From start to who knows what. This will be a blog following our preparation and eventual departure on our retirement to the Caribean, Mexico and beyond.
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!
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.
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.
I started to realize how comfortable I am living in Mexico when I can pronounce a word like "tlaquepaque" without a second thought. Actually, Tlaquepaque is a pueblo on the outskirts of Guadalahara. And if you're wondering "how the hell do you pronounce that?", it's something like "tuh-lah-k-pah-k".
The first hour of each of my Spanish class is spent in conversation (in Spanish of course) and I mentioned that I felt there weren't a lot of good day trips from this area. The other two gringos in my class as well as the instructor started giving me a long list of potential day trips. The most popular seemed to be Tlaquepaque. So that's where Matt and I went on Friday.....we like to get out of the house on Friday so we can stay out of our housekeeper's hair.....and besides I feel very lazy sitting around watching this little pregnant lady mop my floors.
Tlaquepaque isn't only about a 45 minute drive and required driving into Guadalajara. Matt has gotten much better about big city driving over the last few months, in fact sometimes he drives just a little too Mexican! Matt tried to enter our destination into the GPS but couldn't find it, so we were using driving direction we found on the internet, which was making both of us very nervous. The internet directions gave street names to exit the highway on but seldom are the actually street names posted. When we neared Guad we saw our first sign for Tlaquepaque and that's when Matt realized he had been misspelling the name when entering it into the GPS. So we entered it correctly, and no problema. NOTE: When driving in Mexico a GPS with current Mexico maps is worth it's weight in gold.
The GPS took us to the general area, but not to the centro artisan market area that we wanted to go. We circled around a bit, and when we had no luck finding it, we broke down and asked direction from a young man standing on a street corner (thank you Gabriel for all your help improving my Spanish!). One of the gringo rules in Mexico is to avoid asking Mexicans for directions. Mexicans hate to disappoint so even if they don't know the answer, they'll tell you something. But in this case he understood my question "donde esta el marcado de artisans?" and gave me directions that I could actually understand and that took us right to where we wanted to go.
Tlaquepaque is beautiful! The marcado area is about six blocks and closed to auto traffic. Every little pueblo in Mexico has a plaza, always next to the church, and usually with a gazebo. Thought this one was especially pretty. Quite a few tourists types were there, but almost all were Mexican - very few gringos.
Lots of whimsical artwork in the area, including this little guy and the only mariachi band in Mexico that doesn't hound you for tips.
The mercado area in Tlaquepaque is one incredible colonial building after another.
We found this potter giving a demonstration to some kids. He was turning out angry bird sculptures and that seemed to hold their interest.
This is where Matt and I had lunch, not sure of the name of the restaurant but a pretty location. I had my first torta ahogadas! I believe torta can mean either cake or sandwich, and in this case it's definitely sandwich. Ahogadas means drowned. There are roadside stands on every block that offer tortas ahogadas along with tacos but we had never tried them before. What we have been missing! Not sure if they are all alike, but the sandwich I had was served fairly plain, just stewed, nicely seasoned pork on a hoagie bun with red onions on the side. Then they give you a big bowl of red chili sauce along with a little cup to ladle this over your sandwich. This makes for a pretty awesome meal....messy, but declicious and just a little spicy. So I've got a new favorite Mexican food, just what I needed! My only complaint about Tlaquepaque ws the price of the cerveza - $340 pesos! That's about $3 USD! Standard prices around Chapala for a beer range from $180-$220 pesos, so this was about US prices!
Last weekend Matt and I tried a new restaurant, Tabarkas. Matt's golfing buddy Vern and his wife Kathleen went with us. I've always been a huge fan of La Bodegas in Kansas City and this was the Lake Chapala version! They have a promotion for unlimited tapas and wine for $240 pesos, or $20 USD. They brought round after round of tapas to our table, all very nice! And the wine flowed - well at least for Kathleen and me! Vern and Matt abstained and they had the non-drinkers version of the tapas meals for only $160. Good to have a DD!
