Villa Hermosa - The Hood

I spend alot of time roaming around our neighborhood walking Boo.  So, today I decided to take pictures of the different homes in the area.  I'd say that it is one of many nice neighborhoods, a combination of gorgeous homes, some falling apart, some empty lots and lots of nice people!  Villa Hermosa means Beautiful View.

At the corner of our street

Vacant lot behind our house

This one commands the best views behind us

Either cobblestone or dirt streets up here

Selena's house-she's from Manitou Springs and lives across
the street.  Boo loves her dogs, Dude and Charles.

Don's house next door.  He is one of the better kite surfers down here.

I love their margarita deck!

Rick, our next door neighbor, lives here with his dog, Beans.
The purple house in the distance is in another blog.  Lee and
Jerry live there with their two very cute Yorkshire terriers, Cody
and Keira.  This is one heck of a dog friendly place.  

An abandoned house down the road a piece

Our neighborhood palapa bar-walked down here Thanksgiving
eve to hear a local favorite, Mark Mulligan.

Our beach-an easy walk from here

Back in the Swing of Things-Week One in San Carlos

We hadn't spent much time at Guaymas events last year, so we were delighted when friends invited us to go with them for the Dance and Mariachi Festival celebrating the Mexican Revolution that was taking place in downtown Guaymas.  We strolled around the city a little at first, admiring some of the buildings around the docks downtown.  It was particularly interesting to me as I had just finished reading "The Guaymas Chronicles:  The Mandadera" which took place mainly in this area.

Jardin 

Church in downtown Guaymas

Mariachi band at 3 Presidents Plaza in Guaymas

We loved the dancing and got a kick out of the fact that everyone was changing into costumes right at the front of the stage behind a small makeshift room which didn't allow for much privacy.  The costumes were beautiful--the ladies had pictures of San Carlos and the Tetakawi Mountains on the front of their skirts.  They moved too fast for my phone to catch them well on camera but they were very colorful!  Just loved the mariachis but the mikes were turned up so high that we had to cover our ears as the sound HURT!  We ate chicken enchiladas at the Casino and our bill came to less than $10 for the two of us!

We are so enjoying being at home, with our fabulous views and the pool, that it is hard to make ourselves go out too much.  We did manage to go to Delfines to hear Lorena Robles one night-a short walk from our house, to go salsa dancing at the Soggy Peso another and to a paella party at friends' at Marina Real.

Lorena belting out "Sabor a Mi" at Delfine's

Algodones arrival

We had to stop to see what all of this was about.

It was a bridal party!  

Our first glimpse of the Soggy Peso on
a breezy afternoon of salsa dancing

Some of my dance partners - Jim was busy entertaining Boo!

Our friend, Leslie

And, back home in time so we could get up early for a beautiful sunrise

Arrival in San Carlos

Our Chula Vista home in San Carlos

We pulled into our new place at about 3pm on Saturday afternoon.  We had rented it last year, sight unseen and so, didn't know what to expect.  Gina and Jack, the owners, greeted us and showed us around and we had a glass of wine with them while we learned how everything worked.  We feel like we've died and gone to heaven!!!  It is a 3 bedroom house on a hill a few blocks from town and a few blocks from the Posada beach, overlooking the Sea of Cortez.  It has a pool, 2 decks and a fire pit and very comfortable furnishings.  It is outfitted with everything you could conceivably want or need - so different than last year's place where we needed to buy everything from paper towels and toilet paper to water and internet access, etc.  Gina even left us with a bowl full of Snickers!  Now that is the kind of landlady I like!  They are a delightfully fun couple who obviously love this home but just don't have the time to come down here often enough.  We are more than ecstatic to occupy it in the meantime.

The firepit on the upstairs deck

View out the back

The pool

One of the guest rooms

View of the Tetakawis

The first night we just crashed without dinner and then on Sunday we got up, had breakfast on the deck and just bathed in the glow of our good luck in scoring such a wonderful place.  Then we discovered the walk to the Posada Playa, the closest beach to us and let Boo remember how much he loved running with the waves!

We have videos of his romp on the beach
but, unfortunately, I could not upload them here.

Next, we headed on over to the Algodones area where there are now 5, instead of 3 bars/restaurants.  We thought we'd try the new Sunset Grill but saw that the action was at La Salsa, so we headed there for quesadillas, shrimp and margaritas.  Assterisko, one of our favorite bands from last year was there and the whole place was teaming with Mexican families, dancing, swimming, drinking and enjoying a beautiful day at the beach.  It is great to be back!

