Fun tour of Old Kino Bay

Lotsa pictures today! One of our neighbors took us on a tour of old town, showing us the best places to buy fish, shrimp, ice, bottled water; the grocery that specializes in meat, veggies or dairy; where to eat and where not to eat; bakeries for soft breads or crusty breads - great fun!

We drove out to the 'estuary', where there are farmed oyster beds, and shrimpies and crabs and other mussels.

There were three or four restaurants set up right there where we ate the fresh harvested goodies.

There were big crates of oysters and different mussels and whenever an order was placed, they dug out a big handful and served them up!

I decided to try the tostados de jaiva (crab tostados) - ordered two of them - terribly pricey but oh so good! They cost a grand total of about a buck and a half each!

Take a look at this menu -

Kinda hard to make out, but the first item is a dozen oysters for about four bucks. They're smaller than we're used to, I guess (I'm not a raw oyster fan!) but people were just slurping them down!

Shrimp cocktail comes in three sizes, ranging from three bucks to seven - and the big one would feed a family!

The tostados and tacos are all about a buck fifty each and are absolutely delicious! We WILL go back there, assuming we can find it again!

There was some new construction going on at the place we chose - word is that it's a new banos (bathroom) - looks like a rather scary septic system to me, but what do I know?

What is impressive is the ingenious use of what's just laying around - the old rusty junker as a platform for the water pressure tank!!

A little off the beaten track, so to speak since everything is off the beaten track, was a classic joint - we chose not to eat there on advice of our tour guides - but we enjoyed the wit of the proprietor . . .

We understand he doesn't serve spinach or even seaweed, but Popeye's does have a great view from his 'patio' seating.

Looking out, you see a huge sandbar. Presumably at low tide, you can almost walk out to the island a couple miles away in water up to your knees. But what fascinated us was the gulls that were feeding there. This picture is really had to see, because it was at full zoom a long way out, but it shows hundreds and hundreds of gulls feeding on something, and just being startled and lifting into the sky.

Nature is a wonderful lady! On this bumpy dirt/sand road to and, obviously, back from the estuary, are a string of power poles.

And on many of these power poles are HUGE nests - osprey love this area! We saw at least a half dozen of these nests and I'm sure there are lots more!

So with full bellies and happy hearts, we headed back to town. After a couple quick stops for shrimp and a few other things (like a couple filet mignons for about $2 a pound - apparently all meat is the same down here, so they just give away what is reputed to be excellent beef for almost nothing. Be it shoulder roasts or filet - almost the same price! And since we cannot take chicken or pork back across the border, I might just have to stock up on some filets while here!!!

After a brief siesta, Annette and I headed over to a new hotel celebrating it's grand opening last night - very good looking place! Good munchies, soft drinks, mariachi's and dancers - great fun!

Another terrific day in paradise!