Latest Events

BUSY MARCH

 

Mrs. T did not end her outdoor art activities with the chalk walk.  She had a couple more opportunities to demonstrate her skills which you will read about below.  And we have had several other items on our plates.  We have been watching the NCAA basketball tournament rooting for OSU of course, but also for Xavier and OU.  And before that we watched the Vancouver Olympics; remember we are surrounded by Canadians.

 

We also managed to fit in a trip to the Vallarta Botanical Gardens.  This is a jewel of a spot not far south of Vallarta proper.  We went with several of the aforementioned Canadian friends and had a wonderful time.  We left early in the morning to avoid the heat and made all the buses perfectly.  The weather was just right and we finished with a great lunch back in PV at the Pancake House.

 

And there was yet another trip, this one to Tonala, essentially a suburb of Guadalajara.  We went on a tour advertised as 'Shop 'til you Drop.'  Tonala is known for its craft market on Thursdays and Sundays.  Indeed, the city is full of studios and factories that churn out items that are retailed throughout Mexico.  Thus it is possible to sometimes obtain better deals right at the source.  As dilettante glassblowers we were intrigued by the prospect of seeing the 'Glass Factory' mentioned in the itinerary.  Actually we saw two of them, the advertised one and another we earlier discovered ourselves.  They really were factories, no pretentions to making works of art.  The workers were fine craftsmen – and a couple of women as well – who turned out objects in a very assembly line fashion.  Technical note:  they melted cullet, in this case bags of bottles recently emptied.  They were using crucibles in the furnaces, which sometimes doubled as glory holes.  The cullet was barely melted before it was gathered, hence a lot of bubbles and seeds.

 

Mrs. T describes her further art adventures:

 

 

I like to paint.  I revel in the colors.  It is magical how things appear and change.  I love the feeling of mastery when a sense of light and shade creep onto the canvas teased and coaxed by the brush.  There are hours and days of hard labor: shoving blocks of color into place; pulling them together into forms; wrenching time and space into a new reality; calling light to give the moment meaning. There is a moment of suspense - I hold my breath - and then IT IS.  This thing I have created has its own existence.  What could be more wonderful?

 

As much as I enjoy painting it is both physically and emotionally exhausting.  Sometimes I just can't seem to get myself started.  When we came South this year I just could not find the inspiration.  Finally In January I began working on a painting I started last year.  It features three angels and the Holy Parakeet.  (My little joke!) 

 

After finishing that painting, one of my friends, Sandra, asked me to help her with starting the repainting of the Kissing Bridge.  So one Saturday, Sandra, her daughter Cindy, and I set out.  We got a lot of encouragement and some people decided they would like to paint a section.  Sandra had already repainted the walls of the bridge and marked them off in sections.  Sandra, Cindy, and I picked our sections near the stairs.  I was happy to encourage some of the young Indian girls who spend all day hawking embroidered bags a chance to do something different.  I wondered if their parents would object but they did not.  All kinds of people painted on the bridge:  indigenous Indians, children, expatriates from the United Sates and Canada, tourists, and of course Mexicans.  One panel was done by a tattoo artist from Canada; the different medium seemed to work very well for her.  Arturo, a sculptor and painter who lives next to the bridge has taken charge of the paints and brushes.  He loans them out to people who want to paint a section.  There are still a few unclaimed sections if you hurry down. Every time we pass over the bridge another section or two is finished.  I enjoyed helping to get the thing started.  Sometimes when I walk to the market I get a shy smile from one of the young artists.  You will see pictures of many of the panels.  (Also check out Cindy's website:  www.cidtalk.com )

 

As I was working on the wall Lucy, who is the director of a public primary school in Nuevo Vallarta, asked if Cindy, Sandra or I would help her children do a painting on a wall at their school.  Sandra and Cindy were unable to but I agreed to give it a shot.  (Even a fish won't get caught if it keeps its mouth shut.)  Well I went out and looked the situation over and told the assistant director what I would need.  The school contains approximately ten million first, second, and third graders.  Well, there were really only two classes of each grade but they bounced around so much it was hard to get an accurate estimate except to say there were a lot more of them than there is of me!.

