martes, el 31 de mayo de 2011

Did any of you find it suspicious that mi madre burns the fish burgers (in Victoria BC), and right after that our internet in Huatulco does not work? hmm.

Well it is a new day and the internet is back.

Feliz Cumpleaños to Crista!!

Our day started with email catchup and blog posting from ayer. And then Roman stopped by.

I laid another $1000 pesos on him as we have added to the B10 quote and he is a 50% down business man. He then went on to tell us that there have been some huge waves at Mojon. Supposedly the swell went all the way up to the road? That would mean the wave travelled completely through our property. Yikes. We are headed there tomorrow…stay tuned for an update.

Bexico spent her day working and working out. She is cleaning up the roughs before she sends them to Ottawa. Fingers crossed.

Have you all see her website?


My day was all about the gym, fotos and then Elektra. As for pool time? We had no alberca time today as our day ran long and the sun decided to stay away. But we did fit in the Che…lomo cerdo para la cena!! Must remember to bring some gravy packets with us when we return…and no, not the Swiss Chalet ones!! Yikes…what is that stuff?

Good day at the gym, lots of peeps coming as I was going so that worked out well. The fridge is fixed…the ellipticals are not up and running yet. As for mi amiga Rosa…she is one of the easiest going peeps here, and today she was stressed.

¿Por que? it seems that the maestros are taking more days off from teaching school then they normally due. The teachers in the state of Oaxaca have a history of striking and protesting for more wages. The government has a history of ignoring them, so they take extra days off from teaching…”professional” days. I think Rosa’s hijo, Juan Manuel, had 2 extra days off last week and one so far this week. Our níno? Escuela privada!!

Rosa’s other stress seems to be her tight walleted, ill tempered jefe, Galdino. Not sure what he has done this time, but it has set her off!! The only issue is that she has great hours and flexibility at this job, so she does not want to lose that. Rock and a hard place.

Despues de gimnasio it was a quick walk through town…no Sergio yet. Madre de Daniel, Vicky, tells me that Sergio is home and resting…no work yet. Tough way to celebrate a birthday.

Feliz Cumpleaños Sergio!!

Grabbed some plátanos and then came home to pick up my gal. Off to Elektra and we did not find Irving, but did see the salesman who I had talked to a few trips ago.

Victor does not speak very much ingles, but the three of us managed fine. That was until we tried to order the washer/dryer. Ja ja ja

We had clarified that we wanted new and in package appliances and Victor said that was no issue. Then we went to check on the colchones and find out what one was the firmest. A few new words…suave for soft and duro for hard.

So we had no problem picking out one king size!!

Then we had to go order the appliances and enter the mattress into a order sheet and the computer said the w/d was not available. Now the two hombres tell us it is a computer issue…I think they are sold out.

Either way, we paid for the mattress ($300 pesos off!!) and the fridge and they told us they would try to order the w/d either tonite or mañana. We told them we were going to pick everything up at the same time and they think the w/d will be here a week this viernes.

So after you plug it into the computer, they print you off a slip of paper and you take that to the caja to pay. Here is a foto.


So I am #20 in line and by the time we get to the front, there are 40 people behind us!! Why the line ups? All the big stores are soooo cash conscious and everything is high security. The other reasons for the line ups are the fact that most peeps are on the crazy weekly payment plans and they have to come in and make their payments. Why do they not pay online? Because they do not have the internet…nor computers!!

Well, we got to the front and after having them call Amex to confirm my cc, we were off to Che.

Che was Che…the fruitas roja yogurt is back in stock!! Phew. Lol

Home by 530pm and then it was ensalada time and Bexico went back to work. Dinner is about 30 minutes away…a late one today.

Fotos for the day.

The animal fotos.

These insects have been hanging outside our door at night.


The foto is almost actual size…HUGE.

And the geckos have been busy too.


Found this iguana outside Che…la cena para some Mexicanos!!


From my walk…

Una pequeña y determined niña!!


She walked from a tienda on Carrizal to her casa which was only a few doors down.

Day two of painting the new signage.


All painted by free hand.

This is Daniel from Fonatur talking to a taxi driver about something.


Some of the wood hombres have large operations, some do not.





Talking about carpinteros, I went to B10 today and talked with the hombre doing the work there. He has installed the mailbox and the folding doors in the loft and was working on the bed extension (queen to reyes). I asked him about making a cuna, crib, and he said sí…about $1500 pesos. We might end up using this fellow if we like his B10 work.


