January 31, 2009

I have never gone on a trip before to spend money…..just to shop with 5000 pesos in my pocket to spend on “stuff”…..with friends that know what to get and all of the factories that produce fine Mexican crafts and art. Tonala was such a place…..a place like I have never seen. We found water pitchers to match our blue rimmed glasses for three for 90 pesos…..less than 3 dollars each, hand embroidered blouses for 130 pesos (less than $12) and hand blown glass stir sticks for one dollar. I purchased a set of dishes from a world known potter that are unleaded and with help from the potter in our bunch and another best friend, we picked out a set of just the pieces that I wanted…..10 place settings of big and medium plates, soup bowls for 10, and 10 mugs to match. Two serving pieces got in the box for under2500 pesos and we can get them all in a box under the bus to get them home. I have new pottery turtles and tiny salsa bowls and even some wonderful Flexi sandals. We all shopped until we dropped and managed sightseeing in between and traveled over 4 hours each way in a brand new 45 passenger luxury bus full of happy campers J It took us most of today to sort out our boxes that we packed all of it in and find all of our stuff.

Around one o’clock at the pool a bunch of us met to learn how to knit “tit bits” for the Mexican women who have had mastectomies. They are hand knit soft prosthesis that they can learn to make themselves and they are so easy to take care of and pack like a small bit of underwear. I will enjoy helping out. This week we have three bus loads of women coming here to pick up collected prosthesis from Canada and the US that everyone has donated and little soft purses for under their arms and information that they seem to be lacking from the processes they have gone through. It seems to be quite a big project.

Andy and I have volunteered to help with hamburger night tomorrow night and we have a crazy pig roast sometime this week that everyone dresses up for in homemade costumes. We found some six gun bottles with corks in Tonala and this morning Andy and I made spurs out of cardboard and aluminum foil. We bought cowboy hats like Mandy’s and I also tried to make a silver buckle for Andy out of aluminum foil and cardboard. Our costumes will be simple…..cardboard around our calves with silver spurs for boots.

Andy went on a great long day quad ride with the guys……while I shopped in Tonala. He went to a chiropractor here too for his foot. He is going again next week and says it has helped his foot that has been bothering him if he walks for too long on it. He had a massage too ……not hurting much……even did a pedicure!! Is he a happy camper?

January 27, 2009

JoAn will be part of 36 women aboard a new bus on their way to Tonala tomorrow early in the morning for three days:

For centuries, the towns of TONALA and TLAQUEPAQUE, in the state of Jalisco, have been home to exceptionally talented potters. Tonala, which means 'place from which the sun rises', is a quaint and peaceful village situated on the outskirts of Guadalajara. The visitor will see at least one pottery studio with open doors along each of its narrow cobblestoned streets. The friendly workers welcome curious passerby and do not hesitate to interrupt their work to explain the different steps followed to produce the various items of potters.

One of the most interesting buildings in town is the Municipal Palace, which actually seems more like a museum; this handsome edifice is itself a testimony to the works of art which the Toltecan Indians habitually produce from clay. A high tower, surmounted by a clock, rises from the center of the facade; it is decorated with high temperature ceramic plaques whose blue-green hue contrasts sharply with the rest of the building. Inside, glass showcases embedded in the walls display valuable pieces crafted by local potters. As the visitor climbs the main stairway, he is greeted by a unique fountain: twenty Tastoan-ceramic masks fashioned into a cube spout water from thier mouths - which pours down into the fountain. Upstairs, there are two striking doors hammered from copper and three large murals depicting the history of Tonala. In the presidential office, a Mexican flag contained within a niche offers a fine example of Tonaltecan art; set on a base of paper-mache to give the impression of undulation, the flag is made up of five thousand tiny jars painted in red, white and green - Mexico's national colors.

Eleven different types of ceramics are produced in Tonala: Negro Esgrafiado, Matiz, Banders, Canela, Betus, Rustico, Brunido, Petatillo, Mayolica, Engutado and High Temperature (Alta Temperatura). All these beautiful ceramics are manufactured in a wide rage of brilliant colors. In addition, Tonala craftsmen produce handicrafts made of paper-mache, brass and copper as well as clothing, furniture, candles and hand blown glassware.

On market days, Thursdays and Sundays, Tonala's main square is awash with colorful awnings providing shade for the pottery market.

TLAQUEPAQUE
Once upon a time, long, long ago, the village of Tlaquepaque just outside Guadalajara was where Guadalajara's upper crust built their summer homes, places where they could escape the congestion of what was then considered to be a very busy city.

