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We are half way through the Christmas/New Years/Three Kings holiday season. Christmas here is such a joy. I am not sorry to say we are very hokey. And very low-key. Before Christmas there are the posada processions, and the naciementos set up in front of all the homes. . For the naciementos I love the tradition of the empty manger and putting baby Jesus in after the Christmas Eve mass. That was probably my only stressful Christmas moment this year. The garden club bought the big nativity scene that goes on display in the plaza each Christmas. Last year Baby Jesus never appeared!!! It seems upon investigation that he was lost or broken. (No one in their right mind would steal Baby Jesus. Bad Karma squared!) I checked early this month and he was still not found. So now I was trying to find another that matched the set!! Not much luck as both size and color were not average and the original supplier had gone out of business. . Plus the whole set looked like someone dropped it down the stairs at the Delegacion. Well at the last minute the town painted and repaired the set and a replacement was found. Phew! thank heaven.. I can't take this much pressure. Almost as stressful was chasing the garbage truck down the block last week, trying to give the guys their Christmas envelope. They got away from me as the dogs and I came out of the house. These bum legs don't run that well anymore <G>. So here is this old crip with two running dogs, hobbling down the middle of the street trying to yell for them to arrete! Some guy in a pickup truck passed me, took pity and told the garbage man by now almost a block away, that some crazy lady was chasing them with money. Kind garbage man trotted back to me, now almost collapsed in the middle of the street, I handed him his envelope and we both exchanged Feliz Navidads. There were lovely decorations in the church for Christmas Eve mass. The live nativity scenes in the church square were VERY imaginative this year. These are nativity scenes from around the world and even the galaxy! The Huron Indian scene, the aliens, and so on were all very well done. As always baby Jesus was a little brother or sister under one year of age pressed into service. No animals this year?? Maybe a new rule?? I do remember last year that we all chased the loose calf around the courtyard. After mass we strolled home to have a late birthday supper for Harry. No mad holiday shopping binges here. Many of us gringos don't bother with cards or gifts for one another. I did do some Christmas baking for friends. That means hauling out one of my best hand created Christmas gifts.. the Bierbrauer family cookbook. 60 some pages of my Mom's incredible recipes and old family memories and photos. It was my gift to my family seven or eight years ago. For our friends' goodie plates, I made fudge, pineapple macadamia fruit cake, and a bunch of other family cookies. For Harry's birthday which was feted at the Saturday morning Hash House Harriers meeting I made Mom's famous pecan sticky buns. Much better than cake! Christmas day was our bunch of friends tradition of eating dinner at Mannix. As always the roast whole piggy and turkey were moist and wonderful. We all enjoy the dinner and seeing one another. Not having to cook and clean up is a blessing and they have all the the yummy side dishes. Lots of excitement when the server kid dropped a buffet pan and almost ignited his leg and the tablecloth when the sterno spilled! No worries, fortunately for the kid, everyone rallied around and beat it out.
Toys for Tots was as always a wonderful thing. We seem to have more and more kids each year. Some schools have gone from one or two kinder classes to four!! Santa and the elves had a very busy early December getting to all those classes. We used a pick up load of boxed pinata candy, a pick up load of boxed crayons and coloring books and a pick up load of bagged peanuts in the shell to fill almost 3000 gift bags. This takes about a week of assembly line work. Well worth it when you see the class all dressed up in their Christmas best happily waiting for Santa. Now the whole town will be dropping off Three Kings day gifts at Barbara's bazaar. Tommie Thompson, and a couple of cronies drive all over town dressed up in their Three Kings costumes. They hand out candy and small toys all over the village. Then that evening we meet in the plaza to smash piņatas by age and sex. Separating them that way cuts down on the mayhem when the pinata finally gets broken. We will go to Guad to buy a good one and then get a big box of candy and confetti. They do not come filled and it is a messy, tedious job getting all the goodies into the pinata. Then drop it off at the Delegacion office. After three kings things will go back to just the usual high season madness. The village is very busy and will only get more so after New Years. All the Canadians will be here fleeing the frozen north! It took me ten minutes to navigate through the stop lights to get to the gym this AM. There is very mixed feelings about how well our new lights are managing the traffic. Things would be better if there were police to ticket the people holding up traffic to make illegal left hand turns!
July 12, 2004-The lake is up to the wall on parts of the malecon (boardwalk sort of.) The rains come every night and in the morning the sun shines as we walk the dogs and look at Mt. Garcia across the lake. On fourth of July, Miss Dida celebrated her second birthday. She is settling down to the extent that I can walk her on the sidewalk without a leash. She still has to be scolded for flying up to people and jumping up on them but she is getting better. She just assumes the ENTIRE world loves her! Woody is getting more frail. He will be 15 in three months. He still has days when he prances along with all his friends, but more often then not he stays by my side and watches the rest race around. We have been out on some fun day trips. We were able to buy a copy of Tony Burton's out of print book "Western Mexico: A Travelers Treasury" We have journeyed off to Tala and Teuchitlan and the results are in Mexico Trips. A couple of days ago we rounded up Rob and Cindy, Max and Janel, and Frank and Lee. This was a trip where the drive was really the best part. We were off to Santa Maria del Oro. This is an old gold mining town below Mazamitla. We are at 5200 feet here in Ajijic. Mazamitla is higher and Santa Maria is higher yet. The road to Santa Maria winds up and down through spectacular mountains. It is a paved two lane with nobody on it except for the bus that goes twice a day from Mazamitla to Santa Maria. The views of the valleys and the far away peaks looked like the Himalayas. We saw a huge iguana strolling by the side of the road and a lot of the beep beep road runner birds! This area is famous for the wild flowers that spring up during the rainy season and there were already many blooming in shades of royal blue, lavender and yellow. We were following Jerry Smith's directions. He is a local motorcycle touring enthusiast and he said Santa Maria was only a half an hour from Mazamitla. So.. as we left Mazamitla Harry offered to stop at the last Pemex out of town but we all said no..we are OK!! Fools. We were driving the Jeep and a Honda CRV. Because this is the rainy season there were washouts, and rock falls along the road. There is no shoulder and the turns are hairpin. Once as Harry came whizzing around one of those hairpin turns we almost acquired a large black Brahma steer as a hood decoration! The whole herd was strolling down the middle of the road. Two hours! later, when we got to the old town it was quiet and sleepy for a hot Saturday afternoon, but some one came to be hospitable almost as soon as we parked by the square. A nice old man in his Saturday best came up to ask us if we needed anything. He wanted to know if we were looking for the hotel. Needless to say a BANOS was our first need. He told us to leave the cars there and escorted us down a nearby street to a little restaurant where we all used the bathroom and bought cold drinks. He was the town judge and was very proud of his town. We sat and talked to him and the bunch of men there eating pasole and drinking beer. One man spoke very good English. He said he lived on his rancho two hours away in the mountains. He gave us his card and said if we ever came that way it was very beautiful country and he would love to show us around. We bought the old man a beer and then he led us off to show us the rest of his town. He took us back to the square to look at the 250 year old church. There was a fenced off even older one next to it that had been damaged in an earthquake. Then he took us to his home right there on the square and apologized that his wife was not there to welcome us, since she was away visiting relatives that day. He was such a sweetie. Everyone we met in the town was just as welcoming as they could be. Only in Mexico. Of course now it is really late and we are starving. So we start back down and around the mountain to Mazamitla. As we were driving down at about 8000 feet or so we hit rain and fog, scary!! but we drove out of it in about ten minutes. When we got back to Mazamitla we stopped at El Troje the famous fajita restaurant for a well deserved dinner. We cruised on back around the lake and home. Long day and my driver was tired!! Well that's all the news from Lake Chapala, where all the woman are beautiful, the men are handsome and the dogs are extraordinarily smart! And Harry and Chris are very happy.
June 8, 2004- Well our rainy season has started with a deluge and it was two weeks early!! The lago is almost back up to the wall by the park and nearing the end of the pier at the old posada. While that is a good thing for the long term health of the lake, it is a bad thing for the four footed critters who are turned out there. Last year the cows and the mare herds had A LOT more pasture once the rainy season started. This year and right now they are all pretty skinny, there will be much less grass for all. I don't know if their owners supplement them with hay and grain or just depend on whatever forage they find when they are turned out. The foals are already being born and the mares will need good grass to keep their weight while they nurse.
The next one had baby clothespins suspended from a string. You had to take a clothespin and say an article associated with a baby. Each word meant another clothespin held in your hand. You lost when you dropped one. Again I think got five, ( but!!! I said them in Spanish: camisa, pantalones, leche, talco, zapatitoes) the winner managed to cram ten into her hand before they hit the floor. We were really BAD at the rice and diaper pin one! You are blindfolded and the time is one minute. You have to sift through this bowl of dry rice in which there are small safety pins. I found two in a minute, Janel found one! and the winner found 30!!!
Both Janel and I really enjoyed the party. It was fun shopping for the gifts. When we went to the papelaria to get them wrapped, we met another older lady there getting baptism gifts wrapped. We all had to look at one another's gifts and comment on how pretty everything was . We enjoyed meeting all of Alejandro's relatives and daughter Sondra's young friends. Everyone went out of their way to make us feel welcome and comfortable at the party. We wish her and her husband much joy when the baby girl to be named Cassandra is born. She is expected quite soon, like in the next two weeks! Coming events!!! A fun dog show and dancing horses!! scheduled for June 27th at the Hotel Rincon de Gustavo around the corner!! I may enter Dida and Woody in the beauty part, not the costume competition!!! It should be a hoot!! Well that's all the news from Lake Chapala, where all the woman are beautiful, the men are handsome and the dogs are extraordinarily smart! And Harry and Chris are very happy.
May18-2004- It seems like time around here doesn't just fly it moves at warp speed. I am out of the wheel chair and walking pretty much OK. I get stiff and sore but it is slowly working out. The wedding was on April 23rd and it was lovely. We learned a
lot about Mexican civil law. For example in Mexico many people have two
weddings. The civil one is required and then if you are well off a big
church wedding follows. Some parents don't even let the daughter go live with
the husband until after the second wedding. For the poorer folks like Lucia, the
civil wedding is the only one.
After the ceremony the wedding party adjourned to the little evento place across the street. These are walled compounds, with open space, dance floor, kitchen and baths that are rented out for parties. Several days before the wedding, on her birthday, we had taken Lucia to Chapala to buy her an outfit and to get all the chicken and supplies for the party. The chicken was in a mole sauce and it was very yummy. We stayed until 9:30PM and by then the party was in full swing. I am sure it went on long after we left. Lots of relatives and friends and of course the whole family comes. We were honored to be asked to participate and we both enjoyed the whole wedding very much. So even though we are childless we have now married one off! It cost a whole lot less and was much more fun than many weddings I have attended in the states. We just got back from a trips NOB (North of the Border). Harry says he is NOT leaving his home again. It was a long drive but I enjoyed seeing San Antonio, Texas and he did get a new car out of the deal. We are now registering cars with South Dakota! The dealership did all the paperwork. It is a done thing here, because you can register in SD without an inspection and no need for proof of U.S. insurance. You can renew through the mail. If you never take the car back to the U.S. you don't need to bother renewing the U.S. registration. As long as your FM3 papers are current it is no problem. Did some shopping there and thought to myself how little "recreational" shopping we do here. We brought back a carload of "stuff." Some we needed but I am sure not all of it. <GRIN> It was fun to eat things we can't get here, like lobster, and fresh tuna. I brought some Italian sausage home in the cooler along with Ghirardelli chocolate chips. This time of year the village is usually quiet as many people leave to go back NOB. It has been hot , but the rain birds are singing and all the farmers are plowing fields getting ready to plant as soon as the rains come. We bought a small swamp cooler for the bedroom but it has not yet been hot enough to even turn it on. The village itself has gotten only sort of less crowded. Since that AARP article touting the "cheap" life here, the B&B's and hotels have been packed. Right now any house in the village that is listed at a fair price only stays on the market for a few weeks. Some never even get a for sale sign up on their wall. They change hands that quickly. Like all things I suppose this to shall pass. But since all of us Baby Boomers will be retiring in the next ten years I don't think it will pass that quickly. I just wish that here on Independencia the construction was done. There are three houses currently being remodeled and between construction trash and workers cars, navigating down the street is tough!! Sometimes depending on where things are parked you have a hard time getting the wrangler out of the privada and onto Independencia. There is also talk of more crime in the village. Something about a gang of young thugs, breaking into houses. We have decided to add the spiked bars to the one unprotected wall that faces Duff's vacant lot and now we put the alarm on whenever we go out. You just have to hope the cops can catch them and lock them up. Well that's all the news from Lake Chapala, where all the woman are beautiful, the men are handsome and the dogs are extraordinarily smart! And Harry and Chris are very happy.
April 5-2004- It has been interesting around here. I now know that the house accommodates wheel chairs well, the web site has been hacked twice by a bunch of Turkish nuts and.. we are going to have a wedding. Lucia the maid has asked us to be the testimonios- witnesses for her marriage. It is coming up soon at the behest of her dying grandmother. Abuela raised Lucia and her sister Patty after their parents died. She is now in the end stages of caner and wants to see Lucia married before she dies. So we are planning this for after Easter. Stay tuned for pictures and details!! News at 11:00
February 6, 2004 -I arrived home for good on February 1, 2003. I looked back at what I wrote as I was waiting there in New Jersey, counting off the days until Harry arrived to drive back with me. "December 20-02- In a few hours I will be "leaving on a jet plane." Unfortunately I do know when "I will be back again." I return on January 1, for one more month. " I have been reflecting on my first year these past few weeks. My first year is different than Harry's. He was here by himself with me flying back and forth. This was our first year together. Friends in a yahoo group who are planning on moving here often talk about exit strategy or plan B. In other words do you have a plan in case for some reason living here in Paradise becomes intolerable! Maybe we are just more resolute than they or we took more time deciding but we have never had a plan B. The only way I could see us leaving is because of some catastrophic health crisis but maybe not even that. We have been very pleased with the health care here. We find it in many ways better than the U.S. In my first year I had times in those early months when I did have a moment of "panic" missing my friends and familiar routines. I jumped in with both feet, taking on the Garden Club's web site and going through major problems transferring this one to a new hosting service. I missed my techie friends! I didn't have time to sit back and reflect too much on my problems. Harry in his time here without me had joined a bunch of organizations so I was often a bit overbooked! There was often not much time to consider how much my life had changed and what I missed from my old one. Then the routines of the new life and friends replaced the ones I missed. I think by now I have settled into the retirement/Mexican mindset. That means:
Well that's all the news from Lake Chapala, where all the woman are beautiful, the men are handsome and the dogs are extraordinarily smart! And Harry and Chris are very happy.
December 22, 2003- Christmas is fast approaching but just like last year it is a joyous not a hectic celebration. This year for the first time in five years I have all the Christmas decorations out. After we sold the house we didn't have room for all of them in the rented condos! We went to Costco a few weeks ago and bought a nine foot tree wired with 2000 lights. It looks great with the high ceilings in the great room. From there it was to Abastos market to buy piņatas for the neighborhood posada on the 20th. Harry the piņata man, indulged himself in a big Santa Claus, a reindeer, a Christmas tree, a small five pointed star and a HUGE five pointed star. Then to the dulceria aisles to buy a case of piņata candy, a bale of confetti, and a ten kilo bag of peanuts. This is stuffing fodder for piņatas! What with the impulse purchase of the Christmas tree, the normal Costco stuff, and a neighbor riding along with us we were mashed in the car. In order to get the tree box in I had my seat up to the dashboard and rode home leaning against it. Schools are closed now. Last week we finished up the Toys For Tots distribution. First we had to make up 2500 gift bags. Here are the happy band of elves finishing up on the third day of assembly line work. That's me next to Dagmar in the purple sweater. Part of the reason Harry likes to take pictures is because then he doesn't have to be in them! After assembly it was two or three schools daily to get them all in before they closed for Christmas break. Below is a line up of eager cuties is at one of the kinder's where we were handing out toys. There is no way to convey to you how much fun this is or how much the little ones love it. They shriek for Santa Claus and then sing us their carefully practiced Christmas songs.
This time of year everyone in the community draws together. Christmas Eve the Garden club president takes the baby Jesus figure down to the plaza to place him in the manger. Then many of us will go over to the church yard to look at the students displays of live nativity scenes from around the world. There will be songs sung, stands selling hot spiced ponche, and everyone will be in a very festive mood. It is a lovely Christmas. Quite different from what is celebrated in the states. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all. Check Festivals or any of the highlighted lines above for more Christmas pictures from the village. Well that's all the news from Lake Chapala, where all the woman are beautiful, the men are handsome and the dogs are extraordinarily smart! And Harry and Chris are very happy.
December 1, 2003- The feast of San Andreas the Apostle ended last night. Woody is glad! He is to the point that he has to be leashed and dragged out of the closet to get him outside. Here is a recap of the week's festivities. Each day of the fiesta is sponsored by a specific group of workers and honors one of Ajijic's barrios. The daily schedule includes 6 AM Maanitas (the skyrockets booming to wake you for mass) and the procession to Mass at 8 AM , the 6:30 PM procession to 7 PM Solemn Mass of the day's sponsors and then burning of the Castillos at 10:30 PM. Here is the schedule of sponsoring groups: We marched with friends Tuesday night, the 25th. We all carried candles, we
had a good band and guys setting off skyrockets behind us!! It was a respectable
showing of gringos. In early days there were often very few. The
Nov. 28th was put on by the maestros who are the crew bosses of all the
construction crews. They had a really fancy band in the plaza and a castillo and
two other big displays all set up in the church courtyard. It was a huge
display. Really awesome fireworks. We went up several nights to watch and party.
Each night required drinks of canela, a cinnamon tea spiked with brandy , we
also did the paseo or walk around the plaza along with the young'uns eying each
other up. It was a good week of fun.
We went to Guad on Sunday . We went to the big international book fair at the expo center. Harry was glad to get the big book Master's of Mexican Folk art. We saw the book at the artisan fair last week. The Molinero family we hosted here during the fair are listed in the book. A friend, Marianne Carlsen brings in craftsman from all over Mexico for this sale. She wants to keep these indigenous craftspeople in business. That way the art won't be lost. The family that stayed with us are potters. We had a great time with them and they will be staying with us again when they come next year . The fair had mask makers, weavers, potters, coppersmiths, knife makers, and embroidery/tapestry makers. The workmanship was incredible. While in Guad we also did our shopping for all the entertaining that will be going on in the next six weeks. I got my Christmas tree. A nine footer!! it will look great all decorated. The stores were packed. The city people were also out starting their Christmas shopping. We will be making up the toys for tots packages this week and we will start elfing with Santa the week of the 8th. Busy, Busy Well that's all the news from Lake Chapala, where all the woman are beautiful, the men are handsome and the dogs are extraordinarily smart! And Harry and Chris are very happy.
