Fund raisers and fiestas

Last Sunday was a big day at Love In Action; they had a garden party as a fund raiser.They got a very good response as we heard that they sold over 400 tickets at 250 pesos each. There were several singers and performers. The little ones sang a song with Anabel, the director, (photo 1) and some of the older girls had practiced a hula dance (photo 2; photo 3 has some kids from the babies house). It was a beautiful day and gave a lot of people a chance to see the facilities.

After the garden party, we stopped at a reception put on by Viva la Música! This group does 5 concerts in the summer, but also organizes bus trips. Some trips are to Guadalajara for concerts, including 5 broadcasts of the Metropolitan Opera. This was the group that organized the trip to Morelia that we took last fall. This reception was to give members a chance to renew. Members get discounts on tickets so that it doesn’t cost anything to be members if one is going to the concerts anyway. They gave out tickets for a draw; the prize was 2 tickets to the Northern Lights Festival starting on March 5th. Lo and behold, I won! For entertainment at the reception (it was held at the Anglican church in Riberas), Chris Wilshire, who is the organizer of Northern Lights, had 4 of his students who are preparing for a violin competition play for us. Chris is a Canadian who married to a Mexican and now lives in Guadalajara. Recently, he was presented with a Governor-General’s award recognizing his contributions to cultural relations between Canada and Mexico. Most of the musicians who come to perform in the Northern Lights (over 20 of them each year) are Canadians. They get no pay, except air fares and room and board here. There are 6 concerts over 2 weekends. I shall be away for the first weekend March 5 - 7, but will be going to 2 concerts the second weekend. The 3rd concert is jazz and not my cup of tea; however, lots of other people do like jazz so I don’t think that they will miss me. Last year there was only one jazz concert, but there was so much demand that they are doing 2 this year.

The mid-term exams from my class arrived very quickly. It took just over 27 hours from the time they were picked up at St. Mary’s until they were delivered to our door. I got them graded over the next 2.5 days. There may be 2 more late ones to come, but they should be out of the way before I go to Windsor to see Rosemary. I have reservations for March 4; I intend to return March 9th. I expect that I shall be making more than one trip.

The weather has been returning to more normal and temperatures have been going up, although most still are several degrees below those of last year.

There are a host of charitable organizations down here and they arrange most of their fund raisers at this time of year when the snowbirds are here. Quite a few ex-pats are actively involved and a great many seem to be good about supporting these fundraisers. Besides, they are entertaining. Today and tomorrow, there is a big fiesta called the Chilli Cookoff, just up from us on the highway. It raises money for 7 charities; they said that last year they were able to give each of the charities 35,000 pesos. There are singers, dancers and other performers. Today a number of amateur groups were in competition with their chilli recepies; tomorrow, a number of chefs in local restaurants will be presenting their chillies. We took our 3 niñas there this afternoon. For us, it was easier than sometimes and the girls seemed sufficiently interested and entertained.

Tomorrow, we are going to another fund raiser, this time for a charity called, Los Niños de Chapala y Ajijic. They provide small subsidies for children of poor families to go to school. Our friend Kate is on the board so that we learn a lot about it from her. The families have to pay half of the expenses and be supportive; the kids have to maintain high grades to stay in the program; there are about 200 kids in the program currently.

El Barco in Jocotepec

It is quite a while since my last post. The weather is still surprising us. After a number of days of sun and warming temperatures, this past week we had more than half an inch of rain over 2 days. There has now been 170 mm. (6.7 inches) since Jan. 1. However, while being unusual, such ‘winter rain’ is not unheard of. Our Spanish teacher, Joel, says that there have been about 4 times in the last 15 years for such events. I have been noticing the comparison of temperatures, this year and last. Last year at this time, highs were 25 - 27º C (78 - 80º F). This year we are getting 23º C or less. On cloudy days, only 19 - 20º C. Still compared to eastern Canada and US, we are still lucky.

We had Matthew and Angie with us for 5 nights; they then went in to Tlaquepaque for 2 nights. We had new things to show them since they were here just a month after we arrived. We took them to Love in Action (see Matt with a couple of kids at LIA) and spent Sunday afternoon with the 3 niñas on the malecón in Chapala. The latter has been greatly improved since they were here before. On Monday, they explored Ajijic a bit and we went to a new restaurant on the lake front. On Tuesday, we went to Jocotopec and then to the hot springs spa in San Juan Cosalá to swim. That night we went to the Chac-lan restaurant up on the mountain at the other spa. There was a beautiful sunset to complete the view (in the background behind Matt and Angie at the rail). On Thursday, we dropped their luggage at the hotel in Tlaquepaque and then drove to El Centro Guadalajara; Barb & I had been there last year on a bus tour, but this was the first time we had dared to drive there. However, with Matthew reading the maps and navigating, we made it there and back without any wrong turns. We wandered around the sights there, including the cathedral, governor’s house and the giant Mercado Libertad (Liberty Market). There are hundreds of small stalls and stores over 3 floors. Near the end of the afternoon, there was light rain and drizzle. However, it was a very successful day.

The work is almost finished. The photo below shows the new patio outside the guest bedroom which was finished in time for Matt and Angie. The addition to the bodega adds at least 4 or 5 times as much space as the old part; the center of the driveway is now paved with flagstones. In addition, we got José Luis to install a voltage regulator for the house. We discovered that the little transformer for our water purifier had been ‘fried’. Voltages in Mexico vary dramatically; rather than the standard 120v in the north, it usually runs from 127 to 137v here. In fact when José tested ours, it was 143v! Most appliances made in or for Mexico are built with higher tolerances, but the variation is too much even for them.

Today, we again had the ninas (only the twins, not Fatima) but a young woman named Maribel asked if she could come and we agreed. We decided to go to Jocotepec. Once we got there, we found that the little cruise boat was going out for a 3/4 hour cruise. This boat (they call it a ‘barco’ although that usually refers to a large ship) is less than 2 years old. It is kind of like a railway dining car sitting on pontoons (we forgot to take the camera so no photos). In fact in the evenings, they do dinner cruises. We have been intending to do one, but never got around to it. Barb is insisting that we should do a dinner cruise for her birthday coming up in March.

On a more solemn note, a couple of weeks ago, my sister, Rosemary, in Windsor, Ontario had quite a severe stroke. My class just wrote the mid-term exam and I have had to wait until the exams come for marking next week. I now have reservations to go to Windsor on March 4 for 5 days. Larry & Rosemary’s lives have been turned upside down. I hope that I can help a bit.

Mucha lluvia (lots of rain)

I do have to talk about the weather as it has been extraordinary. My last post was just the beginning as it has been literally raining ever since. I’m beginning to wonder if we have a shot at the record (40 days and 40 nights). On Monday I discovered that there is someone just a couple of miles away in Riberas who has a detailed weather site (http://chapalaweather.net/ ) with all kinds of information. On the site he says that in January 2009, there was no measurable rain and February about 4 mm. (.13 in). From Jan. - May, 2008, there was about 9 mm (.33 in) and in 2009 for the same period, there was 31 mm (1.21 in). The average for this 5 months is 52 mm. (2.1 in) and I expect most of that came in May as there are usually a couple of early rains in May. So far in 2010 (and it is still raining at 7 p.m.), the total is 110 mm. (4.3 in). Without the sun (except for a brief period on Monday), the temperatures outside have been about 13 - 14º C. The indoor temps have been about 17 -18º C. That is not too bad (allthough it is damp and one feels it more than when dry); we have had to put on sweaters and other warm clothes from up north, rather than my usual shorts and sandals! I am not complaining too much as we have been hearing about the dreadful weather that has been unleashed on most of the rest of the continent to the north (remember that Mexico is part of North America). The forecast is possible rain tomorrow, but sunny after that.

