Music Anyone?

Music Anyone?

Yesterday afternoon we were just sitting around when we heard a noise outside. It sounded like part of a band starting to warm up to play. We looked at each other and headed for the windows. Just down the street from us were two guys, they both had drums and one of them had a trumpet. He was multitasking as he held the trumpet in one hand and played it and banged on the drum with the other hand. They slowly walked up the street, and rapped on some of the neighbors fences to attract attention. As if the trumpet and drums, couldn't do this. No one popped out of their house to ask for a request, so they continued on their way up the street. I forgot to get the camera until they were almost out of view, so only got a very poor picture.

Another moon picture.

A Walk Through The Neighborhood--Part Three

A Walk Through The Neighborhood--Part Three

There is nothing to exciting happening right now, so I thought I would continue to show you around our neighborhood.

Yesterday was my moms birthday, so I phoned her and had a nice long chat, also chatted on messenger with my sister. So it was a talkative day. This morning continued that trend with an early morning chat with the homeowner from the Baja house sit.

Still hot here, 10:45 AM and it is 30 C. (86 F.), humidity 75%, "feels like 36 C." according to one of the weather sites. We did turn the A/C off again for the night last night though and it was comfortable to sleep. It seems like the humidity is getting lower and it is more comfortable now in the evenings.

This is our favorite taco stand for fish/shrimp tacos.

A beer store.


A hamburger stand, this one is quite new and we haven't tried it yet.

This is a tortilla shop, its sign says, "tortillas y mas", which means tortillas and more. Not sure what the more is as we get our tortillas right across the street from us and this place is about 5 blocks away.

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The next 2 photos are of a gym which is only 1 blk. away from us. We haven't been motivated to try it yet.

Happy Birthday Mom

Happy Birthday Mom

Tomorrow, September 28th is my moms birthday. No, I can't tell you how old she is. She doesn't read this as she doesn't have a computer. She has no time for one she says and believe me if you knew her schedule you would agree. I am sure if I did tell her age though one of my siblings would run and tattle on me, some things never change. Somehow I don't think she wants her age plastered all over the Internet. Anyway, Happy Birthday mom!

Before we left Canada for Mexico, I scanned a lot of my old photos into my computer and onto discs so that I could have them with me. Tonight I got looking at some of the old ones and decided to post a few of them.
This is my mom and dad, in their dating days (I think). Definitely before 5 children entered their lives! I have always loved this photo of them, they look so happy.

This is their wedding photo.

This is my maternal grandfather in his younger days. I believe that this was taken on his way home from ringing the church bells. The church is in the background. This was before he emigrated from England to Canada.

These are my maternal grandparents. I believe that this was their wedding photo. Both were born in England and later emigrated to Canada.

This is my paternal grandmother, another wedding photo? She was also born in England and emigrated to Canada.

This is my paternal grandfather. He was my only grandparent to actually be born in Canada; his parents had also emigrated from England a few years before he was born.

Repairing The Street After Hurricane Henriette

Repairing The Street After Hurricane Henriette

We had been discussing the state of our street with our landlord the other day. When Hurricane Henriette came through, all the rain and water rushing down our street created a washout that you couldn't drive over. We actually didn't mind it; but then we don't do a lot of driving. To us it just meant that there was no traffic on the street; therefore it was quiet and there was very little dust. Apparently though our views were not held by everyone, so the city was called to come and repair the damage.

Yesterday they showed up with a grader, a water truck and a dump truck. They dumped several loads of gravel, and the grader began his repair job. After he had done a fair amount of work the water truck watered it all down and everyone left. We assumed they hadn't finished as there was still a pile of gravel in one spot. Sure enough, several hours later they all showed up again and finished the work. Our street is back in working order and is probably better than it was before the hurricane.

