The morning started just as it should. By 9:50 AM, I was working on my second pot of tea, still in my nightie, curled up in bed with a stack of pillows behind me, doing research on my laptop. The sun had risen over the lake and was starting to warm the bedroom quite nicely. The birdies on the mountain side were tweeting. The dog was snoring at my feet. The cell phone rang and it was the office of the facilitator who was handling my visa application. The immigration office had sent them a message that they needed to check my passport again, could I bring it in to Chapala by 11AM? I looked at my watch, gulped and said yes. We were dressed, out the door with dog and got there at 10:55AM. After that chore, we decided to get my immigration photos just in case we got the call for them anytime soon. So we drove around the plaza and Rick dropped me off at the photography studio (eat your heart out Andrew :) and drove around the block twice and I was finished...
When we went home, we thought we should go up to see our neighbour Don, who also is our caretaker when we are gone. He lives up the mountain side above us, without power or water. And he is building himself a dome house from scratch and all by himself. In the photos below, you might recognize the entrance into our ejido. Our entrance is on the right and Don's "road" is on the left. It goes up. Now that we have a rum-rum with 4 wheel drive, we can actually drive up.
After a few major vertical switch-backs, there is another gate and the track levels off a bit.
And here we found a little one at the side of the track, standing patiently under the shade tree.
At the end of the flat section there is another switch-back and we go up again, and then again.
At last we get up on top, and down the driveway to Don's place. The first thing he built a couple of years ago is his shop (in the background). He has this nifty construction technique using 2" PVC pipe that he bends into shape and uses as rafters. It is incredible strong (and cheap). Oh I forgot to mention that Don is a retired building contractor from Arizona and started building domes about 10 years ago and he invented this method of building them. The side of the dome house is on the left.
Here is the front door, just out of sight around the dome is a large picture window that looks down the lake. From up here, the view is really spectacular.
This is taken from the entrance. The window is the kitchen window and very important because he can keep an eye on who is coming. See the crane-like structure and scaffolding on the roof? Remember, Don built all of this, all by himself.
The outside doesn't look all that big. It is an optical illusion because the dome is 40 feet in
diameter and 20' tall. The inside has three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and open kitchen/dining/living area. The living area is single story so you can imagine the dramatic heights...
Up at Don's we mentioned the little burro we passed on the way in. He said that it was one of pair that had been abandoned by a local Mexican guy who owned property up there but never took care of them any more. One of the burros just took off, but this one is still hanging around. This little guy has gone a month without water or feed. So on the way out we stopped to see how sociable the little guy was. All we had was a dog dish and 5 litres of water. SHE drank them all...yep. This fella is a girl.
Well, you probably already have guessed the rest. I asked Rick for a rope and I tied it around her and told her we were going home. I led her all the way down the very steep track, hoping I wasn't going to do a Jack and Jill impersonation. I had to trust her, as there was no way I could have controlled her if she decided to bolt. But like the very good burra she is, she held fast and with little encouragement, we made it down the track. Except for wanting to drag me to every patch of green grass (I did let her graze for a while) we got down Independencia together....here we are, a mile later, right in front of the gate.
I was pooped, but we got her up the driveway, and tethered to a papaya tree in front of the house with a bucket of water. And so here is the new burra with a view...
How's that for a perfectly ordinary day south of the border???
