More Pictures of our "Digs"

The first two pictures show the view from our upstairs den. The church spire is at the Plaza, the center of this village. Takes us about eight minutes to walk there. Note the mountains and Lake Chapala.
The other two shots show the outside of our place. yeah, that's me!






KATE AND JACK IN AJIJIC, MEXICO.

Art and Dinner.....

Last evening we had a dinner party with the Brunch Bunch from Halifax. See pictures! We have one indoor table which seats four and one outside table that seats four. So we split up and a good time was had by all....we hope. Note the last picture of Shirley....poor baby had a fall last week and she has a real shinier. (You should see the other guy!)

Jack has started art lessons again. Here is a picture of him doing his "home work". He is out on the second floor terrace enjoying the sunshine as he creates. He is really quite good.....his teacher is full of praise.

We have bought tickets for a series of concerts this winter. The Music Appreciation Society brings top notch performances into our local auditorium which is a five minute walk for us to attend. Last week we were treated to the symphony of San Luis Potosi from Mexico City. They performed "The Four Seasons" by Vivaldi. Hard to believe that music was written in 1725 and is still appreciated today. On the corner of Spring garden Road and Dresden Row there is a violinist who plays Vivaldi's work all through the summer and fall. It made me a little homesick....
The next concert is on Tuesday and it will be three tenors and a soprano doing popular opera standards from Carmen, La Boheme, Tosca and Turandot. Our friends Marilyn and Del will be with us next week and we hope to get tickets for them too. These are our dear friends from Ontario, who winter in Florida. We miss them so much they decided they needed to see where are wintering this year. Am really looking forward to their visit. The Brunch Bunch from Halifax leave on Sunday and we will truly miss them It's been such fun to see their (positive) reaction to this very special place.

Well gentle readers, I shall not bore you silly any longer. We are being driven crazy with the noise of the festival. Fire works explode every morning, afternoon and night and we will be glad when it all ends on Sunday. Enough already!! Let's hear how life is in the far north. Warm wishes to ya'll.
Kate






KATE AND JACK IN AJIJIC, MEXICO.

No Snow here!!!

While we receive e-mails and photos of the snow in Nova Scotia we want to assure you.....there is no snow here! The sun continues to shine every day. However, there is a little breeze this week, which is unusual and the mornings and evenings are starting to get cool. We can wear a sweater.

We have been looking at real estate. Mostly because the houses are so completely different here. No cookie-cutter developments. This morning we saw a couple of condos which were beautiful, very much like the one we are renting. Same German builder. Lots of white marble. Beautiful grounds. Beautiful views of the mountains and lake. Gorgeous. One house had a separate building for guests! Imagine that! We couldn't get in that one so we will go next week. Gawd knows what the price tag is......the condos were all under $300,000.00 for about 2500 sq.ft. Expensive but very high quality.

The Brunch Bunch are still here. They leave next Sunday and I think they are having a lovely time. We all go out dining and dancing this evening. The Saint Andres festival has started so the noise is increasing each day. Mexicans love "the big bang". We just patiently wait until it ends and we have our little village quiet once again. We are not bothered this year by rosters who have their internal clock messed up and crow all night long. We realize by not being in the centre of the town that we are rewarded with a quieter night. This is a good thing.

This morning we took the local bus to the wine shop. We were out of Scotch. This just won't do!! Anyway, we were rewarded with an entertainer, yes, on the bus, who played his guitar and serenaded us. When he passed the hat we realized we gave him more money than the fare was! Ah well, he was worth it. These Mexicans are an enterprising bunch. Where ever the stereotype of the lazy Mexican came from we don't know. They all work a six day week. We often stop to look at a construction site and are amazed at the work they do with only the most basic of tools. No machinery......just plain hard work.

So for those of you toiling under gray skies we send you warm thoughts and bright sunshine. Pay your dues so you too might enjoy your own paradise. For us it is here in this mountain village.
Kate

Our Condo in Mexico.

