Month: January 2023

When we rented our casa last year it was suggested that there might be a palapa on the roof in the future. However, when Blanca, our landlady, came down here earlier this season, she was still upset about the passing of her husband and decided not to do it right away.

She came back to Mexico a few days ago and we were asking her about several things including the palapa. She said she would talk to her nephew, Ram, about it as he owns the place. They were thinking, in the future, to build a casita on the roof anyway, so we were hopeful.

The next day Blanca showed up with her son Junior and between us, we decided what was needed. As it turned out, the best suggestion was exactly what we wanted.

A while later the builder showed up, found out what was needed and drew up a quote. Blanca said she would have to discuss it with Ram again as the quote was quite high. Then they all went away.

About an hour later the builder, Rámon, showed up again with some of the materials, so we assumed Blanca got permission to proceed; at least we hoped so, as you never can tell in Mexico.

We opened up the gate so the guys could bring in the roof panels. Rámon said he would probably be back to start in the afternoon so Rosalie and I had to go and remove all our junk that would have been in the way. I also had to take down the shade cloth and which was later modified for the new palapa.

Rámon didn’t show up that afternoon but arrived the next morning. I took down the Star Link dish just in case they dropped something on it. Rámon checked our extension cord and said he needed a heavier one for the welder.

He went up onto the roof and handed one down for me to plug in for him. Well, it was a typical Mexican haywire job. He didn’t use a welding mask, but just held up a chunk of smoked glass and carried on with that. True to his word, he was finished the next day, and a sturdy structure it is too. His shop is just around the corner from us and he does some very nice work including spiral stairs and window bars.

The only problem we found was that it was open to the sun all day long. It was decided to cut the shade cloth into quarters and make a set of blinds for the two sides with all the sun. That provided a few problems but they were soon overcome.

So, what next? Of course! A PALAPA PARTY!!

The last month has been nothing but socializing. Either friends visited us, or we visited them. And of course, there is always happy hour on the beach.

Over the Christmas holidays we seemed to be on the go constantly. For New Years Eve we ended up at Bill and Connie’s condo on the beach where tons of fireworks and noisemakers abounded. We got home at about 1:30 am and sat drinking tequila and talking until 3 am before going to bed.

One day, Sue and Rod met us a Tito’s for a few drinks and we were in for some really good entertainment. A lady was doing traditional Mexican dancing with her nephew. She even did the ‘Old Persons’ dance by herself. She came to our table and tried to get me to help her out: not a chance!

She was quite cute

Another time, an afternoon visit to Papa Gallo’s was scheduled, just as we got there we ran into Mike and Faye as they were leaving. They happily came back inside again for a few more drinks. About fifteen minutes of settling in, Bill and Connie showed up looking for us as they know this is our favourite hang out.

After a few margaritas, Rosalie suggested that we go back to our place and order pizzas. And of course, a few more drinks. The order was for three medium pizzas and they took about forty five minutes to get here. When we opened the boxes I thought we had ordered large and wondered how we were going to eat all this food. Well, we made a great job of it and there were only two slices left by the time we’d finished.

That night, Rosalie put the boxes on the patio ready to take out to the garbage. When she picked them up next day she got a lot of little red ant bites on her hands. I took them from her and also got bitten and it itched bad for about an hour.

A few days later, here was a USA international Skim Board Competition at the east end of the beach and Neil and Diane asked us to meet them there for breakfast, to see the action. Since the restaurant at Laguna de Tule was not open, we walked up to Resta-Rita’s. Ordered breakfast but they were so busy it was an hour before we got served and then it was almost lunch time.

Back at the beach we watched the competition and it was fun. We have never seen waves so high in Melaque and several other people said the same thing. The competition lasts all weekend and there were a lot of American competitors, both men and women, some Canadians and a lot of Mexicans. There were a lot of spectacular wipe-outs and very few managed to regain the shore with their boards.

So, now I have to go and buy a skim board and a speedo to keep Rosalie happy.

And then there was Faye who saw us driving near where they stay. So, she stepped out into the road, stuck her thumbs in her ears, waggled her fingers, stuck her tongue out and then realized it wasn’t us but a poor unsuspecting, Mexican couple. And so it goes in Melaque.

I’ve been negligent in writing my blog this year. There has been a lot of socializing and I tend to forget.

It took about three weeks but then there was some new growth in our plants. Both of the banana plants had new shoots about three inches long, that quickly turned into new leaves. This is the one I’m most excited about. There are several other plants with new shoots, but we have no idea what most of them are.

The lime tree didn’t recover so I replaced it with a nice little orange tree. When Dan and Linda brought some other seedlings over, they laid them on the tub that the orange plant is in. The next day, the orange plant started to shrivel up. I removed the seedlings and it popped up again. weird!

Between Christmas and New Year, we have been to the beach for a glass of wine on a few occasions. We met Bill and Connie there the other day and had a great hour or two with them. Afterwards, we strolled uptown to see if we could get a Churro. Unfortunately, they weren’t there yet so we will have to wait until next time.

The lot next to ours is being cleared over a period of a few weeks. They brought in a living breathing lawn mower which scared the life out of us when we first heard it.

A ‘orse’ with the cute one looking on

Rosalie needed a new light for the kitchen so we decided to go to Home Depot in Manzanillo. Big mistake! Because it was the holiday break, the place was loaded with Mexican tourists. Buses and cars lined up along the beach and partly blocking one lane. Luckily the traffic wasn’t too bad so we arrived there okay. Some of the other stores were so busy it was decided to just go to Home Depot. The lamp we found needed four bulbs but they told us it came with one, so we went and bought four more. When we got home I found that there were three in the package with the lamp, not one. There obviously should have been four so one was missing. However, there were four spares which I decided to use instead of the originals so they all matched up. Nope! one of the ones we bought was kaput so I just hope nobody looks up.