Tom's first day - lots of places to see

Thursday a.m.

Up real early this a.m. Sun was just coming up. A really beautiful sunrise but now it has cooled off and is getting really cloudy and dark over ocean.

Just starting to come up

In all its glory

We’ve been really busy the last few days. First off I’ve been having a little trouble with my stomach for a few days so after our busy day in Malpica and Copala I was kind of down and out Saturday and Sunday. Then our friend from Indiana got in Monday afternoon. He is here on vacation and we’ve been running him ragged.
First thing we did was take him to Fat Fish for ribs Monday night! Our friend from Mazatlan Angelica joined us for dinner. Had a good time eating and talking and planning Toms itinerary. So much to see and so little time.

Angelica and Tom dinner at Fat Fish -he looks like he is praying -maybe praying for strength after hearing everywhere we are going to take him.

Tuesday morning bright and early we picked him up from his hotel and headed inland to El Quelite for breakfast.
First we took him to visit with the ladies and guys who work in the bean sorting warehouse.

Every time we go there we learn something new about the process. There are two different batches of white type beans in the big bags stored there. The first and most expensive type is the bean that is harvested right off the plant. They are not broken or split and contain no rocks or other debris. The second type is what they sort. These are the beans that fall to the ground when the first batch is harvested. Then they are gathered up from the ground. That is why the beans themselves have to be picked out from the rubble from the dirt. They are split and broken and sell for less.
From there we went to our favorite restaurant for breakfast/lunch. Showed Tom the fancy dining rooms and restrooms and made sure we sat under the roof.

Just some of the interesting things there.

We reminded him about my encounter with the iguanas here. I noticed he kept looking up after that. But it was too cool for them to be out and about.
After eating we walked a couple of blocks to show him the cheese factory. (We ate some of the soft cheese with our meal.) Unfortunately they weren’t making any cheese that day.

Outside in the yard

But a truck had just pulled in to unload some barrels of milk.

Unloading truck - roosters on roof

While standing there talking to the workers we noticed that there were rooster cages on top of the factory. And much to our surprise out of the home behind us came the head lady from the bean warehouse. She told us that she and her husband own the ware house and their nephew owns the cheese factory and indeed those were fighting cocks in the cages on the roof. She called to him to bring a couple of them down to show them to us. He and his friend brought down a couple of beautiful birds. One rust colored

and one with gold neck feathers.

Beautiful birds

Then they held them facing each other so we could see the puff up their neck feathers. [No birds were hurt in demonstration.]

After the birds were put away we were offered some freshly made cheese. Had to refuse as we were not going back to the RV for quite a while and had no refrigeration with us.

Bowl of fresh cheese

Our friend, the owner of the warehouse, also told us we were welcome to stay at her home as she has two empty bedrooms upstairs, any time we are in town.

The Driver is sure handy to have around.
As we were getting ready to leave this gentleman came to visit with the workers.

Every day means of transportation

Next we drove up to the ranch where they raise many many fighting cocks but it was closed and all the birds were asleep in the shade under their huts. Oh we did find out from the nephew that the fighting cocks are raised on special food to muscle them up/out and they cost around US$100 when they are almost mature.
Stopped by the cemetery to marvel at the monuments and their colors.

From there we went up to the El Mirador – look out point.

Had never been there. The Driver could only get us part of the way up there then we had to walk a paved but winding path to the top.

steep windy path to top

Very nice view from up there.

Most of the town

Lots of farming

I was hoping that when we got back down to the car that it was back on the main road but he had waited for us and then backed down the narrow path back to the wider dirt road.
It was still quite early in the day so we continued to squire Tom around. Next stop the Tequilla Distillery and La Noria leather factories.