Car wash + addresses

If you've been to Mexico before you know that it can be dusssstttyyy. Villages, coastal or otherwise typically have habits of "watering" down the dirt roads in front of their houses daily because of this. It seemed so second nature to me until Joshua asked me the other day, "momma, why are they throwing water onto the road?". While dust not only gets into your house, it also covers your car. In steps the car washes. This Country does an exceptional job with car washes. You can grocery shop and come out and someone will have cleaned your car. No mater the size of town, there just might be a "auto llavado". I swear, you could be in the middle of nowhere and....a car wash. Like this one, off the highway, along Mex 200. It calls itself, "express"...I mean, we all have different ideas of "express". Mine might not be 45 minutes, but, whatever.

And, while there. I had entertainment. I even gave them some toys and oh my gosh, they were kinda adorable.

All in a days work. I mean really, it took almost a day. Ha.

Have you ever tried to find an address in Mexico? It's not easy. I really don't know how I found my way around this Country before without a cell phone? Or online maps? Streets are confusing at best. Halfway through the street it may even change names. Street signs are purely optional, as in, you may opt to have one every 1o streets. And the numbering....ayayaya. Here is our house, and then next door. And then next door to them. Huh! But yet, I found it.

You know your in Mexico when

a horse follows you to Town. And, the military is there, getting garrafon's of water "Uh, yea, yeah, that horse is following us Etta." Poor little Hugo. He is unsure what to think about that big ol animal following us. Though he was born next to horses so maybe he was thinking, "mama?"

Note to self, even the Military gets thirsty. Military has been in all the towns since we've been here. Lots of reasons why, mostly cartel. Note big guns. Not all have bullets.

We left Guayabitos/La Penita

Wednesday was a sad day for us. We left our lovely old, white house in the zona de residencia. No more 5pm birds in the trees. (Every day at 5 the birds go beserk in the trees around us-as in we drove up the first day around 5 and Lorin was like "holy...these birds. All day will it be like this?". Funny thing is we came to love them and good news, we knew when it was happy hour!). We left our neighbors and, equally as important, their perra's. We left our walks over the Bridge of Life. We left our OWN ROOMS. Etta had even decorated hers with a poster she made to celebrate National Womans' Day (all Latin American woman), and her lovely handmade dream catcher. We left knowing where the tienda to buy half-n-half is, or where to get plastic items from, where the best chorizo de la casa is, or our favorite juice lady, the best place to be on the beach. Where to find the fisherman selling their fish. We left our Spanish Teacher and other students; Charlotte, Heather (those were their American names as they were learning English). We will miss the Ecological area, and the Avenida Sol Nuevo where everyone walks/runs/bikes, including us with Hugo. We will miss our secret back door that leads to our path to the beach...and so much more!

Did I say our neighbors? Did I say that it's impossible to get a photo of 3 dogs, 2 of which are puppies? Our last night we had dinner on the beach to say goodbye. Ah, what pretty colors

But, we moved South, by only 15 minutes. And a time zone. Thankfully it's to a village we are familiar with. We were here 4 years ago with our friends, the Schumakers. And, the kids and I come every Friday for a class. So, we will feel happy about it. And, the lovely house has a pool. And a tire swing.

And a hammock. Maybe a ferral cat or two. It's next door to a lady, that of course know my Aunt and Uncle (I swear every time I'm in Mexico someone knows my Aunt and Uncle). We have friends in the town. We have beach play dates and an art class play date arranged. Life will be normal here in a quick second. And, I have already bought a kilo of....coffee. We are very thankful to our hosts, who are sadly in a battle of cancer, for allowing us to stay in their house. Especially as semana santa comes up...which get ready people. I may have a lot of things to share because Semana Santa....whew....

Land.

