RoseMary & Larry

It has been a long time since I entered a post. RoseMary and Larry left this morning; we have had a busy time. Mostly, we wanted to show them the sights and places around here that we show everyone--Chapala, Jocotepec, San Juan Cosala, etc. In fact, on Wednesday, Oct. 15th, we took them to San Juan Cosalá and then to Rueben’s Grill for their 42nd wedding anniversary. It seems that they had a good time. They are planning to go on a big tour to Hawaii, with a cruise back to Vancouver next year; because to that, they say it will be two years before they come back, but really do want to come back. They are even talking about renting a place and staying 2 or 3 months!

On Sunday, October 12th, just after their arrival, I had gotten tickets for all of us to Ballet Tango. I think that they are Mexican dancers, but were doing a whole range of tango dances from early 20th C to very modern. The dancers were very good. The dance troupe is going to give another concert late in November although I’m not sure whether it will be only tango again. We’ll certainly try to go to that as well. They performed at the Auditorio, which is just a few blocks from us; I hadn’t realized the location, even though we have passed in innumerable times, because the sign is partially faded. Then, on the 13th, we went to the Canadian Club’s Thanksgiving Day dinner at the Nuevo Pasada Hotel. It was a very traditional and delicious dinner--turkey with stuffing, cranberries, and sweet potato. The dessert was pumkin pie.

Another piece of exciting news is that we now have our FM3s--the permanent tourist visa; they are about the size and shape of passports. Early in September when we had enough money, we had gone to a small company in Chapala that does all the paperwork. It is a rigamarole because documents have to be translated into Spanish. We finally got a call in the afternoon to go the next morning to Chapala by 8 a.m (not much warning). There was a young man who drove us (another couple, plus a Canadian, 5 altogether at the same time) to Guadalajara. It went like clockwork. The fellow had all the documents and took each of us in turn to the window to sign the final papers and affix our thumb prints. We were back in Chapala in 3 hours. Somehow, we had gotten the idea that it would cost about 3,000 dollars for the two of us. However, it came out to just under 8000 pesos (800 dollars). We were getting a bit worried because Barb’s FMT (the 6 months visa) would have ended in the first week of November.

On Friday, we all went in to Tlaquepaque (I just discovered that officially it too has a saint’s name tacked on the front--San Pedro, although it seems that hardly anyone uses it); we wanted RoseMary and Larry to see urban Mexico after seeing the older, not much changed towns of the Lake Chapala area. While there, we ate at another great restaurant; we seem to end up at a different one each time we go! When we were there a couple of weeks ago with Dawn and Gordon, Barbara saw a water fountain that she has been yearning for ever since. She headed there and insisted that I go in to look at it again. There was no holding her back this time, and we bought it. The woman in the store said that they could deliver it on Saturday, which they did. It was soon set up (it’s made of fiberglas, but made to look older and weathered) and working. It is against the back wall. in a spot where there was little of the Virginia creeper vine. However, it is not centered as Barb would like and I expect that it won’t be too long before it is moved. It is not very heavy once the water is emptied out. However, where she wants to put it, there is a large, old vine going up the wall. It would have to be cut down. However, all the Virginia creepers along the wall are looking very sick and Barb thinks that they are dying. As a result, they may have to come down anyway. In any case, she can now go out and sit in the courtyard and listen to her fountain.