Our Palapa is Fixed; True Craftsmanship at Work!
Hi everyone! It's great to be back after a week's hiatus :) There's been a lot going on around here, but one is particular is I got to watch a true craftsman repair our grass palapa; this is the view I'm enjoying as I type this :)
Here's the palapa when we moved in. You can see some holes in the main one, and the little one, which covers the stairs, was in need of some major repairs. Since we only have a studio, the "patio" is definitely living space, so our wonderful landlord, George, decided to fix it for us no problem!
One man arrived and began cutting away all of the grass around the seams ... along the peak and down the sides of the roof.
The first day he actually worked bare feet, but the second day he did wear shoes :)
I climbed up to our roof (there's a ladder in place for that) to get this shot. Most roofs here in Mexio have water tanks on them (the black tanks) where water is held and refilled when necessary. We're lucky to be on a cenote, so it only needs to pumped up from under ground; cold and fresh! The roof also houses the satelite dishes and airconditioners.
Here's a closeup of the seam of the roof once he had prepared it for the new grass.
Speaking of "new grass", it was all brought in on the bed of a pickup truck that George went to have loaded. Apparently it's a huge field of grass that gets cut almost like hay does.
We all helped bring the bundles to the empty lot beside us where the worker then hauled them up by rope to the roof top.
The bundled grass has some already dried but some bits still green,
and then each bundle is wired onto the beams on the inside of the palapa. It really is a work of art!
The little palapa was too much to repair, so he simply stripped it and started over.
He had it finished in about 45 minutes! See the garbage bags filled with grass? I guess the field where it comes from is filled with snakes, and at one point, Buddy, our cat, came running to the apartment with a baby snake hanging out of his mouth. Brian managed to get it away from him, but that evening, we discovered 4 more on the patio. The next day the worker told us to watch because they might fall from the roof over the next few days!!! I wore a hat for three days total! Hate snakes!
This is how it looks today; he trimmed the edge where we have to walk (the stairs are right there.
Not a gap of light from the inside anywhere! It rained today as well and I stayed completely dry. We also had our coconut lights hung too; it's just beautiful at night :)
Although a photo never quite does it justice!
I noticed Buddy earlier today and thought he was admiring the new roof as well,
but as I looked closer...
I saw this little guy! And Brian was concerned that his mama wasn't feeding him enough! :)
I'll leave you with this beauty, taken from my desk before it got dark. It rained this morning and was cloudy most of the day, but true to form, the sun made a short but very sweet appearance, just to say Hi :)
Hope you enjoyed the tour! I know it's only been a week, but I'm really looking forward to re-connecting with all of you :)
Cheers!
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Awesome. What a beautiful place to just chill out. Wish I had something like that. Thanks for sharing @lynncoyle1
Thank you so much @robertandrew! I wish you had one too; it's the perfect place to chill :)
Wow... it looks like quite a process working on a roof like that, but happy you were able to get everything put back together @lynncoyle1!
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Thank you so much @ma1neevent; I really appreciate that ! :)
Ahhhh now that looks like home!
Now you and Brian can relax, enjoy life together and watch the sunsets!
Thank you so much @goldendawne! Every morning when we pull up the blinds, we are like a couple of grinning kids on Christmas morning :)
A gorgeous Pad you two have there. My God, “look out for snakes falling from the roof top…” yeah right?!? @dandays would completely combust… seriously his most feared thing. I remember when a snake slithered it’s way to our front yard area, a couple years ago, and he quickly said to me “get it”. Haha… with what? My hands? I grabbed a broom stick to try and corral the little guy away from us. I didn’t do a very good job, so I commissioned my bare foot and slightly different neighbor to re-home him. But god forbid I ask @dandays to get the spider. Haha
The work really is an art though. Everything looks beautiful in your hood- glad to hear/see it. And good to have you back @lynncoyle1 !
Spiders, rodents, lions and tigers and bears, oh my! No prob! Spiders, done! Roaches, bugs, whatever, done!
