Desayunos a la casa de Roberto

Breakfast at Roberto's house. This morning we rode bicycles (loaned to us by Jack) a couple of miles to the neighborhood of Costa Azul in Guaymas where Roberto lives. L-R: Roberto, Francesca, Arlete, Jack.

Chorizo & eggs - que delcioso!

Roberto's house is up a short steep cobbled street, so we walked our bikes.
The view from the terrace was great. The little island is thick with cactus.

The next morning

We spent the night at Jack's. This morning he took us on a little sight-seeing tour of the area north of San Carlos which I'd never seen before. The local busses don't go to this area, so I was amazed at the nice hotels and developments. This is the view from a lookout called El Mirador.

Looking north at the distinctive Tetas de Cabra. The older part of San Carlos is on the other side of the mountain.
Jack bought us breakfast at the Marinaterra Hotel. Marina San Carlos is in the background.

Dinner with Jack and friends

We met up with Jack Nolan, a long-time friend from Rio Linda. He invited us to dinner at his house in San Carlos.

Beautiful home, great food and drink.

We also met some of his friends. L-R: Jack, Roberto, Francesca. Roberto takes care of the house when Jack is away and speaks quite good English. Thank goodness Jack is fluent in Spanish because his ability to translate was essential for the rest of us.

Leobarto and his wife.

Jack's house is right on the beach and has a great view of the Sea of Cortez from the patio. The bay is Bahia de Algodones and the beach is sometimes called Catch 22, because the movie was filmed here. The next 3 pictures span from south to north:

Wiwichus

If this was a real word in Spanish, "wiwichu" would be prounounced "wee-WEE-choo."

This was a display on the counter at Blockbuster, a promotion from Pepsi. Inside the clear plastic sphere is a small toy, apparently you can collect several different figures. The funny part is the caption below the title:

Wiwichu a Meri Crismas an a Japi nu Yir.

Bota navideño

Christmas stocking.

I'm not a creative or artistic person. I can follow a recipe and sewing pattern directions and I'm usually happy with the results. But to have an original idea and create has not been possible until now.

Living on a boat means you can't have a lot of "stuff." A Christmas stocking, however, is the appropriate weight and size. We can see the towers of Iglesia San Fernando from the deck of our boat and, for us, represents Guaymas. A couple of weeks ago, I took paper, pencil, and chair to the front of the church and sketched the part that would fit on the curve of the stocking. It was hard to eliminate detail. Tracing the darkened lines was also difficult through the thick white felt. I decided to do only black lines because of daughter-in-law Nicole Docimo, a real artist. You can see her work at her blog: bluebicicletta.wordpress.com or at her Etsy shop: etsy.com/shop/bluebicicletta.
And now, my sincere hope is that I won't make another Guaymas stocking in 2010. I'm hoping for a different port in the world.

Feliz navidad

Merry Christmas.

Dick got me this t-shirt for Christmas. The "Ostioneros" are the Oystermen of Guaymas, a local baseball team. The malecon was filled with families and children enjoying their new bicycles, roller blades, remote-control vehicles, battery-operated 4-wheelers, new puppies, and skateboards.

Before this little guy got going, he was parked in front of the seal bench behind him, he was "revving the engine" and watching the rear wheels spin.

The most unique tricycle was a miniature version of the ones that some local vendors use.

Nativity scenes

There are many nativity scenes around town, but no baby Jesus . . .
until this morning.

This was the biggest nativity in town, on the malecon. The donkey was especially large and goofy.

Tradicion navideño mexicano

Mexican Christmas tradition.

Piñatas in the star shape are for sale on the street and the front yards of some homes.

We bought a small one to hang from our stern and I'm hoping Dick will put some goodies inside. I'm in need of a little chocolate.

Caminando

Walking.

We started in Miramar on a little-used road. This road goes to the Delfinario (dolphin aquarium) and then continues to the main road into/out of San Carlos. The hill in the background is Mount Bacochibampo.

From across the estuary, a view of Miramar.

The sign says 16 km (that's about 10 miles, I hope not!) to San Carlos, but we'll be able to catch a bus sooner than that. Much sooner, I hope.

Before the crest of the hill, a final look back at Miramar:

On the other side of the hill, a look at San Carlos in the distance. Nearer is an upscale development with just a few "casas grandes" and many empty lots:

The Delfinario, a beautiful facility with not a single patron in sight.

I think this road sign cautions drivers NOT to drive upside down:

We made it! Dick thinks we walked about 6 miles, but I think it was more like 10 (and my feet thought it was about 15).

A walk through Miramar

Today we took the bus to the north side of Guaymas and walked into the neighborhood of Miramar which Dick said looked like Gringoville or where rich Mexicans might live.


At the end of the main road sits the Hotel Playa de Cortes which probably saw its heyday in the 1960s.

We saw only hotel workers, no guests whatsoever. Room prices began at $85 USD for a "traditional" room.

This patio looks out over Bahia de Bacochibampo:

Across the bay is San Carlos (truly Gringoville):

A professional photographer, her subject a young about to celebrate "quinceaneras."

Desayunos #1

Breakfast #1.

There's a fruit stand up the street. They chop everything fresh and pile it into a plastic cup: watermelon, pineapple, orange, jicama, coconut, cucumber. They use about 10 toothpicks to secure all the fruit so it's piled high over the rim.

Then you have your choice of toppings: salt, lemon juice, hot sauce, chili powder - a big tablespoon! We keep ours on the mild gringo side.

We walk a couple more blocks to our favorite panaderia (bakery) - they make the best bolillos (rolls). There are many choices and, if you wait around, more and more continue to come out of the back room. The proper way to make your selection is to take a large metal tray and tongs, pick out what you want to buy, take the tray to the register, the cashier rings up the total and uses the tongs to package your goodies.

Today we had glazed doughnuts which leads me to the following comment. Dick LOVES doughnuts. When Dick worked as a masonry contractor, he knew every doughnut shop in Sacramento and knew who had the best. Over the years, he's tried to curb his addiction but lapses have been known to happen. He's decided that Mexican doughnuts aren't nearly as fat-laden as American doughnuts, so he's back to enjoying this treat every once in a while.

These two boys came into the panaderia and had to wait a few minutes for the bolillos to come out, so they sat next to us and shot their pesos back and forth across the tabletop.

Such angels, until it was time to get their bolillos from the top shelf. The cashier watched them carefully as they fooled around a bit and made them put every bolillo they dropped on the floor back on their tray for purchase instead of back on the shelf.

El Mezcalito

What a deal!! 960 mL, 28% alcohol, suave y delicoso, and just $15 pesos/bottle. That's $1.16 USD. Dick loves a bargain and thought it might be a pricing error so today we went back and bought 6 of them.

El Farallon

Dick really wanted to try this restaurant. The menu was printed on the signs sitting on the sidewalk, however, today there was only one thing available - camarron empanizado. Shrimp something - according to online spanish-English dictionaries, there is no such word as empanizado. We also ordered Coca Light (Diet Coke). Promptly, another worker dashed out the door to go to a nearby abarrote to buy them for us.


The owner wanted us to come back tomorrow when he would have the other two advertised menu items. Or, if we called them on the phone, they would fix us anything we wanted.

Tortillas calientitas

Warm tortillas. Every morning we can hear repeatedly a song being sung from the loud speaker of a vehicle as it drives through local neighborhoods.

Tortillas, tortillas
Tortillas calientitas

We found the source, a father and son driving through the local neighborhoods, smiling and waving, stopping quickly when a child, most often, waited at the roadside with a few pesos to buy some tortillas. The nursery rhyme-like song sure gets stuck in your head for a few hours each day however.