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6 May 2010
by
Dave Clingman
Still hot and dry, but maybe not quite so safe and
secure?
It has certainly been an interesting week with a
shooting, an armored car robbery, and a brush fire.
Fortunately, we were not involved in any of these, but
we were close. The temperature is getting up to 100
degrees (38 C) this week, and even the Mexicans are
starting to complain about the heat. We're looking
forward to the start of the rainy season, so everything
can turn green and the temperature drop. First, though,
here's some of the fun things.
After church Sunday, we headed over to stay again at
Casa de las Flores Bed and Breakfast in Tlaquepaque,
something that we very much enjoy and which seems to be
becoming an occasional benefit of working on their
website. Monday was the local neighborhood's religious
festival, called Fiesta de la Cruz (Festival of the
Cross), which started at 5 in the morning. There is a
procession that lasts for about six hours as people
transport the cross from the local shrine along the
rough cobblestone roads to various other local shrines.
Exploding skyrockets let everyone know their progress. A
band plays constantly as a line of people walk on their
knees the entire way, with other people supporting them
and moving blankets from the back of the line to the
front to soften the path of the "kneelers". At each
shrine, the people enter to pray. It was interesting and
exciting, though Mela didn't much like when the
skyrockets were blasting nearby. In our room at Casa de
las Flores, she would at first bark and growl, but she
soon realized that we didn't care and so the explosions
must be okay. But when we walked to the procession to
watch, she would shake fiercely from fright.
Yesterday Andrew got his second tattoo, of a very
colorful gecko. The needles were jabbing his skin for an
hour and a half! He said he thought this one, which is
on his chest, hurt more than his other one (of a cross
made of nails), which is on his back. It looks great,
but I still don't care for needles.
Last week as we were trying to drive into Guadalajara,
the traffic was the worst ever. It took us an hour to
drive what with normal rush hour traffic takes about
half an hour. We later found out from a friend that the
cause was an armored car robbery in which a dozen gunmen
with three cars blocked the street and got away with
sixteen million pesos (about 1.28 million US dollars).
Of course, all the Federales (national police) and other
cops had to continue blocking the streets as they
investigated the crime scene.
Saturday afternoon as we were relaxing and enjoying the
peace and quiet of our little RV park, we heard three
loud bangs in quick succession. I was sure it was
someone simply banging on someone's car, but it turns
out that someone in the cabanas across the park from our
van was shot. Andrew watched the shooter drive away in
the getaway Hummer, and the victim being carried into a
car and off to the nearby hospital. Having lived for so
many years near Fresno, California, a city with a high
rate of shootings, this hardly fazed me, but I guess it
just goes to show that Mexico isn't quite paradise. We
are fine, by the way, and have never been bothered by
such things directly.
Monday afternoon as we were relaxing and enjoying the
peace and quiet of our little RV park, we heard a
helicopter circling frequently overhead. I went outside
to see what it was and discovered that the helicopter
was carrying a large bag of water (even here in Mexico,
Kittina!) to fight the large fire that was raging up the
hill behind the RV park. The firefighters worked
quickly, and nothing was damaged except one corner of
someone's retaining wall up the hill. But it just shows
how dry the brush is here at the moment.
Wednesday afternoon as we were relaxing and enjoying the
peace and quiet of our little RV park, we heard only the
birds singing in the trees, and nothing exciting
happened, as we continued to relax and enjoy the peace
and quiet of our little RV park.
An unusually exciting week, in an RV park where usually
nothing happens!
Happy Mother's Day!
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