Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

Irene and Ciro invited us to have dinner with them on Christmas Eve. We arrived at 7 PM as requested and we treated to a wonderful dinner. Roasted pork with a wonderful sauce, mashed potatoes, pasta salad, fresh breads and a fantastic tasting pineapple cheesecake for desert. Irene said that this is a traditional meal for them. It was delicious! We visited and then Irenes brother came over also, then the oldest son, his wife and their son returned from dinner with her mother. Allan (the little boy) was of course very excited, they had had a pinata at the other grandmas house and he was hyped!! He was allowed to open a couple of gifts and the excitement continued. We looked at some more photos on their computer that I had taken of their Christmas decorations and then showed Irene some photos of our home, yard, etc.. She was amazed at the yard size. They were saying that they would like to take us to a ranch about 45 minutes away, apparently it is an Apache indian site. Sounds interesting. We made our farewells and were called back to be given the rest of the cake to take home with us.

Christmas day dawned warm and sunny. I got the food ready to cook for our Christmas dinner, wrote a Thank you note to Ciro and Irene for the lovely dinner and we were ready for the day. We hopped a bus and went back to our hidden cove. It was a tough way to spend Christmas afternoon, sitting on the beach, watching the fish jumping in the water, looking at all the sea urchins, etc. in the tidal pools. I walked along the edge of the shore, paddling in the water, it is cool right now; but still warmer than our lakes are in the summer. There were people swimming the other day at a different beach we were at, but I will stick to my paddling. A wonderful peaceful time, all the time we were there we saw only 5 other people.

Returned home, stuck our chicken in the oven to roast and relaxed. A knock on the door and it is Irene with some more food from last nights dinner, maybe she thinks Roy needs feeding up.

Monday morning and all is back to normal, laundry done, windows washed, etc. no need to worry about dinner tonight as we have lots of leftovers in the fridge.

Lovely warm, sunny day.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve--what a different day than other Christmas Eves! It is sunny and warm with no breeze to speak of. No cold wind, cold temperatures, snow or any of the other things that make life difficult.

The last few days the neighborhood children have been busy with their firecrackers. They seem to like setting them off at the strangest times of the day. Someone set some off at 5 AM this morning, oh well, hopefully they enjoyed it.

Yesterday I baked some cookies and took some over to Ciro and Irene, she is always bringing something over to us. My baking vocabulary is not the greatest so we had a few laughs as I tried to explain to her what type they were. A couple of hours later, Ciro is at the door with a huge bag of lemons, oranges, mandarin oranges and grapefruit (Roy had just bought a kilo of mandarins, so we are up to our necks in oranges! He also had a foot high cut-out of 2 snow men, or I should say 1 snowman and 1 snow woman, he laughingly told us that it was meant to be Roy and myself! We hung it up on our door as we didn't do any Christmas decorating. It seems so strange to see them making their decorations out of sheets of styrofoam and then painting them and hanging it all outside. That would last about 5 minutes at home before the wind totally destroyed it.

With all the oranges around I made orange flavored french toast for breakfast and garnished the plates with-----you got it, orange slices. It was good; but I don't think we will need lunch today.

Wishing everyone a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Merry Christmas/Feliz Navidad

Merry Christmas/Feliz Navidad

To everyone who reads this, we wish you a Very Merry Christmas. Whether the term is politically correct or not, it will always be Merry Christmas to me, rather than Happy Holidays.

I have had a cold/sinus infection for the last few days, so have not been on here. Stayed fairly close to home for a couple of days; but am feeling better today so we are going for a walk on the beach. This is probably how we will spend the afternoon on Christmas day also.

The weather is great, sunny- highs for the next 5 days of 25 C. and lows of 11 C.. Rough weather for Christmas, isn't it?

