I SAW THEM!! Finally I saw the dolphins myself. Yeah I saw some before this but always when someone else pointed them out off in the distance. Every day for 6 months I would wish I would see them while sitting on my rock in the morning.Well this morning I went out a little early, about 6:30. Since today is our last day here I wanted to get all I could out of it, and sitting in my "talk to the universe spot" a little longer than usual was definitely on the menu.

So I was sitting out there and I saw so many birds! Oh and I watched the sun come up, in fact I took pictures of it, from a tiny sliver until all of it came up past the edge of the world...it was as amazing as the sunsets I watch here at nite! And the moon is so full and so big right now. It was off on the other side, high in the sky. Anyway all of  sudden I saw them! 3 dolphins swimming past, and much closer to the shore than any other time I've seen them. I was so excited, so overwhelmed with how cool they were...I actually cried.....just a little. But I was kinda telling the universe, thank you. It's my last day and I got this gift. Kinda like a sign; saying yep it's ok, go for it sister! And of course being the addictive always wanting "more", I then starting straining to look and try to see more ha ha. But no, and then I realized what I was doing and had a good laugh at myself. I sat and sat, chatted up the universe, really looked around at this beautiful spot I've been lucky enough to be living in for the last 6 months, and said goodbye.

We had our last breakfast, I scrambled eggs and added the last of the manchuga cheese, and cut up an apple and the last of the cantaloupe on the side. Then Everardo starting packing and cleaning like a madman! We were 99% done before noon. He worked hard, I felt like I was barley doing anything, but I was folding and making little things fit together in the last few bins and available bags. The last of the kitchen stuff, the last of the clothes, blankets from on the spare bed we used like a couh, our bed pillows, the towells from the shower by the kitchen, my wind chimes, etc etc etc...

Around noon we went to Marquelia to hit the atm and the gas station. The atm is Copala is in the city building and there's always cops and others standing around while you get you money, and well the truth is that here, altho' we've had no problems with them, the cops are not always who you want to deal with....in fact they are the only ones I'm worried about for this trip. We always see them with big trucks pulled over getting money, we're locals so we've been ok, plus we don't drive hardly at all at nite. And we won't on this trip either. Poppi likes this gas station better than the one in Copala. You have to pay attention to everything that has to do with your money here. (yes everywhere, but it's kinda different in Mexico). Then we went to Copala to get the final receipt for out property tax, and I got a pedicure. Yum it felt nice and looks nice. Yesterday I got my nails done while he paid the taxes and looked for the Telmex bill (didn't come of course ha ha). I haven't been doing my nails since right after we got here cause it seemed silly. I am either in sand or dirt, and they got messed up so quick...plus scratching all the time from bug bites and with acrylics sometimes I scratched myself raw. I will be SO happy to not have tons of bites ALL the time. Maybe use actual lotion, maybe not curse myself when I forget to slather it on...anyway I got purple on nails and toes, and am happy, I like how they look. Never started doing it until I was 40; it's funny, my older daughter started putting stuff on her nails to be pretty at home at about age 4 ha ha. She was putting outfits together about age 6, my older sister Karen used to crack up about that.

Late this afternoon right before dark we walked down the beach to Chela's. We gave her all the meat from our freezer (a couple of whole chickens, some steaks, and pork). She was happy cause all that stuff is expensive for them, chickens are only cheap if you grow your own ha ha. They eat fish all the time. We eat tons of fish, too, but have chicken once every couple of weeks and pork or beef maybe once a week. Well I forgot that the "no seeums" are really bad at her place at dusk and oh my god my ankles were swollen with tiny bites. She and I sat and talked awhile while Everardo met with Caretaker Guy; the guy who's gonna watch the house for us. Today I found out he goes by Jay for short, his name is Jayijn & I was struggling with it, and every time I'd ask Everardo he'd say I don't know because he's terrible with names. So he was giving Jay the keys and they traded emails and then Jay "friended" both of us on Facebook, we got his phone and once we get up to PP and get new chips for our phones we'll give him ours. Yipee my IPhone is unlocked but my phone number is local to here, so I'll need a new chip. Anyway Chela and I were chatting and slapping our legs from those little suckers, we even moved out from under the awing but it didn't help. BUt she and I wanted to talk; she's my best friend here and I have come to love this woman. We both got a little teary eyed, and then her son came out and she had him translate a couple of things she wanted to be sure I heard...but I did understand when she told me in Spanish so I believe she and I will remain great friends. She promised to visit us and I promised too.

