Sorry for the lack of blogging yesterday. It was not for lack of events, notes or want. It is very different moving into a town you know, vs vacationing in a town you know.
On vacation, you look for the good restaurants, when moving here, you look for the only papel hygenico (toilet paper) that is not manzana (apple) scented!! I always wondered what that smell was when Bex returned from the Pemex stops. Lol
I am currently updating the blog from the couch in our living room. and we will soon head out and send the update via an internet stop in town.
Our one nights stay was exciting in Puerto. At 4am the phone rings and I say “hello” and the phone hangs up. Hmmmm? Is there a problem with the truck, which is parked by the lobby? Shoes on I make my way and ask in Spanglish if the lobby guys had called me…or perhaps an otra client? Nope. And the truck was fine too. Walking back to the room, I bump into 2 provocatively dressed gals walking down the stairs as I walk up. 4am….hmmm. Then I see the door to the hotel room across from us is open, but the lights are off and no one is in there. Interesting, but the rest of the nigh was uneventful.
We left Puerto Escondido at 8am under cloudy skies, but the roads were dry. Here is a photo that shows some of the damage the torrential rain and run off has caused. This is only a side road, but many of these are unpaved, so the damage is significant.
The first 20 km was single lane, but light traffic. They have a complete other 2 lanes that run parallel, but they are not open yet. We recalled them working on these lanes two years ago. Mexican time!!
We were excited by both these signs. The first one was as we were leaving Puerto E:
And this one is self-explanatory:
We arrived in Huatulco at 10 am…two hours for 120 km. We did a quick drive through town and went to where we thought our condo was located. Just in case you all did not know, we had only seen some interior photos of the condo and were not 100% sure where it was located in town. As we pulled up in front of what we were sure was our set of buildings, we see our friend and building/Mexico expert, Roman. Of course I should have expected that in such a small town. We chatted and will catch up later. He said Huatulco has had a ton of rain, but the big storms had passed east and west of Huatulco. Bex has read that this is the normal pattern for big storms and the rare Pacific hurricanes that can occur.
We had 40 minutes until we were to meet Rick, so off to Los Portales for breakfast. I think the server might have been pulling the wool on us, or at least treating us like gringos. I order pan frances and it came without mantaquilla (butter) or syrup. I asked for both and he did not seem to understand syrup. I went to the car to get the dictionary, and he had brought syrup by the time I returned. We asked how to pronounce syrup in Espanol and he said piel (our spelling…rhymes with miel…French for honey). So we felt good about learning another word until later in the day when we got to the grocery store and saw syrup called Jarabe Sabor Maple. Not sure we were “played”, but since we live here and Los Portales is only a 5 minute walk away…..ha ha ha
We met Rick right on time, 11am at Super Che (the grocery store). We went to the condos, had to sign in (?) and got the tour. The place looks great. We are on the 3rd level and the buildings are only 4 years old.
We have an open kitchen to the left of the front door, our living room is to the right, straight ahead leads to a small bano on the left, a small bedroom (soon to be the animation studio) on the right and our bedroom straight ahead.
Off the kitchen is a small nook that holds the washer and dryer…a nice to have in Mexico, but we will need to see how expensive the electricity really is. Every one warns you about this…air con expensive etc.
We spotted the on site security guard and said hello:
But we have our own in-condo guard:
So we took the next 90 minutes unloading the truck. We were lucky as it was still cool outside and there was no rain. But that didn’t mean we did not break a sweat!! We were almost done moving when Rick returned from the internet (TeleMex?) place. We are lucky in the sense that he is keeping all utilities etc in his name, the bill will come to our mail box and then we will just end up paying the bills. Supposedly you take the bills to a kiosk, scan them in and just insert the pesos to pay?
Rick had a brochure for 3 internet/phone options (you have to get both), and we picked a middle package for $400 pesos/month. I think it gives us 2mps and we will have a phone number. We will also look into a cell phone number. Rick has been quite helpful and I think he appreciates we are low maintenance tenants.
