Mexico with Heart - Living, Traveling, and Retiring in Mexico » Lake Chapala

Kelly’s Earthbag Project Here

Rosana — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 16:08:36 +0000

Over several months, my husband Kelly has been working with students at the nearby Ninos y Jovenes boarding school and with members of the Chapala Green group, along with other people who have turned up at times.

They’ve been creating a demonstration project for earthbag building, a method that Kelly used to build the house we had in Colorado. He and a friend of ours have a comprehensive website at: earthbagbuilding.com

Most of the students at this school are Huicholes, from poor rural areas, and the priest who runs this school was enthusiastic about the boys learning the method. The swine flu scare shut schools for weeks, and there have been some other events competing for the kids’ attention, but bit by bit the building is coming along:

To see all the pictures Kelly has put on flickr, go to:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kellyhart/sets/72157617260502049/

There may well be photos there showing the project further along, as Kelly keeps updating that set.

The project has received good newspaper coverage. People are quite interested!

Kelly’s Earthbag Project Here is a post from: Mexico with Heart - Living, Traveling, and Retiring in Mexico

Forest Fires in Mexico

Rosana — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 22:34:00 +0000

Before this area got some rain in May, Kelly and I had quite a window seat to watch a forest fire happening across Lake Chapala from us, on the beautiful and inactive volcano called Mt. Garcia. It went on for well over a week. The local press reported that not only was the terrain difficult and steep but the area is also known for having a lot of rattlesnakes. I don’t know if the fire was fought officially at all, actually. Kelly considered taking photos at night but it would have just looked like a line of dim red dots, so he didn’t.

The dry season usually ends sometime in mid-June, and the rainy season kicks into gear.. this area gets around 34 inches of rain a year, most of it between June and October.

In the weeks before the rains, farmers burn off their corn fields in preparation for the new crop. Mexicans are astonishingly casual about fire in general, so it is no surprise that some of the corn field fires get away from the farmers. Sometimes lightning strikes start fires as well.

My eyes and nose were inflamed for much of May from smoke, probably not from these fires you see but more likely from the various smaller ones on our side of the lake, some in the mountains not far from us.

Mexico does not have a huge amount of financial resources to fight fires like these, but on the other hand, this country has not had the suppression policies that have been prevalent in the US for decades. Also, anywhere near towns, people have picked up dead wood for firewood. So it’s apples and oranges to compare the situations in the two countries.

We’re always glad when the rains start. I think it was the day after our first good rain here, in May, that we saw no more smoke from Mt. Garcia.

Forest Fires in Mexico is a post from: Mexico with Heart - Living, Traveling, and Retiring in Mexico

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

Rosana — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 20:01:39 +0000

April 25, 2009 — 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.

2 Comments from the old blog:

At April 26, 2009 2:38 PM, Amanda said…

What a cool post, I love the feeling of walking with you through the town. And reading aloud in Spanish sounds like a great way to learn, I need to start doing this with my hubby.
At April 26, 2009 3:40 PM, Rosana Hart said…

It’s really fun! And you could try reading storybooks in Spanish to your little one, with your hubby helping you w pronunciation…

Groceries, a Death, and A Musical Grandfather in San Juan Cosalá is a post from: Mexico with Heart - Living, Traveling, and Retiring in Mexico

Lake Chapala

Rosana — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 18:58:15 +0000

March 7, 2009 – 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.

1 Comment from the old blog:

At March 09, 2009 9:55 AM, John said…

I’d love to live on water–a lake, a river, the ocean. In San Miguel de Allende we have the Presa Allende, the result of a dam on the Rio Laja. But it’s horribly polluted. So when I just have to get a water fix, I travel to where it is…

Lake Chapala is a post from: Mexico with Heart - Living, Traveling, and Retiring in Mexico

A Mexican Middle School Celebrates 10 Years

Rosana — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 13:45:56 +0000

Feb. 22, 2009 – 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:

A Mexican Middle School Celebrates 10 Years is a post from: Mexico with Heart - Living, Traveling, and Retiring in Mexico

Globos in Ajijic

Rosana — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 21:07:15 +0000

Sept. 23, 2008 — On a recent Saturday afternoon, Kelly and I sat on a rooftop in Ajijic, at the home of some friends who live right in the village. We enjoyed the company of a variety of other people, but there was another reason we spent most of the time on the roof rather than two floors below, where the delicious food was.

Globos!

The annual balloon competition takes place every September, around the Independence Day celebrations. Believe it or not, this lovely thing is made mainly of tissue paper. People work together on their globos, whether it’s a family, a neighborhood or a business.

