Welcome to Yelapa Town .... as they say on the tourist party boat !!
Rain or shine it pulls into town, usually 2 or 3 of them,
and there are people still coming to visit this growing Yelapa town. This is low season, but the most tourists for this time of year that I remember !
It has been all sun and no rain these last 30 days. Many overcast days, but sunny breaks and full sun most days, although we received 1 inch at 6 am 3 days ago.
It was like a blizzard of rain rolled though the house.
A baby tornado, that lasted 30 minutes.
And that has been it, besides 1/3 of an inch yesterday.
That is all the rain we have had, for 7 months, give or take !!
We are very much on the edge of our seats.
Nothing to be done but wait, for rain, to come.
We all depend on it, to replenish the rivers and reservoirs and streams and waterfalls. Without rain there is no water in the lines that supply our houses, and that could turn into a gigantic problem.
Yelapa is a perfect place to practice patience, and gratitude.
Our connection and dependence to the planet is impossible
to ignore.
Hot Hotter Hottest ! I carried an umbrella to Prepa graduation on the beach last week, to protect against the blazing sun !! First time I have done that, ever !
I attended all 4 ceremonies, and had a great time, and met some new people ! Always an exciting time, especially because school is now over until the end of August !!
There were many serious moments, many laughs and many tears too ! An enormous amount of work is needed to prepare for Graduation. The teachers here must work 2 or 3 times harder, then PV or even Boca.
There are photos and commentary on Yelapa School Project Web page !
I opened a GoFundMe page, to support mi escuelita English Program, and have received $750.00 so far!!
Thank you friends !!
I am going to start mi escuelita Instagram, as recommended by JD, a high tech / graphic design graduate, of the
University of Chicago,who dropped by !
The program will continue until August 8th, then a 3 week break, to begin again September. That will be the 2.5 year mark of the program !
Yelapa Student Scholarship Fund is still being created, by me, with advisers. The documents are being translated to Spanish, and next step to establish the best way to receive and be accountable for donations.
In the meantime we mop and sweep and siesta and read,
and repeat. Dream of and pray for and try not to think about
RAIN !!
Stay calm. Be patient. Remain grateful .
Sunday, July 14, 2019
Monday, June 3, 2019
Photos
Group Marlin Champion Dancers at annual area competition
held in Boca de tomatlan this year !
Group marlin girls new dance and costumes
Dia del nino 2019 at new town square.
Look at all those happy ninos !
Phillipo LoGrande painitng for mi escuelita.
New roof just in time.
Welcome June
Welcome to foggy, damp, and pleasant June for Residents of Yelapa. Not so sweet for vacationers I suppose, but it feels good to me ! No measurable rain yet, but a few drops in my rain Gage the last few mornings.
Please please let it come down soon, but not before this afternoon when I can get the tarp over my bed, just in case !
I love my new roof, so clean and bright and smells fantastic,
if not a little over powering the first few days.
I am confident there will be no leaks, but just as a precaution, I'll leave the tarp up until the roof expands and settles.
I can see on my home page this is my 200th post !
Wow. That gives me a nice feeling difficult to explain.
That takes us back 7 years, I believe.
I was 52 years old, and my Dad was 85.
Because he was having difficulty breathing, talking on the phone was becoming a chore, so I started the blog as a way for him to keep up with my life in Yelapa, and when we did talk on the phone he could engage a little more, after reading my blog. The last year, my step mom read the blog to him.
I was writing every week for a few years !
Five years next month since he died.
And here I still am, once a month, checking in !
June 1 , Yelapa, Dia de Marina. Biggest party of the year, with Rodeo and this year a huge band played both weekend nights.
No major injuries to report which is good !
It was first day back to mi escuelita when the bulls for the rodeo were run through town, right past our doorway, by 8 or 10 cowboys on horses, calling "whoa whoa whoa" !!
We know they are coming, and the paths are cleared, but
kids to old folks stand back to watch them come through.
It's very exciting.
I counted 22 boats in the morning procession out of the bay, to throw wreaths in the ocean paying tribute to those who lost their lives at sea, Fishermen essentially.
The Playita was jam packed as per usual, with more people coming from Vallarta and area every year, and always family members home from States or Canada, and more food being sold, if you didn't want to wait for the pulled pork that comes free with a price of the bracelet.
