The Festive Season

Christmas has come and gone and it has been great fun for Nancy and I.  Dennis, his girlfriend Lee and Glenn were all here so there was never a dull moment.  Glenn left about a week ago and Dennis and Lee leave for Australia today.  We will miss them all a lot.

I have a capaccino every day at a special restaurant called Cafe San Pedro.  This day Dennis and Glenn and Lee joined me.

And these are our three favorite waiters,waiteresses that serve us the delicious capaccino 

 Nancy bought a humming bird feeder when we first arrived and it has been a great success.  We now have 7 full time and they use the container full of sugar water every day. They are so very interesting to watch.

 There is a lady at our gym who we have befriended some.  She is a dentist and these are two of her neices whom Nancy and I teach english to every once in a while.  They are sweet, ages 17 and 14.

 This is our Christmas clan Glenn, Dennis, Dennis' girlfriend Lee and Nancy.  We are watching Mariachi music at the Parian

 Glenn is pretty fluent in spanish and we like him around a lot when we are talking to Juan Carlos.  He and Juan Carlos became the best of friends and Juan Carlos took him one afternoon with his wagon and horse to collect fire wood among other things.  I was too late to get a front picture but here they are on there way.

 You have seen photos of this young lady before.  She is Violeta, the wife of Rudolfo, the son of Olivia.  But she is so very beautiful we thought you would not mind seeing her again.

On New Years Eve, Olivia has a party for her workers and friends and this is the beginning.  It is held outdoors and about 10:00PM they shut the street down and light a big fire in the middle of the street.  I asked who they had to get permission from to do this and they said no one.  They just do it.

 Juan Carlos at the beginning of the evening.

 Corina, Olivia,s daughter and her husband Abram

 Two of Olivia,s gandchildren.  The boy is Marcos and the girl is Hemana

 Some neighbors and some of Olivia.s workers getting started to bring in the New Year. Fireworks are part of the New Year celebration and our street was no exception.  It was the wee hours of the morning before they quit.

 Dennis and Rudolpho discussing whatever.

Two years ago when Dennis was here we met a young Argentina boy in Tonalo who was studying here in Mexco to be a Doctor.  When we went to Tonalo this year we met him again and he recognized Dennis from two years before.  

           And here you can see they were having a great visit.                                         



At Christmas time Tlaqupaque gets very busy.  Families come home to visit and the streets get very crowded from early morning to late night as this photo shows.  Actually it is pretty busy all the time but so much more at Christmas time.

Besides the cart that Juan Carlos uses to haul junk, he also has a very fancy cart called a Calanderia.  He uses it for weddings and birthdays and quinceaneros.  He has had two events that are a  long ways, 3 and 4 hours, away so he needs a wagon to haul his calanderia and his horse.  And this photo is what he does it with.  It tooks us forever to get the lights hooked up and then we prayed all the time they were gone, that they would make it back in one piece.  Horse, calenderia and passengers.

 A bit more of a close up the the trailer.

 Antonio, who is waiting here for a US green card, lives in one of the apartments with his daughter.  Cannot remember her name but here she is after school one day with a costume she was very proud of.

 When Lee showed up, Nancy sort of lost part of her job.  Lee is a great cook and as Nancy does, enjoys doing it. Lee is Chinese from Singapore so our meals were not from Southern Alberta but excellent Chinese food with incredible spices.  Dennis is a big help when she cooks and Glenn just wanted to be in the picture.

But Nancy is not totally our to picture and has not forgotten how to cook.

 Just a good photo of Dennis and Lee

 And Glenn and Juan Carlos

 We have to have at least one photo of Olivia in each blog and here she is with her oldest son Gustavo

 Parts of two families just before sitting down to a great meal. Chinese food this time.

Just two pretty young girls on the street in Tlaqupaque.

 Pinatas are a huge item here at Christmas time and they are sold on every street corner.  This car is covered with them, all for sale.

Until next time.

Ron and Nancy

Much More Of the Same

Once again we are pretty slow on blogs, mostly because there is not much new to write about. Our life is extremely peaceful, getting up, hanging out on line for an hour, then going to the gym for an hour.  We come home, have breakfast and showers and then it is time to go up town for our daily shopping at the market, sit on benches and people watch for a time and then for a capuccino.  Then home for a nap or a movie or read a book.  Beer time and more computor time is at 5:00PM, supper at 6:30 and then at times we go up town again to watch the masses of people in the park in the evening and so we do something so we don't go to bed so early.  We do love it here and will book again soon for next year.

This first photo is of a street seller that sells balloon like toys for the young.  There are many such sellers and they sell many, we think very few of them get home after dragging them down the streets in Tlaqupaque.



 In southern Alberta, men go to the coffee shop to converse and solve the world problems.  Here they sit in the park, play games, read newspapers and share their worlds with each other.

 Much the same as the previous picture but more discussion going on.

 And more of the same.

 Another street seller, this one selling fruit.   She has had this good selling corner ever since we have been coming to Tlaqupaque.

