Visitors In Town

Yesterday I was in the middle of cooking our lunch when the phone rang.  On the other end of the line was a lady, originally from Guaymas; but now living in California.  I knew that she and her husband were supposed to be in town this week.  Doug had commented on the blog several years ago and we had met them when they were visiting that year.  Last year we missed seeing them as we were in Canada when they were here.  We set up a time to meet and then sat down to eat our lunch.
Lunch yesterday was a green mixed salad with balsamic vinegar dressing, garlic toast and spaghetti with homemade tomato and mushroom sauce, along with mozzarella and Parmesan cheese to top it.
It was good.

After lunch we were off to centro to meet them at the Malecon.  We sat and chatted by the water while their daughter and grandson skate boarded on the malecon.  At this time of the day there are no places to buy a drink there so we wandered over to another park in front of the church and got a drink and some fresh fruit from my usual vendor on the corner.  Sat in the shade and chatted some more.  A nice afternoon.  They are only here for a few days more so I doubt that we will see them again this trip.  We were glad to have a few hours to visit with them in between their family visits.  Until next time guys.

Home again, we relaxed for a couple of hours before I went to my art class at the Casa de la Cultura.

This, That and The Other

The new art gallery in town, Pincel Arte de Guaymas, is open on Saturdays and Sundays from 10 AM to 6 PM, (according to their sign), so this morning we went downtown to have a look at what is displayed.  It is on the street where the Palacio Municipal is, beside the P.M. is a white building and the next building houses the gallery on the second floor.  The stairway is quite steep so if going be careful on it.
The building itself inside is interesting.  The lady told us that the building is around 200 years old and it still has the old wooden floors and the ceiling is of the old type that was used here many years ago.  It has wooden beams, the bamboo poles all across, then some matting and if it is like other old buildings that I have been told about, it would then have a foot or two of dirt over that.  This construction was supposed to keep the building much cooler in summer I have been told.  I am not sure if this construction has the earth on top of the bamboo poles as of course you can't see and I never thought to ask the lady if she knew.  Sorry, I never thought to take any pictures of the interior of the building.  There are seats and benches placed in all the rooms so you can sit and view the art if you want.
We wandered around and looked at the art, signed the guestbook that the lady asked us to and headed over to the Malecon.




























It was pretty quiet over on the Malecon being before noon on a Saturday, so we sat and relaxed and looked out over the bay.
There is a big blue ship, boat, dredger ???? in the bay still, it was there when we were down there the last time and is still there.  I read that they are dredging so that it is deep enough to accommodate about 15 Navy ships that will being coming in to celebrate Navy/Marine day on June 1 st., so perhaps this is what it is doing.  Not sure.

There is also 1 big Navy ship that we could see, docked at the moment.  It is hard to see in the picture as it is gray.

There is lots of other action in town with troops training for their demonstrations that they will be putting on for the Marine Day celebrations, I am sure that they will want it all to be perfect as the President of Mexico, Felipe Calderon is supposed to be here to help celebrate on June 1st.

One new thing to view on the malecon was this giant necklace of plastic bottles. The artists have placed a sign beside it explaining it.  A young boy came to look at it while we were looking and he said to me, "I can read that, it says Don't throw garbage".  Hopefully the message will sink it.

After our fun we headed over to the grocery and did our big shopping for the month and grabbed a cab home.
This afternoon we headed downstairs to a "come and meet me" party to welcome young Santiago, landlords new grandson, into the world.  Snacks and conversation flowed.
A good day all around.

Malecon, Old And New

Malecón, Old And New

This morning we headed to centro to look for an easel. We went to one store and were directed to another, we were then directed to yet a third store. No one had one or knew of a store here in Guaymas that we could get one at. We may go to San Carlos tomorrow, there is supposed to be an art supply store there that may have one.

Rather than heading home, we went and sat in the park for awhile. I had bought a newspaper so we read/looked at that and watched a couple of cute kids and the pigeons.

We then decided to walk around to where they are dredging and filling in part of the bay. We used to walk along the malecón a lot; but since they started working on it, we haven't gone as often. It is not the same and I am afraid that I really don't care for the tourist plans that they have for the area . Unfortunately, in my mind, in February a fellow from Holland cruise lines is coming to meet with some people here. They will be discussing whether Guaymas would be a good place for them to bring their ships and lots of passengers, while they wait for the passengers who go on the Copper Canyon train ride (2 days or so). I realise that the new things going on here, are now and will in the future create employment; but I also worry about the negative aspects connected with things like this. I wish that I could have seen the malecón before they did the last improvements in the 1970's (approx. date).

This was before the statue of the fisherman was put in place, he was placed there after the remodeling at that time, or so I have been told.

This is what is going on today.

Maybe a couple of these boats are the ones below?

They filled in around this ship and another one, they are dismantling the other one piece by piece and we assume that is what will happen to this one. Needless to say, neither was seaworthy.




This is what is left (foreground) of one ship, they are still working on dismantling it.

We walked along, watching the birds. There were some interesting ones with bright orange beaks that were very vocal. A nice blue/grey crane, gulls and of course, my favorites the pelicans. It was cloudy today so some of the birds kind of fade into the water on the photos; but they do look better if you view them full size by clicking on them. We continued to walk for a long time before hopping on a bus and heading home.
A view of the port.



Blue/grey crane.

Rest and relaxation!!

This fellow was just taking off.