Spoiled Gringa, in Chacala

Even though it's sunny and green in Chacala, and there's a nice breeze, I have been crabby and whiny for several days. The tinacho at this house does not store enough water for more than three people to take showers and to flush one toilet occasionally. The downstairs toilet is bucket flushed from a barrel I refill once or twice a day for the downstairs neighbors, a nice young couple. They are working at Las Brisas 12 hours a day and aren’t home when the town water is on (about 10am-4pm).
This is the tinaco at the house where I am living. It is perched on the roof of my bathroom, under a tile roof. Wasp and insect heavon. The hose is the hose I use to fill the tinaco. I run anotherhose up from the street facuet and then hook the two hoses together.

Anyway, a few days ago my landlady rented the other downstairs rooms another nice young couple. The only problem is that there isn’t enough water for five people to take showers unless they do it during the day, when the town water is on.

The water in the tinaco has to last from 4pm to 10am the next day, or later. The town water goes off at 4pm, so you can’t refill the tinaco until 10am the next day. But there isn’t enough water in the tinacho for even five quick shower. I have a hard time waking up not knowing if there is water for a shower, or flushing. (Which I don't do very often, maybe twice a day). It’s very sweaty at night here, even with a fan pointed right on your naked body. I love showering in the morning.

The following photos are of other tinacos in Chacala. They are on every roof except for those of inventive gringos who think they have invented a better system.My rent is due tomorrow, the 12th, and I have been looking around and talking to people, trying for find a better situation. And there just might not be one.

This place has a lot of problems. My toilet does flush, but you have to get to make sure the float seats every flush, because you just never know when a little stick or pebble or something will keep it from seating. The septic tank has been full for more than a year. The water from the showers and toilets sits on top, like a lovely little pond. The electricity is a long extension cord from the neighbors light fixture. My roof leaks in the rain, and the tinaco on the roof leaks into my bathroom. I have to fill the tinaco once or twice a day from the town water facuet at the street. When there is town water. That's because the filler pipe was blocked with something months ago, (ask my landlady's husband about this), and my landlady doesn't want to have it repaired. Whatever.
My landlady just doesn’t see not having water is a problem. Cultural and class differences, I guess.
The winter I camped at the beach the water tank in the shower/toilet area was usually full, and usually muddy. And my first winter at this house, a couple of years ago, the water was disgusting. Green and icky. It was stored in a filthy tank, and then pumped into the tinaco. I bought 5 gallon jugs of water for washing me, my dishes and my clothes. And used the house water for flushing. Ugh.

Looking back, this isn’t so bad. At least when there is water, is clean looking. Plus, when I have whined to my friends around town about the water thing at this house, they just look at me. I am such a spoiled gringo, expecting clean water on demand. What a baby!!!!Meanwhile. I am going to take a shower, while everyone is at work and I have filled all the water containers here: tinaco, cement lavanderia, 20 gallon flush water, and my five plastic buckets for washing clothes and dishes. And there is still another hour or so before the town water goes off. So I can refill the tinaco.This is one of the huge trucks hauling dirt in the gated development. They're back again. Ugh.

In a Valley, Far From Home, and NOT Chacala

Here in Chacala I often run out of books in English. That’s something I really used to dread. Going to the used book-exchange bookstore in P.V. is expensive and so I almost always run out of bedtime reading material before I am ready to make the trip.

It’s probably not such a bad thing to run out of reading material. I get a lot more done when I don’t have books to get lost in. Many of the books I have reading in Mexico are just kind of mindless and entertaining books. English mysteries, etc.

If someone asked me what I missed the most from the U.S., I guess it would the library system, and bookstores. Of course, certain foods and restaurants are probably what I really miss the most, but books come in as a close second.

But this time, when I was looking thru my little stash of “Book to Keep” I found a book I ordered from Amazon last year. Someone had mentioned this book to me, and I looked for it on Amazon, and found a used copy for $3US. I had them ship it to my son’s house in the U.S., and he brought it down when he came to Chacala last Fall.

He and the book arrived during a pretty intense hurricane alert in early September. We didn’t get a hurricane, but the lights went out during rainstorms most nights, and reading was difficult. I liked the book, but usually I was reading it at breakneck speed, before the lights went out again.

The book is called “In a Valley, Far From Home”, by Catherine Palmer Finerty, published by the University of Arizona Press, in 2000.