Full Moon

Full Moon

According to my calendar tonight is full moon. I love when the moon is full; its soft, glowing light bathes the neighborhood and makes everything look so special. The palm trees seem to glow in its light. There is something about a full moon that brings out the frustrated photographer in me. I can't recall the times that I have tried to take pictures of the full moon. Some of the ones I took when we were in the Baja turned out not bad (for me anyway, someone like Billie must just cringe and grimace, if they look at my photos ). The moons light shining across the water of the Sea of Cortes was beautiful.

Here we don't see its glow on the water; but it lights up the neighborhood and makes everything look soft and pretty. So, naturally I got the camera out again last night. I was too lazy to get out the tripod and didn't really expect to get a photo worth saving; but I liked one and Roy liked one, so here they are.

The one I liked.

The one Roy liked, he liked the better view of the buildings.

If you read this blog very often, you know that we use the bus system here the majority of the time. We seldom use the car, at times it sits for a couple of weeks without running. It is not without its value though, even when not being used for transportation. Here you can see one of its other uses, for some of our street residents it is a valuable part of the nighttime neighborhood.

Computer Problems?

Computer Problems?

I may or may not be having problems with receiving emails. I am not sure. I just found out that I have not been receiving emails from one person. We are not sure if the problems lies within my system or theirs. If you have sent me an email in the last few days and I have not responded please let me know by leaving a comment here, as I may not receive the email.

A Walk Through The Neighborhood--Part Two

A Walk Through The Neighborhood--Part Two

We had a nice evening last night with some new acquaintances, who have their boat on the "hard" (land) at the marina seca (dry marina) here in Guaymas. They came over and we visited for awhile before we headed out to dinner at La Barca. Strangely enough the biting bugs were bad at the restaurant (outdoor under a palapa roof), which was a first. For this reason we didn't linger too long over dinner as both she and I were getting eaten alive. The men were not being bothered at all by them. I can only assume that it is because of the recent rains that they were so bad. Anyway we returned to our apartment and visited some more.

Not too much exciting going on today, so thought that we would continue on our walk through our neighborhood. I could not get blogger to upload the photos so I am putting them in from webshots. Slightly more time consuming and I hope that you can still click on them to enlarge when I am finished. Our connection seems to be slow this morning so that could be the problem.

This is where we both get our haircuts, it is about 3 1/2 blocks from home.

This according to the sign is supposed to be a butcher shop; but the times when I have been in there it is more of a vegetable shop, so I think they have changed their speciality.

This is the laundromat where we do our laundry, it is about 5 blocks from us.

On the corner by the laundromat there used to be a second hand shop, I used to go and look around while I was waiting for the laundry to wash. One day it closed and shortly thereafter a paint shop opened up in the same space. There was already a paint shop right across the street from them.

This is the other paint shop right across the street from the newer one.

On the corner right beside the paint shop above is a pharmacy where they also have a medico that you can consult with for 25 pesos (about $2.50). Upstairs in the pharmacy building is another hairdresser where I have also gotten a haircut while waiting for the laundry to finish.

Many more places to see in our neighborhood, return tomorrow for the next installment.

A Walk Through The Neighborhood--Part One

A Walk Through The Neighborhood--Part One

Zoning laws, if they exist, must be quite different here than north of the border. You don't seem to see strict business/housing segregation. Homes and businesses co-exist quite happily right beside each other.
Our neighborhood is no different. Some streets consist only of homes; but others have a mixture.
The other day I needed some paper and so walked down to a papeleria (stationery store) and decided to take my camera along to document some of the various businesses in our area. There are many within a 6 or 7 block radius and if we didn't want to we wouldn't have to go downtown or to the big grocery stores hardly ever. We could get almost everything we need right in our own neighborhood. Nice.
This store is right across the street from us. You can get an assortment of things there, kind of like a 7-11 with character. We get our soda pop there, or a pastry, or if I run out of eggs I can buy 1 or 2 there or a tomato or.....almost anything you need.



This one is at the other end of our block and you can get the same things as at the one above.

This is a wonderful mini market, it is 3 blocks from us. The owner and his sister who run the place are wonderful people and we do a lot of our shopping here. We get all of our meat here, it is excellent and he has a selection of vegetables and almost everything else you can think of.

