Enjoying the wildlife, etc

We are very lucky that we are situated next to a pond where lots of birds drop in to feed plus there are 12 large turtles.  One day we had a flock of 23 roseate spoonbills that flew in to feed just for a couple of hours then they took off! More recently we have had as many as 18 wood storks visiting the pond.

But most days we see just a couple of wood storks, 1 or 2 roseate spoonbills, ibis (brown and white), egrets, a great blue heron, cormorants.

3 roseate spoonbills on left with wood storks on the right

Sitting on our patio we enjoy watching the birds visiting our humming bird feeder. Lately there have been several orioles beside the usual cinnamon and black-chin hummingbirds. 

Plus a woodpecker comes from time to time to check out what's going on from our awning over the patio.

I've even seen the woodpecker land on the top of the hummingbird feeder while the oriole was feeding but both flew away before I could take a photo.

The flowers are beautiful here.  There are lots of mandevilla vines with various colours of flowers. We were able to purchase 2 mandevillas at home to enjoy on our patio in the summer.

On the wall behind our RV sites there are hibiscus growing plus other vines that I enjoy viewing as I hang our laundry to dry.

Red passion flower

We also have a small flower garden at the front of our site where we have a rosemary bush, basil plants, and 2 rose bushes that we've planted.  There are many other plants courtesy of previous tenants and the manager of the park.  This year our rose bushes did quite well even though they are very tiny bushes.

Is that you?

I'm sitting at the computer in the front of the MH at 8:05AM. Bev is in the bathroom. The MH starts shaking around.

I ask "Is that you?"

Bev replies "I thought it was you".

The shaking goes on for about 30 seconds and dies away.

5.8 earthquake near Manzanillo!

Touring Guanajuato Jan 16th to 19th

From Tequila we drove across the new bypass south of Guadalajara on our way to Guanajuato.  It saved us a lot of time.  We arrived early in the afternoon which gave us plenty of time to check into our rooms and then head out for a walk.

We stayed at the Hotel Posada Santa Fe, taking advantage of their special of 3 nights for the price of 2 which included a hot breakfast each morning.  The suites were lovely as pictured below.

beautiful stained glass in our shower

We walked over to the university and walked up the 82 steps to the original entrance.

our walk down

a small chapel we spotted from the top of the university steps

checking out the chapel

Next we walked over to the funicular to ride up to the statue Pipila for a panoramic view of the city.

Looking down into the base station

Pete, Jolene, Mike and Pipila

El Pipila, a mine worker, was the hero of the revolution to end slavery and oppression. His heroic actions allowed the rebels to storm the Grainery, the bastion occupied by the Spaniards. Pipila is his nickname, meaning "little turkey", because he had a long neck and walked like a turkey.

A beautiful little city surrounded by mountains

The following day we arranged for an English guide to take us in his vehicle on a tour of Guanajuato.  We toured from 10:15 am to 5:30 pm.  We took in many sites. Among them: a drive throught the historic downtown area, Museum of the Mummies, Museo Ex-Hacienda San Gabriel de Barrera, Museo Casa Diego Rivera, the church and mine in La Valencia plus a drive along the Panoramic road surrounding the city. We drove through an area of very large homes, spotting an unusual one among the many.

Rayas Mine looks like a fortress.

From the city centre, the Rayas mine looks like a castle or fortress, but is really a rock wall that provides a flat working area for the mine on top. This mine originates in 1550 and still is in operation today. The significance of Guanajuato is that it once produced about one third of the worlds output of silver.

Of course, the outstanding feature of Guanajuato is it's tunnel system. If you don't know your way around, you will get totally lost. The picture below is one of the original tunnels which was once a tunnel to divert flood water coming from the mountains. The tunnel was converted to a roadway and now the diversion is buried below the roadway. The first tunnel dates back to the early 1800s using the local mining technologies. Tunneling began in earnest in 1960 to ease traffic congestion in the narrow streets of the old city.

Tunnel Intersection...an easy way to get lost

Don Quijote and Sancho Panza, as his squire

Our lunch stop was at the Mexico Lindo y Sabroso across from the Government Palace. Bev enjoyed one of their specialty dishes Chiles en Nogada.

An example of some unique architecture

On Thursday we spent the day walking around Guanajuato on our own.  We visited the Museum of Guanajuato and saw some very interesting photo-like paintings of local people, done long before photography was available. We stopped for lunch at a little restaurant off the usual tourist path. Yummy.

We also visited several artisan shops.  We picked up a beautiful fused glass bowl by Juan Vargas.  Check out his website at www.juanvargasglassart.com.

Tequila Jan 15 2018

This was our fourth visit to Tequila. We stayed at the Hotel Plaza Rubio - a hidden gem of a hotel. 3 block walk to the central plaza where all the activity occurs. The hotel had a narrow entrance off the street but once inside it opened up to a very large courtyard and car parking.

