Out and About in Mazatlan Evening

Here I am again still trying to play catch up. But most of it will be about yesterday too.

As Bill likes to say “Another beautiful day in Paradise.” The sun is up the wind has stopped and not a cloud in the sky. Supposed to stay in the low 80s. I hope. Yesterday and last night was almost perfect.

So to Backtrack – January 3^rd, a Saturday, we went to El Quelite for breakfast. Janet and Ron went with us – they’d never been there. Boy did we ever pick a bad day to go there. It was CROWDED – cars parked all over – even the back and side streets were full.

We forgot all the Mexican tourists in town for the holiday weeks – and with the new road to Durango I think half of the population from inland was here.

We even had to wait for a table in the restaurant – that has never happened before. Every seat in the main restaurant and the new section across the wash was filled. We sat under the umbrellas – which we haven’t done since I got pooped on! As always the service and food was great. And Janet and Ron really enjoyed it.

I didn’t take many pictures of the town as I think I already have a picture of every home in town. But kind of liked this one. The sign is pointing up the hill towards the bakery and the cock farm.

Up the hill we went towards the farm. Parked in front of the cemetery – It is really an interesting one with all the bovedas [houses in the cemetery] some of the bigger than the houses in town.

This time we got a chance to walk in the cock farm. The care taker opened the gate for us. The little tent like things are cement – each bird has his own “home.” There are over 3,000 birds there. This is one of the biggest farms around. The birds range in price from US dollars 300 to over thousands.

Watching us watch him. They are sure beautiful colors.

There are three or dogs wandering around the birds – they don’t pay any attention to each other. And a burro wandering through the area.

Because it was so busy we didn’t do much else. And the road into town is still all tore up but we managed to take the detour both in and out this time. 

Before I forget this is a picture of the restaurant we ate in a couple of nights ago with Paquis. It’s called Campestre La Marina.

Now to yesterday. The day started out quiet already mentioned looking for printer ink and grocery shopping. Had a quiet afternoon at home. Then Bill got hungry and neither of us wanted to cook so we went out to dinner – picking up Ron and Janet on the way. We revisited the great Italian restaurant we went to the other night. Again excellent food and service. When we finished eating it was too early to go home and the weather was cooperating – warm not windy – so we took a drive. Sure glad we did.

We drove along the Malecón – there were a lot of people strolling along but not so much traffic as the holidays are over. As we came to the area where the cliff divers perform it was packed with people. So we stopped – managed to find a parking place as someone pulled out. The first thing we heard was music – flute and drum.  Not a good picture because it was dark. They were playing a lot of Peruvian music – some of our favorite music.

Then we walked along the sidewalk. All kinds of food vendors were there. The food vendors have to pay 1,200 pesos per year to buy a permit from the government agency that regulates them. Their paper work is checked by roving inspectors.

Corn on the cob – and kernels of corn in cups. [to our tastes it is not very good – not sweet corn.] The dish in the middle is Salchitacos - wieners wrapped in tortillas and fried and topped with beans, cream, shredded pork, cheese, chiles, mayo and what ever else you want. The plate on the left is sliced wieners.

Handing one to a customer –

This cart sells cocos helados  - cold coconut – you can just drink the milk or add a bunch of stuff like hot sauce etc. Haven’t tried one yet…

Yet another vendor. These are bananas frying.

Bananas on a tray being cut into bite sized pieces.

Topped with caramel sauce and condensed milk.

And pancakes cooking. After cooking jam or caramel sauce and/or condensed milk tops them.

Another vendor. Bill is asking her what a roll of white stuff was. It was pork fat, uncooked and cut into chunks to be added to other “stuff”  No thanks. 

Vendors baby patiently waiting for work to be done and to go home.

Cute right?

Back into the car and over to the Plazuela Machado for a walk around. The music school was having classes – there were four teenagers learning the xylophone. Sounded pretty good.

And more practice. Didn’t sound so good.

At one of the restaurants – the guy in the back in the middle in the white shirt was playing the keyboard and singing. Listened to him for a bit.

At another restaurant there was a man with a guitar and at Pedro and Lola's restaurant a jazz group. Lots of music in the plaza to choose from. 

And then a really good group performing in the gazebo. The female singer had a beautiful voice. 

All in all a busy and fun night out and about the town. Always something new and interesting to do. 

