Thanksgiving, Mexican Independence and a Birthday Party

Life is good, the weather is wonderful and each year we grow to love Tlaqupaque a bit more.  We are meeting more people, being invited out upon occasion and teaching two girls English.  It all makes our time go very fast.

 

We spoke a bit about our annual Thanksgiving/Mexican Independence party and these next few photos are the people who attended.

 

 The guy on the left is Richard, and American expat who used to live here but now lives in Queretaro. We know him well from his time living here and we like him a lot. Beside him is Randal, also an American expat who lives in Tlaquepaque and beside him is John, from New Hampshire.  He and his wiofe are just visiting for a time and live here in the Apartments

 

 Jesus and Lora from Santa Barbara.  They were both born here in Tlaqupaque but long ago moved to the US.  They are inlaws of Olivia's and travel here for a couple of months each year.

 



 On the left is Paul from Toronto who comes for a month every year and the guy on the right is Richard.



 You know everyone in this photo except the girl sitting beside me.  She is Carol from southern California.  It is here first journey to these apartments and she plans to come back



 Who else but Olivia and Juan Carlos

Olivia and two of her sisters, all live here in Tlaqupaque 

 Tim and Loral from Peterborough, Ontario.  He is a writer and she is an artist/actor/director.  They are both delighful people, and we  have spent a good amount of time with them.  Tim is coming back in a month to spend two more months.  He too likes it here.

 Olivia, three of her sisters, a nephew and a brother in law.

 And the most famous person of the evening, Nancy.  She worked so hard and put on a great show that was liked by all.

 We think we served 25 so we missed a few people in these photos.  I can only count 21.  It was such a good time except I decided I would try some Tequila and I did pay for it the next day.

 

One of the places we were invited to was to the home of the girls whom we teach English to.  It was to celebrate Karen's (one of the girls we teach) 18th birthday.  18 years old is not nearly as important a birthday for girls as 15 years old is, but at that age they can vote and go in the bar.

 The lady on the left is Maria, our dentist.  The lady in the middle is Caroline, Maria's sister and the mother of Karen, the birthday girl and is the girl standing beside her.

Maria and Caroline and a sister in law. 

 Another sister of Maria's and her husband.



A number of the young kids who were attending.

Nancy and I did not stay too long but were told the  grew to be many more people and lasted till  two O'clock in the morning!!

 

I am getting some work done on my teeth here.  Two 2 tooth bridges and two root canals.  We started last Thursday, the first appointment was just a consultation and I was told what was to happen. Also she did impressions of my teeth.  The one today was 3 hours long and by the time it was finished I had tempory teeth in the holes that had no teeth for so many years.  Sure do hope it works out for me.

 

Until next time.

 

Nancy and Ron



Two Great Parties and One More Coming

 

We arrived back in Tlaquepaque 2 weeks ago, the beginning of our 5 month stay and it has been a very busy and exciting two weeks.

 

The first week was spent uying supplies and getting our world in order.Dring the second week, last Saturday and Sunday,we were priviledged to take part in two special events.

 

The first one was a wedding, not one that we were invited to,but one that Olivia and Juan Carlos were catering to.  It was her first time at catering out of her restaurant so she was a bit nervous so Nancy and I were invited along to help.

 

She cooked all food at her kitchen in the restaurant for 80 people.  It included pazole (a soup that Nancy likes but I do not), tacos, salads, salsas, chiles, sopas and enchaladas.  Just a whole lot of food.

She also needed to supply all the plates and bowls

 

We had to load it all in her truck and take it 6 blocks to the Salon de Eventos (a community center), unload it and serve it.

 

This first photo shows the truck partially loaded

 

 

Besides Olivia and Juan Carlos and Nancy and I, two other people were hired to help.  They are sisters, Carmen and Josaphina.  They work for Olivia, one in the restaurant and the other as a cleaner.

 

 

More stuff in the truck.  Notice the salad in top middle of the picture.

 

 

Here comes the Pazole!  It was hot and it was heavy and I am old and it was sort of a scary trip from the restaurant to the truck.

 

And getting it settled in the back of the truck.

 

 

This is the kitchen in Olivia's restaurant.  This night it was very busy and efficient as they were making all the tacos, sopas, pazole, and enchaladas.  About 200 of each except for the pazole and that was just one huge pot.

 

 

Another kitchen photo.  This is a mother and daughter who have been working for Olivia for a long time.

 

 

We were about 30 minutes late arriving and people were starved.  These kids were being very patient.

 

But as soon as we arrived the line formed, even before we got things set out and Olivia immediately started dishing out Pazole and Carmen got other things out and away we went.

Just a photo of the setup of the Salon de Eventos

 

This is when we first arrived and the masses that all wanted to eat at once.

 

It calmed down, people arranged themselves in some order that worked and everyone got fed, quite quickly actually.

 

They were all very pleased with the food and the catering and I am sure Olivia will do it again.  We cleaned up, washed all the dishes in a very small sink, loaded out truck and were home by 11:00PM.  \Very late for Nancy and I but we did have a whole lot of fun.

 

 

Our second event happened on Sunday afternoon.  Our dentist invited us to her birthday party.  Nancy and I were a bit reluctant to go as it hard for us when 100% of the language is spanish but we have turned her down a couple of other times she has invited to places so we decided why not?

