Hacia el norte

Sabado, 21 Enero.  Breakfast at the nearest restaurant this morn.  Good fresh food.  Tall fresh orange juices and a bit of black refried beans, fresh bolillo roll and scrambled eggs with chorizo for Carmen and with ham for Dan.  When we first arrived here this visit, Dan suggested going out for breakfast every Sunday morning.  Well, we have mentioned in this blog, every time we have eaten out.  So you know, that it has been seldom.  It's just that Carmen so  likes to cook (and wash dishes), and foods are so available.

Will we be able to fly back to Seattle this next week?  And, do we really want to?  The weather in Fortín is certainly more pleasant - and the beauty!  Well the beauty is different, both places have their own beauty for the soul.  But, our kitties are still in Anacortes, and Dan's obligations back in Anacortes can't be put off that much more time.  Did our presumably last grocery shopping here today at the local Super Ahorros.

Domingo, 22 Enero.  Spent hours reading outside our motel apartment.  A lovely evening to go to the park.  Must have been near 2000 folks there.  Wish all of you could enjoy this pleasant activity.  Saw two people we know and chatted a bit.  Sat here and there, enjoying the changing scene and views.  Wandered the two blocks to take it all in for the last time, this trip.  We finally ended up on an unoccupied park bench in a space we most enjoy, in a circular seating area with a fountain in the middle.  Our realtor and daughter, from Cordoba, were there riding their bikes round and round.  Guess folks from other towns love this park too, and come to enjoy the ambiance, so unlike the larger city spaces.  Some flowers are in full bloom, including the bird of paradise and many lovely huge gardenia, which unfortunately, Carmen is allergic to.  No matter where we sat, she kept smelling these flowers and a sore throat started, supposedly from the scent, as is typical for her.  We sadly slowly walked the three blocks back to our motel, telling this part of the world goodbye til next time.  Looking forward to hundreds more adventures here, when we return later in the year.

Lunes, 23 Enero.  Bus to Córdoba to meet with notario at 11:00am. Finalized our testamentos (wills) and the poder (power of attorney), the last which allows us to leave Mexico and still have the house purchase close, after the powers that be see fit to finish with all the papeleo (red tape). Had to go back at 4:30pm for final version, and got the originals of the wills to take with us. These wills cover our assets and investments in Mexico only.  Today we discovered that the daughter of our friend Ania (who has the power of attorney for us for this transaction), who lives in Veracruz, is married to the son of our notario's good friend.  Having put this altogether, the notario now recalls who this Ania is.  Small world.   Sr. Limon showed us how he made his flourished signature, which he says all notarios must have to distinctively mark documents.  Will miss our visits with him for awhile, as we've gotten quite friendly.

Carmen's sore throat turned out not to be just allergy.  Bought lozenges and other soothing meds.  Went back to the apartment and made air reservations since nothing else is expected to happen with our house purchase for 20 days minimum.  Next expected step is to finally settle when Ania & Frank return from La Peñita, and the house will finally be legally ours. Good things do happen, and we hope to not have to have to process additional paperwork, which would entail visiting the consulado in Seattle, and expensive courier service.  Meanwhile, the realtor said that he was putting extra locks on the gates and house for us.  Air reservations are for Thursday.  The airline rep Dan talked to, left Dan hanging for a loooong time.  Seems that our flight down was on a free ticket since we took a bump last time -- this was the ticket on which we had to cancel the earlier return flight for the 11th.  Turns out that value of the return portion was so low, that, with additional charges plus the expected change penalty fee, our return would cost more than a new one-way ticket!  So much for flying back for 2x$150!  Next visit, we think we will only buy one-way tickets, then purchase the return flights only after our plans truly solidify.  

