Cenas de Navidad

Saturday, 24 Dec.  Chilly cloudy morn.  Dan was hoping to go to Orizaba for the second time.  By the time breakfast was finished, the sun was out and the weather looked perfect for the journey.  We walked a block and a half to catch the bus.  Should perhaps have waited for the next bus, as this one had hard no-cushion seats.  Carmen decided on this trip that when we have visitors, we will take them on this trip.  It will surely give them a thrill.  The fast ride around the curves of this hilly ride down across the green Metlac canyon and up the other side are quite exciting, as we said before.  As we passed thru Cuautlapan, we saw off to the south a factory with tall smoke stacks.  Some puffing dark grey and some white smoke.  Turned out to be the El Carmen sugar refinery (ingenio azucarero), the destination for all the trucks we have been seeing, loaded with the harvest from the cane fields.  Weird for Carmen to be around all these places with her name.

As we got into Orizaba, we debated getting off the bus earlier than last time, and taking a different bus into the town center.  Nope, we decided to continue on the same route which again dropped us off at it's journeys end in the middle of the city, about ten blocks from downtown, across from the huge stadium.  This time we walked along a different selection of streets, to learn more about the city.  Once we hit the central downtown area, the streets were mobbed with pedestrians and vehicles.  Not a fun town to drive in, as the streets are narrow.  But for a pedestrian the very clean streets are great, with smooth sidewalks and helpful whistle-toting traffic controlmen to smooth the flow and allow walkers to cross safely.  We saw many city signs saying the pedestrians came first.  We walked thru the central market which took a whole city block.  Then across it to the Palacio de Hierro (Palace of Steel), the former city hall which was assembled here from 600 tons of Belgian steel.  There were musician groups playing beautiful marimba music with percussion & trumpet.  We sat in the park at the palace and enjoyed the music, people and beauty of this place.

Orizaba's downtown is truly beautiful.  The palace, sheathed and partitioned with distinctive steel plates, houses the tourist office, a restaurant and a number of free museums.  First we visited the museum of Mexican presidents, containing flags, photos & history of each leader since the first.  Dan snapped images of the display of the president who had held his daughter, Harmony, when she was 10 days old, at Los Pinos, the presidential residence at Chapultepec in Mexico City. (Just think, she could have had dual Mexican-US citizenship, had things played out just a little differently.  But that's another story.) Then an interactive science museum, a beer museum, and a geology museum. There is also a football museum, this last which we didn't enter.

We got maps of the area and the riverwalk, which is something the city is very proud of.  We found the nearest stairway down to the walk, which follows the course of the Rio Orizaba (the city name derives from the nahuatl word Ahuizapan -- place of happiness).  Along this walk are various clustered areas of cages, a zoo of local wildlife species.   This riverwalk also seems to be a lovers lane, as we passed several couples discreetly embracing under the trees. There is a waterfall and seemingly ancient buildings towering above the edge of the watercourse.  Most picturesque.  We crossed the river on a swaying bridge, Carmen first, vocally castigating Dan behind her, thinking he was not walking gently behind her, as the bridge swayed a bit more than she liked.  Turned out to be a fellow behind him.

What a sight to see. In a street corner shop open onto the street, was a large bar with hundreds of bottles of liquor lined up high, and mixed drinks being whipped up to order.  No tables. Women generally don't go into most cantinas here, however nothing stopped them from lining up along with the dozens of men at this open hard liquor bar.  Now just why would so many people need a drink during a gorgeous day.

From here we hoped to find an Arabian restaurant that we saw last time we were in town.  Even knowing how we seem to misplace buildings, we had good faith in our directional ability today.  So we walked thru Parque Castillo at city center then east along Avenida Colón.  And we got lucky and there was Restaurante Biblos.  It was having a buffet this day.  And what a buffet we had!  Every single item was just plain fantastic to our taste buds!  We were the first to dine this afternoon, and while eating, several parties came in, walked past our table and very enthusiastically wished us Buen Provecho!  Needless to say, we left the restaurant very satisfied, terribly overstuffed, and all we had was one of each thing.  We definitely will be returning.  The family was from Lebanon, and the special Christmas Eve day buffet was a great introduction to all sorts of good things from their ethnic cooking traditions.

Now we had to find a bus back home.  We decided to walk back to the street where we got off the bus.  Was a good decision.  After getting on the bus, we found where it then went to, so that we can get onto it closer to downtown next time.  This bus - perhaps some of the gears went out on it while going up the last hill near Fortín.  It chugged and sputtered it's way up the hill.  We smartly got out where we thought the bus turned from the direction of our motel, only to discover that the bus then turned towards our motel.  We could have walked fewer blocks.  But in all, what a marvelous day this turned out to be.

Sunday, 25 Dec.  Cooler this day.  Plus much dense fog.  We laid in bed late, and watched a movie on TV, passing up a dubbed version of George C Scott playing Ebeneezer Scrooge.  Finally, after a leisurely brunch, we walked up to the park.  Stood in front of the church with some of the overflow crowd long enough for a Christmas blessing.  The fog gave a certain beauty to all.  We were very damp when we returned, as the fog was actually chipichipi, a light sprinkley type rain common to cloud forest areas such as this.  Coming in after the walk, our faces were moist and hair wet on top, with the whole effect like having come inside after having walked through a light snow storm, except we were not chilled, as the temperature was in the lower 60's.  How good it felt!

Our chuckle of the day turned out to be our main meal.  We decided not to go out and cope with the wet weather some more, just to get to the restaurant for the Sunday paella, since we were still being overly satisfied with yesterdays buffet dinner.  So what did we dine on?  In contrast to our grand meal the day before, we dined on left over thick homemade soup made with our lamb bones, rice and cabbage, along with a bolillo. For dessert, one of those Noir extra dark chocolates, from Italy (silky smooth fondant with bits of carmelized cacao nibs)--well worth waiting for.  Such a Xmas meal we have never dined on.  Next came a long Spanish lesson for the both of us.  Carmen's pronunciation kept Dan on his toes, but she is doing great at discerning the meaning of lots of vocabulary..  Now a bit of leisure reading-----------

FELÍZ NAVIDAD

Felíz Navidad y Próspero Año Nuevo

Christmas in Fortín de las Flores, Veracruz, México

Here we are near the end of another good year. Lots of changes are in the works, as we move into "retirement" mode, whatever that is. Carmen no longer works at Cap Sante Court, except perhaps for some fill-in work during times we're up in Anacortes. Dan is moving his accounting and tax work into lower gear, doing his client support by email and remote computer connection. We've settled in a beautiful, green area of Mexico, with just enough clouds and rain so we don't miss the Skagit Valley too much. The house here in Fortín is move-in ready, but will take some time to furnish. It will probably keep us busy for a few more years with planned additions and minor renovations. The green spaces in the yard seem just big enough to grow all the flowers we might want. And, the local markets are always filled with the freshest fruits & vegetables, so our food gardening will be minimal. We are thankful for our health, and we hope to establish a pattern of reciprocal cross-border visits to keep connected with dear friends and family. We look forward with anticipation to the excitement of living in a new land, and hope that the challenges ahead will keep us young in mind and heart.

Despite the variety of good things down here, there are some things we miss. In this season,we sit here longing for some fruitcake. Seems that it is not available here in Mexico. Hope to find some left over in Anacortes area when we get back there. Best wishes to all, from Carmen & Dan

Naranjas y piñas

Sunday, 18 Dec.  We did indeed go to the park this slightly chilly evening.  We decided to look at the menu  at the newly remodeled El Kiosko restaurant in the middle of the park, order something warm to drink, and avail ourselves of an outside table where we could continue our people-watching.  Carmen wanted hot chocolate, but it was not on the menu, nor was hot atole.  Is this really Mexico?  Dan ordered a cappuccino with rompope (eggnog). We expected it to be hot.  It was but warm.  The prices here are very high, so we will likely not eat here often, though it is a lovely place.  We walked the park for awhile and sat in one of our favorite benches.  Yes, we do have preferred spots to sit in.  Enjoyed watching the families stroll around, kids playing with light up balls, and an occasional family dog pressed into service, pulling a child past on a skate board, and all the many things that happen in the park on family night.

Was getting dark and colder, but there was an announcement made that a pastorela (nativity play) would begin on a little stage at 8pm sharp, so we waited.  After two more announcements, the play started a half hour later.  With anticipation we tried to understand the story, seemingly placing the nativity story in rural Mexico.  Stage lighting was almost nonexistent and not aimed where the characters stood.  Mics were almost unusable, as the performers moved around in and out of range -- presumably only those in the first two rows of seats could have heard the dialog.  Yes, the acting was spirited, but wasn't enough to hold us there, standing in the back in the chilly night air.   Our high hopes for an engaging time, such as we experienced years ago in Zacatecas one Christmas, were dashed, and after ten minutes, we left. We did enjoy the evening outing however.  But, so very glad to get back inside.

