Sweet Ajijic

No major theme here, just random thoughts.

First of all, I've been pronouncing Ajijic incorrectly.  I've been saying "A-hee-hick" and is should be "A-hee-heek".  Now that I can at least pronounce the name of my little village, at least I can act like I belong here.

Hermann in the courtyard

Matt and I have just been in the process of settling in here.  Just moving to a new area of your home town can be difficult.  You need to figure out where are the best grocery stores, the best vets, the best liquor stores.....  So imagine moving to a new city in a different country.  Getting acclimated just takes time.  But not for Hermann, he seems to really enjoy all this new space.

We've started to sort out a routine that works for us.  In the DR, getting to the grocery store was a major chore since we didn't have a car.  We'd have a long walk to the guagua, then maybe a long wait for a guagua with room for us, then once you get to the store you might need to completely reorganize your list depending upon what was actually available.  Here we have a car, but seldom use it.  We are only about two block from a small but adequate grocery store.  I'll walk up there a three or four times a week and buy just what we need.  And the Wednesday tienga is just a few blocks from our house.  That's a great opportunity to buy some fresh fruits and vegetables, although I try to be careful to only get what I need for the next few days.  Although the fruits and vegetables look incredible to me, especially after five months in the DR, I'm told that once the rainy season starts I'll be amazed at what's available at the markets.  But the tienga doesn't just have produce.  Here's a list of what I can recall from last week's tienga:  live bunnies, live birds, live chihuahuas, jewelry, ladies bras and panties, yogurt, bread, fish, chicken, CDs, ladies blouses and dresses, shoes, woven bags, spices, juga de uva (grape juice), fresh cheese, tamales, tacos, crocheted baby booties.  And that's just what I can remember!

There is definitely a recurring theme here that we repeatedly here from all of the long time ex-pats:  #1 this is absolutely the best place in the world to live and #2 May is absolutely the worst month of the year to be here.  Although we don't find the weather to be a problem, the long timers go on and on about how hot May is.  We have no a/c in our house....I don't think anyone in Ajijic does -- but we are seldom even a little too warm.  In the late afternoons it gets just a bit warm in the house and one night we turned on a fan when we slept because we thought the bedroom was a little hot.  So I see nothing to complain about this weather.  Everyone talks about the "rain birds" and that they've started singing.  Once you hear the rain birds start singing, the rain will start in a couple of weeks.  Well, every morning the birds are out singing in our courtyard so I thought that was the rainbirds.  Nope.  The "rainbirds" are cicadas. I haven't see one, but definitely heard them singing, and now that I think about it it does sound a bit like rain falling in the trees.

But, again and again I'm told...."just wait until the rainy season!"  Most people say that June, July and August are there favorite months here, that the mountains turn to emerald green almost overnight, and the weather is perfect.  I'm looking forward to seeing just how great this weather can be!

One thing I'm enjoying about the "hot" weather of May, is hanging out our laundry to dry.  We have a clothes line we can string up and clothes dry unbelievably fast, even towels dry in an hour.  Seems like the best time to hang laundry up is about 4:30 or 5:00 in the afternoon because that's when the evening breeze picks up.  I haven't hung laundry out since I was a kid helping my grandmother.  Feels very good to do this!

And then there is Hermann and the chihuahua gang across the street.  We were at the plaza a couple of nights ago and I started talking with a woman who also had a couple of dogs with her.  I told her about the chihuahuas that terrorize Herm and the first thing she asked was "Is Hermann on a leash?"  I always keep Herm on a leash when he's outside and she felt that was the problem.  She suggested letting him out on his own and that he and the chihuahuas would settle their differences.  I thought, great idea!  We live at the end of a dead end street so no through traffic, what could happen?  Well no success yet, Hermann won't leave the front gate without his leash.  I have tried going outside and calling him to me, I've tried getting behind him and pushing him out the gate.  Nothing seems to work.  Those little chihuahuas have really been messing with his mind.  The chichuahua mafiosa wins another round.

Matt and Herm at the Peacock Garden

Roaming Peacock

I love that most of the restaurants here are dog friendly.  I've only seen one with a "no dogs allowed" sign.  When we go out to eat, we usually take Herm with us.  The other night we went to the Peacock Garden, what a beautiful place!  The tables were scattered throughout the back of the restaurant.  Some on the patio, some in the lawn and our table was under a little gazebo. The flowers were beautiful!  There were two peacocks strolling around the garden, one very large rooster, and several hens.  And a parrot in a cage.

El Jardin de Plaza

We also enjoy walking to the plaza in the town center.  Almost always some entertainment going on down there - sometimes musicians and often times just the Mexican families.  Last Friday there was an art auction on the plaza.  Unfortunately a small turn out as most of the ex-pats are snow birds, but there was some beautiful artwork.  I bid on a couple of watercolors, but my banker (Matt) stopped my bidding before I won!  We also love this sweet little place, El Jardin de Plaza.  Good for breakfast, lunch, dinner or just a drink and excellent location for people watching.

 

Matt played golf last week at the Chula Vista Country Club, this was a view from one of the greens.  I've got to tell you, there were a lot of hills on this course and the hills plus the altitude kicked Matt's butt.  I'm not sure if he'll want to play there again.  We found another course on Sunday that's further away but much flatter.  I think that's where he'll play next.

 Today I started volunteering at "The Ranch" a local no-kill shelter.  They have room for 70 dogs there, and right not probably have about 60.  Very hard work!  I was there about 4 1/2 hours shoveling poo, watering, feeding and petting these guys.  Sadly, probabl half of these dogs will be there for life.  Here's just a few of the sweet faces.