March 13th - A night out in Mexicali !!!

The streets of Mexico

A couple of Laurie's nurse friends, and all three of us husbands went down to Mexicali for a fun night.  It's amazing I can still hear.  We drove down to Calexico and parked our cars at the border crossing.  We walked across the border and caught a cab to a nice Brazilian steak house called Mr. Pampas. We sat at the table and ordered drinks and then attacked the buffet.  There is no meat on the buffet, because guys come around with hot meats of various kinds on spits and shave off what you want.  All the food was great, and they also had roasted pineapple that they shave off the spit.

After filling ourselves, we caught more cabs and went to a dance place called Cantina Boston.  There are actually three different places there.  The first is called "Shots"and it's just a bar for doing shots.  They will line up your group's shot glasses on the bar and pour the alcohol liberally and make sure to spill.  They they light the whole set and let it flame down.  Then they pass out the warmed shots.  We did a couple and went next door to the Cantina where the music was much too loud.  We drank beers, danced around and had a great time.  The third place there is just a more upscale tavern for the business crowd.

We caught cabs back to the border and made our way to our cars.  This was our first trip to Mexicali.

Not in Kansas anymore

It took a lot of willpower to stay out.

Our dinner destination

Alfredo, Joanna, Jacy, Amy, Laurie, Myself

Mariachis

$1 US dollar to 17.6 Pesos

The cantina

Flaming shots

cheers

Beauties

March - Los Algondones

We made a couple of trips down to Los Algodones, Mexico.  Basically the Mexican equivalent of a shopping center.  We picked up some medications and a sign for our camper.  Later, we had dinner at a couple of our favorite places. If you go, you have to have your passport to get back. 

December 16th - Somerton Tamale Festival

Every year, in the small town of Somerton, they hold the big Tamale Festival.  When we found out about it, we had to go.  Laurie and I drove down with her friend Amy, and we were to meet Norma and her husband, Dale.  Somerton is not a large town just a few miles south of Yuma.  The biggest thing in the town is a campus of the University of Arizona.  We drove around and found where the festival was and then searched for a decent place to park.

That done, we entered one end of the part of town that was closed off for the festival.  The first thing we came across, was a children's dance class where the dancers were of varying ages and doing traditional Mexican dances if full historic costumes.  It was a fun show to watch a bit.

Strolling down the walk, What we saw, was a lot of booths side by side, each one belonging to a different tamale kitchen.  The people in them were pulling tamales out of warmers, and serving up to the customers.  There was a couple of booths that gave information and directions.  They took your money for a packet of coupons.  Every tamale being sold cost two tickets and you could buy any number of tickets with a discount for a packet of 10 or twenty.  This kept the sellers from having to deal with money.

There were more varieties of tamale than I could imagine.  Veggie, pork, beef, lamb, chicken, seafood, and then, pineapple, strawberry and many others.  There is a basic contest between the vendors for the best tamales.  A cheat sheet told you which vendors had what to offer, and the nice people at the front booth told us who were the winners from the previous year.

I'm not a big tamale person.  I don't care for the corn meal casing.  That said, I had quite a few different tamales, and though it wasn't the best food adventure ever, I did enjoy them all.

We met our other friends and walked around and saw what there was to see.  On the opposite end from where we came in, they had a stage with a local band playing some rocking country music.

On our way out, we watched the kids dancing again and then started the long drive home.  I would love to do this sort of thing again.

Somerton, Arizona

Dancers

The booths

"The Gold Dragon" Really? Chinese and Mexican food?

US

March Sometime - Some random photos

I thought I'd share some various random photos.

Alpine Brewing in Alpine, CA.  We stopped there on the way from San Diego to El Centro one day. We also picked up a geocache there.  We then had lunch at their restaurant which was really goo.

I was geocaching and had to look into a utility box in the ground.  There were a lot of big spiders.

Cool clouds and sun rays.

Gypsy loves to play with the water dripping into the sink.  Strange cat.

Cuban cigars picked up in Mexico

The cat needed to supervise my putting away groceries.

Bug on the ceiling.

January 25th - Los Algodones

Oh, Mexico
It sounds so sweet with the sun sinking low
The moon's so bright like to light up the night
Make everything all right - James Taylor

And that's why God made Mexico
A place where we can lay low
And the Cuervo goes down nice and slow
And the warm wind blows
That's why God made Mexico - Tim McGraw



Took a drive east.  Made that right turn just before Arizona. Down through the Quechan Indian Reservation, down to the border.  Parked in a huge lot just feet from "The Wall".  Then, we made that crossing into Mexico.  Los Algodones, The cottons. A tourist (turistas?) shopping town.  The town is made up of old and questionably constructed buildings crowded together.  The shops offer mainly drugstores, dentists (many are actually members of the ADA), liquor stores, restaurants, clothing, knick knacks, and taverns.

It was a lot of fun and we wandered around, trying various types of tequila, and generally having fun and people pushing things in our view hoping we'll buy.  We stopped for lunch in a courtyard for tacos and enchialldas.  Later, before going home, we stopped at a tavern called La Parrilla (the grill) where we had some great appitizers and fantastic conversation with a bartender named Jose.  Apparently, tequila is only authentic if it comes from the state of Cotija. 

When we left, we had to stand in a very long, slow moving line to get out.  This is because you have to get by a customs official who seemed to only be concerned about how much liquor you were bringing back.  There is a 1 liter per person allowance. 

We met a few people and had some great conversations.  We even met a fellow from North Dakota.  Small world.

"May I see your passport, please"