Chac

(Domingo 14 - Sábado 20 Julio )

From the latter half of June thru this week, we have been experiencing tropical rainstorms almost every evening. Now this is not a great hardship, since we are inside and dry, and the precip is not cold or unpleasant, just a lot of water coming down all at once. If we were other people, with desires to use the evenings to be out and about, it would crimp our style. But, we are either curled up with a book or enjoying some TV fare, and the amount of falling moisture outside just adds to the comfy ambiance. And, we appreciate the almost clock-like schedule that rain keeps, as virtually every day provides many hours of dry outdoor time to get some work or travel done. We always said that, coming from the US Pacific Northwest, we would miss the clouds and green vegetation that comes with the rain, one of the reasons we chose to settle here, at 3000 feet near the southern end of the Sierra Madre Oriental mountain range. Gulf clouds blow in from the east, and when they hit the mountains behind us, they release the moisture to fill the streams and irrigate the land here in western Veracruz. Tropical showers are a small price to pay for otherwise ideal (never too hot, too cold, too dry or too damp) living conditions we have encountered here. 

For several weeks we have been serenaded, come evening time, by what we thought was some sort of goose or duck living down the street from our house. Sounding something like a metal file being dragged across a metal drum, we finally realized that what we were hearing was the call of a Mexican Burrowing Frog. Sometimes it's confusingly called a toad, in fact in Spanish it's a Sapo borracho (drunken toad) because of it's belch-like call. Only 3” or so long when adult, it can inflate itself and release a very loud croak. Hailing from the Jurassic period (dinosaur times), it's the most evolutionary distinct amphibian alive today. Comes out to call and mate only in very heaviest of rainstorms (which flood the streets and streams in just a couple of minutes), and spends the rest of the time underground subsisting on ants and termites. There's a stream and banana field just down the block, an ideal environment for this frog which spends most of the year in shallow burrows, and that revels in a downpour such as we have been experiencing. We named this particular frog Chac (the Mayan rain god). The hard rains are mostly over, so no serenades now. We wonder whether next year we'll hear more of these weird creatures, if mating this year was successful.

Our passion fruit vine is growing like gangbusters on the funky bamboo trellis we made for is. Lots of the most intricate lavender-colored flowers promise lots of fruit “capsules” down the line. The new storage unit in the master bedroom is finished and is starting to be filled up with stuff. Dan moved on to creating shelves for the closet space in the new bathroom addition hallway. These are made of two layers of our leftover 3/8” plywood over 1x2 interior stiffening, attached to the walls invisibly along the edges. He also started on a slotted bottom shelf for footwear for the same closet.

Carmen started creating lightweight curtains that we'll hang over our bedroom closets, to minimally conceal the luggage and boxes we store up high over these storage units, yet still let air to flow thru. In this climate, one takes care to not create spaces without allowing for air to move past stored items, so as to reduce the chance of mildew. We'll keep tabs on the chest area below the seat in the new bedroom storage unit, and will drill holes in the front face if we have problems there.

It is interesting to occasionally look at the stats Blogger provides, to see that this blog is approaching an average of 400 page views a month, with a high of about 600 views. We are gratified that our musings are finding a little following, and hope that opening up our lives to you a bit is appreciated, whether you are just keeping up with our doings, or are using this source as inspiration for a future move to Mexico.

In our walks and drives around Fortín, we have noted a good number of attractive homes for rent and for sale, and wonder why more folks don't elect to become expats and spend some or all of their time down here, out of the expensive rat race that is the US today. Carmen remembers talking to Bill, our mailman in Anacortes, who spoke of a great number of people he came across who spoke of retiring to Mexico, and that we were the only ones he knew who actually did it. Social security and savings stretch a long way farther here SoB. A few vacations investigating living conditions around Mexico will turn up a place with the ideal climate, housing, healthcare, social environment and any other condition that's personally critical for enjoying your life beyond the working years.

En tramite

Domingo 07 - Sábado 13 Julio )  To start off the week, Ania and Frank were here for a few hours sunday for an early evening meal and a round of RummiKub. Ania brought a bouquet of ginger flowers from home. What a fragrance! Much like gardenia, or perhaps jasmine.

