A Good Time to be in Mexico

A couple of reasons for this. The first is the beautiful weather and the second is that yesterdays was the 100th anniversary of the Mexican Revolution and this past week has been full of music, dance and fun.

We started our week with a visit to Chapala, (an expat community, on Lake Chapala, about 30 minutes away from here by bus. Rex our neighbor here had not been there and did not know how to get there by bus so we all went together. We have friends there, Richard and Kim, who lived in our apartments when we were here last year. They have decided to move to Chapala for a time to see what it was like, living amongst the gringos.

This first photo is of Richard and Kim and Ron, doing a walk and sitting on the benches at lakeside.
This photo is of their apartment, very large, and very nice and cheaper than we are paying here in Tlaquepaque.
On the weekend before the Independence celebrations there was a huge trade fair, mostly of hand made crafts from countries all over the world. It was large and very busy and we were beat after spending a couple of hours pushing through the crowds. But there was some great things to buy and if we would have had our truck we would have purchased a houseful of souvenirs.

This is one of many hallways, full of people and wares.



The evenings of Independence week were filled with many types of music and dance.

This particular group or choir sang acapella and it was hauntingly beautiful.

And as in past blogs, we seem to have to show photos of the ever present and most beautiful dance. We do love it.

Another choir that we were not so impressed with. The singing was OK but the instruments were over powering and took away from the singers.

These guys played great Mexican music but were a little crazy. Enlarge the photo and notice the cigarette that the lead singer constantly had either in his mouth or his hand.

This choir was spectacular. They sang very old church music and I loved it. It brought back many memories of my youth and going to church.

Along with the celbrations for the Mexican revolution, American Thanksgiving is coming soon and in the Wollersheim tradition, we held a feast at our apartment, early for both of them, to commemerate these events. The meal was a traditional North American Thanksgiving dinner with turkey and all the accompaniments. We spent 4 or 5 days trying to find all what we needed as the local market is not full of turkeys or cranberries. Sage is not an herb that Mexicans use and sweet potatoes are much different looking than what we have in Canada.

We fed 16 and the group was mixed, some Canadians, some Americans, a few Mexican/Americans but mostly Mexicans. And the language was a mix, English, Spanish and Spanglish and we did have one Texan who spoke his own language.

It was early and the beginning of our celebration.

And who did most of the work. It was Nancy and she is good at it. I did wash one whole lot of dishes.

We are getting serious now. Supper has been served and the toasts were many and varied.

We set up tables and chairs (some borrowed) on our outside patio and the weather cooperated very well.

This is Corina, our 20 year old housekeeper and here latest baby. She is the best 20 year old housecleaner that we have ever known.

These are two more of Olivia's grandchildren.

Just another dance group, a bit different from the other photos.

We hear rumors that these celebrations will continue into this next week but only rumors so far. It is so hard to get hard information about what is going to happen and when so mostly it is luck of the draw and you just are in the right place at the right time or not.

Until next time.

Nancy and Ron