Cállete perro! Sounds of La Manzanilla

It’s 9:00 pm and I’m rocking to the grooves of some techno trash music…as I sitting in our apartment. It’s coming from the neighbor’s house behind us. These neighbors have a cacophony of sounds emanating from their location.

Around 6:45 am the music starts, usually not very loud, and I find it pleasant.

We return from dropping Lyle at school around 9:15 am. That’s when the pet bird starts doing its thing. The parrot whistles, like the whistle steelworkers give to passing women. Then when he’s bored of that he switches to his cat imitation and begins meowing loudly.

Around 10:00 am the family leaves the house for the day….but they leave a big black dog tied on very short rope in the backyard. Our bedroom/office window looks down into their backyard. 10:10 am the dog starts barking.

My husband and then spend the next two hours taking turns going over to the window and yelling, “callete perro!” in between conference calls and emails, that is.

12:00 we pick Lyle up from school, neighbors come home for the afternoon meal, dog stops barking and music comes back on.

Oh- it’s 9:15 pm and all is quiet.