November 20, 2003- It is time for two months of fiestas!! Plus the social /snow bird season is kicking off. So life around here is constant busyness and fireworks! Harry has two boxes with hundreds of his handmade gliders waiting in readiness for the toys for tots visits. We went to the Chapala town hall the other day. Got the list of all the schools and their directors from the Chapala education jeffe. It is time to start contacting them and scheduling all the Santa visits. It is also time to drive into Abastos and buy the toys, and coloring books etc . Then our group, Hash House Harriers has to make up thousands of little goodie bags. An elf's work is never done! Both our fund raisers did well so we should be able to hit all the schools we went to last year and perhaps some more even farther around the lake. Today was Mexican Independence Day. A national holiday that I could not help but compare to American 4th of July. Now maybe it is different in American small towns. But I did live in some small towns and I never remembered the whole town preparing for the celebration. Nor do I remember the whole town joining in and celebrating so happily all day and half the night. The parade starts about 10:30 Am. It goes from the plaza down one street, all the way down to Six Corners and then loops up to another street and comes all the way back to the plaza. Every school in the village, even the little kinders marches. There are bands, horse groups, homemade pickup truck floats, beauty queens, soccer teams, and even the karate school! The kids have been down in the parking lot by the park practicing their marching for weeks. What impresses me most is how the parents pitch in to create the stuff the kids march with for their routines. Unlike the states there are no fancy uniforms, no purchased pom-poms or flags. But there is wonderfully imaginative, home made stuff. One class of little ones all carried a clear ring of tubing, probably water pipe of some sort, with colored paper streamers attached. The teacher blew her whistle, they counted off and put the hoop on left hand, right hand, then their head, and so on. This was done to music from a parent carried boom box! They all wore white shorts and a white v-necked t shirt. The little girls all had matching hair ribbons. They did a super job on their routine and they looked great. Other groups used colored paper pinwheels mounted on sticks, two liter soda bottles painted and mounted on either end of long sticks. Another group carried small colored balls which got rhythmically thumped and passed from hand to hand. The imagination and ingenuity was astounding. and everyone clapped and cheered and we all had so much fun. The parade ended at the plaza and the kids then race off to the rides and food vendors. One of the bands settled down to play and one of the horse groups had their horses dancing to the music. The castillo or fireworks will be tonight at 10:30PM can't wait. We will soon be walking down to the plaza to watch. The little one with her water tube ring below is our maid Lucia's oldest. I love the little revolutionary's home made pony.
Well that's all the news from Lake Chapala, where all the woman are beautiful, the men are handsome and the dogs are extraordinarily smart! And Harry and Chris are very happy.
October 4, 2003- We are not sure if the rainy season is over. The humidity has dropped quite a bit and we have had no rain for several days. Of course there are three hurricanes lurking on both coasts so who knows! The Guad weather men are saying that the rainy season is going to last for another month. The lake is still high and even if we don't get rain there is another water release scheduled. Last week was supposed to be unscheduled but suddenly careened out of control! Back to that "what is there to do all day" discussion! We were out all day or in Guadalajara, Tonala, or the country almost every day of the week. You can see some of those trips on the Mexico Trips page. We took new friends, Debra and James who are renting next door and here looking around, on an exploratory shopping trip to Tonala. Harry wanted a tequila sipping set for the aged stuff I brought from the hacienda distillery in Mexico Trips. This is a pretty bottle and about six inch tall, thin, glasses. The glass factories in Tonala have lots so he had plenty to choose from. He bought a frosted white set, very pretty. In Tonala our good friend Trudie Nelson sent us to a new place. Forja Espanola- 013-691-0346-Av. Juarez no. 109, Tonala. This place is a decorative iron work factory. Harry bought a beautiful wine rack and I got two metal angels for Christmas. The prices were great and the angels beautiful. This place is off a small road and down a dirt alley. There is no way we would ever have found it without Trudie's directions. The wine rack had to be painted whatever color we wanted and it was delivered today. Wine rack 1400 pesos, angels 150 pesos each! Just move the decimal point over once to the left for dollar price.
On Friday we went to Walt and Jean's B&B Casa Flores for a free lunch! Walt and Jean may start offering a daily Comida Corrida. Each day a different special. 1:30-2:30PM. For 50 pesos you get a drink, soup, the daily special plate and dessert!! We were testing out the Friday menu of iced tea, Aztec soup, enchilada, rice, arracherra steak, and flan. It was delicious. They have a great cook!! As you can see from the plates nobody was starving!! Tentative menu- Monday -B-ribs, Tuesday- Fish, Weds. -Pork Loin, Thurs.- Chicken Fajitas. You can call to check the menu at 766-1164. After lunch I had to fly to make it to my water exercise class at the hot springs pool in San Juan Cosala. So much for our quiet week!
The week coming up will be very busy with prep for the garden club speaker (I'm helping, she broke her foot!) new web friends arriving from the states, and getting food etc ready for the Saturday AM Hash House Harriers Walkathon. This helps fund our toys for tots program. So now you know what we do all day :-) Well that's all the news from Lake Chapala, where all the woman are beautiful, the men are handsome and the dogs are extraordinarily smart! And Harry and Chris are very happy.
September 21, 2003-Here in the village we have been celebrating Independence day and partying. On the 16th Tom Thompson had his party celebrating many years of bidness here in Ajijic. Tom owns Barbara's Bazaar where everyone shops for other peoples' castoffs. He gave all his customers an invite and a ticket. He had the great lady cooks from the no-name restaurant make sopas, taquitos, and tamales. Sopas are a little Mexican corncake pizza thing with refrieds, pork shreds, cheese and lettuce on top. Taquitos are little tacos, and tamales are masa and meat with chilies steamed in a corn husk. Mui yummy. Then we had pineapple empanadas for dessert. The beer and margaritas were offered along with soda from waiters carrying full pitchers!
In typical Mexican party fashion, Tom just blocked off our street-Independencia, put out tents, tables and chairs and we had our party. The mariachi band was incredible. The dancers are Enrique Velasquez and his wife Belva. They are well known local artists and Enrique painted the designs around our gate. It was a great party, sort of a cross cultural gringo and Mexican bash. I want to put some pictures up next so that anyone who has been here can see just how much the level of the lake has come up! We had a cloudburst just before I took these pictures. Thanks Hurricane Marty!
Both these pictures were taken from the "boardwalk" at the bottom of Pedro Moreno. This raised walkway where the three people are standing, was once the old high water level of the lake. So you can see we are not that far from it!! The until recently "edge of the lake was the reeds which form the green line of vegetation in the middle of the picture, just at the "bottom of the mountain. In the picture on the left the green stuff in the water right in front of the people is the lirio which has floated down from upstream. That is the stuff the Mexican's have been dragging out of the water and up to higher ground. It is a good thing/ bad thing plant. It does filter out a lot of the pollutants but it clogs the water ways. It make boating with any type of motor pretty impossible. Even getting through it with oars is tough. If you have been here you may remember that the kids made a soccer field on the beach. In the picture on the right the soccer field is under the water. The gov is cracking down on all the squatters on the federal lakeside land. They want all the fences removed before the water gets any higher. Once the water gets back up and stays there, the only thing we are worrying about is the arrival of jet skis. The weather man in Guad says we will have rain all week. It is raining again as I type. The Pacific coast hurricane season goes until the end of October and...upstream the water hogs are all flooded out, their dams are at 100% and once the rivers recede a bit they still owe us a water release!! So for the moment things are looking pretty plush here at the lake. Weird fact. A few years ago the powers that be introduced manatees into the lake to clean up the lirio, only problem was the fisherman kept catching them and eating them!! Well that's all the news from Lake Chapala, where all the woman are beautiful, the men are handsome and the dogs are extraordinarily smart! And Harry and Chris are very happy.
September 6, 2003- For the first time in fifty years I celebrated my September 1st birthday and did NOT expect to be returning to school in a few days! It is still raining like crazy here. Some nights it rains hard for three or four hours. The lake is up so high that the new garbage cans placed down on the beach are out in the water!! The second road closest to the lake is under water. That is good news. But don't decide all is well. The rainy season will end and the water will start evaporating again. Still it gives us some hope/respite as the Living Lakes people are meeting and voting as I type. Let us hope they choose our lake!! The nights are getting cooler and the kids are back in school. The fall/winter social whirl is starting. MAS has sent out their fall/winter list of concerts and Harry signed us up for them all. Right now the Mariachi festival is in full swing in Guadalajara. We hope to go see some of the Charro competition tomorrow and then hear some music. I have been assured that the charro/horse competitions do NOT involve any sticking of bulls with spears or swords.
We are planning a trip to Patzcuaro for late September. And I will be going to Houston with friends in late October. Hash House Harriers is planning a walkathon for Toys for Tots. I will be selling pledges and tickets to the breakfast at Lake Chapala Society on September 23rd. The walkathon is October 11th. I hope we raise lots of money so we can fill up the little ones' Christmas goodie bags. I am looking forward to being an elf this year! Well that's all the news from Lake Chapala, where all the woman are beautiful, the men are handsome and the dogs are extraordinarily smart! And Harry and Chris are very happy.
