on the road: Semana Santa, Part One

Semana Santa (Holy Week) has begun. School children in Mexico have a two week holiday and many businesses close in order to spend time with their families. It runs from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday. Many Mexican families who have summer homes here start arriving beforehand and most of the crowds show up Wednesday-Sunday. For some, this is a religious holiday spent in church. For others it is a time to hit the beaches (and just when most of the Americans are going back north). The town is already changing. Many workers come to San Carlos to spiff it up by cutting weeds, painting curbsides, collecting trash, putting up trash cans, bringing in supplies and cleaning up the beaches. We have been told that they do an excellent job of cleaning up afterwards-hope so. We are excited to see the transformation of San Carlos.

SUNDAY

Margene and Joe had a good-bye fiesta at their house, complete with a stuffed leg of lamb, chilies, salads and a fabulous Mexican dessert that tasted alot like tres leche cake with fruit. Most of the non-permanent residents are skipping town before the hordes descend on San Carlos for spring break.

The ladies: Mary Ellen, Karen, Suzanne, Judy, Margene and Norma
Diane in front and me in back

Dining al fresco-their patio is perfect for this kind of gathering.

Karen and Dee hired a saxophonist for the event.
He played all evening. Loved it!

Enough food, as usual!

MONDAY

Gay Burks turned 58 this week! One of the youngsters around here! She and Dave, along with Chuck and Susan form the "Jus4Fun Band."

Gay and Dave live in Totanaka, the RV park here. They
have a huge truck, a 45 ft. fifth wheel and then this
trailer on the back which he uses as his grill and deep fry
area. Can you imagine rolling down the highway with
all of that? And I thought Maxine was big!

We had steak, fried fish and chicken legs!
Everyone brought a side.
Enough food for an army, once again

The park residents
I got to see quite a few of their RVs-really interesting!
Many have had theirs painted or upholstered down here.
Maxine will want a spa day when she hears about that.

The birthday girl shooing away the multitude
of flies that descended on us.

TUESDAY

Jim went to computer class while I went shopping to load up on groceries for the week. Since the roads will be clogged with traffic tomorrow til Sunday, we wanted to avoid having to go out again. We met Karen and Jim at Froggy's-the first visit for the four of us to the infamous blues hangout. We were not disappointed. We loved the Red Hot Blues Band and danced the night away (a late one for us-9 pm!!) No pictures! Afterwards, we came home and went skinny dipping in our pool. Sorry, no pictures there either!!!

WEDNESDAY

Another open mic session at Tortuga's. The crowds are thinning out but Bobby, Brad, Tim, the Jus4Fun Band and Gayle, Jim and Bruce were all there to entertain us. As we filed out, the portapotties were being delivered to begin the festivities! Let the party begin! Tortuga's will apparently close the inside space but remain open outside.

On our walk home, we stopped by our little beach along Manglares to give Boo some fun since he
humored us with his presence for the entire show today-he gets pretty bored. The beach is almost always deserted, but today there were several Mexican families playing in the water and lots of birds for Boo to chase.

A snowy egret

Loving the low tide to explore tide pools

At the point you can easily look up and see what we call
the party house. Someone said they are thinking of turning
this into a luxury boutique hotel. It would surely fit the bill.