Well thought this was too good to be true!!

Hello!!

Its all go in Laguna Santa Maria del Oro.........its fiesta in the town up the hill and for 10 days now a squad of lads have been painting everything. The seats in the square, the old town hall, tumbledown buildings etc. Most of it in cream and maroon?? Must be the corporate colour scheme!!

Any way having painted it all there are now fairground rides cramming into the square shielding the buildings! Fiesta is linked to the fact that it is Ascension this week.

Ventured up to town for a haircut this week -thought I had an appointment for 11 but it was full so wandered about a bit and got back at 12 to find still had a 15 minute wait! The haircut is good-bit short at the back ( but good in this heat) and it was 30pesos (one pound 50p). Chris has given up trying to find a barber to shave him and trim his beard so he bought a trimmer in Tepic.  

Tepic is the big town , about an hour away, where we go to stock up on essentials............like things without loads of sugar!! Monday we had a reasonable trip but on the way back the aircon in the car did not work...........not good at 35+ degrees-went to the garage in our town and need to go to Tepic to get it fixed............. 

We went up to SAMAO ( the abreviation for  Santa Maria del Oro) to get something to cook on the BBQ last night. At first nothing was open and then our butcher stayed closed so we went to another one..............who only sold beef............so we bought 2 types of steak and some liver.............the fillet was as tough as old boots......maybe next time I will marinade it in lime juice for a few hours.

The peace and tranquillity of our little house has been dented a bit this week-some people moved into the house behind ours-not part of the place we are on- two men and a young boy. They play the drums, which was nice to begin with but yesterday they started at 7.30 AM and when we got back at 6 last night they were playing so load you could not hear yourself think. Chris went to ask them to cut the noise and got a whole load of abuse from them.............they were out of their skulls on something ( not unusual in Mexico) but we will have to see how it goes.

Any way that seems quite quiet compared to the field next door..........Uwe and Marlena said it had recently been dug up and created into a motor cross course and there had been a huge fuss and it would only be used 3 times year. Well yesterday afternoon i thought I was experiencing my first earthquake when i realise it was earth movers on this course...........they worked yesterday and this morning and since about 2 pm there have been very noisy cars zipping around. Another thing for the list when we see Carlos who is the manager here!!

Hopefully we will get to see some of the fiesta, there is music, dancing and an open water event here at the laguna...........not sure what that will be...........maybe a great big plodge?? ( For those of you that are not Geordie -it means a paddle) We seem to be the only people who can swim the Mexicans just paddle in the shallows in their life jackets??

We decided to have breakfast Mexican style this morning and i had huevos rancheros.........soft tortillas, tomato chili sauce, fried eggs and frijoles ( soft mashed beans) -it was good.

Life in the house is getting some routine as there are things to think of constantly due to the vagaries of the water and plumbing

• toilet paper in the bin not down the toilet ( remember to empty often!!)
• water is straight from the lake ( clean teeth with bottled water!)
• Vegetables sometimes sprayed with insecticide etc ( clean off with iodine water)
• Drinking -either bottled water, Coke etc or beer are the only safe things
• Replace the 15li bottle of water regularly and clean the gravity pump
• Cook with bottled water

The temperature makes a difference too so we have the following to try and keep the temperature in the house bearable

• Close all the windows and curtains before 8am
• I've created a sun-blind from 3 car windscreen things to reduce the solar gain in the bedroom -it gets full sun from 12-6!!
• Keep door closed as front porch gets scorching
• Walk down and jump in the laguna when it gets too much

• Wait for 6.15 when the sun goes down!!

All in all though we have settled in well and are loving the endless sunny days..........will be interesting to see what the rainy season is like as the ground is getting incredibly scorched and it is 3-4 weeks away.

I love getting replies from people , it keeps me in touch with life elsewhere and of course some of you are on facebook and i have loved our "chats".

Hasta luego

Norma and Chris x