August 16, 2003- Update on the Lake! On Friday, August 1st, we had tickets for a public meeting of the Lake Chapala Basin Commission. This was an interesting mixture of public presentations by the prominent Mexican officials in charge of environment/water/Lake, and the local groups also trying to save the lake. The ticket money as well as the art sale (art donated by local artists) all went to support the group initiatives to save the lake. As we always do things here <G> it was also a wonderful party , incredible setting ( at the top of a mountain, private estate, incredible views of the lake) great food, good music and good art! What more could you ask for!! In this case positive information. First speaker was Dr. Cassio Luiseli Fernandez, Sub-Minister of Environment for Mexico and National Director on legal issues for environment and natural resource matters. His presentation was "Solutions" a list of initiatives to save the lake on behalf of SEMARNAT the newly formed committee of advisors for the Lake Chapala Basin Commission. We learned that despite the fact that we complain about Guadalajara using the lake for drinking water, that only accounts for 11% of the water depletion from the lake. Mexico City also takes drinking water from the Lerma. But it is agriculture along the Lerma river basin that steals 85% of the water resources for the lake. Over exploitation of the river's water resources and pollution of surface and groundwater are the biggest dangers to the long term life of Lake Chapala. The Mexican government and the Ministry of the Environment are committed to returning the lake to its original size. We learned that the government is not going to cave in to Guanajuato and Mexico City's demands, that we just allow it to shrink to a "smaller lake. " According to Minister Fernandez, Mexico is paying the farmers to change over from old water wasting irrigation systems to newer more water efficient ones. The government is paying for classes for farmers to learn ways to plant to prevent soil erosion. They are also paying for re-forestation projects upstream. Both these initiatives will cut down on the amount of silt that keeps filling up the lake bottom. The federal agriculture dept. is pushing the growers to switch to crops that consume less water , yet are more profitable to the farmer. So upstream that means switching from wheat (they can't compete with U.S. prices) to vegetables. In the cities they will build waste water treatment plants that allow the water to be safely returned to the lake. Farmers will be encouraged to save water by allowing them to get credit for banking/saving the water. They will be paid for this credit. The cities/states upstream which divert a large amount of the river water into their dams will be subject to the decisions of the Federal Water Basin Commission Board as to using that water. This means if a water release is ordered they must comply. The good news from the basin watchers is that as of July 14th the lake level has risen 37 cm. higher than last year. The rainy season is still ongoing, there is another water release scheduled for this fall and the rains have been so heavy upstream that the Lerma has been flooding its' banks. Here in Ajijic the water seems quite high. Down by the lake where the dogs like to play, the water is almost up to the second road. Dida had to swim the other day when she was playing in the shallows with the big dogs! If the government follows through on these initiatives the lake can be returned to its old levels and the pollution will be greatly decreased. We can all help by supporting the local committees that work with the federal boards and by keeping the pressure on the Mexican government. For the first time I have some real hope that the "powers that be" really are committed to saving the Lake. It won't die a slow death and it will return to it's larger unpolluted size. Well that's all the news from Lake Chapala, where all the woman are beautiful, the men are handsome and the dogs are extraordinarily smart! And Harry and Chris are very happy.
July 25, 2003- First Year Retrospective. We arrived here a year ago July 4th. Those first few weeks were a blur so now at the end of the month I am marking our first year. Well what do we think?? What have we learned/absorbed in a year. First the climate/views. Walking by the lake and the mountains are a turn on every day. Coming from the east coast U.S. where it can rain or be grey for a week, it is just awesome to wake up to SUNSHINE and perfect temps everyday. Yes it was hot for 5 weeks in May but I can deal with that once a year. We have found good Doctors and institutions to take care of all our health needs. And the costs compared to the states are much cheaper. We do have insurance that covers here. But still case in point, the two minor out patient surgeries we had last month. Our Doctor drove us there and back and assisted the plastic surgeon, anesthesiologist and cardiologist in attendance. Total cost for us both, about $1000.00. I came here taking seven prescription meds. Dr. Lastra our internist has me down to two and I am much more pain free than I was in the states. We just got the approvals back from the prescription plan we have and we expect our 80% reimbursement payment for drugs purchased here to arrive soon. So many of the pleasant aspects of life, going out to eat, traveling here in Mexico, household help, are so much cheaper. Lucia comes mornings, six days a week for what it cost me for a once a week, 4 hours, house cleaning back in the states. You can indulge yourself without feeling guilty. I feel so spoiled sometimes. You are free to do and explore the things you like to do. In my case that means I can cook, or garden or wank around on the computer to my heart's content. Lucia gets to clean up the mess in the kitchen and Agustine does the tedious stuff in the garden. We have met so many more wonderful friends and there is always a club meeting, a lunch date or a shopping trip or travel afoot. Most of the English speaking and the Mexican residents of the village go out of their way to be friendly to new arrivals. This desire to connect and be helpful with one 's neighbors is not an emotion often evident up north. Everyone is just too busy to care. Despite all the horror stories one hears we have survived our skirmish with building/remodeling. I think even if you rent you may end up doing some kind of work on your domicile. No matter how well furnished and "perfect" a home you buy, there are going to be things you want to change to make the place "you." It seems to me that as long as you follow the time honored rules: draw up a plan and a budget, research the contractor/builder/carpinteria, see previous examples of their work, talk to previous customers, and nail down a firm, written contract, that you can build or remodel without having a nervous breakdown. I loved my house when we bought it but after a year it looks more like mine. OK bad things: There is crime. My laptop being stolen from the locked, alarmed car could just have easily happened back in the states. In the last few months people have been attacked at the gates of their homes. And because of that, I do get tired of the endless locking and unlocking of door's and gates. Harry does set the alarm whenever we go out. Especially after all the workman in and out with the building. The villagers helped in the apprehension of one of the bad hombres that attacked the gringo couple at their gate and forced their way inside. The other was caught a week later fencing the stolen TV. But I still feel safer here than back north. Ten minutes from where we lived in NJ a woman was carjacked and murdered, This happened at 7:00PM in a well lit suburban mall parking lot. A child was kidnapped from the front lawn of her well to do shore community. I can't condemn the whole village for a few bad apples and the Mexican villagers suffer from these people as well. At least here when they are caught they are locked up. So life here for us is really, really good. We feel we made the right decision for our retirement. Well that's all the news from Lake Chapala, where all the woman are beautiful, the men are handsome and the dogs are extraordinarily smart! And Harry and Chris are very happy.
May 25, 2003- One of the things that seems uniquely Mexican is that you can purchase one of ANYTHING. We are all so used to the stateside concept of things coming boxed in set amounts. Here you can buy 1 egg, 1 stick of butter, even just one cold capsule pill. And it doesn't cost more to buy in the quantity you want! We buy Woody and Dida's Pedigree dog food in 3 kilo quantities. It is fresher that way and it doesn't sit around as long as a 20 lb. bag. At the market the veggie guys will divide a big bunch of celery into the amount you want. They do the same thing with bunches of bananas and huge heads of cauliflower. Fresh tortillas come hot off the press in any amount/weight you want to purchase. It really is nice to get the exact amount of what you want, and it means less waste since you don't ever HAVE to take more than you need. Considering that many of the foods here lack the preservatives that cover many U.S. products it really is the only way to buy perishable items. The weather has made a quantum shift this week. It has been 30-40% humidity, and high 80's to 90 degrees for the last three weeks. The dust was every where and each day you needed major moisturizer after your shower. Then it happened. Wednesday and Thursday the humidity started to climb. By Friday at 4 AM we had an Industrial Light and Magic Show, Rain Storm. Pyrotechnics and it poured.... Friday was low 80's. and it rained again that afternoon. Early Saturday, around 4 AM it rained again and the day dawned cool and clear. Our AM walk with the Hash House Harriers was really pleasant. Saturday evening it clouded up and rained lightly again. The temps for the next four days are predicted to be mid 70's!!! We are all hoping this is the official start of the rainy season. As I sit here composing this, a cool breeze is coming in the terrace door. Now that I have experienced what they call "dry spring" I guess I will live. It only amounted to about 5 weeks of hot dry weather and as long as you stayed indoors or under shade during the heat of the day you could manage. Most nights it was not too hot to sleep. Once the sun went down it cooled off. People here cope. We went up to the mountains to Mazamitla one day to avoid the heat. Many people go to the beach. There were only a few days when I said yuck!! it is really too hot today. And it made the tomato plants really happy. All the plants I started now have fruit on them. The work upstairs is all roofed in so rain won't effect completing the job. The tile place is slowing us up a bit. None of the tile that we chose for the bath, or the barbecue/sink counter was in stock! It all has to be made and fired. Three weeks before it is done. Well at least all the dye lots/colors will match!! For now they are painting and making the counters and shower stalls onto which the tile will be placed. I will be glad when we are finished and there aren't five or six guys on the roof daily. Plus we will enjoy the views and breezes up there all summer. Well that's all the news from Lake Chapala, where all the woman are beautiful, the men are handsome and the dogs are extraordinarily smart!
I have a certain foible; I love to learn how things work! I am the granddaughter of a man who built entire city blocks in Rochester, NY and my Dad while not a builder by profession, built several of our homes. Harry and I also had one built "from scratch." I have pretty good knowledge of "stick" built homes. So.. watching the building here was a chance to see an entirely new kind of construction. I think what amazes me more than anything is what magic they accomplish with such simple materials and nothing but hand tools. Norte, the builder shows up with a truck full of Makita pro power tools and it is more like putting things that came from some where else together, than creating things. The finish work on he BR/Bath
is a case in point.
The rainbirds/cicadas have started calling so we can hope the rains will be here in 4-6 weeks. It is hot and dusty now and the water level is down some. There is an early June scheduled "water release" from the dams upstream. That and the rains will hopefully bring the level back up. Well that's all the news from Lake Chapala, where all the woman are beautiful, the men are handsome and the dogs are extraordinarily smart!
April 20-03 Today is Easter Sunday. We have been through an entire Semana Santa and even a for a heretic such as I, it was really impressive. Unlike the states, the schools here are closed the week before Easter. This allows the entire village to participate in the Holy Week celebrations. It started a week ago when the procession came from Six Corners all the way up Calle Hidalgo to the square and then the church. Prior to the escorting of Jesus on his burro, with palm waving villagers and singers, the streets are cleaned, and then strewn with fresh cut alfalfa . The green plants are then watered down to keep them fresh until the procession arrives. Once the whole group gets to the church there is mass and the blessing of the palms. Afterwards the Pasion de Cristo group has a big Mexican food fair in the plaza. We willingly partook of Pasole, Tamales, Tacos, Sopas, and Pastel to help support the holy week presentations. Yummm
Thursday night in front of the church they re-enacted the Last Supper. Friday
we sat in the church plaza from 11:00 to 1:00 as they tried Jesus, whipped
him, let Barrabus go, and so on. It is really spooky to hear a mob dressed in
Judaic costumes screaming "Crucificale!" Crucify him! Then they bring out the
two thieves and these guys actually drag the cross through town, with all the
Roman soldiers and the mob, all the way up a REALLY steep hill, there at the
bottom of the mountain they tie these guys to the crosses and hoist them up
for an hour or so!