Irene continues to bring over assorted fruits of her labors. On Sunday morning it was a type of Tamales and last night it was something that she says is a Christmas tradition for them. Flat, hard (deep fried), tortilla sized circles; although more like a pastry than the tortilla dough. These are served with a sweet, cinnamony tasting sauce. She said that it is called Buen Noches; or something to that effect, I am never sure of the spelling when she just tells me, and I didn't have my pen and paper for her to write it down for me. So if someone wants to correct me, that is fine. They were nice and sweet anyway.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas.

Cajeme/Obregon

Cajeme/Obregon

Haven't written for a few days so there are 2 postings today.

Photos of Cajeme are here: http://community.webshots.com/album/524385200QGcVRL

Thursday evening we were telling the landlord about a few places we want to visit after Christmas and asking his opinion of some of them. He then told us that Irene had a medical appointment in Cajeme/Obregon on Friday and asked if we would like to go with them. We decided that it sounded like fun. So Friday about 8:30 am, Ciro, Irene, a friend of Irenes, the grandson Alain, Roy and I all piled into the car. Alain was dropped off at preschool and we left town. We stopped for a short time in Empalme so that Irenes friend could grab a bite to eat ( she is diabetic and Irene was teasing her that she is always eating). The desert on the way to Obregon is very green with shrubs and cactus. Obregon is a big agricultural area (with irrigation) where they grow alot of wheat, vegetables, etc. It seems strange to see the wheat about 6 inches tall now and the veggies ready to harvest at this time of year. It is about 120 kms. south-east of Guaymas. Before getting to the city, you have to decide whether you will take the toll or free road. Ciro decided on the free road, after a laughing comment from Irene that the savings could be applied to shopping later. At least I think that's what she said, the conversation was of course in Spanish. Irene speaks no english. Ciro speaks a little english, so with my few words of spanish and the dictionary we do OK.

The road through the city took us past a lovely lake and park with large trees growing on both sides of the road. The trees were pruned so that they covered the road overhead. It was like driving through a green tunnel. Beautiful.

When we arrived at the hospital where Irenes appt. was they thought they would be there for around 2 hours.. We decided that rather than us all trying to meet up at a certain time/place we would strike out on our own and return to Guaymas by bus.

We spent the rest of the morning and part of the afternoon wandering around the city. We found the main square or plaza, municipal building, and a huge very modern church. As usual here, everyone we talked to was friendly, pleasant and eager to give us directions. The city has extremely wide, well paved streets and sidewalks and a large business district. Ciro told us later that it is a much newer city than Guaymas with a population of around 500,000. A pretty city with lots of trees, much more grass in the yards and parks than Guaymas. We very much enjoyed our wanderings. After asking several people directions to the main bus station we did manage to find it. A bus was leaving right away for Guaymas so we took it. Man-- could Greyhound take some notes from these guys. The bus was very clean, windows with shades and curtains, and comfortable. We barely got rolling and a movie came on for everyone to watch, and this was not a 1 st class bus. There are about 3 different classes of buses. The bus was fairly full as it seems like the holiday travel season is in full gear. The bus, of course, took the toll road , so we saw some different sights on the way out of town, including a Walmart and Sams Club. That's one sight we could have missed! A nicer sight was the huge fountain that we also passed. At the toll booth we were stopped in line for awhile and a fellow came on selling some food. The next stop was a police check stop. After waiting for awhile, one of the police came on board and asked most of the passengers to disembark and the overhead luggage racks were checked slightly. The luggage compartment under the bus was then opened, we couldn't see what was going on but assumed they were matching people to luggage and doing some checks. EVERYONE then re-boarded and we were on our way again. Cop never took any notice of us, so we ignored him and stayed in our seats as we had no luggage. We assume it was a check dor drugs heading north; but all was done in a pleasant, friendly manner. Of course while we were stopped another food seller boarded the bus trying to make some sales.

