A Word From Yelapa

BAJATE! VIVE SIN PRISA!

Las Palabras:  Bajate! Vive Sin Prisa - Slow down! live without haste; Autopista - Turnpike; Si El Dios Quiere - If god wishes; Poco a Poco - little by little

The overpasses on the autopista between Guadalajara and Puerto Vallarta are posted with signs telling people to slow down and live without haste or hurrying. I think it is a really sweet way to get speeders' attention.  A pal was quick to tell me - there's a mesage there; they are trying to tell us something, don't you think?  Methinks the message says something more than quit driving your car so fast. While I have watched Mexico moving ahead in the world's economy and within the country, there is something so reassuring and comforting about a country which continues to maintain a national philosophy that tells us we will live longer if we just slow down. I think it pretty much sums up one of the main reasons so many of us have gravitated south.

Moving here requires not only leaving behind the rush hour life, shop till you drop, spend to the end existence most of us were living but it also means a major shift from impatience to patience, intolerance to tolerance and the faith that whatever it is we think we needed yesterday will arrive manana or will get done poco a poco...just wait and see but be prepared to wait awhile!  If you try to get someone to say positively they will do something by any certain date you will most likely hear - "si el dios quiere!"  I'm not so sure this is faith based as much as a way to tell you no one can guarantee anything positively in life, so relax.

Entonces, moving to Yelapa is taking the slow down philosophy just a teeny bit farther.  While I love going to Puerto Vallarta to visit friends, visit the big stores and see the sights, I am always relieved to leave behind the noises, crowds and much louder hum of the city.  I have been asked again and again how I stand living here year round, through heat and rain, humidity and bugs, electrical outages, too much water or not enough water.  I'm astounded that the small stresses I live with could ever be compared to traffic jams, crowds and louder, more insistent noise and work intrusions which seem to be the norm outside of the pueblo.  I have been watching a friend, who recently took up full time residence, finally grasp the manana concept - she was so busy and task oriented and is now perfectly guilt free spending a couple of rainy days watching three seasons of a popular show on DVD. Our lists will keep, the rains will stop (someday) and life will move quickly or slowly without any need for us to do anything but be willing to have an accepting heart and a belief that slower is not a bad thing.

In the spirit of what I have now adopted as my personal motto - slow down, live without hurrying - I enthusiastically sign off to go forth with my little wonder dog to visit friends, have a swim between storms and just fritter away a lovely, green hilled, blue skied Sunday afternoon.

Deseo lo mismo para ustedes!  I wish the same for you!

Maria

 

AND THE RAINS CAME DOWN!

Las Palabras:  Las Lluvias - the rains; huevos poches sobre las tortillas - poached eggs on top of tortillas;  Un Milagro - miracle; Si El Dios Quiere - if god wills it (generally said for almost everything); Hasta la Proxima Vez! - until next time

Since I have been worrying about how little rain we have had thus far, only 5", it is only Yelapa reasoning that the rains would begin and maybe decide to never stop.  In ten hours during the night we gained 10 1/2".  Fortunately, I woke up in the night to empty my rain gauge which was almost full and again this a.m. there were 5 inches more.  Of course it is still raining and I have logged 2 1/2" more since 7a.m. and it really doesn't look like it will stop soon.  The only ray of light is not from the sun but from the fact that the falling rain may now be a little lighter than the sheets of rain that were pouring down on my casita, under the door of my casita and even in from the patio of my casita through the night.  Apparently there really is a limit to what our surfaces can handle.  I don't know about other parts of the world but an inch of rain per hour without a break is a major downpour.  Of course I remember another storm with this rate of rain per hour and we here all agreed it was a major disaster. 

I used to wonder how other villages throughout the world could be washed away during tropical storms - why didn't the people leave their homes?  It's really about no place being safer than home and there really being no place else to go.  As a youngster I loved Dorothy Lamour, a sarong wearing brunette who starred in the Bob Hope, Bing Crosby movies.  So I always had the notion that, like Dorothy, I could lash myself to a palm tree during a hurricane and be saved.  I now know that outside in a monsoon is the last place anyone should ever go and a falling coconut can literally kill you, so, like people all over the world I am hunkered down inside, mopping the floors when necessary, mopping Desi when necessary and just generally trying to keep up with any damage this storm might cause.  Was that really me who was wishing for rain?

I did make my usual storm trek to the waterfall to see if they were all okay up at Piri's restaurant...as though it were any other morning they were open for business and while I had to sit with the family in the kitchen my breakfast of huevos poches sobra las tortillas was as good as ever.  The mist from the falls weren't allowing anyone except our crazy kids to sit under the palapa.  Everyone had the same manic energy we always have when we realize that for now we have survived a major message from mother nature.  No 4th of July fireworks display can ever equal our lightning, thunder and suddenly deafening, swollen rivers. 

I have heard, but not yet seen, that our bigger river Tuito is roiling and emptying sand, soil, sludge and anything else caught upriver into the bay.  Entonces, there will be no swimming for a few days until the bay clears up.  However, we still have electrical power (un milagro) and it is blissfully cool - almost cold - forget I said that since I have not been cold in such a long, long time.

