Another Hummingbird Encounter

Yesterday afternoon I heard the landlady calling my name so I went out to see what was going on.  She had a towel in her hands and unwrapped it to show me a hummingbird.  Apparently he had flown into her house and bumped himself on something and she was afraid that he was injured.  We got down one of our feeders and she held him up to it and he ate really well.  Poor fellow must have been really hungry and scared; although he didn't seem to mind us handling him.  They are fairly used to us though as they come and sit and watch us and fly right up to within a few inches of my face when I am outside.  They are fairly curious little birds.

 He looked like one of his wings was injured so she went back downstairs to look for something to keep him in while he recovered. 

 Anyway, a little while later she came back up and told me that she had opened all the doors and windows in the house, put the feeder and the bird in the kitchen by the window and he was eating like crazy.  Shortly after another hummingbird flew past the window and he saw it.  She said he just up and flew off out the window to join his buddies. I am calling it a "he" as he was brightly colored and the females usually have a duller coloration.

His coloration doesn't show up very well in the picture; they are really pretty in the sunlight.

Object Of My Frustration

Yesterday I had just spent an hour or so working on some mountains in a painting when suddenly the part of the easel that holds the bottom of the painting slid right down to the floor.  Naturally the painting went flying and just as naturally (Murphys Law) it landed face down.  I should mention that I was painting out on the patio where the floor is concrete, not tile and collects all the dust, etc. that happens to blow around.  There was a large amount of vocabulary used that is very unladylike and Roy came out to see what was going on.
I explained and he examined the parts to find that some screws had come loose and another had come right out.  Screws that had just been tightened maybe a month ago!
He repaired it for me and also did some preventative repairs on some things that were just put together with small air gun nails (useless things).  While doing this he jokingly mentioned that mountains are supposed to have sand and rocks on them.  Hmmm, sorry hon, not funny right now; although later it was.  I managed to brush off most of the grit with a clean, dry brush without smudging the mountain colour into the sky colour and continued on with my mess.
We had bought this easel in about 2007 when we were both taking "lessons" at the Casa de la Cultura.  Roy didn't go for long; but I continued with it twice a week from about September to June that year.  There was an instructor and she was there to help you if you got stuck but there were no actual lessons.  It was more like a place for people to come and paint.  I enjoyed the interaction with others with the same interest and it was probably good for my Spanish too; but I needed and still need actual lessons.  I have never had any type of art lessons even in school and definitely need more than the YouTube videos that I am watching/learning from right now.  I need someone to tell and show me where I am going wrong and how to do things properly.

This is the object of my frustration.  It is a poor design, never buy one like it.

Anyway after the easel was repaired I did my first ever ocean wave with a curl and foam.  I pretty much messed up the end of the wave (right hand side); but I left it to dry and maybe I will paint over it or try and repair it later.  The majority of my paintings get painted over as they are not good and not worthwhile saving to take up space.  I am after all just practicing and trying to learn.  I also finished my first attempt at a beach picture, again not happy with it.
I guess what I need is an honest critic, Roy is too nice and yesterday 2 of the neighbors were watching me paint as they took a break from their building work.  They were also very nice, which is fine; but what I need is someone to be honest with me and tell me where I am going wrong or maybe just tell me to put down the brushes and step away from the easel permanently, lol.  Anyway, I do enjoy mucking about with it even if I am not happy with the results.
Gloria keeps asking to see some of the results of my messing about so I have decided to be brave (read idiotic here), and post a couple of them.  Remember, these are first attempts at waves and beach sand, so be prepared to see a train wreck lol.

Running Errands

Yesterday I had some errands to do uptown that needed to be done before my afternoon trip uptown for my Spanish lesson..  I wanted to try to catch up with one of the ladies who used to have a small store that sold art supplies.  Quite often she can be found at the Casa de la Cultura as she is very involved with all the things that go on there.  Surprisingly she was there, busy working on a big Calaca for November.  Her store is no longer open; but I did get a few paints from her and some information with more to follow after the weekend, if I manage to catch up with her again.  Forgot to ask her for her telephone number, duh.
Then I went to a paint store, the pharmacy that sells natural medicines, etc. and CFE (the electric company).  These things done I went to a carpentry shop and also to Soriana grocery store before heading home for a couple of hours.

