Writing about Nothing

Just some pictures of a little of the graffiti around here. They sure are good with a spray can. 

After Friday's journey through TelCel wonderland we went into Sam’s Club. It is right next door to the Mall. To get to parking you have to take a ticket – it is a pay lot. It USED to be – you took your ticket and no matter how long – minutes or hours - you were in Sam’s Club you owed something to get out of the lot. That has changed – we discovered as we left… Now you have to get your ticket stamped as you are leaving the building and if you’ve only been there for a few minutes like we were there is no charge. But we didn’t get our ticket stamped and the girl at the gate wasn’t going to let us out unless we backed up – there were cars behind us – parked and went back inside for the stamp. Bill finally convinced her to let us out but she had to leave her area and manually open the gate for us. Weird for grocery shopping. And we didn’t buy anything. We went in looking for prosciutto but they didn’t have any, it will be in Monday. At least then we’ll know how to get in and out – if we remember……
By then it was about 11:35 and we hadn't eaten breakfast so we’re both hungry. Bill pulled into the McDonalds right down town. Okay sounded good. Inside we trooped. Several customers standing around in the ordering area – no one behind counter seemed to be taking orders. Bill asked one customer – which line is taking orders – the guy laughed and pointed to one. Bill went up to the counter – no one paid any attention to him. I noticed the man next to me shake his head so I asked “Are you waiting for your food or waiting to order?” “To order but no one seems to be working.”  Oh, oh – Bill had cut the line. This McDonalds reminded me of our home town one – kind of disorganized. Bill said something to one of the people behind the counter and turned around and motioned for me “lets go.” “Not going to get anything?” I asked. “No hay hamburguesas.” What?  No hamburgers? Crap it was 20 to 12 and they were still serving breakfast.
On down the street to Burger King. Where we got our hamburgers. Pretty good too. And we were the only people in the place. Except for one family in the kids play area. Their little kid was up in the crawling tubes and they were trying to coax him out and he wasn’t about to get out. I wondered – how do you get him out if he doesn’t want to come out. Dad was too big to fit in the tubes. He was still in them when we left. I asked for salt when we got our food expecting the employee to reach under the counter and had me packet of salt, instead he left went back into the kitchen about returned a little later with a plastic cup with some salt in it. There is always something unexpected happening here.
We were commenting when we were in the Mall how shinny the marble/tile floors always are – here in Burger King they were the same. Prompted me to comment that if a woman had a dress on you would be able to tell the color of her panties in the reflection on the floor.  They really are that clean and shinny.

The Burger King here has home delivery. 

And we can't even get pizza delivered to home in Nashville.  Then on home where we stayed the rest of the day. Both of us took naps – getting to be a habit.
Looked like it might be a pretty sunset so we went outside to watch it. Looking in front of us towards the ocean west. 

Looking behind us - east.

Ended up spending more time watching the birds again.

They got kind of up close and personal this time. Could hear the plop plops of organic matter hitting the top of Jennie and the awning. Figured I’d better get back under cover out of range.

Fixed Spanish Rice and lemon chicken (using lemon I picked off of tree her in campground) for dinner. Bill wasn’t too hunger as he’d eaten two – TWO  Whoppers for lunch.
Later heard explosions and took a minute to register they were fireworks and that they were close. Waited too long to poke my head out the window with the camera but did manage to catch one.

And that’s when I remembered the full moon. Beautiful.

Our friend Roberto who was supposed to come visit us last night at 5:00 never showed up. When leaving for breakfast this morning we found out that he did show up but at 7:00 after the gates were locked and guard would not let him in. Oh well - 
Today is Sunday and we have absolutely no plans….
Another video of the birds. They are amazing. Turn the sound up. 

