First Trip down March of 2007

3/30/07 Well here it is!!! not bad for $6,000 huh??

OK so I'm just kidding, don't I wish!! This is a resort area in Playa De Tortuga, where the turtles crawl up all over the beach at night. We were there during the day so it will definitely be one of the first evening adventures I go to when I get back!! This is about 30 minutes up the coast on an extremely rough dirt road. But when you get back there, there are all these really beautiful places and construction going on for many more. No town here, just a bunch of resort/Hotel/condo places like this. Very nice little places!

OK, OK... so this is really it! Its about 14'.6" x 18' . I'll be putting on a new roof that will join with the new addition out back. a larger addition will be put directly behind this view (This is the front of the house. ) The lean-to on the left will be taken down and a new kitchen put there. That roof will be lower than the rest of the house and will be about 4 steps down into the kitchen from the existing room..
While I was there I started tearing it down, and got all the brick off and stacked in the back yard to use as part of the patio. The brick was just stacked on end and held in place with sticks. I also stacked any bricks laying around, in the front to use as a new walkway for the front of the house.
There are more pictures at the bottom of these posts because I thought I was starting with the first picture then realized each one you add goes on the top of the previous post...so my top few pictures are now at the bottom...

Here's my view! No houses below me just horses..not a bad deal! Once the brush and cactus are cleared I'll plant lots of low growing stuff at that side of the yard, to not block the view.
There's room for a good size patio too, even after the additions and tree's!

Here's my view 2! its pretty nice, looks over some tobacco fields and something else they grow there but can't remember what it was. Once the cactus and growth are gone it will look real nice. I will be planting trees like Avacado, Banana, Mango, Lime, Orange, Jakcula (a wierd sticky fruit they love there) off to the sides of the property and a garden where that won't block my view. I'll save a FEW of the cactus, its the kind where you eat the young tender leaves and its not too bad tasting.

Here is how all the roads in Zacualpan are built, except for the one main street. They are pretty darn rough, not as smooth as they look here, but pretty!

This is down the main street of Zacualpan, my little town.

This is up main street of Zacualpan.

This is M's property. They have since started to do the foundation as of yesterday. He has a fantastic view (hard to see in this mini picture) I have the same view except almost at the valley level. He is having a 7 bedroom, 3 (or 4 ) bathroom, 2 story place built!! I'll show a few pictures of that process when I get down there for ya.

This is M's niece Linda, (Conchita's daughter) and her husband Xavier. They had a small sedan and took me someplace new nearly every day. This is on the boardwalk in Puerto Vallarta. we had alot of fun teaching each other our Languages, they knew a tiny, tiny bit of English. they were alot of fun, great kids.

This is Conchita, M's sister at her business in town... She was a fun super lady, we had alot of fun even though we communicated mostly in sign language!!

This is M's mom. She was a neat lady but didn't like the cats and dogs even coming near anywhere. But the chickens ( of which there were dozens!) were allowed anywhere they wanted to go. Notice the nice nest up on some old appliance in the back of the picture.. and these pictures are so small here you can hardly make out the little chicks eating on the floor by that rope. This is the outdoor kitchen and patio. Her house is where I stayed the 10 days I was down there. I Speak very little Spanish, understand a bit more, but she was always telling me stories and talking to me like I could actually understand what she was telling me!! I can't wait to learn Spanish! Chino was the only one who spoke pretty good English, and he wasn't home most of the time to translate!

This was our dinner, a big half of a fish. This was in San Blas about 1 hour up the coast. on the right is Conchita, then Xavier's mom, Linda and Xavier. San Blas still had alot of damage showing from the hurricane that hit in 2001 (or 2002).

This guy thought it was a cool idea to glue ties to his truck...Hummm???? This was in Puerto Vallarta, About 1 1/2 hours south (down the coast) wow was there ever alot of new construction happening there, miles of new condo's going up!!!

There is the toilet on the right behind the basin! You can see why I'm building a new Bano!! Another view of the scrub basin...

This is the wash basin every single home in Mexico has. They do their dishes and laundry on these cement wash boards and they have a water tub that they use a container to dip into to rinse everything. (by the way, right now the toilet is just behind this basin on that cement pad)

This is the front side, That's M's brother, Chino, who has been a big help in the whole process and he will be in charge of getting all the work done there..I have quite a few shade trees in the front and the back!

This is the back side. The tacked on lean-to is being removed and a new 14 x 17 brick kitchen is going on. The new bathroom
will be located kinda under that loose brick window, and will be a 10 x 4 addition (with one room for the Bano and the other for the shower room) The upper side wall of the bathroom will be part of another addition that will be about 10 x 25 and will cover that loose brick window and the door will then be a connection between the two separate living quarters.