What took so long, eh? A post about Tequila....
Tequila is produced in Mexico. And a particular part of Mexico. As champagne is only a 'sparkling wine' outside of a particular part of France, tequila is only made within a certain physical location in Mexico.
And some tequila is made for distribution in Mexico and some is made for export.
We've tried - in our time here - to find a tequila that we like, preferably a bit smokey yet smooth. And we've found several that will fill the bill.
However, while still in southern California we ate frequently (about 5 or 6 nights a week during the last year) at a family-run restaurant in nearby Chatsworth. And our favorite tequilas there were Partida and Tres Generationes. Both were available in a Reposada version, with enough time in a recycled whiskey barrel to impart a fine smokey taste. It wasn't necessary to go with the Añejo version, but the Reposada was my favorite.
Most mixed drinks are made with the Silver (no time in wood) version and there are those who say 'Why bother with Resposada or Añejo in a mixed drink?' Well, I'm here to tell you that if you can't taste the difference between a Silver and at least a Reposada, your tongue needs an overhaul!
Our waiters used to look at me when I ordered the margaritas as if I was wasting the Reposada tequila, but as long as I could taste the difference, it was worth the upcharge.
Michael recently discovered Partida Reposada at a local beverage shop (La Europea - which has branches all over Mexico - including the place we're visiting later in January, Cabo San Lucas) which carries Partida and we've sprung for the cost. Perhaps we need to introduce my brother to Partida...
Now Michael tells me that Tres Generationes is available both at La Europea and Mega (which forms part of our back wall in the backyard). I'll probably be there tomorrow shopping....
Monday, December 30, 2013
Friday, December 27, 2013
Winter Willies
I know that our weather is nowhere near that our families and friends are experiencing in the States, but it's darned cold down here.
According to our nifty infrared thermometer, it's 58F outside and 65F inside. Why so cold?
Two reasons: Due to a lack of trees, homes here are made of brick, cement, and plaster. Once they get cold, they stay cold. Once the weather turns to something warmer, it will take at least 3 days to warm the house up. Until then, it's like living in an ice cube. Walls are cold, ceilings are cold, and floors are cold. With carpeting unknown, the tiles on the floor are cold, too.
Two: Without central heat you're pretty much at the whim of the weather. Many homes are without a source of heat at all; some have fireplaces in which you may install a set of gas logs (firewood is limited). We have the gas logs from our last house, but we have no fireplace in this house in which to install them. Instead we have two portable gas heaters that use tanks of propane the size one would use for a BBQ. The heaters produce an infrared heat source that works well when you're within striking distance of the heater. Further away it's not so warm - though there is some heat thrown off. It just takes a long time to heat a room.
And with the type of construction of homes here, there is no handy way to install central heat afterwards. It can be done in some circumstances, but not most. There has come on the market a heating/cooling unit that can be installed after construction, but that uses 220V electricity, which presents another problem which is addressed in the second paragraph down the page.
We're lucky enough to have two heaters - one for upstairs and one for downstairs. You just have to keep a spare tank or two on hand or you'll run out over a weekend. It's not like it runs off our main tank for the house. In our very first house we did not have gas heaters. Instead we had a few electric heaters and January & February were especially cold and wet that year. The dogs and we huddled in the office (the computers threw off some heat) during the day and moved to the bedroom at night. Luckily, we had read up on living in Mexico before moving here and had outfitted the bed with a heated mattress pad that provided low-voltage warmth. And there's a concern that the heaters produce carbon monoxide, so we really should have a warning system, but that hasn't happened yet, so we're very careful about using the heaters for any length of time. This makes it very icy in the morning....
The electric heaters did provide some heat, but jacked up our electricity bill by eliminating the supplemented reduction in the rate - for a 6-month period! The next year we went out early in the season and purchased gas heaters!
So we dress warmly inside and out, stay as dry as possible, use the portable electric heater in the bathroom only when taking showers, and think warm thoughts!
I suppose it's all relative....
According to our nifty infrared thermometer, it's 58F outside and 65F inside. Why so cold?
Two reasons: Due to a lack of trees, homes here are made of brick, cement, and plaster. Once they get cold, they stay cold. Once the weather turns to something warmer, it will take at least 3 days to warm the house up. Until then, it's like living in an ice cube. Walls are cold, ceilings are cold, and floors are cold. With carpeting unknown, the tiles on the floor are cold, too.
Two: Without central heat you're pretty much at the whim of the weather. Many homes are without a source of heat at all; some have fireplaces in which you may install a set of gas logs (firewood is limited). We have the gas logs from our last house, but we have no fireplace in this house in which to install them. Instead we have two portable gas heaters that use tanks of propane the size one would use for a BBQ. The heaters produce an infrared heat source that works well when you're within striking distance of the heater. Further away it's not so warm - though there is some heat thrown off. It just takes a long time to heat a room.
And with the type of construction of homes here, there is no handy way to install central heat afterwards. It can be done in some circumstances, but not most. There has come on the market a heating/cooling unit that can be installed after construction, but that uses 220V electricity, which presents another problem which is addressed in the second paragraph down the page.
We're lucky enough to have two heaters - one for upstairs and one for downstairs. You just have to keep a spare tank or two on hand or you'll run out over a weekend. It's not like it runs off our main tank for the house. In our very first house we did not have gas heaters. Instead we had a few electric heaters and January & February were especially cold and wet that year. The dogs and we huddled in the office (the computers threw off some heat) during the day and moved to the bedroom at night. Luckily, we had read up on living in Mexico before moving here and had outfitted the bed with a heated mattress pad that provided low-voltage warmth. And there's a concern that the heaters produce carbon monoxide, so we really should have a warning system, but that hasn't happened yet, so we're very careful about using the heaters for any length of time. This makes it very icy in the morning....
The electric heaters did provide some heat, but jacked up our electricity bill by eliminating the supplemented reduction in the rate - for a 6-month period! The next year we went out early in the season and purchased gas heaters!
