El Circo is Coming To Town

El Circo Americano - Well not really.

As I was returning from yet another disturbing trip to Soriana (the department store that has nothing) and was headed through downtown Chapala, I was assaulted by the sound of honking horns and multiple speakerphone announcements in rapid (and to me unfathomable) Spanish.  I noted that pedestrians had flocked to curbside and were peering inquisitively down the street.  And then I saw it.

A giant red truck with huge letters spelling out El Circo Americano.  The circus was coming to town!  Now you are envisioning the red cages with the flowery lettering and the requisite lions and tigers.  The elephants trunk to tail.  The exquisite white horses with the plumes.  Nope.  Not here.  In lieu of red circus wagons, there were white trailers used to haul -- well, I don't really know what but circus animals would not have been my first guess.  And what circus animals they were!  Llamas.  Many, many llamas.  A camel (looking very weary) co-habitating with a shetland pony.  Several mismatched horses. There were dogs running alongside the procession but it was Chapala so it's hard to say if they were part of the circus or just part of Chapala.  Inexplicably, a propane truck had somehow incorporated itself into the circus procession and it seized the moment by tooting its horn raucously while the driver and assistant waved and smiled at the crowd.  And then I saw it.  The hippo.  A man in the truck pulling the hippo trailer would periodically throw a pail of water on the hippo which it clearly enjoyed as it would open its mouth in delight.

The traffic light turned and I continued my journey puzzling on what possible kind of act they could do with a hippo.  Could you ride it?  Would it dance?  Jumping through flaming hoops seemed out of the question.  I was intrigued but not enough to actually go to the circus to find out.  I mean, I'd read Water for Elephants (remember that fire?) and am well acquainted with the lack of safety regulations in our new homeland.  Going to the circus would be like signing my own death warrant.  So, I reconciled myself to the fact that it would just be another one of those things that remain unknowable in Mexico.  Hippos in the Circus  -- what is their role?

Then, two days later, I had another chance to get up close and personal with the circus.  I was in Jasmine going over my order for a chaise lounge pad and pillows when the now familiar cacophony of the Circus Parade sounded in our little village of Ajijic.  Quickly finishing up business I raced a block to the Carreterra (main road) and the parade had pulled over to the curb so that the denizens could gawk to their hearts content.  I whipped out my cell phone and managed to capture the wonderful shots you see below.  Pleased as punch that I would be able to share this experience with all of you, I rushed home.

Nancy, our housekeeper, was there and I told her all about the Circus parade.  I asked her about the unusual animal selections that the Circus had and she enlightened me, as she so often does, about the realities of life in Mexico.  "Do you know how much meat a lion eats?"  We can only afford llamas in our circuses.  They don't eat much."  I knew I had to ask her.  "Nancy, what does the hippo do in the Circus?"  "Oh, they put a chair on it's back and let the children ride on it like a pony."  "Nancy, Jesus, do you know hippos kill more people in Africa than any other animal?  And they let children ride on hippos here?"  "Well, yes.  There must be some nice hippos because I have never heard of one that killed a child."  Okay, just let it go. Breath in deeply.

Just tried to upload additional photos and realized I had hit the video button on the iPhone.  Apple has an app for everything but idiotic users.  You will have to just imagine the llamas, camel (weary,weary camel) et al.

Quick Notes:

*  Had another party.  This one for Michael's Kayak Club's 1st year anniversary.  About 30 people.  This house is great for parties and this, apparently, is a town that likes to party.

*  Planning a trip to the Colonial Silver Cities with pals Stanley and Luzma.  Luzma is from St. Luis Potosi so it will be like having our own private tour guide.  Should result in some good photos and tales for the blog.  Early September.

*  Heading for the coast for a day or two this week with Kent.  Should be unspeakably hot and humid but, hey that's what the Ocean is for.  Will report on all adventures next week.

Take care and have a good week.  More soon.

Hippo --- at the circus?

