Both Sides of Mexico

We love it here.  I think that's obvious from all our post.  So first I'm starting with all the wonderful adventures we've had this past month.

Halloween in Mexico - I guess it really wasn't much of a holiday here until the gringos came.  But these little Mexican kids are smart, so they decided to capitalize on an opportunity to get more candy.  The kids, with their parents, hit the street about 6:00.  Seems that most were dressed as vampires but we had a few little Elsa's in there as well.  I was walking the dogs when they first started their trick or treating.  Every group that saw me would holler out "Happy Halloween!"  Evidently they were well coached in that little bit of English.

For the last few years, the gringos in Ajijic have participated in the world-wide Thriller dance.  From different locations throughout the world, people dress in their best zombie attire and the groups perform at the exact same time.  Seems to be very popular here in Ajijic.  The dancers work for about a month ahead of time practicing their best MJ moves.  But for us non-zombies, it's a great excuse to gather in the Ajijic plaza, have a couple of margaritas and try to pick out which zombies you know.  Weather was beautiful, as usual, and it was a great time.  Here's a aYoutube I found - Matt made a little video but this one is from a better vantage point.


Dia de Muertos (Day of the Dead) is becoming one of our favorite celebrations.  It's celebrated on November 2nd so right after Halloween.  With the skeletons hanging from every home and business, I always thought it was Mexico's version of Halloween.  But that isn't the case.  To me, it's more like our memorial day except with a bigger connection to honoring and remembering the loved ones who have passed on.  Families create beautiful alters at their homes honoring their departed family members.  The alters always include a photo and the favorite things of the deceased (think tequila, their favorite smokes and sweets).  Marigolds are the flower for this celebration and the alters are decorated thousands of marigold petals.The parking lot of the cemetery just down the street from us began filling up before 8:00 a.m.  I saw families walking toward the cemetery all day caring huge wreaths.  And it's not just a drop off the flowers and go have some barbecue kind of day.  The families spend the entire day together at the cemetery celebrating and remembering.

A group of estudiantinas

terrace on our Guanajuato house

November 6th we left for our long awaited trip to Guanajuato with Vern and Kathleen.  It was a beautiful, and uneventful three-hour drive.  Our house was in the center of the city on a beautiful plaza.  Until we moved to Mexico, I felt the only spots of interest were the beautiful beach towns.  What you miss until you explore the central part of Mexico and the incredible colonial towns!  The home we stayed in was over 200 years old and thoroughly enchanting.  It was on the second level with beautiful views down into the plaza and up into the hills.  We were so fortunate as there was a full moon and we spent some time in the evenings on our plant filled terrace watching the moon rise over the mountains.  Our first full day there we hired our property manager to take us on an all day tour of the city - which was amazing.  Our last full day there we walked the city on our own (15,000 steps on my pedometer!).  The city is known for it's music and there was plenty of it.  From one of the main plazas, you can hook up with a strolling minstrel group.  These estudiantinas work throughout the day to sell tickets to their performance.  For $100 pesos, you join the group as they walk through the narrow streets of Guanajuato singing and entertaining.  The group joins along in singing, although it's all in Spanish so we didn't have much to contribute.  We were the only gringos in the group, but well accepted.  Our group of estudiantinas handed out little pottery jugs to fill with orange juice (although we along with the rest of the group had a little bottle of tequila to use instead).  Matt took a ton of pictures - and sorry but it was hard for me to judge which were the best so I'm posting almost all of them.

