Arriba grows!

Work is progressing on our upstairs addition, but not always as fast as we want, of course. Everyone who builds or remodels a house in Mexico (Mexican or gringo) has similar experiences: only about half of the workforce shows up on Monday (San Lunes) and some days, the workers don't show up at all (algo paso, or "something happened", i.e. their truck broke down; there is illness in the family; a sister is getting married). The casual pace of life here is part of what attracted us to Mexico; it takes some getting used to, and you must park your sense of time urgency at the border.

When we moved in, we were getting our electricity from a spurious underground "extension cord" that ran from our neighbor around the corner, through the field next door and under the yard to our back door, where there was a breaker box with ONE 10 amp circuit. In two more days, it will have been a year since we moved in....and this week, we finally got our new electricity hooked up! Yes, it has taken that long. We had the house rewired for 220v electricity last year, but the new wiring required a new meter and new account with CFE (the federally-run power company). Getting the new account approved took weeks, but that was just the beginning. The first problem was that we were too far from the nearest connection on our street. After we hired a lawyer, they came to the house twice and measured (over several weeks' time) , and decided that it was within their guidelines after all. Then the CFE installer decided that the standard to hold our line was not strong enough. We had to rebuild it. We did. More months passed. They came and looked. Adjustments were needed; it should be taller. OK. We made it taller. Months passed again. They came back and looked. Some tree limbs would have to be cut. OK. We would cut them immediately. They said they would be back in una hora (one hour). Weeks passed, and they didn't come back. Finally, Jerry flagged down a passing CFE truck and begged them to come and hook us up. It took 35 minutes and a $200 peso propina. ($20 USD tip). Hooray! I can finally use my wonderful Ron Popeil chicken rotisserie!

Why we love Mexico #283

Our cat Puff traveled with us here to Mexico and has made the adjustment wonderfully well. Puff is a geriatric kitty, having migrated across the street from her noisy dysfunctional home to live with Jerry about 10 years ago. He estimates that she was 3-5 years old then. Because she looked just like the kitty in Fun with Dick and Jane, he renamed her Puff.

She is a bit aloof and dislikes being held, although she loves to be petted. Last year about this time, we took her to the vet in Vallarta and had her fur trimmed back because of her thick and fluffy coat and the hot and humid summer weather. She didn’t care much for the process, but she was happy with the result.

This year, we took her to one of our most cherished Bucerias resources, Dr. Wencesla Lopez, the veterinarian who practices just down the street and around the corner from us. Uncharacteristically, Puff LOVES him.

Earlier this week, we took her in about 10 in the morning. She hopped willingly into her cat carrier, anticipating a visit to Wencesla (used to take two of us to get her in, and she always drew blood.) When we arrived, she started to purr, and he was happy to see her as well. He took her to the grooming table to begin (yes, he does the grooming himself), and we knew that she was in good hands.

When we returned to pick her up a few hours later, he said, “No, she is sleeping. When she wakes up, I’ll give her a bath.” We could see her snoozing on the grooming table behind him. She lifted her head, gave us a disdainful look, and went back to sleep. We were sure that we would return to find poor Wencesla’s arms cut to ribbons. A bath? You must be kidding!

When we returned later in the day, he crooned to her as he picked her up “C’mon Baby.” She looked and smelled wonderful and there was a spring in her step that was not there earlier in the day. “She loved her bath,” he reported.

The cost for this full day at the Wencesla spa? All that personal attention, schmoozing and nurturing? $150 pesos – less than $15 US dollars.

Is there a Wencesla ANYWHERE in the US? I don’t think so. Another reason to love Mexico.

Arriba! Vista del Mar – and how I ended up cooking tacos for 8 hungry Mexicans

(1) We invited the goats in to mow the lawn for us, but they were more interested in the plumeria and the bamboo! From left, May, Noel, June and Virginia. The handsome old billy goat behind Virginia is Jerry, of course.

(2) The first columns go up for our arriba!

(3) The vista from the roof of our new addition.

(4) A beautful Bucerias sunset viewed from the roof.

We have finally begun working on our upstairs addition, and it should be completed within the next month or so. We’ll have a big bedroom (12’ X 19’), a bathroom with a BATHTUB (hooray!) and a small extra room we’ll use as a little kitchenette (so that we don’t have to go downstairs to make our morning coffee). There will also be a large patio in the front and a stairway to the NEXT level that will hold a private little terraza. From there, we can see actually see the bay, all the way from Yelapa at the south to Punta de Mita at the north. We are very excited!

