job during it. We will see if he shows up. I could actually understand what Ciro was telling him that he wanted done.

Yesterday, being Valentines Day we thought we would go out for dinner. The restaurant that we chose to go to was not open so we pondered on where to go. We finally decided to catch the bus out to San Carlos and go to our friends restaurant, as we hadn't been there for awhile. When we got on the bus I asked when the last bus back was, it was already 7PM and we didn't want to be stuck out there for the night. He told us that it was at 9PM, so we headed out. We were intending to have pizza as theirs is good and we haven't had pizza for ages. It was not to be, when we arrived they started telling us of their "new" fried chicken plate and about how good it is. They have just gotten a larger deep fryer and are now able to do chicken, the old one was too small. They convinced us and we ordered it. It wasn't too busy so we were able to visit with both of them. I guess a lot of people went out for a "fancier" meal as it was Valentines Day. While we were visiting 2 other couples came in, they were also from Alberta, about 2 1/2 hrs. from where we were from. Then another lady came in, another Albertan from about 2 hrs. in another direction. We had a good laugh at this and one lady asked the other if she had turned out the lights in Alberta when she left! It turned out that all of the people above are leaving this Friday to return to Alberta, (where the temperature yesterday was -30C. with a 22 km. wind), we don't envy them. The people from Saskatchewan in the RV park are leaving this morning, I hope the weather co-operates with their travels. According to the computer it has warmed up to -7 C. with a wind of 20 km. per hr., just toasty warm. UGH!! We finished our dinner and it was really tasty, visited for awhile and caught the bus into town. By this time it was almost 10 PM and the town buses were no longer running so we walked home from downtown. We debated taking a cab; but we needed to walk off some of the supper.

Today I will return to spanish class and I hope she shows up as this will be the 4th trip to San Carlos this week for class and so far only 1 class.

Tonight is the "parade of bad humor" and the burning of the effigy, so we will probably head downtown to see it, it was funny last year and we enjoyed it.

Thursday Already

Thursday Already

I'm not sure where the days go; but they sure seem to disappear fast down here. Monday and Tuesday I went to spanish class and also stopped at the campground at San Carlos to see Marilyn and Linda on one of those days. Linda has a book that I wanted to look at before we go to Yuma. I am thinking of buying it there; but wanted to look through it first. It is a self-guided spanish learning book by Marcial Prado, called Practical Spanish Grammer. It seems to be not too bad and if I can find it, will purchase it while we are there.

Tuesday night it clouded up and we had a couple of drops of rain and a rainbow. Yesterday started out sunny; but then turned gloomy and cloudy also. We did get enough rain last night to wet the patio.

The photos below are of the sun on the mountains at sunset Tuesday and the rainbow after the couple of drops of rain.

We are probably heading to San Luis Rio Colorado on Sunday night, by bus, getting there around 8 AM Monday morning (depending on how many check stops there are on the road). Roys sister and husband will pick us up from there and we will spend the week with them in Yuma. The plan is to return here next Friday in time for all the carnaval parades, etc. which start on the 15th of February.
Today is spanish class again and then will spend Friday and Saturday doing laundry and getting ready to leave for Yuma.

Gotta Love It Here

Gotta Love It Here

I love being able to shop without hardly leaving the yard. The trucks troll down the streets extolling the virtues of their products, which are varied. Their PA systems are great, you know what they are selling before they get to your house; although some of them are so garbled that by the time I understand what they are selling, the truck is already down the street. The first one this morning, called you to attention and told you to listen, it then went on to say that he was selling oranges, 25 oranges for 10 pesos (about $1.00), large and sweet. Roy went down and got a bag of 25, they were not real large; but he ate one and pronounced it good. Next was a truck with a poor sound system, by the time I figured it out, he was gone. He was selling potatoes, darn I am out of potatoes....oh well, maybe tomorrow. Next came the junk dealer, he was picking up aluminum, old batteries, etc., we had nothing to give him. All this within a 1/2 hour. Of course, there is also the daily paper VW, that tells you the headlines and you can go get your paper from him. Hmm....wonder who will be next?

I wasn't looking forward to spanish class yesterday, as we were getting back a little exam she gave us on Thursday, I felt so blank when I was writing the exam and was sure that I had gotten a very poor mark. I was almost embarassed to show my face. When she handed the paper to me, I didn't even look at it at first, when I did I got a very pleasant surprise, my mark was 97%, maybe I know more than I thought. Naw, probably just got lucky.

Today we are going to check and see if the easel is in at the store in San Carlos, so Roy will come with me in the car. I need to go to the bank and we need car gas. We also read of a lady who is driving to Tucson around the time that we want to go to Yuma, so we are going to go and see her. We could share costs with her instead of taking the bus up there. I have also heard of a store selling better coffee so want to check that out also. Roy will go visiting while I am in class and then pick me up later, and we will probably get some groceries on the way home. Lots of errands today.

Irene came up and gave me an invitation to a baby shower for her niece on the 27 th. We teased Roy that we would put a dress and makeup on him and let him come too (it is only for women). He wasn't toooo interested in that, so I guess I will go with Irene and leave him at home. She told me that the building that it is being held in is enclosed, so it will be warmer than the place where we went to the birthday party. She also told me that there will be lots of ladies there who speak english, some of whom are Canadians from San Carlos. She said we would go at 3 PM, so I pointed out that the invitation said 5:30 PM, she said they told her 3; but that we would go at 4 PM instead.

It is sunny; but the wind is still cool.

Thunder And Lightning In January

Thunder And Lightning In January

I was awakened at 1 AM by a large boom and crash. I laid there for a minute, kind of disoriented, this was not one of the normal sounds we hear here. When I heard rain drumming on the roof, I realised that what I had heard was thunder. I got up and went into the livingroom to view the sights. The rain was pouring down, lightning was flashing and thunder was booming. One flash of lightning was so bright it felt like a flash cube going off in my eyes. The thunder boom that followed this one, rattled our windows. This one woke Roy up and he wanted to know what was going on. I stood and watched the rain come down until I started shivering and then climbed back into the nice warm cocoon of our bed. I went back to sleep with the rain drumming on the roof. El Nino is sure doing a job on the weather this winter. This current front going through is supposed to end up giving Albuquerque, New Mexico another foot of snow, as if they haven't had enough this year. Our housesit homeowners had emailed after one of their snowstorms that there was not a shovel left in any of the stores there. This morning it is sunny and although not warm, (it was 14 C. in the apt. this morning), it is nice to see the blue sky and sun again. Ciro came up with the newspaper from Hermosillo yesterday, on the front page was a photo taken in Hermosillo. It was frost and ice all over the plants and looked really pretty if you like that sort of stuff. They had another picture inside the paper that was taken at the golf course. The headline was: Hermosillo Congelado Y Viene Mas ( Hermosillo frozen and more coming). I can't seem to pull up yesterdays edition to get those photos and I don't have a scanner to scan it in from the paper. This is another photo that was in todays paper.

One of the local forums posts a picture almost everyday of something or other in San Carlos. I was surprised to see a photo of our spanish class, as the photo of the day a few days ago.

We got our power bill the other day for the last 2 months, not too tough on the wallet, it is 532 Pesos (about $53.20 dollars). Not too scary; but I do have to say that we are careful with our power consumption, not wanting to be power hogs.