Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Christmas in Los Amores





It's been a little while since I posted! We've been having lots of fun here over the Christmas break. First we had the owners Christmas party at the large palapa on Saturday December 19. It was a great party particularly as so many owners had finally arrived here. We decorated the palapa in the afternoon and the party really just carried on from there. Maureen's kids had given her a Margaritaville maker for the birthday and that was a huge hit. She had margaritas going for most of the night. We had tons of food and a great time was had by all.
Mexican's really don't celebrate Christmas the way Canadians do. We were surprised and amused to see that by Monday morning all our decorations had been carefully taken down and stored away by our maintenance people! Oh well, at least lots of us have lights and wreaths outside our homes to make it all look festive around here.
Our friends Ruth and Allison had to cancel their holiday here because of a medical issue, so we were very disappointed about that. Another time for sure!
We had mentioned to a few of our friends to drop by Christmas Eve night. We thought it would be nice to have some friends over as we are the only home with a regular size tree. Well, it kind of got a bit larger than planned as we ended up with twenty people here! It was great. I realized in the morning that we would probably need to have more food so I made about four appetizers extra-plus the stuff we already had-including home made cookies, shortbread and fruitcake. It was a perfect way to spend the night.
Christmas morning was sunny and hot- and I slept way past my usual time-not getting up until 9:30! We opened the few gifts to each other and found that Santa had left other things under our tree. We have such great neighbours! Maureen and Tony had heard me whining last year as it was the first in my memory that I didn't have a Terry's Chocolate Orange in my stocking. So, they put two under the tree for us that they had brought from Canada. So sweet-both the candy and our friends!

We spent the most part of the day visiting around or having others drop by then late in the afternoon we went to the other side of Bucerias to have dinner with our friends Linda and Loren. They had fifteen in total for dinner. It was delicious and made special with the Christmas crackers that we brought with us from Canada Costco.

Oh, by the way- I made the blue coloured nativity scene back in 1979-thirty years ago! It was a Christmas gift to my parents. I brought it back with me when I came home from Newfoundland in August after my father died. It was so special to have it with me again-knowing that it had spent so many years with my parents. 

A belated Merry Christmas to everyone!

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Manos Amor




Manos Amor- Hands of Love. The long awaited opening of the Bucerias Children's Orphanage opened yesterday. It's called Manos Amor. The community has been fund raising for this orphanage for a number of years. Previously, the place where the children lived was in a gruesome place although I had never seen it.
Anyway, yesterday we decided to attend the opening and give a donation. It was quite emotional. Right now, they have completely paid for the land and building, but only have enough funds for one full time staff member and lots of volunteers. There are two large rooms, one for ninos (boys) and one for ninas (girls) and each has 12 beds. There's a large kitchen and a storeroom for food, which mainly contains rice and beans. There are both girls and boys bathrooms, with showers. Of course there are also rooms for the administration. The place is very sparse but very clean. There are only 10 kids there now because they cannot cope with more until they have more staff. The lady who has been instrumental in getting this done told me that there is a great need to take more kids, but they just can't. I have to wonder where these poor children are right now.
So, it was actually quite nice to see the place and meet some of the kids. They were so EXCITED to be hosting this party for the community. They were all dressed in their best clothes, polished shoes and braided hair for the girls. There was so much food and grills being set up when we left so I'm sure the party continued on long past the posted time of 6pm!
The kids were adorable. We were totally amused by the boys, grabbing bottles of soda pop from the coolers, then after shaking them up, climbed the monkey bars and let them explode!
Gail has been thinking of volunteering there, but I don't know if she will. It is a little far from where we live, so she couldn't walk there, and it's quite a drive over what we would consider logging roads. So, we will see.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

A Beautiful Sunset!

The bonus of a bit of a cloudy day is the fabulous sunsets we have the night before. Here are some photos I took on the beach one evening last week, just before we went for dinner. Oh, and the clouds didn't last. The weather has been GREAT this week!


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Guadalajara Trip




At last, the promised post on the Guadalajara/Tonola trip. I've been really sick with a crappy flu for three days and am finally well again, yeah!

Thanks to Ann for providing the photos for me. Tonola is an amazing town. The ENTIRE place is a shopping mecca. The hotels cater to the buyers-wholesalers and tourists alike. The place where we stayed devotes the entire lobby to storage space for purchases. They have a fantastic system set up. There are areas to rope off and a white board on the wall for you to put your name and room number. Then you simply store your stuff in your space. The best thing of all is that you can give this information to the shop and they will deliver your purchases to your space and you don't have to be there to accept the delivery-so you can keep on shopping! You can buy everywhere you look, even from the back of a truck, where I bought my three kitchen jugs. There are also many many boys in the street pushing carts for your things as well. So if you buy from one of the street stalls you can hire a kid for a few pesos, pile your things in his cart and send him to your hotel. For some reason, it is perfectly safe. We used these kids and everything was right in our spot when we arrived home! With all the stuff I bought, Ann and Jack bought, and Marilyn and Barry needed help with, my van was almost as stuffed coming back as it was from Victoria!

One morning we went for breakfast at a really nice little place. It was only about 15C that morning, so definitely chilly for here. I pulled on a sweatshirt and was quite comfortable. We arrived just as the place was opening and one little waitress arrived dressed like she belonged on an Edmonton street. She was wearing a jacket with hood and scarf wrapped completely around her face. We were so delighted with the contrast and laughed so much with her about the temperature. She was happy to have her picture taken with us!