Martes, 24 Enero.  We walked to the ADO bus station in Fortín and made bus reservations from Orizaba direct to the Mexico City airport for Wednesday.  Since our flight leaves at 7:00am Thursday, we had to bus into DF the previous day.  Bussed to Cordoba. Bought benadryl and cold meds, since Carmen is getting worse. Went to notario and paid the costs for the wills, and picked up a photocopy of the poder.  With all the extra hoops the notario has had to go thru to settle this house sale, we keep expecting the original quote to go up.  So far he says no, and that we can settle up when we get back in June.  Stopped by grand opening at the new Bodega Aurrera grocery store in Fortín, bought just a donut and water, and then stood   forever in line to pay.  All so we could get a free shopping bag.  Then another line outside for free bag.  Carmen walked to front of line after some time to see what the problem was.  No bags. So we left.  As we walked past the front of the line, a new batch of bags was arriving, just plain too late to get back into the long line and wait longer in the hot sun.  So home we came.  

Well, Carmen, feeling under the weather, went back to the apartment and Dan made a final visit to Frank's building site, where he took pix of obra to email to Frank.  Had a good talk with foreman Manuel, who again hoped we would have work for him on the house on our next visit. He offered to trim back the grass before we got back, a good idea in this area where anything green grows with abandon.  Dan walked back to the Aurrera to get our free bag and by now there were no more. We had had great hopes for this new grocery store, but it is basically a big box store and we will probably rarely shop there. When Dan got home, he sat outside reading, and waited  for the motel staff to walk by, then gave them the tips we felt they well deserved for the careful attention they gave us these past months. We dined this late afternoon at the El Parian Restaurant, just catching the last of the multi-course comida corrida (lunch special).  We enjoyed a luscious soup and then a huge serving of albondigas (meatballs) with tomato sauce, which we mostly brought home for the next day.

Miercoles, 25 Enero.  Started today with checking in online with US Airways and printing boarding passes before leaving the motel. We also confirmed the Airporter at Seattle.  At a local papelería, Dan got fotocopies made of our FMM-Turista visas since they will be collected at airport and these have been used as ID for our house purchase, so it seems we should keep some physical record of these documents, just in case.  One final look around to make sure we'd left nothing behind, and a heartfelt gracias to manager Carlos for all the consideration and help during our visit.

We were a little sad to leave our comfortable little apartment, as we have had a wonderful three and half months here in this convenient location a few blocks south of downtown.   Suites María Antonieta really did live up to its motto "Su hogar lejos de casa" (your home away from home).  Our accommodations were always secure, clean, affordable, well-maintained and professionally managed.  Thanks to the smiling and responsive housekeeping & maintenance staff of Alicia, Joaquina and Carlos, we never wanted for anything.  Manager Carlos and his sister Sandra were always attentive and helpful when we had questions, and their facility with English is a plus.  We highly recommend the accommodations here, to all who are just traveling through or wish to stay a while visiting beautiful Fortín de las Flores.

Dan walked to park and hired a taxi, then back to the room for Carmen and luggage.  We're off!  The taxi took us to Orizaba, a half hour ride mostly thru countryside, cost was about US $7.50.  Got to the bus station with plenty of time before departure--better safe than sorry! The deluxe bus to the AICM (Aeropuerto Internacional de la Ciudad de México) had time for three movies. As before, the scenery along this journey is magnificent.  Ate a shared meal of lasagna at the airport food court. Checked in for the flight about 8:00pm.  Why so early? We figured we'd not really get much sleep at a pricey nearby hotel and we had to be back at airport by 4am.  So we chose to sleep at airport, and the only seating, other than in the food court, is beyond security. 

What a fiasco at security!  We looked ahead a saw that we didn't have to take off our shoes--great, it looks like this will be a breeze! Hah!  Dan's bag was indeed totally taken apart, every little thing was taken out.  Same with the shoulder bag--the person kept saying, why do you have so much food?  We carry food with us for the trip, and yes, we always seem to have more than we can eat.  Our bags were packed very carefully and very tight, so we had to take them to another table to get them back together.  Carmen's bag was a different story.  The bag was unzipped, and they freaked out.  Inside were two long cardboard rolls which they had to tear open.  We had rolled up the tubes to protect a bunch of small jars of a local condiment we are taking home as gifts (chopped peanut and peppers in oil).  Three people were called in to look at it.  No decision could be made.  We knew we were taking a chance that it might be taken from us.  Finally the head of security was called and he said it was okay.  Luckily, after all this, they totally neglected the rest of this bag, or they would have taken the cuticle nippers away, which were plainly listed as an item not allowed.

