Procession For The Virgen de Guadalupe

Thursday is the day that I go to a local orphanage with a group of ladies, we attempt to teach some english to the children. Our group has one class of little ones, then a break for lunch and later a class of a little bit older children. We sing songs, read stories, make a craft and attempt in all of this to teach them their colors, numbers and some english words. It is a fun time for all.
Later on after I had returned from this, we again headed uptown but this time to centro. My spanish teacher had mentioned that Thursday was the day that the San Fernando church was having its procession for the Virgen de Guadalupe. Virgen de Guadalupe day is December 12 th and there is a procession each day for a different church. We sat on a park bench in the 13 de Julio Plaza where we were joined by some friends. The little procession of a couple of ladies and some children arrived at the church, circled around the plaza and after a blessing from the priest entered the church. My photos turned out all blurry, so have none to upload here.
We then headed home and after getting tortas for dinner relaxed for what was left of the evening.
Young Alan came upstairs yesterday to invite us to his first communion. He told us the time, and date and rushed back downstairs. He then came running back up to tell us that he forgot to tell us the place, that done he ran back downstairs. He is quite excited about this. He has been enjoying his classes and has been showing us his workbook, so he is happy about the culmination of his studies.
So, today I will go and pay the cable bill and look around for a suitable gift for his communion. That should be interesting.
The photo is of the Palacio Municipal (city hall) with its Christmas decorations all lit up.

Dolphin Dies At Delphinario

Dolphin Dies At Delphinario

One of the 4 dolphins (Gabriel) at the Delphinario has died. They are not sure at this time why; but tests are being conducted at Guadalajara, Jalisco and also at the Independent National University of Mexico . The other dolphins seem to be healthy; but the staff are keeping a close eye on things. Apparently the dolphin died within 24 hrs. of becoming ill and the veterinary could do nothing to help it. They are thinking that it was some type of virus and possibly the effects of Hurricane Henriette had something to do with it also.

The dolphins do therapy sessions with children with Autism, Downs Syndrome and Cerebral Paralysis.
The therapy sessions have been cancelled until the first of October because of this.

Delphinario, photo taken from El Vigia newspaper.

In other news, more about the Virgen de Gaudalupe that was retrieved from the sea by the fishermen of La Manga. They are saying that it was abandoned and so they brought it in and had no bad intentions when they did it. They say that at no time did they intend for it to be viewed as a miracle and that it also was not serving its intended purpose as an artificial reef for fish. It weighs more than 2 tons and is more than 3 meters long. They insist that it was not a robbery as she was covered with stones and sand and not performing as a reef and that they didn't realise that they had to inform the harbor authorities. They say that she is safe now and should remain in a chapel in La Manga. Apparently they held a meeting yesterday and it has been decided that the Virgen will remain in La Manga.

La Virgen, photo taken from El Vigia newspaper.

Another Hurricane?

Another Hurricane?

Tropical storm Ivo has been updated to a Catagory 1 Hurricane, at the moment it is about 410 miles south- southwest of Cabo San Lucas on Baja Sur. Hopefully it will decided to stay away from any habitated areas or totally dissipate without doing any damage. I am sure that a lot of people will be keeping an eye on it over the next few days.

There has been a strange thing going on the last few days at one of the small fishing villages just out of San Carlos. It was reported that some fishermen from La Manga "found" a Virgen de Guadalupe statue in the sea just off the coast of San Carlos. A group of them got together and brought her back to land. She weighs in the neighborhood of 2 tons, so this was a big undertaking. They laid her in town and said that she arrived just in time to bless the beginning of the shrimp fishing season. They asked a priest to come out to La Manga and view her and were talking of building a chapel for her to reside it. A day or two later a group of people surfaced who say that 5 or 6 yrs. ago they purchased the statue and sunk her in the sea to make an interesting diving site. They want her put back where she came from. What the next move in this stand off will be remains to be seen!

This photo was posted on the VivaSanCarlos forum.

This photo taken from La Voz del Puerto newspaper.