I don't know all the rules about buying land in Mexico, or owning land. Or commandering land. But it's a thing in Mexico. Years ago when I was in Mexico for a whole year, I mostly stayed in La Manzanilla which is ejido land. Land given to Nationals to help promote people moving to the Coast, to do agriculture. Imagine that. Land given to you so you would, gasp, move to the Coast to farm. You then can pass that land down your family line. I don't know how the buy/sell trade goes with it. Or I forgot. I do know the land is supposed to be "sold" to Nationals only. Guayabitos is not Ejido land, so I think people buy and sell regularly. Or, just put a fence around a piece of land and call it their own. So about a week ago I heard someone in the land next to our house. Curious, I looked over. Properly, they were looking around it. They left. And 10 minutes later someone else shows up, looks at the land. Walks around. About an hour later someone yells in our gate. With an interperter. They wanted to know who took down part of their fence and that they own the land? Backing up, the week we got here, some guys show up and mix concrete and instal some new fence posts. Two days later a big truck drives right over it to deliver gravel. Taking down two whole sections of fence. Like literary, the big dump truck just drives right on over the barbed wire and down through the property. Back to guys at gate. Of course, I was like "hey, I'm just renting. I know nothing. Leave me alone. Find out yourself." As I did not really want to get involved, at all. But funny enough - I do know who took down the fence and it was none of them. Ha. Another neighbor comes out and was insisting to the "interpeter" that they know who took the fence down and that he is playing both sides of who owns the property. Land DRAMA.

Hugo's time in Mexico

Being a dog in Mexico is a lot. But Hugo is not complaining. Things he is thankful for: -his new girlfriend Mamba. She lives next door and is a few months older. They love each other. If Mamba is barking he gets worried, whines and wants to run to the gate to make sure she is OK. Most days she comes over for a play date. Thankfully her momma comes too and drinks a little vino with me. Mamba has an older sister, Luna who isn't so much into the play but endures the young ones together. -the geckos'. He LOVES to chase them. My arm is almost pulled down to my knee. -the OCEAN. Every day Hugo loves the beach and Ocean a little more. He is now swimming over the waves to fetch the coconuts I throw for him. -the food on the ground, including big old' bones left for the other dogs. Or Iguana poop. Or food bags. Or just about anything. -the cool tile floor. -fun things to dig for in the sand; congrejo's?

Street Sounds

Almost daily I walk by this little tienda, on a typical corner of La Penita. Usually there are 3-4 guys outside drinking a cerveza, from a Ballena, which is 940 ml (you do the math...). This could be a 10am. 1pm. not 3pm because that is siesta, but obviously at 8pm.... Tonight we went to dinner with good friends parents, Kip and Janine, who usually are in MX half the year and decided to come here this year. And as walked our way home, we heard them before we saw them.

My walk to School + Leprachauns in Mexico? and Pi night!

So me, Catalina, goes to School on Mondays and Thursday mornings. The kids go in the afternoon, after their "Seattle School" but I go in the morning. In the last few weeks I have been walking, it seemed to take only 5 minutes or so more and of course allows me to see so much. Why only 5 minutes more, because when driving I must drive out of the neighborhood, through Guayabitos, onto Highway, into La Penita and through the rough roads to class. If I walk, I walk to a pedestrian bridge and am in La Penita. I still have a ways to walk and still have to cross the highway, which, is a matter of risking your life. "Just walk when the masses do" I was told....but the "bridge of life" is pretty cool. The stink. The crocs. The birds. The fishing boats. Kinda quintessential Coastal Mexico And guess what. The Leprachauns made it to Mexico. For St. Paddy's day. They are so tricky and funny that they showed up on MARCH 16th. Wait, what? They must have been confused by the time change or the language barrier, or something. They dyed the toilet water. The milk and the cream cheese. Maybe had a cerveza?

We also celebrated Pi night, with a pizza, math work and ...well, a mango mojito because mangos are kinda round.

