Day 2 & 3 of the 30 Day Copper Canyon

The last two day’s have been outstanding.  We left yesterday morning at 8:00 AM for Guaymas, Mexico.  It was just over a 300 mile drive and everything went great.  Everyone made it to the RV Park with no problems.

It is hard to believe that families live like this and are happy.

We must be getting close; there is a sign to Guaymas.

The traffic is not too bad, but the roads can get a little narrow.

We stopped for a short break and we have 7 rigs following us.  I hope they are all still behind me!

Look at this they are all spaced out behind us, and to think they think I know where I am going.  Wait until we make it to the park, I hope we don’t make any wrong turns.

After a great day of a wonderful drive and no one getting lost, it was time for social.  We had everyone tell us about their trip today.  Everyone really enjoyed it.

And here is the other half of the group.

Just as we were heading over for dinner at the “Hotel Playa de Cortes” this was the sunset we saw from the court yard of the hotel.  What a view.

We had an outstanding dinner after a long drive day.

  We had our choice of shrimp, fish, chicken and steak all fixed in the Mexican cuisine.  They had a great Tortilla Soup with just the right amount of spices (not to hot but just right).  After a long day everyone turned in early, because today we are heading to the Pearl Farm just around the corner.

Here is a group walking, I took a few that could not walk in our truck up to the Pearl farm.

We are listening to the gentleman explain how they get the oyster to produce the beautiful blue pearl.

It was a very interesting process, from the time the oyster is first impregnated with the small bead of a oyster shell from the fresh waters of the Mississippi.  It was very interesting and how much work they put into raising these oysters.

  

When the mother of pearl oysters lay their eggs in the month of November & December, these sacks are tied in the water to give them a place to attach themselves too.

After a couple of months the sacks are brought out of the water near the end of January first of February.   They are then put these traps to grow a little bit more.  After about another year they are moved into these traps.

Now the first trap, the sacks, these oysters are called babies.  Then when they moved them to the little pyramids,  which are the nursery’s.  Now the ones that are put in here are called Teen’s.  These oysters get a lot of handing by humans; they take them out of the water to clean the shells of barnacles and other parasites at least every month. 

Now when the oysters are placed in here they have been planted with one of those beads to make a pearl.  Within a year to 1 ½ years they will harvests the pearl.  When they harvest the pearl they also use sale the meat from the oyster also.  He said on average a oyster only lives for 5 to 6 years, so they want to harvest the pearl before the oyster dies and the pearl falls to the bottom of the ocean.

Here is what the oyster farm looks like under the surface, as you can see they keep them off the ocean floor so that they get plenty of fresh ocean water.

If you look real close this is called a half pearl that is formed on the shell.  After a great presentation about how pearls are formed, where do we go next?

Yep, the store!  Here the women and men can at least touch and hold and then buy “The Mother of Pearl”.  After the Pearl farm everyone was on their own to explore the town and get ready to move to Alamos.