Five days of Christmas

After scuttling around a bit, I wanted to get some work done in a place with a kitchen and a desk. We found an adorable “bungalow” for rent in Barra de Navidad, a small coastal town in Jalisco. It’s a ground-floor apartment just down the block from the main square, with a carved wooden door that opens directly onto the street, where we have the pony conveniently parked right outside. The front room/kitchen actually shares a wall opening into the artisan craft store next door, where the owners also sell raspados and other goodies outside. It’s fun because all the neighbors come by and hang out and Milo gets to sit out on the sidewalk with everyone.

The place was spotless when we arrived–it turns out we are the first renters, as they just finished remodeling two weeks ago.

Within fifteen minutes we owned the place.

It’s been both hot and rainy this week, making it a good time to be indoors. I’ve been busy working (and looking for work), and it’s so nice to just stand up in your temporary office and walk outside into this new place, this friendly neighborhood. Juan and I have taken to walking around barefoot in the streets, like a lot of the people here.

It’s obvious from the amount of hotels and restaurants here that Barra de Navidad gets its fair share of tourists, probably during Christmas. But right now it’s practically empty.

Adding to the surreal, displaced feel is the fact that we’ve crossed into Central Time. We’ve been very aware of sunrise and sunset since we left, which have shifted forward to 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. I suppose it doesn’t make a difference at all, given our strict schedule, but it’s strange to think that we’re in the same time zone as Chicago all of a sudden.

From here we visited the town of La Manzanilla, just north. They’ve got a better beach at the moment (as Barra is a bit too rough for wading and for Milo).

Tomorrow we’re taking off and heading inland, but I hear we’re up for four days of thunderstorms.