Raining

I returned home last night from my class at the Casa de la Cultura just after 7 PM. As I walked past the corner store across the street from us the store owner came out to chat. He looked at the sky and told me that it was going to rain at 9 PM or so. I told him I hoped so. He laughed and we chatted for a minute before I came home.
Maybe 20 minutes later we were sitting out on the patio and it began to pour rain. I was glad that I had made it home before that started as I had carried home my finished painting. Not a good time to be standing and waiting for a bus!
It poured for an hour or so and then gently rained off and on all night.
This morning it is still sprinkling and is overcast and cooler, (27 C.). Wonderful! It is a break from the heat for a few hours and everything will love the refreshing rain. This is the first rain of the summer so I am sure everyone is enjoying it. Hopefully, no one got flooded out last night, that is always a concern as it doesn't take much rain to start a rushing river down the hills/mountains.

Soccer Game

Last Saturday evening we went with our landlord, his daughter in law and the two grandchildren to watch a soccer game. The landlords sons team was playing in their leagues championship game. He is around 31 or 32 and plays in the "veteranos" league. In other words the old timers league, too funny thinking of him as being old.
Anyway the game commenced and "our" team scored the first goal. Unfortunately the other team scored back and then got another goal and that was it for our guys. They never came back and lost the game, no celebrating that evening.

It was not too hot and we sat on the truck end gate to watch. I think I had more fun listening to the other fans and feeding young Diego suckers to keep him in the truck box with us rather than running onto the field to join his dad.
A nice evening with the family.

Getting ready to play.

Our buddys Allan and Diego

A couple of days ago we heard noises outside and looked out to see a front end loader and a couple of trucks.  The front end loader was on the street behind us doing some clean up and then loading the refuse and debris onto the trucks.  It looks much better back there now.

Cleaning up.

The Marine Orchestra And Chorus

Last night we went down to the Malecon to watch the Mexican Marine Orchestra and Chorus perform.  This was the last event in the Festival Mar Bermejo.

This is the third time that we have seen them perform and they are excellent.  They perform worldwide and have performed at various venues over the years.

As usual they performed to an overflow crowd of people.  This was a free concert, one of many that the city puts on throughout the year.  Everyone loves listening to this Orchestra, for good reason. 

 Guaymas is a port city and a Navy/Marine city also, so there were lots of Marines on hand in their white uniforms.

I said to Roy that the whole Malecon, which is a fair size, made me think of a huge tin of sardines with the sardines packed in tightly.  I have no idea of how many people attended; but it was a lot to put it mildly.

They had chairs and a couple of stands set up for seating, these were filled quite early.  Knowing how big a crowd they draw we went early and got a seat at the top of one of the stands and had a great view.  Some people brought their own chairs and many, many others stood throughout the whole 2 hour concert.

They played a varied selection which included a medley of Glen Miller Big Band tunes, the people seemed to love Glen Miller.  Another crowd favorite are the Abba tunes.  The William Tell Overture, various other pieces and of course Sonora Querida and Guaymas' song, "La Barca de Guaymas".

Setting up.

The early birds who got seats.

Performing to a packed crowd.

 You can get a bit of an idea of the size of the crowd from the videos; but there were also a lot of people behind us that were watching also and also across the street.  Huge crowd.

La Barca de Guaymas song.

Sonora Querida song.

Glenn Miller medley.

Abba.

The Weekend

Saturday evening the landlady had asked me to go to a cousins shower with her; but we had made plans to go to the baseball game so I begged off . 

 The local team, the Ostioneros were playing against the Tecate team.  It wasn't the greatest game as the Tecate team is in last place and Guaymas team is in first place.  Guaymas quickly took the lead and after several hours of our behinds sitting on the hard seats they informed us that it was time to go.

We got a cab to our favorite torta stand and had a late dinner and then walked the four blocks home.

The weather was great, it was warm with a nice breeze blowing to keep you cool and with no bugs to swat at,  it was fun to sit and enjoy the game. 

A great evening.  If you are wondering about the cost of our evening out, it is as follows: bus fare total of 8 pesos, game tickets 40 pesos each, 2 cokes at 10 pesos each, cab fare 40 pesos with tip, dinner at the torta stand 45 pesos with tip. So our evenings total bill came to 193 pesos which at Fridays exchange rate came to $15.59 CAD..  

