Cats – Pesos – M. Mulligan - Kayaks

Cats & Dog
For some reason San Carlos has a lot of really healthy looking cats and a dog or two. The one dog we have seen out and about, besides our neighbors, was camped out on the roof overhang of a little grocery just south of the marina. He would bark at customers as they left the building and if people had not noticed him when they entered, they certainly were startled at his announcement of superior positioning when they left.
The high cat population makes me wonder how they are making a living if not relying upon humans for their meals. I will not share with Julie my suspicions.

Pesos
We went into Guaymas two days ago to do our major grocery shopping and I really enjoyed the relative purity of the things we purchased at Ley versus what we typically buy from Safeway at home. The few things we put in the cart that had any kind of sweetener potential, had cane sugar, not corn syrup. I bought a kilo (2.2 pounds) of shrimp for about $5.25 total, which was less than the two boxes of imported #4 coffee filters. The Peso has dropped 40 % or more over the last six months and it is very noticeable in some venues. Of course in San Carlos there are some restaurants that have simply raised their already high prices to the tourists, but that may not last long because from what we can tell during our brief time here it does not seem very busy.

Mark Mulligan
There is a palapa on the beach next to the remains of the La Posada Hotel, and it was here that we got a chance to see Mark Mulligan play to a packed house (think big open air shed) and spin his Buffetesque style songs to an enthusiastic crowd. In my memory, the La Posada Hotel is where Chris and I stayed with our Aunt Joanne and cousins Steven & Tammy in about 1958 (?). The old structure is melting into the ground in a way that I have only seen in Mexico, while a remnant slab of concrete is serving as the basis for the Mulligan venue, and hundreds of meals and drinks served several nights a week. When we first came to this spot as children with our Aunt, there was not any other choice of a place to stay outside of Guaymas.

Kayaks
Yesterday Julia and I spent many hours at several coves exploring the shoreline from our kayaks. It was another perfect weather day, about 75°, with crystal clear, but cold, water. Julia really likes looking for shells along the beaches and at one point I began to get a little concerned about the buoyancy of her life vest when I noticed that she had just about filled every pocket with shells. We paddled around several coves and probably covered a few miles in total at a very leisurely pace. I sat in the kayak and watched a panga as one occupant donned a wetsuit and the other worked oars and made sure that the small air compressor kept running. The diver stayed down for at least 45 minutes and my guess was that he was stalking small lobster.