I wrote so much in the last post and yet.....I forgot what I wanted to say about a couple more things...
Dirt roads. Well 2 years into this adventure and I still live on a dirt road. The road in Playa Ventura, Guerrero was getting paved as we left. I heard recently that water is coming out there. All the water right now is delivered in the big trucks and stored in pilas, usually on your roof- otherwise you need an additional pump. We had 3 pilas, and it rains so much down there that we didn't ever need to buy water. But many people have only one pila, or a smaller one, and so they have to buy water when it runs out. Now for drinking water of course, we had to buy. The truck came down the road once a week, blaring the horn- usually Thursday and we usually bought 4 garrafons. (That's the huge water jugs that hold about 5 gallons). I think we use less than that here- and we take them to places to get them filled, where they rinse out the jugs before refilling. In Playa they water truck guys got to know us, and were bring the garrafons down before we got out there ha ha. They would bring us new ones each time and take our old ones. We always gave them a tip, and they were always really helpful when I was home alone. So we didn't have any hot water or a hot water heater and really didn't care- last thing you want down there is a hot shower. I heated only for shaving my legs- just a pot on the stove and then did it outside at the table. Washing clothes was harder. We had hardly any water pressure so a machine would have been useless. Ha ha I was washing it in the outside sink, and then taking it in the shower where I had to step on a rope for the water to come down to rinse them. Ok not as bad as washing them on a rock- right? SOME women did! There was a small arroyo next to our yard and in the spring women brought their laundry, scrubbing and visiting...that was just too much for me. Then in the nearby town we found a laundry that washed, ironed and folded our clothes- maybe 2 weeks worth so probably 3 loads, for 90 pesos! Sold!! That was after about 4 months of shower rinsing ha ha.
As the road down there began the process of being paved, I watched crazy little side deals happening. One friend of ours needed cement....and he got it. Another wanted a paved driveway, and they got it. People got stones, dirt, whatever they needed, and the construction guys got side money. It didn't work out that great for us....and in retrospect I now wonder if one of our "friends" didn't help us not to get help....ah well, water under the bridge. Our issue was that where the road went past our house it was a downhill driveway into our yard. Probably about 10 feet from the original road to our gate. We had a nice wall...maybe 5 feet high- really just to keep out donkeys and dogs, not to block views- as I said the road was higher than our house and so along our fence was a 3 or 4 foot wide path, then a slope up to the road (only 4/5 feet)- so anyone walking along the road looked into our yard and house. So Everardo talked to the guys, almost on a daily basis. He gave them cold water a few afternoons, and our short length from road to gate got paved. We did have to pay a couple of guys to take down the gate and turn it around so it swung in to open when previously it swung out. It's a wide gate, maybe 10 feet across, but with the road paved and the dirt piling down, it couldn't open outwards anymore. That was all great. But then came the sidewalk and the driveway lip it needed, and not to be too tall.....etc etc etc. Somehow when we were gone for a few days- and this all took months and they do the couple of days we're not there....and do the sidewalk past our house with no driveway dip and about a foot drop down to the driveway. Everardo was sooo pissed- and this is a man who rarely and I mean really rarely loses his temper, stewed for a few hours and then silently left the house. I went out a little while after that and he had a sledge hammer (hmmm from where?) and destroyed the sidewalk where it passed our driveway. He then piled cement and dirt to make it passable for us. We moved about a month later, and had to send money down to the guy watching our house to pay to have it fixed.
We got up to Puerto Penasco and rented a house on- yep- a dirt road. It wasn't bad until it rained and then it became a huge lake. Luckily we had the truck and didn't really drive the little Toyota Corolla we bought there much during the rainy season....which started about mid Jan, but only last a couple of months. Living on a dirt road with a dirt yard makes for a dusty house. The wind is always welcome in both Playa Ventura and Puerto Penasco because it at least moved the heat around some, but it always blew dirt and/or sand into the house. It's amazing what you (slowly) get used to. Now we are in Baja- and I'm not sure if we are actually located in Punta Banda or Cantu...we're renting on Ejido land an it's called Ejido Cantu, but we may still be in Punta Banda? Hmmm- doesn't really matter because we don't get mail here...we put the address down that was on the telephone & electric bill of the person who lived here before us, and now are using it for the bank and my permanent resident application, so...Anyway we are again on a dirt road. But we are in between the ocean and an estuary so it's all good.
