What I Did On Vacation

Aside from the time we spent at my friend's house, we also went to Mexico, twice. On Friday, we went to Matamoros. If you notice the sign, it is a full service stop. We bought medicine, a Coach purse and a watch here. We also had a wonderful lunch of nachos, guacamole, and shrimp salad. We had enough to take home to Bob.
When you go into the restaurant, you are served chips and pico de gallo. Their guacamole is mashed up avacado's and they have the best anywhere. There is also an oil based salsa that is really hot.
This picture is the window with some of the pots for sale in the store. You can buy about anything from really pretty jewelry to not so pretty carvings. Lots of Pewter and lots of liquor. Frogs seem to be plentiful there as well. I'm not sure why.
This is one of the street buses that run everywhere. There are also taxis. This particular day there were few people milling up and down the street. The restaurant, which is usually full had only a hand full of patrons. We thought the problems with the drug lords and police were to blame.
This is a side view of the bus. It was really quite sad at how few people were on the streets.
This picture is where you can change your US money to pesos or vice versa. We didn't change any money because Garcias was perfectly happy to take our American money.
This is one of the street vendors. On the right was corn they were grilling. Once it was done, they covered it with paprika and then with mayonnaise. I'm not sure what they were selling out of the #2 washtub, but it was something to drink. They were doing a good business with the corn.
This is the bridge with the walking area to the side. You can actually walk across about as quickly as you can drive. But being old ladies, we chose to drive. Once you get to the American side, you are subject to search. Fortunately, they just waved us on through. If we had any liquor, we would have had to pay the duty on it. It's about a dollar a bottle.
If you look closely through the wire, you can see the Rio Grande River. The ravine is quite deep, but there's not much water in it, and it is muddy. They haven't had much rain so things are quite dry.
The rest of these pictures were taken in Nuevo Progresso on Sunday. When we got there, we figured out where all the tourists and spring breakers were. The streets were crowded and moving around was slow.
These pictures were taken in a small market. The booths are tight, and each one has someone that sells to anyone who will buy. A few years ago, these people would be pressing things into your hands to get you to buy, and if you ever took hold of anything, you pretty much had to buy it because they wouldn't take it back. Now they are a bit more laid back.
The young man with my friend was selling hammocks and other woven items. As we left, I told him she would tell everyone he was her boyfriend. I don't know if he understood, but he grinned anyway.
This is a dentist office. They are on every other storefront. All have been trained in the US, and their prices are very reasonable. I had hoped to see a sign that showed prices, but wasn't able to.
I wanted to get a picture of this man, but he wouldn't turn around. He was wearing a costume with a mask. He was tooting a horn and beating a drum. There were security guards near, and they won't let you take pictures of them or of the actual border, I guess for security sake. I did get the young fellow sitting in his tank to smile and wave. They all looked like they were about 15 years old, some dressed in black fatigues and some in camo. All carried AK-47's which was scary to me.
Once we got on the bridge, we could again take pictures. If you look at the dragline in the distance, you will see the wall that is being built to keep the illegal's out. Something tells me it's a waste of time. But that's just my opinion.
This is one of the many bougainvillea plants that grow in that region. They are in full bloom as are many other plants right now. Also my friend's orange and grapefruit trees are blooming and when you go outside, you smell them immediately. I had a wonderful time visiting my friends. It's one of those trips where you don't want to come home.

Hope you are having a great Tuesday. Pray for our country. Love one another.