Maine to Mexico

Sad News

2012-01-21T12:30:00.001-06:00

I lost my Dad this week. He was 91 and a wonderful father and a kind and compassionate ophthalmologist.

He had been failing for the last year and a half. I went to spend some time with him last March and again in July. We will be gathering in Philadelphia this week for his memorial service and celebrate the life of a man who brought so much love and happiness to so many people.

On a personal note, he, more than any other person, shaped my life and helped me to become the husband, father, grandfather, and teacher that I have been. I remember our great discussions about politics, life philosophy, and other engaging subjects around the dinner table when I was young. Because of him, I received a fine education and was able to experience many interesting things. I once asked him how I could ever pay him back, he told me that in life, we just pass it on, to our children. Good advice, as usual.

There is now a big hole in our family which he filled so well for many years. We will all miss him and treasure our memories of his humor, his interest in clear thinking, and in his love for his family.

Below he is pictured with his two sisters, Alice, now 93, and Mary, now 95.

Starting Our Preparations to Head North

2012-01-14T13:46:00.000-06:00

It is with mixed feelings that, after almost five years living in this very special expatriate community in central Mexico, that we start to make preparations, once again, to pack everything into our trusty RAV 4, and reverse our 2007 trip and head north to Maine. Now that we are down to our last six weeks or so, the reality of having to leave this splendid climate, the warm people, and numerous new friends is beginning to sink in. The thought of returning to Maine with, again, only what we carry in our car, is daunting in itself.

Because of the problem I had last time with a blood clot forming in my leg when we drove to Maine in 2009 (when I was not yet taking a blood-thinning medication), I will need to monitor my Coumadin levels frequently along the way and limit our driving to about 4-5 hours a day.

We plan to visit friends and family along the way, stopping in Muncie for a week or so for Isabelle's 4th birthday and in Philadelophia for some time as well. We most likely won't actually arrive in Maine until April. Fortunately for us, my Dad and stepmother, Joy, have a home in Waldoboro, Maine which they spent summers in for many years. The house is now unoccupied, and we will stay there until we locate an apartment in Portland.

Dad and Joy sent us some money for birthday and Christmas gifts which enabled us to buy a beautiful hand woven Oaxacan wool rug. We bought the 9x 12 foot rug from a vendor here named Francisco. His family lives in Oaxaca and makes the dyes for the wool from local plants. He brings them here to sell because there is a big market with so many gringos living here. We look forward to having the rug in our Portland apartment to remind us of our connection to Mexico. Here is a photo of Ron helping us display the rug:

We have a long list of things to accomplish before we leave. We had to re-register our car in South Dakota. (We, as many others here, register our vehicle in South Dakota since one county there allows us to register by mail without setting foot in South Dakota at all. This is helpful because if we want to drive over the border, we have a legal registration. Newcomers here are surprised at how many South Dakotans have emigrated here!). Our Mexican drivers licenses are expiring before we leave, so we need to got to Guadalajara to renew them. We need to get Chuy's immunizations up to date so we can get the paperwork to cross into the US with him. We need to buy US auto insurance and a major medical policy for Pixie until she's eligible for Medicare. We need have some tune up work done on the car before the trip, and perhaps some body work, which is so much cheaper here. And, of course, we need to decide what we really want to bring north and what we can part with. Not always an easy decision.

So, we're busy and feeling kind of sad to be leaving, but excited to be finding a new home in the great city of Portland, Maine.

I'll leave you with some assorted Ajijic photos, including Javier standing next to our car. He earns his money by washing cars outside of the Super Lake, our grocery store.

...some random scenes from this little village we've been calling home since 2007. We will miss it and look forward to returning every snow season!

Feliz Navidad con Familia

2011-12-30T15:20:00.000-06:00

Christmas this year was a decidedly family affair. Our daughters Wendy (left) and Cassie traveled to Ajijic with their partners Troy and Alana. We had a splendid visit and a simple Christmas this year. We went to see a traditional posada in the neighboring town of San Antonio. On Christmas eve, we viewed the live naciementos (nativity scenes), we cooked a community vegan feast for Christmas Day, we climbed the mountain up to the small chapel, we hosted two pot-luck parties, one for our Mexican friends, Daniel and Dora, and one for our gringo friends, and we had lots of time to relax, catch up, and eat some good Mexican food. Wendy and Troy flew back to Maine yesterday and Cassie and Alana are en-route today. We are all a bit tired but happy with many pleasant memories of a lovely 12 days! Here are some photos:

Wendy and Troy with Georgina, one of the owners of our favorite vegetarian restaurant

Wendy and Pixie browsing for jewelry at the weekly Ajijic tianguis

Before the posada with our friends Mike and Christie

Mexican children reenacting the nativity at the posada

Jose (Dora's brother-in-law) Troy, Daniel, Dora, and Elias (Dora's eldest son) at our pot-luck holiday party

One of the live nativity families in the church courtyard on Christmas Eve

Cassie preparing her gluten-free Christmas cookies for our Christmas feast

A literal overview of our vegan Christmas feast. Troy made beans and potatoes; Alana prepared a cabbage slaw; Wendy made some mango rice, Pixie made the squash-ginger soup, I made baba ghanoush, and Cassie the cookies.

Our friends, Luis, Jean, Jeanne, and Jan admiring some of Cassie's illustrations at our pot-luck for our gringo friends.

Our friends Ron and Paul enjoying a moment of conversation at the pot-luck

Fred and Mardele left Rudy with us while they went to Erie, PA to be with their family. Here Rudy and Chuy enjoy a game of tug-of-war!

Pixie takes a futile swing at our adult piñata during the pot-luck

Alana, Troy, Cassie and Wendy from atop the mountain after our climb to the chapel

Yesterday, we visited our friends' Jan and Luis' new adobe studio and home under construction. Pixie talks here with Jan on the stoop of the new house.

Last night, Alana and Cassie share a private moment before their departure from Mexico, this morning.

So, we enjoyed a wonderful time with family and friends. We were sad to see them leave, but we all have special memories.

Now we are back to our normal life here as we prepare to head back to Maine at the beginning of March. We have lots to do as we, once again, simplify our lives, shed unnecessary belongings, and prepare to start over, this time in Portland, Maine. We know we will look forward to returning here each winter, but it will be sad when we leave.

One update from the last post. The week after the murder of an American citizen here in November, over 1500 people attended a meeting with government officials here to indicate their concern that something be done to prevent additional crimes in the area. Some good discussion took place, and a smaller group worked on implementing some new efforts to provide better police presence and security. Those who attended the meeting were happy and hopeful. The police apprehended two individuals who perpetrated the robbery which resulted in the shooting. The man who committed the murder is apparently in custody.

I'll end this post with a photo of one of the beautiful tropical birds, a large parrot, who lives in the animal shelter pet-food store in Riberas.

Mexico to Muncie to Mexico

2011-12-09T13:40:00.001-06:00

We have been in Muncie, Indiana all week visiting our son, Eric, his wife, Crystal, and our grand daughter Isabelle. Our girls are coming here for Christmas this year, so we went to celebrate an early Christmas with Eric's family.

As usual, the center of attention, and the focus of our visit was spending time with Isabelle. Eric took the entire week off, so we got to spend a good deal of time with him too. But since he is a very involved Dad, we were also able to give him some time to himself.

We went to select a Christmas tree from the Muncie Kiwanis Club and brought it home to decorate it. Isabelle, for the first time this year, was very much into decorating and anticipating Christmas. She was delightful and always energetic and enthusiastic. In other words, she's three.

Pixie and I took her to her favorite restaurant (McDonalds, of course) several times, to the Muncie Children's Museum, to the movies to see Puss 'n Boots, and hung out with her quite a bit at home. The temperature was in the low 30's and wet. We missed our sunny Mexican home. But we had much special time with Isabelle.

We went to a local Chinese buffet with the family. We made a couple large batches of vegan soups (vegetable and French Lentil) and had a lot of good "hang around" time together.

We will see them again in March. We plan to be in Muncie of March 23rd for Isabelle's 4th birthday, on our way back to Maine.

Mostly, the photos capture the spirit of the visit:

So, after a full week, we returned late Wednesday evening to Mexico. We are now preparing for Cassie & Alana and Wendy & Troy to arrive starting December 18 for their Christmas visit. We are anxiously anticipating their arrival.

On quite a different note, there has been a disturbing series of events in the Ajijic area recently. For some reason, there has been an uptick in crime. Over the past several weeks there have been a number of home invasions with guns perpetrated on gringos in the area. This culminated with the murder of an American man in central Ajijic last Tuesday, the day before we left. There was an outpournig of concern from the expatriate community. Over 1000 attended a problem-solving meeting with local officials to discuss how to manage the disturbing increase in crime. Plans are ongoing to address this problems. Most of us are taking it in stride, but all of us, I think, are being more cautious and observant. Below is an article which appeared in the the Guadalajara Reporter about the murder:

American slain in botched Ajijic robbery

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 29 2011 19:43 DALE HOYT PALFREY

A U.S. citizen was murdered in the carport of his Ajijic home during an attempted robbery Tuesday, November 29.

Stephen Christopher Kahr, 69, died almost instantly after being shot in the chest by an unknown assailant, according to Chapala Ministerio Publico (MP) agent Fernando Gutierrez Santillan.

A police investigator answers questions from reporters outside the Ajijic home of slain American Stephen Christopher Kahr.

At press time two suspects picked up within hours after the shooting were still in police custody. Neither has been positively identified by witnesses as the culprit. Authorities were awaiting results of forensic tests to determine recent use of a firearm.
Gutierrez said that the shooting occurred as Kahr was unloading groceries from his car, parked on the street just outside his residence at Calle Donato Guerra on the corner of 16 de Septiembre. Witnesses said that a young man apparently followed him into the carport and attempted to snatch his wallet from his back pants pocket. When Kahr swirled around and began resisting the assault, the would-be robber fired his weapon straight on.
The Reporter learned that his wife Patricia and their son David were inside the home putting away the purchases when they heard a commotion outside. They heard Kahr shout out “Give it back!” and rushed out in time to see him struggle with the aggressor before plummeting to the ground mortally wounded.
The killer was described as a young, well-dressed Mexican of slender build, about 1.75 meters in height. He was distinguished by bulging eyes, a thin face and fair skin. After the shooting he made an unsuccessful attempt to escape in the Kahr’s automobile, and then ran off on foot, headed east on 16 de Septiembre.
Gutierrez said investigators found the victim’s wallet on his person, indicating that the killer left empty-handed.

Kahr's body lies in the carport of his Ajijic home.

Minutes later, an attempted car jacking was reported in the same general vicinity. The incident involved two young men, one of whom was brandishing a gun. The female driver managed to foil the vehicle by throwing on a kill switch. The assailants then dashed ran off towards the lakefront.

Gutierrez said that Chapala police officers arriving at the scene promptly spread out to comb the neighborhood, and returned to the Kahr home after rounding up various suspects, none of whom matched the physical description of the perpetrator.
Meanwhile, the Chapala Red Cross responded to an emergency call placed at around 11:15 a.m. Paramedics who attended to Kahr said they applied advanced CPR techniques, but were unable to revive him due to the gravity of his gunshot wound.
The MP agent, along with his investigators and a state police unit, inspected and guarded the crime scene until a team from the Jalisco Forensics Institute arrived to gather evidence and remove Kahr’s body. The corpse was taken for an autopsy in Ocotlan around 3 p.m.
During the ordeal, police officers allowed several friends and neighbors to go inside the house to comfort Kahr’s stunned widow and her son.
Kahr was a retired lawyer from New York who began wintering in Ajijic with his spouse about four years ago. The couple had traveled extensively in Mexico throughout their married life.
The MP official said the murder does not appear to be linked to organized crime groups involved in a growing number of shooting incidents that have plagued the north shore area since the start of the year. He speculated, however, that the fatal assault bears some similarities to a series of late-night home invasion robberies that have been denounced by foreign residents in recent weeks.
The following day Chapala police chief corroborated the MP agent’s version of the murder, providing additional information about the two suspects. Both are Ajijic natives, labeled as close acquaintances, ages 30 and 33, with bad reputations. He said one of them has a prior criminal record, speaks English and walks with a limp.
The chief said he would take photographs of the pair, and encourages other crime victims to come to the police department to see if they recognize them. Seguridad Publica headquarters is located in Chapala at the corner of Niños Heroes and Zaragoza.
While expressing deep concern about the on-going deterioration of public security, Contreras qualified the Kahr homicide as an atypical crime for the lakeside area. Still, he said, “We will not rest until this case is solved.”

Feria Maestros del Arte

2011-11-25T11:28:00.002-06:00

Every November, Chapala hosts the Feria Maestros del Arte, a Mexican craft show and sale, now in its tenth year. Artisans from all over Mexico come to Chapala to display their crafts. they stay for free with local families, and thy get to keep all the money from the sales. Above is a collection of the famous Mexican Katrinas from Michoacan. This year we bought a few Christmas gifts. We visit the Ojeda knife display, from Sayula, every year and buy a knife. This year we added a beautiful cleaver to our knife collection. Here are some photos which capture a sample of the colorful items for sale:

The show also had some entertainment. Below some young Mexican girls prepared for a performance of Ballet Folklorico:

And our friends from Maine, Ron and Jean, hosted a potter family from Tonala in Guadalajara. They pose here for a photo with their family:

The other big news, for me, this month is the release of my new collection of poetry, Migration.

The book is titled after the title poem which captures the spiritual experience on visiting the Monarch butterfly reserve near Zitacuaro, Michoacan in 2010. It includes 57 poems written in the past two years. About one third of the poems are about Mexico and another third are autobiographical. Four of my poet friends and I, calling ourselves the "Not-Yet-Dead Poets' Society" are planning a reading in December, and poet Mel Goldberg and I are planning a book-signing event in January.

