Welcome to Our Place in this World

HOLA!!!!

It has taken me a little time to compile my thoughts. It is very difficult to explain the feelings I had while visiting this humble home and the joy and pride they had to show me everything. So here is my journey.

On Wednesday the 18th I went with Delia (a maid here at the hotel) to her families Rancho (farm). Open you mind and enjoy.

We were to leave at 11a.m. Delia loaded up the small pick up with the food she had been preparing all morning. There's a "car seat" (not a child seat but an actual car seat) in the box of the pick up and this is where her daughter sat. Delia alone with Nelson her grandson sat in the cab with me. Guess what? I was the driver! Ok I can do this! So I started it up and "whoa" does this thing have a muffler.....it must, but it sure must have a lot of holes in it. We're off, bumpity bump over the cobblestone roads that are extra rough because of the unusual amount of rain this past fall. Delia informs me once on the highway that it will take 1 hour to the rancho.

This is the road to Guadalahara which is a 5 hour drive from Melaque. The rancho is way up in the mountains and the highway is very windy with a few straight stretches. The pick up badly needs a wheel alignment and the speedometer doesn't work.

We come to a fairly large town with "paved" roads, this is the town we must turn off the highway to get onto the road that will take us to the rancho.

Not too far now. I won't say too much about the 2 bridges we cross, yet. That's to follow. We then turn onto a dirt road that will take us past a small village then into the main village.

Iguana run across the road as we slowly bump down this dirt road that will take us to the village. Everyone seems to have chickens. So I should feel right at home! They actually had some of the same kind of chickens that I had. I thought that was pretty cool!

This village is roughly in the centre of the rancho, a couple of the small rancho's are owned by others but mainly the town is about 90% of Delia's family. They raise up meat cows, no idea what kind they are. So they have many pastures and then fields of corn for the cows.

Both Delia's parents have lived here most of their lives, I believe this is where her fathers family lived. So her father, grandfather and great grandfather. Her parents were married here.

There is a small church and Delia crosses herself as we pass the opening of the church, a very common practice with this people. All churches are always open, if there are doors they are wide open, welcoming anyone to please come in, enjoy the tranquility.

Two schools, one for Kinder to about grade 4 and the other for the rest of the grades. Both schools have about 6 class rooms there are not a lot of children in the village but the schools would service the little village we passed before this one.

We drive past a home of Delia's uncle, well I think it is kind of like an old folk home because there are a few elderly men who live there and Delia's aunt the sister of her mother, looks after them. One is 95 years old, her papa's brother and there is another that is 102 years old. Or lived to be 102. My Spanish is questionable!

The family home is very large by their standards and the following posts will show you. On the walls are very old photos of the family very classic Mexican pictures where the boys are in white cotton pants and shirts with the wide sash at the waste. Just like in the movies!

I got half the tour before eating. Besides I needed a break that was a lot to see. They are very proud of their land and what they have. Large fields of corn, one just newly planted another a few weeks along. These are worked by hand. They have a lot of natural springs on the land this water is used for everything, irrigation, animals and yes the people. But. They have an incredible water purification process. When they were showing me where one of the springs was where it bubbles up out of the ground, and is piped into a long concrete vat, off to the side is a cross - I asked about this, a woman drank the water, became ill and died. mmmm - hence - do not drink this water!

Returning to the house we prepared the meal. These people were so wonderful, the joy and laughter. I felt so much a part of them as I tried to understand what they were saying and surprised how much I did. Delia prepared a traditional cactus salad (salada). A specific type of cactus cooked & diced along with onions, celantro and tomatoes. A meat dish not unlike our meat loaf, fresh cucumbers & hikima (not sure of the spelling but it's good) and spicy salsa and tortillas for those who wanted them.

Easy conversation and much laughter around the table, never did I feel like a stranger, I felt so welcome and comfortable. These folks who happily shared their home and meal with me.

After eating we continued our tour, they have numerous fruit trees, oranges, limes, a fruit called a lima, it looks like a lime on the outside, a lemon on the inside but isn't, the taste is unlike anything I've ever tasted but is good, almost like the lemon and the orange got confused. They have lots of mango, papay and banana trees and many others.

There are chickens, mules and cows. There is a bull ring for the rodeos on the outside edge of the village.

Time to leave and head back down to Melaque. The way back of course was much the same except this time I was able to "see" things as I was used to the road and the sloppy steering of the vehicle.

The two one way bridges we crossed caught my attention this time. One was a small one, no rails on the sides. The other was being replaced, the new one is going to be two lanes and higher above the river. The old one has rails .... sort of. Pictures are in the last post.

The road construction we passed earlier was very busy. Apparently the hurricane that hit this past October was the worst in 30 years. The amount of water coming down from the mountains was incredible. So we were stopped as they were clearing a past slide area, the boulders were massive. We were there about 30 minutes ... road was cleared and off we went, arrived safe and sound. The end of a most incredible and memorable day. The pictures to follow are of my day and some of the people and sights.

Delia's brother Thomas has been building this home for a couple of years now. He and Lupe live in Melaque and comes to the family rancho on Saturday, Sunday and Monday to work on the house. When you look at these amazing pics. Remember that no machine was used at all, he did this all by hand and with little extra help other than family. Truly a labour of love. Yes that is a curved ceiling in 3 separate panels. The floor joists are poured, then sand is put done and cement on top, another layer of cement will be smoothed out on top of that then the roof, then when the house is finished the tile floor will be laid.

The bull ring, one of the 1st things you see as you come into the village. Ole!

This little hut is sitting on the source of the water. A natural spring, they open a water gate when they want to fill the reservoirs that flow through water troughs that are the irrigation.

The procedure is interesting and the water goes through a regid filtering process to make it drinkable. A 5 gallon jug costs the people of this village 2 pesos to fill. That doesn't even amount to anything in our money or so small not worth it.