mykonos in barra de navidad

Change is a constant in the little fishing village by the sea that goes by the name Barra de Navidad.

For a town that makes its living off of tourists (Mexican and northern), that is to be expected. There are very few places on earth that depend on tourists for their daily bread that are mired in the past.

For the last year, my attention has been primarily focused on family matters up north. That is why I have been flying almost monthly to Oregon. In the process, I have not been keeping up with my daily walks through town.

That changed about a month ago. Even though I still do a good portion of my walking on the upper terrace of the house, I have been spending a couple hours each day walking through the various neighborhoods in town.

One sight caught me off guard. When I moved to the area a baker's dozen years ago, there was one restaurant I wanted to try in Barra -- Mar y Tierra. Sea and land.

From what I had heard about the place, it seemed to be the type of dining establishment where I could enjoy a good meal while watching the pageantry of sea changes. But I never did get to eat there in that incarnation. The restaurant had closed, and stayed closed for years.

Then Veronica moved her Ambar del Mare restaurant with its wood-fired pizza and fusion French-Mexican dishes to the premises. It was classy -- with a glass-walled wine cellar in the middle of the main room. It was a special place to spend an evening. The food was great. The waiters were always friendly and helpful.

But, Ambar also closed. And the building sadt there empty filled with the memories of evenings well spent.

Bit by bit, a series of storms had their way with the building. The palapa roof first deteriorated and then collapsed. The building started to look like your great-uncle Willy after one of his ongoing benders.

When I walked by the building last month, I barely recognized it. It still looked aged, but someone had tidied up the place by carting away the bits that were detracting from is very good bone structure.

I should have remembered that work had been done on the place. My friend Brayan had sent me videos of his job there carting off portions of palapa and concrete.

The building now had taken on the look of one of those Minoan ruins restored by Arthur Evans in Crete. Or maybe a villa on Mykonos. But it certainly did not look like the place I had watched turn from distressed aristocracy to just distressed.

I talked to the men who are currently working on the place. They were uncertain what was going to happen with the property. But their belief was that the building would be razed.

I cannot speak to the veracity of that assertion, but I do not that the property is currently listed for sale at Barratown Real Estate for 8,366,000 pesos. For $411,000 (US) and change, you could have a great downtown residence right on the ocean -- or open up a fine-dining restaurant.

I already have a house here and the idea of breaking my retirement to run a business is not going to be in my future, but it will undoubtedly appeal to someone. Maybe at a negotiated price.

The lesson for me, though, is to get back out in the neighborhoods with my walks. Things change so quickly here that I may miss a big event.