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.

Gone Fishing

Gone Fishing

It was a nice day so we decided to take the afternoon off from our hectic schedules and go fishing. Well, Roy was fishing, I took my book. We went to Centinela and whiled away the afternoon. As you can see above, Roy had a tough afternoon and so did I. It was hard to concentrate on my book with the scenery just begging to be looked at. It was a perfect afternoon, there was a bit of wind so it wasn't too hot to sit in the sun.

Is Spring Here?

Is Spring Here?

It is another beautiful morning here. Has spring arrived? When I looked at the thermometer this morning at just after 8 AM it was 75 F./24 C., no wind, no clouds, lovely bright blue sky. The mango and lime trees are blooming, the roosters are crowing, the dogs are sleeping. The coffee is right in front of me. What more could you ask for? Life is good.
Blossoms on a lime tree.

Mango tree in bloom.

A closer look at a Mango blossom.

I did go to spanish class yesterday and the teacher showed up. This was good. She gave us an exam. This was bad. We whined, she made it an open book test. This was? Questionable. I did well on the vocabulary part, I think--the verbs on the other hand, UGH. I thought I was getting them until I stared at that test page, I tend to blank out on exams anyway and when facing spanish verbs this is not a good thing. Oh well, I knew I needed to work harder on them and this only confirmed what I already knew. So....why am I playing around on here instead of working on my verbs? I guess the answer is--because I am basically lazy.

Video Of The Sea Of Cortez

Video Of The Sea Of Cortez

Here is a little video of the place where we were in the post below.

More Photos Of The Sea Of Cortez

More Photos Of The Sea Of Cortez

I had good intentions yesterday, I was going to go to the big grocery store for some groceries and then get a haircut. Instead Roy suggested that we get in the car and go to the sea at a different place that we had never checked out. Fine by me. We walked to the local store, got our necessities, stopped for a couple of shrimp tacos and came home, ready to hit the road.

We drove to the Miramar area of Guaymas and then took the road heading to San Carlos that passes the new Delphinario. On other trips by this area we had seen several little tracks heading to the sea. We weren't sure if they were good enough to take the car on; but we were going to find out.

We passed a fellow walking, he was a long way from anywhere and as we know that there is no bus on this road, we stopped and asked him if he wanted a ride. He was quite happy to hop in and he said that he was going fishing. We weren't sure where he wanted to go, as he just said around the curve on the way to San Carlos. I told him to just tell us when he wanted to get out. He just grinned. We chatted a bit and it turned out he was going fishing in the Estuary Soldado. He told us where he wanted out and off he headed into the desert scrub over to the estuary. We turned around and headed back to where we were going. We looked at one track and decided that we would probably rub the bottom of the car off if we took that one, so we continued on for a ways. We found a track that looked a little better and tried it for a minute or two before backing up and parking. It was rough and had lots of big rocks sticking up so we decided to walk instead. Roy headed into the scrubby desert growth, and I hung back. It was nice and warm out yesterday and I had visions of snakes sunning themselves in my mind (I am totally petrified of snakes-to put it mildly). With his constant urging I followed him and not soon enough for me, we arrived at a rocky beach. We wandered around looking, we were surprised that there were no urchins or other things in the rocky pools as there is at Centinela. Lots of little beasties living in their shells and creeping around; but not much else. We sat on the rocks, watching and listening to the waves. I took lots of photos, here are some and there are more here: http://travel.webshots.com/album/557389387IegqrB?start=24

As always if you click on the photos to enlarge them, you get a better view.

There is a little chipmunk eating something on the rock in the forefront of this photo.

The rocks had some colorful veins in them, which the photos do not capture very well. The rock was strange, the only way I can describe it is that it looks as if someone made an enormous amount of concrete and stuck alot of rocks into it. Different.

We climbed up onto the rocky plateau and found some cactus and scrub growing and the track that we couldn't drive down earlier. It made a much more pleasant walk back to the car for me, rather than the walk through the grass and bushes!! A nice place to explore; but not as nice as Centinela.

We want to go to explore the estuary one day now that it is warm again.