So we dress warmly inside and out, stay as dry as possible, use the portable electric heater in the bathroom only when taking showers, and think warm thoughts!
I suppose it's all relative....
Wednesday, December 25, 2013
Christmas Celebrations
So, it's nearly 4:30 in the afternoon of Christmas Day here and we're finishing off last night's eggnog. The 'nog' is a blend of rum and brandy which makes the egg part quite yummy! We did have a small gathering last night with the French-Canadien tourtiere (a pork pie) served with pickles and ketchup in the manner of the Michigan U. P. accompanied with green beans and cherry tomatoes (successful, so they'll make another appearance at the New Year's Day dinner) and a simple salad. And eggnog, of course. Hadn't made it in years, but it seemed so appropriate! Dessert was skipped (didn't get made) and it's just as well. Made it this morning and we didn't have the correct type of pastry so substituted rolled out biscuits. Not quite the thing - though the raspberry/blackberry filling was quite good.
Last night we also put together this morning's breakfast casserole - which we've nearly polished off! Not sure what's for dinner.... We've been too busy planning for last night and a larger party on New Years Day to be concerned with the day-to-day menus. I think we may be out of quickie things to fix - oh, no!!!
Friends and family keep suggesting that we go downtown so they can see us on the SMA webcam, but the Centro Historico is crowded for the holidays and we don't really 'do' bunches of people. We will be downtown to meet internet friends tomorrow - maybe we can manage something then - though many of our friends and family will be back at work, I suppose. Maybe this weekend would work better? The Jardin is about a 35 - 40 minute walk, so it's hard to be precise about appearance times. We did manage it once!
We have finally hooked up with some internet friends who are in town for a few weeks from the Great Northwest. We'll meet in person tomorrow morning. David proceeded me as a moderator on the Yahoo Groups List about San Miguel. So we've been 'we'll have to get together' for a couple of years without success. Hope we like each other in person!
Other than the explosions at the stroke of midnight - those well-known aerial bombs, some of which were set off just across the street - kept Miyaki awake and barking, but eventually stopped. Both Miyaki and I are very glad of that!
Otherwise it's been a quiet day. Would watch the finale of the eleventh Dr Who tonight, but it's on BBC America and we only get BBC World News. Drat! Maybe we can get it on a tablet???
I hear Michael rolling the downstairs heater around in the living room, so I guess I should throw some clothes on (bathrobes are so comfy) and see what's up.
Chat with you later....
Last night we also put together this morning's breakfast casserole - which we've nearly polished off! Not sure what's for dinner.... We've been too busy planning for last night and a larger party on New Years Day to be concerned with the day-to-day menus. I think we may be out of quickie things to fix - oh, no!!!
Friends and family keep suggesting that we go downtown so they can see us on the SMA webcam, but the Centro Historico is crowded for the holidays and we don't really 'do' bunches of people. We will be downtown to meet internet friends tomorrow - maybe we can manage something then - though many of our friends and family will be back at work, I suppose. Maybe this weekend would work better? The Jardin is about a 35 - 40 minute walk, so it's hard to be precise about appearance times. We did manage it once!
We have finally hooked up with some internet friends who are in town for a few weeks from the Great Northwest. We'll meet in person tomorrow morning. David proceeded me as a moderator on the Yahoo Groups List about San Miguel. So we've been 'we'll have to get together' for a couple of years without success. Hope we like each other in person!
Other than the explosions at the stroke of midnight - those well-known aerial bombs, some of which were set off just across the street - kept Miyaki awake and barking, but eventually stopped. Both Miyaki and I are very glad of that!
Otherwise it's been a quiet day. Would watch the finale of the eleventh Dr Who tonight, but it's on BBC America and we only get BBC World News. Drat! Maybe we can get it on a tablet???
I hear Michael rolling the downstairs heater around in the living room, so I guess I should throw some clothes on (bathrobes are so comfy) and see what's up.
Chat with you later....
Thursday, December 12, 2013
Holidays
It's almost over -- the celebration of the Virgin Mary's birth, though here in Mexico it's the Virgin of Guadalupe, Mexico's patron saint.
Unfortunately, the folks in Mexico love to celebrate with aerial bombs. Any excuse for some bangs and they're on it! And since this is such a big holiday, they've been going off since last night - through the night - and all day.
We don't even have a church in our neighborhood. Most holidays w/aerial bombs are church-related and with no local church, the explosions are rather distant. But these have been as close as a few doors away on our street! I did go out on the front terrace and glare at the folks setting them off. Not sure it did much good, but they stopped temporarily.
Fiyero doesn't like them, but Miyake barks back at them. Last night she finally fell asleep about 2 am - barking at each explosion up until them. But when the sun came up she resumed her responses. And it's not just a bark in return, but she responds with peals of barking...
Of course, holidays like these generate a lot of postings on the Civil List - and then people respond with 'Why don't you go back to where you came from if you don't like it' - and then we have to get involved with the 'Don't be rude' notes. There have not been a lot of comments for this holiday; maybe people are wising up to this is what happens in Mexico? Or their internet connection is down....
We are off to dinner with friends who live in the new Vista Magna development not far from our little part of town, but with a spectacular view, especially at night when all the churches are lit up. Not too many people are living in the development yet, so it should be quiet.
One can always hope....
Unfortunately, the folks in Mexico love to celebrate with aerial bombs. Any excuse for some bangs and they're on it! And since this is such a big holiday, they've been going off since last night - through the night - and all day.
We don't even have a church in our neighborhood. Most holidays w/aerial bombs are church-related and with no local church, the explosions are rather distant. But these have been as close as a few doors away on our street! I did go out on the front terrace and glare at the folks setting them off. Not sure it did much good, but they stopped temporarily.
Fiyero doesn't like them, but Miyake barks back at them. Last night she finally fell asleep about 2 am - barking at each explosion up until them. But when the sun came up she resumed her responses. And it's not just a bark in return, but she responds with peals of barking...