More photos of our condo: Dining Room, Living Room and one of the terraces. We can follow the sun from one to the other.
It is a very light and bright place. But I would like to have more colour. I have just bought some pointsettas and an azalea (miniature) for the outside terrace and it looks so much better now. (I took these pictures before the purchase.) The fireplace is gas and I'm going to fill it with paper flowers rather than the silk ones that are there now. (Yes, I'll remember to remove them before using the fireplace!!)
Jack says he will put Xmas. lights on the fig tree and that will be festive.
Any suggestions would be accepted and welcomed.
Kate





KATE AND JACK IN AJIJIC, MEXICO.

Our Mexican Condo

Hi Everyone,
Thought it was time to show you all a few photos of our humble abode here in Ajijic, Mexico.
It is very "white" don't you think? Needs art. Just turn me loose....

These pix are actually of the guest bedroom and bath so you can see ahead of time if you want to come for a visit!! Love the German shower!

We are settling into a routine here. Right now Jack is off playing bridge for the afternoon. I haven't decided what I shall do but it is nice to have the luxury of doing nothing , like reading my novel, or exploring the village alone. Maybe, my friend Barbara, who lives here now full time, and I shall do something constructive.....or not. I love the slowness of living here. The village has it's own rhythm which is nice to go along with too. Right now the maid is sweeping the terrace with a birch broom, which really just moves the dust around. But she is singing as she works and that is what is important....

Last week a lovely gentleman from Ontario, he lives here now permanently, took us touring in his car. It was a delightful afternoon and we saw a side of Mexico that not many Gringos see. Abject poverty. However, the villages all had waving children and they seemed to be so clean. How the Mothers achieve this is beyond me! They don't have running water in their dirt floor houses and they seem indeed to have nothing. But somehow the children are well turned out and every village had a school bus dropping off the kids. School is free only until Grade 3. Then it gets very difficult for these families. However, they do seem happy.....

We are enjoying four members of our Halifax Brunch Club who are here for a month. Shirley, Estella, Nancy and Cheryl are seeing everything they can and experiencing the country their way! They have been off on bus tours and car tours, with Barbara and seem to enjoy the country. They shall have many a tale when they return to Nova Scotia.

It is a social whirlwind for us as we get in touch with all the folks we met here last year. So it is far to many evenings spent eating and drinking at the various restaurants. Hard on the waistline, if not the pocketbook. Eating out here is very reasonable.

Jack will start his art lessons next week. We are still trying to find a place to dance. So as you can ascertain, we are busy and happy. I am doing the "happy dance" as my shoulders, neck and back pain have all gone!! And...headaches seem to be clearly in my past! Hallelujah!

We are heading into the St.Andreas festival this week and so the racket begins. Firecrackers, fireworks, bells etc. at all hours of the day and night. It just has to be lived through as the locals love it. They save all year to buy this noise and who are we to question this "wisdom"?

Until next time I send you warm thoughts and sunshine.
Kate





KATE AND JACK IN AJIJIC, MEXICO.

Anothr Day .....

Tuesday, November 4, 2008At last we are back in paradise where the living is easy, but not without some concerns during our trip down here. It all started in Halifax where we had planned on flying to Toronto and staying at the Holiday Inn to overnight before catching the early morning flight to Mexico. However it seems that the flight to New York had been canceled and most of those passengers were transferred to our Toronto flight with the result that the flight filled up and we were out of luck since we were travelling on space available. we had already checked in our bags to Toronto but were assured that the bags would not go if we did not go. Kate and I decided that we would fly to Montreal instead and catch the early morning flight from there to Mexico, again we were assured that our bags would be transferred to Montreal, we cancelled our hotel in Toronto and booked into the airport Hilton then went to pick up our bags after arriving in Montreal. Guess what......no bags!Not to panic, we spoke to the girl at the lost luggage who gave us a 1-800 number plus a tracking number which we promptly called upon arrival at the hotel, we were answered by some clown stationed in India,who could hardly speak english and who told us that our bags had gone on to Vancouver from Toronto, after listening to his nonsense for a while,Kate hung up on him and phoned our friend Maggie in Halifax who got in touch with the powers that be and were told to check at the airport in the morning to see if our bags might be there...........Noooooooooo.We had to rush upstairs to check in for our flight that was leaving at 7.30am. we were a bit concerned because we knew it was a full flight, but we were called to take the last two seats and lucky us they happened to be in business class, so we travelled to Mexico city in style.Halfway through the flight the attendant told us that they had just received a wire to let us know that our bags had been found and they would arrive on the flight leaving from Toronto,which left half an hour after our flight.We went to the baggage after landing,and waited and waited.......guess what?.....no bags !Suffice to say ,we were really pissed off by this time and thought to hell with it, they would have to deliver them to our door if they ever did find them. But not to be outdone we again enquired with the little baggage lady who did a computer check and found that our bags had gone on ahead of us and would be waiting in Guadalajara..........which they were!....Halleluljah.Moving right along, we moved into our new digs which we love, on Sunday morning we met up with our friends Barbara and Wally along with the four ladies from our brunch club in Halifax,who are here for a month and we all had brunch at our favourite hotel,and tonight we are all dining out at a popular restaurant called Pedros owned by a guy from Toronto. Life is good. Posted by Jack.