Monday, 19 Dec.  Took bus to the Walmart area, halfway into Córdoba.  We hope that the seasonal shopping opportunities will make for a greater selection of things we might buy for gifts to take back home with us.  There is a large tent outside Walmart for Xmas toys only, disappointing filled with virtually the same things as ToyRUs would have in the US.  Only a fraction of the stock is even labeled bilingually.  We are not in a "tourist" area, so no matter where we shop we find little of "artesanal" or "cultural" interest, other than some fragile or heavy pottery items that we have no way of getting back NoB easily.  Once we accepted the idea that "cosas tipicas" are not necessarily what the gringo mentality pictures as coming from Old Mexico, but really are what is typical of modern times, shopping became easier.  We also bought ourselves a blowup mattress, so we can camp out in the new house on our next trip down here.  We had planned to go from there to a hardware a few blocks further east, but our arms were too full.  So we bussed home, stopped by the Banamex for more money, unloaded, and ate a wee bit.

Then walked back to the bus stop near the north end of the park in Fortín, and head back into Córdoba.  We actually got off the bus at Walmart stop again, since we wanted to walk a bit east and check out a restaurant we had both once seen and then misplaced.  Found the restaurant.  If weather is good, we might go there for paella Xmas day, a Sundays only menu choice.  On we walked to the Metalurve hardware store.  Here we purchased lengths of chain and padlocks for our new house that we don't yet own. We will not have time to change the locks after purchase, before we leave here for the US, so we'll just chain up the gates.  Both front and back yard are fenced with ornamental vertical bars, and both doors also are gated. Also bought some heavy rope to give safety when climbing around on house roof.   Dan made queries about rain flashing and pipe insulation, but again, no one seems to know anything about such things here.  Loaded down, but the bus stop was only a block from the hardware store.  Another exhausting day.  But fun was had!

Tuesday, 20 Dec.  Dan wanted to visit Frank at the new house first thing in the morning.  Quick breakfast and off we went the 12 blocks.  Got there shortly before he had to leave to get building permits. Two rooms are now enclosed with ceiling slabs, and the guys are working with the form boards creating the flight of stairs to the upper floor. On the way there we had passed a man on a street-corner with really ripe luscious looking pineapples.  Thought we would buy one on the way back. However, in passing, we remembered that we needed to go grocery shopping and could not take the pineapples into the store with us.  Did our grocery shopping.  We do enjoy this time.  Soooooooo many new delightful foods to try.  Dan shouldered the 20 pound bottle of water and Carmen carried the two heavy bags.  We rather outdid ourselves.  Not that we needed everything today.  We did however want to buy some things to take home to the US before the stock was depleted.  Once items run out, they often are not replaced right away.  Of course, the airport security may take these small jars of macha (chopped peppers & peanuts in oil) away from us.  After we got home, we started thinking about the pineapples we had seen.  Ones in store were greenish yet, and a higher price.  Yep, we put on another 12 blocks round trip, but we purchased two pineapples.  Cost $1.50 US each.  Oh how sweet-------  Called the notario and he said to call back the next day.

We ended the day all settled on the bed watching tv, when out in the kitchen there arose such a clatter, we hopped off the bed to see what was the matter.  It was David Arnold calling us on skype.  We had an enjoyable chat.

Wednesday, 21 Dec.  Carmen woke with the song "Oh what a Beautiful Morning" dancing thru her head.  Shortly thereafter her brother, Guy, skyped.  This indeed did make a beautiful day.  Dan called the  notario and he said that there will be no news til the state offices reopen Jan 2.  Bummer.  He hopes to get it pushed thru fast at that time. We'll see.  Spending lots of time reading today and eating fresh pineapple today. While sitting outside our front door in the sun reading, a large black bird with a long tail landed on the parking area aways off.  It had many delightful sounds.  Carmen started mimicking it, and darned if it didn't hop our way.  Also a butterfly landed on Carmen's chest and then shoulder for awhile.  Though the air looks good today, there must be sugarcane being burned because when we came inside, we discovered that our reader and laptop were spotted with some specks of ash.

Thursday, Dec 22  Pretty quiet day here.  We spent a few hours sitting and reading in the sun earlier.  Dan has been under the weather the past couple days.  He is standing in the sun in the doorway right now, mostly recuperated, and eating a polveron (orange sandy cookie).   A couple days ago we got into a discussion about why all the oranges here are green.  Dan spent some time on the internet trying to prove to Carmen that good oranges can be green, not necessarily how we find them in a NoB market.  Turns out the USDA standards require that fresh oranges marketed in the states be mostly or all orange, and several tricks (ethylene gas, cold storage, dyes) are used to turn the fruit that color.  Here where the fruit comes right from the tree and nights don't get very cold, the oranges...aren't.  Okay, so Carmen bought two green oranges for $.18 lb US, and guess what - Dan and computer are right!  They are sweet and really flavorful!

