MORE ABOUT COCKS

Don't get too excited here, we are still talking about chickens.  A few months ago, my friend Elvis asked me to check again with Red Farms in Alabama about shipping a trio (one cock, two hens) to Mexico.  Not really liking the idea of "fighting cocks" I made the call.  The nice lady informed that they did ship to Mexico and gave me a price for the shipping, but told me that it would be up to me (somebody else, really) to clear them at customs.  They insist that the the cocks are to be sent for breeding purposes only (yeah, yeah).   I told Elvis that he should check with customs to see if there are restrictions and if there was any duty to pay.

It was less than a month later when he told me that he had in fact bought one cock and four hens.  It is still a little unclear to me with the language difficulties, but I think that he found someone in Texas to smuggle  them across the border (which would make them wet back chickens, I guess) and then shipped them to Vallarta.
He had a friend who already had a cock farm who went in with him to purchase the chickens.  They cost $1,500.00 if you can believe.  Elvis set up four cages for his new chickens, one for each hen.  The rooster visits each hen every other day (poor thing does not have his own cage).

Elvis was to feed the chickens in the mornings (his friend who has a government job would feed them in the evening) and pick up any eggs and take them to an incubator.  I am not sure where this is, but I guess it is near.  Within a few weeks the little chicks started to hatch.  Then they needed another coop for the chicks.  He constantly complains about the cost of feed.  I do not know why.  Where did the expression "chicken feed" come from;  I thought it would be cheap.  He told me that only three out of ten chicks would be males (thus potential fighting cocks).  So far out out 50  chicks he has maybe 15 to 20 males.  (no I do not know how they tell).  His friend (partner in the endeavor) wants to cut the heads off all the hens.  Elvis excepts this as a reality but also wants nothing to do with it, nor would he be able to watch.  He told me that the chickens know him and as soon as they hear his motorcycle, they all get excited (Once they find out what he intends to do with him, they won't be so happy to see him),

He says he isn't really going to use them cocks for fighting himself, but the idea is to sell them.  Unfortunately the cocks have to be a year and a half to two years old before they are ready.  He still thinks he will make a lot of money doing this.  I told him that although I wanted to see the chickens, I would never want to be near a real cock fight.  He then told me that they had planned on having a cock fight on my roof top deck.  After I screamed, he said "Just kidding".  So when he invited me to visit to see his chicks, I jumped at the chance (I still abhor the, but was curious).

Wouldn't you know it rained that day.  The rain started a few weeks earlier, but only at night.  When I left and saw the cloud bank, I wasn't really concerned.  Before I could get on the first bus, the rain started.  I had to change buses at Liverpool.  Although I have a good umbrella at home, I did not have it with me, so I decided to try to buy a cheap one.  Liverpool is not a town but a department store (the largest and most expensive in Vallarta).  The Galleria does not open until 11:00 (They have weird hours here, like every thing else in Mexico).  By the time I got back to the bus stop, I was soaked.  Fortunately by the time I arrived in Bucerias, the rain was down to a drizzle.  I was amazed at the huge yard with dozens of cocks and hens.  His friend does use his for fighting.  They are huge cages they dwarf the four small ones that Elvis has.  He did say that as the chicks grown, he will have to build some big cages along the opposite wall.

His cock is so tame he can cuddle it.  He said he was a lover, not a fighter and would never be put out to fight.  I was also surprised to learn that they train the cocks to fight by putting on blunt rubber knobs on their spurs (sort of like boxing gloves).  I told him that I did not want to watch them training either.  Raising fighting cocks is not his only enterprise.  Elvis has had two jobs (one day, one night) almost the entire three years I have known him.  Currently he is working on opening his own gym.  He build the building next to the house he built a few years ago.  They gym is already huge, but in time he plans to add a second floor for aerobics
and other related exercises

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THE REMODEL OF PARROQUIA SANTA CRUZ

Maybe you have missed me.  Sorry, I told you that I am basically lazy and I am running out of new topics.  Which is why I have decided to revisit some of my previous topic.   It was just one year ago that I  wrote about the church across from me and referred to it as "the ugliest church in Mexico".  Maybe somebody hear me, for several months ago, the remodel began.

I was told that they have a new priest from Mexico City.  Maybe he is the one who got it started.  I am also told the the priest (and this church)  are the most conservative in Puerto Vallarta.  This may account for all the pregnant teen age girls in town (NO condoms allowed !)  Anyway, it started with the repainting of the exterior  of the church.  I could not believe how artistic it looked or how much a paint job improved the looks.  Who ever designed it knew what they were doing for the added borders of white paint emphasize the architectural details.  I now love the tower which rises above the wall on my roof top terrace (please note my new palm tree)..  I still cannot believe the way the painters raised and lower themselves five stories into the air with just a hand cranked pulley.  Before the painting was finished, they added a stained glass window the the front.  The first morning when I went out to my balcony for coffee and noticed a huge hole in the wall, I thought the cannon must have gone off and blew a hole through the front wall.  Then I noticed a man on scaffolding chiseling away on the hole from the inside. Bits of concrete and lots of dust fell to the side walk below and any unsuspecting passers by.   Once the hole was big enough a stone circle was added.  I watched as they put this is place.  It is put up with what looked like willhold glue.  The bottom piece was temporarily supported by a wood stick, then all the other pieces were added on top and the wood stick was taken away.  No bolts, no screws, nothing  but glue.  I will never walk under it.  The sign when you enter Mexico says "Bienvienitos"  which I translate to "Enter at your own risk".