The lobby of the hotel

a part of the large courtyard at the hotel

sitting in the courtyard below our rooms

more of the courtyard

Wrought iron decorations in the courtyard

entrance to our room

seating area on our floor

It was a 3 1/2 hour drive from Lo de Marcos to Tequila.  We arrived in time to walk around the town square.

We are all in Tequila

One of the many tour buses to take around town

a statue in the plaza

Then we took a tour of the Jose Cuervo Distillery.

This was prior to the tour. You should see after!

A nice collection of cars and trucks.

agave pinas...8 tons a day are processed.

an oven where the agave pinas are steamed

after the steaming is completed and they have cooled, the pinas will be manually emptied from the ovens on to the conveyor belt

Every barrel is full of tequila....and this is the small factory.

the agave plant in the foreground is 1 yr old. The agave plants must be 8 to 10 yrs old before they can be harvested

Guanajato II

Here we are again, on a winter trip visiting Tequila and Guanajuato. Sorta repeat of our trip four years ago but instead of being shown the way, we are the ones leading the way along with our friends Mike and Mavis. Two other couples have not been here before so it is all new to them.
We are trying do everything we saw or did on our previous trip so that they could get some appreciation of the awesomeness of this prettiest and most unique city in all of Mexico.

We spent the whole day yesterday on a guided tour of just about all the highlights of the city. On the previous night, we took in the singing troubadour tour that all seemed to enjoy. The Kissing Alley wasn't included so we did that today as well as other places we had not seen before and, of course, the market.

Now it is late afternoon and we're all pooped out, and resting up for Happy Hour.

The weather here is typically cool during the day, in the high teens, but falling to near zero at night. Tomorrow we head for home and look forward to the warm weather and swimming in the ocean.

Our first month

Hard to believe we've been here a month.  Since this is our 9th winter here, it doesn't take us long to get back into routine.

Mornings of exercise class, walking, baseball, shopping for fresh fish or whatever.
Afternoons heading to the beach from 2 pm to 4:30 pm to enjoy the ocean breezes, socialize and enjoy the warm ocean water (currently 81F).  For a while the ocean was rough -- better for surfing -- but the past few days it's been calm so great for floating or doing some distance swimming.

view of the beach to the north

view of the beach to the south

The rosemary in our garden continues to flourish.  After 3 years it is now about 3 ft tall.  The basil is almost as tall but not bushy and woody -- we'll have to replace the basil next year. Our neighbour has thyme in her garden so we have a ready supply of herbs to share.

Prices are up this year for everything: rent, meat, fish, veggies, tacos.  But still affordable.  We don't know how long that will last as the area is becoming very popular.  It has been hard for snowbirds to find short term accommodation for visiting family and friends as most of the bungalows in town are rented for several months at a time.

There are several new restaurants in town with enough variety that there is really no need to go to Rincon de Guayabitos or La Penita for a night out anymore.  Mr Ribs and Tomatillos restaurant both have live music on Wednesday nights. Il Giardino restaurant is operated by Italians so nothing can beat their freshly made pasta. They also sell lasagna and a few other items at the Saturday market in town. We recently tried a new restaurant called Neptuno located on a side road not far from our campground.  One of the items we liked there was fish stuffed with shrimp and banana, then smothered with a cream cheese sauce.  It was served with rice, refried beans and salad -- all for $150 pesos (less than $10 Canadian).

Saturday nights is taco night in town. We enjoy pork or shrimp tacos or gringas (quesadillas with pork and pineapple). Our veggie vendor offers tamales occasionally for $10 pesos or chili rellenos for $15 pesos. (Considering the current exchange rate of $16 pesos to 1 Canadian dollar, cheap meals!)

The wildlife in the pond next door has been entertaining.  One day a flock of 23 roseate spoonbills came for a few hours to feed in the pond.

There are many kiskadees wherever we go. The picture below is of one visiting the pond next door.

Kiskadee watching over the pond

We have Orioles that regularly visit the trees beside our motorhome.

oriole feeding in our palm tree

We have 2 hummingbird feeders and currently have 2 cinnamon and 2 black chin hummingbirds visiting our feeders.

On Christmas day we enjoyed a traditional turkey dinner with 14 of us attending.  Vic and Bev did the turkey, others provided veggies, condiments and key lime pie.

New Year's Eve, the owner of our park supplied a meal of pork pozole (delicious!), condiments and lots of tequila.  We danced to oldies tunes until almost 2 am with a brief interlude for toasts at midnight and to watch the fireworks display plus chinese lanterns floating across the clear starry sky. It was a perfect evening!

Ah, this is life....daytime temperatures of around 27 or 28C and overnight now is low of 15C but way better than shoveling snow at home in Canada!