Friends and Guadalupe

We had dear Valorie over for dinner the other night and managed to sit outside all evening, except when we came in to have dessert. It is always a little dicey before dark, because of the mosquitos, but as long as there is a breeze in our patio, it is do-able!



















Everyone knows about the squeegie kids at home who wash windsheilds in exchange for spare change. In Cancun there is another version of it - circus acts. The is a juggler, dressed in a clown outfit, juggling balls. On the other corner, there was a guy with two large balls on the end of long ropes,which he swung all around him. Very enterprising, yes....????.. and very entertaining!









Ok, these are the LAST Guadalupe pics, I promise....!!! Dec. 12 was the big day, and the parade through our neighbourhood included trucks with floats, cars (all honking!!) with banners, and even men and women on horseback - loud music, lots of images of Herself, and every person in the neighbourhood was out in the street to clap and cheer.




In town, the parades went on all day and it was great fun!

Patio

Our little dining table fits nicely under the palapa, and gives good shade on the house and over what will be our outdoor kitchen to the right of the sink.


Here are the men of the hour - Papa on the left and Rauol on the right! Great work, gentlemen!!!!!

Ta Da!!!

Papa did a wonderful job putting on the undercoat of cement, and with a high concentration of sand, it is a lovely soft beige colour.

We will wait a week or so, then paint all the cement surfaces with "sellador", a clear sealant that protects the cement, and then a couple of days after that, paint the cement.

The zapote tree came as a full sized tree, which Rauol had to debark with machetes before putting it in place - this is the little stump that is left, which I am using as a plant stand! It is only about 12 - 14 inches high and weighs 20 pounds - that is how heavy the wood is.

I have kept a couple of the slices of wood as well, to show the great cedar colour, and will use the larger one as a hot plate for the outdoor dining area.

The zapote trees have to be cut in the 9 day period around the full moon, so that the sap is at its strongest and therefore protects the wood from insects. We will nevertheless paint on a bug repellant oil and then varnish just to fully protect it.

Day 2 of palapa

Tuesday at the bookstore was a hot, quiet day, with very little activity in the town square and very few customers as well. We had 3 big book deliveries during our days there, so there are lots of great new things waiting for Rob and Jo to unpack!!!












The second day of palapa building was another transformation. Now that the first layer of cement has been put on, we are starting to see how great it will be to have shade over both windows.









In additon, it will provide a nice shaded area for our outdoor dining area, cover our hot water tank (on the wall) during rains, and provide for a covered area to the right of our sink, where we will install a counter area from the sink to the hot water tank on which to put our barbeque and outdoor cooking stuff.
















Ok, so we have 5 cats we feed and are taming, hopefully enough to be able to catch them and get them all spayed and neutered. We now have a street dog (decidedly unphotogenic, as you see) who is quite sick. He is full of parasites, worms, mange and fleas, and is very underweight, so we feed him every day and leave water out all night for him - and whatever other street dog is thirsty. Our friend and rescue animal queen, Diane, is finding out from the vet what it will cost to give him a series of antibiotics and pills to help him recover. He is very sweet and gentle, but the second I brought out a camera, he hit the trail. I will try to add a better shot soon.

The new palapa!

This is our year to add some shade to our very sunny hot patio. We packed away all our patio furniture into the living room, threw a tarp over the pool to keep out cement dust, and they are starting with this bare site. The big downside to this patio is that it faces south (which is great for the pool) but it means the sun pours in those 2 windows, each one belonging to a bedroom, and we have to keep the curtains pulled all day to try to keep out the heat.




Our friend and master builder, Rauol and his Papa, arrived Monday morning to start the palapa. In just one day, they installed all the wooden posts and upright, as well as the chicken wire which will hold up the cement which goes on top.
Amazing to us that so much work can be done in just one day.

This tree centre post and the poles under the cement are made from the zapote tree, also known as the chicle tree. This is the same tree that the sap was extracted from and used to make Chicklets gum, unltil Mr. Wrigley figured out the composition artificially. Put an entire indigenous group of people out of work and brought an end to a whole way of life.




The zapote tree is an extremely hard wood, and is VERY heavy. It is used to make furniture and is a deep red colour at the centre, almost like a west coast cedar.

Friends arrive!

Friends Ed, left, and Kevin, arrived on Dec. 2 for two months! They are renting an amazing 3 level penthouse on the top of a local hotel, with views of the town, the ocean, the reef and even the mangrove.

Here they are on their 3rd floor patio, where they served us wonderful ginger tea.









The views are just lovely, and there is enough greenery all around the building that you are not looking down into someone's back yard, and there is wonderful privacy.















The other side of the patio faces the mangrove - almost a 360 view of the area, and when it gets too hot up there, there is an outdoor shower in which to cool off. Note the patio lights for enjoying in the evening.

Guadalupe!

OK, so we are suckers for the kids.....!!! There are groups all over town (and on our street at home) doing their little song and collecting money on behalf of Guadalupe, which goes to families in the area.

Big kids, little kids, all boys, all girls, mixed boys and girls - they are all sweet and we happily add to the coffers every time we see them. I am sure our house and the bookstore are well known as a "soft touch"....nice!