Busy, Busy, Busy!

We have been very busy since our return to Sayulita.  We have had a lot going on at the house because the landlords are in town and want to get the place painted and generally looked after, which is an endless task in this humid, hot environment.  There is food to buy, clothes from storage to be unpacked, food to buy to stock up the pantry, spray for bugs and get all of the windows and doors open as wide as possible to let in the fresh air.

The area where we live is in the jungle and it is rich and green and lush right now.  From the hills one can see vast expanses of gently rolling hills covered in dense growth.  The parrot trees are just beginning to blossom for the season and I noted that the bougainvillea vines are now beginning to bloom in the tree above our rear patio.  It is gorgeous.  The weather is hot and humid and my skin is grateful for the moisture.  We don't expect rain for the next few months but the clouds turn beautiful colors in the late afternoon.

Currently it is the Festival of the Virgin of Guadalupe which means that there is something going on all of the time.  The typical day during this festival starts early, at five in the morning, with fireworks on the beach.   These are followed by church bells ringing at six to call the faithful to Mass (needless to say we are still in bed).  On one morning there was an unfortunate incident at the beach when a Gringo tourist threatened to hit the padre with a stick the following morning if he tried to light the fireworks again.  Poor Gringo didn't know that his actions would start fireworks of their own.  He made two mistakes.  The first is that you never, ever, ever, ever, ever, threaten the town priest.  Ever. The second mistake he made was to complain about fireworks as part of a religious festival. The incident of Poor Gringo was relayed to the people by the priest at Mass that evening.  He stated that he was not going to do the fireworks the next morning in deference to Poor Gringo's desires.  The congregation protested vehemently that the fireworks should continue.  Mexicans love fireworks almost as much as the love the Virgin de Guadalupe.  The next morning's firework lighting ceremony took place as planned with many more people in attendance for the protection of the priest.  Poor Gringo should have asked what the fireworks were being lighted at that time of the morning, shrugged and gone back to bed.  I don't think he will be back.  He won't be missed.

Below is a photo taken by a local photographer, Derrick Lundy, which is just too beautiful to not pass along.  It is a photo of the Virgin Mary as she rides on the back of a flatbed truck on her way to Mass. Each neighborhood in town is in charge of one nights procession and this was one of several Virgins Mary during the festival.

On our way home from dinner the other night I saw the below in a living room window.  It appears that this angel has her work cut out for her this Christmas.  The note just below her reads "Dear Santa, I have not been feeling well.  Will you bring me a bici (bicycle) for Christmas?"  Something tells me there will be one happy child this season.  (Gifts are not generally distributed on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning but are generally given several days later on what is called Three Kings Day, or the day that the three kings arrived at the manger site and presented the Christ Child with gifts.  Makes sense, doesn't it?)

We have been busy making new friends in town which means a lot of nights out with dinners and drinks.  It is what we do here mostly.  Our local friends like to introduce us to their out of town friends and it is always fun to meet them.  The last couple was from the Vancouver area, named Derrick and Mary-Ellen.  We liked the a lot and something tells me we will be seeing them when we return north.  

I'd best get this posted as the internet has been dicey for the last few weeks.  It comes and goes and right now we are being blessed by the inter net gods.  My schedule for the day?  Catch up on correspondence, get this blog posted, and meet Victoria in town for lunch.  JD is shopping in Puerto Vallarta at Costco with Joann.  The two of them alone together in the big city is likely to be trouble.

Love to you all

Jan

Semana Santa, round one

We had been hearing, for years now, that Semana Santa  (Holy Week) was to be avoided at all costs.  Many of the winter people have gone home to Canada and the US.  Most all of those who were leaving left before Wednesday, just to get out of town.  Being that we are here for our first long stay, we wanted to get the whole experience.

Our friends David and Michael convinced us that it wouldn't be too bad.  They have stayed in town and done just fine.  There were no food shortages, the restaurants remained mostly empty and life would go on as usual, at least for us gringos.

Chela, our housekeeper, had a different version.  She told us to be very careful, to be sure to to lock all of the doors, hide the computers and valuables, or at least keep them out of sight for the duration.  She explained that there were a lot of kids coming who had no money and who hitch-hiked here from all over the country.  She went so far as to suggest that we not carry our back packs with us into town as these kids might try to steal them.  

