Trick or treat

Well tonight's the night. Haven't seen any neighbors preparing or even talking about it except that Lorena and I bought some candy and masks. We ate all the good chocolate so will pick up some more on our trip to Bodega today. Gonna put some candles in my kitchen windows that face the street and that's about it. Will be more fun if Hugo and family come over.  No fruit and nuts this year.  Queremos Halloween

Las calaveras: tumbas por aqui, tumbas por alla

Another English speaker

I am no longer the only English speaker in Pinal Villa. Jimmy and Sandy just arrived from BC Canada for their winter 5-6 months. Well there is Paca who hides in her little house on the other end of town but I'm lucky to see her once a month. Danny and Linda were going to come down earlier but looks like they won't be here until January. I have most of Danny and Linda's stuff we brought over here after a breakin.

So the foto below is what Jimmy and Sandy are coming back to. I'm sure Jimmy would like to continue working on his house but that yard looks like a month long project. That's what you get in the tropics and don't pay anyone to care take your place.   You can't even walk into the back part of the lot it's so overgrown and no other area is clean enough to relax in.   I'm here all year and am constantly cutting things back in the summer.

The bottom foto is one of Ron's 3 lot's in West Melaque that you can't even see. They are for sale so better to be able to see them. My neighbor Hugo will start cleaning them tomorrow. Realtor said he cut a bunch of brush but I saw no evidence of it.

Jimmy and Sandy's yard

Ron's lot

Revolution

The revolution itself may not be televised, but on last night's edition of the BBC's Newsnight, viewers may have witnessed the start of one.

Actor-slash-comedian-slash-Messiah Russell Brand, in his capacity as guest editor of the New Statesman's just-published revolution-themed issue, was invited to explain to Jeremy Paxman why anyone should listen to a man who has never voted in his life.

Wake up

Latinoamerica

The group, Calle 13, is Puerto Rican but they're popular throughout Latin America. The name of the song is "Latinoamerica".

The translation of the chorus is: 
You cannot buy the wind.
You cannot buy the sun.
You cannot buy the rain.
You cannot buy the heat.
You cannot buy the clouds.
You cannot buy the colors.
You cannot buy my happiness.
You cannot buy my pain. 



 Where was I last night ..... but the Dia de los Muestos is worth keeping

Hormones and Halloween

It was finally time for Lorena to visit Dr. Rosa so we dropped by after leaving Euriel at school yesterday.  She's been having headaches, feeling the heat a little more than she should, gaining weight and has been tired (tho you can hardly tell it).   Combine that with deciding how to wean Nahima who is still breast feeding at age 3.

Dr. Rosa says her hormones are out of balance and gave her an injection along with a 3 month prescription for some pills.  Also something to help her milk dry up but it's very mild and she suggests the only real way to wean is to insist Nahima eat more food and less breast feeding.   Breast feeding can also contribute to a hormone imbalance.   Lorena is the heart of that family and the last thing needed is her getting sick.

Dr. Rosa's office is right near the Tianguis so we went to see what they might have for Halloween or Dia de Los Muertos.   The only things we found were the 3 masks below and a bunch of fireworks which are really aimed at Christmas holidays and not the ones coming up.   We bought some fireworks and I tried 2 of the "bottle rockets" last night.   They were duds as far as rockets but did sparkle and bang.

Today we went into Cihuatlan for our weekly shopping and Bodega had it all so we didn't go any further in search of Halloween.   A bunch of bags of candy, a few masks (who will wear them?) and a very large purple witches hat for Yari (no foto).   Yes kids come around on Halloween asking for "Queremos Halloween" (we want Halloween) but you never know how many.   Better to be over prepared than under but the kids here don't know about the Trick part of Trick-or-Treat.   Should be some fun.

Tianguis masks

Tianguis fireworks

Tianguis fireworks

Halloween candy and dud rockets

Halloween masks for somebody?

The garden is producing

I'll start with the papaya since, except for the limones, is the most prolific. It's another volunteer like many things in the garden. The first foto is now and the other two are from a few weeks ago. The one delicious one had a bad spot that Hugo said was caused by a bug of unknown type. I cut out that section and all else inside was well. Seeds went to the compost pile for maybe another volunteer.

My Carambola has it's first fruit if a little odd shaped and more flowers for fruit to come. The Chico Zapote has a bunch of flowers and I'm still uncertain what this fruit will turn out to be. At least the Zapote is only head high while the Carambola is 3 meters. I topped both of them awhile back because they wanted to be tall and skinny. The Albahaca or Basil that was in a planter next to the house left tons of seeds behind but they are coming up in the gravel. I let them grow a bit to make sure they were not just weeds. Little tiny plants will be very hard to transplant but I have a large bag of seeds for when I find a better place.

