Happy Birthday Dad! I'm actually typing this late in the evening but I figure you won't get it until your birthday tomorrow. Marv Patty and I made it across the border with ease today. The wait was only about 45 minutes which is considered short. We were prepared for a couple hours wait.
Patty and Marv went on to a small town east of Phoenix to visit Marv's sister, and I'm at Motel 6 in Flagstaff. Betsy has remained in Mexico - a fairly last minute decision - as she still wants to get some things done on the house.
It's nice to be back on good roads. Flagstaff is at 7000 feet elevation with mountains all around. It's nice and cool and it's a nice change. It feels like a slightly larger, and higher version of Placerville. My car is happy to be on smooth roads again. The potholes and cobblestone roads were wearing thin in Mexico. But Frances was disappointed she couldn't go into IHOP with me in Nogales. She's used to being in restaurants now.
So I'm spending the next two days at the Grand Canyon. Tomorrow maybe I'll call you from the park somewhere if I get cell phone service. If not I'll call you in the evening when I get back to the motel. It will be later though, because I plan to find one of several sites in the park that has and east-west view - so I can watch the sun set in the west, and then the full moon rise in the east.
Frances and I will have a Whopper at Burger King across the street in your honor tomorrow!
Hope you have a happy day!!!!!
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Monday, April 26, 2010
Saturday and Sunday
Saturday morning Patty and I kayaked at the beach below the house. It was a perfect kayak morning with fairly calm waters so we were able to go all the way out to bird rock where it was a bit rougher. Patty - like me - pretty much remembered all her sea kayaking skills. That was a good thing since she tipped inside the hole in the rock. We both felt good afterwards that we remembered the techniques needed for getting back into a kayak. She got a little scraped up on the rocks but only superficially.
Marv came along. He sat on the beach, sunned himself and made friends with the hotel staff. He managed to get us all an invitation to the fancy wedding that evening. (We didn't go of course). As Patty I were paddling back to shore he greeted San Carlos in a way that is apparently customary amoungst he and his brothers.
We lunched at Rosas Cantina, strolled around the Marina, came home for a brief nap, and then went out to the Estuary Beach. Marv and Patty collected a large bag of seashells.
The surf was coming in from two opposing directions. That is so typical of tides and currents in the Sea of Cortez - they are typically - "atypical."
Frances found a tennis ball. Then a toddler found Frances. They pondered over the tennis ball and seemed to come to a happy conclusion.
She then found an older boy who was willing to actually toss the ball for her.
On the way home Marv picked up some Carne Asada at a roadside taco stand. We thawed the remainder of the homemade tortillas Rosey had made a couple of weeks earlier, and had mucho bueno tacos. Patty and I played Tayu - she creamed me - and then the wedding band at the hotel beach below kept us awake until 3:00am.
So although not exactly perky, Sunday morning Patty and I nonetheless had another kayak excursion planned, this time at the Estuary Beach. We hoped to time it with the daily morning appearance of the dolphins at the estuary. I had stopped my Rubie's Wine Bar the night before to leave a message for Brian - the kayak guy - to leave us a couple of kayaks to rent. Apparently he didn't get the message as there were no kayaks for us once we got there. We stood around for a couple of minutes debating what to do, when a couple of ladies were landing with kayaks and having some trouble. We went to assist. Turns out it was a gal named Becky who I'd met earlier in the week when I was doing some writing at Soggy Peso Beach. She let us use the kayaks. I think it may have been kind of a "promo" move because Becky owns a condo on the beach and rents it out. We went kayaking for about an hour. The dolphins had already been buy. The water was very rough and my paddle was too short and not scooped so my kayak was difficult to manuever. It was a good test of skills. We returned the kayaks and got to see the inside of some of the condos on the beach. Nice!
Sunday afternoon the four of us took a ride to Guaymas to see the main sites. We went to the church square. It is San Fernando Catholic Church and is the oldest Church is Guaymas.
Last September the inside of the church collapsed during the hurricane. Many of the stained glass windows were broken. It has not been completely repaired yet, so all of the pews, altars, etc., have all been moved outside and covered with a canopy/tent like structure.
The church square and public park attracted all ages of folks who desired to take it easy on a sunny Sunday afternoon. Elderly couples and friends sat on park benches, visited and watched young children playing on small bicycles or feeding the pigeons.
