Jazz fest and fun

The last two mornings have been perfect beach mornings, a little windy, low tide, huge rollers coming in, the ocean a beautiful blue, and about ten shrimp boats out about half a kilometer. Shadow no longer fears the waves, he trots through the surf like a beach-born dog. Lucky was back the other morning, in a playful mood again, and we met another dog that also played with Shadow. That was fun to watch, dogs racing through the surf, chasing each other and the birds, lying down and letting waves roll over them. This morning I tried a new variation on ¿Puedo comprar? I went to a local greenhouse and asked, " ¿Puedo comprar semilla aqui?" But the answer was no, they sell plants, not seeds.

We now have our full complement of restaurants. Oswaldo took us to a local Taco place called Diego's last night, and the food was delicious! I had Vampiros, crispy fried beef and cheese tacos in corn tortillas. And a whole roasted jalapeño, because Oswaldo didn't think I could. It was hot, but not crazy hot. I wouldn't have tried a habañero.

So we have Diego's for the local greasy spoon, Mary's for fish, shrimp and scallop tacos, the Blue Marlin for shrimp quesadillas and their amazing coriander cream dressing, Ramon's for a local slightly upscale resturant. and we're going to try Rosy's Friday night all you can eat fish fry next Friday.

Last night was delightful. We picked up Oswaldo and Mary-Sol at 5:30 for the 6 PM concert.

When we arrived, we looked around for the beer stand and taco stands, and....there were none. HUH?? Oswaldo said, "we can go get our own beer if you want." I handed him the keys and my husband and said, go! Mary-Sol and I worked around the Spanish as well as we could while they were gone. She said it was her very first concert, I asked what you called pelicans in Spanish. It's pelicans. Who knew? She said she liked the saxophone, I expressed surprise that there was no food to buy. Yeah, that was about it, we really needed Oswaldo for translation. She's a very sweet girl, and is four months pregnant with their first child, a boy.

The sunset was incredible, and there were very good stilt-walkers, who danced and greeted the crowd.




Carl and Oswaldo finally came back, they had gone to get a bucket full of ice, in which were a dozen cold beers. There were sandwiches to be had, as it turned out, but they were small and $8.50 each. I offered to buy them each one, as they hadn't had supper yet, either. But we finally decided we'd leave part way through, get some supper at Diego's and then return.





There were fire-spinners as well:







We did go to Diego's as I mentioned above. Man, it was good! It's interesting talking to Oswaldo. He grew up in Phoenix, was there for twenty years. Then, as I understand it, his father's papers turned out to not be the correct ones, and Oswaldo was deported. So suddenly he had to figure out how to live down here, and make do on the kind of salary he receives here. But he seems to be happy, and loves Puerto Peñasco. They had to leave early, because he had received a phone call that one of Mary-Sol's cousins had been killed- she comes from a very violent drug town, and although she and her immediate family moved away, many of her uncles and cousins have died there. It's a sobering look at life in Mexico outside of the tourist haven.

Oswaldo said he wanted some ideas for his son's name. Apparently it is his responsibility to name the baby, because it's a boy. He wanted a name that didn't sound Spanish, so if the child went to the US, he wouldn't go through what Oswaldo did. I gave it some thought, and when we reached the restaurant I said, my father had five brothers, dad's name was Patrick, then there was George, Don, Bob, Ken and Sam. He likes George, and Mary-Sol liked Patrick (Patricio). So there may be a little boy down here named after a Reed. Cool!!

We may go to Hermosilla, the state capital, with Oswaldo one weekend. He's always wanted to go there, and we can't drive there in our car without officially importing it. Anyway, back to the concert- Carl and I went back for about an hour. The bands were good, unfortunately the one we liked best was on second, and we only heard three songs from them before we went to Diego's.

When we got back the headliner was on. They were pretty good, but pretty middle of the road, Girl from Ipanema etc. The first band did some Dave Brubeck(I think that was Stretto), and the second band was doiing their own compositions. (Turiya Mareya Latin Jazz Ensemble). The lineup was:
Contrapunto and Lupillo Barajas Jazz Band from Tijuana, B.C., Stretto from Hermosillo, Sonora, Turiya Mareya Latin Jazz Ensemble from San Diego, Ca, and Turning Point Band from Tucson, Az.

Turning Point was a kind of jazz-rock fusion, and by then the wind was really picking up. So we called it a night. A really great night!