Saturday at midnight they string up cartoon images of Judas with fireworks
inside and blow him up all over town! It is the act of blowing up evil!
Would you believe Jesus is a plum role!!! The faith of these people is
incredible. No fixation on Easter bunnies and new outfits etc. here. This is
the biggest religious festival of the year.
When you look at the pictures on the festival page remember that the "gold"
statues of gods and goddesses in the town square are real people, painted
gold! The don't move all through their scenes.
Here at home the building is going along quite well. The talk here is that remodeling is a real trial. The talk is about the work never being finished, crews/workers not showing up, the architect or builder holding you up for more money as the job nears completion and so on. Maybe we are just lucky or maybe we searched for/found a really good/honest architect, but so far none of those problems have materialized. All the steel superstructure for the tile roof above the mirador is finished, and painted. The BR and Bath is finished up to the boveda ceiling. The work has been top quality and well beyond the local specifications for this work. When they start again on Monday, I guess they will start on the plumbing and wiring. We will keep you posted but so far everything is on time and on budget. It will be wonderful to sit up there when summer/rainy season arrives. Well that's all the news from Lake Chapala, where all the woman are beautiful, the men are handsome and the dogs are extraordinarily smart!
March 23-03 I am working on this as Steve Martin natters on at the Oscars. I have been home now for almost two months. I'm sure that many recent retirees understand when I suddenly just start grinning like the proverbial "Mississippi alligator." It is the sudden realization that no.. I don't ever again have to get up at 5:30 AM to go to work. And.. here, after the nasty winter up north, I almost feel guilty when I get up each morning to cloudless blue skies and a day time temp of around 75 degrees. My last two months have NOT been spent lolling around. Harry has embraced a social/volunteer schedule that is very full. He is very happy to have a date for all his concerts and fund raising events! I got drafted to take over the Lake Chapala Garden Club web site before I left New Jersey. Once I got here I had work to do taking over that site and bringing it into this newer version of Front page. I also changed the hosting service for this site and had a really tough time getting all of that changed over. Then there was a lot of reconnecting with friends and a huge number of changes going on here at La Casa de Nuevos Comienzos. We bought some new furniture, sold some of the old furniture, changed appliances, painted rooms, and just signed with the architect to construct the mirador on the roof of the house. I am looking forward to the sunsets and the daily views of lake and mountains from my roof top terrace. We took an overnight trip to the town of Delores Hidalgo to indulge my acquisitive lust for Talavera. Talavera is a lushly decorated and fired pottery. Like our oriental rugs each piece is individual; it all depends on the artist who painted it. There is a Talavera factory just outside of the town that probably supplies all the East coast fancy garden shops I used to frequent. Only difference was the prices!! We bought pots for the mirador, sets of beautiful dinnerware, and tile murals for the walls in the house. The PT Cruiser/burro had a full load to lug home to Ajijic.
On the festival front, we feasted at the three day International Chili Festival, danced at the sumptuous Mardi Gras costume ball, a benefit for the Lakeside School for the Deaf, and watched the Mardi Gras parades through the village. Now the streets are hung with beautiful paper lace cut outs in purple and yellow. We are going through Lent leading up to Holy Week and the passion play which takes place in the church square just before Easter Sunday. Friday night we went to a multi course Mexican fiesta dinner; a fund raiser for the Pasion de Cristo. Many of the servers were wearing the costumes they make for their participation in the Easter passion play. The passion play here in Ajijic village is considered one of the biggest and best in all of Mexico. Well that's all the news from Lake Chapala, where all the woman are beautiful, the men are handsome and the dogs are extraordinarily smart!
January 23-03 Hard to believe that the days are dwindling down to a precious few. ..yeah right, precious can't come soon enough! We hope to leave on Jan 31 which should have us home by February 4th. I will again give you the travel blow by blow on Going South. Harry is flying up to drive back with me. We will again be stopping in Nuevo Laredo to register a car and also be carrying a lot of "stuff." This time we have the Guida Roja which is a Mexican road atlas you can buy on Amazon. Real maps might mean we won't miss the right turn off to the autopista at San Lois Potosi. Thank you all for bearing with me as I slogged through these five months. I can't believe it is almost over. Again thanks for all your e-mails and good wishes.
January 6-03 Twenty five days and counting <G>. A special thanks to Nick P. at the Cafe Internet for help with a laptop problem. They are on the highway across from the Telmex office. They are going to be opening a computer? service center and I'm sure it will be successful. The trip down with Dita was long but uneventful. She is a good and sensible puppy and a very good flyer. This time someone actually asked me for paperwork on her. And not the all powerful man with the stamp in the immigration booth! As we were passing out the door, after the green light, a woman with a badge of some form of officialdom stopped me and asked for her health papers. She was of course quite visible, being out of her box and on leash dancing about! I was trying to keep her from tripping the man lugging the bags. I dug out her health certificate and shot records and after the woman squinted at them for a few minutes she sent us on our way. So it pays to get them even if most times no one looks at them! As always the time flew. I am not being judgmental here, but I can not say enough about the many serendipitous things that you enjoy when you live "in the village." Harry has often written me about stumbling onto parades, pageants, and impromptu concerts as he walks around Ajijic. With the puppy in tow I got to see many of these same wonderful street events. We were often out walking with her in the days before Christmas and usually we happened upon a gaily costumed parade, complete with Mary, Joseph, donkey and singers. Then there was the band out practicing marching early one morning as I took Dita out alone. You just don't get to fall into these little street events when you live somewhere where you have to drive for every errand. Our neighborhood had a wonderful posada (Harry was in charge of the pinatas) the night after I got there. Armando, our neighbor and trusty plumber and electrician was in charge of food and entertainment. He blocked off the street, set up chairs and pinata rope, and arranged for yummy tamales, posole, and a delicious hot fruit punch. Then we sat back to watch one of the morality plays with a cast of about twenty including a wonderful devil and his group of devilettes! Even not being able to understand it all, the acting was so good you got the gist. Christmas Eve we went to the neighborhood party held by Lucia our maid. It was just a few blocks away over near Six Corners. There were bonfires, pinatas for the kids, and another of those morality plays, this one with a red costumed adult devil and his equally well costumed devilette son. The humor is pretty broad and even the little ones sitting up close were howling with laughter. The work that goes into these plays is amazing, Rigged up on Lucia's street were lights, and a sound system. The costumes were beautifully made. The actors were enjoying the performance as much as the audience. All the village Christmas celebrations stand in such a stark contrast to the cut throat consumerism that goes on elsewhere. Christmas Eve many expats and Mexicans gather in the square in front of the church to look at the wonderful nativity displays from around the world. A friend of ours was there in a huge antlered Santa hat, handing out bags of candy to all the children attending. Just like Harry becoming the pinata man, it was a small private way he celebrates Christmas. As you can tell I really really enjoyed my Christmas. I'm back here in NJ but not for long. Here is Woody and I with Dida at the lake, and Dida sitting on the terrace waiting for Mom to come back. You know I will be there soon! Well that's all the news from Lake Chapala, where all the woman are beautiful, the men are handsome and the dogs are extraordinarily smart!
December 20-02- In a few hours I will be "leaving on a jet plane." Unfortunately I do know when "I will be back again." I return on January 1, for one more month. I can't wait to celebrate Christmas there in the village. Our neighborhood's posada-the re-enactment of Joseph and Mary searching for a room, will be held tomorrow night and I am really looking forward to it. I will be sure to post pictures when I get back. I am thrilled to be making my last flight packing the maximum 125 lbs. of luggage, plus wiggly puppy aka "Dita in the box." Whatever is left here in NJ will be sorted and weeded down to what will fit in the Wrangler come 1/31. I will post all the news and photos when I get back. Then we can all get ready for another race south in a month's time. Once I get there for good, I will revamp the web site, leaving all the how to info but changing the message on the front page. Maybe I'll change the theme and colors too..depends on if I am tired of the sunflowers <G>. Thanks for all the moral support for Harry and I. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all.
