Wal-Mart and Pirates

Tuesday:   We all had a really great night sleep last night and just hung out around the house until noon.  We had made plans with our friends Fred and Rita to head into town for lunch.  They came by the house and we visited for about a half hour and then got in or respective cars and headed into town.  We of course followed them and ended up parking right outside this beautiful blue stucco blue wall.  The most amazing thing so fare about the buildings here is that you can’t tell what is inside the walls.  As we walk down the narrow cobbled streets, the walls are all different colors, big gates and doors that obstruct your view, hiding what is behind them; it feels like I am back in Spain.  Every once in awhile you will get a peak and there will be a beautiful area with lush gardens, beautiful Mexican tile and outdoor furnishings.  We walk down to the blue building on the right as we head towards the lake.  The Hotel is called "La Nueva Posada" and is the oldest hotel in town.  We step inside the doors and enter he most beautiful entryway I have seen yet.  The staircase going up to the right is all marble, with Mexican art over the place.  Looking up to the ceiling, they are made of brick and arched “bóveda”.  The place is stunningly beautiful.  We walk out to the patio and there is a view of the lake, an enormous rubber tree that must be at least 15 feet around at the base.  We sit and order our food.  The kids of course have their standard meals.  Andrew has a Mexican style burrito, which is not what you would find in the US.  It is more like a quesadilla with beans inside, but he has gotten used to this being a  “Burrito”.  Zach has a burger and fries.  We order an amazing salad, fish and chips “English style” and Fred turns us on to “Limon con gas” (lime juice with bubbly water) and it is wonderfully refreshing.  One thing to note is that in Mexico they are not very familiar with lemons, but you can find them in a few of the stores as “Limon con America”.  The food is amazing and hanging out with Fred and Rita is a real treat.  They are a wealth of information and we are learning so much about our new home from them.   

After lunch, we say our goodbyes and head towards the town of Chapala.  It is an easy 10 minutes down the main road.  We stop at our Insurance office to pay for our Mexico Auto Policy.  It is less then $280 for 6 months.  The office is Parker Insurance and the people there are all super friendly and very professional.  We actually acquired the policy while back in Colorado by email.  They emailed a copy of the policy for the drive down and we paid on arrival.  Make sure to ask for Gretta and Abby, they are really great.  After asking care of little business, we headed into Chapala. It is the biggest of the towns on this end of the lake.  If you travel west, you will run into Jocotopec and it too is rather large.  It is only about 15 minutes to the west of us.  We turned around and headed back to do some more grocery shopping at Wal-Mart, yes Wal-Mart.  It is enormous and has everything you can imagine, electronics, clothes, and food and of course toys.   Everything is a bit less expensive then the US except for toys and imported foods from the US.  A jar of peanut small butter will run you about $4.50US.  If you eat fruit, veggies, and meat and stay away from American foods, you can eat like a king very cheap.  Example, the most amazing Mangos cost us about 10cents each.  Then we found the bakery and the kids went nuts.  You take a large silver platter and a pair of tongs and walk the isles picking out what you want.  The loafs of fresh bread cost around 6cents each, the donut that Andrew got was about 30cents and Zach’s cookie with sprinkles was the same.  After our Wal-Mart adventure, we headed back to the house for siesta.  Most, but not all of the people go home and close up shop from 2pm-4pm for their rest.  We took our rest and got ready for a night out.  After our little break, we headed to the local movie theatre to see ” Pirates del Caribe” or Pirates of the Caribbean.   

The theatre is freaking amazing.  It is as nice or nicer then anything I have been to in the US. Stadium seating, incredibly clean, 6 movies to choose from.  All of the movies from the US are in English with Spanish subtitles except for animated films, like the upcoming Cars 2.  The movie cost us 30 pesos for the kids plus a peso for the 3D glasses and 40 pesos for the adults and a 1 peso for the 3D glasses.  That breaks down to under $11US Dollars for all of us.  The really cool thing we found out was that on Wednesday nights it’s 2 for 1.  We totally have our family date night planned now.  After the movie was over we stepped outside and it was pouring rain.  We were told that we are moving into the rainy season and that it will rain every night from now through August.  It fell for about an hour and then stopped.  The rain of course cools things down from a scorching 85 degrees to about 65 degrees.  Oh, just kidding about the scorching part.  The climate here so far has been just incredible.  The mal that the theatre is in is all outdoors and looks like a mini version of the Denver airport, with the white tents covering the space in between the rows of shops.  The mall can’t be more then a few years old from the look of things.  So, after walking a bit, we headed to the car in the rain, and went back to the house.  What a great day it was today.  We are looking forward to more exploring tomorrow.