December 3, 2018
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| La Cruz Sunrise |
I got up very early on Monday morning to run. It was quite dark when I left the house and I
had trouble placing my feet on the uneven, dirt roads. I ran down to the marina and twice around the
marina before returning home. The
sunrise did not disappoint me.
My mission for the day was to report to the Instituto
Nacional de Migracion (INM) to perform the next step in the process of
obtaining Mexican residency. Before
leaving, I had visited the Mexican consulate in Sacramento to obtain the
special visa that began the process.
This temporary resident visa wasn’t good for any longer than the usual
tourist visa but proved to INM that the consulate had verified my income and
found me acceptable. Because I was too
young to receive Social Security and didn’t retire from a company that provided
me with a pension, I was unable to prove that I was retired. I met their income requirement, but they
wouldn’t give me permanent residency. I
would have to remain a temporary resident for two years before they would grant
me permanent residency.
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| Boats in the Paradise Village Marina |
I had thirty days from the time I first entered Mexico to
report to Immigration to continue the process.
I needed to do that in my home state of Nayarit. Having spent most of the thirty days in Baja,
I was now in a hurry to get things done.
I took a combi to the Sam’s Club in Nuevo Vallarta and then transferred
to one headed for the coast. I could
never remember which one went which direction and got on the wrong one. I got off as soon as I could and walked
across Nuevo Vallarta back to the San Javier Hospital, which is located in the
same building as INM. I should have just
stayed on the bus. It would have gotten
there eventually. Still, I had a nice walk and got to see some of the private
houses located in Nuevo Vallarta as I walked.
Immigration was busy.
I took a number and waited. It
looked like the DMV in there. The place
was crowded with Americans and Canadians, all applying for residency. After waiting for an hour or so, I was
finally helped by a nice young woman who told me I would need to go downstairs
to the bank, pay 3961 pesos, have two photos taken, and make copies of my
passport and visa. I went downstairs to the bank which was even busier than Immigration. I waited another hour there to pay for my
visa.
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| Vilma's Yacht Agents |
Vilma’s Yacht Agents is located across the hall from
Immigration and they take pictures and make copies. Unfortunately, they were at lunch when I
arrived. I decided to get lunch
myself. I walked over to the Paradise
Village Mall and had lunch in a Subway.
Paradise Village is hardly part of Mexico. It is very Americanized.
When I returned to Vilma’s, they were open. However, by the time I made my copies and had
my picture taken, it was 13:05 and Immigration closed at 13:00. I was too late.
I took a combi to the Walmart and bought a few things for
the house. I got sticky traps for the
rats and a few linen and kitchen items. I
failed to find either a watch battery or a bathroom scale, the two items I was
really seeking. I took another combi
back to La Cruz and spent the rest of the afternoon helping Cherie clean. We took everything out of the cabinets and
put it into plastic bins so that we wouldn’t have to keep washing everything. I cooked dinner and went to bed early. I was tired.
Soon, we heard a racket and a rat was stuck in the sticky trap I had
placed in a cabinet. Cherie’s friend,
Simon, suffocated it. Two rats had run
out of the stove when the landlord took it outside and we had killed one. One
point for the humans.
December 4, 2018
When we arose in the morning, there was rat fur all over the
remaining sticky trap, but no rats. One
point for the rats.
I got an earlier start on my trip to Immigration on Tuesday. I didn’t want to have to return a third
time. I hopped on the first combi that
came by, not noticing that it was headed for Valle. When we turned left at Mezcales, I realized
my error and got off. This turned out to
be fortunate because, after I crossed the street and got on a combi for Nuevo
Vallarta, I was on the right combi to get to Immigration.
Once again, there was a big crowd at Immigration. I wasn’t the only person who had needed to
return. I recognized a few other people. The office was papered with signs informing
applicants that they should avoid corruption by visiting the INM website and
only paying the fees listed there. Every
one of the signs was in Spanish. Many of
the applicants clearly didn’t speak Spanish.
Maybe they thought people who didn’t read Spanish deserved to get ripped
off. I was glad that I did speak Spanish
because the clerk who finally helped me did not speak English. He was, however, quite helpful. We finally finished that step of the process. He gave me a form with my case number on it and
told me that I would soon receive an email with a password that would allow me
to follow the status of my case online.
