Living in Mexico and Learning to Speak Spanish: Tales & How-to Tips

Groceries, a Death, and A Musical Grandfather in San Juan Cosalá

2009-04-25T09:38:00.001-05:00

One Saturday Kelly and I walked a few blocks to the butcher shop we use sometimes here in San Juan Cosalá. We got ground beef for our dogs and some lamb for us, and while Kelly was paying, I noticed that the big double doors to a nice house right across the street were wide open. The house is for sale and I had never noticed any activity around it before. But there were a lot of people about, some all in black. There was a handwritten sign that the mass for Don David would be there at 4 pm.

I wondered who Don David had been, but I didn't know any of the people milling about. As we continued walking, we did notice a teenage boy we know, also dressed all in black, intent on the video game he was playing in a store. I had a moment of concern that it might be his grandmother, who's been ill, but then remembered she wasn't named David.

Back to the shopping. We hadn't been buying chicken yet in San Juan Cosalá but we had heard that there was a new chicken place on the highway, so we walked by there. They had already sold out of pollo crudo (raw chicken) for the day, but the lady said they normally have it Monday through Friday and early on the weekends.

Instead, we bought one of the chickens that was roasting, covered with a spicy coating. It came with macaroni salad, rice, potatoes, and salsa for 65 pesos which most foreigners mentally translate as $6.50 US, but with the dollar riding high at present, 65 pesos is more like 5 bucks even.

I asked in Spanish where the chickens came from. The family who owns this business lives somewhere else in San Juan Cosalá and they raise the chickens in their yard, feeding them corn and sometimes leftover tortillas from the tortilleria across the street. They kill and pluck the birds themselves. You can't get any more local than that.

Kelly bought a bottle of tequila down the street and we got one peso's worth of tortillas and the weekly Spanish language newspaper El Charal before going to one of the many tiny grocery stores in the area. This one is also a Cremeria (creamery) and recently they have started carrying my favorite yogurt, at my request: Alpura unsweetened. So some yogurt and some milk would be our last errand.

But they were shut up tight. Kelly figured they were going to the funeral.

We went on home and enjoyed a delicious chicken lunch. That afternoon, when our maid Rosa came for her weekly stint, I asked her about Don David. He died at about 80, and was a great-uncle to the teenager we know, an uncle to someone else we knew, and father of one of our neighbors. And yes, he was related to the people with the cremeria.

Rosa and I sat down to read a little from El Charal, that weekly paper. Rosa teaches me Spanish, and so I read aloud from an article about Saint Cecelia, patron saint of musicians.

The article went on to give some history of local bands, and Rosa interrupted me when I read the name Manuel Morales. "He was my grandfather," she said, and explained he had been a music teacher and a farmer both. He had been instrumental in starting a band here in San Juan Cosalá, and she guessed that would have been about 1930.Then she looked a photo from the late 40s and recognized some of the musicians.

So walking around town to do our errands, rather than buying everything elsewhere, helps us to get more of a sense of this town. We are feeling more at home here, at the same time that we are becoming ever more aware of how deeply the people who live here are interconnected.

Simple Green Living as Expats in Mexico

2009-04-18T10:39:00.001-05:00

With Earth Day coming up on Wednesday, I thought I'd write about what Kelly and I do to minimize our ecological footprints.

We chose to live in one of the most benign climates on earth, at 5,000 feet in the tropics. Days are warm, nights cool off. There is seasonal variation, but no snow and certainly not the humid heat I grew up with in Washington, D.C.

The heating and cooling needs of our house are minimal. For about three months in the winter, we have radiant electric space heaters by our desks, which we use in the early mornings and the evenings. In the hot season, we keep the house open all night, at least the windows that thieves couldn't get in easily, and we shut the whole house up in the heat of the day. When we reopen later in the day, we run a window fan for a few hours.

Speaking of the house, we use compact fluorescent bulbs even though they have a trace of mercury. Life is full of trade-offs, and we are watching developments with LED lights. By having a tiny house, we need few lights and we are pretty faithful about turning off lights we don't need.

Our hot water came through a propane hot water heater with a tiny tank when we bought the house. We added a solar array to pre-heat the water. At this time of year, we keep the propane heater off and go totally with solar hot water.

We drive so little that a tank of gas for our VW Jetta lasts at least two months. We cluster our errands so that our weekly trip to Ajijic and other towns along the north shore of Lake Chapala includes getting some of our groceries and doing other shopping, often having a massage, visiting friends, and eating out.(We sometimes stop in at the new Wal-Mart. I have found all-cotton queen sheets and broccoli sprouts nowhere else lakeside.) We don't hesitate to drive at other times if there is a reason – Kelly goes to the monthly Chapala Greens group meetings, for example.

Our solar clothes dryer works perfectly in this sunny climate, and we get some stretching exercise putting our wash up on the clotheslines. Last year during the rainy season I wondered about getting a gas clothes dryer and that gave Kelly the idea to cover a walkway behind the house and put clotheslines on it too. Works fine, even in a downpour.

Recently at home we've been eating primarily vegetarian, emphasizing salads. That's easy to do here – we can get lots of fresh fruits and vegetables at the weekly tianguis here in San Juan Cosalá. It takes both of us walking down with our large cloth tote bags that we lug home, usually full to the brim. And we have an organic garden. It's pretty much impossible to know if the produce we get at the tianguis is organic or not. We cheer when we find live bugs in the greens!

We reuse the plastic bags we do get – taking them down to the tianguis with us to refill over and over. Eventually they get used for cleaning out our indoor cats' litter box. I would like to get away from using plastic bags at all but haven't figured out how. Some of the larger bags we get (at Wal-Mart of all places) are themselves recyclable.

The state of Jalisco is encouraging recycling, and our town happened to be one of the first to institute it. So we do that; we were already composting our veggie wastes.

We don't give up things that we don't want to, though.

I leave my desktop computer on, with all my programs set up how I like them, when I take a nap or eat a meal.
The very fact that we live so far from family and dear friends does mean that we travel further to see them than we used to. But we donate to one of the carbon-neutral websites to at least help with that.
Having an in-ground swimming pool is hardly simple living, but it's great exercise and we have solar heaters and floating covers to make it usable for more of the year.

So we're doing what we can, and trying to figure out more. It isn't always simple to live simply! I started another blog a few months back, simplegreenliving.com. Actually it's a site I began three years ago but bogged down on. Now, with the greater awareness among people and greater urgency for the planet, it's more of a priority.

Other Americans and Canadians who live here, your comments on living ecologically here? And my readers from north of the border, your comments are welcome too.

We are all in this together, and every little bit helps. Or does it? That link is to my reflections on that topic at the new blog.

Semana Santa, A Good Article on Mexico, and A Challenge for This Website

2009-04-11T12:02:00.001-05:00

It's Semana Santa, and we prefer to stay off the highways. From day before yesterday through tomorrow, it's one of the main holidays of the year here… and we really stay off the highways! We're about to walk down for lunch to our favorite local restaurant, Viva Mexico, here in San Juan Cosala… we often do that.

