Bloggers Meet

Yesterday we met up with Croft and his wife Norma for lunch at La Barca restaurant. When Roy and I arrived at the restaurant it was closed. This was strange as they are usually open for breakfast. We waited around for awhile and a fellow came out and when he saw us waiting he went back in. Shortly thereafter another one of the guys came out and said they were having some problems and would open in 1/2 hr.. We waited for a bit and then the lady came out and told us that we could wait inside if we wanted. We had just seen Croft and Norma drive up so when they got to us we went inside to wait. We got the menus and drinks and they apologised some more for not being ready. Apparently their cook was sick and they were awaiting another one. Eventually someone came and we ordered, got our food and ate. Lunch was good and the company was better.
After lunch we decided to walk down a few blocks as Croft was looking for a cell phone. The store was closed for siesta, so we decided to show them the Casa de la Cultura. There was nothing going on there so we headed onward to the old jail. I have blogged about the old jail several times, here and also here so if you want to see pictures you can go to the links. I didn't take any yesterday. They did give us a tour of the jail, in spanish which I badly attempted to translate, we wandered around and then sat outside to rest up before heading back. While we were relaxing a fellow came out and began to talk to us in english. He was a very interesting fellow having spent 35 yrs. in the merchant marine and he had been to Canada during this time. We chatted with him for awhile before we headed back. Croft and Norma headed back to San Carlos and after getting a few groceries we headed home. A nice time with new friends, thanks guys.

Lunching With A Turtle

Lunching With A Turtle

Yesterday we went for lunch at La Barca restaurant on Calle 9. We were just sitting and talking waiting for our lunch when I heard a scraping sound. I looked over to the double doors that lead to their inside room and there was a turtle just making his way outside into the sun. We just laughed. The owner came over and told us that he appears every 15 days to eat. He comes out and goes straight to the kitchen to be fed. They brought out his lettuce and a dish of milk and he began to eat. He sure gobbled it down quickly. A strange lunchtime companion.

Here's a couple of pictures of him and a little video.

La Barca Restaurant

La Barca Restaurant

This afternoon we headed for La Barca restaurant for our lunch. We were to meet the people that we had missed last week. This time we all managed to get to the same place and we had an enjoyable lunch.
I often mention when we go to eat at La Barca Restaurant; but I have never posted any pictures of it. I usually don't take my camera with me when we go. Today I did, so here are some photos.

The advertising.

Part of the exterior.

The rest of the exterior.

Part of the interior. The little roof in the center of the photo is over a wishing well. It shows up better if you click on the photo to enlarge it.

Another area of the interior.


The last couple of evenings we have had a fellow coming down our street with his cart selling elote (corn). I tried to take a photo of him tonight; but it was getting too dark so it didn't turn out. As the weather cools off I am sure that we will see more vendors again. Over the summer about the only vendor other than the usual water and gas men has been the ice cream man.

Lazy Days

Lazy Days

It is still pretty hot here so we haven't been doing a lot. The usual shopping, etc. that goes with everyday living. I spent some time yesterday morning emailing and telephoning and then when things all came together, I had to run uptown. That accomplished, I returned to the cool air in the apartment.

We were supposed to meet some people for lunch yesterday at our favorite restaurant, La Barca. They had found the blog and as they are going to be in San Carlos for a few months, thought it would be nice to meet. We arrived at the restaurant a bit early and were told by one of the ladies, owners wife? that they were closed today as they were setting up for a big party in the evening. OK, we thought we will just wait for the other people to show up and then go somewhere else. While we waited outside in the shade, the owner/manager showed up and recognised us from our previous visits. He told us to come in and sit down, it is was fine they could accommodate us for lunch. He then went to close the doors of the restaurant; but his wife told him that we were expecting friends, so he left the doors open. We waited for a while, chatting with the owners wife, the people did not come so we ordered our lunch. As usual it was good Mexican food and we enjoyed it. A nice relaxing lunch in a friendly atmosphere. They invited us to come back in the evening for the party, the lady said that the band is a very good one and plays older music, geared to people our age. We didn't go back last night; but as they do this every Friday night, we may try it sometime.