Hi, my name is Joshua, aka Josue

What is your favorite food, so far: "Hurraches and burros. They are very,very yummy. I had crepes and they were good but a little too sweet. I had a coconut water out of a weird coconut. And I'm 6 years old" What is the coolest animal you've seen: "I have two. A yellow bird and Iguana's. Iguanas I think is cool because iguanas are acrobatc because they can climb trees and slanted surfaces like the palm trees. I haven't kept count on how many I've seen. But there are some in our trees. I've never sawn a yellow bird and I think it's just cool. It's as big as my hand. Have you seen something you don't like: "No. Actually I have. Mosquito bites and jejena's." Things learned: "never to turn your back against the ocean." "And coconut trees are dangerous because the coconuts are heavy and they can hurt when they fall on your head." Sage advice. Sage advice!

Art class, he was to draw something around him.

Grocery shopping

Ayyaya. I could have 100 posts about food and grocery. I love grocery shopping in any new place so, surprise, I really love shopping the small tiendas and bodegas here. Or street stands. Or Tianguses. or the guy selling avocados by the kilo in front of his house. But there is a new trend in Mexican living, you now have to pay for plastic bags! Im not necessarily complaining, its a good thing to encourage less plastic bags! And Im not sure if it is everywhere, but in this area I pay 2 pesos for a bolsa grande. Suddenly dog poop bags got expensive!!! it took quite a few trips for me to realize they were charging me...ha.

Ettas job is to translate the receipt and figured out how much we spent in US dollar. A good way it seems to learn the language. And to realize i spent a whole 6 pesos on bags. However, you know, some shopping trips you want to save the bag fee and then you look at your purchases and wonder, who am I, an old man?

Yep I needed some eggs and a newspaper, and why not a couple of bottles of beer? If I had a thing of Tums that would have made it complete. Until my next shopping experience!

Haircuts + Class Pet

Saturday was HAIRCUT day! Trying to explain or ask for something like a haircut with a mask on seems near impossible but somehow we managed. Separating where we live, Rincon de Guayabitos, from La Penita, the next town, is a much used pedestrian bridge. Below it is an estuary and maybe a crocodile or two. In fact, hanging from ropes are dead chickens for the crocs to eat. Uuuhhh, OK, better the chicken than me I say. So, we crossed the bridge to head to the Avenida to find Angye's Hair Place and get Josue's mop cut! And cut sissy and I's bangs.

Thank god I have a phone and map - I really don't know what I did when I lived in Mexico 15 years ago? I suppose just got lost? We found the shop and up first was Josue (Joshua). So with lots of "no se" as a) I didn't really know how to say, shave the back, cut the sides, part here, blah blah blah and b) Joshua was not saying anything about what he wanted. Truthfully I've cut his hair the last year and well, let's just say absolutely no-one will ever ask me to cut their hair. No-one. It's not my strong suit, in fact have you seen when kids cut each other's hairs and there are bald spots in the back of their heads...well, mine looked worse.Anyhow, "Angye" did much, much better!

Then I asked her to cut Etta and my bangs and she showed us the door. Etta was whispering, "where are we going" And I was like, "I got no idea". So she took us next door to another lady who really did not talk to us? Maybe they take turns? Maybe Angye does not cut women's hair? Dunno. But we then had to wait our turn. This was not one of the kids' highlights. Waiting 20 minutes for a 5 minute cut. But we celebrated with lunch out and HORCHATA. At last. HORCHATA. That, they liked.

And, I got an Americano. Monday brought us back to School, both in the States and in Mexico. At 2:35 we promptly show up for Spanish class and wow, no-one is there. Not too surprising since Julissa walks to pick up at least one of the little girls but after about 10 minutes I was second-guessing the whole is this the right day for Spanish class when I heard lots of shrill voices. Ah yes, small girls. And I hear we have an iguana emergency. And up the stairs runs our classmates and behind them a girl holding an iguana by it's tail. Apparently this was a rescue and recover. The poor iguana was hurt and in the middle of the street (it's a busy street) so now, the kids class has a new pet. A pet iguana. Let's see if he makes it till Thursday?

The best part was when Julissa was like, "I dunno what they eat" so she grabbed some leaves off a tree and threw them in. Right. The things you find in Mexico.