It’s been crazy busy the last few weeks. Rosalie’s family are all here. There are twelve of us altogether. Lots of friends have been arriving and the social scene is a little crazy. One day, six of us went to the beach and we ended up with 15 at our table, mostly people from Spider Lake Springs Resort in Canada.
Our afternoon visit to the beach to cool off is often still a part of our day. There are lots of beach vendors and Rosalie knows most of them by name. One, by the name of Mark Anthony, gets large bags of pistachios, breaks them down into smaller packets and sells them for 50 pesos each. Bolivar sells hammocks and veggie totes. One of his hammocks is on our rooftop patio; sometimes his Dad works the beach too.
Christina sells cinnamon buns and walks the beach with her son. She is a beautiful woman but needs to smile more. Christiania, I’ve mentioned before and we still see her with her squeaky little voice. There are many more that are encountered daily but too many to mention.
While sitting on the beach the other day there was a sailboat race underway so that gave us some entertainment for an hour or two.
The mornings are a bit cooler now, so I have had to light up the chiminea a few times. The wood supply is getting low but there has been a bit of rain so I’ll hold off until it’s all over with.
There is a lot of new road construction going on here. They seem to be finally tearing up some of the old rock-laid streets and replacing them with concrete.
We went to a seminar a few weeks ago about Mexican culture and the differences between hot and cold cultures.
For instance, if you invite a Mexican to your house they may or may not show up. They think, to say no is more of an insult than to not turn up at all, which has happened to us. Also, if you invite someone to your home, expect them to bring their whole family along. If you are invited to someone else home the last thing you want to do is show up on time as that is when they just about start to get things ready. You can show up at any time and you will still be on time.
Mexicans are more interested in relationships than time. There is a story of a Mexican visiting a friend in Vancouver. They met at lunch time and the Mexican was quite insulted when the friend had to go back to work. The idea of putting work before him was insulting.
Our water guy Juan promised to deliver in twenty minutes. He finally got there several hours later. It’s similar to DHL deliveries, online they say a certain date but that rarely coincides with the real delivery time. Sometimes it’s earlier, sometimes later, or not at all. For instance, I had a package due to be delivered yesterday, it arrived today along with another package due for delivery tomorrow. Most of the deliveries are early so thats a bonus. They say delivery before 8 PM but we had a package delivered at about 9 PM by a guy on a motorbike with his ladyfriend on the back.