Welcome to Raicilla Dreams, please make yourself comfy....you will find many photos, anecdotes and tales of Yelapa told by amigos that lived there before electricity and before it was totally discovered by the tourist world. I welcome your own memories and photos.


Start at the very bottom with archives and work your way up if you want to follow the order I posted. Otherwise, just feel free to skip around and read what suits your fancy...faye

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Recollections From Leslie Korn

Some great recollections from Leslie Korn. Match the number to the picture on the left. (for some weird reason, I can't transpose these photos into order...so, just work backwards and check the numbers. sorry)

1. Here’s a photo of Janet and her cousin Danny Berlin at the Zalate....
Janet played conga/bongos and we had a revolving series of musicians including Sean Shapiro. She was a budding sax player under the tutelage of ole sax musician tio Buddy. One summer we were all shvitzing and swatting flying termites (remember? before fans and light at night?) and Celeste was away somewhere and Buddy came over daily for a couple of weeks while they mastered
In a Sentimental Mood.


2. Leslie, Janet and Bets Menendez (her back to Camera) 1974. We were the first to inhabit Matildes new house. He had just finished it; all bright white concrete foundation with a crisp palapa, up shit creek. The only other house there at the time was Antonio’s who was building his house in front and Pam Thomson’s further up the hill. And then Elena and Jaime’s up near the upper waterfall. Note the table filled with coffee and cigarettes; this was our pre-purification period. Living up the hill made it easy to quit smoking cigarettes... But alas Betz continued and she passed from emphysema not too many years later.


3. View of the lagoon from the re-built Casa Zalate, following the fire in
1983 during the glorious years when Rita’s house was gone and before Alfonso built his concrete edifice.


The Zalate was perfect for so many reasons and for so many years. Not the least of which was its location so close to the beach. The ocean drowned out all other sounds like the village baile and the church cuetes at midnight, but not the pounding hooves of Don Juan’s bulls being driven through town every Sunday on their way back to pasture.



4. 1980 Janet teaching yoga at the annual Traditional Medicine seminar. We began the seminars in ‘78 and they ran for 25 years at Casa Loma (now Milagros). Aricela (Camerino’s wife) is to the left. Arciela and Camerino were part of a community health group that gathered at the house every week to share food and discuss birth control. In those days the priest would show up occasionally and point a stern finger at our discussions about pills and vasectomies... hmm I forget who was the first man to jump, but soon there was a flood of vasectomies... To the left of Aricela is Janice Dent who attended a few of the Polarity trainings and was a natural born healer and Jaime was in the far back.

5. Building the treatment house at the Zalate, 1979. The first house built on stilts , serving gringo and local alike for 12 years, it provided shelter for many a borracho who fell down the side of the mountain at night and slept underneath as well as shelter and balance above for all manner of malady...

Jungle Living

Scorpions Spiders Mosquitoes Bats
Gekos Lizards Skunks and Rats
Crickets singing Giant Bees
Roosters sleeping in the trees
Landcrabs Termites Scrawny cats
Donkeys Horses and their craps
Badgers Squirrels and Little Weasels
Mice and Ticks Large Flying Beetles
Armadillos Lots of Frogs
Cows and Bulls and Barking DOgs
Butterflies Fireflies
Dragonflies and Fleas
Ants of all descriptions any where they please
Burning Garbage Burning Gas
Sure hope this trip is not my last.

by Kelley Chesley

Yelapa Happy Hour

A teeny tiny bug
just flew directly into
the corner of my right eye
bolted out
down my bare back
bit my foot
raced up
my short sarong
then out
into the electric light
fell into my rum and
i drank it...
it all happened so fast

by Kelley Chesley

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Springtime

I returned last week from 3.5 months in Yelapa...the coldest winter ever! Dressed pretty much the same as I do here in Santa Cruz; silk long underwear, sweater, jacket, scarf, socks! What happened? We were all shuffling along in winter gear most of January and February.

One day I spent an hour + sitting in front of the stove while I baked potatoes so it wouldn't be a complete propane waste. Unbelievable. Living outside is a whole different scene when it's cold! I began to appreciate the level of discomfort the homeless must endure during the winters almost everywhere in our USA. It gave me a new insight, but didn't stop me from complaining.

I loved staying in Jan's house...although it was so open and windy and a tough climb. Once I was there, it was a very sweet place to stay. Those of you that ventured up for a visit know how cardio it was!

I added some photos by Jessica Geraldo Rice and also a poem and link to Susa Silvermarie who does some very nice writing on her blogs. Check them out.
More to come...
It's a bit overwhelming being home. I have a new mattress!!

Oh, for those of you asking....no, I did not find my silver beads at home. I am sure I brought them in my carry on pack...so either they were taken out at security and I missed it or someone took them from the casa. It's very upsetting and costly! The price of silver has skyrocketed and I probably won't be able to replace them!

In Praise of the Sea

The sea the sea,

its heartbeat on the shore

soothes me so.

Each day when I enter her,

she is silk on my skin,

silk!

The sea from whom I come,

she from whom I am made.

Her salt

holds the salty sea within me

afloat on her surface.

No effort from me.

No resistance.

I lie upon the sea

like a bed I have always known.

My skin, a clever device,

the thinnest of paper

to shape the watery depths of me,

disappears.

I go home to the sea.

All of me

surrenders

to the sea, the sea.


by Susa Silvermarie

http://www.susasilvermarie.com