Here is a picture of Sayulita on the Sunday night before the tourists arrived.  The lights are some of the vendors who have arrived to set up before the event.  The photo is taken from the roof top deck of a local pub.

On Wednesday evening the buses began to arrive.  Some of the luxury buses complete with bathrooms and wi-fi and others so dilapidated that we couldn't see how the wheels were held on. The buses were full of Mexican tourists who came to the beach for a vacation.

The kids also came, in droves, many of them on foot walking in from the highway, about a mile or two.  They were all here for a three day rave put on by a record company.  The party was held out of town on a beach well away from the town core.  It is a fairly secluded beach that is almost always unused by locals.  It just isn't easy to get too.

The kids were here for a good time and didn't mind that they didn't have any money and didn't know they were going to get their meals. They had chips and water in their back packs.  They were with their friends and that is all that mattered.  It is difficult to estimate how many kids came but some locals estimate this group at five thousand. Yea, the local population is less than that.

The tour buses also carried lots of Mexican families on vacation.  They came with tents and coolers and blow up water toys and umbrellas and ice chests.  Many of them also drove in private cars and pick up trucks filled beyond capacity.  It amazes me how many people can fit into a standard car.  Six people can fit into the back seat of a Honda!  The front passenger seat is usually reserved for Abuela (grandma) or Abuelo (grandpa) with everyone else crammed in back.  The buses and cars continued arriving until Saturday morning.

This is a picture of our beach, in the morning, before the restaurants set up umbrellas and chairs.

 And this was taken on Saturday, mid-morning.

And all of these folks appeared almost overnight.

We did go into town each day.  We like to have a smoothie or a beer at one of the local beach bars and watch the tourists.  It can be fascinating.   We often point out the really white folks on the beach so we can watch for them later, after they have turned bright red.  It is amazing how many people don't think they need sun screen when laying in the sun, drinking.  

One of the complaints of the locals, usually the gringos, have about Semana Santa is the trash that is left behind.  I don't know enough about the government here in town to know why they haven't figured out that thousands of extra people create an emormous amount of trash.  It seems that many in town would rather point fingers at one another on Facebook than come up with a viable plan that could be put into effect year after year.  The town doesn't even have garbage cans, let alone enough people to pick up the trash.  

There is a group of local, Mexican volunteers who work tirelessly, for tips, to keep it under control.  Often, people from the Facebook group will get together to make a sweep of the beach.  I did this one night just to meet some folks.  I ended up meeting a lovely woman named Cookie.  We had hoped to meet up with another group on the beach but didn't.  We were pleased to see that many folks had bagged up garbage for disposal or who were more than willing to take a bag to fill for disposal later.  Cookie and I became friends and will be getting together later to make another trash run.

Here is a stack of trash we found after we were finished.  It was from another group that was working the beach at the same time as Cookie and me.  

You will note that I am very sweaty in this picture.  Even though it is about 7:30 in the evening, it was still very hot.  I have to remember to drink lots of water.  The photo was taken by a friendly passerby.

After my trash adventure, Cookie and I sat and talked for quite awhile.  Even though it was quite warm it was comfortable to sit on a low wall and talk.  Like a lot of half-time residents she moved here to escape the cold.  She is from Wisconsin so she knows cold.

After my talk with Cookie, I started home.  When I got to the end of our driveway the house was completely dark.  This is very unusual as JD rarely goes off by himself, particularly in the evening. I guessed he had gone to have a beer with Gabriel at the restaurant down the street.  When I got there JD was nowhere to be found. Neither was Gabriel. But the rest of the family, who own the restaurant and invited us to the quinceanos party were all there.

Fernando insisted that I have at least one beer with them.  I don't know a lot of Spanish but I have learned two things.  If a male host offers you a beer, you take it.  If a female host offers you food, you eat it.  It is pointless to resist.  The beer is already open and the food is on a plate.  And it is hovering next to your hand.  The host or hostess isn't capable of putting it anywhere but in your hand or on the table in front of you. Luckily for me they know I like to drink the half-sized Coronitas.  I love these people.

Normally Gabriel not being there would have been a problem but I got lucky.  One of his younger cousins, Diego, was there working with the family for Semana Santa.  He speaks more than enough English and helped get me through a very fun and entertaining evening.  Diego told made up stories about how horrible his aunt Monica was to him, how she was working him to death in the kitchen and feeding him only the left over crusts of pizza the rest of the family had for dinner.  Yea, right!  He is a natural comic and told several of these stories throughout the evening.  