The new book, along with my previous two collections, Sacred Lake and Agave Blood are now available online from Amazon as Kindle Books.

Long-time readers of this blog may remember our marvelous house sitters, Mike and Christi who watched our house and Chuy for five weeks in the summer of 2010. We, they are living here for the winter and joined us yesterday at our Thanksgiving celebration with our UU Fellowship. Here they are at the dinner table, along with a photo of Lew Crippen, our host and chief cook:

And now, for the REALLY BIG NEWS: Pixie and I have made the decision to change our status here and become snowbirds. In March, we will, once again, shed many of our belongings and relocate back to Maine, for most of the year, coming to Mexico only in the winter. It is not an easy decision, but it seems like the correct one for us. The primary factors in our decision have been family considerations and health care. We want to be nearer to our children. Our girls, Wendy and Cassie, live in Maine, and our son, Eric, and his family, including our grand daughter, Isabelle, are in Indiana. We should be able to see all of them more often living in Maine. And we both want to have our health care centered in Maine so we can use Medicare as we turn 65. We are happy to be preserving our connection to Mexico, albiet part time. We hope to stay in touch with our Mexican roots. We do not regret the almost five years we will have spent here as full time residents, but, for us, this is the right decision. I will keep the blog going until we return to Maine. Then I will end this blog and, perhaps, start a new one to coincide with this new chapter in our lives.

Guayabitos

2011-11-14T14:41:00.000-06:00

We just returned, last last night, from our favorite beach town, Rincon de Guayabitos, a warm-water beach located on a small bay about an hour north of Puerto Vallarta on Mexico's Pacific coast. It has been a beach getaway since 1971 when the government of Mexico decided to promote some of the beach towns north of Vallarta as tourism resorts. Interestingly, Guayabitos gets many Mexican nationals visiting it, but also many Canadians. There are apparently very few US tourists. Most people thought we must be Canadian.

The all-inclusive cost, which includes food, drinks, room, use of all the pools, beach towels, and nightly shows, is about $90US per day per couple Sunday through Thursday and about $110US on Saturdays and Sunday. We took a bus this year instead of driving.

We go to the beach each year to help celebrate Pixie's birthday on November 10th. This year we tried a different hotel and were very pleased. The other all inclusive hotel we had used two previous years was good, except the food was not. The hotel we stayed in this year, Delcameron Coco's, is one of a chain of Delcameron all inclusive resorts located throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. We were very pleased with its organization. And the food was excellent. We were easily able to get good-quality vegan choices at every meal. We mostly hung around on the beach but they had lovely pools and shows nightly which were very good. The only sour note was that Pixie picked up a virus and was not feeling well, particularly on her birthday. But overall, we were very pleased. Here are some photos.

We were greeted each afternoon with different swans made out of bath towels on our bed...

We ate our meals in one of three spacious restaurants. This is the one we chose because of the wonderful vegan choices and the ocean view...

Pixie went for a before-breakfast swim on her birthday...

The islands in the Guayabitos Bay resemble a large whale...

The gardens around Coco's were very well kept-- these lilies were near our room...

These mariachi musicians serenaded us on "Mexican Night." Notice the little guy...

We were able to give some business to the vendors. This guy tattooed my arm (see below) and wove a cute name bracelet for our grand daughter, Isabelle...

They start young. This little guy was selling woven bracelets and wallets...

Luis, shown here with his wife, Carla, and his son, Jeshua, sold jewelry and Havana cigars (legal here, duh!)...

Our final night we saw an excellent international dance show...

Pixie couldn't resist having her hair braided...

And I got this tattoo in honor of Pixie's birthday (She's a scorpio)...

So now we're back home. Our car has an electric problem and won't start. Our mechanic came to our house and picked up the car this morning (only in Mexico!) Hopefully, we'll have it back soon. In the meantime, we can walk!

Before we left we met our new friend from Maine, Angela, for dinner at her house. Check out her blog: http://angelakeith.com/

Day of the Dead and Halloween

2011-11-03T09:06:00.004-06:00

Yesterday was the Dia de los Muertos celebration in Mexico, commonly known as the Day of the Dead. As I've pointed our before on this blog, this is an opportunity for Mexicans to gather with their families at graveyards and communicate with their dead family members. But, perhaps more importantly, they celebrate their lives and remember them. They bring the dead relative's favorite food or drink, and share a meal at the graveside. They may bring their special animals (dogs, horses, goats) and play their favorite songs. It is truly a happy celebration, unlike the more solemn Memorial Day celebrations in the United States. We generally do not go to the graveyard as it feels a bit like one is violating a private time.

In previous years we have gone to Chapala where one street has been designated for public altars celebrating their family members. These are colorful and very personal. People sometimes serve food and drink. We didn't make it this year; Pixie had some kind of a bug and didn't feel well, so we stayed home and had a quiet evening. But here is a Picasa photo album of some of the altars in Chapala last night taken by my friend, Ron Mullenaux: https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=ronandjeanmaine&target=ALBUM&id=5670801223258510305&authkey=Gv1sRgCPL70oni6rr2CQ&feat=email

Halloween, which comes a couple of days before the Day of the Dead, is becoming a bigger holiday in Mexico. Children go, often in large groups, from house to house singing, "Quermos! Halloween!" which means literally... "We want! Halloween" It is their version of "trick or treat!" This year we were inundated with children and had to go buy additional candy. Here are some photos of the trick or treaters.

Pixie is still teaching a class for the same four children at the orphanage in Chapala. Like last year, she put on a Halloween celebration for them this year. They dressed in costumes, carved a pumpkin the week before, played games and ate candy. Pixie was dressed as a bruja (broo-ha) or witch, for the occasion. Here are some photos.

Guadalajara's Pan American Games ended last weekend, and from all reports it was a great success. A number of people we know traveled into Guadalajara for some events, and more saw the water skiing event here on Lake Chapala.

My friend Lew Crippen, who accompanied us to the baseball preliminary matches, called to tell me he was going to go up and try to score some tickets to the gold medal match last week and asked if I was game to go. It was another three hour ride, but how often would I get to see this? The semifinal games were Mexico-Canada vs. the US and Cuba. keep in mind, Cuba had won the Gold medal at the last ten Pan Am games, over forty years! But this year, the US beat Cub 12-10, and Canada beat Mexico 5-2, so the Gold Medal game was between the US and Canada. I was hoping for Mexico in the Gold Medal game, but we'd never be able to get tickets for that game, so I guess that was good for us. (Cuba beat Mexico 6-0 in the Bronze Medal game). We got to the game early and found a guy selling two tickets for $1300 pesos, a bit less that $100 US. But since the price of the sold-out tickets at the box office for this game was $800MX each, we grabbed them and had great seats. We enjoyed the friendly Mexican crowd and saw a fantastic game. We were about the only gringos at the game, although I saw a few Canadians waving a Canadian flag behind home plate. The game was a pitching duel, which Canada won 2-1. We stayed for the long-delayed medal ceremony. I am glad I got to see it. Here are some photos (The Canadians are in the dark jerseys).

We got out of the game about 10:30 and wanted to get on the road for the drive home. Unfortunately, we had a flat tire. We had hit a piece of tire on the highway on the way up but didn't think it did any damage. We managed to get the tire off, but all we had for a spare was a donut tire which we could only drive 50 mph on. We were talking with the Mexican man at the gas station where we had stopped, and, unbelievably, he said there was a lantaria, or tire repair shop, open across the street. So I stayed behind and guarded his jacked up car, pictured here:

We got the car back together and hit the road about 11:15. We were a little worried because the tire guy told Lew he fixed the car "poco, not mucho." Well, we didn't really know what that meant, but it didn't sound very reassuring. Nevertheless, keeping an eye on the tire pressure, we made it home a bit after 2AM. Long night, but a fun adventure.

Next Tuesday, Pixie and I are going to the beach on the Pacific coast, Rincon de Guayabitos, for her birthday. Last year we went to Manzanillo instead, but we were disappointed with it, so this year it's back to our favorite beach town. I'll post some photos when we return after the 13th.

Finally, here's an article our Canadian friend, Pat, shared with us about the "Canadian enclave" Ajijic:

Back to Peaceful Canadian port thrives amid a Mexican drug war

Peaceful Canadian port thrives amid a Mexican drug war

October 24, 2011

Robyn Doolittle

About eight years ago, Burlington residents Julianne and Chisholm Lyons moved to a small village called Ajijic about an hour outside of Guadalajara. It is said to have one of the largest Canadian ex-pat communities in the world, with an estimated 8,000 Canucks. At 84, Chisholm is co-president of the Canadian Club. Julianne, 80, a former Etobicoke city councillor, is organizing a music festival featuring Canadian musicians.

Robyn Doolittle/Toronto Star

AJIJIC, MEXICO — Every inch of Julianne and Chisholm Lyons’ two-storey Mexican casa is adorned with mementos from their exotic travels. An antique door from Indonesia. Colourful photos of Thailand. Artwork from China. But tucked away in a little corner of their dining room is a keepsake from Canada: a framed photo of their old Burlington home, buried one foot in snow.

“Just a little reminder that we live in paradise,” said 80-year-old Julianne, a former Etobicoke city councillor. “Not that we would forget it.”

“Paradise” is not a word used by too many to describe Mexico these days, not with more than 40,000 deaths attributed to the country’s drug wars over the last five years. A couple of fatal shootings linked to organized crime happened just a few weeks ago in this otherwise charming lakeside village about an hour outside of Guadalajara on Lake Chapala.

The violence seems far removed from the world of the Lyons, who moved to Ajijic eight years ago, lured by its cobblestone streets, gentle pace of life and authentic Mexican vibe.

In fact, Ajijic has been luring snowbirds from the United States and Canada since the 1970s and is believed to be the largest concentrated community of expat Canadians in the world. The local Canadian Club estimates 8,000 Canucks — just over half of the village’s population — call Ajijic home most of the year.

Like everyone in Ajijic, the Lyons are defensive about how Mexico is being portrayed around the world. A recent story that appeared in the Dallas Morning News, which suggested cartels are moving in on the Chapala area, has the entire village incensed. Those in this retirement community make the eyebrow-raising argument that the vast majority of Mexico is safer than Toronto.

The Lyons’ home is in a gated corner of town, but most of the houses in Ajijic aren’t. Etobicoke resident Tom Gladney said a gate isn’t needed.

“People have this very wrong perception of Mexico,” said Gladney, 70, a former executive with Eaton’s. “My son will call and say: ‘How are you doing down there in that third world country?’ and I’ll say: ‘Sorry, can’t talk to you right now. I’m going grocery shopping at Costco.’”

Speaking en route to her morning yoga class, Torontonian Cece Girling, a charismatic former fashion businesswoman, said the cartel rumours are overblown.

“A few years ago, yes some businesses were getting calls — give us money and we’ll protect you. But that happens. The expats are protected because, well, the drug cartels don’t speak English and the Spanish just hang up,” she said, making a left-hand turn at the new mostly English-language movie theatre.

There are subtle signs of the Great White North everywhere in this community.

The supermarket imports authentic maple syrup. There’s an English-language library with 25,000 books. Satellite television picks up Toronto news stations. A popular local pub hosts Hockey Night on Thursdays. (No Canadian beer on tap unfortunately.) There’s even a Wal-Mart.

Every day here feels like late spring. Warm enough to swim — which is good since almost everyone has a pool — but cool enough to spend the entire day outside.

• Photos: Meet the expats in Ajijic, Mexico

When 84-year-old Chisholm fell gravely ill with colon cancer, the couple didn’t consider for a moment heading back to Canada.

The Lyons pay about $1,200 a year to be part of Mexico’s socialized health care, but to battle Chisholm’s cancer, they decided to use the private system. Between the X-rays, biopsies, MRIs and eight months of chemotherapy — which included a doctor driving from Guadalajara to Ajijic each week to administer the treatment — the total bill was just over $30,000.

“The standard of care here is first-rate. The hospitals are incredible. The doctors are world class. I was very, very sick,” said Chisholm, a former corporate lawyer with an MBA from Harvard. His cancer is gone.

The cost of real estate in the Chapala area had been steadily climbing until 2010. Then the Mexican drug war exploded. Safety fears combined with the American recession has ground the market to a standstill. Sales are down more than 25 per cent.

It takes a certain kind of person to pick up and move to Mexico, so the cast of characters in Ajijic is predictably impressive.

There are world-renowned architects, designers, and artists, high-powered lawyers, a fashion editor and an Olympic figure skater. Engineers, entrepreneurs and corporate executives. Most are retired and eager to redirect their talents.

Donations from expats in Ajijic support about four orphanages, a school for deaf and disabled children, the Lake Chapala Red Cross, and various arts programs.

Nicholas Favian, a bartender at Salt & Pepper tavern who commutes to Ajijic from Guadalajara every day, says the expats are good for the area.

“The tourism is important for this area. They stimulate the economy. They go out more than locals and they tip more. A Canadian will go out four or five times a week. Locals will go out once a week,” said Favian.

And so far, locals have not been shut out from buying homes. The cost of real estate is high for the elaborate villas favoured by expats, but typical Mexican homes are still affordable and are passed down through the generations.

Because the cost of living is so much less, Canadians are able to afford luxuries they might not be able to at home. Mexican maids are paid about $1.50 (Canadian) an hour in Guadalajara. In Ajijic, expats pay about $5 an hour — still a fraction of the cost.

In Ajijic, about $420,000 will get you three bedrooms, four baths, a pool with a waterfall, fireplace, purified water system and fully-equipped gourmet kitchen.

For the Lyons, the only thing that’s missing in Mexico is their children. They have seven, plus four grandchildren.

