Didn't realize I didn't post yesterday until I checked the blog. Not a senior moment just a LAZY moment yesterday. On Tuesday we returned to the bakery/restaurant - the Culinary Market - in old town to pick up our quiche AND have breakfast with John and Jackie. Again excellent food and service. This time we didn't buy any cinnamon rolls as I still had two at home.After breakfast John and Jackie went to do errands and sightseeing on heir own. We headed towards home as the quiche needed to be refrigerated.
Another bus jam going through old town. Sure glad the streets are all one way.
The girl in the flowered blouse is selling fresh strawberries and green grapes. The man in the yellow is selling newspapers and the person sitting on the curb - I don't know.
I mentioned the small McDonald's that sell only ice cream. Here is one, I really meant small
Sometimes you just get a neat picture when taking pictures of something else.
So why didn't I post yesterday. Partly 'cause the three pictures above are the only ones I took on Tuesday and more likely because I just didn't feel like posting. Some days are like that. In fact the car didn't even get uncovered on Wednesday. Just read and napped. Getting too used to that napping. Need to do some walking instead. Only been averaging around 5000 steps a day lately.
This morning tho we had something to do. Colin and Contessa - she writes the blog 5C's - Que Pasa - they stay on Stone Island in their RV - came to our RV park and we went to El Quelite. To get to Las Jaibas Trailer Park they had to drive their car to the harbor, take a panga across the water then catch a Pulmonia to get to us. We planned on meeting here at 9:30 - they got here at 9:32. Wow!
We jumped in the Jeep and drove inland to El Quelite. They had never been there. Bill parked the Jeep right in front of the new walking street where the new hotel will be. The church is on the right the hotel will be using the existing buildings on the left. Can't wait to see it open.
We went into El Meson de los Laureanos for breakfast It is the restaurant I always write about. We walked around it for a while checking out all the neat rooms and things. Then sat down to eat. Suddenly there was a ruckus just around the table from us. A chachalaca was attacking one of the big roaming roosters. I mean really attacking. Every time someone separated them it headed back to the rooster and grabbed it and pecked it. Here is Doctor Osuna the owner of the restaurant trying to calm down the chachalaca. It didn't want to be calmed down.
This is a really small rooster who got his feathers up when the doctor started to release the chachalaca. He finally had to take the big ugly bird away from this room of the restaurant.
All of a sudden this little fellow came walking through. We'd seen him earlier out back in the wash. Now he was making himself at home inside.
Looks like someone is feeding him.
Wouldn't you know - Bll. The little thing drank till his tummy was full then just walked away.
Just more scenery from inside the restaurant. Every time we're there I see something different. And things look different as the sun moves through the area.
Bill pointed this out to me. Don't remember seeing it before.
Found out more about this man this time. At one time he was a well known, in the area, singer and guitar player. With age his voice is not as powerful nor his fingers as agile. He sits here in the restaurant and sings. Colin and Contessa were listening to him sing the song "El Quelite."
"Hey, you can't leave without paying!" Just kidding. Bill and the doctor having a long talk about something.
After eating we walked around a couple of blocks so they could see the brightly colored homes and the varied plants. This home sells hand made items from the area for the tourists. The little shop is in the front room of the home.
This house is getting extensive remodeling. Will have to keep an eye on it.
Just a close up of one of the weird cactus plants.
In the courtyard of another shop. The upstairs rooms are being made into rooms for rent. What a neat place to stay.
Just a tiny colorful house. I never noticed it before. Contessa caught it.
And so ended our day in El Quelite. We really enjoyed having Colin and Contessa with us. It is always fun to share this little town with people who haven't been there before.
The Peso to Dollar rate is changing. It is now 19.50 pesos to 1 dollar. A couple of weeks ago it was almost 22 pesos to 1 dollar. This new exchange rate put the price of a gallon of gasoline to over US$3.00. Two weeks from today we will begin our journey north again.
The weather until we leave looks like it is going to be perfect. Highs in the upper 70s low at night in the 60s.
Here is Bill out with his drone. He is getting much better at controlling it. Didn't hit and trees or RVs. But the battery runs out within 10 minutes. But we can't get an extra one here. Will have to wait until we're back home to order some.
We left the RV park about 8:30 - actually didn't realize it was that early until we were on the road. But we did see the big blocks of ice left on the sidewalk for the restaurants on the beach along the Malecon. We hadn't seen any this year and were wondering if they no longer needed it.
His man was on his way to where ever he sets up his vendors booth.
A really pretty house, wish I'd got a better picture of it. Don't ever remember seeing it before. But now we have to take the back way into Centro because of all the Carnaval preparations. Lots of the streets are blocked off.
We went to Centro to pick something up for a friend. So of course we had to go to the bakery for cinnamon rolls.Smelled so good in there. Some of the fresh, warm breads they make.
Decided to eat breakfast there. Outside under an awning. The neat tables. After Bill got his coffee he said we'd be back there to eat often. Very good coffee.
All the tables outside were filled, we got the last one. Across the street is the Casa Haas.
Looking up at the building between the awnings. It is one of my favorite buildings in Mazatlan. Yellow stucco with lots of colorful tile trim. The tile is the bottom of a balcony. The roof of the balcony needs some work.
We had the special of the day Quiche Loraine. Was surprised to get salad with it for breakfast. But everything was delicious. So delicious in fact that Bill ordered a whole Quiche - we will pick it up today.
