Sayulita Scenes - Mural On Calle Libertad

Our street, Calle Libertad, has changed so much in the last few years.  New street, sidewalks, sewage lines, street lights, remodels, houses, commercial etc.  In fact, it is almost hard to recognize this once dark and rutted street that no one really wanted to stop on for very long...for anything.

In just the last few weeks there has been a project at the top of the street that is just phenomenal!  A muralist has just completed this beautiful mural on a wall just up the hill from us.  When I went up to take these photos several people were already there who wanted to do the same.  I will have to ask what the symbology represents as well.  What do you think? Pretty amazing.

WAAAAAAAAY Overdue Improvements For Calle Libertad Begin!

The week before we headed north to Park City we were asked to attend a meeting concerning road improvements to our new street, Calle Libertad.  Calle Libertad is a cut through street from the main road through town to the main road around town.  It isn't an exaggeration to say that half the town either walks or drives up or down Calle Libertad daily.

Why does the street need improvements?  Well, during the rainy season the street becomes a muddy mess.  With the water run off from the rain,  erosion gets so bad that the street becomes barely passable when a deep ditch is carved down the street each summer.  The mud and whatever material the road is constructed with that week of the summer flows down the street to the intersection and then becomes a source of slurpy muddiness for months and then dust for months after.

Mud is only the beginning of the problems.

I left that meeting with the impression that the improvements plan was still in development and that any progress may actually be a while off just yet.  The rainy season had just about begun and is not a time to begin a project.  Well, when my phone rang during a hike in Park City I realized I was wrong about the scheduling of improvements.  The call was from our contractor and our car needed to be moved off the street immediately or risk having it towed as a new sewer line was being inspected and installed.  A first step to begin the regrading and resurfacing of the street!  This, I found out, meant that we received our sewer line hook up without continued permit hassle since they made sure every house on the street and project in progress was hooked up properly to avoid busting up a new road when our permit was issued. No more sharing with the church next door.  We got our own "poop pipe"!

We arrived from the airport and found the street blocked off at the top and bottom, large trucks at work and no cars parked anywhere.  So strange since there are always cars and trucks using Calle Libertad to get to where they need to go.  It was quiet other than the dump trucks and other machines leveling and compacting the street from adding road base.

A day or so after our arrival we saw a gathering of neighbors speaking with some of the road crew.  We could see guys were hastily putting away tables, chairs, plants and any other items that may be located on the front porch or stoops of the homes up the street.  Apparently they were being torn down to make way for part of the improvements to the street.  Our only guess is that over time these personal spaces encroached into the street right of way and were being removed.  These places were extensions of the local neighbor's homes.  A place where they sat and socialized, where they began and ended the day and escaped the hotter interiors of their concrete block homes.

Sidewalks being removed next to Alchemista.

  There was a look of some concern but not a lot of emotion about it.  Almost as if the neighbors knew they had grown too far out of their own properties and finally someone took notice.  Or, they figured the improvements were going to be better than what they had currently and did not complain much.

The front steps of our neighbor's house.

The twist happened when they started demolishing the church's front sidewalk.  We built our property wall on the same line as the front of the church and our neighbor on the other side.  All three properties line up but I suppose the church sidewalk was in the right of way and they made quick work of taking that out as well.

Early morning demolition of the church steps next door.

I do not even know the final plan for the street as of yet.  I have heard sidewalks similar to the ones that have been installed along other roads and around town.  Terra cotta stamped concrete.  Possibly changed to a "one-way" street and even no parking.  The designers made a big mistake with no parking on the street, Calle Pelicanos, that was "improved" last year.  They provided sidewalks, changed the street to a single direction and eliminated parking altogether.  Well, this pueblo developed around walking and every residence does not have off street parking like a driveway.  Many houses just do not have them. So people need to park their cars on someone else's street, in front of someone else's house or just park where ever they can like on the brand new sidewalks provided.  Our street is no different.  Most of the houses do not have parking so being able to park on the street is necessary.

This is what can happen when parking is not considered when improving the street.

Today, they even started taking out trees that have been part of the street as long as anyone can remember.  This one actually had a root system that likes to grow and cause problems for sidewalks, streets, plumbing and foundations.  A crew arrived with chainsaws in the late morning and by afternoon the tree was no more and the houses across the street were bathed in mid-day summer sunlight for the first time in decades I would guess.

A few more months of this but at the end we will have a brand new house and a brand new street all at the same time.  It will, unfortunately, delay some final work on the house but we will get there and Calle Libertad will look as good as it ever has.  The question will be "Will Calle Libertad "work" as well as it ever has?".

Commentary - 3+ Months Living On Sayulita's Calle Libertad

Over three months have passed and we are still living in the apartment level of our new house.  We still do not have hot water, real water pressure or a working kitchen.  Each day at 8am the workers get here and they mix, grind, stack, carry and trowel their way through the day.  Progress is being made but we are ready for a change.  We like our guys.  They are polite and courteous and they work hard.  I kiddingly refer to them as the "Tios", the "uncles" since if feels like they are part of the family at this point.   Most, if not all, of them have been here a full year so they are very familiar faces and personalities to us.  They still consider Ashley and I "the clients" so not much is said but hey are always quick with a smile and a "hola".

I have listened to and watched our crew the last couple months and after a year of construction they have developed a relationship with the neighbors.  Partly because our contractor rents a bathroom from one resident rather than renting a "porta potty" and partly because some of our guys like to mix it up a bit and be friendly with the local residents and receive ribbing in good spirits when work gets messy.  It has been interesting listening to them with the local kids especially.  Always having fun it seems with the little ones.

