Quincena Guests

Roberto, our head worker, invited us to attend his daughter’s 15^th birthday party.  Turning 15 in Mexico is a huge thing for young girls.  Families mortgage the house so a daughter can have the event of her "Cuincena" dreams.

The girls typical choose a really flashy dress.  Always in bright colours.  Here’s Sergio standing beside Guadalupe.  It’s hard to belive that she is only 15 years-old. Check-out the gloves!

The young women also selects several of her male friends (and sometimes relatives) to be her escorts.  They are call “Chambelanes” and they get all gussied up in tuxedos.  Lupita had six guys all  in these black suits with green vests.  She also had six girlfriends in matching cocktail type dresses.

A big part of the event is a danced staged with the gal and her escorts.  This is almost always choreographed and requires hours of rehearsal.  Lupita actually did four numbers with her troupe – the poor guys doing their best despite almost no rhythmique ability.

Then the show-stopper is a waltz with Dad.  Here’s Roberto doing his best.  Honestly it was so sweet it brought tears, literally, to my eyes.

While this is a humble family, the event was over the top.  They had two stages.  First there was a typical Mexican band with a singer you can just make out in a green jacket and cowboy hat.  Then there was a salsa band and the whole thing finished off with Mariachis.  They even had cock fighting although I’m not sure what that has to do with a girl’s birthday party.  We passed on that spectacle (all perfectly legal here).

It seemed that the entire village (Amatlan – around the corner from us) was invited and they ordered food for 1500 people – yes fifteen hundred people.  As you can see, the tequila and beer flowed freely.

The cake was four levels high.  Unfortunately we had to leave before it was cut.  We had a blast.  Roberto thanked us a million times for coming.  Too sweet.

Jenny's Gifts to Tepoz

Way back when we first bought the lot a book club friend offered us some appliances.  She and her husband were moving back to the States and she said taking them off their hands would be doing them a favour.  We had them picked up and the appliances sat in Arlene’s garage for an embarrassingly long time, while Linda stored other things in her maid’s room.

Here I am in our laundry room (under the indoor stairs) with the family-size washer and dryer, both in perfectly good order. I'm sweaty from cleaning the room after major exterior work.

We were also given a dishwasher (now hidden behind a kitchen cupboard door).

Jenny also gave us a single bed which we’ve set-up as a day bed in your bedroom.  It works perfectly.

On top of that she gave us this elliptical machine.  Naturally all it has done is gather dust despite our continuing claims that, “Next visit I’m going to get on the elliptical”.

Thanks Jenny. Everything is fantastic.

Some "real" furniture

Bit by bit we’re getting some furniture so we can retire the cardboard moving boxes pressed into temporary duty as end tables, coffee tables, bed tables, etc.  We’ve even managed to fold up one of the two plastic tables!

In Tepoz there is an antique dealer with lots of interesting stuff.  We stopped by his store one day to see what he had.  Along with a couple of beautiful old benches and lots of nick-knack type things we saw this table base.  It’s made of old railway spikes!

The picture in the orange frame was in the city.  We bought it from the same kooky lady that sold us most of the art in the Polanco apartment.  She claims it is an original by some famous Cuban artist know for painting roosters.  Who knows?  Looks nice there for sure.

The antique dealer also had this coffee table.  It’s actually an old door!  We really liked it.

He wanted 1000 pesos each for the two pieces.  Well business can’t be that good as we offered him 1000 pesos for both, he said he’d have to think about it, and called us back two hours later accepting our offer.  He also foolishly agreed to supply the glass top for the dining room table without actually finding out how much it would cost – a lot!

We also went to see a carpenter in town to have the small unit made to hold the stereo and DVD player – plus hide some of the “stuff” that was collecting around our “entertainment center”.  It is made entirely of re-cycled wood then with a distressed “antique” finish.  It too was a bargain so we’re happy with that.

Piece by piece we're getting the house into shape so we can generate some rental income.  Meanwhile the two of us are enjoying it immensely.