Funny I noticed that I walk always looking down since I got to Mexico. If there are sidewalks in the towns they are many times crumbling or uneven in places, and I spend a lot of time on dirt roads which have rocks, ect., or the beach...so I always have to watch where I'm walking - oh except maybe inside-since I'm wearing shoes, right? ha ha
In Penasco we had city water and received a bill for it. Again, not by mail- someone dropped it in our mailbox just like the phone & electric bills. Funny right? We paid them by going to the company itself- everybody did. Here in Baja, we don't pay for water or garbage- but the phone & electric bills are at the rental office when we go pay the rent. We can pay them at the local grocery store at a little wall kiosk like an atm- but we mail nothing. I can however, for the first time receive mail from the states by sending it to an adress in San Ysidro right over the Calif border and the rental people pick it up on a regular basis- of course I have to pay for the pleasure...We also took our garrfons to a water place to be refilled in Penasco- just like here in Baja- it's about 12 pesos I think, but in Playa Ventura it was only 8 pesos I think. Here we are on a well, and as I said that water is free. I think it probably has some salt in it, maybe not enough to taste- but man our clothes are taking a beating in the washing machine. It must be the water along with the old machine. But I like free. We had a washing machine in both Penasco and here, and always line dry.
Ok the bread. This will be short. I just wanted to say that we loved the bread lady with the basket on her head in Playa Ventura, and in Penasco we had something similar, but different. A guy had this little station wagon that played a song that I am shocked I don't remember. It played every single day around 4pm, and when you first heard it he was a few streets away so you had time....He had bolios, the french bread like rolls, pastries, cookies, that funny bread with the sugary paste on it, etc. For sandwich bread- which my husband calls toast (whether you toast it or not), you got it at the store.
I also like how the stores sell bakery goods all over Mexico. You take a round pan and a pair of tongs and choose what you want, breads, cakes, cookies, pastries, etc and then bring it all up to the counter. They put it in little paper bags and staple it closed with the receipt.
Anyway here, no mobile bakeries, not walking or cars with silly bread songs. There are lots of little bakeries all over the place, but I just liked how you heard it outside your door.
Ok time. And not "Mexican time" like ok tomorrow and we all know what that can mean...I mean the actual time. We only have a clock in the kitchen, well we both have cell phones, but we usually have the tv on at nite, even if we're on our laptops or reading. So whenever an ad for a tv program comes on, I know to automatically subtract 2 hours because it's all on Mexico City time. In Playa Ventura I only had to subtract 1 hour, but that was the place where I first had the 24 hour time on the tv, So if it's 7pm, the 24 hour clock will say 1900, so oh boy more math. Once you pass 12 noon, subtract 2 from the time to know the hour....so 1900 is 7pm, 1400 is 2pm, 1700 is 5pm, get it? Ok so now, after you subtract 2, then 1 more IF it's a tv ad, but not if it's the guide menu on the tv. Fun eh? Then we moved up to Penasco and it was 2 hours different so it was subtract 2 and 2, or just 2 if it was on the menu.
So we move over here, and guess what? No more 24 hour clock on the tv (might be cause we switched from Sky tv to Dish?), but the ads are still off by 2 hours. Then daylight saving time came, but Mexico City doesn't change for another month, so the online tv guide didn't change either. So for a month I had no idea what time any show was on...and sometimes what time it even was....It's funny the guide for the main channel we watch in English is wrong all the time, too. It's noty the show it says it is, but we don't seem to have that problem with any other channel. We're now watching a drama/novela in Spanish on that channel- El Mariachi-. I think it's the only show in Spanish on that channel.
Now add that fun to a Mexican comedian husband who always asks me "In English or Spanish?" when I want anything. We are Lucy and Ricky Ricardo sometimes. Sometimes he pretends to misunderstand me and asks me back with silly questions. Sometimes he really does misunderstand me but I think he's joking. Sometimes he understands (but not really) and I don't realize we are not on the same page. Sometimes he knows he didn't understand what I said but says ok anyway. Now add in that sometimes I don't understand him and say so, and sometimes I don't say so and assume.....yeah we have alot of confusion in our house, but it is almost always funny....except when it's not-ha ha.
Ok time to take Sam & Hazel for a walk. It's really nice outside. There's alot of activity in our neighborhood that's not usually here because the Baja 500 is this weekend and starts/ends in Ensenada, so there are quite a few short term renter here. Keeps it interesting, right?
