Leaving San Carlos

Today was our last day in San Carlos so we played a round of golf early, which still left plenty of time to look at a beach house that just came on the market (too much for too little) and still we got the Suburban packed. Since we only purchased a few small items it all crammed back in just fine. We have stocked up on about a dozen tamales and a kilo of camarones for Tucson, and we would take much more if we thought they would last until we get to Oregon, but that would probably be stretching it a bit.

We have planned one last dinner out at Picalo's, just in case our waistlines threaten to shrink. If nothing else, we CAN say that we made a great effort to sample all of the restaurants here, along with just a few margaritas!

So here we are with long faces and trying to just count our blessings, which are abundant. We plan to be back soon.

We’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto

The day after I went into the dentist here in San Carlos to take care of my broken molar, the Doctor stopped by our condo to check on me. He just wanted to make sure that I was not in pain. I was just fine, so Julie and I were out golfing when he left his card on the door, so not knowing why he had been here I stopped by his office the next morning to inquire. I was more concerned that my check had not cleared or that the casting for the enamel cap had not gone well and my new tooth would not be ready before our departure.

I do not know if everyone gets that level of concern and care or if it is only because I am a gringo paying a higher rate and might have friends in similar need. I plan to ask a few locals if this is common practice, but whatever the answer it is just a sure sign that we are in a different world. Dr. Hiram Martinez C. Duarte is high on my list of good people.

Aged Beef, Tectonics & Porsche 911 Turbo

This last Friday night Julie and I took advantage of the prime rib night at the Marina Cantina, since I was feeling in great need of a beef protein fix. But this begins at the beginning when my teeth were younger. My teeth are almost as old as I am, at least the adult teeth in their exposed condition, and I would call them “experienced”. That is they have seen some action and abuse over the decades.

In Mexico, I am told, they do not age their beef, which means that it is a bit more solid than what we have at home – some would say tough – and I know this because we have been here in San Carlos for a while and have experienced this condition several times. With my aged teeth this should have been my clue to be somewhat careful when I flopped my lips on this slab of mega beef. Instead, I ignored the fact that these teeth have witnessed tectonic activity on a par with the San Andres Fault, with significant surface fissures having been mapped by countless grad students searching for thesis material.

On the second bite a 7.5 quake snapped the lower molar like it was nothing, without a hint of advance warning. I thought it was just a small whole pepper or something that rolled around my mouth with the beef before being swallowed. Only later did I learn the magnitude assigned by the USGS to the rift now clearly evident.

I have now learned that good dentistry, a root canal, is available in San Carlos in the form of Dr. Hiram Martinez at a cost that would pay some tuition bills for his clan here, if he has one, while being very reasonable by U.S. standards. In Florence, or just about anywhere I have had dental work performed before, I have always felt somewhat ambushed by the costs and feeling that I really did not feel well about buying my dentist his new Porsche. This is different here. More measured and in line with the real world. I bought him a good, new 3-speed bicycle, with accessories.

Countdown Mode

The last few days we have found ourselves going through a check list of things we still want to do, or do again, before we leave beautiful San Carlos in a little over a week. We know that our amount of outdoor time will be very limited once we are back in the Northwest because in all likelihood there is still quite a bit of rainy weather ahead, even though it is late in the season.

Yesterday was a Soggy Peso day, with live music on the beach and margaritas in hand. The Soggy Peso is definitely our favorite hangout as Catch 22 beach is unsurpassed in the area for liveliness and sunsets. The beach band was Bad News Blues from Tucson, with some fill-in vocals from a local lady who can really belt it out – we don’t know or can’t remember her name, but she can really sing. We met several people that have sort of become our friends and one fellow NAU alum and his wife, also a Julie, who are moving to San Carlos in the fall.

Every tourists camera, including ours, is full of sunset photographs taken from Catch 22 beach if they have ever been there at that time of day. Since the sun is continually setting somewhere on the planet, and once a day at almost any given point, it should be no big deal, but here we all are snapping away while oohing and aahing and trying not to spill the remains of our margaritas. The margaritas may factor heavily into this equation.

