Thanksgiving at Scotty's

Mike and I, Gene and Carolyn, Stu and Deborah, and Gary and Tracy all showed up at Scotty's to have a wonderful lamb Thanksgiving dinner at Scotty's. We supplied the lamb, and Scotty supplied everything else, including soup, salad and veggies. Great fun!

Governor's Tournament

Yesterday afternoon tents were set up at the dock (well, where the dock used to be and should be and might be again someday) to register kids and adults for the Governor's fishing tournament. For adults I think it's any yellowtail over 25 pounds, any cabrilla over a certain weight, I don't know. Probably biggest of any fish for the children, who have to be over the age of eight to enter. Some of the gringos just showed up to get a free hat, t-shirt and tote bag, but some will be fishing. Why not? Another gorgeous day on the water, though we hear it might be pretty windy by noon. So here are a few photos. Overboard John with Bert who owns Jungle Jim's, our local professional fishing guide Mateo with girlfriend Lydia, Mateo with his boat The Navegador, children playing in the water by a boat and bugging a pelican which got too close to them, and people signing up for the tournament.

Lazy Morning

Drove out to Santispac Beach with rumors of a nice gringo swap meet, but it was completely gone by 10 am, and we got there around 10:30. Inside Anna's, people were taking line dancing lessons, and the beer bar wasn't available, so we drove to Burro Beach and had a light breakfast and a Bloody Mary at Bertha's. On a roll, we then went into town in quest of velcro for a little project, and headed down to El Patron at the end of the river road other side. They weren't open yet, but we found some nice beach glass and a few interesting shells. Ended up at Pancho Villa's for another half hour. Someone had decorated their dog with some amazing eyebrows. On the way back we saw a boat, which someone had lovingly called "Beerguts". On top of a phone pole was an osprey nest, a huge one. How it managed to survive the last hurricane I will never know.

Sea Lion

We took the little boat out today, poked around, caught a couple of fish and saw a bunch of sea lions basking in the sun. Just lying on their backs, with their flippers up. Here was a particularly relaxed one.

Zoey and Etta

Judy stopped by the other morning with her dog Etta. Zoey can no longer leave the yard as we have trained her with an electronic collar, so she welcomed the company until Etta made a beeline for Zoey's favorite toy, Dora and Explorer. Etta refused to give Zoey back her toy, and promptly beheaded Dora.

Mother and Twins Sculpture

Mike and I found this charming sculpture in one of the local stores. We thought it was sweet as Sarah and Ray are expecting twins.

Saturday Night at Pancho Villas

Last night Mike and I decided to hit the other side of the river for dinner at Pancho Villas....again. The food was fabulous. We were the only people there, so it felt as if it had been our own private dining experience. This is a family owned place with two sisters working there, and their father, Francisco. Cute shot of Rosie's baby boy. Somewhere down the line there was a bit of Eastern European influence. All of the kids have beautiful green eyes, and this baby is an adorable blondie.

Siesta Time

Couldn't resist snapping this photo of a sleepy worker.

Zoey on the Beach

Here is our adopted dog Zoey. We finally got her in the car....her first time in the car was when our helper, Adan, took her to the vet. By the time we got to the beach she had been VERY sick in the car. Can you imagine that? A dog with motion sickness. Hope she gets over that cause it's a long long road from Baja to Sequim. However, she absolutely loved the beach. Quite the water dog. Mike threw the ball as far as he could into the water, and with no hesitation Zoey bounded and swam to fetch and return it to us. Wow.

Ho Hum Another Sunrise

Captured another gorgeous sunrise taken on the river side of the house in Mulege.

Oranges on Fence

Every day now we have this beautiful woodpecker who loves to eat the orange halves we place on our fence.

Kayak Fishing

This guy was kayaking right off of the shoreline and caught this 47 pound yellowtail. Said it pulled him around for over an hour, like a horse with a sled. He was prancing around the beach showing his fish off, and I couldn't resist taking a couple of photos.

Canning Tuna and Rozie's Chili

Here is a shot of our first cans of tuna. Everyone pitched in on the preparation. A neighbor loaned us another pressure cooker to speed things up a bit. Stu was kind enough to bring a new one down to us, too. We put a wee bit of extra virgin olive oil in each jar, and topped the tuna with jalapenos and galic. We have two dozen jars more to go, and they are pints, not half-pints like these in the photo.

I made a nice pot of my famous chili, and have a fresh loaf of bread baking now for dinner...plus a salad.

Cleaning Fish and Sunday Fishing

Here is a shot of Juan and Juan Carlos cleaning the tuna. Mike and Gary could barely lift the ice chest full of fillets. They think the net weight was close to 150 pounds of fillets. Wow!

Sunday I caught a nice 18 pound yellowtail on my little spinning rod. Just too much for me to bring in so Mike did it for me

We had two rods out at a time and mostly had....again....double hook-ups. Loads of good fun, and we were tuckered and back in by one o'clock.

Juan always had a smile on his face, and his deck mate, Juan Carlos gaffed the fish so fast that we had to ask him to please wait a sec for a photo.

Eighteen Tuna Later

Lots of rocking and rolling when we went out Saturday morning. We cruised around for about two hours looking for lots of birds and the dolphins before we found them. Double hook-ups EVERY time. Tracy and I caught our first tunas ever and had a blast.

The limit would have been five each for the four of us, plus technically we could have landed another five for Juan, our captain, and Juan Carlos, his deckhand, but we were absolutely exhausted and called it a day after eighteen.

We staggered back to the house to have some rest and a cerveza. Juan was to call us when the fish had been cleaned, but when Mike left to get them he was gone about an hour and a half, and we all wondered if he had stopped in at the local bar, Jonesy's. Turned out Juan thought maybe we would want more photos, so he had not cleaned the fish. The photo you see of Mike holding the two biggest tunas, 35 and 40 pounds, were caught by Gary. Too bad we didn't realize this, or Gary would have his photo posted here instead of Mike's.

Saturday Sunrise

We had thought that it might be cloudy Saturday morning when we went out with Juan and Juan Carlos, but it was crystal clear and warmed up to the mid 80s. We took out seven big rods and reels, all geared up for the tuna.

Friday Night Dinner

Friday night in Ascuncion Shari arranged for Lizbet (who also cleans the house), to bring over four large fresh lobster tails. She cooked them in our house along with rice, beans, guacamole, and a nice large salad. Gary was kidding around and pretended to eat all of the freshly cooked tortillas at once, but we rescued them...or him.