Mc Donald's..............it's ironic.

The rumor evidently is true, McDonald's is coming to San Miguel in the new center where the new movie theatre is and The Original Italian Coffee Company just opened.
It's ironic because in all the years that I lived in Houston and spent time with the grandchildren, I would not take them to McDonald's! It finally got to the point that they wouldn't even ask and knew that I would cook something at home for them or we would go someplace else.
My granddaughter Jessica is going to think this is so funny and if she comes to visit this summer I'll probably take her to McDonald's just for the fun of it! What the heck..............come to think of it, those McDonald's fries would taste pretty darn good right now. When you live outside the USA you do get a craving for things that you NEVER thought about when you lived there. It's ridiculous. When the new grocery store opened, the BIG excitement in town was the fact that they had russet potatoes in the produce department. I kid you not. A real baked potato. Now I don't have to smuggle them in from Texas (I didn't say that did I?)
Oh gosh, that could be another subject - "what we bring back from the USA" You would be giggling I know to see that list.......maybe another time!

Another Season...........of my life!

I think I'm entering the "retired" season of my life. Yes, I know I've been here for five years and start my sixth year in a couple of weeks, but I held on to the fact that I might have to go back to work or might want to go back to work designing hotels or restaurants or some "perfect" project. Well, I think that is over! I did NOT renew my design license this year which means I can't draw and stamp interior and architectural plans and that I cannot represent myself as an interior designer in the state of Texas and/or most other states. A BIG step. Today I threw out all the original forms we used in the business for implementation such as purchase ordrs, finish schedule forms, etc.etc.etc. So, that's it! I'm now officially retired, at least from the design world, I guess. Weird feeling. It WAS my life and identity for 20 years and so now I'll need to find another creative outlet, maybe.

An 80th Birthday Party!

Last evening I went to the birthday of Ward who is turning 80! His whole family was there from all over the USA - children, grandchildren and I'm not sure but maybe a great-grandchild also! My connection to Ward and his wife Margaret is the fact that they were avid sailors and lived in Guatemala for many, many years. The evening was delightful. In the group was, "Old" Joe who always has a twinkle in his eye and worked out at the gym three days a week up until last year and can walk faster then anyone I have ever known. "Old" Joe is 85, I think. Joe is from New Orleans. Then there is Norman who we have nicknamed "El Diablo" or the Devil because he is always trying to stir up trouble such as wanting to go someplace different for lunch then the rest of the group or "major" things like that. He too always has a twinkle in his eyes and has lived all over the world, literally. He has taken Spanish classes in more countries then could be named but only speaks with a New York accent. Oh Norman is 81, I think, he is a delight. To top it off there was Ollie who was as "sharp as a tack" and plays golf three days a week. If someone had asked me how old he was, from a glance, I would have said early 70's............he's 91! He was the Director of Engineering for American Motors and was the inventor of air-conditioning for cars!!! All of these men are so self-effacing and don't want praise or to be singled out - they are truly "The Greatest Generation". I feel privileged to have them as an example of how life can be lived to the fullest no matter what your age happens to be. I sat quietly and listened to them tell incredible stories about the automobile industry and why it was in Detroit and why it is floundering. It was quite interesting. Thanks Guys!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMMA!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMMA! Grammy loves all the pictures that I have of you from when you were a little baby until now when you are such a little lady at 7! You are such a breath of sunshine and you bring so much joy to everyone at home, in school and to all of your friends too.

Emma Elizabeth lives in Texas and is such a sweet, kind little girl. She and her sister Hannah, who is now 10, are inseparable and have so much fun together. Emma told me on the phone on Sunday that she is going to have a "Hollywood party" for her birthday on Saturday. And when I asked what that was, she said that everyone who is coming to the party dresses up and walks down a red carpet! How fun that will be. I know her mom, Julie, (and my wonderful daughter) will have planned a fun time for everyone.

Once when I was talking to Emma she told me that "my" TV show was going to be on on Sunday night. She was probably 4 at the time. And I asked her what it was and she said "The Grammy Awards". It makes me chuckle every time I think of it. "Grammy" is the most beautiful name I have ever had.

MM Cinemas

In the past, we have driven to Queretaro which is 45 miles away, to go to the movies! No more. We now have an 8 screen movie theatre that is as though you're sitting in the USA! It has a food bar where you can get paninis, capuchinos, etc. I was like a "country kid come to town" the other night when I went to see a movie.
The new mall is very, very beautifully designed also. Since our weather is good 11 months of the year, it is not an enclosed mall but a courtyard effect. The choice of finishes and materials are very well done. It could be in northern California or something with the choice of materials.
Although the ex-pats have the feeling that every new thing is built because of them, the night that I went 99% of the people were locals and only a few ex-pats. Charlotte's Web was playing and it was fun to sit on a bench in the courtyard and watch the excited children holding their parents' hands skipping into the movie theatre. Heartwarming.
So now, bring on the movies! I didn't realize how much I missed afternoon movies but now I can go for $2 US! Yee ha.

