Winter 2007 - Soltesweb.net            February, page  2

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...South Padre Isalnd, cont.

During the afternoon, there were several people flying very large kites (some 14 ft by 18 ft), probably practicing for the kite competition to be held on Saturday.

At the Sea Turtle Rescue center, next door to the Convention Center, people were busy warming up sea turtles that were washing up on shore in cold shock.  Apparently, the turtles cannot easily survive in temperatures below 50 degrees, and the cold weather was having a toll on them.

At the Visitor center, there was a man creating this beautiful sand sculpture.  Amazin Walter is his name and he says he has many pictures of previous sculptures at amazinwalter.com

What a day! To make things even more interesting, we stopped on the way up for breakfast at Los Fresnos in a great Mexican food restaurant. So good, we stopped for supper on the way back!  While we were there, we found that there was a PRCA Rodeo and county fair in town this weekend.  It was tempting to contrive a way to stay, but what we saw today was enough...

Saturday, Feb. 3

We forgot to mention about the Killer Bee!  Apparently, Hidalgo was the first place that the killer bee was found.  Near the city hall, there is this very large statue of the bee, probably about 10 feet tall and 15 feet long. No wonder it was a killer! 

The local hockey team is called the Killer Bees.

Friday, Feb. 9 - A really busy day!

Nuevo Progresso

We took off early this morning to go to Nuevo Progresso, a Mexican town about 15 miles away. You park your vehicle about 100 yards from the bridge over the Rio Grande, and walk across after paying your quarter into another world.  This is the view from the bridge.

That second picture of the horse and fisherman caught my eye. Can you imaging this crop hanging on your wall?  It also shows how a picture changes when it is cropped.

The town was very busy with "Winter Texans".  They are not called snowbirds here.  Walking on the busy sidewalks with all of the vendors was very difficult.  We stopped in a larger store, and never saw so much pottery.  The first picture is of one wall...imagine about 20 walls of this stuff!

Then look at this building: isn't it unusual?

We braved eating from a street vendor.  The man in the background was shouting "Tacos!  5 for $3!"  We couldn't resist.  3 tacos and 5 gorditas later with two Mexican orange soft drinks (total $8), and we were off again.

WE checked into the dentist situation here, and are thinking about coming back if we need some major dental work done.

Santa Ana Wildlife Refuge

We stopped on the way back at the Santa Ana Refuge again, and were in time to pick up a guided walk with a master naturalist, an older man who knew something just about everything we saw.  It's always interesting to take such walks.  These are the two types of moss in the refuge: the first is the Spanish moss which hangs from the trees, and the second is ball moss which was just then blossoming with some white flowers. Then, look at the interesting insect on those white flowers?  Do you know what it is?

The Dance - Texas Variety Band

As if we didn't have enough excitement today, we went to a dance from 7 to 9:30 at a local RV park.  These Winter Texans have all sort of activities here in the Valley: in fact, there is a weekly newspaper of 56 pages which highlights all of the activities. Besides being the square dance capital of Texas, there are daily meal deals at various parks, dance lessons, trips to Mexico, jam sessions, all sorts of entertainment (we're going to the Ballet Folkorico on Sunday the 11th), etc. 

Here, we have the Texas Variety Band, a western swing band (four guys we think are older than we are) that plays Wills and Freddy Fender type of music.  Greta dancing music!  After the break, the band players' wives, dressed in black and red, did their own dance.  What fun!

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