Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Mornings in Yelapa


Finally getting to my blog since arriving in Yelapa, Jalisco, Mexico, last Saturday. We're well settled in by now, comfortably set up in the Casa Emilio where we have the same little apartment above our landlady's house in the jungle above the village that we rented last year. It feels like home; that we never left it.

Our 20-year-old daughter Alicia is with us for two weeks (one week almost gone already), and she sorely misses her boyfriend Adam, whom she left back in Nelson, B.C. Spends a good deal of her time on the Net, emailing him, and in addition spends her money on phone cards so they can hear each other's voices.

Almost from the moment we stepped onto the pier in the central village we began to meet old friends and acquantances, gringo and native alike. Everybody friendly, everybody welcoming. This is our third year here, and we're beginning to feel like, and be accepted as, Yelapanos.

The weather's fine, warmer than last year at this time. As the season progresses, of course, it'll get warmer, until by the end of March, when we're ready to leave, it'll be good and hot.

But I've titled this Mornings in Yelapa, and they are lovely. At the inkling of first light, the roosters start up all around us. We try for more sleep until about eight, when it's completely light and the sun is peeping over the mountains. Then we throw open the doors to the front and back balconies and prepare and eat our breakfast on the back balcony, where we have a little kitchen, including a new four-burner gas stove this year (replacing the two-burner electric hotplate we had last year). Then we pull open the trap door that shuts us in at night, so that my wife and daughter can climb down the ladder to the ground and sally forth to what and wherever while I stay home and write until lunchtime.

We eat our first two meals "in," then the evening meal, usually, "out" -- that is, in one of Yelapa's several restaurants, where often there's music provided by the several musicians in town.

Back at our casita, all three of us write up our journals, then read for a time before turning in to the sound of insects in the jungle, barking dogs and yowling cats periodically, and sometimes very loud Mexican music.

The above picture is of part of the central village as seen from the pier.

1 comment:

Chadd said...

Howdy Ross,

We are so glad to have had the pleasure of meeting you and your family on Cristobal and Andreas' boat. Lets keep in touch...chadd and lizzy (chaddmbennett@yahoo.com)