Chacala Days

A few days ago I left Chacala and headed into Puerto Vallarta . It was one of those days when everything goes right. Except that I forgot my glasses at home and had to buy a new pair of readers. I went to three different places, but no one had more than a few weak pairs, and I ended up at Walmart, not my favorite place. But I had to have glasses.

When I started out in the morning for PV, I walked down to the main beach road and then walked out toward the paved road. Leo, who owns Koko Bongo restaurant, picked me up right away. I got out at the Crucero (the fruit stands where the Chacala road meets the highway) and within a minute the La Penita collectivo-combi picked me up. Then we picked up some other people on the way south and everyone was in a good mood and there was lots of teasing the driver, etc. When we got to La Penita the Pacifico bus has just pulled up, and I got on, and we took off. This is a new way to travel for me, catching the collectivo for La Penita at the Crucero, and it's the cheapest ride. Leo wouldn't take any money, the collectio was 10 pesos, and the bus was 50 pesos, total of 60 pesos, as compared to my old route, Chacala collectivo, 10 pesos, and then 76p for the Pacifico from Las Varas, for a total of 86 pesos. Pretty good deal. I only take rides from people I know, which is alot of the people who drive on the Chacala road, so it seems safe to me.

The little puppy seems to be gone. I am watching for him around Las Varas this morning. No luck so far. I am typing this from Las Varas, and I went to the tsangui, Friday street market, on my way to the internet place.

Got two plants Esperanza said she wanted: a malva ( her name for geraniums) and a coleus. 10 pesos each. We ( E., her 14 year old sone Jorge, and I) have been looking at English and Spanish gardening books and magazines at night. A few days ago I gave her a Spanish language gardening book for Mexico and she has been studying it avidly ever since. And identifying her plants. Yesterday I went up to Aurora's house where I have left my plants from Gordon's (where I summer house-sit), and got a bunch of cuttings for Esparanza. I had some little pots there and a little dirt, so we have a good start.

When I stopped by Dona Lupe's restaurant on the way home, she say I had the plants and she took be back behind the restaurant where she has a nice little garden (which I hadn't noticed before) and gave me cuttings from two succulent plants. Very nice. I am going to keep some plants around my camp, but I think the direct salt air might be too much for them. Esperanza keeps her garden on the side of her house away from the ocean, which seems to work. We'll see. I have alot to learn from E. She is helping me with my Spanish and teaching me about the plant's needs.

The people who have been renting "Luis'" room are leaving (previously planned departure) in a few days. Apparently Luis arrived in the middle of the night and caused a big ruckus about "his" room. Dona Lupe has asked me to continue to look for a new gringo renter for that room. It's downstairs, with a shared bath, two windows, two beds, very very basic, for $100/1000 pesos a month. With electric all the time, and hot water some of the time. Two blocks from the beach with a nice view. Let me know at alalatawah@gmail.com if you are interested in more info.

The weather is lovely, hot days, highs of 84 or so, nice evenings, low 70's and beautiful incredible sunsets most nights. Sun in on my camp about 7:15 am and it's dark about 5:40pm now. Light at about 6;15am.

Not many gringo tourists, or Mexican weekenders . The gringo tourists who are staying in town generally seem to be very nice. The Alaska homeschool kids left yesterday. Nice bunch of kids and staff. The going away party at Chico{s was fun to watch, with the kids dancing away. David and Emma, the Scottish couple with two little boys, left town on Thursday. They had been at Mar de Jade for about five months while David, a physican, volunteered at the clinic in Las Varas. They are lovely people, and I know we will all miss them. They hosted a nice going away dinner at Chico's a few days before they left and it was really fun for me. The staff from the clinic was there, Toecha, and Socorrco and the clinic admisrator/tech, whose name I don't remember, and we had fun catching up. I love the long meals here, the parties, where everyone is talking and the kids are running arounds, and we eat and eat. And some people drink and drink. It's nice at the restaurant, with my feet in the sand, under the palapa roof, with shade with a little breeze , and the ocean thirty feet away.

My latest slightly strange experience with motor homers involved BC people camping between Esperanza's and Don Beto's "campgrounds". They were in Don Beto's area and paying him the nightly fee for camping and the toilets. However, they were repeatedly using E.'s toilets in the night, and not paying. She believed they were sneaking in, because they weren't using them during the day. They were also hanging their garbage in plastic bags from the tree. And leaving them there, even when the garbage truck came by. They left this morning. Leaving a week's garbage hanging from the tree. You can see why most of the Chacaleño's treat us like curiosities, because some of us are certainly strange.