It is interesting for me to note that when the laughter gets going, the language barrier somehow disappears.  The harder the laughter, the more we understand each other.  I wonderful evening with them under the tree and the lights in front of their restaurant.

The weather is still getting warmer.  We haven't passed the 90 degree mark yet but it has been predicted for the last few days.   Regardless, I would always rather be too warm than too cold.

The quinceanos party, finally.

We had a blast at the quinceanos party!  It was so much fun!  We waited all day to get ready.  In fact, we even took a nap as we knew that we would be out very late.

We had asked our host, Gabriel, to let us know what time we should arrive.  We explained that one of the disadvantages of being gringo is that we have this notion that we should arrive at a specific time for events.  Many Mexicans just don't have the same concept of time that we gringos do.  Gabriel said that we should arrive no sooner than eight o'clock in the evening.  This was perfect.  It would give us a lot of time to get a bus and then a cab to Por Venier, where the party was being held.

We caught a bus at the bus stop in Sayulita.  We were hoping for the new, air conditioned bus as we didn't want to arrive hot and sweaty but didn't get that lucky.  We were lucky that we were able to get seats as we were leaving at the same time as many of the workers leave town to go back home after a long day.  We got into Mezcales just before eight o'clock and decided to wait around for a few minutes before we caught a cab.  We didn't want to look over anxious.  While we were standing there JD pointed out this street sign to me.

We thought it interesting that the street signs were sponsored by the largest beer company in the country.  Victoria had once told us that Mexicans don't drink beer, the drink Corona!

We caught a cab a few minutes later at the cabstand.  The cabbie said he knew where he was taking us and did quite well but didn't know exactly where we were going.  It was a good thing that we had gone out a few days before.  It saved us a lot of anxiety about being lost.  We found the venue quickly and, of course, we were early. 

There were a few people there, mostly setting up tables, and chairs and attending to last minute details.  We lingered about looking at the photo montage that had been assembled of Alejandra and put on display.  She looked just like a princess!  It was clear that it was her special day.  Here is a blurry picture of the montage.

It was only a few moments before one of the family members from the restaurant recognized us.  His name was Eric.  He grabbed his cell phone, dialed Gabriel and came strolling toward us.  Eric has very limited English but knew who we were and that we would likely be looking for Gabriel.  He handed the phone to JD and told us that Gabriel was on the other end of the phone.  Gabriel told us he would be there in just a few minutes.  This was just the beginning of the kind of attention we would receive through out the evening.

While we were waiting for Gabriel and his family to arrive we looked at the cake table.  This one was for the Quincenyera  (another name for the birthday girl)

 

 

These were for each of the tables.  ALL of the cakes were made by Alejandra's abuela (grandmother)  at home, in her kitchen, thank you very much.  They were delicious!

These were the flowers for the gift table.  The lilies were enormous.  There was a vase of roses on each table, just like the one on the right. 

Gabriel arrived shortly and introduced us to his lovely wife MaryCruz and "his beautiful daughter" Frida (It is really sweet that he refers to them, always, as his beautiful wife and beautiful daughter ).  Neither of them speak much English but, somehow we managed to have quite a conversation about MaryCruz's work as a massage therapist in a resort spa and Frida's desire to travel to India after she finishes college.  Most of you know how I can go on and on and on about India. 

Alejandra looked gorgeous in her dress and make-up.

The idea behind the quinceanos party is that the Quincenyera is no longer a child but is on her way to adulthood.  She is putting aside childish things like her toys, dolls, hula hoops etc.  In the center of the field one of the older cousins (I think) had strewn rose petals.  Then there were placed upon the rose petals her old hula hoop, a doll, and a streamer much like those used in Olympic ribbon dancing competitions.  Alejandra was seated on a chair in the middle of the field and the ceremony began.  Cue music.

One of her younger, female cousins began riding Alejandra's childhood bike around the field.  Then she picked up the ribbon and did a short dance.  Then she picked up the doll and the hula hoop and walked to Alejandra.  When each of them were standing on opposite sides of the hula hoop there was a short segment of passing the doll back and forth through the hula hoop signifying Alejandra's growing up. The younger cousin took possession of it in the end.

The it was her father, Fernando's turn.  He approached her with her very first pair of (very) high heels and, kneeling before her, replaced her sandals with said heels.  Her mother, Monica, then stepped forward and placed a tiara on Alejandra's head.  This is a reminder to her that she will always be a princess in the eyes of her parents.  It was very emotional.

