A funny thing happened on the way to Guadalajara.
For the second month in a row we, the Novoas and I, were headed to Rafa's tai kwan do competition in Guadalajara. It was cancelled, along with the rest of life in Puerto Vallarta, and the world.
But we had a rental car and four days planned. There were no tours for Jorge, no tai kwan do for Rafa. But there was his mom's house in his hometown, recently restuccoed and waiting for paint. We loaded up and left on Thursday. It is a beautiful little town sprung up from when the ruling landholder's wife insisted their workers each be given some land, in the 1800's. Consisting of fewer than a hundred homes, a small store, lovely little church and the lovingly tended drop dead gorgeous hacienda where grandchildren own, tend and even rent rooms, it is built along a the Atenguillo River, in a valley. It is named Ahuacatapec, an indigenous word for avocado because the nearest mountain looks like an avocado half. (It also looks like a tortuga but they picked avocado). See? Mira?
Anyway, there we are with a great long sala to be painted, fish to catch and an amazing visit with family and friends. The town is at least fifty percent Jorge's relatives. The boys are surrounded by best friend cousins. Dona Angela, Jorge's mom has sisters and brothers there. Jorge's wife Rosario, one of the great Mexican chefs I know, has shrimp and other ingredients for great Mexican meals. It is a long mountain challenged drive from PV to there and few or no outsiders visit so we felt safe from viri.
I failed to get a good "before" picture but have one early into the job. I think you can see it was a spectacular reinvention of this long room fronting four bedrooms in an old adobe structure.
I know you'll agree that Jorge did an amazing job, Rosario and I helped and there was a kitchen transformation in all of this as well.
Meanwhile, Jorge designed a pulley system to catch catfish in the river, Rosario dazzled with great food, Tia Adalia brought me a beautiful cake? I learned more Spanish from some Mexican Lotto game playing, we visited two dairies, Jorge's Dad's modern operation and another friend's more traditional one where we milked warm milk into coffee and chocolate at 7 am, and later watched them move about 50 mama cows and their calves to a new new pasture, cowboys and everything.
There's much more, a million pictures, flowers, fish, chickens, mountains, etc. I really could go on and on. However, eventually we came home. We waited until Monday, April 6th (eleven days!) so Dona Angela could get her cash monthly pension and come back to Las Juntas y Los Veranos and spend time with them at home. It is a tremendous gift to be included in this amazing family and I am so grateful.
For more adventures and pictures I think there will be a Part Dos.
But we had a rental car and four days planned. There were no tours for Jorge, no tai kwan do for Rafa. But there was his mom's house in his hometown, recently restuccoed and waiting for paint. We loaded up and left on Thursday. It is a beautiful little town sprung up from when the ruling landholder's wife insisted their workers each be given some land, in the 1800's. Consisting of fewer than a hundred homes, a small store, lovely little church and the lovingly tended drop dead gorgeous hacienda where grandchildren own, tend and even rent rooms, it is built along a the Atenguillo River, in a valley. It is named Ahuacatapec, an indigenous word for avocado because the nearest mountain looks like an avocado half. (It also looks like a tortuga but they picked avocado). See? Mira?
I failed to get a good "before" picture but have one early into the job. I think you can see it was a spectacular reinvention of this long room fronting four bedrooms in an old adobe structure.
Meanwhile, Jorge designed a pulley system to catch catfish in the river, Rosario dazzled with great food, Tia Adalia brought me a beautiful cake? I learned more Spanish from some Mexican Lotto game playing, we visited two dairies, Jorge's Dad's modern operation and another friend's more traditional one where we milked warm milk into coffee and chocolate at 7 am, and later watched them move about 50 mama cows and their calves to a new new pasture, cowboys and everything.
There's much more, a million pictures, flowers, fish, chickens, mountains, etc. I really could go on and on. However, eventually we came home. We waited until Monday, April 6th (eleven days!) so Dona Angela could get her cash monthly pension and come back to Las Juntas y Los Veranos and spend time with them at home. It is a tremendous gift to be included in this amazing family and I am so grateful.
For more adventures and pictures I think there will be a Part Dos.
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