Today, Tlaquepaque seems like a natural extension of the city of Guadalajara and, although no longer a place where the locals go for a quick getaway, it is still a beautiful and relatively tranquil place to explore.

Over the years it attracted a number of Jalisco and Mexico's more talented artists, and developed a reputation for the quality and diversity of its wares.

A number of old summer homes have been converted into shops which house a variety of crafts from throughout Mexico and restaurants serving fine international cuisine.

Avenida Independencia, a street closed to all but pedestrian traffic, is a good place to begin your serendipity. Here you will find Silver from Taxco, rugs from Oaxaca, copper from Michoacan, hand blown glass, hand painted tiles, huichol clothing from Nayarit and pottery from the states of Guanajuato and Jalisco.

Prices for these items range from just a few pesos for a souvenir key ring to several thousand dollars for original art work. Sergio Bustamante is from Tlaquepaque. He began by working in paper machŽ and soon became an artist with an international reputation. If you can't afford an original, there are a number of stores offering replicas for a fraction of the cost.

Another interesting experience is the glass blowers. At La Rosa de Cristal you can watch boys as young as 12 wandering around the workshop carrying balls of molten glass on long metal poles, blowing, twirling, shaping, firing, and, finally, cutting off a vase, wine glass or pitcher. In the gift shop you can purchase even more items including jewelry boxes and small, delicate figurines.
While the prices of these items seem to be a bit higher here than in their place of origin, they are much better bargains than what one would pay in the U.S. or Canada.

When lunch time rolls around, you will find a variety of restaurants to choose from. Perhaps the most famous of these is the "No Name Place" (Restaurant Sin Nombre). It has, well, no name. It also has no printed menu. A waiter will arrive at your table and recite the day's offerings and return later during the meal to sing to you at your table.

Try the Cafe de Olla, a typical Mexican style coffee drink made with cinnamon and raw sugar, after your meal or with your dessert. It will help your food digest and prepare you for the second half of your day in Tlaquepaque.

There are two well known ceramics shops which should not be missed. The first is El Palomar. Located on the way into Tlaquepaque, it offers a wide variety of dishes, mugs, decorative pieces and more. The other is Ken Edwards. Although they both offer hand painted, lead-free ceramics, there is a definite difference in styles and you should consider visiting both before making any large purchases. Also, be aware that both shops have a "seconds" area. These pieces always have flaws but some are so unnoticeable that you'll wonder how they ended up there.

By the end of the day, when the sun is beginning to set, wander over to El Parian, find a table, order a margarita and enjoy the mariachi music. For just a few pesos you can have some of Jalisco's finest mariachi musicians play you a song to accompany the day's joys and triumphs.

What can I say?

January 26, 2009

What can I say except that we danced the night away at Hamburger Sunday while they projected slides of our mural project and our quad rides. The pictures speak for themselves.

January 24, 2009

You’d love to see the mural we are painting on the little school in the village. The school has about 20 students, is concrete about as big as our bus, and we are doing a mural on 3 sides and maybe the name of the school on the road approach side. Today was mostly background, but tomorrow will be the fun, putting fish, peligans, turtles,and crabs in with Nemo and the little Mermaid in the sea that we painted in today! PaPa Andy had the choice this morning of going to help us paint or going on a quad ride to the hot springs again. You can guess where he is……not painting! Maybe he will come help tomorrow….he said he wanted to…..as long as the choices aren’t too delectable to resist! The little Mexican girls gave us loads of the biggest avocados that I have ever seen to bring home with us…..they look like small watermelons…….and I have paint in my hair!

January 23, 2009

Where do I start with our journey from La Peñita to Lake Chapala, Ajijic, Guadalajara, and Tlaquepaque……at the beginning? Carole and Grant needed to go shopping for a pool cover, and a coffee maker for Ada’s new coffee shop. Guadalajara may be the place to find it, so we were pleased that they could come with us, and we took two cars.

Carole guided us to the picturesque town of Ajijic that is hard to pronounce and is full of more Canadians and US people than Mexicans. Bea, Carole’s mother, tells me, later, that 30 years ago many retired military people settled on Lake Chapala, paying only $10,000 for property and getting a maid and gardener for 250 pesos a month. They could retire there on their military retirement pay and live well. We hired a guide to take us touring. He took us to a house with everything you’d ever want that was for sale, by owner. They were a nice couple from Canada that has to sell for health reasons. The house was a beauty and they wanted $339,000 for it. It seemed a bargain for what you can get in the states, but it makes me wonder if it is the same property that 30 years ago sold for $10,000.

