Mazatlan to Rincon de Guayabitos

We were up early on Sunday morning and on the road heading south out of Mazatlan on our way south to Rincon to spend a week with Eric’s brother Ian and wife Linda.

I’ve blogged this trip south recently but thought this was a good shot of the estuary flats just south of Esquinapa.

Welcome to Nayarit.

Lunch in the Pemex gas station at El Mil just north of Rosamorada.  Not a big fuel stop for trucks so….a quiet place for lunch.

Heading down the hill from Tepic….see the cane truck coming.

Getting closer.

Who wants to get stuck behind that and besides not everything stays on the truck. 

We arrived in Rincon and checked into Don Pepe’s where Ian and Linda are staying.  That’s Linda in the middle.

Monday is market day in the square.  We can see it out of our window just past the church.

 

Always something to buy.

This is Eric and his brother Ian going to the market.  Not!!!

This is the inside courtyard of the hotel complex looking out toward the street.  We have a second floor room at the end of a hall with an outside window.  Bueno.   We had everything we needed except a toaster and coffee pot.  We were promised that they would show up today and….they did.  The owner Alex seems to be very much on the ball.

We took Ian and Linda on a drive today to see Los de Marcos and then on to San Francisco/San Pancho.  Here we are having lunch in the restaurant in Tlaquepaque in Los de Marcos.  Very restful.

Fish tacos, tortilla soup and cerveza ….bueno.

These little girls were having sword fights with palm fronds but soon they were just tickling each other.  Cute.

Blurry….but now they are fishing.  Who says you need high tech toys!

The truck is parked and we are heading down the street to the beach in San Francisco.  High end homes with lots of gringo restaurants.

Inside an outside restaurant kitchen.  Look at that oven.

Need a Pancho Villa t-shirt….nope got one at the market in Mazatlan.

I love these trees….Llamarada (also known as a Flame of the Forest or African Tulip Tree.  Beautiful.

The beach.

Linda, Ian and Eric.   That sand is hot on the feet.

Eric wonders if he can get a swim.

 

Nope….too many pelicans.  The bait fish were right up at the shoreline and the birds were diving.

Church?  or some huge castle type home….who knows. 

Back up the street to the truck.  Really nice pavement not those awful cobblestones we usually see. We headed back to Rincon through Los Ayalas.

We were back in our room having a quiet happy hour and Eric spied this Mexican climbing the palm tree in the back yard of the church out our window.  Those feet are bare, he just uses ropes to climb and …..it’s a long way up.

 

He makes a bosun’s chair out of rope and up he goes.

High….you bet.

  

Mama is waiting to retrieve the coconuts when he lowers them down.

He is after the green coconuts for their milk.

The first bunch is soon on the ground.  He has his machete with him to cut them loose.

Looks a bit tricky don’t you think.

Son or possibly grandson loads them into the bicycle wagon and carts them away.

Carefully lowering the coconuts. If they were just dropped they would smash.

Just about done.

Now he is repelling down the tree.  Tough, tough hands and feet.

 

Just about down.

Mama cleans up the fronds that were cut.  The wagon is loaded with coconuts and the job is done.   Fascinating.

A quiet night in our room.  Happy hour by ourselves.  A bowl of soup, fresh bread toasted with cheese and now it’s time for bed.  Tomorrow off to La Penita to take Ian to the doctor for a check up.  Lots of people sick with colds here including Linda’s sister-in- law Judy who is only here for two weeks with her husband Craig.  Not a good way to spend your holiday.  Hope we don’t catch anything.

One potato, two potato, three potato….four!

Sorry folks but it was another eating event. 

John and Jeri the ever gracious hosts held their potato bake event once again. 

That’s Diane talking to Frank and Sandi’s son, Brad from Iowa.  He is here visiting for a week. 

Before we eat we must have happy hour and chat. 

Frank is looking at something that Blake has and Jeannette looks on.

Dick and Sandi.

Richard and Eric.

Bill, Dick, John and on the right Jeri’s husband John who hosted the event.

So this is how it all works.  We cook our potatoes before we come and bring them hot and wrapped in foil and ready to be dressed.  In my case I nuked our potatoes wrapped them in foil and left them to cook on my barbecue.  Over at John & Jeri’s there were three barbecues, all the fixings to put on the potatoes such as chili, cheese, sour cream, chopped peppers, etc. etc. 

John loaded his potato and put it on the barbecue to heat up and melt the cheese and whatever else he had added.

Maybe it looked like this when it was done or….

maybe it looked like this.  Doesn’t matter because it is all delicious.

This is the table before it was loaded with food.

This was the table after it was loaded. 

Everyone contributed something and of course there were deserts as well.  As if we would ever go hungry….not likely. 

So we dressed our potatoes, closed them up and then heated them up on the barbecue.  I had to help Eric a bit with this part as it was all Greek to him.  By the way he did manage to eat “two” potatoes so I guess it was all good.  It all happens so fast we have a hard time keeping up. 

We were just eating our potatoes and desert was disappearing fast.  You have to be speedy at one of these events if you want to get the best of the deserts.  In the end there was lots for everyone but we did miss out on Sharen’s home made blueberry pie. 

Looks delicious!

Oh I forgot to tell you. When Jeri, Betsy, Jeannette and I went downtown to Centro a couple of days ago I talked everyone into buying some “crazy” pants. We decided we should wear them to potato night so….here we are.

Crazy ladies….in crazy pants! Surprisingly comfortable.

Again a good time was had by all.  Thanks John and Jeri!

Today we packed up for our trip to Rincon to spend a week with Eric’s brother Ian and wife Linda so we had a busy day.  We did manage to squeak in a little swim at the beach.  A bit gnarly but still nice and warm. 

A good day.