Life For Me = Boring For You

Life For Me = Boring For You

I have been doing exactly nothing exciting the last week, no new photos, no adventures; therefore no new posts, sorry.

It has been a normal week. Monday and Wednesday evenings we had our painting class, Tuesday my spanish class and Thursday the english lessons at the orphanage. The usual shopping for groceries, etc.. Same old, same old. See, I told you -boring for you.

On Wednesday evening our painting teacher gave us an invitation to attend an art show opening at the Casa de la Cultura this evening. If we get energetic enough to get dressed up we may attend that. If I understood her correctly the lady doing the exhibit was a former student of our teacher.

It has been a bit warmer here the last few days, I actually went to painting class the other night without taking my jacket. I know that for a lot of you 23°C/73°F. is not cold; but for us now it is.

So, that has been the week.

It's February

It's February

It's February, so of course the Mango trees are blooming. It will be a few months before I can try out Steves mango soup but come July or so it could be on our menu.

Dances of Jalisco State

Dances Of Jalisco State

Here are the photos from the Jalisco style dances that the group performed at the Rescate Bazaar. This is the last of the dancing photos, I hope you haven't been too bored with them.

We didn't do too much yesterday, I went to the orphanage for the english classes with the children and Roy went and got a few groceries. Nothing majorly exciting.

Dances Of Chihuahua

Dances Of Chihuahua

Last evening we went to our painting class and brought home our first painting. Before we left the teacher told us to remember to sign them, as she is wanting to have a show when the classes end, possibly in June. We just laughed at her and told her that ours were likely to end up "en la basura"--in the garbage. She laughed with us; but insisted that we sign them at home anyway. Funny.

We came home and watched the lunar eclipse. The general concensus of the neighbors watching was, "muy bonito"--very pretty.

Here are some photos of the dances of Chihuahua State from the performance on last Saturday.

Dances Of Veracruz State

Dances Of Veracruz State

The group of dancers from the school in Guaymas also performed some dances from the state of Veracruz.

Here are some of the pictures.

The Platters Concert

The Platters Concert

We almost forgot about the appointment we had for an oil change in the car this morning. We were just sitting around with our coffee when I looked at the time and remembered, so we rushed to get ready and get there on time. It didn't take them long to get the car in once we arrived, in fact they put us in a bit early. We also asked them to look at the muffler as we were sure by the recent sound of the car, that it needed replacing. Sure enough, it had a hole in it, so we got a price and asked them to replace that at the same time. An hour later and a $100.00 poorer we were finished. The muffler was 700 pesos, about $70.00.

We went to our painting class at 5:30 this afternoon and then left about 15 minutes early to attend The Platters concert. The poster said that it was "los originales", the originals; but according to a website I read there are "an estimated 125 sanctioned versions of "the original Platters" out on the oldies show circuit". All I know is that 2 members of the 4 member group were much too young to be original. They put on an excellent concert though and we thoroughly enjoyed it. It was well worth the price of the ticket and we are very glad we attended. An evening well spent.

I took a couple of very bad pictures at the concert, so here they are.

Dances Of Guerrero State

Dances Of Guerrero State

Here are the photos of the performers doing some of the dances of Guerrero State from the performance on Saturday.

Agenda for today: oil change for the car, painting class and The Platters concert. Busy day.

Rescate Bazaar

Rescate Bazaar

Yesterday we went out to San Carlos to the Rescate Bazaar. There are several fundraisers held during the winter to raise funds for the ambulance/medical service in San Carlos. It was held in the plaza in front of the church.

There were many booths set up selling paintings, photographs, jewellery, crafts, baked goods and many other things. There were also booths selling food and drinks. We wandered around looking at all the things on offer and then found a couple of chairs and sat down.

There was to be a group of dancers from one of the secondary schools here in Guaymas performing folkloric dances. It doesn't matter how many times I see this I always enjoy it. We didn't have to wait for long before the announcer began to tell us about the group. They were going to perform dances from 5 different states, Sonora, Chihuahua, Guerro, Jalisco and Veracruz. They began with Veracruz; but I am going to begin with Sonora; just because it is our state.

The dancers were fantastic as they always are and put on an excellent performance. They are definately an energetic group of performers and certainly seem to enjoy what they are doing. We enjoyed it immensely.

The San Carlos church.

Dances of Sonora.

