Life in Chacala Keeps Changing on Me

Life in Chacala keeps changing on me, and that's a good thing. I think. I woke up this morning overwhelmed with sadness about it not working out with moving into X's Techo rental.

But within minutes things got better. I finished packing up most of my stuff, and checked my email. Then I did some errands around town. I dropped an empty Coke bottle off at Guia's house. She is one of about 25 local residents who sells cokes from her house. Talked to Juan's mom Lupe about when he and Pablo were coming over to finish moving me. She said she thought they were coming up when they finished with their morning fishing chores.

Went to the store, and on the way home told Concha that a two week rental reservation for her $15 a night room was probably bogus. The guy wanted to pay with an International money order. I don't know what that is, and didn't want to deal with it, and neither did Concha. So I asked for a deposit in dollars via PayPal, bank deposit, or Western Union, and that was the end of him. Talked with my new/old landlady, Dona Lupe about bringing my things down later, and she had already cleaned the room and patio.

At Aurora's we checked my plants, which she is babysitting for me, maybe forever.
And talked about rental dates coming up. She had helped me find a couple of other cleaners besides Chavela for Gordon's, since I am running so late on getting me out of there so the place can have a good cleaning. Then we will move everything upstairs and then clean the downstairs apartment. I was hoping to spread it out over three days, but that's not going to happen since I am on such a tight time schedule now.

A local friend came over and we started creating a blog for her. It was alot of fun but we didn't get to finish because Pablo came to help me move. Pablo and I did a load together and then Juan helped on the second load (with the refrigerator). Pablo is in his first year of Tourism training at the Techological Institute near Pueto Vallarta. We moved a total of three loads today and yesterday (one load was my plants going to Aurora's). I came to Chacala with three carry-on sized suitcases. I am more of a gatherer than I realized.

The guys refused to let me pay them. I went over to their house later to offer payment again, and they said it was between friends. They said it in Spanish and had to repeat it til I got it. It made me cry, for the second time in one day. And I hardly ever cry. I have been under so much tension dealing with trying to get moved out of Gordon's before he arrived and worrying about my next living space. I guess hearing them say that we were good friends just felt so nice. I really like interacting with that whole family.

When back home for lunch, and computer stuff. Did my last laundry at Gordon's house, and moved his plants around on the front and back patios. The town water was running to I got to water everything. It only ran for an hour, but that's pretty good. Headed off to clean my new place a bit more and then moved all my stuff inside from the patio. It felt nice to be there. The view is great.

Went down to pay my first week of rent, and to hang out at Lupe's restaurant for awhile. Went over to Chico's where we ate the cacahuates (peanuts in the shell) I had brought with me. Guillermo and Lupe treated me to a Squirt. The guy that makes strawberry turnovers and sells then from a wheelbarrow was at Chico's and I got a chance to pay him from last time, when I didn't have any change and neither did he

Went swimming with the kids. Terry, the American who lives in the nice yellow rental bungalows, brought some big inner tubes with handles on them from the US, and we had a great time. Watched to sun go down and walked home fast. There are only fifteen minutes til dark once the sun goes down.