Snakes?! Nope. No way dude, ain’t hap’nin. I don’t care what kinda snake it is. Show me your pet ‘friendliest snake in the world’ snake and I’m out! I don’t care if it’s a ‘friendliest snake’ a ‘kissinest snake’ a ‘cutesie wootsie’ snake, boa constrictor, boa conhugger, boa conwhatever..
I’m out!
Hahaha… yes babe, I know. That’s a big N.O. to worms too :)
Thank you so much @puravidaville! It's great to be back, and yes, the hood is perfect here; I feel so fortunate!
hahaha @dandays, your hero, except when it comes to snakes and worms! My fear stems from a time my father was crouched in the grass, and called me over to show me something. When I got within a few feet, he threw a garter snake at me and laughed his head off as I ran, screaming like a lunatic, to the house!!! I can still see it wriggling at a crazy fast pace through the air at me!
I love your conversations you two! SO cute :) Thanks for stopping by as well!
Damn… that’s not cool Dad! I don’t know where my fear for spiders came from but can tell you that Eddie Money’s pet tarantula attacked me and my roommate unexpectedly one night. It’s was insane! My roommate instinctually stomped on him so the attack was short lived but Eddie didn’t seem too broken up about it. I guess he had left his cage open and the little guy got out- several days later he was jumping at us from the dark corner of our back patio. I thought tarantulas might have been indigenous to the area and was ready to move my happy butt back to San Francisco. Upon running into Eddie at the mailbox, I found out it was probably his pet. 🤷🏼♀️ Truth is stranger than fiction :)
The Eddie Money? No kidding!? I would be drooling in a funny farm if a tarantula ever jumped out at me!!! Seriously, I think I'm more afraid of them than snakes, and that's saying plenty!
My dad doesn't even remember doing it! Because it's come up many times over the years haha
Oh yeah, he was our neighbor when I moved to LA after college. I tripped out a little (okay, I tripped out a lot). I was ready to ship my stuff back home, to San Francisco. Good thing I stuck it out because that’s when @dandays and I nurtured our relationship… I guess you can say Eddie brought us closer together. Haha
Haha… “sure Dad”. I remember my dad always treating me like a little boy. Lol… he would always fart on me. Haha… I probably should keep that to myself but 🤷🏼♀️ “thanks Dad”. Haha
So cool that you knew Eddie Money, his tarantula and you and @dandays became as one there :) Thanks Eddie! :)
Lol dads !!!
Haha… I knew his tarantula better than I knew him 🤦🏼♀️
Come to think of it ‘where were you Dad when the tarantula was crouching in the corner ready to strike?” … haha
Speaking of tarantulas, @dandays and I were in the car yesterday for a quick ride up the street when I see out of the corner of my eye a big buggy thing about to hang down from the passenger side window. I clipped my seat belt off instantly and crab crawled myself into the back seat. Dandays was yelling, “what is it” and then it revealed itself… a spider the size of a quarter, black, thick, hairy like a tarantula, was living in the sill of the passenger side window. At the stop light, Dandays grabbed a napkin from the center console and was able to flick it out into the street… not so fast, I spotted him again so we quickly rolled up the window. This guy was huge… we got to our destination where Dandays was able to corral him onto the pavement and the little bugger ran off under the car. I wasn’t too comfortable with this outcome but it was better than sharing my seat with him.
We were laughing “what would you do if a snake fell from the sky at you” or “jumped at you from the darkest corner of your backyard”.
I’m convinced it was a baby tarantula. Of course, I naturally then looked up spiders as my spirit animal. 🤷🏼♀️ Haha
hahahaha @puravidaville, that is hilarious!! I would have totally done the same thing, and probably ran the car up and down the driveway for an hour trying to kill the damn thing! And then later at night, I'd be checking any little red marks on my body or my hair, strand by strand, checking for bites or places where it might have laid some eggs!
LOL falling snakes!!
Wow what a nice post. Took me on a little trip. It seem like that is a nice place to live.
Thank you so much @stever82; it really is a wonderful place to live :) Just so mellow and laid back; no one is ever in a hurry! I love it, especially after rushing most of my life :)
Thanks for popping in here too!
That is truly an art, how long does that roof last normally?
