lunes, el 25 de julio de 2011

Buenos noches amigos y Feliz Cumpleaños Senor Boudreau!!

7pm and the papas are on the estufa and the roti pollo is ready to go!!

Despues de la cena, I am headed out to watch the amigos play some rapido. Should be fun, but it has turned hot and muggy!! It is currently 33 grados…plus humido.

We did go visit Nissan today and all the refacciones all arrived today…flotador, bomba de gasoline y 2 shock absorbers. When we got to Nissan, quick introductions for Bexico and then off to check on the truck.

It was on the lift and the tanque has already been installed, meaning the bomba and flotador were already installed into the tanque.

Tony hopes to have the truck started today, and ready for me to pick up mañana at 5pm. I feel good about everything, except they were changing the oil today…and the truck hasn’t been running for a week. Normally the oil would be hot when changed? Welcome to Mexico!!

Oh yeah…and they do not carry the grade of oil the truck usually uses. Should be good enough (it is Nissan brand) to get me back to Van…it is the stuff they put in taxis!!

Tony has also offered to take me to a moflero to get a quote on fixing a hole we have in the muffler.

And that was a moflero!! Ja ja ja No, serio…that was a moflero!!

Hola…10pm and it is a balmy 32 grados inside (plus maybe 5 in humido). Ugh!! Off to the chill room soon!! Here comes another $2000 peso electric bill. Ja ja ja

Well…the partido de rapido was fun…not a great game as the Nissan boys lost 2-0, but what an experience. They had me sit on the team benches and that was where the action was. I met a few hombres, one esposa, had a few laughs and talked about hockey.

One thing I have never seen before…one balon (ball) went over the fence and then into a locked school yard. The Segundo balon actually exploded and the referee was looking for another balon but no one had one. So….they borrowed a niños ball (mini size) and played with that for the last 5 minutos!! Ja ja ja Only in Mexico!!

Stopped in at el gimnasio on the way home and said hola to Yeu and Hector. Nice walk and like I have said before, the industrial section comes alive at night.

So to finish off Nissan, I hope everything is a-ok mañana.

Our day? No broken record here, but Bexico did her ejercico and then has been hard at work on her animation. She is now ¼ the way through the project. She has also been invited to apply for another contract and has a few contacts on the go as well.

Me? Up earlier then normal and I liked it!! Nice to get to the gym before it gets really hot out.

And here was our clima for the day.

That meant some more color and the need to wear some sunscreen while in the pool…something that hasn’t happened for a while.

Talked to this hombre on the walk to el gimnasio.

He was selling restaurant grade chef knives.

Know what this is?

It is the a/c unit, on the top of an old bus, that has been tied down with rope. Hello?

Un camión full of bricks for sale.

Otra camión full of bricks for sale.

Both camions parked only 20 metros apart from each other?

Time to rethink the business plan!!

Remember that our secadora is descompuesto? I knew of a place in the industrial section that fixes washers y dryers.

I swear it was there last week!! Once we have our truck back, I will cruise the neighborhood looking for another repair shop.

Had a good work out…needed to work off some pie if you know what I mean.

And Bexico did a great job on the second pie!!

I asked the senorita at the gym when Rosa was coming back and she told me she did not know? Huh? I thought she was due back today. I hope this isn’t another “Ghimbeli” where I never see her again. I will wait until I see Galdino and ask the jefe (boss) himself.

Stopped at Isssssste on the way home and found some Quaker granola. Score!! And bought some more Mil Isla…there are 2 brands and one is almost never in stock while the other brand sucks. I was lucky to find some of the good stuff.

Walked through town and saw that this business has moved.

It used to be located next to our restaurante italiano favorito.

And last but not least.

The rocking chair hombres are back!!

Grabbed a pollo on the way through town and then off to the joyeria. No Daniel, and Sergio was busy chatting it up with a local, but I did have a good chat with Moises y Samuel.

They do not speak any ingles, and rarely have spoken to me in español. But today they gave it a shot. We were going along fine until Moises asked me about Sector 9. I know there are several sectors in Huatulco, U2, Sector T etc…but Sector 9?

I apologize because he has tried hard and it is only due to my level of español that we are struggling….or is it? He takes me into the shop and logs onto the computer and show me the longboards (skateboards) made by a company called….Sector 9. Ja ja ja

Moises had a ah-ha moment when he found out I was buying his amigo Yeu, some zapatos in Canada and bringing them back. Moises is thinking…Hello Marco…can you buy me this board and bring it back with you?

