After seven months, the rains have returned. And out come the impromptu rainy day activities.
That means summer is just around the corner. Or already here, depending on who you ask.
If you’re a foreigner from northern climes here in Nayarit, you may have thought it’s been summer for months. But oh no!
Summer in Nayarit means unbearable heat and torrential rain. Not what a lot of gringos might consider summer, but that’s the tropics for you.
The rain comes at times with a vengeance. But it comes and goes, leaving plenty of time in between for fun in the sun at the beach.
Rainy season also brings surprise road projects. One day we stepped out of our house to discover our dirt road had been graveled. Surprise!
And the slippery mud pit that connects our side street to the main road had been suddenly blacktopped. Finally!
Could they actually be putting in a proper drainage tunnel to prevent flooding as well? Not likely. Just filling in the pond in the middle of the street.
Fun Saturday evening out with our Big Boy. First stop, Don Juan’s, a local favorite along the highway with a great atmosphere, traditional menu, and good prices.
Next stop, Bar La Isla for drinks and lounging. A good place to people watch and catch the sunset.
Noe, enjoying his very first Shirley Temple.
We like to give this guy a wide berth when we walk by.
Catching sunset waves.
Sundays are a nice day for a walk around town, a paleta stop, and a visit to what the boys like to call “Rock Beach” in the center of town.
We like to keep the doors and windows open whenever we’re home until we go to bed.
At around 9pm every evening lately, hundreds of large black ants coming marching in a line through the back door and encircle our living room floor.
They do this even if we don’t leave the door open (there’s a large enough gap). At first, I’d spend 5-10 minutes sweeping them back out the back door or even spraying them.
After a while, I got tired of doing that and left them to do their thing. I found that, left on their own, they enter the house by the hundreds in an orderly line, encircle the living room, and are gone 15 minutes later leaving the floor spotless of crumb the boys have dropped during the day.
Here they are hauling away a piece of cracker.
Now why I didn’t just let them do their thing in the first place instead of feeling the need to eradicate them all is beyond me. Some American-sourced habits are hard to break, I guess.
A morning out enjoying the sunshine with this guy before things heat up.
And here I thought you were “reading” your books this whole time, Riley.
Yep, it’s finally come to this. Our little squirrel, Noe, has been sneaking out here just after sunrise to get his little grubbies in the peanut butter.
We’ve either caught him in the act or find the very distinctive hand print in the peanut butter jar. It doesn’t appear he’s gotten into anything else, just that darn peanut butter.
We keep the peanut butter in the fridge because of the heat and ants (not my friends, the tiny little kitchen ants that get into everything you don’t want them to).
So…every night before I head off to bed I put the duct tape on, which makes a pretty loud sound when you take it off.
We’ll see if it deters him. Sheesh.
It’s a particularly nice evening tonight so we’re trying something totally different. We’re going to the beach! But seriously. There’s a new food truck (Le Camion) parked near one of the beach access paths we frequent and we’ve been meaning to try it out.
I guess it’s French inspired, but also American. Fusion on the beach, perhaps?
The coolest thing is you can either order at the truck, or catch one of the roving servers along the beach and put in your order, then they’ll bring it out to you when it’s ready.
Of course we see plenty of people taking drink orders along the beach, but never for a gourmet burger food truck. And the prices aren’t bad either. Cheaper than eating at a burger joint in town.
Another Saturday, another hike to one of the nearby beaches. This time the boys are collecting hermit crabs. Catch and release, of course.
Another after hours evening at Cava for some of the region’s best hand-selected Raicilla.
• • •
In other news, we finally solved our house stench mystery!
Over the past several weeks, the stench wafting into our house has become increasingly unbearable as the temperature continues to rise.
You may remember that we’ve been trying to get to the source of the ungodly funk (which smells to us and our property manager like a very large animal died and has been rotting in the tropical heat for several months).
The three of us managed to trace it to the semi-vacant property next door that is only used during various holidays.
We were a bit hesitant at first to enquire about the smell, and weren’t quite ready to call the police, because you never know what you might be getting involved with here in Mexico, and certainly want to avoid making enemies.
But other neighbors have also started to complain and it was evident collective action needed to be taken.
Fortunately, a few family members arrived the next day and our property manager chatted with them about the stinky issue.
Apparently, the family runs a hide-curing business and ran out of room at the family ranch, so they started curing hides under a tarp in the next door property.
They agreed to return with a pickup to haul away the malodorous skins in the coming week.
I was a bit skeptical about the family’s story and whether they actually would return (or were halfway to Guatemala by now…or plotting to retaliate for blowing their cover…).
It’s hard not to let the imagination run wild in a country where every week you read about a mass grave being discovered in connection to cartel violence.
But sure enough, a few days later, a purpose-made van pulled up and backed into the property, and I watched from our rooftop terrace through a small opening as two men chucked the hides, one by one, into the back of the van.
The air quality improved immediately, and we haven’t had any issues since.
Rain, rain, rain. We’ve had what seems like a season’s worth of rain in the span of two weeks. We definitely need it, but not all at once.
A little rain, of course doesn’t stop swim lessons (though occasionally, an afternoon thunderstorm does).
Ten days of rain and look at that grass! What did I tell you?
But the best thing about the rainy season might just be the spectacular sunsets, when we’re lucky enough to get them.