 This is the butcher shop (and it is a very traditional butcher shop) where Nancy buys all her meat.  Whatever you want in pork or beef, be it hamburger, a roast or steaks, they cut it all off the same quarter that is hanging down from the hooks, grind the hambuger right there, and charge the same price for it all.  When they cut it for Mexicans they cut it very thin and there is really no such a thing as a roast so Nancy has to do much explaining with many hand movements to tell them how she wants it cut but it is always correct and very, very tasty.

 This is something new  to Tlaquepaque this year.  You who were here last year can remember the high end walk street with the many expensive shops. These sculptures were done this year to decorate that street and they look quite spectacular.

 These boys keep us safe.  Last year there were just a few of them but this year the center of Tlaqupaque is swarming with them,  Most on bicycles and very helpful if you are looking for help.

 Ths is a dead moth that was in our laundry room.

 In the last post I mentioned that Carolyn Otto had send a new bridle\harness out with us to give to Juan Carlos for his horse that he uses to pull his fancy buggy.  This is that horse, all decked out in the new gear.  Tomorrow, Christmas Day, Juan Carlos is taking his horse and carriage to the coast (Puerto Vallarta) for an event.  They are getting 34000 pesos (about $3000) and it is good money for them.

 Last week at the Parian, where we go to listen to Mariachi Music and watch folk dancing, a very different kind of dance was performed.  These next three photos show that dance.

 Olivia, our landlord is a great entrepreneur.  Besides our apartments and her restaurant across the street, she makes trips to the US to buy used clothing (mostly baby clothes and other things for babies).  This year she was gone for 2.5 weeks and came home with not only a truck load of  merchandise but she bought a trailer in the US and filled that also.  Then she sets up a garage sale format in front of her restaurant for 4 days and sells and sells and sells.

 I am  not sure how this photo go in at this spot but it is a typical Mexican band playing in the market on a Saturday morning.  It was pretty good but very loud.

 Back to Olivias street sale,

 This is Corrina, Olivia's daughter on the left and Violeta, Olivia's daughter in law on the right.  The whole family was involved in the street sale.

 And finally  our son Dennis and his girlfriend Lee.  Dennis came from Australia 3 weeks ago and Lee has been here for a week, also from Australia.  It has been delighful since they have been here and our menu has changed a bit as Lee and Dennis our both great cookers and are using their skills.  Lee is originally from Singapore so much of the food they cook is from that part of the world. Yummy!!!

Ah---Home Again in Tlaqupaque

We have been here for almost a month and have been a bit slow with blogs as life is full of everyday events and  there just does not seem to be enough time to get one done.  Also, we are lax on taking photos .

And we could not let you get by without at least a couple of photos of the Mariachi singers at the Parian. She is a new one for us and was very good and we hope to hear her again sometime. The second photo has her singing with one of the band members and they also were very good.

We have talked often about the grand celebrations that take place when young girls become 15 years old.  The fiesta is called quince anos.  This photo Nancy took of a young girl getting ready for her debut.  She and friends were taking photos in the park.

Before we left Alberta, Carolyn Otto gave us the bridle/harness to give to Juan Carlos, for his fancy horse that he uses to pull his fancy cart.  He was so happy to receive it.

Our back garden was a mess when we arrived as the following photo shows.  Just way overgrown and full of weeds. But after a few days of cutting and pulling we got it in order and now it looks great.

This is one flower we did not pull out.  It usually has finished by the time we get here and not started again by the time we leave.

And this was a friend we discovered when we were cleaning up the area.  For those who do not recognize the red design on the belly of the spider, she is the dreaded black widow.  There were two of them and they both ended up dead.

And this is what the garden looks like now and we sort of like it.



Our first week here we were invited to a birthday party for Marcos, one of Olivia's grandsons. It was his third birthday and was a grand affair.  They had hired an event planner and there job was to keep the children happy and busy and they did a fine job.

There were about 100 people in attendance, mostly adults and of the children, they were mostly boys and boys will be boys from whatever country they are from.  This is a big inflatable slide that they all played king of the castle from.

This is Corrina and her second child Mateo.  She is the mother of the birthday boy, Olivia's oldest daughter and our very excellent house cleaner.

Kids being entertained.

Olivia and her youngest daughter Fatima

We had a major event at our house.  We celebrated both American Thanksgiving and Mexican Independence Day last Monday.  Here we are ready for our guests, for a party that was to begin at 5:00PM.  We are ready!!!  The first guests arrived at 5:30 and the last at 9:30, 18 in total, comprsing of 4 Canadians, 1 Cuban and the rest Mexicans.  Not sure why we were celebrating American Thanksgiving!!!!!

Rudolpho, Olivia's son and his very beautiful wife, Violeta

Nancy and Olivia, both very beautiful.

The young people soon moved from the patio to the TV area.

And the last people to arrive, a couple who work in Olvia's restaurant

It is not a very clear photo but this is Paul and his mother, Joyce, from Toronto.  We have known them from past years here and they have become good friends.

And more youngsters all belong to Olivia.

We have bought a humming bird feeder and a hammock but you will have to wait till the next blog to get photos and the hummng birds feeding and Nancy in the hammock.