Hotel Playa de Cortes

Christmas Day we and some friends went out for dinner at the Playa de Cortes Hotel located in the Miramar area of Guaymas.  It is a lovely old building with some interesting history.  It also has some RV sites on the property and is located right on the Sea of Cortes.  It is also fairly close to the Pearl Farm.
We had a leisurely dinner and then went to walk on the beach with their dog.  Unfortunately their dog doesn't like the dark and it was cold so we didn't do much walking after all.
A nice way to spend the evening.

Front entrance.













Fountain by the parking lot.

Fountain in the inner courtyard.

View of the back.













View from the back of the hotel.

Merry Christmas, Feliz Navidad

Merry Christmas to everyone near and far.  We hope that you all have a wonderful holiday season.
I spent part of the day yesterday phoning relatives and friends and wishing them all a Merry Christmas.  Then I baked a couple of loaves of bread and some cinnamon buns.
We spent the evening at home quietly, well we were quiet, the fireworks of course were going on; but we are kind of used to them.
This morning I made some more phone calls and think I am done with that for the day.
Today we are going out for a walk on the beach and  dinner out with some friends.  I will make sure and take some photos of the beach for those of you up north.
The landlords daughter in law just came over with a neighbor and gave me an invitation to a birthday party for tomorrow, so I guess I will be shopping tomorrow morning.  Roy asked who the party is for, so I explained that it is the neighbors aunts granddaughter lol.  Should be fun.
My mom is still in the hospital, she has had several set backs due to infections; but will be moving to a stroke unit on Monday if all stays the same.  She still has the feeding tube in her stomach and is unable to speak, although she is now managing to get out a couple of words.  Her mind is sharp though.  Hopefully with some therapy she will get through this once again.

Christmas According To Kinder Dumbo

Yesterday afternoon around 5 PM we headed downtown to the auditorium.  Kinder Dumbo was putting on their annual Christmas Concert.  We did some errands first and then headed over there.  Parents and children in costume were arriving along with (I assume) grandparents and relatives.
We sat down to await the show.  The children were dressed in the fanciest costumes.  There were little soldiers, gingerbread people, dolls, santas, mrs. santas, a couple of evil persons, etc..  It was fun to watch them all getting ready and their excitement level was high.  It was very well co-ordinated and started shortly after 5.
The play was about Santa being kidnapped by a couple of evil doers who were trying to stop Christmas from happening.  It was done very well, such small people speaking their memorized lines so well, amazing.
Along with the rest of the crowd we loved it, it was extremely well done by all involved.
After the show was done there were the usual thank yous to the parents, etc. for all the help given to make the concert and school year a success.
I didn't take my camera as usually I don't get very good pictures there in the dark; but regret it now as I could have gotten some cute photos of the kids before the show started.  Oh well.  You will just have to imagine lots of tiny bodies in lots of fancy costumes.
This morning I made a batch of bread and butter pickles which hopefully will turn out OK.  I didn't bring my recipe with me and so I used one that I found on the web.  Hard to say how it will turn out.  Good thing Roy likes being a guinea pig!

Tis The Season

  I have been busy but mostly with stuff that isn't really interesting to others, so no point in relating it.  Just kind of integrating more into the local community in my own way.
Friday night was the annual Christmas Parade.  As it was going to be dark by the time both happened I didn't bother taking the camera.  The parade had the usual Christmas type things including of course Santa Claus.  After the parade everyone headed over to the malecon where they had a stage set up and some children were dressed up and singing carols.  This year they also had a boat parade, the boats were decorated with lights and looked nice, it must have taken the owners a lot of time to do the decorating.  They turned on the big fountain and had it synced to Christmas music.   We wandered around and sat around and people watched and visited with our friends that we met there so a good time was had by all.
Yesterday I got energetic and made a big turkey lunch and baked bran muffins, mincemeat pie and a lemon meringue pie.  We both ate way too much and relaxed the rest of the day.  I took a piece of mincemeat pie down to my landlady and we discussed and dissected mincemeat and other recipes for awhile. She said she had not eaten it before, not sure if she liked it or not, she said she did.  I explained to her that a lot of people do not care for it.   I have been reading some Spanish cooking blogs trying to improve my cooking/baking vocabulary in Spanish, not sure if it is helping or not; but can't hurt..

I'm Back

Just being really lazy lately about blogging, wasn't feeling good and just didn't' have the energy I guess.  Well, it's an excuse anyway.
I was having trouble with one ear almost a month ago and finally went to a Dr. and got a weeks worth of antibiotics, that didn't work so returned and got another weeks worth.  In the meantime I went to Phoenix with a couple of friends for a few days. We had a good time there meeting and having dinner with some relatives of mine and also shopping.  I bought 4 bags of red licorice and we ate them in a few days, should have bought more lol.
  When I returned the ear was still not good so returned again to the Dr..  She checked it out and decided that it was still inflamed and sent me to a specialist that same day, as she said she couldn't do anything else for me.  The specialist checked it all out and decided that I needed to go to the dentist and get a mouth guard as he decided that I have TMJ or something similar.  He gave me a prescription for aniti-inflammatory medicine and something else to stop the first one from bothering my stomach, cost of the specialist was 500 pesos or about $41.55 CAD.  In the meantime I got the flu so had to cancel my dentist appt. for a few days.  After I got over the flu I called the dentist for an appt. and had him check me out.  He couldn't find any other problems so did an impression for a mouth guard and told me to return in a few days as he was going out of town.  Returned on Friday for the mouth guard, got heck from him for not taking the anti-inflammatory meds., paid him 800 pesos for the mouth guard (about $66.47 CAD) and went on my merry way.  I found out by experimentation that the pills that were to protect my tummy from the other ones were the ones bugging me, so I cut those out and am fine on only the anti-inflammatory ones.  Go figure!  Anyway whether it is the mouth guard that I wear at night or whether it is the pills, my jaw/ear are feeling much better, thank goodness.
Still going to Spanish class once a week and also have started going back to help the children with their English.  I think there was only one day last week that I wasn't uptown, that is crazy for a homebody like me.
I got some yarn and have been doing some crocheting also, so have been busy.
It is cold here and we are freezing to death, some kind of cold front up north and right now at 12 noon it is only 21 C., crazy weather is a month early compared to other years.
The shrimp festival was held in San Carlos on Saturday and we were just to lazy to go, so no new pictures to show.