Despite Carmen's earlier thoughts about not having any houseplants inside, we broke down and bought two large decorative feature plants for the corners of the dining room. A large Dracaena reflexa and a multi-stemmed Schefflera arboricola (aka “Dwarf Umbrella Tree”) – both need little care and presumably will cope with the indirect illumination from the skylight above. Each cost about US$12 and so of course we needed two more large pots from the ceramic store. With the pots, under which we put casters so they can be easily moved (as they are very heavy), they stand six feet tall and spread four feet wide. It's nice to have some greenery inside.

We seem to not be getting our electric bill inserted into our street-side buzon (mailbox) with any reliability, since it should have been read the last week of June and no notice had yet arrived. Dan went online to the CFE site and found we could print out our bill there. On the way back from a shopping trip into Córdoba, we stopped by and paid our two month bill of 250 pesos, or about US$20. Seems that there was a rebaja (reduction) for about 800 pesos of our bill because we are in the low usage bracket!

Dan was finishing up constructing the new storage area in the master bedroom and Carmen finished painting the window and door lintels dark brown. We also cut more bamboo from Frank and Ania's property, plus pulled up some snake plant and wandering jew ground cover. They were gone that day to Oaxaca city. Planted those along with much dwarf mondo grass, in our back two planting areas. The bamboo is for trellising the passion fruit vine on the upper patio.

We had no problem with mosquitoes 'til a week or so ago. Finally discovered that one can not keep trays under outdoors potted plants here since it rains nearly every evening. The rain keeps the trays filled with water to make perfect mosquito breeding areas. Also our close neighbor's roof was not draining and therefore it was another breeding area just level with our second story patio (his home is all on the ground floor). We told him about this problem and he did climb to his rooftop and unclog his roof drains. His roof dips a little in the center so there is still an ongoing problem there until dryer weather prevails. We bought some liquid insect killer and can now spray his roof de vez en cuando. We are tired of fighting mosquitoes and the itches from bites!  It all should end once the early summer rains are past.

One evening we were looking out the kitchen window when it started pouring rain, and there was Colyn stuck in rain standing under our portico in front of the house. We invited her in and she chatted with us until the rain let up. She then continued to the store for something for supper. We offered to give her whatever she needed, but it seemed that she really wanted the walk.

Monday, tuesday and wednesday went by with no one appearing from the water/sewer commission showing up to put in the new drain line they had scoped out late last week. So, thursday, Dan decided we needed to make another trip to the office to push things along. The architect was at his desk and there sitting on top, was our sewer line work order. He calculated the costs and said we could pay it in plazos (payments), but we chose to pay it in full, about US$250. Now there should be nothing left but for them to send out a crew. Wonder when we will see them?  (Here's a view to the north, from our rooftop mirador.)

We have heard nothing by phone or email from the immigration office, and the website where we can check things consistently can't find our paperwork which is supposedly en tramite (in the works). Our current permiso expires on thursday, so on wednesday we decided to visit the office in person to see what was up – maybe our cards were waiting for us! Turns out they were just holding everything, pending some additional information (which we had already provided the year before) before working on our papers. Can't say why they didn't ask those questions when we were in last time, or communicate with us in some way before this, as we could have come in at any time to move things along without delay. This time the documents were finished up, we signed on the dotted lines, and full sets of finger prints were obtained (again, they already had them on file from last year, so why was the new set needed?). All this could have taken place three weeks ago – now we will have to wait up to another month for our permit cards to be ready. This wait could make us late in renewing the car documents with the aduana (customs) office, which might prevent us from being eventually reimbursed the US$400 we paid for the car entry when we arrived here in September, since it is attached to our visa period. Plus, will we need to have those cards in hand when we go to pay up for another year of IMSS medical coverage, which we must do this month?

So, it's now a bit over a year that we have been Residentes Temporales here in México. All in all, it seems like it's been a very good thing for us. We're eating better, get more exercise and have no complaints about the health-care choices here. The climate at this elevation enables us to be outside in short-sleeves practically every day, and sleep comfortably every night. Windows are open most of the time, letting in the birdsong and the sounds of friendly community life around us. Flowers bloom year-round.  It's costing so much less money than it did in the US, for the same quality of life or better. Now if it only were easier for our relatives and NoB friends to drop by for visits, things would be excelente (copacetic).  Y'all come down!