Papaya today

The delicious one

Ready to eat

Albahaca or Basil that outgrew itself

Throw, Row, Tow, Go

At least that was our motto when I became a Senior Lifeguard at our Mercer Island Beach Club. It only came to mind but in this case none of it applied. The La Aurora Water Park is a great place to spend the day except that they have absolutely no security. No one to calm the teenagers down when they start acting crazy and no one to watch small kids that can't touch bottom.

I had just walked up to the Tobogan pool where all the bodies get dumped from two large slides and at the far end noticed a very young girl, maybe 4, swimming with water wings. That was amazing enough but the next thing I know she took off the wings and pushed off the ladder to the middle of the pool. She soon discovered she could kinda stay afloat but couldn't move back to the ladder. Just as she started to panic I jumped in and walked her over to the ladder. Nobody noticed including the 6 year boy she was playing with. Of course you don't get a thank you from a 4 year old and I'm not sure she even fully realized what just happened. Back on went the water wings and she was in again. I explained the situation to an older sister who was sitting at the "family" table but I never saw their parents.

Our story for the day was we found a nice place in the shade, a big bowl of ceviche de camaron, cubeta of Estrella and lots of playing with the kids. Nahima (3 years) was first afraid of the kiddy pool but an hour later was in every pool with help of sister or mom. Yari (10 years) is very cautious and couldn't be talked into going down the big water slides even when some girl friends were doing it. First time for them and I haven't been in a few years. Nahima's comment at the end of the day was -- "No mas playa, toboganes mejor".

Kiddy pool from our table

Kids and new found friends

Kids water slides

Pool at the bottom of the big slides

A Saturday BBQ

Another day reaching 90 degrees but with a good breeze, a fan under the palapa, shade and the pool we had a comfortable day. Hugo and Lorena scored some tilapia and wanted to cook on my grill. Marinated in a chile sauce she made, covered in butter on the grill and a little mayonnaise. No problem with it being too dry. A perfect day and a meal to die for.

Nahima had her kiddie pool which ended up to be her clothes washing station more than a pool. Euriel stayed home because he's allergic to seafood. Really a shame for him because we all like fish and shrimp but Euriel has many allergies. Yari, the family "gofer", made her usual many trips to the store, a plate of fish to grandma's house and took some salad to Euriel while we relaxed. She never complains and even volunteers to go for me. The three dogs were well fed including Nahima's new puppy. None had any problems with fish bones which surprised me.

Hugo firing up the grill and Nahima in her pool

Smaller talapia

A bigger one

Ready to eat

Fotos of the Digs

A couple other bloggers have been posting fotos of their houses and suggesting we do the same. Well why not. Don't know if it reveals much about that blogger unless it's how organized they are or if they cleaned up just for the fotos which I did not.   I took some fotos of the bedrooms and "living" but I need to figure out low light and this camera without a flash.

First is the kitchen which some may have seen on my house building blog Kitchen Cabinets.  I said those cabinets would keep things off the counter but it doesn't seem to work that way here. I plan to build shelves under the counters and hang colorful curtains in front but the logistics of  how to do it has escaped me.  I'm definitely not going to have custom cabinets built. Could also use a larger fridge - some day!

The other is the bodega which happens to be full of my Canadian neighbors stuff.   Their house was broken into while they are up north and neighbors and I filled a pickup and bought it over here after we found the broken door lock.   Also kiddie pool, lots of lumber, beach toys ... and all the stuff I've accumulated from construction and maintenance. Also a favorite hiding place for my dog when the fireworks are going off.

Fiesta ends with a bang

Monday night was the grand finale of Pinal Villa's annual fiesta - Nuesta Senora del Rosario Colonia Pinal Villa. It's been a fun and interesting 7 days with dancers, parades and fireworks (cojetes). Groups of dancers from local communities would converge on our little church almost every evening about 7PM to be blessed by the Padre.

Sunday had a lot of activity, food and fun for the kids ... but Monday was the big one. A Banda Band, lip-sinking drag queen doing Jenni Rivera and finally a very talented pre-teen boy with a great voice. Of course the finale was the Castillo. I left before the Toritos showed up and I hear they were pretty crazy. End of a great party.

The carnival 

Castillo

Finale

Rio o Mar

Yesterday was a water day so the idea was to try Arroyo Seco just past Aguacate. The arroyo is dry most of the year but we are still getting run off from recent rains. Hugo works on Playa de Cocos and said there were a lot of people enjoying the "river" on Friday. The turn off is on the Aguacate side of the bridge.

Very attractive setting and we were early enough to find a shade tree for the car. Problem is there is no shade down by the river. The water was clean and clear, shallow for the kids .... but it was warm and not refreshing. We had fun for about a half hour and decided we couldn't spend the day there so we headed for the beach.

Back to our usual beach destination of Sirenitas on the west end of Melaque. The ocean water was cooler than the river which is probably unusual. Broke out the ceviche of caracol, beers and Coke and had a great afternoon on the beach.

Looking up river

Bring or build your own shade

Mom and the kids

More refreshing on the beach