Apparently, barring complications, I should receive my resident card in
a couple of weeks.
I took a combi back to Mezcales and got off at the Bosque Agriquimica
store to buy rat poison. I bought some
poison cubes that were rumored to cause the rats to dry up and not smell when
they died, which we judged to be a good thing.
The man behind the counter knew just what I was asking for and I was
quickly out of there and headed towards Bucerias.
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| The New Comer Store in Bucerias |
I got off at La
Comer, a new store that had opened the previous year. I had never bothered to go there because it
was fancy and looked expensive. La Comer
is located across a side street from the Mega.
Formerly, Mega was owned by Comercial Mexicana, the company that runs La
Comer. I was quite confused when they
built another store across the street.
Now, Mega is part of the Soriana chain.
This makes more sense, since there was no Soriana closer than Puerto
Vallarta.
La Comer was a nice store that seemed like an unlikely cross
between Target and Whole Foods. They
sold just about everything except watch batteries. I did manage to get a very nice bathroom
scale for a reasonable price. They
didn’t have memory foam mattress toppers, either. Still, I bought a few non-perishable food
items, knowing I was still going to make a stop at Mega to look for the watch
battery.
I checked out the new gym at the Mega and ate another Subway
sandwich for lunch. Once again, I failed
to find a watch battery. I bought a few
groceries and headed home. There was
more cleaning to do.
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| We Always Put Our Garbage Under the No Littering Signs |
While we were working, a man came to the gate, collecting
for the garbage men’s Christmas fund.
This was rich, since they had never collected garbage on our block. Everyone in the neighborhood lugged their
garbage to the corner under the sign telling us not to put garbage there. I asked him if they would pick up our garbage
and he said, “Yes.” I gave him 100 pesos and they actually picked up our trash
later that week. Sometimes bribery
works.
Tuesday night was music at the Britania. Everyone was there. It was early in the season, so there weren’t
a lot of strangers. It seemed more like
a private party. Tom and Cary were there,
sitting at a table with other friends, so we joined them. I met our neighbor, Shari and she and I later
walked home together. I put rat poison
in all the cabinets and went to bed.
December 5, 2018
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| Sailboat Racing Humor |
I woke up with quite a sore throat on Wednesday and didn’t
feel up to running. Tom had had a cold
when we left La Paz and I had apparently contracted it. The rats had been busy in the cabinets. They had carried the poison cubes into the
drawers and nibbled them there, leaving piles of crumbs. We decided not to bother to clean until the
rats were vanquished.
I didn’t have the energy to do much on Wednesday, but I
didn’t want to miss out if there was a music circle happening. I wandered over to the marina at 1:00, but
nothing was happening. I bought a
mineral water and rested there until it was time to head over to PV Sailing for
the season opening meet and greet event.
Our friend Victor’s band was playing and I met my housemate, Cherie, there. It was a nice afternoon and there were lots
of people to greet after a seven months' absence. I stayed for a couple of hours and then ran
out of steam and headed home.
Cherie brought a friend home, later, and we spent the
evening talking. I put out more rat
poison and went to bed. We hadn’t seen
any holes, so didn’t know if the rats were still living in the stove or getting
in somehow.
December 6, 2018
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| Rat Entrance |
The rats had once again chowed down on poison cubes, leaving
behind piles of crumbs. The poison
didn’t seem to be affecting them and we wondered how they were getting in. Then it dawned on Cherie that they were
coming through the hole in the window screen that someone had cut to poke
electrical cords through. Cherie and I
had closed the window whenever we left, but our house sitter had left it open
and the rats had found their way in. I
cut a piece of cardboard and taped it across the bottom of the window screen,
hoping we had solved the problem.
After three weeks of sailing and cleaning, my nails were in
sad shape. They were almost too long to
play the guitar. I went to the Oasis Spa
in La Cruz to have them done. The spa
was a lovely, tranquil environment and the woman who did my nails was sweet, but they
didn’t have the proper equipment to do acrylic nails and only had nine nail
colors. I chose the least offensive one
and she did her best to fix my nails with nothing but a file, but it was a
disappointing experience. They started
to peel off immediately.
