'Did I just hear a rooster?', my mother asked me incredulously over the phone last weekend in the middle of our conversation. Living in Mexico this is a question I hear on a regular basis while chatting with my friends and family back home. Of course my response is always [insert heavy sigh], 'Yes, yes that indeed was a rooster.'
A little known fact about roosters is that their cries are not limited to dawn.
One of the biggest differences between living in Canada and Mexico seems to be the decimal level. Canada (on all fronts) tends to be a little reserved and, at least in the downtown neighborhood I had been living in before we moved to Puerto Vallarta, has little patience for noise pollution. My former building manager used to pass out memo's urging us to not wash dishes after 10pm in the hopes of curbing the cacophony of clinking porcelain that was sure to keep the neighbors up until to the ungodly hour of 11pm.
In Mexico things are a bit more relaxed and noise is looked upon more as a natural bi-product of life than a phenomenon that can be controlled with strict rules and regulations. If you live next to people you're going to hear them so - deal with it.
As I am writing this, which is well after dark, I can hear the kids next door playing basketball, a pair of cats screaming at each other in the street below and the distant strains of a Mexican ballad wafting from a party down the street. In the morning I will wake up to roosters (yes plural) and if their incessant cries don't manage to rouse me I'm guaranteed to wake up when the jackhammer starts up in the new construction site next door. During the day I will be able to buy gas, water, tamales, knife sharpening services, popsicles and fresh produce from various vendors that move their way slowly through the city streets screaming their services at the top of their lungs (often with the aid of a bullhorn). And when the day draws to a close I'm sure someone on our block will throw a party that will necessitate the hire of a live band. If I'm really lucky their set will last until 3am, which is right about the time the roosters start alerting us to a new day...
(rooster image via flickr)