More Videos Of Carnaval

More Videos Of Carnaval

Here are a few more videos of carnaval and then I promise to be quiet about until next year.

I think that we are going to head over to San Carlos this morning. They are having a bazaar at the church there to benefit their ambulance service and also are supposed to have a folkloric group putting on a dance performance. We love the dance performances and try to go and see as many as we can.

Goodbye To A Wonderful Dog

Goodbye To A Wonderful Dog

I phoned back to Canada today to wish 2 of my step-grandsons, (twins), a Happy Birthday. Yes, they were born on Valentines Day. I remember staying awake most of the night waiting for news of their birth and today they are 13 years old. Time goes so fast.

When we left Canada they kept my German Shepherd dog, Brandy. Brandy was a wonderful dog. We got her from the SPCA when she was only 14 months old and she had been abused. After she got over her fears, she was the perfect companion. She spent many, many hours lying on the grass, helping me garden and she loved all the grandchildren. She also helped me out once in a very sticky situation had could have turned even uglier than it already was, if it wasn't for her intervention. She was my dog in all ways and followed me everywhere. It was very hard to leave her in Canada; but I knew that she would not take the move well. She was old and liked a quiet pace of life, she was also terrified of loud noises, (think fireworks) and would hide for hours when noises like that happened. She would not have liked all the noises in Mexico. She stayed in Canada to live out the rest of her life in peace with my step-daughter and her family and she seemed to be happy.

Today when I phoned they informed me that she had passed away peacefully, she was over 15 years old. Goodbye Brandy, I miss you.
Brandy.

Brandy patiently waiting for me.

Happy Valentines Day

Happy Valentines Day

Happy Valentines Day to everyone, hope you have a wonderful day filled with your loved ones.

We decided yesterday, after listening to some YouTube videos of The Platters, to go and buy tickets for the show after all. I headed uptown to the auditorium where the tickets are being sold and bought them. So we are all set to go, we will have to leave our painting class a little early to get to the show on time; but that should be fine.

I also stopped uptown and got a much needed haircut at the same time. We both usually go to a lady that is near here; but I happened to walk by a place while I was uptown that was just opening up for the day. I was the first customer, so no waiting. She was 10 pesos cheaper than our usual lady (40 pesos instead of 50 pesos, about $4.00 instead of $5.00), a double bonus.

We went to our painting class last night and it was fun. I finished my first painting, which was supposed to be a study of light and shadow. I will just say that it looks much better from afar, very far. LOL

Spanish Lessons

Spanish Lessons

I have been meaning to get busy and take some spanish lessons again; but have been being very lazy about it. The fellow that I went to last spring is unable to do it anymore because of work constraints, so I had to find someone else.

Bliss a fellow blogger in San Carlos has been coming into Guaymas and taking lessons from a lady here, so I got the ladies name and phoned her one day. We made arrangements for a friend and I to go for lessons on Tuesdays.
Yesterday S. and I arrived at the ladies home and spent an hour conversing with her mostly in spanish. We have some homework, we have to write something for her in spanish and she will correct our grammar. This is something that I had being doing in the spring with my other teacher and I found it very interesting and so did he at times.
Yesterday morning we went to do a load of laundry and get some groceries; but first I needed to get some cleaner for our paintbrushes before painting class tonight. There are 2 paint stores almost right beside the laundromat so I decided to start with them first before heading uptown. Sure enough the first one I asked had it. The fellow came and put a 1 litre coke bottle on the counter. He then proceeded to take off part of the coke label. 20 pesos, about $2.00, and I was out the door with my brush cleaner. Well that was easy.
Do you remember the group The Platters? Well, the group is coming to give a couple of concerts here in Guaymas. Unfortunately the concert is the same evening as our painting class, so we have decided that we won't go to it. I am sure it will be a good concert though.
Here is the concert information if anyone is close and interested.
The Platters will perform at the Civic Auditorium downtown in Guaymas on Monday Feb 18th, two times, one at 7Pm and the next at 9:30pm. Tickets at the Auditorium taquilla, they are for sale already, two prices; $200 and $180 pesos. For information call 224-2626, ask for Ana Maria Almada for English.