When we arrived here last year, we learned that Fortín, as a community, had been celebrating Earth Day, for years, with a community-wide interpretive walk along the old railroad grade down and across the Metlac river canyon west of town. We learned that the “Melacton” this year wouldn't be on Earth Day, but instead would be celebrated on Arbor Day, so we wrote it on our calendar to be sure we would take part in it this year, joining the 1000+ neighbors who would make the walk in 2013. As it were, the day after Arbor Day, we remembered to look at our calender. We can hope we do better next year, as this is something we really look forward to doing.

Neither our welder nor our carpenter were here this week, although both said they would show up for some little projects that need finishing up. Bummer. Otherwise, life is oh so good. Well, Dan is concerned that Carmen is making little progress in learning spanish – so he will try to move forward on that a bit a little bit more each day, making it as painless as possible.

Plantas en las macetas

(Domingo 30 Junio - Sábado 06 Julio )   A new week! Lots of gatherings for many candidates running for offices. The corner we live on seems to be a favorite for the parties to gather and start their parades. They have all asked us if they can put signs up on our expanse of blue wall, and will we support them. The answer is always no, because since we are not Mexican citizens, we can have nothing whatsoever to do with voting and campaigns. Gives us lots of excitement though!

Sunday late afternoon we walked into town for our paletas, knowing there were to be big rallies in the park this day. We passed dozens of parked buses. They must have brought hundreds of folks into town from the outlying villages. As we walked out of our chosen ice cream parlor (there are five around the park), the first thing we saw was a group of vaqueros riding horses down the street. One man was showing off his horse doing the sidewards dance. Always an enjoyable sight! Sprinkles started shortly after we got there. We stood under various overhangs for a couple hours, and on some park benches under protective trees, enjoying the music and people-watching. There were people by the hundred still walking into town into the early evening! We found a break in the rain and hustled the 15 blocks home.

We had no sooner got into the house, when the heavens opened up! Booming fireworks went on 'til the partying broke up near midnight.  This kept all the barkers in the neighborhood going crazy.  With all the dogs in this area, we never, until this past week had dogs barking in the evening and into the night. Now there must be a new dog about a block away, and every little mouse or strange sound makes it bark, and that of course starts others joining in. The fireworks just added to the din.  Hope it quiets back down soon.

Monday morning Carmen had a 9am appointment with the IMSS nutritionist. Just one of those things the doctors put us thru here. But the nurse is happy with the recent blood test numbers and weight loss, so a followup appointment is not needed. Then wednesday morning we were again at IMSS at 7am for an 8:30am appointment. This is just the routine monthly appointment to get prescriptions refilled free at the IMSS pharmacy. No matter what time your appointment is, you are taken according to the order in which you arrived at the clinic, hence our idea of getting there super early – staff doesn't get in place until 8am or so. There were 24 folks already waiting by the time we arrived, however not all for our doctor's office. Turned out that five were ahead of us. Then for some reason a white haired lady got taken first and she came in way after us. We had noticed that Carmen's booklet was kept separate and wondered why. Well, she was called in second. We finally figured that ancianos (oldsters) seem to get priority. We will check that theory out next month—seems like having gray or white hair has it's benefits.

Extra times are being filled with Carmen doing odds and ends of painting. One day Carmen went down memory lane with sorting and filing many photos into albums. Dan is busy working on the storage area in the master bedroom. He misses his radial arm saw that we decided not to bring since he “would not be doing much carpentry” that requires it, and storage of an item of that size is a problem here. He is making do with various jigs and work-arounds using the circular and sabre saws.

And what does Carmen miss? Hmm. There must be something. Ah yes – the clear colored dust instead of the charcoal colored dust! However, truth be told, there is now far less dust on surfaces than a month ago. Why you ask? Because of no masonry construction/renovation or cane burning. As we drove past the El Carmen ingenio (sugar refinery) in Cuautlapan last week, there were no trucks waiting to be processed. In fact, there was no steam or smoke coming from the factory at all. The zafra (sugar harvest) is over, marking the end of the dry season, and indeed the afternoon and evening rains have been pretty regular of late.

Is there a ghost in the house? Carmen says she has sensed a girl about five years old in ghostly attire. Tuesday Dan was working between our master bedroom where the new closet is being built and his current work area in the medium bedroom. He was in the master bedroom and Carmen was downstairs. Suddenly his electric sander, in the medium bedroom, started up. All by itself?