Hippo on parade

Four Months In A Strange Land

View of Ajijic from Lake Chapala

Tomorrow will mark our four month anniversary of crossing the border.  To say we have entered into a new phase of life is a cliche while also an understatement.  So, since there are no new bizarre events to report this week, I thought I'd take the opportunity to recap some of the things we like best here, miss most there and other general musings.

Ten Best Things About Living In Mexico:

1)  When you walk down the street EVERYONE says hello and they smile.
     -  There are no acceptable exceptions to this rule in Mexican society.  If I say Buenos Dias even the most surly gang of teenage sulkers will look up, meet my eye and greet me.  They may not like it but they do it.  Sometimes I say it to them just to make their teenage years more miserable.

2)  Pinch Yourself Medical and Dental Care
     -  True the floor is dingy linoleum and the chairs in the waiting room look like they came directly from an office in 1954 but the Docs are GOOD.  How good are they?  Our friend had a serious car accident and plowed into a church (we won't go into the obvious ironies).  She had no doctor but her friend called hers and he drove directly to the accident to treat a person he had never seen.  They do house calls.  They go with you to the hospital if they think you need to be admitted.  Michael went and had his teeth cleaned last week.  The exam room (not the waiting room -- we covered that) was more high tech than our very hi tech Boston dentist.  His teeth were cleaned by the Dentist, not hygienist, and total cost was less than $40.  She is pretty expensive for here.

3) The Mexican People
   -  This is a very civil society.  If you are in line at the bank or store and an old person or a handicapped person walks in, people immediately invite them to the front of the line.  Always.   I won't give you that old bromide about the love and respect for family and friends compensating for economic hardship, substandard public education and rampant government corruption.  Because, beyond a certain point, obviously it doesn't.  But the Mexicans do know how to live a very rich life on a very low budget.  Walking back from dinner Friday night we passed family after family sitting outside their houses directly on the street chatting with neighbors, eating dinner, having a beer and watching their kids play in the street.  And every family we passed said Buenas Noches.

4) The Gringos - Mostly
  -  We've regaled you with tales of some of the more outrageous/adventurous people we have encountered.  By and large, the group here is very liberal, very well traveled and very outgoing.  Are there jerks here?  You bet.  The Ugly American is not dead, but most people are really interesting.

5)  The Weather
 - What can I say.  Today it is about 78 degrees.  It rained last night  between 2 and 4AM.  I'll stop.  It's annoying you, I can tell.

6)  The Unknowable
 -  We have learned to say or think "Well, we'll just never know" and not have it drive us crazy.  Americans, like us, have an obsessive need to know and understand and quantify everything.  Google was MADE for us.  I wonder if Mexicans even bother to Google.  Was it Space Junk that landed, how did the manatees die, did the PRI have a deal with the cartels to act up before the election? We'll never know.  Just let it go, don't stress.

7)  The Markets and Personalized Service
 -  We'll skip the food markets which are great.  Michael and I need pool deck furniture.  We ask around.  Go to Tonala we are told.  In Tonala, there is an entire street of people who make outdoor furniture.  We walk into one place and see a sofa and 2 chairs we like.  The owner takes us out back where there is an ironworks and they are making the stuff RIGHT THERE.   No middle man here.  We can specify anything we want and they will do it custom for us.  Price of sofa and two custom chairs with custom cushions a little less than $700 USD.  I need cushions for chaise lounges.  Walk up the street to Jasmine's little upholstery shop.  She says sure, she'll walk down and measure and we can pick fabric.  It is so easy.

8)  Your Dollar Really Goes Further
-  More of an issue for some than others, it is just a fact of life.  In the US we would be paying over $24K a year in health insurance with a big deductible.  Here we pay $2K with a big deductible.  Property tax in Wellesley $8K, ave. Mexican property tax $200USD.  Dinner out in Ajijic usually less than $20USD.

9)  It's an Outdoor Life
-  Kind of cheating counting this as a separate item since it's directly weather related but we eat outdoors almost all the time -- maybe winter will see a change in that.  The temperate climate makes it easy to be out and we walk almost all the time.

10) The Animals and the Kids
-  Both are more wild and free than their counterparts North of the Border.  Not that our American kids and pets are not adorable (they are) but there is a certain spontaneous nature to the Mexican variants that makes it fun to be around them.  The other day, I saw a young boy of about 7 or 8 coming out of a tiny tienda holding his toddler sister gently by the hand.  When they reached the tall curb, he hoisted her into his arms and kissed her while carrying her across the street. It's the norm to see older children caring for younger ones and they are very unapologetically demonstrative with their siblings and friends.

What's Not to Like?

Well, the cartels and their mayhem is high on the list.  The level of poverty and it's impact, particularly on the children, can get you down.  Police corruption is pretty awful.  There's a ways to go environmentally.  I'm sure there is more but that's true of every place.  All in all it's really a nice country.

What Do We Miss Most after 4 Months?

1)  All of you
2) Trader Joe's
3) The Ocean in summer
4) Lobster Rolls at the Barnacle
5) Wandering through bookstores

Not too bad.  You can all do your part to minimize #1 by planning a visit.  Our first official NOB visitor other than Justin arrives on the 21st.  Kent Nutt of Austin will be with us for a week and we will do our best to entertain/freak him out.  Alex is scheduled to be with us for October.  Gary and Ginny are slotted in for some time around Day of the Dead.  My family is due in for Thanksgiving and Michael's family arrives for Christmas so things will be hectic and fun.  2013 is opening up for booking so email now!  Take care and be in touch.

PHOTOS FROM BOAT TRIP ACROSS THE LAKE TO SAN LUIS SOYATLAN

Campesinos & Los Gatos 

Back garden of restaurant

More back garden of restaurant

Templo de San Luis Soyatlan

Una Casa en San Luis Soyatlan

Fishing boats by the shore

Playground on the malecon

Nobody sues in Mexico

Not many dives for the ball on this court

Some of our friends that went on the boat

Kids playing in the lake

The Virgin, The Prisoners and The Manatees

Yep.  I'm gonna tie these three seemingly disparate topics into one smooth flowing narrative.  Maybe.  Let's start with the Virgin of Zapotan (pronounced Sa-po'-pan).  She normally resides in the Guadalajara suburb of Zapopan but makes a yearly trip to Chapala and from there to the small villages surrounding the Lake.  She made her trip to Chapala a couple of weeks ago.  Amidst the festivities was a parade that featured the tiny Virgin (not a real virgin) snuggled up to the Bishop in a humongous car; marching bands; native dancers with flags; bottle rockets; shrieking children and several dogs.  So why the giant hoopla you ask?  Well, there is the general answer and the Chapala specific answer.  So Mexico.

First the general answer.  The Spaniards found the original population to be somewhat uncooperative in terms of giving up their mineral resources, land and religious practices.  Being clever, the Conquistadors decided that the best way to achieve total domination was to incorporate aspects of the indigenous peoples existing culture into what would become their new, improved (of course) culture.  So, they crafted the Virgin of Zapopan out of corn husks and assured them that she would perform miracles at a prodigious rate --far more productively than their old, outmoded Corn God.  Well, this 14" corn husk based Virgin started performing miracles as promised and by the early 1600s was attracting a lot of attention.  By now, the Indians were on to the fact that "if it's good, it's on its on the road to Spain" so the Virgin went into hiding.

During her absence, an upstart, the Virgin of San Juan de Los Lagos, started to usurp the Virgin of Zapopan's popularity.  Unacceptable.  Our Virgin reemerged from wherever and the Battle of the Virgins, as they call it locally, began.  I honestly have no idea how religious icons battle and there is no documentation of the take down but the Virgin of Zapopan was the victor.  But that's not all.  Due to her ending a massive siege of pestilence in Guadlajara in 1734, the Royal Court of Justice proclaimed her the Patroness of Thunderstorms and Epidemics. No, still more.  After Independence was declared with no bloodshed in 1821, she was named General of Arms and authorities placed in her tiny right hand a tiny baton (still visible today) denoting her new role as Commander of the Armies of Jalisco.  But why am I going on and on about her impressive resume?  Well, let's get right to the problem in Chapala.

Flawless segue one.  By 1956 a draught had been going on for ten years.  Lake waters were at an all-time low and Guadalajara was running out of drinking water.  How low was the water?  Flawless segue number two.  It was so low that the prisoners kept on the island in the Lake just walked away.  Now, one would think that as the lake's level decreased inch by inch each day, people might have anticipated this prison escape and taken some preventative action to detain the inmates but let's just let that slide.  Clearly a miracle was called for since no one had thought to build a dam, or restrict water usage or....

Cardinal Garibi whipped into action and implored the Virgin of Zapopan to save the Lake and restore the water levels.  OK.  She is implored and the rains do come.  By the time the rains stop, the water level is at the top of the highest step leading into the church in Chapala.  The church is easily 500 feet away from and somewhat uphill from the Lake.  Stories like this set even a pagan like me to wondering.

Clearly this problem with water levels is an ongoing drama which no one wants to grapple with except on a religious basis.  So, when the next water level crisis occurs in the late 90s/early 2000s, a new approach is tried with the Virgin of Zapopan.  Now the Cardinal begins to bring the Virgin to make house calls at each of the small towns surrounding the Lake including Ajijic where we live.  While not as flamboyant and exciting as the parade and festivities in Chapala, our little village can stand tall in its ability to make the Virgin welcome.  Some of the photos below show the simple decorations that are put up for her arrival which is marked by two nights of celebration featuring well attended masses, street food, endless bottle rockets and church bells chiming Ave Maria on the hour.

You may remember that the low water levels discussed in the previous paragraph were what precipitated the outlandish efforts on the part of local government to eradicate the water hyacinth explosion.  Flawless segue number three.  Regrettably, we fear that the plague is back upon us.  Within the last week or so, they have begun erupting on the lake at a furious pace.  Michael went online to research the issue more closely and, while on the site, discovered an alternate theory about the demise of the manatees.  So here it is.  The manatees were delicious and the fishermen were poor.  Let's not belabor it. The single sentence is hideous enough.  Actually, both theories could be true and coexist.

Killer Croquet Debuts

As you know, I risked jail or deportation to import our croquet set.  At the last moment I had to remove the balls from our checked luggage due to overweight. I threw them in my carryon where they presented as small cannon ball like bombs (like in the old cartoons) in Xray scanners. It was a little difficult in the US but afforded much merriment to the TSA guy when he figured out what they were.  It was a little more complicated to explain to the Mexican authority who spoke no English and had never heard of croquet.  She seemed to believe they were supersized golf balls and I was OK with that.  So, we finally got around to having a croquet party on Sunday afternoon.  It was an amazing amount of fun.  Run out and buy a set, invite 20 or so pals over, stock the cooler with beer and you're good to go.

Both Searles sons are doing fine.  Alex is back in Wellesley trying to earn some money.  A recurrent ankle injury and 100 degree heat on the AT convinced him that doing the trail in two tries might make more sense.  We concur.  Justin is still having a good time and working in LA.  Take care and have fun.

Decorations for the Virgin of Zapopan

More decorations for the Virgin

Even more decorations for the Virgin

A closeup showing the intricacy of the decorations

One of the many shrines to the Virgin throughout Ajijic

Another shrine to the Virgin

Water Hyacinth (Lirio en Espanol) growing in Lake Chapala

Michael doing his part to remove Lirio from the Lake

Killer Croquet in progress

Lining up the shot

Deirdre hitting the ball through the wicket

Playing croquet with a little help from friends