“All I can say is thank goodness for the Internet,” said Julianne. “And you know they’re getting close to retirement too. We’re not pushing it. We’re not even mentioning it, but — well — wouldn’t that be lovely.”

Pan American Baseball

2011-10-23T15:36:00.000-05:00

The big excitement here is still the opening of the Pan American Games in Guadalajara last week. As I mentioned in the last post, the games are very popular, particularly in Latin America. The US and Canada are attending and doing well in the medal count, but the games are not popular in the US, unlike the Olympic Games. Nevertheless, it is a huge job to accommodate the games, and it appears as though Guadalajara has been doing a wonderful job and getting some excellent press for Mexico, for a change.

Our friend Lew Crippen wanted to drive up to attend some of the baseball competition and asked Pixie and I if we'd like to go along. The baseball stadium, build especially for the games, is in Lagos de Moreno, a couple of hours northeast of Guadalajara. We drove up last Friday and had great seats for the game between Cuba and Puerto Rico. There was a large contingent of Cubans at the game who were very excited to be there (Cuba was the gold medal winner at the last Pan Am gmes in 2007). Below are a goup of Cubans we met outside the stadium before the game.

We were anxious to see the Cuban team, who were undefeated in the tournament. Puerto Rico had lost both games they had played, so we expected a Cuban rout. Surprisingly, Cuba struggled with a persistent Puerto Rico team. There were some sloppy plays on both sides, a lot of base runners, and the game was tied 5-5 after 9 innings. Interestingly, when the Puerto Rican team came to bat in the top of the 10th, there were men on first and second base! I was confused until we figured that it was an international rule designed to get a quicker decision than a traditional extra-inning game. Puerto Rico, not surprisingly, scored two runs in the tenth. Cuba came up to bat, similarly, with two free base runners, and loaded the bases. There were to outs and two strikes on the batter; they were within one strike of being upset by the upstart Puerto Ricans! But they hung in there with a few hits and scored three runs, the final play on a disputed missed catch by the Puerto Rican outfielder, but the game was over, and Cuba had won 8-7. Here are some photos of the game. In the last one, notice Pixie with Trudy and Lew enjoying the game with the enthusiastic Cuban crowd.

There wasn't much food available at the stadium, just sandwiches, chips and beer. We had been able to pick up tickets for bleacher seats at the next game, which featured Mexico against the Dominican Republic. We had to clear the stadium after the first game, so we went down the road to have a meal at a local restaurant. We made it back to the stadium for the third inning of the Mexican game. Of course, this game was standing room-only. We managed to find a few spare seats but we couldn't sit together. We could see the game from a ways away, so I didn't get any good photos, but we did have a great time sitting in the cheap seats with a bunch of enthusiastic Mexicans. They were drinking beer and yucking it up with each other and with the umpires. I learned a few spicy Spanish expressions! The Mexicans were clearly curious about us. When they asked where we lived, they were surprised to learn we lived in Mexico. So we enjoyed the game from that vantage point. Mexico won the hard-fought game 3-2, setting up the final qualifying game with the US last night.

Since the US had clobbered everyone thus far, I was expecting the US to win the game. We had gone home Friday night, but Lew brought another group up to last night's US-Mexico game. I was surprised this morning to discover that Mexico beat the US team 3-2. So tomorrow, the US will play Cuba and Mexico will play Canada, with the winners playing for the gold medal on Tuesday. It would be great for Mexico to win the gold on their home turf. We'll see. At any rate, it has been fun to see some baseball down here!

Let the Games Begin!

2011-10-14T10:46:00.006-05:00

The torch is passed in Chapala on Wednesday on its way to the opening of the Pan American games in Guadalajara tonight. (Photo:Consuejo Municipal del Deporte). The entire area is gripped by excitement and horrendous traffic which will last for the next two weeks as the games continue. The only event to be held here, as far as I can tell, is Water Skiing.

Note: For those readers from the United States, you can watch coverage of the games from Guadalajara on ESPN2. Canadian viewers can watch the coverage on CBC.

We've been enjoying getting back in the swing of things here as most of our activities have started up again after a summer hiatus. We have been having crazy weather for several days this week as two hurricanes have been organizing off the Pacific coast near Puerto Vallarta. We've been drenched with rain all day for three days. We were used to this unpleasant weather periodically in Maine, but not here! Today seems better; it's good to see the sun.

We've stayed in touch with our Australian friends, Mattie and Fiona. Mattie is a marine engineer who has to leave periodically to work. He just returned from a 12 week job back in Australia. Fiona has found a new house sitting job in Chapala and is teaching English in a local school. She will be here for the rest of the year but Matty will head overseas again this week.

We've been having a problem recently with smaller dogs getting attacked by larger dogs while walking on a leash. Chuy has been attacked two times by larger dogs. Both times I have been able to grab him away form the other dogs, but I have started just walking him around our immediate neighborhood before I go on a longer walk up the hills for my exercise. I also now carry a small can of pepper spray to dissuade any dogs. By the way, the attacking dogs are generally owned by gringos who do not keep them restrained, not Mexicans. Below is a photo I took in front of our house and shows Chuy socializing with three other small dogs.

Speaking of dogs, we celebrated our pets a couple of Sundays ago with a service called "The Blessings of the Animals." It's not that the animals needed blessings of any sort; it was rather to honor the blessings they give us with their presence in our homes. It was a little chaotic; we met outside on the patio for rather obvious reasons.

This Sunday, I will be leading the service with my friend Bob McKeown. I will be reading and leading discussions of poems about aging. I am looking forward to it.

Pixie and I enjoy going to a local restaurant on the lake which features music almost every night. The restaurant is La Tasca, and the night we were there, the owner, Roberto Cerda, a virtuoso guitarist was featured. Here's a photo.

I am preparing my new book of poetry for publication. It will have 57 poems and is entitled Migration after the title poem which is about our experience visiting the Monarch butterfly migration preserve in Michoacan in March 2010. I will include more information about the book when I release it in November. We writers here are fortunate to have a Guadalajara printer, who specializes in small run, high-quality printing jobs, like our books. He lives in Chapala, so we can do our business with him without having to drive into Guadalajara. His name is Carsten Groppe, and he is pictured below in his Chapala home.

We continue to experiment with our vegan diet, and we are making more and more delicious meals. Today we are heading to the market to pick up ingredients for a carrot-butternut squash-ginger soup. Yum. Below is photo of the whole grain bread table at the wonderful organic market we attend every Tuesday. We usually pick up greens, tomatoes, bread, grain-based veggie burgers, honey, chocolate, granola and other treats.

Finally, a recently-published article is receiving some buzz down here because of its comments of the desirability of Ajijic as a retirement destination. I am including it below for your perusal. I think the comments about Ajijic are exaggerated, especially the estimate of how much it costs to live here, but it's an interesting piece. incidentally, three women, including a friend of ours from Maine, Michele Bernier, who live here will be featured on Conan Obrien's show next week. They won some kind of contest and won a stay at a B&B in Burbank, California.

Places to Live the American Dream Abroad

By Kathleen Peddicord

September 19, 2011 RSS Feed Print

Del Webb understood. When he conceived Sun City in Arizona, he realized that an important part of the appeal behind this retirement option would be the promise of community. Retiring to Sun City meant retiring among like-minded folks and never having to look too far to find company for dinner or someone to share a round of golf with you.
About 10,000 Baby Boomers will retire every day for the next 19 years. Nearly 12 percent of these (about 26 million would-be retirees) are considering retiring overseas.
[See 10 Places to Retire on Social Security Alone.]
If you’re among that group, one thing to recognize is that there’s no such thing as Sun City in most of the rest of the world. The formalized U.S. retirement communities that many of our parents opted for at this point in their lives don’t exist in the countries that today offer the greatest retirement advantages and benefits.
That is not to say, however, that it’s not possible to retire overseas among like-minded folks.
A friend who relocated his family from the United States to the south of France about the same time that we moved from the States to Ireland (some 13 years ago) once remarked, “You know, I think we’re doing this the hard way. Here in France, we’re scrambling to learn French so we can figure out what’s going on, because we’re always confused. We’re trying to make friends and to find a place for ourselves in a French country community where families have known each other for generations. We don’t understand French cultural nuances yet, so we’re committing one faux pas after another. And we don’t have any other Americans around to commiserate with, no one to show us the ropes. We’ve really jumped into the deep end of this living overseas thing.
[See Ireland: A Low-Cost Place to Retire.]
“And you have, too, in Ireland. You aren’t struggling with a new language [in fact, my husband and I would have argued that we were!], but you’re on your own in a foreign community. You’re living and working and sending your children to school among the Irish. You’ve plopped yourself down and are trying to fit in among the local community.
“It’d be a very different experience, I think,” my friend continued, “to move as an expat into an ‘expat community,’ a place like Lake Chapala, Mexico, for example, where you’d be surrounded by other people just like you, other people who’ve already done what you’re doing and who could offer a word of advice when you needed one.”
Which is better? Assimilating into the local culture or becoming part of the American Dream abroad? It’s entirely up to you. There’s no right or wrong way to retire overseas. Understand, though, as you begin your retire-overseas thinking that choosing to “go local” or not is one of the most important and fundamental decisions you must make. For many, understandably, the promise of familiar company is comforting.
If you’re interested in the idea of retiring overseas but also like the idea of retiring to very familiar surroundings, where, specifically, should you consider? Here are two top choices:
[A Beautiful Beach Town for $1,000 a Month.]
Top Expat Community Pick #1: Ajijic, Mexico. Ajijic and the area around Lake Chapala, Mexico, hosts the most organized, developed expat community in the world. The Lake Chapala Society reports about 4,000 American and Canadian residents in Chapala proper. The Mexican government, meantime, estimates that nearly 20,000 expats reside full-time in the state of Jalisco, the region where Lake Chapala sits.
In other words, the path has been cut. Moving here, you could slide into a way of life not dramatically different from the life you left behind in the States. You wouldn’t have to worry about learning the local language if you didn’t want to. You wouldn’t have to work to make a place for yourself among the local community, because this isn’t a “local” community. This is an entire community of nonlocals. You could wander into the restaurant down the street anytime and find English-speaking companionship, someone to complain to about the bureaucracy at the Department of Immigration or the challenges of studying to take a driving test in Spanish. Retiring to Ajijic, you could make a very comfortable life for yourself in a place that’s exotic, beautiful, safe, and very affordable.
[See How to Retire for Half the Cost Overseas.]
Friends who have taken this path live comfortably on less than $50 per day (U.S. dollars), including housing, food, transportation, entertainment, and in-country travel. They eat well, play tennis, socialize, and travel comfortably. As they put it themselves, they want for nothing.
Don’t misunderstand. Ajijic isn’t a retirement village. This isn’t Sun City South, at least not formally. This is a legitimate Mexican town that, over the past three decades, has attracted such a volume of foreign retirees that it’s become less Mexican and more foreign resident–friendly.
Top Expat Community Pick #2: Boquete, Panama. Boquete, Panama, is this country’s Gringolandia, as some foreign retirees in residence refer to it affectionately. According to Boquete’s information and tourism office, about 3,000 foreigners live in this colorful mountain town. Migration continues, and the number of foreign residents in Boquete is expected to increase to 10,000 by 2016.
What’s the attraction? Beautiful setting, good climate, straightforward pensionado rules (for all Panama), yes, but, mostly, the draw in Boquete, as in Ajijic, is the established gringo community. This is a place to come to enjoy many of the benefits of being retired overseas without leaving behind too many of the comforts and conveniences of American suburban living.
[See 5 Critical Issues When Retiring Overseas.]
In one private, gated, residential community development I know in this region, for example, amenities include a golf course, stables, even a small central town created specifically for foreign residents; and construction, for both the shared amenities and the individual homes, is to U.S. standards, with U.S.-style finishes, fixtures, and fittings. In Boquete town itself, shops and services catering to the ever-growing foreign retiree population continue to open. In the U.S.-style restaurants serving American-style menus (featuring scrambled eggs for breakfast and cheeseburgers for lunch), you’ll hear all-English conversation at the tables around you and all-American music on the speakers. People you pass on the street will greet you with a wave and a “hi” or a “hello,” assuming that that’s how you’d like to be addressed and that you’ll reply in kind.
Kathleen Peddicord is the founder of the Live and Invest Overseas publishing group. With more than 25 years experience covering this beat, Kathleen reports daily on current opportunities for living, retiring, and investing overseas in her free e-letter. Her book, How To Retire Overseas—Everything You Need To Know To Live Well Abroad For Less, was recently released by Penguin Books.

Calm Before the Storm

2011-10-01T13:23:00.000-05:00

Well, I say this is the calm before the storm because Guadalajara and the surrounding areas are going to host the 2011 Pan American Games starting October 14. Most of the events will be in various areas of Guadalajara, but Chapala will host the water skiing events on Lake Chapala. Athletes from 42 nations will descend on Guadalajara creating security challenges. The city expects 800,000 visitors for the games and 2000 Federal Police are already in the city. We have noticed increased security presence here at lakeside as well. Most of us plan to stay out of the city during the Games. I can just imagine the traffic!

Meanwhile all was peaceful at the Ajijic Plaza today (above) with the gazebo still decorated with the red, white and green flags left over from Independence Day on September 16. We have discovered a wonderful video shop in the plaza. It is jointly owned by a Mexican and an American and they stock many films and television shows we gringos are fond of. We just asked today if they could find the first season of Mildred Pierce and the first season of Mad Men for us. Here is Pixie browsing through some sale items in front of the shop.

