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.