And if we need some replacement NFL players come the Fall, check out these two hombres.




He has soft hands!!

And after they were done unloading, it was time to sell those sandias!!



And si (if) el negocio es bueno, here is how they can celebrate.

       
How about a VERY COLD Corona for 65 cents CDN or a 1.2 litro Victoria for $1.93 CDN?

Right after I took that foto, a hombre came up to me and started talking to me. We ended up chatting in español for 10 minutes. He just wanted to know more about a Canadian who would move to Huatulco.

Bexico is currently having a Skype with her padres and is telling her dad that she enjoys having chats with patient Mexicans…and the hombre I talked with was just like that.

After 10 minutes, I wrapped it up with a “tarde para mi novia” and a “mucho gusto” (late for my girlfriend and nice to meet you) and headed on my way.

And two BONICE fotos…two different work attitudes.



Here are some other Elektra fotos.

Bexico talking to Victor (seated) and otra hombre (very long name…good luck).


And just because I know you are dying to see them, here are links to our colchone and refrigerador.


And I checked on line and at a competitor, this fridge is on sale for $800 pesos more then what we paid!! Score!!


And since the website does not have the washer/dryer…here is a foto.


This is a price tag for the exact same TV we bought on sábado.


We paid $6600 pesos (on sale at Che), and at Elektra the chaz chaz price is $9999!! Score again!!

915pm…dinner is done…hot to cook, but the cerdo was sooo good. And in treinta minutos? Cherry pies…kinda look like McD knock offs!!

Miercoles? Mañana? El gimnasio, pit stop at Elektra to give Victor our phone number (like we don’t know it off by heart…ja ja ja) and then Mojon to see what it looks like. And then home for a bite to eat and Senor Pucks for the 7pm face off!!!

Have a great Wednesday everyone.

And from EA Sports website…


Go Canucks Go!!

lunes el 30 de mayo de 2011

UPDATE

Internet is back...I am posting this at 930am on martes.


Buenos noches!! Lunes here in Huatulco.

How was your day? We had a great day.

Bexico has been given a script from the Ottawa dude and will story board it and send it back for approval. Once this happens, she will have another animation project to complete!!

Me? Same as and enjoyed every minute of it. During my walk to and from el gimnasio, I saw lots of peeps and said hola to all of them.

There was Marcelino at the gate, the pool guy…gotta get his name, Daniel from Fonatur, Elder from the llanteria, Galdino from the gym…who gave me a ride to his gym, Rosa, Anna and Fermin at the gym, Roberto, from next to Gabriel’s, was shopping at the ferreteria (hardware tienda), Belen and dos amigas were at her tienda and then there was Daniel at Gabriel’s.

I sure felt like the King of Kensington today.

Friggin hot today and Fermin made note of it. He said the month (mes) of mayo is the worst…here’s hoping!! Glad I bring dos 1.5 litro bottles of 1/2 agua and ½ hielo as the fridge in the gym was descompuesto today.

As dos hombres were working on the fridge, I was sharing my restaurante refrigeration stories…cleaning filters, evaporator coils, condensers etc as well as explaining a refrig guy in Canada probably charges $100/hr. Rosa was floored by that.

As I was describing the preventative maintenance for fridge, one of the hombres looked over and gave me the nod that meant I knew what I was talking about…all in español mind you!!

For the amount of heat…a great workout.

Fotos from the day.

The Gato Negro experience.

Look who has an amigo.


They were hanging together until I showed up and then gato blanco went to hide.

Once he saw gato negro flirting with me…


He came out and became quite fotogenic.


Later in the day I came upon sleeping gato negro.


Who promptly woke up.


And then asked for leche.


She followed me upstairs and as we were about to pour her some milk, we found one of our containers had gone sour. Yech. That has happened more and more…probably due to the heat. We cracked open a new container and gave our amiga her milk.

Back to the day…

I was dropping off our recycling when I came upon this carton.


Someone else was at Che over the weekend!!

This is the door to Oscar’s oficina….oficina de Oscar (oh-scar).


Oscar is kinda in charge of the complex…but reports to the HOA (strata in Canada). We have a great President and a whip cracker of a vice-President. She has been ok with us but has been hard on the security hombres.

Look at the bottom right of the foto. What do you see?


Yup…one big iguana trap.

The bag hombre is back. But does he really ever leave?



I wonder what the two hombres were talking about? Nice bags Bob?

Dona Lupitas is a sit down restaurante kitty corner to the parque. It is always busy…we will try it out soon. Today they were getting some new signage painted on their building.


