Mardi Gras in Guaymas

The last day of celebration. The parade started at 4 pm at one end of town. We arrived early, so we stopped at a kiosk inside the supermarket and I tried, for the first time, Pepihuates. The young man on the left was really enjoying his cup and I was feeling brave. The name is a combination of pepino (cucumber) and cacahuates (peanuts). A plastic glass is first half-filled with peanuts, then a combination of minced cucumber and jicama. Then come the aderezos (toppings): chili powder, clamato juice, and sweetened minced dried chilies. It was really delicious. Slabs of diez millo (literally it means "ten million" but is the name of a tender cut of beef, thinly sliced) are secured to a rotisserie. The fire is vertical, the skewer is turned by hand to cook it. When cooked, it's sliced off the skewer, chopped and put into tacos. There were many food stands set up along the main street.

Vendors of all type plied their wares. Wheelbarrows make portability easier.

The parade began with a marching band, the only one we'd see.

My favorite very earnest performer:

There were floats and performing groups for the next 2 hours:

Each performing group was preceded by a vehicle which BLASTED music:

Las Vegas theme:

James Brown music and 60s costumes and dances:

French can-can dance troupe:

The streets were packed with some observers going up high to get a good view:

Even the hat seller stopped to watch:

Only one float tossed candy to spectators and it had a gaggle of kids who followed it down the parade route:

This Aztec queen was followed along the route by a masked (intoxicated) man who tried his hardest to be noticed. He never got even the slightest glance.

This guy was on his own, dancing up a storm. He was one of the most entertaining performers:
A diminuative queen and her court:

L-R: Darren from Cool Cat, George from Mollyhock, Dick, Panchis is on the phone, then her family:

Panchis grandchildren, Miguel Ivan and Itsel, enjoyed throwing confetti

and then walking their rats arounds. Purchased from a passing vendor, pull the string and the rat starts moving.

The guys wanted to have Chinese food for dinner. This is a fabric store, but note that half of the storefront is covered by advertising for Chinese food:

To get to the restaurant, you go into the fabric store:

down the main aisle, past the notions department, through the door on the right and up the stairs:

The vendor most apparent was Tecate beer stands (which I didn't take any pictures of) and nearby was this popular follow-up business. 3 pesos to use the bathroom:

This kid was a real sharpshooter, he never missed, and won a prize.

There was a shell game going on in the middle of the street, people were crowded around. The woman in the purple shirt was quite angry and vocal that she'd actually won but didn't get her winnings. She was making quite a scene.

Finally another customer made a deal, if he won she would also get her winnings. He won. And then I got in trouble for taking this picture. Lo siento (I'm sorry) and we got out of there.

Work and play

Work work work during the day. Well, one of us works (below) while the other person avoids working.

This is the scene after the daily parade is over. We haven't seen one yet, but have promised to go for the last one tomorrow. We worked our way through the crowd to a little outdoor restaurant set up just for Mardi Gras.

We ordered one gigantic burrito and split it. Seriously, it was made with a flour tortilla that was about 14 inches in diameter.

Update on Cool Cat

There she sits at the fuel dock. Two nights ago, Darren's anchor alarm went off again in 30-40 knot winds.

He let out 30 meters of chain and was down to the nylon rode which then became entangled in one of the props. He had no choice but to cut the line and let the anchor go. Both engines started this time, so maneuvering the boat back to the marina fuel dock was easier. Two marina workers were there to grab the lines.

This afternoon, after a couple of days and many many hours of dragging the bottom, with the help of George and Rupert, Darren recovered his anchor. It's the only significant anchor he's got, and now has to deal with its possible inadequacy and whether to buy another one before he sets off for Australia.

Husband Appreciation Day

For the third time in as many weeks, Dick has brought me flowers. Such a nice way to brighten my day.

Thank you, Sweetie.

Our bags are packed,

we're ready to go.