There are a number of vacation homes owned by Tapatios (people from Guadalajara) in our neighborhood, and quite a few of them are here for the weekend. We groaned to each other as we noticed this, remembering some really loud parties we have endured in the past, but so far so good. They are all quite sedate! Or at least quiet!

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Here is a really interesting article about Mexico that was published in the New York Times. Enrique Krauze, who wrote it is a brilliant Mexican historian, essayist and publisher. It was written about 3 weeks ago in, and tackles questions of drug cartels and more.

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Mexico-with-heart.com began as a result of a trip Kelly and I took around various parts of Mexico in our motorhome in 2003. That link takes you to the beginning of the book I wrote as a result. Six years ago, blogging wasn't nearly so big and besides we were offline a lot. So I wrote the book, self-published it, and later put the whole thing up on this site, complete with lots of color photos I couldn't afford to put into a paperback book. I added information about various places in Mexico, too. In November 2004, I started this blog.

All that adds up to a sprawling array of some 683 pages.

So this week I bought an online course on how to transfer HTML websites to Wordpress, best known as a popular blogging platform but also well suited to creating sites. I am well into making the switch with another old site of mine, but it only has 83 pages. I'll decide about this one later. The goal would be to make the information more accessible, chiefly.

Readers of my blog, I am curious: have you ever ventured onto the website itself?

Living in Mexico as a Mythological Quest

2009-04-04T12:32:00.001-05:00

I've been reflecting on life in Mexico. It's been over three years since we began living in our house here, and I've often wavered in whether I'd rather be here or in the US. Many of my American and Canadian friends here in the Lake Chapala area take to life here so naturally. So does my husband!

As I walked by myself to the street market the other morning, I thought of my life in Mexico as being a bit like a mythological quest of the sort Joseph Campbell wrote about. The hero faces many obstacles and struggles. The outcome is uncertain; suffering and even death are quite possible. And in the end, there is a success. It may not look like the success that the hero set out to find in the innocent days before all the the adventures, but there is some sort of recognizable happy ending.

For me, the challenges here have often been near-overwhelming. Here are some of them:

Mexican traffic
Uneven internet connections
Lack of immediate access to Amazon and some of the material items I'm used to back in the US
Typhoid and dengue fever are here, plus turistas
Not knowing so many things about the culture here in Mexico
The surrealism implicit in Mexican bureaucracy, and the long delays
Petty theft and "small" crimes
Being perceived as wealthy
Casual Mexican attitudes about safety
Infrastructure problems, from our whole town running out of water for days to really bad roads
The extremely different role of police here
The risk of being in a vehicle accident and being subject to more of that surrealism
Dealing with the fears of family and friends NOB about Mexican drug violence
Not being immune from worrying about possible what-ifs myself

Okay, that's the path of the quest, and I'm sure I could think of more to add to that list, and I could write a whole blog post on any one of them.

Luckily, very luckily, we don't have to wait till the end of the journey for the rewards of living here… I would never have made it! Here are just a few instances of the sweetness of life here in Mexico:

The love of life, the joyousness expressed so freely by Mexicans and by foreigners who are happy here
The Mexican love of babies and young children
The courtesy and graciousness of the people
The willingness to pitch in and help when a problem arises, such as when the mudslide hit our town a year and a half ago
The Mexicans' "Ni modo" shrug at things they can't control
The heavenly climate
Our ability to live very economically and simply here
The camaraderie among the expats here

I could go on here too, and I *have* written blog posts about a lot of these.

And so the journey continues.

Live in Mexico – or Colombia?

2009-03-28T12:17:00.001-05:00

Colombia has not been on my mental map of places in the world I might like to live, I must admit.

Uruguay, Chile, and even Peru have crossed my mind for that part of the world. I still think about parts of the US as places to live. I won't get started on Thailand, the Costa del Sol in Spain where I did live as a young woman, New Zealand, Canada in season, and all the rest of the beguiling places our world offers.

But I've been emailing with a young American who does live in Colombia and loves it.

Brian Requarth of VivaReal.net lives in Bogota, Colombia. He wrote me, "I started my trip over 5 years ago leaving small town Sebastopol, CA and making my way south in my beat-up Nissan Pathfinder. I spent 6 months in Mexico, made my way through Central America, sold my car and bought a one way ticket to Bogota. I now reside here and am happily married to my Colombian wife that I met in San Diego just a year before my trip."

He commented:

There are so many headlines that are negative about Mexico (even worse in Colombia) and it stops people from having new experiences and exposing themselves to different cultures. I believe that these types of experiences are essential to the "healing process" that our world needs right now. It is one of the fundamental components of tolerance.

I wrote him back that I'd like to blog about his life in Colombia, and that I used to run the Sebastopol library. That turned out to be before he was born (ahem), but he also has fond memories of spending time in that library. I asked him about the widespread belief that Colombia was not exactly a safe place to be. He replied, with permission to quote:

Here are some thoughts about safety in Colombia.

When I tell people that I live in Colombia, the first question I get is, "Is it safe?" I live in the northern part of Bogota. I walk through the neighborhood at night without worrying about being robbed. In fact, over the last five years, not for one moment have I felt threatened.

During my college years living in San Diego, more happened to me there than my time in Colombia (and I did my undergrad in less than the standard 5 year program at SDSU).

Just like any big city, Bogota has some parts that are dangerous, but the media exaggerates. Movies like Mr. and Mrs. Smith don't help. I watched that move here in Bogota and laughed when I saw the opening scene supposedly portraying Bogota, Colombia with crazy-out-of-control fires and chickens running around.

Whenever I am back in the states I always try and be an ambassador for the country. Colombians are very proud of their country and they are so happy that foreigners are here. I find that most people I have encountered almost try and overcompensate by being absurdly nice so that the word gets out. Colombians are very hospitable.

The country has suffered some really tragic violence and it still has problems with the Guerilla groups and Paramilitary, but most of the problems are in remote areas. Since I arrived here in 2004, I have seen a big improvement.

(That sounds much like Mexico, with the possible exception of the big improvement, not sure I could say that here.—Rosana)

I came down here to be see a girl I met in school (now my wife, Andrea). I decided to try my luck living here for a few months and I ended up staying. We got married a year later.

Since I didn't have any money I taught English to pay the bills. I simultaneously founded a technology company. We evolved into building VivaReal, one of the largest networks of real estate websites in Latin America. The site I sent you, www.VivaReal.net is tailored to expats and retirees in Latin America. We have several other sites.
I love it down here.

Ideally, in the future, we will have the luxury of spending half our time here and half the time in the states. I also would be happy in Mexico. During my 6 months in Mexico, I fell in love with the country.

Want to find out more? VivaReal.net has listings in Mexico as well as Colombia and a variety of other Latin American countries. Brian's personal blog is at http://brianrequarth.blogspot.com/ and here's one of the posts I particularly liked, on funny misunderstandings in speaking Spanish.