This is the local CFE office and the next picture is of one of the machines where it scans your bar code on the bill, takes the money, gives you change and prints you a receipt.  All without ever leaving your car.  There are 2 of these machines outside, each on its own drive through and more of them inside the office building.  The office closes to the public at 2 PM I believe.

This is a store where I buy things you don't buy in other stores, craft supplies, wool, ribbons, thread, paints, etc..  If you can't find something anywhere else La Reyna probably has it.  There are several of the type of Miscellaneous stores here; but I prefer this one.

This store carries a lot of plastic goods and has just lately expanded to carry some more decorative items.

This is the view we have when we walk down the hill from the bus stop home.

Dinner Out

Tonight Roy meet me uptown after my Spanish lesson and we had an early dinner at El Farallón restaurant. This was the first time that we had eaten there. I had wandered by it a few times when I was doing errands so we decided to try it.

It is not a big restaurant and it wasn't busy; but it was early to eat dinner by the local customs. Other than us, there was only one elderly man there eating. Part of the restaurant has a palapa roof with a large tree growing through it, and yes the tree is alive and well.

This mural is on one wall.

There were two specials, one was Fish Veracruzana (35 pesos) and the other was Breaded Shrimp with salad and rice (50 pesos). We both ordered the breaded shrimp. Naturally it came with corn tortillas and salsa.

Sorry the picture of the dinner is fuzzy, I am having trouble with the camera at times and at other times it works fine (kind of like me).

There were 7 or 8 shrimp on the plate and the taste was fine, not extraordinary; but fine. Salad was nice and fresh and crispy and the rice was rice.

For the price, I would say that it was fine. We both ordered Cokes and after the waiter/cook/presumed owner had served us our food he left the restaurant and went down the street to buy our cokes. When he returned he served them to us with a smile.

Cost for both our dinners including the cokes was 120 pesos ($9.84 CAD).

Would we go back again? Well I would and Roy might, he is not quite as adventuresome restaurant wise as I am lol. The place would not win any good housekeeping awards lol; but the food was OK.

****If you happen to eat there I would strongly suggest avoiding the bathroom. Or if you have to use it like I did make sure you take paper and wet hand wipes with you. The bathroom was fairly grubby and there was no running water in the sink. *****

5 Years Blogging

I just realized last night that it must be around the anniversary of when I started blogging. Just went and looked and sure enough. I first blogged on the 8 th of May 2005. Wow, 5 years of boring people under my belt and still hanging in there; although certainly less often now than at the beginning, (I am sure everyone is happy about that one lol). This is the 810 th post by the way.

When I think back on the last 5 years it is hard to believe all the things we have seen and done, most of which we enjoyed. It has been 5 years of major life changes.

We sold everything in Canada that didn't fit into the car and said goodbye to consumerism, status symbols and stress. Major change! We have continued our life SOB happy with ourselves and each other and find no need to try and purchase happiness. We live a very simple life here compared to NOB and love it. We haven't lived here for 5 years yet, that anniversary will be the 10 th of October this year.

We have traveled some of the USA and spent some weeks at different times in New Mexico and also Arizona. We have spent 7 weeks on the Baja. We have traveled a little bit on the Mexican mainland, not a lot. We have explored most of our sprawled out city on foot in most of the neighborhoods, good and not so good. We have never felt threatened. We have explored our surrounding area by car and seen some very interesting things. This area has a lot of history being a port city.

We have driven, flown, bussed and taken ferries.