After the painting was done they started ripping out the inside (why after it was freshly painted ? Well because it is Mexico.  There were several niches in the wall where they displayed their plaster saints.  They ripped through the wall and created tiny little rooms off the main hall.   Who know why?  In order to do this they apparently needed lots of concrete.  For months concrete was mixed in the street and hauled inside.  Yes, they just dump the cement, and sand in the street, add water and mix right on top of the cobble stones.  Once they are satisfied with mixture, it is scooped up into a wheel barrel and taken inside.  Why not just mix it in the wheel barrel (thus sparing the mess in the street)?  Well, because it is ......!  At first I could not tell why they added two more columns in the front.  I thought maybe they added them for the extra weight of the stone edged window.  But when they were finished, banners were hung between the posts.  A much better idea than posting them on the sides of the building.

Semana Santa just ended a week ago and already, they are beginning the celebration for Santa Cruz.  During Semana Santa, thousands of Mexican Nationals descend upon Vallarta in pick up trucks (carrying table chairs and coolers in the truck bed along with a dozen Mexicans.  Some will just sleep in the trucks.  Some will rent a cheap room and put a dozen people in it.  Mostly they go to beach and then get very drunk.  I took a photo of the beach one day and it was not even the week end.  Mexicans with their colorful umbrellas as far as the eye could see.  I really do not mind all the extra traffic, or people at the beach, it is the loud music blasting out of the cars all day and night that drives me crazy.

The festival of Santa Cruz goes on for a week before and several days after May 3rd.  At first I thought that it must be the birth or death of a saint.  No, it is not a saint at all, but means "Holy Cross"  How they came up with the date of May 3rd, no one seems to know.  The remodel must have been planned to conform with this date. Once again my street is closed to traffic (the good news) but along with the many booths and kiddy rides comes the largest speakers I have ever seen  They blast away from dusk to about midnight.  There is no way I can sleep before.   I do love watching the little kids on all the rides below.  At first a large carousel was placed below my bedroom.  Then it was moved aside and one of those rides with little cars that go round and round.  What I did not know is that it comes with an ear piercing alarm.  It sounds like a car alarm on steroids.  The little kids ridding probably have no idea what it is, but the young kid who runs the ride seems to love it.  Of course bells ring all week, but it is the cannons that you would not believe.  I have gotten used to the bells, but every time the cannon goes off I jump (sometimes spilling my drink).

I invited my friend Filipe and his kid and wife (well really just the mother of his child) for a few drinks before letting little Ian loose on the rides.  Last year he was just eighteen months old  and most of the rides scared him.  One scares me.  People are strapped into a circle of seats and then turned upside down.  There are no safety checks here so you won't catch me hanging upside down.  To my surprise, he still would not get on any of the rides.  All he wanted to do was to play a little marble gambling game.  He had a good time anyway.

There are sermons all week long and every night the loud speakers blast, bells ring, cannons go off,  and the rides run until  midnight.  On the second block are all the stands selling food and trinkets.  But the culmination comes on May 3rd (Santa Cruz Day)  That is when the bonfire like fireworks stand is installed in the cross street.  At the start of any event at the church a bunch of Indians in colorful feathers will dance.  Of course this means that a two block square is completely blocked to traffic.  No one seems to mind.  Everyone crowds around this tower of fire as fireworks scatter burning bits into the crowd.  Last year it set off a fire on the dry weeds growing on the restaurant across the street.  This year I watched them assemble the structure in the street.  It turned out to be at least one story higher than before and was much more spectacular.  For the finale, the top blew off into the sky and fireworks displays fell back onto us for several minutes.  It did not start any fires, for the restaurant across the street had carefully removed all the dead leaves from their roof.  I had my friends, Richard and Hector over again and this time served dinner.  After dinner we walked the three blocks of rides, and booths.  Unfortunately it did not end that night.  No !  the racket (minus the cannon blasts) is still going on.  Last year it was one week, now they are talking about keeping it open until Mother's Day.  It is impossible to sleep until after midnight.

It may sound like a living Hell to you, but you should see the people.  When I go down stairs and mingle among them, I am impressed by the happy, laughing faces (knowing that most of them live with several generations in a few squalid rooms)  They have barely enough to buy tortillas and beans to feed their families, but here they are enjoying (and drinking) during carnival.  Whole families are here to watch their kids take turns on the stupid little carnival rides set up below me.  They will spend their precious few pesos to let their kids have fun.  The children are so beautiful here with their large dark eyes (especially when they are looking at the carnival)

.  You just have to love these happy crazy people.


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