This bigger grocery store called ISSSTE is 4 blocks from us and has a large selection of everything; but for some strange reason they do not carry flour or fresh milk. I have no idea why not. They also have a pharmacy where we get our prescriptions.

This is the stationary store where I went to get paper. It is probably 6 or 7 blocks from us at the eastern border of our 'hood; and usually as far as I go walking for shopping.


This is a gift shop right beside the stationary store.

There are many other shopping options available and I will show more in the upcoming days.
This evening we are to meet some new people (through the blog, again) and go out for dinner to one of our favorite restaurants, La Barca.

Dolphin Dies At Delphinario

Dolphin Dies At Delphinario

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

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

Delphinario, photo taken from El Vigia newspaper.

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

La Virgen, photo taken from El Vigia newspaper.

Looking For A Place To Retire?

Looking For A Place To Retire?

If you are looking for a place to retire, you might want to consider Mexico, according to International Living Magazine anyway. They have published their new list of the best places to retire and Mexico ranks as number 1. In its 15th annual global retirement index, they look at such things as: real estate, entertainment, special benefits offered to retirees, culture, safety and stability, healthcare, climate, infrastructure and cost of living. The USA ranked as number 19 and the UK as number 29 of 29 countries analyzed.

Hmmm......we could have told you this.

Another Hurricane?

Another Hurricane?

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

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

This photo was posted on the VivaSanCarlos forum.

This photo taken from La Voz del Puerto newspaper.

A Cloudy Morning

A Cloudy Morning

A cloudy morning, well it was for a few minutes anyway. We opened the door and windows and let the cool, moist air in. Refreshing after the air conditioning being on all the time.

Our view this morning.

I had another photo I wanted to post; but my censor (Roy), dis-allowed it. Seeing as it was of him, I allowed his censorship. Oh well.
One set of my camera batteries went dead on Saturday and when I went to charge them the charger wouldn't work. I am thinking perhaps a power surge damaged it. Luckily I had the other set charged, as I don't like not having my camera handy.
I decided that I would go looking for a new one on Sunday as we had decided that it was just too hot to stand in the sun watching the parade for hours. I have also been wanting to look for a new memory card for the camera as the one I had was too small. I had to be careful if I was taking little videos not to run out of room.
I headed to the Soriana grocery store first as I knew that they carry cameras. Sure enough they also had the card that I needed. I got a 2 GB. card for what I thought was a decent price; but they didn't have a battery charger.
I had looked in our new telephone book before leaving home to see if there was a camera store that sells accessories. It told me that the camera store in the El Vigia mall does. See, we have only had the phone book for a couple of days and already it has come in handy, even without a telephone. Sure enough, they had chargers and I got one complete with 4 batteries so now I also have some extra batteries. A good shopping excursion.
We spent a lazy day yesterday and didn't do anything. This morning I think that we are going to go out to San Carlos to look around.

Independance Day

Independence Day

Tomorrow is Independence Day here in Mexico. I had read in the newspaper that the mayor is supposed to read the "Grito" at 11 PM this evening.

Every year at midnight on September 15, Mexicans from the president at his balcony in the National Place in Mexico and every governor to Mexicans throughout the Americas shout the gritos, honoring Hidalgo’s crucial, impulsive action that was the catalyst for the country's bloody struggle for independence from Spain. (This is taken from this site: Mexican Independence)

There was supposed to be some other festivities going on in the Plaza de Tres Presidentes (Plaza of the 3 Presidents), so we decided to go downtown to see what was happening. We arrived at the plaza around 6 PM and looked around the plaza at the decorations. Everything was looking nice.

There were some men working at finishing off a fireworks thing. It was still horizontal while they finished working on it. I have no idea what it was supposed to be; but I am sure that when they light it, it will be wonderful.

After awhile they decided it was finished and they recruited a bunch of the policemen that were standing around to help raise it up. It took a lot of men to get it vertical and for a few seconds it looked like it might all come crashing down. They put their weight into it though and managed to stand it up.

