San Pancho Vida

Ajijic 2: Easter Eggs, Pickles, and Other Fine Things

Besides passion play processions and pealing church bells, Easter weekend in Ajijic brought families to the lakeside for picnics and play.

Over in the plaza, this makeshift booth featuring a Christmas tablecloth offered the Mexican version of the Easter egg for kids.

Apparently, the eggs are blown through a rather large hole which is then covered with tape--but not before the eggs are filled with tiny multi-colored confetti. The idea, of course, is to throw the eggs and break them. The result, of course, is that the confetti finds its way into every sidewalk crack and embellishes every paving stone and cobbled street in town for weeks. And why not?

On Tuesday after Easter, Travis took me to one of Ajijic's several local markets, this one held in the new shopping mall which is really not too populated much of the time but is certainly hopping on market day.

I bought a jar of those hot dill pickles, some heirloom tomatoes, and a giant loaf of divine wholegrain bread (which Travis and I split) to take home.

So many different things can be grown in the Ajijic climate! Not including Wael, the guy in the checkered head wrap, who was grown in Egypt. We didn't buy anything from him, only because we'd eaten at El Faraon, his restaurant, a few days previously. We especially enjoyed his tabouli and baba ganouj and the tzatziki and Egyptian flat bread, most of which he was selling right there at the market.

Actually, that's not really why I'm publishing this next photo. It's for Char. And others of you, too.

There are lots of other gorgeous things to look at around Ajijic and Lake Chapala (which is the largest freshwater lake in Mexico, did you know that?).

Egrets and purple jacarandas...

...cypresses and Norfolk pine...

...the hills across the water, the giant lake itself... 

...and the half moon in the daytime sky.

This last photo is just to remind you to take the time to have some fun this week.

Next week, we'll visit Mascota, an old-fashioned country town where I spent the night on my way home. I'll tell you where to eat...and where not to stay. 

¡Hasta luego!

Through Different Eyes

I've had a full house here at Casa Luz de Luna lately. Among my recent visitors was John Sullivan, a good friend from Vashon Island, Washington, who came to San Pancho for the first time with my sister Denise. We all had a lovely time lazing at the beach, visiting Greg at the Blue Pig, doing New York Times crossword puzzles, talking 'til late, and playing countless games of Mexican Train dominoes. 

John roamed the house with his camera several times and took a slew of photos, which he generously shared with me. I thought it would be fun to share them with you: some views of the casa, now with a bit of age and use on her, through another photographer's eyes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(That last photo is of Dinah, the house lizard, keeping an eye on yet another visitor.)

This week is Semana Santa, the week leading up to Easter and a major holiday period here in Mexico. Our beach is filling up with campers and families on vacation. There will be music and dances, processions and pageants and celebrations throughout Mexico. I'll keep my camera at the ready and hope to have some photos for you next week.

Meanwhile, thanks to John for this week's pictures. Happy Easter and happy spring to you all! (And Feliz Cumpleaños to my son, who turns 26 today ☺)

 

                                                                All photos by John Sullivan

 

Crocodiles, Mangroves and Birds! Oh, My!

It so happened a couple of weeks ago that both my son and my brother Greg's son were able to visit at the same time for an entire week. Greg suggested we do something I'd wanted to do for ever so long: drive up to San Blas and take the "Crocodile Tour". We caravanned northward for two hours to a big parking lot just south of San Blas. From here, launches await to take the curious up a marvelous river through mangrove swamp to see what there is to see.

While most of the rest of us beelined to the baño, Greg did an excellent job choosing our launch driver and guide. Joel speaks English and is both knowledgeable and sincerely fascinated by the wildlife he docents, especially the birds. We climbed aboard with sunscreen and bug repellent and hats and cameras, and off we chugged into this unique local ecosystem.

Someone spotted our first crocodile nearly immediately, a youngster basking on a log.

Next we saw a bright red crab, which seems to me an inauspicious color for something living in the midst of hungry wading birds, but what do I know.

Really, though...

Some of the birds were more difficult to spot than others. This snail kite seemed not at all concerned about her visibility.

There was other showing-off going on too. Although Joel told us this guy was just drying his wings, he went on and on and seemed pretty vain about his display.

Here's some of what we saw: great egret, cattle egret, snowy egret, snail kite, green heron, great blue heron, boat bill heron, green kingfisher, limpkin and white ibis. I'm not sure which photos are which: when our heads weren't whipping around to see a bird Joel or one of us had pointed out, we spent our time peering deep into the mangrove roots looking for another discovery. I didn't really take the time to take notes.

