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   RAMBLINGS FROM CULIACAN- MEXICO (Day 2)

The next day was the official "Day of the Dead" holiday. Pretty much all stores were closed, and we were looking forward to a hot day. Thankfully, a local artist Cesar Escobosa invited us to go with him to the coast (about an hour by car from Culiacan.) So we happily piled into his tiny car (a Ford KA - I don't even know if they sell those in the US) and took off. Public transportation is apparently pretty good, and I saw busses everywhere, this is what they looked like.

Along the way, as we got outside the City, there were tons of shacks like these, selling everything from fruit, and veggies to peanuts (a big thing over there) and grilled meats.

Since I didn't really understand the entire conversation in the car (I was in the back seat, and all the windows were open, so even if I was straining to make out what little Spanish I do understand, the wind effectively made me deaf. So when we stopped on the side of the road, next to a church, I didn't really know why.

Turns out that Cesar had made this Mosaic on the front of the church. You can't really tell, but they are all composed of tiny little pieces of cut tiles, and it depicts a day/night scene with the sun and moon.

The rest of the church was adorned by mosaics, and the beautiful Mexican tiles that I adore.

And yep, I adore them, here are some closeups....

I am still trying to figure out how to incorporate things like this in my beads... Ah...I STILL haven't lit the torch since I came back!

And the side of the church had this beautifully architectural window. Fairly simple but very pretty. 

After another 30 minutes of driving, we got to the coast. It was very anticlimactic... the dirt road basically ended into water. And at the waters edge there were these little structures selling seafood and beer.  Cesar stopped (it was way before noon) picked up a six-pack of TECATE (Mexican beer) and kept driving. I took these photos from the car, because we didn't even stop to get out.

I later found out that this wasn't really the ocean, it is a large estuary, and the real beach was about 5 miles from here. It was an easy 20 degrees cooler here compared to the city, so I loved it! So this little area at the end of the road is called Altata.

Then we went to the ocean... a 14 mile long beach with nothing but one restaurant! This is it below.

We had lunch at the restaurant... I had Cevice de Camarones. Basically lemon/lime cured shrimp salad with onions, tomatoes and cucumber. Eaten with fresh tortilla chips. Very refreshing!

Manuel had Aquachile, which is is very lime-y shrimp with red onions, chile flakes and cucumber. All the food was very light and fresh. I know not everybody can stomach raw seafood, but I like sushi, so this wasn't a big deal!

Our friend Coral had Camarones Coco, a cold shrimp soup with coconut water and other stuff ( I never got to try it) but it looked great served in a fresh coconut.

Oh, and remember I told you that there was nothing on the beach...well that is not entirely true...there was a model home, and plans for another 180 vacation homes. I'm sure in 5-10 years there will be plenty of hotels and restaurants and time shares etc. here. 

We couldn't get around getting a tour of it, and here is the kitchen. Immaculately modern and very nicely done. Quite a contrast from the dirt road and the fields that lead here.

Here is the view (back) away from the ocean, you can see another few houses in the process of being built.

This is the model from the outside. They want $280K for this beachfront puppy, complete with "jaccuzzied" master suite, and 2 sun terraces. Another 2 bedrooms sleeping 4. Nothing for me...but quite nice.

In the evening we had dinner at "Marta's" again. We went to her other restaurant, and she treated us royally again. I'm telling you...she'll be getting some lampworked bead jewelry from me sometime, because she REALLY went out of her way, and in essence we were really strangers for all you know.

This is one of the many plates we had for dinner. There was plenty of food showing up, I ate, tasted tried and photographed!  This particular dish is a Chile Relleno a Nogada (or however you spell it) A chili, filled with a mixture of ground beef, nuts and something sweet which I don't really know what it was... covered with a cream sauce, garnished with chopped nuts, pomegranate seeds and chopped fresh cilantro! Mmm...