Of course, holidays like these generate a lot of postings on the Civil List - and then people respond with 'Why don't you go back to where you came from if you don't like it' - and then we have to get involved with the 'Don't be rude' notes. There have not been a lot of comments for this holiday; maybe people are wising up to this is what happens in Mexico? Or their internet connection is down....
We are off to dinner with friends who live in the new Vista Magna development not far from our little part of town, but with a spectacular view, especially at night when all the churches are lit up. Not too many people are living in the development yet, so it should be quiet.
One can always hope....
Thursday, December 5, 2013
Tuesday
It was a successful mid-week trip to Home Depot and Costco in nearby (45 km away) Celaya, a malfunctioning heater replaced, and a birthday party attended.
Our friend's mother recently purchased a condominium home here in San Miguel and the blessing of the house is scheduled for this next Saturday. Of course, that means a party, so off we went to Celaya to look for a BBQ grill (how can you have a party without food?).
We had made arrangements to visit our local hardware store on Monday, taking our friend along. It really helps to have a Spanish-speaking person with you when dealing with esoteric situations. Our second heater we purchased just a week ago had gone on the fritz and wouldn't stay lit. Luckily the weather had warmed up a bit and we didn't really need the heater on the second floor.
However, Michael was glad of our friend's company and an exchange was easily arranged. So we're ready - again - for cold weather. Our former gas heater went over to our friend's house and has been working well there. The lack of central heating has been something that we've had to become accustomed. After the first winter here - when once we decided that it was going to be cold and damp and we needed a heater - there were none to be had and we had to make due with electric heaters -- very expensive to run.
These gas infrared heaters are so much simpler - and less expensive.
On Tuesday, after inspecting their inventory, a grill was selected and off we went to Costco for some light shopping. I think we got out for under $3000 pesos, so it wasn't bad. Our friend and his mother also picked up some needed household supplies.
Upon returning to SMA, we decided to visit the Tuesday Market for the meat to be BBQ-ed. Now I know why we haven't gone to the tiangus since we first moved to San Miguel! It's huge and there are a surfeit of people all going from one stall to the next. Just short of pandemonium! But our friend knew where to look for what he needed (and we got some meats, too). The walk back to the car was shorter than the walk from the car to the vendor - luckily.
We were invited to a friend's birthday party nearby on Tuesday evening, so off we went. The party was nice - we knew most of the people - and the celebrator had hired a caterer and musician. Very pleasant, though I was pressed into service bar tending - and didn't really have all the things I needed. Still, every one was happy, so it was all good.
A busy Tuesday; returning home, we fell into bed and slept the sleep of the dead.
Such is our life here in San Miguel!
Our friend's mother recently purchased a condominium home here in San Miguel and the blessing of the house is scheduled for this next Saturday. Of course, that means a party, so off we went to Celaya to look for a BBQ grill (how can you have a party without food?).
We had made arrangements to visit our local hardware store on Monday, taking our friend along. It really helps to have a Spanish-speaking person with you when dealing with esoteric situations. Our second heater we purchased just a week ago had gone on the fritz and wouldn't stay lit. Luckily the weather had warmed up a bit and we didn't really need the heater on the second floor.
However, Michael was glad of our friend's company and an exchange was easily arranged. So we're ready - again - for cold weather. Our former gas heater went over to our friend's house and has been working well there. The lack of central heating has been something that we've had to become accustomed. After the first winter here - when once we decided that it was going to be cold and damp and we needed a heater - there were none to be had and we had to make due with electric heaters -- very expensive to run.
These gas infrared heaters are so much simpler - and less expensive.
On Tuesday, after inspecting their inventory, a grill was selected and off we went to Costco for some light shopping. I think we got out for under $3000 pesos, so it wasn't bad. Our friend and his mother also picked up some needed household supplies.
Upon returning to SMA, we decided to visit the Tuesday Market for the meat to be BBQ-ed. Now I know why we haven't gone to the tiangus since we first moved to San Miguel! It's huge and there are a surfeit of people all going from one stall to the next. Just short of pandemonium! But our friend knew where to look for what he needed (and we got some meats, too). The walk back to the car was shorter than the walk from the car to the vendor - luckily.
We were invited to a friend's birthday party nearby on Tuesday evening, so off we went. The party was nice - we knew most of the people - and the celebrator had hired a caterer and musician. Very pleasant, though I was pressed into service bar tending - and didn't really have all the things I needed. Still, every one was happy, so it was all good.
A busy Tuesday; returning home, we fell into bed and slept the sleep of the dead.
Such is our life here in San Miguel!
Sunday, December 1, 2013
Registration Renewals
So, as I mentioned earlier today, we need to renew our registration in the January/March 2014 window. We were directed to a local bank, Banamex. However, we do not bank with Banamex. It was tied to Bank of America, which we do not like.
So we (Michael) went looking on the internet. As it turns out, we can renew our registration at any of several banks. And our bank is one of them!
And we should be able to do it online!
We'll let you know if this works out the way we think it may once we're in 2014. Our bank's website is set up for 2013 registrations at present.
So we (Michael) went looking on the internet. As it turns out, we can renew our registration at any of several banks. And our bank is one of them!
And we should be able to do it online!
We'll let you know if this works out the way we think it may once we're in 2014. Our bank's website is set up for 2013 registrations at present.
Vehicle Registration and a Belated Turkey-Day Feast
Oh, gosh -- I left you hanging, eh? So sorry! Well, the next Wednesday came and went and we're now proud owners of a nationalized and locally registered minivan.!
The second step was painless: waiting to be called, some signatures, a payment for the plates, we were handed our plates and off we went! We had hoped that the VIN inspection and plates would all happen on the same visit, but it was not to be. Except for the waiting, it was pretty painless.
