Christmas Decorating Mexican Style

Christmas Seasons Greeting from Mazatlán.  It is now time to decorate for the season.  The stores here have been decorated for weeks, so it was time to join in the spirit and get decorated.

We've got our piñata hanging over the dining room table.

Most of the Mexican decorations we have are woven palm leaves.  I like using the traditional crafts.  When in Mexico, do as the locals do.

Our front door.

Fabric from El Centro for table runners.

Palm leaves woven in natural and red.

We decided to have only a tree made of Christmas lights on our deck.  We will be leaving Mazatlán on December 17th to fly back to the Pacific Northwest for the holidays.  I didn't want to have to deal with a live tree after being gone for 17 days.  The imported live trees don't do that well in the heat, most of the needles have dropped by Christmas day.

A slightly unsteady night shot up six floors.

Through the condo looking out.

Ho Ho Ho.....life is good on this cold Winters night.  Balcony slider and front door open, it's still in the 70's with a nice breeze blowing through. 

Herding Turtles

Eva the wonderdog has displayed a new talent.  Being a fine "Mexican Mutt" she has an innate ability to herd turtles.  At the beach this morning she showed her ability to round up and direct baby turtles to the ocean.  True talent.

Eva pointing the baby turtle to the Pacific.

A nest of baby turtles had hatched on the beach we were walking this morning.  They dig their way to the surface and begin their trek down the sand to the surfs edge.  If the sea birds see them they would become an early breakfast, so we rounded them up and walked them to the surfs edge.  They know to head straight into the ocean and begin swimming as fast as they can.  Hundreds of thousands of baby turtles call Mazatlán their home each year.  When they are ready to have babies they return to the same beach they were born on.

The pelicans are out just beyond the surf.  Turtles beware.

Keeping an eye on her turtles.

Eva romping in the surf.

As you can see Eva is no longer afraid of the surf.  She will make a mad dash straight into a breaking wave.  She is her happiest when playing in the ocean.

Ready for another attack on a wave.  Truly a crazy puppy.

This morning the Sea of Cortez was alive with huge schools of fish.  Hundreds of sea birds and Pelicans would follow the schools as they were driven to the surface by larger fish underneath them.  At times the surface of the water was white with splashing as the schools were in a frenzy.

Seabirds and Pelicans waiting for breakfast.

A nice string of fish.

This surf casting fisherman had about a dozen fish on his string.  The tuna looked about 5 or 6 pounds.  It was only 9:00am so he hadn't been fishing that long.  I've got to get out and try my hand at surf casting, brother Dave left his fishing pole at our place when he went home.

A calm day on the Sea of Cortez.

Life is good on a morning beach walk.

Hibiscus

Another beautiful morning here, so I went outside to shoot photos of my favorite flower that grows in our yard.  The Hibiscus seem to grow in almost every color and their variety of color combinations is what I like best.  Enjoy.

 

 

 

 

Life is good.... and flowers are fine.

 

30 Minutes of Mazatlan Sunset

I was sitting on our balcony eating dinner this evening at sunset.  I thought I would give you a time lapse of tonight's setting of the sun in Marina Mazatlán over looking the Sea of Cortez.  Another nice show by Mazatlán.

It began quite normal.

As it darkens outside I could see the colors begin.

Cotton candy clouds.

Throw in a little yellow.

Add a little orange.

Fade the light and add more color.

Darkness comes but the colors linger for a few more minutes.

It's dark and I can't hold the camera still enough to do a time exposer.
Hold still, Russ.

You've just experienced a 30 minute sunset here in paradise.  Pretty cool, huh.  Life is good.

What's Happening

We have fallen into our Winter routine; beach walking, shared meals with friends, listening to good music several nights each week, practicing my guitar and cooking good food.  The weather continues to be warm and pleasant with most days topping out in the low 80's and the humidity has gone away.

In the last week we have done a couple of late evening walks with my brother Dave and SIL Jamie.  One walk was a 3 mile stroll thru the older parts of town and finished with a mile of the Pacific ocean boardwalk.  After dark the boardwalk is lined with a hundred vendors, most selling food.  There are hundreds of locals, mostly families, out walking and enjoying the cooler evening breezes.

We stopped and had a hot pastry with strawberry jam.
It was similar to a crumpet from Pike Place Market in Seattle.

The gazebo in Macardo Square getting ready for live music.
Almost every evening there is music in this square.
Also great people watching.

Convert your motorcycle into a business.

Dave and Jamie go back home to Bremerton today.  They've enjoyed their month here and are already planning to stay longer next year.  Dave will be line dancing this morning over on the island across from our condo, he needed one last chance to dance with all those Canadian women.

One last evening of music on the Isla.

This weekend was one of the big sports fishing tournaments in the Marina.  We walked down a few hundred yards to see what the boats were bringing in.  The big Marlin were over 300 pounds.  The prizes were lots of pesos and 5 or 6 new cars.  It's a big competition with big prizes.

Big fish.

People in Mazatlán love to have parades and protests.  There are dozens throughout the year.  The big parades last for hours.  The other evening as we were walking through downtown we were treated to a parade with hundreds of Catholic nuns.  I'm not kidding.  I'm not sure whether they were celebrating or protesting but the nuns had "taken to the streets".  Cool.

Nuns and monks marching.

Life is good in the sun.  Eva is happy.  Can't ask for much more.

Eva and Terri enjoying their beach time.

Just another sunset.

Iguana Neighbors

A Marina neighbor.

I don't have much to say today, so I'll show you pictures of our neighbors.  As we walk the boardwalk in front of our place we are getting to know our neighbors, not the community that live aboard their boats, rather the marina wildlife.  Iguana's love to sun themselves on the rocks that line the harbor.

On our walk home the other day I stopped along the way to take pictures of four of our friends.

Each are colored a little different.

Happy in the sun.

The Iguanas are not shy and you can walk up close to them.  However because they look like a small dragon to me I am cautious.  I don't want to have to write a blog about a vicious wild animal attack in Mazatlán. "Tourist Attacked in Mazatlán" would be the headline in the local paper.

Dave and Jamie are the only family left in Mazatlán.  We had our final dinner at Roy's before the group left to go back to the frozen and rainy Northwest. 

Ribs night at Roy's... a full rack for 99 pesos. ($7.46 US)

 

Life is Good.

Baseball - Mexican Style

The Mazatlán Venados play baseball just like any other team.  It's what goes on all around the stadium that sets Mexican baseball apart from what we know as baseball.  At times it can seem more like a circus than a ball game.

Winter league triple A teams can have 5 major league players.  These are usually players that are on there way up to the majors and the American teams want them to play all Winter to improve their skills.  A few years ago we saw Pete Rose Jr. trying to make his way into the majors.  My guess is he wasn't going to be the player his dad had been.

The stadium is like one big billboard.

Our annual picture in front of the Venados statue.

Our team did not play a great game, 5 errors.  We lost 6-2 to the team from Hermosillo.  So we concentrated on the circus part of the game.

The dear had preformed his striptease.

 It is a little known fact, Spandex sells.  It must be true because many companies have young ladies wearing Spandex to advertise their businesses.  Don't these two young ladies make you want to rush to their gas station.

Advertising in action.

Brother Dave grabbed a t-shirt that came flying his direction.  He'll now need to listen to MEJOR 102.7 radio while wearing his new attire.

The girls watching the game.

A warm evening, even after the sunset.

Win or lose, it was a good time...... Life is good.