Reading

I was supposed to go somewhere today but decided to "clear the deck" and leave some time to sit up on the roof terrace in the warm sunshine and READ. While at the beach in January I was lucky enough to take time to read 14 books in 21 days! I LOVE to read - always have. It used to drive my mother crazy because the world could have ended when I was reading and I didn't care. Reading transports me to wherever or whatever the situation might be.
Favorite authors? Hmmm, I would answer whoever I'm reading at the moment but my all time favorites have to be Ken Follett (his early writings), Ludlum, Hemingway, Sontag, Molly Ivins etc. etc.etc. There is a Spanish author who wrote a fabulous book a couple of years ago but I can't remember his name but the book was enchanting and the author of "The Girl with the Pearl Earring" wrote so descriptively that I was thrilled.
When I go to the states I go to the Salvation Army and/or Goodwill and buy bags of books to bring back to read. They are usually 25 or 50 cents. I buy authors I've never heard of and often am thrilled to discover someone I didn't know before...........and I also love to pass books on.
My children and grandchildren are avid readers also. I have always loved to read to them and it tickles my heart to see my children reading to their children. It's a great gift.
One of my most favorite books? The Pillars of the Earth by Follett. A dear friend gave me a new copy recently since I had given mine away. Aaah, it's time to reread it - today?

Buying Gas in Mexico

When I first started driving in Mexico (almost 20 years ago), there were very few Pemex stations. Pemex is the national gasoline comopany of Mexico. The distance between stations could be hours. Now there are so many stations that you hardly have to give it a thought. I always try to keep 1/2 tank of gas however just to be on the safe side.

From time to time, there is NOT a Pemex station. On my trip to the beach recently, it happened that I was ON empty and leaving Tenacatita. A "No fumar" sign (no smoking) alerts one to gasoline. In the USA, you don't hardly even see a person anymore much less a family using a funnel to put the gas in and then the "resident dog", Luis watching the whole operation! It was an interesting operation.......Note that Luis the dog's name is painted upside down..........why? Who knows?

Blogs

If you are interested in reading some really great blogs about Mexico and living in Mexico, my friend Billie has a wonderful blog. It is www.billiemercer.blogspot.com and another blog with lots of blogs from all over Mexico is www.rollybrook.com and scroll down the page to blogs and all of the blogs will come up. When I learn how to add these links to my page I will do so. I'm taking baby steps in learning how to do all these things and I must say that the instructions for using the blog are about as easy to understand as a US government document! Or maybe it's just the lack of intelligence of the reader, ha!

More about the "beach"

I saw only a couple sunrises (which is the top photo) but I think I saw the sunset every night over the Pacific Ocean. No two were alike. They were so beautiful. Several times we drove to Barre de Navidad to the "Sunset Bar" to drink pina coladas and watch the sunset from there. That's where this picture was taken. Barre is a small resort town, more "upscale" then Melaque (there streets are paved) and the Grand Bay Hotel is there. The Grand Bay is operated by the Wyndham Hotel Group - rooms start at over $400 US and go up to around $3200 US per day. Needless to say, I didn't stay there. The marina was full of fabulous yachts and sailboats. One night, while out with friends, we met a group of men who were staying aboard their yacht and "golfing down the coast" from Puerto Vallarta to Acapulco and all stops inbetween. They were from Vancouver. My girlfriend, Elvira from Uruguay and I were impressed. The guys in our group were impressed with eight young women from Sweden and Denmark who were drop dead beautiful and were in Barre to film a reality TV show that will be shown in Europe. The guys were agog and couldn't take their eyes off these beauties! Sorry I don't have any photos of the girls........so enjoy the sunrise and sunset!

The "Beach"

Along about mid-November in San Miguel, the talk turns to "What beach are you going to in.....

December-January, January or........."soon"! Some of the areas people "escape" to during the cold weather are, Ixtapa-Zihuatenaeo, Puerto Vallarta and surrounding areas, or Melaque which is 30 minutes north of Manzanillo. I started in August looking for a place for January because I HATE cold weather and I knew I wasn't going to Texas this year for Christmas. After finding a wonderful house on the beach with a pool, I asked some of my nearest and dearest friends to join me in the rental and the plan was to be there for the entire month of January and hopefully "escape" the cold weather.

Melaque is a 7 1/2 hour drive from San Miguel (the way I drive) and is on toll roads almost all the way so it is not a bad drive. If you take the bus it is about 11 or 12 hours. I like to drive! It was wonderful there - warm, sunny, great seafood (lobster, 2 lbs, cooked for around $20 US) and beautiful vistas. Above is the picture from my bedroom looking out through the palms to the Pacific Ocean. In another blog I'll send the pictures of sunrises and sunsets!

