Yesterdays Photos

Yesterdays Photos

Here are some of yesterdays photos of the cove that I wrote about in the blog below this one. The rest can be seen here: http://community.webshots.com/album/509163053fUjWxo

sea urchins in tidal pool

An Amazing Bus Driver

An Amazing Bus Driver

Canadian politics. Apparently the minority parties got together, and there was a non-confidence vote, causing the leading party to call an election. Here in Mexico the news headline on TV said "consequences of corruption", as they showed the news clip. We got a chuckle out of that.

A weather system came through here with astrong winds and cool weather- low of 13 C. Loosely translated the headline said, "strong winds and cold in all the country" and the TV clip showed people holding scarves over their faces. It was chilly enough that Irene was not out watering that morning. Even the dogs and chickens were quiet. The next morning everything was back to normal, chickens clucking, dogs barking, Irene watering.

Yesterday we decided to go down to the sea; but wanted some new scenery. We walked for awhile and then hopped on a bus that looked like it might go the direction we wanted. Route looked good for awhile but then he zigged when we wanted to zag. We decided to stay on the bus and see where we would end up. A few minutes later the bus stopped at a dead end and proceeded to turn around. The driver asked if we wanted to get off, we told him, "no, we're just looking around." He asked if we wanted to go to the water, so we said yes. He turned the bus around again and drove the bus a block or so up the dead end street and pointed. Sure enough, there was a rough path down the cliff to a little bay. We thanked him, he told us where and when we could get back on later, backed up the bus and took off. We were the only ones on the bus at the time- don't think hhe would have done that with a busload jof people. This pretty much shows the attitude of the people here- amazing! We walked down the path, some stone steps, climbed over some rocks and arrived at a small cove with a rocky beach. Secluded, rough and beautiful. Only 1 other person there besides us, a fellow with a couple of fishing lines in the bay. We walked along the beach, collected some shells, looked at the fish, urchins, etc. growing and living in the tidal pools. Just a few yards from the beach, the cliffs rise out of the sea. Cave like holes in the mountains, myriad of colors and shades in the rocks, contrasting with the greens of the shrubs and cactus and the blues of the sea and sky. We just sat and enjoyed the scenery. A beautiful, peaceful spot to enjoy an afternoon. We then wandered around the colonia- Mision del Sol, lots of nice little casitas. Time for home, so we hopped on a bus.

This morning we showed Ciro some of our stuff and he said that we had some coral and some quartz rocks. We went to the market this morning and then uptown where Roy bought a hammer. He wants to check out some of the rocks. Ciro also showed us a piece of obsidian rock, and demonstrated how to chip it into arrowhead shape. He says that there is not too much obsidian here. So Roy will be pounding rocks now, without being on a chain gang.

Will load some of the pictures of yesterday on the next blog.

More Food

More Food

This morning it was very windy and rather cool, so I decided to bake cinnamon buns. They turned out fine; the brown sugar here is different but the taste was good nevertheless. I took a pan over to Irene and Ciro and explained what it was. We haven't seen cinnamon buns in any of the bakeries here. An hour or so later a knock on the door and there was Irene with my empty pan and a pot of soup. I had her write down the name of it for me. She called it "Caldo Largo- Mariscos Udrios", it was a fish stock soup with the whole fish (head and all), large shrimp, looked like some calamari, peppers, carrots. Very tasty. Looked for the word "udrios" in my dictionary and can't find it. Billie, if you read this, do you know what it means, or maybe Juan/Anita may know?

Sunday was Roys football day, so I decided to go and wander around uptown. I wanted to get a length of fleece for a couch blanket. Stopped in at a restaurant for a coke and the next thing I knew, someone was tapping me on the shoulder. It was the fellow and his wife that we had talked to about spanish lessons. The manner of greeting here is still new to me and it kind of surprised me to get a big hug and cheek kiss from Rosa, as we had only met twice before; but that is the way here. It turned out that the restaurant is partially owned by a fellow Canadian. The biggest coincidence is that he had also lived/worked in the town that I now live at; although it was many years ago. He remembered a few people that I mentioned. What a small world. The four of us had a nice visit before I returned to my shopping. I did find my fleece and at $3.69 per meter is quite a bargain compared to what I am used to paying.