I must have taken about a million pictures and apparently a lot of people have enjoyed looking at them as my webshots photos usually have anywhere from 1500 to 3500 views a week. Unbelievable to me!!! I have found websites online using my photos, (without permission), which kind of irks me in some ways. I don't mind people downloading the pictures to their computers for their own use; but when commercial sites use them without asking permission it does bother me a bit. I have started putting the blog name on the photos that I upload (which is a pain in the butt), so if they use them now they have to go to the trouble of editing the photos first.

We have learnt to go with the flow and to relax more. We have learned some Spanish and hopefully will continue to learn more. It is nice to be able to converse with people in the stores, etc. now. We have attended more parties in the last five years than I probably attended in 15 yrs. in Canada. This is a big thing for us as we are both a bit antisocial and like being on our own. We have met many people including our landlords and their families who have all been amazingly open to us and have basically adopted us into the family. We have great neighbors who don't often have loud parties lol. We now meet people downtown in our city of around 130,00 or more, that we know.

We have navigated the immigration FM3 process on our own along with the IMSS application process. We go to doctors, dentists, optometrists appointments, basically all the necessities in life and manage in Spanish.

We returned to Canada for a couple of weeks in February this year and managed to renew our passports in English, yah us good for 5 more years!

We have noticed changes over the 5 years in our adopted city. The prices go up as they do everywhere, more people are speaking English, more people are leaving their homes wearing more casual clothing, eg: shorts, more people from NOB are venturing into Guaymas; although very few actually live right in the city. The city is trying to clean up the garbage more and is looking nicer. Lots of ascetic work has been done in the downtown area probably because of the cruise ships starting to come in. Despite the changes the city continues to be a working port city and we continue to love it.

We discussed what the 1 thing is out of the last 5 years that we will never forget and both agreed that it was when we first drove into town and recognized things in the area from the photos that we had been looking at over the previous 10 months of online researching. An unforgettable sight to us.

I raise my glass of ice cold Coca Cola to this great city, state and country. May the next 5 years be as good as the last 5 have been.

I'm Impressed

Yesterday morning we were just hanging out at home when there was a knock on the door. It was the young tech. from Megacable. We hadn't called him and we weren't having any problems. He said that he had just stopped in to make sure that everything was working well and that our speed was up to where we wanted it to be. WOW!!!! I told him that we had purchased a switch instead of a router and that everything was working fine. He checked things out, pronounced everything to be hooked up properly and left on his way. I would never have expected that. Sure can't complain about that kind of service. Very nice young man each time he has come to do any service for us.

Not too much going on, we went downtown yesterday and looked at an art exhibition at the Casa de la Cultura, then we did some shopping and Roy went home while I went to my Spanish class. I found some stuff to thin my oil paints with and found out that turpentine sells for 109 pesos for 1/4 liter bottle, did not buy it at that price and will continue using brush cleaner from the house paint type stores, it is much cheaper.

This morning I did some grocery shopping and am just hanging out staying cool. Nothing exciting happening at the moment.

I Can See Clearly Now

I was having some trouble with my eyes lately and decided it was time for a checkup. I didn't realize that it had been 3 yrs. since my last one. I asked my landlady for a recommendation for an optometrist and she recommended Optica Economica. The one I went to last time was of the same name; but it closed at that location. Anyway I popped in one day to see if I needed to make an appointment for an exam or not and was taken right in. They had a sign in the window stating that for the month of May they have a special on, where you get 20% discount on a complete set of glasses. I only wanted new lenses so didn't ask about it.

It turned out that my prescription had changed quite a bit so I did need new lenses. He showed me that with the discount price a complete set of glasses was cheaper than just buying the lenses so ended up with a complete new pair. So the price was around the same as it was 3 yrs. ago for just lenses. Good deal.

It took a week for them to come in and they are fine. What a difference they make, no more headaches or blurred vision, I must have been straining my eyes for awhile I guess without realizing it.

