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.