Not sure why I took this foto. I liked the colors and the two hard working people.


And the madera (wood) hombres (carpinteros) are back.


This is una madre y su hija.


Not sure what they have in the containers, but they were walking door to door, person to person, seeing if anyone wanted to buy what they were selling. A tough gig for mom and daughter.

And right around here…my camera battery died!! Ja ja ja

So I went home and charged it up. While waiting, out came the vacuum and mop and Bexico and I cleaned the condo.

Despues de limpiar (cleaning) and recharge of mi pila de camera (camera battery), I went back to the parque (5 minute walk) to take these last fotos.

Muebles suddenly appearing out of no where?


This reminds me of the old scam of guys driving around mall parking lots in vans, trying to sell “extra” stereo speakers. But these sofas and love seats were legit.

The Fonatur hombres hard at work.


The lawns grow so fast here.

BONICE foto de hoy (today).


And last but not least…

Notice anything wrong with the exhaust stack?


Might get a bit (hee x3) smokey in there?

910pm…just finished a nice iChat with mi hermana and her famiia (sin hijo…where was Sullivan?) and then one with mis padres as well. Good ol’internet…keeping us all in touch!!

And at 915pm…the internet is now down!! Ja ja ja

After taking my second batch of fotos, I stopped in to say hola to Daniel at Gabriel’s. Sergio might be back to work mañana and other then that, not much new at the store.

Bexico and I both agree that Daniel is one of our good amigos here. He can speak very fluent ingles, but is soooo patient with us as we work on our español and tries to keep the conversation in español as much as possible.

After the second walk, came home for alberca time and then it was ensalada time.

La cena was our segundo hamburguesa and then Bexico went to do some work as I surfed the net, had the iChats

Mañana? We are confirmed that the washer/dryer will fit…so we are off to Elektra to buy it as well as the fridge y mattress.

Mojon? Thought about it for mañana as the waves are supposed to be 6’s…pretty big!! But we have some things to do around here and will go miercoles instead. Of course ensuring we are Pucks by 7pm for the game!! Did I tell you mi hermano has tickets (gratis) for 2 of the games? Nice score mi hermano!!

That is our lunes…looks like we will be posting this mañana…when the internet comes back on line.

saludos

domingo, el 29 de mayo de 2011


Domingo’s update…don’t fall asleep.

Desayunos, Indy 500, siesta, alberca time, Nascar, la cena and a bunch of emails and internet surfing inbetween.

Great breakfast…leftover para mañana. It was the cerdo hash.

Indy 500…boring is one way to describe it…but wow are they fast at over 350 km/hr. And then the rookie is leading the race with ONE corner left before the checkered flag…and he crashed into the wall!! Too bad for him…still came in 2nd.

No ejercicio…siesta was in order. Ja ja ja

Tranquilo at the pool…sad to say that my Costco floatie has sprung a leak and may need to be retired. Good news…we have two and will bring down another one in December.

10pm now and the longest race in Nascar is finally over!! Terrible internet speed today…great picture but it froze every minute or so. Five hours of racing and JR runs out of gas on the last lap…105 races and counting without a win.

La cena…a new twist here in Huatulco…Bexico’s pasta salad. Quite yummy and it was a good prelude to hamburguesa domingo!! Hard to believe we used to eat two of those burgers in one sitting. We will have our Segundo burger mañana.

Time for dishes y el ducha and call it a day.

Mañana…back to el gimnasio and hope to finish up our Elektra shopping. Sometime this week we will go to Migracion and check what we need to do to renew our FM3…forma de no immigrante… as well as find out what we need to do for níno, come our return in December.

Have a great week amigos.

Marco y Bexico 

sábado, el 28 de mayo de 2011

Hola all…it is sábado!

Goose…you would be proud of us. We bought this today…


And all during dinner and for the past few hours we have been breaking it in by watching Rattle and Hum!! Love the boots on Bono…ja ja ja

Ok, our day.

Bexico has been go, go, go with her negocio!! Excellent!! Her Vancouver project was competed as per requested and the hombre wanted to make a few more changes (to his original idea), so he requested these of Bexico and already sent her $50 for the work!!

Meanwhile she is completing some animation samples for another possible contract!!

Me? El gimnasio was primero…first. The elliptical machines are not ready to go…thank goodness as it must have been close to 50 degrees in there today!! Not hating…just stating!! Had a great workout, no Rosa (?) but caught up with Memo and then hit the road.