November 20-02 I have been back for a week but was on a mission so now a week later I am just writing this. Having my honey there doing on the spot assessments makes some of your pre- conceived ideas change. The weather there is just about perfect for a convertible but we thought for safety reasons (theft, vandalism) that it wouldn't work. Harry doing on the spot study ,<g> says that many of the residents have them and no one he spoke to has had a problem. So I came back a week ago to look at 2002 leftover VW Cabrios and Jeep Wranglers. The Bright Blue Wrangler is sitting in the lot here at school. I picked it up yesterday. I think, in the height of post retirement giddiness that I am going to have the Mayan sun GIF I use here on the web site, painted on the doors and the web address painted on the back door. <G> I will take the top off when we get there and it won't ever go back on again. It can stay in the garage if it rains! Despite all the talk about the lake drying up and the real estate glut, Harry has met plenty of newcomers. The younger ones like us are buying before they retire and renting the property out until they can retire. The two unit house across the street went to someone like that and our friends sold one of their rental houses to a fellow librarian who is also renting it out until she retires. As for the lake drying up. The water is higher now than I ever remember. It is up to the edge of the soccer fields on the beach. Maybe when they sort out the water rights argument the states upstream will start giving us our fair share of the water. An engineer friend has been on some of the fact-finding trips upstream. He says there is plenty of water, they just need to overhaul the inefficient way they use it and store it. As always in these political wrangles, tune in next week. At the casa Harry spent his time on home improvement. Most of these projects were to surprise me when I arrived. The front gate has beautiful frescoes in dark forest green all around the arch. Enrique also painted more decorative borders in the foyer. These are in the same colors as the ones painted over the doors in the rest of the house. I spent a peaceful day rearranging all my kitchen stuff using the new under the cabinet drawers that Jose put in while I was gone. Numerous trips by Harry to Tonala got me a huge painting of my favorite sunflowers and a carved art piece hanging on the wall over the bed. He took advantage of what I have mentioned before. He had many of these things custom made by the wonderful and talented local craftsmen. Woody is more or less well and while he was glad to see me he then punished me by ignoring me for the first 24 hours. After that he decided he still loved me best and spent the rest of the week glued to Mom. Of course Mom then left again, so he must be really mad at me now. Harry says he has been very hangy all this week. While I was there we went to a dinner party at a friends large and lovely casa. It is a huge house with a central courtyard with pool and bar. They have two girl standard poodles and Woody was invited to the dinner party as well. The one girl is white like him and they look like twins. All three dogs had a ball greeting the guests. The funny part was later when the bartender/help was clearing the plates from dinner. All three dogs followed him, the plates and our hostess into the kitchen. The bartender had been busy serving all night and must not have noticed the extra, lookalike canine guest. Trudy said he suddenly looked down at the dogs, got a very shocked look on his face and turned to her and said "Tres??" Poor man must have thought they were cloning poodles! I left the new digital camera with Harry. I hope to change the photo album this week. Thanks for hanging in here with me. Well that's all the news from Lake Chapala, where all the woman are beautiful, the men are handsome and the dogs are extraordinarily smart!
October 15-02 This the Not News from Ajijic. Nor is it a "how to" since I doubt most people would willingly be in this situation. Usually you retire together. We moved together this June but then I had to come back this September for involuntary servitude. This is a reflection on the effects of the separation of a long time together couple and the realities of one in Ajijic and one in the U.S. When we decided to do this, we both figured that 4-5 months with me flying in several times would be a piece of cake! Well...we were both fools!! To say that we miss one another desperately is an understatement! ;-) Harry and I e-mail daily and have investigated NetMeeting to use the Internet for phoning and the land of prepaid International phone cards. Yes, you can phone Mexico from the U.S. for 6-8 cents a minute. But .. none of that is a proper substitute for the taste, smell and sight of my Harry. Anyone in a long term relationship can relate to how much I miss the daily chit chat, and the more serious discussions about work, family, even world events. My sounding board isn't there! Woody was bereft for a couple of weeks and I hope he doesn't think I abandoned him. He has had some health problems and I hate hearing about it second hand. I never saw the morning glories I planted bloom. Ditto for the poppies which will probably be finished blooming by the the time I get there early November. Then there are the logistical things. My network goes down at school, or Harry has his current problems with the modem in the laptop. The first time I didn't get an e-mail from him for 24 hours I almost had a heart attack. Especially since I realized that NO ONE there had my NJ phone # so email would be the only way to notify me if he had an accident. Ones' long distance imagination is particularly lurid!! All right Chris, enough.. I'm not whining to you all..just maybe offering an explanation as to why the web site is no longer updated weekly!!! It is a bit too painful right now. The News from Ajijic will be happy when I get back. I'm going 11/1-11/11..needless to say I can't wait!
September 6- 02 Lake Chapala was accepted by the Living Lakes Foundation! Of course we are on a one year probation so we need to keep planting trees and doing all the other things we were doing. Weatherize the rains are still coming and the lake is still happy! Perhaps because when the Virgin of Zapopan was at the lake a halo was observed around the sun. This was construed as a sign that once again the Virgin is gearing up to save the lake. Divine intervention.. as Martha would say, "It's a good thing." Time Magazine's midsummer cover story on retirement and the stock market meltdown lists the Lake Chapala area as one of the places to move to under "How to Retire Cheaply and Well" Our "large colony of U.S. retirees" already know that! Most of them here are busy now with the coming fall kickoff of the Ajijic Film Festival, The Little Theater season subscriptions and the Opera Buffs. The Garden Club will be touting change of season plantings as the weather gets a bit cooler. This weekend and the rest of the month will be the annual Mariachi Festival in Guadalajara. It still makes me laugh when people from the states say "but what do you do all day long?" I still have not found the time to make it out to the baths at San Juan Cosala for one of those all day spa treatments days! Well that's all the news from Lake Chapala, where all the woman are beautiful, the men are handsome and the dogs are extraordinarily smart!
September 19- 02 The rains have been heavy and the lake is smiling. The Virgin and that halo around the sun probably has something to do with it! On Saturday the young men set free their small hot air, gas powered balloons. The launch site was the soccer stadium. Then on the 15th Harry watched the Independence day celebrations culminating with a parade of all the school kids marching proudly in their new shoes and school uniforms. Add in Charro maids riding side saddle and pickup bed floats with perfectly posed kids not moving an inch. Music was provided by the school bands and of course a local beauty queen was there. Miguel our gardener who also works for the town, was very proud of his handiwork! There in the town square were red, green and white banners he had worked so hard to hang. Which segues into my praise for Mexican craftsman. All of them. Unlike in the the U.S. where any workman? wants $60.00 to just show up..and then he doesn't the first two times..and then the work is not often stellar...the average Mexican craftsman is very tenacious about doing it right. Jose Espiritu, the carpenter who just finished up in our kitchen has done a wonderful job. With him everything must be perfect. He is a true old time craftsman. All my under the counter cabinets are now fitted with sturdy, smooth rolling drawers (With these knees, I promised myself, in the new house I would never have to crawl into a bottom cabinet again!) He took doors from the cabinets to be sure the paint would match. He did the same thing with the armoire in the living room and the big painted book shelf in the office. He added shelves to both units and it looks like they came that way originally! When Rafael Morale the upholsterer did the recover on my cheap chair from Barbara's Bazaar he made it look brand new. And when he fitted the cushion he had made for the bench in the office, it was obvious it was a bit too big. He was aghast that he had made a measuring error and took it immediately back to the shop and was back in an hour with it now the perfect size. Fat chance of that kind of service in the U.S. ! Even our Miguel who is "of a certain age" and should not be climbing ladders! was proud of how well his banners looked hung high in the town square.The care they bring to their work is one of those wonderful perks of living here. Well that's all the news from Lake Chapala, where all the woman are beautiful, the men are handsome and the dogs are extraordinarily smart!
August 26-02 The Guadalajara Reporter noted that the lake is up 50 centimeters! They also said that the heaviest rains are August and September. So.. if the rains continue we should see even more improvement by the end of September. The Virgin of Zapopan was here at the lake this weekend and according to past religious history, I think the continued rains are a lock!! There was also a vigil for the lake this weekend. For now, with our local representatives in Africa pleading the lake's case we can all keep our fingers crossed. It does seem to be a bit cooler at night and in the early mornings. All the kids here in Ajijic are back in school. Harry is joining a local committee that is trying to help all the public schools here in the village. Some kids who received scholarships to the technical high school outside town, couldn't afford to take advantage of the scholarship because they couldn't afford the bus fare out there! It amazes me that the local bus companies charge the kids who need to take a bus to get to school. As a child in the city of Rochester I had a bus pass that allowed me to ride the city busses during the school times for free. Maybe Harry's committee can convince the bus companies here to do something similar. I will be heading back up to NJ for a few months to finish up a contracted job. So.. Harry and Woody will be here holding the fort. I can still work on the web site from there so have no fear. Plus I will have Harry here as the eyes and ears of Ajijic! Well that's all the news from Lake Chapala, where all the woman are beautiful, the men are handsome and the dogs are extraordinarily smart!
August 22-02 The rains are still coming daily and the lake looks happy. This morning it rained until late, maybe 8:30AM and Woody and I were treated to a beautiful rainbow arching from the lake to over the mountains. Last Friday we went to Costco and the big Mexican grocery store near Home-Mart. We made it to Guad again this week and our inner city navigating is getting much better. We didn't get lost and we made it from the city to Tonala on city streets all the way. The Friday trip made me reflect on a recent dust up via the Internet. International Living magazine charged a bunch of people a goodly price to bring them to Ajijic for a week and do the retirement intro bit. We were asked by our neighbors who were part of the group hosting, to speak as residents to these people. Apparently after this junket, the editor of IL went onto their subscription e-mail newsletter and blasted Ajijic and the Chapala area as not a good choice and really nothing more than an "american suburb." Well maybe but again maybe not. I will admit that I do really like having reliable internet service and some American goods and services when I want them. But this is still very much a foreign country. I just happen to think unlike Belize, Ecuador, Peru, Ireland, or France (some of IL's most recent picks) that the climate, political stability, and cost of living here is a very good match for me and mine. I also think IL has major amount of nerve charging people top dollar to come here and then panning the place after the fact. Well that's all the news from Lake Chapala, where all the woman are beautiful, the men are handsome and the dogs are extraordinarily smart!
