Chicken Every Sunday....

We had read (there are fliers on different public bulletin boards... or walls...  in town) that there was a free "Spay and Neuter Clinic" being held at the library today.  I was curious as to how many folks here actually brought their cats or dogs in for this procedure, as we've heard that many folks (men) in this place do not believe in having male dogs neutered.

The clinic started at 8:30, so we walked by just to see what was going on.

I talked with the lady in red...  she was bringing in a friend's dog (the black ears you can see).  While she is a snowbird, she's been coming here for over a dozen years and is quite familiar with the people and customs here.  She said she had the permission papers from the owner, as well as the dog's vet history...  and that she'd be the one taking care of the post-surgery recovery.  She told me that the clinic is held once a month with maybe a dozen dogs and cats being seen each time.  A man came out (looked like he might be a volunteer to help with the critters) and checked the dog for ticks or other visible problems.  The line formed right inside the door, so I couldn't see what all was going on.

Quite a different use for the local library, huh?

Since we were already several blocks from home, we just kept on walking.  I had my camera, but Bill hadn't brought the binoculars...  but what the heck...  we'll head to a road we seldom take...  the road past the lagoon on to a remote beach.

 Almost immediately we spotted this bird...

It doesn't really look like a grackle...  nor does it look like an ani...  

and what's with that beak?

I don't know if this is normal, and I just can't ID the bird, or if it had some birth (egg?) defect or mishap later.  Any thoughts?

 But on we went...  and something caught my eye...

Even though it kept bouncing around among the leaves, we saw this Russet-crowned Motmot.

First one we've seen here.

We also saw a flock of...

Striped-back Sparrow

They were flitting in and out of low clumps of bushes which were behind a woven-wire fence.  Why is it that these birds like to hide?

I have no idea what kind of palm tree this is, but doesn't it have an unusual shape?  Looks like a peacock to me.

I was attempting to get a photo of an orange and yellow lantana flower...  but this butterfly landed right on it...  it sure looks worse for wear, doesn't it?

You may be used to seeing your neighbor wash his car in his driveway, but how often do you get to watch a man wash his horse?  Lathering it up and everything!

A new pizza place opened around the corner from us....  we decided to give it a try last night...

A medium, vegetarian pizza... cost 140 pesos....  about $8.00 American dollars.  

We had 3 beers left in the fridge....  I made some michaladas to go with the pizza.  

A small bottle of clamato juice, Maggi Jugo (like worchestershire) sauce, hot sauce, lime juice...  and the beer....  served over ice.  We don't have the right kind of glasses...  so I served the drink in wine glasses.  We're not picky....

The pizza, michaladas and listening to Prairie Home Companion on my laptop made for a very enjoyable evening.

Oh...  Chicken Every Sunday....

There are at least 2, probably more, places close to us that sell either rotisserie or grilled chickens on Sunday.  I've written about them before, but for several Sunday's now, we've bought one for our Sunday dinner.  They have a sign-up sheet where you put down your name, which type of chicken you want, and if you want potatoes, onions or peppers with it....  and the time you want to pick it up.  The first week we wanted to pick ours up at 5:00...  but that's a very popular time...  they are so busy and the line is long.  So now we pick ours up at 4:00....  along with some grilled onions and jalepenos....  and between the two of us, we finish off the whole meal.   It's become a Sunday tradition in this household!

In answer to ....  about camera settings...  I didn't bring the instruction manual with me, but I do not see anything that indicates a sport setting on either camera I use.  I do change the speed sometimes...  especially if I want to take an action shot...  like seeing the water drops in the waves.  I do appreciate the suggestions and if not right now, hope to delve further into this when I have the manual etc.. in front of me.

And one other thing...  there IS going to be a follow-up about hummingbird feeders...  but not for another week or so.
It's complicated ;-)

That's All For Today!

Around Town....

We were heading up the street to the tianguis (farmer's market/bazaar) this morning and as we turned the corner from our street onto the main street, this is what we saw....

Nobody was around...  just this parked bicycle with a hand of bananas beside it.

You just never know what you'll see around here...

And on another street...

A truckload of Jackfruit for sale...

We walk past a tree that has this fruit on it...  Memo told us it was a Yucca tree.  Since we were familiar with breadfruit and jackfruit in Costa Rica, I googled it.  I had misunderstood Memo...  (really should wear my hearing aids every day)  it comes from a Yaca tree....  it's in the mulberry family and is common in SE Asia as well as South American countries.  We've tried it but it's not really a fruit I like.