Yes, we had another bedroom flood. This time, a sudden really hard rain and wind came up and before we could get upstairs, our north master bedroom window, that was closed but not latched tight, blew open. The curtain got soaked and water soaked the floor – half way across the room!! What is there about this room that attracts water so?

Still the ceramic shop is closed. There are flowers in the front – as if there was a funeral in the family? Eventually someone will return, if only to dispose of the inventory with a sale, so we'll keep checking here every time we head down the Fortín-Córdoba bulevar.  The kitties have gotten into the habit of going out back for a while as soon as they finish their breakfast, just to check out the day We keep telling them it is okay to use the bit of dirt out there for their potty area. No luck so far though.

Friday morning fourteen city workers showed up about 9am, three trucks and one excavator. Wow – is the city actually here to put our sewer line for the new bathroom in? Seems that the architect and the engineer still do not agree on which direction the drain should go. At least the engineer looked at the project and he said it was a real reto (challenge). No, they accomplished nothing but to take one measurement, but did get us a bit excited. Dan moved our car out of the way only to see all the crew and machinery leave. Just another disappointment. At least they are thinking about us...!

About 4pm Friday a crew returned from the water/sewer department. It seems at this time that the decision was made to drain our sewage across under the road into the stream at the foot of the hill, along with other neighbors along the avenida. This is instead of connecting into the larger/deeper main sewer line which runs along the calle, and which dumps into another creek much farther south of here. So much for water quality concerns, vs. the huge expense of putting in a sewage treatment plant. Without a reliable taxation system in place, it's amazing that any public works get done. Be that as it is, thank goodness for daily heavy rains. The men spent some time trying to find the entrance to the sewer line from our closest neighbor.'s house Our registro (sewer junction box) was enlarged by our renovation crew several months ago, but the engineer now wants it even bigger, plus a bit reshaped. Guess the city can put their pipes up to the registro at the edge of our property, and when some of our crew can come back for a few days, they can rebuild the box and connect things up.

 

Since we had to start the car to put it away, we drove to the ceramic shop again – just in case by some chance it might be open. Miracles do happen, turns out the folks were on vacation! We now own five large decorative macetas (pots for plants). We talked the owner down twenty percent from the asking prices, which were already good. We think we are happy! We can now plant our shrimp plant and the Pata de elefante, plus, we can buy more large plants for inside or outside!

Carmen baked homemade bread for the first time here. She has not lost her knack yet, though the cinnamon rolls needed more sugar and butter to become stickier. Well, the rolls could have been lighter in texture too. The problem with homemade goodies is that we do not stop at one piece. Saturday, the last day for electioneering before tomorrow's regional voting, saw the end of loud-speaker equipped cars touring thru the neighborhood touting candidates for political office. Carmen got the plants into their new pots, and also transplanted some out of plastic pots into the new bigger ones, and Dan progressed on the new bedroom storage unit, completing the hinged bench seat with space underneath, with a start on installing the Home Depot cabinets in the structure.  

We note that the hot spell just experienced by the western US brought the temperatures in our old home town Anacortes, in Washington State, about to an even match with those we have been enjoying here in western Veracruz state for most of the time we've been here.  We have lived thru many summers up in the Pacific Northwest when only a week or so in august would see hot days and sleep-under-only-a-sheet nights, so that brief heat wave this week was probably perceived as a welcome surprise for our friends and relatives still in the homeland.

Idas y vueltas

(Domingo 23 - Sábado 29 Junio ) 

Not much happening around here this week, but it seems like there were a lot of idas y vueltas (comings and goings, literally goings and returns). Sunday, after hanging up a full load of laundry on our new pullied clothesline off the terraza, we walked to the nursery where we bought a couple plants, to take another look and ask the name of one of the plants we had purchased last week. Then later we walked into the center of Fortín for a pineapple paleta for Dan and a arroz con crema (rice pudding) one for Carmen, and to enjoy the spectacle of families enjoying Sunday evening in the park.

