Another fabulous week whizzed by in lovely Ajijic. We spent many mornings racing up our steep hill to prepare for Peru. We are both extremely excited about our upcoming trip... it’s just 9 short days to go! I think we are ready for what Peru has to offer us. We were able to get one long hike to the hidden waterfalls. It wasn’t a long mileage hike but we spent a lot of time enjoying the thick, beautiful green forest and all it has to offer as far as wildflowers and critters go. After the very steep climb up, we caught our breath and just meandered through the woods. We saw hundreds of bugs!!! So many that I didn’t want to miss even one.
We took photos of many colorful wildflowers that stood out in the brilliant green background. Many of the flowers we saw were only the size of my pinky fingernail. We plan on doing this hike one more time before we leave for Peru. I was hoping to see a snake or lizard but we only saw tiny frogs.
Many cows shared the trail but were kind enough to move to the side so we could pass. I don’t want to mess with cows with horns. I chased butterflies and moths the entire time.
Our 3.2 mile hike took us 5 hours!! We had a blast even though the waterfalls were not as big and full as expected.
Chile and his family have been over just about every evening. He’s making amazing progress on the mural. It’s getting better and better all the time. I’m waiting for him to start the iguanas….that’s when I’m jumping in to help! I have a large lake with trees in the distance plus a few trees that are up close. The trees are going to get some of the birds that Larry and I have since over the past year here in Mexico. I’m super excited about my birds but even more excited about the other creatures that are coming.
Larry and I got to warm up our arms for painting this week. Sheron the set designer let us know she would be starting on the next play at the Lakeside Little Theater. She needed us to paint the flats and some window trim. We headed over one afternoon to work with Sheron and Joy. Joy is new to the area and moved from Clearlake California…...so close to where I’m from. Small world. She’s an artist and music enthusiast. She sponsored a big blues concert in Clearlake. Sheron helped us get started with paint...it was pretty basic. We ended up working for 6 hours….with a small snack break. It was fun and the gals were very interesting.
Sheron invited us back the next day to do some real painting…paint a rock wall. That sounded great but also very intimidating. Larry wasn’t even sure he wanted to try. I figured Sheron wasn’t going to let us screw things up. I trusted the fact that she would guide us step by step. Well…..she got us started with chalking out the wall and then mixed 3 colors of paint. She told us just to go for it! Oh My!! Believe it or not we did quite well. Larry got super into it and was by far the most creative one. He studied the rock wall outside on one of his breaks. We would step back from time to time...to check our work. I was having fun and pleased that it actually looked like a rock wall. We painted for 4 hours and when we were done, we were both extremely proud of ourselves. It turned out even better than we thought it would. Thanks Sheron for teaching us something new! We went out to dinner at Scallions afterwards Her son Loic was able to join us after his Spanish lesson.
On one of our mini explorations through random neighborhoods, we discovered something amazing! It was an interesting hotel at the end of calle San Jorge called Mar Chapalico. We noticed a large round window similar to our portal on our second floor. Next our eyes were drawn to the unmistakable metallic green painted on the iron work. This looked a lot like our house. Our real estate gal, Priscilla said the man that built our house also had another place close by. I was sure this was it. We went into the tiny lobby….or whatever. There was a young woman and man that were painting. They spoke fairly good English and said we could look around if we wanted. We explained that we had a house that looked just like this place. They said the owner/artist/architect Hugo had built a home on calle San Francisco. That was so cool!!! We asked if he was there and if we could talk with him. We have a few questions about the house. What his thoughts were with no straight (90 degree) angles. I was hoping he might explain his vision behind the house. Our house is weird and that’s why we like it! We thought it would be fun to have a conversion with the builder.
We toured the whole hotel first, which was huge! The hotel wasn’t too big but the property was very large and open. It looked like they had 5 or 6 rooms but outside they had 2 big treehouses! We went inside the finished one and it was spectacular. Lots of room, 2 stories and a balcony on top. It looked like it could sleep 6 or more. The property is right on the lake too. The open area had lots of tall trees and beautiful flowers. They had a pool, an outside bar and a huge restaurant.
It was a Wednesday and no one was staying there. I believe it’s mainly for weekends and large events. We are outside of the tourist season as well. There aren’t many folks here from the States or Canada yet….. things will be different starting mid October and November. It's prime season here. When we found Hugo, he was in his outdoor shop….lots of wood, metal and welders. He was talking to his worker and told us he was busy but could talk a little bit. It was super brief but we told him we bought the house on San Francisco and he said he built it after the hotel. Interesting…..but then he got busy and said goodbye. We didn’t have a chance to ask questions and I’m not sure what to think about him. Oh well…….our first unfriendly encounter that we have had here in Mexico. We will have to revisit him and the hotel at another time.
We have been living in Ajijic for 12 weeks now and we do get around as you can see. I have been sharing my tellrhondayourstory.com blog posts to a handful of facebook groups in the area….maybe someone will be interested, who knows? One afternoon on our daily hike up the steep hill, a car stopped in the middle of the road. We looked over to see a woman rolling her window down and said, ”I know you!” Well, we didn’t know her. Ha Ha. She said she recognized us from the blog. She had been reading some of our stories. Her name was Beth and seemed very friendly. I told her that we walked up here a lot and maybe we’d see her again. She told us where she lived and said if we came by she could get an autograph!!! That was way too funny! Let’s see if Beth reads this one….Now she’s Famous too!
While we were walking down the bike path on the carretera that same day, a lady walking stopped us. She recognized us too. I think they really notice Larry! She was even more friendly. Cindy and her husband have lived here for quite some time after retiring from teaching. She told us a few short stories about the places where they taught, including Japan. She also told us about the traveling they did during all the school holidays. It was awesome to hear about their interesting adventures. She said that they haven’t been able to travel for the past year and a half but hope to take trips again soon.
As much as i’m enjoying melting into this community and making friends, my feet are getting itchy to travel again. I’m counting the days down until we fly to Lima. We are finishing up our projects on the house…..mostly running out of money to spend on stuff. I’m pretty sure it will be a very good space for Wayne and Elaine from Cleveland Ohio come November through May. We are happy to share a magical weird little paradise with them. We are starting to make our winter travel plans and I cannot wait to be back in Lucy Love. I miss the cozy warmth of our Airstream and the simple pleasures of life on the road.