Guess I'd better add Bogota to my hypothetical list of places to live. Sebastopol, California, is definitely on it… in fact if we could afford a house within walking distance of that library I used to run, and the cafes and bookstores and Whole Foods… well that could give Lake Chapala a run for its money!

One place or another, maybe I'll cross paths with Brian Requarth someday. After all, as he said when I told him about our common Sebastopol connections, "it truly is a small world."

Around the Mexican Blogosphere, and a New Book

2009-03-21T11:07:00.003-05:00

The Truth About Mexico

Those of us foreigners who live in Mexico are getting a lot of concerned phone calls and emails from family and friends in the US and Canada. They are seeing sensational news stories of dead bodies and drug cartel violence here in Mexico, and tend to assume that we are living in a war zone.

They don't think about Mexico being a very large and diverse country. I wrote back to one worried friend who lives in a small town in the rural American West, that she probably didn't worry about getting caught in the crossfire of gangs in Brooklyn or LA. I did say it was *almost* but not quite identical here, and she wrote back still most worried. This is typical of what other expats tell me is going on with them too.

Happily, some expats decided to reply with a new website about the truth of what it is like to be here. http://www.thetruthaboutmexico.com is aptly named. It's got a lot of great articles, and it's also got a terrific blog list running down the sidebar. So go take a look, and if you are here and dealing with worried friends up north, send them to that website. And you may need to get your spare bedroom ready for guests!

My Blog Makes a Top 10 List for Mexico Blogs!

Manzanillo Blog wrote a few days ago:

There are many great Mexico Blogs out there, and while we are still getting lots of traffic from the Lonely Planet Awards, I wanted to give them a shoutout so they could get the exposure they so much deserve.

I was thrilled to discover that this blog, yep, this very one you are looking at now, was on the top ten list! Here's the link to the article: http://www.manzanilloblog.com/general/top-10-mexico-blogs/

I knew most of the other blogs on the list, but found a couple of gems I hadn't seen. Because I'm blogging on several topics besides Mexico, I don't have time to read widely on any one subject, and I'm always behind on my reading, it seems!

New Book: A Walk Through Mexico's Crown Jewel, by Doug Bower

The crown jewel is one of my very favorite cities in Mexico, Guanajuato. So I was pleased to hear that writer Doug Bower had done a guide to this compact and steeply-hilled city. I wrote a walking guide to Olympia, Washington, when we lived there, and that left me with an appreciation for the task of guidebooking.

Here's the info:

This travelogue is for American, English-speaking European, and Canadian travelers who have grown weary of the typical Mexican vacation. It is a travelogue with strong guidebook features about the city of Guanajuato (the capital of the state of Guanajuato). The book features the author walking through the city of Guanajuato and describing the areas of interest to tourists and most importantly saving the unaware tourist from getting lost in a topographically confusing terrain.

Doug Bower is a freelance writer and book author. He's authored several books on how to expatriate to Mexico and on learning Spanish. He lives in Guanajuato, Mexico, with his wife, where he is a writer for "Ventana" Magazine.

And the book is at Amazon:

At Guadalajara's Mercado de Abastos

2009-03-13T20:40:00.001-05:00

ACA is an organic farm and information center which does a lot of community outreach to both Mexicans and foreigners. Wednesday we took part in one of their bus trips to the huge wholesale food market in the heart of Guadalajara. The Mercado de Abastos stretches for many, many blocks. You could get lost and wander forever in the onion section alone! (Kelly and I almost did.)

Some forty of us took the tour, guided by Wendee Hill of ACA, who has lived near Lake Chapala for many years and knows the market well. She took us around to a variety of places over several blocks, then turned us all loose to eat and shop for a few hours. Above is one of the fruits she pointed out; the sign says "My name is yaca. I have 7 flavors."

Virtually all the produce that we buy at our local street market here in San Juan Cosala comes from the Mercado de Abastos. Carlos goes in to the big city long before dawn, loads up his truck, and stops by his home in Chapala to pick up his wife Blanca if she hasn't gone in with him.They sell till mid-afternoon every Tuesday here and every Wednesday in Ajijic. Countless other vendors do the same thing all over Jalisco.

After the tour, Kelly and I headed down to the area that was mainly wholesale. That's where we wandered among onions. While I waited for Kelly to come out of a men's room, I chatted with a gray-haired Mexican woman who seemed to be a store owner. After we exchanged pleasantries, I asked her if the market was at all affected by the economic problems in the US. She rattled off a couple of sentences I couldn't follow and then added that before there would have been ever more activity. Things have slowed down some. Still, everyone has to eat.

This stall is typical of many:

Hot peppers up close:

Just outside that stall, a man was playing his sax for coins:

On his left, a couple of guys were sitting on the end of a cabbage truck. Kelly got several lovely photos of cabbages but here is one from my favorite of the wholesale areas, the fruit part. Mangos:

Wendee had told us that Mexicans like their mangos less ripe than we foreigners like them.

Okay, the truck trailers aren't as pretty as the mangos, but they are an essential part of the scene. We really got the feeling of the Mercado de Abastos as being the heartbeat of the food of the region. In from all over, out to all over the city and the outlying communities for a good long ways.

I also enjoyed the characteristic Mexican jolliness of the workers. Some were working hard, carrying heavy things or navigating their hand trucks deftly past us and around obstacles. Others were lounging for the moment. As ever in Mexico, it was all done with a good humor that I don't see nearly as much north of the border.

Eventually we wandered back to the restaurant area. A Mexican friend had recommended two places: either a particular menuderia (place to eat tripe) for its large quesadillas, or a Korean place.

Tripe? Well, one of our favorite television programs features chef Anthony Bourdain eating all kinds of things in restaurants and street markets all over the world. There was no doubt in our minds what Anthony would do with that choice. But us? We went Korean and it was delicious, plenty of stir-fried veggies with meat and rice. We chatted a little with the Korean woman – she's been here 20 years, and came with her husband and a number of his relatives. I asked if she ever gets back to Korea. Very little, she said. It's hard to leave the stall.. Her Korean accent in Spanish was less than my American one.

Now it was time to do some serious shopping. We actually didn't buy any produce, as we had our eyes on some grains and other odds and ends in stores and mercado stalls Wendee had shown us.

I asked Kelly to take a photo of this fruit – didn't catch its name but think it's from a cactus – which Wendee had said is good for diabetes.

We crossed the street from the Mercado and shopped in several stores. La Gallina Feliz and Mama Coneja were my favorites. I was in health-food-store heaven, with all sorts of herbs, spices, grains, beans, and other things in bins. Unlike the US, I had no idea what might be organically grown and what not. Both stores were on Avenida del Mercado, not far from each other.

When we got home, we took this picture of the results of our shopping:

The two hammocks were from a street vender, and were 350 pesos for both. I asked where the hammocks were made, and he said Acapulco. I asked if he was from there and he said yes. "Still dangerous?" I asked in Spanish, and referred to a grisly event that had happened there a couple of years ago. "No, no," he insisted with a smile.