Back in Ajijic For the Winter

Hello Everyone,
It has been a week since our arrival back to our beloved mountain village in Mexico. It is still a magical place for us. We love it. Some changes, progress some would call it but we are not impressed by Wall Mart coming to this small place. However, because these Mexicans don't have a lot of money at any given time (I'm sure they don't have a lot of money at ANY time) their custom is to shop daily for their needs. Perhaps Wall mart will be disappointed with the carts not filled to the top! Anyway, they are happy about it's arrival and so we should respect that.....they feel it will bring employment and I'm sure it will.

We love our new digs. It is not very Mexican however. This condo could be anywhere. But we have an on site manager, the builder's daughter, and she lives here too. That means that problems get looked after very quickly and efficiently. i.e. there were two TV s here and we only wanted one. (NO TV in Bedrooms is our rule, for ourselves.) So it took only a day and the unwanted set was removed, a technician came and connected up the DVD player and showed us how to use all the remotes. We have CBC and I'm thrilled I can go to bed every night with Peter Mansbridge! (Ya know what I mean......it is such a lovely link with home.....)

The condo has white marble floors everywhere. We have a downstairs terrace with fountain and roll down shades which protects us from the hot sun. Upstairs off the den and bedroom we have another fully screened in terrace with a view of the mountains and lake. The sunsets are spectacular! This is usually where we have "cocktail time" around 5PM . The other good thing about this place is the quiet. We were in the middle of the village last year and the bloody roosters crow all hours of the day and night! We do hear one here but he seems to have his internal clock in sync with the dawning light. What a treat as last year they drove me nuts!! The bird life is not great yet but we think it is because they are on their migration here. Hope so. We are about a five minute walk from the center of the village and so this location is perfect. We are not so near the lake this year but then we are rewarded with a fabulous view of it! All in all we are very happy with the place. The furnishings are all white too so my challenge is to bring some colour in. I will begin with flowers. Fresh and paper. See how that works.

Arriving on our tails last Saturday were four ladies from our Halifax brunch Club. They have rented a villa in the village and are putting up quite well with the dogs, roosters and traffic noise! They seem to be having a lovely time and we are glad they are here. Our friends, Barb and Wally who bought a house two days after their arrival last year, are being the perfect hosts. yesterday, we all trecked off to Chapala, a large town about 10km. away. barb drove the car and Jack, Wally and I took the bus. The Art Show and Sale was wonderful and we all got a treasure of two. Then we walked out to the pier and had Margaritas (our first since arrival) and dinner. 'Twas such fun. They are good sports and want to see everything. A real adventurous group!

I arrived from Halifax with a cold I contracted on the way down , or more likely from Jack. Anyway, I steadily became sicker so went to my doctor who gave me a shot in the you-know-where and prescribed some meds (not antibiotics, he said) and I was better in two days! Just like magic! So I'm back on track now and raring to go!

Tomorrow we go to "Open Circle" a group of like minded individuals who meet on Sunday mornings to socialize first and then meditate for about 60secs. nothing heavy....and then we listen to a speaker who gives an interesting talk....or not. After, Jack and I have gone to brunch, as we would do in Halifax every Sunday. It's become a tradition for us. Last Sunday there was eight of us from the Brunch Bunch (from Halifax) as there will be tomorrow.

I am testing your patience dear reader going on like this so I shall end the Blog today. Jack made an entry days ago but we can't find it! My good friend Wes, in Vancouver will come to the rescue no doubt!
Mucho Amor,
Kate