I think a good ten years, but the damage (here anyway) is caused by birds pulling it apart to use for their nests :) Our landlord said when the last major hurricane came through here, about three years ago (Wilma?), there was no damage to either of the big palapas on the property at all! That's pretty amazing, isn't it?!
I use to go to Monterrey and Playa del Carmen Mexico pretty regularly back in the 90's and I was always amazed at those structures with the grass roofs like that. I would have thought that all the salt air from the beach would just eat those things up but I guess not based on what you are saying.
We're actually in Playa del Carmen; perhaps the ones right on the beach tell a different story? I'm not sure, but next time I'm there, I'll have to have a closer look :)
Why don't you still travel here? Although it's grown considerably since then. We vacationed here for years as well, and are just far enough away from the major tourist areas to make it thoroughly enjoyable and way more authentic.
I traveled there on business , entertaining clients with golf and fishing and the resort stuff. I switched companies and we don't take customers out of the country with this company and I really didn't enjoy it that much, my spanish isn't that great and I have gotten were I hate to fly now so it just doesn't appeal to me.
My favorite restaurant there was La Parialla , or something like that, downtown, great steaks in that place, I'm not sure of the spelling, but the name meant "the grill" when translated to English.
I love that place! They just bring around trays and trays of meat? That one I think :) We've found that we can cook so cheap at home, we rarely go out anymore, but if and when we're in the mood for some meat sweats, that's the place to go!
I get that the business end of things, entertaining clients would get tiresome, and flying really is a pain in the butt now :)
Welcome back and what a nice spot for sitting and preapring a post, so cool to see how the repairs were down and your spot out there
Thank you @tattoodjay :) Yes, I feel very fortunate to have this as my "office" space! You wouldn't know where to turn first with your camera here :)
Make the most of it ;)
Oh don't you worry about that one :) I pretty much live out here; in fact, it's where I'm still sitting! Thank you :)
What a paradise corner! That to my eyes is a perfect place of some massive mojitos chugging, guitar playing and an awesome poker game with friends.. ahh daydreaming ;-)
That's exactly it!! Paradise corner! Daydream away @f3nix; you never know what the future holds! Brian and I talked about doing this forever, and one day I simply decided to do it. He came home to a guy loading our bbq in his truck and the man, when I introduced them, shook Brian's hand and said, congratulations for deciding to move to Mexico. Brian didn't miss a beat; when the guy left, he turned to me and said, well, I guess this is it?, and I said we can either do it, or just talk about it forever :) We were here a few months later!
Best decision ever :)
Thanks for your words. It's been like yesterday that me and my wife changed everything and went living abroad.. unfortunately it didn't go well notwithstanding all our efforts. What's important however is to raise again after you fall. In the end the mess we lived strenghtened our relation even more 🙂 All the best and enjoy your heavenly palapa!
Hey we've had plenty of messes along the way, but I always figure that if it had happened any differently, we wouldn't be here now. Sounds like some positives came from your experience as well :)
True. We didn't want to suicide in the name of a stereotipical idea of freedom, while instead our quality of life was drasticly better before. This doesn't mean that we didn't fight, we're fighters in my small family. Life is various, it's all good as long as someone never renounces to pursue happiness 🙂
Falling snakes. You know that’s where the saying ‘raining cats and dogs’ comes from right?
When straw roofs were the only option, cats and mice and whatever else that wanted to stay warm would make their homes in the roof. When it rained....
Great job here @lynncoyle1, nice guiding.
What?!! How come I didn't know that??!! Thanks for the lesson @dandays :)
Welcome back! Love the new palapa! Didn't know that's what it was called but cool. Last photo is awesome view. I can send my youngest son to help Buddy with the snakes. Here he is with a garter snake not too long ago. He has taken a liking to snakes. Don't ask, I have no idea lol
Thank you @steven-patrick; I'm really lucky to wake up to this view everyday :)
You couldn't pay me to pick that snake up that your son has in his hands! I'm really very afraid of them, even though I know they can't hurt me (well, some around here can I guess :), but I just hate them! Crazy kid!!