It’s the autobiographical story of a woman about my age, who, after a very successful career, came to Guadalajara in retirement. It sounded as though she wasn’t up for the “Wealthy-Gringa-Social-Butterfly” boogie that her friends enjoyed. She ended up living most of the time in a mountain village with Cora Indians and mestizos. She did some medical volunteering, and made a place for herself. She also took photos, which sadly weren’t included in the book.

I love her writing style, and her observations. I especially enjoyed it when she wrote about something she discovered or observed that sounded a lot like life here in Chacala.

This was a very different kind of village than Chacala though. At that time there were no roads. She flew in on small commercial planes, or those owned by the Church. Landing on a river bed or pasture five miles from the town. Very primitive and poor. No electricity, clean water, ice, but lots of life in a beautiful, religious, and often dangerous setting.

I found her attitude and fortitude very inspiring. At least part of the time she seemed to be getting by on their diet. Beans and tortillas and an occasional piece of meat. And some greens or fruit sometimes. And cinnamon tea. And warm sodas. Her comments were never judgmental, and almost always reflected her curiosity about the culture and the history of the people living in her village, Jesus Maria, in the mountains above Tepic.

I think that what I resonated most with was her sense of never quite being sure what was going on. And always finding out the missing pieces of information much later. During her whole time in at Jesus Maria she was searching for a curando, a natural healer, to work with. And she thought she never found one. But right at the end of her more than seven years is Jesus Maria, she found that a man, Pancho, who often brought her to the homes of sick people, was a curando. She knew nothing about him. His home, his family, nothing. Finally, one time she arrived at the home of a very ill person she had been treating, and a curando was there. She was amazed to see it was Pancho. He said to her “How did you think I always knew who was sick?”

Anyway, I am appreciating this books even more the second time around. That’s one good part about having a weak memory. I can re-read a book within a year, and a lot of it seems brand new to me. I had the impression she flew out to her home in Guadalajara for a week every month, to check on her house, and her renters. And then returned. I can appreciate wanting a break from a pretty primitive lifestyle in the mountains.

I looked at my new map, and there is now a road to Jesus Maria. So, of course, I am plotting a trip to that area. According to the author, the Cora Indians are very religious and traditional. No druggies there, except visiting gringo youth looking for the Huitchols.

I would love to meet her. The book says she lives in Pomona now. I wonder if she is still alive. I think I will Google her tomorrow.

I often think that because I have internet access here in Chacala, with email, and Google that I am kind of cheating. If I had been living here ten years ago, with no internet, no phones, and a really crappy Mexican mail system, my life in Chacala would have been a lot different. I am so lucky, in so many ways.

Primary School Graduation in Chacala

I visited the primary school in Chacala yesterday with two visitors who are school teachers in the U.S. It was the last day of the school year. There was a lovely graduation ceremony.We toured the two Primary classrooms. Chacala also has a Kinder, and a Telesecundaria for 7th and 8th grades. Telesecundaria seems to be Mexico's answer to cheap education. The kids watch videos of all the subject matter. A kind of para, a monitor, acts a teacher. Exteremely inadequate method of education in my very opinionated opinion. Mexico uses is for indigenous and poor students in rural areas.The two teacher/visitors were as shocked as I was to see a very high-tech (at least to me) piece of equipment in the 4th,5th and 6th grade classroom. I can’t remember what it’s called, but it’s a giant computer screen that you can work on just like a laptop. It projects onto the white board at the front of the room. At least I think that’s what it was. The teacher showed off the equipment and the kids seemed to be very familiar with it.

There are two new teachers (below) as of the middle of the past school year. A definite improvement, according to local gossip. The guy who teaches the older kids has alot of enthusiasm and some computer and technical skills. The woman told my friends she had worked in the the schools in S.F. California. Probably as a para, since she doesn't speak English.
The classroom was a total mess. All the trash for the year was piled along one wall, and all the desks were dragged out onto the playground for the ceremony. But I know, from past observation, that the parents and kids get everything cleaned up. The State provides the building and some equipment, and the parents are responsible for everything else in the rural schools. Water, power, TP, cleaning, trash removeal, painting and reparing the buildings,etc. We also toured the Bibliotecha computer lab. They were six brand new computers, with those large freestanding screens. They looked great, and there were kids at every terminal.As the ceremony began, a bunch of guys were sitting over next to the Bibliotecha, in the shade. When the sixth graders started the flag ceremony, the woman teacher stepped up to the microphone, and insisted that the group of “cool” guys stand up and honor the flag.My bet was they were stunned that someone was calling them on their disrespectful behavior, and they slowly stood up. I doubt it anyone had ever told them to shape up and show respect in years. One of my favorite moments in Chacala.It was really hot and humid, but there was a great turnout. The ceremony included lots of dancing. Including dancing pencils, I think. The kids were just beautiful. And all the little brothers and sisters ran around climbing trees and darting in and out of the dancers.I loved whole morning. After everyone had received their certificates, all the parents, kids, teachers and parents group members and town officials came out in the center of the playground, and shook hands with each other. I love how the children, even three year olds, shake hands when introduced or when greeting an adult.