During the early morning hours today, the power went out. When we went to the tianguis (the outdoor market) at about noon, it still hadn’t come on. There were only about half as many sellers in the rain and even fewer customers. However, we did replenish our fruits and veggies for the week. We had taken the car because of the rain and dropped in on Kate & Jack for a few minutes to see how they are coping. Kate’s friend of many years ago arrived from Texas on Monday; thus, she has seen nothing but rain. Nevertheless, their spirits were not too bad. When we returned home about 2, the power was on. Because we have gas cooking, we were able to cook porridge and make coffee. The biggest drawback of lack of power is that one doesn’t have power for the water pump and the toilet. Actually, it is not terrible because I can take a bucket out to the ajibe (cistern) and get water for flushing.

After being couped up all day, yesterday afternoon we decided to go to el cine (movie theatre) to see the current Sherlock Holmes movie. As usual, it was in English with Spanish sub-titles. The latter is distracting because I like to see how they translate some of the dialogue, but if I do, I tend to fall behind on what is being said. Very interesting though. Because we went before 4 p.m., the tickets were 20 pesos each (about $1.70 at current exchange rates). We don’t go very often (I missed Avatar when it was here; maybe it will come back after the Oscars). However, 2 Saturdays ago we took the 3 niñas to see Alvin and the Chipmunks movie. It was dubbed into Spanish without English subtitles; thus, we could keep up with the storyline, but didn’t get all the jokes.

Because it didn’t rain on Monday until after 5, the men did get work done then, but have not been able to do anything the last 2 days They are at the stage where they need to weld the steel beams for the roof of the bodega; as they use electric arc welding, it is hazardous to try in rain. One positive thing about the rain is that it is undoubtedly raising the level of Lake Chapala. Because of the lighter than usual rain last summer, the level has been lower this year than last.

El Niño in Lake Chapala

They say that no one talks about the weather as much as we Canadians and I’m going to keep the tradition going. We have heard that after a brief balmy period, there is now big snow storms and cold weather in Nova Scotia, although that is not unusual.

However, the weather is unusual for this area of Mexico; this, along with unusual weather patterns elsewhere (especially in Europe, is being attributed to El Niño, the cold water inversion in the Pacific off the coast of Mexico and Central America. There was unusually cool weather and a couple of rainy days in early January (this is the dry season but I see that we had rain last year in January also); however, I had thought that it was getting back to more usual weather the last week or so. Temperatures were warming up. Daytime highs were 23-25º C and early morning lows were in the 12-14º C range. Today turned out differently. After a sunny morning, it clouded over after noon and began raining in short bursts. We have now (almost 7 p.m.) received significant rain. Barb intends to turn off her irrigation system as there is enought water for the grass for a couple of days. It will undoubtedly be colder tonight,.

We did not go to Open Circle this morning. Our friends did go, but most said that we didn’t miss much as the speaker had lost her notes and was not very well organized. Sonia was the only one who said that she had enjoyed it. However, she admitted that the speaker was not very good and also that she had dropped off to sleep.

We had an upset yesterday while taking the girls back to LIA. We were driving up the main boulevard in Chapala. The pickup in front stopped and I did as well. Then, another car banged into our rear, pushing us into the pickup ahead. The young fellow driving the car that caused it all, quickly backed up and drove down a side street away. The pickup did not receive any damage; we got a new dent in the front bumper and a small hole in the rear bumper. We were not injured as it was not a huge crash and everyone was buckled in seat belts; however, the girls were upset and cried most of the way back to LIA.

Progress is continuing on the bodega. Tomorrow, Feb. 1st is a holiday in Mexico, but the men are coming to work anyway. The holiday is Constitution Day (Feb. 5), but it is being celebrated (as many holidays north of the border are) on Monday to give a long weekend. We really noticed heavy traffic and big crowds yesterday and today, probably an influx of visitors from Guadalajara; this is a favourite outing for Tapitios (the nickname for Guadalajarans) and every weekend there is an influx, sometimes rowdy young people. Holiday weekends, it is much larger.

We are awaiting the arrival of Matthew and Angie next Saturday evening.

