Another day spent on the road.

Another going to be warm day here. At home our house sitter is looking for someone to plow the driveway. But if he waits a day or two it is supposed to get up to 60F and rain. That should take care of the snow. Now the area is being warned about flooding.

Had a quiet day Sunday. We had to go to WalMart to get a new hair clippers. Ours broke so wasn’t able to cut Bill’s hair – They had a couple different brands to choose from. So now his hair is nice and short! It is funny how different these new clippers felt to use than the old ones. I would have thought clippers are clippers. 

Then we drove out the Malecón past the fresh fish for sale to the Centro Historico.

Had lunch in the Plazuela Machado – I love the colors there.

We ate at the Italian restaurant, both of us having different types of spaghetti.

Strange thing Beach Burger wasn’t open…have to go back and check on them. First time ever we’ve seen it closed that time of day.

Yesterday we left about 9:00 to go to Chametla – it is a little fishing village on a lagoon about 50 miles south of here. 

I’ve been trying to talk Bill into going there for years. Didn’t quite turn out the way I expected. We took the Libre all the way there. Well maintained but kind of narrow. And if you got stuck behind a truck you stayed there for a while. Notice no shoulders – typical of the free highways here.

Lots of brush had just  been cleared and was being burned. Lots of smoke in the air.

Then we turned off the Libre 15 (free road) onto the road heading towards Chametla. Met this guy coming towards us he got part of our side too.

Glad we were in the Jeep not the motorhome. Lots of pot holes too and small towns with topes.

One of the reasons why you don’t drive at night here. The pickup decided to stop in the middle of the road and pick up passengers. It took a while to shift everyone around and load up.

The road eventually turned to hard dirt – better than the pavement with the potholes. And soon we were to the Arch at the town entrance.

And that is as far as we got into town. Right next to the arch was a big field with a huge tent set up in it. Crowds were milling around the tent. Turns out we were at a political event/rally. Every official from the governor of the state of Sinaloa to the secretary to the mayor of the town was there. They were there to talk about:

“Repaving of the Libra 15 up to the Chametla turn off. The construction of 6 classrooms in Potrerillos, Electricity to the town of Emiliano Zapata. They will be bringing WiFi – fiber optic cables into the whole state. Paving of 8 streets in the town.”  Some of it has already been done and some is in the planning stages. The WiFi for the whole state sounds a little ambitious to me.

While the tent was filling up – we were ushered right up towards the front when Bill mentioned Paquis…we got to listen to this brass band.

We were sitting behind several older gentlemen. All with their hats. This crowd had a lot of men in it. 

A small part of the crowd across from us. Notice all the umbrellas the ladies use to keep the sun off.  Not a good picture of him but the guy with the hat reminded me a lot of an older James Gardner. Volunteers kept coming around offering everyone bottles of cold water. It was up to 90F.

The family sitting behind us. All dressed up with ribbons in their hair. This appeared to be an important event - not every day the Governor shows up in a small town. 

The band was playing a stirring tune with a catchy beat, the TV cameras were running, people were cheering and everyone rose to their feet when the officials walked up the aisle in the middle of the tent. I asked Bill if a rock star was coming. Seems like the governor is a popular person.

Governor  Mario Lopez Valdez is the man on the left. His term started in  2011 and runs to 2016.

Paquis talking to a couple of the men who were sitting in front of us. The one in the brown shirt is having problems getting water to irrigate his crops.

Looking across the street at some of the security around. Army and Federal Police – lots and lots of them walking around.

A couple sitting on their porch watching what was going on.

Some of the equipment in the field that is being used on the projects. It is amazing to see the progress being made in Mexico from one year to the next. More farm machinery better construction machinery, huge road paving machines, port a pottys in the fields for the farmer workers. Most schools have satellite available. Just too many things to write about. 

After the speeches were over we jumped in the car and headed to another little town further south – Esquinapa. For another rally. This one was even bigger.

These ladies had written letters to the governor and were waiting to give them to him.

Others held signs up thanking him for all he has done already.

We left this event before it was over – just getting too hot and headed home.

Later we went to the beach to watch the pretty sunset.

And that catches me up again.