What The Heck?

So,  way back in early November, I was all set to do a little blog on Day of the Dead, and the amazing painted pigs and the gay male stripper show when.......America went off the rails!!!!

In past blogs I have focused on the elaborate altars. In this blog I will focus on the elaborate face & body paint used during Dia de Muertos.

This whole family got into the theme of the day.

Here you can see this individual transforming her friend.

Honestly, we leave you North of the Border people alone for a second (well, four and a half years) and you go and elect Donald Trump!  Did you know (and I am not making this up) that the sun did not shine in Ajijic for a week after the US election.  And it's always sunny in Ajijic.  At roughly the time that it became apparent that Hillary was NOT going to be our President, a ferocious storm came upon us that rendered us without power for over 12 hours.  I know that many of you are as upset as we expats are, but consider this: You Do Not Live surrounded by Mexicans who truly loath and despise Trump.  I must say that they are very gracious about it.  We say that WE are sorry about electing him and then they say that THEY are sorry that we have to have him as President and then we all sigh and walk away.

From Mexican ex-presidents to cartel chiefs, the loathing for Trump abounds in Mexico. Even El Chapo has taken him on.  He got into a Twitter war with Trump (who will clearly twitter with ANYONE) and El Chapo ended up "going high" and quoting Martin Luther King (not making it up).  Vincente Fox (ex- president) who really put it to Trump during the campaign ended up saying something like: "She may not be the prettiest girl in the room but you have to dance with her". That was really confusing.  I mean was he demeaning women, or only trying to talk in terms Trump would understand or did it just get lost in translation?  They say that distance often brings clarity but distant as we are, there is no clarity revealing itself to us.  I suppose if we were VERY,VERY
cynical we could see the silver lining of the election in the decline of the peso.  When we moved here the exchange rate was about 10 pesos to the dollar, then 12,  during the campaign recently 18, now 20 and it is edging up further in the New Year. So, effectively our dollars go  a little more than twice as far as they did in 2012. So before the disaffected run off to tropical Canada with its weak dollar, ice truckers and endless hockey talk, they might want to take a glance at little Ol' Mexico.

So, What Else is New? 

After all that, everything else seems a bit banal.  But, if you are still reading (people I love but who voted for Trump -- all 5 of them-- bailed two paragraphs ago) I'll give you a little update on Village Life.  We bought tickets to go to The Kinsey Sicks (singing drag Queens) show called Electoral Dysfunction but, being dysfunctional, we hung up the tickets on the board and promptly forgot to go -- ah! senility.  Day of the Dead was terrific as always and we will include photos that reveal the creativity of both young and old.  We have been here in Ajijic since August without foreign travel which may be a record for us.  Feet are getting itchy.,.We'll also put in some photos of the adorable pigs that the local artist's embellished.  We first saw painted bears in Belfast Maine, since then horses (California) cows (Germany) etc.  Eventually, they will run out of reasonable animals and be reduced to painting voles.

This series of photos shows the creativity displayed in painting the various pigs.

Many of the pigs were advertisements. This was for La Casa de Wafle, one of the favorite breakfast spots for Tapatios who come down to Lakeside for weekends and holidays.

This one was so fantastic it required a view of all three sides.

Some offered social commentary.

Weeks (no Months!) Later......

It's been WEEKS since I have come back to this blog.  So the top part is a bit out of date but I don't have the heart to revisit the subject matter.  We had the boys with us for Thanksgiving and we struck out, with three other couples and them, to Mazatlan which is on the Pacific Coast.  I do not understand how everything can be so FAR in Mexico.  It took us 7 hours to get there. Over mountains, over bridges, through tunnels, dodging insane Mexican drivers but eventually we reached nirvana.  For a number of days we ate copiously, hit the beach, took a sail and took advantage of excellent piña coladas and margaritas.  We also lucked upon a marathon.  We didn't much care about the marathon but the bonus was this amazing fireworks display.  Now, we lived in Boston for over thirty years, and are no neophytes about fireworks having seen an astounding display each year on July 4th.  But this was REALLY something.  They set up 12 stations on the beach on the curved bay -- barges are for sissies.  They had a suicidal man for each station who would run up, set the thing on fire and run like hell. Somehow they all fired at the same time totally covering the sky.  It went on for a LONG time.  We'd think it had ended and then it would KAABOOOM and another volley would go off.  We were too spellbound for photos & Michael missed the whole display because he was suffering from a twenty four hour bug (non-intestinal) on his birthday. Happy Birthday Michael. Months later update:  Since that display, an entire section of Mexico City blew up because they decided it would be sensible to cram gazillion fireworks into a few square blocks.  The safety precaution was that each batch would be in a glass case so if one went up they all wouldn't blow. But, then everyone thought "Oh, that's expensive and a pain so what the heck".  Then they blew up. Welcome to Mexico.

On the beach buggy headed to the beach.  Very civilized chaises and margaritas and chow.  Also beautiful water.

A pretty elaborate lighthouse 

Our Captain scanning the horizon.

The motley crew (sans Michael)

An amazing Thanksgiving dinner at El Presidio.  Not one "traditional" dish.  Alex ordered a giant plate of bones.  For the bone marrow.  Strange yet delicious.

And Then What....

We headed out to Florida  for the wedding of Michael's sister Mary and a visit with the whole Searles clan. It was great and fun was had by all -- particularly Mary and her new hub Michael (yes ANOTHER Michael).  Alex, who has decided to stay in Mexico, was tending the casa.  We returned to discover a pit bull living in our home.  You can imagine our delight!  It turns out that the chef at our favorite French restaurant had lost his pit bull.  Alex came upon one meeting the description and rather than shooting a photo and emailing it to the chef, took the dog home. THEN he sent a photo to the chef and the chef said, "Wow.  A dead ringer. But that is not our dog."  Do you know how hard it is to give a pit bull away?  Or pay someone to take him? It is impossible.  Well, Chico Rico has turned out to be a really sweet dog (I know, never trust a pit bull they are all yelling) and Alex is attached so.... You've all been there.

The Newlyweds -- cute huh?

Michael and his siblings (Patricia, Brian, Mary and Theresa -- left to right)

Beautiful nieces Katie and Caroline

Mary's brothers "gave her away".

Oldest sister Patricia did one reading...

and youngest sister Theresa did the other reading.

AHHH....

Would you believe a Buddhist Temple that offers a great brunch in Brandon Florida?  We didn't either.  Had to check it out.

Gorgeous orchids for sale but no way Jose to bring them back to Mexico.

Course One of our brunch.

Spent an afternoon in Dunedin.  Nice little town

Then the dash to Christmas.  I girded myself for my annual battle with Jacquie Lawson's electronic Christmas cards which I mess up every year.  I think it went alright but if you got a card intended for my Aunt Tillie-- or no card at all-- you will know that I am performing to my usual inept level.  So, hope you had Merry Christmas (we are now allowed and even commanded to use this greeting I believe), or a good Chanukah or whatever else you are into and let's hope for a better 2017.  Cheers.

Finally photos of the latest family addition: Chico Rico.