Thursday, 3 March. Judy (Rupert's wife) from Khaya, our next-door boat neighbor, drove us to the rental car agency, which saved about an hour of back and forth driving. Usually Dick picks up the car, comes back to the marina to pick up me and our stuff, then we drive out of town, but Carnaval officially began on Thursday. Many streets are blocked off, the diverted traffic totally clogs the remaining streets. Before leaving Guaymas, our tradition is to have a hamburger and fries at Burger King. It's helps to begin the acclimatization process before we head for the USA.

We left around 6 pm and crossed the border in Nogales before midnight. We are aware of all the border problems, but this is the best time to make the fastest border crossing and it fit into our plans for a full day of shopping on Friday. We felt safe the entire time. Another hour on the road as we drove to Sierra Vista. We found the local Wal Mart and settled in for a short night's sleep in the car. OK, maybe it wasn't the best night's sleep I've ever gotten:

Why, Sierra Vista? That's where Roberto's sister and husband live. We had our kevlar and a couple of other packages delivered here. Thank you to Roberto, Rosa and Paul for allowing us to do this. On to Catalina Marina in Catalina AZ, north of Tucson. While Dick consulted with a knowledgeable sales person on a variety of topics, I shopped for items on Darren's list.

The rest of the day was spent going to quite a few stores, some of them more than once. Our final stop was Musselman's, a motorcycle dealership in Tucson since 1945, to buy a Honda generator for Darren. Oh boy, was our car packed. We brought almost everything into our motel room that night. Dick did a masterful 3-D jigsaw puzzle of re-packing on Saturday morning.

We could have squeezed a few more things into the trunk, I'm sure.

Our trip back was great, a green light and both inspection points - hurray! - and then we hit the city limits of Guaymas. It took at least an hour to travel 3 miles. Tonight is the first of the Carnaval parades and people were starting to gather. Avenida Serdán was closed, with all traffic diverted to García López, the other main artery through town. All the one-way streets leading to Serdán had become parking lots. We had to drive south of town, turn west toward the water and then make our way north to get to the marina. We could have walked faster. And now the music is blasting as we try to sleep. (We will discover peaceful sleep begins at 4 am - oh joy, only three more nights of this.)

Darren from Cool Cat

You've already heard about Darren in previous posts, he's been generous with his time and so helpful during the kevlar application project (which is 3/4 complete at this point). Here's a bit more to his story.

Darren arrived in Guaymas from Queensland Australia while I was in La Paz. His boat, Cool Cat, was already here. After careful thought, a survey, and long-distance negotiations, Darren purchased Cool Cat. He has a lot of experience with power boats but this is his first experience owning a sailboat.

After about 4 weeks in the workyard, Cool Cat, was launched. Now Darren needs to learn how to sail this boat and his learning curve needs to be quite steep since he wants to leave for Australia sometime in April.

Lesson #1: There goes the teaching team. L-R: George, Dick, Rupert (who really knows what he's doing, a naval architect with 50 years sailing experience. He first single-handed a sailing dinghy when he was 7 years old), and Darren.

The first lesson was quite successful. Later in the evening, Darren got his first action-packed event. Fifteen minutes after he returned to his boat, around 8 pm, his anchor dragged and his GPS alarm sounded. Luckily he was not drifting toward the other boat anchored in the bay, nor the shrimp fleet, nor the naval dock, but out into open water. His port engine would not start, so he had to maneuver the cat using only starboard power. After many attempts to reset the anchor, he was successful, but decided to sleep in the cockpit. Of course he didn't sleep very much. Welcome to the world of sailing.

Preparations for Carnaval continue

This four-lane road is now down to two lanes as vendors set up along the sides. Traffic is still moving though the area at this point. In a few days, barricades will keep out all vehicles.

Half of this side street has been taken over by Carnaval vendors:

Sidewalks are more crowded:

I liked the way Britney Spears is supposed to draw people to this ride:

Behind the scenes: motorhomes, pickup camper shells, and other rustic accomodations house the carnival workers and their families:

This is my usual walkway to get from the marina to Avenida Serdán and its businesses, but I'm now reluctant to use it now. Many workers and families live here. There are tents pitched in the trailers of the semis. Laundry is done by hand on a low wide cement wall to the left using buckets of water taken from the bay. It's then hung to dry on the chain link fence.