Wild Ride of 2021, (so far!)

 As I begin to write this we are sliding through mid September and the rainy season is coming to an end. Last night there was a significant and loud thunderstorm, but not the typical tropical downpour that often accompanies these events.

It has been quite a while since I added to this blog and thought I should at least post some thoughts and stories from the year so far. Covid still surrounds us, but we don't hear about any extreme issues, although we do now hear of more local people dying than we did last winter. Mask wearing is quite good, but certainly not 100%. There are reductions on sizes of events and restaurant seating is still in the 50% capacity range. What I find fascinating is the fact that when one business fails or moves, it is quite quickly replaced by another. We are blessed with a great range of restaurants and eateries with all manner of offerings. It is heartening that most of our favourites are surviving. Mexican society seems to have survival as a common trait!

We realize that we have been fortunate in being able to make some trips this year, while many were not. All of our travel locations had strict Covid protocols in place and mask wearing was almost universal.

We started 2021 on a good note. We entered a raffle to win a special bottle of fine tequila, bought a few tickets, and the winner was... Diane! I am lucky that she let me share some!

The local organic market has been able to stay open throughout the pandemic, and is my regular shopping day every Tuesday. It is so important to support these local farmers, artisans, and artists, as for many, this is a significant source of their income. It is also a social time for me!

There was a week at the beginning of the year where you could buy seeds produced by a local farm.

 

There are also vendors that set up stalls outside of the main market, this is Laura, where I buy fresh fruit each week.

 There is a village called Mazamitla that is close to where we live.  It is at about 8,000 feet and sits in an area with pine forests all around. The locals refer to this town as a "slice of Switzerland". It certainly is a great place to visit, with clear air and cold nights.

 

Many streets are pedestrian only on the weekends. The town is s "destination" for many people from Guadalajara, so the weekends can be crowded or busy.

The church of San Cristobal on the main plaza is quite lovely.

 

Somehow, typical of many towns in the area, streets are decorated.  Makes everything feel joyful.

We went back again to Mazamitla to celebrate Juan Diego's birthday and here we see him getting an early start on the celebration, booze in a bag, what a concept!

There is a restaurant out in the pine forest called GiGi's, where we celebrated Juan Diego's birthday. Owned and run by a very interesting and entertaining Belgian. We had one of the best meals ever, and added entertainment by the owner, whose stage name is Ley Memphis! A fun evening......

Breakfast at a new restaurant in Mazamitla, called Aguatlan.  Again lots of fun, though now I cannot remember what I ate, but all of the food items feature avocado in some form.

After a great lack of reliable information, we discovered that Covid vaccine would be available in our town. With the benefit of hearing how the first day went, we decided to get into the waiting line at about 5:45 am on the second day, only to find there were about 200 people ahead of us. We were prepared though with chairs, water and snacks.

As daylight arrived along with the sun, the line stretched along the maleceon (boardwalk) and kept on growing. The wonderful thing was there were no complaints. I think patience is an unsung virtue of Mexicans.

More than nine hours later, we approached the shot tent at last!

After about two months we were elegible for our second shot and had a plan to get in line again. It was only then I discovered the Sinovac vaccine was not approved in Europe!! Since we hope for a trip to Europe next year,  we decided to go to the San Diego area and get the J&J one-time shot, which is approved in Europe.  So maybe we have already had a "booster" shot?

We did manage visits to Puerta Vallarta with friends, always fun and a chance to swim in the ocean. Oh, and generally eat too much!

A nice walk along the seafront in old town Puerta Valarta

For one quick visit, we flew from Guadalajara to PV, a 40 minute flight with only a small difference in cost from what would be spent on tolls if we drove the five hour journey each way.  A bargain!

This was the resort where we stayed, which was probably only about 30% occupied, probably thanks to Covid.

A very pleasant beach with a few fisherfolk and not many vacationers.

June 1 was Diane and my twenty-fifth wedding anniversary, so we decided to drive to San Miguel de Allende. Our first long solo driving trip since our drive here from the US.

The drive was pretty easy with only one odd occurance as we passed Guanajuato.  We were pulled to the side of the road by a traffic officer. I think it was assumed we were going into downtown Guanajuato. Once clarified we were going to San Miguel, they waved us onward.  Not sure what that was about??

This is the courtyard of the hotel where we stayed. The hotel was Hacienda El Santuario in  San Miguel de Allende, very pleasant and well situated near the center of town.

One of the key places we wanted to visit was this fabric store where Diane had bought fabric  on-line. This was an amazing small store, packed with a huge range of colouful fabric, and an array of products sewn by a local women's cooperative. Diane had a good time!!

To celebrate our anniversary we went to a tapas bar on the roof of a nearby hotel with a view of the famous "pink stone" church, Parroquia de San Miguel Arcangel, in the background.

Also viewed along the street from our hotel.

This is one of the tapas selections that we feasted on. All that with margaritas, wine, and carajillo licor 43, made it a slow walk back to the hotel!.

The walls in the bar at our hotel were completely covered in murals, very interesting.

This is where I learned that orange slices accompany shots of mezcal, a great accompaniment.

During our trip to Carlsbad in Southern California to get our J&J shot, we visited Diane's long time friend Kristin, and her husband Tom.  I went with Tom, Kristin's brother Butch, and Butch's partner, Mary, to visit the USS Midway, a WWII aircraft carrier. We took the train, which was an excellent way to get to downtown San Diego.

This is the view of the carrier, Midway , an easy walk from the train station.

Lots of aircraft on the flight deck, in fact I thought a few too many, making it a bit difficult to appreciate the full scale of the ship. I learned a few things about the battle of the Midway, which I had not known before.