Back To Normal

Back To Normal

Well, yesterday was "fat Tuesday", so it was the last day of Carnaval here. We didn't go to the parade, as I was supposed to have spanish class. I am becoming "muy frustrado" with my spanish classes. Last week I made the trip to San Carlos 4 times, and actually had the teacher show up for 1 class. This maybe doesn't sound like a big deal to you; but for me it kind of is. You see I need to leave home about 10 minutes before 2 PM to catch the local bus uptown, then I have to wait for the San Carlos bus and catch it, arriving in San Carlos just before 3 PM when the class is supposed to start. After the hour class is over at 4 PM, I have to catch the bus back to Guaymas and then my local bus home. I arrive home about 5 PM. So I am taking 3 hours out of my day for this 1 hour class. Yesterday we (the students) all arrived and again the teacher did not. We sat around for awhile and then headed home. I realise that the teacher had a personal problem last week and I have some sympathy for her. What I don't have sympathy for, is the fact that she does not contact anyone to let us know that she can't make it to class. She just doesn't show up, and before someone reminds me that this is the way things are done here, the teacher is not a mexican person. I am still deciding whether I will give her another chance and go out there tomorrow or not. I just feel like I am wasting my time the last couple of weeks. I badly want to improve my spanish; but this is not happening when there is no class/teacher. We (the students), joked yesterday about starting our own class. Some of my fellow students will begin leaving shortly, as they are "winter" residents, so I don't imagine that the classes would continue through the summer anyway. I am beginning to think that I may just quit now and try to find something else after we return from the Baja in July.

Speaking of the Baja. We chatted on IM last evening with our housesit lady there and they have booked their tickets for their vacation. We will be leaving here on May 17 th to go over there and will be returning sometime after the 11th of July. We intend to take the bus to Los Mochis and then another one to the ferry terminal at Topolobampo. Then take the ferry over to La Paz, where they will pick us up and drive to their home, which is not quite a 2 hr. drive south. They live out in the country about 6 miles from a town, right on the beach. We should have a nice time there with their cats and are looking forward to it. Of course, before we get to do this, we have to head back to Albuquerque, New Mexico for 2 weeks in mid April, so we are going to have a busy and interesting spring.

Yesterday I made homemade baked beans and put them in the slow cooker to "bake", they were good for a change. You can't buy baked beans here, so we haven't had any for almost a year.

We are out of coffee, so I need to go to the store today and need to get a haircut soon. We are thinking of going down to the sea also. With the "cold" weather and my classes, it is quite awhile since we have gone and just sat and watched the birds and the waves.

Carnaval Parade-Number Two

Carnaval Parade-Number Two

This afternoon we again headed out to watch the parade. As it was travelling the route in the opposite direction today, we decided to pick a different place to watch. We caught a bus uptown as far as it would go, ( some of the streets were blocked off) and then walked around the carnaval area. In one area there were 3 large bandstands and in the Plaza de Tres Presidentes there were another 3, with one more being put together in front of the Palacio Municipal. Should be lots of music this evening!! I am not sure how you will tell one band from the other if they all play at the same time. There were some rides set up for the children, games of chance, lots of vendors of everything from food to toys and of course lots of places to buy beer. We then wandered over to the park for awhile before looking for a place to sit and watch the parade. We walked down Serdan Ave. towards the Belles Artes building where the parade was to start today. We were trying to decide where to sit when a gentleman with his family, told us there was room beside them and that we should sit there. We figured it was as good a place as any and sat down. While we waited for the parade to start we chatted with the fellow. Roy went and got a couple of pop for us and the fellow went and got a couple of bottles of water for his family. He then had to buy some nuts, he laughed saying, lots of family, lots of money. We chatted with him until the parade started. A nice way to pass the time.
The parade started and lasted for about 1 1/2 hrs. There was an amazing amount of people watching, we went back to the park for awhile before heading right downtown into the crush of people to catch a bus home.