Viva
Dirt roads. Well 2 years into this adventure and I still live on a dirt road. The road in Playa Ventura, Guerrero was getting paved as we left. I heard recently that water is coming out there. All the water right now is delivered in the big trucks and stored in pilas, usually on your roof- otherwise you need an additional pump. We had 3 pilas, and it rains so much down there that we didn't ever need to buy water. But many people have only one pila, or a smaller one, and so they have to buy water when it runs out. Now for drinking water of course, we had to buy. The truck came down the road once a week, blaring the horn- usually Thursday and we usually bought 4 garrafons. (That's the huge water jugs that hold about 5 gallons). I think we use less than that here- and we take them to places to get them filled, where they rinse out the jugs before refilling. In Playa they water truck guys got to know us, and were bring the garrafons down before we got out there ha ha. They would bring us new ones each time and take our old ones. We always gave them a tip, and they were always really helpful when I was home alone. So we didn't have any hot water or a hot water heater and really didn't care- last thing you want down there is a hot shower. I heated only for shaving my legs- just a pot on the stove and then did it outside at the table. Washing clothes was harder. We had hardly any water pressure so a machine would have been useless. Ha ha I was washing it in the outside sink, and then taking it in the shower where I had to step on a rope for the water to come down to rinse them. Ok not as bad as washing them on a rock- right? SOME women did! There was a small arroyo next to our yard and in the spring women brought their laundry, scrubbing and visiting...that was just too much for me. Then in the nearby town we found a laundry that washed, ironed and folded our clothes- maybe 2 weeks worth so probably 3 loads, for 90 pesos! Sold!! That was after about 4 months of shower rinsing ha ha.
As the road down there began the process of being paved, I watched crazy little side deals happening. One friend of ours needed cement....and he got it. Another wanted a paved driveway, and they got it. People got stones, dirt, whatever they needed, and the construction guys got side money. It didn't work out that great for us....and in retrospect I now wonder if one of our "friends" didn't help us not to get help....ah well, water under the bridge. Our issue was that where the road went past our house it was a downhill driveway into our yard. Probably about 10 feet from the original road to our gate. We had a nice wall...maybe 5 feet high- really just to keep out donkeys and dogs, not to block views- as I said the road was higher than our house and so along our fence was a 3 or 4 foot wide path, then a slope up to the road (only 4/5 feet)- so anyone walking along the road looked into our yard and house. So Everardo talked to the guys, almost on a daily basis. He gave them cold water a few afternoons, and our short length from road to gate got paved. We did have to pay a couple of guys to take down the gate and turn it around so it swung in to open when previously it swung out. It's a wide gate, maybe 10 feet across, but with the road paved and the dirt piling down, it couldn't open outwards anymore. That was all great. But then came the sidewalk and the driveway lip it needed, and not to be too tall.....etc etc etc. Somehow when we were gone for a few days- and this all took months and they do the couple of days we're not there....and do the sidewalk past our house with no driveway dip and about a foot drop down to the driveway. Everardo was sooo pissed- and this is a man who rarely and I mean really rarely loses his temper, stewed for a few hours and then silently left the house. I went out a little while after that and he had a sledge hammer (hmmm from where?) and destroyed the sidewalk where it passed our driveway. He then piled cement and dirt to make it passable for us. We moved about a month later, and had to send money down to the guy watching our house to pay to have it fixed.
We got up to Puerto Penasco and rented a house on- yep- a dirt road. It wasn't bad until it rained and then it became a huge lake. Luckily we had the truck and didn't really drive the little Toyota Corolla we bought there much during the rainy season....which started about mid Jan, but only last a couple of months. Living on a dirt road with a dirt yard makes for a dusty house. The wind is always welcome in both Playa Ventura and Puerto Penasco because it at least moved the heat around some, but it always blew dirt and/or sand into the house. It's amazing what you (slowly) get used to. Now we are in Baja- and I'm not sure if we are actually located in Punta Banda or Cantu...we're renting on Ejido land an it's called Ejido Cantu, but we may still be in Punta Banda? Hmmm- doesn't really matter because we don't get mail here...we put the address down that was on the telephone & electric bill of the person who lived here before us, and now are using it for the bank and my permanent resident application, so...Anyway we are again on a dirt road. But we are in between the ocean and an estuary so it's all good.
