Christmas Eve Boat Parade | San Carlos | Mexico

I have seen many boat parades, and I know there are hours of work goes into decorating these boats with lights and other objects to catch the attention. These boat parades are usually very well attended, and tonight's was no exception. 

 

 

 
Merry Christmas to all!

San Carlos | Mexico

 

One of my favorite areas in San Carlos!  The Tetakawi is a landmark and can be seen from most places in town.

I climbed partway up the slope because it was a pretty day and I wanted to get the photo you see at the top of this blog.  The path up is rocky.

The rest of the photos are sea level!

 

 

This little shrine was facing the water in this area.  I'm not sure it was there last winter.

 

At Soggy Peso one evening, we had a fog bank roll in from the Sea of Cortez.

 

 

Within about a half hour, it was mostly gone, except for a few wisps near the peaks of the hills.  Unfortunately, it blocked out the entire sunset!

 

 

It must be the season, since this was another fog bank at another place, different day, just rolling along. 

 

This next shot makes it look like a menacing storm, but it was quite calm.

 

Yes, I know this is graffiti, but there is art in it. 

 

 

In some areas of town, horses wander freely - I found these two on a road close to my neighborhood.

 

 

Sunrise is also a surprise here sometimes - looks like our sunsets.

 

 

 

Andale II | Touring San Carlos Waterfront | Mexico

This past week, I was fortunate to go on a tour by boat to see some of the San Carlos scenery from a different perspective.  The tour was on Andale II, at the marina.

Most of my photos of this area so far have been from land.  I loved getting a different viewpoint.

 

The anchorage looked much larger and I had never seen the actual harbor entrance.

 

I was able to see some of the neighborhoods I have driven through, certainly different from being on land.

There are many rock islands out there, some with caves or small passages through them.

 

 

The white coloring on this rock island looks like it could be a dusting of snow - but it's guano, also known as bird droppings.  Yes, it does smell a bit if you're downwind of these rocks.

This is part of a low-lying island called Honeymoon Island, and was inhabited by seabirds.

One of the seabirds I really like is the frigate, and I got to see one on the trip.

The highlight of the tour was definitely the dolphins.  Our captain went to an area where it seems that the dolphins hang out.  If the boat is going at a certain speed, they swim in the bow waves very close to the boat.  I have always been amazed that they can coordinate their speed with a boat - you never hear of a dolphin being hit by a boat. 

 

This photo was taken just as this dolphin surfaced and blew out excess water, creating a small rainbow.

 

 

 

This one was swimming on his back - sometimes they will be swimming along and turn their body so that they can look at the people on the boat.

All too soon, we had to go back to the harbor.  Thanks to Andale II as well as the Captain and Crew for a fun trip!

 

 

Fremont Indian State Park and Museum | Utah

This state park is well known for its petroglyphs, carvings on rock walls that date back prior to 1300 AD.

We can only imagine the stories they were telling us.  As you can see by the last photo, time and weather does not treat them kindly.

There is also a well-maintained cottage from some pioneers back in the early 1900s.  If you notice the second picture, it's a view of the back of the cottage - you can tell that the roof is made of mud and other natural materials.

As well as doing carvings of their stories in the rocks, they also find natural dye material and make paintings.  In this case, the picture above shows hand prints which are very common from that era.  It does say 100 hands, but there have been only 31 counted in this little alcove.

The Indians who lived here lived in pithouses.  They dug a hole in the ground, reinforced it, and then put a type of domed ceiling/roof on it.   The first photo shows the outside view and the second is a view from the inside.

Below are some of the views that can be seen around the park.