Campers on the beach

Most of the Canadian and American visitors have left so they can be home for Easter and the Mexicans are just arriving.

The tents started to go up in the wee hours Thursday night. There were none there when we went to bed so obviously they got pitched in the dark. They continued to arrive all day yesterday and last evening. Within a couple of days, we won’t be able to see our beach.

Part of the large extended family which arrived Thursday night has camped on this beach every Easter for 28 years.

Bruce was on water detail late yesterday and I filled countless 5 gallon buckets at noon today. I’m scheduled to give everyone showers at 5pm.

I went out and had a look down the beach and it looks like it is getting busy down there, too.

The minstrels are also starting to arrive.

Semana Santa

Semana Santa or Holy Week is from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday. It is the time when most Mexicans celebrate Easter. Over the years they have actually extended the length of the holiday to include the week after Easter Sunday. Virtually everything comes to a standstill at this time of the year and families take this opportunity to be together.

Mexico is nearly 90 percent Catholic so this religious holiday takes on a special meaning that the entire community shares and participates in.

All of Mexico celebrates Semana Santa, but certain cities and villages are better known for celebrating the holiday, and often provide reenactments of the events leading up to Christ's crucifixion on the cross. Each community celebrates the holiday with its own regional character.

Churches will be filled with those attending Mass on Good Friday and Easter Sunday.


In many cities, important religious images from the church will be displayed, traditional altars are decorated at home and in the streets, and flower decorations and palm crosses will be found everywhere.

Cascarones or coloured egg shells, filled with confetti, are broken over friends and family. This is a custom which is popular with the entire country.

Many Mexicans take their vacation at this time of the year and head to the beaches. The biggest holiday spot in Nayarit is right here in Rincon de Guayabitos.

Our streets are already getting busy with Mexican tourists and within a couple of days there will be thousands of visitors crowding our beaches, hotels and restaurants. We won't leave our casa unless absolutlely necessary. The streets and highways will be a nightmare and getting anywhere takes forever.

Mariachi

Easter will be one of the most profitable times of the year for both professional mariachis and amateur minstrels.

Tourists often confuse professional mariachis with the musicians and singers who roam from one restaurant to another hoping to make a few pesos. Over the Easter holidays, we will see many of these entertainers roaming the beach and restaurants of Guayabitos. They are not true mariachis.






The more affluent Mexicans will hire authentic mariachis to perform for them over the holidays.

The performer, the musical style, and the musical ensemble are called mariachi.

Initially mariachi music was strictly instrumental, but it has come to include vocal. Usually a mariachi consists of at least two violins, two trumpets, one Spanish guitar, one vihuela (a high-pitched, five-string guitar) and one guitarron (a small-scaled acoustic bass), but sometimes features more than twenty musicians.

The majority of mariachis are men, but occasionally you will see women mariachis.
Beautifully dressed women dancers will often accompany the mariachi during performances.







Mariachi outfits are much the same as those of the Charro. They consist of a waist-length jacket and tightly fitted wool pants which open slightly at the ankle to fit over a short riding boot. Both pants and jacket are often ornamented with embroidery, intricately cut leather designs, or silver buttons in a variety of shapes. These clothes are usually accessorized with a large bow-tie, a wide belt and a large sombrero.

Although mariachis are most often employed to play at political events, holidays and celebrations such as weddings, funerals, and birthdays, they are sometimes hired to serenade women.

We're in a Contruction Zone Again

Well today is the 28th so we only have about two more weeks before we leave and we’ve just decided to put a roof over our walkway to the beach and extend the wall next to the Padre's.

This walkway runs between our casa and the Padre’s casa (which is still under construction) and all our bedroom windows open onto it and when we sit on our beachside deck, we can and look up and see the Padre's deck. By doing these two jobs now, we will protect our privacy and soundproof the bedrooms before he moves in.

Obviously it won’t be a very relaxing time over the next couple of weeks, but I’d rather get it done now and not have to start construction as soon as we arrive next year. It will also give the concrete a chance to dry before having to paint it.

The boys just started this morning and have already got the rebar connected to the lower wall and are in the process of building the wall up to the height of our roof. The older guy in the yellow shirt is mixing concrete on the street so a younger guy can shovel it into five gallon buckets and haul it to the job site.

Auto Parts for Sale

This blog is for Joyce and Keith!

This is what most parts places look like in our neck of the woods. They don't require huge rent or mortgage payments so overhead costs are low.

There are no salaries for sales staff, office staff or cleaning staff.

Most of the parts they carry are used. Why would anyone want to pay top dollar for something new when used costs less?

Should a customer opt for something new, it is ordered and might or might not arrive the next day by bus. It would be crazy to spend money on parts that take up room and sit on a shelf gathering dust.

