First a shout out to the latest blog follower, and numbers 1 and 2 on my Fave 5 phone plan. And a secret follower in TO…Jorge himself!! Welcome GT.
Last night after the internet update and check in, we went looking for the photo store. But first we came upon this happening:
It seems they (hundreds and hundreds) are attracted to this one light, but this is also the street with the bakery on it!! Hmmmm?
Was not 100% sure of the location of the photo store…so stop in and talk to our amigo Lalo…Eduardo. He knows us by name and is always happy to chat and catch up. He pointed us around the corner to another store….Conejos Photo. Here the attendant spoke Ingles…not that we wanted him to, and he said to come back at 10am.
Walking home, we passed another place that advertised the photo sizes we needed (infantile) and we went in. He did not speak Ingles and we figured it all out. Two photos each, one front and one right profile…$100 pesos for all 4 poses and for 4 copies of each.
Typical, the photos they took are not as good as the ones we had done at London Drugs in Van and that were not used by either the Mexican Consulate in Van or Emigracion here in Huatulco. Your opinion?
It is now currently 610pm and neither of us feels we have had a 10 hour day, but we have. I guess when you lose 4 hours to Migracion office, the day does disappear. Argh.
Best news of that experience? We do not need to pay the $525 pesos for the new Forma No Immigrante…the only good thing about getting the visa in Vancouver. Wowza.
Anyway…today’s phrase is “dos mucho simpatico Canadians” as we were the best part of the official’s day…two very friendly Canadians.
We got to the office at 920am as we were told was the best time to arrive. Sandra not only is the top official in the office, she speaks fluent Ingles.
While we waited for her, we saw there was a computer available and we knew we had one more form to fill out, send to Mexico City and print for our file. This process/formo is called Formato Migratio Para Tramites de Estancia. Phew. I am glad we waited until we were in the office as we would have never understood what all was needed let alone the sending and printing.
So we went to the computer, sneaked a few peeks at the form the lat guy had filled out and left on the task bar, and then asked an official what to do next. He sent and printed out Bex’s form and then went back to hi client. We did the same procedures for mine.
Then we waited and waited some more. Sandra arrived at 1115am (manana…almost) and dealt with the two peeps that were ahead of us. One was a VERY old gentleman from the EU…he had some very loose skin. The other guy was an Italian whom I struck up a conversation with. He was not fond of Roma (the one Italian city we had visited), but was quite excited about our Dutch as he had spent 11 years in the Netherlands. Hagel slag for all!!
While we were waiting patiently, some one else wasn’t. It was an elderly French woman who had arrived with her husband and a young lady/assistant. The assistant knows one of the officials and is brown nosing trying to get in to see Sandra before us. We gave these peeps the “get in line and be patient” look. But nope...the elderly lady starts raising her voice French, to no avail, about the wait etc.
We get in to see Sandra and she asks how long we have waited and says she was in a meeting. No apology, but I don’t think she was trying to be rude…just the way it goes. Our stack of paper is in good order…except we had not entered our middle names on the one form. Argh. Sandra mentions we also need two more letters in Spanish. One stating I will cover any expenses we may have and the other translating our bank statements into Spanish.
Sandra mentions she will do these both for us and if we hadn’t forgotten our middle names on the forms, we would have sat in her office as she typed out these letters, signed them and been on our way. But no….
We had to leave her office to go back to the computer to fix the forms ourselves, and the second we left, the French army moved in and never left. They were rude and demanding. Sandra’s face soured as they spoke and at one point, they did not believe the fact they needed an infantile photo let alone could get it in La Cruceita. So Sandra calls me into her office to show these peeps our photos and confirm they could get them in town.
We waited and waited and it was now 130pm and they closed at 1pm. Sandra passed the file over to another official who spoke some Ingles and she went through it, confirming for her boss that it was all good, minus the translation of our accounts. Sandra came out with the one letter (stating financial support) and asked us to get the other letter done. We will probably email Roman and ask him to send it to us in Espanol to ensure it is correct, as we have seen some errors off Google Translate.
So, we will return on Lunes to return the package and we have been told it is probably 3-4 weeks until we get our cards. No worries as we have our visas (lol). We were once quoted $1000 Cdn per Forma No Immigrante by a guy in Calgary who does the process for you. What a rip-off…but I guess if your time is that valuable, it might be worth it.
Picked up some dinner…brochettes (cubes) of pork for me tonight, and the fixings for Bubba’s hamburguesa for manana!!
Was pooped out from doing nothing and being patient (that is tiring), so I took my first Mexican siesta!! Got up, we hit the pool and then we did a condo cleaning, as the place gets dusty with the windows always being open.
And now we get ready for the walk and blog update.
Bex is excited about possibly going surfing on Saturday with our Dutch neighbor. I will probably tag along but have not had much success with this sport…and it frustrates me, as I would love to surf with the same passion I have for snow boarding.
My first issue is the bad right “wing”, with both the torn rotator cuff and broken collar bone inhibiting the paddling motion needed to get the board out to the surf, let alone get it up to speed when you catch the wave.
The second issue is strange, as I have become susceptible to getting sea sick while waiting for the surf to come. Sailed for years and never had this problem…I think it all stems from a few “drinking the night before” incidents, one being on a cruise ship that hit rough water in the middle of the night, and the other being in Mazatlan when I went sailfish fishing with a couple of friends who no longer roam the Earth with us.
Well, if we go, Bex will enjoy her self and I will either go for some swims or just kick back and take some photos.
Another first for us was the use of the a/c in the bedroom. It has been tough getting to sleep the past few nights, so we cranked it on for 20 minutes and then turned it off and fell asleep. It does cool down at night, but our bedroom seems to take longer then the rest of the condo, even with the ceiling and floor fans on.
Yesterday’s temperatures were consistent with the week, a high of 32.4 and a low of 23.5.
Tomorrow…Telmex, the gym and of course the hamburguesas!!
Until manana,
saludos
LATE UPDATE
Lalo came to our condo and told us he had made contact with the "table guy". We met the two of them in the town square and agreed on a 100 cm x 60 cm wood table for $300 pesos and we gave Lalo $50 even though he did not want it. Good to keep the wheel greased down here. The table guy is another of these wood workers from the mountains who do their work and then drive around to the towns selling the product. Will update you tomorrow as to the verdict...good table/deal or not. The cost is 1/2 of what Roman quoted us to have his carpenter make one for us.
Buenos Noches
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