Didn't use the inspection station near Rentas after all - no McBurger! - but used one we had used before (we had smogged a NOB vehicle - which didn't really need to be done) less than a mile down the road from our home. Based upon the last digit of our plate number [8], our bi-annual inspections will be due in February/March and again in August/September. Glad we have a window to get the testing, as we will be out of town for much of August.
Our annual registration renewal is due in a January/March window. I understand that no notice is sent (!), you are supposed to just know when they are due. (Everyone's is due during this period, but no one told us - had to find someone to ask). Simple, I guess: go to a bank, show them your 'card of circulation', pay them the fee and you're set for the year. Hoping that we can do this at our bank so we won't need to shift funds around too much, but the bank to which we were directed is just a block away from home. Annual cost for two smog inspections and what we expect the registration to be: $2 USD per week, depending upon what the registration fee will actually be - and the current exchange rate!
Got the plates/registration just a few days before Michael drove off to Guadalajara for our friend's family event. Timing was good - just a little too close for my comfort. Have I mentioned that I like to plan ahead?
Last night we had a dinner for friends - sort of a belated Thanksgiving. At least there was a turkey on the table! Four different appetizers, a non-dairy cream of carrot soup, jicama salad, the aforementioned salad, a spiced turkey breast with apple chutney [which was really good, even if a bit spicy (the chutney)], three side dishes (corn moque choux, the usual green bean casserole (which we've not had in years - if ever), and our traditional shredded Brussels sprouts with prosciutto dish), and homemade pumpkin pie for dessert (complements of Victor).
Of course French bubbly, local wine, and Starbucks Christmas Espresso Roast coffee was served. Victor helped with the dishes as we cleared each course last night and we finished the washing up early this morning. The house is now back to normal.
Now nothing on our schedule until the blessing of his mother's new house next Sunday here in San Miguel. It's a lovely, new condo with a rooftop deck that has a spectacular view of San Miguel. I think Victor will be BBQ-ing on the roof....
The second step was painless: waiting to be called, some signatures, a payment for the plates, we were handed our plates and off we went! We had hoped that the VIN inspection and plates would all happen on the same visit, but it was not to be. Except for the waiting, it was pretty painless.
Didn't use the inspection station near Rentas after all - no McBurger! - but used one we had used before (we had smogged a NOB vehicle - which didn't really need to be done) less than a mile down the road from our home. Based upon the last digit of our plate number [8], our bi-annual inspections will be due in February/March and again in August/September. Glad we have a window to get the testing, as we will be out of town for much of August.
Our annual registration renewal is due in a January/March window. I understand that no notice is sent (!), you are supposed to just know when they are due. (Everyone's is due during this period, but no one told us - had to find someone to ask). Simple, I guess: go to a bank, show them your 'card of circulation', pay them the fee and you're set for the year. Hoping that we can do this at our bank so we won't need to shift funds around too much, but the bank to which we were directed is just a block away from home. Annual cost for two smog inspections and what we expect the registration to be: $2 USD per week, depending upon what the registration fee will actually be - and the current exchange rate!
Got the plates/registration just a few days before Michael drove off to Guadalajara for our friend's family event. Timing was good - just a little too close for my comfort. Have I mentioned that I like to plan ahead?
Last night we had a dinner for friends - sort of a belated Thanksgiving. At least there was a turkey on the table! Four different appetizers, a non-dairy cream of carrot soup, jicama salad, the aforementioned salad, a spiced turkey breast with apple chutney [which was really good, even if a bit spicy (the chutney)], three side dishes (corn moque choux, the usual green bean casserole (which we've not had in years - if ever), and our traditional shredded Brussels sprouts with prosciutto dish), and homemade pumpkin pie for dessert (complements of Victor).
Of course French bubbly, local wine, and Starbucks Christmas Espresso Roast coffee was served. Victor helped with the dishes as we cleared each course last night and we finished the washing up early this morning. The house is now back to normal.
Now nothing on our schedule until the blessing of his mother's new house next Sunday here in San Miguel. It's a lovely, new condo with a rooftop deck that has a spectacular view of San Miguel. I think Victor will be BBQ-ing on the roof....
Saturday, November 16, 2013
Getting Ready for Winter
Yes, it looks (and feels) like winter may be here!
We had a dry week with warm-to-hot sunshine, but it was followed by overcast skies and one heck of a storm that rained overnight and continued as drizzle the following day. Once our homes cool down, they stay that way unless it's sunny for several days running. Yesterday was warm, again, but today is cool and overcast - at least to begin.
So we decided to zip off to Don Pedro (a local chain of hardware stores in town) to see what they had in heaters. Two years ago we were in a different house that had a fireplace downstairs in which we placed a set of gas logs. No fireplace in the current house (at least yet!), so last year we got a propane freestanding heater that required an electrical connection (read extension cord) to ignite the burners and run the fan.
This year we picked up a slim heater that has the option of electrical heat with fan, but otherwise doesn't require any electrical connection. Michael just drove off to Don Pedro's again to get a second one for upstairs. At last we'll be warm again. We do have a heated mattress pad (which I seldom turn to more than LO, but one's shoulders get cold. The space heater will fix that! Bring on the weather, we dare you! [It's spitting a bit, even now. And it's spitting again this evening. The weather keeps us guessing....]
Michael just set up the second heater on the second floor. Can't tell you how spiffy it looks, just sitting there -- no electrical cords, no propane tank sitting alongside (they are inside the cabinet on these heaters). It's the little things that mean so much!
Guess we'll be selling the original heater since we don't need three. If we used the maid's room for its intended purpose instead of as a bodega, perhaps we'd keep it, but we don't! These new ones are just too cool!
The non-use of electricity is a good thing. Utilities here in Mexico are quite reasonable, but one gets used to that and large bills - even if smaller than those back NOB - can still cause you to catch your breath. Water and propane are okay; it's the CFE bill (electricity) that can be a bit daunting.
