Sunny Monday in Chacala

I love Mondays in Chacala. Everything is quiet after the busy Sunday tourist day. Lots of buses come to the beach on Sunday morning. Sometimes 30 or 40 buses crammed with families. They mostly come from Guadalajara and Tepic. And families also drive to Chacala to camp or rent a room and enjoy the beach for the weekend. Families with vacation homes here in Chacala spend a few days, and enjoy themselvesThis weekend I was walking home from Mirador, and met the owner of one of those vacation homes. He was washing his car. Which seems to be what about half of male visitors do on Sunday morning in Chacala. Wash their cars in preparation for the drive home.

Anyway, he and his family, his wife and four teenagers, are from Tepic. About an hour and a half north of here. It’s pretty big, about 300,000 people. Anyway. We started chatting about the house, which is about 5 years old. He was very proud of the house, and invited me in a for tour.

I really liked it. It’s about a block west of the church, and I can see it from my patio. It was two floors, and a roof patio. The ceiling are very high, with ceiling fans. Loves of big tall windows and natural light. And the stairway to the roof patio has lots of windows for light, and to create a chimney effect to move warm air up and out of the house. It’s very unusual around Chacala, and in most of the houses I have seen in Mexico, for attention to be paid to natural light and cross ventilation.

I really liked the house. Four big light bedrooms, nice big kitchen, sala, eating area, two baths, quiet area. Etc. it’s only a block from the block, as the bird flies, so the view is very nice.Anyway I enjoyed the tour, and meeting the family. The youngest son was about 14 and he had a mouth full of braces. Sometimes I forget I am living in a poorer town, and that there are many upper-middle and upper class people living in Mexico. Their material lives (house, cars, vacation homes, private schools, braces, etc) lives are very similar to wealthy people from the U.S. and Canada. Socially. But I think culturally their lives are very different. But as far as possessions go, it looks about the same to me.I am spending the day hanging around the house mostly. The workers are finishing off the cement plastering job downstairs. One of the workers has a great voice, and he sings for his co-workers. He has a nice voice, and it’s much better than listening to some worker’s stereo going full blast all day. I am really lucky.

I have been playing my favorite (really, my only) CD off and on all week. It features the singer and the saxophone player who played at Majahua’s restaurant for a week last winter. Cayin Cejudo is the singer, and I think the sax player is the Adolfo Diaz. There are other musicians too.

The name of the CD is ”Cayin, canta desde el pais de…” Almost all the songs are American jazz standards with a few Edith Piaf songs. I love the CD and play it a lot.I feel so lucky. The sun is shining, the sky is blue, there are trees and green leaves surrounding my second story patio on two sides, with the ocean on the third side. Today a big two-masted sailing ship(?) came into Chacala Bay. Under motor power, of course. I hope I see it leave, and that I see the sails go up. I love seeing the sails go up. Billowing (with any luck) with the wind.\

This is a photo of a really big boat that spent a night or two anchored here. Big bucks here.
Pretty soon almost all the gringos who live in Chacala for the winter will be gone. I am really enjoying some of the short-term visitors in Chacala right now. It’s fun for me to meet new people, and to hear about their lives, and about their experiences here.

I often hang-out at Mars Tres restaurant with visitors. I take people to there because I like being there and think the staff there is great with non-Spanish speaking guests. Very patient and friendly. And the food is good and cheap.Victor’s Pizza is generally open Friday, Saturday and Sunday, late afternoon/early evenings, and I look forward to getting a slice. And it’s conveniently located right next to Mars Tres.