Pic-of-the-Week for March 5, 2013

Hola Amigos,

Sorry we're on Mexican time today.... un poco tarde!  We didn't have electricity until 9am.  So...no computers, no internet, no lights or water pump.  We did manage to get our cups of tea and coffee since we have a gas range, so that was nice!  We sipped our hot drinks and read our books by the morning light.  It was a quiet morning!  

We've been having a lot of long power outages lately.  Not sure what is going on; maybe CFE is making improvements to the system????  Power went off while we were in church on Sunday morning, and since I have an electric piano, and the congregation reads the words to the songs from the projected image on a screen, we had to skip a couple of the songs in our service.  It eventually came on, and we finished up with a song.  You've just got to be "adjustable" here!  (And have candles and matches close by when electricity goes out when it is dark!)  When the sun is out...it is plenty bright...and pretty.  

This photo was taken last Saturday when I was attending our church's Women's Conference.  We had a half hour before lunch to sit outside and enjoy the beauty of the place.  Very peaceful!  (This was from the terrace at Hotel Palmas de Cortez, where we had the conference.)

On Thursday, we had an ADVENTURE!!!  We finally had a free day and coordinated with our tour guide Harold (who found this place several years ago) and two other couples to visit a remote ranch.  This one is located east of Miraflores, and not far from Las Frailes, as the crow flies (22 km).  What a great tour!  The countryside was gorgeous, and the ranch was a treat.  There was something new and interesting around every corner!

 We use the agave blooms like this one here for our Christmas trees when they finish blooming!  We'll have to remember where this one is located (there were several more, too). 

 The Barrel Cactus above was growing horizontally out of the side of the cut! 

We saw this Red Tail Hawk alongside the road.  We finally got to the ranch, which is named Lengua de Buey.  I knew that lengua means tongue or language, but I had to look up "buey" in my trusty Spanish dictionary.  It is OX.  Aha!   Tongue of Ox Ranch.  We drove down their road to the  casa, and were welcomed like old friends.  Harold had made a wrong turn (or maybe fortuitous turn!) several years ago and ended up here.  They treated him well, served him some cold beers (and he shared his), and he admired their display of fossilized shark's teeth!  Yes!  Fossilized shark's teeth and shells and whale bones.  

That display was truly amazing.  There was a meeting going on when we arrived with the ranchers and a few neighbors and some government employees, who were there with their computer and a plot of the property.  As I understood it, they were trying to firm up the property lines.  

We also got a tour of their kitchen (with a two burner stove....wood burning, that is!)  They had just butchered a goat, which was hanging in the kitchen, and he gave us a sample of the just cooked, hot out of the pan meat.  Very good!  This fellow was doing all the cooking.  I asked him where were the women of the ranch?  He told me the younger ones were in school in San Jose, and others were shopping.  That roof is covered with palm leaves (its a palapa roof) and is completely blackened from smoke.  I've seen these in other ranch kitchens...there are no chimneys on those fires...the smoke just escapes where it can.  This one is open around the edges, but others are walled all the way up.  

Many more photos of the ranch are in our brand new March 2013 Picasa Album.

After we left the ranch, we continued on in an easterly direction, through some more beautiful countryside with some plants we'd never seen before, and ended up coming out on the coast road just south of Las Frailes!  We stopped along the way while still in the mountains and had a picnic lunch.  After they finished their sandwiches I surprised everyone by pulling out fresh strawberry shortcake for all!  This isn't the prettiest presentation, but it sure tasted good!

 When we got home, I got out our Baja Map (that I forgot to take!) to see if I could find our route on all those dotted lines.  I'm not sure if I found our route, but I found the ranch!!  Maybe we can even find it again some day.  (Of course, I also forgot to take my GPS!)  I circled the ranch there in the middle of the page.

I'll leave you with one of our regular visitors... a hungry cardinal.  The birds are all appreciating the food we put out for them.  In fact, they got fed twice this morning!  Ben left on an errand and I saw some quail in the yard, but didn't see any seeds on the ground, so I fed them.  When Ben got home, he told me he'd fed them earlier!  They certainly finished his serving up quickly!  

 

Hasta la proxima semana,

Tus amigos de Baja,

Harriet, Ben, Ryan, Sam & Zoey