We have seen some beautiful homes and then some really unbelievable villas, especially on the Caracol Peninsula. Some of the views from these high perches create instant melancholy - a primal sense of belonging. Either that or the real estate agent is adding drugs to the bottled water we take along on these outings. Julie has asked Alisha to plunk down weekly money on the lottery back in Oregon in hopes of funding the purchase of one of these Shangri-Las.

This is a simple place and lifestyle compared to our situation at home in Florence and those feelings will always be a draw on our souls, pulling as south again and again. Of course that is what you are supposed to feel while on a vacation, but we really are not on a vacation per-se since we have been semi-retired for so long. Nonetheless, here we are, not wanting to leave because the weather is still perfect, new adventures are commonplace and our sense of relaxation is complete and absolute for now.

Half Serious, plus

Ok, so every time we go somewhere we like we start looking at houses and this sometimes gets us packing. Well, we like San Carlos. And we found something that would be suitable - just barely.

This is actually not a very large house, with 3 separate bedrooms accessed only from the long patio. The kitchen, dining and living rooms are all one big space, but it is mostly the big porch of this hacienda style casa that is just absolutely charming.

Again, what can I say. It would be fun to spend more winters in the sun here.

The place does have a few draw backs, aside from the price, like no hot water in the kitchen and too few electical outlets where they are most needed. But, hey, things don't have to be perfect!

More Estuario Photos

Just a few more photos from the estuary.

Salty Birds

Today we paddled into the estuary from the beach in front of the Pillar Condominiums folowing the incoming tide. This is a really good way to spend a morning, especially when we were just drifting and letting the tide push us along. Just dip the paddle on one side or the other to control the direction. Obviously we say lots of birds and the small fish they were hunting, and we saw one sting ray running away from us in six incehs of water. A good morning.

Marina info for Vic & Robin

These are photos of the dry storage and marina in San Carlos, just in case you really want to bring your boat down from the Northwest. The marina does not presently have any mooring bouys available, but they do have slips in all lengths, with or without power.
Click on the photos to get the full size version

We will email the rates later.

Marina launch ramp.

Boat hoist at marina.
Marina Seca dry storage - office.

Marina Seca dry storage yard - gate.

Mexico through CNN Eyes

Guaymas Municipal Building today.

A growing topic amoung expats in San Carlos has been the lack of tourists here and the treatment of the Mexican efforts against the drug smugglers on US television. We are all dismayed at the shallow reporting. Today we had a slight drizzle in the morning and we went into Guaymas because it would not be a good beach day, so this afternoon was a time to just do whatever.

I decided to email CNN and take them to task for their lack of depth regarding the situation in the border towns, so this is what I sent:

Many of us U.S. citizens, as well as those other North Americans, Canadians, currently located south of the border are dismayed at the treatment given by the televised media to the hostilities between the Mexican police and military and the drug smugglers they are trying to stop, especially at the border towns.

For years our government has called upon Mexico to step up its pressure on the drug smugglers and then when this actually happens and results in more violence, reporters spin the outcome with a sense of surprise, as if the one action would not lead to the other. We should be thanking Mexico’s Government and Military personnel for their action. And while I do not think it would be smart to have lunch in an open air restaurant with the Police Chief of a border town at this moment, I feel safer here in our Sonoran beach town getaway than many parts of some cities in the U.S. of A.

Discouraging U.S. citizens from visiting Mexico’s tourist areas is the wrong approach when most areas are very safe. We should want Mexico’s economy to do well because a stronger economy down here only helps the stability of the continent in the long run. The big media purveyors need to act more responsibly and turn on their collective brain before blasting the airways with partial and shallow reporting geared only toward selling more Viagra and prostrate medicines in the two minute blocks of time between sound bites.

