Return trip to El Quelite - No Iguanas

Yesterday we went to pick up Bill’s watch. Looks, sounds and runs like brand new. US$25 to fix it. Then we walked over by the central market to the bead store. Yes, I bought more beads – hadn’t bought any red ones. HAD to have red ones you know. Couldn’t leave without red ones.
Later in the aft we went over and watched the cruise ships and Baja Ferry leave the port. The cruise ships make the Ferry look like a toy boat they are so big.
This was the biggest one
They leave right around sunset set so it is quite pretty to watch. When you are driving towards the port the ships tower over the buildings in front of them. Even make the towers of the cathedral look small. We watched them till they disappeared into the horizon and sunset.
The square between the two islands was the first cruise ship to leave port
Met some people there from Culiacάn. They were all bundled up in sweaters and asked us if we weren’t cold. Bill had on a t-shirt and I had on a tank top. Nope – at least not until the sun went down. It’s hard to remember that this is winter for everyone who lives here.
It has still been raining south of us but not here in town. In fact the weather has been beautiful – not even too humid. And all the plants look so pretty and clean (without their coating of dust.)
Took a picture of a two-colored bougainvillea – not only are the plants two different colors the leaves are two colors – white and pink. The bush is gorgeous.

Today, Thursday, we drove out to El Quelite again. Wanted to take the pictures we had taken of the ladies sorting the beans to them. They were happy to see us and asked if we had found a house there to buy. They enjoyed the pictures.
From there we went to the restaurant to eat and give them back the shirt they had lent me. They recognized us right away – and remembered the iguana! This time they made sure we were sitting under an umbrella out of the way. But they also said it was too cold for the iguanas to be out, they like it hot. Breakfast passed without incident. But a few falling leaves had me looking up. Leaving the restaurant we saw some corn husk dolls that are made right there in town. Of course, had to have one. Had a hard time making up my mind (and now I wish I’d got a different one – one that showed more husk.)
Will take a picture of mine - later
Then we drove up to where the fighting cocks are raised and trained. Zillions of them. There are a couple of big fields full of them, talk about a racket. Each cock has his own shelter and one of leg is tethered so he can’t reach his neighbor.

They are so magnificent A couple distinct kinds that I could see. One with a yellow ruff

and the other kind with a rust colored ruff.

They would crow and puff their neck feathers straight out. In the back were some cages with one rooster and several hens in each one. Several had eggs in them.
There was a small tour just leaving there and I heard the guide say she was taking them to an old bakery. So we followed. The baker uses an adobe oven for all his baking. But instead of heating it up with wood he uses what amounts to a propane blow torch.

But it does the job, I can’t imagine how hot that room gets in the summer. Sure smelled good in there. Bought a couple of fruit empanadas and hit the road. Just as we were leaving town we came upon an older man riding his donkey down the street. He was almost bigger than the donkey. His faithful dog followed along tail held high.

And can you believe this!!!! I forgot to charge the battery in my camera, and forgot to bring the spare battery AND left Bill’s camera in Jennie. YES!! I RAN OUT OF BATTERY – COULD NOT TAKE ANY MORE PICTURES. So what did we do? Well went back to the campground and picked up the other camera and the charged battery – what else could we do.
Then back on the road out of town to go to La Noria again. That was the road full of pot holes – actually craters. But again The Driver managed to miss all of them.
Talked to the guys in the leather shop again, Bill got a machete and it’s leather sheath.

They showed us a beautiful saddle that had just been finished. Only US$200 – would cost a fortune in the states.

Also looked at the masks again and took pictures so Bill will have an idea how to do one when we get home.

I heard music so I left the leather place and followed my ears. A bunch of high school boys and girls were practicing folkloric dancing in the plaza. They were pretty darn good. They are going to put on a show for Carnaval.

Then back to the campground where we got an unpleasant surprise. A whole caravan (about 20) had pulled in. Up until now there had only been a couple of us in the back of the park. So we were all spread out with spaces between us. Not now. We have new neighbors on both sides of us. And the guy right next to us has a cat who doesn’t like to be left alone. Has been yowling the whole time they’ve been in a meeting planning tomorrows doings.
One of the first things they asked was “Is there Internet?” We’ve been letting a couple of people here use it with no problems. BUT if a lot of people get on it at once it slows way down. Also if someone happens to download a bunch of stuff we get FAPd (penalized by the network – they slow the signal down so much you can barely get on line.) So to save ourselves trouble we just shut it off. The campground has Internet but it too is iffy back here. But now we don’t have Internet either – grrrr….
Well the satellite dish is back up – the caravan loaded on to a bus and took off for the day to tour Mazatlan. Later I guess we’ll just take our chances.

