Changes For Me in Chacala

Four or five days from now I expect to be moving to the house I have lived in for the past two summers, actually six or seven months each year. It’s a great house, painted a kind of soft orange, and owned by someone who goes north for the summer. The only drawback for me is that it’s a long walk to the stores, the beach, and my favorite people in Chacala. On the other hand, it will be nice and dry when it’s raining and it’s well screened and secure. I won’t have to worry about my computer or wallet and passport for awhile now. And some of my other favorite people will be much closer and easier to visit and be visited by.

The owner of the orange house had all the outside locks changed last week, so I think everything should be okay, theft-wise. Chacala has had a rash of burglaries, break-ins. Not particularly focused on places gringos live. Also restaurants, homes of locals, etc. I think it may be over with, at least for now. The police have taken people away three times, and they all seem to be young adult males from Las Varas who use drugs. Of course, this is an situation where I will never know the whole story.

Anyway, it will be a relief not to have to worry about keeping my stuff in the tent, but I will really, really miss the beach life. The kids wander in and out all day and they are so precious. Today they were drawing, making sort of airplanes from paper, kicking a two liter Squirt bottle around, and putting new batteries in one of those keyboard things they make for kids. We had a lot of fun with the keyboard, dancing around and singing. The keyboard has a microphone, which was a big hit. I don’t know where the keyboard came from , but it was great. It had all the English kids songs and I guess some are also known in Mexico because the kids where singing along too.

Speaking of the diarrhea, Ron, a long-time resident of Mexico who just visited Chacala for a few days, brought me a box of the latest antibiotic for diahrrea, which is sold in Mexico without prescription, as Flonorm/Refaximina. In the US it is called Rifaximin/Xifaxan. I read in a travel magazine that it is not as hard on your body as Cipro, which is apparently systemic, as compared to this new drug, which apparently stays in your intestinal track.

Anyway. I was glad to have it. I had the name written in my little green book (my substitute for having a memory) and I was really excited when Ron showed up with it. He said he was a bit of a hypochondriac, but having the right drugs on hand seems just plain sensible to me.