Easter, Earthquake and the Dynamite House

On Easter Sunday, Betsy and I enjoyed a buffet brunch at the Marina Terra Hotel. We figured the Semana Santa traffic would still be heavy, so we walked. It’s only about a fifteen minute walk. The hard part of the walk is that it’s mostly on very uneven cobblestone on a hillside.

I had planned on attending the Spanish Language Easter Morning Service at the small San Carlos Catholic Church. They had posted on the outside of the church that mass was at 10:30. They decided to have it at 10:00 instead so it was almost over by the time I got there. But I took a few photos. The parishoners wanted to be sure I got pictures of the interior. They are proud of their tiny cathedral.


The church has 10 rows of pews and one aisle down the center. I'd say it seats around 100 people.


At the Marina Terra Brunch, a fellow played pan flutes all day along with pre-recorded accompaniment. It's kind of hard to describe what a pan flute is. Try to image a set of pipe organ pipes, about an octave's worth. Then reduce those pipes to a size that you can hold in your hands. Then the player blows into the top of each pipe for a different pitch. He had a small repetoire of not more than ten or twelve tunes that he played over and over again, mostly by Simon and Garfunkel, the Beatles and the Eagles.


The brunch was decent. They had ham. It was an entire small pig - snout and all - sitting on the buffet table next to the trays of other meat. I asked for a tiny slice. It was very chewy and I didn’t eat it any after the first bite.



On the walk back to the house, Betsy and I decided to find the gate and longway driveway to “The Dynamite House.” That’s the name I’ve given to the house that sits below us. It's the house that has the Spite Wall in front of the Ice Cream House that I wrote about a couple of weeks ago.


We found the gated driveway and easily walked around the iron barricade.


We strolled around the perimeter of the house and peered inside the windows.


There is an outdoor shower and full kitchen by the swimming pool. The swimming pool would be amazing – if ever it is filled and used – as it gives the optical illusion when you are in it that it spills right into the ocean. The photo below shows the view if you were sitting on one of the bar stools in the swimming pool.


We walked around the bottom of the empty pool, sat on the bar stools in the pool, and marveled at the view. I think we felt like a bit like kids in a forbidden playground.


A stairway with no hand rails goes along the outside of the swimming pool down and part way down the cliff.



We found the staircase to the rooftop and roamed around there for a few minutes.

Fom this vantage point we finally got some great pictures of the back of the Berryhill house.


It seems at this point the Dynamite House may sit empty forever. It has never been lived in, not even for a day.

We came home and took naps. When I awoke I checked the email on my iphone to find a number of messages wondering if we were OK due to the earthquake!

We did not feel the Earthquake here. We’re probably about 300 miles away from the epicenter. I wondered though, if there would be any after affects at the beach. The earthquake in South America a few weeks ago produced an 18 inch Tsunami here in San Carlos. This was much closer. So around 6:00pm Frances and I went out to the estuary. We drove across the dirt filled bridge that The few folks that were still there from the long weekend were beginning to pack up there belongings as dusk approached.

The ocean was strange and the tide was very high, much higher than I’d every seen it. There was no wind, and yet the usual calm and flat waters of the estuary had three foot swells, many of them forming and breaking as far as 50 feet out. The island that is usually loaded with gulls and pelicans was almost empty. Flocks of seagulls flew in erratic patterns. A Blue Heron waded in the shallow surf.

Frances would not go in the water. One of the reasons she likes the estuary water is because it’s calm. Today it was not. On the walk back to the car – about 1/3 of a mile – we had to almost walk on the banks as the tide was coming in higher than I’d ever seen.

We went back yesterday – Monday – to see what it looked like after a night of high tide. The shape of the beach had changed. In the areas where the high tide had come in there were now alternating mounds and valleys where it had previously been flat sand. Oh – nothing huge. The mounds weren’t more than a foot high, but it was still visibly different.


This beach is normally clean along the shoreline. Today all along the water’s edge were clumps and gobs of seaweed. It's not the same kind of seaweed as on the Northern California beaches. I'm used to long strands with large leaves and giant bulbs at the end of the strand. This seaweed is more the consistency of a very thick feather boa. Mostly it's brown, but on this day there were bright red and orange leaves mixed in that made it look almost visceral. A few clumps were a very dark brown - almost black - thick tangled blobs that stood about six inches high. It looked like the sea had barfed all over the beach, which kind of makes sense. The photos probably don't make it look like any big deal, but the beach is normally clean and very gently sloped.