Funny I noticed that I walk always looking down since I got to Mexico. If there are sidewalks in the towns they are many times crumbling or uneven in places, and I spend a lot of time on dirt roads which have rocks, ect., or the beach...so I always have to watch where I'm walking - oh except maybe inside-since I'm wearing shoes, right? ha ha
In Penasco we had city water and received a bill for it. Again, not by mail- someone dropped it in our mailbox just like the phone & electric bills. Funny right? We paid them by going to the company itself- everybody did. Here in Baja, we don't pay for water or garbage- but the phone & electric bills are at the rental office when we go pay the rent. We can pay them at the local grocery store at a little wall kiosk like an atm- but we mail nothing. I can however, for the first time receive mail from the states by sending it to an adress in San Ysidro right over the Calif border and the rental people pick it up on a regular basis- of course I have to pay for the pleasure...We also took our garrfons to a water place to be refilled in Penasco- just like here in Baja- it's about 12 pesos I think, but in Playa Ventura it was only 8 pesos I think. Here we are on a well, and as I said that water is free. I think it probably has some salt in it, maybe not enough to taste- but man our clothes are taking a beating in the washing machine. It must be the water along with the old machine. But I like free. We had a washing machine in both Penasco and here, and always line dry.
Ok the bread. This will be short. I just wanted to say that we loved the bread lady with the basket on her head in Playa Ventura, and in Penasco we had something similar, but different. A guy had this little station wagon that played a song that I am shocked I don't remember. It played every single day around 4pm, and when you first heard it he was a few streets away so you had time....He had bolios, the french bread like rolls, pastries, cookies, that funny bread with the sugary paste on it, etc. For sandwich bread- which my husband calls toast (whether you toast it or not), you got it at the store.
I also like how the stores sell bakery goods all over Mexico. You take a round pan and a pair of tongs and choose what you want, breads, cakes, cookies, pastries, etc and then bring it all up to the counter. They put it in little paper bags and staple it closed with the receipt.
Anyway here, no mobile bakeries, not walking or cars with silly bread songs. There are lots of little bakeries all over the place, but I just liked how you heard it outside your door.
Ok time. And not "Mexican time" like ok tomorrow and we all know what that can mean...I mean the actual time. We only have a clock in the kitchen, well we both have cell phones, but we usually have the tv on at nite, even if we're on our laptops or reading. So whenever an ad for a tv program comes on, I know to automatically subtract 2 hours because it's all on Mexico City time. In Playa Ventura I only had to subtract 1 hour, but that was the place where I first had the 24 hour time on the tv, So if it's 7pm, the 24 hour clock will say 1900, so oh boy more math. Once you pass 12 noon, subtract 2 from the time to know the hour....so 1900 is 7pm, 1400 is 2pm, 1700 is 5pm, get it? Ok so now, after you subtract 2, then 1 more IF it's a tv ad, but not if it's the guide menu on the tv. Fun eh? Then we moved up to Penasco and it was 2 hours different so it was subtract 2 and 2, or just 2 if it was on the menu.
So we move over here, and guess what? No more 24 hour clock on the tv (might be cause we switched from Sky tv to Dish?), but the ads are still off by 2 hours. Then daylight saving time came, but Mexico City doesn't change for another month, so the online tv guide didn't change either. So for a month I had no idea what time any show was on...and sometimes what time it even was....It's funny the guide for the main channel we watch in English is wrong all the time, too. It's noty the show it says it is, but we don't seem to have that problem with any other channel. We're now watching a drama/novela in Spanish on that channel- El Mariachi-. I think it's the only show in Spanish on that channel.
Now add that fun to a Mexican comedian husband who always asks me "In English or Spanish?" when I want anything. We are Lucy and Ricky Ricardo sometimes. Sometimes he pretends to misunderstand me and asks me back with silly questions. Sometimes he really does misunderstand me but I think he's joking. Sometimes he understands (but not really) and I don't realize we are not on the same page. Sometimes he knows he didn't understand what I said but says ok anyway. Now add in that sometimes I don't understand him and say so, and sometimes I don't say so and assume.....yeah we have alot of confusion in our house, but it is almost always funny....except when it's not-ha ha.
Ok time to take Sam & Hazel for a walk. It's really nice outside. There's alot of activity in our neighborhood that's not usually here because the Baja 500 is this weekend and starts/ends in Ensenada, so there are quite a few short term renter here. Keeps it interesting, right?
Viva
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