Water is billed monthly and a dry month runs between $140 - $200 pesos (@ $12.50mp/dollar). We refill our propane tank whenever it's empty - about $500 pesos per month. But the electricity is billed semi-monthly and has been running about $2000 pesos/bill. Electricity is subsidized here, but as your usage goes up, the subsidy falls. At this level, we're paying the full rate. And the latest billed month included a week when we were in Puerto Vallarta and we turned everything off while we were gone! We even sent the dogs out to the Daisy Hill Puppy Farm, so no one was here during that week to run up the electricity and/or water. Still didn't get the billing below $2000! Now, $2000 pesos = about $160 US, or $80 per month, so I suppose one shouldn't complain, but seeing four digits on the bill tucked beneath our door can be a shock.
This weekend is also Mexico's version of Black Friday. Since the country doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving (duh!), it's just the third weekend in November. We did go shopping the sale at our local Office Depot and picked up a larger TV for the bedroom and a 'wireless' Blu-Ray player. 'Wireless' is in quotes, because it requires a dongle - which no one has! Even the maker of the player (Philips) is back-ordered. Grrrr. Guess we'll have to wait to watch our Netflix and Vudu films in the living room until we can find one!
We were also looking at a two-drawer lateral file for the office so we could dispose of some file boxes of 'stuff' but the only one they had in stock had a few dings. Why pay full price for damaged goods? Perhaps the Celaya store has one in a box... It's only a half-an-hour away; nothing we'd think about if we were still in L.A. It's only here where we must drive through the countryside to reach Celaya where we think it's so far away! Spoiled!
And we decided not to drive to Celaya, but went back to our own Office Depot today and picked up a slightly different model. A major job putting it together (all that practice with IKEA paid off), but it looks quite nice, nearly matches the finish on our book cases, and should hold a whole bunch of 'stuff.' Tomorrow's task will be sorting out the 'stuff' and moving it into the new lateral filing system in some organized way.
Let's see -- what else? Oh, yes - remember when we went to Nuevo Laredo in October to have our van nationalized? Well, we're still working on it. It was nationalized while we were there, but the local registration process is taking a lot longer. They changed the process after we'd filed our paperwork, so it's really a bit complicated. It would go faster if our facilitator had waited a bit longer and simply filed online - but who knew until the new process was in place!
Thought we would pick up the plates last Wednesday when we took the van in to be inspected (mostly checking the VIN number), but we'll be going back next Wednesday morning - hopefully for the plates this time....
Then we'll immediately need to get an emission check - as well as the every-six-months check based on the plate number. There is a testing place very near the registration office that we've used before. We can stop on our way home! [Hmm - isn't there a McDonald's in the mall across the road from the inspection station ....?]
We're really hoping that we do get the plates this time because Michael is driving to Guadalajara that weekend for our friend Victor's family 'do' and we'll need to get a permit to take the van outside our state if the plates are not here (at $21 mp/day). That should be it, I think, until we figure out the renewal process. Maybe that will be done on line by the time we need to do it?
We had a dry week with warm-to-hot sunshine, but it was followed by overcast skies and one heck of a storm that rained overnight and continued as drizzle the following day. Once our homes cool down, they stay that way unless it's sunny for several days running. Yesterday was warm, again, but today is cool and overcast - at least to begin.
So we decided to zip off to Don Pedro (a local chain of hardware stores in town) to see what they had in heaters. Two years ago we were in a different house that had a fireplace downstairs in which we placed a set of gas logs. No fireplace in the current house (at least yet!), so last year we got a propane freestanding heater that required an electrical connection (read extension cord) to ignite the burners and run the fan.
This year we picked up a slim heater that has the option of electrical heat with fan, but otherwise doesn't require any electrical connection. Michael just drove off to Don Pedro's again to get a second one for upstairs. At last we'll be warm again. We do have a heated mattress pad (which I seldom turn to more than LO, but one's shoulders get cold. The space heater will fix that! Bring on the weather, we dare you! [It's spitting a bit, even now. And it's spitting again this evening. The weather keeps us guessing....]
Michael just set up the second heater on the second floor. Can't tell you how spiffy it looks, just sitting there -- no electrical cords, no propane tank sitting alongside (they are inside the cabinet on these heaters). It's the little things that mean so much!
Guess we'll be selling the original heater since we don't need three. If we used the maid's room for its intended purpose instead of as a bodega, perhaps we'd keep it, but we don't! These new ones are just too cool!
The non-use of electricity is a good thing. Utilities here in Mexico are quite reasonable, but one gets used to that and large bills - even if smaller than those back NOB - can still cause you to catch your breath. Water and propane are okay; it's the CFE bill (electricity) that can be a bit daunting.
Water is billed monthly and a dry month runs between $140 - $200 pesos (@ $12.50mp/dollar). We refill our propane tank whenever it's empty - about $500 pesos per month. But the electricity is billed semi-monthly and has been running about $2000 pesos/bill. Electricity is subsidized here, but as your usage goes up, the subsidy falls. At this level, we're paying the full rate. And the latest billed month included a week when we were in Puerto Vallarta and we turned everything off while we were gone! We even sent the dogs out to the Daisy Hill Puppy Farm, so no one was here during that week to run up the electricity and/or water. Still didn't get the billing below $2000! Now, $2000 pesos = about $160 US, or $80 per month, so I suppose one shouldn't complain, but seeing four digits on the bill tucked beneath our door can be a shock.
This weekend is also Mexico's version of Black Friday. Since the country doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving (duh!), it's just the third weekend in November. We did go shopping the sale at our local Office Depot and picked up a larger TV for the bedroom and a 'wireless' Blu-Ray player. 'Wireless' is in quotes, because it requires a dongle - which no one has! Even the maker of the player (Philips) is back-ordered. Grrrr. Guess we'll have to wait to watch our Netflix and Vudu films in the living room until we can find one!
