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.