Duros

Mexicans are big "snack" people, and one of the snacks seen a lot down here is Duros.  Duros are also called Duritos (not the chemical infused Doritos they sell down here and back home).

Pasta Para Duro (hard pasta) comes in different shapes and is made from flour, cornstarch, baking soda and sometimes food colouring.

When this hard pasta is deep fried, it puffs up to about three times its size.
 















It will change from a hard pasta to a very airy duro.  The consistency of a duro is similar to that of a soft cheese puff, but has a little more crunch to it. 

Duros are usually eaten with a bit of hot sauce drizzled over them, a few squeezes of lime juice and a sprinkle of salt.

Wagon wheel shaped duros seem to be the most popular. 

Just about every food cart, that goes up and down the beach, has a bunch of bags of duros hanging from it.

In Guayabitos, the vendors charge 10 pesos for a bag of duros with all the trimmings.

Whereas, if you go down the highway a few miles to Playa Canalan, at El Monteon, they are much cheaper.

The lady at entrance to Playa Canalan charges only 5 pesos (under 50 cents) for a good size bag of duros with all the trimmings.

If you are looking for a very tasty, inexpensive snack, you can't beat light, airy duros. 

The best part about eating duros is getting to lick all the salty, tart, hot sauce off your fingers before you reach into the bag for another duro. 

Carla took a bag of duros back for Al because he likes spicy things.  I hope he liked them.

Today is the first day of Semana Santa (Holy Week).  People, all over Mexico, will begin their Easter vacations today. 

It is just 6 am and already there is a steady stream of Mexicans walking the beach. 

There are no tents set up, which is a huge change from other years when we'd wake Saturday morning to many tents that had been erected during the night.

The  government keeps saying they will no longer allow camping on our beach during Holy Week, so we'll see what happens over the weekend.

When Bruce and I walked the beach yesterday afternoon, hundreds of people had already arrived and were hanging out down in the hotel zone.

By the end of this weekend, thousands more Mexicans will have arrived in town.

One thing I do know for sure, is that there will also be thousands of bags of duros sold on the beach in the next couple of weeks.

   

Carla's Sunsets

When Carla and Al were here a few weeks ago, they never managed to see even one Guayabitos sunset.

The hotel they were in faced the wrong direction to be able to see the sun setting.

But a couple of weeks later, when Carla was here by herself, she saw gorgeous sunsets seven nights in a row.

Sometimes our sunsets are very pink or pink with purple tones, but Carla's sunsets where brilliant, striking, bold tones of orange or orange and red with subtle touches of yellow. 

One more pleasant memory, Carla.  

San Francisco and Sayulita

While Carla was here, we spent a day tripping around San Francisco and Sayulita. 

These two towns are close together and are about three quarters of an hour from here.

San Francisco is also known as San Pancho.

San Francisco has a beautiful sand beach that seems to go on forever.

There are a few palapa restaurants on the beach and some very upscale homes.

We stopped by one of the local hotels for a cold drink so Carla could have a look around the grounds.

We also went to Sayulita, where we poked around and had some lunch at Don Pedro's.

I ordered the roasted artichoke which was delicious.  Bruce had a pasta dish and Carla had a fillet of dorado sandwich on pita bread.

We all really enjoyed the toasted flat bread and their yummy home made tapenade.

After lunch, we took a walk along the beach and then strolled through the down town area of Sayulita.

There wasn't much surf that day so most of the boards were not in use, and most of the people were just hanging out on the beach.

There are some really beautiful homes in Sayulita and a couple of pretty nice hotels.

 We came across some pangas (small fishing boats) on the beach.

One of the pangas that pulled up on shore had a couple of good looking fellows in it who had a couple of really good looking fish.



As we were walking down towards one of the hotels, we came upon a couple of horses and a weathered wooden sign.

Life is pretty awesome down here especially when you take the time to explore and hunt out new things.   Mexico has just so much to offer.

Like all these spiny iguanas that hang out in a tree in down town Sayulita.  They obviously love it there because we often see up to 15 or so iguanas in this one humongous tree.

 Iguanas also hang out on a nearby ledge and roof top.

Carla got to see many interesting things in San Francisco and Sayulita.

And so did we.