Painting Class

Painting Class

Everyone once in awhile I read the calendar of events on the Government of Guaymas website, sometimes there are events happening that we want to go and see and sometimes there is nothing of interest there. The other day when I went to look at it, I noticed that there were classes beginning at the Casa de la Cultura. One of the classes listed was an adult painting class. We both are interested in painting and have long wanted to take some classes. I printed the page off and took it downstairs to ask the landlord if I had translated it correctly. I had and there were classes that supposedly had already begun the Wednesday before, this was on Saturday. We went down to the Casa de la Cultura but the office was closed until Monday.

Yesterday morning we went down and were told that yes, we could still register and that no, it wasn't a problem that our spanish is not the greatest. The registration was 50 pesos, around $5.00 and the cost for one month of classes, 1½ hrs. per class, two classes a week is 100 pesos or around $10.00. Can't beat that. So we signed up.

We were told that we didn't need to bring anything but ourselves to the class, so at 5:30 PM we were there ready to begin. It turns out that the lady teaching the class speaks some english!! What a surprise! She had all the necessary supplies there, so we purchased what we needed and were ready to begin. The first project that we are doing is a study of light and shadow; although what mine looks like is questionable. It was fun and we both enjoyed it, we are glad that we signed up and will see how it goes.

The Second Time Around

The Second Time Around

Second hand goods abound here in our area. Clothes, shoes, furniture, large and small appliances, kitchen goods, almost anything you can think of is available second hand here. Whether you go shopping at the weekly tianguis' or to second hand stores, usually called bazaars here, the quantity is unlimited. There are 3 weekly tianguis' in Guaymas and 1 huge one in Empalme, 10 miles from us, so you never have to go far to find something that you are looking for. If you don't find it at the tianguis you can always go hunting at the bazaar stores. The goods are shipped down from north of the border and in most cases are fairly gently used. The prices vary greatly between the different bazaars, so you need to know your prices and products. Naturally the quality of the offering influences the price as it does when shopping for new items. Some places even offer a guarantee on things like washing machines and refrigerators, the length of the guarantee will vary with the seller also. I have found that here if the item is for your garden/patio, the price is high as compared to up north. Quite often, the second hand price for these things can be comparable to the new price north of the border.

Last Friday a group of us went shopping/looking at the second hand shops. It is fun to poke around in them as you never know what you will find. We visited several shops and had fun looking. We didn't really find anything that we wanted to buy; but it was a good excuse for an outing and an enjoyable day was had with breaks of course for lunch and coffee.

Some Helpful People

Some Helpful People

I am always saying that the people here have accepted us and been helpful to us in many little ways; but I don't usually mention too many actual instances of it.

Well, yesterday within a couple of minutes there were two such incidents.

We had gone uptown to the Casa de la Cultura and then to VH grocery store for groceries. Roys boots were looking pretty scruffy, so he stopped and got them polished while I was shopping. We both finished about the same time and walked across the street to wait for our bus home. While we were waiting an older man came up to us and began telling us that we were waiting at the wrong bus stop. We were kind of puzzled and told him, "no, we were in the right place". He kept pointing up the street and then mentioned the bus to San Carlos. We realised that he thought we were trying to catch the San Carlos bus, and yes, we were at the wrong bus stop if we would have wanted that bus. We thanked him and told him which colonia we live in here in town. He seemed surprised that we lived here; but smiled and went on his way with our thanks for his attempted assistance. Wasn't that nice of him!

There are several different buses that we can catch to go home from uptown. One route we take we have to walk up the hill 3 blocks and one route we take we get to walk down the hill 3 blocks. I am usually lazy so prefer to take the one where we get to walk downhill. Normally the bus drivers take absolutely no notice of us; but today perhaps it was a new driver who has never seen us before. Anyway I got on the bus and sat down and Roy was trying to pay the driver. I looked up when I heard the driver asking Roy where he wanted to go. Roy was telling him our stop, and the driver was telling him, no we were on the wrong bus, that we needed another bus. I got up and asked the driver if this was the route I thought it was and he said that yes it was, I told him that was fine then and he was happy. No more concerns about us being/getting lost on the wrong bus. Nice man.

Yes, there are also people who like to push ahead in line and sometimes it is frustrating; but usually we have the opposite experience. When the buses are full and there are no seats, I have almost never had to stand. 99.99% of the time a gentleman will get up and give me his seat. If you are in line in the grocery store with only 1 or 2 items usually someone will tell you to go ahead of them if they have a cartful.

