San Carlos | Mexico | After Summer Storms

San Carlos, Mexico!  On the left, the double peak is the Tetakawi, the most familiar landmark in the area.  This day looks nice and peaceful, great weather.

However, last summer, the San Carlos area got hit by a couple hurricanes in the area, and caused quite a bit of damage.  Most buildings were safe.  Unfortunately, this poor sailboat was someone's home, but was grounded and damaged during one of the storms. 

 

Someone is now living in this boat, laundry out in the sun, as you can see from the photo below.

 

Other boats were also damaged and aground.

This staircase leads to the El Mar restaurant, but most of the steps are still buried in the sand that was brought up onto the beach during the storms.

The storms are over and the weather has turned mild and peaceful.

Nacapule Canyon | San Carlos | Mexico

 

Last week I took the hike I wanted to do last year, but the entrance had been fenced in and locked.  This a really pretty hike, and there is a choice of two different trails.  Actually, there is another one, but I decided I had better stay away from it - way more strenuous than the other ones, as you can see by the sign below.

 





I was surrounded by desert until I got into the trail and started seeing palm trees.  I was getting into an area where there was water for the plant life.

 

Then there was a little pond.

 

It was much more interesting close up. 

 

After passing the pond, the palms grew more dense.  These are basically the same palms I've seen in Florida and other places in the southwest, but they have not been trimmed.

 

By this time, the ground was soggy and there were more patches of standing water.

 

Then, the trail turned into huge rocks that you would have to scramble over and I decided to return home.  There used is a zip line at the beginning of the hike, but I've heard that they have halted operation because it was scaring the animals.  I don't really know the full story, but there wasn't anyone using the zip line when I was there.

The parking lot is huge and there are multiple palapas that are perfect for picnics and other gatherings.  Many of the locals come here for parties.

 

 

 

Busy in San Carlos | Sonora | Mexico

 

I have been busy since my last post, there is so much to do here.  Super moon as seen in San Carlos above, about a week ago.  I'm not sure it looked any larger to me.

 

 

Really rough living here......  This was taken last weekend at the beach.  A friend and I had snacks and were listening to live music.  Like I said, really rough living!  They have tables under the little palapas, redone since the hurricane damaged most of them a few months ago.  The photo below shows the inside, looking straight up, they look quite sturdy. 

 

My friend has a dog and I was babysitting the furry guy below, so we took them to the beach.  He doesn't get out to the beach much since he doesn't even like to get in the car with his owner.  He got his feet wet and had an interesting change of scenery.  And he was totally exhausted when he got home!

 

San Carlos is all about musical entertainment, so Mark Mulligan organized a concert with the Foresteros band from Hermosillo, a large city about 2 hours from here.  Everyone had a great time last year at their concerts, and we had a great time again this week - the Foresteros rock!  Mark plays here most weeks and is quite popular in this area, as well as in the States.  He's the only one without long pants on.

 

We had another clean-up-the-beach this week and dispatched a 2600 pound load to the dump.  This area looks much nicer, but still needs some detail work.  The Sea of Cortez (aka Gulf of California) looks very inviting, but the nights are turning cooler in this area and the water will soon be too cold to swim in.  For me anyway!