These are very serious affairs second only to her wedding.  After the ceremony there was lots of dancing, lots of music from a Mariachi band, a DJ, complete with strobe lights, smoke machine and video screens (which were put to use showing a video of Alejandra's life at one point).  Everyone got into the act, including yours truly.  The music came from a wide variety of genres including rap and, Credence Clearwater Revival. 

Food was served thorough out.  One only needed walk up to the taco wagon and place an order.  Beer appeared out of no where.  We think that Gabriel told the wait staff to be sure that our beer was never cold, he denies this but I was never without a cold beer, ever.  Gabriel is quite gifted in his ability to make sure that everyone has a good time.   

It was very late when we finally convinced Gabriel that we needed to find a taxi.  This was after he had spoken to his mom about letting us stay at her place and trying to convince us to stay at his place.  Hey, it was ok, Frida wouldn't mind giving up her bed.  We were both so touched by their hospitality but I just couldn't imagine what his mom, who was more than willing to have us, would do with two gringos in the morning.  She doesn't speak English and my Spanish just isn't good enough for early morning conversation. 

 

Gabriel found a cousin who was sober enough to drive us to the taxi stand in the next town over, ask the rate, which was much cheaper than it would have been if we had approached the driver first, put us in, sent us home and returned to the party. 

Did I mention that they were just putting Arrachera on the grill when we left?  Arrachera is marinated flank steak that is grilled and usually served with tortillas.  It is one of our favorite dishes here.  We got to bed at four AM.  Gabriel told us later that he got home about five AM.

There is far more to this story than I can relay here.  Here is link to a Wikipedia article if you would like to know more http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quincea%C3%B1era

I will end here by saying that we had a wonderful time, were very appreciative of Gabriel's family for their generosity, hospitality and tireless attention to a couple of gringos who just happened to wander into their family. 

Love to you all,
Jan

Sunday Brunch, saying goodbye, and yet another bus trip

We had the pleasure of being invited to a brunch at our friend's house on Sunday.  David and Michael have a beautiful home on what is called Gringo Hill, where many of the gringo live.  Their house overlooks the ocean and much of the north side of town. There is a cool breeze blowing all of the time and the views are beautiful.  As usual, I didn't think to take pictures from the deck until after we had gotten comfortable in the outdoor living room. 

The house was built as an apartment building.  There are three rental units below and a much larger living space above.  You can find information here: www.xocotla.com (Sorry, but you will have to cut and paste the link)

David,

 Michael,

 Victoria,

And we were getting together one last time before Victoria left for a wedding in Paraguay and the on to Brazil where she will be looking for work until August. She will return to Mexico City to enter into a university training.  She is in a four year program to learn to teach Spanish as as a second language.  Fortunately for her education, even higher education is free in Mexico.  Victoria and one thousand others applied for the program.  She is very bright and will do well.   Had she not gotten into school she had threatened to become a Samba dancer.  We didn't think that was so bad but promised that if there were any poles involved in her dancing, we would arrive in Brazil and drag her from the stage.  We will miss her greatly, she added a wonderful, fun and educational dimension to our stay here.

Michael and David built several years ago and rent out the lower apartments out, often to friends and family.  We have met several of their guests and have spent many enjoyable evenings with them.

We are coming to the "end of the season" which means that the temperature and the humidity are beginning to rise.  Many of the gringos have already gone home.  We are among the very few who will remain until the start of summer.  We want to see what town is like after the tourists and shorter term residents leave.   

We are looking forward to Semana Santa and Semana Pasqua, which are the weeks before and after Easter.  These are major Mexican holidays and town will flood with Mexican tourists.  We are stocking up the house with food and supplies as we hear they can be difficult to get for these two weeks.  I am certain we will have lots of stories to tell.

Tomorrow, Saturday, is the big quinceanos party I have been talking about.  We decided yesterday that we had best get on the bus to make sure we knew where we were going.  

Gabriel

Who invited us to the party, gave us directions, showed us on Google maps, and give lots of instructions as to where the party was being held.  It is in San Vincente, about 15 miles from here.  We made our bus connections easily, however, there was one complication.  Gabe didn't tell us about the road construction that detoured around the major landmark we needed.  Thankfully we had seen the maps and had a good idea of where we were going.   We got of the bus outside of town, took a mini van, which serves as a bus, back to where we were supposed to be and walked to our destination.