Casa Pono is taking shape 

Saturday is occasionally "fight night".  Our neighbor across from us is a breeder of fighting roosters.  There must be 20+ cages up the hillside each with a prize rooster. From the street you wouldn't even know they are there unless you lived with the view at our newly constructed house. Men, no women, arrive with beers in hand and the roosters are brought out for inspection and a bit of sparring to show potential clients their potential for future matches at various locations in the area including down the street a couple blocks.  I have been to the rooster fights just once and that was enough.

We have been under construction for a long time now with deliveries, noise, trucks etc.  Now that we are living here, our neighbors seem a bit perplexed having someone looking back at them for the first time ever.  Our lot had been empty and essentially a place for people to throw trash, old appliances and for dogs to do their business.  Suddenly there are lights, windows, activity and people looking back at them across the street.  We have become the focus of their attention in a way as they sit on their doorstep.  That said our neighbors have been extremely nice and are always pleasant.  Some of our neighbors have lived on the street for 30+ years so I am sure to have a family of outsiders suddenly appear has been an adjustment for them as well.  Much of the street's residents are an extended family so they are always moving between houses and yelling to someone a few doors down.  We had always heard that the street was noisy and it was not an easy place to live.  The street is certainly not quiet but the previous place we lived for 3.5 years was much, much noisier with a large neighborhood behind it.  It was mostly festive noise.  People having fun or celebrating but certainly noisier than our new home.

View from the apartment terrace

Speaking with a couple of the neighbors I think they are satisfied that something nice is being built and have received no complaints.  Though tall it is essentially a family home with kids.  There have been 6 remodels and new builds on our street in the last year so the face of the street is changing.  What was once a street to only consider as a "cut through" street where the "fish monger" lived is now getting a new image.  Our neighbor across the street actually put a "se vende"(for sale) sign up for a few weeks but removed it knowing that once the construction settles down in a few more years and road is improved he can sell his aging parents place for a better price.  Is that a good thing?  The face of Sayulita is changing for better and worse.  Prices are up driving many locals out but locals who have their property they know that they are in a good position if they choose to sell if they choose to someday.  We saw the same in Park City.  Prices up, locals out.  We will see how this situation shapes our street in the years to come but we really hope not much changes from the way it is now...other than road improvements.

Thursday is choir practice and Sunday morning are services next door.  Roosters crowing joined with voices raised in song are a combination that won't hit the Top 40 playlist anytime soon but it is certainly better than someone cranking music at 8am on a Sunday.  Our concrete wall is in contact with their concrete wall so we hear everything next door.  The church has been very patient with our project.  Debris constantly rains down into the church's back yard and they have allowed us to hook into their sewer line until sewage permits are issued once the sewer plant work it completed...when that will happen is anyone's guess.

Stuck in our own driveway for two hours.  I do not care if you were late for church.  NO Parking!!

I get out to exercise in the mornings.  With my paddle and SUP I walk down to the beach in board shorts and flip flops and have become a regular sight with the folks who are up early and beginning their day between our house and the beach.  I say a regular "sight" since I pass many people dressed in multiple layers shivering while I walk shirtless looking to actually get in the ocean.  I get noticed for sure and it is not for my 6 pack abs.  I get looks and brief comments asking me if I am cold or if I am crazy.  Living close, 5 minutes, from the beach has been great!  It takes minimal effort grab gear and go and be back to begin the day.  Trace heads out to the beach each day like he was going to the park for a pick up game of basketball or something.  It is so very easy and the kids come and go to school, friend's houses or activities without having to drive them.

Ashley and I like to sit on the apartment patio and be outside and be part of the street but not necessarily be "part" of the street.  The neighbors have their lives and it has been interesting to be sitting there watching it.  We can see so much of the town drive carts, cars and walk by too.  People look at the house, some stop, some yell up to try to sell something, say hello and others are too interested in their devices to care about anything else.  It is so much busier than anywhere we have live yet we like this location the most and feel like we are more a part of town than we have been in the past.

Concrete dust is bad but mostly it is the dust from the street that is everywhere.  Not surprising this time of year as we all forget when it rained the last time to make the dust bowl around here go away for a handful of months.  It gets everywhere.  Our car is parked on the street and if it does not get moved every two or three days it gets so dusty that it looks abandoned.  The neighbors, and us now, try to rinse the car off every couple days.  I even watered my first street the other other day just like a true local.  We totally now understand what we once considered a big waste of water.

We finally got internet! It is not news that Sayulita has outgrown it's phone/internet network.  There are other options available but we could not connect to any in our location.  So, we had our name on the phone company's waitlist.  I was pouring pesos into our portable "hot spot" router and my phone to keep connected and get anything done online.  I felt totally helpless and so disconnected from the family and the world.  Wouldn't have said that 10 years ago.  Then one day a friend spoke with a guy who he saw running cable line down the street.  He let him know about us and our hopes for getting hooked up with internet.  The next day with a few messages and a whole bunch of pesos later we had our internet!  Contracts and everything.  There is the "waitlist" and then there is they guy on the street who kinda sorta works for the phone company and can hook you up for a price. Connections to the right people and cash will go far.  Phone/internet lines are gold here without a doubt since new construction always needs hook ups that do not exist.

After 3 months without internet...we are hooked up!!

We really do not know when the house will be done.  We added a bit of work that we feel will make a good house a great house plus save us some pesos in the long run to do the work now.  The added work has taken close to six weeks and every bit of material needs to be lifted 4 stories up by hand or electric winch to the roof so the pace is extremely slow and painful to watch.  Once the rooftop is done then they crew will start making their way down through the house detailing and taking care of items not yet completed.  So now we sit and continue to wait for the rest of the house to be made ready for our move upstairs at some future date.  I will try to post some updated photos soon.

That is about it for now from Calle Libertad.  Hopefully, the frequency of updates will increase as remaining items get taken care of.