Couchsurfing, our 5th since being on the road from Alaska, we made contact with Alberto, we were his first surfers so he did not know what to expect, we didn’t know very much Spanish so we didn’t know what to expect ... what a crowd of geniuses.
We were invited into his home, he lives in a secure compound (not jail) with a courtyard out of sight where we parked up Chiwi and Hobbit, meeting at a local Thai restaurant which was a convenient place we shouted Alberto tea (dinner) for him accepting to take us in for the night.
We planned to stay the night then carry on, some dramas with Insurance and my then starting to weep shock held us back with progress, Alberto with his friendly approach said please stay and get sorted no problem at all.
He left for work, we settled in to get our stuff sorted out and with a quiet house and Wifi it was perfect.
The Mexican insurance gig sent us off the edge so with help understanding what we were getting into Alberto helped suss things out in Spanish, even he had some difficulty which made us feel a LOT better as he is a design engineer so no dumby by any stretch.
That second night we were kindly invited to go to a baseball match with the lads, what a treat not ever having been to a match before so there we were watching two Spanish teams duke it out on the field, most excellent!!
Pictured here Javier, me, Alberto and Alexandro (sitting stealth) (think he was in the dunny)
Javier sporting his support painted tat
These girls kept getting in the way while I was trying to take photos of the grass, sorry guys
Earlier that day we went shopping for food etc and made very slow progress with one thing and another, Ellen cooked up a Thai curry and one of Albertos mates Javier came and joined us for food, interestingly enough Walmart sell Mexican ADV bikes
You can conveniently buy shampoo too at an arms length
Given that we had become re-invited overstayers we set too trying to get a phone card, chains and sprockets sorted and my now newly weeping shock, apart from that we had nothing to do except tear our hair out and I don’t have much of that to start with.
Javier’s 41st birthday was on that following evening so Ellen made the famous Sushi, later that evening we went out to a night club for Whiskey, dancing and good times, this closed at 2.00am so they kicked all us oldies out back to the retirement village, Javier had a yummy cheesecake which he insisted we all have some of ... ok.
Sushi .... YUM!!!
Me, Ellen and Alberto
The birthday boy Javier and his good lady!!
Good times
More mates,
Ouwh old people dancing
We were impressed with the concrete floor
3.40am we all cashed it in, full of sushi, grog and cheescake ... classic .. not quite what we expected from a one night stay.
Friday morning Alberto was leaving to go back to Mexico city and said hey if we want to stay it would be no problem but he won’t be there, having still very incomplete business we decided to do this.
Saturday we did cruze around Hermosillo after getting mostly sorted, went up to the lookout and really enjoyed the day.
Some general pics
Cell towers
These little buggas are everywhere
Neat colours
Hobbit .... still going (touch wood)
Saturday evening was one of Albertos workmates party .... in the courtyard....straight outside our door so not far to stumble.
In true Mexican style we were invited to have Tacos and pasta, we bought a bottle of red wine and duly accepted, this was great talking to these guys, they wanted to know about our trip and we wanted to get local info and enjoy local peoples company only a 1.45 am finish this time.
Head chef and birthday boy
Does not need explaining!!! hmmm can you smell it!
Sean and I having a chat
Sunday we went for a big walk on a local hill mountain bike / walking track, was neat for us to chat (kinda) with MTB locals, the weather was very nice an made it a pleasure, on the way back we stopped in at a supermarkdo and fooded up again for our assault on Copper Canyon as Monday lunchtime we leave, no photos as we forgot the camera.... broke the rules of NEVER leave the camera at home.
Tuna Blanco, this is what this piece of cactus leaf is called, we tried it and loved it, something we have never had before, very nice to eat as fruit.
Now for the credits on this part of our report, I have to be honest and say although we had a very lonely start to Mexico and struggled a bit but the warmth and welcoming of the locals here has been second to none, they have set the bar very very high now.
A special thanks to Alberto, your blood is worth bottling mate and Javier just for making us feel welcome like a local mate, you guys have made our stay just magic.
We are now insured, shipping sorted, have a phone card, fooded and ready and much much wiser for looking learning and listening, if the rest of Mexico is only half as cool as the last few days I am not sure we will leave
... but we have to.
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