More parade photos here:
http://travel.webshots.com/album/557701929NfQGBB?start=36

Carnaval Parade -Number One

Carnaval Parade-Number One

Last evening Ciro came up to show Roy a bunch of new hooks he had gotten for fishing. They wanted to try using them, so after looking at the tide chart they decided to go fishing this morning at 6 AM. After they left this morning, I decided to bake cinnamon buns and regular buns. While the buns were rising I did some cleaning in the apartment. While they were baking I called both my mother in law and mother and had nice chats with them both.
When Roy returned from fishing we had some lunch and a rest before heading out to the parade. The schedule had said that the parade was to start at 3 PM; so we left home around 2 and walked down to a place on the route right by the water. The parade did not start until almost 5 PM, so we had a coke and joked around with some of the children sitting near us while we waited. There was the cutest little girl in a pretty dress, so I asked her mom if I could take her photo. Her mom said that was fine, and as I snapped the photo the little girl put both her hands up to her face. Her mom told her to put her hands down and then she gave me a more "professional pose". A real little cutie.



There are more photos of the carnaval and all the floats here: http://travel.webshots.com/album/557701929NfQGBB?vhost=travel
I did a little movie and put it on WebShots, here it is:



The band at the beginning of the video were waiting for the parade to begin right where we were sitting. At first they did some practising while waiting, so I took the video while they were practising.
There are parades tomorrow, Monday and Tuesday, so I imagine that we will be taking in more of the carnaval in the days to come.

Shopping

Shopping

Yesterday before I left for my spanish class, I got all the ingredients prepared to make "papas locas" for dinner. This weeks spanish classes have been a story all of their own; but back to that later. When I returned from the lesson, I went to turn the stove on and nothing, nada, zip. No gas, strange we had had lots of hot water in the morning for our showers; but apparently that must have used it all up. Ciro happened to be up here visiting with Roy, so he went downstairs to phone the gas company to deliver a tank. We have a 30 Kg. tank that we started using on October 1st/2006, so we felt that regardless of what the refill cost, we couldn't complain. Ciro came back up to tell us that the truck would be here shortly and that the cost of a refill would be $291.95 pesos (about $30.00 more or less). About an hour later the truck showed up. The fellow lugged the full one up the stairs and hooked it up for us, before taking the empty back down the stairs to the truck. All I can say is that those fellows must have lots of muscles. Darn, fast service, I was thinking maybe supper out or sandwiches; but no, now with a new tank of gas I had to cook the supper.

Spanish classes this week. On Monday we had our regular class, Tuesday after we waited for awhile, the teacher ran in explaining she was having a personal problem and to come back for Tuesdays class on Wednesday. One of the other ladies from class was coming into town, so she gave me a ride home, which was nice. We again showed up on Wednesday, as asked; but the teacher did not. Wednesday evening I emailed her and asked about Thursday, yes, she replied she was going to try and make it on Thursday. Thursday we all showed up for class and again no teacher. One of the other ladies was going into town so I again got a ride into town. Nice. Let's see, 4 trips to San Carlos for 1 class. Hmmm....I do have some sympathy with her for her problem; but I do think that she could have emailed or posted on the forum that she was not going to be able to make it to class. It would have saved everyones time. Oh well, there is always next week.

Today, as there was nothing that we were going to for carnaval, we decided to go shopping. I have been wanting to get a scale and a crock pot so we headed uptown to check things out. We got out at one of the furniture stores, (furniture stores here also carry small electric appliances) and walked Serdan Ave. checking out all the stores. We ended up catching a bus to the mall, to the store where I had seen a large one a couple of weeks ago. The large one was sold; but we did get our weigh scale. We then headed to the grocery store in the mall and got a crock pot there. Almost every store had them; but I wanted one that the crock lifts out of, for easier clean ups. I also found a deeper bowl for mixing things in. The bowls that I have, are all low and everytime I use the electric mixer lots of the dry ingredients going flying. Hopefully this one will work better. Walked over to the bus stop and came home.

Roy and I played some Canasta and then I made potato soup for supper. It was tasty; but not good for the waistline. Oh, and yes, we both did weigh ourselves. UGH. I have gained about 8 lbs. since Oct. 2005. Time to start eating less.