The brown stuff in the large bag on the upper right is 5 kilos of wheat. Kelly grinds it into flour in the VitaMix blender we brought down with us from the US, to make our bread. That 5 kilos cost a total of 25 pesos, The peso is now at about 15 to the dollar, which means our cost of living is a just over 2/3 of what it was about half a year ago. We certainly notice this! So all that wheat cost us about $1.65 US and will be the main ingredient in something like 15 loaves of bread. (A kilo is 2.2 pounds.)

Next to it is 2 kilos of brown rice, which also totaled 25 pesos. Other items in the picture are two round sweetened nut-and-seed cakes, oatmeal, granola, lentils, 2 kinds of chia seeds, raw cashews (a rare find here), other seeds, citric acid, red jamaica to make a health-enhancing herbal tea (it's the red in Red Zinger), and two big chunks of cheese from a place Wendee had recommended. One is a sharp Cheddar and the other is a mild one. After tasting samples, we got half a kilo of each for a total of 90 pesos or 6 bucks. Our total grocery bill for all this came to about $30 US, and over a third of that cost was the cashews. We were well loaded up on the way back to the bus.

To find out more about ACA, see their website. There is a "contact us" page you can use if you want to find out about future events and tours—they do a regular email newsletter. This same tour will take place again in mid-April, and more times after that. It was way more fun than just heading in on our own would have been, though now that we know our way around, we could go bac on our own. But actually I do like riding buses into Guadalajara – I find it quite a relaxing way to go. So wait long enough and maybe we'll meet on another Abastos tour!

Lake Chapala

2009-03-07T08:02:00.001-06:00

Living by Lake Chapala means we enjoy the beauty of the lake, from many vantage points. We have a nice though not panoramic view of the lake from our house, and we often walk down to the lake.

San Juan Cosala's new malecon isn't completed yet, but already I think it's the nicest one on the lake. It's several blocks long, and you are right on the water. I will have photos from it another time.

Boating and fishing are still quite common, and since hearing Todd Stong's talk which I blogged about recently, I don't worry when I see kids jumping off the malecon into the water.

This sunset could make you think Mount Garcia was acting up, but not so. It isn't probably dead in geologic terms, but isn't likely to give us a show.

Where Should This Couple Live, Mexico or the US?

2009-02-28T08:33:00.001-06:00

This week, I received the following email, reprinted here by permission of the woman who sent it:

Hi, I'm wondering if you can help me find some information about Mexico. About I year ago, I met and became engaged to a Mexican man. He's from Ciudad Mante, Tamaulipas. He wants to live in Mexico, and having recently visited his home town and met his family, I have no problem with that.

However, we're both worried about the safety of living in Mexico, especially now. His friends and family, when we ask them what they think about my living in Mexico, at first they say "no, it's very safe in this part of Mexico," but then after just a couple moments more consideration, and thinking of all the kidnappings that occur just among Mexican citizens, they all think twice.

So, we decided to try to find out what Americans think who are already living in Mexico and how they feel about the changes that have been taking place. I wondered if you could tell me your opinion, or if you know any other Americans who would be interested in talking to me about this.

I'd deeply appreciate any information or opinions you might have to add a little clarity to our dilemma. Thanks so much,

Readers, your thoughts?

To give you some context, Ciudad Mante is a small city due south of Ciudad Victoria by maybe a couple of hours' drive. So while it is less than a day's trip to Texas, this is by no means a border area.

My answer to the email

If the people you talked to who live there "all think twice," that's worth paying attention to. But try to remember the context of the conversations. Mexicans are so polite… did you express worry and then they agreed with you? It might mean less in that case.

I just happened to come across a blog which discussed violence in Mexico in two articles this week: http://travelojos.com/ can give you more food for thought. One expert they quote suggests that the odds of your being kidnapped are in the same range as the odds of your being struck by lightning. However, there are a few disquieting comments as well.

Another website to check out is www.mexconnect.com, which used to be a private membership site but is now free. It has a forum where you could discuss this question, and get answers from informed gringos who live in all parts of Mexico. I highly recommend this website.

Here by Lake Chapala, in an area with thousands of mostly-retired foreigners, while the long-term stability of Mexico is a topic of conversation, many expats feel more secure here than in the US as the economic conditions cause more stress in both places. But that is not directly pertinent to your question.

In the end, after you have gathered information, pay attention to your feelings and intuitions as well. Often the answer is there all along. And best wishes for your life together, wherever it may be. -- Rosana

A Mexican Middle School Celebrates 10 Years

2009-02-22T17:03:00.001-06:00

One day this week, Gerardo Tolantino stopped by. He teaches English at the middle school here, and we made a YouTube video of an historic tour he gave of our town, San Juan Cosala, a while back. That link takes you to the video.

This time, he invited us to the school around seven that evening for a celebration of the school's ten years. It's been in its present location for about eight years, and before that it met anywhere it could – in the plaza, in people's homes, after hours at an elementary school. It was only through a lot of determined effort on the part of teachers and parents that the school got funded and built. At that time – I don't know about now – only elementary school was compulsory in Mexico.

So ten years was something to celebrate. We walked over to the school, not far from where we live, just at dusk. We greeted Gerardo and felt dozens of adolescent eyes upon us as we strolled along the outside hallway, where a display of old photos from nearby Jocotepec had been put up. One was marked 1899, and many were from early in the 20th century. They reminded me how close this area is to its historic roots.

Concentrating on them, I didn't really notice that a lecture was going on. I glanced up and saw the word Gonorrhea on a slide show. Then I listened, and the kids were being given a serious lecture on the dangers of you know what.

That ended pretty soon, and the dancing began. It was already pretty dark. Kelly and I stood with Gerardo and watched the dancing for quite a while. It was a local group, with people of all ages. I liked this misty picture Kelly got:

There was a large contingent of teenage girls behind us, making oohing sounds when male and female dancers approached each other:

After a while, we said our thanks and went home. We'd had a great time. It was still going on as we left:

More about that 1979 Mexico – Guatemala Trip

2009-02-15T12:25:00.002-06:00

We spent four months in early 1979 roaming around Mexico and Guatemala in a Ford Econoline van. We were able to get away from work at that time because I was working part-time as a fill-in librarian and Kelly was doing remodeling and other construction. If I remember correctly, we spent about $2200 for the entire trip.

We entered Mexico at El Paso / Ciudad Juarez. I still remember stopping to eat at a restaurant on the outskirts of Ciudad Juarez, and feeling that otherness of being in a different country. It was both exciting and a bit daunting.

We went down through the Chihuahua desert and explored a number of cities and towns in central Mexico, before heading south to Guatemala.

Guatemala was really an adventure into another world. I loved the people and the lush beauty. This first picture was taken the day that Kelly and I crossed the border. Exhausted from all the official pettiness, including driving an extra 60 kilometers to get photocopies for the Mexican officials, we looked for a place to camp soon after entering Guatemala.