We arrived back in downtown Guaymas, and took a bus home. Arriving home, noticed that Irenes mom was having trouble getting their door unlocked, so I helped her into the house. She was relieved as Ciro and Irene were not back yet. About 10 minutes later Ciro knocked on our door, laughing that we had beat them home, we are assuming that they went visiting after the appt. as some gift packages had been taken with us in the morning.

A fun day, with some new sights.

Bus fare from Obregon/Cajeme to Guaymas was 60 pesos, about $6.00. The movie at home would have cost us more than that!

Orphanage

Orphanage

On Thursday after doing our computer stuff we split up. Roy off to the bakery, etc. and then home to wash the car. The car was really dusty from sitting and the other night it sprinkled enough rain to make it look a mess. Our rain storm consisted of a very slow drizzle, not even enough to wet the ground. No chipi chipi here John.

I caught a bus downtown and then walked about 4 blocks to an orphanage we had read about. We had brought a few things with us for the kids from home. The orphanage is called Hogar Paz y Bien- loosely translated to Home of Peace and Good. After haltingly explaining my presence to the Madre, she introduced me to the dozen or so boys clustered around us. The boys wanted the pencils; but the Madre told them "no" those would be for school. She allowed them to have the activity books (luckily had enough that they got 1 each) and she took the toothbrushes away with her. The Health Unit in my home town had given me these items for the children and they were a hit with the kids.

The Madre explained that the girls were upstairs and the boys downstairs and she took a few minutes to show me around. They have a large outdoor space, all tiled and extremely clean, lots of pots of flowers and trees with everything brightly painted in primary colors. She finally gave in to the boys and brought out a bucket of crayons. The boys and I settled down on the tile floor and the Madre went back to her duties. I had taken a map with me to show the children where I was from and the older ones decided that it is a long way away! As the children learn english in school, some of the older ones knew the words for the colors in english. I felt like a mother hen with her chicks around her, with 12 little boys sitting in a semi-circle around me. We colored and chatted and they laughed when I had to look up a word in my dictionary. The littlest one couldn't figure out why I couldn't speak proper spanish. One of the older boys said that they call the youngest one "little chicken" which brought a bunch of laughter. The children were very well behaved, with only one altercation over the crayon bucket. I had to laugh as one boy said to me, when I interceded, "I had it first". Kids are the same everywhere!! After an hour or so the Madre returned to collect the boys for their lunch, so after many thank- yous and goodbye I left. A good time had by all.

Total Cost-Priceless

Total Cost-Priceless

Yesterday after finishing up on the computer and a stop at the bakery on the way home, we decided to try and find a bus to another small town we had seen on the map.

We hopped a bus to downtown, then another bus to Empalme. We then asked a couple of security cops on a corner where or if we could get a bus to Las Guasimas. They pointed us to a bus deopt type place where after asking a couple of people we found out we could catch a bus in either 1/2 hr. or 1 hr., depending on who you were talking to. We hung out there people watching and 15 minutes later a bus pulled in. These are not the fancy buses on the big bus lines, theses are old school buses. After a brief break for the driver the bus departed. The desert is amazingly green with shrubs and cactus, mountains in the distance and the occasional glimpse of the sea. We noticed a little boy sitting right behind the driver- age between 1 and 2 years, still drinking a bottle. When the bus stopped the driver would turn and talk to the child, we didn't think much of it, children here get a lot of attention. After a few kms. the bus pulled off the highway, rattling and bumping along a sand road into a very small town, name unknown. The highway signs here are not as frequent or as informative as in Canada. Dropping off and picking up passengers all the way through town we emerged back onto the highway and continued on. Another 10 kms. or so on the highway and then a turn onto a narrow paved road for awhile, and into the small town of Las Guasimas. Small homes: some constructed of woven plant material, some of plywood, some brick and some of concrete blocks. Streets of sand. Before getting off the bus we asked the driver when the next bus would be and he told us "manana"-tomorrow. Needless to say, we stayed on the bus, as he had pretty much traversed the town anyway. Remember the little boy sitting behind the driver? Well, after everyone else got off the bus we noticed he was laid out on the seat fast asleep- the bus drivers son, quite at home and having his nap. We returned to Empalme, and stopped to have a coke at an outdoor cafe. While sitting there a mexican, who is married to a "gringa" in California stopped to chat with us. After we told him several times that we weren't interested in purchasing a place, he told us he could help us find a rental if we needed one next year. We did manage to get some info. from him, as well as his phone number in California.(Smile) We caught the next bus to Guaymas and then a bus home.

