Bats in Our Backyard!

We've been here four months and feel quite cozy.  We leave to sit on the mirador at night and watch the sun set behind the mountains, the storm clouds roll in and try and predict if we will get rain that night.  We also love to watch the birds.  There are some beauties here.  There colors are vibrant,  bright red, orange and yellow.  Don't know what they actually are, but some have the sweetest songs  And then of course there are our hummingbirds.  Matt and I have been feeding them religiously from a feeder in our orange tree.  But we've been getting a little frustrated because we've had to refill the feeder every day.  How much can those little things eat?

Well a few nights ago while we in the mirador Matt notice a bird swooping around after dark and he thought that was unusual that it was flying at night.  Then he thought MAYBE it wasn't a bird at all.  He didn't say a word to me.  Then when we were at a friends house a few nights later he noticed the same "birds" sweeping around their yard.  Yep you guessed it, we have a lot of bats here in Lake Chapala, just took Matt and I four months to notice them!  And then the kicker, we found out that bats love hummingbird feeders.  They'll drain them dry every night.  So our little hummingbirds don't eat that much after all.

Last night we watched our terrace very carefully, and sure enough those were bats sweeping around our feeder.  i took the camera outside (although Matt said "you're not going outside with those things are you?") and tried to get a pic, but they were too smart for me.  So instead i found this pic on the internet.....yuck but kind of cool as well.

So the answer is simple.  Put a ziploc bag over the feeder every night and make the bats work for their dinner!

Sweet Nari and a Mountain Hike

Friday morning we said goodbye to Nari, the sweet lady who clean our house once a week - and gives me a free Spanish class while's she's at it.  She is just a lovely lady who seems to be so content and happy.  She has a ten year old daughter and now is pregnant with her second baby which is due in October.  Matt and I are lobbying for her to give birth to that baby on one or our birthdays (the 13th for me or the 24th for Matt), knowing Nari she'll probably do her best!  We gave her a little baby gift that she seemed to really enjoy.  Nari is just typical of so many of the Mexicans we've met during the past four months.

Friday night we went for a mountain hike with Vern and Kathleen.  There gardener (and friend) Miguel joined us.  Boy, was this a tough hike....for me!  We made it up to the top in just over 30 minutes, but seemed longer.  I was huffing and puffing.  Vern and Kathleen do this every week, so they did better.  And who did this steep hike not bother?  Matt and Miguel.  They weren't even breathing hard at the top.  Ajijic has been very good to Matt; he's lost about 20 pounds and the twice a week golf games on a very hilly golf course (with no cart) has been very good for his cardio.  When we first arrived here in May, the altitude kicked Matt's butt.  He hardly made it off the sofa for three weeks; now he seems to be half mountain goat.  I'm impressed!

Gorgeous tree at the trail head

On our way up

Beautiful View

This photo is deceiving - we're finally at the top and it's much higher than it appears!

Matt and Vern

Miguel, taking a break from these gringos

Dinner With Gudrun

One of the most amazing people I've met in the Chapala area is Gudrun Jones.  This beautiful lady runs the Ranch dog rescue where I spend so much of my time.  From the first contact I've had with her when I volunteered to help with the dogs, it became very obvious just how passionate she is about what happens at the ranch.  She takes great pride in being able to provide a safe haven for these dogs and in the number of animals she's managed to have spayed and neutered over the last ten years - she estimates 5,000.  There are still too many strays in this area, but longtime residents always comment about how much better it is now than when they first moved here.  So animal rescues like Gudrun's are definitely have a positive impact.

Whenever Gudrun sees an animal that is being neglected, she will do her best to get it into her car and see that it is cared for.....and she'll use whatever means are necessary.  If it means stealing a dog that has been left on a two foot chain with no food or water, she'll find a way to do it.  At her own home, Gudrun has 15 dogs.  Last week she was actually very proud that she was down to 14 dogs because she found a home for Annie, but then she found a neglected dog so she brought it to her house.  At her house in Ajijic she has a large yard with a tennis court and a pool.  The tennis court is reserved for the dogs and she does her best to keep them out of the pool.  Then there is Dryden, Gudrun's amazing husband.  He's 90 years old and has the most incredible memory.  When he was in his 20's he was in the Air Force and spent some time in Kansas City.  He'll reminisce about how beautiful the Country Club Plaza is at Christmas and then will talk about specific streets in Kansas City, like Meyer Boulevard.  When Dryden married Gudrun 40 years ago he wasn't much of a dog man, but he now seems to be perfectly content with this menagerie that's at his home. We wanted to take Gudrun and Dryden to dinner before we left, but unfortunately Dryden wasn't feeling well, he had a 103 degree fever.  Gudrun called the doctor to come to the house to check on him and he gave him a shot, then she met us for dinner.  We joked that if one of the dogs had been sick, she'd have cancelled on us.  We missed Dryden, but did have a great time.

Had some very sad news from home this week.  One of my friends from work, LeeAnn King, was in a terrible car accident on Tuesday morning while on her way into work.  Her injuries were just too severe and she died later that night at the hospital.  Only 45 years old and left two teen-age sons.  It's been said a million times before, but you never not what each day will bring so important to live life to the fullest.  LeeAnn certainly did; but gone way too soon.