Here and there a park bench would have a piece of it missing - like the seat!
A large group of teens sang, played guitar and practiced dance steps.
All the while a statue of either San Fernando or Jesus (I'm not sure who it is supposed to be) watched over the church square through the trees.
We took some pictures of the weird things at the little amusement park across the street. Strange manikins of traffic cops, pirates, skeletons and odd looking animals.
Across the street from the odd carnival was a sign that looked like it was a bar sign advertising Corona Beer. The picture of the sign was of an ear and was called "Van Goghs." The building was gutted and empty although the sign was in tact.
In the evening Betsy treated us all to dinner back in San Carlos at a place called Conquista. It's an excellent - but pricy - restaurant. We were all very pleased with the food, service and presentation. The restaurant was so happy that we were happy that they proudly brought over complimentary hoeurs duerves and dessert!
Back at home, unfortunately there was another wedding at the beach hotel below. A not very good band played loudly until midnight. Quality sleep seems to be an increasingly rare and precious commodity.
Patty wanted to explore the dynamite house so me and Frances accompanied her.
Then Patty and I played Tayu. This time I wiped her out. We tried to sleep through a dreadful singer, and were bound and determined that the morning would provide us plenty of energy for our last day in San Carlos.
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Patty and Marv
Patty and Marv arrived at noon on Thursday. I met them at the Captains Club for a quick lunch before coming to the house. Once at the house, everyone changed into shorts and sandals and we took a little walk in the neighborhood to see some of the houses and hang out a bit at the small beach below the house.
Marv loves the sun and it's been a long cold winter back in El Dorado County. Frances and Patty explored the shoreline.
The four of us went out to dinner at Los Arbolitos - er, five of us including Frances - and Patty and I order the Molcahete. That is the fish stew/soup served in the hot volcanic bowls. And guess what! The stew included Octopus so finally I've had some. I can't really say what it tastes like because the verde sauce that was the base of the soup (and yummy) sort of took over the tastebuds. My fear was that the texture would be rubbery or icky but it wasn't. I'd get it again.
Saturday morning we all went out on the Nature cruise again. It's my third time and well worth it. I won't bore you with more photos of blue footed bubis or pelicans. We saw a Osprey (fish hawk) war. One had a fish, two others wanted the fish. They had a mid-air fight and the fish fell from the air and landed on the roof of a house so no one got it. We saw the dolphins, the fault lines, the blue heron nests an the frigates. As always our tour guide, Donna, was excellent and answered all our questions.
In the afternoon Patty and I ventured out with the goal of seeing the Pearl Factory, the Village of San Jose de Guaymas, and the Giant Cardon Cactus Forest. As is usually the case when Patty and I venture out, we stumble on a few other sites of interest.
First was a squatters beach. Some fishermen and their guard dogs and their run down boats and homes provided some interesting vistas. Patty went in for some closer shots and was hustled off the property by a pack of dogs. haha
Next we went to the Pearl Farm or "Perlas del Mar de Cortez" as it's properly called. It is located at Tec de Monterrey, a technical college located inside the beautiful and tranquil Bacochibampo Bay. The tour is charmingly unpolished, untechnical and unspectacular. It was very simple and we liked that. It is nothing more than a palapa hut. A young lady from the shop gave us a 10 minute lecture on the cultivation of the pearls, showing us samples of various stages of the pearl development from a small plastic tub she carried down to the hut.
The workers were repairing some of the nets.
Mexican pearls are born out of two native pearl oysters, the “Panamic Black-Lipped Pearl Oyster and the “Rainbow-Lipped Pearl Oyster”. Implants are surgically placed inside the oysters when they are babies - about the size of nickel. After receiving their “implants” the oysters are suspended at a depth of 6 to 7 feet from the water's surface in pocket like nets or rope chaplets. The black balls you see bobbing in the water in the photo are where the nets are attached. This way the oysters receive their natural nutrients. They are transferred to various different kinds of net as they grow, with the final one looking kind of like a net shoe bag.
After three to five years, the oysters are harvested. Only about 10% will produce cultured pearls. Various estimates put the yearly production of cultured pearls from this farm at around 2,000. At any given time there are up to 250,000 pearls in various stages of development hanging in the water.