Malpica and Concordia trip on the 2nd

Still going backwards – clear back to Friday, January 2^nd! It was another cloudy overcast day part of the day. But we felt like getting out and about. So we gathered up Janet and Ron who drove their own car because they didn’t want to leave Millie, their dog, home alone too long and Otto and Edna who rode with us.

And a first for all of us. The new bypass that goes from the north end of Mazatlan clear to Villa Union south of Mazatlan. It is brand new and connect the autopista all the way now. No more driving through the streets of Mazatlan over the topes, through the street lights and over the bridges! Amazing and wonderful – costs in a car 47 pesos and worth every penny of it. All concrete.

Then we connected to the old 40 to go to Malpica. I’ve written a lot about Malpica in the past. It is where we go to the bakery and watch the man make tiles. Here’s Otto and Edna selecting baked goods. Bill giving advice. 

Since we were there last the baker has remodeled their home – she has a brand new kitchen, dining room and laundry room. And her husband is done with his knee replacement surgery and getting around so much better.

Up a ways from the bakery was this decorated tree – decorated with beer cans. Pretty funny.

Also since we were there last the outside of the church has been painted to match the inside. Chartreuse and lavender. A year or so when they were painting the inside I was watching and one of the ladies who takes care of the inside of the church asked me how I liked it. The only thing I could think of to say was “It makes me smile.” She seemed happy with the answer.

Then we stopped to see the ladies who do laundry just before the town of Concordia. Have to take a dirt road into the hot spring area where the government has built these big pools with wash tubs attached to make doing laundry easier. The closest tub in this picture is the hottest – almost too hot to put your hands into. Each successive tub is a little cooler. The person on the far end on the left is a man – the first time we’ve ever seen a man doing laundry. And in the middle tub is a man just soaking. Some times we’ve seen children taking baths in them too. There are drying lines all over the area.

Lots of ladies doing laundry and visiting. The concrete tubs on the outside of the pools have concrete washboards.

The children play.

From there we went into the town of Concordia – also lots about the town on previous blogs from the years past.

The Christmas decorations were still up in the plaza in front of the church. They turned out to be rather interesting.

This is a different interpretation. Flamingos, frogs, flowers in the pond. Plaster turkeys, pigs and rabbits on the far side.

And a closer look at the Christmas Tree. It is all little pieces of colored cellophane. Some one did a lot of work here. And very pretty. I bet it is lit at night too.

Looking from the plaza to the church.  You can’t see him here but there is a man who sells homemade ice cream here and we always buy a cone from him. It is very good.

Concordia is known for it wood furniture making. Here is an oversized rocking chair. None of us got in it though. [notice the colors of the buildings across the street.]

Another street with the church in the background – again notice the colors of the buildings

And more buildings across the street from the plaza – which had been newly planted by the way. Very pretty.

Again more buildings with the sun hitting them. Notice anything about the buildings. They are all the same four or five colors! 

The government must have provided the paint and most of the central part of town had been newly painted. I only saw two buildings that were a different color and they were both a shade of green. Strange to see…took a while to figure out what looked strange – no reds, purples, pinks or blues. Quite different from the last time we where here.

Then back over the bypass and home.

Later that night we went out for ribs!  A fun day.

And back to today – the 9^th – all we did was go to the market for groceries and to Office Depot to try to buy some ink for our printer - US80.00 dollars for a color cartridge. Didn’t get it needless to say.

Will try to continue to catch up and stay caught up with the blog.

There is a second post below this one from earlier this morning. 

Keeping Busy Too busy can't keep blog up!

A RAINY day here in Mazatlan – rained Hard during the night and into morning. Now I see some blue sky but lots of white and gray clouds. If the sun does manage to pop out it will be a pretty humid day! Ugh.

We have done so much lately and I’ve been remiss with the blog so don’t know where really to start to catch up. We have been to Cosala, Malpica, Concordia, La Noria and Puerta de Canoas. To the Malecón and Plazuela Machado a couple times and for ribs a couple of times and several other restaurants we’ve never been too. Wow. And last night was the third time it has rained here at night – though the other times it just dripped.

Our little bird still comes to visit our window every morning. And sometimes in the afternoon. But now he just hangs on to the screen. Bill is having a fit cause of course he is pooping all over the side mirror. Nothing seems to stop him, we've tried ...

Maybe the best thing is to start going backwards. Yesterday. Beautiful sunrise yesterday – I was up well before the sun as the cell phone rang!!! At 5:30 in the a.m. Didn’t get to it in time and it was from a Restricted number. None of our family has the number to that phone so I should have know not to rush to answer it. So here is the sunrise.