Busy days

Things have been a bit hectic since we arrived back. First, our ahijadas (goddaughters) were very happy to see us and we them. The twins flung themselves at us and squeezed so hard around our necks that we almost lost our breaths--delightful! We had brought back ponchos for the 3 girls crocheted by Barb’s sister-in-law, Jess. Jess also made three bead strings (Darianna is holding one); they are now attached to their purses. Barb had previously got the hats, sunglasses and purses. There they are, dolled up in the second foto (the photo is a bit dark but is not too bad if you click to enlarge it). We took them down to the malecon in Ajijic and strolled along. I think that we made quite a sight and I caught a number of people smiling as we passed. Even when we got to the playground, the girls were reluctant to take off their finery to play as you can see in the third foto. We had been taking the girls frequently to a restaurant; however, we decided that for the money we were spending, we could get 3 roasted chickens plus salad and tortillas, enough to feed all the little ones in the 5 and under house (before Christmas there were 18). When we arrived back, there are now 24! Well, we are going to continue bringing food, but we have to increase the chickens to 4. A chicken with salad and tortillas only costs 80 pesos (i.e., less than Can. $7.50) at the rosteria in Chapala; the guy chops the chickens into small pieces. The kids now know what to expect and go rushing to their places at the tables as soon as we arrive.

In February 2008 when we first visited Kate & Jack here in Ajijic, we met Sonia who lived in Dartmouth. She was down here last year for some months as well. She had sold her condo in Dartmouth and moved to Ottawa. This year Barb helped her to find an apartment to rent just a few blocks from us. She immediately began hunting for a house to buy as she is going to move down here. She did agree to buy a very nice one and is to have the closing next Monday on Jan. 25th. Unfortunately, while waiting (her apartment was the only one without bars on the windows), she had a break-in, losing her computer, some jewellery and some cash. Even more, she was nervous about staying there longer. Barb invited her to stay with us until she can move into her new hourse. This week, she decided to go on a short trip to Manzanillo, which is near Puerto Vallarta on the Pacific coast. She returns tomorrow on Friday.

About a week ago, we called Jose Luis, our contractor, about the irrigation system as one of the sprayers had broken off. While here, he mentioned to Barb that his men were just finishing a job and had no others at the moment. We had 3 more jobs that we intended to do, but had been thinking about waiting until late Feb. or March. In any event we decided to go ahead and they started last Friday. They have already finished installing a small patio off the spare bedroom. Yesterday, they started working on the addition to the bodega (garden shed). When finished, the bodega will be 3 times the current size. As usual with Jose Luis, he is making it extremely solid. The final job to do is in the driveway inside the walls. There are 2 long pads of cement for the wheels with grass in the middle. It is fine now, but during the hot dry season, we often go for days without moving the car and the grass under dies. The men are going to replace the grass in the middle with cement and flagstones. We are also having him install an electric light in the big star that Barb got for over the table in the gazebo. She had intended to put a candle in but the little door was too small for a big candle; in any case, a candle is lost in the big star. We'll provide fotos in a future blog when everything is finished.

Return from Nova Scotia

January 7

We are finally home from Nova Scotia. We left on Dec 15th. Our return yesterday was a long day. We got up at 4 a.m. and Wendy drove us to the airport. The new security measures for flights to the US really are slow. No carry-on luggage except camera or computer cases or a purse. However, Barb had quite a few of her medicines of which they examined everyone; our computer bag had a number of pockets, each of which had to be examined. Then, there was the all over pat down. Fortunately, ours was only the second flight to leave Halifax so the line was not too long. US Immigration was more picky than it used to be as well. Until we got to Guadalajara, the rest of the trip went like clockwork as the weather was good in all areas. However, now Mexican Customs requires that everything passengers from foreign flights have (checked as well as carry on) be x-rayed. However, they have not got that operating very efficiently. There was a very long line and we ended up at the end. Then to cap it off, Barb got a red light which meant that our luggage had to go through an intensive hand search. Fortunately, the Mexicans doing the search were friendly rather than threatening.

