Noises in Mexico

I never imagined that a Mexican small city could be so noisy. We have a constant parade of talking and ringing trucks during the day and during the night it´s the dog choir....with solos! When I arrived the first night and the other teacher here told me I would be having one of the room as the rear of the house and I would just have to get used to the dog barking, I thought it would be no problem. He told me the front side was very noisy too due to traffic. Having lived in downtown Toronto I didn´t think the street noises would be an issue.

But in Mexico street noises are all part of marketing! This is just a small place ....only about 65, 000 at the most, but it is the noisest place I have every lived in. It seems like every official vehicle and some not so official has a special sound, horn, music or just a steady stream of talking from a rooftop speaker. Even the garbage pickup is a sound experience. First, you hear what sounds like a broken kazoo horn, then as the truck approaches the speaker voice says ´Basura´in long deep drawn out tones. The men themselves are very friendly and helpful, one even speaks very good English. It was very surprising to be running out with the garbage early one morning and hear, ´Hi, how are you?´

We have a daily litany of service vehicles all with attached speakers spouting the name of the service or often just a distinctive musical song. One gas company truck just says 'el gaaaas' in a long drawn out voice followed by a distinctive 5 note melody, but another plays Christmas songs, usually 'Santa Claus is coming to town' or some other non-religious carol.

There are also regular cars going by representing the local media. These spout the daily headlines and sometimes hand out freebie copies of their newspaper. The other day there was a truck on the corner filled with potatoes and they used a recorded speaker to announce themselves. Lately I've seen something new around town. A vehicle with a television with screen on all four sides. This TV is perched atop the car and advertises home renovations and furniture. I'm still trying to capture a photo of that one!

Mi Casa

I´ve had a few requests for more info about the city of Los Reyes and where I´m living. Here´s a picture of our place on Calle Orquidea . It´s a very typical looking house for the area and this day looked better than average as it had just finished raining and there are some very tipico hombres passing.

The house is only about a 7 min walk to the school and is close-by lots of local shops selling all manner of things: tortillas, fruit, chicken, a beauty wholesaler called Gato Negro, plus there is an abbarotes , a local convenience store on every corner. Tomorrow they are even opening a pharmacia right across the street. We already have a hospital and 2 other pharmacies within 2 blocks plus the ambulance station and the firemen side x side on the corner behind the hospital.

Our house has 4 or 5 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms but is very dark. Making it nice and cool in the hot humid months but decidedly cool in the morning now as all the windows are the typical jalousie-type with screens and slats of glass. Since there are 4 teachers in the house the 1st one to arrive got the choice. Brandon, the only man, has this beautiful large room with tons of built in cupboards as well as a bathroom the size of my bedroom with a huge jacuzzi tub! We are all envious of course. The only negative is that room is at the front and we are on a rather busy street. (car driver seem to blare music at the loudest possible volume and those same drivers don´t seem to bother with air conditioning which would keep the sound to themselves. ) Plus he does get the full blast of sun till about 1 pm.

My room is the smallest but I do have my own bathroom and the room next to it which is empty has a door to the back patio where the Kitten spends most of his afternoons....especially now as it has a plastic corrugated roof and gets nice and warm. Temperatures in November are much more moderate...around 22-22 and much much less humid.

Here are some photos. Most of the furniture in the casa is very dark so I, being the 2nd to arrive, snapped up the bright blue shelf. I´ve also added the poster from the Zacan Festival to the window wall.