We love watching families having a great time.

These ladies were a hoot!  They could
salsa like nobody's business.

Assterisko at the La Salsa Bar

Sunsets here are just beautiful.

We'll try to go here next time.  It looks wonderful and is
owned by Lisa, the lady who owns the Soggy Peso, one
of our favorite haunts from last year.

On The Road Again

The fall in Boulder this year has just been incredibly beautiful, as you can see from this picture I took of Coot Lake a few days before we left town:

We woke up, on the morning we were leaving, to another lovely fall day in Longmont, CO but you could see the snow and wind forming over the Indian Peaks, so we knew it was time to head south.  The temperature dropped from 62 to 5 degrees in a matter of hours!  Getting out of town is never easy as all kinds of unexpected things happen at the last minute:  needing to rent Jason's duplex apartment next door (including arranging for painting-THANK YOU, Chris!, replacing blinds, steam cleaning carpets, getting the yard ready for winter, etc.), having a problem with the heating unit in Jason's apartment, not being able to find some things (isn't that always the case!), deciding we had to do some Christmas shopping, as shopping in Mexico is primarily for people who want/need Mexican things, and cleaning up our basement (KIVA) apartment!  Note:  I have not mentioned the at least 100 other things that came up.....

So, a good-bye to Boulder/Longmont:  it was a gorgeous fall and we had such great times with friends and family. Erin and Todd invited us to spend the first night in Golden which was just delightful and we were off on the 12th of November for the trip south. We are ready for the next adventure!

We left in bitter cold and blowing snow, our car packed to the gills with what we thought was less stuff than we had last year - not so much!  We had to rearrange things many times to create a small hole so we could see out the rear view mirror.  And to think we almost bought a kayak!!

Boulder on Tuesday

After going over Raton Pass in New Mexico, it was clearer sailing until we got close to Santa Fe where it was snowing again.  30+ degrees there felt like a veritable heat wave.  We hunkered down into our funky, dog-friendly "Willie Nelson Room" at the Silver Saddle Motel, ordered Mexican food from the cafe across the street and relaxed for the first time all day.  After checking out Jackalope next door for some shopping (I just bought a couple of cards!), we headed south to Silver City.

On the way, we stopped at one of our favorite places for lunch:  The Buckhorn Tavern in San Antonio, where the owner (Bobby) has won a "Throwdown" with Bobby Flay, making his world famous green chili cheeseburgers.  You can see that they are proudly #7 in the country and, let me tell you, they are good!!!!

Dog friendly porch

The bar

Police patches from all over the country

Usually we take the quick route to Tucson; but, since we had never been to Silver City before, we headed west through the beautiful Gila National Forest on a VERY windy, but beautiful road and checked into the Gallery 400 B and B.

The Gila looking west

Gila rock formations

Gallery 400 B and B

The courtyard

We had a beautiful room with a small courtyard in this very nice family-run art gallery with 3 rooms for guests.  We were exhausted, so hit the sack early and got up early to explore the town.  There really wasn't a whole lot to see.  It is an old mining town whose main street was wiped out during a series of floods.  There is now a "Big Ditch" where the original main part of town was.  It is a lovely walking area now and they are still in the process of rebuilding the main street.

Boo and I loved the colors of this mural in town!

We crossed the border early.  US customs takes a photo of your car passing through and the Mexican authorities took a perfunctory look at the back of the car and decided that we were more trouble than we were worth and waved us through.  There was a long, long line on the other side, going into the states. Note:  don't come through on a Saturday morning going back.

At KM 21, you get out of your car, fill out papers for your visa, pay at the bank and go your merry way.  No problemo!

No wait

Buying the Visa at the bank

We headed to Hermosillo, passing through several small towns where you need to slow down to avoid upsetting your car on the topes (big bumps in the road) and try to avoid buying anything from the men and boys selling tortillas and fruits and vegetables.  Hermosillo is a big city and a bit of a challenge to get through but we made it with only one wrong turn and headed south on Rte. 15 which is now very familiar to us.  It is a straight shot to the San Carlos turnoff.  A few changes were evident in town (i.e. there is now a stop sign in the middle of town) but it seemed familiar and almost like "home".  Stay tuned for pictures from our home for the next 5 months!