This is a small soccer field that is adjacent to Gabe's parents house and will serve to host the several hundred expected guests.  The party will likely last until very early in the morning.  Gabe told us not to worry about getting home on Saturday night.  If we couldn't find a cab home we could just hang out with everyone until the 5:30 AM bus the next day.

We have found Mexicans to be so welcoming and inclusive.  Gabe told us we should have stopped in to his mother's house and introduced ourselves.  He said all we would need do was to tell her in Spanish that we were friends of his and his sister Monica and were going to be at the quinceanos party.  Gabe said she would invite us in and insist on making us a cake!  All well and good but with my limited Spanish and her non-existent English it would have been awkward.  We will meet them at the party.

After we got home, we went into town to pick up a few things and found these kids sitting on the steps eating ice cream.  They were so cute I had to take a pic.

They were excited to have their picture taken.

Love to you all,
Jan

Why Siesta When You Can Fiesta?

It has been awhile since I have posted anything because we have been too busy having fun!  Last Wednesday we went shopping to get our clothes for the quinceanos party.  Mostly it was uneventful except for shopping for shoes.  The rest of the world is on the metric system, Mexico included.  The US for some unknown reason has not made this conversion.  We had some very helpful sales clerks help us figure out that a US size 9 is a metric size 27, but they drop off the 2 and just call it a 7.  It makes it easier that way somehow.

Since we have been in Mexico we have not worn regular shoes.  We wear flip flops and sandals everywhere.  We go shopping all over town in them.  We ride the bus to Vallarta in them and we live in them.  Hence, shoe shopping was made more complicated because or feet had spread and have become quite wide.  There is not a lot of variety in shoes here and the size difference limited our selection further.  I ended up with some very basic lace up and JD found some blue suede boat shoes.  We felt like Cinderella's ugly step sisters trying to jam our feet into the glass slipper.  We had to go up several sizes to get a decent fit.

We found clothes that fit, but again, we are larger than most Mexican men, both height and width wise and finding things we liked was a bit of a challenge.  It wasn't until we got home that JD discovered the secret message sewn into the fly of his pants.  It reads "you look beautiful today".  What nice thing to be reminded of when you are getting dressed up.

On Thursday we went to a benefit for the primary school.  It was quite the event with lots of food and entertainment.  I still have not learned that, at Mexican functions, the first rule is to sit as far away from the speakers as possible.  I don't know what it is about Mexicans but music is always played at full volume, no matter the time of day.   This is one of several placed around the area.

We arrived early as we still believe that events should start at the time posted.  I don't think we will ever be able to adapt to the Latin idea of start times, sometimes as much as two hours later.  There is always something fun to do while we wait.

One of the things that really surprised us was the bar located at the back of the plaza.  We shouldn't have been surprised because alcohol is everywhere here but we just didn't expect that it would be part of a primary school function.  There were children everywhere, some of them offering desserts.  Margaritas and pina coladas were available for about $4 each.  

We met these people before things got busy.  His name is Jamie and her name is Susan.  They live in Mt. Vernon, WA and have been busy this year painting the murals on the primary school.  They finished this primary school abut a week ago and were busy with another primary school in the area.  It is a lot of work for two people, but they managed to love every minute of it.  Not the most flattering picture, but I'm sure they will forgive me.

The parents of the children put in a lot of work to make this an authentic event .  There were lots of dancers, some better than others but what I admired most was the willingness of all of the performers to get on stage and do what they did for the school.  They put in hours of practice and the results were delightful.

These women were performing a dance called "La Luz".  If you look closely you will see that each of the dancers has a lit candle balanced on their foreheads.  It takes quite a bit of skill to keep them from falling off. There is no adhesive allowed, just years of practice.

These gentlemen are a Mariachi band.  They were actually quite good.  Notice the lack of large brass instruments and drums.  It was nice to hear something that wasn't amplified to near eardrum shattering levels.

There were also some guys dancing with machetes, another dance that takes years of practice.  Later, another group of guys did what is called a beer dance.  While they are dancing they hold beer bottles with their thumb covering the opening and shake the bottle causing beer to spray everywhere and on spectators close to the stage.  When we asked our Mexican friend, Victoria, why they did that she just laughed and said, "because we don't have champagne!"