August 12-02 Thank the capricious airline gods, Harry made it back just fine. A far cry from his leaving last week. He got there at 7:30AM and discovered that Continental had cancelled the flight! We had a wonderful anniversary. Dinner at Toscana and then just as I was about to go to bed a trio on the terrace singing Spanish love songs! I had a wonderful 30 minute serenade. It was certainly an anniversary with something old and something new. I often thought during the day of the two of us 34 years ago, just starting our lives together, a great new adventure. We are starting another great new adventure on this anniversary. Who says life doesn't travel in circles. Speaking of great new adventures, Friday evening I went to the opening party at Casa Flores B&B. It is about three blocks up the hill from my house on Calle Zaragosa. Walt and Jean Smith have done a phenomenal job. We had been corresponding before we left NJ. We were surprised to learn we had homes so close to one another. When we both arrived here a month ago, I hiked up the hill to see their house/project. It was then a bustling, chaotic, construction site. In just one month it has become an oasis of flowers, pools, and fountains at the top of the hill. They only have four rooms so it is very private. All the rooms have private baths and patios and it is a short walk to the plaza and the center of town. David their construction jeffe did a wonderful job of decorating. All the party guests were impressed. I will certainly use it for guest overflow. Close to me and wonderful rooms, views and food. I had great fun, helping test out the breakfast menu the week before the opening day party. If you need a place to stay do check the web site. The Houston Children's chorus is in town this week. They have been performing here in Ajijic as well as Chapala and San Antonio. There was also a celebration on Oaxcan crafts and culture in Chapala over the weekend. These are the craftsmen who make wonderful, wildly painted monsteros and beautiful beaded jewelry. The square at Chapala was crowded both Saturday and Sunday but it was worth the crowds to see the beautiful artwork and the crafts. Still beautiful weather, cool, breezy and in the low 80's. Still raining most every night. Well that's all the news from Lake Chapala, where all the woman are beautiful, the men are handsome and the dogs are extraordinarily smart!
August 9-02 This is a late bulletin. Usually I post the news on Sunday but I was getting Harry to the airport and then dealing with a sick Woody. After two more visits to Dr. Ladrone he finally seems to be on the mend. Poor child had diarrhea so bad that he was waking me up two or three times a night so I could let him out. Midweek I came down with a cold so minus Harry, poodle man and I have been hunkered down in my bedroom, just taking our meds and trying to get better. Engracia says I have the grippa, which is I suppose the human form of the plaga, that the plants get! She has been keeping me supplied with tea and soup just like my mother used to do! It is a testimony to the expat camaraderie that all our friends who knew Harry was gone, kept checking in to see how I was and did I need anything. I kept some of the dinner invitations early in the week but by Weds. I was feeling so crummy I had to beg off. I didn't even make Woody's follow up apt. with Dr. Ladrone on Thursday. Today, after my morning ration of Contact capsules and cough medicine, I do feel better. Just in time as Harry will be back tomorrow afternoon ready to celebrate our 34th wedding anniversary. Today I will go to the new Italian restaurant, Toscana, and make reservations for tomorrow night's anniversary dinner. It will be good to have him back. I tend to think of myself as Zena, warrior princess but I missed him terribly. I give anyone who retires here alone, a huge amount of credit. It isn't so much having someone to share the work as it is just having someone to share the entire experience. Someone to bounce things off. Not the even the major stuff, just the small stuff. Like hummingbird weirdness. Harry has missed the spate of terrace hummingbird weirdness. The pair that lives on the terrace are very territorial. Up until now that has only been transferred to running off other birds. Recently, in a maneuver that resembles something from star wars, the hummingbird whirs up to the very edge of the terrace roof and stops in mid air, he hangs there staring? at me as I sit at the table. It is almost as if he is studying me. Then he whirs off going about other important hummingbird business. He has done this every time I sat out there this week. You wonder what is going through his little bird mind. Is he reporting back to the hummingbird high command? Are they doing a census of the concentration of humans in their territory? It is so weird, especially his ability to just sit there suspended in mid-air as he looks at me. Harry saw him do it once but he hasn't been around all week to see him repeat it. Have not done much shopping this week so no good buys to report. The rains are still almost nightly so the lake is still rising a bit each day. My horse herd seems to have been rounded up so I have yet to see the bay mare's foal. Woody and I are on the mend and Harry will be home manana. Well that's all the news from Lake Chapala, where all the woman are beautiful, the men are handsome and the dogs are extraordinarily smart!
July 28-02 Plant Lust is an interesting disorder. It is a subspecies of obsessive compulsive disorder that compels people to buy carloads of bedding plants in the spring and spend days planning and planting their porch pots and hanging baskets. Anyone afflicted with Plant Lust and living in Ajijic can be compared to a person with an alcohol problem being in charge of a distillery! This past week I have sunk deeply into the morass of Plant Lust. After we finished unpacking I spent a day on the terrace scrubbing the plethora of pots that I transported here. Now they were begging to be filled. Harry and I have friends visiting, so we asked them if they wanted to spend a day driving around to the local vivieros. Dave and Sonia joined us for a day of serious horticultural acquisition. Of course having them with us some what limited PT Cruiser carting capacity. That and the incredibly cheap prices meant I had to go back to the nurseries three times-three car loads full ! to get everything home. I won't bore you with what we purchased and all the prices, I'll offer this one example, which I went back for on Saturday morning. A dwarf fig tree, probably already 5-10 years old, nicely trimmed to espalier (flat) shape, loaded with nearly ripe fruit...90 pesos..the large clay pot with three lions heads on the side that it was then planted in 110 pesos. In dollars less than $25.00. The same set up at home, easily somewhere in the neighborhood of $100.00. As you can see until I run out of space on the terrace, I will not be cured of my Plant Lust any time soon. I will be posting new pictures soon. I didn't bring a digital camera but I'll get them onto the PC trust me! Good Buys- We have decided to try a different place for breakfast each Sunday after church. So far we have done Casa de waffle and the Tapalo, restaurant on the square. Yesterday we went to Villa del Pastor. We have been there often for lunch or dinner (which is very good) but the Sunday brunch starting at 10:00 was outstanding. For 60 pesos a person you got your choice of omelets, fresh squeezed orange and mango juice, four kinds of fresh fruit, yogurt, cereal, mushroom crepes, beef stroganoff, hash browns, refrieds, some sort of candied sweet potatoes, rice pudding, and more! You can sit outside or in and the service is great. The restaurant is on the Carretara, west side of town a bit past past El Serape, even if you don't have a car it is worth the walk! I had a mesquite grilled leg of lamb there last week that was out of this world. Here at the casa we are finally unpacked. We had an electrician put in an exhaust fan over the stove and lights under the cabinets. Telmex hooked up an extra phone line for the PC. We have been to Guad twice and we even found HomeMart (Mexican Home Depot) and both times we didn't get lost!!! Now we have the fun part, decorating. Well that's all the news from Lake Chapala, where all the woman are beautiful, the men are handsome and the dogs are extraordinarily smart!
July 14-2002 Dear Toto, This is how I know I'm not in Kansas anymore! When I walk your big brother Woody, I can look up at beautiful green mountains surrounding a lake. Sometimes they are wreathed in cottony white clouds. The television shows sometimes have cool subtitles in another language. All of our friends have welcomed us and introduced us to even more new friends! Everyone wants to help you settle in. Any request for information or help brings loads of people with advice. A special thank you to John and Marianne, and Joel and Sue. The sun comes up much later (closer to the equator, nearer the middle bulge of earth? or mountains block it?) Conversely the days stay lighter much later. It doesn't get dark until almost 9:00PM. Now like cosmopolitans we don't eat dinner until 7:00 or 8:00. But like frugal people, the car sits in the garage and we walk to do all our errands. At the market I can indulge myself in massive bouquets of gorgeous flowers for 80 pesos! That bought two big bunches, one with lilies, Birds of Paradise and a whole collection of other blooms. The food especially the fruits and veggies taste so much better. We had fresh strawberries the other night that tasted like the ones I used to pick as a child. As Mario Batali says, buy what is fresh, local and in season. Instead of spending half the day in front of the computer, I have to remind myself to log on and pick up e-mail. I no longer hit MexConnect twice a day for my Ajijic fix, I'm here!!! Of course with all the rain the phone service has been erratic to say the least, so sometimes I can't log on. I am relishing freshly ironed clothes and someone who cleans the house far better than I. Miguel and I are coming to an understanding about who is in charge of the gardens, but.. Harry has decided to go to the garden club meetings with me. So you see Toto this wonderful place is better than Oz or Kansas!
July 21-02 Yesterday poodle man took me shopping. Usually when we go for walks, I just follow him to the end of the privada. He then turns left and goes down Independencia turning onto Pedro Moreno and thus to the lakeside. Yesterday he turned right, I assumed he was headed up Independencia to see his friends, the kitten and the puppies. After chatting with them he kept going. He was headed for the plaza. On a summer Saturday afternoon it is crowded with Guad weekenders and it is a really hopping place. He loves anywhere that is full of kids, especially toddlers. I just assure everyone he is muy tranquil and he soon has tons of admirers. While he was strolling around kissing babies like some politician, I was checking out one of the street stands selling beautiful embroidered clothes. Everything very well made, light fabrics and ice cream colors. There I am trying on clothes over my bike shorts and tee shirt, checking the fit in a long mirror propped against a tree! I got a long dress, a pants suit, two blouses and a braided belt. The embroidery and workmanship was lovely. 800 pesos later I drag off my dog and my shopping bag. Ice cream is not supposed to be on his low fat pancreatic diet! The politician and I cruised on home. For all you lake watchers it is raining every night. Stuart McGowen a neighbor, has markers set up on the dry part. He says we are about 15 centimeters up from the receded shore line. I love my early morning walk there with Woody. The clouds around the mountains are different every day. Each morning we check the heavy bellied mares in the horse herd grazing free. Most have already foaled but two of the mares look to be due any day. Some morning there will be another new baby there. The herd jeffa is a beautiful dark gray mare. At first she kept a good watch on Woody but now she knows he isn't a chaser so she is not so suspicious. Some of the older foals are now big and brave enough to stay together. They leave Mommy for a bit and play. It is so neat to watch them running, bucking.