 

So I had this wall which I divided with masking tape into 36 squares.  The teachers selected the lucky students who got to help. I brought my nature books so that the children could copy a picture of Mexican plants, animals, fish, birds, seashells and butterflies.  When a child selected a subject they drew it on their "Quadra."  After I inspected the drawings and made suggestions for improvements the children were ready to paint the amended drawings.   I worked with nine students at a time (this represented one row of squares).  Additionally one eight year old girl who was bilingual was my assistant as a translator. The fact is that the children had no difficulty at all understanding me.  I spoke loudly and clearly and SLOWLY.  On the other hand I was totally clueless as to what the kids were saying.  They started speaking Spanish at a mile a minute and speeded up. Also a lot of them spoke very softly.  The notable exception was that they had studied English and tended to shout out triumphantly any English word they remembered that they thought was appropriate.  For example a conversation might run something like this:

 

Rebecca: "?Listo pintar?"  (Are you ready to paint?)

 

Student : "GREEN!"  (GREEN!) 

 

Rebecca:  "?Quiere verde?" (Do you want green?)

 

Student : "Si, GREEN!"   (Yes GREEN!)

 

(Editor's note:  I forgot how to make the beginning Spanish '?'.  dt)

 

Although most of the students knew the colors in English I always had to double check because sometimes they forgot and asked for the wrong color.

 

I had only six colors of paint and spent most of the day mixing different colors.  This was new to a lot of the children and they loved watching me make new colors.  It took two days but we got the wall finished to everyone's enthusiastic approval.

 

Since then I have been working on a painting of a wave.  Mexican paint I bought turned out to be a rather alarming shade of green.  But I have managed to tone it down quite a bit with blue and black so that now it is merely astonishing.

 

Pictures of all these happenings:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/9151458@N07/sets/72157623671069406/

 

 

This will probably be our last posting from our southern residence.  We return north on Good Friday.  After we get that house up and running there may be another newsletter.  We invite you to come and visit; the spring flowers should be up and colorful!

 

Dan and Rebecca

www.casa-de-terrible.blogspot.com

 

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Miscellaneous

A SHORT NEWS LETTER

 

We have a brief newsletter of just a few items.  It is being sent as an attachment this time because a couple of photos are imbedded in it.  (You may need to hold down the Ctrl button to follow the link mentioned in it.)  If you have problems opening this blog, let us know and we will try to send it a different way.

 

 

Dan and Rebecca

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Hello Snow

WE SHOULD HAVE BEEN PAYING ATTENTION or

It was a Warm and Stormy Night

 

This newsletter was originally planned to be a short article about the 'Chalk Walk' (see below) as a follow-up to our last edition about our fun happenings.  But events intervened and we have a more dramatic story to report, the results of which have affected many of you in the US.  Do not be surprised when the tone of this offering is a bit different; Mrs.T, the usual muse, has graciously granted the 'stick in the mud' (umpff !) some writing time.

 

Febrero Loco

All the signs were there.  We already reported on the freakish waterspout.  The winter had been significantly wetter than usual, perhaps a record amount of rain for December and January.  Mrs.T had been saying the water temperature was above normal during her scuba diving; often she had not needed her diving suit but just her rainbow dive skin. (From the retailer Dive Goddess no less.)   And she had received reports that there are many fewer whales because of those warm temperatures.  We should have known.

 

The last weekend of January was grey and wet.  Although it had cleared up a bit, to be prepared for the next downpour Mrs.T bought a paraguas after church on our stroll through the Sunday market.  And indeed it would come in handy as it rained Monday and much more on Tuesday.

 

Then –WHAM.  About a quarter past 11 in the evening the bay was hit by a tropical storm that came ashore.  Winds were reported to be 100-150kph (60-75mph).  Now tropical storms do come through this area in the rainy season.  Generally they make a lot of rain, but not so much wind.  The depth of the bay – 1000-1200m (3000-4000ft) mitigates the strength of these storms.  Pacific hurricanes usually veer off.  And for such a storm to hit in winter is unusual, happening every 15-20years.

 

For the folks on the second floor of Condos Jacarandas it was quite exciting.  Windows rattled; furniture on the upper palapa blew down the stairs.  Electricity throughout Bucerias went out and would stay out for about 3 hours and then flickered on and off.  We at Jacaranda were fortunate.  Most damage was relatively minor, although not inconsequential.  Chairs around the pool were askew, umbrellas snapped, a few tree limbs broke, and plant matter was everywhere.  Bits and pieces of material from other places littered the yard.  Nerves were frayed.

 

Other places, especially those closer to the beach, up on the hill and on the other side of the highway were more damaged.  Trees, many quite old, were uprooted.  Roofs were blown off, doors blown out, walls blown over.  To our knowledge, luckily no one was seriously injured.

 

Here are some pictures, some of Jacarandas and some around town. They speak for themselves without descriptions.  Thanks to Luis for several photos.