Enough for now.  This week will be preparations for the quinceanos party.  We found out that it isn't here in town but in a small town a few miles away.  We know how we can get there but aren't quite sure how we will get back.  But, given that Mexican parties really get going at midnight and sleeping over on the floor is common, we may just do that.  I'm sure it will be an adventure!

Love to you all,
Jan

Baby chickens, an angel in the street and a culture clash

Most of you who know me well would know that I am not a big fan of the farm life.  However, that being said, I am now used to being around chickens, roosters, ducks, dogs and horses.  When we were walking down the dry river bed into town the other day we passed Chela's house and then her neighbors.  The neighbor has at least a dozen chickens wandering around with their attendant, noisy roosters.  Also in the courtyard were several ducks and a handful of ducklings.  I didn't have my phone with me so I didn't get pictures of the little darlings but I did manage to snap a photo of these guys on our way into town yesterday.

There were ten babies.  Mama seems to have been through this routine before as she didn't seem sweet and loving like the cartoon chicken's I'm used to seeing. 

I love our walk to town in the afternoon,  We walk past the same shops and meet the same people everyday.  Often the vegetable shop is filled with people.  Some of these are customers and some of them are family members who serve as delivery people.  This group has figured out that the way to build a business is to take orders either over the phone or by personal visit and deliver them in a very short time.  The deliveries are done on motorcycles by the five boys aged about 14-20.  The young woman who runs the store, either an older sister or wife of an older brother, runs a tight ship.  The boys know exactly what to do, when to do it and who is boss.  We walked past one day and she was clearly giving one of the boys what for because they were doing something incorrectly.  It was funny as we knew it would blow over.  She had just lost her patience as they were very busy.  The business is thriving.  The produce is very good and very cheap.  JD managed to sneak me into this photo.

When we got into town and were on our way town we saw this guy hanging around.  He is posing as one of the Archangels, Gabriel, I think.  The top picture is a little better than the lower but you get the idea.  It took us awhile to figure out that there was a steel bar that ran, not from his foot as expected, but up his sleeve to some kind of platform that he was seated on.  It was quite ingenious and he got a lot of attention (and tips) for his efforts.  The first picture was taken on our way to the beach and the second taken on our way home.  Apparently the gold paint and the sun were too much for him and he had to move to the shady side of the street.

After we had sat with our friends Michael and David, from Ottawa, for a couple of hours talking about their house guests and planning for all of us to attend a fundraiser for the primary school, we started home.  On our way I wanted to stop at the liquor store. 

Liquor here is readily available and is a part of nearly every social situation, gringo or Mexican.  I was looking for a bottle of Johnny Walker Red.  Of course they had it on the shelf above the cash register.  I have to say that I had to pause for a moment and take a breath when I realized that the young woman who was selling me my demon spirits could not have been older than TWELVE!  I felt somehow that this was not quite right and gave her dad, who was standing behind me stocking shelves, a scowl, paid my her my money, counted my change, which was correct, and left. 

 

It is sometimes difficult to remember that Mexico is has different customs than we do in the US.  Alcohol is a big part of nearly every gathering and often children are allowed to drink from a very early age.  It isn't something I can  do anything about but I find this difference between us fascinating.  The legal drinking age is eighteen but it is often not enforced.  It is also legal to have open containers in a moving car.  The reasoning is that the driver can't drink but the passengers should be allowed to do what they want.  Sometimes it takes me awhile to understand the Mexican way of thinking, but I'm learning.  And I'm still not getting into a car when the driver has been drinking, legal or not. 

 

 

 

Things are heating up!

We have been busy here in paradise.  Every day brings a new adventure and something new for us to do.  Yesterday, on our way home from the beach and shopping we noticed that there was a  lot of smoke coming from a fire near our house.  Thankfully, it was in a vacant lot across the street and down past where we live.  We decided that since it was across the street from one of our favorite restaurants that we would stop in, have a beer and watch the action.  The fire truck arrived and quickly began to put out the fire.  These guys are all volunteers and rarely get to use their skills.  We were curious to know where they were going to get water to fight the fire because there are no hydrants in town.  They have a water tank on the truck but it can't be all that big.  We still don't know what they would do if they ran out of stored water on the truck.  There is no evidence of a tanker truck at the fire department.  Thankfully most of the houses in town are made of concrete so the only things lost in the case of a house fire would be the possessions and not the building itself.  The fire cause a minor sensation with all of the neighbors coming out to watch.  It was a hot, smoky mess as things are very dry here right now.  It is the middle of our dry season.

