Carnaval in Cuyutlan

Yesterday around 5 PM, Norma and her new helper, BD showed up at Casa de Schroeder and we took off in Norma's truck for Cuyutlan, the nearby beach town for the Mardi Gras parade. The town was alive with many visitors, many from Armeria. We found a place to park near the Hotel Fenix and went there for some margaritas before the parade started. When Olivia and Geoff's daughter, Paola, showed up in a beautiful gown we found out that she was the Reina (queen) of Cuyutlan.

When the parade started, we moved a couple of chairs from the hotel to the intersection in front of the Hotel Fenix and had great seats to view the parade.

I didn't get a picture of it but one of the highlights was a slightly over weight woman wearing a short skit made from coconut bark on the back of a flat bed truck. She was dancing around and would bend over and moon the crowd with her ample butt. Luckily, she was wearing a white thong. A Mexican fellow near me with a digital camera got the perfect picture of the woman's butt and showed it off to all the nearby spectators, much to their delight.

The parade ended at a stage on the beach about a block away so when the end of the parade had passed our location, we moved over to the stage area. The Mexicans have certainly figured out sound re-enforcement and had an excellent system set up that moved your innards when the sub woofers kicked in.

The entertainment was a couple of good bands. One played Santana songs and the other was in the current popular Mexican style of music. I almost had the feeling that I was on the beach at Cancun during spring break.

Everyone moved closer to the ocean when the fireworks started. The show was short but included many star burst motar shells that lit up the sky. There were also a couple of boats anchored just past the shore break that set off fireworks.

The Mexicans sure know how to party and I had an excellent time. I might just be staying here full time after all.

The queen of Cuyutlan and her parents, Olivia and Geoff, owners of the Hotel Fenix.

Norma and BD

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Lazy Daze in Armeria

Here are a couple photos of my rig parked in front of Casa de Schroeder in Armeria, Colima, Mexico. These were taken about a week ago but I forgot they were in the camera and didn't load them on the Vaio until today. Notice in the top picture that the rig is parked under a coconut palm tree. This could pose a danger as coconuts could fall on the rig's solar panels. Before Tonio returned to Guadalajara, he climbed the tree and trimmed it and removed the coconuts with his machete.

The Old Surfer

Tonight Norma and I went to Tecoman, a nearby town of about 100,000, about four times the size of Armeria. Norma had a couple of people she wanted to see and I wanted to check out the Consupo. The Consupo is a government run store that supposedly has low prices on some items and I wanted to know where it was located and to check some of their prices. After Norma had visited the people she wanted to see, we stopped at the Fenix Super Mercado. This is not the Consupo store but Norma said it was better than Consupo. Norma bought some items and afterwards I was in the mood for a margarita and some food. I asked Norma if she knew of a good restaurant in Tecoman. The first place we went to was closed for some reason so we went to a hotel that had a dining room. I can’t remember the name of the place.

We ordered margaritas and food. Norma ordered a T Bone and I had Milanesa de Cerdo, a breaded pork cutlet sort of like Wiener schnitzel. I liked my meal but Norma’s T bone was just too thin to her liking.

A couple walked in and sat at the table next to us. The man was a Whetto (white guy) a little younger than me with a Mexican girl friend. He had on a shirt that on the back said “You will sweat. You will get dirty. But you will never forget it. Troncones, Mexico”. I tried to interpret what the shirt said to Norma. The fellow got up and went to El Bano and when he returned, I started to say something like: “Senor…” and the guy responded in English so I asked him if he could tell Norma what his shirt said in Spanish. Which he did. I asked if he was living nearby. He then informed me that he was a surfer from Texas who was returning to the states. I then asked if he was familiar with any of the nearby surfing beaches and he wasn’t except for one near Tecoman.

I guess that being the only gringo in Armeria is getting to me as I wanted an opportunity to speak to someone who spoke English. I made the mistake of saying that I didn’t know there were surfers in Texas. He responded that didn’t I know about all of the coastline that Texas has. Being from California, we don’t consider the mediocre break in the Gulf of Mexico as “surf” and I said something about it. Well this seemed to piss the Texan off and he told me he came in there to have dinner with his girl friend and he wasn’t interested in talking to someone who obviously didn’t know anything about surfing.

