The painting of Old Town

There's a lot of painting going on in Old Town and I can't decide if it's a good thing or not.  I happen to really love the look of the plastered buildings as the old paint flakes off to reveal underneath layers of colour.

 

Plus I love the golden look of the whitewashed buildings when the sun shines on them.  But a crew of painters is slapping new paint on some of these treasures and I'm not liking it much.

This building is so beautiful with its golden tones. Now with the new purple and green paint it just looks like another painted building to me.

Then there's this one that had weathered to a soft multi-coloured hue like green tea ice cream.

Last week it was transformed to baby blue and white.

 

Maybe I'm just being too precious in my aesthetic.  What do you think?

These buildings are vacant and in need of restoration.  If this is the first step to protecting them, I'm for it.   But I wish they'd consulted me about the colour schemes. 

Patriotic Mexico

I took this photo of the new flag that's flying along the Malecon where the cliff divers ply their trade.  This flag is just enormous and the silk looked so stunning fluttering in the wind that I had to stop and take a few pictures.  This is the one I like the best for the intense colours against the blue blue sky.  It's straight out of the camera so I'm linking this post to Marietta's blog where she hosts a meme called Straight Out of the Camera Sunday.  Check it out to see a variety of bloggers' images.

The salad drying system

If you walked into our little utility room any day after we've been to the market, this is what you'd find.  It's our setup for drying the greens after they've been through their purifying wash.  That's cilantro in the red strainer and lettuce on the right. 

Here in Mexico it's advisable to disinfect all fruit and vegetables that will be eaten raw to make sure there are no traces of bad bacteria that might cause tummy problems.  Some people use a little bit of bleach or iodine but we use the newer purifying drops called Microdyn, which are ionized silver (whatever that is) because it doesn't leave any residual taste.  Then we lay them out on a towel to air dry.

Harry got the idea of a fan system for the curly leaves that take longer to dry.  Lettuce and cilantro go soggy if they're left too long with water on them so Harry rigged up this fan system for the curly slow-drying leave. Let's just call it tropical improvisation.

The lanterns of Old Town Mazatlan

 

The other day when I was reviewing some of my photos from the historic centre of Mazatlan I found all these photographs of lanterns.  They're set here and there around town and they're all made from the same ornate mould.  They are in fact functioning street lights.  Aren't they lovely?

 

  

  

 

This is a flower?

I spotted this thing the other day in a little yard behind a taqueria.  At first I didn't have a clue what it was, but as I got closer I recognized it as the flower of the banana tree.  Isn't it amazing?  It looks like something from outer space.

Here's a picture of another one that looks a little more flowerish.

And here's the green fruit.

I really like the looks of these trees.  If we lived here I'd plant one for sure so I could admire the amazing flower and eat the bananas.

Maggie the beach ambassador

Our sweet dog Maggie makes friends wherever she goes but she shines the brightest here in Mazatlan on the beach.  That's because she just loves to play catch with a stick or a ball or whatever's handy.  And here on the beach there are always kids that want to play.  The other day was a bonus day for her and for these three little girls from Colorado who were missing their dog at home.

Here she's leading them deeper into the water.

We're always happy when she meets up with kids because after eleven years of throwing balls and sticks we're a little tired of it!  Just doing a quick calculation, if we throw the ball for her 30 times a day (and that's conservative) it adds up to 120,450 throws.

Mexican wall art

 

Down in the centro there are some talented artists who decorate walls.  What do you think of these?  In my mind they're certainly not graffiti.  Or if they are, it's a higher form.

Then there's the lovely abstract art created when the plaster finishes on the old walls wears off in layers.  Or maybe some of the layers are paint covering up graffiti.  Take a look at this one.  I think I see some lips from a previous image there.  In any case, it's nice to look at.

I'm collecting some more of this found art and will share some with you in a while.

The gas company

Here in Mazatlan most people use propane for cooking and hot water and there's one company in town that delivers the gas.  The guys come with their big trucks and climb up on your roof with a hose to fill the tank. The name of the company is Gaspasa and there trucks all over town like the one above.  I for one cannot see these trucks without thinking of passing gas.  Not sure if this means the same thing in Spanish but I doubt it.  I think somebody should put out a Gaspasa T shirt.  I think there are quite a few people here who might buy one for a family member.

The Carnaval parade

Don't worry if you missed the Mazatlan Carnaval parade.  I'll give you a little summary of this darling spectacle.  This was a parade for people of all ages.  And many of them were in festive garb.

This is a young couple we met at the bus stop, ready to celebrate.

 

The malecon was filling up when we got there aboutd 3:30.  

 

Many people had set up camp for the afternoon while they were waiting.  Some even had barbecues going.

 

If you didn't bring a chair you could buy a little stool from this lady.  She was doing a brisk business.

  

These two girls were already bored with waiting.

But these young ladies were happy to model their special sunglasses.

Finally the parade began.  The first part was the commercial section.  It consisted of beautiful girls gyrating on top of trucks and tossing samples into the crowd.

 

We were seriously concerned that these two might slip off the truck in their spike heels, but they seemed ok.

 

This lovely young woman looked very elegant sitting on top of a semi truck in her silver dress and gloves.

And so did this little senorita in her princess dress with her friend the robot.

 

 For the kids, there was the Bimbo bread float with bubbles and samples.

  

At this point, everything stopped for about forty minutes.  We watched the sun set and wandered around the streets at bit. 

Everyone was still in a festive mood waiting for the big floats to arrive.  You can see these girls are covered in confetti.  Kids were buying bags of it and tossing it everywhere.

 If you wanted to you could buy yourself a mask, or a balloon or a snack.

 

 

But this little girl seemed happy just to play with the confetti.

As the sun set the second part of the parade came into view with bands on trucks, men on horseback, and a long column of farmers protesting something.  (I need to find out what that was about.  There were probably a several hundred marchers.)

Then the lights came on and the big floats arrvied with their costumed dancers and regal beauty queens. 

 

The floats were lovely but I have to say that for me the best part of the parade was seeing the Mexican people of all ages, from grandfathers to babes in arms, to teenagers, all celebrating together.