As things often work out here, we sat for a beer with Gabriel, our waiter turned friend.  Then one beer became two, two beers turned in to dinner and before we knew it, our 2:30 stop for beer had turned into dinner.   We left around 6:30 after Gabriel announced that he had to leave us to catch the next bus home.  Of course we didn't mind, the family take such good care of us whenever we eat there.

The night before last we had dinner with our friends David and Victoria.  David and his partner Michael have been coming down for at least ten years and have a home and rental apartments.  We have become good friends and visit with each other when they are not hosting their many friends and family from Ottawa, Canada.  They have been very helpful in filling in details about Sayulita life and the many characters who inhabit our little town.  They have some hysterical stories to share about the other locals and we very much enjoy their company.

I don't know if I have mentioned our friend Victoria who we met in the bar where she works, another of our favorite hangouts.  Victoria has been extremely helpful with our million questions about Mexican culture, language and history.  She is extremely bright speaks excellent English and understands gringo humor, which sometimes doesn't translate well.

Victoria grew up in Mexico City and moved to Guadalajara when she finished school.  She is unusual in that she has no desire to get married and is passionate about continuing her studies.  Because education in Mexico is free she is hoping to become a teacher of both Spanish and English as second languages.  She took her exams a couple of weeks ago and won't know the results for a few more weeks.   I am certain she will get in and that she will be excellent at her work.  It is so much fun to compare notes on our different cultures and learn as much as we can from all of our friends here.

Here is a picture of Victoria

Today I went to the gringo market to buy tickets to a fundraiser for the Primaria (primary) school.  It is a benefit to help them continue to build, repair and re-plant the vegetable garden that is used both as a teaching project and to provide food for the school.  The tickets cover dinner and a beverage.  Dinner is cooked by the mothers of the children and is guaranteed to be delicious.  I can't wait to see what they have in store for us.

As the temperature and humidity rise the bugs come out of the gardens and some of them find their way into the house.  Lately I have found large cockroaches, an enormous spider, a centipede and a scorpion.  I talked with my local friends and found out what to do to combat all of these.  I've bug sprayed and have moved large, heavy books into each room.  All of our friends, save Victoria, have said the best thing to do is smash the bugs and spray Raid in all of the obvious places.  So far, so good.  Between the Raid and the geckos I haven't seen more of the offending insects.  It isn't that I mind the bugs so much, I just don't like to be surprised by them.  The spider I found was the size of a three by five index card and was hiding in the bedroom behind the drapes.  I found it as I was closing the drapes for the evening.  I got out my Raid, spayed the terrified creature and continued to do so as it ran across the wall and behind the headboard!  I thought I had won.  I figured I had soaked it so good that it would just die behind the headboard and I would be done.  Oh no,  it had continued to move behind the headboard and was on the wall on the other side of where it had gone into hiding.  This is where the books come in handy.  I put the monster out of its misery with a good, solid smash.  

The scorpion was another subject.   We think it was hiding in the clothes that JD had brought out of the bedroom.  I was walking around and just happened to notice that Baxter was sniffing at it.  I called JD to come see it and we trapped it and soaked it in Raid.  We kept it to show Chela so that she would know to watch for them and also to let her know that I had sprayed everywhere I could think they would hide.  I stomped on the roaches and sprayed their hideouts too.  I also used a couple of tricks the locals taught me.  When I told this to my landlady, Jeanna, she offered to fumigate the house but I told here we would see if my spraying helped.  I have to keep in mind that the dogs and cat are sensitive to the sprays as well as their not being good for us, or our geckos and lizards, which we love.  They eat things like spiders and scorpions.  I think we have about 6 living in the house.
Here is a picture of one of the small lizards that hangs around.

As spring begins the trees are beginning to re-leaf and some of them are beginning to flower.  These yellow blossoms drop down on us from a tree above the house.  The red bogunvilla vine has grown up into the tree with the yellow blossoms.  It is quite beautiful.

We have been out to dinner so much lately that I think we will eat at home.  I've been wanting JD's spaghetti sauce.  We will likely meet up with David, Michael, some of their visitors and Victoria later this evening.  It gets really humid for awhile after the sun goes down and its a good time to sit and talk with good friends and to make some new ones.