Not So Silent Night

Have I mentioned that Mexico is kinda noisy?  We repeat that bit of intelligence to each other every time the neighborhood is noisier than we were accustomed to NoB. ['NoB', not 'back home' because that raises another series of questions: Which 'back home'? Los Angeles, a particular part of greater Los Angeles, southern Indiana - or for Michael, Upper Michigan, Minneapolis/St Paul?]

Christmas Eve brought it all rushing back.  It is a custom in Mexico to celebrate with fireworks.  Not the fancy aerial displays (which are lovely but usually centered around the Jardin), but the aerial bombs.  The big bombs are used for saints' days and that sort of event but frequently, in the neighborhoods, with smaller, hand thrown bombs. This includes saints' days, a family birthday, an historical celebration (we were glad to be out of the country during the actual dates of the Bicentennial), or even a party. Christmas Eve was not an exception, except our neighborhood took it to the next level.

Fireworks exploded pretty regularly from about midnight til after 2 AM. And it's not the fireworks, particularly, so much as the result of the fireworks on our dogs.  They are all sensitive to loud noises in varying degrees, but one in particular nearly barks herself silly if the noise is insistent and nearby. The question is: How to stop them?

Nothing works. Speaking calmly to them; speaking sternly to them; yelling at them; holding them; petting them; telling them it will be alright; explaining the neighbors are Neanderthals; shutting them in their crates in a back bedroom; covering the crates; bribing them with food; nothing.  Sleep is impossible - unless you've really been celebrating yourself, but then one of us eventually wakes up, anyway, and must deal with the barking. [We don't want to disturb the neighbors on the other side of the house, who are remarkably at quiet most times.]

Christmas Eve's celebration was particularly exuberant and the kids on our block eventually tossed a few of the fireworks up onto our second floor terrace, right outside our bedroom.  Those were particularly lovely! Of course, the adults in the families were nowhere to be seen!  We can only surmise that they were inside, partying in their own way.

I had already tried the tack of taking the dogs downstairs to watch television together in the more secluded living room and had eventually returned to the warm bedroom (dogs in tow).  Watching television had had its normal effect and I, at least, was falling asleep.  So it was Michael who was the one awake at that time and went out onto the terrace to have a few choice words for the little darlings who were preparing to toss even more fireworks onto the terrace.  They didn't.

Christmas Day has been remarkably quiet in the ole neighborhood.  No one has been out and about on the street.  The music they play next door has been absent or subdued. We're once again looking at real estate ads for homes out in the campo.

Michael tells me that last night was pretty quiet (that magnum of 1999 vintage champagne at the gathering of ex-pats for Christmas dinner was very tasty) though the dogs were a bit sensitive to even more distant noises.

We're booking them into the doggie B-and-B out in the country for New Years Eve!

Holiday Greetings!

This year - due to a near-Christmas vacation in Cabo, the time lag for ordered cards to reach us, be signed,  and be mailed back to the States, and some very last-minute planning, we're sending out our holiday cards via e-mail:

Otherwise, Christmas will arrive Saturday, apace.  We're visiting one of our favorite restaurants for an early dinner Christmas Eve and to make reservations for their New Year's Eve Dinner.  Christmas Day we're invited to our friends' home just a few blocks away for a potluck dinner with several other mutual friends; other friends will be dropping in later in the evening. 

We've found lovely, small, locally-grown Brussels sprouts so we will be taking our Even-Our-Brother-in-Law-Likes-These recipe of shredded sprouts sauteed with prosciutto and garlic in butter, then baked with heavy cream and Parmesan -- what's not to like about that?  And a couple of Magnums of 'J' Champagne (I know - correctly, sparkling wine) - 1999 & 2000, I think.

Hope all your holidays are what you want, too!

Cabo-itis

So we awoke this morning to a view of the mountains instead of palm trees, the bay, and today's visiting cruise ship.  Only the dome on the San Antonio church pierced the layer of mist that blanketed San Miguel.  Eventually we crawled from beneath the covers to discover that the bedroom was about the same temperature as outside: 37F!  It's a wonder all the air wasn't frozen, not just a layer of mist.

The temperature was a dead giveaway - we had returned from a week in Cabo very late last night after traveling most of the day.  We left the resort at 11:30 am by shuttle to the airport in nearby San Jose del Cabo for a flight to Mexico City, then taxi to the Estacion de Autobus Norte, then a 'luxury bus' ride (really comfy seats, but it was still a 4-hour trip) through Queretero and on to San Miguel.  We got out of the taxi in front of our house at 11:30 pm.

It was the end of a week in a quiet resort (no telephones/TVs/etc unless you visited the Lounge for a news/sports fix; even WiFi was limited to the coffee bar).  Designed to mimic a tropical Mexican village there were no big blocks of hotel rooms (like El Pinko next door).  Only villas arranged in mostly circular three-storey buildings with thatched roofs facing the beach or arranged around the pools.  On the edge of Cabo San Lucas, it was close enough to town to provide excellent walkable access to our favorite restaurants.  Taxis are ridiculously expensive in Cabo: $6 for a short ride within town.  We're spoiled, I guess, by the $2 taxi rides here in SMA.  They got no tips from us!

It was a week of sloth - rising late; lounging under a palapa on the beach, waving a little flag for food & drink service;  afternoon drinks at one of the swim-up pool bars; deciding upon which restaurant to favor with our presence for dinner each night.  A tough life, but someone has to do it, right?

The worst part was the inconvienience of trekking to the coffeehouse to get a WiFi signal.  Internet access is a new thing for the resort, but they should really think of expanding it throughout the buildings.  It was a pain to keep up on my moderator duties for a SMA forum.  I'm sure I could have done a better job if it was easier to access. And doing research for future travel required multiple trips back to the coffeehouse. 

Of course, there was no drifting off to sleep to a television, either, but we could get used to that.  Cabo (and Puerto Vallarte) were our only exposure to Mexico before we decided to retire to SMA and there's such a difference!  We love SMA, but we'll be back in Cabo at the end of February with my brother and again in mid-May by ourselves.  (And perhaps again in December if our villa hasn't sold.)

The other thing we missed was the company of our four dogs.  There was actually space on the king-size bed to stretch out - imagine that!  They returned home from their own little vacation at Wendy's B&B this morning and were napping on the bed with me this afternoon.  It works so much better with the larger bed than the one we had in California (but the bedroom there wouldn't have held a king-size bed without wall-to-wall mattress).

So we're back home, trying to keep warm in our sweatsuits and slippers, and dreaming about our time in Cabo.  When's our next trip?

At least it will feel more like Christmas here in SMA!