Virgen De Guadalupe

Virgen De Guadalupe

A funny thing happened today on the way to the bank. We walked to the bus stop and waited for the bus, once we were sitting down Roy glanced down at his change. The bus driver had given him 3 pesos change back from a 5 pesos coin. He should only have gotten 1 pesos in change. Rather than getting up and braving the moving bus, we decided to wait until we got off, to return the extra change. As we were riding along, Roy began to laugh, he pointed out the tariff sign on the bus wall. The driver had given him the senior rate of 2 pesos. This is the first time that that has happened. For one thing, to get the reduced rate you are supposed to show your senior card, which we don't have as we are not seniors, unless you hit senior age earlier here than in Canada. Anyway, we had a good laugh and Roy told me to tell you, that he cried for 3 blocks, feeling his age immensely.
Roy then went to pay the car insurance for the year, it has increased from around $160.00 last year to about $230.00 this year; but is still much cheaper than Canada. I think we were paying about $720.00 a year there.
After having a supper of roast chicken, potatoes, gravy and stuffing, we were stuffed. We decided to see if we could find where the procession for the Virgen de Guadalupe was supposed to be. Our landlord had told us that it is not a big procession; but I still wanted to try and find it. We took the bus to where he had told us it would start and sure enough they were just getting ready to leave. I asked a couple of ladies if it would be alright if I took some photos and they told me to go ahead, even telling me to go closer. That was nice of them. I took some photos before they left and a couple more as they were walking. When I showed one little girl the picture and told her that it was her, she looked at me and shook her head NO. The little boys were quite impressed. It had been cloudy all day and just as the procession was starting to walk, a lovely rainbow appeared and it hadn't rained a drop!! Hmmm......

There was a beautiful sunset tonight.



Yes, Marie, I again forgot to turn off the date setting on the camera until we got home and I uploaded the photos and there it was. Maybe I should have gotten the senior discount instead of Roy. I have turned it off now, though.

A very nice gentleman has sent me a bunch of old photos of Guaymas after seeing the post the other day. Once I get my act together and get all the new ones taken that I need I will post some more of them together.

Tomorrow it is back to the dentist again (UGH!!) and the end of another week, where does the time go?

Earthquake

Earthquake

I forgot to mention on yesterdays posts that we had had an earthquake here in the morning. At 7:11 AM (yes, I looked at my watch), things began to "shiver". At first I thought there must be a very large truck going by (what can I say, I'm a prairie girl not accustomed to earthquakes). Quickly realised that it was an earthquake. Things shivered for a bit and then quit, I waited for an aftershock; but there was nothing. We did have a tiny one last winter that Roy didn't even notice. I was laying on the couch at the time and it felt like the couch vibrated. Someone said that the San Andreas fault lies off the coastline; but don't quote me on this. I later read this info.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Quakes/quakes_all.php

Earthquake Details
Magnitude 4.5 (Light)
Date-Time Wednesday, December 6, 2006 at 14:09:59 (UTC)
= Coordinated Universal Time
Wednesday, December 6, 2006 at 7:09:59 AM
= local time at epicenter

Location 27.625°N, 111.290°W
Depth 10 km (6.2 miles) set by location program
Region GULF OF CALIFORNIA
Distances 51 km (32 miles) SW (229°) from Guaymas, Sonora, Mexico
55 km (34 miles) SW (224°) from Guaymas, Sonora, Mexico
60 km (37 miles) SW (230°) from Empalme, Sonora, Mexico
135 km (84 miles) W (277°) from Obregón, Sonora, Mexico
775 km (482 miles) SE (133°) from Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico

Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 20.9 km (13.0 miles); depth fixed by location program
Parameters Nst= 37, Nph= 37, Dmin=728.3 km, Rmss=1.12 sec, Gp=248°, M-type=body magnitude (Mb), Version=6
Source U.S. Geological Survey, National Earthquake Information Center
World Data Center for Seismology, Denver

Last evening Ciro came up with a recipe for Bug Spray for my plants, he knows that I prefer natural products over the purchased ones. They are usually safer for the environment and cheaper; although this one has tobacco in it so the nicotine concentration would be poisonous to your children and pets if they drank it, I am pretty sure. Homemade or not, you still need to be careful with things like this. So I will try making that today. He also gave me the site that he got it off of. http://64.233.179.104/translate_c?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF- There is lots of interesting information on this site, recipes for cooking and recipes for cleaning products, etc. for your home and much, much more. It will take me a long time to get through this site.

I had asked Ciro whether there were any processions here before the Virgen de Guadalupe Day on the 12th of December and he said there was; but he wasn't sure what time they were held. Last night he told me that he had found out that the processions are every day at 5 PM and also told me the route that they follow. So I will have to go and check that out this afternoon.

Sounds like a busy day coming up: making bug spray, need to get some groceries and go to the bank before my dentist appt. tomorrow and then a procession at 5 PM. Oh, and I suppose that Roy will expect some food also!! Man, this retirement is hard work. Smile.