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| Happy New Year - 2016 |
Well, it’s a brand new year for us to enjoy,
or mess up, or make a dozen-soon-to-be-forgotten resolutions such as lose
weight, get more exercise and eat healthier.
We make the same resolutions year
after year, so for 2016 we have only one resolution: no more stupid
resolutions!
Life this past year has been busy, not just
for us but for the whole island. There
were a number of large municipal projects that were finally completed: the fire
hall, a bigger hospital, and the Casa de Cultura.
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| New fire hall near the police station |
These new facilities are a great addition to
everyday life on the island.
Across the street from our house the
seldom-used college basketball court was covered with a metal dome, and seating
added for spectators.
The improved
facility gets lots of use by local teams, school drama presentations.
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| Photo from FaceBook Folk Dancers' Congress |
Recently under the dome, an outdoor catering
area was created to feed the two hundred or so folk dancers who were performing
on the island in the last week of December.
It was a very well-mannered group comprised of dance troupes from
various parts of Mexico.
They lined up
quietly at seven in the morning for breakfast, then again for lunch plus practiced
a few dance routines in the late afternoon.
We hardly knew they were there,
except for the enticing aromas wafting across the street exciting our taste
buds.
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| Playa Norte |
On a grander scale, tourism is up, way up,
with an estimated two million visitors coming to enjoy the island amenities and
our annual festivals: Island Time Music and Fishing Festival, the summer Whale
Shark Festival, and the Caribbean Culture Festival. Two of the most popular beaches on the
island, Playa Norte, and Playa Centro have been designated as world-class Blue
Flag beaches. Those beaches must be maintained
to a higher standard of cleanliness, with toilets available, and garbage and
animal poop cleaned up on a daily basis.
Music, food, entertainment combined with sun, sand and surf! It doesn’t get much better than that.
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| Carnaval |
Separate from the “created” celebrations the
Mexican culture has several annual events that are always interesting, such as
Carnaval in February or March, Santa Semana – Holy Week (Easter) in March or
April depending on the Catholic Church calendar, The Flowery Cross celebration
in May, Independence Day in mid-September, Day of the Dead celebrations late
October and into early November, and Revolution Day parade in mid-November.
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| Kindergarten parade - Independence Day |
By that time we are at the end of the year
and the calendar has rolled around into Christmas celebrations, with parades,
parties and processions.
(See our
December 25th blog.)
So, we are off to a great start with the New
Year. Happy, healthy, enjoying life, and
resolution free for 2016!
Happy New Year / Próspero Año Nuevo
Lawrie & Lynda,
Thomas the Cat, Sparky & Perla
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| Happy New Year from all of us! |
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2 comments:
Love the photo of all of you on the upper balcony! Happy New Year to all! My New Year's resolution is to eat more lobster, but I only have a week left to fulfill that! We'll see you in April if you're around!
We'll be here. See you soon!
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