A messy, greasy, fatty, experience, not to be missed, if you are into that kind of thing !
DJ started at 10:20 am and shut down at 7:30 pm.
Non stop super charged shake your booty dance music.
I danced ..... not on the beach, in the middle of the circle of wild people dancing around me, and the dj calling my name !!! like some people we know ......
Paloma ......
One gigantic beach party where almost everyone knows your name, or face !!
Now low season is here, let the rains begin.
Please please let it come down soon, but not before this afternoon when I can get the tarp over my bed, just in case !
I love my new roof, so clean and bright and smells fantastic,
if not a little over powering the first few days.
I am confident there will be no leaks, but just as a precaution, I'll leave the tarp up until the roof expands and settles.
I can see on my home page this is my 200th post !
Wow. That gives me a nice feeling difficult to explain.
That takes us back 7 years, I believe.
I was 52 years old, and my Dad was 85.
Because he was having difficulty breathing, talking on the phone was becoming a chore, so I started the blog as a way for him to keep up with my life in Yelapa, and when we did talk on the phone he could engage a little more, after reading my blog. The last year, my step mom read the blog to him.
I was writing every week for a few years !
Five years next month since he died.
And here I still am, once a month, checking in !
June 1 , Yelapa, Dia de Marina. Biggest party of the year, with Rodeo and this year a huge band played both weekend nights.
No major injuries to report which is good !
It was first day back to mi escuelita when the bulls for the rodeo were run through town, right past our doorway, by 8 or 10 cowboys on horses, calling "whoa whoa whoa" !!
We know they are coming, and the paths are cleared, but
kids to old folks stand back to watch them come through.
It's very exciting.
I counted 22 boats in the morning procession out of the bay, to throw wreaths in the ocean paying tribute to those who lost their lives at sea, Fishermen essentially.
The Playita was jam packed as per usual, with more people coming from Vallarta and area every year, and always family members home from States or Canada, and more food being sold, if you didn't want to wait for the pulled pork that comes free with a price of the bracelet.
A messy, greasy, fatty, experience, not to be missed, if you are into that kind of thing !
DJ started at 10:20 am and shut down at 7:30 pm.
Non stop super charged shake your booty dance music.
I danced ..... not on the beach, in the middle of the circle of wild people dancing around me, and the dj calling my name !!! like some people we know ......
Paloma ......
One gigantic beach party where almost everyone knows your name, or face !!
Now low season is here, let the rains begin.
Tuesday, May 14, 2019
Palapa in Yelapa
Good morning.
The bay of banderas enjoys 300 days of sunshine, so says the tourist bureau, but today is not one of them ! The first day of rain last year was June 5th, and we may be on track to repeat or beat that !
I'm ready with a new palapa roof !! Looks and smells organic ! and I love it.
I hope it lasts 8 years , that brings us to 2027 !!!! OMG !
I am lucky to have a casita on the property I could stay in during the 6 days it took to do the work , but now I'm ready to begin the clean up and moving back in,which will take another 6 days, with help on the weekend .
I didn't get one photo of the Festival of the Virgin Guadalupe, the Patron Saint of Mexico . Nine days of processions, with each neighborhood taking a turn.
Sunday was Confirmation at the Catholic church, with a fiesta at the basketball court later in the evening but I missed that too !
A Folklore Dance group visited Yelapa last week. Dancers from Italy, Panama and Columbia. It was a great event, with vendors below the basketball court in the new town square. It started very late, as they had to wait for the other half of the stage to arrive, and I lost my stamina, but it was a full house.
I must go and attend to my house.
More news and photos to come.
The bay of banderas enjoys 300 days of sunshine, so says the tourist bureau, but today is not one of them ! The first day of rain last year was June 5th, and we may be on track to repeat or beat that !
I'm ready with a new palapa roof !! Looks and smells organic ! and I love it.
I hope it lasts 8 years , that brings us to 2027 !!!! OMG !
I am lucky to have a casita on the property I could stay in during the 6 days it took to do the work , but now I'm ready to begin the clean up and moving back in,which will take another 6 days, with help on the weekend .
I didn't get one photo of the Festival of the Virgin Guadalupe, the Patron Saint of Mexico . Nine days of processions, with each neighborhood taking a turn.