An outdoor sink is decorated with oyster shells and houses a shrine of a female pearl laborer.
Next we headed to San Jose de Guaymas, the small, poor village that was originally the site of Guaymas. We parked next to the large village square in front of the church and social hall.
The stained glass windows are made largely from broken beer bottles. Interestingly, when the sun catches the glass, they glisten and glitter quite a bit. Palm trees and a statue of Jesus are to the right side of the church, as well as a few rose bushes.
The church itself was locked. I understand it is an active church although with no regular priest assigned to it. Nonetheless, I found a large open keyhole and could see the inside. It was pretty, including what appeared to be large bouquets of fresh flowers in the front of the church, so it appeared that it was going to be used soon.
A station wagon pulled up in front of the police station. Four school girls in their parochial uniforms got out of the car and began walking home, up a dirt lane where a skinny cow strolled down the street to greet them.
Two small crude buildings, each white and square - not more than 20x20 feet - housed the doctor and the pharmacy.
And now to find the Cardon Cactus Forest, sometimes called The Enchanted Cactus Forest. I had failed in my attempt at locating it a few days earlier My new information was that there was a dirt road behind the church in San Jose de Guaymas that would get you there in about three miles. There are no signs. So we headed out.
I had been told that the area around the cactus forest was used largely as a local trash dump. After two miles we could see a large group of giant cactus ahead. Here we came to an unmarked fork in the road. We chose to go right. This was the wrong "official" choice as it turns out, but we made a first stop at a few of the giant plants. I took pictures with Patty and Frances so you can see how big the cactus really are. This is supposed be one of only two natural cardon cactus forests in the world, the other being somewhere in Africa. The plants are several hundred years old.
We knew we weren't in the "official" forest yet so we continued on, and turned down a couple of wrong roads but with very interesting sites. This is the kind of stuff Patty and I are notorious for doing when we travel, with our cameras always at the ready.
We found several large piles of conch shells. We could only guess that maybe they were dumped there from local restaurants? But who knows. Patty gathered a handful to take home.
After awhile the road got too sandy for driving, so we parked the car and wandered around to see what we could see. I found the rib cage of a large animal. Frances sniffed garbage to her heart's content. Patty photographed some interesting blue bottles.
Occasionally tall and often thin cows crossed our path or were eating whatever vegetation they could find amidst the trash.
Eventually, after many "exciting" discoveries and much laughter, we drove on and found the "real" cardon cactus forest and took photos of the prickly giants against a backdrop of large puffy white clouds. Many of them were in bloom with yellow flowers.
We got back and the four of us went to dinner at a Greek Restaurant on the beach called "The Palapa." I think Betsy enjoyed her meal but the rest of us thought it bland and mediocre. It's definately not on the "go back to" list. We came home and Patty and I played the board game called "Tayu", something my nephew turned me on to. It's addictive and we play at least a couple of games every night. We called it a night and went to bed, with the plan to get up and kayak in the morning if the water looked calm.
Marv loves the sun and it's been a long cold winter back in El Dorado County. Frances and Patty explored the shoreline.
The four of us went out to dinner at Los Arbolitos - er, five of us including Frances - and Patty and I order the Molcahete. That is the fish stew/soup served in the hot volcanic bowls. And guess what! The stew included Octopus so finally I've had some. I can't really say what it tastes like because the verde sauce that was the base of the soup (and yummy) sort of took over the tastebuds. My fear was that the texture would be rubbery or icky but it wasn't. I'd get it again.
Saturday morning we all went out on the Nature cruise again. It's my third time and well worth it. I won't bore you with more photos of blue footed bubis or pelicans. We saw a Osprey (fish hawk) war. One had a fish, two others wanted the fish. They had a mid-air fight and the fish fell from the air and landed on the roof of a house so no one got it. We saw the dolphins, the fault lines, the blue heron nests an the frigates. As always our tour guide, Donna, was excellent and answered all our questions.
In the afternoon Patty and I ventured out with the goal of seeing the Pearl Factory, the Village of San Jose de Guaymas, and the Giant Cardon Cactus Forest. As is usually the case when Patty and I venture out, we stumble on a few other sites of interest.
