Goat Island (Isla de Chivas) is now attached to Stone Island (Isla de la Piedra), but used to be separate. Dale and I decided to hike out there today to accomplish four goals: 1) explore, 2) find Benji’s restaurant, 3) see the wild goats, 4) climb Goat Mountain to see if we’re in good enough shape to hike up to the Mazatlán lighthouse (hell yeah!).
We met on the beach and walked all the way out the absolute southernmost part you can walk on Isla, which involved a little clambering. We got a good view of the harbour and marveled that giant cruise ships can get through the narrow channel!
I kept teasing Dale that she had promised me goats and I wasn’t seeing any goats, so she took me a bit around the base of Goat Mountain until she spotted one. They’re big! Once we saw one, we saw a lot!
We then started up the path to the top of the mountain, avoiding as much goat poop as we could. There’s a pretty good path partway up, but then you have to scramble up rocks. It wasn’t particularly challenging and we weren’t even winded by the time we got to the top.
We headed home around 9:45 (yes, we climbed a mountain by 9:30 today!) and I asked a lady cleaning her yard if she knew the location of Benji’s restaurant. She explained to me how to find it. Benji’s is known for its pizza, so I’m curious about going there one day to see if the pizza is any good.
As we headed back to the beach, I asked Dale if she was interested in going for brunch at Carmelita’s, the only restaurant I know has other stuff besides eggs for breakfast. Oh, yeah!
When we got there, I really splurged and ordered a giant glass of fresh squeezed OJ (35 pesos, eep!), but I was really craving some good sugar after all that exercise. Dale had a veggie omelette that really made me wish I could do eggs. It came with refried beans and toast or tortillas. We both do tortillas at home, so toast is a treat!
I actually ordered pancakes! I added a side of ham (65 pesos, not bad!). The pancakes were just the right amount for me, two medium sized ones, and they came with a little plate that had butter, jam, and syrup on it. I like a schmear of strawberry jam on pancakes, so this was perfect for me and I really enjoyed them! The ham was pretty good, too, slice thin but seared to really bring out the flavour. I also finished Dale’s toast, loading it up with pico de gallo!
Dale lets me handle the money when we eat out. The bill was 180 pesos, with my portion being 100 pesos. I had her pay with a 200 peso note and added an additional 20 pesos of my own, then gave her a 100 peso note back.
The exercise this morning was great! I have some work to do this afternoon and think I’ll be able to concentrate now that I got the ants out of my legs. 🙂
Our destination was the top of that mountain!
This guy was just chilling in the sand. We thought he was injured, but he didn’t seem to be in pain and was moving around.
I like the path up to this hut.
Maz in the distance.
Maz lighthouse.
Big boat, with a little tug boat beside and behind it.
Looking up at Goat Mountain.
Heading out into the causeway.
Dale compared these cement things to jacks (as in the game pieces).
As far out on the causeway as we could go.
Looking at Goat Mountain from the causeway.
This lush rocky greenery with a stone croft made me think of hiking in Scotland!
This igloo-type thing caught my eye.
Goat!
There were lots of these trees with exposed roots.
I’d come across tons of stone crofts like these when I was hiking in the Scottish Highlands.
Lots of iron in the soil here.
Looking towards Isla. You can clearly see Stone Island Gardens, the hotel attached to Carmelita’s.
The first part up had a path.
Dale is a good role model for how I want to age.
Looking down at the causeway and the lighthouse.
This view reminded me so much of Point Bonita near San Francisco.
Roots just clinging to rock faces.
Climbing higher!
I could see lots of familiar Isla landmarks.
This is where the hike turned into clambering.
Looking down again to the causeway and the lighthouse.
Here we are at the top of Goat Mountain!
What a view!
If it wasn’t for that tree, I could have mistaken that view for Scotland.
See the goats in the background?
After all the sand on Isla, this red dirt was a welcome change.
Love the colour of this house.
Sitting at Carmelita’s, remembering that I earned my brunch!
That’s a BIG glass of juice and I’d already had quite a bit!
The pelicans were out in full force today.
I STILL can’t figure out who paid what! Back in the old days when we were in the Big City for business we would all go to dinner after a meeting and when the bill came someone would grab it and say. “$265. That is $35 each with the tip”. Inevitably someone would say, “But I only had $12 fish and chips with water to drink!” The next day they were sure to order the full meal deal considering they had to pay for it anyway.
Nice goats. Future tacos for Norma. 😉
Well, the cuentas have thus far been itemized, so it’s been easy to separate things. The problem is that Dale never has her reading glasses and can’t see anything! 😀
Norma’s goat tacos will forever be my favourite story to come out of your blog…
Kudos to you both. I have never ever met anyone who hiked to the top of Chivos! You aren’t missing much if anything on the Isla.
FYI, we are open and ready for drop in visits.
You don’t know ANYONE who has done the climb! That’s awesome! 🙂
I have a very full work day tomorrow, but will try to drop in mid-afternoon. 🙂
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