I also mention to Rick that his wife Heidi had conducted some reference checks with my wingman in TO and he proudly stated, with this grin on his face, "yes she did, Bubba"...caught me slightly off guard but that was quickly replaced by a smile as I knew TS was watching my back again!!
There had been some excitement as we saw a brochure tucked in a door for Dish satellite services. All the US channels for $400 pesos/month. We went and introduced our selves to Oscar (the Grouch...he is) the caretaker, but he said we needed to contact TeleMex. Not sure why…maybe they don’t allow dishes on the roof…but we see some already. Will need to figure this out.
We finished moving and it was good to see the weight out of the back of the truck. The suspension was no longer riding so low. The truck did well for having 190,000 km on it.
The sun peaked out and it became hot and muggy. So…off to the pool for a dip!!
Back to finish unpacking and cleaning the cocina (kitchen), so we could put our stuff away. Bex was the trooper and wiped out all the cupboards as I put together the stereo receiver/iPod dock and connected the DVD player. We ended up filling three of our big blue bins with items we did not want to keep from the condo. Rick actually swung by today with the modem (could have internet today, tomorrow or next week according to the peeps at TeleMex) and he picked up the 3 bins. He will take them to their house, empty them and bring them back tomorrow, as that is when we are doing a tour of where to pay the actual utilities bills.
Took a break as we decided we need some plastic storage bins for all the toiletries we had brought down, as well as for socks etc as the shelving is limited. We also wanted to get some groceries from Super Che. Our first stock up cost $900 pesos ($75)….cheap but they also have limited stock. Once we are settled we will make the journey to the bigger towns and do a real stock up on the non-perishables.
The most disappointing news over the past 12 days is that the gym in Huatulco is no longer in the spot it was. We have not had a chance to find out if it went out of business or just moved, but 2 hours of my planned daily routine is up in the air. I might end up running (sad) and doing weights with 2 litre Diet Coke bottles (or the new 3 litre Coke bottles they have here!!). Will try to find out the scoop on the gym…a tad sad.
Back to the condo and put away the groceries and all the clothes, spotted a bee’s nest outside the bedroom window (will need to mention to Rick) and then went out for a bite. Too hot and tired to cook dinner. Dinner was at a restaurant that has changed owners three times since we first went…this was our last time going to this place. Bex’s salad not as described and after me getting the wrong cerveza and having the pequeno burger come out con queso instead of sin queso (without cheese), the decision was made. Should have gone to Los Portales!!
The one issue we have regarding the condo is that the fridge does not seem to be working. We brought a thermometer to track outside temps, but have used it in the fridge. Freezer maintains 2 degrees and the fridge 20. Rick made note and if it is not at temperature tomorrow, we will end up getting a new one.
We were told we have both Canadian and Dutch neighbours, but have not met anyone yet. A lot of people only live here during high season, so it is quiet right
Now we did find a sub-let tenant in our condo…a tiny gecko. They are harmless and eat bugs…good to have a few of those around.
Today started with a latte for Bex…have 6 weeks worth of pod left. The Mexicans use UHT milk (ultra high temp) that can be stored on the shelf for months. We are not quite into that yet, so we paid a bit more for “real” milk, which we used, for the latte and my bowl of cereal.
Ok…12 noon here. Must put this blog away and see if we can USB key it for the internet shop.
So all is well and we are on our way to becoming locals!!
Until next time.
Saludos
UPDATE:
The first internet shop was full, so we walked round and found a hole in the wall shop. It's speed was soooo slow we left after 15 minutes of frustration and worry that our condo internet may be that slow. Went back to shop #1 and found two empty seats and ta-da. The key board is in Spanish (alt gr+q = the @ sign) and of course using Internet Explorer and Word from the USB was fun too!! Escritorio (write), disco extraible (usb key) and ver (view as in list vs iconos) is all exciting. But I am so slow...that good thing it is 6 pesos for an hour!!
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