First we had all checked into the hotel La Nueva Posada in Ajijic, right on the lake. It was very old Spanish with wonderful outside-inside dining areas and old paintings, fixtures, plants, and rock construction. The hotel was Carole’s find of a previous trip and she is the true discoverer of adventure……. finding a wonderful bead shop, at the same time, across the street with the colorful hand-beaded figures we had seen before….only these were (some of them) two and three foot long beaded leopards and parrots. Our Mexican guide with his van drove us around Ajijic and Jocotepec, touring through the gated communities and the Hot Springs spa and giving us two 20 minute stops to explore. The architecture and art continue to fascinate me. The combinations of old brick, rock, towers and balconies in downtown are an example set for artistic builders and even for amateurs like us.

The three couples then drove north to Guadalajara. We stayed in an old hotel in the middle of the city. It was the original hotel of the matadors. Many famous matadors and officials have stayed there. The Hotel Morales started as a rooming house at the end of the 19th century and became known for several decades as the bullfighters’ hotel. Again, it was built of rock and tile, but in an elegant businessman’s way with a big fountain in the lobby. The waiters that served in the restaurant were all well schooled and the food good. The entire staff was very professional. One nice thing was that our room was very quiet.

It was fun exploring the suppliers with Carole and Grant as they found the pool cover they needed and the coffee making equipment. The coffee supplier gave us espresso to taste and recommended different supplies for Carole to look at. With their half English-half Spanish dialects and hand signals, we all learned a lot about coffee machines and different mixes and brands to use.

We took a double-decker bus tour of downtown Guadalajara and another to Tlaquepaque, the village that retails the wares made in Tonala and around the world. My favorite town so far is Tlaquepaque with it’s cave-like stores of wonderful treasures like glass, tile, wood, and leather. We bought some glasses although they say we can get them for less at the factory stores in Tonala next week on our ladies shopping-spree trip.

Guadalajara is at 5,214 ft elevation and cooler than the coastal areas where we have been living. It is the capital of Jalisco and has a population of over 3 million, so we only scratched the surface of places to see. The monuments, markets, murals, shrines, and grand plazas gave us an ever changing view of old Mexico. The market must be the biggest in the world and we have seen many, even Barcelona’s and Brazil’s are in competition. A double steeple of yellow tiles tops the Cathedral de Guadalajara. The cathedral sits on one side of the Plaza Tapatia with its great open spaces, decorated by grand fountains spewing gallons of water. On the opposite side is the Teatro Degoliado, a classic theater, opening in 1866 with its columned façade and marble frieze depicting Apollo and nine muses. We could only peek inside of it and get a fleeting view of the gilded and muraled stage set. I especially enjoyed the story of the Monumento a los Niño’s Heroes and the Plaza de los Mariachis. We hiked through the plazas and market later on our own and came home yesterday. It is not a long ride back to La Peñita on the coast again, but we were all happily tired. What a country!

January 17, 2009

If you know Lee Ann, she has in her office a motto that ends in “Wowee, what a ride!” Day before yesterday, with an overnight, we did the “Wowee, what a ride”. 137 miles on 10 quads, through rivers that were our roads, over mountains, through fields of corn, agave plants, mango orchards, us adventurers ended up at nearly 5000 feet high in the picturesque village of San Sebastian in what looked like the Bavarian Alps. We climbed over rocks, through ditches, and under canopies of trees, some blooming in profusions of yellow or pink flowers. There were multiple Bromeliads in the tall trees, scores of Bos Indicus (Brahma type) cattle, Mexican cowboys with lines of saddles lined up on a railing, small villages of tile-roofed houses and tiny stores and people gathering places. Our first adventure stop was going through a deep river with big boulders with the quads and one of us not making it. We were mainly audience while our hero, Allan, with his winch (adaptly connected) pulled him out. A few more heroes helped. It was one of our Kodak moments. Abel and Allen, the Mexican riders, have been our greatest assets with their speaking Spanish to ask directions and being considerate in taking care of us. They both have extensive quad experience. The next great adventure that we were not prepared for was a torrent of rain. We first spotted the black clouds ahead with optimistic attitudes and then the rain hit us with a half an hour yet to our hotel destination. No one stopped, even as the rain felt a bit like hail once in awhile. We sped into San Sabastian drenched to the skin and looking like drowned rats. Carole and our Mexican quad riders made arrangements with the hotel and we all hit the showers as quickly as we could make the water hot. I didn’t really get warm until we went to bed on the huge king sized accommodations that night. First we explored our picture perfect destination and had dinner at an Italian restaurant “you could die for”. Andy was sure that he gave a clerk 500 pesos for a 20 peso scarf but we will never know for sure and we didn’t worry over it long. The courtyard of our hotel El Pabellon was a garden of tropical plants including a triple (or Cinco) Poinsetta. They had a narrow door behind the hotel that each of our quads jumped through to park in a nifty parking area just for us. It looked itself like a old Spanish courtyard of the 16th century. Our rooms all faced each other and had green wooden shutter doors and windows. The town square (that our hotel sat on) had a typical gazebo in the center and little canvas covered stores around the edges. On the other side was the big church with a huge bell tower. We will all remember the bells as they were rung about every hour during the daylight hours and started up again at 4:00 am (an hour later in this time zone). The bells were accompanied by shotgun firecrackers in celebration of an all saints day…..shocking many times!!!