This coming Saturday our landlords middle son, (who plays adult soccer) plays in the championship game.  His wife asked if we wanted to go with her to watch so we said yes.  So that will be next Saturdays entertainment.

On Saturday evening (July 10 th), the Festival Mar Bermejo started also. This festival is held to commemorate the battle on the 13 th of July, 1854 where the French tried to defeat the Mexican army.  They didn't succeed.  My Spanish teachers husbands great or great, great grandmother had a hand in the French armies loss and there is a plaque close to her home to recognize this young ladies bravery.  At the time she was a young mother with a small baby.  From the top floor of her home she could see the French troops preparing for battle and knew she needed to notify the Mexican army.  When she tried to cross the French army line they wouldn't let her through of course.  Resourcefully, she kept pinching her baby to make it cry and tearfully begged them to let her through to get her baby some milk.  Finally they relented and once through she quickly notified the Mexican forces of what was occurring, thus helping to save the day.  So the story goes anyway.  My Spanish teacher is a wealth of information about the history of the city and area, to her it is family history to me it is extremely interesting. 

 I had been given an invitation for us to attend the opening of the Art Route; but Roy was more interested in going to the baseball game than an art opening so we didn't attend that.

Sunday we went downtown in the evening and looked at some of the art in the exhibition.  There was supposed to be some in the Casa de la Cultura which was locked up.  We did view what was exhibited  in the City Hall though,(there was also some in the Auditorium lobby).  Lovely paintings.  There was one that I would have loved to take home with me.  Just beautiful.  I took a couple of pictures of the paintings that are below.  

They had the city hall decorated with flags hanging all around the upstairs balcony and also had big information boards with pictures and written history about Guaymas and Mexico.  I would have loved to take the time to read them all; but it would have taken me an hour or more and as Roy doesn't read any Spanish it would have been too boring for him to stand around waiting for me that long.
They had one banner hanging up to commemorate the centennial and bicentennial that I thought really expressed it well.  It said, "Mexico your museum".















They had bandstands set up in the Plaza de Tres Presidentes, the Plaza Trece de Julio and also on the Malecon.
First we went to the Plaza Trece de Julio.  They had many booths set up with vendors selling their crafts and also food.  One stage had a theatre production going on for the kids.  Lots of people watching.














We sat on a park bench and listened to a singer with a guitar that was very good.  Romantic, ballad type music.  When he finished a young girl in a fancy dress got on stage and started to sing???, at this point we left.
We then wandered over to the Malecon where they also had stages set up.
There was supposed to be a Rock and Roll Oldies concert at 8 PM and we were going to watch that.  When we got there around 7 PM or so there was a group of singing, playing, joking clowns on stage and the chairs were filled with families.  The usual food/drink stands and the little train running to give the kids rids.  They also had a new rental guy there with those little battery powered cars, and also regular bicycles and tricycles that could be rented for the kids.  I thought that it could run into a lot of money for the parents though.  The prices for the battery powered cars was 3 pesos a minute, try getting a kid out of one of those in 10 minutes or so lol.  The bikes and trikes were renting for 1 peso a minute.
The kids were having a ball mostly; one little girl looked terrified behind the wheel of one of the battery operated cars, especially when the little train started coming right at her.  Poor kid I felt sorry for her.














We walked down to watch the fountain.  Usually when we are down there it is dark, this is the first time I have seen it running in the daylight.  It doesn't look as impressive without the colored lights; but the music was on and it was "dancing" as it was meant to be.  The music selection was a bit odd though as it went from Mexican music to playing "Achy, Breaky Heart".  Whatever, everyone was enjoying it anyway, us included.

We wandered back to the other end of the Malecon to where the stage was and looked for a spot on the seawall to sit and wait for the concert we wanted to see..  There wasn't much room, so when a place finally opened up we sat down.  The older Mexican man next to me was laughing and joking with me that he was a groper so I should get closer to him.  I jokingly told him that I was going to switch places with Roy to get away from him.  Pretty funny.
The clowns seemed to not want to give up the stage and finally our tummies got the better of us and we decided to grab a bus and head home.  We got off the bus, walked a couple of blocks and stopped for hot dogs.  After a couple of hot dogs, (con todos),  we walked the 2 blocks home.
A great weekend.
Monday today so back to the workweek.  Went and got some groceries this morning and then art this afternoon, Spanish tomorrow, art on Wednesday and then days off. lol
Have a good week.