Wednesday in Ajijic

Dear Readers,

Well, just like on the trip to Manzanillo, I forgot to bring along the cable that connects the iPod photo system to the Air.  So no pix available yet.  They'll eventually show up, tho.  Probably in a few days.  I've been posting on my Instagram account (@sbchaffee) in case you are a user.  But let me assure you we are having a fantastic time here.  What a wonderful place.  So good, in fact, we're thinking of renting a place next year for a couple of months as a big change from beach life.  The weather is gorgeous, the shopping and dining possibilities are endless, the lake shore is lovely, the malecón a short walk away.  It's true that the sidewalks can be lethal because most are very uneven cobblestones, but with my trusty seeing-eye spo9use I do pretty well.  The house we're staying in is another of T & S''s beyond-gorgeous abodes.  Pictures later.  Beautiful gardens, comfort everywhere, eye candy galore.

We got here Sunday and head back to the beach tomorrow.  I'll be sorry to leave, believe me.  Just a whole lotta work ahead.

scenes from the mayhem

Early Friday morning

 I went down to the malecón earlier to buy some cooked shrimp from Dago for tonight's quiche.  Here are some of the things I saw.

Our usually quiet and deserted malecón is jammed!

o are the beach tables all up and down the way.  There's the odd musical group, band, single guitarist, ice cream vendor, cut mango seller, the tiny Indian ladies with their pretty jewelry and baskets.  Very colorful and festive.

So here's the story of the "call box" in front of Chuy's puesto.  It's actually a loo for his customers.  I've never been in it but others of the domino group have.  However, as you can see, it needs some attention.  I'll say no more.

We had a splendid evening with friends in their overly gorgeous house.  Grilled lamb for dinner.  Unheard of here in fishland.  We'll go back down this evening to get a quiet sleep.  Word from Dago was that the disco went loud and clear until about 3:30 AM.  Sorry to miss it.  Not.

Semana Santa 2016

Yes, it's that time again, when our quiet little village turns into a huge fun house, playing host to thousands of party-goers who turn this place into a 24-hour lunatic asylum.  But it's only for 4 or 5 days a year so I really shouldn't complain.  We have been lucky enough to have received an invitation to sleep at  friends' house down in the colonia, so while revelers are staying up all night to the incessant boom-chuka-boom of the disco, we'll be snoozing peacefully. 

Here's a "Before" shot of our neighborhood.  

The lot on the left used to be a ~ umm~ public latrine at this time of the year.  Fortunately for us it was bought by the owners of the Oasis Hotel, top left, who have turned it into their own private garden/terrace/kiddie pool area.  A vast improvement and very much appreciated.

At 4 am this morning, Thursday, the first of the holiday campers arrived to claim space for the duration.

This little triangular space will be filled to capacity probably by the end of the day today.   It's going to be tough, tho.  There is all kinds of construction debris littered around; chunks of broken cement, rusty re-bar, old palm fronds and support beams taken off a damaged palapa.   I only hope the plants I put along the painted wall don't get trampled or "liberated."

On Easter Sunday we will be heading up to Ajijic, a mostly gringo enclave close to Guadalajara.  We have been invited to visit some friends at their house.  We've never been and what I'm looking forward to is restaurant choices!  Something other than fish.  Something on the floor other than sand.  Don't get me wrong; I love our puestos but a little change is always nice.  We'll be back on Thursday and then the serious packing-up begins.  We are heading home in 4 weeks ~ April 20.  It's hard to believe the season is now about over.  There's always next year, of course, unless the house sells.  HA HA HA HA HA!!

spring storm

While we were playing dominoes this afternoon a pretty good storm blew in to town.  We had rain, lightening, thunder, wind.  The usual.    This was the sky about 5 o'clock when I got home.

Here's what the sky looked like a couple of hours later.  This is a shot from our balcony over the to casa.

 We are expecting more rain tonight.  Mr. C moved all the chairs and equipale tables into the house to keep them dry.  I hope this storm blows itself out by tomorrow.  We're having a little dinner party and I intend to have dinner out on the terrazza.  I guess I had better warn the guests to bring coats and Wellies.

Right now the palm trees are thrashing around, the surf is pounding, the wind is up, and the rain is coming down hard.  The electricity may go off at any moment.  I'll let you know tomorrow if anything dramatic happened in the night.

Here's a luscious treat from Monday's market.

These are for dessert tomorrow night along with some of Mr. C's homemade vanilla ice cream.  Dinner at 7 if you can make it.

we was scammed

Or at least someone tried.

Monday evening at around 5:30 Mr. C answered the phone.  A man greeted him with "This is your nephew Don."  Well, Mr. C has a passel of nephews but none is named Don.  So he asked the caller, "Who is your father?" thinking he could place him on the extensive family tree.  The phone connection was so bad ~ or at least it seemed that way but the caller could easily have been jiggering with it to cause interference, cutting out, etc., so he could plot his next move.    The guy finally said he was in Mexico at a wedding in Puerto Vallerta and would be down here (although I'm not sure where "here" was or if he knew where we were) in a couple of hours.  An hour later he called back, again with terrible connection, to say he was running late and would call back to let us know exactly when he'd arrive.  The next call came about half an hour later and this time I answered.  Indeed, it was a chap with absolutely NO accent; total gringo speech.  Now he wanted to know if we could help him out of a jam.  He'd had a bit of a fender bender outside Barra and needed 5,000 pesos (about $250) to satisfy the victim.  I could just go to the local Kiosko (like a 7-11 mini mart) and send a wire transfer to the Kiosko in Barra and he'd be on his way. 

"I can't possibly do that," I said.
"Why not?" he barked back.

The line went dead.

We got perhaps 2 or 3 more calls; rang a couple of times and then stopped.  We did not answer any of them.


Meanwhile I sent off a message to someone in town who knows the "Don" we mistakenly though was the caller.  He is the fellow from whom we are trying to buy the car.  He lives in Los Angeles and, although he did tell us a couple of month ago that he would try to come down "soon" we were positive he wouldn't come without telling us in advance.  Our friend contacted Don who assured her he was NOT in Mexico, and not called us, didn't need 5,000 pesos!

The phone rang again, the caller ID himself as Don, and Mr. C snapped, "No you're not" and hung up.  He called again and got the same response.  He called a third time and, before Mr. C could say anything he said, "DON'T HANG UP!  DON'T HANG UP!  It's Don in Los Angeles!"  And it really was.

I have no idea how the caller hit upon the name Don to use as his entrée, unless it was just luck and coincidence.   Since we are currently dealing with a fellow named Don it did give us pause.  I heard yesterday that another couple in town got the same call on the same evening.  George answered, has no nephews and apparently gave the caller so much grief that he started swearing and hung up.  If I had answered in the first place I could have done the same since I have no nephews.

We realized later that this same scam was pulled on Jack a few year ago; I'm your nephew, I've had a car accident while on my way to see you, can you please send money.   Jack doesn't have nephews either.

All I can say is it provided some excitement in our otherwise calm, peaceful life here!