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.

Carnaval Schedule 2007

Carnaval Schedule 2007

There have been some searches the last few days about the Guaymas Carnaval. There was also some people who had emailed me awhile back asking about the carnaval. I did try to email them back; but their email is no longer working or their mailbox was full. In any case, here is the schedule; although if it is anything like last year, you need to take the times with a handful of salt. We enjoyed going to it last year and will be going again this year.

2007 Guaymas Carnival Schedule

Thursday, February 15

7 PM Parade of Bad Humor down Serdan starting at 9th and going to the Court House.
8 PM Crowning of the Ugly King in the Plaza of the Three Presidents.
8:45 PM Trial of Bad Humor, reading of the testament and burning of Bad Humor in Plaza in the Three Presidents.
9:30 PM Dances and spectacles in the Carnival area.


Friday, February 16

8 PM Crowning of the Guaymas Carnival queen and Sister Cities queens (El Segundo, CA and Meza, AZ and Santa Rosalia) in Civic Auditorium and plaza Three president, followed by fireworks.
10 PM Dances and spectacles in the Carnival area.


Saturday, February 17

2 PM Cultural Events, sites:
1. Civic Auditorium
2. Between 17th and 18th Streets
3. Cultural Center.
3 PM first parade of floats and bands beginning at Costa Azul Blvd (near Las Playitas) going up Sanchez Taboada Blvd. to 29th street (Bellas Artes).
8 PM Dances and spectacles in the Carnival area.


Sunday, February 18

In the morning... 10AM at Costa Azul Blvd (near Las Playitas)
Sport events Bicycle and foot races
2 PM Cultural Events, sites:
1.- Civic Auditorium
2. Between 17th and 18th Streets
3. Cultural Center
3 PM Second parade of floats and bands, beginning at 29th (Bellas Artes) going down Sanchez Taboada Blvd. to Costa Azul Blvd. (near Las Playitas)
8 PM Dances and spectacles in the Carnival area.


Monday, February 19

2 PM Cultural Events, sites:
1. Civic auditorium
2. Between 17th and 18th Streets
3. Cultural Center
3 PM Third parade of floats and bands, beginning at Costa Azul Blvd. (near Las Playitas) going up Sanchez Taboada Blvd. to 29th street (Bellas Artes).
8 PM Dances and spectacles in the Carnival area.


Tuesday, February 20

2 PM Cultural Events, sites:
1. Civic auditorium
2. Between 17th and 18th Streets
3. Cultural Center
3 PM Last parade of floats and bands, beginning at 29th (Bellas Artes) going down Sanchez Taboada Blvd. to Costa Azul Blvd. (near Las Playitas)
5 PM Recognition of the participants and floats at the Cultural Center
8 PM Dances and spectacles in the Carnival area.

Saying Farewell

Saying Farewell

We managed to get the laundry done yesterday and some other housecleaning. Roy washed off the patio and also washed the car. A hard days work, ha, ha.

Today we had made plans to go for lunch with the people from Saskatchewan that are staying in the RV park in San Carlos. They have to leave for home on Thursday and we wanted to get together before they left. She runs a greenhouse there and needs to get back as she has to go and pick up some plants in Winnipeg by the end of the month. I don't envy them having to go back at this time of year. We met them and went for lunch and then went to a couple of shops and the Belles Artes to look at the paintings, etc.. By this time, it was time for me to go to spanish class, so we said our goodbyes and I headed to class. Roy took them back to the campground and then he returned home. We have enjoyed spending time with them and will miss them; although we will stay in contact by computer and possibly Skype.

It looks like we will be going to the Baja to do a housesit after we return from Albuquerque at the end of April. The Baja sit is supposed to be for 2 months, from the middle of May to the middle of July. We will probably bus south to Los Mochis and then take the ferry over to La Paz. We have been wanting to take the ferry over to Baja, so this will be a perfect time to do it. We are looking forward to it and hopefully it won't fall through.

I have homework to do for tomorrow, so time to get at it.