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9151458@N07/sets/72157623366600774/

 

And here are some more pictures and an article from a local online spot (Thanks Ron.):

 

http://www.buceriasnews.com/news/3-local/42-bucerias-storm-february-02-2010.html

 

We understand that Puerto Vallarta also was hit hard.  And flooding continued longer in the state of Michoacan south of Jalisco.

 

Cleanup in Bucerias started early the next day.  People took it onto themselves to get busy removing debris, clearing trees, etc.  Now, just a few days, later all is nearly back to normal.

 

For you folks in the US where a major winter storm has dumped all that snow – that is the same storm that came through here.  It sped across Mexico and the Gulf and into the southern US.  When it collided with a cold front from our friends in Manitoba and Alberta, voila:  snow.  Lots of it because of all the moisture brought up from here.  Aren't you happy we were thinking of you and sent our weather to prove it?

 

 

Chalk Walk

For three days during Fiesta Week, a new, but unrelated, event was put together:  Chalk Walk, our version of a via colori or madonnari.  This may become an annual event.  For the first two days, professional artists, 4 from Mexico and 2 from up north, applied themselves to creating four works on a section of Lazaro Cardenas.  Three of the Mexican artists worked as one team to create the work on the street and up onto the wall of Broken Art.  This was appropriate because Christy the owner/artist of this gallery/studio for mosaic and painted glass honchoed this project.  She worked with PEACE Mexico, the Recyclers of Bucerias, and several local restaurants to put together a splendid event, especially for the first effort.

 

On the third day were workshops for children to try their hand at this on-the-street finger-painting.  More children turned out than the organizers appeared to expect.  Emily L'Hoist, one of the staff members of PEACE (and one of Luis's charming daughters), had asked Rebecca to stop by that morning to help if she wished.  R thought it might be fun.  She brought several of her books with pictures of plants and animals, and was able to help out with the younger children while the professional artists worked with the older kids.

 

Here are a few pictures to give a flavor of this rather successful event which we hope to see again next year:

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9151458@N07/sets/72157623242551973/

 

 

We hope you are having fun with your shovels up north (take it easy).

 

Dan and Rebecca

www.casa-de-terrible.blogspot.com

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Fun and Oops

MEXICAN FIESTA and A STICK IN THE MUD

 

It has been quite a busy time for us lately.  The last week or so we have been involved in three separate events.  This installment you are receiving stories about two of those activities – one about our annual fiesta and one about a trip to the PV Zoo - much of which will be known to those of you who have been following our newsletter/blog for a while.  The pictures even may look familiar because the events change only slightly from year to year, especially for the fiesta.  Mrs. T does not mention that the fiesta is more than religious, having nightly entertainment, booths of food, games of chance, clothing for sale, children's rides, etc.  It is very much a carnival in addition to the religious intentions. 

 

You may recall that Ron, Diane, and R went to the zoo last year; I was unable to go.  This year all four of us went and had a great time, with an unusual twist of events due to my clumsiness.

 

A special 'thank you' to Ron for several photos.  So read on and enjoy. 

 

 

Fiesta

Last week was the annual fiesta at Bucerias.  Every town has its own saint and ours is Our Lady of Peace.  So in January on her saint day the whole town turns out for a fiesta which lasts about a week.  Every night a different colonia (section of the parish) is responsible for the peregrination which is a religious parade.  The peregrinacions usually have floats, costumed Indian dancers, a little mariachi band playing religious songs, and people of the colonia carrying lighted candles.  Sometimes other groups are included. Dan was impressed when one night the hotel workers marched in union with the maids flourishing their brooms, mops and buckets. 

 

But the biggest parade is on the last day which is a special celebration of Our Lady as the Queen of the Sea and Land.  On this day the fishing boats sail across the bay from La Cruz.  They are all decorated and some come right up on the beach where they are blessed.  This year the Bishop came down to bless them; he is the one in the red hat.  (We do not recall him attending in previous years. – dt) The waves were a little higher than usual so this was more exciting but everyone made it okay, including the children dressed as Mary, angelitas, and baby Jesus.

 

After the boats are blessed comes the parade of caballeros (cowboys).  I have always thought riding sidesaddle is ridiculous but it is a wonderful way to show off your fancy skirts.  These horses have been taught how to dance.  I think this is the neatest thing.  When the vaqueros want them to dance they hold the reins a little tighter so the horses arch their necks and they look beautiful.  One thing - the horses like to do it!  I was watching when the horses were standing around waiting for the parade to start. The mariachis started practicing one of their songs.  Some of the horse started dancing all by themselves without any prompting from their riders.

 

After the horse parade is a mass blessing all and sundry.  This mass was very crowded and I squeezed into the standing room only at the back.  But the Bishop was very long winded and after a while I snuck back out.  I think God will understand.