Last week at our Fellowship we had our annual service dedicated to Ralph Waldo Emerson, one of our own Unitarians. Each year we have this opportunity to highlight the creative talents of our fellowship members. We have writers reading their stories, artists showing off their art, and musicians performing. It is always a favorite service as we can enjoy one another's creativity. Our photographer, Kelley, caught me on camera performing a blues song during the service.

Tomorrow we will have, for the first time, a blessing of the animals. Actually, we are celebrating the blessings animals bring to our homes. Many Americans and Canadians living here enjoy the companionship of dogs and cats. Some own birds and fish as well. We will see many of these animals tomorrow as we conduct our service out on the patio with our animals. I, personally, think it will be a bit of a zoo! Of course, Chuy will be there and I am sure he will enjoy seeing all the other dogs especially.

There was an article in the local paper addressing the issue of violence in Mexico. I thought the readers of this blog might be interested in getting some perspectives on this topic. Although the rise of gang-related drug crime has been well reported in the US media, how bad is the violence here? It clearly is a problem. Murder is the greatest cause of death for youths aged 15-29 years, followed by motor vehicle accidents. The murder rate in Jalisco (our state) has increased 125 percent form 2007 to 2010 (from 389 to 879), but the vast majority of that increase is from the increase in gang-related crimes. The vast majority of these victims are gang members, police, and journalists. The risk of murder for regular people has not risen much at all.

The murder rate in Mexico is far less than other Latin American countries. The Mexico the murder rate is 18 per 100,000 people, less than Honduras, El Salvador, Venezuela, Belize, Guatemala, Panama, Brazil, and Columbia. The rate in Mexico City is 9.2per 100,000, while it is 22 per 100,000 in Washington DC!

The media continues to focus on Mexican violence. Whereas it is clearly a concern, it would be easy to overestimate its frequency.

Not a lot is going on at the moment. The rains continue to diminish, as the weather is comfortably cooler, especially at night. We have another month or so until the snowbirds start to arrive. It's interesting to note that even now, without the winter visitors here, traffic is bad at Lakeside. I can just imagine what it will be this winter. In the meantime, life goes on at a slow rate. I am working on a new poetry book which may be released in November. Here's another view of the plaza in Ajijic this morning.

Meanwhile....Back in Ajijic

2011-09-19T10:25:00.001-05:00

Some final thoughts on our Mexico City trip…

I must say, I had some reluctance to plan this trip. Although we knew there were some beautiful and important things to see in Mexico City, I was prepared to “endure” the huge megalopolis, its pollution, the unsafe traffic, and the security concerns. We knew we wanted to see Mexico City, but we did not anticipate such a pleasant experience.

Visiting the city was very much like visiting any world class city. We’ve been to London, Paris, Rome, New York, Chicago, and Mexico City was, frankly, very similar in many ways. There were marvelous museums, restaurants of all ethnic cuisine and price ranges, and generally a vibrant and interesting citizenry. We encountered many young, professional, beautiful Mexican people. The DF, (District Federal) as the Mexicans call it, is exceptionally politically liberal, and we saw evidence of labor demonstrations, gay rights, and abortion rights. The pollution was not noticeable, and seemed much less than what we’ve seen in Guadalajara. We felt completely safe walking the streets in the centro historico area, as well as in all the other districts we visited. Only one night, when we walked several blocks and got lost looking for a restaurant, and we passed a community of homeless people sleeping in the street were we a bit uncomfortable, but they were fine and did nothing to make us feel unsafe. We would not hesitate to visit the city again by ourselves.

Now, back in Ajijic, we are enjoying the climate as the rainy season is ending, slowly. The mountains are still a brilliant green, the air is clear, and the evening temperatures cool. Our Great Books conversation series started last week with a discussion of Iris Murdoch’s novel, The Bell. Pixie is back teaching English at the orphanage. My student, Francisco, is enrolled in Level 2 English, and I am still working with him on Saturdays.

We had a wonderful surprise a week or so ago when we reconnected with our first friends we met in Mexico, Ron and Jan. Ron was an Air Canada pilot, and Jan a nurse. We originally met in the B&B when we were visiting Mexico in June 2006. We had lost touch with them, but they contacted us and asked us to dinner. They live out in the country, East of Chapala, in a small town, San Nicholas, along with just a handful of other gringos. Like me, Ron took a fall and had a serious head injury, but he is recovering well. We are looking forward to seeing them more regularly. Here are some photos of them on their new property where they are building a home and at their rental house with their six (yes, six!) dogs at feeding time:

It was our turn to host the Maine-New Hampshire-Massachusetts get together this month. We met down by our pool area for drinks and appetizers then went to a local Mexican eatery. We happened to meet a new couple who had just arrived, that day, from Hawaii to live here permanently. So we invited them along even though they hardly met the “New England” membership requirement. Here are some photos:

Yesterday, Pixie and her good friend, Jan Steinbright, conducted the service at our Unitarian Fellowship. It included rituals to celebrate the fall equinox. they did a wonderful job making everyone feel comfortable and included. It was a great success. Here are photos:

We had our annual awards banquet hosted by the publisher of our English-language magazine El Ojo del Lago. I was fortunate to win the award again or best poem of the year. It is a poem about the history of Mexico using the metaphor of a Mexican woman to represent the country itself. It is called “Mother Mexico” and is included here:

MOTHER MEXICO

She is a beautiful dama.

Her dark tragic eyes call to us.

Her dark smooth hair flows

over her face, down her back,

reminding me of every mother’s love.

Her red lips sing

the songs of the Indio,

songs of hope, songs of loss.

She lulls me with her stunning beauty,

but her allure hides the pain,

hides the tears

hides the bood,

all spilled

over the murder

over the pride

over the cruelty,

over her lost sons.

For she was young

and full of hope

and her beauty was plundered

and her chastity stolen

by craven men

who could never embrace

her native radiance.

She was enslaved and used

in the name of fealty and faith,

but she was left naked

to bake in the sun.

But she was strong.

She survived to love again.

Wrapped in her new colors,

she danced and she sang

late into the night.

Her sons swore their solemn oath

to stand with her always.

Yet, her sons were proud

and they fought to protect her

and they bled in her name

and they held her up

as innocent as Guadalupe,

but they slay one another

in her name.

And more tears and more blood

flowed into the dust,

down from the mountains

and into the hearts

of all her children.

And now, as the music of the Mariachi

echoes in her ears,

and the smell of the pork in chili

saturates the air,

the bitter taste of love lost

and promises unkept

quickens her tongue.

The tears and blood

which blur her vision

drip slowly onto her brown feet,

as she walks slowly

through her fragrant garden

under the mango tree

into her small cocina

to roll the masa,

to burn her fingertips

on the hot griddle

as she makes the tortillas

to sustain her grandchildren,

who watch her with love

and with fresh eyes, unclouded

by betrayal,

by the sins of man.

And she serves comida

in the cool shadows

as she looks over the garden wall

at the blood red sun.

Mexico City-- Part 2

2011-09-09T13:27:00.000-05:00

Probably the most spiritual place we visited on our trip was Teotihuacan, about 25 miles outside of Mexico City. This is an ancient settlement which was settled between 100 BC to 700 AD. Its name is Nahuatl meaning "place of the gods." There is some disagreement about which ancient tribes lived in this area, perhaps the Nahua-Chichimecs or the Otomis. It is believed that, at its height, up to 200,000 inhabitants lived in Teotihuacan. Like other Mesoamerican cultures, they worshiped several gods including the god of fire, the god of water, and Quetzalcoatl, the plumed serpent. They built structures for living, for trading, and for their religious rites. The pyramid, 60 meters high, is the largest, and most magnificent:

The pyramid of the moon, down the Avenue of the Dead from the Sun pyramid, is smaller but also spectacular. Below Pixie is calling the spirit of the Goddess in front of the Pyramid of the moon.

The other major structure, at the south end of the settlement is the Citadel which contains the temple of Quetzalcoatl, pictured below:

Here are some of the artifacts archaeologists have found at the Teotihuacan site:

On the way home from the Teotihuacan site, we stopped at the Basilica of Guadalupe. Guadalupe is the dark-skinned Madonna figure who is revered throughout Latin America, and the Basilica is said to be the most sacred, and most visited Catholic site, second only to St. Peter's in the Vatican. The legend of Guadalupe is that an Indian peasant, Juan Diego, witnessed the image of Guadalupe in 1531, who told him to build a church for her on this Mexican City site. He told his priest who refused to believe him. He returned to Guadalupe who burned her image into his serape. When he returned to the priest with the serape, he finally believed him, and erected a church to honor Guadalupe. Below is the original church on the hill which was built to Guadalupe:

Today, a modern, huge, Basilica has been built to accommodate the pilgrims who come, many on their knees to pay tribute to Guadalupe.

And finally, what I came to see, Juan Diego's serape, miraculously imprinted with Guadalupe's image, is displayed behind the altar, above a Mexican flag. I wanted to see this "miracle" for myself, but, I have to say, I remain skeptical. Here is the framed serape:

Oh well, I don't know what I was expecting. The serape looks like every other image of Guadalupe, precisely because every other image is take from the serape!

The site I most wanted to see in Mexico City was the Convent of St.Jerome where Sor Juana Inez de la Cruz lived, wrote her poetry and feminist philosophy, and eventually died. She was a prodigal girl who read at age three and wanted more than anything to study and write. In 17th century New Spain, that was difficult for a young girl, so she eventually entered the convent where she was able to pursue her writing. She has been hailed as the most important Hispanic poet to have written in the Americas. She was eventually silenced by a new Archbishop, gave up her writing, and lived out the rest of her 47 years in the convent with he other nuns, but not until she wrote a scathing feminist response, her "Response to Sr. Fioleta." Here is a link if you're interested in learning more about Sor. Juana: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juana_In%C3%A9s_de_la_Cruz

We visited the ruins of the convent, which is now incorporated in to a university, the Unversidad de Cloister de Sor Juana, a fine tribute to Sor Juana who devoted her life to learning. Unfortunately, we could not take photos inside the University, but I did take these from outside the wall:

In addition to sight seeing, we enjoyed just walking around Mexico City, seeing the different neighborhoods, and watching the artists, the young people with their contemporary looks and endless energy, and the interesting and eclectic architecture. Bob brought us to an old hacienda in the San Angel section of the city for drinks, and he found a superb Italian restaurant in the Roma district, and an incredibly good Chinese restaurant adjacent to the small Chinatown area in the Centro area. It was a memorable trip, especially fun with all our friends.

Mexico City-- Part 1

2011-08-31T11:27:00.002-05:00

We are wrapping up our visit to Mexico City today, returning to Guadalajara tonight. It’s been an eventful trip, but a good one. My impressions were somewhat different than I had imagined. I thought the city would be overwhelming because there, are after all, over 20 million people who make this their home. Of course it is a monstrous city, but there are so many lovely neighborhoods within the city, that when you are in San Angel, Roma, Condesa, Coyoacán, Capultepec Park, for example, it does not feel like a huge city. Bob and Kathy Koches, who did a splendid job of planning the trip, made it possible for us to see the major attractions in one week. The photo at the top shows the city sprawl taken from the top of the Latin American Tower, but I felt safe walking around, and always met very interesting people.

Our vegan diet was, of course, a challenge. Bob Koches made it a point, however, to find and let us know about vegan fare available. The fact is, however, if you go into a restaurant in Mexico and ask for vegetarian fare, it almost always contains cheese. So, we’ve been getting creative asking for bean tacos, salads, and veggie enchiladas. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t. One funny problem I had was with oatmeal, a good vegan breakfast. Here in Mexico City, they make oatmeal by putting a very small amount of oatmeal in a bowl swimming with milk or hot water. No matter how hard I tried to ask for solo avena, they could not seem to grasp it. In one nice restaurant, they strained their oatmeal through a colander to try to please me, but it was still mostly a bowl of hot water. Oh well.

We saw many of the big attractions while we‘ve been here: the National Anthropology Museum, Maximillion’s Castillo in Chapultepec Park, Frida Kahlo’s house and museum in Coyoacán, The National Palace with Diego Rivera’s fmous murals, the main Cathedral in the Zocalo , Temple Mejor (the newly discovered excavation next to the Zocala), Teotihuacan’s pyramids outside Mexico City, the Basillica of Guadalupe, and, yesterday, the Convent of St. Jerome where Sor

Juana Inez de la Cruz (the 17^th century nun, early feminist, and one of the most important Hispanic poets) lived, died, and is buried.

Our first visit was to the National Museum of Anthropology, a beautiful modern museum that contains the greatest collection of pre-Hispanic artifacts anywhere in the world. Most of us are familiar with the Aztecs and Mayans, but this museum traces the evolution of the Mexican people from the early migrants from Asia, the many different people who lived in Mesoamerica, to the people who were here to greet Cortez. The art and artifacts of these people, over the last 2000 years or so, is remarkable. Here are some wonderful images from the museum. I could not use a flash, but the artifacts were so well lit, it was relatively easy to take beautiful photos.

Chaupultepec Park is a huge intra-city park where we find the Castillo, which housed the short-lived Emperor Maximillian and several federal presidents. Most of the exhibits in the Castillo focus on the life of Maximillion and Carlota during their brief three year reign, before he was executed. It’s a beautiful building with interesting exhibits. Here are some photos:

Many of us were looking forward to visiting Frido Kahlo’s house and museum in Coyoacán. The house, called Casa Azul, is quite lovely and had many artificats, including the bed with a mirror above so she could paint here self-portraits while lying in bed recovering. The body cast which she painted, highlighted int eh film, Frida, is also on display. It’s a beautiful example of a lovely family home, which contains many artifacts of Diego and Frida’s life there. Here are some photos:

On Sunday, we visited several sites on or near the huge public square. TheNational Palace, which houses the President and the principal national government officials, is a huge, beautiful building which houses some of

Diego Rivera’s most important murals. The gothic cathedral is absolutely huge and took over 250 years to build. Since the Spanish built Mexico City on a lake bed, the Cathedral and many other large colonial buildings, are slowly sinking. We also saw the recent excavation of an Aztec temple that workers discovered by accident a number of years ago, called Temple Mejor. We could actually see the excavation as it is being conducted and looked at some artifacts displayed in the nearby museum. Here are some photos of the sights around the Zocalo:

Many thanks to Bob and Kathy who have worked hard to make this a special trip for us all!

