Bloggers Meet

Yesterday I headed uptown to meet up with a couple of fellow bloggers. Bliss from San Carlos and Ale from Guaymas .
I had met Bliss a couple of years ago and she has started coming to my Spanish class the last few weeks. It was through her that I met my Spanish teacher and Bliss goes to her several times a week for Spanish and singing practise.
I had never met Ale before, she is new to Guaymas, having moved here only about a month ago from Hermosillo.
We had decided to meet at a little coffee shop, called the Sky Cafe, which is across from the Iglesia de San Fernando in Guaymas centro.
As I was walking through the 13 de Julio Park to get to the cafe, I noticed a large group of people lined up waiting to get into the church. As I got closer I realised that it was a group waiting to enter the church for their first communion or confirmation ceremony. The children were dressed beautifully and looked wonderful.
The picture is not very good as I didn't want to get closer and intrude on their special time.

The Sky Cafe where we met for coffee. It is very tiny inside but does have a few comfy armchairs on the main level and a few more upstairs on the second level. They just finished repainting the inside a few weeks ago and it looks very nice. They have a varied menu and what they offer is good.

Bliss and Ale arrived and we sat outside and chatted. We began to hear music and were surprised to see a band come marching down the street. They must have been practising as they weren't in their uniforms; but they were playing and marching as if they were in a real parade. Perhaps practising for the parade tonight for Day of the Marines? I don't know.

The band passed and quiet returned. We chatted awhile longer and then went our separate ways. A nice interlude and I hope that we do it again.

Nothing Exciting Going On

Nothing much happening right now. Picked up a few groceries yesterday and got a haircut. Getting ready to head uptown to pick up some painting supplies soon. Gloomy and cool here today, unusual. Downright chilly as it is only 21 C. and it is already 9:30 AM. Must be a pretty good sized cold front from somewhere sitting over us.
Here's a couple more mountain, water, shrimp boat pictures to look at.

The Other Side Of The Bay

These were taken one day when it was cloudy, which is unusual for here; but it was a nice cool day to wander around. We were downtown by the Fishermans Plaza (Plaza de la Pescador), looking across to the other side of the bay.

The Turtle Returns

A few weeks ago you might remember when I posted about a turtle at one of the restaurants that we go to. Lunching With A Turtle . Well, a couple of days ago we returned to the restaurant and the first thing the fellow told us when we walked through the door was that the turtle was back and having his lunch. We wandered over to see him and to say hello. The turtle didn't seem too impressed with seeing us again and continued eating his lunch. We watched him for a bit and then went and sat down to eat our own meal.


Normally the skies here are clear and bright blue, and that is what it was like the other day. I just happened to look out and see this big cloud rising over the mountain. Looked very odd in the middle of all that bright blue sky.

El Obelisco--The Obelisk

The other day when we were out walking around we walked by the Obelisk. This used to be situated in downtown Guaymas and at some point, I don't know what year, was moved; but probably when they were re-doing the street because of heavier traffic flow. It is now situated at the juncture where the road splits into two. One road taking you onto the highway through Empalme and south and the other street (Serdan) going to downtown Guaymas.
It is also now missing the wreath at the top that you can see in the old photos. I don't know what happened to that; but it is no longer there.
It seems like everytime we go by this I never have my camera; but the other day I did, so took some pictures.
In its old downtown location.



Below: In its present location.

Vegetation

Some pictures of the various trees and plants growing on the streets here.
I have heard this called a Flamboyance Tree by some; but don't know its proper name. It truly is a beautiful, showy tree when in bloom. Some of them are totally covered in blossoms so that you can hardly see the leaves at all. Lovely; but a messy trees as it is always dropping tiny little leaflets.

Below:Bouganvillea and Plumeria.

I love this shady walkway.



Below: I have one of these plants, can't think of the name at the moment. Mine has only one main stem with babies starting to grow off of it. Maybe in time mine will get this big; although I doubt it as I keep removing the babies to start in other pots and mine is growing in a pot. Mine has grown a couple of feet in the last year and is about 5 feet tall right now. I had never seen the blooms until we saw this one the other day. Our landlady once told me that brides like to carry these flowers for their bouquets.

