Mexico ~ Days 2 and 3

On Day 2 (Friday, June 1) we woke up early and spent the morning working. I already told you about my work assignment and we made quite a bit of progress on Day 2 but ran out of supplies.

In the afternoon we took a drive to El Quilete - a quaint little village not far from Mazatlan. This little town depends on tour buses coming from Mazatlan has several restaurants for tourists to enjoy. We stopped for some raspados (Mexican snow cones) and I got a coconut one - coconut milk, coconut syrup, coconut flakes and a little sweetened condensed milk on top - oh my! It was goooood.

When Rick and Ed were first looking for land to purchase to build the orphanage, they considered some acreage just on the outskirts of El Quilete. So we drove around looking for it and saw tons of these giant cactus.

When we returned to Mazatlan we stopped at Home Depot to buy more supplies. It's pretty much the same - only everything is in Spanish. But even the prices were comparable to what we find here in the US.

Day 3 (Saturday, June 2) - Again we spent the morning working. Then we headed to Mazatlan to hike up to the lighthouse. This particular lighthouse happens to be the highest natural lighthouse in the world because it is located on a pretty tall rock.

I took this photo on Sunday, but the lighthouse we hiked up to is at the top of the rock on the right.

There were some great views of Mazatlan. Way, way, way in the back of this photo is the "golden zone" - the resort area for tourists.

And this is looking the other way at Stone Island. This is where we took the kids on Sunday to swim.

On our way down from the hike I saw this guy - about 2 feet long.

The we headed to the airport to pick up Theresa.

When we returned to the Rancho de los Ninos, we visited a brick maker who makes his bricks right next to the Rancho.

It was fascinating to see the process. Here the bricks are laid out to dry.

Then they are stacked to dry some more.

Then they are stacked like this and firewood is put in the open areas below. He lights the wood and it burns for more than a day, creating a kiln.

This is what they look like after they have been fired. He then sells them for 10 cents each. I think I heard that he has been doing this for 30 years!

There were quite a few iguanas basking in the sun on the bricks and wood piles.