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.