Walking back from the grocery store, Volcan Citaltépetl (Star Mountain. Pico de Orizaba) overlooking Fortín

Seems that we talk mostly about food, new house, and walking or bussing around - yep, that, so far, is our greatly enjoyed retirement life.  Along with the flowers and butterflies and the vistas of green hills as far as we can see.

De un lado al otro

We have spent this week going de un lado al otro (back and forth) into Córdoba to see the notario, and inching along our house purchase.

Tuesday, 13 Dec.  Unscheduled, we decided to go to the notario's office to see what was happening with our house purchase, now that the paperwork had been in Xalapa since Thursday of last week, and over the long weekend.  Shortly after he arrived at 10:30am and was updated by his staff, we met with him.  It was clear that Sr. Limón Krause was in a very upset frame of mind.  He told us that we were not going to get the sale finished by the end of the year because the papers he had sent to the SRE (Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores) office in the state capital (where they needed to approve that we foreigners could purchase property in Mexico) had been rejected, and holiday office closures in Xalapa started at the end of the week.

The laws have changed this past year, and part of the changes have to do with how parcels of land to be acquired by foreigners are identified, using UTM coordinates (not degrees, minutes, seconds).  He had just called Fortín, and the folks at city hall there professed to know nothing about this coordinate system.  He also explained that the form he had sent them, which included both of us as 50:50 buyers was rejected, because only one person's name can be on such form.  We now have to send in two new forms, one for each of us, along with another MXP$5100.  He simply did not know how to best continue and said it would take some study to see how to progress from here.  He has been in this business many years as his grey hair shows, and he has never had this problem come up before.  Since the laws have changed, all the government offices at each level are afraid to make a wrong decision, so refuse to sign off on transactions.  He told us to come back Wednesday and he would have worked something out.

In the new house, Dan would like to insert an angled metal flashing between the roof slab (losa) and the wood boards (tablas) that are the underside exposed surface of the eaves (and interior ceilings), which are supported by large beams (vigas).  Rain coming off the roof tiles drips down over the edge of slab and back onto the wood--left untreated, the boards will eventually rot at the roof edge perimeter of the house.  While the wood is merely decorative, as the slab is self-supporting, we would like to preserve the appearance of things, and inserting and caulking into place a drip edge will make everything shipshape.  We decided this would be a good day to find a source of metal flashing, which, after a lot of wandering Córdoba streets, we learned apparently does not exist down here.

This city has sections of the town with different items for sale.  Like all the shoe stores were together, also the steel warehouses, hardware stores, what passes for lumberyards (all roughcut wood), etc are all grouped together.  Many blocks for each type store.  No luck finding any preformed flashings of any type, though we did find a source of galvanized steel sheet stock (lámina), which would necessitate a lot of work with tinsnips and bending, not a pleasant task to anticipate.  Anyhow, we sure are getting to know our way around some areas of Córdoba.  On the way home, we stopped by Walmart for Dan to check out the paint department for wood treatment.  A poor selection, although there were lots of colored paints, there were only a few cans of tinted varnish (barniz) for bare wood.  Carmen bought some boxes of giftwrapped chocolates to give our housekeepers and caretaker here at the hotel for Xmas.  By the time we got back to Fortín we were again exhausted.  In passing, we purchased a rotisserie chicken for supper which comes with roasted potatoes, rice and sauce.  Yum.

Upon returning home and after the quick meal, we had time for a wee nap, interrupted by a knock on the door.  It was Carlos, with a letter from Harmony, Dan's youngest daughter, in hand.  It had apparently arrived at the Fortín post office (correos) on Friday, but took until today to make it to the hotel due to the holiday weekend.  School pictures of her children, Dan's grandchildren Eliana and Braden.  We now have them displayed on our wall.  Our very first mail in Mexico!

Ania stopped by as it was getting dark to pick us up and take us to their home for a visit and refreshments.  We met her mother, who is visiting from Poland.  What a pleasant lady, and nice evening of conversation.  Ania plucked some fresh herbs (mint, lemongrass) from the garden and we had herb tea and homemade cake.  Frank drove us back home.  Their B&B is where we stayed a year ago, but it is easily an hour-long walk along some busy roads from downtown Fortín.  Also, not likely something we would likely do in the dark.  No direct bus routes between there and Fortín.  We are always thankful for the occasional driving around with Ania and Frank, and especially for this opportunity to meet Vanda.