We were also looking at a two-drawer lateral file for the office so we could dispose of some file boxes of 'stuff' but the only one they had in stock had a few dings. Why pay full price for damaged goods? Perhaps the Celaya store has one in a box... It's only a half-an-hour away; nothing we'd think about if we were still in L.A. It's only here where we must drive through the countryside to reach Celaya where we think it's so far away! Spoiled!
And we decided not to drive to Celaya, but went back to our own Office Depot today and picked up a slightly different model. A major job putting it together (all that practice with IKEA paid off), but it looks quite nice, nearly matches the finish on our book cases, and should hold a whole bunch of 'stuff.' Tomorrow's task will be sorting out the 'stuff' and moving it into the new lateral filing system in some organized way.
Let's see -- what else? Oh, yes - remember when we went to Nuevo Laredo in October to have our van nationalized? Well, we're still working on it. It was nationalized while we were there, but the local registration process is taking a lot longer. They changed the process after we'd filed our paperwork, so it's really a bit complicated. It would go faster if our facilitator had waited a bit longer and simply filed online - but who knew until the new process was in place!
Thought we would pick up the plates last Wednesday when we took the van in to be inspected (mostly checking the VIN number), but we'll be going back next Wednesday morning - hopefully for the plates this time....
Then we'll immediately need to get an emission check - as well as the every-six-months check based on the plate number. There is a testing place very near the registration office that we've used before. We can stop on our way home! [Hmm - isn't there a McDonald's in the mall across the road from the inspection station ....?]
We're really hoping that we do get the plates this time because Michael is driving to Guadalajara that weekend for our friend Victor's family 'do' and we'll need to get a permit to take the van outside our state if the plates are not here (at $21 mp/day). That should be it, I think, until we figure out the renewal process. Maybe that will be done on line by the time we need to do it?
Thursday, October 10, 2013
Nationalizing our Minivan
We started this process by deciding to nationalize our car this year (a year in advance) just to have it already done when we must have it nationalized next August. Because we thought that we were going to be in the 'must' situation this year, we had a bit of money set aside and figured that we'd just spend it on other things if we didn't go through with the process now.
We surveyed several people who would facilitate this process for us before settling on one person here in town whom we had used for a variety of projects since deciding to move to San Miguel. We gathered a whole bunch of documents deemed necessary (vehicle title from South Dakota; this year's registration from SD with license plate number; a picture of the van's VIN number; two photos of the entire outside of the car; our passports with copies; our Residente Temporal visas (with copies of both sides); a utility bill and copy which showed our names and address - and since we rent the house and thus the utlilities are in the landlord's name, the lease with a copy and a copy of the front and back of his IFE card (sort of a voter's ID card); and a copy of our Mexican Driver's Licenses.
Since we didn't yet have Mexican Driver's licenses - we had kept our California licenses current - we had to go through that process which required much of the same documentation plus a letter from the Presidencia (City Hall) attesting that we lived in San Miguel at our address. This letter included a photo - which meant we had to go get new photos taken with specific requirements: no jewelry or earrings (not a problem!), hair off the forehead (not a problem...), no facial hair (goodbye beard), no smiling. Once we had assembled everything we needed and turned it in at the Presidencia, it only took a day to pick up the finished letter but then we had to go to the Transito office which issued the driver's licenses with our physical report and blood/eye test results. Luckily we had retained our expired California licenses to turn in so we didn't have to take the driver's test in Spanish! (I suppose this shouldn't be a shock to anyone.) We paid for the 5-year license so we won't have to go through this process again very soon.
There was also the question of in whose name the car would be registered. While our car is currently register to us both, in Mexico the usual procedure is to register it in no more than one name. Guess they don't believe in the 'X or Y' option, as they would consider it always registered to us both and even if something happened to one of us, they would require proof of his death, et cetera. With only one name on the papers, even if the named party died, it would only require a forged signature and ID to release the car to the other one of us.
Getting a copy of our landlord's IFE card was also a bit of a bother requiring us to engage the services of a friend to communicate the need for a copy with a landlord who speaks only Spanish and lives in another town! But it happened.
After scanning and forwarding all our documents to our local facilitator (who, in turn, forwarded them to the nationalization broker), we were advised to take everything with us to the border. Of course, all the broker was interested in was the original of the title - could care less about any of the other documents we had brought with us. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
So Monday we woke up at 3:30 a.m. and left the house after making sure there was food for the dogs in the fridge (said friend looking after them), sandwiches for our trip were made, and an updated GPS map was downloaded, directions printed out, a list of tolls prepared, and we couldn't think of anything else to do. Drove to the Texas border towns of Laredo, Texas and Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas. Crossed the border that afternoon (after the #$%^!@ Border Protection Officers ran us through inspections, X-rays, et cetera) and headed to the malls for shopping! Got most of the things on our wish list and headed back downtown to the hotel.
La Posada is a great hotel - older but well-kept up with two restaurants that are both among the top 50 in Texas, nicely furnished rooms, comfy beds, a nice pool with lounges for our Tuesday of waiting around, and on the Rio Bravo (that's the Rio Grande to those of you NOB) between the two bridges we would be using for our trips back and forth to Mexico for the nationalization.
So Tuesday morning we took the car back over to Nuevo Laredo via Bridge II, dropped it with the broker who would handle the process, and walked back across via Bridge I. Spent the day lounging by the aforementioned pool, listening to soft music and sipping aqua frescas. Then the broker called to say the car was ready and we walked back across Bridge I and waited in a small park for the car to arrive. Once we had it back (with a sticker 'MX' on the windshield and a pedimento in hand), we drove it back across Bridge I (more incredulity from the Border Patrol Agents as we tried to explain - without too much detail - why we lived in Mexico, came to Texas, took the car back to Mexico for the day, returned to Texas, and were leaving for Mexico the next day!). Of course, I wanted to blather on about the process (there were also questions of why we were from California and had plates from South Dakota without ever living there), but Michael cut me off: the less information, the fewer questions asked. Probably a good idea; I was set to educate the agent...who was kinda cute in his own way.