More Rain - Caravan came to Park

Rained off and on all day yesterday. Never really hard – just enough to make it icky out.
Around four in the afternoon we drove into town and went to the nice mall Gran Plaza. Had a little sign made for Willie’s back window – “I’ve Been Towed All Over Mexico” – written under a palm tree. Also walked around the mall some. Cannot get over all the high heeled shoes that are sold. And some are butt ugly! And lots of stores with formal gowns – most are beautiful – mainly for the 15th birthday celebration.
From there we went to a restaurant we’d been told about but had never stopped at. The name of the place is Fat Fish – but it is a steak and bbq rib place – go figure. By the time we got there it was starting to rain harder. By the time we left after eating the streets were flooded! If we’d been any later finishing we’d have had a very iffy drive home. It freaking POURED! At times the water was so deep we could barely make it through. And the deep places were hard to see – so a couple of them were a surprise and the water splashed up and about blinded us. Made for an interesting ride.
Back to the restaurant. We ate out on the patio which had a roof – that leaked – just a little – Every once in awhile a drop would come down and land on Bill’s leg. Kind of funny. The meals are two for one as are the drinks IF you order beer or margaritas – Cokes are one for one. Choice of meals are BBQ Ribs, Rib Eye Steak or Shrimp. Comes with salad, baked potato, garlic bread and cole slaw. We both ordered the ribs – YUM delicious. And a huge portion. In fact I still have enough left for lunch today. Including tip it came to 250 Pesos – at today’s exchange rate US$ 19.50. About US$15 without the tip. No wonder everyone raves about it. The only problem – well not a problem but…. It was full of gringos . The ribs and steak are cooked out on the patio on a big charcoal grill. The cook was kept pretty busy and I bet was glad for the cool breeze and rain. It must get really hot for him during regular weather.
Had to laugh at the people who finished eating and were trying to wave down a bus or taxi to take them home. No one wanted to go out in the street so everything just passed them by. Finally one guy braved it and got one of the pick-up taxies to stop – The only problem – they had to ride in the bed of the pickup which had a tarp over it but was open on the sides. I think they were probably wet by the time they got where they were going. We gave two guys a ride to their hotel out by where we were staying. They were glad for it. (Well maybe except for when Bill couldn’t see where he was going.)
At least we know that neither Willie or Jennie leak anywhere –
The birds in the trees behind us are really making noise today – reminds me of a jungle movie sound track. All kinds of weird noises.
Going to put our satellite down for now. There is a caravan of about 15 coaches that just came in and they all jumped on our internet. I need to get it password protected before we put it back up.

Nuevo Mazatlan

February already. Time flies. We’ve been on the road 81 days – sometimes it seems longer – depending on how small Jennie feels that day. Actually it is working out okay with living in her. We’ve got cooking and clean up down. We both have “our” areas. Mine is mostly the dinette – Bill has his chair and computer and reads on the bed. So we can get out of each others way if we feel like it. And thank goodness the air conditioner in Jennie is working very good. Most days it’s been in the 80s and sometime between midnight and dawn it goes down to 50 something at night which is nice. We noticed that it is colder here at the campground then it is in the Plaza Machado – sometimes as much at 12 degrees difference at night. Over there we are comfortable in shirt sleeves but here need a jacket.
Today is starting out strange, very cloudy and a very cool wind. In fact I think I’ll close the window as I’m getting cold sitting here.
Haven’t done a whole lot last couple of days. Both Sat and Sun evenings we went to Plaza and listened to the music. During the day just keep busy stuff. Went to Home Depot to check out a “Propane Detector” (ours went crazy and wouldn’t stop screaming.) No problem except with its innards so had to disconnect it. Any way found one in HD – over US$100 – think we will keep looking. We did find Citronella candles though – need them at night here if we want to sit out.
Did take a drive north first out by the Cerritos area campgrounds. There are a few small fishing boats there and a couple of restaurants and shops.

Same stuff that is for sale everywhere.

And the only language we heard spoken was English. Then we went out towards what is called Nuevo Mazatlan where the big Emerald Bay resort is.
Entrance to Resort.
Some serious topes in front of it.

Passed over these and continued on up the dirt road. Came upon some really nice homes built right on the beach.
A few of the houses and some of the lots were for sale

Even found one really big one – like a compound - that had guards at the gate. When we slowed down they got really interested in us. Moved on quickly.The road continued on through the bush but we turned around. Getting to that point we had to drive over a wooden bridge that had parts missing. Fun.


Especially the creaking and cracking from under us as we slowly drove over it.
I’ve been playing with the beads a little. The needles I got are shorter than what I’m used to so I keep losing the beads I’ve picked up. And the thread is much finer – it is like really really fine fishing line – a nylon type. And I can’t see it. So much fun threading a needle with a tiny hole with thread I can’t see. Need a magnifying mirror like I have at home. But it is still fun.
Backed up my computer yesterday – try to do it the end of every month. Probably should do it more often but….Wouldn’t want to lose my pictures and info about the trip. I often wonder what the life expectancy of an external hard drive is? I’m I backing up for northing if both drives decide to go? Maybe I should look into doing something on-line.
Bill got his hair cut yesterday by Luis, the older gentleman who comes through the campground a couple of times a week. It looks good – he says maybe he’ll let it grow a little for a while so he can comb it. And that’s about all the news that’s not news.