I will try but I had to remind him that we live in Canada and the board is somewhere in the USA and that I am only driving through the USA…not on a shopping trip. He understands and I will see what I can do.

How many items am I buying now? A watch, a heart monitor for the gym, a longboard, some shoes…. Ja ja ja

Came home and had an early alberca time. It was hot!! Nice to be back in the pool with el sol!!

And after the pool, it was off to Nissan and Che…and you are completely in the know.

Our mañana? Nothing out of the ordinary, but wish us luck on the camioneta. Buen suerte!!

Have a great martes!!

Marco y Bexico

domingo, el 24 de julio de 2011

Hola amigos. Quick update. 2pm and it has been a clear blue sky day!!

We finished our huevos y bagel and then hit the alberca for a while. Wow…lots of nationals on vacation!! A group of 8 well behaved niños were also in the pool, enjoying the clima. I think they have 3 more weeks before escuela starts again.

Great float, may head down again later.

Did I ever tell you about the HOA (home owner association) meeting where the drunk owner attended? She tells the President of the HOA that they should not ask for more money for an emergency fund ($3000 pesos I think), but should look at what the council gets paid.

And then turned ripe red when she was told they didn’t get paid anything at all? Then she left the meeting before any voting was held. Nice. Anyway…they are back!! Her and her cigar smoking husband have moved back here full time!!

I was saying to Bexico how lucky we are that they don’t live under B10…we had the smoke issue back in the spring, that was enough!!

Great picture for the Indy race, terrible streaming. Ugh. Cannot wait until we bring down our dish….hello NFL domingo!!

Look who has decided to spend the day outside G10.

And we know exactly what she was thinking.

“Wow, breakfast was good. I could use a siesta.”

“Well hello Bono…just coming back from the cantina?”

“You look tired!! Maybe brush your teeth?”

“Ok, we can take a siesta together.”

Maybe I had too much sun today?

Bexico is out picking up some verdura and some ingredients for pie de manzana!!

Update the rest of the day later.

Hasta luego.

9pm…yikes Iron Man 2 sucks!! Lol

Indy race coverage was so so…looked like a good race.

Spent some more time planning the route back and I almost have it decided. Will probably enter the US in Texas and then work my way West to Arizona and then North to Vegas and then just continue to Portland via Reno and Mt Shasta and then I5.

The Mexico part is trickier because you don’t want to drive at night, the mapa is not as detailed, you cannot just go online and book a hotel in some of these towns and most of all, you want to be able to cross the border at a decent time of day. It looks like 2.5 days in Mexico vs the 4.5 days in Mexico on the way here.

It will all come together.

So later in the day, the dryer died. Of course it did. So I took it apart looking and hoping that it was just a belt, but it seems to be electrical because it is tripping a breaker.

The laundry room is fairly open to the environment, so the huge rainstorms caused quite a bit (hee x3) of lluvia to enter…and the humido does not help either.

I have emailed our landlords to see if they want me to try and get it fixed….once the camioneta is back up and running. Ja ja ja The weather down here seems to be tough on electronics y mechanical items.

But all good learnings for Mojon.

Broke a nice sweat taking apart and putting back together the secadora, so it was alberca time again. The pool was in the sombre (shade) so it was muy refrescante…refreshing!!

Back to the condo and then I threw the lomo into the oven and headed out for some helado while Bexico had her weekly Skype con RJ. Why the helado? Hello?? Bexico baked another pie manzana…a small guy so we are not eating pie for a week. Fotos y update mañana.

Lomo was sooo tender and the gravy packets worked like a charm. I have added those to the shopping lista for the next Che run.

And that was domingo.

Mañana? Nothing extra special. We are headed to the infantile hospital this week to confirm niño can get it’s vaccinations there, we need to get ready for inmigracion and we will probably approach the senorita that helps keep the grounds clean, and see if she will clean B10 before we move in and G10 after we move out.

Oh yeah…was invited to un partido futbol rapido. Ocho a la noche…equipo de Carlos y Tony. It would be rude not to go.

Bexico solved (or worked around) the glitch and her chihuahua animation looks great so far!! Hopefully her other clients touch base with her soon so she can close up the contracts, get paid and move on to others.

Septiembre will be a good time to go back to Canada, as Bexico needs to upgrade the Mac and software she is using. Amazing how fast something has become out dated.

Have a great week all.

Marco y Bexico