I was invited to one of the neighbors daughter in laws baby shower last night so attended that with Nancy and Irene. Lots of ladies, lots of beer and snacks and a show put on by the same female impersonators/ lip sync singers as at a couple of other showers. A good time was had by all. I wasn't sitting in the best spot for taking pictures of them; but here are a couple anyway.

More Photos From Monday Evening

Here are a few more photos from Monday evenings dinner at Club Nautico.

This shrimp boat has seen better days.

View of the Fishermans statue from Club Nautico.

More shrimp/fishing boats.

Cactus in the setting sun.

Palacio Municipal (city hall) in the setting sun.

Mothers Day

Monday evening we decided to go out for dinner for Mothers Day, which is always May 10 th in Mexico by the way.

We went to our favorite restaurant for shrimp, which is Club Nautico at the new marina in centro. You are probably sick of me posting pictures from here; but I can never resist taking a bunch while there.

The food is always good, the service also good, some English spoken if you need it, and the view is lovely.

They moved a table into the shade for us and we sat outside looking at the view. We have never actually sat inside the restaurant to eat, we prefer to sit outside and look around us at what is going on. Seldom any bugs here by the way and a nice soft breeze to cool you off if you are too warm.

Some of the fishing boats and Navy boats/ships tie up at one end and at the other end is the pleasure boat marina, in between is the view of the bay and the other side of the city across the bay. Behind you is of course more of the city and the mountains/hills. What more could you ask for??

We both ordered our favorite Coco Shrimp and sat back, relaxed from our hectic week in our work world (tongue in cheek here) and enjoyed the view and the activity going on around us.

They have a small pool and there were some children playing in it with dad keeping a close eye on them. Later on some boaters came to use the pool also, so perhaps that is included in the slip rental?? No idea really.

The food arrived and as always it was good, we have never had a bad meal here. No room as usual for desert so can't say what they are like. We have never had room for desert so have never tried any of them; but assume they would be good as the main plates are.


Coco Shrimp plate. This is 120 pesos, less than $12.00 depending on exchange, which is fairly high priced for a meal here; but it is worth the higher price. You actually get veggies on the plate and they are not cooked to mush and are tasty.

Some of the views: The first one is the pleasure boat marina. The second one is the restaurant and other buildings at the marina. The third one is the swimming pool, there is also a circular pool that I assume is a hot tub. Having never used it, I can't say for sure. Lighthouse, self explanatory. Fifth shot is the Iglesia de San Fernando in the setting sun. The video is of some of the fishing boats moving around. Not sure if this fellow couldn't get situated properly in his "parking spot" or what; but he kept coming out, turning around and going back in and trying again. Maybe he needed lessons in parallel parking lol.

Happy Mothers Day

Happy Mothers Day to all north of the border. Mothers Day in Mexico is tomorrow, it is always held on the 10 th of May here. I hope everyone has a great day.
Last night we were happy to see that our favorite torta stand was open again finally. They have been closed most of the time since the tropical storm Jimena last September. The street they are on has been dug up lots putting in new, bigger, better sewer pipes, drains, whatever. Apparently around there is a main line and they were replacing and upgrading it all. So at different times the various blocks on this street have been dug up, things replaced and then they move onto the next block. The traffic flow keeps changing from one side of the street to the other, so it has been interesting watching the cars zip back and forth from 2 lanes to 4 lanes. Anyway the street still needs to be paved; but it looks like the digging is all done, maybe??
At least they were open and the taste is still the best. We tried a couple of other places but they just did not compare.
So we were happy campers last night.
Tonight I think we are gong to go out for a shrimp dinner to our favorite spot that has a view of the bay. Yum, should be good, hope they are open.
Have a good day.

Errand Checklist

OK, so here's the report back on getting my checklist of errands done the other day.

The switch I bought for the computer system is working well, so that is accomplished.

On Wednesdays trip to centro I almost completed my list. I got my eyes checked and ordered new glasses. They had a 20 % off sale on complete glasses, (frames and lenses). I was only going to buy new lenses as my frames are fine; but the price of the lenses alone was more than if I bought new frames with the lenses. So I ended up buying a complete set. This way I will have the old set for a back up if I happen to break the new ones.