Sunday was Confirmation at the Catholic church, with a fiesta at the basketball court later in the evening but I missed that too !
A Folklore Dance group visited Yelapa last week. Dancers from Italy, Panama and Columbia. It was a great event, with vendors below the basketball court in the new town square. It started very late, as they had to wait for the other half of the stage to arrive, and I lost my stamina, but it was a full house.
I must go and attend to my house.
More news and photos to come.
Friday, April 12, 2019
Spring
Buenos Dias one and all and ....
Happy Spring Forward !
At Yelapa's first Farmers Market on March 29th, a tourist asked me if it was Spring in Yelapa, since it does look more like fall, with leaves scattering and every surface dry and dusty.
It is Spring, because next will be summer, but really there are 2 seasons, wet and dry.
We changed our clocks last week and I can't decide what time I like better. Fishermen need their flashlights in the morning now, but the evenings are brilliant, with the sun's evening light reflecting off the hillside. Beauty.
Still trees flowering, Primavera maybe, which may be the one that changes colour !? And my Plumeria has more flowers then ever before, and the Nopale cactus are beginning to flower pink !
A little too early to anticipate the rain, but soon.
Yard work goes on and on but watering banana trees will soon be pointless. The sun is so intense, with the dry sandy soil it will time to cut them all back, and they will grow again when the rains come.
I've macheted a few already, myself !!
Life on a pinhead, is how one person described Yelapa Life. Life and Death so close when ( practically ) everyone is related. The births not as easy to keep track of, as the deaths.
Santiago. Dead at 93. Give or take a year or two.
A Yelapa legend, good and bad.
He lay in his bed dying, for a long time.
Twenty years ago, at my first Full moon fire on the beach, I saw him dance around it.
Swirling his cape and his face lit by the firelight.
His eyes, black holes, piercing up from under his hood.
I included it in my YELAPA poem, because for that moment, I saw my dead Mother, dancing there, under his hood.
And now, some of his family, are like family to me !
Matilde. Younger brother of Gorgonia, Margarito, and more. Died 3 days ago. Maybe 80 years young. Cancer.
He took to his bed and died within the month.
Shock and disbelief ! But, he was spared, and his family
were spared, the long sufferring pain and agony Cancer can bring.
Mày they rest in peace.
One thing I learned through this is, one bell from the church means, the walk to the Cemetary begins.
Babies and pregnancies out number the death by a good margin. Not sure when the next census will take place but I'll bet we are over 2500 inhabitants now !
The Farmers Market was fabulous, although there wasn't a lot of farm produce ! Cupcakes and Margaritas, the ever popular french fries with cut up weiners on top!
Yelapa art students work was on display and for sale, plus jams and jellies, including mango, which I want a continuous supply of !
I believe the plan is a market the 29th of every month, in high season only maybe, not sure , but great idea, and it will grow by leaps and bounds !
The event is held below the stairs leading up to the new Yelapa Museum ! It's been open about a month, sharing space with the Sheriff's office . It is so impressive, and that's just from the outside ! I'll be making my first visit over the Easter Break !
Today is the last day of school for 2 weeks.
Students will be in full gear when they return as Regional competitions, in all areas of study, will begin mid May for Secundary, Cobaej early June.
Group Marlin Folkloric dancers, and Cobaej Basketball have high hopes and expectations to do well !
Practice Practice Practice
I hosted the Canada Chapter of Young Leaders Youth Network, based in Vancouver, with special guest from
Isa Mundo foundation !
It happened that Primary and Kindergarten had their Spring Festival on the beach at the same time, so it was great timing for them to see all the kids together !
We visited the schools and installed soap dispensers in the bathrooms, and distributed all the books and school and office supplies, wastepaper baskets, and etc. etc. etc.
It was a great experience to connect with them, and look forward to more networking in the future !
Thank you GLYN and ISA MUNDO !
Check out their websites !!
Communication opens so many doors !!
I will be back to posting the 1st Monday of the month.
That's my plan.
Life will get back to pin head size when high season comes to an end, and the hot weather slows us down.
Gracias a dios !
Happy Spring Forward !
At Yelapa's first Farmers Market on March 29th, a tourist asked me if it was Spring in Yelapa, since it does look more like fall, with leaves scattering and every surface dry and dusty.