We leave here a week from today.  Planning a hike up into the mountains at sunset tonight with some friends, dinner Saturday night with another group, and game night at the home of one of our friends on Sunday.  Next Thursday we will take Hermann to his dog sitter's home; that will be a tough good bye for me.  Six weeks without my sweet pooch.  Somehow we also have to find the time to pack up.  I'm sure this last week will go all too quickly.

Yes......We're Still Alive and Well in Mexico!

It's been nearly a month since I've blogged.  What's up with that?  We're busy, having a lot of fun and really enjoying the Lake Chapala area.  But we've just become so accustomed to our home here that most things don't seem that out of the ordinary.  Herm and I are used to meeting up with dancing horses during our walks, the vendors that sell everything from underwear to pizza don't amaze us any more, and Matt and I still love our evenings on the mirador but how many pics to the sun setting behind the mountains can we post.

I've got to say, we're both getting very melancholy over the prospect of leaving here in twelve days.  We're looking forward to seeing our family and friends in Kansas City and Marshall and Alix's wedding, but saying adios to our little pueblo is tough.  I felt very much like this in the DR, but Matt was the one ready to move on.  Here, we're both feeling the urge to stay.  We've decided to visit Kansas City and then spend our six months on the beach (two months in La Cruz de Huanacaxtle and four months in LaPaz) and then we'll return to this area next spring.  Being from the mid-west, I'm so appreciative of the fact that here we can spend the entire summer so comfortable without the need for the a/c.  During the"hot" months of May and early June we did use ceiling fans, but haven't even turned those on for two months.

So while we're getting very short on time here, we want to spend lots of time with our new friends here.  Not really a problem, as this a very social place.  Last night was our last Molcajete night.  We have a group of friends that meet up every other Saturday night a Casa de Molcajete for dinner.  Food and atmosphere is great here but the biggest draw seems to be free margaritas or wine with your dinner.  And I don't mean just one.....they constantly top off your glass throughout the meal.  It's night like this that I really appreciate the fact that I'm married to an "ice tea" man.  This has been a great group and we're really going to miss them.  Ken and Debbie are one of the couples in this group and last night was their last night as well; they're leaving here on August 27th to move to Ensenada.  There plan when they arrived in Chapala two and a half years ago was much like Matt's and mine; not to live in one place for more than a year.  But they fell in love with this area and the folks who live here, and stayed much longer than planned.  We totally understand.

The "girls" - Syd, Anna, Sharon, Sally, Debbie, Vickie and CeeCee

The "boys" - back row Ken, Joe, Matt, JC; front row David & Paul

This afternoon we're going to a birthday party hosted by one of Matt's golf friends.  His dog is having her 17th birthday so that seems to be a reason for a party.  And we've got plans to have one last outing with our other Lake buddies before we leave, so should be a very busy 12 days.

This past Friday Matt and I finally made it to the Guadalajara zoo.  We've heard so many good things about this zoo and we were not disappointed.  It was beautiful with lots of well maintained green spaces, very clean, and well maintained and humane enclosures for the animals.  My favorite attraction was the african safari.  They load you up on these large trams and take you through an area with gazelles, antelopes, hippos, ostriches and giraffes roaming around.  Then they stop for a few minutes and let the passengers feed the giraffes.  Muy divertido!  Here's a pic of me feeding one of the giraffes.

There was also an incredible air tram ride over the entire park.  It was a great way to view the park and at the back of the park, the air tram turns around for the return trip and you have this great view of an amazing canyon.

Our Tram Ride

View from the end of the air tram

And of course, I can't end a post without an update of my ranch dogs.  We've had some really nice dogs adopted the past few weeks and I so love seeing these sweet babies find a new home.  But there always is another dog needing a home to take there place, and this week it was a mamma with her five puppies that were dumped at the ranch.  The adoption I'm most happiest about is Sweet Georgie.  Georgie was one of many Mexican roof dogs and looked just like Chewbaca from Starwars.  It seems to be perfectly ok in this culture to let your day spend most of his life on the roof of your house.  And sometimes they forget to feed and water these dogs.  This was the case with Georgie until Martine, one of the ranch employees, rescued Georgie from a house in his neighborhood.  The problem is Georgie was a biter.  Martine was one of his victims and ended up with a bunch of stitches in his arm.  Georgie also bit several of the volunteers.  But this was all before I came and I had no idea.  So when I would clean Georgie's run I had no fear of him, although he originally wanted very little to do with me.  Eventually he warmed up and became such a loving dog.  He just needed his chance to shine.  Unfortunately, the past few months Georgie has had a skin problem and started loosing clumps of his hair.  We took him to a vet and it was diagnosed as a bacterial infections so he's been on antibiotics and we've been using a cream on his skin.  He's getting better, but still far from what you'd consider a pretty dog.  But this past week, someone came to the ranch looking for a job and fell in love with Georgie.  I'm so happy; I was convinced this sweet boy was destined to spend the rest of his days at the ranch.  Who knows why a certain dog seems to make a special connection, but so glad it happened for Georgie.