I personally was dying of the heat, and we walked over to Angeles’s store for cold water. There wasn’t any, so we settled for ice cold Cokes.

Evening at the Muelle in Chacala

ONE of the nicest things about the hot summer days in Chacala, is the early evening. The last hour before dark. Many families, people from 6 months into their seventies, wade, swim, or stand the ocean water up to their necks, at the little dinghy beach at the muelle. I like to go down there that last hour before dark. The sun is down, but there is usually a warm glow form the sunset. Everyone visits and chats and swims around. It’s lovely. And refreshing.A young man, about 13, bumped into me while he was swimming. He stood up, and looked at me and said “My God!!!!” in English, and then laughed hysterically. I think he was embarrassed to have bumped into an old gringa lady. And also was pleased with himself when he cursed in English. Those two words were probably his only two English words. He was so pleased with himself. Of course, I don’t really have any idea what he was thinking.The year's Primary teachers

Anyway. I love standing around gossiping and playing in the water. It's a nice way to end the day, and to cool off. Although I would really rather swim at the big beach, where the sand in clean and there and waves.

Thunder and Lightning, Shaking Chacala

Chacala had lots of rain and thunder and lightning last night. It started about 4am and lasted two or three hours. Power was out from 4am to about 10am. It was wild. Lots of wind and rain.
Several times it felt like the lightning was hitting the house, but I don't think it was. The building shuddered though. I love watching the lightning from inside the house, but it's still kind of scary. Very very loud and right overhead. It's sounds like the sky is cracking open.

The ocean looked cool. My roof leaked for the first time. One leak was right on the middle of my forehead, and the other was was over my worktable. So I moved the bed and the tables in the dark. Since the electricity was off.

Gracie, my kitty (well, I am sharing her with Kevin and Kathy when they come back) didn't seem to mind the rain. She when out twice in the night. The second time she was soaking wet and she let me dry her off before she went back with the kittens. She's a good mom so far, but I think the childcare bit is starting to bore her. This is their five-day birthday, and they are active and loud. Meow, meow, meow. We were walking on the beach about 9pm last night, and you could hardly see any stars. Not a good sign. I think this was the strongest storm this summer, but not the strongest storm I have seen in Chacala.Pretty exciting. Hard to sleep.

There are still more summer gringo tourists than the past three summers. Way more. Mostly nice families and couples. There was a four-man group at Mars Tres last night that I would describe as skin-head surfers, maybe. I think the LA Times article last winter, by Chris Reynolds, may be what has caused the summer increase. That article about Chacala was published in newspapers all over the country. He didn't describe the summer climate here in the article, so some people are probably surprised at the heat, humidity, and rain. Today the weather is greater and the sun was out by 11am.There's lots of mud and water on the roads, but the worker trucks came driving him this morning. Later than usual, but coming to work. And the big trucks are back in force. Ugh.I am in Las Varas. I went to the tianguis with some visitors from Spokane, and then came over to the internet place. The market was pretty sparse. Maybe half the normal number of booths. I bought a red grapefruit, some grapes, and a melon.

And I had to cook my chicken breasts first thing this am because they were defrosted, so I am going home to a chicken sandwich and a little fruit salad. Perfect.

I Learn Something New Every day, In Chacala

It’s funny, sort of . Every time I think I have some aspect of everyday life in Chacala down pat, it turns out there’s a whole other layer I haven’t noticed.In this case, it’s the set of buses that run around between P.V. and Tepic and San Blas and some other places too. I have noticed them here and there, but never really thought about them. Most of them are old and rickety looking . They are green and white, with "Compostella" on the side.