So we finished our meal and drinks and left without saying goodbye to the Texan and his girlfriend.

Keeping it clean

The typical Mexican likes to keep himself and his casa clean. Even if his place has dirt floors, it gets swept and cleaned. This also applies to the street in front of the casa. At sunrise the women start cleaning the sidewalk and street adjoining their place. I have never seen a man sweeping (except for me). The task seems to usually be done by the oldest woman in the house. This task not only gets the street clean but allows one to interact with the neighbors with a “Buenos Dias”, who walk by on their way to work or the corner tienda. The dead leaves and basura are swept into piles and at some time during the day usually burned.

Does the person call the fire department to see if a permit is needed to burn or is this a safe day to burn? I don’t think so. Do the neighbors call the fire department to say that there is a fire? No. The only thing that might be said is if your fire is close to your neighbor’s thatched palapa roof or wood fence is to watch the fire. Does the fire department come by? No. In Mexico, there is personal responsibility for your actions. If you burn down your neighbor’s house, expect to build him a new one.

In the mornings and/or sometimes evenings, the cobblestone streets are watered to keep the dust at a minimum. I’ve seen men involved in this activity. Some days when the water pressure is too low, this doesn’t happen. The water is sprayed carefully so as to not get passersby wet.

You often hear gringos bitching about the basura in Mexico and there is a problem in public areas but the Mexicans usually clean up areas under their personal control and sometimes laugh about the basura problem as they toss an empty plastic Coke bottle. But if it is on their property it is usually picked up later.

Last night, I had an unpleasant experience. In the bedroom, I had a pair of shorts draped over the back of a chair. I moved the shorts and saw on the wall what at first I thought was a large moth. On closer inspection it turned out to be a scorpion all flattened out and scrunched together to make itself as small as possible. My camera was nearby, so I smashed the scorpion with it.

This is disturbing for two reasons. First, I was not aware that scorpions could climb vertical walls and second, my bedroom had been violated. I thought the scorpions would stay outside and hide under rocks or bricks but now they are in the house in an area where I usually walk around in my bare feet sometimes without the lights on at night. And now, I will have to inspect clothes before I put them on to make sure no scorpion is hiding there.

All in all, my current thinking is I may be leaving Mexico. A good old friend of mine who lives near San Francisco is very ill and I want to visit him. The 40th anniversary of “The Summer of Love” is happening this fall in San Francisco. Learning Spanish is harder than I imagined. I’m getting a bit bored here. I’m missing some foods I like. I need to get my Vaio repaired. I may need to be in California to finalize the sale of my house.

I still may look for a place in Mexico but maybe closer to the border, like TJ, Rosarito Beach or Ensenada. After all my main reason in checking out Mexico as a possible place to live was economics. It’s hard to find any place decent to live in the US on a fixed income of social security.

FM3 visa

There hasn’t been much exciting to write about here in Armeria. Now that construction on the new house has been suspended things have settled into a slow, more relaxed pace.

Last week, I went to Manzanillo to apply for a FM3 visa. There is a group in Manzanillo called Manzamigos that helps foreigners in Mexico. I emailed them if they knew of someone that could assist me with the visa application process, thinking that they might suggest an English speaking lawyer who had experience with immigration. The president of Manzamigos, Nigel, responded with an offer to help and listed what he thought the current requirements were for the visa.

I got copy of my electrical bill (to show place of residence) and my passport (all pages). I had my California credit union email me 3 months of bank statements in PDF files. I burned the files to a CD because I have no printer with me. I went to a local Internet café and had them print the statements for me. The statements are to show I have enough monthly income to meet the current Mexican requirements. The minimum amount varies according whether or not you’re married, if you own Mexican real estate or the office you apply at. Nigel told me that at the Manzanillo office the minimum is $1,000 for a single person.