Wednesday, 14 Dec.  Back we go to see Sr. Limón at 11am, He was in the process of leaving, and immediately told us to come back in an hour because he was on his way to Fortin to try to get some things taken care of for us. Not knowing what do do with ourselves in the middle of the shoe store district, we headed up the street towards the central park.  On the way we passed what is like one of our dollar stores.  Quite a sizable one.  The prices ranged mostly between 13-15 pesos (14 being near a dollar US).  We spent the whole hour here at Waldos.  Our big purchases were a bag of granola, mouthwash, and a set of three flexible spatulas.  We had searched all over for rubber spatulas in every store we visited, with no luck until now.

Upon return to the notario's, he now informed us that we now need, for the packet going to Xalapa, photographs of two sides of the property, with four copies required of each set of pictures.   Okay, we brought a compact Canon printer with us and we have pictures on the camera back in Fortín.  We bus back to Fortín and get back to the motel.  Dan takes time to use google earth, locate the property and determine it's coordinates, and then convert them to UTM (Universal Transverse Mercator) numbers on a sketchmap of the property, just in case Fortín needs help with the process.  Dan gets the printer set up, we choose the two pictures, and print off one set and in the middle of the second picture on the page the colored ink runs out.  No problem, Dan had also brought down some new cartridges of ink.  Puts them in and yes you guessed it - they do not work.  At this point Carmen is having a not so good day, so she naps while Dan went out by himself to find more ink.  He went all over Fortin and then into Cordoba (Walmart, Office Depot).  No cartridges to fit.  Finally he came back to a small place in Fortin where the owner refilled the cartridge for him.  Printed off the rest of the needed pictures, had a bite to eat, and bused back to Cordoba, all by 5pm.

We now learned Sr Limón had located an environmental engineer to go to the property and do a GPS survey of the property because city staff in Fortin refuses to help with the forms and siting of the property.  When we got back home, Dan first calls Manolo to tell him what's up, then sends detailed emails to him and also the engineer that Limón gave us the name of, requesting that the survey be done as soon as possible.  We fell into bed exhausted again.  And we thought buying a house would be fast and easy, as long as we had the cash!  The bus ride home at the end of the today was bad, in that every couple minutes the alarm went off for someone to disembark, though no one was ringing the buzzer.  Poor bus driver must of been out of his mind by the end of the day.  Today we have first noticed a few people are getting colds.  We are still healthy.

Thursday, 15 Dec.  Got confirmation from realtor Manolo that the meetup with the engineer was set, so we stayed at the hotel, enjoying just doing some reading while sitting outside in the sun.  Then walked down to the house for the 3pm survey.  While we were waiting, we took some more pictures of the house, especially details of areas where we want to upkeep.  The engineer really liked "our" house and promised to have the report at the notario's office at 10:30 the next morn.  Our walk home was interesting in that we saw many trucks loaded with sugar cane headed for, possibly, a distillery near Orizaba.  We have detected a very little airborne ash that drifts in when the windows are open.  This a forerunner of the major ashfall season in May when the majority of fields are burned off..

Friday, 16 Dec.  Again we were at the notario's by 11am.  Our bus was 15 minutes early so we went to a big office supply store shopping for ink.  No luck.  We were told to return to Limóns office at 5pm, when he would have our new SRE forms and an accompanying escritura ready for signatures. We took the opportunity to run around following leads on getting some ink cartidges (cartuchos) for the printer.   We have finally realized that we'll have to special order these cartridges as no one stocks them in the city.  This will not be cheap, and generic cartuchos are out of the question. Maybe it's best we buy in the US and bring them down, along with bulk ink to refill them here.  Sounds like it will be one of those things we'll hope we can coax visitors to bring down with them.

Went home and napped, then did return at 5pm and this time were there for a couple hours.  New forms were typed up.  Dan found an error in the description of the property site, so they had to be redone.  The state's public offices are supposedly closed from 16 Dec until 02 Jan.  However, the notario said that he was sending the signed papers to Xalapa on Monday anyway in case there was someone in the office who could process things.  Also he has relatives there in Xalapa, also notarios, who could have the papers there first thing when the office reopens in January.  However, since it may happen that no one wants to take a chance on doing something wrong, the forms may all be sent to the office in Mexico City.  Hopefully we will have some idea of what is happening early this next week.  Still hoping to have this house purchased before our plane reservation on 11 Jan, so that we do not have to extend our time here.