 

At night came the fireworks which featured a castillo.  When one of the parts that go in a circle got stuck, a man climbed up and gave it a shove; he needed to do that a couple of times.  Not a job that I would want.  Now we are all blessed, stuffed with fair food, entertained, exhausted, and happy.  In only twelve months we will do it again.

 

The Bishop in his red beanie and other pictures:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/9151458@N07/sets/72157623183036055/

 

 

About that stick

This week we went to the Puerto Vallarta Zoo with our friends Ron and Diane.  It is a hands-on kind of zoo reminiscent of old zoos in the US. (However, they have embarked upon some significant expansion and improvements. – dt) Before we left I admonished Dan.  I expected him to have FUN. He was not to be an "old stick in the mud" as the saying goes.  Well he wasn't, at least not exactly.

 

Dan took my remarks to heart and got in the spirit of the thing.  He and Ron took a lot of photos of Diane and me feeding the animals.  We bought bags of food and fed: carrots, peanuts, bread, corn, and food pellets trying to get the right food for the right animal.  I kissed the camel; it was a bit like kissing Dan when he had a mustache! (Some you may recall my 'rabbi' look. –dt) We threw food in the hippo's big mouth.  She would open wide when we yelled, "OPEN!"  If we got the wrong food for the wrong animal they would ignore it and give us a disgusted look.  After all of this feeding Diane and I were ready for a new thrill and went to investigate if, after paying a small fee, we could hold and play with some baby animals.

 

We were eyeing some baby tigers speculatively, when Dan and Ron who were down looking at the adult tigers called us urgently.  It seems as if, in some twisted interpretation of my remark Dan had dropped his walking stick into the tigers' pen below.   (Dan naturally assures me that this was an accident.). The tigers were enthusiastic about this new form of entertainment.  One tiger immediately retrieved the stick and after sniffing it a bit, carried it around showing the other tiger his prize.  As I had the most Spanish it fell to me to try to explain the situation to the zoo employees.  Do you understand? "Entiende?" I asked.  "Mas or menos." The keeper replied. This translates as, 'more or less'.  I think he was still a little unclear as to exactly how or why the stick got in the pen.  We were not concerned about the walking stick but were worried that it might harm the tigers if they managed to get it apart.  The keeper fed the tigers and locked them in while he went to retrieve the walking stick, somewhat muddy and covered in tiger slobber.  He graciously refused a tip for this.

 

After all of this excitement it was almost anticlimactic when Diane and I went to play with the baby tigers.  I guess a good time was had by all including both the adult and the baby tigers.  And Dan is explaining how the teeth marks got on his stick when he was fighting off the tigers.

 

Tigers and other critters:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/9151458@N07/sets/72157623184109231

 

 

Hope all of you are enjoying your winter.

 

Dan and Rebecca

www.casa-de-terrible.blogspot.com

 

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CERTAINLY DIFFERENT

IT IS NOT ALWAYS PERFECT

You have heard us mention that it is generally warm and sunny here. Well this year we have had an unusual amount of rain. And yesterday, well .... These photos were taken about 9 PM yesterday from across the street. (Thank you, Ron!) We understand that the beaches in Puerto Vallarta were evacuated.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9151458 @ N07/sets/72157623096954861 /

Dan and Rebecca

www.casa-of-terrible.blogspot.com

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Hello 2010

A NEW YEAR BEGINS

 

We hope all of you are enjoying your weather.  For many, if not most, of you we have noted that the winter has been harsh thus far, probably worse than normal.  We have had an unusual amount of rain this winter.  Even the locals have remarked about that.  But mostly we have had sunny days and temperatures in the mid to upper 20s (75-85).  We are not complaining and trying not to gloat.

 

Although we could not be with many of our loved ones, we had a festive holiday season.  Rita, one of Rebecca's sisters as many of you may recall, made her annual visit.  The ladies had a wonderful time and I also greatly appreciate Rita's visit.  We went out for a sumptuous meal on Christmas Eve.  Joannes had mentioned stopping by for drinks later in the evening.  Little did we realize that there would be turkey, trimmings, and another feast.  Everyone had a merry time.  Unfortunately Rita had to return to cold, snow covered Boise on Christmas Day to have time to be with her family.  So she was not here to enjoy the usual fireworks around the bay on New Year's.  

