Almost a week since we last blogged-  time flies!

Paul played in the US "CHOPEN" tennis tournament last Sunday - 17 teams of mostly Mexicans with a few "gringos" in the mix.  Paul was paired with Gene - a Korean fellow who lives in San Diego and has a house here. What a nice guy and lot of fun. The final was hard fought between 2 Mexican teams and a meal of "Posele" was served - pork hocks cooked with swelled corn kernels in a broth - Mexican comfort food and super yummy!

I had the opportunity to go out with a friend Val to an elementary school in the Colonias de Guadaloupe on Tuesday. This is a very poor neighborhood outside of the city. She and another volunteer Edwardo were doing a workshop on water filtration with some of the Moms from the village. These families have only a very limited supply of water and it is not drinkable.  The organization Waves for Water supplies the bucket and filtration system and Val and Edwardo provide the education to enable these families to have clean water. Really interesting and great to be part of. The kids are also super cute - see pics!

Our house construction is moving along "muy rapido!" See the pics - we have not only walls, but rooms! Unbelievable hard work for the guys.

Couldn't resist also adding the photos of my drive home on Thursday from town - the main Trans Peninsular highway (Highway One) was at a stand still for the herd of cattle that was crossing.. had to snap a photo it was so ridiculous!

Tonight we are watching Hurricane Sandra very closely - the latest Hurricane on record for this part of the world. Looks to be tracking south of Cabo now, so will have our fingers crossed. Our first experience of this so we will be bringing everything inside tonight just in case - for sure there will be rain, but it is the wind that is unpredictable. We hope that it passes before the wedding we are attending on the beach on Saturday too!

Short update to keep in the habit of doing this. We got several complaints last week from our loyal readers about the frequency (or lack) of our blogging!

I took an unofficial day off on Thursday and we went to our favourite beach with Helga on her last day here. That night, we went to a concert in the downtown area featuring Terry Townson and local hero Daniel Tuchman (think Jerry Doucette in relation to Tsawwassen!). Pretty good sound and a nice stage that would suit Bradley McGillivray Blues Band very well in the future!

Leanne has been in to "the centro" most days this week. On Wednesday she was involved in choosing all the decorations for our local friend Myrna's wedding. She is looking forward to setting up the room next Saturday for their big day.

The house is really starting to take shape - literally walls are going up every day now that the grunt work of digging the foundations in solid rock is over.

Early night for me tonight... I have a big tennis tournament tomorrow. I finally met my partner Gene the other day, who asked me if we have cleared space on the mantelpiece for our trophies... (I think he may be disappointed!)

every piece of rebar is made by hand!

packing heat at Cafe Combate 

Balandra Beach

We managed to find a space to put up the umbrella

mariachi band off to a gig!

jack cousteau checking the tides

the burro maya

fish tacos and marlin empanada

they dug the foundations by hand through solid rock

Our regular readers will be glad to know that it is actually a little chilly here today. There’s a strong wind blowing from the north and we can see white caps on the water in the bay.

We haven’t blogged for a few days, it didn’t seem right with the terrible news from France over the weekend. 

Our friend Helga joined us here last Friday. We picked her up at the bus station in town, which just happened to be a short walk from the bar where they sell the local Baja IPA (Peyote). So it being Friday, it was natural to have a couple of pints, and our friends Terry & Valerie joined us too. It was a good way to start the weekend. 

Saturday we did our shopping at the local markets - we bought meat from the butcher’s for the first time. It actually was pretty good, and everyone is still alive, despite the photos! 

Sunday was taken up with tennis up at Ed’s, I actually played for about 3 hrs - very good exercise, and good practice, because next week I’m playing in a tournament that the locals have organized. The previous one in September was called WINEbeldon… this time it’s the US CHOPEN (Chope apparently means to ‘chug’ as in beer/tequila!!) There’s food and prizes, and everyone gets a tee shirt.

The house is continuing very well, the foundations are almost complete and the foundation walls are starting to rise. They work so hard - the drop in temperature today must have been very welcome.

One of the week’s highlights was “Buen Fin” which is like the Black Friday sales in the US. We found out that one of the local stores was selling 3 for 2 booze - so we stocked up! And we also bought for Ed our neighbour. We got some raised eyebrows at the check out with 36 bottles of wine for ‘mi amigo’! A likely story...

Very sticky.

Coronation Street, wine and peanuts = happy 

Morning visitor

Frothy coffee at Maria California's

X rated butcher shop

Happy "Buen Fin" to all!

Sponge Bob Santa

33% off!!! And the bottle on the left only cost $3 in the first place.

Don't bet on Team 11

We are settling into a great routine - up early and out for a walk on the hillside before it gets too hot.  See the photo of me with my 3 four legged friends who join me as I pass their house everyday.  Too bad Molly can’t come, but she would be so stressed out. She is happy though, as she has a huge yard to play in and spends a lot of time outside and has a good bark every now and again. She also joined in on our Yoga on the roof the other day! 

Day 9 of Construction - these guys are working really hard. Everything is “old school” and takes time. We wondered if a Cement truck would show up to mix the concrete for the foundations, but no, these guys are mixing it themselves in a mixer. We put in a photo of Day 1 and now Day 9 so you can see the changes. I made them chocolate cupcakes today to keep their energy up! 

They had to move a large, old cactus today  (see pic) as it was impossible to re-arrange the floor plan to keep it there. Super heavy - it’s full of water. 

Paul played a lot of tennis again on Sunday - he is keeping up with the Mexicans really well! 

One of the best players on Sunday - Tone (84!) 

Playing doubles with Raul (our builder/friend)

Santos on the right is the Foreman 

this guy set up under one of our trees - to build the rebar