Getting Settled

Getting Settled

We had cleaned out the cupboards and frig so well before we left that we needed to do a major grocery shopping. We were both hungry, so Roy suggested that we stop at a local taco stand for lunch. The ladies grandson was out with his mom and they were feeding him. We were talking and waving to him, so when I went to pay for our lunch, I held out my arms to him and he came to me. That surprised me, as the little children are usually quite shy and we had never seen him before. He checked me out for awhile before deciding that he wanted to go back to grandma. A fun lunch.

We wanted to stop at a couple of places so decided to take the car this time. We stopped at a veggie truck to get our fresh produce. I bought: a head of lettuce, a kilo of tomatoes, a kilo of onions, carrots, a bunch of green onions, 2 kilos of potatoes, and some radishes. In case you are interested, the bill came to $6.00 dollars for a bag and a half of veggies. Not too bad. We then hit the grocery store and filled up a cart. We were out of almost everything. The bill was huge for us, around $60.00. We almost never spend that much here; but the cart was full, so I didn't feel too bad. One more store for our bacon and eggs and we were on our way home. I needed to find some dry mustard, so I asked the shopkeeper (where we shop regularily), if they use it here (apparently they do for chinese food). He called to his sister in the back room and she appeared with a can. Fine, I said I'll take it. Oh no, they replied, it is her can. OK, where do I buy it, I asked. Their answer was, Costco in Hermosillo! Great, Hermosillo is 125 kms. away!! The next thing I knew they had the can open and were pouring some of it into a plastic bag. They refused to take any money for it, so we thanked them and came home. The people here are so helpful to us; I would have preferred to pay for it; but what can you do in a situation like this. The cupboard is filled to overflowing and I can cook anything I want to now. The truck selling oranges for $1.00 a bag came by, so we got our oranges too. We had ordered some more shrimp from Nancys mom and Nancy came up with them in the evening. We had shrimp tacos and a big fresh salad with everything in it, including orange chunks. It was good.

Today I did some errands and started to check out crock pots and a bathroom scale. We are eating so good here, that I am afraid to get on the scale; but have decided that it is time. I also needed to go to the bank. I was going to do the laundry; but didn't get to that. Oh well, manana.

For supper tonight, I made spaghetti with a veggie/meat sauce, (as I now have lots of fresh veggies), some more salad and a flan type desert. Maybe I shouldn't buy that scale!!

We had a beautiful sunset here tonight; but instead of running for the camera, I just stood and watched it. It's good to be home.

We're Back In Guaymas

We're Back In Guaymas

We started out our little trip on Sunday evening. We were getting our stuff together when Ciro came up and told us to just knock on his door when we were ready and he would drive us to the bus depot. Wasn't that nice. The bus was supposed to leave at 9 PM, so shortly after 8 we knocked on Ciros door and he drove us to the bus depot. He asked if he should come in with us; but we figured that we could manage as we have before at various stations. The clerk couldn't get her computer to run, so we stood at the counter for quite awhile before getting our tickets. We took a TAP bus and the fare was $311.00 pesos each (about $31.10), the regular price was 400 or so; but there is a discount fare on right now. Not bad to travel 800 kms. (about 500 miles). Ciro must have thought we were having problems as we were at the counter for so long, and he came in just as I was asking if we would have to change buses. Ciro listened while the lady told us that we wouldn't have to and then said his goodbyes. I guess he figured that we were fine. We really appreciated not having to lug our bags on the city bus to get to the station.
9PM rolled around and no bus, we waited until almost 10:30 PM before it came. Everyone was hanging around outside as it was a nice warm evening. A bus from the same company went whizzing by and everyone just stood and watched it. We all looked at each other and laughed and shook our heads. Sometimes there are alot of checkpoints going north so we are assuming that is why he was late. It finally arrived and we boarded and got settled. Once we got aboard we realised that we had lucked out and unknowingly gotten a better class of bus than we expected (there are about 3 classes). We thought we paid for a regular bus and ended up with an "elite", there is also a "primera" class. There was a really nice leg/foot rest and lots of room. The trip was uneventful and we dozed off and on all night, arriving at San Luis just before 8 AM. We asked some people where the border was and luckily for us it was only about 5 blocks away. We walked over and crossed in a couple of minutes. We found a McDonalds to have breakfast at and phoned Roys sister. They arrived and we headed to Yuma.
We spent Monday visiting, we were tired and didn't really feel like doing too much. In the evening we went to a campground where some people from the same area as Roy is from in Alberta, were putting on an impromptu music show. We sat outside, watched the sunset, listened to the music and visited. A very nice evening.
Sunset in Yuma.


