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.