We had great food everywhere we ate. There was a tiny little kitchen (almost literally the food was cooked in the family kitchen) right next to the hotel, where we had an amazing meal home cooked by the Mama, orders taken by the son and served by the daughter one night. The cost including a beer was under $5.00 Canadian each. Then by contrast, we went to a really nice place around the corner another night where I had one of my favorite Mexican meals, Mocajete. The only other time I had this was a few years ago in Guadalajara so when I saw it on the menu, there was no need to look at the other choices. It's sort of like a thick soup or stew, filled with either chicken, beef or prawns and stuffed with lots of other veggies. It's served in a very hot dish made from black lava so the meal stays hot right to the finish. It is DELICIOUS!

Finally, on the way home, we took a 20 minute drive detour so we could stop in the town of Tequila. I just had to go! It's a sweet, quaint little place and just about the only thing for sale is well, TEQUILA! And coffee flavored, coconut flavored, almond flavored, pineapple flavored etc etc etc. TEQUILA!  Because it is all made there it is incredibly good and incredibly cheap. I had a literally, 1/4 tsp. taste of the each of the flavored ones because I was driving, sob! But were they good! Jack and I each bought three 5 litre bottles of coconut, pineapple and pina colada liqueurs for $200. pesos each (about $18. Canadian) and a five litre bottle of aged regular tequila for $150. pesos (about $13.00 Canadian). This stuff is not gut rot, it's really good! Am I going to drink it all? Not a chance, but it's great to have for company!

We didn't think we could stuff eight 5 litre bottles of alcohol in the van, but it's amazing what you can do when you have to!!

On the way home, I was thinking that this was the most amazing shopping I had ever done in my life. A van filled booty and booze and I didn't have to go through customs!!

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

My Tonola Loot!




Well, I am back in Bucerias and have a lot to do today. Gail arrives home tonight and I want to get as much as possible done before she gets here. This morning I already finished and installed a Roman blind in the den. I finished the one for the guest room last week. Now I have to deal with all the stuff I bought in Tonola.

I have three paintings, one piece of wall art and a mirror to install. I also bought a set of three beautiful large floor vases and grasses/reeds to put in them plus a set of three large mushroom "ornaments". I fell in love with them. They have pottery bases and broken glass shades (the mushroom caps) in blue and silver. I have a set of three Aztec tin wall ornaments and a set of three tin frogs. Just about everything is sold in sets of three, including the three pottery jugs which I've put on top of one of the kitchen cabinets. I bought some teal blue glass balls to put in a square box, along with sand and beach glass/stones to make a dining room centrepiece. I have a really funky fired tin rooster-so typical of Mexico! Right now it is about 8am and the real roosters are crowing away outside.

As soon as I get the photos from Ann's camera I will post pictures of our trip.

When we arrived home yesterday aftenoon, Tony and Maureen plus Karen and Bud had arrived from BC and Alberta. It was so great to see them. Last night Karen and Bud, Ann and Jack and I went out for dinner at Miguel Angel's restaurant in the town square. This is such a great little spot. Every night there is live music and the owner, Miguel, is a great guy-really friendly and a perfect host. I had chicken kabobs that were just about the best I've ever had.

Sad to say, it poured rain again all night and is overcast today. Where has our beautiful blue sky gone?

Friday, December 4, 2009

A Quickie Update

Gail's Mom is doing really well and in fact is now up and walking a bit. Gail will be flying back to Bucerias on Tuesday and arrives around 8pm.

I left Bucerias this morning at 7am to drive to Guadalajara. Ann and Jack came with me and Barry and Marilyn drove in their car. Now we are here and plan to shop till we drop tomorrow and Sunday. I've already had a taste of how fabulous it is here. I've spent a whopping $50.00 and cannot believe what I got for it! We are actually staying in the market town of Tonola, just on the outskirts of Guadalajara, which is where all the artisans sell their wares. Can you believe it? I FORGOT MY CAMERA!!!! But luckily Ann has hers and I've taken some pictures with it. I'll have to get her to email them to me so I can update the blog when I get back home on Monday night.

More next week, including photos of my loot!

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Upper Hallway and Stairs


 











The sun is shining again! A beautiful cloudless day just like it should be here. I spent the morning cleaning the upper hallway and stairs. It's been messy for weeks while I did the painting and Lobo did the mural. We also had a handrail added at the top of the staircase which I've wanted done since we moved here. There was a very dangerous area at the top of the stairs and now it has been eliminated. I'm posting a few pictures now that everything is done. The area at the top of the stairs is very large and there was really no use for it. I decided to have an electrical outlet installed so I could put a desk there for the laptop. It's a great place for it. The desk and chair fit perfectly there. You can also see more of the top of Lobo's mural. The two doors are to the guest bedroom and the third bedroom which we are using as a den.

I've been waiting all afternoon for Beto, the electrician who installed the outlet last year, to come fix the ceiling fan in the master bedroom. It only turns on low speed and it's not at all effective. Of course right now Beto is almost three hours late. He probably won't show up. Sigh.....but I have to realize it's a small price to pay to live in paradise!

The placement of the photos on this blog is so random. It drives me crazy. I can never get them to go where I want them!