Losing a Good Friend

2011-08-21T15:09:00.000-05:00

I am sad to have to note, this week, the passing of one of our dearest friends here at Lake Chapala, Don Edwards. We first met Don and his wife, Valerie, when we joined the Great Books discussion group when we first arrived here. Don had an interesting background. He was enrolled as a seminarian to become a priest but ultimately he had too many questions for which there were no good answers. He went to study at St. John's College (coincidentally where the Great Books Program originated) where he met the love of his life Val. He eventually went to work for IBM and spent part of his career living in Rome and Paris, among other places. Don was a scholar. He teamed up with a local rabbi to construct hypothetical dialogues between religious figures from throughout history; all the dialogues were based on actual writings of these figures. These dialogues, performed at regular intervals here, were fascinating. But to those of us who knew and loved Don, we was an insufferable punster and humorist who never let an opportunity go by without a good play on words. Even during the two difficult years of his final illness, he always maintained his good humor and was usually ready with a good pun or two. We will miss you, Don!

The rains are starting to come in less frequent intervals, and often they do not seem to last very long. By mid-September, we will have only occasional rains which will end completely by late October or November. The above photo shows the clouds over the very green mountains on the north side of the lake. The other day I took a walk on Rio Zula, where we used to live when we first arrived. Below are two photos, one of Chayote vines. Chayotes are squash-like vegetables with edible seeds popular here. The vines resemble grape vines, I think.

I have been continuing to work with my student, Francisco, pictured below, at his loom. He is progressing very well on his English. He participates actively in our Unitarian Fellowship where he sings in the choir. I brought back a copy of The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway, and we are spending part of each lesson reading it. Since the story takes place in Cuba, there are a number of Spanish words in the story.

Chuy has enjoyed having Rudy here for the last thirteen days. At first, they had to learn to share and get along, but as you can see, they grew pretty friendly. Rudy has now returned home, but Chuy will go bunk with Rudy when we go to Mexico city this week.

So, we're leaving for Mexico City on Wednesday. We are traveling with Bob and Kathy Koches and two other couples, Paul Bennett and Jeanne Haley and Bill and Bonnie Phillips. Bob has done a super job of planning our itinerary and planning transportation. We will be staying in the historical center of the city, but Bob has planned the use of a van and driver on two of the days to take us to the pyramids on the outskirts of the city, as well as Frida Kahlo's house and the Basilica of Guadalupe. Pixie and I will find out how easy it will be to maintain our vegan diet, although I think in a big metropolitan area like Mexico City, it will be easier. We'll see. In any event, I'll be reporting on the trip in my next post in early September, after we return.

Here's a friendly horse I saw on my walk:

Back in Green Mexico

2011-08-11T20:39:00.000-05:00

Well, here we are. We've been back in Mexico for over a week. The most noticeable difference since we've left, after six weeks of rain, is the green. The mountains are no longer brown but bright green. The streets are no longer dusty. The air is a bit more humid, but so much more cool and comfortable than it was in April, May and early June.

Now that we're back, there is not much going on. Many of our usual activities are in recess. So we are enjoying lots of down time and relaxing days. After our whirlwind visit to Maine and Philadelphia, we are enjoying it! I have been spending some time working on my new poetry volume which should be published this fall.

We have a guest here for about ten days, Rudy. Chuy is enjoying having a canine friend in the house. Fred and Mardele have returned to Canada for a family wedding, and we have Rudy for another week or so. He's a shelter dog, what our friend Eduardo has dubbed a PLD (a white poodle-like-dog, very common here). He's a sweet guy and we are enjoying his visit. Here is his photo:

Our biggest news, perhaps, is that we are, once again, changing our diet to take our vegetarian diet up a notch. Upon rereading The China Study, we reexamined our diet and decided to try to eat a completely plant-based diet. The book, which we had read last year, prompted us to give up meat. Rereading the book, which argues that it is animal-based protein which causes high rates of heart disease, breast, colon, and prostate cancers, and diabetes, what he calls "diseases of affluence," we have decided to try a completely plant-based diet. The author, Colin Campbell cites the results of a comprehensive study of the various diets throughout China, started by Chou en Lai in the 1970's, which determined that those people who ate very little animal protein simply did not suffer from these diseases. Although the book is a bit controversial because it criticizes the typical American diet, it presents good evidence for a plant-based diet.

Here's a link you might find interesting: http://www.thechinastudy.com/

Of course, following this diet is not easy. We have been trying lots of interesting recipes at home, but eating out has been more challenging. We do have a couple of good Asian restaurants, an Argentine restaurant, and a wonderful Italian restaurant which all have good vegan options. And of course, we also have a wonderful vegetarian place, The Secret Garden, which has many great dishes for us. Here is a photo of the restaurant, and a photo of Pixie sitting in the garden.

So, aside from our dietary adventures, we haven't much news. We are enjoying our lovely house, cooking in, and watching the dogs. We are definitely looking forward to our Mexico City trip on August 24th. So, stay tuned...

Wendy and Troy's Engagement!

2011-08-04T08:30:00.000-05:00

Well, we are back in Mexico now, but I just realized that I inadvertently omitted perhaps the most important photo from the last Maine post: this photo which Troy took of Wendy on the evening he formally proposed to her. He took her to a beautiful secluded beach and presented her with a Maine amethyst ring. He sent me this photo from his cell phone so I could include it on the blog. It was on my desktop and not on my camera so I forgot to include it.

They have set the date for on year from today, August 4, 2012! We are looking forward to the big day and wish Wendy and Troy the best. Here's another photo of them I took at the beach on this trip:

We are looking forward to their visit to Ajijic, along with Cassie and Alana, for Christmas!

Wrapping Up Our Trip

2011-07-30T12:37:00.000-05:00

We are wrapping up our trip north this week, returning to Ajijic on Tuesday. While in Kennebunk, we hosted a dinner for Pixie's brothers (from left) Rick, Tex, and Vance. It was 100 degrees F that day, so we served a cold pasta dinner. It was a fun evening and good to reconnect.

Before leaving Maine, we had a wonderful visit with our friends who spend the winter in Ajijic and the summers in Kennebunk, Ron and Jean. They recently rebuilt their camp on Long Lake in Belgrade Lakes. Here are Pixie and Ron and Jean posing outside their new camp:

We spent a weekend in Gloucester, Mass. with both of my brothers' families, and saw some extended family members too. Here are some more photos from Gloucester.

Here are my brothers Brackley and Fred posing for our annual "relaxing and drinking beer" shot. Here is Pixie with Fred's wife, Heidi:

...and Brackley with his wife, Happy:

Brackley's daughter, Ariana (right) with her friend, Lauren:

Ariana and Fred's son, Alex, and Fred's daughter, Nora:

My cousin Sally, and my cousin Lee, with her partner, Chris, hamming it up:

It was great to see everyone and catch up on all the family news, of course. The weather was hot, the ocean was cold, and the camaraderie nice and warm!

Now we are in Philadelphia spending a few days with my Dad and Step-mom, Joy. Here are Dad and I and Pixie and Joy:

It is good to come back and visit my hometown and get caught up on the Phillies, in preparation for the dream World Series (maybe this year) Red Sox-Phils. Well, we'll see about that!

We are anxious to get home to Mexico and our regular lives next week. We will be doing some dog-watching for friends and will be getting ready for our Mexico City trip later in August. It's always good to be back in the northeast connecting with our family and friends, but it's always wonderful to get back to our own home, and, of course, it will be good to see Chuy again!

Mexico to Maine...

2011-07-17T08:39:00.000-05:00

We have been back in Maine since June 29^th, enjoying spectacular Maine weather with just a bit of hot and humid weather. We’ve had the opportunity to spend time with all our children, catching up on the news and the challenges, and, this week, we had our three year-old granddaughter, Isabelle, who brought her parents with her from Indiana. We took them back to the Portland airport this morning at 5AM.

One our favorite things to do when we’re back in Maine is to go to the ocean. Something about the sea air is rejuvenating, and spending a day at the beach is almost always a satisfying feeling. We first visited Reid State Park with Wendy and Troy. We hung out on the beach for most of the day, then found some pizza in Brunswick and checked out the new Woody Allen movie, Midnight in Paris. Sticker shock here, of course. Movies in Mexico are about $2.00US with less than a dollar for popcorn. We paid our $8 for the movie here and the popcorn…well, we skipped it.

We went to Mother’s Beach here in Kennebunk with Eric and Crystal, and, as you can see from the photos below, Isabelle is an exuberant beach person. She did not stop running from the moment she stepped onto the sand.

We also spent a day at Maine’s Coney Island, Old Orchard Beach. It was tacky, expensive, and a lot of fun. We checked out the arcade, the rides, and some of the famous OOB pizza.

Once back in Kennebunk, we hosted a lobster/clam dinner for all our children and their partners. Although the price of lobsters isn’t quite as cheap as it was last year, we had plenty to eat. The seafood was complemented by sweet corn, salad from Wendy and Troy, Crystal’s deviled eggs, and strawberry shortcake from Alana. After dinner we posed for our annual group photo.

Top Row: me, Pixie, Wendy and Troy, Front Row: Alana, Cassie, Eric and Isabelle, Crystal.

We spent a day in Portland visiting the famous Portland Head Light lighthouse and walked around the old port to look at the boats and enjoy some pizza.

Yesterday we visited the Maine Wildlife Park where Isabelle got to feed a deer and meet Mr. Moose in an up close and personal way!

Coming back to Maine is enjoyable in many other ways as well. I can enjoy the vast collection of microbrew beers here, read the Sunday New York Times each week, enjoy a variety of seafood (Pixie has her annual fried clam dinner), and see many old friends. We met our old gourmet group friends in Portland for dinner (below) and attended a service at our old UU church.

We spent the night at Curt and Judy’s house, where we stayed on our unexpectedly long visit two years ago.

Here are Cassie and Alana (with Pixie) outside their East End home in Portland with their dog, Yote, and their good friends Lauren and Katie who will be getting married next summer:

Peter, our house sitter, reports that everything is well in Ajijic. He has been socializing with lots of our friends there and is enjoying spending time with Chuy. He sent this photo of the little guy so we could see for ourselves how well he is doing.

There’s a little black and white shi-tzu here at the condos in Kennebunk who looks much like Chuy. I can play with him and get my “Chuy fix.”

Our time here is going by rapidly. This week we are going up to Belgrade Lakes to visit Ron and Jean (from Kennebunk and Ajijic) who completely rebuilt their camp at the lake. Then, next weekend, we head down to Gloucester, Massachusetts to visit my brothers who will both be vacationing there, before leaving Maine to visit my dad and stepmom in Philadelphia on July 26. We will return to Ajijic on August 2^nd.

Here are a few scenes from Reid State Park and from the Portland Symphony Orchestra concert on July 4th.

Heading to Maine

2011-06-26T15:18:00.001-05:00

As I write this, we are getting ready to fly to New England on Tuesday for our trip to Maine. We will be staying in Kennebunk again in the condo owned by our friend Beth Ayotte. We are very familiar with the place now, and it is conveniently located near the beaches, and not far from Lewiston and Portland where Wendy and Cassie live. Eric, Crystal, and Isabelle will be coming to Maine to visit, and we will also be able to visit Pixie’s brothers and sister. We will travel to Gloucester, Mass. while we are there to visit my brothers as well. At the end of the visit, we will fly down to Philadelphia to visit my dad who is celebrating his 91^st birthday today! We will be back in Mexico on August 2.

Again, we used housecarers.com to locate a house sitter to stay in our house and watch Chuy while we are gone. His name is Peter Podesta. He is originally from New Jersey but lately has lived in northern Florida. He has been to Mexico many times, last summer spending a month in Guadalajara studying for certification to teach English as a second language. He is considering locating here for part of the year at some point. His wife is still working, so he is here now by himself. He and Chuy seem to get along well. He brought Chuy a perfect gift: a new ball! His old one was wearing out, and this one blinks many colored lights when it is bounced. Chuy is in heaven! Here are Peter and Chuy on our walk this morning.

Other than getting ready for the trip, we have been enjoying the cooler weather. We have had some good times with Matty and Fiona from Australia who, you may remember, are house sitting for our friends and neighbors, Fred and Mardele. Fiona is a vegetarian, so we’ve gone to the organic market together and we got together to cook and share a vegetarian meal together. We made a pumpkin ginger soup and Matty made some wonderful California sushi rolls (pictured below), and Fiona made a roasted vegetable salad and ginger-mint-chia seed tea. Here are photos of Matty’s Clifornia rolls and Matty, Pixie and Fiona at the table.

The organic market is catching on here and growing each week. We often buy veggies, homemade whole grain bread, chocolate and honey there. Here are some photos.

Pixie has been sewing an outfit for our granddaughter, Isabelle. She was having a few problems with the project, so our friend Bebe came over to help. Here they are:

We also enjoyed a dinner with our friend Marni and my student, Francisco. They did not know each other but found much to talk about. Here are some photos of the evening:

So, I won’t be posting as much over the next several weeks, but I will post some family photos while we are in Maine. We’ll look forward to being back here in August. Then, on August 24, we will be making our first trip to Mexico City with some of our friends. I will definitely have some interesting photos to post from that trip! In the meantime we’ll be enjoying some family time, some lobsters, and some good dark beer!