Since the bus passes Walmart going to and from Córdoba, we stopped and did some grocery shopping.  Lamb, ground pork, ground beef, and a pork sausage (longaniza) made with anatto, a deep red Mexican spice with no hot to it.  Keeping in mind that we must use oil to cook all these meats, as they are all very lean.  Well, we also spent extra monies on ourselves just because Christmas is coming.  Cheeses (blue, one with pecans and an emmental), wholewheat (trigo integral) crackers, dates to nibble on and a box that still sits up on a shelf of extra dark chocolate with caramelized cocoa nibs which will get opened Xmas day.  On the way to the bus when walking thru the park in Fortín, we saw the cutest tiny month old curly haired white puppy.  Stopped Carmen in her tracks.  The two boys with it were so proud of their one month old puppy.  Good thing we are not living here full time, or we might be succumbing to finding a replacement for our dear Pepe.

Saturday, 17 Dec  Today is rainy and cool, the first gray day for awhile.  The poinsettia trees or bushes are droopy today.  So are we. We are thankful for occasional weather that makes us want to stay inside and relax.  As a special treat, Carmen spent time cutting, pitting and filling dates with blue cheese for Dan.  Surprise, Dan does not prefer them together.  He enjoys the sweet of the dates and the sharp of the cheese as separate sensations.  So she took the blue cheese back out and put it on crackers.  Oh well, she had something to fill her time.  Amazing how much TIME there is some days.  On the other hand, other days we are so busy, one wonders how there was ever time to work at our jobs.  (It is so good to find a sharp cheese here, thank goodness we both like blue cheese.  Finding any other hard sharp cheese, like a cheddar, has been a failure so far.)

Sunday, 18 Dec  Clearing off now.  Hope it gets pleasant out by this eve when we like to go to the park to meander with the other Fortín folks.  Dan got out that cute sort of cartoon book that explains all about house construction.. He is busy looking up terms from it in a dictionary.

Sorpresa sacerdotal

Last night another earthquake, about 7:15pm.  Felt the wall shake.  We went immediately to the USGS website and saw that it took about ten minutes for an official notice to appear there.  We posted our "I Felt This..." report on the site a few minutes later.  It's epicenter was down towards Acapulco, in the state of Guerrero.

Saturday, 10 Dec. Dan got an appointment with the dentist in Cordoba that Frank and Ania go to.  He said it was the best cleaning he had ever had, and it cost about USD$30.  The dentist gave him a colorful tooth shaped box of chocolate candy for a Christmas gift.  Not much happening here for us, what with the waiting for banks and notario to get all finished up for us.  There have been hundreds of loud fire crackers going off sporadically this past week.  Also a couple of parades each day.  Probably all for the Lady of Guadalupe who is celebrated on Monday.

Sunday, 11 Dec.  In the evening we went to the park to enjoy that Sunday special time of families strolling and playing there.  The Christmas tree there was lighted up, as well as wreaths of decorations on the city building behind it.  We had expected few outdoor decorations here.  But it seems that was wrong--guess the few Xmas lights we normally put up wouldn't be out of place here.   Some homes and stores are highly decorated.  Dan will be putting in pictures of one of the tiny front yards a block or so from the park, which had the biggest home display we saw.  It had various types of manger scenes and a multilevel landscape in model scale.

Monday, 12 Dec.  Everbank notified us that our bank wire will be coming thru on Thursday, and we walked up to Santander bank to advise Maria, but found it closed for the religious day.  Since the bank faces Parque Central park, as does the parish church, we heard and saw that much was happening there today.  Figured there were over 2000  people standing out in front of the church, spreading back into the southern half of the park.  There was a platform or stage erected just to the east of the central door, set up as an outdoor church chancel.  All the stage draped in white, and clergy in white robes and a huge display of flowers. In the crowds watching the service, many of the littlest girls were dressed up in colorful  peasant dresses and scarves, and the little boys had white peasant clothes, along with straw hats and perhaps a mustache and goatee drawn on with charcoal.  We were not able to get near the church so were standing up in the park, rather near the back section of people. We are not Catholic, but we could easily understand what was happening.  It was a beautiful service, with joyful and upbeat music that was from no church we had never been in.  One song seemed to have come straight from Israel, but with Spanish words instead of Hebrew.

