Bienvenidos Mexico

Our first winter at the cabin 2019. We enjoyed the cold and snow (as much as any summer loving individuals can), but by December we still managed to find ourselves planning a trip to Mexico. We rented a condo in San Carlos from January 15 to February 15. We waited excitedly for our departure date but were nervous about not being able to get from our cabin to the main road if it snowed too much. For us, the wait to get on the road seemed like forever. For Lily, it is the time on the road that seemed like forever.

After renting sight unseen, we were pleasantly surprised at how nice (and big), it was. As it turns out, they gave us the wrong rental, and we had to move across the street half-way through our stay. No problem. It was actually quite nice because we didn’t need so much space, and the one across the street had a washer and dryer.

Added bonus—we got to enjoy a different view from our new patio while taking in the sunshine.

While there, I made friends with the sweetest dog. It was quite frightening at first to approach him (take a look at the picture and it will be obvious why), but he gladly ate up any leftovers we gave him. Jim has way more dog experience than I do, and he had never seen a dog with such and unusual and unnerving “smile?”. It's a tough life for dogs in Mexico, and I guess that first impressions are everything.

And speaking of dogs, I have to share this picture of some neighborhood dogs in Guaymas causing concern to a pedestrian. You will have to excuse a bit of disjointed random ramblings. After all it was quite some time ago, and the memories are coming to me as I go through our pictures.

During our stay, we only spent a couple of days working on the boat. Jim varnished the exterior wood on the topside that will most certainly need to be done again upon returning from our extended absence. And I sewed a shade cloth cover for some nice shade while at anchor which we have not had a chance to try yet. I’ll come back to that later this year once we get a chance to try it out to let you know if and how it works out. Mostly we intentionally took time to just relax and enjoy ourselves while we were there. We went to Cinamex to see a movie a couple of times a week (with popcorn of course). Our favorite popcorn was Ruffles (pronounced rooflays), a wonderful mix of popcorn and cheddar cheese Ruffles chips.

We also made it to our favorite restaurant in Guaymas (I guess it is more of a salad bar, but they make it for you), at least once a week. It is called Salad City, and while it is fairly expensive (for Mexico), they make the best salad ever!

To balance out all the Ruffles popcorn and margaritas, we made sure to maintain our active lifestyle with plenty of trail running. Sometimes into the desert…

and sometimes to the beach.

Running through town we came across these beautiful lawn mowers

And running through the desert we came across this poor cow that apparently got into some cactus. Poor cow! We wanted to pull the cactus off of its muzzle, but do you see those horns.

We also spent lots of time at the beach running and swimming and tide pooling

We feel so fortunate that Lily, our very loved and very spoiled dog loves all the things we do. Her joy of running, swimming, and outdoor adventures helps keep us motivated.

Over the years we have driven by the San Carlos letters many times and always said that we should stop and take a picture. This land lubbers trip seemed the perfect time to actually do it. First Jim...

...then Sherry

Wait a minute, let's get a closer look at Lily on that one...now that's a one "dog"on good smile!

Wait a minute, let's get a closer look at that onow that's a one "dog"oon good smile! Naturales (Center for Conservation and Use of Natural Resources) to learn everything you ever wanted to know about Rainbow Lip Oysters and the Sea of Cortez pearls...