I guess that I have become acclimatised here as today I have my sweater on, forecast said high of 25 C. today; but with this odd wind I am chilly. Looking at all the snow storms going on in the US makes me very glad to just be a bit chilly.

Second Blog for Today

Second Blog for Today

I had so much written down that I decided to break it into 2 parts, so I hope you scroll down and read both of these. Didn't want to have to re-type everything if the computer blinked!

The weather is cooler than it was when we arrived on the 10 th of October. Highs for the next few days 25/26 C. and lows of 14/15 C.. There is a light breeze some days. For a couple of hours in the evening, 3 days before and 3 days after the full moon it jis quite windy. It appears suddenly and disappears just as quickly. Apparently there are 300 days of sunshine here, and I can believe it, we have had 2 cloudy days here. No rain of course. The humidity which we thought would be high, being so close to the water is actually less than at home.

Yesterday we went into San Carlos, they were having a mariscos (shrimp) festival. There was supposed to be alot of artisans, paintings, booths selling shrimp cooked in various ways, music and dancers. We arrived to find perhaps 6 booths selling touristy type things, very few paintings on display and some food booths. We checked it all out and then went for a walk on the beach and watched the pelicans dive for their lunch. That was the best part of that excursion. Returned to Guaymas and continued our search for a pair of shoes (sneakers) for Roy. He badly needed a new pair; but because of his foot size it has not been an easy purchase. Seems like thousands jof shoe stores; but the majority of them only carry up to size 9-- well that doesn't cover a size 12 foot! One shopkeeper looked at his feet and just shook his head. I laughed and said that maybe I should chop off the toes and he laughed and said yes. Finally, we did manage to find a pair though. We also got his arthritis painkillers without needing a prescription. We decided to walk home from uptown and stopped off at a bar for a beer. Roy opened the door, looked in and figured it looked OK, we were close to the waterfront so we weren't sure. It was just a regular neighborhood bar. A few older locals playing a dice game at the bar and a couple of fellows enjoying a beer after work. Friendly bartender tried out his english on us, says he likes to practise when he gets a chance. He told us we could practise our spanish on him. A couple of the patrons tried to converse; but our spanis wasn't up to the rapid fire exchanges. When we left everyone smiled and told us to come again and we probably will. It may be awhile, as this was only our 2 nd beer since arriving in Mexico. A pleasant contrast to the touristy San Carlos atmosphere.

It is impossible to put the feeling of this place into words. The people are so open, welcoming and friendly. We never feel out of place. As one man told us, the real Mexico is not like the TV and movies portray, in his words:" lazy, dirty, stupid and violent". He said, "you have to come and see Mexico to know what it is like". We agree with him, it is totally the opposite, and we absolutely love it.

We Have Icicles-- Well Sort Of

We Have Icicles--Well Sort Of

Well we have icicles, sort of. The landlord continues his christmas light set up. They now have lights covering all the windows, around the door, around the roof top and patio edge, on the trees and around the tree trunks. The roof over the patio has a line of large bulbs, a line of mini bulbs and a line of Icicle lights. The other night Roy noticed the daughter in law perched precariously on a ladder helping her mother in law put lights on one of the trees. He went out to hold the ladder and stayed to help with some of the high stuff. With him helping, the landlady (Irene) managed to get the lights up a little higher! Senor "stretch" to the rescue. After putting up a few more strings, we all stood out in the street to gauge the effect and admire the results. Landlord (Ciro) asked me to take some photos and then we went into the house and put them on their computer. We showed them the photos of our home that we have on the online album- Ciro shook his head at all the lawn/grass and the need to cut it all. We then showed them our home on the Google site. When he saw our dogs in the photos, he suggested that we take home all the street dogs with us, we declined. Yesterday he put up a Santa and sleigh and a couple of reindeer that he had cut out of styrofoam and painted and of course put mini lights all around it.