Thirty Seven Years and Finally Raining!

2011-06-13T13:44:00.000-05:00

Well, the title is kind of a joke. The thirty-seven years refers to our anniversary on June 9, and, coincidentally, the rains have arrived. This photo was taken on our anniversary. We went to our favorite Argentine restaurant with Fred and Mardele (left), who celebrated their 47th anniversary last week, and Jeanne and Paul (right), who came to help us all celebrate.

And, of course, the rain. The rainy season began in earnest last week with a large storm during the evening hours. It was so windy and so much water, that we found several leaks around the doorways in our new house. Fortunately, as renters, we had only to report it and Mingo, the handyman, came and sealed the doors. It's kind of a joke around here; after the first rain of the season, everyone can tell who has to have their roofs resealed or leaks fixed. Since we had not had any rain since last October, no one knows how water tight they actually are! The best part of the rainy season, in addition to having everything turn green and eliminating the dust, is that the temperatures are comfortably cool again, or fresco, as they say here. And it really does rain almost exclusively at night. The days are sunny and pleasant.

I gave the presentation at our UU fellowship yesterday on the topic of "A Simple Life." Of course, being retired makes it easier to keep one's life simple. But it also takes some intentional decision-making. It's easy, even here, to get very busy doing things, some of which you might not really enjoy. Most of us have simplified our material possessions when we decided to move down here, and that itself is liberating. We had to do it again this year because our new house was so well furnished that we literally didn't have much room for much of the "stuff" we accumulated when we owned our house in Riberas. I have been interested in this topic for many years; I think it goes along with my interest in Buddhist thought and living mindfully.

Our friend, Kelley, took a great photo of Pixie a couple of weeks ago, so I thought I'd share it so you can all see how beautiful she is these days:

We had the opportunity to meet an interesting couple last week. Fred and Mardele have gone north to visit their children and grandchildren, and they have used the same organization we do (housecarers.com) to find a couple to house sit while they are gone and care for their dog, Rudy. Matty and Fiona are from Australia and are spending about a year and a half traveling throughout North and South America. They will be staying on the Mexican coast starting in July, in a village called Zijuatinejo, where Fiona has found a teaching job. Matty is a marine surveyor, and may travel to do some jobs while they are there. They will be using this as a home base to visit other parts of the hemisphere. She is a vegetarian and we hope to get some ideas from her while she is here.

In the newspaper this week, there was an article about the Mexican national medical program, IMSS. Expats living here can sign up for IMSS for about $300/ year. It supposedly covers all medical care, including drugs. As I have mentioned before, Pixie and I have opted to not participate in the program, which has some funding issues, long waiting times for medical procedures, and, we think, some quality issues. But many expats here rely on IMSS to cover their medical needs. A couple of dozen expats have recently encountered problems receiving medical care at the Chapala IMSS office. Several have actually been dropped from the program after paying into the system for several years. They are in the process of filing formal complaints, suggesting that the Chapala office is applying different standards than the national system. My sense is that they are encountering many older people with pre-existing conditions who are straining the system. It would not surprise me if the Mexican government, at some point, decided that it could not afford to provide such cheap, comprehensive coverage, to temporary immigrants. We'll have to see how it plays out.

We have a couple of weeks before our annual sojourn north to Maine.

Potpourri

2011-06-01T11:42:00.000-05:00

Chuy and I see these fellas every morning on our walk up and down the hills of Villa Nova. They usually "BAAA" at us as we go by. I stop sometimes and talk to them, but Chuy is afraid of these strange creatures and does not want to stop and fraternize with them. So we usually proceed up the hill despite their plaintive cries.

To be honest, things are slow around here lately. The weather is still hot, people are going north to visit family, schedule medical visits, and pick up things which are hard to find here. Many activities are slowing down. Our Great Books discussion group had recessed for the summer. We are going to pick up the new book we need for next fall at our daughter Wendy's house. We had it shipped there; it's cheaper. Pixie's classes at the orphanage are ending for the summer today. I am still tutoring Francisco, although his classes at the library have ended for the summer. We are making our final plans to head north to Maine, Massachusetts, and Philadelphia in July to visit our families. So the days here are good for relaxing with friends, reading, and generally doing as we like.

We did get together last week with our friends, from left, Kenya, Norman, Sharon, and George, to play Trivial Pursuit and enjoy a pot luck dinner at our house. Kenya had brought an brand new version of the game down from the United States this spring, so we were anxious to try it. Well, it was not as much fun as we had imagined! Because the questions were so up-to-date, and we were not, many of the questions just baffled us. We were thinking our children and grandchildren might have better luck, especially with the television and music questions. Next time we'll go back to the old game, most likely!

I thought it might be interesting to update you on some prices here. The local newspaper includes price comparisons to see how prices are inflating. I'll give the prices in pesos. The peso is relatively strong now, about 11.6 pesos to the dollar. So to convert to dollars, divide the pesos by 10 and then subtract a bit. For example, if something is 100 pesos, it's about $8.60. If something is 18 pesos, it is about $1.55. You can actually divide by 11.6 if you want accuracy.

Here are some sample prices:

Large Dominos pizza, one topping: 100
Pack of Marlboros: 37
Car wash: 50
Movie, matinee: 20
Popcorn at movie: 18
Men's haircut: 50
Phone bill with internet WIFI: 399
Can of tuna: 11
Whole chicken: 31/kg (Kg is 2.2 lbs)
Avocados: 56/kg
Limes: 10/kg
Oranges 9/kg
Netbook computer (Acer) with Windows 7: 4500
Flat screen TV (32") 6500

You can see that electronic items are more expensive here. And, of course, imported foods are higher too. If you want US Cheerios, you'll pay 110 pesos, but for the same "Mexican" cheerios, exactly the same as far as I can tell, 35 pesos. The other day I needed Kalamati olives for a dish I was preparing, and I had to pay 147 pesos for a kilo. (It was worth it.)

We had what appears to have been a drug-related execution this week in Chapala. A 29 year-old Mexican man was gunned down near the mayor's house as he drove away. Several gunmen blocked his path with two late model vehicles, jumped out of the car, and riddled his vehicle with bullets from automatic weapons. The mayor has full-time bodyguards. This type of killing, like the few others we've had here, are highly targeted, professional killings. Again, no bystanders were injured. We continue to feel safe here, just as we did in Maine when there was a brutal murder committed in Lewiston, Maine.

I did note something else very sad in the paper. A 63 year-old US citizen apparently killed himself in his home last week. He tied a rope to his spiral staircase and hung himself. His housemate discovered him when he returned home. I guess people are depressed everywhere, even in this subtropical paradise.

There is a big controversy here, as the government wants to build a second aqueduct to bring water from Lake Chapala to Guadalajara for drinking water. There is already one aqueduct, and residents here are worried that another large pipeline to bring water to Guadalajara will lower the level of the lake. (Several years ago the level of the lake was very low, and it affected the local tourist and fishing economy). There have been many demonstrations against the aqueduct including a huge one last week in Guadalajara.

In another demonstration, the Huichol Indians, whose homeland is in Northern Jalisco, but who have spiritual grounds in San Luis Potosi, are protesting the Mexican government's decision allowing a Canadian mining company to mine land they consider sacred. The Huichol's are allowed to use peyote for their rituals, and much of the peyote they harvest is in San Luis Potosi. The remarkable thing about the protest is that Huichols generally do not get involved in political demonstrations. They keep to themselves and live according to their ancient customs. Here is photo of a Huichol family in their native dress. (Photo Credit Revemexicain.com).

There is also an article about the world-famous LPGA star and Guadalajara native, Lorena Ochoa, recently retired from the pro golf scene, and now pregnant with her first child, helping to promote the Pan American games which will be hosted in Guadalajara in October. This will be a huge event, similar to hosting the Olympic Games, but for the Western Hemisphere only.

So, we are waiting for our house sitter, Peter, to arrive from Florida later this month to take care for Chuy while we head north. In the meantime, we're just waiting for the rain, which should arrive in the next couple of weeks and cool things off.

Waiting for the Rain

2011-05-21T14:22:00.001-05:00

So, as the heat of May continues, we are seeing more signs that the rain is coming soon. The “RainBirds” we hear in the morning and evenings as they squeal and announce the coming of the rain. They are really insects, not birds, and the Mexican folklore says that it will rain six weeks after the rain birds start their songs. We’ll see. The important thing is that the rains will come, turning the hillsides green and cooling the days once again.

We have had a number of events which provide some photos for this post. The Ajijic Garden Club has completely redone the garden at the Wilkes Biblioteca, or library, where the ESL classes are held. The gardens there were very poor, and the Garden Club worked hard to re-landscape and plant new plants to create a much more peaceful space for the students. Our UU friends, Sharon and Bebe, are members of the club and invited us to a reception to celebrate the new garden. Here are some photos. The first photo is of our friends Sharon (right) and Kenya:

Another big event related to the ESL program is the annual recognition for all the students. My student, Francisco, in addition to our lessons, completed the level one instruction and I attended his recognition ceremony last week. Here are some photos. The bottom photo is of Francisco with his dad, Teo:

We are members of a movie group here. We have five couples (and one has their daughter living with them) who, every month or two, host a movie and then serve dinner to everyone. It was our turn to host, and, with our small living room, we had difficulty imagining how we could seat eleven people for a movie and then serve dinner comfortably. We thought outside the box and decided to use our pool-barbeque area for both the viewing of the film and dining area. It involved hauling the TV down to the pool area and carting down all the food, but it was a great success. Here are some photos of the movie seating and the dining:

One of our Great Book Discussion partcipants, Suzanne, had foot surgery and had limited mobility, so we held the last two meetings at her house. Her house is an amazing, very Mexican, hacienda. I had to take some photos to share with you:

We had another dinner with our old neighbors, Ron and Pat and Wayne and Claudette. Ron and Pat had a couple from Montreal visiting them again this year, Rick and Joanne. We had met them last year and were glad to see them again. Here they are posing with Chuy:

In the local newspaper this week, there was an article about gas prices in Mexico. The government is raising the price each month, but it still is cheaper than in the US. The present price for Magna (regular) is 9.16 pesos per liter, or equivalent to $2.89 per gallon.

In another article, the Municipality of Chapala has finished drilling a new well for Riberas, the town where we used to live. They claim it will solve the lousy water problem we had there… we’ll see.

We have had no serious violence here in the Lake Chapala area…good news. Life is hot, but good!

Mothers Day in Mexico

2011-05-10T21:19:00.000-05:00

It's springtime in Mexico, the flowering trees are blooming in force, and it's Mothers Day! Yes, it's Tuesday, not Sunday. In Mexico, Mothers Day is a major holiday, and it's always on May 10, regardless of the day. Children have no school, some workers have the day off, and everyone who still has a mom spends the day with her. Now, get ready for this; I am not kidding...at midnight last night, the dawn of Mothers Day, we were treated to about 20 minutes of fireworks. Then at 5AM this morning, we heard a brass band, complete with an oom-pah tuba, serenading a lucky mother in our neighborhood. Very different from the US. Not even any Mothers Day greeting cards. Just special time and meals with their moms.

Not much going on for us this week. I did receive this interesting article via email from my friend Ron from Maine who spends winters here. It's by Bob Miller PhD, from Charlottesville, Va. Not normally what we'd see in the US media:

THE NEW GLOBAL ECONOMIC REALITY

First: A reality check on Mexico

Mexico is in a unique position to reap many of the benefits of the decline of the US economy. In order to not violate NAFTA and other agreements the U.S.A. cannot use direct protectionism, so it is content to allow the media to play this protectionist role. The U.S. media - over the last year - has portrayed Mexico as being on the brink of economic collapse and civil war. The Mexican people are either beheaded, kidnapped, poor, corrupt, or narco-traffickers. The American news media was particularly aggressive in the weeks leading up to spring break. The main reason for this is money. During that two-week period, over 120,000 young American citizens poured into Mexico and left behind hundreds of millions of dollars.

Let's look at the reality of the massive drug and corruption problem, kidnappings, murders and money. The U.S. Secretary of State Clinton was clear in her honest assessment of the problem. "Our insatiable demand for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade. Our inability to prevent the weapons from being illegally smuggled across the border to arm these criminals causes the deaths of police officers, soldiers and civilians," Clinton said. The other large illegal business that is smuggled into the U.S.A. that no one likes to talk about is Human Traffic for prostitution. This "business" is globally now competing with drugs in terms of profits.

It is critical to understand, however that the horrific violence in Mexico is over 95% confined to the three transshipping cities for these two businesses, Juarez, Tijuana and Nogales. The Mexican government is so serious about fighting this, that they have committed over 30,000 soldiers to these borders towns. There was a thoughtful article written by a professor at the University of Juarez. He was reminded of the Prohibition years in the U.S.A. and compared Juarez to Chicago when Al Capone was conducting his reign of terror capped off with The Saint Valentine's Day Massacre. During these years, just like Juarez today, 99% of the citizens went about their daily lives and attended classes, went to the movies, restaurants, and parks.

Is there corruption in Mexico? YES !!! Is there an equal amount of corruption related to this business in the U.S.A.? YES !!!. When you have a pair of illegal businesses that generate over $300,000,000,000 in sales you will find massive corruption. Make no mistake about the Mexican Drug Cartel; these "businessmen" are 100 times more sophisticated than the bumbling bootleggers during Prohibition. They form profitable alliances all over the U.S.A. They do cost benefit analysis of their business much better than the US automobile industry. They have found over the years that the cost of bribing U.S. and Mexican Border Guards and the transportation costs of moving marijuana from Sinaloa to California have cut significantly into profits. That is why over the past 5-7 years they have been growing marijuana in State and Federal Parks and BLM land all across America. From a business standpoint, this is a tremendous cost savings on several levels. Let's look at California as an example as one of the largest consumers. When you have $14.2 billion of Marijuana grown and consumed in one state, there is savings on transportation, less loss of product due to confiscation and an overall reduction cost of bribery with law enforcement and parks service people. Another great savings is the benefit to their employees. The penalties in Mexico for growing range from 5-15 years. The penalties in California, on average are 18 months, and out in 8 months. The same economic principles are now being applied to the methamphetamine factories.

