Admiralty Beach Land Co. expands to the hills

ARROYO SECO, Jalisco, Mexico - Just 30 kilometers north of Tenacatita (where our lot is being prepared for eventual construction of Casa Admirale), we found a wonderful little town called Arroyo Seco, located in a valley that opens to the ocean.

It's a real-deal Mexican town. If we build a house there and join the community (the latest plan hatched over margaritas) we will boost the gringo population to three in a town of probably 500 people. The only other Norteamericano in town is called Spiderman, a surfer who moved in a dozen years ago.

Yup, Spiderman. I can't make this stuff up.

Like all things Mexico these days, we fell into a situation where a lot was for sale, a neat parcel already level and ready for construction on a hillside overlooking the tiny pueblo. Today it looks like we will add it to our list of places to write from.

Oh-my-God...


View from the lot looking north

What, have the Admiral and Captain gone totally mad, buying a lot that is, gasp, almost a mile from salt water?

Rest easy, amigos. The lot was embarassingly cheap, leveled & ready for construction, electricity is available 100 feet away and the city water tank/supply is on the lot next door and available to tap.. So we can scratch 'expensive water tank' off our list of utlities. Coupled with all that is the mayor of the town is also the fellow who owns a bulldozer and who our builder/friend Arturo says would like nothing better than to improve the goat path driveway we have into a real road.

And best of all, a house can be built muy rapido, so we will have a place to live while we decided exactly what we want the beach house to look at Tenacatita.


The road from the town square to the lot


Rolling down the hill towards town

Perhaps one of the nicest things about the town, weatherwise, is the way valley opens to the ocean, letting a cool seabreeze in almost all the time - a big factor as temperatures in the inland of Mexico are in the mid-90s right now. At Arroyo Seco, I doubt it topped the mid 80s at the heat of the day while we sipped beer purchased at one of the three tiendas in town. One of them is named Mini-Super Miguel's. Maybe I'll get a discount there.

When we took our tour of Arroyo Seco (and a lot of other places) yesterday, we were guided by Joe Santana who can barely drive through any of these places without half the town coming out to chat - and frequently asking him to buy their property. We ran nearly out of gas in Joe's SUV, so in very Mexican-fashion Joe got some petrol from a friend (who also has a beach lot for sale, hmm...) who siphoned it into Joe's tank.


'Nino' and Joe (right) putting some petrol in the car