It is Spring, because next will be summer, but really there are 2 seasons, wet and dry.
We changed our clocks last week and I can't decide what time I like better. Fishermen need their flashlights in the morning now, but the evenings are brilliant, with the sun's evening light reflecting off the hillside. Beauty.
Still trees flowering, Primavera maybe, which may be the one that changes colour !? And my Plumeria has more flowers then ever before, and the Nopale cactus are beginning to flower pink !
A little too early to anticipate the rain, but soon.
Yard work goes on and on but watering banana trees will soon be pointless. The sun is so intense, with the dry sandy soil it will time to cut them all back, and they will grow again when the rains come.
I've macheted a few already, myself !!
Life on a pinhead, is how one person described Yelapa Life. Life and Death so close when ( practically ) everyone is related. The births not as easy to keep track of, as the deaths.
Santiago. Dead at 93. Give or take a year or two.
A Yelapa legend, good and bad.
He lay in his bed dying, for a long time.
Twenty years ago, at my first Full moon fire on the beach, I saw him dance around it.
Swirling his cape and his face lit by the firelight.
His eyes, black holes, piercing up from under his hood.
I included it in my YELAPA poem, because for that moment, I saw my dead Mother, dancing there, under his hood.
And now, some of his family, are like family to me !
Matilde. Younger brother of Gorgonia, Margarito, and more. Died 3 days ago. Maybe 80 years young. Cancer.
He took to his bed and died within the month.
Shock and disbelief ! But, he was spared, and his family
were spared, the long sufferring pain and agony Cancer can bring.
Mày they rest in peace.
One thing I learned through this is, one bell from the church means, the walk to the Cemetary begins.
Babies and pregnancies out number the death by a good margin. Not sure when the next census will take place but I'll bet we are over 2500 inhabitants now !
The Farmers Market was fabulous, although there wasn't a lot of farm produce ! Cupcakes and Margaritas, the ever popular french fries with cut up weiners on top!
Yelapa art students work was on display and for sale, plus jams and jellies, including mango, which I want a continuous supply of !
I believe the plan is a market the 29th of every month, in high season only maybe, not sure , but great idea, and it will grow by leaps and bounds !
The event is held below the stairs leading up to the new Yelapa Museum ! It's been open about a month, sharing space with the Sheriff's office . It is so impressive, and that's just from the outside ! I'll be making my first visit over the Easter Break !
Today is the last day of school for 2 weeks.
Students will be in full gear when they return as Regional competitions, in all areas of study, will begin mid May for Secundary, Cobaej early June.
Group Marlin Folkloric dancers, and Cobaej Basketball have high hopes and expectations to do well !
Practice Practice Practice
I hosted the Canada Chapter of Young Leaders Youth Network, based in Vancouver, with special guest from
Isa Mundo foundation !
It happened that Primary and Kindergarten had their Spring Festival on the beach at the same time, so it was great timing for them to see all the kids together !
We visited the schools and installed soap dispensers in the bathrooms, and distributed all the books and school and office supplies, wastepaper baskets, and etc. etc. etc.
It was a great experience to connect with them, and look forward to more networking in the future !
Thank you GLYN and ISA MUNDO !
Check out their websites !!
Communication opens so many doors !!
I will be back to posting the 1st Monday of the month.
That's my plan.
Life will get back to pin head size when high season comes to an end, and the hot weather slows us down.
Gracias a dios !
Sunday, February 24, 2019
Feliz ano nuevo !!
Time is flying by ... this is my first post since Christmas !
High Season is in high gear !! But it's a cold winter, overcast and rainy weather, but the swimming is good, so I'm told !
Just be sure to time your swim to sunny breaks !
There has been more then one whale coming right into the bay as of late. One was very close in front of the house slapping its fin on the water, over and over again !
For a few moments I thought it may be in distress, but
it wasn't, to my relief .
I had to leave for school, but later I was told there was another whale behind, giving birth !!
No way to confirm that exactly, but wonderful to think of it !
Life, death aging .
Santos, who worked for Isabel 20 years plus at the time of her death, and continued working for a few years after, but then retired and promptly got sick and died within 2 years ! Dementia. And his son Mario,
who returned to PV from San Jose,California, in a stretcher and paraplegic, 3 or 4 years ago, died within a month of Santos passing .