So on Wednesday we went to the restaurant for the breakfast buffet at 6:00 am (here the hotel started to let us down) that wasn't ready until 6:20; the hostess from whom we had ordered sandwiches for our return trip who told us she would arrive at 6:00 didn't show up until 6:30 - and there weren't any sandwiches to be had (a message she delegated to our server, although she was standing 20 feet from us) - and the bell man showed up at our room to take our luggage and presents to the valeted car without a cart.... They were doing so well up until then!
So, another long drive home to San Miguel with stops for gas and questionable, pre-packaged sandwiches. It was a long drive (Michael assured me that it was simply the first drive in reverse) with a huge traffic mess in Monterrey, a couple of missteps on our part (we were depending on the GPS as I hadn't printed out the reverse directions), and a tremendous, two-semi accident along the way.
But we made it home. We were to receive a factura (an invoice) in addition to the pedimento and window sticker, but it wasn't ready when the car was. We're still waiting for it to be emailed to us as we cannot begin the registration process without it. I did check the pedimento in Aduana's (Custom's) online database and it seems to be 'real' which is a good thing. (There were some pedimentos issued in another part of Mexico that were phonies and our first facilitator was duped by the broker he was using and we lost half our funds.)
So we sit and wait for the final bit of paperwork to arrive, then go off to the local office to register our pedimento and order actual Mexican license plates! We're almost there with a minimum of trouble. Nothing in Mexico is completely simple....
We surveyed several people who would facilitate this process for us before settling on one person here in town whom we had used for a variety of projects since deciding to move to San Miguel. We gathered a whole bunch of documents deemed necessary (vehicle title from South Dakota; this year's registration from SD with license plate number; a picture of the van's VIN number; two photos of the entire outside of the car; our passports with copies; our Residente Temporal visas (with copies of both sides); a utility bill and copy which showed our names and address - and since we rent the house and thus the utlilities are in the landlord's name, the lease with a copy and a copy of the front and back of his IFE card (sort of a voter's ID card); and a copy of our Mexican Driver's Licenses.
Since we didn't yet have Mexican Driver's licenses - we had kept our California licenses current - we had to go through that process which required much of the same documentation plus a letter from the Presidencia (City Hall) attesting that we lived in San Miguel at our address. This letter included a photo - which meant we had to go get new photos taken with specific requirements: no jewelry or earrings (not a problem!), hair off the forehead (not a problem...), no facial hair (goodbye beard), no smiling. Once we had assembled everything we needed and turned it in at the Presidencia, it only took a day to pick up the finished letter but then we had to go to the Transito office which issued the driver's licenses with our physical report and blood/eye test results. Luckily we had retained our expired California licenses to turn in so we didn't have to take the driver's test in Spanish! (I suppose this shouldn't be a shock to anyone.) We paid for the 5-year license so we won't have to go through this process again very soon.
There was also the question of in whose name the car would be registered. While our car is currently register to us both, in Mexico the usual procedure is to register it in no more than one name. Guess they don't believe in the 'X or Y' option, as they would consider it always registered to us both and even if something happened to one of us, they would require proof of his death, et cetera. With only one name on the papers, even if the named party died, it would only require a forged signature and ID to release the car to the other one of us.
Getting a copy of our landlord's IFE card was also a bit of a bother requiring us to engage the services of a friend to communicate the need for a copy with a landlord who speaks only Spanish and lives in another town! But it happened.
After scanning and forwarding all our documents to our local facilitator (who, in turn, forwarded them to the nationalization broker), we were advised to take everything with us to the border. Of course, all the broker was interested in was the original of the title - could care less about any of the other documents we had brought with us. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
So Monday we woke up at 3:30 a.m. and left the house after making sure there was food for the dogs in the fridge (said friend looking after them), sandwiches for our trip were made, and an updated GPS map was downloaded, directions printed out, a list of tolls prepared, and we couldn't think of anything else to do. Drove to the Texas border towns of Laredo, Texas and Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas. Crossed the border that afternoon (after the #$%^!@ Border Protection Officers ran us through inspections, X-rays, et cetera) and headed to the malls for shopping! Got most of the things on our wish list and headed back downtown to the hotel.
La Posada is a great hotel - older but well-kept up with two restaurants that are both among the top 50 in Texas, nicely furnished rooms, comfy beds, a nice pool with lounges for our Tuesday of waiting around, and on the Rio Bravo (that's the Rio Grande to those of you NOB) between the two bridges we would be using for our trips back and forth to Mexico for the nationalization.
So Tuesday morning we took the car back over to Nuevo Laredo via Bridge II, dropped it with the broker who would handle the process, and walked back across via Bridge I. Spent the day lounging by the aforementioned pool, listening to soft music and sipping aqua frescas. Then the broker called to say the car was ready and we walked back across Bridge I and waited in a small park for the car to arrive. Once we had it back (with a sticker 'MX' on the windshield and a pedimento in hand), we drove it back across Bridge I (more incredulity from the Border Patrol Agents as we tried to explain - without too much detail - why we lived in Mexico, came to Texas, took the car back to Mexico for the day, returned to Texas, and were leaving for Mexico the next day!). Of course, I wanted to blather on about the process (there were also questions of why we were from California and had plates from South Dakota without ever living there), but Michael cut me off: the less information, the fewer questions asked. Probably a good idea; I was set to educate the agent...who was kinda cute in his own way.
So on Wednesday we went to the restaurant for the breakfast buffet at 6:00 am (here the hotel started to let us down) that wasn't ready until 6:20; the hostess from whom we had ordered sandwiches for our return trip who told us she would arrive at 6:00 didn't show up until 6:30 - and there weren't any sandwiches to be had (a message she delegated to our server, although she was standing 20 feet from us) - and the bell man showed up at our room to take our luggage and presents to the valeted car without a cart.... They were doing so well up until then!