There are no paved parking spaces or beautifully landscaped grounds but you can always find a place to park. It might be dusty, but what do you expect?

I think like most mechanic, muffler and tire shops down here, there's more camaraderie happening than work, but everyone's happy and there doesn't apear to be a lot of stress in the work place.

There definitely aren't any expensive computers to frazzle the nerves and the doors are locked for a couple of hours each day to allow for siesta.

Joyce and Keith, I bet you are both REALLY happy to be back to work after your long, extended holiday!

Wolf Spiders

There are many signs that spring has arrived. The bugs, ants and spiders are starting to appear again. We see many wolves around our casa, but not the kind that travel in packs in the woods.

They are wolf spiders that got their name because like wolves, they chase their prey and run it down. They don’t spin a web but roam at night to hunt for food. They are about 4 inches across, hairy, and brown to gray in color with various markings or lines. They are very shy and immediately run away when disturbed.

Soon after mating, the female wolf spider produces a large white, paper like egg sac which remains attached to her body until the young spiderlings hatch. This sac can hold 400 or more eggs. After hatching they climb onto their mother's back and remain there until they are partially grown.

When we first moved in, I spotted a very large spider in my pantry. I called Bruce to my rescue and he swatted it. At the time, we didn’t know if this scary looking thing was a good spider or a bad spider and didn’t realize that it was carrying an egg sac. Within seconds of being hit, hundreds of babies were thrown everywhere. Mother escaped, but we were left with baby spiders everywhere. Oops!

Wolf spiders are harmless so don’t bother us anymore, but our guests kind of freak out when they come across one in their bedroom or bathroom.

"Black Magic"

Check this out! Yesterday morning I was tidying my palm garden, which is near the pool, and realized that my 14 foot high Heliconia plant had 4 blooms on it and more coming. This is the first year it has bloomed so this was exciting.

When I bought the plant 4 years ago, the nursery didn't know what the blooms would look like, but I liked the foliage so bought the plant anyway.

My tropical plant book says there are more than 250 named species in the Heliconiaceae family (Botanical name) and it is among the fastest-expanding groups of ormamental plants. Mine is called H.caribeae "Black Magic" because its huge bracts are a dark burgandy colour.

Cocadas & Tobacco Fields

Yesterday afternoon we drove up to Las Varas, an inland cowboy town about 20k from Guayabitos. We never see any other gringos when we're there because it is very hot, the streets are dusty and potholed, and it caters to Mexican farmers and their families.

Crops such as tobacco, coffee, grain, sugarcane, and many kinds of fruits and veggies are grown in the fields around Las Varas.

Occasionally we like to have lunch at one of their traditional Mexican restaurants. Today we sat with the locals and ate some of the best tacos we’ve eaten down here. We each had three tacos - 3 beef for Bruce and a beef, chicken and pork for me. They were served with 5 different salsas plus sliced radishes and finely chopped raw onion and parsley. We each had a Pepsi and the bill came to a whopping 55 pesos or $5.50.

Before heading home we drove a dirt road through the tobacco plantations.

Once back on the highway, I decided to count the number of cocada stands along the way. Cocada stands sell all kinds of Mexican candy (not like the packaged stuff you find in the Dulcerias).

The sweets they sell in these stands are more like homemade candy. Cocadas are made with burnt goat milk and brown sugar. My friend, Heather, loves the ones that are studded with chopped pecans.

They also sell tamarind balls sprayed with sugar, little treats shaped like bones and sprinkled with cinnamon, all different kinds of fruit pastes, and nut brittles that are jammed packed with peanuts, pecans, pine nuts, cashews or pumpkin seeds.

The cocada stands also sell rock salt, sweet potatoes, all kinds of fruits, and several varieties of squashes that can be made into candy. Every day the buses that transport the Mexican tourists leaving Guayabitos back to their homes in Guadalajara, Tepic or wherever, stop to let their customers stock up.

Remember I said the distance was only 20k. I counted 61 cocado stands between Las Varas and Guayabitos. They really do like their sweets.

Pinatas

Piñatas have been around forever in Mexico and have provided lots of fun and excitement for thousands of children at celebrations such as birthdays and Christmas. They come in all different shapes and sizes and are really just big containers for holding lots and lots of candy.

Piñatas are easy to assemble so each dulceria owner makes their own and sells them for a reasonable price. The smaller ones are about 35 pesos or $3.50 and the largest ones are about 70 pesos or $7.

Children are blindfolded and take turns hitting the pinata with a stick. The piñata is usually suspended overhead by a rope and is pulled up and down to make it harder to hit. After someone breaks the pinata open, the candies fall to the ground and the kids quickly scramble to get their fair share.

No matter how many treats are eaten or how many gifts are opened, I think the highlight of every childhood celebration is the piñata.