Back in Ajijic we have been participating in the occasional art show now that Covid regulations have eased somewhat. This was one such show on a local plaza.

 

I expanded the flower garden a little and am trying to understand the growing seasons this far south, and at this elevation (5,000 feet). The idea of Spring at the start of the year and northern planting schedules does not seem to work well here!! I think the "Spring" planting begins here in September. I guess I will have to keep experimenting. I did learn that Dahlias are native to Mexico.

This has become a bit long, so I will stop now and attempt to get another update out by the end of 2021.

Stay tuned.

2020 in Retrospect

 As everyone would agree, 2020 was a very strange year that we hope will not be repeated anytime soon. I have been avoiding adding to my blog posts ever since we returned from our sailing trip in Belize. We had, just like everyone else, grand travel plans for the year, all of which had to be canceled As I write this, there is no clear understanding as to when we can make plans to visit the countries that were on our 2020 itinerary.

As I think you all know, we are hunkered down in the friendly village of Ajijic, Mexico, and feeling very blessed to be in this environment. Yes, the virus lurks everywhere and we are as vigilant as possible, very little social activity, and as much safe distancing as we can. A consequence of the mask wearing culture that we live in, is that all of the beautiful friendly smiles of our friends and neighbors are hidden. I am getting much better at seeing all of those beautiful smiles through the eyes instead.

One thing became obvious, Mother Nature did not seem aware that we were in a global pandemic. The trees flourished and the flowers continued to bloom.

Most of the dogs in town had no idea there was a change happening

Some locals took their rest as well.  Though I must say that musicians, such as you see here, were hit hard by the closure of restaurants, none, or very few venues were open where they could perform.

Before the virus became widespread, and we entered our lock-downs, we did have a few events that took place.

One of our intrepid friends set off on a solo bicycle ride in Japan in mid February, so we decided we would host a Buen Viaje party for her. Suffice it to say it was the trip of a lifetime for her, despite it being winter in Japan.

We were again able to participate in the Open Studio Art Walk that is set up annually by the Ajijic Society of the Arts, (but, sadly not in 2021). For the second year we were invited to join a local artist, Judy Miller, together with two other artists, David Winston and Joan Franklin. It was a fun event and again, Diane and her fabric covered boxes were a hit.

Lots of boxes........

I exhibited several of my photographs.  A fun day was had by all and everybody had sales!

For some reason, I did not do much photography in 2020, but i March we had an amazing full moon, and after many experiments with camera settings, I was happy to capture this image from our rooftop terrace.

 In the mountains near our condo there are many hiking paths, though this activity was severely curtailed for groups, I did make one climb with a friend to the waterfall. This waterfall is dependent on having a recent rainfall, and we were lucky there had just been a storm..

A real benefit from the climb are the views back over our village and Lake Chapala.

Since the rainy season is in the summer, everything is very green!

As the year wore on, we began to have itchy feet and felt the need to travel somewhere. In the end we made a short trip with two friends to Teuchitlan, where the unusual round step pyramids are to be found. These pyramids are known as Guachimontones, and date from about 300 -100 BCE. Remarkably, excavation of the site did not begin until the 1970's.

At this location there are three of the pyramids, one not yet excavated. There are terraces surrounding each pyramid on which dwelling places used to exist. All in all, a very interesting place to visit. 

Soon after this trip, we were invited by these same friends to join them in Puerto Vallarta.  They own a TimeShare that they often trade, and a hotel that is normally impossible to book was suddenly available due to Covid.   We had never been to PV and now that it was almost deserted and all protocols were being followed, it seemed like a good time to visit.  The water was warm and the beach very quiet.

Not a bad view from our room. We were impressed with all of the safety precautions that were in place at this hotel.  There were only about three other rooms occupied out of around seventy.

Holiday time was difficult in that we would normally visit our families in California and Washington, but not this year.  Heading into the cold and flu season, Covid lurking, we decided it was not a good idea to fly.   So we did the next best thing and used Zoom or Skype or Messenger and were thankful this technology was available.

Again, with our intrepid friends, Janie and Norman, we decided to spend Christmas in Pátzcuaro, a town within a four hour drive from Ajijic.  We were able to secure rooms in a hotel close to the main square, and again were impressed by the care that all Covid protocols were strictly enforced at the hotel and all around town.

The main town square had a very large display of figures relating to the nativity scene. Not just the traditional stable scene, but large figures depicting the "three wise men" and the elephant, camel and horse associated with their means of travel.

The construction was of  straw or grass, with the camel  covered in straw hats.

 

The elephant covered in some kind of dyed straw or reeds, and as you can see was massive.

The poor horse looked rather tired, but was also made of natural fibers.

I am not sure why this band was featured, but, then again we are in Mexico.

All of the figures were extremely well made and very beautiful. 

To view all of these tableau's, you were required to have your temperature taken, wear a mask, and have hand sanitizers applied. Only about 30-40 people were allowed in the cordoned off pathways around the square, with police stationed at every corner to ensure an orderly procession of social distanced viewers.  All very impressive and well organized.

Occasionally I feel maybe we shouldn't have ventured from our "stay at home" life, but in retrospect, I think we were cautious, took mask wearing. social distancing and outdoor activities seriously.  We ate outdoors almost exclusively, to include the best rack of lamb I have ever eaten with "proper" mint sauce made by the chef's wife who was from Derbyshire. Restaurant was " Bistro Monarca", which I highly recommend if you visit Pátzcuaro.

So, enough for now.  I hope that 2021 will bring the virus under some form of control, that we can be vaccinated, and we all have the ability to visit friends and family again.