Tabarcas - the Chapala version of La Bodesga
Such nice people here! Vern and Kathleen are great and always so helpful. Vern has been giving Matt a ride home from golf on Tuesdays and Wednesdays so I can make my yoga class. They've been taking golf lessons on Tuesday morning and Vern hauls Matt to those as well so I can go to the organic market. I'm sure he's thinking "I wish they'd buy a second car!". The first time we were invited to their beautiful house for dinner, Vern specifically included Hermann in the invite. They have a labradoodle, Gracie, who's about Herm's age so we thought they'd get along great. Oh, well, not the case. Sweet Gracie went blind from a retinal disease and she's still adjusting. Didn't seem to appreciate this invader on her turf at all. And Herm, for his part, behaved no better. Herm is very house broken and NEVER has accidents; or at least not until we visited Vern and Kathleen. Within 15 minutes he had left a nice little surprise in their living room. Later we walked into San Juan Casalo, the village where Vern and Kathleen live. When we came home there was a pee trail from the living room, into the kitchen, to the door. Needless to say, Herm has no more social engagements on his calendar. I guess he know's not to mess his own house, but everyone else's is fair game.
And want to be sure and mention our other group of new friends. We met Joe and Sharon one night when we went out to dinner. We had Herm with us and dogs always seem to be a good ice breaker. Really enjoyed visiting with them and they invited us to join their friends for dinner at Molcajete's in Chapala. They usually have dinner every other Saturday night and there's usually 10-12 people there. Always a very fun group.
Since we arrived, we've been wanting to do some hiking in the surrounding mountains. But we've been waiting for the rainy season for the temps to cool down a bit. Well, the rains are here so no more excuses!
Matt's friend Vern had told him about a trail that leads to a waterfall. I thought Matt had said "Vern says it's an easy trail", so that sounded what I was looking for on our first hike. So one day last week we set off.
At the trail head, the trail was so beautiful and with just a slight incline - perfect!
Trail Head
One of the first sites we saw was this huge tree growing above the trail with it's roots wrapped around a boulder.
But before long, the trail was getting steeper and steeper, and we eventually found ourselves climbing over huge boulders. Matt did really well; his two day a week golf game walking a very hilly course has done wonders for his cardio. Me....not so much. I was panting like crazy and needed to take frequent breaks. I said to Matt, "I though Vern said this was an easy trail?" Matt, said no...he never said it was easy, just that it was a good trail. I should listen to Mast more carefully!
The trail gets more difficult!
I like this picture, pensive Matt
We eventually came to yet one more jagged hill of boulders we needed to climb. There was a group with a couple of 12 or 13 years old boys that had passed us on the trail. We could hear them ahead of us laughing and having so much fun scaling these boulders. But Matt and I looked at each other, and both knew this was far enough for two people in their mid-fifties! And then it started to rain; not heavy but a bit more than a sprinkle. So that was our sign from the heavens that we should turn back, plus we could always use the rain as an excuse for not going further.
This is it for us! High enough
We've got another hike in mind, that we'll try this week. Matt thinks it will be a bit easier. I want to borrow one of my ranch dogs to take with us...to help pull me up the mountain.
And I found a great yoga class! There seems to be very little publicity about yoga classes here. The one class I had found, I wasn't happy with. But one of our new friends recommended this instructor in San Antonio, the neighboring village, and gave me her email address. I started this week, and it's perfect! She's an incredible instructor and teaches at a perfect level for me. And what a bargain, $60 pesos a class, which at the current exchange rate is less than $5 usd.