Just another look at the restaurant as we were leaving. The building next to it was built before the law about maintaining the original exteriors went into effect. Too bad, it is ugly.
As we walked toward the yardage store we passed these guys pushing their cart to wherever they set it up.
Bought our friend some of the skull yardage, she wants it to make pillow covers for their RV. Will mail it to her when we get home. Also went into the Central Market where I got the popular colorful t-shirt with MAZATLAN in bright colors on black. Also two more hand embroidered blouses.
On our way back to the car we stopped to watch the painting of the government building. Every time the elected party changes the building is painted with that party's colors. One older and one young man way up on the scaffolding with long poles with rollers. A long reach up. They are standing on a 12" wide plank. The scaffolding is on wheels.
Oops. See the white area to the left. He can't reach it. At least there is a tarp under the scaffolding.
The older man is moving to the right side of the scaffolding, the younger is going to try to paint the unreachable spot I guess.
OMG - my knees were shaking just watching this. To finish the very bottom he had to scoot closer to the front edge of the scaffolding.
Back in the car driving home. Passing a bunch of stands being put up for beer sales for Carnaval. Lots and lots of beer stands.
We got home dropped off our packages and then went up the road to Cerritos Beach.
The tide was way out and people were eating on the beach. This group was dancing to the music being played by the two musicians.
A lot of erosion from the rain over the weekend. The boats used to be parked where it is now all rock.
It was 12:30 by the time we got there and we were surprised that the fishing boats were just coming in. They usually are coming in at 10:30. Guess they had to go way out to have any good fishing. We were told the water is too cold this year for good fishing close to shore. But they seemed to have caught some big fish.
We talked to one of the vendors we know pretty well and he is going to try to get me a purse that I like. He carried them several years ago but not this year. Told us to come back next Monday.
Later we met up with John and Jackie and went back to Centenario for dinner. This time I got a kind of good picture of it. The building was originally built to promote a big land development on Stone Island, then it was a ReMax office and the last few years a Chinese restaurant. Centenario is new this year.
One nice thing about it is it has a parking lot. The walls of the lot were covered with colorful pictures.
The tables at the booths all have neat pictures of different bird, fish and animals on them.
One of the inside decorations. A yellow cow pulling a wagon.
My dinner. Rib eye - cooked perfectly - covered with mushrooms, onions and peppers. Wedge potatoes and salad. Bill had the same thing. So did John except he had vegetables instead of salad. Jackie had Coconut Shrimp. All meals were great. Unfortunately I left half my steak as I'd eaten a cinnamon roll for lunch! Shame on me.
The bathrooms are all tile. Very pretty.
And this is the bar area. Want to sit on a saddle or on a swing while drinking? More tile work.
This is a neat idea. Colorful Sombreros fastened to the ceiling.
All in all a really neat day. Today we have to go pick up our quiche.
Another day of doing nothing. Morning was was wet but sun came out and dried things up nice. All the plants look so happy without a coating of dust on them. Today we are headed into downtown early hopefully to get some cinnamon rolls and a piece of the skull fabric for a friend. Hope they still have it.
Sitting around for the last couple of days doing nothing I kept thinking about heading home this week. We still have a little over two weeks of rent left but...Then this morning when I got up the sun is bright, the sky is blue and we have something to do today. So guess we'll be staying here for a little bit. Though I will miss three NASCAR races. First non points race of the year was yesterday. The #18 came in 2nd. Maybe Daytona will be on Mexican TV as Daniel Suarez is now racing in the Cup series.
Speaking of cars. Do you think Willie, the Jeep is spoiled. This is his blankie to go over the hood. It is very soft fleece. It goes under the car cover .
Here he is covered in anticipation of the rain. One corner of the blankie is hanging out over the front wheel.
My poinsettia is doing good. Getting all kinds of new green leaves. When we leave I give it to some one here as it won't live in Vegas. Also the border guards frown on bring plants into the US.
Saw this sign the other day thought it was interesting. If the plan doesn't work change the plan, but continue with the goal."
A stand of in old town. This area is for tourist bus parking when the boats are in. One bus is parked and behind it is a taxi taking up the space that the 2nd bus should go into. Behind the 2nd bus is a whole string of regular buses that are clogging the narrow street. The two guys in the white shirts are traffic cops. One is telling the taxi to move. Every bus in line is blowing his horn.
Still trying to get the taxi to move. It is now blocked in and it will take much maneuvering on his part to get out. Cars have now been added to the mixture see them next to the white bus. More horns blowing.
Lots of traffic jammed up because of one taxi. He finally got out, the tour bus pulled in and everyone else could go on their way. They are also blocking an intersection with a signal, so cross traffic is also backed up and blowing their horns. Glad we were walking.
Back in the car. This is center of downtown next to the Central Market. This is where most the buses were headed. A major stop. Some of the buses are really colorful. There are two types the 8 peso bus and the 10 peso bus. The 10 peso bus has air conditioning. The 8 Peso bus leaves it windows and sometimes its door open. The buses are pulled over taking on passengers. Traffic manages to squeeze past them - most of the time.
More traffic police. trying to keep the traffic moving around the buses.
And a little more construction going on. As you come down the street you see two orange cones One on each side of your lane and right in the middle a newly painted white arrow. Looks like traffic is supposed to go between the cones. OOPS - not so. Big hole in street. Lots of sudden changing of lanes. Later when we went by there had been a third cone added in front of the hole. Like I said, driving here is always interesting.
Wonder what well see today in our travels.
