the friends we have made

We have met some amazing people here and we will miss them all; the volunteers at the membership library, the friendly families in our church, the shop-owners and vendors and their kids, the family who runs the place where we stay...

iguanas and geckos

We'll miss these critters.

tazos and spiners

Satisfying Liam's daily desire for a new toy are these treasures, found in chip bags, that we find on the street or are given by avid chip eaters. The tazos (with a simpsons theme- homer is homero) are like pogs and the spiners are just tops.

the Vineyard

This is the church that is in charge of the feeding, dental and learning centers that have been set up in the poorer colonies that I talked about in a previous post. They are doing some great things.

Picture explanations:

1. The bus that takes tourists to see "the other side of Mazatlan" and brings food to the people in the colonias and the dump.

2. The main church building in the Golden Zone (tourist district) where they also host meetings for Friends of Mexico and Hands Across the Border.

3. A line-up for food at the dump. Ila is standing off to the side in this picture.

4. Area where cement water filters are made to give people cleaner drinking water.

5. The water filters in storage, soon ready to be filled with filtration system.

Deer Island

We had to go to the tourist zone in order to catch a ride on this amphibious vehicle to get to Isla de Los Venados. It was converted from a US army vehicle. Everything we had read about this island promised good snorkelling but when we checked it out, the water was cloudy and we didn't see anything that we hadn't already seen. We had a good day, despite the snorkelling disappointment. We found hermit crabs and some of the best seashells yet. It was nice and quiet (once the beer-drinking tour group left) and the sand was warm and soft. Ila and Mei had a blast jumping into it(Ila is in the blue shirt, Mei in the pink).

Dogs in Clothes

An exceptionally high percent of dogs wear clothing here. Why? It's so hot!

stickers, tassles, statues...

The best thing about the transit system here is the personalized driver's spaces.

the poorer colonias

The people in the first three pictures have just been displaced to this new area on the outskirts of Mazatlan because the owner of the land that their families had been squatting on for 30 years decided to develop it for middle-income housing. The girl holding Ila is standing in front of her "new home". The next three were taken at the dump where people scavenge for things they can haul away to get money for. Some of them use donkeys or horses to pack their daily collections. I was pretty excited that they let me sit on their donkey and so were the kids. The last picture is just a cute little boy from one of the many poor colonias we saw today. The kids there loved our kids because they were blonde. A lady once told us that her kids had never seen blonde kids before, just blonde adults, so it's quite a novelty, especially since they don't live in the tourist zone.

An Orphanage

This orphanage, simply named the Mazatlan Orphanage is the only one that we have been able to find in our time here, although there are at least two others that I know of. The place looked amazingly well-kept and efficient and the kids seemed more physically well off than a lot of the kids I have seen in Mexico. Liam really liked this bedroom. He thought it looked like something out of a movie. There are 23 kids living there right now, most of them girls and all but one are school-aged.

amaranth

Amaranth is an extremely lightweight kind of grain that Liam absolutely loves. He thinks it tastes like popcorn so that's what he calls it. They are inexpensive tiny little balls of goodness that we eat by the handful but I prefer them in yogourt. They can also be used in baking and as cereal.

It's a jungle in there!

That is what Rus always says when we pass by this abandoned house every Sunday on our walk to and from church. We have seen quite a few houses like this that have been taken over by nature.

City Park

This was a wonderful place to spend the afternoon. It is a huge treed park with two lakes and it shares a fence with the Acuario zoo so we were able to peak through it at the parrots and crocodiles (first picture above). Liam was most excited about the turtles in one of the lakes. At one point we counted 29 heads sticking up out of the water, so I'm sure there were more than that. The playground equipment was reminiscent of my childhood; in Canada it has long been replaced or outlawed.

getting ready to migrate north...

As the date of our departure nears (tentatively March 14th), I have been noticing with greater clarity the things that I like and dislike about Mexico, and Mazatlan in particular.
I will miss the colorful buildings, the beautiful people, the fact that everyone and their dog is an entrepreneur, and of course the weather and the beach.
One of the things that I won't miss are the taxis that honk at us all day long, the scary bus drivers(well, all drivers here are scry actually) and the smell of sewer and the frustration from our poor communication skills (although since coming to Mazatlan, our spanish has greatly improved).

The life of a fish

We went to the art museum this week and there was a painting there that reminded me of something that happened last week. We were walking along the beach when we came across a fish. It looked dead at first but then we realized it was alive. We took Liam's sand shovel and scooped it farther out towards the ocean. The tide came in and covered it and there was just enough depth for it to start swimming sideways toward deeper water. It looked so alive and excited to be in the wetness again. It was going to live! But then before we could even blink, a pelican swooped down and snatched it up for lunch. It was an exciting and emotional moment for everyone invloved.

playa bruja

This place has become one of our favorite all-day hangouts. It's popular with surfers because of the big waves and other than the surfers and a handful of locals and tourists, there are really not a lot of people there. That might change soon, as there is an RV park being built close to it. We love it because of all the things to do. We can bodyboard in the waves (I finally tried out the board and although I am far from knowing how to do it properly, I loved it), climb and explore the rocks and cliffs, swim and snorkel in the tide pools, even watch for bats in a bat cave. The kids love the tide pools because they are just the right size for them when the tide is low. Rus had discovered the bat cave last time we went and he took us to it this time (we have decided we want to come here at least once a week before we leave). It was quite the challenge climbing over the rocks to get to it and once we came to it we didn't dare go too far in. Liam and I went in just far enough to see a bat swoop down and up again.

trees versus concrete

another iguana

This one scared me because it ran right towards me, only to disappear under the sidewalk beneath my feet. It was dark grey with a little bit of yellow on its back and it was about 1 1/2 feet long.