I love how affordable most things are here so it's easy to treat ourselves to little luxuries. For one thing, I rarely cook. At the Tuesday organic market, there are plenty of vendors selling incredible produce, yogurt and fresh cheeses. But there are also quite a few vendors selling pre-made foods. We stock up so we have a couple of meals. Matt is addicted to the chicken pot pies there, not the healthiest thing to eat, but it makes him happy. The pot pie guy also sells some really good quiches. Then there is another vendor who sells mini gourmet pizzas, one who sells Asian food like pot stickers and great salads, artisan breads, and my fave - the tamale lady. Her tamales are incredible and made without lard, so must be healthy, right? I also always pick up a bag of beautiful salad greens (pre-washed and disinfected) for $20 pesos (or $1.75 USD) and sometmes a bag of kale. So plenty of stuff in my fridge to make some very tasty and health salads. BTW, my new favorite salad dressing. I've learned to make fresh salsa verde and found that if you mix about two parts fresh salsa verde with one part ranch dressing, you have a very yummy dressing, and with a lot less fat that is normally in ranch dressing.
And then there are the restaurants, So many incredible restaurants and most within walking distance. We founds a great Thai place about six blocks from us. Luckily they also serve Japanese food, so Matt (who is not a fan of Thai food) can get some tempura and a California roll and be perfectly happy while I indulge in my passion for Thai. And many of the restaurants are running specials this summer, just to keep the doors open while the snow birds are away. Last night we tried Roberto's, which is one of the best restaurants around here. On Thursday and Friday nights they have a BOGO special on their entrees. This was too good to be true! They had many very tempting options on their menu, which changes daily. But Matt decided on brisket and I had the mahi mahi. Both of us were very happy! My maji maji was topped with spinach and a parmesan sauce and then broiled - it was perfect. I had wine, Matt had ice tea and our bill was less than $250 peso, under $20 USD.
My pedis are running about $10 USD with tip and a nice massage is about $20 USD. And the spa is a nice walk from our home, so I get a little exercise as well.
Sometimes I feel that when I go on and on about how affordable it is to live here, it might give the impression that is the only reason to be here, but that is so wrong. This area is full of charm and beauty. The people in our village (both Mexicans and ex-pats) are for the most part very friendly. The convenience of this area is amazing! If I need something I can normally pick it up when Herm and I are out for our walks. Fresh fruit, bread, milk, coffee, laundry, alterations. There are two movie theaters in our area, one we need to drive to but there is also one three blocks from our home. How fun to walk to the movies! And the weather is so comfortable. Safety doesn't seem to be a big problems. I've yet to met anyone who has been harmed here or experienced a burglary. One couple had a bad experience while driving from the border - they felt that another car was attempting to pull them over but they kept their heads, turned in the other direction and all was well. We are beginning to realize why so many Americans and Canadians have flocked to this area. It's a great place to live with all the comforts of home, plus the luxuries (house keeper, golf, movies, dinners out, spa treatments) that many couldn't afford on a retirement income.
We've started to build a little network of friends. It's funny, but we really only know a handful of people (maybe 30), but we seem to run into someone we know where ever we go. We've met most of our new friends while out for dinner - another reason not to cook! We'll starting talking to someone at another table, exchange contact info, and then make arrangements to meet for another dinner out. Then they'll invite some more friends, and the chain grows. It's a very social area, all of us retirees have plenty of time on our hands so nice to make new friends.
And finally, a picture of one of my favorite Ranch dogs. I love Nellie (I call her Miss Nellie Rose). She is such a beauty, so mellow and loves attention. She also a great hand shaker. If she feels you are paying too much attention to another dog in her pen, she'll give you one of her paws, and who could resist? I so wish she'd find a good home.
Since we've moved here, we've been told repeatedly "oh, wait til the rains start!". Everyone who lives here year round continually gripes about the oppressive heat in May. O.K., I realize that many people are suffering right now with temps near 100 or much worse and that most of us wouldn't classify 90 degree days with low humidity like we have here in May as "oppressive" but something happens to people when they live in a mild climate year round. They seem to expect perfect temps as the norm.
Well, as promised by mid=June the rains have started. They have started to cool off the "high" daytime temps and evenings are wonderful, muy refresco. We took the picture below during one of our walks around town soon after we arrived.
