one little example

Here is the e-mail that Ariel sent me when they had gone back to Cuyutlan after we had to leave Mexico and they closed the deal for us. We paided them to be our agents and wow, a really good thing too!! We could not have done it without them.

"Well, as we all know, nothing is ever easy in Mexico! We got to Cuyutlan late (surprise surprise), around 11pm...and the cheaper hotels were all closed up for the night, so we stayed at your new house! I left a bag of the sheets we used in the garbage can between the bed and the table, I think where I found them. Thanks for leaving my earring too! Anyway, in the morning we discovered that Jorge and his wife and Chava had slept in the cabana! We met up later in Tecoman at the bank, but the Director said I couldn't take out that much money at a different branch from where I opened the account...even though we asked two seperate times in Vallarta before we left...! His solution was to take out the maximum (100,000) three days in a row! So....after some irritation, (he REALLY didn't want to give us all that money!) we agreed he would call the director of my branch in Vallarta to get approval, which he did, but we had to come back later to get the $. SO we went to the notario's, and of course he had forgotten to make up the papers for you and Monico...but they all signed the house papers, and while they made up the others we went back to the bank for the dough. Jorge gave me all the old escritorios and papers he had for the house, and we have them here along with the receipts from the bank and the notario. M and I went back to the notario so he could sign the constancia with you guys, so that should be ready and waiting with the escritorio when you come back!We made a side trip on our way back to Cuyutlan to a coco plantation just outside Tecoman where we bought a gallon of awesome virgin coco oil! Then we went back to your place to take some little palm starts and close everything up. Jorge and his family were packing up and cleaning up the little open room off the kitchen and the cabana..... We left them there for another late night drive back here. So, we're back safe and sound, the deal's done...you have a house in Mexico! Now I'm going to go take a nap!"

And this was only one of many days like this in Mexico this year......

In Love and Gratitude,

Deborah

4-12-1633

It was on this day in 1633 that Galileo Galilei was put on trial by the Inquisition for supporting the theory that the Earth revolves around the sun. He had angered Pope Urban VIII with a book about his views. The case was referred to the Inquisition, and in 1633 Galileo was brought to Rome to undergo his trial. His book was officially banned by the Church, and Galileo was sentenced to an unlimited period of house arrest in his home in Florence. He gradually went blind and died in 1642.

In 1835, Galileo's Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems was finally taken off the Vatican's list of banned books. But it wasn't until 1992 that the Catholic Church formally admitted that Galileo was right.

- The Writers Almanac 4-12-2008

Classic case of "Thinking too Much"...................?

Photo Credit!

I forgot to give photo credit to Willi! He went digital this year and we have lots of awesome photos thanks to him.

More great photos coming soon.......

Yea, back home to Oregon!

Home again, home again. Whew what a winter. I have not been home since the beginning of November, we went straight to Mexico from my parent's in Florida. Mom, by the way is finally starting to feel better, what a horrible, horrible thing these cancers are.

Connecting to the Internet was iffy all winter and I apologize for not e-mailing or blogging, also it was a working winter - but our good news is that we did it - we sold our beach lot and bought a cute house in town!

Welcome to Casa Jardin.......

If you look close, you can see the casa behind the palms. This is totally what we asked the universe for - a little secure bedroom that we could move our stuff into before we left and a place to come back to next winter, (we moved 5 times in Cuyutlan this year....). We got much more than we asked for.

I have to back up. When we got to Cuyutlan this Jan, the house we thought we were buying did not work out at all. We were in a tiny apartment and back to square one. We did half hear the voice of Marie, our friend in Cuyutlan, that something better was out there for us. I guess I believed something was out there, I could in no way picture; better.

We went up to Tenacatita, on the bus, to see Kristen and Michael and get over losing that house.

Kristen and Michael, go up this mountain every sunset and sing Love and Gratitude to the earth. It is very powerful and visiting them is often the highlight of my year.

When we were leaving to go back to Cuyutlan, we got a ride 5 miles out to the main highway. This is a very remote part of the coast between Puerto Vallarta and Manzanillo. We were actually stranded very near there almost 20 years ago....another story. Anyway, as we were sitting in the small shade of the bus stop bench, after about an hour of waiting, I looked up and saw something hanging on a branch of a small bush to my left. It was a ring, a sweet little ring, make of 2 angels on either side of a small stone. Wow. Like a gift, right there in front of me. I put it on.

Our new place is #43 Puerto ANGEL! (And for those of you who have know me a long time - I use to live on 43rd street in Port Townsend!) Marie was so right, we not only found a place but found a, for us, better place. Casa Jardin is a jungle, it has mango, lemon and papaya trees, bananas, 4 kinds of eatable coconuts, the bougainvilleas are huge. There is a shop for William and already piles of materials for him to work with, and anyone who has seen any of our yards will know what I am talking about here.

This is Jorge y Susan, who sold us the property. He built it himself and raised all the trees himself. He was quite a character. He is a professor at the University of Guadalajara. The language barrier made it very difficult to negotiate even the smallest detail. We were very fortunate to be able to hire Monaco and Ariel and their little Angel, to come down and translate for us. We would not have made it without them! Muchas Gracias para toto.

This is the Virgin of Guadalupe that is bronzed cast on our new well. The well is actually over a hundred and fifty years old and was part of an old rancho. Benito Juarez is said to have drank from that well on his way through.....

Thank-you to the Virgin and Love and Gratitude for you, my reader friends.

Mi casa is su casa.

I will post more photos and stories from south of the border soon. And as little Angel says,

I love you honey!