Girls Day Out

A friend who spends the winter in San Carlos is getting ready to head back to Canada for the summer, she decided that her, her friend who is visiting from England and I should have a girls day out before they leave.
We headed to a little town close to Guaymas called San Jose.  We took a look at the church, sat and had a pop at a little store on the plaza and then headed over to visit a fellow who has a used articles store.  This little old gentleman has quite the story to tell of the bad storm that sat over us for approx. 36 hrs. a few years ago.  His home was destroyed and he was injured saving a child.  He is now in a wheelchair and a local group built him a small home and set him up with a used article store in part of his house.  He is interesting and fun to visit with and we chatted for awhile.
 Then we headed over to a seniors home for men.  I had gotten to know these men after the same storm mentioned above.  Their home was also destroyed in the storm and they were moved into the womens seniors home beside the place where I was going to help teach the children English once a week.  I used to buy a bag of candy and go to visit them before my classes every week.  They began calling me the candy lady and I always got a big welcome when I arrived, they do love their sweets !!  I hadn't been to see them since they moved back out to San Jose.  One of the men told me that he had had a heart operation and showed me the round object placed under his skin, I am assuming a pacemaker or something to that effect.  We chatted with them for a bit and also with the lady working there, there are only 10 men now and 1 woman: whereas there were 14 previously, I didn't ask any questions as you can probably figure what happened to the others at that age.
Our visiting over we took the new highway between San Jose and Empalme and found a bathroom and a fish taco place, after eating some good food, we set out to find the giant cactus.  I had been to see them there about 5 yrs. ago and knew where they were in a general type of way.  We got into the general area and then asked a lady, she didn't have a clue.  We drove for a bit and came to a workshop where a couple of guys were sitting.  I got out and asked and he know where I meant right away.  He gave us the most precise directions I have ever been given here and we arrived there shortly.  I don't think either of my friends had ever seen such big cactus and I just wish that I could remember better the other 2 places out in the desert where there are even larger ones.  Our landlord took us there shortly after we came here and besides not knowing the area, all the roads in the desert look the same to me.  I was not going to start roaming around sand tracks in the desert to find them so they had to make do with seeing those.  If you have never seen huge ones before these are pretty impressive; but the ones out in the cactus forests in the desert are even grander.  It is too bad we had not gone a week or so earlier as they had just finished blooming and by the look of it had been loaded with blossoms.  They decided that they would go again next year; but earlier in the year to try and see all the blooms.
We then headed back home where Roy was looking after his buddy Geordie the dog.  A fun day with friends and a good way to end their winter here.

Church at San Jose.

Cactus Anyone?

Cactus Anyone?

Bird enjoying his home in the cactus.



I liked the color contrast of the wall covering plant and the cactus.

The Christmas Rush-- Not!!

The Christmas Rush--Not!

I have been lazy about blogging the last few days and have been busy doing other things on the computer, and outside.

I drove for the first time to one of the grocery stores here the other day. I usually take the bus; but I wanted to stock up on some of the heavier things and Roy didn't feel like going. Up until now the only place in Mexico/Guaymas that I have driven to is the laundromat. The traffic here to me seems chaotic and I just wasn't ready to jump into the fray. Things went fine and it was not as stressful as I thought it would be, so I will probably do it again. A blog amiga from San Miguel de Allende is in Houston, Texas right now for Christmas. You can read about the driving experience she had there the other day, here: http://billiemercer.blogspot.com/ , I have to say that I am glad that I am here and not there!!

We knew that a fellow from Alberta, who we met up with online, was coming here and renting the downstairs apt.. He arrived, without getting lost, (surprising since the only directions he had were from me). He got settled in the apt. and prepared to enjoy his time here. Yesterday we hopped some buses with him and showed him a few of our favorite places and also went to the bank. While he was in the bank, we waited outside. The security guard for the bank, must have been wondering why we were just hanging around outside for so long. After we had exchanged a few smiles back and forth, he came over to chat with us. We explained that we were waiting for someone in the bank and he began to chat. He asked us lots of questions and as usual the first 2 thoughts he had were: A: that we were from the USA and B: that we lived in San Carlos, after we cleared both of those things up he had lots more questions. He had no qualms about asking about whether we can still get Canadian Pensions down here (doesn't apply as we are not old enough), where we live in Guaymas, how we like it here and many more. We had a nice chat, which passed the time while we were waiting. When the fellow came out of the bank and we were ready to leave, he shook our hands and wished us well. A pleasant interlude.

We returned home and later on in the afternoon Ciro came up to visit, with Brittany and Alan. We still have no railings, so it was interesting making sure that they did not run over the edge of the patio, especially when they and Roy began playing their game of "El Toro". Ciros brother is making the railings and as he is very busy at work, work for family members sits on the back burner. Ciro is hoping they will be done shortly. We got chatting about the giant Sahuaral Cactus forests that are close to here. We got out our maps and Ciro showed us where they are located, after he had marked them on our maps, he must have thought that we would get lost. He told us that he knows the area well and as there are many roads (read tracks) across the desert and we might not know which ones to take, we should all go together. He said that he would take us today at 10 AM. He is a wonderful man/landlord. I am not sure if he is going to get away from the hectic activities of the 2 grandchildren or whether they are coming to run off some steam. The two grandchildren follow him around like shadows and he looks tired already and they are still out of school for almost 2 more weeks. He calls them "chupa rosas", another name, other than colibris, for hummingbirds. Pretty funny from the sidelines.