Back at home in Ajijic after our mini vacation to Aguascalientes. We started right where we left off. Looking for reasonable used furniture, more plants of course and doing more painting. Larry is a much better painter than I am. I had a few indoor projects, like painting over the terracotta red trim to fun bright colors that suit us better. The majority of the outside Larry used a bright lime green. It’s almost like a spring green when all the plants are sending out new growth. We love it. The neighbors are happy too. Chile and Oswaldo have been scraping the red paint off the mural wall but decided to use a power washer as it greatly speeds up the progress. I’m getting excited about the mural and we talk about my vision each time he comes over. I want a jungle filled with all the birds,butterflies, flowers, plants, mammals and reptiles that we’ve seen in the past 2 years of traveling in Mexico. We are going to have a waterfall in the mural that will end up as a real waterfall water feature in the north corner of the courtyard…..someday!
Sometimes Chile brings his wife Miram and his 2 young sons, Leonardo and Manuel. These kids are busy with tons of energy. We walked down to the beach one evening to collect some rocks for our plants. On the way, we passed Punta Marisol, where Larry and I spent an afternoon deciding to buy our house. We saw our friend Churro, the muralist, painting the outside wall of the beach club. I wished him a happy birthday and told him to stop by sometime for some mezcal...his favorite drink. We played on the beach with the kids after we found our rocks. We had a great game of tossing rocks in the water. There was another boy around 10 that was doing the same. Each time we threw a rock in the water this golden retriever would run in after it. He tried and tried to find our rocks but never came out with one. It was funny to watch and we all enjoyed it even with a language barrier. Manuel, the some one, was always picking up the biggest rocks he could find and could barely throw them but a few inches. Kids are funny. It kept them entertained for over an hour. Later when we got back and they were power washing the wall, our neighbor Joan, looked down the wall from her place and asked if we were using water…...apparently the water was coming into her kitchen from a crack in the wall...her wall. Chile stopped immediately and told her he was going to fix all the cracks and cover the whole wall with a thin concrete seal. She was good with that….but no more power washing. They had to go back to scraping which is so time consuming.
We were super successful finding some high quality wood furniture for the living room and our bedroom at the consignment store. We first found a coffee table, much like the dining room table at Thelma and Hectors house in the country. We snatched it up and then went a few stores down to find an end table that matched it! Score! We picked up 2 night stands for our room there too. We saw a buffet cabinet but it was sold. The owner said we could have it if we paid and took it then….the other person didn’t put a deposit down. It’s a very nice piece that we are using for dishes, silverware, kitchen towels and napkins. This house really doesn’t have much storage. Now we can use the pantry for food. The first floor is almost complete.
We spent a bunch of money this week as well. We paid for half of the palapa so the contractor can buy materials. They will be starting next monday. Next, Larry and I finally were able to finish booking our trip to Peru for this september. We had paid for half back in february 2020 for a trip we were going to take in May of 2020...but then You know what happened. We got great flights out of Guadalajara international airport for september 1st through september 30. We are so excited that we will be able to do this trip after waiting for such a long time. We are going through a good friend Martin from Nasca, Peru. He guided me on a short trip 6 years ago. This time we will be hiking the Inca Trail. I can’t wait. This is going to be a trip of a lifetime! Martin is a super great guy. He teaches history and geography in a High School in Nacsa. He’s been doing tours for over 20 years and speaks 7 different languages. We will definitely come home smarter.
Now Larry and I will need to become more serious hikers. I’m glad we found the Ajijic Hiking group on facebook. They organize hikes every Tuesday and Friday. They usually have 2 hikes, but sometimes 3, ranging from easy to hard. We want to get our hiking legs ready and since we are at 5000 feet above sea level, the elevation will help condition us for Peru….kind of. The people in this group are very friendly and many have been hiking these mountains for 10 plus years. I appreciate their knowledge. When Larry and I hiked, we did our usual hike to El Tepalo. On Sunday, we decided to do a bigger hike. We drove to Jocotepec and hiked to the top where the cross is. We did this one a bunch when we were staying at Roca Azul….it eventually got boring but still challenging. We loved hiking it again as everything is getting green from all the rain. We were slower than usual…..but we enjoyed it and the view was spectacular.We were happy with getting 2 hikes down this week. We want to try for 3 per week as a good goal.
Besides painting, we did a lot of yard cleaning. All the red paint that was removed from the mural wall ended up everywhere. We spent a good portion of the morning one day sweeping, racking and hosing that yucky red paint away. We arranged some new plants too. Sometimes this involves many trips up and down the stairs. I keep my phone on to track my flights of stairs. I know we will be hiking up tons and tons of stairs in Peru. Larry painted our portal a corona blue on the inside and out. He had to climb up one of Chile’s tall ladders to do it. It didn’t look very safe but the window is great now. I love this window because everything looks magical through it.
We did one small bike ride into Capala and had dinner at La Palapa del Guayabo. It’s very beautiful on the malecon and the view from the restaurant was very good. It did get pretty breezy near the end of dinner but that was ok. Larry and I love the adventures on bikes especially when they end up with food! LOL
Since Sunday was the Fourth of July, our neighbors Lyn and Gary arranged a potluck BBQ. Plus it was a pool party! Who doesn’t like pools, food and beer? Let’s celebrate an American holiday in Mexico..it’s kind of like when we celebrate Cinco de Mayo. Many of the neighbors came that we already knew but we met a few more interesting folks. Joan, our next door neighbor, came with her son in law. He owns the house she lives in and visits once a year….when he can. He’s a musician. His name is Brian Hughes and he’s kind of a big deal. I had never heard of him but this isn’t my normal genre. He was very friendly and brought over 2 of his CD’s to give to folks. Free music is cool! He showed us some pictures of the places he’s played. I was impressed when he showed me his Acropolis of Greece concert. He said it was a magical experience to play there. I bet! It was a great party to end the week and it was over by 9pm...perfect. It was just before my usual bedtime. Ha ha ha
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