Jueves, 26 Enero.  Sat up or half laid down in the terminal concourse, impossible to really sleep, so we dozed fitfully after wiring and locking all our bags together. The darn seats were made with arms solid to the seat, so one could not lay down.  Read some on the netbook, as there was no free wi-fi here.  Just amazing how much noise was made thru the wee hours--hammering, talking, cleaning, etc.  The airport security guy whizzed by about once an hour on his Segway.  Lights were all on bright thru the night, although we were the only people in the concourse.  The first flight out was 5AM, so things came back to life about an hour before this.  When we finally did board for our flight, we did not have to go thru another carry-on baggage check, as we had experienced here a year and a half ago.

Adiós a México!  On the MEX-PHX flights, having bought the tickets so recently, our seats were not together, but as luck would have it, a few people did not show up, so we did get to sit together.  We got some cups of hot water and made our instant oatmeal for breakfast.  Dozed a bit.  Ready for Phoenix?  We had a short plane change here, so were anxious.  We had been told to check our bags on the former flight because the flight was so full.  Passed thru immigration, and then some time was taken waiting for our bags, before proceeding to customs.  Is it poor airport planning, or is it just that the TSA doesn't trust the security barriers at foreign airports?  After customs, we rechecked our bags thru to SeaTac, and exited into open part of the terminal, and so had to go thru another security check.  Shoes off, everything out of pockets, etc.  Carmen left her inner safety pockets hanging out, empty, and a large muscular woman inspector started yelling at her, "What is this, what is this", not recognizing the pockets as such.  No matter that they were empty.  Had to take the belt off too.  But it is all plastic, says Carmen.  Louder yell.  The woman got right into Carmen's face and told her that if she says take the belt off, then take it off.  Was scary.  We finally made it thru.  Next trip, we will definitely rethink our money belt, important documents stashing system. Happy to be back on a plane, and so happy we had rechecked our luggage so it did not go thru this intrusive security check--and we thought what happened at Mexico City was bad!  On the plane we again asked for hot water, and made our cup of soup for lunch. When we got home, Dan's bag had a note in it saying that it had been opened for a TSA security check.  Glad it was not Carmen's bag.

An hour and a half wait for the airporter bus.  The sun came out to greet us and it was a pleasant ride north to Anacortes.  Paul and wife Barb met us at the Airporter drop-off to drive us home and give us the large box of mail they had collected for us in our absence.  That night Gardie snuggled and talked to us all night.  Smij cat, who is terrified of strangers, never appeared for the ladies who cared for them.  She did finally come out of hiding Friday evening, 24 hours after we got home, and had her cuddles all that night.  All is well with the world here.  We will let you know when things firm up in regards to the blue house.

A side note:  Got on the scales when we got home.  Thanks to lots of walking and eating very well, but differently, we each lost about 20 pounds. Yeah!  Maybe this was because we had a cookie problem.  Yes, cookies--basic to the staff of life--which the Mexican baking industry apparently does not do well.  We bought several kinds to sample and all were waaaay overbaked and dried out.  Carmen can't wait to start turning out delights from her extensive recipe collection, and spread some cookie appreciation around Fortín.  We'll try to keep this appreciation personally under control, and eat those cookies in moderation, in sync with enough physical exercise necessary to burn off each day's cookie calories.

Thank you Frank and Ania for all the help & encouragement you've given us, as well as your open and welcoming friendship--we'll be your neighbors soon.  For all of you that are looking for accommodations in the Córdoba/Fortín area or in beautiful Coscomatepec, and enjoy a country or garden setting, remember that Frank & Ania are your engaging hosts at Las Magnolias B&B.

Any other questions?  Please send us comments at etepetzin@gmail.com and we'll try to address your questions and suggestions here in later posts.