Yesterday we took this picture from our mirador. You can see how the mountains are starting to really green up. Some people describe it the mountains in mid-summer as looking like giant heads of broccoli.
With the rainy season, comes a not so pleasant surprise. All the rains tend to send scorpions into the houses. We've been vigilant after all the stories we've heard (including one man who had the unpleasant surprise of having a scorpion crawl up into the roll of toilet paper....and he didn't find it until he had already used the paper, with the scorpion in it, for it's intended purpose). But after nearly two months we hadn't seen a single one so were starting to get comfortable, until Friday. Matt found this little guy hanging out by our washer/dryer. Evidently our housekeeper sprays something to kills bugs during her weekly visit, because every bug that makes it's way in our house is dead or dying by the time we see it. And the stuff must work on scorpions as well, because this little guy was on pretty much done for. He is small, but w'ere told the little ones have the most toxic venom.
My favorite neighbor is little Camila, She's four years old and lives in a series of little shacks right next door to us. This is normal in Ajijic....and pretty much anywhere in Mexico. You'll have some beautiful homes, and then right next door the most humble of homes. That doesn't mean they aren't good neighbors.....at least most of the time. Little Camila loves to go for walks with Herm and me. When we're shopping, I will usually pick up little gifts like coloring books, bubbles and little toys, for her and her 6 year old brother Ubaldo. Camila loves to come over and visit....usually she'll have something for me as an excuse to come over - like flowers she picked or some cookies. It's fun for her to play out on our terrace and put her feet in the fountain and she absolutely loves our mirador with the hammock chairs.
Well, last week we received our electric bill. No post office here, instead the utilities have someone that walks up and down the streets of the village and drops off the bills at every house. We received two bills: one was for mid-February thru mid-April and the second from mid-April thru mid-June. We arrived on May 3rd so the only bill we had any responsibility for was the April/June one. It was a bit higher than I expected (about $200 USD for the two month period) but not too outrageous. But the earlier bill, was very high, about $500 USD for two months, and for much of that time no one had been living in our house. This immediately got the attention of Coco, our property manager and she sent over our two handymen to check it out. Didn't take long. Sweet little Camila's family was swiping our electricity. They had a wire strung from our power pole over to their homes. My theory why the February/April bill was so high was that it was probably cold here and they needed space heaters. The handymen called Coco and she said "call CFE". The handymen said that would result in a $40,000 peso fine for Camila's family (about $3,600 USD) and someone might be arrested. Matt asked them not to do this, so the second option was to talk to them and then disconnect the wire. No one was home so our handymen just disconnected and left it at that. Later that evening the wire was reconnected. At this point Coco was definitely calling CFE. We talked to one of our other neighbors who speaks excellent English about the problem and he said he'd talk to them. Well the result was that they did disconnect before CFE came out to check on the problem, but the result is that all of Camila's family is in the dark. We both feel terrible about this when we look down from our mirador and see our neighb ors navigating around their series of shacks just using flashlights. Hopefully they'll figure out how to get their own electricity soon.
Saturday we went to lunch with a couple we met who live in San Juan Cosala, a little town about 20 minutes from us. Had a great time and Vern and Kathleen did a wonderful job showing us around that area. We had lunch at a great Mexican place in their village and then we ended up having dessert at a restaurant in the hills that looks out over the lake. Very elegant!
