As Christmas approaches....

Some of the beautiful architecture in downtown historic Merida.

We are only a few days away from our first Christmas in Mexico.....although Lowell is working that day!  

We have been here one full month now.  So far we are happy with our decision to buy a little casa in Mexico.  It is really a shame that Mexico is getting such bad press due to the border drug problems, and the illegal entry into the US in the border states.  We are very far from any border issues here, and life is very peaceful.  The Mayan and Mexican people we have contact with are lovely people, very quick to smile and make us feel welcome.

One of the large Christmas Trees on Paseo de Montejo boulevard.

This past weekend we stayed for Saturday night at our favorite downtown Merida hotel, the Luz en Yucatan.  This is our third stay there, and we feel like family there when we talk with the hotel staff, and Tom, the owner.  We went after Lowell got off work at 7:30 PM, so it was already around 9 PM when we arrived.  On our way downtown we drove down the Paseo de Montejo, the large boulevard in the center of the north end.  It is brightly decorated with large Christmas trees,  many over the street light displays, and tree trunks along side the road lit with the tiny white lights......a very festive scene. 

A dance routine at the Christmas Market on Saturday night.

Sunday morning we headed out for the "market" after breakfast.  We like to go see the real market where the locals shop, as well as the market at the Plaza Grande which is a big to-do on Sundays.  The Plaza Grande is a magnet for tourists and locals alike.  We were in search of traditional looking Mexican plates for the kitchen, but sadly we were unable to find them.  Most of the plates we saw were meant for decoration rather than eating.    But to walk through the huge market is really an adventure.  Everything is there...food, meat, clothing, shoes, belts, knick knacks, hardware....you name it!

Passers-by at one of the hammock shops downtown.

At the Plaza Grande, we saw children waiting their turn to talk to Santa, just like you'd see anywhere in the U.S.A.!

We went into one of the Mayan gift shops and saw a man working on a wall hanging...made with pure wool, and using the loom of olden times.  He will work for two weeks on this one hanging, and will probably charge $4000 pesos for it, which is about $320 US.

We wish everyone a Very Merry Christmas, and a New Year full of happiness and good health, and good surprises! 

Driving through Mexico day 2, San Luis Potosi to Coatzalcoalcos

We knew we would have a long trip today, as it was supposed to take more than 9 hours to get to our destination for the night.  So, we got up earlier than usual and hit the road by 7:30 AM.  In my research ahead of time, I had found a hotel called Hotel Terranova, in the riverside town of Coatzacoalcos, which is a little further than the recommended stop in Minatitlan.  But by looking at Google Earth, I had discovered that there was no way we could stay at the one hotel in Minatitlan, because it required driving through an archway into the interior parking lot, something I was sure would not be fun with the trailer.  So I had made a reservation last night for a room tonight at the Terranova.  Looking again at this hotel on Google Earth I could see that it was kind of a country club set up, with a lot of green space along the river, tennis courts, a large palapa party area, and a free form swimming pool.  And a lot of parking area!

 
The terrain changed quite a bit during this day's drive.  As we were going up in elevation, there was more greenery.  Ahead, we saw a snow capped mountain, something we did not expect to see in Mexico.  The picture below is the mountain, but the clouds are obscuring the snow.

 As we kept driving, we headed up these mountains, near the town of Orizaba.  We almost thought we were in Washington state, as there were pine trees and lots of fog along this section.  Most of this road was under construction to repair landslides that occurred during the last hurricane that passed through Veracruz...I'm guessing as it headed west these mountain areas received a lot of rain.

 We made it over the mountains alright, but on the way down we suddenly heard a large "boom" noise, and Lowell could tell we had just lost one of our tires.  Luckily he was near an area where we could safely pull to the side (much of the road through the mountains had NOWHERE to pull over).  Getting out of the car we saw that the right rear tire was completely blown and flat as a sheet of paper!  It was 2:30 in the afternoon, with plenty of daylight left.  We got out the manual and figured out how to release the spare which is stored underneath the car, and with some difficulty Lowell got it free.  Then, reading the manual again, found out where to use the jack, jacked up the car, took off the blown tire and put on the new one.  Neither of us has had to change a tire for a LONG time, but luckily Lowell is a jack of all trades and managed fine.  In an hour we were back on the road.  We are lucky the Escalade comes with a full size fully inflated spare, not one of those little hard tires used for spares in smaller cars.  We had just purchased 4 new tires a month before leaving on this trip at Discount Tire, and Lowell had agreed to the extra insurance for them, so this will pay off!  We had also purchased a new spare tire for the trailer, which is what we expected might have a flat, but the trailer tires held up just fine.  We may have had too much pressure in the rear tires, and the extra weight of the trailer, plus the elevation changes going over the mountain all combined to make this tire blow out.