 

This Salon de Eventos is a bit more classy than the one we went to the night before as you can tell by the 3 limos parked in front of it.

 

 

 

It was suppose to start at 3:00PM and Nancy and I were there at 3:00PM.  We were not the first ones but the second ones to arrive. I think everyone was there by 4:30

This photo shows the Salon de Eventos, a bit classier than the one we were in last night,

 

The caterers are getting ready, long before the big crowd arrived

 

And here is the star of the show.  Not me but the lady in purple.  She is our dentist and really quite beautiful.  She is a very good dentist and we like her a lot.

 

And here are two very beautiful women.

 

 

Last year we spent some time with Maria's neices to help them practice their english.  And here they are, just as beautiful as their aunt.

 

These are the other people at the table we sat at.  The man is a doctor in Guadalajara and the women beside him is his wife who also happens to be dentist.  She spoke pretty good english.  The lady beside here is the dental tech for Maria and we are not sure who the other lady is. 

 

The music was real loud so we could only  talk between songs and that was good for Nancy and I.

 

All neices and nephews of Maria.

 

Maria's brother, his wife, their son and daughter in law joined us at our table.

 

 

 

Here is the loud music.  It is called Nortena and is a bit old country and western.  We enjoyed it.

 

And along with the music, people danced.  It was easy dancing music and we were pestered a lot to get up and dance but we just don't think our knees would take it anymore so we declined.

 

Just more dancing and if you make this photo larger you can see some flowers in the background.  They were the gift that Nancy and I gave to Maria.

 

 And the one more party that is coming is our annual American Thanksgiving/ Mexican Independence Day party. This is the third year that we have hosted it and it is becoming a tradition and we think is expected.  All the people from the apartments will attend plus Olivia and her immediate family and some of her extednded family and who knows who else.  We are expecting 25 and will write about it next week sometime. [After we recuperate!!!!!]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Towns, New Friends and a Bull Fight

Harry and Audrey Swanson have a nephew that is going to University in Guadalajara.  Harry wrote to Nancy and told her about this nephew and sent along an email address. Nancy and wrote and invited him for a visit and he "yes".  He is in the middle with two friends that he brought along.  The boy is from |Spain and the girl is from France.  The visit was fun and we hope they come back.

Last Sunday Juan Carlos and Olivia took us to another restaurant to taste very different Mexican food and to view a deep valley that is close to Guadalajara.

The next two photos are of the valley, taken from the chairs we were sitting in.

And this is the meal we ate.  It was called Chicharon de Pescado (fish).  t was very good but, oh my  it was not so healthy for us.  All deep fried.

Another journey with Olivia and Juan Carlos.  This time to Jalosteotitlan, the place Juan Carlos lived as a child.  It was carnival time in Jalos with bull fights and many other activities.

We left about 11:00AM in Olivia's truck, drove for an hour to a small city called Topatitlan and stopped for lunch.  

Nancy is protecting the truck from the transit police as we were parked in a no parking spot.

This part of Mexico is very wealthy and the towns and cities show it.  It is a rich agricultural valley with much market gardening, dairys and beef cattle,

This is the main church in Topatitlan.

And the inside of that same church.

The town was so neat and clean we decided we needed to spend more time here so we found a hotel and stayed overnight, delaying our trip to Jalos for one day.

Just a pretty government building in Topatitlan.

We did get to Jalso the next day by noon and our first stop was at the church.

Nancy and I were sitting in the park while Olivia and Juan Carlos were out shopping and a small parade passed by. The horse was beautiful, a huge horse with fancy steps.

And this what was in the buggy it was pulling.  Two pretty princesses.

Jalos was packed with people from the surrounding towns and cites, all to partake in the bullfights and other celebrations.

This is one of two parks in the center of Jalos.

And finally the bull fights.  This stadium holds 5000 and there were more than likely 6000 attending.  This photo was taken and hour before the fights started.

And this one maybe 30 minutes before, as more and more crowded in.  We actually had great seats as we came about 2 hours early.  We were close to a place to buy beer, close to the bathrooms and close to an exit to be able to get out.  Such a crowd and such excitment.

There were many vendors selling almost anthing and they were amazing as the pushed their way through the crowds.

The matches will soon begin.  The red shirted guys are the goundskeepers and the red shirted horses you will see more of in later photos that show what their role is in the whole scheme of things.

There were three different matadors for this particular event.  This is one of them.

And another.  This one was the most famous and is from Spain.

There are many of these types of men who start to fight by antagognzing the bull before the main matador takes over.  They are matadors in training.

These next two photos will tell you about the role of the horses, covered in a very heavy quilted material .  Their purpose is to antagonize the bull by sticking spears in its back.

And finally the matador has his time in the ring.

All the bulls are killed by the matador and it is done by sticking a long sword, between the ribs right into the heart of the bull.  In the matadors right hand, he has the sword and is getting ready for the kill.

And here is the death blow.  He comes over the horns on the bull and forces the sword between the ribs and into the heart.  Mostly the bull dies pretty quickly.

And what happens to the bull.  15 minutes later it is butchered and put on spits and sold to the public as they leave the bull ring.

And last some pretty roses from out garden.

 

 

Nancy and Ron