The only thing else I needed was 2” black & white photographs from the front and right side. Nigel told me there was a place at Jardin and Mexico Ave. that could do the photographs. I made an appointment to meet Nigel there and then he would show me the location of the immigration offices. Norma and I drove to Manzanillo and parked near one of the ships docked near El Centro for 6 pesos. When we walked to Jardin and Mexico Ave. we saw a Kodak store and went in to get the photos. A young woman clerk told us that they did not take photos and directed us to a photographer’s studio. We started to walk to the studio when I saw Nigel (yellow shirt, 6’ tall). It turns out that there are two Kodak stores at the same intersection and we had gone into the wrong one. So I was able to get the photographs (4 front and 4 right side) for 60 pesos.

Nigel told me that of North American foreigners in Manzanillo, 80 percent are from Canada. Nigel himself was born in Great Britain and had lived in Canada for 30 years before moving to Manzanillo 10 years ago. We followed Nigel in his car to the area where the immigration offices are located in the harbor master’s building. He told us where the offices were located and left us to try and find parking in the busy area.

We lucked out and found a place to park near the immigration offices. We went in and I got a number to wait in line. About an hour and a half later, I was given two forms to fill out. One was entirely in Spanish and the other was in Spanish with English hints. I was a little confused by the forms and frustrated by a ball point pen that didn’t work most of the time. A nice young woman from Ecuador who spoke English offered to help me fill out the forms. I was surprised to learn that the forms asked for two Mexican citizens as references. I was able to supply that information and then I was directed to go pay the fees for the application at a bank. The fees were 1,172 pesos and 444 pesos for a total of 1,616 pesos (about $147.16 USD).

The bank was about 6 or 7 blocks away and after paying I returned to the immigration offices where I gave them 3 photos from the front and 2 from the right side. Nigel had told me that I only needed 2 each but who knows if the requirements changed or they just saw I had extras and wanted an additional photo from the front. They told me to return on March 2nd to pickup the FM3 and to bring my January bank statement at that time.

Afterwards, Norma and I had lunch at a palapa restaurant on the beach near the immigration offices. We had beers and Norma had a sea food cocktail and I had shrimp with garlic, rice and salad. The view of downtown Manzanillo was great across the bay from the restaurant. Too bad I forgot to bring the camera.

Lately, I haven’t been doing much except cleaning the swimming pool and watering the plants. Watering the plants has been a problem though as there has been very little water pressure for about 5 days. The swimming pool is making me kind of popular here in Armeria as people want to enjoy the pool. The last two days, 8 friends of Norma’s have come by to use the pool. Yesterday, we had a barbecue of beef, beans and tortillas that turned out great on the poolside barbecue.

The weather here today is absolutely perfect as I sit typing this near a window looking out to the pool area. I was using the computer in the rig parked out in front of the house but it is nicer with more ventilation setting it up here in the house. I was having a problem with a very low signal to the wireless router which is still located in the rig and has to go through cement, bricks and rebar, but I fiddled around with the orientation of the router and did some tweaking of the Linksys-G and now the Internet connection is pretty reliable.

I rigged up a TV antenna from a FM radio wire and now have good reception of a local channel on the Vaio. I have spent a little time watching the Mexican novellas hoping it will help improve my Spanish. Norma is picking up some English and sometimes it gets too confusing when you’re trying to learn Spanish. Sometimes I tell her “no mas Englis” when she uses the English “you” because it sounds almost like Spanish “yo” and it makes it harder to learn Spanish.

You might be interested to hear that one of my favorite foods here is the Mexican breakfast of frijoles on a tortilla. I am in no danger of giving up meat however. I like carne asada and carnitas too much. But as I said before, I’m starting to get bored with just Mexican food. In this town the diet is even more limited, like you can’t find good enchiladas or goat stew. I’m lucky I’m not living in a part of Mexico where insects are a popular food.

Before coming to Mexico, I thought it would be easy to cook some of my favorites but when you can’t find the right ingredients it’s impossible, like to make a good steak you need aged beef cut thick. But they don’t age the meat here. I am eating a more healthful diet here, more fruits and vegetables and I’m getting more exercise walking and swimming so I think I have lost some weight.