A Trip To The Country
This morning Irene came over to ask us if we would like to go with them to the rancho in the campo (ranch in the country of some relatives) near San Jose de Guaymas. We needed to be back in Guaymas by 4 PM; but they assured us that they would be returning by 2 or 3 PM. We decided that would be a new experience and a nice way to spend the morning. Our party needed two vehicles to carry everyone. Ciro, Irene, grandma, oldest sons wife and their son, a niece who visits often (3 yrs. old, she told me proudly), the youngest son, Roy and I piled into the 2 cars and took off. A short trip later we arrived at the ranch. This is not a ranch as we would know it in Alberta. They have 1 cow, 1 horse, some doves in a cage, some chickens, and some fighting cocks. The trip out to the rancho was so that our ladies could make their tortillas over the wood fire. When we got there they unloaded their paraphenalia. The large metal disc, looked like a disc off of the farm implement by the same name, for anyone who knows what that is. The large, round, curved steel piece was set on the grill over the open fire. They had prepared the dough at home so immediately set up in the kitchen and began rolling out the tortillas. This kitchen would also be unrecognisable in Alberta. It is separate from the house itself, with partial walls of tin, wood, etc., the roof partly of tin and partly palapa (palm branches). A rickety work counter and the brick fire area with a grill over it. A rustic wooden bench, a plastic picnic table and lots of plastic picnic chairs completed the area. There were pots of plants and flowers set on the one partial wall that was made of brick. It was all very clean and tidy. The ladies from the rancho sat and visited while the guests did their tortillas. These tortillas are not what you usually see- they are probably 16 inches in diameter and I haven't quite figured out the reason for the huge size, other than you don't have to make so many. The daughter in law would roll them out on the counter to a certain size and then Irene or grandma would enlarge them by pulling and holding them over their fists to stretch them, much as you would do a pizza crust. Then onto the hot disc, a quick flip with the fingers and then another quick flip onto a clean towel with another towel to cover them. I watched them for awhile and then Ciro took the children, Roy and I for a walk in the desert. Ciro kept a close eye on everyone, especially the children, making sure than none of them wandered too far from him, because of the danger of snakes. He said that there are no Javalinas in that area, they are mostly closer to the mountains. They do have them around Miramar and San Carlos and they can be dangerous. They are sort of a wild boar/pig. We were in the flat of the desert so no worry about them. He said that there are coyotes in that area, and showed us some signs of them. He showed us different types of rocks and picked up some pieces of obsidian, which was used by the flintknappers years ago to make arrow heads, etc.. We saw some of the thorny shrubs with not a leaf on them; but with bright red flowers. Some of the cactus are also blooming. The people have trees with what we thought were grapefruit; but when I started telling the fellow that in Canada we don't have grapefruit trees, they just laughed at me. It turned out that they were lemon trees, the lemons were the size of large oranges and they said much sweeter than the small ones. Doing a taste test, I am not sure that I would agree. Everyone got a good laugh when Nancy(the daughter in law) and I tasted one and both involuntarily screwed up our faces. Apparently in Guasimas, a town we had briefly visited by bus, they have Lemon Reyes trees, king of the lemon, and these lemons are as large as grapefruit. So alot of what we thought were grapefruit trees turned out to be lemon trees! Finished watching the ladies and their tortillas and did a taste test of them also. More men showed up in trucks and out came the fighting cocks. There was one match and although they did not put the spurs on their legs, one did come away bleeding. This was not my favorite part of the day. On the way home we stopped at an orchard where Ciro and Irene picked up a huge bag of oranges, yes, another taste test. These oranges I think would be best used for juice, they were not the large ones we buy to eat. They had a lot of tough pulp; although they were sweet they were not as juicy. While we were there a tanker truck pulled into the orchard, when I asked Ciro if they hauled water in like that to irrigate the orchard he said yes, from 2 wells. There were 3 large orchard fields all looked after by one family. What a huge amount of work!
Ciro drove past the jail to show us on the way home and we teased the 2 kids about putting them in there. They were not impressed. Apparently even in Mexico the moon is made of green cheese and they do not have the tooth fairy here. Just a couple of things gleaned from the children. Of course, shortly after returning home Irene came to the door with some filled tortillas for us and then shortly after with a plastic bag with some extra ones in it. Not 5 minutes later grandma came to the door with another bag of tortillas, I showed her that Irene had already brought us a bag and we had a good laugh.
We went to meet the lady we were supposed to see from Hermosillo; but a la Mexico, she had changed her mind and had come on Thursday instead. Oh well, will deal with it manana.
So instead of having a relaxing day around the house, we had a fairly busy day. Roy was quite glad that the Super Bowl didn't start until later on, so he didn't miss too much.
A really interesting and fun day. I didn't take any pictures, as I didn't feel comfortable making their everyday life into a tourist attraction. I am not very agressive when it comes to things like that and so miss out on alot of "photo ops"; but I feel more comfortable being like that.