Yesterday (Sunday) started out cool and quiet after a very dramatic thunderstorm the night before. Lightning crossed the sky from one horizon to the next most of the night, and we lost electricity about nine o’clock in the evening. Gets a little stuffy with no ceiling fans, but the rain cooled things off a bit and we slept fine. Got up the next morning (still no electricity) and cooked a package of our hard-to-find breakfast sausages from the freezer because they were thawing...our friends Cheto and Beto came by and promised to return in the afternoon with our friend German to mix up some cement and get the ceiling poured for the bedroom addition on the main floor. German arrived about five with his three sons and three more friends to help...only took about two hours to haul all that sand, gravel and cement (four BIG bags) to the roof, mix it on the spot and pour it. By that time (still no electricity), more meat from the freezer had thawed and we had LOTS of carne asada tacos for everyone. Almost had to cook by candlelight (thank goodness for the gas stove), but the electricity finally came back on about 7:30 pm. Another beautiful day in Paradise, made perfect by good friends and good food.

I've posted some new pictures on Flickr if you want to see more - three new paintings from a new series I am calling The Faces of Mexico. You can find them at http://www.flickr.com/photos/casabucerias/.

Finally, some pictures from my trip to China!

I've been home for two months today, and I'm finally getting some pictures from my trip to China posted. Long story...my camera chip was damaged, and so far, I have recovered some, but not all, of the hundreds of pictures I took. I wil keep trying, but I have posted about 300 pictures on our flickr site at

http://flickr.com/photos/casabucerias/sets/72157600772229111/

If you take a look, you will see LOTS of pictures of the terra cotta warriors from Xian. Aside from seeing my family, this was without doubt the high point of the journey. Two farmers outside Xian, digging for a well in 1974, had no idea they were beginning excavation of the most astonishing tomb in the world's history. There are more than 6,000 warriors (all of them different) guarding the tomb of China's first emporer. It is an astonishing sight.

And of course, there is a Wal-Mart in Xian.

Summer pleasures

Summer in the tropics - very warm and very humid. Having spent one summer here already, we know what to expect: it is hot now, but it will get hotter. Soon, we'll cut our activities back during the heat of the day and take a daily siesta. Because we have chosen not to live with air conditioning, we rely on fans to keep us comfortable. We have ceiling fans in every room, and they run 24 hours a day. We also have fans placed strategically to draw in cool air and flush out warm air. All in all, not too bad.

Even though it is very warm, there are summer pleasures to be had: mangoes are in season, sweet and delicious. Limes are also in season - only 5 pesos (50 cents) a kilo! Melons, papayas, pineapples as sweet as honey. New critters are showing up, like the lizard above, showing off for us. Look carefully at the picture and you'll see another lizard on the opposite side of the pole! And the bottom picture? Another summer refreshment - cool and creamy iced coffee, made with wonderful Compostela coffee beans in our espresso machine. Mmmmmm.

As we get ready to celebrate this Fourth of July with fried chicken, spare ribs, watermelon, carrot cake and potato salad, we are grateful to have new friends to share the day with us. Sue, Harold, Alejandro, Susan, Barry and Jeanne will be joining us...much better than last year!

Happy Independence Day to everyone!

Jerry the Goatherd!

Those of you who have visited know that we have four goats (chivos) living next door to our house among the palm trees in the vivero (nursery). Even if you haven't visited, you can probably guess that we've grown very attached to the chivos and hope daily that they will not end up in a stew pot as birria. They actually belong to a neighbor of ours named Raoul, but he has apparently figured out that we will take care of them, so we don't see much of him. Jerry makes sure they have water, and once a week, goes to the feed store to buy them alfalfa hay. They love it. You can see their reaction in the pictures above...

BTW, we have a new look - I was getting tired of the old layout, weren't you? And if you want to see what I have been up to (drawing and painting), I've posted some of my pictures on flickr, http://flickr.com/photos/casabucerias/ .

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!!!

The Rainy Season has Begun!

Jerry ties rebar for the bedroom addition!

Who ever thought, having come from the land of perpetual gray skies and rain, that we would long for precipitation? Well, we haven't had any real rain here since early October, so we are ready. Everything is dry and dusty, and we welcome the rainy season to turn our world fresh and lush and green again. I am hearing a "pitter-patter" as I write this...soon it will be a "gush". We had a mini-storm last night, with a bit of thunder and lightning - just a small taste of what is to come. Also a very short power outage...that will likely become more frequent. The temps go up, and the humidity too, so we power down into S-L-O-W M-O-T-I-O-N. Jerry is working on a small (80 sq. ft.) addition to our bedroom and our friends Cheto and Xenon have been helping him on their only day off. The walls are up; the arched door and window are roughed in and the cement slab has been poured. Geting a roof on it is an important next step...I'll keep you posted.

