Many Mexican people enjoy Semana Santa, the week from Palm Sunday through Easter Sunday, for it may be their only vacation of the year and what a vacation it is! A week of basking in the sun on the beach, little children making sand castles all day long, watching the beautiful ocean waves, going kayaking, floating in your inner tube, eating the great beach vendor food, parents being able to rest and relax for hours under their beach umbrella while their kiddies have a ball digging with their shovels and burying each other in the sand. And eating all that food, cooking freshly caught fish and shrimp, drinking all that beer, enjoying the many bands that roam around the beach and streets blaring out Mexican favorites.Then there is the joy of reuniting with your extended family at a "Bungalow" here in Guayabitos where you get your week's worth of fun with the family, for example: Set up a speaker and blast your favorite music out into the whole neighborhood from 7 a.m. til late at night, and then have your own karoake in the yard to share with the whole neighborhood, even if most everyone sings off key.
Are you getting a clue here as to why this blog is called Tortures? Because the gringo who lives at the beach resort, gets to just watch, observe, and listen to all the fun everyone else is having. Listen nearly 24 hours a day from sunrise when the cars and buses roll into my street, park and the folks disembark laughing and talking loud
ly with excitement of finally arriving to their vacation spot after a long overnight ride from Mexico City, Guadalajara, and further cities. Young people blast their radios with their youthful music at 7 a.m. right on the street outside my bedroom window. All day long the music blares loudly, and into the night, and then the bands start up a block or two away, and I mean big bands with lots of drums and brass. Last night they were still making music at 3 a.m.! At least I like that kind of Mexican music (it is called Banda) and I was able to fall asleep to it without even putting in ear plugs. But 4 hours later I was awakened by new arrivals of tour buses and cars on my street .
The young men enjoy playing futbol (soccer) on the beach and if you can not afford lodging then you just pitch a tent on the beach and set up a cooking camp. Showers? Well if you are lucky maybe someone in a house will lend you a water hose to clean up after a few days of salt, sweat and sand accumulation. Need to go to the bathroom? Hmmm.....I didn't notice any port-a-potties anywhere.But all is not lost for the gringo overwhelmed by the exuberance and fun lov
ing Mexican on holiday. We took a beachwalk to observe all the families frolicking at the oceanside, and took a few photos to capture the moment to share with you all. Stopping at Tequila Willie's where our Mexican friend works, we decided to stop and feel the cool breezes on this most perfect April afternoon. The sky was lovely with big puffy white clouds hanging over the mountains, the sun casting its golden glow on the waves and colorful buildings and happy people. Our friend's children, on vacation from school, were out selling wares on the beach. The 13 year old girl was braiding women and girls' hair and the 10 year old boy walking the beach trying to earn money to save for a bicycle by selling tatoos. He had made 200 pesos so f
ar today,and with yesterday's earnings thus far accumulated 500 pesos. With 5 days remaining of the most heavily touristed week of the entire year, he just might reach his goal of 1600 pesos. We helped him out by purchasing tatoos for our ankles, this being the first tatoo in my life. Emily got the pretty butterfly and I settled on John Lennon, appropriate for someone my age I think, considering the choice was not great for one woman in her 50's approaching 60 shortly.Emily came to visit Juana and her children today before Emily leaves for the States soon. I think Juana has seen an improvement in both of our Spanish speaking abilities since October, and Juana is speaking better English. We help each other and that is a joy, to share in the great feeling of learning something new and expanding our horizons. Being able to communicate with our Spanish speaking friends is of utmost importance, and is also done out of respect for the people and their country.
After some consideration of the differences between the Mexican culture and the United States, particularly noting the tolerance for noise that I have observed, I guess I am going to have to get used to it. In the States, there are so many rules and regulations regarding people's behaviors, like noise ordinances. I haven't noticed any restrictions on noise here. People pretty much make as much noise as they like, wherever and whenever. Private parties can be quite noisy and go on til the wee hours of the morning with bands playing. And because the weather is nice year round here, people are outdoors a large part of the day and spend more time socializing outdoors and in their yards. So there are good points and bad points about it all to me. For the Mexicans, it is their way of life, and I will just have to adjust and get used to it, and maybe grow to like it.
To end the blog today I must share with you my kitties Sheila and Sharma
ine who are beautiful felines I am enjoying more than I ever realized I could. Two kitties are much better than one, and I feel sorry for the lone cat who must entertain herself and rely on her master for companionship and entertainment, and sadly stay home alone when the masters are gone and at work. My two kittens have each other to play with, sleep with (they usually nap together) and groom each other. I think this is a very healthy situation for the kittens, especially considering they are orphan kittens, without their mother since at least 4 weeks of age.
