Above is a photo taken of Mazatlan sunset on 2/13. To the right is one of the (many) fish the guys caught the day they went fishing.  Don't know if this is a Grouper, Trigger fish, or?  They are wonderful cooked on the BBQ!  Our host loaned me a book he said re-minded him so much of Mexico - he said I would really appreciate the humor and similarities, although it is placed on a fictitious island in the Caribbean. It's Herman Wouk's "Don't Stop the Carnival".  The similarities are astounding.  Imagine a kind of Murphy's Law thing ...

Fortunately we have lots of time to work out the problems that we encounter every day.  Two weeks ago at the 34th Annual Chili Cook-Off competition here, we came out to our car after our visit and it wouldn't start.  No problem, we know someone who knows someone who does good car repair work.  We went to Mazatlan after he took possession of our car, came back 5 days later and he had done nothing with it.  In the meantime we are renting a car which we find costs about what it does up north.  In this case, we won't get reimbursed I don't think... Gregg talked to the guy this morning - he can't find the part we need.  Gregg went on the internet and he'll have to get it sent in by UPS himself!  In the meantime the daily rental fee keeps tallying up.  So, if the bill for the actual repair is cheaper than at home, it makes no difference because it will end up costing us a LOT more because of the non-refundable rental car fees.  Not to mention, the inconvenience.  But it's better not to dwell on that as, this is Mexico, and that's how it is. We lost TV for 3 days as well.  It was a credit card issue with the owners, and is OK now. On the upside, we have figured out how to deal with the phones.  Skype is set up to communicate with our family.  We have learned how to work with the odd open and close hours here, for the most part.  So much of it is all about picking your battles or shrugging it off.  The weather, by the way, is back to fantastic.  80 degrees for several days now. 

King/Queen Ugly

Amazing stiltwalker

These are two of 20 something photos taken at the Fat Tuesday parade, part of the local Carnaval celebration. This area has it's own set of traditions - one is the crowning of King Ugly who has a beautiful, young female counterpart who is crowned queen.  The parade is unique in that it plays out a very old legend of the "sayacas".
They are men dressed as women using balloons strategically placed to fill out their dresses.  They go to great lengths, using wigs, makeup or masks, gloves and carrying handbags that have confetti and flour in them.  The legend is that a deranged old woman once escaped from a hospital and chased young men around town, trying to kiss them and asking them to dance.  When they refused her, she would throw face powder at them from her purse.  Now the parade starts with young boys running in advance, being chased by the sayacas with the flour-filled purses.  Women also dress up as men in suits, hats etc. and will occasionally stop and dance with the men to the music of the bands playing in the parade.  As you can imagine, bystanders are also floured and confettied profusely as well as pelted with beads and candy. There are floats and the parade finishes up with charros on horseback. It was great fun!

We are in Mazatlan this week. No photos to post this time!  Hope we can get a few while we are here to share later.

We left Ajijic on Tues. morning and it was cold and rainy.  The rain was gone by the time we got to the other side of Guadalajara, and as we drove north, it became steadily warmer.  Beautiful here!  We were graciously invited to come visit a friend who owns a place at Estrella del Mar, which is about 20 km south of Maz.  Their unit is about 100 yds. from the beach and the view out the back deck is of the pool(s), the beach and the ocean as far as the eye can see.

Yesterday we went in to Mazatlan to see the town and to find out what we could about Carnaval happenings there this week.  Not too much yet, although we did get to see a large group of kids aged from about 6 - 18 dressed up in full Carnaval gear (the older girls with the skimpy, shiney outfits and the head gear with huge feathers) practicing their dance routine.  Down by the water their were massive paper mache figures to represent the theme ("la Fiesta de los Imperios").  This is their 114th Mardi Gras celebration!  Unfortunately, with tourism down so drastically, it will probably be a much smaller attendance than the 60,000 visitors they are used to getting each year.  We went to the top of one of the oldest tourist hotels in town (12 fl. high, built in 1944).  From the top you could see all the bays and all the various landmarks in the entire area.  Fantastic view!

Today Gregg is fishing, and there was some stormy weather this morning so I hope he and our host are OK.  Cell phone reception is not good from out on the water, so if they ran into trouble I wouldn't immediately know about it. It's not a very large boat they are in, but with a local guy who takes gringo fishermen out for a living, so he knows his stuff and the local water and its challenges.

White Egret fishing in the lake

Communication frustration in Mexico:

For at least a week (that we know of) we have had no phone service at our place here.  It's one of the extras beyond the rent that we pay.  We have been able to use the phone to call out maybe once or twice at the end of Dec. and we have received a couple of calls from the property mgmt. place about the same time.  Since, we've tried to use the phone several times, and gotten a recording including the words "servicio sospendido" or something close to that.  We reported that to our mgr. and were told it was paid.  Two days ago I wanted to call home and still could not call out.  Ironically, we received a phone bill at the house the next day showing no payment for Dec. or Jan.  We have only one call on the bill for $2 pesos. The bill is for $811 pesos. We are stuck paying it as it includes internet which is the only thing we have left that works.  For some unknown reason we can not use our cell phones either right now.  That is controlled by TelCel or TelMex (no differnece - they are owned by the same person).