So, on we go toward the Terranova.  There are 3 different exits toward Coatzacoalcos around Minatitlan, and by the time we get there it's already getting dark.  We miss the first exit and try to take the second one, but it doesn't seem like we are going the right way.  We stop at a Pemex to try to get help, but no one there speaks English.  We are both getting crabby by now, and keep driving.  Somehow we get to the third way into Coatzacoalcos, and I recognize the river, and that we will be heading in the opposite direction to get to the hotel.  I had studied it so much on Google Earth that I knew what landmarks I would see, had we taken the first exit.  I knew I'd see the same landmarks in reverse....sure enough we did, and made it into the hotel parking area, several hours later than our expected arrival time, but we had a reservation!  We get checked into our room with no problems, and go to the hotel's restaurant for a nice dinner.  Some people at the hotel speak a tiny bit of English, and with our tiny bit of Spanish everything works out.

The next morning we can see the property in daylight.  Lowell and I took a stroll around to see the river, the pool, the huge palapa, etc.  We wouldn't mind staying here again, for more than one night in order to use the pool.

 

This was a day that shows that extra planning can come in handy!

Today we spent 1200 pesos for gas ($97) and 1351pesos for tolls ($109).  The hotel Terranova was about $70, plus another $30 for the dinner and tip.

Driving through Mexico day 1; Laredo to San Luis Potosi

The first three days of our trip to Telchac Puerto were through the US, and just routine driving days.  We left Virginia on Nov. 13, after draining the water tank, the hot water heater, and the toilets, and putting antifreeze in the toilets and sink traps.  Hopefully that will do the trick and we will still have good water pipes in the spring!  The only electricity we left on in the house was to the garage, where we have a small heater and battery chargers on the motorcycles, so hopefully they will survive the winter OK.

On Tuesday Nov. 16 we are heading for the border at Laredo TX.  We crossed over around 8 AM, and sat in the "declarations" line for half an hour or so.  Then we were directed to park near a long table, under cover...there were several parking spaces in a row.  Our border person took the list I had made of the belongings in the trailer, which I printed in English and Spanish, along with the "value" of each box.  For instance, a box of Christmas decorations, a box of sewing machine and supplies, a box of tools, etc.  The big stuff was easy to see from the back of our motocycle trailer...the bed, the couch, chair and ottoman, the dining table.  The border folks checked over the list but did not open any boxes, and determined how much duty we had to pay according to the prices I had indicated.  We ended up paying duty on more stuff than I had expected, about $4000 pesos.  (about $325, which is really not bad if you'd had to buy all that stuff in Mexico).  Then on to get our vehicle permit sticker and our tourist visas, good for 180 days.  We could pay by credit card for those. 

By 10:30 we were on our way toward Monterrey, a town known for it's drug problems (as well as Nuevo Laredo, at the border, of course!).  Long before our drive, I had used a Mexican website for point-to-point driving directions, which indicated the time and kilometers between each point, and also how much the tolls would be for our car and one-axle trailer.  This was a great tool!  So we knew we had a 7 hour drive to our hotel this night, which I had made a reservation for ahead of time also.  Again, because I had so much spare time to prepare, I had looked on Google Earth to see this hotel, the Fiesta Inn in San Luis Potosi, and could tell that it had adequate parking for our trailer.  Many hotels have very small parking lots, and in Mexico small cars are the norm.  The Point to point directions were right on, and the tolls were all correct except for one, where the lady was talking on the phone and charged us for more axles...oh well.

Our trip took us on the bypass north of Monterrey, so we didn't need to travel into this town at all.  I also had purchased the Guia Roji atlas of Mexico, which was extremely helpful, as our Garmin really didn't do all that well.  This was a disappointment indeed!  We used toll roads as much as possible, as they are in better shape, and are actually like most of our interstates in the US.

