Celebrity on Board

The morning was cool and gray – maybe unhappy because George was leaving us. He came over for breakfast and then finished getting ready to leave and left us.

Bye George - travel safe

He is heading south again on the little roads.

After gingerly shoving my toe into my tennis shoes we took off for town. First dropping off the laundry – I will miss that when we get home and I have to do it myself again. Oh poor me!

We wanted to go to the Central Market area – me for a bag for my knitting and another ball of yarn and Bill for some twine. As we headed towards the Centro Historico we found our way blocked. The Malecón was closed! So we had to take back roads to get to town. At this corner we took a wrong turn. There were five streets coming into this intersection – no traffic signals – just close your eyes and go. 

Anyway we turned hard left instead kind of left and wandered around a part of the city we’d never been in before. And of course the GPS was in Jennie ‘cause I took it out of Willie when he went in for repair and forgot to put it back – so we were kind of driving by direction. No problem.

A short video of driving in downtown by the market. There are no signals or stop signs (that are used) It’s kind of who has the guts to go. Lots of street noise and pedestrians to amuse the driver. At the end of the video we are talking about the short black pylons that have been installed in the past year. They really are a pain.

We finally arrived at the estacionamiento [love that word - parking lot] where we always park and walked back to the market. Passed a big “school science fair” in the main plaza. These girls were modeling dresses made from recycled material. A couple were made out of newspaper, one of plastic and one of aluminum foil.

And Bill admiring the view.

As we passed the church this older man began to pull the rope to ring the bell.

The video is distorted but you get the idea. 

We got Bills twine, the store didn’t have the yarn I wanted – maybe another day and I got a real neat big bag to hold my knitting. Mission accomplished. By then I wasn’t interested in doing much more walking for no reason. So we headed back to the parking lot. As we walked in the attendant called to Bill. He was holding a piece of paper in his hand. OMG Bill is a celebrity! His picture along with our friend Craig was in the Mazatlan newspaper and the parking lot people had recognized him and saved it for us. Of course we had to buy some newspapers.

It was taken while we were in Roberto’s leather shop in La Noria. It was accompanying an article about tourism in the area. But didn't even mention where the picture was taken.

Back in the jeep heading towards home again a detour – the Grán Triatlán of 2013 – 3 days of it!

No way to get through this. 

So we followed the cars in front of us to tour though the neighborhoods. Just some pictures of the homes we passed. Gives an idea of their sizes and the interesting exterior materials. Lots of tile. No side windows they are built with common walls. Each different color is a different house. Most of the homes are two story.

Keep my foot up for the afternoon – missing George and his visiting. Not even anything to watch for NASCAR qualifying in Las Vegas was rained out. Not good for my favorite driver he will now be starting 33rd. 

We had to pick up the laundry after 5 so picked it up and continued on to the Plazuela Machado for dinner at Beach Burger. Finally figuring out how to navigate the detours. But the traffic is crazier than normal.

And that was it for yesterday.

I was checking the weather for Huatabampito – where we’d planned on going next and discovered it is supposed to be in HIGH 90s there next week – unseasonal warmth. No kidding. Mazatlan will be in the low 90s! Ick. So we will probably stay here another week – who knows at this point.

Gasoline has gone up again. Now 11.14 pesos per liter.