Viva Mexico and Viva USA!

Lee Edmonson
Florence, Oregon &
San Carlos, Sonora

And yet even more doors...

I still have about 20 more doors, but I will spare you for now. Today we are headed into Guaymas Centro to explore the old buildings and waterfront.


This is one I just had to put in even though it is not an entry door. It might be labeled, "Why?"

Many more doors...

Yesterday was a perfect bicycle day with an overcast sky and cooler temperatures, so we took the opportunity to canvas all of the beach neighborhoods for more interesting doors. We found many, but I learned that blogger will only let me import a few at a time, so this is in several posts.

Doors of San Carlos

I have decided to take up a much safer past time here.............doors.

I will add to this as I find more of interest and have the time to spend in the internet. Everywhere I go I see some really interesting entries, but I have not always had my camera with me, so I am seting out with the intent of finding doors that are unique.

Margarita Rating Project Dries Out

It is not possible to sample and report on the relative merits of all of the margaritas available in San Carlos. The effort has taken a staggering toll upon the author’s ability to function in other arenas, and to be successful would require that a liver transplant team be placed on standby. That would be an especially poor use of medical facilities and personnel.

The project would require that multiple participants agree on a set of standards and have the ability equally assign identical ratings to a standard set of control margaritas. This is impossible.

While it was somewhat fun while it lasted, it is only possible to conceive of this sort of nonsensical endeavor while lounging and relaxing in the warmth of an extended vacation. Also, there are some really bad margaritas out there which are an assault on the taste buds and an affront to the bartender’s art of blending alcohol and tasty fruity stuff. We have found that these are hard to survive and more frequent that we would like to see, causing more than a little apprehension when sampling new locations. We are done.

The San Carlos, Sonora Margarita Rating Project

Although there are so many things to do in San Carlos that we can not conceive of ever being bored, we have found that choosing drinking establishments is a sport here and everyone we have met has interesting opinions about where we should go for meals and sunset drinks. So purely in the interest of helping those that follow, we have taken on the unenviable task of ranking as many places as possible for their margaritas. This is hard, serious work, but we take it on with enthusiasm and vigorous scientific objectiveness. Well, not so much the last thing.
The rating system employed here is entirely subjective and may be influenced by the daily fluctuations in the fortunes of the participants, wind direction, clouds, the people met along the way, temperature, music, moon phase, the Peso exchange rate and just about any other variable in the universe. We tried to be fair but sort of apologize if we have offended anyone.
A good margarita should not be too sweet (no corn syrup, please), or too sour, contain decent tequila and be reasonably priced in Pesos. A great margarita is, well, great. You will know it when you find it.
The capacity of the participants to consistently consume margaritas at a known rate is suspect; therefore the results may be subject to revision from time to time for no particular reason. Do not underestimate the benefit of locale and weather upon the rating applied to the refreshments. As always, beware the gringo that does not partake of the local flavor.

THE SYSTEM

One Smiley Face is to be generally avoided unless dying of thirst. Gasoline is an option.
Two Smiley Face is tolerable, but water may be preferable. Yuck!
Three Smiley Face is passable, not too sweet and you may take friends there.
Four Smiley Face is good to decent made with better tequila. Take friends but don’t gloat.
Five Smiley Face may be the unattainable nirvana of tequiladom. If found, please email me.

One Half Smiley Face is used to distinguish subtle differences between moon phases. (Two Half Smiley Faces do not necessarily equal a whole Smiley Face.)

THE PLACES

Soggy Peso
The Palapa Restaraunt
Picalos
Arbolitos
Jax (have only had cerveza so far) ******
Marina Terra
Charley’s Rock
Formerly Howard Johnsons
Fiesta Hotel Restaurant
Conquistador (New!) ******
Pancho Villas (Guaymas) ******

Notes: There are so many more sample points yet to be sampled. This is just a partial list and one that we will update periodically. The places without current ratings (******) are on our to-do list.