Fishermen and Divers

Friday morning – New Years Eve


Crap I went to bed with a cold and woke up with a sore throat. Bad news good news. Bad can’t do anything for a cold except ride it out. Good – antibiotics for a sore throat will cure it. Guess I’ll wait till later to see if it goes away by itself.
First some pictures of Las Jaibas RV Park – there are 150 spaces in the park. This is the back where we are – all by ourselves.

All by ourselves back here

And the front which every year we’ve come here has been full. There are only 25 rigs here this year so far. And no reservations.

Lots of empty spaces

This is one of the few parks where electric is included in the daily rate. If paid for a month the rate is US$16 per day. 
Wednesday mornings sunrise from Jennie

Later on we drove a little further north on the main road here to the Cerritos beach area. Hotels, shops and another RV park – of its 100 spaces only about 15 full and it is right on the beach. They charge about US$30 a day plus electric
Saw this sign right across the street from the RV park. How do they say “neigh” in a different language?

Found a parking space by the vendors/restaurants and walked to the fisherman’s beach area. It was a work as usual day for the fishermen.

A boat was coming in so the guys on shore got ready to take it out of the water. Bringing the wheels down to the water’s edge.

Basic boat trailer

Putting the wheels under the boat. Before putting the wheels under it they unload all the coolers, crates and buckets from it.

Putting the wheels under the boat - they had to keep moving them towards the rear of the boat as they brought it in.

Pushing and pulling it out of the water up on to the sand.

Putting it in it’s “parking place.”

Notice guy at bottom of pic in white t-shirt.  He is shopping.

I think the fishermen in Bahia de Kino have the better idea. Full speed ahead and drive it up on the sand. Wonder why they don’t do that here? Hum guess we’ll have to go back and have The Driver ask them.
One of the coolers from the boat. He is doing his shopping.

Which done do I want?

This one looks good.

Picked out a couple more and put them in the bag.

Weighing and paying for them. Fresh Fish – Just caught – Just for you to enjoy.

From the far north part of town we drove to the south side – the old original Malecón - beach tourist area where the cliff divers perform. For the heck of it we stopped and looked at a condo right across the street. Last year they were building it – this year they have a few of them done. The view is spectacular to say the least

The living room area and balcony. The floors will be 12 x 12 Mexican tile.

And this is the pool. Don’t think I could go in it though. Makes my knees weak just looking at it.

Not thinking of buying just like to look.
Across the street there is a big area where people can walk and in the evening there is free entertainment. And this lovely monument.


Golden Zone - Zona Dorada - in background

The Clavadistas – cliff divers - are there too. I think the stairs up to the dive platform are scarier than the dive.

You want me to climb those? and then do what?

The tradition started in 1961 when the first diver did it to win a bet. He is still diving. The platform is 45 feet high and the diving area is smaller than 45 square feet and at times less then five feet deep. Wind and ocean conditions need to be considered before every dive. It is fun to watch – a guy in a swim suit gets on the ledge whistles and acts like he is going to dive. When enough people gather he gets down and the real diver gets up and quickly dives. Have to be quick to catch it. More or less got it on video. You  have to look quick.

They were diving because a cruise ship was in. A view from top a hill of the ship in the harbor.

Last year three ships a day came in - maybe cause it is still the week between holidays it is slower.

Old Theaters and New Art in Mazatlan

Thursday evening
Tuesday we continued our walk around the Centro Historico heading towards the Plaza Machado. We have never found the Angela Peralta Theater open. Finally it was so we paid our 12 Pesos and went inside. So glad we did. It is one of the few 19th century neo-classical theaters still in operation in northwestern Mexico. Its grand opening took place in February of 1874. For more than a century it has done service as an opera house a theater, a circus and boxing arena, cantina and cinema.

In the early 1940s it was renamed in honor of “the Mexican Nightingale,” Angela Peralta who died of yellow fever shortly before a performance in 1882. After long years of restoration it reopened in 1992. The outside of the Theater

Looks like a wedding cake

From the 2nd floor of adjoining building

Some of the balconies and seating – there are 841 seats.

The stage

The center ceiling

It is easy to imagine it in its prime full of finely dressed patrons. The acoustics are marvelous. I hope we can go to a performance of something there this year while we're here. But so far haven't been able to find out what is coming up.
From there we continued walking down the narrow closed off street to check out some of the older buildings that have been restored. Saw her on the way – don’t think she will get very many things sold.