Part of the way through the service, one of the younger priests left the stage and quickly was weaving his was back towards where we were standing.  To our absolute surprise, he came directly up to us!  He was trying to get us to come up front and stand in the shade right below the stage.  He said the sacerdote (parish priest) had sent him back with the invitation--he must have spotted our norteamericano faces out of all that crowd!  My but we were embarrassed, and we politely declined the invitation.  Bet everyone in town knows us now.  We dropped some pesos in the collection baskets being handed around.  We left just as the service ended, after a communion sacrament and while the father was sprinkling holy water out onto the crowd nearest the church.  Just before this, everyone shook hands with all around them.  Figured we best scoot out of there before one of acolytes located us again.  By the way, the rebuilt kiosk in the middle of the south block of the park seems just about ready to be reopened.  It's been obscured by tarps and a swarm of albañiles (masons) working on it every since we got here.

Alonso, one of the realtors who has toured us about, just stopped by to see if we had decided on a house yet.  Dan briefly explained the hassles we had been having with straightening out some of the parcel description errors in the earlier escrituras for the blue house, and he advised us to walk away.  And, of course, buy the white house he had shown us.

Seems we have lived thru the cold snap we have just had here--it's been taking two days to line dry our hand-washed laundry.  Dan saw on tonight's news that Tlaxcala dropped to -1ºC last night, and that residents of central Mexico were suffering due to the unnatural cold spell.  Today, however, daytime temps are now back into the low to mid 70s and forecasted for three or four days that way.

Terremoto!

Yep - an earthquake last night (Tuesday) about 11:15pm our bed rumbled for a few seconds. Enough to wake us. The epicenter was in the isthmus about 400km away to the southeast of us, and at 5.0 magnitude. Do not know how deep. We also heard some tap-tapping from the something rocking back and forth on top of the little table at the foot of the bed, but found nothing else that had moved.

Several parades lately. Marchers with instruments and banners and one with a dog weaving in and out. All in support of those traveling to be at the Basilica de Guadalupe in Mexico City by December 12 for the anniversary of the miracle of the Virgin at that location in 1531. This site is the most visited Catholic pilgrimage site in the world, with millions coming here each year. Our Lady of Guadalupe is considered to be the patroness of Mexico and all the continental Americas. Local parades send off the pilgrims, often walking from a great distance, with many approaching over the last few kilometers on their knees. Used to be these pilgrimages were always on foot, but in recent years vehicles of sorts can carry the faithful the major part of the trip.

Carmen's having a hard time getting our occasional hamburgers small enough, as without the fat in the mix they just don't shrink down. We enjoy them on a split wholewheat bolillo roll, with sliced fresh tomato, sauteed onions and peppers, sometimes with fresh avocado to top things off.

Friday, 02 Dec. We visited the notario today to ask what the holdup was. He said he had not yet gotten a response from Fortín, so we said we would visit city hall and inquire. We then walked back in the direction of Fortín, with the intention of finding good hardware stores (ferreterías) in Córdoba and looking at tool and ladder availability and prices. Found prices for quite a few items to be less than Anacortes area. One hardware (Metalurve) was enjoyed by both of us, especially as we could wander the aisles and see inventory and price labels. So many wonderful items in it, also very clean bathrooms. Most smaller ferreterías typically have only sample items displayed on big signboards, sometimes only with with code numbers, so one has to speak to a clerk to get pricing and make the purchase, (hopefully) from inventory some where back where customers don't have access.

On our way home from Córdoba today, we planned to stop at Fortín city hall, but there were lots of chairs out front of the building with speakers and several young ladies all dressed up. The speeches and awards being given out were in recognition of the annual day of discapacidad, in support of the handicapped. Did not seem appropriate to interfere, so we went back at 4:30pm. The celebration was done, but, the man we needed to talk to had just left. Our meeting was put off 'til Monday. We did pick up our book of starter checks from Santander Bank.

In the evening we walked down to the blue house and also to view and compare a few new lots that realtor Rosset had showed us in that area the yesterday (Thursday). All are but a few blocks from each other, in the colonia Los Encinos. She, along with the architect, wanted us to see more in case we might change our mind and go with them. The other lots do not have the view or outside space that "our" blue house has. Totally this day we walked over 55 blocks. Looong blocks. Talk about exhaustion.

At this point we just remembered to tell you how clean the city park always is, since we walk thru it to the city hall building. It seems to be being swept continuously with brooms made of dead palm fronds. In the middle of the parks open paved space there now sits a Christmas tree made of probably wire frame and white outer covering with ornaments, and a growing quantity of large gift-wrapped boxes around the base.

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Saturday, 03 Dec. We got up early and walked over to where Frank is building the new house, and caught up with some pictures of the progress. Frank invited us to go with him to Cosco tomorrow. His suegra (mother-in-law) is in Veracruz with one of Ania's daughters, while Ania is away in Monterrey doing baby-sitting for the other daughter. Frank gave us a lift back into Fortín centro, where we visited Santander Bank, where manager María helped us set up our online acount access, and reset the PINs on both debit cards (Dan's of which refused had refused to function with the provisional PIN issued when the account was set up). Downloaded another ebook from the Anacortes library and finished the day reading, with Carmen a bit under the weather from the exertions of the previous day.

