Nothing is done online here. All of our bills, including taxes, are paid in person. That can be a challenge, as in the case of taxes, the government building closes at 3pm.
We just got our electric bill today and were surprised that it was only 1500 pesos (120 dollars). We both believed it would be around 500 US given the amount of air conditioning we have going.
Water is pretty cheap here. We pay about 150 pesos a month. That is about a fifth of what we paid in the US.
Due to the move and other time demands, I haven’t spent much time reading over the last month. However, this morning I had the chance to finish A Brief History of Mexico by Lynn Foster. It was a helpful summary and I especially appreciated the emphasis on Mexico’s political history. The very first book that Yun and I read together was a history of Mexico. My hope is to familiarize myself with the history of the country so when we travel I can have a greater understanding of the things we see.
The appendices of Foster’s book had a nice summary. This is from the first appendix:
Official Name Estados Unidos Mexicanos Government Under the Constitution of 1917, Mexico is a federal republic with a centralized government dominated by the office of the presidency. The presidential term is six years with no reelection. There is a bicameral federal congress composed of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies; legislators may serve only one term. The judiciary forms a third branch of government; judges are appointed by the president. There are many parties, but the PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party) governed Mexico during most of the 20th century. Recent electoral reforms have strengthened opposition parties such as the conservative PAN (National Action Party) and the progressive PRD (Democratic Revolutionary Party). In the 2000 election the PRI presi- dential candidate was defeated for the first time in more than 70 years, and the opposition parties gained a majority of the congressional seats in both houses. In the 2006 presidential elections PAN candidate Felipe Calderón Hinojosa won a narrow victory over PRD candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador, by a margin of only .58 percent. Political Divisions States Thirty-one, plus the federal district which includes the capital. Capital Mexico City
There are a lot of things I like about Mexico. There are a few I do not.
Bank accounts. My checking account charges $5 per month for a service fee. No apparent exceptions and the amount of money you carry in the account is irrelevant. Also, I’m taxed on this fee. Disputing a fraudulent charge. Also a fee. Want your account balance? Also a fee. Transferring money electronically, also a fee.
You are allowed to wait in the long lines for free. Everything else has a fee.
We are in Guaymas for the weekend. It is quite nice that it is only an hour and some away now. The water is warm. Too warm really. We spent the day at the beach and in the estuary in San Carlos.
We headed to the estuaryto escape from these little blue demons. Never pleasant when one is stung or when the dogs try to eat them.
I was unloading some boxes today and came across some old memorabilia. I found various letters from the early 90s when I left BC to move to the US to go to college. There were a lot of fun memories. One of my best friends was a kid by the name of Naname. The last I saw Nam was when he was the night before his sentencing for a kidnapping charge. It was an emotional night and I shed tears for the first time in my life (as I recall). Years later Nam was released and we met up on one of my visits to Vancouver. He took me out for the night to one of his nightclubs and we had a great time. I was always impressed with how much money he had on him and that when we were out together, he always insisted on paying for everything. I remember making a stop prior that evening as he apparently was dealing again. This surprised me because when he was incarcerated he had told me he was going to stop committing crimes to avoid being incarcerated again.
Nam was a good friend with, despite his flaws, a good heart. So it was hard to find out today that he was murdered a few years ago in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Apparently he was still involved in criminal activity and was labeled as a professional killer (the Argentinean articles label him an assassin) . The news article stated he was found face down in a parking lot wearing latex gloves, having been shot numerous times execution style. The articles detail the days that led up to the execution. Nam was paranoid and alone.
One of the reasons I left Vancouver twenty years ago was to deviate from that lifestyle. Once I had turned 18, my fear of the consequences of my illegal actions began to trouble me. I sought a solution in leaving the country. I am sad that Nam didn’t find something similar and I praise God for saving me from that as I could have easily seen myself with Nam in that life.
We have finally relocated completely to Mexico! The last year has been difficult as we have been spending every week traveling back forth. That was a lot of driving and I am happy we’re over that part of our life. Now we have all of our stuff here in the house in Hermosillo. I have been bringing things incrementally for a year now, but we still had a lot of things left to bring as the picture above shows. It was an incredibly hard move. Yun and I spent a week prior to the trip disassembling everything we owned for easier transport. Then we wrapped everything in a thick black plastic in hopes to prevent (or at least minimize) the damage. I then moved everything out of the main house and put it in the guest house to make loading easier.