First was a squatters beach. Some fishermen and their guard dogs and their run down boats and homes provided some interesting vistas. Patty went in for some closer shots and was hustled off the property by a pack of dogs. haha
Next we went to the Pearl Farm or "Perlas del Mar de Cortez" as it's properly called. It is located at Tec de Monterrey, a technical college located inside the beautiful and tranquil Bacochibampo Bay. The tour is charmingly unpolished, untechnical and unspectacular. It was very simple and we liked that. It is nothing more than a palapa hut. A young lady from the shop gave us a 10 minute lecture on the cultivation of the pearls, showing us samples of various stages of the pearl development from a small plastic tub she carried down to the hut.
The workers were repairing some of the nets.
Mexican pearls are born out of two native pearl oysters, the “Panamic Black-Lipped Pearl Oyster and the “Rainbow-Lipped Pearl Oyster”. Implants are surgically placed inside the oysters when they are babies - about the size of nickel. After receiving their “implants” the oysters are suspended at a depth of 6 to 7 feet from the water's surface in pocket like nets or rope chaplets. The black balls you see bobbing in the water in the photo are where the nets are attached. This way the oysters receive their natural nutrients. They are transferred to various different kinds of net as they grow, with the final one looking kind of like a net shoe bag. 
After three to five years, the oysters are harvested. Only about 10% will produce cultured pearls. Various estimates put the yearly production of cultured pearls from this farm at around 2,000. At any given time there are up to 250,000 pearls in various stages of development hanging in the water.
An outdoor sink is decorated with oyster shells and houses a shrine of a female pearl laborer.
Next we headed to San Jose de Guaymas, the small, poor village that was originally the site of Guaymas. We parked next to the large village square in front of the church and social hall.
The stained glass windows are made largely from broken beer bottles. Interestingly, when the sun catches the glass, they glisten and glitter quite a bit. Palm trees and a statue of Jesus are to the right side of the church, as well as a few rose bushes.
The church itself was locked. I understand it is an active church although with no regular priest assigned to it. Nonetheless, I found a large open keyhole and could see the inside. It was pretty, including what appeared to be large bouquets of fresh flowers in the front of the church, so it appeared that it was going to be used soon.
A station wagon pulled up in front of the police station. Four school girls in their parochial uniforms got out of the car and began walking home, up a dirt lane where a skinny cow strolled down the street to greet them.
Two small crude buildings, each white and square - not more than 20x20 feet - housed the doctor and the pharmacy.
And now to find the Cardon Cactus Forest, sometimes called The Enchanted Cactus Forest. I had failed in my attempt at locating it a few days earlier My new information was that there was a dirt road behind the church in San Jose de Guaymas that would get you there in about three miles. There are no signs. So we headed out.
I had been told that the area around the cactus forest was used largely as a local trash dump. After two miles we could see a large group of giant cactus ahead. Here we came to an unmarked fork in the road. We chose to go right. This was the wrong "official" choice as it turns out, but we made a first stop at a few of the giant plants. I took pictures with Patty and Frances so you can see how big the cactus really are. This is supposed be one of only two natural cardon cactus forests in the world, the other being somewhere in Africa. The plants are several hundred years old.
We knew we weren't in the "official" forest yet so we continued on, and turned down a couple of wrong roads but with very interesting sites. This is the kind of stuff Patty and I are notorious for doing when we travel, with our cameras always at the ready.
We found several large piles of conch shells. We could only guess that maybe they were dumped there from local restaurants? But who knows. Patty gathered a handful to take home.
After awhile the road got too sandy for driving, so we parked the car and wandered around to see what we could see. I found the rib cage of a large animal. Frances sniffed garbage to her heart's content. Patty photographed some interesting blue bottles.
Occasionally tall and often thin cows crossed our path or were eating whatever vegetation they could find amidst the trash.
Eventually, after many "exciting" discoveries and much laughter, we drove on and found the "real" cardon cactus forest and took photos of the prickly giants against a backdrop of large puffy white clouds. Many of them were in bloom with yellow flowers.
We got back and the four of us went to dinner at a Greek Restaurant on the beach called "The Palapa." I think Betsy enjoyed her meal but the rest of us thought it bland and mediocre. It's definately not on the "go back to" list. We came home and Patty and I played the board game called "Tayu", something my nephew turned me on to. It's addictive and we play at least a couple of games every night. We called it a night and went to bed, with the plan to get up and kayak in the morning if the water looked calm.
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