And we saw our first Painted Buntings along the river path...

There was a whole flock of them but the darned things wouldn't hold still long enough for good shots.  The females are all green...  this male is just gorgeous!   (maybe the female is green with envy?)

We're pretty sure this is a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher...

He's not showing any white under his eye,...  he does have a white belly and his tail feathers are white along the sides.  Tiny little bird...  and flits around....  so if he's not a Blue-gray, I'm betting he's closely related.

We also saw this on the river path...

This iguana had the longest tail I've ever seen on one!

He stayed in the shadows...  then crossed the road and climbed high into a tree.  We've been seeing iguanas more often lately...  kinda neat!

My favorite photo of the day...

The river is still high...  this man was riding his horse across and stopped for it to take a drink.  If you look closely you can see an egret along the bank on the left.  This is a very pretty spot along the river and there's always something of interest here.

And...  Mother Nature has her way...

I have no idea how long ago that brick and concrete wall was put up...  that tree could have just been a sapling back then.  But it grew...  and grew....  and grew some more.  You just can't fool your Mom!

Having a wall around your yard is quite common here.  Sometimes there's a gate to enter...  and sometimes the wall is just a high, wrought-iron fence.  I'm always peeking in to see what's there.

We were surprised to see these tomato plants between these two buildings.  Looked to be several dozen of then, and they were flourishing!  I haven't seen that many gardens here, but then, I just peek in...  don't often have access to see what's beyond the gate.

It's also fairly common to see cars with flat tires or other "disabilities" parked along the side streets..

I think this one has been here a while....

Maybe it's a "work in progress" kind of thing, I don't know....

We live on the 2nd floor of this building and the cleaning lady does laundry up on the roof.  I'd never climbed the steps before and finally went up to check it out...

This is looking down onto the buildings next to us and across the street.   

There are automatic washers in a laundry room on our roof (maybe a drier, I don't know)...  but mostly there are lots and lots of clotheslines with sheets and towels drying in the air.  Most folks here hang their laundry out... whether on a clothesline or even a fence.  But really, the view from up on the roof is quite impressive!

That's All For Today!

Stairway to Heaven....

 I'd checked the area to see if there were any geocaches hidden anywhere nearby.  It's been 10 years since we found the last one in this area, and by "this are", the one we found was down at Bucerias.  We were staying at San Blas at the time and took a day trip mostly to go geocaching, but also to check out RV parks and other facilities in this area.

So...  I'd seen there was a geocache down at Sayulita, and another up at Guayabitos.  I thought we'd head down to Sayulita today and grab that one...  except this is their Tianguis day (farmer's market/bazaar) and neither Bill nor I care to go shoulder to shoulder with the crowd.  My shopping (or maybe I should say, lack of) habits are preferably to order on-line, or to hit the groceries very early in the morning.  Okay...  back to this Stairway...

I saw that the "Stairway to Heaven" is about 10 miles up the road.  We took the Collectiva (sort of like a shuttle service/taxi... only they cram as many people in the van as they can) to get there.  I'd checked out the coordinates (and had Bill double check my calculations) so we'd know where to get out.  We did walk up to the Galvan office to see if Memo was there,.....  hoped he'd go with us...  but, nope...  not today.  Anyway....  we caught our ride...  and got off where we thought we should.  

Walked a few hundred yards down the road...  with GPS in hand...  and saw this...

Okay.....  we're in the right place!  

Up the dirt road we walked...  came to the entrance...  with this sign...

There sure a lot of things that we can't do here....  but I have on conservative clothes, we aren't going to drink or do drugs...  or smoke...  or run...  and I promise I won't kiss Bill here (even though he does have on a shirt)...  but I kind of ignored the sign below that says no cameras or videos.

As we entered the gate, and headed up the 250 or so steps....

the man working on the donation box asked Bill to take off his hat.

I'd read some previous blogs and one guy posted that the attendant gave him a piece of wire so his girlfriend could "tie" her pareo (sarong) together so it didn't show her bathing suit.

Neither of us have a problem showing respect for local customs, so...  off came Bill's hat for our trek up to the cross.

I'll show you the cross soon, but our goal was the cache...

Here's Bill (hatless) uncovering it from the pile of rocks...

And....

WoooHoooo!  This is what we came for.

Signed the log and recorded it when we got back.

This marks our 2,344 find.  Always brings a smile!

 But of course, while here, we paid our respects to the purpose of this area....