A pit stop to say hola to Daniel at Gabriel’s. It is sooooo busy (ja ja ja), that he has moved the entertainment outside.


I guess it was a big European league match…Manchester vs Barcelona?
Caught up with Daniel and found out he is manning the tienda solo because everyone is in Pochutla…taking care of Sergio who has appendicitis. Here’s to a quick recovery amigo.

Came home and we had some alberca time and then had to go to Elektra to meet up with Roman. We measured the w/d and think it will fit under the bulkhead and that the plumbing, gas and electrical will not be an issue.

Good to have him there as we could communicate most items, but asking the salesperson to order us a brand new one, in the box, would have been tough.

We also picked out our refrigeradora and will order one of those too. It is a 16 cubic foot (called pies) Whirlpool. Would have gone for the grande mac daddy model of them all…but it wouldn’t fit behind the front door where the other ones go. Oh well….we will be thrilled with the extra room.

And we also saw a crib…I think they are called cuna here. Muy caro…so we suss out other models etc before we buy that one. And last but not least…will end up buying our king size colchón there too. Por que? So Roman’s team can pick up all three items for us. Most appliance tiendas here do not deliver!!

Waiting until lunes when Roman double checks on the height of the w/d fitting…and then it will be back to Elektra y Irving (ear-ving) our salesman.

Paid the Telmex bill…adios $1000 pesos, and we went into Che.

So…how to sell Bubba a new TV? Put it right at the entrance of the store and have it on sale from $8000 pesos (tax incl) to $6600 pesos!!

Yeah, we bought it as we have a 14 inch TV in G10 and B10 has a bigger one, but it looks old!!

When I got home and finished unpacking it etc, I went on line to see how good (or bad) a deal we really made. Same model in the US was $800 plus tax and a similar model at Futureshop was $670 plus tax.

At $6600 pesos, we paid $563 CDN, including tax…or $502 plus the 12% HST. Great deal!! And better yet, it frees up room in the truck for the return trip in December.

All we need now is the satellite as the canals (channels) we get now are fuzzy (free tv) and our DVD are not HD.

And what other scores did we get at Che? For when you amigos come to visit and Bexico whips us up some triple Golden Margs…a 1.2 litro bottle of Cuervo for $88 pesos…$7.50 CDN. Hello Melon!!

Came home, unloaded groceries and then unpacked the new toy. It is about ½ the size of our living room. Ja ja ja.

La cena…chicken quesadillas con queso cheddar y manchego and some home made pico de gallo.

Después de la cena, I finished watching U2 and Bexico went back to her oficina. Currently 1035pm and time for dishes (fregadero is a dish sink, lavaplatos is a dishwash machine and lavamanos is a hand sink) followed by the mandatory post day ducha…shower. ¿Por que? It is 35 degrees at 1045pm!!

The rest of our fotos for the day.

Here ayer, gone hoy.


This was a hair saloon yesterday and today it is empty.

While this was a perfume tienda a few weeks ago.




Throw up a smoke stack and today they are selling roti pollo for $55 pesos…$5 pesos cheaper then their local competition.

Hard working hombres y mujers.


The bookshelf peeps. How would you like to be on the highway driving behind that camioneta?

And the sock hombre.


The shopping bag y hat senorita.


And this spot is about to be manned by a senora, selling her fruits y veggies.


This is Sergio’s old jewelry shop.


They closed it down a week ago and his neighbor, Roberto, took it over and has now filled it with his tourist goods. They work VERY long hours…but are doing quite well for themselves. I have seen a few nice trucks driven by the familia.

And some not so hard working hombres.


Yup…the Tamarindos have set up their “sting” in the industrial section. 


They are looking for plates and licenses and you have two options…make a donation or get your vehicle towed.

These scooter peeps are getting grilled.



The guys on the red moto were allowed to leave...the senorita left her moto behind.

At the end of the shift….




The camioneta did not make it, nor did the group of motos.

MISC fotos

Naranjes are back in season.


And look what is for sale.


Not sure what happened, but this was for sale outside Elektra a few weeks ago and is now parked in a tour bus lot and for sale.

Mañana? Hello cerdo hash con huevos revueltos para desayunos, followed by Indy 500 at medio diá (noon) and NASCAR at cinco de la tarde. Probably fit some alberca time in-between!!

And we will end the day with hamburguesa domingo as well as a Skype con RJ para mi novia.

Hope you are all having a great weekend.

Hasta mañana.

Marco y Bexico