Let's Go For a Walk

When I left the casa early this morning, Ashes was lying in a nice and cool dirt hole, bathing herself. This early morning routine of mine does not phase her. She doesn't care where I am going at 5:30am as long as I have filled the cat dish with food before I close the gate behind me.

This morning I am going to look for Parque el Chalaton. It is a private park up on the hillside. It is private, but for 10 pesos a family can enter and stay all day. It isn't a long walk from the house, but it is all uphill. In the photo below I am looking down the street I have just come up. I am now in Barrio el Chalaton. Alamos is made up of its downtown Alameda and Plaza areas and about 20 barrios (or neighborhoods). Some of the barrios are in town while others stretch far out into the hills. They have names like Barrio La Isla De Cuba, Barrio Del Rastro, Barrio De La Cuevita Santa, and Barrio La Colorado (which is where we live).

At the Parque El Chalaton, there are young men working, hauling garbage, raking debris. It's very early so the park is locked and I can't see too much because there are alot of trees. I do see benches and asaderos for grilling and what looks like structures for children to climb on. I am a meek and mild photographer and the workers see me peering through the fence so I don't take photos. I decide to come back one day when the parque is open.

So I have come back across the Arroyo El Chalaton, where the water is running across the road, and started climbing up to Barrio Las Higueras. It gets a little steeper here and when the road ends I climb over the boulders and walk a little higher to see the views in the photos below.

I think I am walking above the Arroya El Chalaton, but there are so many arroyos here, it is hard to tell. Below I see people filling jugs with water from the arroyo and carrying them away.

From the top I can the Sierra Madres and where the Copper Canyon begins.


Back down I take another right and go up into Barrio Altos De Tacubaya. The dirt roads are rocky and take me up into the hills again. There is a huge truck ahead of me. It is the OOMPASS water truck. It stops at at every casa and fills either lots of large cans or tinacos or rubbermaid containers with water. So I am understanding that city water doesn't come up this high, but there is electricity. And tv antennas.
The views from here are beautiful, lots of chickens are running around, childern are sitting on their roof tops and everyone I see waves and calls Buen Dia to me before I can even open my mouth. Even the water truck man say hola, hola, hola, how you be today...... From Tacubaya I can see the Mirador and again, the Sierras. This is a beautiful place.

On my walk back down the hills I decide to go and drop by the Palacio where the huge meeting of the govenors has just ended recently. I want to check my apartado box...maybe we have mail......
The Palacio is a beautiful building and inside are all of the municipality and government offices. We pay our water bill here and collect our mail.

It has received a new paint job for the meetings and a huge table has been installed for all the governors to sit around and discuss whatever it is they were supposed to discuss. President Calderon was supposed to be here as well, but there were rumors that he went to the US instead......

The open roof was covered for this event and air conditioning was pumped down through the tubes on each side of the roof. On one table I see the placards with the names of the states and governors and the state seal. There are only maids around, sweeping, disposing of cigarette butts, and polishing the huge table which appears to come apart in sections. I think that no one will notice if I take the Quintana Roo placard, after all a few placards are just lying on the floor. On my way out there are two federales standing guard at the door and I don't remember seeing them when I went in. One of them shakes his head and takes the placard out of my hands, but he smiles and says adios when I walk sheepishly down the steps and back to Barrio La Colorado....

After I walk in the gate and turn around the corner of the casa someone pulls on the swirly shells that are hanging outside the gate. They are attached to a long string that is attached to a fulcrum that has a long string of bells hanging from it. We collected the shells on a trip to Huatabampito (the beach an hour and a half away) and the bells belonged to Bill's mother.



My neighbor from across the street calls out to me, there is a big turtle coming up the road. It really looks tired and like it needs some water....i am on my way to town and in a hurry...can you get it some water.

Sure, I say.....and not knowing how big the turtle is or how much water to get, I look out the gate real quick and see a monster tortoise creeping slowly up the street. I grab a huge bowl of water and go out to the street. He has stopped along my neighbor's wall and I sit down and start sprinkling water over its head. At first, it pulls its head in and hides, then slowly as I pour more water, its head comes out again and his look says...man, I have been traveling a long distance...can i please have more of that water.....the tortoise has a name written on its back, so I decide it is someone's pet....not knowing what else to do I sit there with it and after awhile my neighbor's husband comes home and we decide to put the tortoise in their yard and let his wife decide what to do with it.

Finally I get back inside my gate to my casa and realize I have been gone for five hours.....i have travelled a long distance, too, today.