Our Daily Life in Bucerias....

Pictures include two ambitious geckos doing their jobs: one in the living room

with a moth and one in the bathroom with a very big palmetto bug.

The bottom picture shows the fruit growing on our lychee tree in the patio.

Friends and family have asked us what our life is like here, i.e., "what do you do all day?" As our friend Patricia says, "I don't know, but it takes all day to do it!" Actually, we do stay pretty busy.

So, I'll give you a rundown on the last 24 hours: yesterday afternoon, Jerry worked on the addition to the bedroom and I worked on a picture I am drawing of the terra cotta warriors. In the evening, we met our friend Harold (his wife Sue is visiting Patzcuaro and Guanajuato with another friend) at a little restaurant we call "Tacos under the Trees". The real name is Tacoz Itzel, and it is really just a few plastic tables in someone's backyard. Chickens, dogs and half-naked children run underfoot. There are tarps strung from the trees overhead to protect us from the sun and the rain. The food is delicious - muy rico. Big fat enchiladas and burritos and tacos filled with carne asada (grilled beef cut into bits), puerca (seasoned pork) or pollo (chicken). Wonderful salsas come with your meal - avocado, ranchero (hot) or verde (green tomatillos and chiles). They also have tasty agua frescas, juice drinks. Sometimes pineapple, sometimes horchata ( a rice drink with spices), and last night they had jamaica, which is an iced tea brewed from hibiscus flowers. It is deep red and tastes like cranberry juice. We all had huge enchiladas and drinks, and the bill came to $120 pesos - less than $4 a piece. Yummy.

We came home and had coffee with Harold on the patio. Jerry spent some time on the computer and I did a little painting before we went to bed. This morning - a repeat of the coffee on the patio as we enjoyed the coolest part of the day...it is getter hotter each day and is 93F right now as I write this. Then we went to a meeting of the Amigos de Bucerias, a nonprofit organization of Mexican and foreign community members that works to make our town a good place. The Amigos have distributed trash cans all over town, and have also started a very successful recycling program that Jerry volunteers for every Thursday. I am the secretary of this little group, so I was there to take minutes. If you want to know more about the group, go to Amigosdebucerias.org. There is a good newsletter to read....

Then we paid bills - to Telmex to pay the phone bill ($640 pesos - about $60 for phone and DSL) and to CFE to pay the electric bill ($604 pesos for three months' service). You don't mail your bills here - just pay them in person, in cash. We came home and I made a chicken pasta salad for our dinner tonight and put it in the refrigerator to cool. Then we had some lunch: toasted bagels with ham and cheese, delicious watermelon and limonada (limeade). Now, it is time for a little siesta.....Jerry is already snoozing away behind me.

Our life is calm, peaceful, productive and good. We have made some fine friends and feel very lucky. We are beginning to feel like a part of our community. The only thing missing is YOU - whoever you are, reading this. Come and visit!!! We miss you!!!