We found a secluded nook in the jungle not far off the highway --- it WAS a different era! – and walked over to this home which was nearby. Their Spanish was basic, as it wasn't their first language either, but we all communicated just fine. They assured us we were in a safe place. We took this photo and bought some eggs from them.

We soon headed up into the mountains toward the remote village of Todos Santos. On our way there, we camped on some high plains on the summit of the mountains, where Kelly did some painting. There was a spectacular thunderstorm that night.

The next day on our way down into Todos Santos, we picked up a couple who needed a ride. The guy fell asleep drunk in the back – it was Easter weekend -- but we had a great chat with his young wife. She invited us to park in front of their house in the village. It was empty, as they lived somewhere else. So we did that, right on the main street, but there was no question of an RV park! The family next door was very friendly too, and invited us to plug into an electric outlet they had on their porch.

He husband continued his nap in their house and she continued visiting with us. Another torrential downpour hit, and suddenly there was a very loud noise. It turned out to be their house collapsing. Her husband was fine, and so was her pet bird; I couldn't tell which one she was more concerned about!

As soon as the rain stopped, it seemed that most of the town turned out to see the collapsed house. Kelly took this picture from the roof of our van, after the kind neighbor suggested we pull over in front of his house. We stayed there for the several days we remained in the town.

My favorite part of Guatemala was Lake Atitlan. In gringo enclave Panajachel on its shores, we met this gray haired man -- a Chilean inventor with windmills all over his land – and the other guy, a German friend of his.

We ended up using the Chilean guy's place as our home base for a couple of weeks. I could hardly tear myself away from the view:

Eventually we wound our way back through Mexico and on home to the US. It would be some years before we went south of the border again.

The trip was often idyllic, often scary, always interesting. I'm so glad to have had the experience. Nowadays, I'm really happier at home than on the road!

Mexico and Guatemala, 1979

2009-02-10T23:23:00.001-06:00

Kelly and I drove our old Ford Econoline van all over Mexico and Guatemala for four months… let's see. 2009 minus 1979, can it really be 30 years ago?

That's the silhouette of Lake Atitlan in the background, with some Guatemalan ruins atop our van, which Kelly was driving fast across a Mexican river so the van would make it. That was after a night at a remote hot springs somewhere in the Chihuahua desert.

I wanted to buy the pottery oven I've put above the ruins, and when it was really too large to fit in a van already crammed with pottery and handicrafts, I took a picture of it.

Kelly, red-headed then, is lounging in the entrance to the theater in Guanajuato, and I am buying a huipil from a Guatemalan woman in Chichicastenango.

We actually came to Lake Chapala for a few days on that trip, and stayed in the old campground where the El Parque development is now.

On that trip, we often camped in remote rural spots, usually asking local people's advice about safe places. We woke very early one morning to the van's jiggling, thinking it was curious local children, but it was an earthquake.

Ah, the good old days. And I guess the picture proves we really are old hippies!

Real Estate and Real Life, Here and There

2009-02-02T21:13:00.002-06:00

Last week Kelly and I had dinner with some American friends who own a home in Mexico. They were living down here full time quite happily. When the stock market dropped, so did their income and nest egg. So now they are mostly back in the states, living in the home they had kept up there, working up there, and vacationing down here when they can. They had thought of selling their American home but hadn't done it yet, and now they could only clear about $30,000 if they could even sell it. So they are hanging on, hoping the real estate market will recover in the next couple of years so they can make a larger profit on that house and come on back down. I've heard several stories of this sort around the Lake Chapala expat community.

Someone sent me the link this morning to this article: What if the real estate market doesn't recover? I think it makes some good points. Loved the ending:

If Stupidity got us into this mess, then why can’t it get us out?
– Will Rogers

This bit from that article is less of a chuckle:

Everyone has a theory of what the future of real estate will bring. For most people that theory is simply what they want to believe or what they hope will happen

Some time ago, I read a book called The Art of the Long View, by Peter Schwartz which presented a way of thinking about the future that Kelly and I have used loosely ever since, chiefly in our business but also with some personal decisions. When considering the future, we imagine up to five different possible scenarios. For example, and just making this up off the top of my head, here are five possible scenarios for the US economy and real estate in let's say the next few years:

The economy recovers, real estate bounces back, credit is available.
The economy doesn't soar or tank, just stays kinda flat. Houses move, but more slowly than in the first scenario.
The current economic downturn is a recession for a few months or years, and gradually things pick up. A lot of people go through some quite hard times economically. Real estate prices are lower than at present.
We enter a depression and stay there throughout the next decade. Things get dire worldwide.
Global climate change throws in wild cards (hurricanes, droughts, huge storms, unseasonal weather, forest fires, etc) with any of the above scenarios.

Fun reading, huh? Okay, maybe your list would be cheerier… or not. Then we evaluate our various plans of action in the light of these possibilities, and also talk about which ones appear most likely to us, in the absence of a crystal ball.

By the way, real estate here in the Lake Chapala area has slowed down too. There's an old saying, "When the US sneezes, Mexico catches a cold." One realtor I chatted with recently estimated that 2008 sales were about 35% to 40% down from 2007. Prices are dropping, though not as much as, say, California. But some people we know from the US are buying a lovely home in the Lake Chapala area at a price that I find astonishingly low for an attractive house with several bedrooms, recently remodeled, in a location with a stunning view. Oh yeah, and a swimming pool.

During the time we have been living in Mexico, I have tended to think that lots of boomers would come down here to retire. Now, I think it's harder to guess. A couple of thoughts:

American boomers may be less mobile and have less disposable income than they expected.
On the other hand, they can live on way less down here, specially now with the peso dropping. It has been around 10.5 pesos to the dollar most of the past few years. It's around 14 pesos to the dollar today and has been in the 13s for some time lately. That means our dollars go a LOT further. What's ahead for the exchange rate? That would be another scenario list…

Now for my "real life" comment: whatever happens, this is our time to be alive, this is our time to love our families, friends, pets, and world. This is our time to do the things that are important to us, to whatever degree we can. If some of us have to put some dreams on hold, we can still find other dreams to fulfill. Don't want to sound too pollyanna-ish, but I see many Mexicans around me so full of zest for life -- and it rubs off.

Readers, your thoughts on any of this are most welcome in the comments section.

Video on Condition of Lake Chapala

2009-01-26T09:01:00.001-06:00

Yesterday morning Kelly I went to a talk on the condition of Lake Chapala, given by Dr. Todd Stong, an engineer who has been volunteering his expertise to the local governments around the lake for over five years.

With his permission, we videod his talk – love my tiny flip video camera – and I made this 8-minute video:

I'm still learning to edit videos. My biggest challenge today was at the start of the talk when I jiggled the camera around too much. So I put in a nice assortment of Kelly's photos of the lake to replace that part but keep the sound. The talk continued for quite a while after this video, covering some of the realities of working with local governments and various infrastructure plans and needs.