Yun’s parents came up to help last Wednesday. We spent the entire day packing up the truck and trailer in hopes to depart that evening. We weren’t even close to finished, so we had to postpone until Thursday. We didn’t finish packing up until Thursday evening around 5pm. The drive generally takes 4-5 hours depending upon conditions, but we suspected it would take longer given how much slower we would be driving. We never suspected it would take as long as it did. Both truck and trailer were far too heavy which made braking extraordinarily difficult. Our average speed for the trip was somewhere between 30-40 mph. I drove the truck most of the way with Yun’s dad and her mom drove the VW and Yun drove the Mazda. The drive was absolutely horrifying and my heart was racing the entire trip.
The process at customs was a breeze. Much easier than I thought it would be. It always helps to know people. The fee was much less than I thought it would be and we didn’t have to go through the Consulate as we had anticipated. At this point, the trip was going well.
The highway south of Nogales is very curvy. This is where the nightmare began. Some of those curves were on a decline. Since I had little ability to brake, it was hard to control my speed in order to handle the curves safely. Not fun. A few hours later (and long past the curvy area) we blew a tire on the trailer. Fortunately the trailer had 2 wheels on each side, so I was able to control the truck and come to a stop. It was the middle of the night at this point and we were in the middle of nowhere. Fortunately we had two other vehicles in our convoy, so once we removed the tire, Yun and her father headed back to the closest “town” (ie, small village) to find help. Thank God they found a kid that had a tire “shop” (ie, a tent with very old used tires). Roughly an hour or so later we were on our way. However, the tire we bought for $20 US (we had no smaller denomination to use for a tire that was clearly intended to be trash) had a much, much shorter life span that we had hoped. Roughly an hour or so later we had our second blowout. We were able to find another tire “shop” (a much nicer tent) and had another tire that made it all the way home. We arrived around 4am.
Unloading the truck was not easy, especially since we were all beyond exhaustion. The 4-5 hour drive had taken 11 hours. Even so, with the help of Abe and Gab, we had the truck unloaded around 6.30am. Not bad given it took 2 days to load. At 6.30, it was in the mid 90s and we were all destroyed. At that point we decided it would be best to go eat some tacos. Strange idea, but it turned out to be great. Where else can you get a taco at 6.30???
This was a really tough journey and one I hope we will never have to do again. To compound the misery, we had finally closed on the sale of our home on Friday, so after all of the madness of this trip, we got 4 hours of sleep before loading back into the truck and driving back to Tucson. We didn’t have room for the washer and dryer and a number of small things (like all of our plants) in our first load, so we had to get it out of the house by mid-day Friday. We also had some items to pick up for Abe and Gab, so once we finished with that, we immediately turned around to return south. This time we were only able to make it as far as Nogales before we decided to stop for rest (it was once again midnight). Once we finally made it back home we crashed hard. It has taken nearly a week to recover. For the most part, I think we’re recovered now.
The clutch recently went out on the Mazda. Fortunately for us, Alex was available today to replace it. Clearly this was no small task. It will be hard to find Alex’s replacement in Mexico.
The clutch is quickly dying on the Mazda. That’s unfortunate because it’s never a cheap job. However, we were grateful that we were able to make it to our home in Tucson without breaking down. Our mechanic Alex will replace it next Saturday.
Until then, we will continue to pack up the house here to prepare for the big move next week. We may try to take one big load this Thursday as I don’t think we’ll make it in one trip. In the truck the trip is about 6 hours each way, so I’m not exactly looking forward to it.
We are finally selling our dining room table. I’ve never liked it, so am quite happy to get rid of it. I don’t like high tables as they are extremely uncomfortable. Let’s hope it sells quick!
If you look closely, you will see Scout swimming his laps. He is an excellent swimmer. His only problem is that he does not know when to stop. We believe he will keep going until he kills himself. That would not be good.