This shy guy is a boat bill heron.

Joel told us that the mangroves will close up over the river without constant pruning and trimming, which the boat drivers do in their spare time.

We saw another juvenile croc and a much bigger one that was too submerged to photograph well on our forty-five minute journey upriver. Also some other stuff. Turtles...

...some nifty huts on stilts, built when they filmed a movie in here some years back...

...and bromeliads growing in the mangrove trees.

Then we reached our lunch spot, a restaurant at the end of the river from which one can walk to the crocodile sanctuary if it isn't closed, which it was. Fooey. The lunch spot was lovely, with a big swimming hole bordered by an underwater fence to keep the crocs out. Isn't that considerate of them?

That means it's prohibited to swim in the crocodile areas, in case you didn't know. Ya think?

People swam and splashed into the water from a rope swing. We didn't, but you could if you wanted to. Instead, we chose to eat and drink on our one-hour break. I've heard people say the food there is marginal, but we all agreed that it was quite good, especially given the captive audience.

After lunch, we puttered back, Joel still slowing in interesting areas where might lie some creature to inspect. Then we saw him, partially submerged: a ten-foot crocodile, armored and spiky and with a really big mouth. I'm thinking maybe an underwater fence isn't enough to get me into that water.

The trip cost us around ten dollars a person, plus lunch and beers at the restaurant. We didn't need the gentle reminder painted in both Spanish and sort-of-English in the prow of the boat to remember to reward Joel for his friendly and interested commentary along the way.

By the way, Joel recommends starting early in the morning for the very best bird and creature watching. But we were happy enough with our midday excursion, and I bet you would be, too.

                                                                            All photos by R Butler or me

A Christmas Letter

I learned a new phrase in Spanish class recently: el segundo aire, which translates literally as “the second air”.

El segundo aire refers to the second phase of life. After the serious raising of the kids, after the main career, after most acquisitions and constant responsibilities. It is the time of life when we have a chance to take a breath of different air, to start anew. In Spanish, as in English, the word “air” is used metaphorically, too. Cambiar de aires, a change of scene. A mi aire, in my own way.

These concepts all captivated me, as you might imagine, and I soon realized I would write you a Christmas letter about my segundo aire, and yours.

Many of you who kindly visit this blog are cherished old friends with whom I have shared the long phase of our lives that is ending now, or rather that is sequeing into something else.

Some of you started out as internet acquaintances, coming together over mutual interests through the magic of cyberspace, then landing for real in one anothers’ lives to become dear and steadfast personal friends.

Others of you have become friends over the last two years through this blog, with your email responses and comments, or with looking me up when you are in San Pancho.

And many of you are those good friends who I’ve met right here in San Pancho or in other parts of Mexico; people who, like me, decided to embark on a new adventure and chose this place in which to design it.

Each and every one of you is a treasured part of this phase of my life, my segundo aire. I want you know to how very happy I am, immersed in my new surroundings, with a new house, new ideas, new projects, new friends, new love...living in el aire mas puro, the freshest of air.

You know how sometimes you think you already know something, and then, through further experience and learning, you discover you know it in a new way, unequivocally? I used to believe I knew this: that life is of our own making, that we can choose how to live it through our own thoughts and responses. I still believe this, but I believe it differently now.

Now I know in every cell of my being that we can create in the universe just as we create on a sheet of paper or with a lump of clay. I know for sure now that it all starts with imagination...then, that intention with attention results in manifestation. Every day, miracles manifest in my life. Small miracles, huge miracles. I choose to call them miracles, but I know that they depend essentially on my own imagining, plus intention, attention, attitude and gratitude. What goes around comes around. We get back what we give out.

This Christmas, I will get to touch my son, to stay up way late talking with him, if only for a few days. I will get to spend time with my now ex-husband Dick in a different way, as pals who have realized we are going in very different directions now but who have agreed keep our friendship intact. I will get to be with my brother Greg, whose life has blossomed recently in miraculous ways. I will get to enjoy my mother, delightfully still with us at age 96, who is coming back to San Pancho for the second time, to spend another holiday together.

I will be surrounded by good people and lit by sunshine. I’m not cooking: there are too many inviting places to eat, including my brother’s brand new restaurant. On Christmas Eve, we will join friends for an easy evening of finger food and games and conversation. On Christmas day, we will have brunch on the beach at a big table, feet in the sand, with other friends whose families are visiting. Not everyone I love will be right here, but we will be present in each others’ hearts and thoughts and most certainly on the phone.