While we're on the subject of Lake Chapala's water, here is a very interesting graph that was in the lakeside weekly El Charal recently. It's from 1900 to 2008. You can see how the lake levels have varied over time. Todd touches on the political aspects of the situation.

A Mexican Chain Letter in My Email

2009-01-24T09:42:00.001-06:00

Every now and then I get an email from a Mexican man I know who lives in California. The other day I was amused to get this one:

The red text under the picture tells me that I should send the picture to ten people including the one who sent it, and my problems will resolve themselves. Well, I don't do chain letters, but hey, it will reach more than ten people via the blog!

New Hopes for the US: A Song and a Plane Crash

2009-01-18T11:54:00.001-06:00

A friend in the US sent my husband the link to a website called "Born Again American." We went there and played the video. I've played it four times now, and it is embedded below. At first, I wondered about the born again aspect, but this video is for everyone. When I saw a Jew and a Muslim singing side by side, I figured it fit my inclusive values – and that's really what the US is about to me, all of us together. I watched it just before bedtime last night and didn't fall asleep easily, my heart filled with hopes for new solutions beginning to take hold, my mind filled with ideas of what I could do, wherever I live.

Here's the song:

And here's a link to the website, where you can remix the video, write new lyrics, and more: www.bornagainamerican.org

Hope from that Plane Crash in New York

I was on twitter the other afternoon. If you aren't familiar with it, it's a social networking site where your posts are a maximum of 140 characters. I'm on it mainly to connect with other people who are into dog training, one of my interests. I started seeing tweets about what a great rescue job had saved people from a plane crash into the river in New York City. Other people added details, that everyone had survived it seemed (later confirmed), and more. After that I went to Google News and found articles.

The outpouring of gratitude and celebration for these 155 lives and for the extraordinary skill of the pilot continued through Twitter and through the news stories. There was so much joy that what could have been fatal wasn't. There could not have been a more prepared pilot for that flight. Well, you probably know a lot of this.

The plane crash strikes me as a powerful metaphor of hope for what is going on now in our world.

Just before the inauguration at that. Somehow, a very different outcome was achieved from what must have seemed inevitable to the passengers when they heard the pilot tell them to prepare for impact, they were going down.

So many people in our world are impacted by all the changes, so many people feel that they are going down, whether financially or in other ways. The passengers endured some frigid water and hypothermia, some wounds and broken bones, but they are going to be okay. I have fresh hope that we all can endure the hardships and work together for a better world, everywhere.

The Chapala Red Cross: A Lot of Action, a Lot of Love

2009-01-09T22:31:00.001-06:00

The other day, I took the Red Cross bus into Guadalajara to go shopping. It's not a bus that belongs to the Red Cross, but it's one that they arrange for. Every month, a bus goes to Galerias Plaza, and other times a bus may go to Plaza Mexico or to Tlaquepaque. It's a win-win: we Lakesiders get a pleasant outing without having to (shudder!) drive in Guadalajara, and the Red Cross gets half of our 100-peso ticket cost. That's under $8 US, at current exchange rates. I've done it quite a few times now.

This time, after getting my shopping done at Plaza Mexico and the large Office Max next door, I sat down at Starbucks with Jane Pifer, whose husband Norm has been the President of the Cruz Roja International Volunteers until recently, when Charlie Klestadt took over. Norm and Jane continue to be very much involved. I had chatted with them on the Tlaquepaque trip before Christmas and asked them then if I could do a video interview for this blog. They said sure, but Starbucks turned out to be too noisy, and we couldn't think of anyplace quieter, so I just chatted with Jane for a while.

The Cruz Roja operates all over Mexico, and the Chapala one covers about half of Lake Chapala's shoreline, including all the areas heavily populated with foreigners. You can see a map and find out a lot more about this great organization at http://www.cruzrojalakeside.com/

In the US, and in many parts of the world, when we think of the Red Cross, we think of disaster relief. That is part of the work here, but the Cruz Roja is best known for its ambulance services and the clinic it runs in Chapala, fully staffed 24/7. Many a life, both Mexican and foreign, has been saved by these services. Living as I do on the western end of the north shore of the lake, some ways from their clinic, I've been happy to see the ambulance that is just a few minutes' drive from our home. I'd better not forget to mention the only Jaws of Life in the area is the Cruz Roja one.

They do everything without government funding, Jane explained to me. The volunteers work hard at fundraising. You can now make a donation via PayPal which is tax deductible in both the US and Canada… that took a look of work to put in place. You can do it from the link above.

Besides PayPal, fundraising includes:

A month when young Mexicans enthusiastically wave cans at crossroads to collect money from everyone
Donations made by local businesses
The bus trips
A fashion show which has been taken to a new level by volunteer Ceci Girling, who has a background in fashion and has worked with Guadalajara and Lakeside designers to make it incredibly elegant, professional, and fun

The Cruz Roja also receives funds from the annual Regalorama thrift sale at St. Andrew's Anglican Church in Riberas del Pilar. That event, early in December, is a must-go on my calendar. Used books in English! Nice clothing! And I always spend freely, knowing that my pesos are going to such worthy causes.

The Cruz Roja Chapala only charges for certain aspects of ambulance transport, like transferring a patient to a hospital in Guadalajara. The medical care is free. Patients are told what the costs are, and most of them make donations that cover the cost or exceed it, but they are not required to.

Jane told me a lot more. There is always a need for volunteers, so if you live Lakeside, you might like to look over their website, which has information for volunteers. Whether or not you live in this area, if you have even a few bucks you would like to give to a great cause, you too might like to go take a look. That link again is:

http://www.cruzrojalakeside.com/

My New Free Ebook on Learning Spanish

2009-01-04T12:29:00.001-06:00

It's been a few weeks now since I added the image of my new ebook on how to learn Spanish to the side of this blog. Quite a few of you have signed up for it and I thought everybody else might like to know more about it.

It's not another grammar book or lists of vocabulary, useful as those might be. Instead, it's a discussion of the process of how to learn to speak Spanish.

I called it Five Keys to Learning Spanish Rapidly:

Key 1: Choose a Method of Learning Spanish that is Right for You
Key 2: Find All Kinds of Time to Learn Spanish
Key 3: Remember by Reviewing.. That's How Our Minds Work
Key 4: Listen, Listen, Listen
Key 5: Speak Spanish Now

I discuss each topic and include a resource guide.

Regular readers of this blog know that I am hardly an expert at the Spanish language. So what gives? I decided last summer that I wanted to improve my Spanish, and I began doing research into what the most effective methods are for learning another language. The website learnspanishrapidly.com grew out of what I learned. One thing that stands out is that being, ahem, of a certain age is no impediment.

When you sign up for the free ebook, you also receive an email from me on Tuesday mornings, which lists and shows the beginnings of the Learn Spanish Rapidly blog posts from the past week, an easy way to keep current. You can of course unsubscribe from it at any time, from the link included in the bottom of the email. And I don't do anything with your email address except send you the newsletter.

