Horses and Candy

To finish writing about our day trip Tuesday. After leaving the distillery we stopped in the little town of  Puerta de Canoas #2 on the map. 

Entering town on the only paved road, just around the corner it became dirt. 

This is a small typical Sinaloa agricultural town. However there are a few very fun and interesting things to do there. One of them is behind the white wooden fence on the left. 

We have been here several times and Bill has become friends with the man in the hat. He is a trainer for some of the beautiful dancing horses. This time when we arrived there was also a small tour bus there so he was going to have a couple of the horses show their moves. 

Shirley making friends with one of the horses. This is a training stable. The horses belong to other people and are only trained here. They are here for about a year and it costs the owner 3500 pesos a month. This includes the training, stable, food and a daily bath. About US$ 190 a month. 

When they leave they are ready to perform at shows, rodeos and festivals. This young [4 years] horse has not been trained with a saddle and rider yet. 

 Ignore first few seconds of video - just don't feel like editing it. Turn your sound on to hear the local music.

He was not a very big horse unlike some of them we've seen here. But very pretty. 

Another horse a little older. He had a different style of "dancing."

A video of him. 

We could have had our picture taken with him but we were anxious to get to our next stop. 

The candy shop We've been here so many times they know our names. John and Shirley on the right. The lady on the left is rolling some candy out to a slab about 3/4 inch thick.  On her left are little candy kiss shaped pieces. Waiting to be packaged up. 

The candy was cook in big pans. She took a hunk out of the pan and rolled it out. It is called jamoncillo - it is made by cooking milk and sugar until it thickens and caramelizes. 

She  has cut out a bunch of circles of candy.

Now she is rolling them into balls and then rolling them into nuts. You can buy them as kisses, or balls with or without nuts. 

They are sold in shops in Mazatlan. 

By the time we got home we were ready to call it a day and just relax. 
Wednesday morning we got an early start. And discovered another main street is being torn up. Right in the middle of the Golden Zone. You can't go anywhere without running into some kind of road construction. 

We wanted to have breakfast at the outdoor cafe Hector's Bistro right in the middle of Centro. 

It is in this beautiful old building. Going through the cafe is the bakery where the delicious cinnamon rolls are made. Yes we got some. Bill and John had Spanish tortilla  [eggs, potato and chorizo topped with greens and cherry tomatoes] for breakfast and Shirley and I had French toast. Bill also ordered a Quiche Lorraine to be picked up today. Yum. 

After eating we walked over to the watchmakers to pick up Bill's last watch - he wasn't open. Another day. Passed this interesting building. Lots of intricate iron work on the windows. 

 How about a YELLOW building. 

 Just pictures of the downtown area. We were heading to the big fabric store by the Central Market. 

 Pushing their fruit cart down the middle of the road. The bus driver wasn't being too patient. 

 I keep saying Mazatlan is a small town. While walking towards the fabric store we got a phone call from our friend Roberto. He had seen the Jeep in the parking lot and was wondering where we were. We told him and about 15 minutes later we met up on the corner. Will be getting together with him and his family over the weekend. 
Heading home. Work continues on the Malecon. We can see the progress. According to the news it is now supposed to be done by the end of January. Hope so as Carnaval is early in February. And the parades go right down this street. 

 Hadn't noticed this sign before - no idea what it is advertising. 

 Well the street isn't torn up but still only one lane through here. Water truck watering the new palm trees. Sure slowed traffic down. 

Made a quick run to the grocery store and then on home for the rest of the day.