For me, this first Christmas in Mexico will be a different take on the holiday, with many long-standing traditions left behind in some ways, to be reinvented here in this new air, as so many things are.

                                        The Christmas Tree

                       Abracadabra, the Christmas Candelabra

 

(I've been playing a lot, to tell the truth.)

And you? How goes your segundo aire? If you have a chance during this busy time of year, will you send me a few lines in a blog comment or an email note and let me know?

We're sneaking up on another brand new year, with another brand new opportunity to imagine how we want it to be. What could be more fun than that?

I wish you the gift of love this season.

¡Feliz Navidad, mis queridos amigos!

xo

Candice

And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.                                    Paul McCartney & John Lennon 1969

Santa Claus is comin' to town. John Frederick Coots & Haven Gillespie 1934

The Hoisting of The Pig

There's only one word to describe the opening of The Blue Pig, and that's WOOHOO!! Greg's Grand Opening was last Thursday and the place was full!

Needless to say, the weeks leading up to the opening were madly busy, and those last few days totally insane. On Wednesday afternoon, I sprayed a final coat of varnish on the giant blue pig, made of papier maché by Indira and her crew at entreamigos, painted and glittered by yours truly...

and in the nick of time, up she went!

Her name is Delilah. She told me while I was tickling her pork belly with a paintbrush.

Delilah wasn't the only thing finished in the nick of time. Pam was busy day and night painting the main sign, finishing menus, picking up t-shirts and writing flyers for opening weekend, which she also posted around several nearby towns. We'd both had lots of interested questions that week, from people passing her house as she painted and from people passing the restaurant where I worked on Delilah in the front lobby. Many of whom showed up for the grand opening, by the way!

As for Greg...you can just imagine. Cooking up his famous barbecue sauces, buying ingredients, ordering ribs, finishing the room, mixing batches of potato salad and carrot slaw, advising on the menu, picking up kegs of Negra Modelo and Modelo Especial, zooming back and forth from San Pancho to Vallarta and Bucerias and La Peñita, trying to sleep a few hours now and then.

Bill, his bilingual aide-de-camp, was on the phone constantly with orders and calls to vendors, stove fixers, waiters and everyone else in Mexico. Bill's son, Beau, was running errands and helping out all over the place, fetching the produce guy in his truck, bringing water to the painters and spiffing up the entry.

But it all came together. By Saturday, when the band Deep River came to play, the place was humming...and pretty soon, the joint was a'rockin'!

Platters of fallin' off the bone pork ribs, pulled pork, and moist chicken flew out of the kitchen. Behind the bar, Daniel poured draft beers and mixed drinks. The waiters, all local, slipped among the tables serving up barbecue and libations. And the band rocked out.

They announced a song dedicated to Greg and Pam, who had first heard them in Bucerias some time ago and knew they had to be a part of the Pig. The song was a blues shuffle, maybe the best kind of song in the world to dance to. Greg came out of the kitchen, Pam from behind stacks of orders and receipts, and out they went to the dance floor.

It was Dream Come True night, and that's a fact.

I joined them after a bit and we danced it out. All the elation, all the love for each other and appreciation for the work done, all the thrill of seeing this beautiful vision of Greg's become reality. Woohoo!!

(It's amazing what can happen in five months, which is how long Greg has been in San Pancho.)

When the song ended, Greg went back to the kitchen to plate up piles of his delicious concoctions, cooked with passion...

...which plates invariably come back to the dish washer (yay, Nico!) looking like this:

Busy busy busy. A learning curve, certainly. How much food to buy? How much staff to employ? What best way to do this or accomplish that?

Greg already had a platter for two or three to share called The Big Pig, but after a night or two, he added an even bigger one. It's called Delilah's Delight, of course.

It's no coincidence that the motto above the front door reads Come La Vida Como Puerco, which means "eat life like a pig".

The whole thing's kind of a kick, don't you think?

 And the band played on.

The Blue Pig is open every day but Wednesday from 3 to 10 p.m. Live music featuring Deep River is Saturday from 4 to 7. 

Looks like my brother hit a home run.

The Blue Pig has a Facebook page, of course:

The Blue Pig on Facebook

And here's a link to San Pancho Life and another article on The Blue Pig:

The Blue Pig on San Pancho Life

Come on up, why dontcha? Delilah'd be pleased to make your acquaintance...and your tummy won't regret it, I promise you that.

                                          ♥    ♥    ♥