The email itself can serve as reminder to you to keep going on your own Spanish, even if you don't happen to click through to the blog. One of the things I'm noticing as my own Spanish improves is that creating simple, regular habits is a huge key. I talk about that a lot over on the new site. For example, I'm currently running a series of articles on the benefits of using computer flashcard programs to study Spanish.

That site has only been up a few months and I have huge plans for it. It turns out that there are all kinds of interesting online resources for learning Spanish, and I intend to make that site a place where you can read reviews of many of them. I write about ways to learn Spanish for free and about commercial programs like Rosetta Stone, Pimsleur, Tell Me More, and my new favorite, Fluenz.

So if you're at all interested in learning Spanish, do sign up for my ebook, from any page of this or that website, or just go take a look at

LearnSpanishRapidly.com

and its blog at LearnSpanishRapidly.com/blog/

Hopes for a New Year

2009-01-01T14:08:00.001-06:00

The title above is a translation of an article in El Charal, the weekly Lake Chapala newspaper. In this article, a dozen people were asked about "las esperanzas de un año nuevo." I enjoyed reading their comments.

Several men were here in Mexico for the holidays and would be returning soon to their work in the US. One said he's lived in the US for 21 years, another said since 1972, while others didn't specify. All of them hoped that work in the US would improve in 2009.

Practically everyone had the same wish for Mexico, that the economic situation would improve. A local gardener wished that this new year would be "lleno de salud y trabajo, que es lo mas importante." – full of health and work, which are the most important things.

An engineer at the University of Guadalajara commented on both the recession and on "calentamiento global," or global warming. A middle school teacher spoke of his wishes for children who lack basic necessities.

I was telling my husband about the article when I realized I'd like to share it more fully, so here you are. And whatever happens in our world, I wish you, reader, a year full of health and meaningful activity, whether it's technically "work" or not!

Casas Grandes and Mata Ortiz, Chihuahua

2008-12-27T16:26:00.001-06:00

Some six years ago, Kelly and I took a short vacation from our home in Colorado, a little ways into Mexico. Our destination was the rural small town of Mata Ortiz, Chihuahua, maybe three hours from El Paso. Texas.

Just another small Mexican town? No, it's famous worldwide for its exquisite pottery. I've already told the story of Mata Ortiz and Juan Quezada – the link takes you to what I wrote about it, five years ago, when we went there at the end of a trip around northern Mexico in our motorhome. (The Mata Ortiz part begins about halfway down the page, just before the picture of a bedroom.)

An American anthropologist, Spencer MacCallum, figures prominently in that story, and I've stayed on his email list ever since then. Just recently, I read his latest updates about Mata Ortiz and the nearby town of Casas Grandes, where he and his wife now live.

Here's a Google Map of Casas Grandes. It's on the edge of a rich agricultural area. The nearby city of Nuevo Casas Grandes must have at least 60,000 inhabitants, where I think Casas Grandes is about 6,000 and Mata Ortiz maybe 1,500.

View Larger Map

He talks about it being quite safe there (on the page about travel to the area) and he lists some houses for sale that people have asked him to mention. If you have ever dreamed of buying a traditional adobe and fixing it up, this is one place you can do it! My jaw dropped at some of the low prices, for houses old and new, adobe or not. Here's one example in Casas Grandes, from the classifieds page. There were some in need of repair for way less.

Old adobe home with traditional walled garden (fruit and shade trees, flowers) two blocks from the plaza on the historic Camino Real. 22” walls, vigas. The oldest section, once the town’s dance hall, dates to the nineteenth century. Newly roofed and re-wired. $65,000 USD.

What would be the pros and cons of living in that area? Admittedly the climate is dry, dusty, windy, and on the extreme side. It can be very cold and very hot… kind of like Deming, NM, where Kelly and I have spent a couple of winters. We've never stuck around for the hot summers.

But it's got great access to the US, maybe two or three hours to Deming or El Paso by car. Sometimes here by Lake Chapala, I feel rather cut off from the US, though admittedly it only took us four hours to fly to San Francisco, California, a couple of months ago.

I've had many ideas for books that I will never get around to writing. One of them would be a book about northern Mexico as a place for Americans to live. The conventional views of that region as being drug-ridden and highly dangerous are probably true of a few specific locales. My guess is that a lot of places within a few hours of the border are delightful. Alamos, south of Nogales, Arizona, is a well-known popular spot which Kelly and I liked when we were there in May of last year.

Back to Casas Grandes. The number of foreigners is small, but when we were there, there was quite a spirit of helping the village of Mata Ortiz with its art. And to me, one of the most fascinating things about Mata Ortiz is the extraordinary flowering of creativity there and what that says about what we humans are capable of.

We are not planning to leave Lake Chapala, but next time we drive back to the US, maybe next summer, we may well go by the Mata Ortiz area again and see how it's doing. And if you've been wondering about living in Mexico, this is yet another of many interesting places in this vast and complex country!

A Beet and a Large Bra: Two Women's Stories of Mexico 40 Years Ago

2008-12-07T10:18:00.001-06:00

This week two of my Mexican friends told me stories that date back to their girlhoods.

One of my friends grew up in Guadalajara. She always loved it when her grandmother came to stay with the family. The older lady was so sweet and gentle. One day, when her grandmother was out, my friend – then about 6 or 7 – went into her grandmother's guest room for some reason.

She saw a betabel (beet) sitting on a table. It had been cut into and a slice removed from it. Well, she knew that beets belonged in the kitchen so like a good girl, she took it there.

Later that day, the grandmother asked my friend and her sisters, "Darlings, do any of you know what happened to my beet?"

My friend said yes, she had taken it back to the kitchen. The grandmother explained, ever so kindly, that she used the beet as makeup, to put some color in her cheeks.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The other story happened right here in San Juan Cosalá, or at least it began here. This particular friend of mine has lived here, in this village, all her life. Before she or her sisters were married, they all lived at home. One sister worked as a maid in Ajijic.

The sister – let's call her Patricia, since that is not her name – took the bus to work very early every morning. Most of her fellow passengers were young fellows from Jocotepec, also on their way to work.

One morning Patricia overslept and the first thing she knew, the bus was stopped outside her house, honking for her. Mario, the driver, knew she belonged on that bus. She jumped up, tossed on some clothing, grabbed a rebozo (shawl) that was lying over a chair, and ran out to the bus.

Mario teased her a little but what do you expect? But then, once in Ajijic,as she began to get off the bus, Mario asked her about the adornment dangling from the back of her rebozo. She didn't know what he was talking about, so she took off the shawl to look.

There was a large sostén (bra) attached to the shawl, stuck on by its fasteners. It wasn't hers; she was quite slender. As my friend told the story, a ripple of amusement ran down the seats of the bus as Patricia got off.

Meanwhile, back home, my friend said that their cousin visiting from California was looking everywhere for her bra."Where did you leave it?" she asked. "Right here on this chair," her cousin said indignantly. And of course it wasn't till Patricia got home from work that evening that the item was returned to its owner.