The Palacio Municipal is all decorated as well as the statues of the three presidents that were born in Guaymas. Everything looks very festive.

There were several stages set up, and of course the sound system with massive speakers was in good working order.
We wandered around and then sat down and just watched what was going on. The vendors were all out in force, the food and drink carts were setting up, the pony rides were ready for business. Everything was ready and waiting for an influx of people. Over in the Plaza de Pescador (Fisherman Plaza) the children's rides were all running also and people were just enjoying the nice evening.
We finally asked a lady if the children were going to be dancing tonight and she said, yes; but she had no idea of when. We had already decided that we weren't going to stick around to hear the Grito read, so figured that we would head home now; after all they might not start until right before the Grito. You never know. It was a nice evening to be out on the plaza anyway, whether we saw the dancers or not. Tomorrow morning is the parade. It would be nice for the children if it was a little cooler tomorrow; but I doubt it.

The New Phone Books Are Here

The New Phone Books Are Here

Does anyone other than me remember the 1979 movie, The Jerk starring Steve Martin? For some strange reason I have always remembered the scene where he jumps around, excitedly screaming, "the new phone books are here, the new phone books are here".

Well, today on our street there was an elderly fellow slowly and unexcitedly walking around delivering the new phone books. At first I wasn't going to get one as we do not have a telephone; but then I decided that it would come in handy for looking things up. I went down and asked for one and he readily handed me one. He then looked at me and in english asked for a tip! You could have knocked me over with a feather. At first I just looked at him stupidly, as I never expected to hear english from him and then of course I gave him a tip. If I had to walk around carrying and delivering those heavy books in this heat, I would want a tip also.

I had a productive trip uptown in the morning and after we ate our lunch, I spent the afternoon sewing.

This afternoon, after it cooled off a couple of degrees, Roy went down and cleaned the battery posts on the car and it started. Ciro then showed him some stuff in a container that he said is good to put on the posts to prevent this from happening. By this time Roy had everything back in one piece so he decided that he would wait and try it the next time it happens.

Not Dead, Just Lazy

Not Dead, Just Lazy

I guess when you start getting emails wondering why you haven't posted, it is time to get off my lazy butt and put something on here. The main reason why I haven't put anything on here for a couple of days is that we are basically boring people. We don't live an extremely exciting life, we spend most of our time just doing your basic living things which don't make for very interesting reading.

Lets see, what have we been up to the last few days. I have now been to 4 different stores looking for peanut butter and no one has any right now, that's a downer (yes, sis, we like peanut butter). Oh well, at least I have been keeping my yoghurt stocks up.

Another day we went uptown looking for a de-humidifier. Two of our walls are not sealed on the outside of the apartment and when the hurricane brought all her rain, it soaked through the bricks/concrete and now the walls are damp inside also. It is very humid and even more so inside with wet walls. We thought that a de-humidifier would help so off we went to the store. The clerk was very helpful and surprisingly enough didn't run screaming for their token english speaking clerk the minute we walked in. We conducted the conversation in spanish and he understood what we wanted, que sopresa (what a surprise). He went hunting other people to find out if they had anything like what we wanted and they didn't. He then did some reading and told us that our air conditioners should function as de-humidifiers. They do to an extent; but we thought that we needed to bring in some more help, it was not to be though; as they had nothing like that in stock.

Wednesday I decided to go to the tianguis ( outdoor market) shopping. Usually when we go to the tianguis we are just doing a walk and gawk and have no real purchases in mind. This Wednesday I had some definate things I wanted to look for so Roy designated it as a "womans shopping trip" and elected to stay home in the air conditioning. The man has no sense of adventure sometimes. It had rained hard the night before and there were only about 1/3 of the usual vendors set up, the streets were very muddy and there was lots of water lying around.

As I was walking down our street on the way to catch the bus, a lady stopped me and started to chat. I guess she remembered that we had been looking for a permanent place to rent in the winter of 2005. She told me that she knew of a place that will be available in Dec. of this year and that it is bigger than where we are right now. We are not looking to move; but we do know of a lady from the USA who is thinking of moving here, so I tried to get a few particulars about the place for her. Something to keep in mind anyway. A good way to practise my spanish.