Looking up at our house from the plaza

View of the dining area of our house

Looking up through our open courtyard

our beautiful living room

looking down into the plaza

another shot of the plaza

our terrace

courtyard

Kathleen and I couldn't resist taking a glass of wine down to the courtyard

one of the many churches in town

the alter

!

a beautiful Guanajuato street dog - Matt did not understand why I wanted this pic

Me and my sweetie!

watching to full moon rise from our terrace

a typical street in Guanajuato

in the cemetery all the plots were still decorated from Dia de Muertos

A large group following the estudiantinas through our courtyard

We also have visitors from home!  My sister Susan, niece Niki and her little boy Gunner came to visit us!  It was a great time to visit as they came during the Revolution Day celebration.  We were able to take Gunner to the parade in Chapala which was lots of fun.  We spent one entire day in Guad at the zoo, which was a big hit.  Gunner loved it and Niki thought it was much better than the KC zoo.  We loved the air tram ride over the entire zoo, but our favorite attraction was the safari ride where we were able to feed the giraffes.

one of the cuties in the parade

Gunner and his new best friend, Uncle Matt

Another highlight of their visit was Mazamitla.  Matt and I had been there last year and loved this little mountain pueblo on the south side of Lake Chapala.  It's known as the Little Switerzerland of Mexico.  This year we were there right after their Revolution Day parade and there were lots of families in the square.  We had a nice lunch and then went to the water fall.  Wow!  It was gorgeous.  The area we drove through to get toward the waterfall looked liked it was directly from a Disney movie!  There were beautiful little cottages perched on hill sides, the lawns were perfectly groomed, and the hydrangeas were in full bloom.  Gorgeous!  And so was the waterfall we hiked to.

So after all these busy days, Niki and Gunner left on Friday.  Matt, Sue and I are ready for a little relaxing, more leisurely mornings and lots of adult beverages.  But we do miss little Gunner waking up every morning yelling for Uncle Matt!  But poor little Buster doesn't miss him much - Gunner thought Buster was a bad boy!  Sue will be with us for another week!

hiking to the waterfall

lunch in Mazamitla

Niki and Gunner hiking to the waterfall

Matt and I at the bottom of the waterfall

Matt reflecting at the bottom of the waterfall

Royals Fans!

Sue and me, ready for a girls night!

So, despite all these wonderful experiences here's the tragedy.  Forty three college students are missing, and presumed dead, from the state of Guerrero.  Evidently they had been involved in protests and the corrupt mayor of the state they were living felt the protests would interfere with a social engagement his wife was involved in.  They were picked up by the police and then handed over the narcos.  Protests have been on-going throughout Mexico protesting this horrific crime.  Some of the protests were violent, but many more are peaceful. The general theme of these protests is to ask for the resignation of the President, as he appointed this Mayor.  I found this Youtube video of a protest this week in Guadalajara.  

This is a heartbreaking event and has deeply affected our Mexican friends and neighbors  Hopefully something good will come from this tragedy, but hard to see what that could possibly be.

Visit NOB and Car Trouble in Mexico

I went back to the US in late September, my first trip back in a year.  Matt stayed behind and cared for the dogs....thank you, thank you, thank you Matt.

With Ryan and Brandee on our Kayak Trip

I spent about a week with Ryan and Brandee in Ft. Lauderdale.  Had a wonderful visit with them.  Brandee wants to make a quilt so I helped her get started.  We ate at some wonderful restaurants, but had better meals in their kitchen just the three of us.  Such great cooks!   And we went on a sunrise kayak tour in the Everglades which was amazing.

Then I flew to South Carolina to spend some time with our friends Karen and Mike.  They moved to South Carolina this summer as they'd had enough of Kansas winters!  Their new house is beautiful and so is their new state.  They can see the Blue Ridge mountains from their home and it's just a short drive to the nearest mountain park.  Mike has a great trail mapped out for his bike rides.  My first impression of South Carolina was that it's so clean.  No roadside litter, which definitely isn't the case in Mexico.  Karen and Mike showed me around to their favorite new places, Karen and I shopped (I so needed clothes for this coming winter), and of course we spent lots of time on their patio with cocktails and catching up.

With Karen

So trip was great, but I was so glad to be back home!  On my way from the airport I noticed all the shabby little buildings, dirty sidewalks and litter everywhere - but didn't bother me a bit.  And we stopped at one of our favorite road side stands for the best burritos ever (so big we have to share one).  We hadn't been there for a couple of months and the owner rushed to greet us and asked us where we'd been.  That's Mexico!




