Kids, Camera, Travelers

Well this is a mishmash of things I haven’t blogged!
Last Tuesday I was off downtown to the bakery to get fresh bread.  This involves about a two hour trip with a 45 minute bus ride each way as we are way out on the north end of Mazatlan and the bakery is in Centro. When I do this I usually get 3 or 4 loaves of multigrain bread and that lasts about 10 days if I freeze a couple of loaves. 

When I was walking back to catch the bus I saw a large gathering and some sort of event happening in Revolution Square.
 
I didn’t have my camera with me but I did have my little Iphone and I couldn’t resist a few pictures.  How cute are these children!  The little girl in the first picture saw me and then she put her hands at her sides and stood up straight and smiled for me. 
           
These children aren’t very old maybe between 5 and 7 and they are all dressed up in school uniforms carrying flags and banners. 
           
I don’t know what it was all about but it doesn’t really matter as watching them just plastered a big smile on my face.  Too cute!
On Friday morning I was off on a mission to get my cameras cleaned and repaired.  One just needed cleaning and the other one needed cleaning and a scratch polished out of the front lens.  In the past I’d taken them to Photoshop Urrea which I’d heard about from fellow blogger Contessa.  Ramon Urrea’s  storefront used to be on Constitucion and he was easy to find but now he’s moved.  Contessa had mentioned this last year but as it’s been a couple of years since I’ve gone to see him I had some detective work to do.  First I had Raphael (our super duper park worker) touch base with him and get his address and then I had Felipe our park owner set up a meet time for Friday morning.  Ramon is working out of his house on Playa Coromuel street in Playa Sur and it was an adventure to find him.  The green Sabalo Centro bus does go down there but it was a bit of a puzzle as to where I should get off.   The bus driver stopped a couple of times to ask people if they knew where Playa Coromuel was and finally he even got off the bus to ask….how nice was that.  In the end Playa Coromuel doesn’t cross the bus route and I got off on Playa las Gemelas and set off to find my destination.  I didn’t get lost but it was a bit tricky to find Playa Coromuel as it didn’t have a street sign!  A couple of nice people helped me out and I finally ended up at his door.  We had a long discussion with his limited English and my terrible Spanish and in the end he said he said he could clean the Panasonic and he’d try to fix the Canon. 

So now I was off to get the bus home.  Unfortunately as I headed up the street I tripped over a concrete edge and ended up flat on my face on the sidewalk.  It happened so fast I didn’t even have time to catch myself.  I landed on both palms, scuffed my knees and toes and at this point Ramon who was still out on the street talking to someone came running to see if I was okay.  I was a little shell shocked but I seemed okay and just carried on my way.  I might add that if I was less fit and had osteo I would have broken something as I fell really hard and fast!  This is only the second time I’ve fallen in Mexico and as it is so unsafe walking here and you can trip at any moment it’s a miracle it hasn’t happened more often.  So…north on Carnival to the Plazuela and over to the back of the market to catch the bus home.  Yes…I am still sore and the ball of my left thumb is really quite swollen and has turned color.  I have iced it and kept it moving and so far so good….it is getting better. 
Later that day we had a BMW motorcycle with two people aboard show up next to us and set up a small tent.  The riders are from the Yukon Territories and they are of German nationality.  Eric had a quick chat with them and offered them a couple of chairs to sit on while they are camped here.   Unfortunately the weather right now is just atrocious!  Cloudy, cool with an icy north wind.  Yes, I know it isn’t snowing or raining but….we are in Mazatlan!  Not very nice weather for bike travel but they seemed at ease and are just rolling with it.  The wife Ursulla said “At least it’s not snowing!”   They trailored the bike from the Yukon behind their van to Wisconsin where they bought a bigger BMW roadbike.  From there they ended up in Nogales, AZ where they left the van, trailor and new bike before heading south into Mexico.  On Sunday they will head over to the Baja on the ferry and continue their journey.  Many years ago we had bike travellers Mark and Claire from England parked by us and got to know them quite well.  They’d shipped their bikes to Calgary, Alberta and then ridden north to the Yukon and Alaska before heading south to Mexico.  When they left Mazatlan they were on their way to Tierra del Fuego the southern most point of Chile and then they were having their bikes shipped back to England.  Now that’s a journey!  The bikes were 1980’s Kawasakis that they’d travelled through India and Africa on. 
 
Packing up the tent.

Packing up and it’s quite a load.  They have loaded two spare tires and all their gear onto their 1982 BMW they imported from Germany and she’s even wearing a backpack.  Ursulla did mention that the new bike is bigger and will be more comfortable on the highway   Just before they left they’d returned the chairs and give us a couple of little packages of Ferrero Rocher for loaning them the chairs.  Not necessary at all ….but very thoughtful. 

Bye bye…have a nice trip.