About Janet Lowe
After having visited various parts of Mexico many times, we decided to move to Playa del Carmen July, 2007. We found a little two-story house with two bedrooms, front and back gardens, two bedrooms (one for a painting studio), and one and a half bathrooms that was within walking distance of almost everything in town. The rent was right, so we met with a lawyer and the landlady to sign pages and pages of legal documents which listed every tablespoon and shot glass in the furnished house. The furnishings were minimal, so we spent weeks finding things we wanted to live with. We found the perfect three piece living room set, but waited a day and came back to find it sold! Another set was available, which we bought, but it has proved to be the most uncomfortable furniture ever created.We also bought bicycles right after we arrived: thick tires, foot brakes, front baskets; and have loved them dearly.
We had studied Spanish in the US and I enrolled in a language school for a couple months. My fellow students were for the most part young people from Europe who already spoke several languages and after a while I felt like I had been left in the dust. My decision to leave school was a good one as it forced me to get out and talk. I have recently begun lessons again to straighten out some of my bad habits.
I started painting with oils before I left Philadelphia, realizing that the world of craft fairs where I had sold my ceramic work for 30 years was over for me. I gave away my equipment to young artists, gessoed a ream of water color paper and came to Mexico. Since arriving I have discovered a decent shop for supplies in town and a huge shop in Cancun, which is only an hour bus trip away. Carolina, the 16 year old girl who lives next door, agreed to speak Spanish with me while I taught her to paint. We have throughly enjoyed each others company and learned much. Her parents invited us for coffee on a Saturday afternoon during which we spent two hours attempting to communicate in Spanish. The outcome has been that Jim joins them most Saturday mornings for their son’s soccer games.
We have adopted a dog, Freddie, an 8 year old Cocker Spaniel, half blind, who loves to dig up the garden. Jim got involved with the Peanut Pet Shelter here in town where homeless dogs are rescued. Saturday afternoons they open the shelter for volunteers to help wash puppies and dogs (often 40 to 50 animals). Freddie has given Jim’s life purpose: up at 6:30 am for long walks, hours of replanting the garden after his digging adventures, showers together in the front garden, and hours of simple blind devotion on both of their parts.
I am doing yoga two days a week and Tai Chi on Saturdays. My teacher is inspired and consequently I have throughly enjoyed becoming more physically fit and relaxed. Between this organized exercise and bike riding I now have muscles I never knew existed. At least once a week we ride our bikes a couple miles north of town where the beach is not yet developed to walk and swim for several hours. Our complexions have bronzed so that almost every color of clothing looks handsome.