Strangers in paradise.
I am repeatedly amazed at how often I receive great advice from people I know through no other source than this blog.
It happened again last week.
A reader, who once lived in Melaque, was going to be in town on business. He wanted to know if I would be interested in sitting down to discuss Mexico -- and Melaque, in particular.
The evening was as typical as any July day on the Costa Alegre. Hot. Humid. Lazy.
We decided to eat at a restaurant we both enjoy: Señor Froy's (yes, with a "y"). He for the lasagna -- "second best in the world."
But the evening was not about eating; it was about living in Mexico.
He told me how he had been retired for several years and traveled the world before he settled on Mexico as a retirement site. Melaque was first. But the summers were too much -- reminded him of why he had left Indiana.
He eventually ended up in the mountains above Colima on the way to Guadalajara. After moving there, he married a Mexican national. (This seems to be a theme amongst single men in Mexico.) He seems to be genuinely happy.
I had been soaking in the information, when he fixed a serious eye on me, and asked: "So, why are you in Mexico?"
For a moment I felt like Ted Kennedy in 1980 when Mike Wallace asked him in a 60 Minutes interview: "Why do you want to be president?" Teddy blew the answer. From that moment on, his quest to topple President Carter was doomed.
And it was not a new question for me. Several people have asked the question of me -- just as pointedly.
My standard answer ("For the adventure.") left him unfazed.
"What is that supposed to mean?"
I am not certain I got to the core of some of my reasons for being here: archaeology, wildlife, learning from new people.
Friday I drove from Melaque to Cihuatlán -- essentially, our county seat -- to buy some goods. As I drove down the coast road, I came to a small rise: part of Isla de Navidad. At the crest of the hill, I saw something anew that I must see two or three times a week: another answer why I moved to Mexico.
Looking south, you see a large alluvial plain with miles and miles of nothing but coconut plantations. The verdant enormity has its own understated beauty. Like most wide vistas, it is difficult to capture in a small photograph, but my attempt is at the top of this post.
Those moments -- and meeting more strangers in this fallen paradise -- may be the best answer to why I am in Mexico.
I am repeatedly amazed at how often I receive great advice from people I know through no other source than this blog.
It happened again last week.
A reader, who once lived in Melaque, was going to be in town on business. He wanted to know if I would be interested in sitting down to discuss Mexico -- and Melaque, in particular.
The evening was as typical as any July day on the Costa Alegre. Hot. Humid. Lazy.
We decided to eat at a restaurant we both enjoy: Señor Froy's (yes, with a "y"). He for the lasagna -- "second best in the world."
But the evening was not about eating; it was about living in Mexico.
He told me how he had been retired for several years and traveled the world before he settled on Mexico as a retirement site. Melaque was first. But the summers were too much -- reminded him of why he had left Indiana.
He eventually ended up in the mountains above Colima on the way to Guadalajara. After moving there, he married a Mexican national. (This seems to be a theme amongst single men in Mexico.) He seems to be genuinely happy.
I had been soaking in the information, when he fixed a serious eye on me, and asked: "So, why are you in Mexico?"
For a moment I felt like Ted Kennedy in 1980 when Mike Wallace asked him in a 60 Minutes interview: "Why do you want to be president?" Teddy blew the answer. From that moment on, his quest to topple President Carter was doomed.
And it was not a new question for me. Several people have asked the question of me -- just as pointedly.
My standard answer ("For the adventure.") left him unfazed.
"What is that supposed to mean?"
I am not certain I got to the core of some of my reasons for being here: archaeology, wildlife, learning from new people.
Friday I drove from Melaque to Cihuatlán -- essentially, our county seat -- to buy some goods. As I drove down the coast road, I came to a small rise: part of Isla de Navidad. At the crest of the hill, I saw something anew that I must see two or three times a week: another answer why I moved to Mexico.
Looking south, you see a large alluvial plain with miles and miles of nothing but coconut plantations. The verdant enormity has its own understated beauty. Like most wide vistas, it is difficult to capture in a small photograph, but my attempt is at the top of this post.
Those moments -- and meeting more strangers in this fallen paradise -- may be the best answer to why I am in Mexico.
