Hang Gliders on the Beach and Revisiting Tepic

Friday a.m.

Very cold and hazy and damp here this morning. At least the Internet is working a little faster today. In fact my jungle boat ride video just uploaded - and is right below this post - and I hurried up and published it. I’m ahead by one already today.

I mentioned that when we got home from the boat ride there was a motorized hang glider here. It was a good afternoon’s entertainment. This is just after he came down from flying around the area. Quite a contraption he is harnessed to.

He has to run down towards the water then the sail part of the glider comes up off the ground and fills with air and hopefully he takes off before hitting the water. Kind of neat to watch.
Then they decided to do a tandem flight. First they had to spread out the sail just right and get all the ropes to it untangled and just in the right place. See the second guy on the right in the white shirt and white helmet.

They there are hooked together getting ready to go. The guy on the left has a video camera on the pole he is holding. All systems are almost go.

Here they are  - ready set – they had to run sideways the first few steps then turn to face the water and run like the wind.

Oops. They ran over the video guy and came to an abrupt halt. Try again. A couple of times as they were picking up speed in their run towards the water a vendor on with his cart would wander by and they have to come to an abrupt halt. Tried getting into the air a couple more times but there wasn’t enough wind so they gave up until later in the day. Here they are when they successfully got up in the air.

Coming in for a landing. Which they managed quite gracefully - well at least without breaking anything.

While watching them fly around I decided to try something from one of the vendors. His sign said Frescas con creme –well it used to say that anyway. – sounded good strawberrys with cream. So Bill bought me one.

Not exactly what I was expecting but very good. It was a small carton – like a small milk carton – full of frozen strawberrys topped with heavy sweetened cream. Yum. Going to have to eat them again. You could get full just trying out all the things that are sold from carts on the beach. Even tamales.

One man takes his two horses up and down the beach selling rides. The kids and young love it.
The next day we went back into Tepic with John and Carol for the day. Their first trip there.
I am so far behind on the postings - if I'm not careful I'll have to fire myself for not doing my job. Will post pics from our second trip to Tepic with John and Carol the other day.
Be back in a few minutes. Bill just cooked me an amazing breakfast. Have to stop and eat.
I have a video of one of their flights - will see if Internet keeps cooperating. Watch for it.
Will add our trip to Tepic to this post - it's kind of short - then will try to work with video.
Clear back on Wednesday – two days ago – we went back to Tepic with John and Carol. Their first trip there. How can I be so far behind? Maybe we’re having too much fun here.
Because parking is so hard in Tepic we went in one car. Bill driving Willie up the mountain again. As always the beautiful green ride up. Through the tunnels of trees.

Stopped at the fruit ladies stands so we could take pictures. A bowl of bright star fruit. In this shot we can really see the star shape.

A big variety of fruit – lemons, yaka, watermelon, bananas, star fruit, avacados and tangerines just to name a few. Didn’t buy anything this time. Just admired them. I know I post a lot of pictures of them but I love the colors.

Traffic in Tepic is always crazy – for one thing you turn left from the far right lanes. And all the people selling things at every intersection. Floor mats for your car? Window shades? Want your windows cleaned?

This year it is so much easier to drive to downtown as all the construction is done and the bad pavement gone. We didn’t get to park in our usual lot as it was full clear to the sidewalk, couldn’t have put a bike in there. So we went around the corner to underground parking. Keep Willie cooler too.

As we approached the main plaza we noticed a lot of Huichol Indians. Their clothes are incredible – so colorful and so many different designs.

Stretching across the entire upper end of the plaza were Huichol Indians selling their wares. At least a hundred of them. From babies to grandmothers. Either she has a lot of children or she was babysitting.

Just some of the tables with all kinds of jewelry, dolls, purses and blouses.

The dolls for sale

Just another look at the crowds.

Tepic is not a gringo tourist town so most of the customers were people from Mexico. They will be here selling for the next three days. Sure glad we came today. More of the tables. Young people were helping to sell.

Grandmother was helping to take care of the young one.

He is about 10 and is already in the family business. His is very serious about his beading.

This time we stopped at KFC for lunch. Carol and I had chicken and Bill and John had hamburgers. Hamburgers at KFC? Oh well.

From there we crossed the street to the cathedral.

This is the mural on a dome you pass under to go into the cathedral.

The inside – it is very pretty.

Tepic Cathedral

We also found a Michaels type craft store that of course we had to go in and investigate. Lots of stuff but we restrained ourselves and didn’t get anything. Picked up Willie and drove to another parking lot so we could take John and Carol into the government building to see the spectacular mural in it. I posted pictrues of some of it last week.
Then over to WalMart for some shopping. This time I managed to get a shot of some of the trees along the street. This one is a piggy.

Got back to Aticama just about sunset. And discovered that George has moved Ms Tioga over to our side of the campground. So he is now our next door neighbor.

I still have to take yesterday's pictures from San Blas off my camera and sort through them. One of these days I'll get caught up.

What I try to do with my blog is share Mexico - through my eyes and feelings - with others. It is a beautiful and very interesting country.