On the road to Pinal Villa # 2

The most unruly crowd of cattle we've run into and the herder had a heck of a time trying to keep them off to one side. This bull was about half the size of the car and it was a bit spooky passing. Just glad we didn't run into the crazy moto drivers coming at us.

On the road to Pinal Villa

Bigger turkeys than are usually seen. Often quite skinny. Never seen a male showing off like that. Foto by Lorena.

When the Milo is cut and sent off to where ever just turn cattle loose in the stubble. Lots more there today but drive carefully on the road when they are herded back home. 

What a rain

Coyota slept in the bodega to avoid the rain

Look like a river bed? It was last night

Sewer pipe uncovered

We should have paid attention to the Internet weather because our backyard carne asada party got rained out yesterday. We cooked under the overhang and took all the food inside. Still had a great time and good food.

The big holes (charcos) coming back to Pinal Villa were full of water and as we came into Pinal it turned into a river. I turned into the community to avoid the section of road in the fotos. The water was easily over a foot deep and really moving. It rained again early this morning but the weather channel says it's over. Sun for the next week. Relief because I'm picking up friends at the airport this afternoon.

Sandias in Pinal Villa

Get ready for watermelon season. Plants are only 3-4 inches but with all the moisture lately they should grow fast. This "patch" is only two blocks away. There are melons in the markets but not from around here. The local kids love to go through the fence and then sell the melons on the street. When the time comes the owners will have guards (veladores) in the field but at night can't stop the kids.

Last day of Pinal's annual fiesta

Today is the last day of Pinal Villa's annual fiesta for Our Lady of the Rosary -Talpa. The fiesta is nine days long with fireworks starting at 5AM every morning. Today it went on for 2 hours. Usually, we have a Castillo but enough money wasn't raised to pay for one.

Someone came up with money so we'll have a Castillo after all

Apoyo para Pinal Villa

Presidente Fernando Martínez Guerrero

About a month ago a group of women went to Cihuatlan for a meeting with some government officials and discovered there was quite a bit of money earmarked for Pinal Villa improvements. One woman mentioned that the money was sitting there because our community had not asked for help. Yesterday on the plaza we had a junta with the Presidente and a bunch of department heads. The purpose of this first meeting in a long time was to find out what was most important to us.

They made quite a show of intention with the poles, a road grader, two dump trucks and they painted the playground equipment. The most talked about issues were the road into Pinal and the Soccer field. Improving the water situation on the road was promised and this morning they brought in lots of good fill dirt to fill some wet spots. They also promised to install some large pipes in the few water crossings. 

Of course, none of the soccer players showed up to give input about which area, of two, they wanted for a field and what to do with it. There are two stores on corners of the field and the owners had some pretty petty complaints about balls hitting the store or a car in front. We'll see about that later. Over all I was really impressed with the President.

Light poles for the Campo de Futbol

Obras Publicas boom truck

Farmland behind Pinal Villa

I dropped Lorena off at her moms after Kinder and the new field is next to their house. This is part of the area that has been too wet to plant for the last 6+ months. It's a double planting of Sandia (Watermelon) and Mangoes. They often double plant Mangoes because the trees won't get large for a few years.

When I got home I could hear a sprayer working fields on the other side.The Tomatillos are gone but another large field of Chili is behind them. I missed the spraying but took a few fotos of the Chilis. Across the road was another field of was was left of a Sandia crop. I'd heard that huge truck loads of Sandias had been leaving but never saw them. I was surprised kids had not been selling their illegal haul around the neighborhood.

New Sandia and Mango field

Lots of Chili

Jalapeño

The Chili sprayer

Remains of the Sandia crop

A new way of dancing

At least I haven't seen this before. Maybe because the houses that host the dancers for the day have not been in my neighborhood. This time three were hosts all within two blocks of me.

The first day they start at the plaza and dance to the first hosts house with the hosts leading the way carrying a small shrine of the Virgin.  When they get there they are treated to a large pot of pozole.  The second night they dance from the first house to the next house hosting. Third night they dance between the next two houses. The number of nights might be limited by the number of willing hosts .... or it's always three? This could be indirectly connected to Dia de los Muertos. I'll have to ask.

Pinal Villa does have a "professional" dance group with fancier uniforms, kids more uniform in age and of both sexes.  I assume these kids/girls are only for our community.

Host couple carrying the Virgin

Very little kids in this group

Peregrinación to the church in Pinal Villa

Nuesta Senora del Rosario - Colonia Pinal Villa

Each day of the nine day celebration a different community in our area makes the trek out the road to Pinal Villa finishing at our local church. We pass them every day on our way into Melaque. These are two separate groups on different days below.

The weather has not been kind to our roads or to outdoor activities. Looks like we have a dry spell that may last awhile but September was the wettest month on record. No sign of the entertainment stage like last year, no kids rides, no food or beer booths.  Almost wonder if there will be a Castillo. Hope this sunshine will improve the spirits.

Down from the clouds

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Just descending into the clouds over Los Angeles

Down from the clouds in more ways than one.  Mexico is down and on the ground is down. There seem to be clouds everywhere.  Seattle was overcast and raining much of the time.  There are plenty of  clouds here in Melaque but no rain yesterday or today. 

