Living in a Fifth-Wheel

Well maybe - at least for short trips to the beach when I feel like getting away or working on the house. I located this one on the beach and they have offered to move it to my lot included in the reasonable purchase price. Haven't got my hands on it yet but will go down this week to talk to the owner, show him the property and route and leave a deposit. May be mid-next month before we move it. A friend checked it out a few days ago and says it's in good shape.

So now I get to learn all about big trailers and setting them up for a long stay in one place. Don't want weeds growing under so probably heavy plastic covered with gravel. Will have to run a new sewer line to the septic, run water line and electric, make a patio ... and a few plants and maybe a tree - yes a tree !! Hope I'm not getting ahead of myself but will know this week.

Fleetwood Prowler
Trailer for my Pinal Villa lot outside Melaque

Funeral Procession in Jocotepec

I've seen funeral processions in Mexico before but the cemetery is usually far enough from the central chuch that a car caravan is used. Here in Jocotepec the cemetery is only about 10 blocks away and at the end of a narrow dead-end street.

As I came around the plaza in front of the church I was greeted by a policeman, a decorated pickup truck with a casket and about 150 people beginning their walk. Since I live in the same direction as the cemetery all I could do was fall in behind with my emergency flashers blinking. Just one of the many small differences when living in Mexico.

Simple is beautiful

Well many times it is. Went looking for Bills new place in Chapala, he wasn't home so I continued on east to Mescala and beyond to San Pedro Itzicán. This is a foto of Mescala Island over the top of Mescala town

Mescala, Lake Chapala, Mexico

Back road bike ride

Spring is here and I felt like a bike ride. Sun felt good, I needed the exercise and I wanted to see how the new Jocotepec bypass road is coming. My back road heads almost west from Joco to highway 15 and intersects where the new bypass road will begin. The new road has been cut thru all the way but still very rough for construction use only. I was hoping the road would be fairly flat to avoid the "jake brake" trucks from echoing across the valley ... but it looks like there will be a pretty good grade on either end.

So my back road is a nice ride. Gentle up slope away from town and a coast on the way back. Scenery and crops will change with the seasons and I'm sure it turns to mud in the rains. Just wish there was a little less garbage dumping which seems common for back roads in Mexico.

Cowboy on the road with cows


Cowboy in the field with cows


Old tree that looked better with no color


A new crop of corn next to the rasberry sheds

Man, I got bugs

As if the leaf cutting ants weren't bad enough - now I have these, whatever they are. They're in the avocado tree. Not all the way up (big tree) but on the trunk about head high. With the 1000 or so tightly grouped it looks like a nest just burst - or do they swarm and stick together ?? Not sure they are old enough to fly but look like winged creatures to me. They had started eating leaves on a small branch so I sprayed them.

BTW ... the ant powder I've been using on the leaf cutting ants works but without bodies I can't tell if it's just chasing them away. While I was in Melaque for a week my house keeper ran into another nest and poured a 1/4 bottle of Cloro (bleach) down the hole. Hundreds of bodies lying around when I came back

I'm tempted to call them aphids .... but this is Mexico

So .... they are stink bugs.  Not much to worry about.  They do eat fruit but I have no fruit now.  They also may stink but I didn't smell anything. Neighbors recognized them because they've had them