Casa de Terrible: THE ADVENTURESS

Further adventures

Mrs. T has become somewhat adventuresome this year. And she has become surprisingly involved in local activities. She is doing a splendid job with her Spanish. She presents some stories below.

We are observing the primaries from a distance. Much of the US election system is a mystery to our Canadian friends, but some of them have a basic understanding of our favorite sport.

This year we will be here for Easter for the first time. We understand that it is quite a holiday. Many businesses are sprucing up with fresh paint and other decorations. The city also seems to be doing some repairs, cleaning, etc.

La Nina

The weather has been quite changeable for the last month but it is warming up. The water temperatures have been very cold for diving. This is due to an ocean current called La Nina. (I think it is like El Nino but going the other way. (Just lower rather than higher temp, I believe. dt)). Water temperatures have been in the 60's. The other day I saw a humpback whale swimming by wearing long red underwear. The octopi are busy knitting leggings out of seaweed. Just kidding about the red underwear (it was dark grey). As you dive deeper or move near undersea reefs and rock, you often come to a place where the water temperature changes (a thermocline). The change is quite abrupt, like a wall. And often it looks like a shimmering wall right in the middle of the ocean. Many fish like the cooler water and if you are careful you can swim in the warm water and look across into the cold water where all the fish are gathered. Last week we saw a sea turtle, a lot of fish and eels of different kinds, lobsters, crabs and shrimp. Perhaps the most interesting thing to me, because I had never seen it here before, was a garden of sea anemones.

Anemones are attached to the rocks and come in all different shapes and colors. Some look like feathery ferns of all different colors. Some are shaped like graceful trees. There are anemones with petals shaped like daisies. Some have long tentacles that wave slowly in the current. Anemones can sting but they are quite lovely and the garden we saw was a combination of many different shapes and colors. At shallower depths the visibility was bad last week because it had been windy and the wind pushes the water over the ocean floor where it picks up sand. The sand here shimmers with a golden color – perhaps from mica - and when the visibility is low it is as if you are swimming through sunbeams. When you dive deeper, at perhaps about 50 or 60 feet, the waters clear. There were familiar fish and fish I had never seen. When I got back home I looked through my big fish book trying to identify the new fish I had seen, while I remembered my dives,

Diving is not the only joy that comes to me from the sea. I continue boogie boarding and I am improving, although the Wide World of Sports has yet to call. This week there was a new and wonderful thing on our beach which I believe is called kite skiing (Kitesurfing or kiteboarding – dt). These guys have huge oval shaped kites which they fasten to a harness they wear and it pulls them across the waves on large slalom boards. (See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitesurfing dt) Yesterday it was quite windy and there were at least a dozen of them darting back and forth. It looked like fun to me. The kites were of bright colorful patterns and it reminded me of a time I saw a whole field of balloons taking off. But the kites moved much more quickly. Perhaps it was more like a butterfly dance with humongous butterflies. The magnificent frigate birds were observing at a discrete distance probably wondering what new creature was invading their airspace.

Espanol

My Spanish is continuing to improve slowly. At a couple of parties I had some fairly involved conversations with the architect, Jorge, who lives in one of the condos in our place. He is working on the construction of a large new shopping center just down the road. Also I had several conversations with some giggly young ladies who were in another condo for about a week. Their father said, "I spend a lot of money to send you to that English school so talk to this nice lady!" We ended up playing Scrabble in English and eating popcorn. The grandmother and aunts came over and we all had fun. I am taking the second section of intermediate Spanish at the bilingual school. Our teacher this session is a marine biologist who is doing a population survey on sharks! I found this interesting but did not offer to help. When I first learned he was a marine biologist I asked him if he dove. He replied that he did not want to dive with his subjects. I can see that! When he showed us the three books we were going to use in our class the main one was an ESL book. I was just ready to open my big mouth and say no that is the wrong book, thinking English as a Second Language when light dawned. This book is Espanol de Segundo Lengua. Still my memory is all filled up with various things and it takes a bit longer to shove a few of them out of the way to make room for new Spanish words. Alas, my class with the waiters was canceled when no students showed up. Que Lastima!!

Supporting the Mexican Economy

While living here we feel a moral obligation to support the local economy. To that end (as well as for aesthetic reasons) I bought a large tin angel. I wanted to bring her home to put in my garden in Ohio but Dan demurred. It is true she is about three feet tall and including her wings has a significant girth so perhaps Dan is right. At any rate she sits on our patio here showering us with blessings and protecting us from evil influences. I also finally found a green peacock (pajaro real verde) water jar that goes with our kitchen colors of green and yellow. When I was wandering through the mercado one day I saw a little silver Kokopelli pendant that I really liked. It seemed a little high and I did not buy it. The vendor cleverly told Dan that I really liked it and guess what I got for Valentine's Day. Kokopelli is the Indian flute player that you see dancing through a lot of motifs here and in the American Southwest. Some historians believe that he might have been a trader who carried goods from the Aztec empire north since the symbol is seen in both cultures. I always liked Kokopelli because he seems to be enjoying himself so much. (He should be as he is a fertility deity often pictured with a large organ. dt) In case you might be thinking it is unpatriotic for us to support the Mexican economy when the American economy is not exactly thriving, remember we are probably doing wonders for the balance of trade. Hasta Luego.