Easter-4/02. It does seem funny when people ask us "What are you going to DO there??" As if we were going to be bored!! NOT! When we went for Easter we thought this visit would be relaxing. Unlike Christmas we wouldn't be madly trying to schedule/change the phone, the utilities, the cable, the alarm people etc. Relaxing??..Take a look at the week's doings Saturday: Arrive from the airport about 3:00 PM. I ..usually the lucky one, catch the red light at customs. ARGHH!! Here I stand, laden with an Easter ham, other food stuffs and corms and tubers of iris and daylilies, all in my luggage, according to the immigration form I just filled out, none of it is legal!! As we shuffle over to the table, I put the carry on bag with all the contraband at the back of the luggage cart. First I hand him the huge suitcase which weighed in at 95 lbs. (they charged us extra at the check in at Newark!) He had to take his time sorting through all that. Then another heavy one. Then, Thank God, the entire flight crew from the plane straggled up and he went to check all of them. When he got back to us he looked at three more big bags and bless his tired little heart he just waved us on through! Once we got to the house we dropped off the bags, refrigerated what needed to be cold and went off to shop at El Torito for the rest of the feast. Why bring food? aside from my being anal retentive, Easter week is the biggest holiday in Mexico. The gringos and the natives would have been shopping and preparing all week. I wasn't about to not have the ingredients for my menu. Of course they had everything we needed, so much for my obsessions and my sore back from lugging that eight pound ham a zillion miles to Ajijic!. Go to Bruno's for dinner. It is good to see Vicki. She finds us a table even though we don't have a reservation and the place is packed. Go home, unpack, See Joel and Susan our neighbors across the street who invite us for drinks and to meet other neighbors on Weds. Fall into bed. Sunday: Up early-time difference, strange bed. Start my cooking. Go to Easter mass with Harry. Jack calls wanting to bring an extra for dinner, someone who is alone today, No problem. Water plants, spend some time potting up the stuff I brought. Cook some more..Dinner at 4:00. I am roundly kidded about bringing avocados to Mexico. Sort of a Coals to Newcastle thing. Yes, I know you have them here but I wanted ripe ones for my cold avocado soup!! We make arrangements for me to go up to Jack's house to install some software on his PC, and for us to go with him and Skip to Guad to Abastos market another day. My pineapple upside-down cake, made according to the high altitude instructions, is a great success. Fall into bed. Monday: Get up early and while it is still cool go for a long village ramble with Harry. Stop at a couple of the abbarotes for veggies. Come home, shower. Go back out. Stop at Eagers to bring the English PC keyboards, talk to Kevin about the rental, Get directions to Costco etc from Diana. Go to Guad and for the first time WE DON"T GET LOST!!! We don't end up snarling at one another!!! We do some shopping at Costco and Mega Mart, have lunch, and come home again without getting lost! We go to the Japanese viviero to buy a big pot for the gardenia and to the cheaper guy across the street for terra/dirt. When we get home I talk to John and Marianne and invite them for dinner on Thursday. Eat Easter/ ham leftovers, Fall into bed. Tuesday: We both wake up early and work on the terrace while the day is still cool. Plant the gardenia, move the now empty pot outside. Plant all my kitchen herbs in another big pot. Shower, Harry takes me up to Jack's to do the software and he is off to the viviero for more plants, terra, and to run errands. After I sort out Jack's PC problems, we make a date to go to Abastos on Wednesday and Harry arrives to pick me up. Home to unload plants and stuff, then off to Chapala to the bank to spend an hour doing paperwork to add me to the account he opened in January. Then to the tianguis in Chapala to shop. We are looking for bar stools for the kitchen--no luck! Home unload, Actually manage a siesta. Call Guad and schedule Seymi for Saturday afternoon at our house to finalize move. Have dinner, actually watch some TV, Fall into bed. Wednesday: Up early, plant pansies in the gardenia pot. We do a bunch of pruning, and leave the clippings for Miguel to clean up. Plant the new roses we bought at the Chapala tianguis. Shower, change, meet Jack at 9:30 to go to Abastos mercado in Guad. We have a great time wandering around Abastos and then we go for lunch to a Mexican restaurant there in Guad. Home late, unload stuff. Brief siesta, than to Joel and Susan's for drinks, then out to Pimienta Negra with them and newly met, Bob and Judy for dinner. Make arrangements to go to Bob and Judy's house to see the metal circular staircase they had fabricated for their mirador. It might work for the mirador we are planning. One of the joys of Ajijic is the way all of us "new immigrants" try to help one another. Home late. Fall into bed. Thursday: Up early, Harry decides we need an orange tree for the now empty big pot. Call Sebastian to suggest dinner Friday and Gordon is home !! Yeah. We decide on dinner in Chapala on Friday night. I make the cold shrimp salad for dinner and we shower and go off to look at the rustico places for bar stools. We don't find any, stop at the vivieros and Harry buys dahlias and an orange tree for the pot. We plant it when we get home, clean up and I decide to attempt cheese biscuits for the dinner party. The high altitude doesn't get me and they are really good! Dinner is great and the conversation even better. John and Marianne have lived here for awhile now and we both benefit from their experience. We make a date to go to Jacotepec for lunch on Saturday with John and Marianne. They leave late. Fall into bed. Friday: I labor all morning with the Mexican dictionary writing out instructions for Miguel, the gardener. Did you know that abano means both fertilizer and season tickets?? Anyway I have the liquido abano (liquid fertilizer) schedule all worked out on the calendar, which I put in the bodega. The pails are marked with gallons and I now know the Spanish word for scoop! When he arrives I go over the whole thing with him. Later we go out and do some more hunting through the rustico places but still not what we want. Joel and Susan call and we arrange to go out to dinner with them and two other couples Saturday night! Pick up Gordon and Sebastian and off to Chapala for luscious shrimp empanadas and red snapper Vera Cruz. Home late. Fall into bed. Saturday: Harry drags out the bags and sigh.. we start the very limited packing. Most of what we lugged there stays. We are actually leaving two of the smaller bags there. Boy, is that a weird feeling. I end up doing the liquida abano myself! since Miguel didn't do it yesterday. I'm not sure if it is the Mexican male don't take orders from women thing or as Harry said, he wasn't feeling well and he went home early. We change and John and Marianne pick us up at Letty's as we return the rental car. We go to Jacotepec and have WONDERFUL pizza and salad at this little restaurant. American chef, Mexican wife. He also makes great Italian sausage. Home at 2:00 Sit on the terrace in the sun, storing up the images. 3:00 the young lady from Seymi arrives and we go over all the paperwork. A bit later shower, change to go out to Bob and Judy's with Joel and Susan to look at the metal staircase, have drinks and meet another couple Duff and Sharon. Bob and Judy's house |
December
27, 2005- Another year is drawing to a close. They went by so slowly as we
waited to get to that magic age to retire.. now they seem to pass at warp speed!
The weather has continued to be warm. Not as cold as last year and no.. we have
not yet even turned on the little gas heater. 
So
that is all the news about our very low key, hokey Christmas celebrations. We
don't have midnight madness sales here. We just all get together and try to make
everyone's life a little happier. Well that's all the news from Lake
Chapala, where all the women are beautiful, the men are handsome and the dogs
are extraordinarily smart! Especially Dart and the long suffering Dita! And
Harry and Chris are very happy. Merry Christmas and a Very Happy and Healthy New
Year to you all.
The
ladies of the privada were invited to Alejandro's daughter's baby shower last
week. Janel and I were not the only gringa's there. We met Daniella and
Becky, two sisters who came here as children, then went back to the states
and came back yet again to marry Mexican men. Alejandro's daughter is married to
Becky's son. Complicated but at least it meant we had someone there to explain
to us in English all the fun games that are traditional at Mexican baby showers!
Janel and I were not stellar at any of them. When you arrive a pretty
favor of a clay baby bib or a rocking horse hung from a bit of ribbon is pinned
to your shirt. Once all the guests get there you have to NOT say baby or mama in
ANY of your conversation. If you do whoever hears it first shrieks and swoops
down on you to confiscate your pin. At the end of the party the person holding
the most pins wins a nice prize! We ate the yummy food, sat and chatted for
awhile and then more games .
The
baby food game we did NOT play and I am not sure we really understood it!! Two
teams of two people facing each other each with a jar of baby food and a
spoon, each blindfolded. Someone calls time and they frantically, blindly,
try to spoon the baby food into each other's mouth! Which ever team
empties their jars first wins!! Of course a lot of it DID NOT get into the
contestants mouths. As you can see from the fuzziness of the picture there
were hands and baby food flying every where. It was a VERY interesting game! 
All
week the civil weddings are done at the town hall. On weekends they send someone
to your home or wherever to do the ceremony. Lucia and Jose had the wedding on a
Saturday evening at her home. Harry and I as testigos or witnesses had to
sign a bunch of papers that evening. I joked that it was almost as lengthy as
buying a house!! All the participants and their parents as well as the witnesses
sign a passle of forms. Here is abuelita or grandma, the marriage instigator.
The Feast of the Virgin of Guadalupe is a big Mexican Fiesta. A group from the
church comes around to collect money for flowers and fireworks about a week
before. On December 12th the band starts playing in Six Corners and comes all
through the village playing at the homes of the contributors. Here they are
lined up in the privada. I had just come in from walking the dogs and got
a wonderful serenade as we watched from the gate.
We
did the final prep? before Garden club comes September 17th. The pots, yards and
farm in the sky are in as good shape as they can be. We had the tile
murals we bought in Delores Hidalgo put up. This one is on the terrace wall
right next to the escalera that takes you up to the roof. The other one is in
the foyer bath and is a big pot of flowers with a blue and white border, like
the tiles in that bath. Both were put in by two nice young men who work
for the maestro building a house around the corner. They put the murals up
and added ceramic towel bars and robe hooks to all three downstairs baths. They
did all the work in a day and a half! Even painted the wall around it so no raw
plaster showed. It looks perfect. 