I finally figured it out....

I finally figured out what I was doing wrong and have successfully loaded a picture at last! Here is a picture of Amelia, Josie, Kim, me and son Jeffrey at the Yellow Crane Tower gardens in Wuhan, Jeff and Kim's home town in China....more to come.

Karen goes to China!

Last month, I had the opportunity of a lifetime: to travel to China and visit my son and his family, who live in Wuhan, Hubei Province, a huge city of almost 10 million people. China is unlike any place I have ever seen. Some of the highlights of this amazing journey:

• Seeing my son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren! I haven't seen them for nearly a year, and Amelia (10 years old) and Josie (8 years old) have changed so much. They are a lovely family, and they are having a grand adventure.
• The 2,000 year-old terra cotta warriors at Xi'an. Any traveler to China should not miss this amazing sight. My first glimpse brought tears to my eyes. There are nearly 12,000 warriors and EACH IS UNIQUE. They are guarding the tomb of the first Emporer of China, along with their horses and chariots, and were excavated serendipitously by two farmers digging a well in 1974. Xi'an itself is a beautiful city of 3.2 million people, and is the only city in China with intact city walls. There is a very picturesque Muslim market (did you know that there is a substantial Muslim population in China? I didn't.)
• The Great Wall of China. Wow. What can I say? I could hardly believe I was there. I will never forget the sensation. What a privilege.
• The city of Wuhan, with its impressive Yellow Crane Tower and East Lake Gardens.
• Riding on a sleeper train from Xi'an to Wuhan...so many people!
• The ultra-modern city of Beijing, with its towering buildings and stylishly dressed people. They are busy preparing for the 2008 Olympics. Jeff and I had Peking duck at a historic restaurant there - it was SO delicious. Which brings me to.....
• the food! I ate spectacularly tasty food everywhere I went. (I had to learn to use chopsticks very quickly, and I was powerfully motivated to do it efficiently.) We ate Mongolian hotpot, wonderful noodles, dumplings, potstickers, lots of yummy chicken, rice, unusual vegetables....sometimes, I was not sure what I was eating, but it was ALL good.

This trip has provided me with so much material for drawing and painting; I am already at work on it. There are spots of breathtaking beauty and color, in the midst of enormously crowded and busy streets. The traffic is even worse than Mexico's - I would never attempt to drive there! Despite the setbacks under Mao, the country is lively and bustling. It was a wonderful adventure and I am so grateful for the opportunity.

Almost a year!

As we near the end of our first year here in Mexico, we are naturally reflecting on all the things we have learned. Despite the fact that we thought we were well-prepared (we planned our move for almost two years!), we realize that the difference between visiting Mexico and living in Mexico are is more different than we could possibly imagine.

We have had both challenges and delights that we could not have anticipated...the Mexican bureaucracy is difficult to navigate for native Spanish speakers. For those of us with rudimentary Spanish, just getting your utilities connected can be very daunting. We chose to live in a Mexican neighborhood, away from the tourists, and find that none of our neighbors speak English and none of the storekeepers we deal with daily speak English. So learning Spanish is not only good manners, it is essential.

But one of our most pleasant surprises has been our wonderful Mexican neighbors, who have made us feel welcome here and included us in their family celebrations. And it is wonderful to live in a small town again, where you meet people you know every time you walk down the street. We have begun to feel that we are really at home here.

As we prepare to celebrate our first anniversary here, we will make a more definitive list of pluses and minuses to publish. But the conclusion we have reached is no secret. We have no regrets. We look forward to living out our years in the warmth and beauty of Mexico.

Come and visit!

One of the genuine pleasures of living here is having visitors from home and sharing with them the many pleasures of our lives here in Bucerias, Mexico. Since November, we’ve had visits from some former neighbors Peter and Nancy, my daughter Justine and her friend Megan, Justine again (for Christmas) this time with her dear husband Mark, then my best friend Jo and adopted brother Dave.