Small town and big town - Malpica and Mazatlan

Getting at this late again today – just lazy. It’s kind of a lazy day today out – cool and overcast. Love it!
Started off the morning by going to the big mall here to the TelCel customer center. Sometimes I wonder if the Banda Ancha is a blessing or a curse. Banda Ancha is Mexico’s TelCen answer to an aircard. Internet via a cell tower connection. The problem is the system doesn’t have all the bugs worked out yet and everyone you talk to at a store gives you a different story on how the time you buy works. On January 9^th while in San Blas we had to renew our time/GBs. [We have had previous problems with this outlet but it is the only one in town] Told the lady we wanted 3GBs of use – she charged us 500 Pesos. Finally gave me a receipt after I demanded one. We were told “?” however many GBs you buy are only good for 30 days whether they are used or not. At the end of 30 days you have to buy more. We can check on how many megabits or gigabits we use – but not how many we have left. Well last nite I plugged in the stick and was told “You have to recharge your service” – in Spanish of course. WHAT?!?! We’ve only used 403 megabits of our 3gigabites and it is only January 25^th. What’s up? This morning just for the heck of it I plugged the stick in and pop I was on line. No problem. Into the customer service we went. A wonderful helpful man straightened it out for us – I think – we have lots of GBS left and our service should be active until February 26^th – one month from today. Somehow what we bought in San Blas was never activated but our payment did show on their computer. But how have I been on line since Jan 9^th as I was told then (1/9/13) we had to recharge the stick and wasn’t able get on line until we did. Don’t know – just accept that all is okay now.
Yesterday morning we decided that we wanted some fresh baked goods from the wonderful little bakery in Malpica so we piled into Willie and took off. It is about 25 miles away. To get there we have to go on highway 40 the road to Durango. There is supposed to be a new Toll Road to Durango that will cut driving distance and time way down. It is supposed to open in a couple of months. Since we left here in December there has been a lot of construction going on on that road. Here is a brand new bridge that wasn’t even started when we left a couple of months ago.

In the future driving to Mazatlan via Texas will be dramatically improved due to the long awaited Maxipista from Durango to Mazatlan. 

It is estimated it will cut the driving time from Durango to Mazatlan by at least 2 to 3 hours. More importantly perhaps than the time, it will turn a two lane road with a harrowing series of switchback turns into a safe modern highway. The series of incredible bridges withe mind numbing vistas will combine with more than 60 tunnels to create what must be one of the grandest journeys in the world.

highestbridges.com/wiki/index.php…

As we drove into Malpica we noticed that some of the homes have been repainted recently –

Notice the “mother-in-law” paint jobs. I’ve explained it before Only the part that the mother in law sees when she comes to visit gets the plaster and paint. The fronts are painted not the sides.

This little abarrotes – store- has a new video game out front.

Going into the bakery through the living room. The door in the back leads to the bakery.

Buying some baked goods. The baker’s daughter sold them to us.

Her mother was busy fixing lunch. They have owned this bakery for 38 years. They supply Malpica and the nearby town of Concordia (and us) with baked goods every day except Saturday when they don’t bake.
The dough is made the afternoon before so it has time to proof. The wood is put in the big oven and the fire started around 8 – 9:00 at night. By 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning the wood has burned down to coals and the hot coals are pushed to the sides of the oven and the pans of dough are put in the middle. The trays of baked goods take from 30 to 40 minutes to bake. We usually try to get there around 10:00 to get our croissants hot from the oven. In previous blogs I’ve posted pictures of the oven inside and out. [search Malpica] The product is out of this world. Every time we go there Bill says he is going to build us an oven outside at home.
When we were here in December the inside of the little church was being repainted. So we went to check on how the job turned out. Looks pretty good. It was repainted chartreuse and lavender. The ceiling were also repainted – bright white.

A very happy looking church. The outside is two tones of orange.
We’ve been watching this house being built it is now finished and being lived in. It has white tile flooring on the porch

When we got home I took a picture of my new blouses. They are hand made – the material is hand woven. They are so comfortable and cool to wear.

Spent the heat of the day just lazing around – I’m working on another necklace that is really easy but time consuming. And I finished reading "Killing Lincoln" by Bill O'Rielly - Not sure what I expected but was kind of disappointed in it. 
Towards evening we took a ride to the northern end of the Mazatlan beaches just for something to do. Watched the surfers for a while. Lots of them there and some good sized waves coming in. 

Then we stopped by an area where I like to take sunset pictures. A couple of the beach vendors (we met them before in December and they were fishing then too) were fishing but with no luck. 

At my prodding Bill asked them about their jobs. Yes, their license costs about US$100 per year. And if they have anyone working for them that person needs a license too i.e. wife, son etc. They can work the beaches the whole length of Mazatlan but most have specific areas they work all the time. They must carry their license as there are officials that come around to check them. He showed us the license. About 3” x 5” laminated with all his information and a picture of him on it. These particular vendors all were wearing white shirts. He told us that then the official knows they have their license and doesn’t bother them. He said he makes a pretty good living at it.
This picture shows a group of vendors walking across the sand bridge leaving the front of the hotel and heading back to their vehicle to pack up for the night.