Bus costs for both of us for the day: 100 pesos-$10.00, approximate distance 75 kms.

Cost of 2 cokes- 12 pesos-$1.20

Cost of 4 hours of entertainment and enjoyment for 2 people-PRICELESS!!!!

Winter in Guaymas

Winter in Guaymas

Well, I guess you can say it is winter here in Guaymas. This morning the landlords son went outside in his heavy sweatshirt to start the car. He then retreated back into the house for 5 minutes or so before coming back out and driving away to work. Roy and I just looked at each other and laughed. He must have decided it was cold enough that he needed to warm up the car. Now just in case you are interested the low was forecast for 12 C. (plus of course). It seemed funny to us, as some of our summertime lows at night are cooler than this. Highs for this week are 23-24 C. and lows 12-13 C. Not bad for mid-december.

I got most of the weeks groceries and some stuff that will last us longer than a week and the cost was under $25.00, it still amazes me to go uptown with a $200 pesos bill and come home with change. At home you wouldn't even think about going uptown with $20.00 unless you just wanted a coke, but for sure not to buy groceries. I didn't get any fresh tortillas as the ladies were behind in production and there was 1 man waiting in line before me. Oh well, just a change in the suppper menu and will stop there today on our way home from wherever we end up. By the way, we pay $10 pesos here for 15 tortillas (good size ones). Billie and John, what is the cost in your areas? Had a funny conversation with lady at the mini market yesterday. The coke wouldn't scan in their machine, so she laughed and said it must be free today. I laughed and told her that free is good. She wanted to know how to say "free" in english, and when I told her, she asked me to write it down for her. I wrote it down for her along with the spanish word and she was happy. I wonder who she will use her new word on? She is loosening up more all the time, at first she would just smile and not attempt too many words with us, as she knew our spanish was horrible. I think that after watching her husband joke with us and test us to see if we have learned any new words, she is beginning to feel more comfortable now. It is nice.

It is a big holiday here, Virgen of Guadalupe. Watched a big show on TV last night from the Basillica in Mexico City. Lots of singing, processions, etc., beautiful ceremony. There are lots of red, green and white streamers and paper cutouts hung all over.

New Knees, Please!

New Knees, Please!

Yesterday we left home at around 11 AM intending to go to read our emails and decide after that what we should do. After spending some time on the computer, Roy asked me if I wanted to go for a walk before going back home. Sure, I said, we have spent many pleasant hours walking around the city and exploring different colonias. We decided to wander over to the bay and walk along the malecon. It was such a nice day for walking, a bit overcast and not so hot, so we kept going and going and going and going. You get the idea. After several hours we ended up at the junction where we had to decide whether to head home or into new territory..... We had seen lots of buses with "paraje" on them and thought perhaps that was an area that we had not been to yet; but had wanted to look at. Where we wanted to go was to the other side of the bay/harbor and this was where we were trying to go the first time we ended up at the hidden cove that the busdriver showed us. Well, we were a little more knowledgeable about the buses now or so we thought. We hopped on the first bus that said "paraje" and sure enough away we went. This area is a much poorer side of town than many of the other areas. We saw a couple of cardboard homes, some made out of whatever scraps available: sheet metal, boards, pieces of plywood, etc., and of course the ever present brick. At the end of the route, the bus driver pulls the bus over, and asks us what we are going to do now. Its the end of the route for him and he is finished, either for the day or for 30 minutes, it was lost in the translation. We just laughed, told him we were just looking around and got off the bus. We walked down another road and came to an old, unused RV park and motel. The owner told us we could look around anywhere we wanted to. We asked him some questions about where a couple of roads went and then wandered around his property, sat and watched the birds and water for awhile and then set off down the road to where we could catch another bus. We waited for 15 minutes or so and then along came a bus that took us along the whole route that we had walked that afternoon-- in our own slow way we had come a long way! Got downtown and hopped another bus home. Two very tired pairs of feet, knees and legs. It was sandwiches for supper last night! Great day. Lots of new sights, met some more friendly people and had fun. What more could you ask for-- especially thinking of the weather in Canada right now!