On Tuesday we did a bit of shopping. The bookstore didn't have the spanish books that I had written down; but I did find a couple of other ones which look pretty good. We then took a drive around Yuma. We saw many RV campgrounds and places where they just boondock. I knew that alot of snowbirds end up there for the winter; but had no idea that there were that many. We drove around old town Yuma and out to the dam, stopping and visiting with some people camping close to it. We were told that pre 911 there was a picnic area near the dam that has now been closed for security reasons. We also saw many of the vegetable fields with people working hard harvesting, not a job for me! We returned home and had a wonderful seafood dinner.
Views at an area fairly close to the dam.


Wednesday afternoon all of Roys family that overwinters in Yuma got together for a potluck meal. There were about 15 of us there and it was a great afternoon/evening of good food and better visiting. I am not sure that there is anyone left in Alberta in the winter after driving around Yuma, never mind all the other destinations for snowbirds.
We had decided to leave Thursday morning, so we headed out to San Luis just before 9 AM. When we had arrived we had checked the bus schedule and had been told that the earliest bus left for Guaymas at noon. We wanted to look at a couple of things before leaving so thought our timing would be fine. We parked and all 4 of us walked across the border. After a block or so we said our goodbyes and went our own way. We stopped at a shop and I got what I was looking for and we headed for the bus depot. We thought that we would buy our tickets and then go and eat somewhere. When we got to the bus depot one fellow told us that there was a bus leaving in about 20 minutes so we bought tickets on it. This was a Pacifaco bus and this time we got the "economico" class, our tickets were $271.50 pesos each (about $27.15). This time we didn't have the nice leg rest and the seats were abit smaller; but it was still comfortable and of course the movies still ran non-stop. After an uneventful trip we arrived in Guaymas about 8:30 PM. We walked over to a restaurant to eat and then caught a taxi home. It was a great visit; but it is good to be home also.
While we were away we got an email from a lady on the south Baja, so there is a possibility that we could be spending 2 months there in the spring, housesitting for them.

Off To Yuma, Arizona

Off To Yuma, Arizona

Yesterday when I went to pay the cable/internet bill, I (for once), had the correct amount in my sweaty little hand. I wasn't really listening to the cashier when she told me the amount and just handed my money to her. She handed me back 20 pesos (about $2.00) and then I started listening. She repeated the amount, 699.00 pesos (about $69.90), I asked why it was that much instead of 719.00 pesos. She told me that it was a prompt payment discount. Hmmm....didn't know about that. I just knew that you had to pay it before the 13th or get disconnected. Maybe they started that a few months ago when they raised the price by 20 pesos. Who knows. I wanted to pay it before we left, just in case I forgot about it when we got home.

Roy and Ciro worked on painting the railing yesterday and almost all of it has 2 coats of paint on it. They ran out of paint before they finished the part on the 1st level of stairs, so it will have to wait for another day. Ciro mentioned that if he would have wanted something more "artistic", he would have had to wait for quite a long time, as his brothers are so busy. No problem, this will certainly work. He also mentioned the amount that he paid for the labor and materials, certainly a lot less than it would have cost in Canada. I didn't take a photo of the 1st level.

The Carnaval starts on the 15th of February here, so we will be busy going to the parades, etc. a few days after we return from Yuma.

We are heading to Yuma, this evening on the bus. We intend to catch the bus at 9 PM and spend the night on it, arriving in San Luis Rio Colorado sometime Monday morning. IF, all goes as planned. We will visit for a few days with the members of Roys family, that spend part of the winter there. Should be fun.

Talk to you when we get back.