Checked the sweet corn at the one veggie lady at the Mercado. She said it was sweet corn; but it was way overripe and looked not tasty so I didn't buy it. Oh well, maybe next time or perhaps the season is ending for it, not sure. I never really keep track of the seasons of stuff here as we pretty much know what is in season by the produce trucks that come through the neighborhood.

Went to the butcher and got my meat and then to another store where I get pork chops for Roy. I don't care for pork chops and he doesn't care for fish. So when I cook him pork chops I cook fish for me and we are both happy. I noticed at the butcher shop that they have 3 kg. bags of tomato paste now. Tomato paste in the little cans or in any form is not usually available here. I don't use it often, well mainly because I know I can't get it so I hoard what I do have lol. I am thinking that I will buy a bag and re-package it into smaller bags and freeze it for when I want it. Should work I think. Might also see if my landlady would like some of it. I gave her a can to try and she liked the concentrated flavor so she might be interested in some. This butcher shop has a lot of large packaged items for pizza and restaurants and it is also where I buy my mozzarella cheese to use on pizzas, etc.. We like the Mexican cheese but I can't seem to get it to melt very well on pizzas, etc., so like to have some Mozzarella on hand. I buy a 2 kg. bag and keep it in the freezer and take out what I need as I need it. Already shredded which is nice also.

So, the list is pretty much complete and it only took 2 trips this time. Not bad.

Yesterday I met a couple of ladies from Canada and we did the 50 cent tour of Centro. Interesting to see the city through a newcomers eyes and I realized that the city is working very hard to clean up the garbage, etc.. Funny, I guess you get so used to things that you don't really notice it anymore until someone else mentions it. Way to go Guaymas!!! They also mentioned how nice everyone has been to them here, which is normal and is the main reason we live here. Great people. Again, WAY TO GO GUAYMAS!!!!! Got to love this place.

One Or Two Errands Equals How Many Trips To Centro???