Her insides probably got churned up a bit with the earthquake. She even deposited plastic cups and watermelon rind along the shore. It was almost as though the sea - along with the rest of San Carlos - had partied too hard over the weekend.

Frances and I went back again around 6:00pm today (Tuesday) and the Sea of Cortez had reclaimed some of her trash and was beginning to look like her old self. The birds were back. It's so interesting. I wish I knew more about this kind of thing.

Well - late this afternoon (Wednesday) my friends Rosey, Ernie, Jim and Geneva arrive in San Carlos for about five days. Since there is no longer internet at the house, I may be a bit more sporadic with this Blog over the next week or so. I suspect I'll have a ton o' fun and have lots to tell though. I have to clean the car out and get some groceries before they all arrive in the afternoon. They are bringing me tons of AA batteries!! My camera just devoured my last four this morning. They're also bringing a couple of other items we've requested that are either hard to find or way expensive - several tubes of caulking for the window beams, and some Spray and Wash which is needed with increasing frequency due to Frances' occasional incontinence. It's tough being an old dog.

Dog + Camera = Passport to the World

It seems that all I need in order to have a really great time here in the state of Sonora, is my dog and my camera. Wherever I go with Frances, she is the center of attention. She certainly made my day in Guaymas last week. And folks here seem to love to have their picture taken. With increasing frequency, when people see me with camera in hand, they ask me to have their picture taken. It's kind of funny too, considering they will probably never see the photos I take. A dog and/or a camera seem to be an easy way to strike up a conversation, and language barriers seems to melt away.

Semana Santa is over. The streets and beaches are empty, the town is quiet - almost dead - and all that's left are a lot of trash cans overflowing with empty cases of beer. Late Saturday afternoon I decided to take a walk and see what was happening in town for Semana Santa.

Essentially, it's just people cruising up and down the main drag and drinking beer. Beer stands are about every 50 yards, usually guarded by the police! The drinking and driving laws here are generally ignored anyway, but a complete blind eye is turned by the authorities during Semana Santa.



That being said, it's generally just a big party without too many problems. I walked about 1-1/2 miles each way. The action more or less begins at the reconstructed bridge and the OXXO minimarket, which had a line of people out the door and halfway around the building waiting to pay for their goods.


Then I began my stroll down the main drag. Traffic was very heavy. Folks park their cars on the side of the road, take out folding chairs or lower their tailgates, and start drinking beer. I thought maybe there was going to be a parade or something what with all the people sitting on the side of the road. And while there was nothing formal, I guess in a way there was a parade. It's a hoot sitting and watching all the cruisers going back and forth for hours, blasting their car stereos with Mexican pop music.


Traffic is pretty much at a crawl. My walking pace was just a little slower than the traffic passing me. There were lots of pedestrians as well as ATVs swerving in and out of traffic.




Hundreds of pickup trucks drive by, packed with partiers of all ages in the bed of the trucks, including the cops,




and this Mother holding and infant in one hand and a beer in the other.

When two police saw me taking pictures they wave me over. They wanted me to take THEIR picture. So of course I did. They posed, looking very serious and stern. I snapped the shot and they broke into big grins.


I eventually ended up at a place called "The Edge", which is a shop that rents ATVs, kayaks, jet skis and other sporting equipment. They also have recently opened a Cantina (restuarant/bar) called "Tortuga" and I'd heard it was pretty good so I decided to have dinner there. I ordered their "Tex-Mex Chicken Rice Bowl". It was pretty good and filling, but pretty tame in the spices and "Tex-Mex" department. In the evening there would be dancing at The Edge, and they had some folks outside on a platform dancing up a storm, trying to entice people to come inside.


Three burly bikers strolled in. Apparently there would be a bunch of them there shortly, much to the managements delight. They went back outside to drink their beer. I thought they made an interesting, even kind of cute looking group in their own biker way, so I asked if I could take their picture.


They were so tickled that when I was done, they ran over to their motorcycles and called in all their pals so that I could take a picture of the whole group.


I headed back towards the house now. This time I was walking against traffic. A car full of giggly teenage girls saw the camera in my hand and screamed "photo photo photo," so I obliged and took their picture.


This set into motion a chain reaction of rowdy kids in cars wanting me to take their picture with many cries of "photo photo."




A large Mariachi band was playing on the side of the road, with tuba and accordian player to boot!




Pick-up trucks full of people danced to the music.

I got back home just as it was getting dark. What a great little stroll that was.