Onward And Upward

Onward And Upward

The guys had started working on the railings yesterday morning before I finished blogging and continued for most of the day. There was some discussion about whether to even put the part up, that is shown on the left hand side of this photo (the unpainted part). Ciro asked us whether we wanted it and we told him it was up to him, it didn't matter to us. He finally decided to put it there in case we wanted a gate sometime.

They then left an opening part way down the stairs (on the right hand of the photo below), so that they can access their roof without coming up onto our patio.

Apparently the plan is to sometime have a privacy wall of some sort (ironwork) going from the unpainted corner on the right hand side of the photo below to the other end of our patio and then a sun roof over part of it. It is hard to say when that will happen, as it is so hard to find workers right now, everyone is so busy working in Miramar and San Carlos.

Ciro started painting the railing while the guys were working on the other parts of it. I think he is trying to do it before it starts to rust, which happens quickly here in the salt air. Fine with us.
I went to the laundromat and washed the clothes, and picked up a few things at the store that we need for our trip. Roy then hung the laundry to dry while I did some cleaning in the house. Other than that we just spend the day relaxing and watching the work going on. I made shrimp tacos for supper. I am trying to use up the meat that I have in the freezer before we leave just in case the fridge goes off while we are gone. We are down to bacon and shrimp now, so tonight we are having cheese stuffed shrimp wrapped in bacon. Now doesn't that sound like a cholesterol nightmare!! Should be good with some rice and tomatoes on the side. I think I will go and pay the cable/internet bill today and not have to worry about rushing to do it when we get back. It has to be paid by the 13th of the month. I also need to pull all the plants into the shady area of the patio so that they won't dry out too much while we are gone, I will water them well and hopefully they will be fine until we get back.
Tomorrow we will pack and leave on the bus around 9PM, supposedly getting into San Luis Rio Colorado at around 8AM the next morning. I say supposedly, because going north you never know how long a trip will take, it depends on how many checkstops they have that particular day, on that particular stretch of road, could be 1, could be 5, or more. You just never know.

Deck And Stair Railing

Deck And Stair Railing

We have been waiting for a few months for our landlords brother/s to have some free time to make some railing for our deck/patio and stairs. Yesterday morning Ciro came up and asked us to move the car as his brother was coming with the railing. They arrived and started working on installing it. It wasn't quite what I was expecting; but it will certainly be safer than it was before. They put some of it in place and then took more measurements and returned to their shop to cut some more pipe. I went to spanish class and when I returned they also had returned and were working at it. They packed up and left around 6 PM, the work isn't finished so I am hoping that they return today to finish; but who knows. I didn't ask Ciro about it, as I know that they will finish it whenever they have time, whether it is today or not. Irene came out to look at it and pronounced it "feo", which if I understood her correctly is "ugly". It is not the pretty ironwork that you see all over, it is simply round pipe that will do the job. She had concrete balustrades in her mind last winter though, so I guess it is not what she wanted. Personally I am just glad to have something there that will make it less scary when the children come up to visit. Ciro was up here and Irene was downstairs, so he commented that it was like Romeo and Juliet; although reversed and I suggested to Irene that she could serenade Ciro. We all laughed when the men were working around where the hummingbird feeder is hanging and the birds were constantly buzzing around their heads. An unusual job hazard.

As I was writing this the men returned and began work, so perhaps they will finish today. We discussed with Ciro yesterday what color we were going to paint the railing. He thought that we should paint it blue to match the colors that I have used on the decorations and cushions on the patio. At the time we thought that was a good idea; but as we thought about it later we kind of changed our minds. The railing goes down the stairs to the ground and as the trim on Ciros house is red, we are thinking that the blue railing might look odd with the red, so we will probably just stick to white that matches the main house color. Whatever, we won't be doing it until we come back from Yuma anyway and then there is Carnaval, so it might have to wait for a couple of weeks to get painted.

My photo uploader was doing weird things last night and I lost a couple of photos that I had taken of the men working. If they come back to work today, I will try and take a few more.

Putting the landing railings in place.

Taking measurements.

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.