Help!  I am in process of setting up to use Skype to contact home, but our daughter doesn't have the set up yet so that doesn't even work at this time.  Makes me feel a little like being stranded on a desert island somewhere..

So what about crime here you ask?

This is a view out back from our mirador.  You can see how close the houses are in town. Our house is secure, unless you count the fact that you can climb onto our 2nd fl. deck from the roof next door...

Two weeks before we came, Guadalajara had its first gang violence incident with 26 people killed.  Within a month they had the 4 responsible in custody.  It was drug cartel rivals - no "civilians" involved.  For perspective, Guad. has a population of over 7 million.

Days before we arrived in Ajijic there were two violent robberies - one incident where a person was murdered.  Within a week they had 3 in custody for the murder.  Since, gringos here have been working to set up a reward fund and dedicated phone line to report crime.  Both are now in place.

Two stories in the main English language newspaper here show very different reporting styles when covering recent robberies.  One regarding  a "rash of daytime robberies..." outside of town gives just a couple of examples, using alarmist language (ala National Enquirer).  For example, "The would-be burglar struck the homeowner... with a pepper spray canister before unleashing its fiery contents in his face..." and "Realizing the gig was up... the gang hauled off a load of loot".  Actually it reads more like a cheap murder mystery.  Another story regarding a violent crime in Mazatlan was better written, citing that there is no evidence that a recently murdered woman in a hotel there was killed by a Mexican.  Yet that is the way the story is being portrayed. The local tourism economy is suffering, and the story reported that cruise lines Holland and Princess joined the Disney Cruise line by recently pulling Mazatlan from their coastal stops.  This comes just before the huge Carnaval Festival that begins the 2nd week of Feb.

So, what do you think?  We have the opportunity to go to Carnaval as we have friends that are in Mazatlan at their place now.  I think that exercising ordinary caution and good common sense, and keeping an open mind will see us through.

A house for sale in Ajijic
 

After a month here, to quote Anthony Boudain:  "This does not suck".

There is a learning experience nearly every day here. What we think should be a bargain is not, and then we are surprised by unexpected ones.

This house is new construction in a nice neighborhood on the edge of town.  It's large and open, furnished well, and set up very well.  It has a self-contained casita that has a wet bar and small kitchenette, bath, etc.  It's gated, and has an avocado tree in the front yard!  All for $340,000US.  Make your own judgement.

From our experience, we can't afford to use our cell phones down here because Telcel rules.  I mean that explicitly.  Even with our family and friends who have the same local area code.  Food and drink are a mixed bag.  For the most part, grocery expenses are about 20% less here.  Even at the farmer's market.  You can get a 24 pack of Pacifico from the commercial outlet here for $192 pesos or about $15US. We filled up our gas tank for the house for $45US which they say should last 2-3 mo.  We don't use the dryer much to save on electricity as we have been told that is the real expense here. No bill yet there.  And everyone here seems to be obsessed with DEALS.  There are coupons and ads for lunch deals in all the publications.  There is also a big resale presence.  I got a pair of big ticket hiking sandals (worth $70 new) for $12US last week.  They were almost new.  The cobblestones are brutal on shoes and I've already had one pair's sole split in a month here

Just wanted to share a photo of our uninvited guest in the casita...

New Years Eve (our 34th anniversary) we had a great dinner with fabulous wine we brought from Oregon.  And corkage was only $5 at a very nice restaurant - yet another bargain here.  From the balcony we watched the lighted boats circling around to set up for the fireworks.  Then we went home and sat up on the mirador and drank some good Spanish Cava and watched, while the neighbors partied in the streets below - again. The power went out for the 2nd time that night.  The first  had been a couple of days before.  No notice - they just shut it down for 5 hours to do what looked like routine maintenance.  On New Years, it came back up at about 9am. I know because everything beeped then and woke us up!

New Years day brought the annual parade which was really fun, and unfortunately we only got phone pics which we can't download.  The theme was "Peace in 2012", but mostly it was a bunch of folks dressed up in silly costumes.  There were Avatar characters, Smurfs, Mario and friends, and a nod to the Hippie peace movement with a Mexican, a Canadian and an American dressed in 60's wear with their country flags and - you guessed it - acting silly.  The redeeming (artistic) factor to all this nonsense was the very excellent use of HUGE paper-mache figures, oversize masks, etc.

Regarding the lizard - he's about 6 inches long, nose to end of tail and every time we try to catch him he runs (very quickly) away from us.  Since, we've seen another little one on the patio.  He is not scary because he's so small - in fact he's in danger of becoming a pet.  I imagine he has been separated from his mother who might be the one inside the casita, and one night he hid under a garden trowel right outside the kitchen window and didn't come out for almost 24 hours.  Don't worry, I am not losing it. I still hate the oversized spiders here, and the occasional cockroach I have seen (they were both dead, thank goodness).