The second photo, which for some reason didn't print at its right size, is of a woman who walked down the beach each evening selling fruit drinks in cocoanuts. It was a lovely sight.

I love a beach about 30 minutes north of Melaque called Tenacatita. It is in a beautiful bay and the water is calming and not big waves or undertow to knock you down...........While sitting under a palapa for a day, sipping drinks and eating seafood, a vendor came along loaded down with serapes, dresses, pareos (scarves you wrap around like sarongs) and various other things. There were probably 25 or so people on the beach that day. He was so clever, he set down his merchandise and started opening one by one what he had to sell. He would turn left and right so that everyone could see. The whole process took close to an hour but he did sell quite a bit! I thought it was wonderful to watch. I certainly admired his salesmanship. It's the little things in Mexico that "light your life"

The "Attack" of the Ants

I have been having an ongoing "episode" with ants for about six months. But, they were in the calle and building mounds that reminded me of the photos my son took of the ant mounds in Australia. These mounds up against the house on the street are about 12 inches high now and I haven't known WHAT to do about them. I figured they would move on......wrong.
Well, I'm springing into action now! On "Sunday I went to Candelaria and bought ten rose bushes and planted them. Later that day I noticed ants carrying green things through the garden and I was amazed at the size of the green "thing" they were carrying. Then I saw one with something yellow. Well, yesterday I discovered that in less then 24 hours they had stripped the roses of ALL of their leaves and some of thier buds! I'm astonished. I have never in the many, many years of my gardening had this experience. So today I drove to Home Depot in Celaya (45 minutes away) and bought some "Ant Begone"............that's the name of it. I have now dusted around the roses and tomorrow with rubber gloves and boots on I'll attack the mounds on the street. There are so many things I do here in Mexico that make me smile because I don't think my friends in the USA would believe my "primitive" living and I always feel like I've truly accomplished something.................

A Perfect Day

Aaaah, today has been a perfect day! A warm, sunshiny day! I bought plants at Candelaria and worked in the garden pruning and planting and generally cleaning up the various gardens and the roof terrace. And, I did it in sandals so my toes have been in the sunshine. Being a Southern woman, I hate shoes! I love when I can be barefooted or in sandals............so it has been a perfect day!
Gardening to me is the most delicious, restorative hobby. It is meditative and also gives me a sense of accomplishment at the moment and for weeks afterwards as the flowers bloom and bloom and bloom.
Being able to have the windows and doors open today has been a delight after all of our rain and cold. The birds have been chirping and the hummingbirds have been racing around in the garden looking for something with nectar. The tabby "feral" cat that loves to nap on the chaise in the garden outside my bedroom window wall is all curled up out there as I write this post. Aaah, a day of perfection!

Doing "nothing" is doing "something"!

Twice yesterday I met people from other places - a couple from Chicago and one from Aspen. Both asked the age old question that I get ALLLLL the time, "So what is your day like?" "What do you do?" My usual retort is "Well what do you do in a day in Chicago......Aspen?" They typically look at me blankly and then I say, "As little as I can get away with!" The discussion continues..............."Do you get bored?" they ask. "No" "Are you lonely?" "No" What kind of questions are these? Do people in the USA ask other people in the USA these questions? I never had anyone ask me that in Houston. And so it continues..........and I end up saying "Doing nothing is doing something - like reflection, watching the butterflies, the hummingbirds, the children or the beautiful sunsets". I don't know if they get it. But sometimes I see a lightbulb go off in their eyes and I know those are the ones who will return to San Miguel.

Batopilas

Batopilas, once we arrived, was a very very small town. The town makes it's money now on eco-tourism, I suppose. The hardy souls who make it down into the canyon (yes, I am now a hardy soul) are hikers and campers and backpackers (no, I'm not one of those)! The streams were crystal clear and you can see in the photo the size of the boulders. They were three or four stories high. Amazing. Batopoilas in the late 1800's was an extremely wealthy town of 10,000 or so, who lived there to mine silver. The man who had the "contract" for the mining of the silver paid $600,000 US dollars for that contract in the 1860's. He was the former mayor of Washington DC!! He lived with his wife and children in a hacienda that he built in Batopilas and the town was the second electrified town in Mexico...........Mexico City being the first. I find that so amazing. The weather was lovely and mild when we were down in the canyon so I can imagine in the summer how hot it must be.

The highlight of the trip for me was when we headed from Batopilas to a village beyond on a goat path in a truck (I must be crazy) to see a church. On the way, we saw this old man in the photo walking. We stopped and picked him up and he rode in the back of the pickup to that village. Here is his story. He thinks he is about 85 years old. He thinks he has about 125 children, grandchildren, great and great-great grandchildren combined. He was walking to the village to see all of the above...........He thought it would take him about 9 hours to get there!!!! We got him there in about 45 minutes. When we finally arrived at his family's house, I asked if I could take his photograph and he said he as very old and very ugly. I said to him no, that he was very handsome and I would be honored. He broke into a smile and I took this photo. I treasure it. We never asked his name, it didn't matter. The experience was a "once in a lifetime".