The blooms, our landlord says that they smell really nice; these were up so high we couldn't smell anything.

Update On The Birds

Thanks to K. in New Brunswick, Canada I now know that this is not a Tanager but according to her is a male, hooded Oriole. Thanks, K. I remember seeing Orioles in Canada when I was a kid in Saskatchewan; but didn't realise that they also lived in Mexico.

This little guy has a very pretty song and is, I think some type of Finch. He has very pretty red coloring. He looks very nice against the bright blue, cloudless sky, doesn't he? I still haven't managed to get a picture of our taunting woodpecker.

Pouring The Roof

A few days ago I talked about them tearing off the old roof at our neighbors across the street, the blog post is here Putting On A New Roof . Well, the other day gravel, sand and lumber was delivered to make the new concrete roof, it previously had been metal.
Yesterday morning the men arrived and so did a cement mixer. When a cement mixer shows up you know it is a big job, as for most projects the concrete is mixed by hand right on the street. I have read/been told that when you are doing a roof it must all be done at once, if you stop and continue the next day you will end up with a leak where you joined the two pourings. Makes sense to me. It also can mean a very long work day if it is a large roof.
They spent some time building a couple of ramps for the guys to walk up to the roof on with the cement and then they got right to work. They had a big crew and the work went fast. We left and when we returned around noon, it was all done and the men were gone.
Lots of hard, physical labor involved in construction here.
The ramp to get from ground level to roof level. Try getting this past Occupational Health and Safety in Canada.

Carrying the cement up to the roof in 5 gallon pails.



Pouring the cement from the mixer right into the pails.



Smoothing the cement.

Our Neighborhood Birds

We have lots of birds around here, the problem is being fast enough to get a picture of them. Our local woodpecker seems to like to tease me. The only time he comes really close is when I do not have the camera handy. If I take the camera outside with me and sit and read my book, he never shows up. Yesterday when I went outside to read, without the camera, he showed up and sat on the electrical wire right close to me and stayed there for several minutes. He has a strange sense of humor that fellow.
There are lots of frigate birds here, pigeons, sparrows, hummingbirds, and the bird pictured below which I think might be a Tanager. I could be wrong so if you know for sure let me know.

This And That

My friends plant is still alive, thank goodness.

Desert Rose is absolutely loaded with blooms.

It is one of my favorite plants.

Rose blooms are about 1/2 the size that they were before it got hot.

Just Some Random Photos

New Marina.

Across the bay.

Across from the new marina.

Eco Housing In Guaymas

In the newspaper yesterday there was an article about building eco homes in Guaymas. Apparently the city of Guaymas and Infonavit signed the agreement yesterday. If I am correct then this will be the first municipality in the country to build these types of homes. They are estimating a savings of between 40 and 50 % in electricity in these homes and will have sewer treatment plants so that the resulting water can be used to water the green areas around the homes. They estimate a 40% water savings in the usage of regular water by using the treated water for irrigating the yards. The City of Guaymas will provide 50% of the cost of the treatment plant for this with the Water Commision providing the other 50%.
There will be insulation used in the homes to create a 10 degree temperature difference as compared to a non-insulated home. Infonavit will award a grant of 15 thousand pesos per house, called a green mortgage, this will be used to offset the investment needed to insulate the roofs and walls of the homes.
Apparently studies have been done in four states and they estimate a monthly savings of 300-600 pesos in a home of this type.
As part of the agreement to promote ecological houses, the city of Guaymas will exempt the cost of a construction licence.
They did not say when these homes would begin to be built; but hopefully soon. An excellent idea in my opinion.
You can read and/or translate the whole story from the El Vigia newspaper .

