Month: October 2019

Nothing much happening here at the moment. We have done all the work for our visa temporal. More on that in a later post.

I seem to have stirred up a hornet’s nest with my blog about getting the boot. A lot of folks thought it was happening right away. Not so, we won’t be moving until we come down next year.

I’m slowly getting over my nasty cold. I had to go to the doctor as my mouth and tongue were very sore. As I told Peter, I had to wait while the Doctor was tending a horse with colic. He gave me some huge pills, told me to make sure I had clean straw and to eat lots of oats. It seems to have worked as I feel a lot better now.

It’s nice being back. As we walk around town a lot of the locals recognize us and stay “Hola.” I think they are friendlier at this time of year because they know we aren’t tourists.

Our language skills have gotten a bit rusty but we are picking up what we have forgotten and will soon be on track again. Rosalie is way better with Spanish than she lets on.

The temperature has been in the high twenties and the humidity hasn’t been too bad. So we are quite comfortable. We slept with the fan on high once but had to turn it down in the middle of the night.

We moved our bedroom to the front of the house so that I don’t have to listen to the f..king rooster anymore. The noise will start to get worse though as the festivals start soon. We have already heard a lot of fireworks going off.

We are enjoying our huge 30″ TV. I hook it to the computer and we watch Netflix. They put a new modem in for us and the WiFi has been pretty good. The one they gave Gerry and Elaine next door wasn’t as good so they hook up to ours.

Our WiFi just stopped working and we have been informed, contrary to what we were originally told, that we now have to pay our own WiFi. Yet another reason for moving. We have reversed the situation and are now hooked up to Gerry and Elaine’s. We will have to pay in the end though.

Most evening we just sit outside until it gets dark; me in the hammock and Rosalie in her recliner. Actually, we seem to spend a lot of our day there. Naps are optional. The biggest challenge is finding a good book to read. We go through a few as it’s our main past-time.

The mosquitos haven’t been bad so that’s a good thing. We don’t want Rosalie getting Dengue again. In fact, they sprayed the other day. No sign of any scorpions but I had to chase a few baby crabs out of the living room. There were also a few ants on the counters but we put down some Ant-Begone and that seemed to take care of the problem.

 

Just arrived and our property manager informs us that they are about to sell the place and our future looks uncertain.

I have had a fear of this since we first moved in last year. There was a for sale sign up all last year and through the summer. People tell us it’s been for sale for years. The sign was taken down this spring.

The thing is, I don’t trust the property manager. She seems to come up with too many different scenarios. She has given Gerry and Elaine next door a run around when they are trying to rent year-round Also her body language tells me to beware.

So we have been out looking. I put an ad on facebook and received several replies. The first one we looked at was very small but had a Jacuzzi tub outside. They wanted  $13,000  pesos ($892) which was way too high for what they were offering. Next, we looked at a brand new place just off the square. It was nice but again, a bit pricey at $15,000 pesos ($1030). Also, with it being so close to the square,  we were sure it would be noisy.

On to the next one. We were told that the rent would be $8,500 pesos (about $580) so we weren’t expecting too much. It was a surprise to find that it was really nice. It is only one bedroom but otherwise is comparable to where we are now, but much cosier. Also, we would save $2,500 pesos ($170) per month.

The thing with this one is that we would pay rent for six months but have access year-round. This would mean that we could leave all our stuff there and not have to pay storage, another saving of $2,500 pesos. And also, it’s close to a lot of our friends.

We had one more to look at. Wow! What a nice place.

Doctor Eduardo Woo is one of the dentists here and he has a small “ranch” for rent for $9,000 pesos ($618). We called for an appointment and his wife Raquel picked us up and drove us out there.

The property is about 1/2 an acre and surrounded by an eight-foot wall. Well, that takes care of any privacy issues. The place is mostly lawn surrounded by many different fruit trees. There is a large swimming pool that we would share with another tenant in the same compound. Although there are two residences they are far apart and very private. Also, the other tenant is only here for four months.

The far wall is the end of the property with the neighbour’s private entrance. You can just see the other house on the right. The mound in front of the house is the swimming pool. 

The house itself is nice but not quite as nice as one of the other ones that we saw but there is a huge outdoor area where we would live most of the time.

All the gardening, pool and maintenance are included in the rent as is the gas and electricity. The only thing we have to provide is propane for the BBQ.

All this is for $2,000 pesos less than we are paying now. Oh! And we can also leave our stuff there year-round

The problem is that we have to make a decision soon, as these places go quickly. We discussed it all evening and then slept on it. We decided to take it and are all set for ranch life for next year. It’s a bit out of town but we may be able to buy a cheap car to get about in.

11/Oct/19

It’s starting to cool off a lot here lately. We still have a fire in the chiminea once in a while but go inside earlier than usual.

The final two weeks are always the worst time. We know the season here is almost over and just want to be on our way. However, we do have a lot of chores to do before we leave. We have two RV’s to winterize, now that we bought the motor home.

Peter and I put the car tent up and loaded it down with concrete blocks to stop it from blowing away. The garden is dug and the garlic planted for next year.

We also have a dozen other things to do but most have to wait until the last day or two. That’s when the panic sets in.

It’s been a good year. The weather could have been better but we can’t control that, so we just carry on. We had some great parties, as usual, especialy my 50th  anniversary of arriving in Canada.

We had a lot more doctors’ appointments than usual but at the end of it all, we are both healthy. Rosalie has to have surgery on her carotid artery in the spring but the surgeon said she will be fine until then, so we can go without any health worries.

14 Oct 19

We’s here!

We arrived in Melaque this afternoon. Fortunately, Mike and Pat happened to be in PV at the same time and picked us up. we would have taken the bus but it’s nice by car. We went to Costco and got the essentials, mostly booze.

It was an uneventful flight. We dropped the rental car off at Comox at about 4 am and then flew to Vancouver. We left there at 8:25 am. Our pilot was a woman and did a great job. I did, however, have a few anxious moments as she was backing out of our space. You know, women backing up.

It was great to get back here. Besides the warm weather, it’s just the feel of the place. We feel like we’re coming home.

Our first evening in PV, after meeting up with Mike and Pat, we went out for dinner by the marina. A travelling troubadour accosted us and directed us to the restaurant where he was playing that evening. He also wanted 120 Pesos for three songs.

(Gerry just left after several beers. He dropped in while I was writing this)

Anyhow! The guy’s name was Victor and I told him 100 pesos but he was pretty adamant. He did a fairly good job so when He finished I told him he was worth 80 pesos. In the end, I gave him 140 cos he was a really nice dude.

When we arrived at our duplex we found that we couldn’t get in the front gate. Our keys didn’t fit for some reason. I was sure there was a spare key inside so I climbed over the gate risking life and limb only to find out there wasn’t one. Oh, and yeah, our key didn’t open the main gate either.

Yes, Stupido here climbed over that.

This being Mexico, Mike got a bar out of his car and broke the chain on the gate. So we finally got in. My job, soon, is to replace the chain and lock.

Oh! it’s great to be back, we just love Mexico, except for the cold I got on the plane…