In the morning, dressed in warm dry clothes and the sun shining high in the sky, we were ready for new adventures. It is an adventure alone when 10 quads try to do anything, like getting gasoline from 5 gallon containers with syphon hoses. All of us snaked up and down the little streets on our quads exploring the town before we took off down the mountain, bound back towards the sea. Coming the day before, we had worked our quads through tiny villages on rutty dirt roads and we all wore some sort of dust mask. Going home, we took a different route that included quite a few miles on the highways going top speed for us….exillarating to say the least….. viewing beautiful scenery. There were two note-worthy adventures to report. Carole had arranged for us to find the road to a newly developed hot springs. When we arrived, we were among their first costumers. The Mexican man that had developed the spring was there with his son and little grandson. He made sure we enjoyed the six concrete and rock pools that he had worked so hard on, each with a different temperature of water, ranging from about 85 degrees to over 106 degrees. He had even built dressing rooms and places to sit and enjoy our lunch. We all got in the pools, some with just their feet….but, all enjoyed every inch. We left a good sized tip as he had not yet figured out how much to charge for his wonderful hot springs pools.

There is a piece of the dirt road about ten miles from home that is so bad that the five of us passengers dismount and then watch as our spouse drivers see if they can make it over the huge crack in the middle of the path that cannot be avoided. Bob had Shirley still on the back and they didn’t make it. We all screamed as they went over into the crack, seeming to pin their left legs beneath the quad and the quad didn’t quit running. Bob has skid burns on his arm and leg, but neither of them were hurt bad. Everyone helped them get up and took Kodak moment photos. There were five double riders on this two day excursion, Jo and Andy McBride, Shirley and Bob Lewis, Mike and Susie Bray, Ken and Linda, Barry and Kim and five single riders; gutsy Carole Thacker , Abel, Allan, Pete, and Darryl. Wowee, What a ride!!

One more to top that, last night we went for dinner with Carole, Grant, Bob and Shirley at a really great local place called Rocky’s. After enjoying food, drink, and company, and then walking out the door, a voice said (at a table by the door), “Can we go anywhere without seeing the McBrides?” I said, “What” and ran over to hug, none less than Jenny Oakes, from Ferndale. When her husband, Lowell Daniels, came out of the Baña, we were posing with Jenny for him with big grins on our faces. We cannot believe it is such a small world. Jenny and Lowell were with two other couples and their kids, and, of all people, Rosalee of Los Amigos B & B next door to the La Penita RV park. We had never met Rosalee, but had emailed her and heard all about her from Donna and George and Bob and Shirley. We went home in shock, just having met the second couple from home as they are about to leave La Penita. How wonderful to see them. They fly home today!

I think that I did not publish the post before last so now that I have received some pix from Shirley who happened to have a camera, I will publish the January 10 blog....so it belongs before the last one :-)

Andys' version of the polo game:

“We just got back from watching two consecutive polo games. I have never seen a legitimate polo match first hand before. That takes some well-trained horses and some highly skilled players with plenty of strategy savvy. Occasionally a horse gets popped with a ball, but they seem to be used to it. I would think they would have more collisions. It is not as rough as hockey for sure. What is confusing is they change goal ends after each point is made. I think they call each half-time a choker(?). They play 7 ½ minutes per choker and then get fresh horses. The horses were beautiful, kind of like a thoroughbred—quarter horse cross. It is obviously a rich man’s sport. We had drinks while watching the games and then had a good dinner. At dinner they asked for four volunteers to try out on the field. Two people from our table—Joe and Carole—went out but did not do as well as the other two. Bob Lewis snuck out with two balls and would throw them to the goal when Joe swung the mallet. It was hilarious! Then he brought the two balls home with him and kept asking the women if they would like to see his balls. More hilarity.

“Bob thinks we should make our own game of “pollo” using quads instead of horses. He said here in Mexico they misspelled pollo because they used only one ell, which is how they came up with polo. In Mexico pollo means chicken. So he proposes we get everybody on quads with some kind of mallets—maybe even tennis rackets—and chase chickens around and swat them with the “mallets”. He has not worked out the scoring yet—maybe who kills the most chickens? More details will have to be worked out at the next cocktail hour. I would suppose this event would be followed with a big chicken feed if the players are successful. Hmm . . . would they be serving “battered” chicken?

January 10, 2009
It was a different Spanish lesson this week. I was the least knowledgable one there as far as Spanish goes. Grant was impressed as well that Andy and Gail have a pretty good handle on the Spanish (compared anyway). With only five of us including the teacher, Maria, we dropped the heavy study and had a good discussion about Gail and Maria’s two new house renovations and the troubles they are having, Gail with her Spanish and Maria with water problems. We learned several practical Spanish words like un instead of uno, aljiber(reservoir), pozu de agua (well), and a funny one that is the name of Flatmo’s new house! Indalecio (goes by Inda to gringos) is the name of an accomplished architect that many gringos are using for their new homes or renovations. He is the architect that worked on Flatmo’s beautiful new home. It is very funny to talk to Maria and find that she buys coffee at the Walmart in PV and we brag on what a wonderful coffee we can get here in La Pineta from the grower.

January 13, 2009
Sharon, our neighbor to the southwest, landed an 85 pound Marlin, on her husband, Ken’s, fishing boat. The Marlin’s beak, the texture of a cow’s horn, is hanging on our shared clothesline to dry so she can take it home to Canada with her. She is drying and pickling the meat…..so exciting.

Andy did a men’s quad ride day today and drove with eight quads to the little town of La Cucuracha and did some exploring to find the back road route for us to take on Thursday when we do a couples ride and an overnight. He was so dirty that we had to brush and prewash his clothes before sending them to the laundry. We will all be like that on Thursday and Friday, but a motel to bathe and relax together in the middle of the trip…..should be so fun. Andy went 68 miles today!

I have finally dipped into the paint pot and did a water color and an acrylic painting today and yesterday. A swim and lunch at the pool with Shirley broke up the day and a drive into La Penita to pick up two pants outfits that I had made by Lucy’s dress shop. Shirley put an order in for a dress and I may go back for a dress unless I pick one up at the women’s fashion show the beginning of next month. Lucy speaks English and has made dresses and blouses and pants for the people in the park for quite a few years. She is very nice and has us try on things just behind a shelf….no dressing room. She hand painted one pair of pants to match a top and embroidered geckos and frogs on another. Andy was tired from his long trip so we stayed home for dinner, to eat leftovers from our feast last night. Our feast last night was chicken, potatoes, tortillas, salad, and Flan from downtown that we served on our patio to Carol, Grant, Shirley and Bob with homemade Margaritas.

Two of the top park worker boys delivered some promised concrete from a site job they are putting in up the hill. With shear talent, our neighborhood rocks have been piled (by us) so they resemble steps. The boys poured cement on them for us and cemented in a little sidewalk to the steps. It will be safer and improves the looks of our little bit of landscaping. Shirley and I decorated the inbetween places with little stones that we picked up around. Shirley even tried to make something looking like a dog print in the mud and the hope is that no real dog gets in it before it dries! It is Mexican!

January 09, 2009
We found Duane and Mikki Flatmo, would you believe, as they were getting into a taxi for the airport to go back home to Eureka. They jumped out of their cab, told the cab driver to wait for them, and took us on a quick tour of the new house they had just partnered on and a sculpture Duane had made out of old stuff he found at the beach and on the road. We talked like old friends (and of old friends), hugged and then they left in their cab. It was an exciting meet-up that took only a few minutes. We couldn’t believe we had actually found them as they were leaving. They are not going to be back here until April. Duane got a kick out of Andy’s “Outbreak” tee shirt with “Ferndale World Preimer” on the back and the fact that he was Bill McBride’s brother. It is a small world.

Andy and I rode in the van with Lewis’ to take John and Barb Webber to their flight departing Puerto Vallarta and stopped to play on the way, having breakfast in the cutest little coastal town of Sayulita at an unusual restaurant called Rollie’s. There we were served by Rollie, himself, and his wife, Jeanne. He even entertained us and told us about how he had come to open this restaurant, moving from Salinas, CA and from a career as a school principal. His son plays saxophone, and makes a living doing it, on the streets of Hollywood CA. He wouldn’t take “no” for an answer to trying one of his famous delicious pancakes. He made a show of telling us to take a small pie shape out of one side, put a dab of syrup with a float of honey in the middle and then take a delectable bite! There were some special remembered shops we checked out next. The beach at Sayulita is active and a crowd drawer, speckled with colorful umbrellas, boats, and bikinis.