Seeing our home and our community through the eyes of a visitor is great fun, and we also have the opportunity to act as tour guides. It is difficult to determine the most important things to show our visitors – always a tour of the Malecon in Puerto Vallarta with its stunning and accessible public art, then a walk on the Isla Cuale – an island in the middle of the Rio Cuale that divides Puerto Vallarta north and south. This is a great place to shop in the public markets and have a wonderful lunch at the Bistro Jazz Café or the River Café. Sitting along the river dining on chicken and squash blossom crepes and sneaking a peek at the iguanas that live in the large trees along the river is awesome (I know the word is over-used, but it is true. )

Right now, the weather is perfect – around 82F during the day and 58F at night. THIS is why we moved to Mexico! Humidity is very low and the mosquitoes are at a minimum. Jerry is working on several house projects and I am spending my time painting and drawing for the most part. Just lovely.

I haqve posted a new set of pictures on http://flickr.com/photos/casabucerias.

First of December?

As December begins, it is hard to believe that Christmas is near. I suppose I will get used to it eventually, but I have always associated Christmas with cold, miserable weather. The weather here is absolutely perfect now, and will be for the next several months. Nice warm days, about mid-80s, and a little coolness at night, maybe 65-70. The humidity is much lower and I notice the difference in the kitchen, where the salt and sugar no longer clump together, and it is possible to keep potato chips crisp after opening them.

The stores here have been full of Christmas items since September, and I was SO disappointed to see that most of the merchandise is exactly like something we would buy in the US, and all of it is made in China. It is disorienting, when the temperature outside is 85F, to walk into a store with palm trees in the parking lot and find 8 foot plastic snowglobes with snowmen and fake white stuff swirling around inside. Do they actually sell this stuff to somebody? I guess they must....but not to me. To get something uniquely Mexican to decorate our house this year, I'll try going to the Sunday tianguis (open air market) in Bucerias.

Now that we are finished remodeling and redecorating the inside of the house, we are beinning to focus on landscaping. Jerry has been busy with outside projects - he built a small "fence" along the patio to make sure that the dogs don't root up the roses I plan to plant there this afternoon. He has been experimenting with plaster molds and concrete to make some beautiful art objects to adorn our stairway and gardens. As soon as we have some progress to show, I'll post pictures to our flickr site. This site is STILL unable to process picture uploading.

Hasta luego for now.

Thanksgiving Day, 2006

Ah, winter is here! The humidity disappeared overnight a few days ago, and the days are lovely and sunny; the nights are a bit cool (65-70F). We started a new Thanksgiving tradition and made tamales today. Jerry and I sat down at the kitchen table with home-made Chile Colorado sauce laced with moist and succulent chicken, spread the home-made masa on the corn shucks and tied them up into neat little bundles. Steamed them for two hours and they were delicious. A wonderful and new type of Thanksgiving feast for our new life together in Mexico.

Yesterday, we were honored by a brief visit from some good friends from Portland, who were on a cruise ship that made a stop in Puerto Vallarta. It was so wonderful to see Lesley and Candy. They were full of questions about our life in Mexico, and in telling them about our experiences so far, I realized how contented I am to live here. I am particularly happy to be living in this small Mexican town of Bucerias.

After they returned to Vallarta, we went for a walk on the beach and watched the sunset. Then, we stopped by The Coffee Cup, a small coffee shop that we visit often. The manager greeted us cheerfully , as did her children who often keep her company while she works. People walked by with a friendly "Buenas tardes" as we sipped our lattes in the cooling evening air. I began to understand and appreciate that we are beginning to feel at home in this small community, where the clerks at the ferreteria (no, this is not a place where you buy ferrets, it is a hardware store) greet Jerry enthusiastically by name whenever he comes in, where our next door neighbors call "Buenos dias, Jerry and Karen" when they spot us on the roof having our morning coffee. We miss our friends and family back in Oregon, to be sure, but we have much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving, and we are happy to be in Bucerias, Mexico.

New pictures - but not here

Well, I am having no luck at all loading pictures on the blogspot - they have a new beta product, and it isn't working very well. After reading the "blog about the blog" I realize that others are having the same problem, so maybe they will fix it. In the meantime, I've loaded some pictures at the address below...should be easy to reach...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/casabucerias/

BEFORE AND AFTER

Hola amigos! Here are "before and after" pictures of our little casa from the outside. Quite a difference! Note the wall and gate, driveway with improved elevations so the rain does not run into the yard, glorious new color, and the palm trees have been trimmed a bit. There is still lots of landscaping to be done along the wall, where we had flower beds built. That was before we realized that we would be visited by a small herd of Brahma cattle every few days - they are pastured down the road, but regularly roam to greener pastures. We'll have to find something to plant that cows won't eat and is also somewhat trample-proof. On the roof, you can see our little "gazebo" where we sit and have our morning coffee and watch the sun come up. (Being so close to the equator, we have about 11-12 hours of daylight regardless of the season. Right now, the sun comes up about 7:15 am and sets about 6:30 pm. In the summer, we have slightly more daylight.) With my next post, I'll add some interior shots...we are both well and happy, and SO glad to have internet access again.

