The Johnsons Arrive

Our friends, Win and Cinda Johnson, were our first guests to visit from Boulder this year.  We were really excited to share our home away from home with them.  We spent most of the time taking walks, eating at various establishments, including our own, and showing them the town.  We were so busy catching up that we did very little picture taking but here are a few:

We thought it was going to be really cold out at the Soggy Peso, so we dressed
accordingly, only to find it warmer and no wind in sight.  But it was surprisingly
cloudy for San Carlos.

Danny Moreno and his band were singing and playing today.
We ended up dancing with some of the young people on the left.
Their friend stepped up to the microphone and began singing with
the most amazing voice.  They should definitely take her
into the band.

We pretty much had the place to ourselves.  Can you see what
looks like islands off in the distance?  That's the Baja!

We stopped on our way to the restaurant for dinner to catch
the sunset.  It was astounding-even Boo was mesmerized!

Jim kept looking for that green light but this yellow one
was pretty fabulous.

Almost looks like a rainbow around the sun

I can't help myself with this excess of sunset pictures. It just
kept getting better and better.

One more....

This is the Sunset Grill.  Aptly named, don't you think?

Our lucky night!  They treated us to a scrumptious dinner and
we had a fascinating conversation with Frank and Lisa and
the waiters.  We couldn't believe that we were the only ones here.

One last amazing sunset picture of the restaurant windows reflecting the sunset.  

We were sad to see them leave our house, but they rented a really cool little casita overlooking the bahia for the next two weeks.  It is on the Caracol and they can kayak right from their own private beach!

Tucked into the mountainside-lots of steps

The cutest outdoor kitchen

And even a swing set down at the beach

The girls chat it up

The guys admire the view 

Another beautiful sunset
I think they will be very happy here.

Cardon Cactus Forest

Russ Walls and his wife, Phyllis, from Portland, drove us out into the country outside of San Jose and Empalme to see the Cardon Cactus Forest.  Cardon cacti are the largest in the world.  They are frost intolerant, so don't grow in the states.   Some live to be 200 years old.  They can grow up to 20 meters high.  The youngest plants have spines but they disappear as the plant matures.  Can't wait to see the forest in bloom!

You could easily get lost among all the dirt roads out here but Russ (82!) has been
coming to Mexico since the fifties and drives like a man who knows what he's
doing.

The mountains of Guaymas in the background

Jim with Russ and Phyllis

You must be a very careful bird to make your nest here!

Some birds make nests in the holes shown here.

The cardon is known by its size, its many arms
and the fact that the arms grow out of the base
of the plant and not further up like the saguaro. 

This one is called the old man cactus.

It was flowering a little.

This is an ocotillo, with only a few flowers.

And a barrel cactus with shell (dropped by a bird?)

The community center of San Jose

Outside the church in San Jose

 Church windows in San Jose:

A Gorgeous Sunset and Two Big Events in One Day

Most of the time, the sunsets here are just wonderful.  The one pictured below was spectacular and the pictures don't even do it justice.  These were taken from our deck.

On Sunday, there were two big fundraisers in town.  The first was called Yappy Tapa Hour.  It was a fundraiser for the pet adoption group here.  We had 6 delicious tapas, a glass of wine and were entertained by one of our favorites, Lorena Robles.

Lorena

Dave Anderson and Jimbo

Although it doesn't look like it, there were over 100 people here-
Good news for the dogs and cats of San Carlos!

 No sooner did that event end than we were off to the second.  I think I've mentioned the Steel Pan Band before.  Susan King, Castaway Kids, and Esperanza Azteca Sonora put on this first performance by the Guaymas children.  After only one week of practice on the steel pan drums, they performed two outstanding pieces for us.

They performed on the beach at Palapa Griega.

We went with Lynne and Dave, Cynthia and two of Cynthia's friends.

It was a gorgeous night.

This little guy was amazing.  And the girl in
back smiled through the entire performance.

He was so serious

What a setting!

A Perfectly Wonderful Day at the Sea of Cortez

Every once in awhile you experience one of those days that you treasure and remember forever.  This was one of those.