6:00 pm, after generally pleasant mornings. The temperature and humidity are not Florida or Chicago levels, but high enough that it makes sense to do the siesta thing. The high temperatures have been in the low to mid nineties, (or mid 30's C), and humidity around 60 percent, so a bit sticky if you walk home from the store at 2:00 pm with a backpack full of groceries!
Adios to Mount Ranier as we left Seattle for Guadalajara.
I think this tells the story of how hot it can get. Reminds me of a saying from my childhood, "Only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the mid-day sun".
A great treat to being in this part of Mexico, is the abundance of fresh fruit that does not cost a fortune. All of the fruit in the photo above cost something like $6.00 US, and all grown locally. Carlos is my "go to" guy who always has a table on the sidewalk, and a big smile when we walk up. Often he has his baby son, Matthew with him as well.
This means fresh fruit, local goat yogurt, and Jugo Verde for breakfast on the patio. Jugo Verde is "green juice", which we buy at the Tuesday Organic Market. It is a combination of broccoli, alfalfa, wheat-grass, chard, parsley and celery, added to a base of orange juice. It has become a favourite drink.
Each morning, as I drink a cup of tea on the patio, I am amazed by the activity of a large colony of ants. They stream across the tiles in both directions and the majority of them stop and greet each other as they pass by. It is also quite amazing how they work together to move pieces of a leaf, or even a dead insect.
I took some video of the activity, but I think the file is too large to post. I did manage this close-up of an ant team moving the dead insect across the tile. They are very efficient, as the team moved this burden about 18 feet in 10 minutes or less.
We were happy to see that the street vendors were not deterred by the hot days.
These guys set up quickly, but only for a short while, and then they were off. Maybe they needed to pay for this section of the road!
These guys were a lot of fun. I think this part of the world has a wealth of muralists, what a cool way to advertise. Mexico is headed into elections and many candidates have their slogans painted large on walls around town.
The Wednesday Market still going strong.
One of the highlights during May was a visit to the goat farm "Galo de Allende". This is the small farm that makes the goat yogurt and cheese that we buy at the Tuesday Market.
Diane had the opportunity to feed a couple of the baby goats.
This is "proud dad". There were about 20 new baby goats, many of whom were born in February when we were last in Ajijic.
The milk goats really enjoy fresh leaves off the large plum trees that grow on the farm. The farmers, Juan Diego and Laura have made huge improvements to their plot of land, clearing away large quantities of stone and brush to make room for the goats to thrive.
This little one was born with no ability to digest his mothers milk or cows milk. He was not going to make it when they discovered he could tolerate soy milk. He became a "house goat" and now thinks his parents are Laura and Juan Diego and follows them around like a dog. He is thriving......
They named him Bobby and Laura calls him the "goat-dog".
This marvelous couple, Juan Diego and Laura, are the intrepid farmers with great plans and dreams for the future of their farm and their goats.
We spent two nights at Hotel Real de Chapala on the shores of Lake Chapala to celebrate our wedding anniversary. We wanted to see if it was a hotel we could recommend for family and friends who might want to visit. We thoroughly enjoyed our stay. The setting is lovely with two swimming pools and a spacious patio restaurant and lounge. The hotel seems to be a favourite place for companies to hold seminars, but it is also family friendly.
Great entrance and a walk through to the pools and restaurant.
View from the hotel terrace and restaurant.
One of two pools, this one was salt water.
As I write this we are in the middle of the San Antonio Tlayacapan fiesta to celebrate the town's religious patron, Saint Anthony of Padua. San Antonio is a neighborhood adjacent to Ajijic. The conventional wisdom is that the rains will begin when the festival ends on June 13th. The entrance to the church can be seen above.
The parade, including the band, enters the church for the evening mass.
The service seemed well attended, but I did not want to be an "intruder" and get any closer.
As with all fiestas, there are fireworks and rockets, or as they are known here, cohetes. They are pretty loud and mark the start of the festival activities every morning at 6:30am, and other "happenings" throughout the day and evening.
Stay tuned for more adventures in Ajijic.