The next evening I was able to finally get back for a beach walk with Frances. As we reached our favorite spot at the estuary, Frances - as per usual - looked at me for permission to go running through water. I gave her the signal to go. There were still a few families with kids wrapping up the holiday weekend. A Mother and four teenagers were in the vicinity and Frances went bounding up to a boy of about fifteen years. She wagged her little stub tail and started following him around. He was intrigued, but I wasn't sure if she was being annoying so I called her off. As I started to walk away I could hear him say softly, "Frances, Frances, Frances, Frances." One of the gals - who appeared to be 18 or so - and had better English than the others,handed me her small digital camera and asked if I would take a picture of the five of them - WITH Frances! But of course. And then they posed for my camera as well.


Frances seemed to think that the photo session entitled her to go check out the contents of their ice chest , although she was polite enough not to help herself! We all laughed and then we stuck around for another ten minutes and all played together. The weekend ended with Frances and my camera once again bridging all cultural gaps. I just love it!

Frances has been back to her old self since the weekend. I didn't know how many people were reading this blog until I mentioned Frances being sick!!! Thanks for all the concern and advice.

Semana Santa has Arrived

Semana Santa has arrived. As promised, the crowds began arriving on Thursday. It seems to be a cross between young adults on spring break, and families who are in town for a four day weekend at the beach. It's Saturday morning now, and yes the traffic is heavy and there's tons of folks in town, but it's not as big as I had been hearing for weeks.

The road construction is temporarily complete enough to eliminate detours and open all four lanes of traffic instead of just two. I’ve already had one experience of a local not realizing the new road was open, and coming at me the wrong way - head-on - in what only the day before was the right direction. Yikes! The road will be a closed again after Easter, to properly complete the repairs. But now that it’s open, I have become aware of other beaches that we couldn’t access before. They’re quite obvious this weekend as hundreds of people camp out at each site.

It’s all good fun to a large extent. The driving and traffic is kind of nuts. People driving small scooters and ATVs (all terrain vehicles) that have neither roll bar, helmet or seatbelts drive like crazy through town, sometimes with toddlers and/or beer in their lap. They zip through traffic, pass on the right and seem to come out of nowhere.


Pedestrians, including children, just run out into the street, or are invisible right behind you when you're trying to back out of a parking lot. For that reason, I plan to "do" Semana Santa on foot today. Frankly I need the the exercise anyway. I've been sort of inexplicably exhausted lately and can't seem to get enough rest. Maybe a brisk walk will be just the pick up I need!

The main thoroughfare is lined with hundreds of 10x10’ pop-up tent like structures. About a third are outdoor fast food stands – fish tacos, chili, things like that. A few are selling arts and crafts, jewelry and clothing. The rest are devoted strictly to the sale of beer, usually with a porta-potty or two next to the beerstand.


The back of pickup trucks are loaded with young and old alike, driving along drinking their beer, screaming and shouting, cruising and carrying on.


There are perhaps a dozen people outside the small Catholic Church preparing to celebrate Good Friday Mass. They have to battle to keep the partiers out of their parking lot and clear for church goers.



Many of the regular business – like the hardware store, retail stores, the gym, etc. – close for four days. They put iron gates on their doors and windows. They bring in temporary chain link fences for their parking lots and hire guards to keep people off of their property. The businesses that do remain open, like small grocery stores, have extra police security standing by.

Ambulances from as far away as Guaymas are strategically parked on the beaches and throughout town. Extra police from Guaymas stroll the town as well.


Bored paramedics sit around waiting for their services to inevitably be needed. In fact all during the night I would hear the faint sound of sirens heading towards the direction of Guaymas. I don't know if is was police or ambulance. But it's a sound you don't usually hear around here.


The music and hootin’ and hollarin’ can be heard everywhere. I’ll probably walk down the main drag today to see what I can see and take pictures. I suspect today will be the pinnacle of the party. I hope to take lots of photos, but I'm having trouble finding decent AA batteries. I finally found some reasonably priced yesterday. An off brand - Astrocell - they died after 7 pictures.

II’m going to give my car a rest until Sunday evening when the crowds will mostly be gone. I'll walk everywhere. Then Frances can go to the beach again.

Speaking of Frances, her spirits have perked up since the Guaymas trip, but here digestive system is really out of sorts - more than it's been - EVER. She is eating nothing out of the ordinary. Not sure what's going on. Will go the the vet Monday if it doesn't improve.

I wonder who is playing solo trombone down at the beach?

The Guaymas Market Place

It's day number three with no Internet at the house. I guess it's a permanent situation. But I have become very fond of the Iguana Coffee Shop, and I can walk here in 10 minutes. Also, the gym I joined has a snack bar and free WIFI so... while I will have to plan my online time, I should be able to keep up on everything. Today is the day the crowds are supposed to begin arriving for Semana Santa. So far I've seen nothing extreme. We shall see.