On the way back from Copala we stopped in a tiny restaurant along the main road and had a nice lunch, very inexpensive. The little hole in the wall places are usually great food and great prices. We were both stuffed for about 62 pesos...
We came home and he worked until we went to see Chela, then we came home for a sandwhich and a little computer time. Then he went out and finished. The trailer is full. The back of the truck is full except where Sam will be, and Poppi put a board across the rack to give Sam shade. That rack has been off the truck for months and Everardo had to sand it to get the rust off of it, paint it and put it back on. All the yard work that had been done in the last few months grew to a huge pile of dead weeds, plants, palm fronds, ect and so we also had a big bonfire just outside the backgate on the beach. It's how everyone does it here. And, this is the time of year since everything is drying out quickly. I made a bunch of sandwhiches for the road, mostly pb&j, and Poppi got some bananas and apples while I was getting my toes painted. We have lots of water for us and for Sam, and I think we're ready. Poppi just took as shower and is napping on the couch. I should do the same. I'll try to keep track of the trip and record it here when I can. I think we'll be going starting in Guerrero, thru Michoacan, Jalisco, Sinaloa and Sonora. Ok new adventure...here we come!!

Oh we are leaving on a high note! We went swimming tonite underneath the boggest full moon I think I've ever seen. I swear this place is closer to the sky...the amazing sunsets and magnificent moons...

We held hands and walked in the sand. The water is really receding; the waves are so small and the water is so shallow. The last few nites we take Sam and head down the beach. The pools in front of the rocks are gone, mere puddles. But down closer to Chela's place, at the end of the rocks, the waves sort of roll lazily in, maybe rool is even to strong of a word.  It's dark but not cold. Not too hot either, and that's nice, too. Sam is so happy to swim around us. We are basically on our knees or floating around, but Sam is still swimming and doesn't want to go back to shore.

Almost everything is done. We have to go to Copala for the offical receipt for the property tax payment; their internet was down this morning (ooh big surprise) so they gave us a receipt, but the "offical" document will be ready tomorrow. The upstairs painting is done. That room is put together and looks great. The roof is fixed, and the rebarb poles sticking up have been shaved off. The outside plumbing issue has been resolved. Fixing the back gate, really just shoring it up, a couple of well placed nails will be done tomorrow. Almost everything is packed and in the trailer. Everardo had some raw oysters that a guy just brought in; I prefer them bbq'd so I passed. Oh but yesterday, get ready for this...wait for it....I had peanut butter & jelly on ritz crackers with grape juice for an afternoon snack. Nice.
But I digress. We looked around today and then Poppi said- lets go to the water! We floated and talked about how beautiful this place is, and...the fact that we're ready. We might leave on Friday! This morning we googled and looked at the best routes...we want to cross Michoacan in one day and Sinaloa in one day as well. Just better that way. So we are going to shoot for Guadalajara on day one, it's in Jalisco, then day 2 cross Sinaloa into Sonora. Day 3 almost there, might stop a little early since day one will probly be 12 hours and say two at least 10 if not 12. So probly mid day of day 4. And we have a woman we're meeting first thing for a place for a month. mmm life is good.

See what I mean...a high note.

OK Now I am part of the Mexico 99%! We just went thru Telmex hell and they rival AT&T for pain levels and the Dept of Motor Vehicles for making you wait! We have been to Ometepec 3 or 4 times to the Telmex office. Of course the first time was to get connected, so that was ok. Remember this is an hour to hour and a half drive from here. The bills come to the post office in Copala and you can pay there, but if you have any issues, you have to call. Ha ha ha ha call my a**! You have to go there. We got the phone July 4, and by Aug 1 had not had service 15 days of July. We called them and called them from Chela's phone, and they said they would credit us half the month in a future bill, pls just pay this one. (insert ha ha here)  Did I mention we paid extra to be able to call the US unlimited for free, but after about the first 2 months,  when I called the static was so bad we couldn't really have much of a conversation. Aug was ok, then in Sept stopped working or too static-y to hear. We called them several times in Oct, oh and in Sept they came to "fix" the connection cause it didn't work in the kitchen or the upstairs. After they left I tried it, and then wanted to run down the road after them cause they didn't actualluy fix it...and ha ha we tipped them.