On Friday there were 5 of us ladies shopping and we headed into a tiny shoe shop in the old mercado. I was speaking with the lady in charge of the shop and she was grinning from ear to ear at me. Maybe it was my bad spanish LOL!! Anyway, when a couple of the other ladies began talking to her in english, she looked at me grinning, patted me on the back and said, you can help me.

We both had a good laugh when she said something funny to one of the ladies in spanish. She said it with a straight face and then looked at me and winked. I said to her in spanish you are only joking and she began to laugh. Yes, yes, she said. It was a fun experience shopping in her store and she sold 2 pair of sandals to us also, so we were all happy.

It seems that everytime we leave the house we have an experience that brings a smile to our faces and re-news our faith in the human race.

How could you not like living here.

Helicopter Crash In Empalme

Helicopter Crash In Empalme

On Thursday around 1 PM a helicopter crashed in Empalme, the next town south of us about 10 miles.

It was a Mi-17, model 1975 owned by the Mexican Air Force and has been in service with them since 1997. There were 9 people aboard and miraculously none were killed.

When it crashed it did not explode; but did take out a bunch of electrical lines. Some of the lines were connected to Conagua and because of this affected their pumps. Approximately 37 thousand people in Guaymas and Empalme were without water for some time until the lines were repaired.

They are saying that the crash was caused by a mechanical fault, apparently the helicopter had taken off about 20 minutes before it crashed. It crashed in a sports field, so luckily no one on the ground was injured as far as I know.

Photographs taken from the El Vigia newspaper.

More Carnaval Pictures

More Carnival Pictures

Here are a few more pictures of carnaval.

This was a cute float with all the childrens movie characters and props.

This shows how they lower the high parts of the floats to get under the electric lines. Notice the bent down part at the back. In the next photo it is standing straight up again. The pieces are hinged with metal bars connected to the top parts. When they get to the electric lines a couple of men walking behind the float grab the bars, lower the high part and walk along like that until they have cleared the lines. They then put everything back in place until the next set of lines.

Interview For The Radio

Interview For The Radio

I recently had the opportunity to meet another person through this blog. Her name is Kelsi Jordan and she has worked in radio for 18 years. She recently decided to quit her job on air and do freelance work. She is now doing travel pieces for the CBC Radio in Canada.
Kelsi emailed me back in December, saying that she was going to be holidaying in Mexico for a couple of months and would I be interested in doing an interview with her. We emailed back and forth and formatted the interview. When they arrived in San Carlos to stay for a week, we got together and did the interview. It apparently will be airing on 50 CBC Radio stations in Canada starting today. I don't know which stations or at what time; but if you go to her blog you can listen to the interview if you are interested. Here is the link for Kelsi's Blog, if you read the post, "Canadians in Mexico " the link for the radio interview is in this post.

Kelsi has also put together a book, which is a fun and interesting read. Part of the proceeds from the sale of the book go to The Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation, so besides reading a good book you can help the Cancer Foundation out by purchasing one. The website for the book is here: http://www.theradiogirl.com/

Just a note: Kelsi has moved not long ago and the books website has not been updated with the new address as of yet. If you want to order the book, when you hit the "Buy it Now" button the address is incorrect. This is the correct address to send your cheque to:

The Radio Girl

#110, 301 Browne Road

Vernon, BC

V1T 7M2

Videos of Carnival 2008

Videos of Carnival 2008

Here are some short videos of the parade on Monday, Feb. 4, 2008.

Carnaval Parade

Carnaval Parade

Yesterday afternoon a couple of friends came over and we all headed uptown to watch the Carnaval Parade. It was supposed to start at 4 PM so I had hopes that it would begin before dark and that I would be able to get some good pictures. We found a great spot to sit on a cement bench with a wall behind us to lean on. Heaven, compared to sitting on the curb and much cleaner.

We sat back to eat and wait. Between us, we tried several of the tasty treats available such as homemade potato chips, (not french fries; but like the chips packed in bags), candy floss and chili encrusted mangos. Personally I have to say that the chips were excellent and our friends seemed to enjoy the mango and candy floss.

We again waited and waited for the parade to begin. I guess the starting times are more of a "suggestion" than a actuality, this is not a new thing, it was like this the last 2 years also.

It seemed like the young ladies on the floats were more scantily clad this year than other years, especially the ones on the Sol beer float, and I felt sorry for them as they must have been cold. There was a breeze blowing and it cooled off as the sun went down. They were basically in bras and thongs and we were in our jackets. BRRR..... oh well they are young and don't seem to feel the temperature the way we do.

