Sandra's Flamenco Dance Performance

Flamenco’s characteristics

Flamenco combines acoustic guitar playing, singing, chanting, dancing and staccato handclapping. The flamenco dancer performs with passion, fervor, even tortured expressions but always striving for grace and dignity.

Last Sunday evening, Sandra and other members of the dance studio, performed at the Teatro Morelos in Morelia. Sandra has been taking Flamenco lessons for about 6 months at the local Danza de Espana studio.
The dance is very rigorous and demands much coordination. Besides moving and stamping of the feet and twirling the skirt, she must coordinate graceful actions with a fan, while playing the castanets (castañuelas). Needless to say, but Sandra displayed the most style and grace of any of the dancers.
To Sandra's left is her teacher, Tere, who performed this dance also.
This last photo shows the closing curtain call and other dancers (there were more but my photo only captured about half). After the performance we went out to celebrate with our new friends Lupita, Salvador, Ricardo, Alba, Hortencia and Sandras mother. All in all we sure had a good time! All of the dancers were outstanding and provided a very entertaining evening for the audience.

Home Construction Week 3
June 19-25, 2006

(Clicking on any of the photos will enlarge them)

These photos show the progress on our home during the third week of retaining wall and foundation work. (Muro de contencion and cimentacion) The workers are using large volcanic basalt boulders. Trucks have delivered approximately 10 loads of stones, along with truck loads of sand, gravel and cement. This photo shows the lot covered with these rocks. The workers (the youngest) roll the rocks along the ground before the older maestros (masters) cemented them into place on the walls.

The above two photos show the progress on the foundation for our home. The trench for the foundation is about 3 feet deep and the boulders are now up even with the ground.
The two photos above show the progress on the retaining wall. This wall will allow us to level out the lot so that we can have a large garden. The wall is about 3 feet tall now. Sandra and I estimate that the foundation work for the house and retaining wall will be complete in 2 weeks. Hope so anyway!
We had a visit this past weekend. Here are Hortencia (Sandra's sister), her mom, and Sandra. They bused down from Ameca, Jalisco to witness Sandra's performance in DANCES OF SPAIN at the Teatro Morelos. Sandra danced the flamengo, and let it be known she was outstanding. Later this week I will post pictures of her performance.

Morelia Golf Lessons

One of the main factors in our decision to retire in Morelia was the opportunity to play golf along with many other recreational activities that would help keep our minds occupied and our bodies busy. Tres Marias Residential Golf Course is a signature Jack Nicholas design and one of the most beautiful and challenging courses I have had the opportunity to play. The course has 27 holes, with each 9 hole course offering different topography and difficulty of play.
This blog will show Sandra taking lessons on the first 9 holes (the flattest and easier of the 27 holes.)
Once a week now for the past 6 months Sandra and I have been taking lessons with golf professional Jorge. Sandra had an advantage of never having played golf in her life and thus having no bad habits to correct. David has had to completely relearn a new, correct swing. Sandra has a perfect swing and is improving weekly, as her confidence grows. Sandra loves the beautiful manicured grass on the course and her biggest fear is taking a divot. When she digs up a little lawn with her swing she is not happy. Jorge is telling her it's ok to hit the grass.
Jorge teaching Sandra the proper swing, follow through, and balance.

Sandra teeing up on 165 yard par 3.

Sandra teeing it up and preparing to drive the ball over the lake. Those of you that have played golf know the psychological factors of hitting the ball over water. She is learning to just concentrate on her "swing" and keeping her head down, and eyes on the ball.
This final picture shows Sandra's caddy Antonio Avalos. Antonio is a great help with choosing the correct club, the correct line for putts, and helping us find lost balls. We average about 4 lost balls per 9 holes, so when you come to visit bring plenty of balls. Just kidding, we have more than enough balls, as the workers sell lost balls they find on the course. A future post will have pictures of David struggling with his game as I try to find some consistency and mental toughness. My greatest worry now is that Sandra is going to beat me in the near future. We play 9 holes of golf once a week and really enjoy the time together and the beauty and serenity of the course. We try and play a different 9 holes each week.