Days like yesterday are when I could kick myself for not always caring a camera with us...or at least our IPod.  You just never know what's going to happen!

Matt and I had an appointment at immigration in Chapala for fingerprinting.  That's the last step in the process to renew our temporary residencies for three more years.  On the way back I asked him to stop at a salon in Ajijic so I could see about an appointment for a manicure and pedicure.  It was Wednesday, the day the tianguis (street markets) are held in Ajijic so there was a lot of traffic on the road around the salon.  Matt dropped me off and was going to wait for me to make my appointment.  I was only inside a few minutes and when I came out I saw Matt parked a bit down the road talking to our friend Isabelle, and our car was at an odd tilt.  Matt had been moving the car and tried to get it to the side of the road and unintentionally pulled up on the curb.  There had once been a fence there and someone had cut the metal fence post almost to the ground....and of course this is what Matt hit.  Our tire was ruined.  Isabelle had just happened to be walking by and stayed with Matt for moral support.

Matt started to get out the tools to change the tire and had a look of total bewilderment on his face - he is not a car guy.  I man an information table every Friday for our dog rescue near Pharmacia Guadalajara, just two blocks from where our car sat.  There is a great young man, Luis, that is always at that corner offering to wash cars.  He works so hard and is always there to help me unload my car and set up my table.  I suggested to Matt that I walk down and ask Luis to help - Matt quickly agreed.

When I arrived at Pharmacia Guadalajara, Luis was there just finishing up washing a windshield....and so was his little brother (about 10 or 12 years olds) who was selling green beans.  When I explained the problem to Luis he was eager to help and started jogging down the street toward our car, along with his little brother.

Luis quickly took over, but immediately realized we had two more problems.  The spare tire which is stored below our SUV was impossible to remove, the bolts had rusted.  And the tire changing tool wasn't strong enough to get our lug nuts off.  But, as is the case in all of Mexico, he knew a guy who had a better tool.  Cinco minutos he said - and he went running off.  His little brother stayed to "help".  Then a gringo walked by, saw our situation, and said he had a tool that would help loosen our lug nuts.  So he went back to his car, got that and Matt was able to loosen them.  Then Luis returned and started to try and get our jack down from under our car - no luck with that either.  But then another man appeared who worked across the street at the Pemex.  He'd seen our problem and came to see if he could help.  He trotted back across the busy careterra and returned a few minutes later rolling a large, industrial jack.  Meanwhile another little boy, probably a friend of Luis' brother, appeared and was also "helping".  And then a bit later the town drunk appeared and lucky for us he was once "the best mechanic in Portland, Oregon" and he could help us.  So the guy with the jack was able to get our tire off and Luis rolled it back across the careterra to the Firestone store.  They had pricing for tires, but we'd have to go to Chapala to get the tire.  One guy offered to go get it on his scooter and another offered to take his truck to get it.  But luckily for us Isabelle had called her husband Donnie and he showed up in his car and he would take Matt and the guy who had the jack (who I think maybe worked for Firestone) to get our new tire.  Matt gave Luis $100 pesos for his help, sent the town drunk off with 50 cents, and bought cokes for both of the little guys so they would watch our car.  I did what any good wife would do; I went and got my mani/pedi.

Matt had no problems in Chapala and got the tire purchased and mounted.  The guy with the jack put it on, Matt gave him $200 pesos for all his help and each of the little boys got $20 pesos for doing such a great job watching the car.  All and all our mishap was an economic boom for a bunch of Mexicans.  As I was walking home from my salon appointment, I saw Luis and his little brother at a hot dog stand enjoying a couple of hot dogs.  With the typical generosity of the Mexican people, Luis offered me one.  When I declined, he asked if he'd see me Friday.  So, if this had happened in the US, how much help would we have received?  I realize there is an economic motivation here, but even knowing that I felt very fortunate to have so many willing to help us out for just a few dollars.