If the rains slow sufficiently before evening we will all pour out of our casas to check on our friends, the size of the waves on the playa and the river and I can guarantee we will all be wet but gleeful and excited.  The onset of the rainy season is always stressful and the end of a storm brings relief in the knowledge that we have not been forgotten by the seemingly mischievous weather gods.

Now the weather can relax too and maybe just come every afternoon and give us 2-3" of rain and then move along, leaving our evenings cool and comfortable.  Si el Dios Quiere!

Since my internet connection has disconnected more than once today, I am leaping off the page here, grabbing my plastic poncho and heading down to see the sights and hear the sounds of Yelapa at full roar.

Hasta la proxima vez!

Maria   

 

CHISMES....RUMORS & GOSSIP

What does he know and where did he hear it?

Las Palabras:  Chismes - rumors; Verano - summer; Compadres - friends, pals; Reunion - assembly; La Gente Dice - the people say; Hasta Hay Noticias - until there is news

Since verano seems to have arrived whether we are ready or not and so many pals have made their way north, those of us remaining rely on each other for Yelapa gossip and news.  When everyone is here, including all the vacation visitors, word travels quickly via the jungle grapevine.  Everyone wants to be the first to tell the news - did you hear?  Do you know?  Many a visit gets spent trying to track down the origin of a rumor in order to decide if the news is truth, partial truth, someone's imagination or someone just not hearing the story clearly.

Left to our own devices during the summer months, we use the phone more to try to find out just what is going on around here.  It's too hot to go out to gather the news so I rely heavily on my compadres here, both Mexican and international, to let me know what is the what in Yelapa.  Although we do pass along reunion announcements or upcoming fiestas we really want to know who of us is doing anything even remotely exciting.  As far as I can tell there is nothing to report.  We are all waiting for rain, sunning and swimming and logging a lot of hammock time. 

At a recent water meeting (no, we don't have any) I asked a pal if there was any truth to the rumor that she & her husband were planning a takeover of the playita....really, all I heard was a possibility they might rent the rest of the house they live in.  But how dull would that news be?  I did tell her I couldn't remember where I heard the rumor - maybe it came from me.  Fortunately she did not think that would make the rumor any truer.  If someone would have been eavesdropping I can assure you by day's end the story would be that a foreign investor was building a Club Med on the playita.

Speculation on what Yelapa's future may hold has always spurred the most frightening rumors.  When I first arrived and right up through today there was/is the rumor that a BIG hotel will be built on the playa - I wonder where they will get their water....The other rumor that sends chills through our easy going bones is the onset of the "coastal road" which will end somewhere near Peppermint Patty's house.  That one doesn't get me going much since I think if they started tomorrow at Boca de Tomatlan and there were no delays, no changes of government, no problemitas of any kind, the road would still not be completed for about 10 years....entonces, no coastal road is about to appear...probably not at all in my lifetime.

I even get rumors via email, mostly questions about the weather conditions or inquiries about if someone's house is still standing after a severe storm.  Since we have yet to have any real storms there is nothing to any of those rumors either but the weather is still the best summer topic for the rumor mill.  Some years ago, when Yelapa went through Huricana Rosa no one seemed to know about it until after the fact - maybe no one believed it.  I felt that ignorance was bliss and if I had known I was in a hurricane while staying in a grass hut I would probably have been hysterical rather than merely terrified. Right before Huricana Kenya hit us I was at Byron's watching the news on his TV.  I told him he should come look as the announcer was speaking so quickly I couldn't keep up but I did understand the big red arrow pointing to Puerto Vallarta which was covered by a huge red ball.  I barely got home when it hit Yelapa.  So much for staying on top of the weather.  These days we have Cheryl Harleston's satellite map and storm information at www.elexion.com/local/ , internet access to the weather stations and yet we still cannot say with any surety whether it will rain tonight.  As for the temperatures - hot is hot, humid is humid and that's all I need to know about that subject.

A lot of rumors and gossip carry more weight whenever someone starts by saying "The gente dice.."  That means everyone is saying it is so and therefore it must be true - indeed it is true!  Usually this statement is a good way to determine what the pueblo is thinking about a subject, i.e. the water is coming, the water is not coming, the sky is falling, the sky is not falling.  If there is a majority consensus we can sometimes believe the water is coming because everyone wants it.

So if we are all home surrounded by our summer toys - crosswords, jigsaws, hammock, books, movies - is anything happening here?  I think not, or surely I would have heard some version by now. I do know I am happy to see almost anyone who has ventured out and wants to chat me up, the only disappointing telephone call is from Telmex telemarketing and I am so glad I go swim most days where I encounter mostly summer visitors who don't know the gossip but are bubbling over with enthusiasm for Yelapa.  Since this is the most tranquil time of the year in Yelapa I can easily sing that song with them.

Hasta Hay Noticias! 

Maria