Saturdays La Manzanilla Style

We were walking home along the beach yesterday in the late afternoon and the fishermen were out in force. Some leaving by boat and some walking along the shore with net in hand.

North along the La Manzanilla is still undeveloped, there are a couple of campgrounds and some beautiful beside lots for sale. We have some friends who have a trailer under a palapa on the north end of the beach. It's very basic but lovely. We've gotten into the habit of hanging out with them every Saturday.

It's great because they have a son Lyle's age, so they spend the day eating coconuts, climbing trees and playing in the ocean.

PTA meeting in La Manzanilla

It's the same everywhere. I went to my first PTA today. Last year it was a playset for the Kinder, this year it's a sun shade because the dang playset gets so hot the kids are burning themselves when they try to play on it.

We need $4000 pesos for the materials and then the parents need to build it. $4000 pesos, approximately $400 USD. Last year for the Denver International School it was $30,000 USD for a bus.

Sunshade or bus, doesn't matter it all equals fundraising. So, the parents have donated items for a yard sale, there is a movie planned and we all have to sell 3 tickets and donate food or drink to sell at the movie, there is halloween party, a dance in the jardin and few other activities planned to raise money.

After the meeting, conducted under a palapa in the sweltering heat, I approached the "PTA President" you can always tell which mom is the head mom even if you only understand 60% of what was said. So, I approach her, say in my broken Spanish that I know we need money and I know there is work to do so please just tell me what to do!

Come see me Tuesday, in front of the Kinder, where I will be setting up and selling other peoples junk trying to raise money.

I've been on a nonprofit board and headed the pr and marketing committees for various Denver nonprofits, and I have a handful of nonprofit clients, I'm not stranger to fundraising. $30,000 or $400, in the big picture funds is funds!

Mom, this is harder than I thought it would be...

Words from a 5 year old who Monday came home from the Kinderschool with a fat lip and yesterday came home with a small, but still bloody, cut on his head due to a rock throwing incident.



Prior to our move here, Lyle was at The Denver International School in the Spanish program. Full immersion, led teacher from Spain and only spoke Spanish and French, assistant from Mexico, 14 kids in the class, all the kids native English speakers.



The kinderschool here in La Manzanilla has 3 classes of 30 kids each, one teacher per classroom and no one speaks English.



When I asked the teacher about Lyle's fat lip she remarked that it was probably an insect bite. Lyle later told me it was from getting punched in the mouth.



When I asked Lyle about the rock incident he said after the boy hit him with the rock one of his friends went and told the teacher about it. I asked Lyle, "what did the teacher do?" - it's hard to get exact details from a 5-year-old- but my conclusion is the teacher did nothing.



Poor kid says to me, "Mom, this is harder than I thought it would be." I just burshed it off and told him, not to worry and to just ignore those mean boys, but inside my heart is breaking for him.



I'm sure in a month or so he'll have the lay of land and a better command of the language.

La Vena- Playa Los Angeles Locos

This Sunday our landlord, at the lovely Jardines Tropicales, invited Lyle and I to go with he and his partner to La Vena. La Vena is a beach about 25 mins of La Manzanilla. You take the exit for Los Angeles Locos and follow it to the end of the road.

The beach here is gorgeous! The water is crystal clear, a river meets the ocean in this lovely spot. You’ll find lots of small shells on the beach and a small outcrop of rocks provides some interest if snorkeling is on your agenda.

Lots of locals in the water but I wouldn't go too far up the river, it quickly turns to mangrove and that means you could, theoretically, meet a cocodrillo. The water is moving pretty fast, not a favorite of cocodiles, but something to ponder.

The locals say two more weeks of heat in La Manzanilla!

So, I wouldn’t call it “sweltering”, well ok maybe today I’d call it “sweltering
I checked the weather and it reported 94 degrees, feels like 101, that was at about 3:00.

I’ve been working in my landlord’s outdoor kitchen so I can be as close as possible to the wireless router. It’s a pretty great “office”, nice concrete breakfast table to work at, on the second level so it’s breezy and I can reach out and grab a mango off the tree if I want. But alas, I had the ceiling fan and a standing fan both going and I was still sweating.

The locals say only 2 more weeks of heat!

Our routine is to hit the beach everyday around 6:00 for the cool breeze and sunset. It’s a nice routine, the water is very warm but cooler then the air, the rocks washed up during the rainy season are settling back into the ocean and the long flat, clean beach is on it’s way back.

At sundown- around 8:30 we make our back to the apartment, have a shower, snack and then off to bed. It’s now 10:00 PM- I have a fan about 3 ft from me, my hair in a pony tail, a beer on my desk….and I’m sweating. Oh well, what’s a couple more weeks!

Tipping the police in Mexico

After 5 days in the car we are here in La Manzanilla. Crossing the border was easy, took about 40 mins and the border patrol guy insisted on filling out the paperwork. We crossed the border and made it Navajoa the first day.

We were feeling so smug that we decided to start out very early in the next morning (just before daylight), get a head start and all.

We completely forgot that we are driving a white subaru with a thule on top that just scream's, "tourist". Not 5 mins out of the hotel parking lot and the lights of a police car are behind us, we pull over, cop walks up and say's "hola", shakes my husband's hand, smiling and tells us we ran a light, and then says, "un ticket you pay $300 dollar and bye, bye." We start protesting that we don't have $300 dollars, he comes back with "$200 dollar and bye, bye", we continue the protest and finally he agrees to "$100 and bye, bye."

So we pay the "ladron" and are on our way, upset and $100 poorer...here's the kicker, 5 mins later we get pulled over by another one!

At this point I'm mad, the cop walks over, friendly, hola, handshake, starts down the "too fast" line of bullshit and I start yelling that we just got pulled over and the other guy took ALL our money. The cop is looking at me like I'm crazy and my poor husband is now offically upset. The cop waves me off and walks back to his car and other cop gets out. I tell him the same story, "we were JUST pulled over and the other guy took ALL our money." He smiles and say's no problem, steps away and waves us off. Rick and I wondered if maybe they share the take?

The lesson here, no need to get upset. Be friendly, negoicate down as much as you can, keep smiling, pay the ticket and move along.

The next day we felt better about it all, enjoyed the last day's drive and arrived saftely in La Manzanilla to a beautiful day, sunny, not too hot, nice breeze.

I have a Facebook page-who has time?

Ok- so due to a work thing my research lead me to a facebook page I wanted to view, only catch was I had to sign-up, become a member, whatever it is. So I fill out the information and low and behold there are several people from my high school who are facebook members. So of course I invite them to "become my friends", then they respond inviting me into their inner circle so I view their pages, send comments, update my page....good god, who has time to blog, facebook, move to La Manzanilla, work, call your mom because she thinks moving to Mexico is like moving to the darkside of the moon, and all those other things that make up a life!

BTW- I have a meeting with a client tomorrow at 10 and then we are packing up the subuaru and driving out of town.

Two more night in the US and the Mexico all the way baby!