And what about those Kansas City Royals!  First time in 29 years that they've made the playoffs and had quite a run the first eight games.  First game of the world series was a major hiccup for them (and unfortunately we were watching the game with a bunch of Giant fans), but they came back strong for the second game.  Matt, the creative genius, made us shirts.  He used stencils he'd cut for his globo and then spray painted them.  We're afraid to wash them as we don't know how the paint will handle a wash cycle, but they look great.

Matt's birthday present

Matt's birthday is Friday....happy 55th!  This is what he wanted and we found it at a pawn shop in Chapala.  So now he has a new project - he's already learned his first song!

Mexican Independence Day

September 16th is Mexican Independence Day.  To be completely honest, I was a bit apprehensive.  Fireworks seem to go off throughout the year and all night long, so I expected lots of boomers and some very scared dogs.  But the fireworks were minimal.

The festivities started on Saturday, September 12th with the Globo Regatta.  I've got to to say that was one of the most fun times I've had in Mexico.  A globo is a hot air balloom made from tissue paper.  They range in size from as little as two feet high to huge ones maybe 12 feet tall.  And some are very elaborate.  Some are made by individuals, but most seem to be made by teams.  From the beautiful designs we saw, I can only imagine how many hours went into building them.  Each globo has a cage underneath that holds a kerosene soaked rag.  Once the rag is lit, it (hopefully) generates enough hot air to fill the globo and powers it for flight.  If there are any design flaws, the globo burns up instead of taking off.  Matt and his friend Vern made a globo together and then they each did their own separately.  I guess there is something to be said for team work, because the globo they collaborated on launched perfectly, while the two individual ones didn't fare as well.  Matt's burned off during take off and Vern's probably only made it about 10 or 12 feet into the air before burning up.

The soccer field in Ajijic is crammed with people watching these globos.  When a globo burns up, it often showers down burning tissue paper and the kerosene rag.  Some people rush away from it; others (including the kids) rush TO is so they can stomp out the fire.  No one ever said this was totally safe, but was lots of fun.  Check out the video in my previous post.  I snagged it from Youtube but couldn't figure out how to imbed it in this blog post.  This really captures the excitement of a bad launch!

Here's a pretty one!

This one was a team effrt - check out the guy smoking while trying to launch a tissue paper balloon

Part of Our Team

Like this pick of Ceci, Vickie and Anna

Matt preparing to launch his KC sports masterpiece

The broom girls have an important job...to help keep the balloon upright.  But sometimes we caught them goofing off

Here it goes!

Oh, there it went!

Fire crew rushes to stomp out our fire!

Junior fire crew help as well

This one is really pretty!

But didn't fly too well!

 But didn't fly too well...check out the YouTube video below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=e6dInJXMcGE

This one was pretty, and it flew!

Vern's globo

Kids had so much fun with their foam fights!

Matt's new friend....and he tried to swap his taco!

Anna checking him out!

I think she got his phone #!

We've also been busy this month preparing for the Barkeritaville fundraiser for the Ranch.  The menu was brauts, german potato salad, home made pickles and of course lots of margaritas.  My job  was to cook the bacon....about 30 pounds of bacon!  Was a long day, but lots of fun as I worked with Diane and Vivien and the other potato peelers.  The day of the fiesta was beautiful.  Matt manned a grill cooking brauts and I dished up plates.  We had a great turn out, about 125 people, and made enough money to help keep our dogs fed and cared for.

Kevin and Bob were the other two grillers!

Good pic of Paul and Ceci

We had great support from our Chapala friends!  Here's Vickie, JC, Ron & Jan

Christa & Jack

Making important decisions!  Do we have enough Margaritas!

Gudrun recovered from making 120 pounds of her famous potato salad and looks great!

We had our youngest, and cutest, volunteer Isabella selling 50/50 raffle tickets

I got to take a break long enough to dance with Paul

After party...hanging with Nacho

Me, Nacho, Dryden & Paula

So after this busy month, I'm heading to the US on the 23rd.  Going to spend some time with Ryan and Brandee and then head to South Carolina to visit Mike and Karen for a few days.  Matt is on dog duty here...hope that goes well for all four of them!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=e6dInJXM