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.