December 7, 2018
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| The Rats Were Persistent |
Being frustrated by my having plugged up their hole, the
rats had chewed a new hole in the screen during the night. It was annoying that they still hadn’t died,
but at least we knew where they were coming from.
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| Industrial Strength Rat Trap |
I was slow getting started, but eventually headed off to
Bucerias to do errands. I was still
looking for a watch battery, since I could never tell what time it was. My query on Facebook had yielded the
intelligence that Art in Amber replaced watch batteries. I
found the store at 2:45, but the shop was closed until 4:00. I walked over to Rhythm and Blues to verify
that they were still doing open mics on Friday nights and then walked all the
way across Bucerias to check out the new gym and go to the music store to buy a
guitar stand. The guitar shop was also
closed, so I turned around and walked back to Ferre de Todo, my favorite
hardware store, only to find they had moved several blocks across the highway
into a residential neighborhood. I
eventually found the store and they didn’t disappoint me. I managed to purchase three industrial
strength, plastic snap traps. I was giving the rats no quarter.
Next, I headed back to Art in Amber. It was 4:15 when arrived and they were still
closed. I turned the corner to head back
to the highway and stumbled across the new location of Art in Amber. The sign there said they were closed until
4:30. I waited until 4:35 but then had
to leave because I needed to get to the Poolside Deli by 5:00 for my weekly
domino game.
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| The Cross of Huanacaxtle Wood After Which La Cruz in Named |
Dominoes were fun, as usual.
The deli had finally been convinced to stop making margaritas with blue
curacao and reverted to their usual, tasty recipe. I had two, which was the most alcohol I had
consumed since leaving La Cruz the previous season. I was a little looped.
From the deli, I strolled over to Ana Banana’s to meet
Cherie and Simon for our friend Randy’s birthday party. We sipped mineral water and ate chicken
fajitas for dinner. The band was good
and we danced but we didn’t stay late. I
had to come home and set the new rat traps.
Shortly after I did so, I heard a snap.
I had caught one on the back patio.
The poor thing’s skull was crushed.
He never even got to taste the peanut butter. Chalk up another one for the humans.
December 8, 2018
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| Dawn From the Malecon |
I got up early to exercise on Saturday. There was no new evidence of rat activity and
I began to hope for victory. I still
didn’t feel quite myself, but I walked one and a half times around the marina
and then ran the last 1.25 miles home.
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| Marina Cats |
The marina had a population of friendly, resident cats that
people fed. The local spay and neuter
clinic volunteers had caught and sterilized most of them. Several came out to greet me and beg for
food. While most everyone agreed that it was good to have cats around the marina to keep down the rats, there was a faction that thought they would do a better job if no one fed them.
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| Daisy with Her Party Shirt on |
I spent a good portion of the day practicing the guitar and then made some nachos to take to the pot luck fundraiser for the spay and neuter clinic that was being held at the Poolside Deli. Our friend, Victor, and some other musicians played music and the rest of us chatted and ate. After a couple of hours in the sun, I was ready to head home.
December 9, 2018
I got up Sunday morning, hoping to declare victory over the
rats, only to find that one had nibbled some of the poison. I had put the rat traps in the cupboard, but
our rodent friend had avoided them. I
rearranged things so that a rat would have to pass a trap to get to the tasty
poison and hoped for the best. It seemed
like the poison should have taken effect by then.
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| The Bucerias Market |
After a leisurely morning, I took a combi into Bucerias to
go to the market where I had heard I might be able to find a watch battery. Unfortunately, I did not see anyone selling
watch batteries or anything else that I needed.
I walked all the way up the arroyo until the market petered out and then
backtracked to check out the section of the market that extended up a
street. When I came to the end of that
section, I continued through a residential section of Bucerias until I came to
a street that led back to the lateral.
It was interesting to walk through a part of Bucerias I had never before explored.
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| Drowned Sandwiches, Yum! |
Not having found anything useful at the market, I walked the
rest of the way across Bucerias to the Chedraui and bought some pruners, a door
mat, and some pencils to donate to Pirates for Pupils the following weekend. Then I walked across the street to my
favorite torta ahogada store and bought a sandwich to take home for lunch. A torta ahogada is a specialty of Guadalajara. It consists of roast pork on a hard roll smothered in a tomato broth. They come with cabbage, limes, and (of course) salsa. I can usually make two meals out of one.
