Monday, April 20, 2009

Love at First Sight

First-timers to San Pancho are among my favorite house guests, and two more came in the other day. From the minute we turned into town on Avenida Tercer Mundo, they were smitten. It’s those first sights as we head toward the beach for a quick look, sights that make my daughter-the-regular shout, “And action!”

There’s the cowboy on horseback, broad-brimmed sombrero angled low on his brow. The weathered old woman in the ever-present apron, standing erect behind a small wooden table where she sells her bread pudding. A pickup, its bed loaded with laughing kids, bouncing them like beach balls each time it passes over a speed bump.

As happens often enough, these latest newcomers arrived just when I needed them. Bouts with mildew, warped woodwork, and water shortages necessitating cold “Navy showers” were wearing me down. “The re-entry blues,” I called it, coming home to issues after months out of the country. I needed the shot in the arm of people raving about San Pancho and the view from my porch. Who scoffed at my “happy problems” and reinforced my choice of this place on the planet with their sighs of approval as they stared out to sea.

1 comment:

Clive said...

This is very interesting information, since my wife and I are planning to move to Nayarit in a few years time. Water shortages? I have already been thinking that I'll design my own house so that all the roof runoff is collected and stored.