It was a nice, sunny day; but just before the parade started it began to cloud over, and by the time the parade got to us, it was beginning to get dark again. So much for getting any good pictures. Oh well, here are some that I took anyway, as always you can see more details when you click on them to enlarge them.

This is one of the newest "toys" on sale from the street venders, dishes of bubble solution with large bubble blowers. It seems to be a big hit with the kids.

Radio FM float.


There is an old home here in the city that is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, it has quite a history. Is this a replica of it? Your guess is as good as mine.

The spires on this float are lying down to go under the overhead electrical wires.
This is a bad picture of the Sol beer float; but I am posting it for my blogger amigo,Wayne , as I think that one of his favorite beers is a Sol brand.

Carnaval

Carnaval

Events for carnaval have been going on for the last week, culturally and musically anyway. We were all set to go to the parade on Saturday with some friends; but both Roy and one of our friends got sick so we postponed it until another day.

Usually the parades are held at around 4 PM; but this year they decided to have one evening parade. It was supposed to start at 6 PM last evening.

We hopped a bus and got out a couple of blocks away from where the parade was supposed to be going. We found an empty spot on the curb and sat down to wait and wait and wait. As usual the parade did not start on time and we were expecting this; but if you wait until you figure that it will start then you can't find a place where you can see it very well. So we sat and people watched.

There was a cute little toddler right beside us playing with a balloon, which of course, popped on hitting the pavement. He looked so confused and couldn't seem to reconcile the shriveled bit of rubber on the concrete with his fun balloon. Everyone nearby was laughing at his facial expressions and looks of consternation and confusion. He didn't cry or make a fuss, just had the funniest looks on his face. The lady next to us, felt sorry for him and a few minutes later I heard her telling her older son to go and ask how much the toys/balloons were from a passing salesman. Her son was too embarassed at his age to go and ask so maybe 10 minutes passed. The lady finally felt so sorry for the little fellow, who was still looking for his balloon, that she got up and went and bought him a little balloon type toy on a stick and presented it to him. This lady did not know the little boy at all; but she just decided that she wanted to see a smile on his face again and he certainly did smile when she presented the toy to him. She didn't make a big fuss about it, just quietly went over and gave it to him and came and sat down again. Very nice gesture. Kindness of strangers at work. Oprahs "pay it forward" would have no problems getting off the ground here.

The toy/balloon salesmen were out in force, and also the food salesmen, whatever you wanted to eat was available within a 1 block area. Hot food, cold food, nuts, icecream, candy floss, candy apples, candies, potato chips, whatever you could think of, it was there. No one had to go away hungry. Naturally some of the men were walking around with their bags of ice and beer, during Carnaval it is legal to drink in the street.

Just a note here to tourists, this is the only time that it is legal to drink on the street, when you do it to look cool at other times you just look dumb. Sorry, just a pet peeve of mine.

Toy salesman.

Anyway after waiting for about 2 hrs. the parade finally arrived at our spot and was thoroughly enjoyed by all. The children were throwing thin streamers, confetti, confetti filled cascarones, (cleaned out eggshells filled with confetti and then the opening is covered over), spraying canned spray foam, etc.. The people on the floats were throwing bags of confetti to the children who in turn opened it up and threw it back at them. A fun and messy time was had by all. Roy and I had managed to maintain our front row seats, so had the opportunity to be "danced" at/with by several of the dancers. Fun and funny.

This fellow got hit by the spray foam.

One of the floats, if you click on it to view it larger you can see some of the details.

It seemed that the parade was shorter this year, lasting only about an hour. The floats were nice, the music loud, and the dancers energetic and of course, everything was colorful.

After the parade, we joined the throngs, (it seemed like the entire population of Sonora was there) and went up the street to find a bus to go home. We had no interest in heading to the area where the bands were playing. The first year we were here we went and there were three bands playing at the same time, different music of course, all at maximum volume. You couldn't hear yourself think. Also, I do not love being in big crowds, so for me just trying to get to where the buses were staging was enough. It was wall to wall people, with no space to move and I was ready to get on a bus and go home. We did finally find a bus and along with about 40 other people we got on. It was packed; but everyone was laughing and happy. No one seemed upset about being squashed in like sardines, it was a fun ride home.

We hope to go back to the parade either today or tomorrow and get some daytime pictures; but we will see.