Monday morning we were at the Córdoba hospital shortly after 6am for labs for a thursday doctor's appointment. All labs are done between 7-8 am., first come, first serve. So no matter what time you arrive, you have a long wait. Next we waited for the x-ray department. Here Carmen went into the x-ray room after Dan had talked to the technician. She could certainly handle that by herself. The technician asked her if she spoke Spanish, to which she replied no, and he made a quick dash back out the door to haul Dan in to support him. It seemed rather comical from Carmen's point of view. Usually she is the one to panic over language issues.  We noticed that all the Hoja santa bushes are flowering now, and sure enough, when we checked ours the long white spadix, a floral spike similar to those on anthuriums, at some of the leaf nodes, were there.

Tuesday we visited Home Depot and spent quite a long time there buying odds and ends for various planned projects. When falling asleep that night, Carmen suddenly remembered that we were supposed to pick up the lab results, so we made an extra trip into Córdoba the next day. Fortunately they were still filed at the same office, and hadn't been mailed out somewhere. We shopped at Walmart and tried to stop by the place that sells large ceramic items, but it was closed up tight (vacation or illness in the family?). Hope we find it open soon, since we expect to buy some large flower pots there.  The views this week of el Pico de Orizaba, freshly snow-covered, 40 miles northwest of us, were spectacular.

Thursday we had a long day in Orizaba, the city to the west. We go there the "back way," the old road which avoids the tolls on the autopista, enjoying the green vistas that the route affords.  We were at the Soriana store by 9am, right in the center of old Orizaba, hoping to find some molasses. We had read on a Mexico forum that one could buy it there. None there today, but their annual big sale was going on so we slowly walked around, checking prices and items available, and stocked up on things. Walked to a small store catering to carpenters, but did not find any oil-based (“Danish”) finishes, so I guess this is another thing impossible to purchase SoB. Not many stores around here where one can buy materials for projects made of wood, and selections of hardware, even with what Home Depot stocks, are just not what Dan is used to having available for his projects. We left our car parked in the underground parking at Soriana, where two hours were free when you shopped there. Parking is at a real premium in the narrow streets of Orizaba.

Next we drove to the Chedraui supermarket, where we parked under the store. Grocery shopped for staple goods since we are now a bit ahead of schedule. Leaving our car there, we walked out looking for a restaurant, since the foods offered in the Chedraui cafeteria looked like yesterday's. We planned to eat at the Chinese restaurant a block away, but it did not open 'til 12:30p, so we walked on. Another block was a nice bright clean place, Yam-Bo's, with a good sounding lunch menu posted up in the front window. We sat down at 11:30a, planning to have lunch, but all they served until 12:30p was breakfast. So, another breakfast was what we had. Next Dan drove to the hospital for Carmen's appointment with the rheumatologist. We found a parking spot but three blocks away. Pretty lucky. We arrived at the hospital waiting room two hours before the doctor arrived, and still there were two people there before us! We do like Doctora Alma, who is monitoring Carmen's health with very apparent professional interest and knowledge about her condition and its treatment. She is one of the few rheumatologists in the area, and has a private practice with offices in both Córdoba and Orizaba, as well as serving with IMSS.

Stopped by the Chedraui supermarket after leaving IMSS, for stuff that would have heated up in the car during the afternoon: frozen, produce and meat. While we were there, we picked up a roasted chicken for supper, a MX$70 deal complete with fixings (rice, tortillas, sliced jalapeños and a 2 liter mandarina pop). When we got back we were astounded to find 41 tortillas in the package—enough (for us), for a LONG time.

Friday Carmen noticed that a small chirping bird has a nest under our corner capping tile on the roof. Should hurt nothing there and we will get mortar into that spot eventually. This morning we mounted a staghorn fern on a board with bark behind it, held in place by hardware cloth, then prettied up with some coconut fiber. Hope it will be happy. Artemio, who would like to be our gardener, gave us a heliconia about six feet tall a week ago and after seeing it rather wilted today and after comparing our planting to another similar, we dug part of the dirt away. We think we do not understand these tropical plants and their wants yet Guess roots do not go as deep here with all this heat and moisture, as they do in cooler dryer areas.  The bloom from this plant is sitting in a vase in the living room.

Dan is starting to build a closet area in our master bedroom, a project that will take several days worth of cutting, fitting and designing as it progresses. Lots of sawdust and dust from the anchor holes in the wall. Noise too. Carmen gets to paint it when finished.