Ciro showed us some plant containers that he has made out of a tree trunk. The wood is so hard and dense that it does NOT float. Very hard to cut and work with, feels like rock. The tree is "palo fierro (ironwood?) and grows in the wild here. Ciro enjoys walking the campo (countryside) collecting indian artifacts. He has shown us different arrowheads and how to tell whcih natives crafted them. The differences in shank length and width and the craftsmanship of the head. The other night he showed us some stone bowls and the rocks that were used to grind the corn or maize. His son said that they predate Columbus. An interesting evening.

Family living arrangements are different here from Canada. Ciro and Irenes household consists of: their 2 sons, i sons wife and their son and Irenes mother. 3 women in one house, none of which go out to work , and you never hear an argument! Ciro takes the grandson to the store for treats; but when his son disciplines the child, grandpa just laughs and stays out of it.

On Friday Roy asked one of the local shopkeepers if he could order something jin for us and was told sure, come back later and it will be in. We returned later, it was not in yet; but he got on the phone and told us 5 minutes. We wandered around the store, looking at stuff and then realised that he had sent his wife out to get it rather than wait for the delivery man. Sure enough 5 or 10 minutes later there was our order! We didn't pick up on what was happening right away or we would have told him we would come back manana. Try to get service like that in Canada! All done with a big smile and lots of laughter. What a place!

Irene continues to pop over occasionally with some taste treats for us. This week she brought baked pumpkin (dulce calabza), and I think it is an acquired taste. It was very caramelized on top, and we didn't really care for it. Then a couple of days later she brought over a tray of tostados de jaiba (crab). Layers of ground crab, chopped cabbage,onion, green and red peppers, slices of radish and avocado with a little hot sauce on a small tortilla. Good stuff.

Parades and Birthday Fiesta

Parades and Birthday Fiesta

On Friday we met with a couple that we are going to take some spanish lessons from. It was the first time that we had met them. He is an American who has been living in Guaymas for 5 years, and teaches in a school here. His wife, Rosa, is mexican and she will practise her english on us as we parctise our spanish. They were having a birthday fiesta for their daughters 9 th birthday on Saturday and invited us to come. We then took the bus to San Carlos to get some more books for me, walked around the marina and returned to Guaymas to shop for a birthday gift for the next day. Childrens toys are fairly expensive here; but there was a large selection as the stores all have their Christmas stuff out now. On the other hand, finding a card was more difficult. We couldn't find any suitable downtown so we came home with intentions of making one. When we got home I decided to check a couple of the stationary shops in the neighborhood, the first one didn´t carry any, but directed me to the next one down the road. They did have a selection of maybe 20 cards of all sorts. I eventually chose one, it wasn,t the greatest but did the trick.

On Saturday we checked our emails and then went to the birthday fiesta. The Fiesta: happy children jumping on a trampoline, pinata, balloons, snacks, drinks and on our parts some stilted conversation, as everyone else was mexican. We wandered our way home on some new streets. In the evening we watched the landlord put up some more Christmas lights. He laughed because Roy was as alto (tall) on the ground as he was on the ladder. He had to show us the lights his wife had twined around the door of their house. Red chili pepper lights! He has lots more lights to put up he said and only one more month to do it. He asked if we would mind if he put some around our place also, no problemo. You can tell that he retired from the electric company! I took a couple of pictures of his lights and will take more when he finishes and put them on his computer for him if we can.