And then there was Hermann's wild walk! On day last week we started out for our normal morning walk. Sometimes we head east and stay in a very residential area; other times we go to the west and walk down to the plaza. This day was a plaza walk. On the way to the plaza we pass a carnaceria (meat shop). There are always several very large dogs hanging around outside the carnaceria as the butcher always throws scraps to the dogs each morning. One dog we've seen there often is a huge great dane. No problem, as he's always very friendly to both me and Herm. As we neared the carnaceria that morning I saw the great dane and he immediately headed right to us....tail wagging. He greeted Herm and they did their sniffing thing and the great dane walked on by....and that's when it got interesting. He came up behind us and grabbed the leash out of my hand. He started dragging poor Herm around the plaza like he was a toy. No way Herm could keep up with those long legs so he just kind of got drug along. The kids started yelling "Paco! Paco!" so I assume that was the dog's name and then the butcher came running out yelling at the dog as well. But he was having too much fun to stop. I managed to catch up with them and grabbed the leash but couldn't get it out of Paco's mouth...and he thought I wanted to play tug or war. We were getting no where. I finally decided to just unhook Herm's collar; once I'd done that Paco started to run off with his new treasure with the butcher chasing him. Paco soon decided the leash was no fun without Herm or me at the other end so he soon dropped it and the butcher brought it back to me. From now on....no more walks past the carnaceria!
Since we started planning our retirement and announced our plan to spend an extended amount of time in Mexico, the first thing most people said was "isn't that dangerous?" Others worried about our health. Others just thought we were crazy to leave the comforts of home.
Well, after six weeks in the Lake Chapala area here's what I think.
Nice Surprise during a Walk through our Village
Life here seems very normal. Very rarely do we absolutely need to speak Spanish, most people who work in the restaurants and larger stores speak very good English. If we want to cook dinner at home, we can find everything we need at this grocery store two blocks away......or the Walmart super center which is about 1 1/2 miles from our home. But we prefer buying from the markets. We can walk through and get an amazing amount of beautiful fruit and vegetables at a very reasonable price. There are two butcher shops that I can easily walk to. If we want to eat out, no problem. Tons of very nice and affordable restaurants. Most we can walk to, but we never drive more than 15 minutes to eat out, no need to.
We have a filtration system at the house, so we drink the water out of the tap. Our cable t.v. has gone out several times....but never for more than an hour or so. Our wireless internet was driving both of us nuts! The connection was very erratic and seemed to be out about 30% of the time. After weeks of suffering, we talked to our property manager about this. Matt knew the router needed to be replaced but we weren't sure how to do this. She made one call to TelMex, our provider. They agreed to replace the modem, but we needed to pick it up. We were prepared for the worst! Long lines, confusion over our account, language barriers. Matt insisted I go with him to serve as his translator.....not that my Spanish is great, just much better than his. We walked in, asked the man at the kiosk at the front of the store if he spoke English, he said no but asked for our names. We gave him our names and showed him our old router. And he gave us a new router....simple as that. We were in that store about 2 minutes.
There are two golf courses within a reasonable distance from our house, both are only nine holes. Matt has been playing two times a week. I don't think they are nearly as nice as courses he was used to in Kansas City, and probably a bit more expensive. But on the other hand, here you can play seven days a week, 12 months a year.
There seems to be plenty of entertainment. It's easy to find a restaurant with live entertainment, especially on Friday and Saturday nights. We splurged last Friday and had a nice dinner out, and the restaurant had a guitarist who knew all the old music we liked to listen to: Beetles, Clapton, James
Taylor, Cat Stevens. Was a good night. For dinner we had a stuffed portabella mushroom appetizer, shrimp dish for Matt, salad for me, two glasses of wine (for me), Coke for Matt, two desserts and coffee. La cuenta was about $500 pesos (or about $45 USD). Not bad for date night. There is live theater here that we've heard good things about but haven't been. There's a Mexican festival in our pueblo Saturday night with Mexican dancers, food and Margaritas. On Sundays there are free dance lessons at the Plaza. They're teaching Danza, which is a sexy Cuban dance. We watched.....didn't participate....but it was quite a show. There are two movie theaters near us, one we can easily walk to. The admissions is $40 pesos (or about $3.50). Wednesday is BOGO at the theater, so $3.50 for both of us to watch a recently released movie. Last week we saw Identity Theft. We bought two large drinks and shared a large popcorn for another $50 pesos. Night at the movie, with snacks, for less than $10. This week we want to see the Halley Berry movie "The Call".