Copper Canyon - Batopilas

The photo of the road is exactly as it was, as far as the picture can show. The drive was 6 hours to go 90 miles! No, that is not a misprint.........it was 6 hours to go 90 miles. I understand there is a road in Columbia called "the road of death" and I can assure you that this one should be called the same..........If the road isn't narrow enough, it is QUITE an event when two vehicles meet going different directions. I had to just close my eyes! Hopefully when I post the picture of the bus passing the truck in a rather wide place in the road, it will post here. (Well, it posted above the photo of the road. ) And the photo above that is a Tarahumara man walking along the road going somewhere. But to be honest, we only saw one place where people lived and that was two buildings and an outhouse (muy importante) 5 hours into this trip. The Tarahumaras are known for their long running and walking ability...........The men all still wear the original types of footwear, huaraches, that I used to see in the 60's and 70's. They are made from truck tires and leather straps! This trip was definitely a step back in time to a beautifully pristine area.

Copper Canyon (continued)

The photo in the first post about Copper Canyon was taken from the patio of the hotel in Divisadero. We did not "do" the typical trip of taking the train but rather drove from Divisadero to Creel and then down into the canyon to Batopilas. Outside of the hotel in Divisadero were Tarahumara women weaving the most beautiful baskets. I've collected Native American baskets and indigenous baskets for 30 years and these were so exquisite. I wish I had bought more! The main reason I wanted to go to Copper Canyon was to see the Tarahumaras. They are still a nomadic indigenous group to some extent and live in the valley in the winter and up the rim in the summer. Many still live in caves. They are amazing people and still dress indigenously. It is not unusual in Mexico to see the women still dressing indigenously but very rare to see the men in their native dress. I was rewarded to see many Tarahumaras. Here is a photo of a woman weaving a basket. In addition, they sell many things made from wood because it is a heavily wooded area. Hence they sell maskes and the violin seen in the photo among other things.

When we traveled to Creel, it was very very cold. We were all bundled up walking the streets of the town. It was like a frontier town and was going to be our "jumping off point" - little did I know how right that was - to driving down into the canyon to Batopilas. Remember, I mentioned how cold it was in Creel? Well the children selling things on the street wore only light weight shirts and I met the little boy in the photo. He is shown next to the "candy cart" that was coming down the street. I offered to buy him something and he chose nuts. When I handed the nuts to him his little hands were ice cold. The poverty and homelessness of the children of Creel has haunted me. I'm working on a project to send "Coats to Creel" for the children.

My next post will be about the journey down into the canyon since I can't tell where the photos are going to show up when I try to post them!

Copper Canyon

I was privledged this past yer to drive to Copper Canyon. It was quite a long drive (20 hours) from San Miguel de Allende to Divisadero. On the way up, we overnighted in Ciudad Camargo and on the way back in Torreon.

Slow travel in San Miguel

These wonderful "beasts of burden" are seen on the streets of San Miguel year-round carrying either tierra (dirt) in the spring and summer or firewood in the winter. I hope we never stop seeing these creatures! One of the joys of living in Mexico!

Siestas

Oops, I don't know why that last post didn't show anything! If this one doesn't then I don't know what to do.
I was saying in the last post that I have always been a "napper". In the USA it was surreptiously. I would close my office door, put my head on my desk and sleep for 20 minutes. Well in Mexico, siestas are expected and accepted. No one calls in mid-afternoon in San Miguel. So, imagine my delight when I can snuggle under a quilt, actually lay down and get a 30 minute "siesta"! Well, sometimes more then 30 minutes, but, who is counting. I'm retired! Life is good.

The Pilgrimage

While driving back from the beach (Melaque north of Manzanillo) on the 22nd of January, I noticed many people walking on the side of the toll road in the middle of nowhere. Villages are far, far apart in many parts of Mexico but these walkers were different, many had backpacks which is not typical.
I had forgotten it is the time of year for the walk to the village of San Juan de los Lagos which is the home of the statue of the Virgin of San Juan de Los Lagos. She is the second most venerated religion symbol in Mexico. Several MILLION worshippers walk from all over Mexico on this pilgrimage!
Once I saw the pilgrims until I arrived in San Miguel took driving 3 hours at 65 mph........so you figure out how long it would take to walk! Many thousands of Mexicans make this pilgrimage every year taking time off from work (mostly without pay) to pay homage to this Virgin.
I am always awed by their fervor and the fact that the people of Mexico LIVE their religion, and not just on Sunday!