Jason and Sarah Come to San Carlos

Jason and his girlfriend, Sarah, have been planning this trip for a year and it finally happened! They arrived safely in Hermosillo, we picked them up and drove back to San Carlos uneventfully.  Our first stop was at Charley's Rock, a renowned restaurant right at the sea.  Sarah and Jim and I had margaritas and Jason had his usual Coca Light.  He ordered a fish fillet that he thought would be fish and chips but it was a whole half of a real fish with the head and tail on.  He almost had a heart attack when he saw it.  We took it home with us another day.

We started out at this spot with the view but quickly
moved further inside as the sea gulls helped themselves
to our chips and salsa!

A first night of dancing and dining to Omar and the
Gypsy Fish-one of our favorite bands 

 On Friday, we drove over to Miramar with Cinda and visited the Pearl Farm, where Jason bought Sarah a beautiful necklace and she bought a pendant for her older daughter.  I refrained this time-never an easy thing to do.  The Spaniards traded with the Yaqui and Seri Indians in the early 1600s for pearls and eventually began fishing for pearls themselves.  By the 1800s they had pretty much exhausted the oyster beds in this area and moved to other parts of Mexico.  In the 1990s some graduate students at the university here experimented with reviving the pearl cultivation of oysters, using a particularly beautiful oyster, the rainbow lipped pearl oyster. They create 8,000 pearls a year using a non-processed elaborate procedure which takes the oysters through many phases over 4 or 5 years.  They are not embellished as are many pearls around the world.  Because it is a small operation, with no middle men, they are quite reasonable to buy.

We walked down to the little shed at seaside and watched
as they cleaned the nets and sorted out the oysters from
the other things in the nets.  There were lots of odd looking
little creatures in there.

These are the oysters, when they come up for a cleaning.

This man is using a very sharp knife to cut
all the crusty stuff off the outside of the oyster.

Afterwards we went to one of Jason's favorite restaurants from last year, the Mariscos Mazateno in Miramar.  He had the marlin tacos-his favorite.  We came home, had a slight rest and then went out to JJ's to hear the Dudes.  Jason was thrilled that JJ remembered him, gave him a big hug and told him he remembered how much he loved the Big Donkey (a huge burrito!).  We all danced some, visited with some friends and then headed out to Mr. Iguana's for more music.

The Dudes at JJs

Finishing that big donkey

Susan Anderson babysitting Boo while we danced

On to Mr. Iguana's....

Jason and Sarah at Mr. Iguana's which was JJ's original
location.  They have enlarged it quite a bit and made it
a really nice venue, complete with pool table, darts, etc.

Assterisko

Susan and her sister chair dancing- they are quite a fun pair!

We took a tour of the marina the next day and I took this of the two of them by the boats.

I am now taking Spanish lessons and Jason decided to go with me, while Sarah and Jim relaxed on the deck.

My teacher, Julia, is in the middle.  She teaches us beginners.
Though I've taken Spanish multiple times, it never seemed to
stick until I moved to Mexico-and I'm still a beginner! The
lady on the left teaches the advanced students.  The man on
the right was teaching us the Mexican happy birthday song.
Apparently, when it is your birthday, people come to your
house in the very, very early morning to serenade you with
this song. Most birthday beneficiaries are not especially
thrilled to be awakened so early.

That evening we were invited to Suzanne and Mike's for cocktails and then went to hear Jesus and the Country Boys at Delfines.  Jim and I, being the old folks, left early and the kids stayed out til the show was over, talking country talk with Jesus and his wife, Naomi, and then walked the 4 or 5 blocks home.

Suzanne and Mike live a couple of doors down from
where Win and Cinda are renting at Creston Beach.
That's Bev beside Win and Jim-she manages the San
Carlos gym where I take yoga lessons.

Jesus and the Country Boys at Defines
Yes-amazingly enough that is Jason dancing with Sarah.

Sarah and Jason in black and white

The next day was the Rescate Bazaar, a fundraiser for the EMT rescue service here in San Carlos.  There were many vendors, lots of entertainment and food.  We did buy a few things from the ever persistent beach vendors.  Later we finally made it out to the Soggy Peso for a walk and a margarita and a little relaxing in the hammocks.

None of us were very good at this game, trying to hook
a nail.  That's the shower behind Sarah.

Afterwards, we went up to the fishing village of La Manga.  We haven't been there much this year, since the kindergarten teacher left town and our project last year was to help them with supplies and event planning.  We did have lunch there and the place was crowded.  We were the only gringos in sight.

Sarah loved her shrimp and crab tostada
with lime and avocado.  Delicioso! You can see
the oyster beds from our seats.  And we watched
several of the people from the village preparing
the crabs.

We made it home in time for a quick half hour nap, change of clothes and off to the Hattie Annie for the sunset cruise.

The birthday kids-the cruise and dinner at Hammerhead's
 was our gift to them.

Susan King

Jim and Bill

Cutie Wootie

Araceli, female boat captain

A pretty little señorita, along for the ride.

Visiting St. Nicholas (or Christmas) Island to see the blue
footed boobies and the great blue herons in their nests!

Bird's eye view

When they brought out the birthday cake for the kids, they also brought out some wigs and hats which made for many laughs all around.

Never looked better!

A beautiful sunset surrounding the Tetas 

For their last day here, we had breakfast at Gustavo's, did some shopping and hanging out at our pool (yes, it's finally warm enough again to get in!) and then we packed up some wine and snacks for sunset on the beach and ended with dinner at Palapa Griega.  

We will miss them but, boy, did we have a good time!!