The landscape for the first part of the trip was desert, with mountain ranges far in the distance.  Also a section of Joshua Tree forest, and another area was a lot of jumping cactus.  Reminded us of driving through Arizona.  At times we would pass tiny towns with very poor people, and were amazed to see them using burros and mules to pull plows or carts loaded with hay.  The burros were the small adorable ones with the black stripe across their shoulders.

At 6:30 we found the Fiesta Inn, which was on the outskirts of town in a newer section.  Across the road was a large mall with movie theater, Carl's Jr, Woolworths, and Burger King, along with several banks.  We pulled into the mall parking lot to use an ATM....cash is the way to go down here!  Gas stations, which are state owned, only take pesos, and they all charge the same.  We made sure to fill up at half a tank all during the day, not wanting to run out of gas anywhere.  After getting cash,  we did a u-turn to get to the hotel, and found plenty of parking in the back.  It was a hike to the door but we didn't want to block the parking area up closer with the trailer.  It turned out that the Federales were having a meeting at this hotel, and their vehicles, including armored trucks were also parked back there!  A man was standing guard all night with his AK-47.  Poor Spooky had to sleep in the car, as no pets were allowed in the hotel.  I guess she was quite safe, though!  Along with our vehicles....here is a picture of the Federales vehicles the next morning as we left.




Some of the staff at the Fiesta Inn spoke English which was very helpful.  They advertise as a business hotel chain, in hopes of attracting Americans for business meetings. We had dinner in the restaurant at the hotel, and had a good night's sleep, now that we were 7 hours away from the border!

Today we spent 682 pesos for tolls ($55) and 1400 pesos for gas ($113).

Bargaining and closing on our casa

Back in Virginia, Lowell and I gave more thought to buying the cute little casa in Telchac Puerto.  Imagine walking less than two minutes to the beach!  Lowell's always been the beach person, while I like the mountains and trees.  We haven't been around the beach much since our stay in Hawaii, 1988-1991.  Seattle, trees and mountains.  Virginia, 15 years of trees and mountains.  Time for Lowell to get his dream house.

So, we started the bargaining process with Jorge, our realtor.  This went back and forth for awhile until we agreed on a price that was $20K less than they were asking, with a few stipulations.  We wanted the pool to be freshly painted a lighter color blue, the roof to have a fresh coat of sealing paint, and the inside of the palapas to be varnished.  The outside of the house needs paint on the side that, for some reason, was never painted, but I enjoy chores like that so we didn't ask for it to be done.  We also wanted the front door frame to be replaced from the wooden one it was to metal.

To buy property within 60 KM of the beach in Mexico one must get a fideicomiso.  This is like a trust, in which the bank owns the property, but you have all rights to it as far as remodeling, renting it out, etc.  The trust lasts for 50 years and can be renewed.  So we had to get a lawyer to write it up, which included a new survey. 

We made our plans to go back to Merida over the 4th of July week to close on the house.  We met with Jorge, who took us back out to Telchac to make sure everything we'd asked for was completed.  I asked him to find a ladder so I could see if the roof seal coat had been applied.  Guess what?  It wasn't the white coating I'd expected, so Jorge called the selling realtor, and the next day we drove back to find painters on the roof applying the proper product.  Hey, you should get what you specified in the buying agreement, right?

Next we went to the lawyer's office to complete the paperwork.  In Mexico, you sign a book with your contract notations in it, but we did receive a copy of the fideicomiso, both in English and Spanish.  The house was ours!  (in trust, anyway).  We had thought we would camp out for the rest of the week there, but it was SO HOT and humid, the mosquitos were abundant, and we had no air conditioning.  So, Jorge offered us a house to stay in, right on the beach in the neighboring town of Chelem.  Fully furnished, with air conditioning!  It is owned by a Canadian couple who come over the Christmas holiday, and the home is for sale. Here is a picture of sunset at Chelem, and the deck of the house we stayed at.

This is Jorge, his wife Marlene, and their two boys, Isaac and Jacob.  The older one speaks pretty fluent English, and the young one is very shy!

There are many lagoons where flamingos like to stay in this area.  Here is a picture of a BUNCH of flamingos!

 While driving around, we happened upon this cemetery in a small town.  Lots of little houses and candles.

So, now we own a little casa in Telchac, but won't be returning until mid-November.