Sunday, July 16, 2006

Back Home to Chacala and My Plants

My trip to Morelia and Patzcuaro, in the mountains about five hours south of Guadalajara and about 2 hours from the ocean, lasted seven days. I got home to healthy, happy, watered plants, thanks to my neighbor Berta, queen of the plant world.

Berta, plus the heavy rainstorm right before I left Chacala, and two more while I was gone, have worked their magic. Everything that was dry, and brown, and dead looking is now green and lush and starting to blossom. The hummingbirds are going crazy. It's like a different town again.
In Aurora's garden.
Aurora has three rentals, part of the Techo de Mexico program.

My books say that this area is semi-tropical because more than some percentage (can't remember the number) of the plants are decidious in this area. More decidious, less tropical. Well, it took me a year to realize how much greener and flowery Chacala is in July, August and September, even October. Then it starts drying out and many shrubs and trees lose their leaves. For quite awhile I thought the decidious plants were just old dead plants no one had macheted out yet. Then I started scraping the stems with my fingernail, and finding green flesh.
The poor visitors to Chacala during the tourist season (Christmas to Easter) never know what the "real" Chacala looks like.

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