I really tried to eat only half the sandwich for lunch but
ate the second half by 2:30. I wasn’t hungry at dinnertime, so made up for my
gluttony by eating only a few chicken drumettes for dinner.
My nails were in a bad way, so I desperately texted my
former manicurist and begged for an appointment. She was glad to hear from me and kindly made
an appointment for the following morning.
December 10, 2018
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| Another Gorgeous Dawn |
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| Cute Feral Kitten |
I woke up early on Monday and went for a long walk around
the marina as the sun rose. I found a
new colony of feral cats that obviously hadn’t all been fixed, since there were
adorable kittens hopping about on the riprap breakwater. I contemplated
snagging one to keep down the rats, but they were too wary to catch. We had had no evidence of rats, that morning,
and hoped that the poison had finally done the trick. I walked back through the center of town,
passing a neighbor’s dog that constantly sat in a resin chair. He didn’t really fit but was not discouraged.
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| The Neighbor's Dog |
I was expecting a package to be delivered the next day and
knew that it was difficult to find our house.
Cherie had put up a street sign the year before, but it had faded and
been obscured by a tree that had grown in front of it. I took it down and trimmed the tree
back. Then I took the sign home and
repainted it before reinstalling it on the tree at the beginning of our block. Google Maps had printed the wrong name on our
street, so I hoped this would serve to clarify things.
My next project was to hang a mosquito net over the daybed
on the upstairs patio. I looked forward
to reading and napping up there.
Cheko Ruiz’ new band was playing at the Octopus’ Garden on
Monday evening. I went by myself because
no one else was particularly interested.
I went early and had a nice dinner.
I was joined by a nice couple from Chico who had a boat in charter in
Nuevo Vallarta. Apparently, Club
Nautique had just opened a location in Nuevo Vallarta. I chatted with them until it was time for the
show to begin.
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| Cheko Ruiz' New Band |
I had long been a fan of Cheko’s, but it seemed to me that
he had never really found his groove after Luna Rumba broke up. It was a pleasure to see him working with a
new band that seemed to have really jelled.
Each of the members was exceptional.
The bassist played a six-string bass and made the most of it, even
playing lead at times. The lead
guitarist was new to me but played a mean flamenco guitar. The percussionist really seemed to be
enjoying himself and drove the music home, but the trumpeter stole the
show. The music was mostly new and
exhibited an almost Cuban flair with the drums and the trumpet. Cheko seemed to be having a good time for a
change. They had the crowd eating out of
their hands. I hadn’t felt that much
magic since Luna Rumba. It was a great
evening.
Cheko was playing a guitar that was a twin to mine. Of course, mine never sounded that good. Still, it was encouraging to know that it
could.
December 11, 2018
Tuesday was the day that our cleaning lady was scheduled to
come and I had promised to be home most of the day to communicate with her, as
she spoke little English. She arrived by
8:30. No rats had invaded the previous night and we had declared victory. We had Mari clean the cabinets one last time
and were finally able to put our food and kitchen implements back in the
cupboards. After a week of living with
everything in boxes and bins on the floors and counters, it was a real relief.
Mari cleaned the house from top to bottom and even mopped
the outside patios. I didn’t get much
done while she was there but did manage to clean the front patio and pull the
weeds out of the driveway. Our place was
finally coming together.
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| Cary at the Helm |
I left at 2:00 to join Dragon’s
Toy for a practice sail before the Banderas Bay Blast. They hadn’t put up their spinnaker in several
years, so we wanted to be sure all was in order. There wasn’t much wind at first and it was
coming from an odd direction. We kept
heading out to sea and finally found an onshore breeze. We turned downwind and put up the asymmetrical
chute. The launch was successful and we
flew it for half an hour or so before getting up the courage to gybe it. It wasn’t the world’s fastest gybe, but we
got it around without mishap and didn’t disgrace ourselves. We flew it back towards the marina until we
ran out of wind and Cary got hungry. We
doused it without dropping it in the water and declared the outing a success.
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| Sunset in the Marina |
Back at the dock, we enjoyed the sunset with beer and
snacks. I didn’t return home until it
was completely dark.
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