Nice warm day again today, high overhead cloud. There was rain forecast for today; but it doesn't look like it will happen. Roy is glued to the NFL today, so I will pick up some groceries and relax.

Mucho Frio

Mucho Frio

Mucho frio ( very cold) thats what the weatherman on TV said this morning. It was cool, we didn't open the windows until about 8:30 AM, landlord said it was 14 Celcius. I have looked for a thermometer downtown; but haven't found one yet. Highs around 23 C. today. We are still in our short sleeves; but some mornings I feel chilly. The humidity is lower here than at home, it seems strange when you think that we are right on the sea. It must have something to do with the desert. Kind of nice not to have lumps in the salt and sugar containers. Looked at the weather back home in Canada and it said -20 Celcius, so we are ahead by 40 some degrees. Tough, eh!

We went back to the hidden cove on Monday, yesterday relaxed at home as I was tired and achy. Climbed around on too many rocks the day before I guess. This morning we are going out to the beach at San Carlos. Its just another beautiful, sunny, warm day here.

Photos From Yesterday

Photos From Yesterday

Miramar area of Guaymas

Roys finger got in the way, oh well. Pelican diving for his lunch.

Dolphins

Dolphins

As the clock strikes twelve, the cock crows 3 times. Sounds faintly like something from a Shakespearean drama or a horror movie. It's not though, it is a normal midnight here at our new home. I do believe that one of the local roosters has a problem telling time. Without fail, he crows at midnight, which in turn wakes the street dogs and gets them barking. We are used to it now and usually sleep through it; but last night I was awake and just had to smile as I rolled over to go to sleep.

Mystery solved with the question of the word Irene had written down for the seafood soup. It was a case of misformed letters ( she was writing against the wall). What looked liked "uadrios" was actually "varios" meaning several. She was trying to say that the soup was called "Caldo Largo" and was made out of shrimp and several other things. Thanks Billie and John for your suggestions.

Grocery shopping - there are 4 or 5 large supermarkets here, so we could shop the same way here as at home; but we prefer to do it differently. We have lots of time so have checked out other options. Yesterday for example we got our paper products from a store 4 blocks from home, some other things from a store 2 blocks from us, lettuce and radishes off of a veggie truck, and green onions from another small store. We got everything we needed withing a 4 or 5 block radius of our apartment and got a lot more enjoyment out of it. At home I hate grocery shopping; but here it is more of a social experience.

Today we got on a bus and went all around the route, it was a poorer area of the city. Lots of apt. buildings and small wooden homes.

We then took another bus to Miramar area. It is right on the seashore and is still within Guaymas. We walked along the beach and collected some shells. As we were sitting and watchng the pelicans diving for their lunch we noticed some fins in the water. There were 6 or 8 dolphins swimming in the bay. Every once in awhile one would jump out of the water. We sat and watched until they disappeared. An unbelieveable experience. Warm sun, a light breeze off the water, bright blue sky, sandy beach in one direction, rocky beach in the other direction, coconut palms swaying in the breeze, mountains in the background. Beautiful and serene, we were the only people on the whole beach, which was probably a couple of miles long.

We took some photos; but the computers here that I can upload them on are occupied at the moment, so will try tomorrow.