She is sound asleep with her wares on the ground

I kind of liked this home. Those are round tiles embedded in the stucco.

Notice the high sidewalks

Just up the street we discovered a really neat place. It was large old home turned art gallery. It is called NidArt http://www.nidart.com/ (it is worth checking out the web page – especially the gallery) This is the brick domed ceiling of one of the rooms.

Beautiful but makes me wonder about bricks overhead

And iron gates leading to a patio

So colorful

Stairs leading to 2nd floor from the patio.

Husk ornaments hanging from the trees

Just one of the rooms with art on the wall.

A pond in the middle of the room with revolving statue

Same room looking the other way.

The Driver in background with hat on - talking to owner about the leather figures

Some clay figures – already sold – shoot! They are about 15 inches tall.

I love Day of the Dead stuff - The Driver doesn't understand why. What can I say - I'm weird.

A figure made with leather. Bill talked with the owner/artist at length about how to do the leather figures and masks. He got quite a comprehensive lesson.

Molded leather figure

Back to our walk. From the sublime to the ridiculous – an electrical box for one of the buildings. Permits? Inspections? What is that?

ZAP!!

The ice is delivered daily, a real ice man with ice tongs and everything, and left outside on the sidewalk. Some one needs to take this piece in before it melts much more.

What do you supose the restaurant uses this for?

And the trees are all trimmed. Squares, balls, baskets, houses – all kinds of shapes. There is something different everywhere you look. So much fun to just walk around.

Passed the guy who washed the car the other day. He was hard at work again. 30 Pesos and he does an excellent job.

US$2.50 can't beat the price

Then back into the car headed towards the RV Park. Hadn’t noticed this shop before.
K-Mart special. The guy on the motorcycle is on the phone.

Another busy day with so much to see and marvel at.

Changing times in Mazatlan

It’s Thursday morning
and I woke up with a stinking cold. Guess I shouldn’t complain as it is the first one in over a year. But still….

As I’ve mentioned we really like walking around in the old area of Mazatlan. We have a parking lot we always park in – they make room for us even when they are full. Yesterday there was plenty of room for Willie.

Right across from the main plaza is a big bank building. We’ve been watching them repaint it for a couple of days. The day before the painter was using a very long roller to paint – now he is up on a very tall ladder doing some trim. Seems like there could be an easier way to do this. People walk back and forth under and around his ladder.

And this is the first time we’ve seen this. Shades of old Tiajuana. Actually saw a 20 something girl get up on it for her picture. Her boyfriend was cracking up.

All around the square are shoe shine stands. This is a police woman getting her boots shinned. There are more and more policewomen here in Mexico now. Times they are a changing.

And as we walked past the church we saw the “Official Store” of the Cathedral. Selling usual religious trinkets.

Several times on our way to the central market we have walked past the Panama Restaurant y Pasteleria. This time we decided to stop and have lunch. An excellent choice. The Driver had a club sandwich and I had a cheeseburger – I know, I know – but I don’t like Mexican food. Both came with fries plus coffee and iced tea (the ice tea here is always sweet with a lemon flavor.) Price US$ 14.50! and they were very good. The place is after all a bakery and they have a wonderful pastry cart but we didn’t indulge this time.

YUMMY

Continuing on our wanderings we stopped in a big yardage store. This in particular caught my eye – beautiful. Very shear with designs of sequins. – sounds gaudy but in the right dress WOW – only US$8 a yard! Can’t get cotton for that amount at home.

Walked down some different streets to see some different sights. Here are two houses – one has been restored even has a satellite dish for Dish TV – the other doesn’t even have a roof.

And be careful walking – have to look down at all times. This is drainage.

Have passed this huge place several times – check out the wires in front. Why did I mention the wires….well Mazatlan is now in the process of burying all the overhead wires. Quite a project.

Spaghetti wires

First they break up the sidewalk with a jackhammer then they finish digging the trench by hand.

Digging by hand

Here is the jackhammer laying on the sidewalk, notice the extension cord….

Add caption

Here is the connection between extension cords

Safety First

Here is where the cord is plugged into the electricity

No OSHA here

And here the man is finishing off a trench that has the tubing already laid.

And here is the result – last year there were wires running all over this area.

And they work pretty fast. The first day we were here the whole road along the municipal building was tore up. Now it is finished - three days.
More from our walking around later...