Yesterday I wanted to get my eyes checked as I think I need new glasses. I thought that it maybe had been 2 years since my last ones; but I happened across the bill the other day when searching for something else and it was dated sometime in 2007. OK, guess it is time.
I also wanted to get a rotor or something for our computer system. Roys computer was giving him trouble so he started using the laptop. We had my computer hooked up to the modem with the ethernet cable and his PC had been hooked up with the USB cable. So anytime he had to get his computer repaired or whatever it incurred another 100 pesos housecall from the Megacable tech to reinstall the disc with their password, which naturally they wouldn't give me lol so that I could do it myself. When we called Megacable and the guy came over he couldn't find the driver to install for the disc so he couldn't install it. I am not sure if it is because the laptop has Vista on it or not and I didn't bother poking around to see either. Roy was stealing the landlords wireless signal (with their permission and password); but he was getting tired of doing that as it would go off and on a lot so we decided to do something about it and hook him into Megacable. The tech had told us that we needed a rotor.
Anyway I knew that the computer place that I wanted to go to was closed in the afternoon siesta hours; but thought I could get my eyes checked, go to Spanish class and then go to the computer place after class.
Well the optometrist was closed for the siesta hours also. I have never been to this one before, my landlady recommended it. The place where I got my last ones has closed down or moved and I wasn't that impressed with them anyway so no big deal.
So.... with the office closed I had 2 hrs. to kill before Spanish class and no real shopping list except meat which I didn't feel like carrying around for 2 hrs.. So, what would any woman do but hit the stores and go shopping, well window shopping anyway as I didn't really need anything much.
I am finding that more of the stores here are carrying clothing made from cotton now, I wear a lot of cotton in the summer as it is cooler. When we first came here I couldn't find anything cotton anywhere here. So that is a good thing for me.
When my feet got tired I headed for the plaza to sit down, intending to get a water from the little vender on the corner of the plaza that I usually buy from. There are a couple of restaurants on the plaza; but the coffee shop has its tables in the afternoon sun and the umbrellas don't really seem to help so I ruled that one out. The other one is OK; but I don't care for it too much, personal choice here, nothing wrong with the place. Then I noticed that a place that has had a sign up for Taco Fish was open, usually it has been closed, so I headed over there. Shaded sitting area, nice and clean, friendly people. I asked if it was alright to just order a coke and the waiter said, " sure; but aren't you hungry?" After telling him that I had already eaten we discussed their hours and I asked why the fish places close up so early and we had a little discussion about that. A little while later another fellow came by and asked me in perfect English if everything was OK, etc.. I am noticing a lot more English being spoken here than a few years ago. After my drink I naturally had to explore the washroom situation, wow!!! Clean, toilet paper, paper towels, soap and water all in one place and even a toilet seat. Bathroom facilities here are improving also since we first came here. I am not meaning to be sarcastic with this, it was just a fact of life when we first came here a few years ago that many of the washrooms didn't have papers, water, soap, or toilet seats, just how it was. Not complaining, just stating a fact. I always carry plenty of kleenex and hand wipes with me.
Anyway that was all good so headed to class. After class I headed for the computer store for a rotor. The fellow thought that I only needed a switch, so after asking repeatedly if I could return it if it didn't work and being assured that I could; although I did forget to ask if I would be refunded my money lol, I bought it. Returning purchases and getting a monetary refund are not common things here usually, again just the way things are.
So headed home on the bus, which for some reason took a different route. It was funny the lady across the aisle from me looked at me and raised her eyebrows questioningly, I just shrugged and we both grinned. Who knows? I did notice that a place on the corner that changes businesses often is now a rock/stone place advertising "granitos" and they had a large fountain on display. Nice.
So, this morning I will head uptown again to see if I can get my eyes checked and will try to remember to check the one veggie vender at the mercado who amazingly had sweet corn last week and it was tasty, we really enjoyed it. Cross my fingers for more and oh yes I still need to go to the butcher for meat. Hmmm will one trip do this whole list?? Will have to wait and still, you just never know lol.

The picture below was taken on Childrens Day, the kids must have been the winners at their school for their King/Queen competition. Who knows, anyway there was lots of honking going on as they went through the neighborhood.



This is our neighbors grandson, he had come up to show us his baseball uniform and he informed me that he is the catcher. Naturally he had to make goofy faces in all the pictures, kids!!

It's Been Awhile

Oops, guess I've been a lazy blogger; but there hasn't been a lot of stuff that is interesting enough to anyone else to write about. We have just been doing our regular stuff and keeping busy with our daily routine. I am intending to slow things down somewhat as it gets hotter here and I won't be able to continue doing some of the things outside that are happening now.

I have also gotten out my paints again and am continuing to paint some very ugly pictures lol, nothing that I would take a photo of and put on here for sure. I enjoy doing it and am hoping that eventually I will improve or not. Whatever, it is fun for me anyway.


I did some sewing and have done a bunch of baking and am backing up some of my recipes in other places other than on my computer.

We were supposed to go to a First Communion on Saturday; but I ended up with a splitting headache and backed out of going. A headache and the party music here just don't go together in my mind.


Yesterday we did attend a Baptism party on a ranch just outside of town and it was fun. The usual band, food and a brincoline (one of those air blown up jumping thingys) for the kids. They also had a donkey hitched up to a buggy and were giving rides mostly to the kids but some of the adults too.
The band.

Young Diego investigating the place.

I happened to be standing byside little Diego when I noticed the donkey cart and showed him, he is just under 2 yrs. and is afraid of nothing. He was very interested so I took him over and the driver sat him beside him and held him while they took the tour. He loved it.

The buggy and Diego just getting off.

I laughed when I noticed that the buggy had a little license plate on it from Idaho.

I took a little video and it makes me laugh as it reminds me of the old time movies.