The shrine...  overlooking the bay...

And overlooking the towns along the coast...

Then it was the 250 or so steps back down to the street...

More views of the sea...

And another view of the town and sea....

And finally back to the main street....

As we walked through the town, back to Highway 200 to catch transportation back to Lo de Marcos, we realized how "touristy" this town is.  Fancy hotels, lots of  restaurants and all kinds of shopping areas.  While fun to see once, It just wasn't our idea of a place for us.

We didn't catch a Collectivo back, but settled on a taxi...  cost about double of a collectivo, but still better than standing along a busy highway waiting for something to come along.

And...  just because I thought it was interesting....

Look at the "cargo" this pickup truck is hauling somewhere.... 

Totally crammed with beach toys!

I wondered where he was going... or maybe I should have wondered where he was coming from.  ....  and why were these beach toys already inflated?

Heck, I don't know.  It's just one of the wonderful things about living in Mexico this winter!

That's All For Today!

Birds and More.....

Bill and I saw a couple of "new" birds yesterday, but either didn't get close enough or the lighting was too bad...  anyway, I didn't get decent photos of either of them.  So we headed out for a walk around 8:00, hoping to spot at least one of them...

And we did...

Rufus-backed Thrush

Same family as the Robin, and like a robin, he was hopping around on the ground, almost in the underbrush.  I never got close enough for a good shot, but close enough for a positive ID.  He looks really angry here...  guess the shadows around his eye created a mean look.

We didn't see the other bird of yesterday...  pretty sure it was a Vermilion Flycatcher.  As bright red as it was, surely we'll see it again.

The Ringed Kingfisher sat still for a long time today...

I think it had just taken a bath because he spent a long time preening as I was watching him.

Another bird that we hadn't noticed before...

These Bronzed Cowbirds have a very distinctive red eye!

You can barely make out the glossy blue wings, but the sunlight is catching them a bit.

Sitting all by itself out along the river bank...

A Streak-backed Oriole

Most likely a male as it's very orange.

One last bird photo...

I love seeing all the egrets and herons in the rookeries...

This Yellow-crowned Night Heron was just one of many we saw today.

There are lots of butterflies and dragonflies flitting around...

I didn't get close enough to ID this guy, but at least he stayed still long enough to get his picture taken.

There are lots of different kinds of palm trees here...  sometimes we see young men climbing the trees to knock down coconuts.  

Not sure what kind of palm tree this is, but thought it looked interesting.

And... speaking of trees, Dizzy reminded me the other day that a Banana "tree" isn't really a tree at all.  I guess I knew that...  especially with Memo giving us lessons about the pineapple and banana plantations that are here.  Which makes me think of Judy asking about pineapples.  Those in that field (blog a few days back) were ready to be planted.  You can cut the top off a pineapple you buy at the grocery and cover it in dirt...  in a couple of years it will produce a new fruit.  Now... I tried that once years ago but never had much luck...  but then maybe I just didn't keep it that long.

We did walk to the beach...  looks like several fishing boats out today...

I have no idea if they were catching anything...  but will say that when we walked back to the beach a few hours later they were still there in almost the same spot.  Either they were having good luck or have a lot of patience!

And, finally...  the Bocci Ball tournaments are going strong!

Look at the concentration!  He took longer than a baseball player to finally throw that ball...  he'd scrunch up his face, wiggle his butt, flex his hands...  kind of do a false throw...  do it all over again... and again...  and finally let loose of the ball.  

Those folks sure are taking this game seriously!

That's about it for today's walk...  and...

That's All For Today!

A Trip to La Penita....

While we do walk a lot (according to my pedometer, we've walked over 200 miles in the month or so we've been here), we also like taking the bus or the collectivo (a fleet of vans that run between several small towns in this area) to see other places.  The collectivo is cheaper than hiring a taxi, but it travels a route, which means it's not exactly "express" service.  Also, a van, let's say a 9 passenger van, can hold ...  maybe 15-16 people if you crowd in close.  And, believe me, these vans can be packed like sardines!  We've not taken a taxi anywhere yet...   the bus or the collectivo is more suitable to our (lack of) style.

So... today, we took the collectivo about 10-15 miles up the road to La Penita.  All the towns around us have a market day.  Our (Lo de Marcos) tianguis is Saturday, San Pancho's is Tuesday...  La Penita's is Thursday.  I love our tianguis here, but being a person who does not like crowds, we avoid those towns when their tianguis is going on.