So in Oct we went back for 2nd or 3rd time and after waiting for ever...the office is funny; one side is new customers and options- they have about 6 people walking around to help. The other side is customer service. One person with all the waiting seats (6 or 8) taken and people standing around, so you wait about an hour to talk to someone. anyway they apologized and said they'd give us a discount...hmmm where did I hear that before? But they had no record of the first offer to discount...anyway we said no thanx- we don;t want the phone, just the internet. So we have been going to Copala looking for the bill since last week and finally got thru on the phone yesterday. They said we owed for the phone, they had no record of it being turned off, and no record of any of our complaints ha ha. Everardo called them thieves (yes 2 temper loses in 2 weeks), and we drove to Ometepec. Ha ha there they said they have no record of us in their system...ok then why do you want us pay you? Oh wait, let me get the main office in Mexico City on the phone. It gets confused from there, but we are not in the sytem, but they want us to pay. And to drive back out there to retrurn the box ha ha. So....do we owe or do we not owe? The person on the phone put us on hold and dropped the call. We waited again for the agent who was helping us, and she said what do you want me to do? Oh- nothing I guess. So we left. We'll ask the guy who's gonna take care of the house to drop off the box when he next goes to Ometepec (pls no special trip), and I guess this is free...?

We will try not to contact Telmex in Puerto Penasco. Or if we need them for internet, we'll see if we exist or not, or maybe just put it in our name.

So- we wanted to pay what we owed, but not what we didn't owe. At one point we offered to pay last month and this month for internet, but not phone and someone said you can't do that. Then we ceased to exist...anyway this was all in Spanish so I got bit and pieces and the rest in the car on the way home. But wow! No wonder people are at odds with their service providers!!!!

And the way home was nice. There is this town across a mountian top- well not a huge mountain but bigger than a hill, that I thought overlooked the sea. I always saw it on the way to Ometepec but never saw the road for it. I looked for the town every time we went, someimes I spotted it and sometimes not. But yesterday I saw it, and the road out to it. The name was some like Huehuetan. So we detoured and drove out there on our way home. It does not look over the ocean; I guess the road has a slow turn towards the east and so the ocean is a ways past it. But it was a cute little town, like all of them. Much bigger than Playa Ventura- we could tell that simply by the amount of school kids in the road walking home. But it was nice to have seen it. Oh and on that road was a donkey and her baby. Then we saw a horse and her baby. And closer to home a pig and her baby so it was a baby kind of a day.

Today we paid both our Mexico property tax and our Calif property tax. Yes ouch, as I wrote to someone in an email, that gust of wind I felt was my money rushing by ha ha. But having it on record that we paid our property taxes is important, or could be important down the road if we don;t sell this house too quickly. In Mexico if someone moves into an empty house- simply cause it's empty, not with permission or anything, if they stay 5 years- then the house can become theirs! Wow right? Well we have hired someone to watch it, and until it sells we will keep visiting it, but it's just better to have your bases covered. Your name on the power bill helps you too since they only put your name on it if you give them a copy of your deed, so we should be good. We hope to sell soon, but don't need to, so no pressure there. We have no idea if/when it would sell, here you can ask 50 people the same question and get 50 different answers. So we shall see what we shall see. Mexico has a logic I am yet to understand, I'm sure it makes sense to somebody. But living in a third world country is quite an experience on so many levels.

At least in this area the people are really poor. In some ways the gov't helps alot, and in other ways, not at all. Big companies seem like they are monopolies (I'm not sure) and so there is no such thing as customer service here. Don't like us Go somewhere else- oh wait there is nowhere else...so I guess it's like anywhere, lots of good people working hard, some not so good people not working too hard, some people always running a scam...ha ha I tell you, if you are prone to insecurity, going to a country where you don't speak the language may not be the smartest move.

Right now the plan is leave for Puerto Penasco next Monday or Tuesday. We have been taking care of paperwork, bills, etc, and I even got my nails done today! Yipee! It's been so long, but I live in sand and it just felt silly most of the time! We are in contact with a woman in PP who has some rentals and I think we'll will get something at least for a month, thru her. During that month we can look for something else. I am hearing we can rent for as cheap as $180 month USD for 2 bedrooms! Of course this is not on the beach...but guess what? We don't want to be on the beach! These rents are for local (Mexican) neighborhoods which is exactly what we want. I really hope I like this place, I've been looking at it from every which way I can think of online and it seems good.