Street Dog

The photos below show our street dog, we call him Rojo or Red, depending on the language of the minute. He is friendly and cute. He gets so excited when he sees his favorite people that his whole body waves instead of just his tail. We have been feeding him our scraps for some time now, along with all the other neighbors. Sometimes though, there are not too many scraps; and although one lady in particular seems to feed him more often than others, he always seems hungry. We decided to buy some dog food and give him some everyday, this will at least supplement the scraps that he gets. His body language and attitude tells you his appreciation.
One morning he saw me outside and decided that he would try for an early feeding, smart dog. He sat downstairs just staring up at us, until he decided to come up and get a drink instead. He couldn't seem to decide whether he should drink or bath; but seemed to enjoy the water.
Last night he came up seemingly just to visit. I was outside reading and he came and laid down by my chair and was just taking it easy. Good company for both of us.
He is a good dog in that the only time he barks is if someone strange is on our street. He knows who belongs and who doesn't. Other than that he is quiet and unobtrusive, a nice dog; although he could use a bath. He is the only dog now that resides on our street, we used to have 4 of them and things were noisier then. The city came by and picked up the 2 females a few months ago and the other male left and only returns once in awhile to say hello.

A Missed Anniversary

I was just doing my daily blog reading and was over at Johns Blog where he was talking about his third anniversary of blogging. This got me thinking about my own blog anniversary as I knew that he, Billie and I all started blogging about the same time.
I had started blogging on a different site and then got frustrated with it and moved to blogger. This site is still out there in cyberspace, I never visit it anymore and I guess I should move the first posts over here; but as they are only related to our area of Canada and our getting ready to head to Mexico for the winter, I have just never bothered. Another chore that has been put off for a few years. One of these days I suppose I will do that and delete the other site completely.
Anyway after poking around I found that I started blogging on May 9, 2005 so my third anniversary of blogging has come and gone.
It doesn't seem that long, unlike John I have not kept track of how many words I have written; but apparently I have posted 568 times between the two sites, and I thought I was a quiet person. LOL.
I originally started blogging to keep our families appraised of what we were doing that first winter in Mexico as we were not going to be in phone contact. The thought of emailing everyone was daunting as we were going to be using internet cafes. So the blog was born, and I was hooked. Oddly enough, family did not/ does not read it as faithfully as strangers do. Strange that.
I wish that all the Mexico blogs that exist now, would have existed when I was frantically searching for information before our initial trip. I would have loved to have been able to read the wealth of information that is out there now. It seems strange to go back and read my initial entries, so much that we didn't know and so much anticipation for what was to come. Now we are here and settled permanently, that seems like a lifetime ago and I guess in a way it was.
I don't know how long I will continue to blog, until it becomes a chore and isn't fun anymore I guess; but for now as John on Viva Veracruz says, "stay tuned".

Happy Mothers Day

Yesterday was Mothers Day here in Mexico. It is always celebrated on the 10th of May regardless of what day of the week that falls on.
We didn't do anything much here. I went uptown for a little bit and there were lots of people around. The flower salesman were swamped, red roses and red gladiolus seemed to be the order of the day and the stores were busy. Mothers Day is a big deal here.
Today is Mothers Day up north so I will be spending some time on the telephone today calling people.
Wherever you are and whatever you are doing, have a great day.

Concert Under The Stars

Yesterday was apparently Astronomy Day. In conjunction with this Guaymas held a Concert Under the Stars. Along with the concert there were some poetry readings, the zancos (stiltmen) were there, and there were supposed to be telescopes set up for people to gaze at the stars with. Unfortunately we had one of our seldom experienced cloudy days, so they didn't even bother setting up the telescopes, there was no point. They did have 2 screens set up on the stage showing different astrological pictures.
We went downtown early and sat in the park for awhile before going and having papas locas for supper and then heading over to the Plaza del Pescador (Plaza of the Fisherman), where the concert was to be held.
One of the groups entertaining was the Regina Pacis Choir, I have wanted to hear them for awhile now and it seemed that we have just never managed to get to any of the events that they have been at. Tonight we did finally hear them and we both enjoyed them along with the other entertainment provided.
We enjoyed our evening out at the concert under the hidden stars.



The stiltmen.

A video of the choir singing, "La Barca de Guaymas". If you are interested Linda Ronstadt sings this song on her album Canciones de mi Padre.