So! Yesterday Frances and I visited the Guaymas Wednesday Market. Even if the cruise ship hadn't been sitting obviously in port, there was no doubt that it was here with the clumps of tourists at Shuttle Buses experiencing 90 minutes of the "real" Mexico. In case you haven't guessed, I'm not a huge fan of the cruise ship experience. In addition to it just not being my personal preference in style of travel, the exploitation that is rampant of both employees of cruise lines and the sites they visit, make me very uncomfortable. Editorial done!



So Frances and I parked right across the street from the Guaymas Open Market. Right next to the car was the strangest, cheesiest little amusement park I've every seen. The rides were very old, and none of the rides would accommodate anyone much older than the age of five. There were no customers at all. The Merry Go Round was very old, very small and even charming.


I can't remember a time in my life when I didn't love carnivals and amusement parks. Frances and I found the owner/operator of this little park. He, his wife and four children live in a teeny trailer on site. Frances loved the kids and they were thrilled to pet the big wolf dog.


So Frances went on the cars you drive yourself,


and on the bumper cars with one of the girls.


Well not really of course. I'm not sure if ANY of the rides were actually in working order. But a good time was had by all.

We went across the street to the open market. I'm not a big shopper, but was hoping to - and did - find a pair of sandals. They were $10. I know you're supposed to haggle, but I've seen the quality of life here. I was happy to pay $10. Besides, earlier in the week I found a ten dollar bill at Soggy Peso Beach. So I figured the sandals were free.

We strolled about. Frances drew a LOT of attention. Here in San Carlos, there are many dogs, mostly owned by the snowbirds who come down with their pets, like us! But in urban Mexico, a dog is a luxury, and the few you see are bone thin and scavengers. Many children were initially terrified of the wolf dog, or coyote dog - which I've heard so much of about Frances since being here - but while afraid they were also fascinated. So were the adults. I ALWAYS stopped and said "perro bueno" and "OK to pet" and Frances got many hugs during the course of the afternoon by children and adults who may have never done that in their entire life. I think I only saw one other dog at the marketplace and it was on a leash and owned by a non-Mexican.

I stopped at one of the food vendors and had a corn-on-the-cob on a stick, slathered with mayo, cheese and pepper sauce. Yum! I think a bit of the corn is still stuck in my teeth!

Frances took a liking to a couple of cute young policemen who were patroling the market. They were more than happy to pose with Frances for the loco senora (me).



Some of the local indigenous women were selling handmade baskets, jewelrey and cooking up a pot of some sort of stew that smelled delicious. They were in full makeup and costume, and later performed some traditional dances. I don't know what tribe they were from.



The "pirate ship" the Rey del Mar, sails around Guaymas Bay. It is a lively boat with skeleton flags flying and the crew outfitted like pirates. Lively Marachi Music plays on board. It's only 50 pesos (about 4 dollars) for a 40 minute ride around Guaymas Bay. Buoyed by our success at the amusement park and with the policemen, I offered to pay full fare for Frances, but we were turned down. I tried again 40 minutes later when there was a staff change... still no go. Argh Matey! Well it was worth a try.


And as in much of Mexico, there is an ever present military presence. A truck of soldiers cruised through from time to time.


On the way home we stopped at the Delfinario. This is a small amusement facility that features dolphins, sea lions and dolphin swims. You may be surprised that I hadn't been there yet. But I have heard terrible things about the treatment of the animals there. Not many people support it locally. Without paying an entrance fee or going inside, I was able to get a snapshot of the pool that the dolphins live in. All I can say is, if I went to my local gym to do lap swimming and that was the size pool they had, it would not be big enough.

The Delfinario is only a 15 minute drive from the Cruise Ship. This is exactly the type of thing that could easily become a popular attraction for the cruisers, thus encouraging the mistreatment of the animals. To some extent I feel a bit of the same type of discomfort as I photographed some of the indigenous women. There is an element of "trained seal" or "poverty voyeurism" . I am currently unable to reconcile this paradox for myself, my mind and heart. For now my personal guidelines will be as long as no one is being mistreated and all participatants are willing, then I will participate.


Frances and I found a Burger King on the way home. When we are on the road, Frances often gets a kid burger as a reward for good behavior while traveling. Today she got an entire Whopper, and finally she broke her fast which was now into about 30 hours. She was happy. She got kid hugs. She went on Bumper Cars. She hung out with cops. She came home and is still sleeping it off.

Everything is good.