April 4, 2008

Yet another sojourn to Arroyo Seco to check out progress

ARROYO SECO, Jalisco, Mexico - We mounted another expedition to Arroyo Seco Friday, this time with a full entourage of the Admiral and I, Tom & Mary Jo (La Manzanilla residents) Tia and her daughter Macy (and dog Coda), as well as two Spanish teachers from Calgary, Canada - Laura and Christina - who we hope might come back next year and put on some English classes for los ninos in the village.

We swooshed into town like a motorcade and were greeted with a nearly completed lot and lots of smiles from the local residents who are all curious about what we are going to do.

We wonder what we are going to do with the lot ourselves.

Flattened lot
The flattened lot - and a lot of room it has

After looking over the walls, however, we realized that what we thought was a relatively cheap and quick fix in the back is going to turn into a major bricklaying operation - probably about three times the amount of work (and $$$$) as we had initially estimated. The back wall needs to be a lot higher than originally thought. One side needs raising about six feet. And one side - 125 feet - needs an entire new wall, eight feet high.

Anyone interested in a little concrete and brickwork?

Admiral explains her site plan
The Admiral explains her ideas for the site

Still, it was exciting to see it so flat, the buildings gone and how much space we have to work with. We measured off a footprint for a building about the size of Palapa Joe's restaurant in La Manzanilla and discovered that it would fit neatly a one corner, leaving enough to build three more buildings of that size on the lot.

And still we would have plenty room to park, and even add some other small places.

No trip to Arroyo Seco is complete without going to the beach, where the waves were sooooo much better then when we were there two days ago with Dr. John and his amigos, who have returned to the U.S. but who might make another pilgrimage before we leave this summer for New York.

Some local surfer dudes were there, enjoying some good rides. We just enjoyed the scenery and the wind.

Laura contemplates surfing
Laura and Coda contemplate some surfing

Macy and Mary Jo con perros
A great beach for children, dogs and grandparents

Macy & Coda
Macy & Coda - after a long morning at the beach

No comments: