Fly Away to Chinipas

Since Darryl and I arrived in Mexico Lalo has wanted to take us flying in his airplane.On Saturday he flew us to a little mining town in the mountains of Chihuahua called Chinipas. (Guaymas is located in the center of the blue section on the map above and Lalo's finger is on Chinipas.)

Lalo's plane is the one on the end.

Yes girls, I am actually in the airplane ready to go.

Our pilot was Lalo, who is 30 and Gilberto who is 24 and is a commercial pilot for AreoMexico.

Above you can see some of the mountains that we flew over. Chinipas is in the valley just past the tall mountains in the back of the picture. By car it is an 8 hour drive from Guaymas. It took us about 1 1/4 hours for the flight.

We felt like real Jet Setters (more like Cessna-Setters) flying in just for breakfast.

Cindy and Gil

The quiet streets of Chinipas Population about 1500.

Darryl got a laugh out of the trees in the street.

An old relic of a mining train.

The town was founded in the late 1600's and the cathedral was built in 1863 and refurbished in 1979.

The old stone basin for the holy water.

The lookout over the river.

I don't really think it's a pet pig, I think it's next falls tamales.

Look closely. She is doing Laundry in a barrel.

I saw this fence and thought of Shiloh.

The man and his plane.
(I don't have any video of the landing here because I had a death grip on the stap in front of me due to the steep banking we had to do to line up on the runway. )

Get ready to leave Chinipas.

Yes, I know. It looks like I have a death grip on his arm.

The mountains of Chinipas

Flying into Guaymas.

Pictures of the domes from the air.

The new part of town, Guaymas Norte.

Looking over towards Miramar.

The Tetas De Cabras of San Carlos
and if you look close you can see our condominiums on the shore.

The view of the estuary looking towards San Carlos.

*********
Safe and sound on the ground!

Yes I swam with the Dolphins!

Happy Birthday Cameron Marie!

Happy 29th Birthday to our beautiful daughter

Cameron Marie Cunningham Guffey!

Hey Cami ---- Owl Lub U 4-Evah!

Flip Flops, Dolphins and Sonia!

For those of you thinking that our chaotic world means that Hell is about to freeze over, I have bad news. Darryl was seen in a public venue (not the beach) in shorts and flip flops.

A sure sign the end is near.

For those of you who don't know Darryl that well, sorry if I scared you. :-) But you must understand that our eldest daughters were in their 20's before they ever saw their dad wear anything but Work Boots, Cowboy boots or Ropers.

For the last 8 months as we drive to church our route takes us past the Delfinario de Sonora. It is a Dolphin Center where they do rehabilitation for handicapped adults and children using dolphin therapy. Just think hippotherapy with water.

During the week the therapy is the main purpose of the Delfinario, but on Saturdays and Sundays they put on dolphin and Sea Lion shows. FYI , in Spanish a seal lion is called Lobos Marinos or Sea wolf.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

After 8 months we decided it was time to go see what goes on at the Delfinario.

First we went to the Sea Lion show where the trainer and a clown put 3 seals through a routine of amazing tricks. I will only post one of the 100 pictures we took there.Then it was on to the dolphin show where the trainers put the 6 dolphins through a great routine. Dolphins are amazing animals and are so fun to watch.
But the best part of the morning was the surprise Darryl bought me. I spent an hour after the dolphin show swimming and playing in the water with a female dolphin named Childra. It was so wonderful I can't explain how much fun I had. Darryl took 100's of pictures and a few videos I will try to post later.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

She gave me a ride, but I just accidently deleted the picture from this post, soI will post it later with the videos,...... then she gave me a kiss.
And we played both in the shallow water and in the deep.

The life jacket is mandatory no matter how well you swim. Oh well, I loved it and I know why Skye wants to be a dolphin trainer. I want to be one too when I grow up.
Saturday Evening we went to a birthday party for our little Primary friend Sonia. She wanted to be Belle from Beauty and the Beast, and her parents saved for a long time to buy this dress and have this party for her.
It was quite festive!
Our friend Glinda, who lives across the street from Sonia came over to be the clown. About 40 children from the neighborhood came to the party.

This sweet little girl was wearing a dress and matching headband that her mother crocheted for her. I thought Cami would really like to see it!

Sonia with her cake and gifts on her special day.

The pinata just before they turned the kids loose with the stick.

They sing a little verse and the kids can hit the pinata as many times as they want until the verse is finished, then the next child takes a whack at it.

Darryl had to rescue this little one who kept wandering into the path of the pinata stick. She sat with him for about 15 minutes after the pinata was busted before she decided she wanted down.

Sonia's mom, dad and little brother, Ernesto. Her little sister Ana was too busy for the picture.

QUEREMOS LA PASTEL!!

Elder Bonney and Elder Ramirez came by for a few minutes.

It was a fun evening for everyone!

Feliz Cumplianos Sonia!!