Day 4, or dolce far niente

Another long, long sleep, followed by the same delicious breakfast. There was a new twist today, as there are more guests at Casa Flores: an Irish couple adopting a Mexican child are here. The little girl is adorable, and the parents are very happy to be near the end of the process.

You may or may not have noticed that, when I wrote about getting lunch stuff, I didn't mention bread. That's because even we stupid gringos know that you get that fresh at the beginning of the day. Steve mentioned to me last night that he would be going to the market this morning, so I took advantage of the transportation and got fresh rolls as well as some heavy-ish potential tequila mixers at Pharmacia Guadalajara. It is one busy place, and I got to stand around outside for about 10 minutes and take a few photos for "ambiance." The fruit seller stand that you can barely see in the distance in the one photo is identical to one on just about every corner--all it is is a card table and a chair or two, either under a tree or sporting its own umbrella, and the folks sell fresh pineapple, mango, watermelon, what-have-you, and Elliott says they season it with salt and hot pepper.

Since returning from the market I've done nothing but type, here, as I have a new web site to do and also wanted to get caught up a bit on the blog.

I mentioned the Lake Chapala Society earlier, and you can see it among the links at the top of this page. As I indicated earlier, there is a very active community of ex-pats here, mainly from the States and Canada, and they do everything from run a library to invent and participate in charitable causes. There is a Little Theater, an animal rescue society, and tons of other activities. For the kind of person who doesn't feel comfortable off the bat in a "foreign" environment, the LCS must be a real blessing. David is already signed up and came home with a thick booklet yesterday listing all the members and providing info about the activities. Among the services advertised in its pages were "post-death planning."