Ha ha the obvious things are there, but who knows what new thing I'll find out about myself ha ha. It has a population close to our town in Calif, there is English and Spanish, AA meetings, stores, coffee shops, possibility for work for Everardo..., maybe me, too...so pls stay tuned for the next part of the adventure!

I have to even the score a little bit regarding something I said last post.  About the electric company and people paying and not paying. I wrote that people don't pay so no wonder they don't come and fix it and no wonder the service is so crappy; always going out and every day the light surges bright or gets really dim (ha ha de-surge?). Anyway I found out this place is kind of a catch 22. The power company, SFE regularly over charges is customers. So basically shame on both sides. And which came first? (yeah yeah chicken & egg). Did they overcharge and people said - I'm not paying this!- or did they not pay so CFE tries to recoup?...hmmm that one sounds a little far fetched. The gov't steps in and pays everyone's bills every so often I guess because they know people have no jobs, how are they going to pay and they need electricity..so I don't know, and I think advantage is taken on both sides. I know of people here who simply do not pay and they could afford it. I know of other people here that my heart breaks for...and it's hard when these really destitute families have a bunch of kids (and isn't that the way also- and that's a world wide problem and hits on everything, like no education including education for birth control, no jobs or anything to do with themselves on a daily basis- well I don't know the answers to anything so...) And they really can't pay, but desperately need the service.

Anyway one day during the summer we were trying to go to Ometepec and we came to a place where the road was blocked off in this little town and the people were having a demonstration beacuse CFE was charging everyone too much. We had only been here a short while and I found it interesting...but didn't think much about it again until now. On Sunday night there was a big meeting with CFE and the people of the town, (yeah funny- on Sunday). Unfortunately we missed it and I haven't heard anything about what transpired, but I know the subject was that CFE is over charging, and from their side, no one is paying their bills. Yes the Gov just paid everybody's but I guess this is going forward. And also I am not clear on exactly when this happened, the gov paying the bills, cause I have also been hearing about huge amounts that people owe. I guess for me now this is just interesting since we are leaving, possibly a week from today.

And one choice we are making for sure is bigger town. Small town drama is true! Ha ha so many pieces of gossip, everybody knows what everybody else is doing, and if you don't, make up something goooood...ha ha. And some small towns strive to be autonomous, right down to land deeds and little laws....However they all come together when something happens- like a unexpected death- people show up for those in grief, and they all come out for the fiestas, too! So if it's something you're used to, it's pretty cool. Otherwise it's hard...friend of my enemy is my enemy...oh unless it's my friend, oh or unless it's my cousin...and almost everybody here is related to one of two families, and some people are related to both ha ha. There are some really beautiful people here; at least one I hope to stay friends with all my life no matter where I live.

So Saturday nite we went swimming as the sun set again, and last nite we walked on the beach but then went up to chat with Chela, and it was really really dark as we walked back to only my toes went in, tho' Sam went in going and coming so he was a happy dog. It's nice and windy this afternoon, so maybe it will be cooler tonite...I don't think I've ever said God bless the wind as many times as since I've been here. I am always drenched in sweat so any breeze helps, even if just for a second. Oh yeah something I have thought of every time I go to the bathroom, but never at any other time, but saying drenched in sweat reminded me ha ha- my skin is always at the very least, damp, and usually just plain wet. We also have the cheapest toilet seats ever made, I mean I'm not sure how the thin plastic held it's shape long enough to get packaged and put on the shelf for sale. This is in our bathroom and the one next to the kitchen. The upstairs seat is actually a little better...anyway...everytime I use the bathroom when I stand back up, even if it's just for a second, the extrememly thin plastic seat sticks to my sweaty butt. Then it drops back and makes that noise you hear when men use the bathroom and they put the seat back down like they should. So I laugh to myself everytime I pee cause it sounds like a guy went and is putting the seat down. Hey if I was in some dance club somewhere maybe the person washing their hands would think I was a transvestite!!...ok or at least a cross dresser...yes folk this is where my sicky mind takes me. I'd like to say it's just cause i'm so so so so bored here...but no- I would have thought that anytime anywhere...

Ah well, 4pm and if I go lay in the hammock now I don't have to see the mess which is my living room and feel compelled to pack or at least organize....cheers