We were several blocks from the soccer field where the globos were being launched, and that was fine with me because while most of them got off to a good start, I’m not very Mexican in my ideas about what is safe.

They go aloft — and some go very high indeed — due to being little hot air balloons, and the heat is supplied by kerosene-soaked cotton or rags that are set on fire just before blast off.

I’m glad that all this takes place in the middle of the rainy season. Here is the pretty one above, crashing and burning.

This is one of the more elaborate globos. To see a whole slide show of the many photos Kelly took that day, see http://www.flickr.com/photos/kellyhart/sets/72157607290460439/show/ and click on "slide show" at upper right.

1 Comment from old blog:

At September 24, 2008 9:24 PM, Catalyst said…

Yes! Kelly’s slideshow is fantastic!

Globos in Ajijic is a post from: Mexico with Heart - Living, Traveling, and Retiring in Mexico

A Watercolor by Lake Chapala

Rosana — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 13:14:15 +0000

June 27, 2008 – When our friends Janet Woodman and Kizzen Laki were here from Colorado back in January, Janet did this watercolor from the malecon in the city of Chapala, looking west along Lake Chapala.

I was going to put it up on the blog then, but somehow it slipped by me. I just now noticed it on my hard drive and said, "Aha!" So here it is.

I sometimes wish I could draw or paint; Janet says she gets a lot of pleasure from it. (She did add that she had people watching her work over her shoulder much of the time in Chapala.) I’ve even wondered about taking a very interesting intensive art class, given mainly in the winters by local resident Karl Barnhardt, teaching you to draw no matter what you know to start. In just a week! But then I thought, I don’t have time for all the writing I want to do, better stick to what I already do. At least for now.

1 Comment from the old blog:

At June 27, 2008 3:38 PM, Catalyst said…

That brought back memories. I know that spot well. We lived in Ajijic and later San Antonio Tlayacapan.

A Watercolor by Lake Chapala is a post from: Mexico with Heart - Living, Traveling, and Retiring in Mexico

Walls and Birds in Riberas Del Pilar

Rosana — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 13:11:35 +0000

June 7, 2008 – Riberas del Pilar is in between San Antonio Tlayacapan and Chapala, and between Lake Chapala and the two-lane lakeside highway or carretera. It’s a rather suburban type area, in that it has no central plaza, nor is it densely built up. The homes there are often on larger pieces of land than you’ll find elsewhere. I know quite a few people who live there, and the church I go to sometimes — St. Andrew’s Anglican — is located there. So we get over that way.

One Sunday recently, we were there together and Kelly went for a walk while I was at church. First, here are a couple of walls he photographed. He was attracted to the texture of the red one. It had been plastered over something, rocks maybe, but he wasn’t sure what. Notice the mural on the second one.

He wandered down by the lake and got these photos. Herons or egrets? Kelly thinks egrets but isn’t sure. If you know, please comment. Whatever they are, these two photos below are now up in our kitchen rotating art gallery.

1 Comment from the old blog:

At June 07, 2008 5:16 PM, Steve Cotton said…

Size is difficult to determine by the photograph, but I am willing to bet it is a Great Egret.

Walls and Birds in Riberas Del Pilar is a post from: Mexico with Heart - Living, Traveling, and Retiring in Mexico

Above and In San Juan Cosala

Rosana — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 03:26:47 +0000

June 4, 2008 – A longtime professional photography and videographer, Kelly loves to roam around with his camera, a Canon S5IS Powershot. Here are pictures from two different walks he took from our home in San Juan Cosala.

Last September, the mountains above the town were hit by a huge amount of water in the form of incredibly heavy rain, a waterspout or tromba of water from nearby Lake Chapala. Here, our friend Jack picks his way through a much changed landscape in one of the arroyos in the mountains.

Another day, Kelly caught this action along the lake shore.

Above and In San Juan Cosala is a post from: Mexico with Heart - Living, Traveling, and Retiring in Mexico

The Plaza in San Juan Cosala

Rosana — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 20:27:17 +0000

The plaza in San Juan Cosala is rarely this empty. It’s recently had a lot of work done to make it more attractive, and it’s really very nice!

A friend of ours from San Juan Cosala who is currently working in the US asked us for a photo of the plaza. It happened that Kelly walked through the plaza very early one Sunday morning and got this picture… that’s why it’s so quiet.

Esta es para ti, amigo al norte!

The Plaza in San Juan Cosala is a post from: Mexico with Heart - Living, Traveling, and Retiring in Mexico