We love our house.....but we've come to realize we seriously pay more for rent than is necessary. For $1,000 a month we have a two bedroom house with a rooftop mirador, beautiful garden and separate casita, including housekeeper and gardener once a week. Compared with the apartment we rented in Kansas for $925 a month, this seemed like a steal. Plus we have no heating and cooling costs here. Just electricity to run lights, t.v. and the washing machine. Gas for the stove and to heat water. We have a gas clothes dryer, but don't use it. We have a clothes lines and use it instead. But then we started talking to other extranjeros (ex-pats) who rent. Seems like you can easily rent an amazing house here for $500 to $700 a month. An apartment similar to what we rented in Kansas for $925 a month would be about $250 a month here. Oh, well.....we knew that if we hit town and looked for a place after we arrived, we'd probably get a better deal. But we both liked the idea of having a nice place reserved for us and ready for us when we arrived. No surprises!
All that being said, here's what our last few days were like.
Drive to Mazemitla
Friday is housekeeper day and neither one of us like to sit around on our butts watching our little pregnant housekeeper clean our house. Makes us feel very decadent and lazy. We decided to take a day trip up into the mountains to a little pueblo called Mazemitla which is about a two hour drive from Ajijic. Was a very nice drive, the road seemed very safe and in good condition, although a bit narrow. Mazemitla was fun, very pretty little pueblo. We shopped a bit, seems they are very proud of their fresh cheeses, caramel and a liqueur they make from local nutsl. We bought some of each. Had an ok lunch at little taqueria and then headed home.
Streets of Mazemitla
The Center of every Mexican Pueblo....a church
Reflective Matt at the Fiesta
On Saturday night there was a fiesta in the Ajijic plaza to raise money for a sculpture for the plaza. They served real Mexican food (tamales, tostados and posole) which I enjoyed, but Matt not so much. We discovered that the only Mexican food he really likes is Tex-Mex....all covered in gooey cheese. There was a strange little dancer there, a man in drag with an awful mask, but sure it was part of Mexican folklore. The mariachi band followed and we were surprised to see that one of our neighbors was the star performer. From our mirador, we can hear him practicing several nights a week. To be honest, he sounded much better with the band.
Our Neighbor on the Left
Sunday was Fathers Day and there were festivites planned on the square to honor Mexican dads. This event was definitely geared more to the Mexicans than to the ex-pats. As usual, nothing starts early. It was scheduled to start at 8:00 after the dance lessons, but the dance lessons never start on time so they didn't end until almost 9:00. Then the Fathers Day festivities started. The band was very loud and out of tune......kids were running everywhere. We only lasted until about 9:30 but the party was in full swing when we left. Here's a video of just a bit of that night....just to give you an idea how loud an crazy it really was.
There is one Thai restaurant in town and it has been closed since we arrived as the owners went back to Thailand for vacation. They were scheduled to reopen on June 1st but then a sign appeared on the door saying the reopening was scheduled for June 17th. Well, that was yesterday and I was determined to go. We walked down about 6:00 and the were still closed! Someone working inside told us they'd reopen Miercoles (Wednesday)...so I guess I wait a few more days. We ended up eating at Ajijic Tango....and not sure why it took us so long to go there! It's probably the most popular restaurant in town, and I now know why. We both decided on filet mignon. It was actually less expensive to get the filet mignon for two rather than individual steaks, and it was a whopping 26 ounces. It looked like a roast! And this was the best steak I've ever eaten. We made it through half of it and brought the rest home for dinner another night. Total tab for our steak dinner, including wine for me and a nice tip for the server was $300 pesos - or about $25 USD. Unbelievable.
After dinner we walked down to the malecon and it was so beautiful. Just a few families in the park, and some kids strumming their guitars. I took another short video, just to compare this mellow scene was the madness from the night before.
And then nearly every night we watch the sun set from our mirador. This is Matt's chance for his cigar of the day and my opportunity for a glass of wine. Not a bad way to wrap up our day!
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