Sunday was "Revolution Day" a big celebration. We took the bus downtown to watch the parade. The parade started shortly after 9 a.m. and continued for over 2 hours!! I have never seen a parade last that long. There were only a couple of "floats" as we know them, but I am sure that every school, maybe even every class, was in the parade, all dressed in their uniforms. Karate groups, sports groups, Aztec dancers, children dressed in regional costumes, fancy spanish type dresses. Very colorful. After the parade, we along with several thousand others, wandered around the square and parks. Lots of food stands, fire trucks giving rides to the children, balloon sellers, candy floss, fair type rides for the kids, etc.. While we were sitting on a park bench, a man with his family, on the next bench asked where we were from. When he found out we are from Canada he wanted to know what area and the next question was whether we have bears there. He told us how smart his son is in school and tried to get Sergio to demonstrate his english for us. Needless to say, Sergio (grade 3), was quite shy about doing that. When I asked him if learing english was hard work, he said yes, I told him that for us learning spanish is VERY hard work and got a huge grin in response. His father went on to explain some of the revolution to us and also some of Guaymas' history. He thought it to be much like Canada, as because of the seaport, many of the original settlers came from many countries. Settlers arrived from Spain, Germany, China, and France for example. He said that there is one house that was oriinally owned by a french family that everyone says is haunted. He thought that the park kiosk had been shipped in from China and assembled here, which explains the dragons on the lamp fixtures. He and his family hope to come and vacation in Canada some day, so we strongly suggested that they visit in the summer. An interesting and enjoyable conversation.

Lots of photos of the parade here: http://community.webshots.com/user/brendamaa1

The Bus System Here

The Bus System Here

Yesterdays photos are here: http://community.webshots.com/user/brendamaa1

Here I am again, with nothing major to write. Last evening Roy went to get milk from one of the neighberhood groceries that we frequent. He was concerned before he left that all he had was a 200 peso bill, (like a $20.00), and they don't always have that much change. Here a 200 peso bill is a big bill. Well, he was right they didn't have change; but home he came with the milk anyway. The owner just waved him off with a "manana". The wonders of trust in a mexican neighborhood, no matter how long I have lived anywhere in Canada I have never had that happen to me there.

After chatting over MSN with a neice I thought maybe I should expand on the bus system here. We pay about 40 cents to go anywhere in the city, she said she pays $2.10 for the same service where she is in Canada. To be honest,I would rather ride the buses here, it is more fun. The buses don't seem to have a discernible schedule, they just come along every couple of minutes. The longest I have waited for a bus is 10 minutes and that is only because I was too lazy to walk a couple of extra blocks, so waited for exactly the right one. The buses themselves are very interesting. The driver may have decorated it in his own style: stickers, photos, cloth with tassles covering half of the windshield, etc., he may have his cooler beside him with his cold drinks for the day and his lunch. He may give samples of his lunch to some of his friends when they get on the bus and he may also be smoking while he is driving and passengers will occasionally give him fruit or food as they get on the bus. He is constantly watching the road, the passengers and the ditches for goats, etc. ( on the country runs ). It is a job that takes much concentration and yet they appear as if they are just going for a calm ride. The buses themselves come in various shapes and forms. Most of them all schoolbuses; but some are new and some are very old. We have seen some with windshields so cracked that I have no idea how they can see anything, have seen some with a window broken, doors that flop open on the bottom and close at the top. The dust bounces from the upholstry on some and others are brand new and much better than city buses anywhere in the world. You just never know which one will come up the street next but it is always an interesting and fun experience and I wouldn't give it up for anything. Well, got to go and catch a bus, bye for now.

More Books

More Books

I managed to find the book swap place in San Carlos yesterday, so I have reading again for a week or so. Did some more grocery shopping yesterday on my way home after San Carlos. Someone asked how much veggies cost us, well, a head of lettuce was 50 cents and a very large bunch of radishes were 20 cents. Today we went for a long walk, on our way home right now. We took the bus uptown and then walked up to a monument of some kind. I didn't understand the plaque. It is built up on a hill, all out of the local rocks, lots of stairs, 3 different heights/levels and a statue at the top. From afar it looks kind of like an old castle type fortress, a really great place to overlook the city and water. I took some pictures, but don't have the card reader with me right now so will load them the next time. We then decided to walk around some more downtown, Roy got a haircut ($4.00) and then we walked along the malecon(waterfront) and watched a couple of cranes trying to hunt down their lunch. Stopped for the usual coke and sat at the park, watching people feeding the pigeons and enjoying the day. An interesting and enjoyable day.

Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

I decided to blog twice today, as I was getting very long winded. Yesterday we went to the market and walked around. Roy needed a dust pan! Today we went and did our banking, then I picked up some groceries again and decided I had better put something on here. Of course I had to stop at the bakery first and to redeem myself will stop at the veggie truck on way home and get some lettuce and stuff for salad. Tomorrow there is supposed to be a book trade thing in San Carlos so will probably head over there again.

Yesterday the landlady brought over a platter of food again. Not sure what everything was called, but there was some type of fishy fried stuff, several types of rice and veggies/bean sprouts sauteed. Tasty! Between the bakery and the landlady I may not fit in the car to go home, wouldn't that be a shame if I had to stay here!

Hasta Luego.

Just Hanging Out

Just Hanging Out

On Sunday I took the bus uptown (4 pesos or about 40 cents) and then took another bus to the enxt town to the east of us (Empalme). The bus fare to Empalme is 6 pesos (about 60 cents). Roy stayed at home to watch his football game, his Seattle Seahawks were playing! I wandered around the market and the town for a couple of hours. The market consists of blocks and blocks of open air stalls selling everything imaginable. Cheap plastic gadgets, toys, lots of clothes and shoes, old tools, sports equipment, computers, TV's, stoves, furniture, food-both cooked and uncooked, drinks, meat, vegetables and everything else you can think of. Lots of people, smells, colors and sounds. I didn't really need anything but did lots of looking and people watching, later on I walked around the town and stopped for a coke. The owner of the small place I stopped at for a coke, looked at me with a big smile and asked "you english?", Si, I said and then we both started laughing as I said yes again in english. I returned to Guaymas, wandered around downtown for awhile, just enjoying the sights, sounds, and weather. The downtown streets without traffic lights have traffic cops to direct the vehicle/pedestrian flow. After stopping the 2 cars coming my direction to let me cross the street, the traffic cop decided to chat. He wanted to knowwhere I was from, how long we were staying, if I was alone, how we liked the city, beaches, etc.. It always seems to surprise people that we are living in Guaymas, not the tourist town to the west of us. Everyone is very friendly and forgiving of my horrible spanish and will speak slowly and repeat things several times until we manage to figure it out. The owner of the mini-mercado (small grocery store) a couple of blocks from where we live, always tries out a couple of different wods on me everytime I go there and always with a big smile.

The weather here is cooling off, the highs are around 32 Celcius and the lows around 20 Celcius.

Monday after reading our emails and going to the bakery, we got groceries and cleaned the house up. We do lots of walking and gawking and everything takes a little longer. Tuesday we hopped the bus again; but this time to San Carlos (town to the west, bus fare 9 pesos or about 90 cents). There was supposed to be a used book sales there but there wasn't. We went into the Belle Artes building, an art gallery, and looked at the paintings. Lots of wonderful work. Many of the paintings that we liked are done by a deaf/mute man from Puerto Vallarta. He has a signature way of incorporating the light in his paintings that we really liked. We wandered down a side street and got talaking with a fellow cleaning up an apartment. He wanted to know if we were looking for a place to rent. After telling him that we had a place for this year, we starting inquiring about next year. He showed up the apt. . It is almost new, 1 bedroom and nice, he gave us a price of $2500.00 pesos a month ( around $250.00 dollars) utilities included, it is a short walk from there to the sea, maybe 5 minutes about 2 blocks. We got his phone number and he told us he would put a cable TV hook up in if we wanted one. Hmmmm, makes you think. We really like where we are right now, we have lots of interaction with the neighborhood and everything is so close and handy. San Carlos is so spread out and the mexican community feeling would not be the same. On the other hand that place has a nice area to sit outside which we lack and miss here and also that one is so close to the sea. It will need some thought, if we do manage to come again next year. We picked up some more groceries when we got home, made a batch of peanut butter cookies, and took some to the landlady and relaxed for the evening.