FOX News continues to scare people with its focus on kidnapping. There are kidnappings in Mexico. The concentration of kidnappings has been in Mexico City, among the very rich and the three aforementioned border Cities. With the exception of Mexico City, the number one city for kidnappings among NAFTA countries is Phoenix, Arizona with over 359 in 2008. The Phoenix Police estimate that twice that number of kidnappings goes unreported, because like Mexico 99% of these crimes were directly related to drug and human traffic. Phoenix, unfortunately, is geographically profitable transshipping location. Mexicans, just like 99% of U.S. Citizens during prohibition, go about their daily lives all over the country. They get up, go to school or work and live their lives untouched by the border town violence.

These same protectionist news sources have misled the public as to the real danger from the swine flu in Mexico and temporary devastated the tourism business. As of May 27 2009 there have been 87 deaths in Mexico from the swine flu. During those same five months there have been 36 murdered school children in Chicago. By their logic, if 87 deaths from the swine flu in Mexico warrants canceling flights and cruise ships to Mexico, then close all roads and highways in the USA because of record 43,359 automobile related deaths in the USA in 2008.

What is just getting underway is what many are calling the "Largest southern migration to Mexico of people and real estate assets since the Civil War" A significant percentage of the Baby Boomers have been doing the research and are making the life changing decision to move out of the U.S.A. The number one retirement destination in the world is Mexico. There are already over 2,000,000 US and Canadian property owners in Mexico. The most conservative number of American and Canadian Baby Boomers who are on their way to owning property in Mexico for full or part time living in the next 15 years is over 6,000,000. Do the math on 6,000,000 people buying a $300,000 house or condo and you will understand why the U.S. Government is trying to tax this massive shift of money to Mexico through H.R. 3056. The U.S. government calls this "The Tax Collection Responsibility Act of 2007". Those who will have to pay it are calling this the EXIT TAX.

Mexico: A better economic choice than China

Another large exodus from the U.S.A is high paying skilled jobs. The job shift in automobile sector, both car and parts manufacturing, is already known by most investors. In the last few months as John Deere and Caterpillar have been laying off thousands of workers in the U.S.A., and hiring equal numbers in Mexico. The most recent industry that is making the shift is the aerospace manufacturers. In the city of Zacatecas there is currently a $210 million aerospace facility being built. With the 11 U.S. companies moving there, it is estimated to provide over 200,000 new high paying jobs in the coming years. One of the main factors for the shift in job south to Mexico instead of China is realistic analysis of total production, labor and delivery costs. While the labor costs in China are 40% less on average, the overall transportation costs and inherent risks of a long distance supply chain, and quality control issues, gives Mexico a distinct financial advantage.

Mexico's real economic future

Mexico has avoided completely the subprime problem that has devastated the U.S. banking industry. The Mexican banks are healthy and profitable. Mexico has a growing and very healthy middle and upper middle class. The very recent introduction of residential financing has Mexico in a unique position of having over 90% of current homeowners owning their house outright. U.S. banks are competing for the Mexican, Canadian and American cross border loan business. It is and will continue to be a very safe and very profitable business. These same banks that were loaning in a reckless manner have learned their lesson and are loaning here the old fashioned way. They require a minimum of a 680 credit score, 30% down payment, and verifiable income that can support the loan. In most areas of Mexico where Baby Boomers are moving to, with the exception of Puerto Penasco (which did not have a national and international base of buyers), there is no real estate bubble.. The higher end markets ($2-20 million) in many of these destinations are going through a modest correction. The Baby Boomers market here is between $200,000 and $600,000. With the continuing demand inside the Bay of Banderas, that price point, in the coming years, will disappear. This is the reason the Mexican government is spending billions of dollars on more infrastructure north along the coast all the way up to Mazatlan.
The other major area where America has become overpriced is in the field of health care. This massive shift of revenues is estimated to add 5-7% to Mexico's GDP. The name for this "business" is Medical Tourism. The two biggest competitors for Mexico were Thailand and India. Thailand and India's biggest drawback is geography. Also recent events, Thailand's inability to keep a government in place and the recent terrorist attack in Mumbai, have helped Mexico capture close to half of this growth industry. In Mexico today there are over 56 world class hospitals being built to keep up with this business.

Mexico is currently sitting on a cash surplus and an almost balanced budget. Most Americans have never heard of Carlos Slim until he loaned the New York Times $250 million. After that it became clear to many investors around the world what Mexicans already knew: that Mexico had been able to avoid the worst of the U.S. economic devastation. Mexico's resilience is to be admired. When the U.S. Federal Reserve granted a $30 billion loan to each of Mexico, Singapore, South Korea, and Brazil, Mexico reinvested the money in Treasury bonds in an account in New York City.

According to oil traders, Mexico's Pemex wisely as the price of oil shot to $147 a barrel put in place an investment strategy that hinged on oil trading in the range of $38-$60 a barrel. Since the beginning of 2009 Mexico has been collecting revenues on hedged positions that give them $90-$110 per barrel today. Mexico's recent and under reported oil discovery in the Palaeo Channels of Chicontepec has placed it third in the world for oil reserves, right behind Canada and Saudi Arabia.

The following is a quote from Rosalind Wilson, President of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce on March 19, 2009. "The strength of the Mexican economic system makes the country a favorite destination for Canadian investment".

OPPORTUNITIES: WHY PUERTO VALLARTA & THE RIVIERA NAYARIT

The answer is simple and old fashioned: SUPPLY AND DEMAND.

The area of Puerto Vallarta/Riviera Nayarit inside the Bay of Banderas is an investor's dream. This area has the comprehensive infrastructure in place, world class hospitals and dental care, natural investment protection from the Sierra Madre Mountains, endless future water supply, low to nonexistent crime, international airport, and limited supply inside the Bay, first class private bilingual schools and higher than average appreciation potential. Like many areas in Mexico there is large demand for full and part time retirement living and a lot of construction underway to meet this demand. Pre construction of course is where the best bargains are available.

I would offer a word of caution for investors in Mexico. Do not be seduced by the endless natural beauty that is everywhere, both inland in colonial towns and along thousands of miles of beach. Apply conservative medium and long term investment strategies without emotion. The demand for full and part time living by American and Canadian Baby Boomers is evident throughout the country. The top two choice locations are ocean front, and ocean view. The third overall choice, which is less expensive, is inland in one of the many beautiful colonial towns or small cities.

Mexico, with the world's 13th largest GDP, is no longer a "Third World Country", but rather a fast growing, economically secure state, as the most recent five-year history of its financial markets when compared to the U.S.A.'s financial markets suggests.

DOW JONES AVERAGES MAY 2004 10,200 - MAY 2009 8,200 20% LOSS IN 5 YEARS

MEXICAN BOLSA MAY 2004 10,000 - MAY 2009 23,000 130% GAIN IN 5 YEARS

You may have read about the Mexican bureaucracy in previous posts on this blog. I am not exaggerating. Whenever we have to get our immigration papers, pay property taxes, pay a traffic ticket, or anything else involving the government, there is a noticeable bureaucratic procedure. There is lots of waiting in line and worrying if you have the exact paperwork you need. A friend recently shared this video which is painfully accurate, although a bit exaggerated. It's hilarious, really...watch it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXWZ3uAEKsw&feature=player_embedded�?�

I'll end this post with a couple of amazing cactus plants in our new neighborhood. See how tall the bottom one is!

Semana Santa Pool Party

2011-05-01T19:06:00.000-05:00

Probably the highlight of Semana Santa, for us, may have been the pool party Pixie and her other teachers put on for twelve of the children from the orphanage on the Saturday before Easter. We wanted to have the party at our house, but since we have five homes sharing a common space we had to check with the other residents. The Mexican family was planning to be here for the weekend, and they indicated that they would prefer a quiet time rather than have twelve kids having a pool party. Understandable. So we had the party at Christiana Park in Chapala, a huge public park with two pools and a waterslide. We all brought food and the orphanage van was supposed to bring the kids at 10 AM. Well, as typically happens in Mexico, the kids were not there at 10, or 11, or 12! Pixie and her other teacher, Kate, finally went over to check what was up. There was a miscommunication, but they finally showed up at about 1PM. Well, we had all planned to be home by 2, but, as it turned out, we were having the party until 4, and finally came home exhausted at about 5. I had trouble keeping track of which kids were “ours”, so to speak. Once the kids get wet in the pool, with 150 other kids, it’s, honestly, hard to tell who’s who. I memorized the designs on their bathing suits, and that worked pretty well, until they got dressed later. Without their suits, I couldn’t tell who was who. Typical gringo problem, I suspect. They think we all look alike! Anyway, the party went fine, with two exceptions: Brian decided to take off his bathing suit in the pool and was ordered out, and Coco threw up. Otherwise, it was a fun, but exhausting day. Here are some photos:

We had a couple of informal dinners at our house this week. We invited my Mexican student, Francisco, and his step mom, Janice, along with the friend from our Fellowship, Bebe, who rented us the house in town for the winter. Then we invited our old next-door neighbors, Ron & Pat, from Montreal, and Wayne and Claudette, from New Brunswick, for dinner. It’s nice to be able to enjoy our house and entertain again. Here are some photos. From left, Francisco, Janice, and Bebe:

Ron and Chuy:

Pat and Wayne:

Pixie and Claudette:

Living on the west side of Ajijic, with only one car, we sometimes have conflicts with time. I like to take the local buses, so it’s usually not a problem. The buses here are cheap, frequent, and provide good transportation for Mexicans getting to work or doing shopping. I am often the only gringo on the bus, but I enjoy the experience. Here is a photo from the inside of the bus, and another of some lovely Oaxacan Rugs for sale along the main drag. They are pricey with the small ones costing about $50US, and the large ones $250 or so.

The Mexican peso is benefitting from the weak US dollar. It’s gone down from a high of about 13 pesos/ dollar to about 11.5 now. For us that means that when we go to the ATM to take out 5000 pesos, it costs $435 instead of $385. Such is the risk of living under another currency.

No big news here; life goes on slowly in the heat, and we are happy.

Whew, It's Hot!

2011-04-19T13:04:00.001-05:00

Well, the heat seems to have arrived early this year. It’s been in the 90’s most every afternoon, so it’s a good time to stay inside under the ceiling fans with plenty of cool water to sip. This isn’t actually much of a problem for us now, since our schedule seems to have eased so we can enjoy those lazy afternoons. Of course, now we have access to a pool as well. The humidity is creeping up a bit, perhaps to 35 or 40%, so it’s not like the Maine heat and humidity, but it’s hot, and the sun is more intense, of course.

We haven’t been doing too much exciting. I finally completed my first two crowns with our young, kind dentist, and I have one more to go. I’ll start that process next week. Here is a photo of Dr. Alberto Garcia in his office, which may be small in size, but large in competence, kindness and interesting conversation.

Because I am part of the Ajijic Writers’ Group, we often have occasion to attend events to celebrate one of my friend’s new books. This week, Judy Dykstra-Brown, hosted such an event. She is one of the co-authors of the book, Maria Agaves, with whom I shared a book reading/signing event last year with my second book, Agave Blood. You may recall we named the event, Two Agaves, No Tequila. At any rate, Judy just published her book of photography and poetry, Prairie Moths. Judy grew up in South Dakota where her father had a farm, and where rural life was tough and lonely. He poetry captures these South Dakota days in her life. I think the book is one of the best published here by a local author. She also displayed some wonderful and unique sculptures she created form “found objects.” Here are some photos of the event. From the top, Judy with a poet friend of mine, Rob Mohr; some of Judy's sculptures, and another poet friend of mine, Michael Warren with his partner, Joan:

From the local newspaper this week, an article relates the good news that the number of cases of the mosquito-borne illness, dengue fever, has dropped by 96% over the same period last year. Let’s hope it keeps up!

Some readers may be wondering about the incidence of drug-related violence in the area. I am very happy to report that, as far as I know, there has been no more of this type of violence since I reported on some incidents in Guadalajara last January. We are grateful for that and continue to feel quite safe here at Lake Chapala.

This week is Holy Week, or Semana Santa, and so the lakeside area is inundated with Tapitos (people from Guadalajara) relaxing with their families. This is the biggest vacation week of the year. Restaurants are busier, the price of fish at the markets is higher, and Ajijic is getting ready for its annual reenactment of the crucifixion at the base of the mountains. There are many celebrations going on and, as usual, I don’t know what each one is for. We usually stay home and avoid the crowds and the traffic!

We’re still enjoying our “meatless” diet and are experimenting with many vegan dishes. I eat sardines for lunch several times a week to get some omega-3 oil in my diet, and we often enjoy seafood when we eat out, so we’re not vegan, but we are trying to eat healthy foods! I am walking up the mountainside with Chuy each morning, and Pixie is back in her regular yoga class.

We’re planning our annual trip to Maine in July. We will be staying in the same condo in Kennebunk for most of that time, but it looks like we may make another visit to Philadelphia as well, as well as to Gloucester to see my brothers, Brackley and Fred, and their families. Eric, Crystal, and Isabelle are planning to come for a week, again, and we are looking forward to that, obviously. We will be going online to find a house sitter to look after Chuy when we're gone.

