When It Stops...

"I'll quit when it stops being fun."

I'm wary of TED Talks for the most part. Too many strike me as self-indulgent intellectual preening layered over with fake humility.

But then again, some are just brilliant. Like this one. And it's very funny too.



New Yorker cartoon editor Bob Mankoff:

Map of the Route, New Highway From Guadalajara

Robert:

We first blogged on this subject in June of last year. The work on this new four lane highway began in earnest in 2011, and even on older (2012) Google Earth images, you can see many kilometers of new highway, starting at the Jala exit (on the Guadalajara to Tepic toll road), then cutting through the Sierras towards Las Varas. Why does the highway suddenly disappear, then reappear? Tunnels through the mountains.

Completion dates are now 2016-2017-ish. But, it is really happening, and will make this coast much more easily accessible to people driving in from Guadalajara, Leon, San Luis Potosi, etc. Many of these are very affluent Mexicans, who will want second homes on the beach. This highway, when completed, and even the anticipation of completion,  will turbo-charge this real estate market.

There will be four lanes from Jala to Las Varas, then 2 lanes down the coast to Bucerias and Vallarta. But the two lanes of that last leg will be just inland of the existing coast highway, and far better engineered, with fewer sharp curves and switchbacks.

Below is a link to a Google Maps satellite image showing where the new highway leaves the Guadalajara-Tepic toll road, just before Jala. You can follow the road work by moving the satellite image. This image was shot in fall of 2012, so a lot more work has been done since then.

For satellite image CLICK HERE.
The image is scrollable, and you can track the roadwork much deeper into the Sierras than the first screen shows.

What is this?

Robert:

This morning I was driving down calle Augustin Melgar, right there close to Banco Bajio, when I saw a tree with flowers I have never seen before, in my 17 years of living here.


It was a bare-limbed little tree, scrawny, no leaves whatsoever, and just two of these flowers. They are fairly large blooms; about the size of a big grapefruit or cantaloupe.

Spectacular. Anyone know what this tree is called?

New Price, Condo Peacock

Condo Peacock, beach front in Paradise Village, Playa Royale, has a new price as of this morning. I've just made the change in both MLS systems. (There are, oddly, two competing MLS systems here; Flex MLS and Vallarta MLS. We are members of both, and all of our listings are promoted in both systems.)

The original price was $495,000 USD. The new price is $479,900 USD. This is a superior corner unit with big wrap-around terrace, and private terrace gate directly out to the gardens, pools, and beach. Fabulous.

For the main web page for this condo, with two hi def videos, click HERE.

Two Bears, Just Because

Robert:

These two were recently born at the Hellabrun Zoo (Tierpark) in Munich. Is the one on the right named Miley?

Zoom In, Zoom Out, The Pin Marks The Spot

Robert:

I'm working my way through each of our listing's individual web pages today, inserting clickable links to interactive (zoomable and movable) Google maps, which pinpoint each property's location in the satellite image.

I've made it through 95% of our listing web pages now, and am seeing double. Will finish the few remaining properties tomorrow.

Here are links to a couple of examples.

Condo Peacock:
CLICK HERE 

Casa Yvonne:
CLICK HERE

Two Show Offs Hangin' Out Today In Front of the Office.

Robert:

These are called hibiscus in English I think. They are called obeliscos in Spanish. These two are on our front step just to the side of the front door. I have others that are pink, others that are white.
 

It's certainly true that part of the joy of living here is that you have flowers and green things 365 days a year. That alone is just bound to make you feel a little better.

I can't tell you how many escapees from the polar vortex, Canadians and Americans alike, stop out front just to marvel at the flowers. Back "home," whether that's Chicago or Buffalo, Toronto or Calgary, it's still a monochromatic landscape of whites and greys, of bare limbs and slush.

But of course it will be beautiful in the north too when spring and summer finally arrive. The key word being finally.