Life in Guaymas

We have now been in and about the Guaymas area for 6 months!  I have gotten to know the streets and shops pretty well.  I really, really wish I spoke Spanish.  I think I'm missing a lot by having the language barrier.  Most of the time I get by but it is very frustrating.

Ernesto and Linda from Mazatlan visited us here in Guaymas a few days ago.  It was really great to see them.  They were on their way to visit friends in Phoenix.  They brought fresh shrimp from the Pacific Ocean.  Ernesto's father works on a shrimp boat.  There was enough shrimp to feed 7 of us!  We invited Muggs and Larry from SV Peregrine over for the shrimp feast.  Ernesto introduced us to a old friend of his from Mazatlan that now lives here in Guaymas, Moses.  Moses is a merchant marine and operates a Pemex oil tanker out of Guaymas.
Moses and Doug talked all about the coastline of Mexico for ages.  So we have the inside scoop, I think!

When Moses left he said something about the weekend and I said "Sure!", well Sunday morning at 10:00 am sharp Moses and his amiga, Aurora, were here at our boat saying "let's go!"  It's really hard to make firm plans when you have trouble communicating.  Moses' English is mucho better then my Spanish.  I pulled Doug out of bed, he had a cold, and said I think we are going some place.
We in fact had a wonderful day!  Our first stop was the fish vendor in a the small town of Empalme.

This is basically a couple of coolers along side the road.  We picked up 2 kilos of huge shrimp and 1 kilo of cleaned, cracked crab.  It is now just the beginning of the season.  Next stop was the street market in Empalme where they sell everything American second hand.  It was like a huge yard sale with food vendors either walking around or cooking over portable heat.  I saw one guy selling any portion of the pig you wanted.  All cooked in various ways.
Moses picked up a cup of coco's with hot-sauce.  This is hunks of coconut meat and is very popular here.  They offer all kinds of toppings on it.

We also saw honey vendors walking around with honeycombs in a wheelbarrow, complete with bees buzzing, selling honey and bee pollen.  Live bees are actually pretty common inside some of the downtown stores that sell sweats.  Ants are also very common and can be found on most pastries!
Our next stop was a small tienda to pick up some tomatoes, cilantro, onion, cucumber, jalapeño, mayonnaise and tostados.  I still wasn't sure where we were going, I was guessing back to the boat.
We ended up at the home of Moses' godparents, I think!  We all piled out of the car.  I'm pretty sure they were not expecting us as they had just finished breakfast.  The Mexican people we have met are so gracious and hospitable.  I always feel very welcome in their homes.  We were invited to have a seat at the table under a beautiful tree in their front yard.  Moses and Aurora took all the groceries into the house.  I eventually wondered into the kitchen to watch all the prep work for the upcoming feast.
Their home was a very typical Mexican style with the kitchen just inside the front door and a pot of beans on the stove.  At some point their son-in-law Oscar, a local chemistry teacher joined us for the feast.  We had a lovely meal of crab tostadas and boiled shrimp.  We also enjoyed homemade tequila and frozen guava juice.
The entire day was such a treat.  Oscar returned us to the boat where we looked around and couldn't really remember what we where suppose to do today so Doug just decided to take a nap!  That was good for his cold.