Finally Settled in Villa Nova

2011-04-08T14:32:00.002-05:00

Finally, we are in our new house. Hallelujah! Since we sold our house so quickly in December, we’ve been in transition and most of our possessions have been boxed up waiting for a more permanent home. Of course, we had to get rid of many things all over again because the house we are renting has, literally, everything we need. But now, at last, we are moved in, able to relax and enjoy this beautiful setting.

The community where we are living has four “villas” and a casita. One of the other villas has a woman from Alberta who seems very nice, but she is gone a lot. One of the other villas is owned by a Mexican couple from Guadalajara who apparently come out sometimes on the weekends. The casita is occupied by an artist, Gravy, who is very friendly and gives Chuy biscuits. When I let Chuy out into the common garden area, he makes a bee-line for Gravy’s casita; he’ a fast learner.

The house is the most comfortable we’ve lived in since we came to Mexico. It has comfortable furniture, a beautiful kitchen with nice appliances, ceiling fans in most rooms, a washer and dryer in an outside atrium off the back of the kitchen. There is lots of closet space and two bathrooms with a whirlpool tub in the upstairs one.

It is MUCH more quiet here than in the village, and it seems reasonably secure. There is a gate which we need to activate with a remote control, and the doors are protected with iron grates.

Here are some new photos:

Chuy and I take our morning walk up into the mountain area where some of the streets give access to some beautiful homes. The neighborhood is very beautiful, so I’ve included some photos:

Not much big news otherwise. I am still working through the slow process of getting my crowns finished. And I have been following the Red Sox season which has started miserably, at 0-6! UGH. Of course, I discussed the Red Sox poor performance with Chuy who reminded me that there are 156 games left and that they are beating the Yanks so far today, 6-5. I think he's too young to understand about the Red Sox. But I like that he's so earnest!

More Adventures with My Mexican Dentist

2011-03-28T15:04:00.001-06:00

The weather is getting noticeably warmer here as spring has arrived and we still have no rain. Beginning now is, perhaps, the most uncomfortable time of year here, as the afternoon temperatures reach up into the 90’s with an intense sun, but low humidity (about 25%). Fortunately, the temperatures are comfortably cool in the evenings and in the mornings when I take my walk with Chuy. We tend to lay low, often inside under ceiling fans or in the shade, during the middle part of the day.

The snowbirds who have been here since December or January, including many good friends, are starting to return north now, so there will be less congestion and less traffic. I think the majority of snowbirds tend to be from Canada, as most of them don’t want to be out of Canada for more than 6 months and lose their health care.

Our move to the new house is still on schedule for Friday, April 1. We have sorted out about one third of the things we had stored in the casita because we have no room to store much in the new house. We gave most of it to a friend who arrived here with very little and needs everything. We have a nice man, Ernesto, and his son, with his pick-up truck to help us make our move on Friday. Since we have very little furniture to move, it isn’t difficult; it’s mostly household effects, clothes, etc. I will post more photos after we’re settled in.

I’ve decided to have my remaining three, long-ago-filled molars crowned this spring. I use the same wonderful dentist who so expertly saved Pixie’s front tooth in December, Dr. Alberto Garcia. I am having three crowns done for a cost of $1450 pesos each, or about $125US.

This is NOT a quick process, however. Alberto works in a small office in Chapala. One morning a week he donates his time to helping the people in the poor fishing village, Mezcala, east of Chapala, to get much needed dental care. He has to haul much of his equipment from his office in Chapala with him. The first day we were to begin the work on my crowns, he had to send me home; the building had lost water. The second time, he took a mold but didn’t want to start drilling that day because he wanted to “study my mold and make a plan.” Today, I went to start the drilling, and his light over the chair stopped working. Fortunately, there was sufficient ambient light in the room from the window and a good fluorescent light on the ceiling, that he was able to drill and prepare the first two teeth. He wanted to do a mold today, after preparing the teeth, but my gums were a little swollen from the drilling, so he wants me to come back tomorrow at 6PM to take the mold. Then, we have to wait for the lab in Guadalajara to make the crown, by sometime next week. It's always an adventure.

I already have two crowns by Alberto, and they seem excellent, identical to the ones I had done in the US when I was working and had dental insurance. But, as with everything in Mexico, we must learn to be patient. Things get done, but rarely on the schedule I expect.

We had to say goodbye, this week to Steve and Susan Barr, our first friends we made here, even before we moved here. They were both instrumental in our decision to be here and helped to start our Unitarian Fellowship. They have decided to move to La Paz in Baja California del Sur. Here are photos of Steve and Susan, and our last dinner club photo, with Jeanne and Paul as well.

Here is a photo I caught last week of our gringo celebrity, Pedro Loco, who wanders around town in his signature regalia. Sadly, he is apparently now suffering from dementia. I don’t know who he lives with and who takes care of him, but he’s quite a sight!

Last week, Pixie and some of her women friends enjoyed a Spring Equinox celebration in Riberas. They conducted some appropriate pagan ceremonies and enjoyed spending time with other like-minded sisters. Here are a couple of photos.

On a sad note, we will be celebrating the life of our UU Fellowship member, Sally Kugel, who died on March 20. She was a feisty, fun-loving woman, who lived her life with gusto till the end. We will miss her. It is amazing, but our Fellowship celebrated its fifth anniversary this month, and this is the first time we have had to experience the death of one of our regular members.

Finally, here is a photo of a balloon vendor at the Ajijic Plaza during one of the many Carnival celebrations before the beginning of Lent.

Back to Mexico; Back to Packing

2011-03-19T11:26:00.001-06:00

I returned, this week, from a one-week visit with my family in Philadelphia. My dad is turning 91 this year and has been having some health issues, so it seemed like a good time to spend some time with him. He has been a great influence on my life, teaching me to think clearly, and demonstrating with his wisdom and kindness, how to live a good life. We were able to enjoy some good conversations and memories.

I stayed with him and my step mother, Joy, in their Bryn Mawr home. I also got to spend some time with my brother, Fred, and his wife Heidi, in Malvern, and attend a service at their West Chester Unitarian Universalist Fellowship. One evening, I prepared a lasagna dinner (with two batches: vegetarian and meat) and Joy’s daughter, Beth, and her husband, Brian, brought a flat screen large TV to try out to see if my dad might enjoy it more. He did, and they stayed for dinner, along with their 27 year-old daughter Melissa. Everyone enjoyed the lasagna. Thanks to cooperation from Joy, Fred and Heidi, I was able to maintain my vegetarian diet for the entire week. Here are some photos from the visit. I only have a few because I left the camera for Pixie to use so I had to borrow Heidi’s cool camera for these. Here is me with my dad and my brother, Fred.

Here are Fred and his wife, Heidi:

Here are our niece and nephew, Nora and Alex:

We are moving to our new house in just two weeks. Pixie went back to visit the house while I was gone and verified that we have everything we need to live there, but very little extra storage space, so, once again, we have to do a major downsizing. I actually don’t mind it; it’s liberating to live with just the few things we really treasure, but it is a job which we intend to start next week. Fortunately, we have a friend here, Julie, who arrived with very little, and we can leave some stuff here in our rental now. But the next couple of weeks will be busy.

Here, at last, are some photos of the new house:

You can see from the photos that the house is well furnished and that the garden and pool areas are attractive. This gate, which opens with a garage door opener, allows us to park inside the compound. So it’s safe and secure. The neighborhood is called Villa Nova and it has its own water purification system, and it is reasonably quiet. We are anxious to be there, but we have lots of packing and disposing of extra things before we move. It will be good to get moved once and for all!

Mexican Wedding

2011-03-06T22:36:00.002-06:00

Long-time readers of "Maine to Mexico" will remember Dora and Daniel, our first Mexican friends we met as soon as we arrived in Ajijic. They were the caretakers of the small rental housing community in which we rented, down by the lake, in May 2007. They live in a small casa on the premesis, along with their children, Elian, Jesus, and Yoselin. We no longer live in that house, but we have remained friends with their family, including their extended family in Ajijic for the last four years.

We did not know that Daniel and Dora were not married, or perhaps they were married in a civil ceremony. Now that Jesus is old enough to take his first communion, it was necessary that they have a church wedding, and yesterday was the day. We attended the ceremony at the 16th century chapel on the Ajijic Plaza then attended a fiesta afterwards at an event venue in Chapala. It was a lovely ceremony, attended by many of their family and friends, as well as a good number of Americans and Canadians who have come to know them over the years. We know many of Dora's family. I had Maricella, her sister, in my English class. Pablo works in the meat department of the local supermarket. We've taken Dora, Daniel, Jesus Yoselin and their nephew, Obert, to the Guadalajara Zoo and have shared birthday and Christmas celebrations with them.

A wedding is a family affair here, with all ages participating. All the little girls, I lost count, were flower girls, and the boys and girls helped serve the food at the celebration. Every one ate, drank and danced into the night, but there was no evidence of overdrinking. Most of us gringos were beat by 10PM and went home to bed. But I imagine the party carried on long into the night. Here are some photos which capture the spirit of the day:

Here I am with Maricella, one of the best English students I've had here. She not only studied the material herself, but when I was having difficulty explaining a particular concept, Maricella would make and copy handouts which were comprehensible to the Mexican students. She and her husband, Salvadore, work in a family restaurant, Tio Domingo, on the west side of Ajijiic.

We enjoyed a dinner this week with an old friend, Marni Johnson. Marni is a member of our writers' group and writes a monthly column on visiting Mayan sites in The Lake Chapala Review. She has traveled extensively throughout Central America, visiting Mayan ruins and is very knowledgeable about their fascinating culture. Marni was also in our political discussion group, and she is an long-time progressive thinker. Her Mayan paintings are beautiful and original. Here are some photos of our evening, including our friend, Sheldon James, a former saxophonist in many jazz bands. You can see a couple of her paintings and some of the artifacts she has collected from her worldwide travels.

Otherwise, we are still living in our village apartment waiting to move into our new place on April 1. I am making a quick trip to Philadelphia this week to visit my Dad and Joy, my step mom. It will be good to spend some time with them. I will likely see my brother Fred, and his family, and perhaps my step sisters, Beth and Joanne, as well, since they live nearby. I hope to be able to post some photos of our new house when I return next week. Pixie is scheduled to visit and take some photos.

Finally, here is a photo of the lovely old mission chapel where the wedding took place yesterday. It was, I think, Ajijic's original church, built shortly after Ajijic was founded in 1531.

Finalimente, una Casa Nueva!

2011-02-25T11:55:00.000-06:00

The good news: we have finally found a rental that we are happy with. The bad news: we have to wait until April 1^st to move in. The new house is in a community called Villa Nova (veeya noba), not far from our original 2007 rental on Rio Zula, an the west end of Ajijic. This home is in a small condo community of four houses sharing a common garden and pool/barbeque area. The house is designed to look like a small Italian villa. It is two stories with a living room, kitchen, dining area, computer nook, and full bath downstairs and two bedrooms and a bath upstairs. This house is nicely furnished. Although it is smaller than the house we owned in Ribaras, we can accommodate 4-6 dinner guests (more if we utilize the terrace), and the kitchen is a nice size with granite counter tops and a dishwasher. There is a back terrace with storage and a washer dryer, and a small, private front terrace with an umbrella table. The home comes with dishes, linens, etc. The house has phone, high speed internet, and Canadian satellite TV. We are especially happy, because the rent ($1000USD/month) includes electricity, phone, Internet, gas, gardener and maid. All we have to pay is the TV, for $55 a month. We pay the rental agent the rent and she takes care of all bills and we just call her if anything needs repair. Stress-free living! Alas, when we were looking at the property last week, I neglected to take photos. But I’ll get them and post them as soon as I can. Now, we just have to sort through all the stuff we’ve accumulated, now boxed up I our casita, and figure out what to bring and what to get rid of, because there is not a huge amount of storage space in this house.

Last week we had the opportunity to house sit for our friends Jeanne and Paul while they went to the beach. Chuy got to spend the week with his buddy, Curly, and we got to live in their spacious, bright home surrounded by a beautiful, mature garden. The house and garden are so lovely, I’ve included some photos so you can see for yourself.

Sad news this week was the rather unexpected death of a friend and writing colleague, Jim Collums. Jim was a retired helicopter pilot from Mississippi and Georgia who was also a talented writer, tennis teacher, actor, and dancer. He was trim, fit, and did not look older than 65, although he was 75. He had lived here for about eleven years and was well-known for his activities here and he was a friend to many. He developed a serious kidney infection a couple of weeks ago and, unfortunately, when he finally sought medical help, he was dehydrated and quite sick. He was transported to a hospital in Guadalajara, and was put in intensive care with blood sepsis. He hung on for a few days, had a kidney removed, but died last Wednesday. Hundreds of people, including many of my friends in the writing community, attended a celebration of Jim’s life at a local restaurant-music venue where Jim liked to dance. We heard many stories about Jim, enjoyed dancing to a wonderful band, then, at sunset, we walked along the lake to the pier, carrying balloons and candles, and had a few short readings as Jim’s ashes were scattered in the lake and we let the balloons go into the sky. Jim would have appreciated the service. It was very special. Here are some photos.

Otherwise, it’s been quiet here as the days are getting warmer with blue skies and lots of sun. All our winter friends are here, so the traffic is bad, and we’re having full crowds at our fellowship and at our learning seminars at the Lake Chapala society. I am leading the service at our UU Fellowship on Sunday, and I will be speaking on “Aging and Spirituality.” Pixie has been recovering from a bad case of bronchitis which has kept her home and resting the past week. I am getting ready to have some dental work done, and we’re looking forward to moving in another five weeks! There has been no more of the drug violence in Guadalajara as I reported in the last couple of posts, which is good news. Life goes on…