Sunday, 04 Dec. Dan went with Frank to the two properties Frank owns, and Carmen logged in another day of rest. Dan got to wear his new jeans, with cuffs rolled up, since Carmen does not travel with her sewing machine to be able to hem the jeans. At Xaltenango, the two men had a good time, cutting down several pine trees into 2.5m posts, which will be used to brace the concrete slab formwork for the second floor of the new house. Property watchman Ciro provided some more muscle hauling the limbed posts up the steep hillside to the parking area by the hexagon kiosko. Frank bought some triangulos Ciro's wife had made, to take home for supper upon Ania's return. After the logging, they stopped to pick up a pollo rostizado and had lunch at the house on the avocado farm. Frank mowed the lawn and Dan filled in an animal burrow that had appeared in the last week near the garden behind the house. The possum, presumed culprit, had met it's end due to an encounter with some other critter, and Frank chucked the dried carcass off into the weeds.

Monday, 05 Dec. This AM we did indeed go back to city hall and spoke to the person in charge of our papers and he told us that the hold up was because the notario had not sent him all the info he needed to take action, including a copy of what needed to go to Relaciones Exteriores. We informed realtor Manolo of this holdup and he offered to get involved and try to straighten things out, thankfully. We hung around reading, waiting to see if there would be further calls we would have to act on.

Tuesday, 06 Dec. We woke at 7:30am, to a party happening in the parking area in front of our motel room. It was given for a group of young ladies leaving for school. There were games and foods and lots of laughter. Was a joy to listen to. After waiting all day to hear from the notario, with no luck, we walked to the grocery store. On the way home it looked like it would start raining any second, so we hustled along. We did notice another house for sale. Now what? The house is in the area of Fortín that we had hoped to buy. Yep--we walked back to the house, but three blocks, and got the phone number. Dan called the realtor and 15 minutes later we did a tour of the house. It has possibilities. All on one floor, very high ceilings, and very muggy inside due to being closed up for so long. Three bedrooms and several other rooms that seemed to have been created during an earlier renovation, and which could be used for??? A large lot of 280m², with big paved area behind the house. All the windows would have to be replaced, and the kitchen and dining areas extensively reworked. Luckily we did not immediately feel at home, like in the blue house, so no problem, we still are hoping the blue house will soon be ours. Yes, we got rained upon on the dash back home.

Wednesday, 07 Dec. We talked to Guy and Gary, Carmen's brothers, on skype. Always a joy. For breakfast we tried a different brand of coffee. This one is smoother and richer tasting. Think we are becoming a half a cup a day coffee drinkers, that being a lot for us. Today is in mid-60s and raining off and on. This afternoon at 5pm we must be at the notario's office, rain or shine. We are hoping to not get too wet on our walk to and from bus. At least the requisite papers that are holding everything up will be signed and sent on to the State Department in Xalapa for the okay for us foreigners to purchase this house. We'll hold off posting this until we get back from Córdoba...

...and now to finish up the day. The rain kept up a very light drizzle as we headed over to the city and walked the three and a half blocks from where the bus dropped us, staying under the building overhangs for the most part. It took about an hour and a half for our paperwork to be drawn up, corrected and signed. There still seems to be some confusion on the legal description of exactly where the house is located, which still worries us. The papers will go by messenger tomorrow to Xalapa, the state capitol. We're hoping for the best, a quick positive reply, but have advised the realtor and owner that delays may occur. Hopefully, all gets done before Christmas holidays interfere. From the vantage point of the notario's office overlooking Avenida 1, we saw two noisy parades of vehicles starting off on the pilgrimage to the Guadalupe basilica. One was of taxi drivers, with a long line of cabs adorned with balloons and colored lights. The second parade was of Cablecom employees, in company vehicles. This parade had a band playing Simon and Garfunkel's "Sound of Silence", as they passed. Córdoba was as busy as ever when we got out of the office about 6:30pm, now rainy AND dark. Caught a bus with no problem on Avenida 2, but were thankful we were now well familiar with the route home, as knowing where you are with steamy bus windows, rain, and unilluminated street signs would be a bit stressful without that foreknowledge.

It's been dark and wet out, and we haven't been carrying the camera all the time. Will post this and then go back and might insert some appropriate photos later...