BLONDIE and DAGWOOD and INTERNET!

After my post from the internet cafe this morning, I returned home and guess what? The switch in Guadalajara had been turned on and we had access at last!

Here's a picture of our puppies, Blondie and Dagwood. We adopted them from our next door neighbors, a Mexican family, and they are quite a challenge, but bring lots of joy and laughter into our lives.

I'll get to work putting together some new pictures of the house and post again ASAP. Thanks to so many of you who have been asking about our blog and wondering why we haven't posted in awhile. Hasta luego!

Internet access getting closer!

We finally gave up on the cable company and applied for a phone line, we were promised that it would be installed within seven days. Three and a half weeks later (last Wednesday), it was actually installed! Now, we are waiting for the DSL to be turned on by some mysterious and unreachable process in Guadalajara...we are almost there!

Much has happened since I posted last - the staircase is now built, we have had a wonderful visit from daughter Justine and we have a acquired two puppies, Blondie and Dagwood. Hopefully, I will soon be able to post many pictures of our remodeled casa and our menagerie as well.

Until then - hasta luego y buena suerte!

NO INTERNET ACCESS YET...

We still don’t have an internet connection in our Bucerias casa – Telecable (pronounced tay-lay-COB-lay) does not have a line on our street and would have to run a cable from the nearest cross street to hook us up (only about 10 meters away). They haven’t decided yet if they want to do that, so we wait. Our other options are satellite dish (expensive and not very fast) and waiting about two months for a phone line. Hmmmm. But we have found a café not far from the house where we can take our laptop and use their wireless internet. That will have to do for now. Not a bad gig – the café is called “Pie in the Sky” and serves fresh mango pie and great coffee!

So much has happened since I was last able to post. We have lived in our house for four weeks today, and it is proving to be a lovely place to live. Very quiet and peaceful, especially at night, when we can hear the iguanas whistling “goodnight” in the trees, the ubiquitous geckos chirping away and many other (so far) unidentifiable jungle-type noises just outside our windows. We are the only gringos in a Mexican neighborhood and our neighbors have been very friendly and welcoming.

Today, the cement is being poured for the outside stairs to the second level, and our new gate will be installed. We have gone through so many bags of cement that we can’t count them, and we have inhaled enough cement dust to construct at least one pillar of the Fremont Bridge. We have accomplished a lot in the last four weeks:

• the house has been completely rewired, with LOTS of electrical outlets;
• the kitchen has been renovated, with new counters, shelves and beautiful tile, a new stove and refrigerator;;
• the entire interior and exterior have been painted with bright and cheerful colors;
• the wall has been completed on the north and west sides of the house;
• a new elevation was created for the driveway and a cement driveway was built, with flower boxes along the outside wall;
• new fans were installed;
• beautiful new patio built in the backyard;
• a "bodega" (storage space) was built in the backyard;
• a staircase to the roof level has been built (almost);
• new wrought iron gate (almost).

I know there is more, but can't think of it all right now! I wish I could post more pictures, but for some reason, this connection won't accommodate - perhaps it is not powerful or fast enough. I'll keep trying!

And our three Mexicano gatos are having a great time – climbing trees, chasing bugs and playing in the goat pasture next door. They are much happier – and safer- than they were in Vallarta, and so are we. More later – hoping for internet access soon!

Morning sky in Bucerias

Ahh, we have moved into our house! It is a mixed blessing, because it is also still a construction site...but it is lovely and quiet there at night, also much cooler and less humid than Vallarta. . The cats are having lots of adventures and progress continues more or less smoothly - the subject of another blog when I have more time.

Yesterday, the workers pointed excitedly up into the large mimosa tree and I got some great pictures of our resident iguanas, thanks to a 10X zoom lens. The big one is about 4 feet long and his esposa is about 3 feet long. They are magnificent. One word of caution if you come to visit - don't sit under the tree. S**t happens. And it is BIG.

I will post again soon - no internet access for awhile until Telecable hooks us up in Bucerias. Who knows when that will be!