I thought I knew the cheapest and most efficient bus route from Chacala to P.V. But I didn't know about the "Compostella" Bus line. The 3rd class bus run by Pacifico Bus line.I think I wrote them off because of hearing many bad experiences from people trying to catch the 7:30am and 10:30am bus from Las Varas to San Blas. Visitors hoping to take the bus to the jungle/crocodile ride. No one had every seemed to actually catch the bus. Even though everyone knows exactly where the bus stop is.Anyway. I was heading back from P.V. towards home. Usually I take one of the PV city buses up to the bus terminal and take a Pacifico bus home. That generally costs 5p plus 76 pesos one-way. But today I noticed a nice looking green and white ”Compostella” bus with “Brucerias” on it. The helper guy said it was 10 pesos to Brucerias. I hopped on (arms full of groceries and books).The bus zipped right up to Brucerias. Actually it was a little too zippy. Our 18 year old driver took offense at how another “Compostella” driver blocked him in at a passenger stop. He gestured at him. And yelled, and started to get off the bus to go get him, I guess. But his helper stopped him. But at every intersection from the Corona factory to Brucerias he was screaming at the other driver, who just laughed at him. It was kind of creepy. But cheap. And nobody died.

Anyway, the “Compostella” bus makes some extra stops along the highway, and extra stops at the little towns north from the airport. But we didn’t lose any time. He drove very quickly, chasing the other bus.
Since I didn’t know where this bus was stopping in Brucerias (before heading on to Sayulita), I asked the driver if he would leave me at the Pacifico terminal. I really, really needed to make a bathroom stop.

When we arrived at the little tiny storefront terminal in Brucerias, my Pacifico bus (to L.V. and Tepic) was just pulling out. My driver signaled to the other driver to wait for me. When I got to the Pacifico bus the helper said there wasn’t a toilet on the bus, so I said never mind, I need to use the bano. And ran into the bathroom, cursing that I would have to wait 30 minutes for the next bus.But the bus waited for me. Very nice. I think there was an ulterior motive involved though, because the helper didn’t give me a ticket. And he undercharged me. 40 pesos (instead of 50 pesos. He winked at me when he took the 2-20 peso bills instead of the 50 peso bill. When they don't give you a ticket it usually means they are pocketing your fare. If an inspector steps on the bus driver quietly slips you your ticket. Worked for me.

There were no empty seats and the helper moved down to the fold-down seat over the steps into the bus so I could have his seat.. That was nice. We all made out okay on that deal.The Pacifico driver was another nutcase driver. Speeding, passing, and bouncing over the new topes at Lo de Marcos. One of the other passengers said the 10 new topes (speed bumps) were installed a couple of weeks ago after a child was run over when running across the highway from the school. Didn’t slow our driver down a bit.
Bounce. Bounce. Bounce.When we got to Las Varas, the combi-collectivo was just pulling in. The driver, Aurellius, was in a hurry to get back to pick up people who had spent the day at the beach in Chacala . So we drove out to Chacala with only two passengers, and the driver took me right to my house. Pretty nice. He reminded me that he brought me home from the La Penita vivero one time, when I had 8 sacks of dirt and a dozen big plants.

Anyway. The bus ride normally costs a total of 81 pesos from whatever PV supermarket I shop in to Las Varas. This version, with the Compostella busline,cost 50 pesos today (but should have cost 60 pesos). Pretty good. If I make that trip twice a month, 24 trips a year, that’s around 50o pesos. For my travel-around-Mexico fund.

Lots of wind and some rain last night. Much hotter, more humid, and rainier than my previous three summers here. I mostly like it. The wind and rain at night cool things off some.

I am posting this on Monday morning. It rained some last night, but it's clear, beauitful, hot and humid today. Really lovely. Especially in the shade with some prespiration to cool you off.

Congrejos in Chacala

I was walking thru Chacala's palm grove yesterday and this little guy kind of blocked my way.I swear he was posing for the camera.I know that's ridiculous, and that he was just keeping an eye on me, but still.....I am still kind of scared of these guys, even though I know they are harmless.

They are amazing climbers. Up stairs, ladders, cement walls, palms, whatever.

I was sitting at Mars Tres restaurant, a few days ago, with a little boy named Quinton. He was delighted with the climbing congrejos, and pointed them out, where ever they were. Floor, walls. ceiling.

Clouds Over Chacala

This cloud formation sort of popped up into the sky over the ocean as the sun was setting, from the north.




I never did figure out how to take a good photo of this, but I like these anyway.