About Spanish and Other Matters

We are in the middle of the Festival of Our Lady of Peace, the patron of Bucerias. As we have mentioned in previous years, this is quite an event, one of the central events of the year. Those of you that have attended 4th of July festivities in a small town like Beverly or Plain City have an inkling of this combination of street fair/vendors, performances, parades, and nightly peregrinaciones to church. Fireworks  especially the Âflaming tower - mark the beginning and ending of this week-long event. Oh, and letÂs not forget the blessing of the fishing boats.

It has been somewhat cooler than usual. Daytime temperatures have yet to exceed 30c (86f) and have stayed generally about 25c (77f). We have not even needed our fans. We certainly are not complaining; nighttime has had almost perfect sleeping weather. Mrs. T has commentary about that below. Our many friends from Winnipeg and other places in the Canadian provinces are happy to be far from the -45c (-49f) temperatures; yes, that is below zero without the wind-chill.

We have settled into our normal grocery shopping, food prep, etc. that is everyday living. And we continue to refine our condo with new art and kitchen implements. Probably about time for another batch of cookies.

Mrs. T is getting involved in local activities as well as doing her weekly scuba diving. Here is her take on some of the weekÂs highlights.

I am taking a Spanish class at the Bucerias Bilingual Community Center . "Use me gusta (I like) in three sentences," our teacher, Bobby said.

"Me gusta limonada," I replied, "Me gusta chocolate."

"Bueno, una mas," Bobby said.

My mind went blank, all Spanish nouns deserted me; suddenly an inspiration occurred. "Me gusta mi esposo" (my husband) I said.

"No! No!" Bobby said "You would never say me gusta for your husband. Me gusta is only for things you like all the time! You know some days you like your husband and some days you donÂt". (This is true but I wondered how Bobby knew!) "For people you say quiero," he continued.

I went back to the condo. I saw the little iguana who suns himself on the wall beside our condo. "Hello, how are you today?" I asked him. The iguana turned his head and looked at me. "The iguana looked at me when I spoke to him, I think he likes me," I told my husband happily.

"He would look at you no matter what you said," Dan replied "Next time say I am going to shoot you and fry your a$$ for dinner, and he will still look at you!" (Probably would taste like chicken. dt)

Bobby was right, sometimes I like him (i.e., Mr. T Â she likes the iguana all the time.) and sometimes I donÂt.

I am happy because I traded a painting I made with the pie man for 2 pies (one pecan and one apple). He says he wants at least one more painting for his house. Also the owner of Los Helechos, a nice Mexican restaurant, has told me he will trade me dinner for two for a painting if I have one he likes. (I am trying to get her busy on this. dt)

We bought a beautiful Huichol (local Indian tribe) beaded work. (Posted previously in the pictures. dt) It is about 3 ½ feet in diameter and is a portrayal of the sun and the moon, which represents marriage, the union of male and female, or the eclipse depending on who you ask. (It contains a lot of other symbolism, much associated the indigenous culture. dt) The salesman at the store where we bought it said it took about 4 months to complete, and I can easily believe that. He assured me that the work was made of the finest Czech glass beads. Talk about authentic! The Huichols are interesting because they still maintain their traditional life style in some villages in the mountains where some tribe members do not speak Spanish. This is one of the tribes which use peyote on their vision quests.

Our neighbor, Diane, who is a great bargainer helped me buy a Mexican blanket that has a peacock woven into it. This was necessary because the nights here have been unseasonably chilly and when Dan steals all the blankets I am reduced to hoping for a hot flash! The peacock blanket matches our blinds so it worked out well. I am not sure Dan is too enthused about the peacock blanket, but king-sized blankets are hard to find.

Diving this week was fantastic. There were three snorkelers but I was the only diver. Before we dived we cruised around to look for whales. We found three, a mother, a baby, and one other. When there is a baby they always travel in threes. After we followed them a little while the baby started jumping. I think he must have just learned to jump. He jumped with a half turn, he jumped completely out of the water and then he jumped halfway out. This seemed to be his repertoire which he then repeated several times. Then he must have been tired because he swam normally for a little while before he started again. His mother swam patiently beside him. It seemed to me he was having a wonderful time. (I am not sure Mrs. T knows whether this was a Âhe or Âshe baby. dt)

Alex, the divemaster said he thought the baby was about 2 months old. When whales are first born they do not know how to swim and the mothers swim under them pushing the baby to the surface to breathe and then taking them down a little way. You could tell that our baby was way beyond that. Alex said that where these whales were swimming was not too deep. If young whales go too deep they cannot get back up and drown. So you can tell how old they are by where they are swimming. They are carefully guided to progressively deeper water as they get older. All the time the whales are in Mexico they do not eat but live off stored fat, except the babies who nurse.

After seeing the whales we went diving. Since I was the only diver it was like Alex was giving me a personally guided tour. Also when there are fewer divers usually the more I see because the other divers donÂt scare things away. That certainly was true this week. We saw two gigantic sea turtles. We saw several different kinds of eels. We saw several octopi. The best part was when we swam by the top of a seawall and looked down and saw every fish in the Pacific Ocean swimming right below us. Alex said it was the best dive he had had all year and I felt the same way.

That evening we went to the fiesta. The Fiesta celebrates the saint day for Our Lady of Peace who is the patrona for the local church. The fiesta lasts for eight days, and has rides, fireworks, music, dancing, and fair food (especially chocolate-filled crepes, mmm!!!).

We were trying to decide which street the first peregrination would go down. (There are both civic parades and religious peregrinations. dt) Dan suggested I ask some older ladies who were sitting near the church. I sat down and was talking to them. Dan took a picture of us. Immediately one of the older ladies said "Oh you are taking my picture." She threw off her shawl and tugged down her blouse to show more cleavage.

"DonÂt do that with my husband, heÂs dangerous," I said.

"In my life I could use a little danger!" she replied to general hilarity. (Is this what they mean by cultural immersion?)

Soon we will post some new pictures to the usual spot. http://www.flickr.com/photos/9151458@N07/sets/72157603660415941/

Time to watch some of the NFL playoffs.

Dan and Rebecca

http://casa-de-terrible.blogspot.com/