No "touching up" what you see is what it was. 

At a decent hour when everyone else was awake we decided to go out to breakfast and shopping in the older mall the Gran Plaza. We went to Sanborn’s restaurant for breakfast. It was late enough that I had breakfast and everyone else had lunch. Then spent some time shopping in the mall – looking for shorts. We forget that it is winter here. Lots of down vests but no shorts.

Spent the afternoon at home. I’m reading an interesting series of  books – the Garden of Allah series by Martin Turnbull. The first book is The Garden on Sunset. It is about three people who came to Hollywood in the mid 1920s and live in the old Garden of Allah hotel. It follows them through the years -the first book ends about 1936/7. I lived near Hollywood in the late 40s early 50s and remember so many of the places they talk about. Very interesting. The three book series can be download at B & N for around $7.

We got asked to donate something for the Chili Cook off raffle that is here in the campground every year. They get a lot of entries of chili and raise lots of money for an orphanage here. So we're donating one of our books. People come from all over town to taste the Chili. Maybe someone else will be interested in getting it. 

Then we went to see the sunset last night. It was okay – but there was not wind so the inlet was very still and great for reflections.

The day before yesterday we went to the Centro Historico with our friends Janet and Ron. Parked in the lot where we can get Willie washed at the same time as we shop. He was so dusty! Then started walking towards the central market but first stopped in the opticians and I ordered another pair of sunglasses. I am very hard on sunglasses. They have my progressive prescription lenses – pick them up Monday. At the market we walked up and down every aisle – and I got another blouse – it is so cute – 

Also got some fruit. Our friends purchased a couple of bags to carry purchases in and a leather belt. By then it was hot so we headed home. Early evening we got a call from our friend Roberto inviting us to a dinner with the congresswoman. She was again honoring the people who work for her in the outlaying towns. Also a celebration for January 6^th – King’s Day. Lots of firsts for me at dinner. The first time I’ve had a drink made of dried Jamaica flowers. Very refreshing. Also had empanadas Mexican style with shrimp, potatoes and or fish inside. Also good.

Just some of the people there - the TV was a give away drawing. Paquis is to the left of it. (the pictures are weird as I had to photograph them off my laptop from her facebook page!) Forgot the camera. 

At the end of the meal we had some Rosca de Reyes – a big cake made in a ring with frosting and dried fruit on top. And inside it somewhere is a tiny plastic Baby Jesus. It is an honor to get that piece. The cakes they were huge.

 Everyone got to cut their own piece. 

While I was writing this Bill was making breakfast – a tortilla – Argentine version.  

Now we have to go grocery shopping and probably this afternoon when I'm inside with the AC on hiding from the humidity I'll work on another catch up blog. 

Strange things day in Mazatlan

Hello again – finally back. We’ve been busy and I have just not been in the writing mood – but must have got a good nights sleep last night and so many weird things happened yesterday I want to share. We actually stayed home all day and the weather was cooler than usual and cloudy overcast all day and actually rained a tiny bit late last night.

First thing yesterday morning we had a "want to be" visitor – this guy showed up looking in the windshield. He is a big thing. I forget what they call them here but we can always here them chattering in the morning.

Here is another shot of him to give you some estimate of his size. This is the first time I actually saw one. He is about two feet from head to tail. And much bluer than the picture shows.

Then last evening I heard our neighbor yelling at me to come outside and see the rainbow. It was not raining and had not been raining. So out I went with camera in hand and managed to get a couple of half way decent picture of it. The rainbow was to our east behind the campground. What a surprise – just so much moisture in the air I guess and the low setting sun.

Then I turned around and looked west to be greeted by this magnificent sunset. Spectacular. Guess it contributed to the rainbow.

Bill had come out to see the light show and was wandering around the RV park - he stopped looked at something and called to us – he’d found an iguana. Such excitement.

This morning it is kind of cloudy and very dark over the water - so don't know what kind of day to expect. The wind was blowing quite hard for a while but has stopped now. 

I really have to catch up on my posting. We’ve been to Malpica to the bakery, to Concordia for ice cream cones and to watch the ladies do their laundry. Also out for ribs and to the Plazuela Machado twice for dinner and music. And I still haven’t posted pictures of Cosala. Bill said I’ve been letting my job slip. Guess I have.

So I’m going to post this and start working on the pictures from Cosala – they really need to be shared it is such a beautiful town.