There was another little incident while we were waiting in liine. A sniffer dog, named Filepe, stopped at Barb’s large suitcase and the handler asked if we had any food in the case. Barb, without thinking about all the possibilities, answered in the negative. The handler insisted that the dog had detected food. I then reminded Barb about the fact that she had purchased 14 bottles of Omega 3 fish oil (She saw a research report that said that Omega 3 is very effective in alleviating lupus). Barb had an opened bottle in her purse. She could show it to the handler who let the dog smiff it and confirmed that that was what Filepe had detected. Once he was satisfied that that was all we had, the handler became friendlier and that was that. It was an impressive demonstration of the ability of sniffer dogs; none of the bottles in the suitcase had been opened. With everything, we were well over an hour after landing before getting out to meet our friends, Kate & Jack, who had come to pick us up. They had just about given up that we were actually on the flight. It was about 10:30 p.m. (12:30 a.m. Halifax time) when we got home.

Chris and Stan, who had looked after the dogs while we were gone, were here. The dogs were very happy to see us as we were to see them. Everything went very well and Chris and Stan did an outstanding job. Today we are very tired, but it is wonderful to be back in our casa in Ajijic.

The weather here in Ajijic has been a bit unseasonable since we left in December. It has rained quite a bit (more is forecast in the next few days) and been cloudy for many days. That means that the temperatures have been low. I saw that the low in Guadalajara about 3 nights ago was just under the freezing mark. However, it doesn’t get as cold here because of the moderating effect of the lake. This morning the low was about 13 C (55 F) which isn’t too bad. However, because of not too much sun (today it was mostly overcast and the sun at best was very sickly), the house doesn’t warm up like we usually expect. The indoor temp is about 16 C. We are using some of the warmer clothing we brought down.

As we get settled again, I hope to resume regular posts to the blog.

Zamora and home

I haven’t talked about the concerts yet; there were high and low spots. The theme of the festival this year was Britain. Thus, they were highlighting British composers, especially Elgar and Benjamin Britten. Elgar isn’t too bad, but Britten is too modern for my taste. However, one concert had Beethoven’s wonderful violin concerto; the female violinist was outstanding. That concert was in an open air courtyard; it was quite chilly. I had my wool sports coat, and was warm enough. However, the Mexicans had parkas, gloves and even boots, but still were shivering! The final concert of the festival (which was held in a large, modern theater auditorium) featured 2 Mexican composers plus Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Of the former, the first was very pleasant and not discordantly
modern; however, the second piece was by a living composer (he was in the audience) and it was very modern. For the Mendelssohn, they had prepared a narration (interspersed with the music) that gave a detailed rendition of Shakespeare’s play, but entirely in Spanish. It was almost half way through by the time I realized what they were doing. After that, it was interesting for me because I know the play so well that I could follow even with my limited Spanish. Two women sang a couple of songs as well as acted out parts of the play. However, most of the ex-pats in our group couldn’t follow the Spanish and it did go on for too long. The entire concert, with several speeches by bigwigs (again all in Spanish), lasted for over 3 and a half hours.

We left Morelia at 10 a.m. on Sunday. About a third of the way back to Ajijic, we made a short detour to visit Zamora, a relatively small city. However, they are building a huge Gothic church, called the Sanctuario (see photos); it is not a cathedral because it is not the home of a bishop. They have been at it for decades and it is now nearing completion. It is claimed that it will be the 4th largest church building in Latin America. It has beautiful stained glass windows and marble floors (the second photo shows the central nave). They also recently installed a German made, multimillion dollar organ (see below). After the mass finished (there was a large crowd that almost filled this enormous church), our tour leaders had arranged for a short 30 minute concert by the organist. After the concert, we all went to an authentic Mexican restaurant. The house specialty was a shredded beef stew/soup. It was absolutely delicious; however, many of the ex-pats were chicken and ended up ordering rather bland quesadillas. After that we all got on the bus and resumed our journey home. Probably because we were all tired, it seemed to take longer than going; however, we arrived in Ajijic exactly on schedule at 6 p.m.