I also met up with one of the neighbors at one of our local grocery stores, we were both heading on to another local shop so walked and talked our way there. Another practise your spanish moment.

A young couple and their little boy have moved from across the street to their new home. The house they had here is small and as the little boy is growing they bought a home in another colonia with 2 bedrooms. We miss not seeing him and Roy has one less little boy to give candy to.

Roy went down to the car yesterday to take the linens to the laundromat to be washed. The car wouldn't start, so he walked it over there and returned a very hot person. We have been having trouble with the car starting since we returned from the Baja, the battery terminals have been getting very corroded and he has had to remove the cables and clean them up several times. This time he says they look clean; but it won't start, so we will have to look into this a little more. A consequence of the salt air.

Today I am going to go uptown to centro and check out the fabric shops. The forecast is for the temperature to "feel like" 43 C./110 F.. A perfect day to visit air conditioned shops; although the bus ride could be a little toasty. Roy, being a shopping wimp has again decided to stay home. Go figure.

Well, the beef roast is in the crock pot cooking away for comida (lunch) later, so I guess it is time to clean up and head uptown. Hasta luego.

Reading The Newspaper

Reading The Newspaper

I haven't bought an actual paper since the day after Henriette; but I have been trying to keep up with the news by reading the papers online. There is not as much online as in the actual hardcopy; but it is better than nothing. A few things gleaned from it the last few days.

Independance Day: the Grito de Independencia will be read on Saturday from the balcony of the Palacio Municipal at 11 PM. I believe the parade will be held on Sunday at 9 AM from Calle 13 on Serdan to Calle 24. Note: there are lots of vendors on the streets right now selling flags, hats, etc. for the upcoming celebrations and people are decorating the streets and store windows.

Hurricane Henriette: there are still about 300 families in shelters in Vicam and agencies are asking for donations of clothing, powdered milk, food, building materials, household goods, etc. to help get these people back on their feet.
They believe that some good will come out of Henriette in the form of good moisture levels for agriculture and increased shrimp production because of the organic material washed into the sea.
There are still lots of damages to roads, etc. that will take time to repair.

Body found in the sea: a body was found in the sea about 60 nautical miles from Guaymas. They believe that the body has been in the water for 20-30 days. There are mutilations to the head, hands, feet they think from the sea creatures and there are also 3 wounds in the thorax area. It is the body of a man believed to be about 25-30 yrs. old. The body was retrieved from the ocean by the Navy and has been taken for an autopsy.

All of the above news was taken from La Voz del Puerto
and Periodico El Vigia
newspapers online.

Any errors are due to faulty translations on my part and are not the fault of the newspapers.

Flooding Near Empalme

Flooding Near Empalme

The effects of Hurricane Henriette continue. Yesterday there were lots of people evacuated from areas around Empalme because of a reservoir being breached. The people were taken to shelters and the Governor of the state was in the area surveying the damages.

The following photos are from the Periodico El Vigia, a local newspaper.


Military evacuating people.

This taken from El Imparcial newspaper.

On a lighter note.
In March of this year I had noticed a tree with the most beautiful blooms on it on a street near here. I spoke to the lady in the house closest to the tree, it is outside the house fence, beside the sidewalk. As a courtesy I asked her if it would be alright for me to come back and get some seeds from the tree when they were ready. She said, of course, come and get some, it doesn't matter if I am home or not. Before we left for the Baja I returned a couple of times checking on the seeds, finally right before we were ready to leave the seeds were ripe, so I collected some.
A week or so ago I came across the seeds and decided to plant some of them to see if they would germinate. They did and they are coming along nicely, so in 5 or 10 yrs. I may actually have a blooming tree. Ha Ha. I believe the tree is the Bauhinia Tree.
The mature tree.

A close up of the blooms.

My babies, they have a lot of growing to do.