"And did Mario tease Patricia about that afterwards?" I asked. "Por supuesto," said my friend, as she stopped giggling over her memories. The best translation of that phrase in this context would be: You better believe it.

3 Bedroom House for $27,000 US? There's a Hitch But Still…

2008-11-29T10:48:00.003-06:00

Last Monday morning I had my usual twice-monthly massage in the nearby area of Riberas del Pilar, which is between Ajijic and Chapala. Kelly and I usually go together and do errands while we are out.

A friend of ours, Miguel Roman, works in real estate out of Ajijic -– that link takes you to his site. It happened that he had just listed a house in the town of Chapala for $35,000 US. Kelly had directions to it and decided that with nearly an hour and a half till he would be picking me up, he'd go find the house.

An adventure followed.

He found the right neighborhood and parked a couple of blocks away, before the road turned into a rugged path. He wandered around and found a house that had the right number. There was a Mexican woman in the yard, and she confirmed that the house was for sale.

She was most hospitable and asked him if he'd like to see it. So he went inside with her and took quite a few photos. In fact, he was late in picking me up.

Over a restaurant lunch, he showed me the photos. I was intrigued too. So back we went for me to see it as well. It was a pretty typical Mexican house, with three bedrooms and a bathroom. As you can see in the photo, there were steps from the bedrooms down to the main living area, which was indoor-outdoor, and with a view.The owner said she wanted 350,000 pesos for it. At today's exchange rates that is under $27,000 US but everyone tends to convert mentally at 10 pesos to the dollar, as the rate was just above that for a long time.

Well, to make a long story short, this house wasn't the one Miguel was selling, though the two were near each other. The street names were confusing and there were no street signs. I think he sold his listing, a 2 BR 2 bath unfinished place.. it was hardly on the market at all before he got an offer anyway.

We slept on it and decided to pass on this house ourselves. We are happy here and not eager to tackle a huge project like that. The real magic of that place was the view, and while it was very good from her living room (or would be if you trimmed the trees), you'd have to build onto the roof to get the full panorama. She said the house had been constructed with that in mind. This photo shows her roof, with Chapala below, and just a part of the view of the lake. So I phoned the woman's brother's house and asked them to pass the word on to her.

Back to the title of this post. The hitch on this house we saw is that you have to walk uphill to it and can't get your car less than a block from it. Those steep paths!

BUT STILL I think it's great evidence that deals can be found everywhere. I bet if you spoke some Spanish and wandered around asking people if they knew of houses for sale, you'd find interesting possibilities. You'd need to check them out carefully… Mexican real estate is a buyer beware matter. But still…

If You Have a Lemon Tree, Make Lemon Curd

2008-11-23T19:03:00.001-06:00

Okay, I know that isn't exactly the way the old saying goes. But it's what happened around here this afternoon. It's the time of year when our lemon tree goes bananas. We have banana trees too but they are not going bananas in this cooler early winter season. It's getting into the 40s at night now, and the sunny 70s temperatures of midday aren't lasting so long into the late afternoons.

But back on topic. For the next two or three months, we'll have an abundance of lemons. Not those seedy sort of sweet things that a lot of our friends have but real tart lemons. Actually we haven't bought lemons in years, as the tree keeps producing at varying levels all the time. The wind knocked a bunch of lemons off the tree this week so even after we gave a lot away, we still had a bunch in the house.This picture shows mostly green ones, but some ripen to yellow before falling.

"Lemon curd!" I thought. Don't know why – I had never made it before and am not sure I have ever even tasted it before. But I googled lemon curd and found a bunch of recipes along with warnings that it could curdle and and need to be strained to remove unappealing bits of cooked egg white that hadn't blended.

This was beginning to sound like too much work for my style of cooking when I can across an article about a foolproof way to make light, luscious lemon curd. That sounded good, so I printed out the article and the accompanying lemon curd recipe. It's just lemon juice and a bit of grated peel, butter, sugar, and eggs.

I didn't have a small pan with a thick bottom so I decided to double the recipe and use my big stew pot. It was a fair amount of mixing, and that was by hand, but the results were worth it. And it was foolproof.

Some lemon curd is in the freezer, and a jar is in the fridge. The article says it will keep a week in the refrigerator but I doubt ours will last that long.

It's quite tart – yeah, I did use a little more lemon juice that the recipe called for, didn't want to waste those lemons – sort of like the yellow part of lemon meringue pie on steroids.

I think it will become a regular part of our Mexican cuisine.

In the US or in Mexico, Family is Sweet

2008-11-14T09:32:00.001-06:00

I'm finally getting back into my regular routines after our trip to California, still savoring all the great connecting and visiting that happened there. Kelly went to a week-long natural building building conference while I made the rounds of family and a few dear old friends. We both started and ended in San Francisco, where our daughter lives, and I was also in Berkeley and Sonoma County, both places where I lived long ago.

Let's see, in my family, I saw my daughter (step-daughter actually but I call her either one) and her partner, my niece and her three kids with a glimpse of her husband, my sister-in-law, two nephews who are brothers, (one with wife and two daughters, one a new baby), another nephew with a wife I'd never met, two former brothers-in-law, and the new wife of one of these fellows.

Sounds very Mexican, don't you think? I'm resisting the temptation to draw out a family tree for you, but when I planned out the itinerary, I was aware of how Mexico has affected me. Family is so important here that it has become more important to me too. I also saw five old friends who are like family to me.

We Americans tend to scatter geographically and our family life pays a price. There's also the matter that many (most? all?) families have dysfunctional aspects. Still, getting older, I find that my family means more to me than it did in the past. I am connected to these people in ways that have such deep roots.

One ex-brother-in-law was newly out of the hospital from a successful cancer surgery. I hadn't seen him in close to 20 years. Don't think I'll wait that long again to go back to my old stomping grounds. In fact, I briefly entertained fantasies of living again in Sebastopol, California. (I used to run the public library there and when I stopped in, both librarians there remembered me. Nice!) But I don't think I could afford California nowadays.

Back home in San Juan Cosala, I've chatted with various Mexican friends. They understand perfectly why I would make a trip that was all about family. (Well, a bit of shopping too, but even that was with family!)

Obamonos – Let’s Obama!

2008-10-29T15:32:00.001-05:00

We’re just back last night from an action-packed 12-day trip the the US, where Kelly went to a natural building conference and I saw a lot of family and dear old friends. Plus I brought back nutritional supplements, books, open pollination garden seeds, thrift store clothing, and a variety of other odds and ends that I haven’t found in the Lake Chapala area.

With luggage and laundry still piled everywhere, I wouldn't be blogging yet, except that a friend from Ajijic (thanks, Micki) sent me a link to a delightful video that you can practice your Spanish with… specially if you are a fan of Barack Obama.

It’s a musical video in Spanish with English subtitles and great fun. The title of this blog post picks up a word I noticed in chalk on a sidewalk in the video, and would translate, as I did in the title, “Let’s Obama!”

Here it is: