Thursday, December 31, 2015

Christmas, Christmas and More Christmas

If You Don't Like Christmas, Skip This Blog

But before you do, realize that you will be missing a literal Donald Trump bashing and a memorable, horrific travel tale.  But it's up to you.

The Creche Vs. The Tree

In the old days, Mexicans only had Nativity Scenes in their houses.  Some simple, some incredibly elaborate.  Now, under the global, intrusive influence of America many Mexican families also have Christmas Trees. However, the cultural transfer has not been entirely complete.  They have live trees but no tree stands.  I inquired of our property manager as to how they watered the trees.  "Oh, they don't.  They just put them in the house and wait for the needles to fall off."  Good thing the houses are concrete.

But Turkeys?  Dinosaurs?

Michael and I went down to the Auditorium to see the display of Nativity Scenes which, in Mexico, also include background Biblical scenes.  These were all constructed by kids as school projects.  No War On Christmas here, Donald.  The schools often have group projects like building Catarinas and Altars for Day of the Dead or giant Balloons for the Globos Festival.  There is a striking difference in the cooperation/competition ratio between schools in the U.S. and Mexico which is reflected in the more general society -- strong emphasis on community in Mexico, strong emphasis on individuality in the U.S.  Both have their drawbacks and strengths.  If only we could hit the right balance both countries would function better!  But I digress.

I invite you to look at the photos closely.  Michael and I were cracked up multiple times.  For some reason, it appears to be required to include turkeys amidst the barnyard animals.  We doubt Bethlehem had turkeys but they were EVERYWHERE in the Nativity scenes.  And it is clear that some creationists have crept across the border (Build that fence NOW!) because one or two scenes featured dinosaurs admiring the Baby Jesus.  I bet if you look you can find many, many interesting, incongruous or just diverting details in the shots.

Pre-Publication Note from Deirdre:  I think Michael got a little carried away with the scenes below but you know how to scroll if you don't want to play Biblical trivia.

Each of the Nativity scenes included scenes from the Bible. For all you Biblical scholars, see how many of the scenes you can identify.


Why use a fig leaf when a baby tiger is available -- ouch!










This Nativity scene had different scenes from the Bible.










The devil is included as well.

Note Turkey

Note Devil -- the Devil is in EVERYTHING








Note the name on the boat: Chapala.  Maybe they were lost.








This Nativity scene grouping reenacts Semana Santa.








She's saying:  "Thank you for FINALLY hanging the Christmas lights."



There's A War Abrewing...

In Mexico every three years they elect new local officials. And you cannot be reelected. This is highly dysfunctional because: 1) Nothing gets done in three years in Mexico;  2)  The new guy replaces everybody (police chief, transportation, tourism, Everybody) and then those chiefs fire everybody and replace them with their cousins or first grade teachers; and 3) knowing there is no possibility of reelection and being fed up with the whole thing they stop trying in year two -- sometimes early year three if they are dedicated.

So it happened again and a new guy is in.  It appears that he is playing favorites.  It is felt by our (Ajijic) Villagers that he is funneling all the money to Chapala and not to us.  For example, I followed a truck that filled every pothole on the carretera  in Chapala with loving care .  That was a month ago.  In Ajijic we have potholes that can swallow a Hummer that remain unattended.  Oh, they outlined them in red paint a few weeks ago which made us very excited that this was step 1 in fixing them-- but no.  Christmas has come and gone, the paint has come and gone but the potholes only deepen.  And then the final blow!  The mayor nominates Chapala to become a Pueblo Magico vs. Ajijic!  Get real!  Ajijic is an artist village.  Ajijic is adorable.  Chapala is just a commercial village -- not magico by any standard.  Well, I don't care but, as with most things that engender great emotion, there is money involved.  Big money.  Pueblo Magicos are a tourism effort and the most unique and interesting towns are designated.  If approved, they receive ongoing money from the federal government for infrastructure and tourist oriented improvements.  I only go through this so you will appreciate the photos which show the opulence of the (new) Christmas decorations in Chapala.  Ajijic has like 8 tinsel stars and an illuminated noche buena.

This is the tree outside the church in Chapala with St. Francis, their patron saint.

This is the tree that was decorated for Chapala.  The bomberos must have hung the ornaments at the top.

More decorations with presents...

and the nativity scene complete with a turkey in the foreground.

More elaborate figures in front of the nativity scene...

including the three wise men, a camel, a horse...

and even an elephant.

The decoration on City Hall.

These boys were eyeing the imposing figure of the devil...

looming over St Francis below.

Note the bottle and the fish in the devils hands...

and the skull at the feet of St. Francis.


A beautiful display of noche buenas (the original name before Joel Roberts Poinsett, the first United States minister to Mexico, brought the plant to the United States), known as poinsettias in the US. 

Even these two large trees were hung with ornaments.

There are no photos of the Ajijic "decorations" because they would suffer by comparison.


And the Parade 

They are just starting to get it together with this parade.  It's pretty new and doesn't yet have that many participants. They make up for this by running the parade all the way from Chapala through Ajijic with all the sirens on the police cars, ambulances and firetrucks at full volume.  Those not at the parade believed it to to be a huge raid on some cartel.

No Christmas parade is complete without at least one Santa...

and at least one beauty queen, riding with the bomberos.

Candies are handed out or thrown...

as yet another Santa come rolling by.

The Chapala Express sports yet another beauty queen.

Companies take advantage of the parade to do some advertising...

like the ever present Folliati Casino "lucky leprechaun".

One of the leprechaun's helpers (in disguise as one of Santa's helpers) throws candy to the children.

Meanwhile even more advertising rolls by.

We finally get to the floats with more of a religious theme.

There are quite an assortment of costumed characters on the float...

including the devil....(again)

leering at a virginal Mary.


And then its back to more advertising as one of the local cinemas tosses bags of popcorn to the crowd.


How Much Do They Hate Donald Trump?

Very, very much.  They hate him so much that they make a pinata of him so people can beat the @#X? out of him with sticks. They don't make pinatas of Hitler or Putin or ISIS guys.  Just Donald. Our local pinata dealer sold out of his Donalds THREE TIMES.  So we had to buy one.  It was our pal George's birthday and it seemed the perfect gift.  And it was.  His face lit up and I could see he wanted to immediately go after it with his cane.  However, he made the mature decision and took it home.  The next day he looked outside and saw that his Mexican rescue dog, Boomer, had somehow gotten ahold of Donald and was dismembering him on the front lawn.  Even Mexican DOGS hate Donald.  I would have loved to have that on video.

The Donald Trump pinata...

complete with name tag, so there is no confusion.

Alex & George posing with the Donald.


Trains, Planes and, yes, another Travel Horror Story

Both sons were headed down to celebrate with us.  Alex had an early morning flight on AeroMexico which he managed to miss (first time ever in his defense).  He got to the airport within 2 hours of the flight (see Flat Tire Rule, I can't go into it) and talked to 4 agents who said:  1) no we will not give you another flight even though you are here; 2) we will perhaps give you another flight if you give us $200+ more; 3) you are annoying us, we don't want to deal with you and who cares if we get your business (strongly implied but not directly stated).  Alex knew there were 7 empty seats on the next flight and decided to persist and wait them out feeling that if they couldn't sell them they would relent and rebook him.  What airline would intentionally leave a seat empty while simultaneously alienating a paying customer?  Drummmroll!  AeroMexico.  The plane, with seven still empty seats, left and Alex returned to the condo to regroup.  AeroMexico would do nothing for him and all the other airline's seats were, by now, close to $1K one way.  So Alex decided to take the bus.  Yes.  The bus. From LA to Guadalajara.  35 hours.  On the bus.

The scariest part of the trip (and he went through the drug hotbed of Sinaloa) was the LA bus station located conveniently in the middle of Skid Row.  He demurely refused the offers of various drugs and various forms of sex he was offered on his one block walk and made it into the station.  He had booked his bus ticket through GoToBus which is sort of an Orbitz of the bus world (but much, much worse). They had informed him by email 4 hours prior to his departure that the ticket he had paid for and for which he had a confirmation number was no good because "the bus is full".  Alex went to the agent at the counter and explained his situation.  She was initially disinterested until he told her he had to get to his parents in Guadlajara for Christmas.  Her mouth dropped open when she realized the Gringo was going to ride a bus through Mexico for 35 hours.  Apparently this doesn't happen much.  She leapt to the phone, worked the computer and voila Alex had a seat.  True it was in the last row of the bus, over the transmission and directly across from the bathroom (think 35 hours) but he DID have a seat.

Well, the bus ride was interesting.  Alex was the only Gringo on the bus and was regarded with a mixture of awe and unspoken concerns about his mental health.  The bus stopped in Phoenix in the middle of the night.  When all the passengers woke up they were almost to Mexico. Worried passengers woke Alex because they were sure he was supposed to get off in Phoenix -- the last Gringo stop.  When he told them that he was going to Guadalajara he became even more intriguing to them.  Javier and his family invited Alex to spend 3 days at his ranch in Tepic and said he would introduce him to his very beautiful niece. At the border the bus driver made a call.  Minutes later a customs agent talked to the driver and walked away.  A "civilian" boarded the bus and people started handing the guy $5 USD each.  Alex asked Javier what was up.  "Oh, we got a green (the light that says you can proceed at the border vs. a red) so now we must give a tip",  No passport check, no visa stamping,  no customs or duty, no nothing.  Javier tells Alex he has brought 500 pounds of electronics with him.  Clearly, this happens all the time.  Interesting.  Well, after that Alex makes it to Guad.  We realize his visa hasn't been stamped so he is illegal.  We also find out that they cancelled both of his flights.  At customer-sensitive AeroMexico if you miss the first flight (even if you show up) they cancel the roundtrip and refund you nothing.  We are disputing that with the credit card company needless to say.  So beware our fellow travelers.  Yet another airline ticket purchased and a fee paid to get the visa stamped and we think it is over.  But you never know.....  Justin's trip was a delight by comparison.

On To The New Year

We're gearing up for 2016.  We'll get this blog out so we can concentrate on the insanity that is New Years in Ajijic. Until next time.....

We'll leave you with some photos of sunrise over Lake Chapala.  Taken from our terrace.





Best wishes for a Happy, Healthy & Prosperous New Year to ALL.