Monday, January 17, 2011

Trip to San Blas

We had three boxes of kitchen utensils for friends of a friend in Puerto Vallarta, and have been trying to find a way to get them to the couple, Jan and Jess. They live in PV but work fulltime and it's a 7.5  hour trip one way to Mazatlan. At first we thought we'd go down and stay a few days there, but Jan told us PV was full, overcrowded, expensive and no fun. She generously offered her place to stay for a couple of days, but we didn't want to impose, and we've only met them once.

Anyway, long story even longer, we decided to meet up in San Blas. Carl is ok with riding in the car, in fact it's about the only thing he can do that's not incredibly painful, so this trek was a good adventure.

The problem is that you can't stop anywhere to take pictures, because the roads either have no shoulder whatsoever, or a shoulder that is used by massive semis travelling at 100 km an hour.


We saw a lot of Brahma cows- apparently used here because they can take the heat.

They are not Scottish, however. Indian, I think. I have to admit, I still don't know why that was quite so funny, Cheryl.


They have a bit of that propeller-head quality about them as well.

We saw groves of tamarind trees in bloom. Carl saw a pink flamingo fly in and land on a pond, and I saw one at the edge of a pond. It's a huge bird-watching area, and we saw a lot of different species on the drive. If you want to see some of the birds, there's a good slide-show here:
http://www.hilonesometours.com/uploads/images/SanBlasslideshow/slideshow.html

The scenery was mountainous and green.

We had a really nice lunch, mine was enchiladas suiza which was a rather wet-looking plate of enchiladas, but whatever the wet was, it was yummy. It might have been a thin chile verde sauce. There were also lots of crisp pickled vegetables on top. Carl had deep-fried shrimp empanadas, and on the road we picked up dried shrimp tamales that were very interesting. We ate them later in the hotel room. Yes, we do have stomachs of iron.

Here are some images of San Blas. We were sad that we didn't have more time there, but if we had stayed we would have been driving the highway in the dark.

4 comments:

  1. As I recall, it was more than stomachs of iron. Aren't you and Carl the famous kim-chee eaters?
    What a pretty town. Thanks for keeping us up on your travels, I am certainly living vicariously as I watch the sleet out my window. So sorry to hear about Carl's sciatica, I wish I knew an effective treatment. Rest, ice, and stretching is about all I have to offer.

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  2. I DO like Kimchi!! Carl not so much. But he scarfed down those dried shrimp tamales, boy! Sorry about the sleet. We ran into a lot of Canadians in Mazatlan, some were going back to the ice and snow, others stayed in that motel all winter!

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  3. Who knows why things tickle our funny bones sometimes? That Scottish cow was HILARIOUS at the time. (As was evidenced by the tears streaming down my face and my inability to form a coherent sentence!)
    I'm enjoying the green-ness of your photos, and San Blas looks lovely.

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  4. I know, those moments when you're laughing so hard that you can hardly catch your breath are rare and delightful. We'll have to play that game again soon!

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