We found out later that the people had read the email wrong and were waiting for us at another restaurant downtown called, Los Barcos. An easy enough mistake to make. I guess that being a city on the water can sometimes cause confusion with the names of places, too many similarities!

Ciro came up to chat for awhile last evening and told us that a house not too far from us had burned down in the morning. I looked online at the newspapers this morning; but couldn't find anything about it, so don't know what the cause was. Hopefully no one was hurt.

It was cooler last night, so we turned off the air conditioner in the evening. Nice to be able to have fresh air instead of the A/C.

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.

More Rain

More Rain

Thursday night we had another rainstorm. This one was quieter and I slept right through it, waking in the morning to a wonderfully fresh landscape. We had about 3/4 inch, more or less, I don't have a rain gauge so I just measure what is in a container I have on the patio. Today it is again cloudy and it was misting rain for a few minutes; but not enough to wet your skin even.

I have been wanting to try a restaurant here called Las Flautas for many months. The first time we went it was closed and a passerby told us that they are not open Saturday evenings. OK, last night (Friday), we decided to try it. We had been told that they didn't open until 7 PM so we went after that. When we arrived, it was again closed. The 3 benches that are in front of the restaurant (cemented in), have been pulled up and are just laying on the ground. We are assuming that the restaurant has closed, who knows, anyway we will not bother going again. We walked down to one of our favorite places called La Barca and had our dinner there. We are not heavy drinkers and I had never had a margarita, so I tried on last night. It was OK; but nothing that I would go too far to get. For 2 meals and 2 drinks our bill was $13.50.

I am always interested in the price of food in different areas, Baja California Sur was much more costly than here, of course, considering the freight costs. I looked online at one of the grocery stores weekly flyers in Alberta, Canada yesterday. Most things were higher, except for the products that I buy that are imported like the Kraft sauces/salad dressings. Not too big a surprise.

Comida (lunch) today is going to be Chicken Carbonara with a tossed salad, hopefully it will be good, as I am getting hungry.

Dinner At La Barca

Dinner At La Barca

Last evening we decided to go out for dinner. We headed uptown to one of our favorite places; but then changed our minds about eating there. When we arrived outside of the restaurant there was a very unpleasant smell and we didn't want to smell that while we were eating. We decided instead to try a place called La Barca. One of Irenes sisters works at this restaurant; but we had never eaten there until last night.

We were at Serdan and 23rd Street and La Barca is off of Serdan on Calle 9. We debated taking a bus; but decided that as it was such a lovely evening we would walk instead. We slowly wandered down Serdan Avenue taking in the sights, smells and sounds. I noticed that one of the corner hot dog stands had painted the front of his cart with a picture for the Guaymas Carnaval. I love the look of his cart as it actually looks like a huge hot dog. The picture for the carnaval is very nice; but I liked the plain look of his cart before, now a big part of the "bun" is covered with the picture. Oh well, it is different. Daytime and evening are very different in centro, a whole different world, things are much more relaxed. Some of the daytime vendors close up shop and others open up just for the evening. An interesting contrast.

We arrived at La Barca and entered through large, heavy wooden doors into a courtyard with an uneven brick floor. There was a palapa roof and a large wishing well in the open area and then a larger closed in area at the back, where we were told there was to be dancing later on. We were given menus and I asked the waitress whether the chili rellenos were very spicy. She just laughed and replied, sometimes, yes and sometimes, no. We both decided to order a combination plate with a chili relleno ( poblano chili stuffed with cheese, which is then breaded and fried and then topped with more cheese and cream), an enchilada and a chimichanga.

Irenes sister noticed us and came out and chatted with us for a few minutes, which was nice. I actually understood her, which was even nicer.

When the food arrived it was served with some salad and of course refried beans. The food was very rich and tasty, Roy managed to finish almost all of his; but I didn't do as well. We both really enjoyed our meals and will be returning there to eat again. The bill was very reasonable also, our meals were only $40.00 pesos each (about $4.00). We debated walking home; but decided to take a bus instead (I was too lazy).

Tomorrow we may take a drive up the coast, to see some places that we haven't seen so far and may even end up in Kino Bay for the night. We will see.