Sisters and daughters and Ramona, Wife and Mother, had dedicated years to the care of these men, and now they are both gone. Bitter sweet release .
And the world keeps turning .
Small town living, life on a pin head, someone said .
So evident how everyone and everything is connected.
Especially with Mother Nature all around.
The moon and stars hang over my palm roof, as close as if my fingers could reconfigurate.
The sun moves over my shoulders in a way I don't remember from anywhere else I've ever been.
The month of June, the sun comes up through my toes .
Not so much anymore, only because I have curtains now to block the horrid security flood light on the beach, but still, the sun comes up betwèn my toes, I just have to open the curtains !
So many changes in Yelapa and it's hard for a small town to keep up, but ...
One new project come to Grand Opening, is the Yelapa Museum ! Located below the town basketball court, above the Hardware store. I have not yet been to visit,
but I must see and will report.
What I have seen, is the slate wall installed at the path entrance on hardware store side. 1000% improvement .
This is also the office of the Deligado, this election term,
Three years we have,Deligada, Feminine!
This is our representative to the County/Municipal Delegation of Tuitò. They who give money !! This is also , in my mind, a Sheriff sort of position, and it feels good, to me, to have a woman in the job. Right on, right on.
My focus now on mi escuelita English groups, and Yelapa School Project, and once a week teaching at Prepa.
I'm preparing for March 21st visit from representatives from Isa Mundo Foundation and GLYN; Global Leadership Youth Network, operating of Vaancouver BC
Please check in with Yelapa school project website or facebook page !
Also on Facebook is
more poetry please ,
where I have started, and hope to continue,
posting my original collection of poems !
Best wishes to all , for a joyful 2019 !!
High Season is in high gear !! But it's a cold winter, overcast and rainy weather, but the swimming is good, so I'm told !
Just be sure to time your swim to sunny breaks !
There has been more then one whale coming right into the bay as of late. One was very close in front of the house slapping its fin on the water, over and over again !
For a few moments I thought it may be in distress, but
it wasn't, to my relief .
I had to leave for school, but later I was told there was another whale behind, giving birth !!
No way to confirm that exactly, but wonderful to think of it !
Life, death aging .
Santos, who worked for Isabel 20 years plus at the time of her death, and continued working for a few years after, but then retired and promptly got sick and died within 2 years ! Dementia. And his son Mario,
who returned to PV from San Jose,California, in a stretcher and paraplegic, 3 or 4 years ago, died within a month of Santos passing .
Sisters and daughters and Ramona, Wife and Mother, had dedicated years to the care of these men, and now they are both gone. Bitter sweet release .
And the world keeps turning .
Small town living, life on a pin head, someone said .
So evident how everyone and everything is connected.
Especially with Mother Nature all around.
The moon and stars hang over my palm roof, as close as if my fingers could reconfigurate.
The sun moves over my shoulders in a way I don't remember from anywhere else I've ever been.
The month of June, the sun comes up through my toes .
Not so much anymore, only because I have curtains now to block the horrid security flood light on the beach, but still, the sun comes up betwèn my toes, I just have to open the curtains !
So many changes in Yelapa and it's hard for a small town to keep up, but ...
One new project come to Grand Opening, is the Yelapa Museum ! Located below the town basketball court, above the Hardware store. I have not yet been to visit,
but I must see and will report.
What I have seen, is the slate wall installed at the path entrance on hardware store side. 1000% improvement .
This is also the office of the Deligado, this election term,
Three years we have,Deligada, Feminine!
This is our representative to the County/Municipal Delegation of Tuitò. They who give money !! This is also , in my mind, a Sheriff sort of position, and it feels good, to me, to have a woman in the job. Right on, right on.
My focus now on mi escuelita English groups, and Yelapa School Project, and once a week teaching at Prepa.
I'm preparing for March 21st visit from representatives from Isa Mundo Foundation and GLYN; Global Leadership Youth Network, operating of Vaancouver BC
Please check in with Yelapa school project website or facebook page !
Also on Facebook is
more poetry please ,
where I have started, and hope to continue,
posting my original collection of poems !
Best wishes to all , for a joyful 2019 !!
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