Swallows: Love them and hate them

Sometimes I feel like the first painting about them but yesterday they were a pure pain in the ass. I don't mind when they sit on my light sconces to get out of the weather or just rest even thought they poop a lot. When they want to build a nest is where my appreciation stops. Even my neighbors who let them build in the house thinking it is good luck had enough a few weeks ago. 

I have an outdoor bathroom (not in the house) next to the bodega and when I saw them flying in and out of the bodega I closed the door. A couple hours later in the bath a towel and swim trucks on the rack and the toilet paper were covered in mud. Nest building material I assume unless they were just pissed I closed the other door. Now I just have to remember do open the bodega because my dog likes to sleep there ..... especially like last night when Tropical Storm Carlos dumped 5-6 inches of rain on our area.

The ideal swallow

My real Golondrinas

In out of the weather

These guys like to sit on the sconces inside my covered porch. It's out of the rain, wind and high enough my cat can't even think of going after them. When they first started this I was afraid they were ready to make their mud nests but no sign of it for 4-5 months. They built a nest upstairs but I got it before there were any little ones in it.

I have two neighbors that have swallow families living inside their homes.  One house is always open and the other is open during the day. A little startling to have one fly past your head as you walk out the door.  They must be great bug catchers but mucho poop below the nest is why I don't welcome them.  One was sitting on my tomato supports this morning and I stood there talking to him less than a meter away.   Very cool birds. 

On the sconce

One still there under the porch

Charcos y Lodo

While on a Chapala message board they play this game of name "the first rain" date ... our first 3 days have come and gone. Their game rules are so strange nobody has won yet even though it has rained quite a bit in the Chapala area. Here when we have our huge charcos (puddles) in the street and lodo (mud) streaming down the hill in Cihautlan to cover highway 200 .... we have rain.

Thanks to hurricane Amanda for breaking a 5-6 month dry spell. Amanda reached a level 4 hurricane but was far enough offshore that we just felt the rain around the edges.  Not much surf and just a nice breeze for 5-6 days. Weather reports say lightning and rain storms for next week but until another LOW comes up the coast it's very hard to tell. So I borrowed these Melaque street shots from Canal235 and a link to their weather fotos around the area. 

Temporal de Lluvias Cihualtecas 2014

Canal235 also had a foto of the piling installation of the new bridge 

Living on the cheap in Mexico

This is where my neighbors live. You might say: 'well they have an RV' but it's very small for two people. Especially during the rainy season when the whole yard is mud. Truck is broken with no money to fix and had to use a tractor to move the RV in. Next door is a little out building where they cook to keep the heat out of the trailer.

Things are looking up now since we haven't had rain for almost two weeks and it's drying out ... but it's still hot as hell and humid.

No these neighbors are not Mexican ... but a 50 something American woman and her 20 year old kid.

Tough way to go but they seem to keep spirits up pretty well

Dirtiest kid in the world

Three kids came by my place the other day after playing in the mud up the street. All covered but I think little sister got the worst of it. She wasn't all that happy but still stopped for the foto.