La Cienega

We made it to La Cienega. We were able to pick up our car Wednesday, July 13 in Guadalajara. The immigration attorney helped us take all necessary papers and photos to the immigration office in the center of the city Thursday morning.  They took fingerprints for each of us and said to come back in a week for the actual cards. Then we made a stop by Costco and headed for La Cienega.

 The drive from Guadalajara to La Cienega is about 3.5 hours.  The highway winds through green rolling mountains and across narrow valleys speckled with sugar cane, corn, and blue agave.  Traffic moves along at 40-60 miles per hour, except on the steep mountain passes where it's common to get stuck behind an overloaded farm truck puttering along at 5 mph.

We all had to smile at the sight of this sign.  There's not much to see as far as the town is concerned, no grand archway, but we all knew there was a warm welcome awaiting us from our friends.  And sure enough, they even had a dinner all ready, our house all clean and set up for meeting, and the beds all made and ready.  That was the grand entry to La Cienega!

May through July is the wet season here.  This means most every afternoon, huge clouds roll in from the southwest and a substantial thunder/rain storm ensues.  We look forward to this as it cools the air and makes it smell fresh and clean.

 The kids all wanted to help with the dishes during the first storm. Unusual weather sometimes causes unusual behavoir :) Our kitchen consists of two rooms.  This one houses the sink, some cabinet space and the drinking water. The other room has the stove, another small cabinet and table, and the refrigerator.

Monte and Kendra cleaning the entryway.

Our first Sunday in La Cienega was a special one, complete with potluck after morning meeting (see first photo) and Mary treating us to ice cream from the ice cream truck. She knows how to win these kiddos :)

Monday was an intense wash day.  The washing machine croaked before finishing the first load, so out came the wash basins.  This may have been a blessing, as the whole family got to share in the satisfaction of hand washing a weeks worth of laundry.  And I'm only being a little sarcastic.  There's something rewarding in this old fashioned lifestyle. I'm sure we will have to find a balance.

Sometimes it rains so hard that trees fall on the power lines. This particular outage lasted 24 hours.

Keith has enjoyed a few morning runs with our buddies, Alan and Glen.

We spent a couple days shopping around for bikes for the kids.  It didn't take long for Kendra to find hers.

Between department stores and secondhand stores we were able to find four bikes and a baby jogger.  We are set...

...to enjoy the La Cienega countryside!

Well, our internet came on for one day and went off again.  We are told it could be some technical problem with the service provider likely due to a rain storm.  So we came into Autlan to our favorite coffee shop.  Feels good to connect to the outside world :)

It's hard to describe everything happening inside and around us here in La Cienega.  So, maybe these pics and short descriptions will suffice for now.  One thing is for sure, we are happy to be here and feeling more settled by the day. We are so thankful for our friends and the blessing of their fellowship.  It would be a very different story without them.

Scenes from Guadalajara

These are some of the folks that truely make Guadalajara special.  Though many of them don't speak English and our Spanish is limited, it's easy to tell they are kind and warm-hearted people. We are thankful for their fellowship as we try to settle into our new country.

 Guadalajara is an interesting city. It is the second largest city in Mexico, just behind Mexico City and followed by Monterrey.  It is a busy metropolis and a major Mexican busines center. The population is 7,000,000 with 4,000,000 living in the Metropolitan Area of Guadalajara.  The photo above was taken from a new motel/office building downtown, where the immigration attorney's office is located. Everywhere we look we see new construction, so we conclude that the economy must be healthy.

 We feel fortunate to be staying at the Quinta Don Jose, a boutique hotel located in a touristy neighborhood.  The city is made up of 4 municipalities: Guadalajara, Zapopan, Tlaquepaque, and Tonala. We are in Tlaquepaque. With it's clean, narrow streets and colorful streetmarkets, it has a nice appeal.

Here we are having dinner at our hotel with our friend Nico and his family.  He is an artist and his wife is an elementary school teacher. We have sure appreciated their kindness and advice as we navigate new language and culture.

A street market near our hotel.

We had hoped to be in La Cienega by now, but because of timing with our immigration papers and car shopping, we are still here in the city.  The upside is just having more time to check out the markets and be with the friends and workers here.

Guadalajara is said to be the birthplace of the world famous Mariachi bands and also the home of the Mexican hat dance.  Not all of this music is what we consider "pleasant" to listen to, but we discovered the best one yet at a restaurant called The Patio just a short walk from the hotel.

The boys experienced professional hair cuts for the first time ever when we found this old fashioned Mexican barber shop.

 A pleasant surprise greeted us as we followed Nico to the edge of the city Sunday evening.  On the north side of Guadalajara, concrete houses and streets and iron gates give way to this breathtaking mountain view. A peaceful break from the bustling city. We walked along this path for several miles before returning to the city for a late supper. Good to get a little exercise!

We recieved word today that all of our resident cards were approved and will be ready to pick up on Thursday! Three weeks sooner than we expected! Buying a used car here without a Mexico bank account has been a bit more of a challenge. But we trust the right things will work out in the right time.

¡Hola! ¡From Mexico!

We arrived in Guadalajara at 2:15pm Central Time on Saturday, July 2nd! Though we are not quite "home," we are so happy to finally be in Mexico!  Many have called, texted, and emailed with greetings and well-wishes, and each thought, word, and prayer is much appreciated!

So much has happened since the last post.  Wonderful days were shared with family and friends at Cody convention (June 22-26).  Monday, the 27th Alex and Becca came to help with the final push to get out of our house.  We snuck in one last time at the Bar-J chuckwagon Monday evening.  Dana and Riclyn came Wednesday morning to say goodbye and Riclyn kindly hauled the last load of odds-and-ends to the dump.  The sale on our house closed at 10am, and we headed for Montana.

We said goodbye to Alex and Becca in Victor, and Sharon, Shea, and Lane in Ashton and then drove on to Shelby.  Cliff and Jewell had a sweet little get-together Wednesday evening, so we were able to see and say good-bye to many of our Benjamin relatives.  We had a restful night and breakfast at Dale and Kari's, and they sent us down the road with a delicous picnic lunch.  So special to stop by the Koessler Ranch at Condin to see Jeffery and Stephanie and wade in the creek before heading on to Kalispell.

Mom and Dad spoiled us with a salmon dinner Thursday evening. Friday was spent tying up loose ends and repacking.  Super special to spend a little time with MaryAnn, Dave, Denay, and Caitlyn. Mom and Dad were a tremendous help and even got up in the middle of the night to escort us to the airport.  We had a smooth day of traveling. We even caught several naps on the flights.

Samuel and Jorge met us at the airport with a hearty Mexico welcome. They even brought a car to help contain and shuttle our lugage.  Somehow we had managed to bring 21 separate pieces! We rented a minivan from Thrifty and the workers led us to our hotel in Tlaquepaque.  It feels so good to be settled in for the time being!

The friends have showered us with kindness since our arrival.  Samuel and Jorge are close at hand to help.  How will we ever repay them for all their care and thoughfulness?! Tomorrow we tackle the task of exchanging our visas for temporary resident cards.  We hope to have that wrapped up by the end of the week, and then we go on to La Cienega!  We are so excited to see our friends there and get settled into our new home!