 

Mrs. T prepared this brief essay last night:

 

 

Today I went Boogie Boarding.  The waves were perfect.  High enough to give a nice ride, but not too high to be scary.  I was in great form catching every one.  One of my Mexican friends said I was like one of their nature spirits, the sand witch who lives in the ocean and rides the waves.  I did get sand in my swimsuit and seaweed in my hair (it looked a bit like lettuce).   When I was exhausted I went up one the beach to sun and dry off.  Unfortunately I forgot my sun screen and turned as red as a tomato.  People did gather round to stare but I did not blame them.   It's not every day you see a baking lettuce and tomato sand witch!

 

 

 

(I had it confirmed by our neighbors from Montreal that they saw the BLT.)

 

Some pictures of our holidays:

 http://www.flickr.com/photos/9151458@N07/sets/72157623197148524/

 

We are very excited that Nick is coming this Thursday to stay for a week.  And it will be Festival Week.

 

We invite you to visit us to enjoy more balmy conditions. 

                                                                                                                             

Dan and Rebecca

www.casa-de-terrible.blogspot.com

 

 

 

 

 

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Our second community

Mexicans

 

We are recognized members of the community.  Not only are we seen as members of Bucerias life, but people actually know us by sight.  They may not know our names, but they know we are from the US (even from Ohio sometimes), and that we live here about half the year.  And it is not just the community of ex-pats and others north of the border that know us, but many of the local merchants and shopkeepers recognize us, even if we are just walking along the street.  At first I told Mrs. T that it was our distinctive walking sticks that identified us, and they still are like nametags.  And because we do not wear a lot of bling, they know we are not short-time visitors.  But more people know us as us.  One way we know this is that many folks will now try to speak to us in English which they only do with people they trust.

 

We are also more officially part of the landscape; we now have our FM3s which are similar to 'Green Cards' in the US.  We are resident aliens and even can work here – something not likely to happen.  But we now have a lot of benefits, such as being able to open a bank account.  Next year we hope to obtain INAPAM cards which are essentially national versions of Ohio's Golden Buckeye cards and confer quite a few discounts to us older folks.

 

Here is a vignette from R about how we perceive the locals:

 

It is, of course, always a mistake to characterize people based on things like nationality but nonetheless I believe that Mexicans are a very friendly, generous and gracious people.

 

Many times we have had Mexican families renting one of the condos.  When we pass by saying "Hola," they invariably offer us something to eat or drink.  We seldom act the same.

 

Last week a few young men were down from Guadalajara for a little time in the sun.  I had barely walked out the front door when one said, "Lady Can I get you something to drink?" in the most cheerful fashion.

 

Throughout the day we progressed to "What are you drinking, Senora?" and later to "How about a cerveza, Senorita?"

 

The boys were never rude, or in anyway bothersome (aside from a tendency to sing soulfully off-key).  I just had the feeling that they were having a good time and really hoped that I would have a good time too.

 

I think that the progression in form of address from lady, to senora, to senorita reflected the fact that having known me a whole day they really felt we were becoming good friends.  (Of course some cynics might attribute it to the 'all the girls look beautiful at closing time' effect - but I demur).

 

I was walking through the Mercado the other day when a Mexican man came up to me.  He told me (mostly through sign language because he didn't speak any English) that he had seen me boogie boarding on the ocean and he thought it was great.  He told me I did it well.  Many people seem to find it amazing that a person of my age and, shall we say physique, would do this but my newfound amigo and I both think it is perfectly natural.

 

One morning I was walking on the beach taking photos of this and that when a fishing net caught my eye.  I was taking a picture of the net when one of the fishermen came up and showed me some fish they had caught.  He of course offered to sell me some but was not disturbed when I told him I did not want any. 

He said I could take all the pictures I liked.  Then he introduced me to his buddies.  They brought me over to where they were grilling a freshly caught stingray.  They all insisted I have a stingray tortilla that they made over their campfire.  Very simple, they helped me put it together:  a small tortilla, some of the white fish and a sprinkle of salt from the communal bag.  It was delicious.

 

In this post I and sending some pictures of some of my Mexican friends: the fishermen, the muffin man (Oh do you know him?) who brings muffins to our door in a washtub balanced on his head, the pie guy who likes my paintings, Teresa who owns a little arts and crafts store and collects for the children's library, the chicken man who also plays the guitar, the modista seamstress who sews torn things for a very reasonable price.  She will also make clothes from scratch or costumes etc.  And there are many more.  Friendly, helpful, gracious people who are another reason we love Mexico.

 

Here are some pictures of several of these local merchants and friends:

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9151458@N07/sets/72157622993148608/

 

 

Hope you are enjoying a good winter and have happy holidays ahead.

 

Dan and Rebecca

www.casa-de-terrible.blogspot.com

 

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