Cruz de Piedra and Las Guasimas
Ciro/Irene asked Roy and I, G. and F. if we would like to go with them to Cruz de Piedra and Las Guasimas today. Ciro and G. and F. went to the tianguis first and when they returned we all piled into 2 vehicles to make the trip. There were 11 of us altogether so we definately needed the 2 vehicles.We headed out of Guaymas on highway 15 going south, through Empalme, with a stop to pick up beer and another stop to pick up coca colas. Past KM. 98 where you can get your car permits for the rest of the country and a few more miles down the road. I am not exactly sure how many miles, as I really wasn't keeping track of it. Anyway at a certain point we turned off the highway onto a road going into the desert. We crossed a cattle gate and kept on going, on a bouncy road across the sand. Cruz de Piedra is a shrimp farm and we drove past/through part of the farming area. There was a sign for a restaurant, La Shaka and this was our destination. We all piled out of the car, wandered around for a bit, pulled out the cokes and beers and sat down to order. One of Ciros sons explained the menu, which was quite extensive, to G. and F. and everyone decided on what they wanted to order.
The food began to arrive and seemed to never stop arriving. Sorry, I was too busy stuffing my face to take any photos of the food; although F. did. I will have to look at her photos and see if they turned out or not. We were in the shade under a palapa roof so it was difficult taking photos. The food was excellent, we have everything: ceviche, shrimp cocktails, raw oysters, breaded shrimp, a couple of whole fried fish, other shrimp dishes, crab tostados and much more. It was all delicious and at the end we all left the table stuffed. We laughed and joked around and spent an enjoyable couple of hours over our meal. By the time we left the place was pretty much packed and there were lots of tables there. A couple of the photos are not very good as I accidentally changed the camera mode and this one was set for night photos; but you can get an idea of the scenery anyway.
Part of the restaurant.
Eating over, we were ready for our next stop. Irene wanted to go to Las Guasimas to get some crab for tomorrow. She has told us that she is making a seafood dinner tomorrow for all of us. Yum, yum. We drove back to the highway and headed down the road for a few more miles to Las Guasimas.
Las Guasimas has been kind of a joke between Ciro/Irene and us since the first winter we were here. Then we had gone to Empalme and taken a bus from Empalme to Las Guasimas. This was not a highway bus; but more of what people used to call a "chicken bus". There were no animals on the bus; but Ciro teased us about travelling with the chickens, pigs, etc.. They just laughed at our sightseeing?? tour, as Las Guasimas is just a very small Yaqui indian fishing village and there is really not anything much to see there. When we had arrived there the first winter on the bus, we had asked the driver what time he would be back and he told us, "tomorrow". Needless to say we had not gotten off the bus, there is no where to stay there. If we hadn't asked we would have ended up sleeping on the beach overnight. Ciro and Irene like to tease us about our "trip" there anyway. Today was a bit different, we stopped at a couple of places looking for crab, were sucessful, did the scenic tour of the town and then were on our way back to Guaymas and dessert at our apartment.
Waiting on the tide at Las Guasimas.
Arriving back home everyone came upstairs and we had coffee, cokes, cinnamon buns and pumpkin torte for desert. I had found a couple of cans of pumpkin in San Carlos while we were there, so had made the pumpkin torte, which I love. I had cinnamon buns in the deep freeze so took them out, as I know that Ciro/Irenes family really enjoy them. Stuffed again, we sat and visited for awhile before everyone headed downstairs to their own homes. Irene had been going to do Carne Asada for dinner; but everyone was so full that we all opted to put it off for another day.
