Everyday Life in San Carlos, Mexico

 

Coming into San Carlos is a four lane road with medians - one very large median had two of these iguanas covered in mosaic tile.  They must be about 20 feet long, not including the long tail.

 

 

This sign is VERY important - it means that there is a very large speed bump coming up.  Sometimes they have a sign saying "Tope", signs sometimes are also painted on the road, sometimes signs are non-existent.  Speed bumps are large enough that you need to come to an almost complete stop and coast over them.  The worst ones have lots of grooves on the tops of them, evidence that vehicles going too fast have bounced and scraped on them.  Most of these are marked, but there have been some surprises!

 

 

Don't drink the water in Mexico - yes, it's true.  Everyone has a 5 gallon bottle of water with a serving spout on it.  It costs 10 pesos to refill, about $.60 - reasonable, considering the consequences.  Also reasonable since a gallon purchased in the states is more than that.

  

This is a local taxi in a town 10 miles away, Guaymas.  The Spanish word is still taxi, but I love their creativeness on the door.

Although there aren't any traffic lights in San Carlos, they are in nearby towns and with some.  When you have a green arrow to make a turn, it starts blinking just before it turns red again - great warning sign. 

I took a drive out to Cañon del Nacapule one day, the area was closed off and the gate locked.  I wanted to see if there was a hike I could do into the canyon.  This is some of the scenery in that neighborhood.

Some residents have high walls surrounding their property.  This wall was at least 8' tall, but to be sure no one would climb over, they topped it with broken bottles.  I've seen this done in other places also, great way to recycle.

And speaking of recycling, this man does it best.  Every day he sits at the bus stop reading a book.  People bring him cans and when the bus comes, it crushes the cans so that they will take up less space.  I brought him some cans today for his collection and asked him if he traded them in for pesos.  He nodded and grinned at me and said "it's money!".  This was early in the day but I've seen him with a large collection of cans in the afternoon.