Home Construction Week 2
June 12-18, 2006

Sandra peering down into trench where foundation for home will soon rise. The cement has been laid and rebar has been embedded for the columns that will support the house.

This photo shows the bottom level of our lot. The street shown is the street below us. A retaining wall is being build out of rock and cement. This wall will be about 5 feet tall and will enable us to level out the back part of the yard, enabling us to have a nice large garden.

This photo shows one corner of the retaining wall in the back of the lot. The works chisel and chip the rock face to make it flat on the outside. This will give the wall a nice finished look. This past week there were 8 men working on the lower retaining wall and 4 men working on the upper wall supporting the house. It appears to be very hard, physical labor. Some of the larger stones must weigh over 200 pounds and the workers have to roll them to move them into place.

This last photo shows our lot taken from the street above. It appears that not much has changed in the past week, but most all of the work is being done below ground level and can't be seen from this angle. The workers labor from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. with one hour off for lunch. They build a fire and cook tortillas and make tacos for their lunch. Sandra and I try and go out to the lot each afternoon after we have exercised in the gym. We have enjoyed seeing the workers and learning of construction techniques here in Mexico.

The Beginning

Well, here Sandra and I are at Tres Marias Golf Course in Morelia, Michoacan. We have been in MORELIA for one year now, this June. This blog will share the story of our future home construction. We purchased a lot in July of 2004, after searching Mexico for about 7 summers looking for a retirement community. We decided on Morelia because of the beauty and tranquility of the 16th century colonial city, its size (600,000-not too big nor too small), the mild weather, an international airport, centralized location to many of our favorite places in Mexico, and Tres Marias Residential Golf Course which will offer us many recreational opportunities. After one year living in a rental apartment we have not regretted our decision to live here. The weather is indeed outstanding, many cultural and recreational activities, wonderful central district, great restaurants and food, and we have met some very nice people. The challenges have been my limited Spanish and dealing with the government offices and red tape getting visas, bank accounts, apostle's, translations of documents etc.. I don't think I could have made it on my own. Thank God, Sandra is fluent in Spanish and knows the culture and customs of government offices in Mexico! All in all, the past year has flow by very rapidly and I have learned a lot, especially not to get in a hurry or get frustrated about the way things are done. I have pretty much learned not to compare the way things are done in the United States with life in Mexico. Things are much more laid back here and a type A personality will not do well. Well here's a salute to our move and this blog will now chronicle our house building project.

Happy Days!

Week 1 June 5-June 11, 2006

Our lot before any grading or construction has begun. The first photo was taken from the street below, while the second photo was taken from street level.

Sandra and I returned from a short trip to Guadalajara and were surprised to find that cleaning of our lot and trenching for the foundation had begun. We had been waiting since January for this to happen, but as I have said before things move at their own pace here in Mexico. We have been working closely with our architect, Arturo Vargas, for about 8 months getting the plans prepared and approved by the Tres Marias architecture committee. The lot is 1031 square meters and sits high up above the canyon where the golf course lies. Here is a photo of Sandra walking the lot. As you can see, not many other houses near by. Currently, there is only one house occupied and 5 under construction in our part of the development. We are excited to be one of the first homes and being able to witness the progress of neighboring home construction.

The photos below show the first weeks work digging the foundation for the bottom floor of our house. The lot is slopping, so a retaining wall (muro de contencion) made of rock will arise up out of the trenches to support the first floor.



These photos show views taken from our lot looking down into the canyon toward the golf course and club house. There are tennis courts, handball courts, horse stables, swimming pools, soccer fields, gymnasiums, pro shop and restaurants located near the club house.













Well, after the first week of work Sandra and I are very excited. We have been waiting many months for this work to begin!!