Just the sunset.

From there some how??? we ended up at the Plazuela Machado. It has been decorated for Carnaval. Luckily it was pretty warm out as we were both in shorts. 

Bill and our friend Pilar – the waiter at Beach Burger hamming it up for my picture – I didn’t even realize they were in the picture until I down loaded it.

We had dinner – Thursday through Sunday nights the street is closed and the tables are in the street. Several people had set up tables selling everything from jewelry to bookmarks. From the music school on the corner a class was practicing and their music drifted over the sound of talking and laughter. 

Just as we were getting ready to leave a band started playing in the Kiosko. 

Us old folks leave there about 9:00 just as the evening really starts to rock. Mazatlan is such a neat city. 

Dance and Music in the Afternoon in Mazatlan

Late getting this done today – Just pondering. Why do the gray eyebrow hairs grow so fast and so stiff and long? Why don’t regular eyebrow hairs grow that fast?
Remember when my purse was sitting in the salt water in the boat when we took the ride in the ocean. One of my camera batteries was in that purse. It no longer works – the little bit of salt water that got on it corroded it. Still have two more batteries for my poor old Sony and I am trying to get used to the new camera. Used it today when we went out to the bakery.
Yesterday morning we headed towards the Centro Historico before it got too hot. As always my camera was out and ready.
This travel agency has just been painted. Can’t miss it when you go by. It’s almost as red as the car parked in front. Notice how he is parked right on the corner.

gotta love the colors

The city is trying to stop some of that by putting in concrete pylons where they don’t want cars to park. This particular narrow one way street has them all down one side. 

In fact we used to park where the pylons are now. When we did park there we had to pull our mirrors to keep them from getting hit by passing traffic. Now we park in the lot just up at the next corner. They always make room for us. And while we’re parked there we usually have Willie washed. Yesterday he got the royal treatment – inside and out and polish on the wheels. Cost 75 pesos for parking and detailing. About US$5.75.
After parking we walked over to the watchmaker to get Bill’s battery changed. He has a very old very elegant watch that he can no longer get batteries for in the US. The watchmaker's sign – taller means “shop” we see signs Taller mechanic, Taller repair man etc. It’s just funny.
Notice his hours – closed for lunch.

Walked through the main plaza again – lots of kids and pigeons.

Sounds like thunder when they all take off at once. And the kids scream and or cry. 
There are so many vendors on the sidewalks and streets. You would never have to go home to eat. These are tangerines and coconut sweets. I wonder what they use to give them that bright color? Have never eaten one. The bees crawling on them kind of turns me off.

This is in the central market – she is make up prepackaged salads for sale.

The package of salad. Looks good.

Some pre cooked fried plantanos and sweet potatoes. Smelled so good. Nice sugary glaze on them. Yum. 

This is watermelon packaged with a lime and a pouch of chili powder and a toothpick to eat it with.

We bought some tangerines, tortillas and here is Bill paying for some nice grapes. Notice her apron. All the older women working the food stands wear them. I remember my grandmother having some just like it.

These are guayabas???? It is a fruit, probably some kind of guava, that’s all I know about it.

And granadas – pomegranates and peras, pears.

While in the central market Bill got a couple more cool shirts and I got a couple more of my favorite type blouses. Pictures later – maybe.
From there we went back to the parking lot to drop off our purchases and because we were so close and we were hungry [I wonder why] and it was noon we went on to the Plazuela Machado for lunch at Beach Burger. Bill had an Italian Chicken Salad and I had Cheese quesadilla with guacamole. We had ice tea and coke to drink and chips and salsa before meal. 

Love to watch what is going on in the plaza while eating. This couple was busy making some kind of souvenir to sell later.

Two couples were practicing dance moves without the help of their music.

However while they were dancing a man with a guitar was serenading the people at the table behind us.

Later this man stopped to practice his flute and guitar. 

Pleasant morning, good food, beautiful day, interesting people.
Back to the parking lot to pick up Willie – now these are really “pigeon holes.”

Later in the day we took a short drive to watch the sunset but were too late to get any great pictures at the waters edge. Did get a few from the campground. Golden at first. 

And even later it got red - lots of birds too.

 The end of another day - what will we do tomorrow - well today really - and we went to Malpica........