Feb 03, 2020
Major palapa repair
When we arrived here mid November we were aware that because of some fierce storms over the past summer and fall that a part of our main palapa needed to have some new palm fronds added. We were told that would happen before Christmas for certain and then the first week of January and so on. Much to our surprise Lupe showed up Thursday ( January 30th ) to review what materials he needed and planned to do the rebuild on Friday. However at exactly 8AM Friday Lupe arrived to tell us that he was sick and could not do it. But he did return Saturday morning.
There were many pieces missing to the point that we could see the plastic underneath and it was in bad shape.
The plastic had become very brittle from being exposed to the sun. You need to protect your bottom layer or the entire palapa will have to be redone. Even more money.
Lupe explained that we did not need a touch up repair but a major repair as in $$$ but it needed to be redone to save what we already have.
We built our first palapa in November of 2011 and have had a few repairs along the way. However we are most surprised at having to do this repair. Our last repair was December 3, 2018, only 13 months ago and there was only the one summer season with the winds and storms. At that time Lupe mentioned that we were good for at least 3 – 5 years. Obviously that did not happen. Why? No idea. I wrote a blog during the last repair in December of 2018 and here is the link to read that and see the photos. The final photo shows how our site first looked with no vegetation whatsoever.
Once the wooden structure is built palmas are layered and that is what the lighter coloured fronds are. Over that first layer plastic is put in place and then another layer of palmas added which are knotted into place. The fellows here are standing on that old top layer which they are still removing.
They threw them and the old plastic over the fence into the lane and later cleaned it all up.
Once the old decaying branches were gone they added a new layer of plastic.
There was a storm approaching and the day was dreary.
It was a big job and then they also redid the small palapa from scratch. First some new wood had to be added due to deterioration.
Lots of fronds were added. The purpose of this palapa is to shade our front window so that we can see our magnificent outside view without having to cover the window to keep the sun ( and view ) out. A certain amount was trimmed shorter.
It looks strange now but the palmas will dry out in the next few weeks with the sun and start to droop. That is when we will shape what we need or remove parts entirely.
We were happy to get the project completed but the price was double what we paid 13 months ago. Hopefully it will last 3-5 years this time. You can see Colin under the main palapa. As we cleaned up from the repair we also started to pack things away for the coming storm. More on that in another post.
<< Older Posts Home Newer Posts >>
Wow, twice as much. Are there any other palapa guys available? Might be worth asking next time. I hope the storm is not too bad.
Not only are there few palapa guys around but even the palm fronds are becoming difficult to find. The Isla was a coconut plantation but they cocos are being replaced my mostly mangos ( more money ) and other crops. The only other guy we knew who might do it for us would have charged three times what we paid.