We went to La Penita because there is a bank there.  There is no bank in Lo de Marcos (population 1,000 ....  during tourist season it swells to 3,000)...  With the US Dollar/Mexican Peso value lately, Bill wanted to change a couple of US $20 bills into pesos at a bank...  there's a whole different process for this...  includes showing your passport (or some banks ask for a copy of your passport) as ID... but it's interesting just for the experience.  Also, Bill's pedometer battery was running low and because it's not a standard kind of battery, he thought he'd try to buy one in La Penita.  

Me...  well....  heck...

We'd eaten breakfast around 6:30, so by 9:00 I was ready for lunch.  (Lo de Marcos is the same as Central time in the US...  La Penita is the same as Mountain time - 1 hour behind)....  doesn't matter, we stopped at this restaurant for some nourishment.  I took this photo from our table, which is actually outside on the sidewalk.  

Well now...  of course when I saw " Huevos Divorciados" on the menu... that's what I had to have.

There are 2 eggs, sunnyside up (mine were fried hard), with red chile sauce on one, green sauce on the other.  Truth is, mine weren't very good (what did I expect from a divorce situation?)...  Really, what can you do wrong with an egg?  I'm not going to complain, it was cheap enough (most divorces cost an arm and a leg...  and the kids)...  but I probably won't order this again.

Of course I had to use the banos (bathroom) before we left...  there was a kind of foyer as you left the restaurant area and headed back to the sanitarios....

This little altar was all decorated...  here in Mexico, Our Lady of Guadalupe is highly revered.  It is very common to see shrines dedicated to her everywhere.

We had time (heck, what else do you have in Mexico if you don't have time?) to walk down to the sea wall...

I swear (Bill keeps telling me I have to quit swearing) that that's the same Magnificent Frigate that was perched on top of that palapa the last time we were here.

No excuse for the fuzzy photo...  just me, I guess.

Made it home before noon...  had to go for our River walk...

Only the 2nd iguana we've seen since being here.  This one was kind of small, and very green.  He tried hard to blend in with the green leaves.

We walked on the the sea...  saw 2 shrimp boats WAY out on the water....

So far out that we're really guessing that that's what they were.  But with all that netting apparatus, we're probably right.  They'll be bringing in lots of shrimp in a few days.

 Another "not so clear" photo...  I've been trying to get a shot of this HUGE white butterfly for weeks now.

It's as big as my hand....  and flits around...  in and out of trees, leaves and bushes...  totally oblivious to my efforts to snap a picture of it.  It remains on my list of "must get a clear shot of this" so I'll be out there trying until we leave.

One last photo for the day...

The river is still high...  the outlet to the sea is still clogged up with sand.  While the water continues to creep up closer to the river road, the ducks and shore birds that hang out here are loving it.   I think they are reaping the nutritional benefits along the now flooded shoreline.

The Thursday Hike has been canceled...  not sure what Bill & I will do tomorrow.  But I have no doubt we'll enjoy whatever we do.

That's All For Today!

Matrimonial Mattresses and Divorced Eggs.....

I don't even pretend that I speak Spanish....  buying fruits and veggies, figuring out the bus system and making change doesn't really count...  I have a hard time understanding conversations.  I have been able to make sense of the "written word"...  pretty much.  I read all the announcements on every bulletin board I come across...  I read the church bulletin....  I read menus.  I read anything and everything!

Sometimes I come across words I just have to ask about...  

Matrimonial Mattress

This was listed in a real estate flyer, advertising an apartment for lease.  I was almost afraid to ask my friend Robert, who works at the real estate office the meaning.  Ahhhh...  innocent enough...  it's describing the size of the beds.  This means the house has a double bed (as opposed to a bunk bed or a single bed)....  Okay...  that makes sense.

Then the other morning we were eating breakfast in town....  reading the menu, there were...

Divorced Eggs

Now, come on...  What the heck are divorced eggs?  Back to Robert, (and also a little help from Wikapedia)....  Divorced eggs are fried sunny-side up.  But they are served with a distinctive line between them...  sometimes that space is filled with a thin line of refried beans.  Well, whoever coined that phrase must have been going through a bad experience.

Not all interesting words are in Spanish...  there is a large population of French Canadians here, so it's common to hear English, Spanish and French all in the same crowd.  The Canadians are fond of a game...  Bocci Ball....  right now they are having these bowling tournaments in their RV parks...

This sign just cracked me up....

Game in progress....

I wonder if size matters?  Whatever...  spares are available.

That's All For Today!