Morning in Ajijic

By Teri Saya

ajijic morning 

 

I am not a morning person. I never have been and never will be.

When I was an apprentice carpenter, I had to be on the job by 6 a.m. Thank goodness my Journeyman (supervisor) understood about night owls, his wife was one. He made sure coffee was available and that I worked without using a power tool until after 9 a.m.

I’ve heard how early birds describe their morning. “I pop out of bed just before the sun rises. I listen to the birds singing, I breathe in that cool, fresh, dewy air and I’m ready for the day.” Holy cow! Really!? Not even a cup of coffee in your system?

Recently, I had to force myself to be a morning person for a month, while house and pet sitting for friends in Ajijic. The house is beautiful! It’s bright and sunny with many skylights. It is located out on the rural west side of Ajijic, close to the lake. There were three dogs and a cat to take care of, well, four dogs if you count our own Schnauzer.

My husband and I live in an urban area in Zapopan, so we were very excited for this opportunity to hang out in beautiful Ajijic. The time came for us to take over and we were instructed on feeding the animals, how the appliances worked, and when to expect the gardeners. Our friends were excited to be on their way, and after they left, we sat out on the back patio to savor the quiet tranquility. Suddenly a shrill and loud buzzing started coming from a nearby tree. It almost sounded like electric static. We were baffled until I found out from the Internet that it was a large bug called a ‘Cicada.’  This lasted four days in a row.

That night, we were settling into the big, comfortable bed, when, Holy Crickets Batman! At home, we have one lonely city cricket who sings to us at night, but here there seemed to be a whole colony of them just outside the window. Ok, I figured if I can tune out my tinnitus, I can tune these guys out too. It took me about three days to accomplish this.

The next morning, sunrise through the skylights lit up the bedroom. It didn’t even occur to me when I was admiring how bright and sunny the house was during the day, that it would also be bright and sunny way too early in the morning. Even our Schnauzer groaned.

I rolled over and closed my eyes, but a wet nose on my eyelid told me our charges were hungry. The large variety of birds, a crowing rooster and neighing horses in the neighborhood also told me it was time to get up.

During the month that we were in Ajijic, I learned to make sure that the coffee maker was ready the night before, so all I had to do was hit the ‘brew’ button in the morning. I could feed the animals on auto-pilot, and I learned to appreciate the cool, fresh, dewy air.

We had a wonderful break from the city and I got a lot of writing done. But, it will take some late nights and late mornings to get my biological night owl back on track.

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