An Interview

An Interview

Yesterday we walked uptown and then hopped the bus to San Carlos, a tourist oriented town about 22 kms. from Guaymas. We wandered around the town and one of the two marinas. There are two different marinas there. While we were walking around looking at all the boats, we heard someone calling out to us. We looked around and were greeted by some very friendly, smiling young people with a video camera. Apparently they were doing a project for one of their classes, university..we assumed, and had to go out and interview tourists (in english). They were laughing and slightly embarassed about some of the questions that they were supposed to ask.... age, etc.. We had a laughing good time with them. They wanted to know about our night life...nonexistent, and our restaurant habits, etc.. We told them that we were just old, and boring and they laughed. Interview completed we went our separate ways, so we thought, a short time later we heard them calling us again. They had forgotten to take a group photo, so we all scrunched together, did the photo and they went on they way to capture some more subjects. An interesting few minutes, I wish my spanish was as good as their english.

After stopping for an ice cold coke, we hopped back on the bus and returned to Guaymas. Before we returned home we stopped at a different grocery store and found my peanut butter, we bought 2 jars this time just in case. They seem to stock a lot of the states name brands and some things, such as kleenex are pricey for here.

Our landlord has had a fellow doing some stone work beside our apt. the last couple of days. The first day he dug out a trench beside the house wall, about 6 feet long and 2 feet deep. End of day one. Day Two, he started taking rocks from the piles beside the street. He would hammer them to the right shape,size and then add them to the wall where he decided they should go. The landlady came out and there was an altercation about the placing of the wall....too long apparently. He continued on. Day Three... kept on building, shaping rock and adding concrete as needed. Now, at home we would just call in a backhoe, dig the trench, call the brick man and concrete truck and voila finished. Here, it proceeded like this. He dug the trench with a spade and pick axe, mixed the concrete in his wheelbarrow with the spade, shaped the stones with his hammer and worked in the 34 degree Celcius heat all day long. End of Day Three...finished, jumped on his bike with a bag of aluminum cans tied behind the seat and took off for town. Returned later with a coke and went to landlord to get paid.

Roy has gone to visit the bakery, our weak spot here, we are trying hard to sample all the different type of baking; but they keep changing what they bake each day. So it is a never ending thing. Tough life, eh.

Weather remains great, highs of 34 C. and lows of 22 C.

The Last Few Days

The Last Few Days

We did have a few children stop in for trick or treats on Hallowe'en, at first some of them were shy about coming to our place, but after the first couple came, the rest followed. What we didn't get rid of we gave to the landlords grandchildren. We found it amusing that the children were in their bare legs in their costumes instead of parkas on underneath them. Our landlady continues to pop over with food once in awhile, a couple of days ago she brought some type of seafood soup, it had shrimp, fish, crab, etc. in it and was quite good, then she came over with some tamales. The tamales were sweet, tasted like a mixture of cornmeal with pineapple and some other ingredients, very tasty anyway.

On Monday we went and wandered around the water, looked at some of the ships in the docks and then went and sat in one of the parks downtown for awhile. An older man must have figured we looked out of place as he came over and we attempted to chat for a bit. We bought some flowers for the landlady as she is always bringing something over for us and felt we should do something in return. People watching in the park is interesting, watching the children in their school uniforms after school, people busy going about their business, the park caretaker sweeping with his palm leaf broom, the pigeons, the old man having a snooze in the shade and everything in between. Yesterday we went to the weekly market and wandered around and then went uptown to buy some material to make a curtain for the window in our door. Lots of action as everyone was buying and selling flowers for the Day of the Dead, seemed like there were more street merchants also. We didn't go to the cemetary last night to see what went on as it seemed to us that we would be intruding on people. We did get a chuckle while we were uptown, there was a tourist taking a photo, so we stopped on the sidewalk to keep out of his camera view, when he was done he looked at us and said "gracias", we must be fitting into life a little bit down here I guess, it was kind of funny. We must have a pretty good tan! There are very few tourists here, sometimes we see one or two; but usually not.

This morning I walked up to the grocery store and they were out of peanut butter, that was a tough one for me, as I am a peanut butter addict, oh well, maybe tomorrow.

There are some more photos here: http://flickr.com/photos/brendamaa/