The annual week long Pinal Villa Fiesta starts tomorrow and our little church is a favorite of many in the area. There will be a Peregrinación (religious parade) tomorrow afternoon but our road is a real mess from past rain and lack of attention from the Municipio. After a heavy rain it is almost impassable. I just gave enough for 2 loads of road fill and the guy will donate his front-loader for smoothing it out.  That is if it does not rain tonight or tomorrow morning. Road improvement will make my daily bus driving into school a lot easier.

Feels good to be back down in Mexico even if  under the warm humid clouds. 

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Starting decent into Manzanillo

Rain, rain, rain from Norbert

Well not that close and not that big but closer than other storms this year and big enough. I don't know where Norbert gathered all it's water but it's been plenty so far.  La Manzanilla reported 7.5 inches since noon yesterday at 8am this morning. Barra de Navidad just reported 16 inches in the last 36 hours. That is some crazy rain. No thunder and lightning ..... just never ending rain

School was closed today and will be tomorrow.  We can'r get to Melaque due to water levels on our road. The lagoon was opened to avoid flooding. All the water from Pinal Villa heads for the lagoon as well as Jaluco, much of Melaque and anything in the mountains behind us. Neighbors said the erosion on their street is so bad the water distribution pipes have been uncovered

My yard with drain below gravel but earth is saturated

A flat street next to my house

Street with slight slope becomes a river

We're on the map

Not only is Melaque mostly covered on Google Street Views but they came out the dirt road to Pinal Villa and made the rounds of our streets. What a surprise to end up in front of my house with me passing in front of the pool inside the gate. I saw nothing that day and nobody in the neighborhood said anything.

The two photos are quite different in size if you want to see the Street View original size.  There is also a link below you can use to drive around ... and down to Melaque if you choose.

My house little

My house big

 Link to Street View ->  Unnamed street in Jalisco

First day of Kinder

Today was the long awaited first day of Kindergarten for Nahima. Yesterday the mothers helped clean the classroom and playground. We also painted wooden crates used for each students personal storage space. I drove this morning because of the crates but normally they will walk to school.

The big deal is how does Nahima handle being away from mom and with strange kids in a strange place. There was no crying when we drove away but she did tell her mom this morning that maybe tomorrow would be better for Kinder.  I was surprised there were like 25-30 kids in that small classroom with only one teacher and a helper.

Pinal Villa Kinder

Classroom and wooden storage crates

Nahima with arms crossed - still some doubt

She needed fotos so used mine

No smiles for mug shots - besides she has no front teeth

Spring parades for the little kids

Last week was the spring parade time, known here as the Desfile de Primavera. Most were held yesterday, Friday, but a few earlier in the week. Normally it's for kindergarten kids but occasionally younger ones get involved. The idea is they dress up like all things Spring, birds, butterflies, rabbits and other small animals. The exceptions are the Queens that most of the girls want to be. Our community of Pinal Villa had two parades, one in the morning for the Kinder and one around 5pm for little kids. Just takes a hand full of moms that want to dress up the kids and have a parade.

Kinder parade with kids in cars

Little kids parade banner

Nahima - Queen of sweets

Another Queen

No cars - just bikes and carritos

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

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

The skies over Pinal Villa

We don't get the sunsets over the ocean like those living in Melaque or Barra do but ours are still pretty spectacular.   A little more to the north over the mountains produce some good ones depending on the clouds.   Lately we've been getting thunder heads over the mountains bringing hopes of rain that only arrives rarely.

I think it was Wednesday night that we had lots of rain, thunder and lightening and I had to shoot a video.   While a few other videos I took are over all more interesting I choose this because  about half way through you can see a lightning strike that looks to land just outside the window I'm shooting from.   I looked around for evidence the strike hit something but nothing.

Pinal sunset

Thunder head over the mountains

From my roof overlooking my Canadian neighbors house

A circus the right size for Pinal Villa

I've never seen a circus (circo) this small before but this one is the right size for Pinal Villa. We have the rides, trampolines and Foosball kind of fairs for the kids a few times a year but they usually set up on the edge of the plaza. For some reason this circus rented a lot on the corner of the plaza and set up there. Not sure how these guys make any money as Pinal is pretty poor but they have a big Kenworth that pulls the trailer and the announcer that drives around town has a nice little car. The RV even had air conditioning running. The life of a Carny in Mexico.

From the corner of the plaza

This must carry the tent and seats

Main entrance

Under the Big Top

Jaluco Cocodrilo moved to La Manzanilla

This one was found in the upper canals of Laguna del Tules which reach into Jaluco and out of concern for children it was moved by Proteccion Civil to the Cocodrilo sanctuary in La Manzanilla. We do see Cocodrilos along the road to Pinal Villa during the rainy season in the mini-lagoons that form there but usually much smaller and younger.

Foto by David Dagoli

Día de la Revolución

Revolution Day is actually the 20th but Friday is the day for all the schools to march. This is about the Primary school in Pinal Villa and the kindergarden kids. My neighbor was in the dance group so she wanted me there for fotos.

There is supposed to be more marching on Monday in Melaque and a big party on the plaza come Tuesday night. Ron and Dora are here from San Miguel so we'll probably go.

Kids gathering

This was to throw firecrackers into

Jardin de Ninos or kindergarden

Front of the parade

The dance troop with Jania front left