So, another long drive home to San Miguel with stops for gas and questionable, pre-packaged sandwiches. It was a long drive (Michael assured me that it was simply the first drive in reverse) with a huge traffic mess in Monterrey, a couple of missteps on our part (we were depending on the GPS as I hadn't printed out the reverse directions), and a tremendous, two-semi accident along the way.
But we made it home. We were to receive a factura (an invoice) in addition to the pedimento and window sticker, but it wasn't ready when the car was. We're still waiting for it to be emailed to us as we cannot begin the registration process without it. I did check the pedimento in Aduana's (Custom's) online database and it seems to be 'real' which is a good thing. (There were some pedimentos issued in another part of Mexico that were phonies and our first facilitator was duped by the broker he was using and we lost half our funds.)
So we sit and wait for the final bit of paperwork to arrive, then go off to the local office to register our pedimento and order actual Mexican license plates! We're almost there with a minimum of trouble. Nothing in Mexico is completely simple....
Monday, September 30, 2013
Puerto Vallarta
So for those who didn't follow Michael's daily postings on FaceBook, here's a recap of our trip to P.V.
We broke the drive down into two days each way with a stop in Guadalajara each way. Our friend's mother (who lives there) had been in San Miguel for a spell, so we were also taking her back and a cat - who meowed constantly for the first hour of the trip before subsiding into occasional vocalizations.
The first night of vacation we spent at Mom's condo in Guadalajara. For dinner we opted for the new mall (anchored by a Liverpool) and dinner at Casa Italianito. Pretty darn good Italian food and a free pizza appetizer to the waiting groups! (I could have made a dinner at the check-in desk....)
The next morning after breakfast we were off to P.V. There are two ways to PV: through the mountains on a good highway (a toll road) or skipping the mountains (and curves) on a lesser road (a local or 'free' road). We chose the mountain highway that passed by Tequila in the distance. Lovely landscape views from the cuota (toll road). You - well, I - wanted to just get off the road (can't be done) and stay there.
After a tedious passage down out of the mountains (road works on-and-off every few kilometers) to the beach, we arrived in Puerto Vallarta and found our way to the condo Michael had reserved for us.
The condo was lovely: recently bought and redecorated for our landlord's parents-in-law (who had yet to stay there), it had been enlarged a bit and updated. The balcony had been made a part of the living area, new fittings and furnishings, et cetera. We really quite enjoyed ourselves there.
Although there were some disappointments (the restaurant for the last night in town was closed for two weeks; our favorite beach restaurant - where we planned on hanging out during beach days - was closed; our last night in town garnered a tremendous storm) we had a great time. The beach was only a three-block walk from the condo - what could be wrong?
It rained nearly every day, but the rain was usually early in the morning or during the night, so nothing stopped us from being beach bums every day. I'm sure we supported the restaurants that featured beach service quite well during our time there! "Joven, tres margaritas más, por favor!"
After four days of sunning, eating, and drinking, we gathered ourselves up and made our way northward, stopping in Guadalajara again. On the way to Guadalajara, another big storm hit us, making driving a bit of a chore through the mountains. We had slowed for an off-the-road accident with an ambulance in attendance when a dark Altima whipped past us and rounded the next curve at speed. As we picked up speed and rounded the next curve, there was the Altima - upside down and spread across most of the lanes of the highway. Even in the hard rain, we managed to miss the other car that had stopped to assist - right in front of the wreck, limiting the space for us to squeeze past, once we managed to stop without hitting them. The rest of the trip was a bit drier and calmer.
After a stop at Mom's condo, the New York-style deli, New York, New York, again provided a tasty breakfast and we were headed home with a stop in Léon to drop our friend's mother off at a cousin's for a birthday celebration.
Arrived back in San Miguel in time to be inundated with horseback riders returning from some of the weekend festivities downtown - and an evening storm that had some of the most powerful lightning and thunder that we'd yet experienced. The thunder set off car alarms and rattled windows throughout town.
But now we're back and it's almost like we never left. Puerto Vallarta is just a memory - and a dream as we plan our next escape to the beach! (Maybe Spring?) We get the dogs back on Tuesday from their vacation at the Daisy Hill Puppy Farm (Maria's Pet B&B). Hope they escaped the force of the storm which we found threatening, ourselves - they don't do well with thunder and lightning....
We broke the drive down into two days each way with a stop in Guadalajara each way. Our friend's mother (who lives there) had been in San Miguel for a spell, so we were also taking her back and a cat - who meowed constantly for the first hour of the trip before subsiding into occasional vocalizations.
The first night of vacation we spent at Mom's condo in Guadalajara. For dinner we opted for the new mall (anchored by a Liverpool) and dinner at Casa Italianito. Pretty darn good Italian food and a free pizza appetizer to the waiting groups! (I could have made a dinner at the check-in desk....)
The next morning after breakfast we were off to P.V. There are two ways to PV: through the mountains on a good highway (a toll road) or skipping the mountains (and curves) on a lesser road (a local or 'free' road). We chose the mountain highway that passed by Tequila in the distance. Lovely landscape views from the cuota (toll road). You - well, I - wanted to just get off the road (can't be done) and stay there.
After a tedious passage down out of the mountains (road works on-and-off every few kilometers) to the beach, we arrived in Puerto Vallarta and found our way to the condo Michael had reserved for us.
The condo was lovely: recently bought and redecorated for our landlord's parents-in-law (who had yet to stay there), it had been enlarged a bit and updated. The balcony had been made a part of the living area, new fittings and furnishings, et cetera. We really quite enjoyed ourselves there.
Although there were some disappointments (the restaurant for the last night in town was closed for two weeks; our favorite beach restaurant - where we planned on hanging out during beach days - was closed; our last night in town garnered a tremendous storm) we had a great time. The beach was only a three-block walk from the condo - what could be wrong?
It rained nearly every day, but the rain was usually early in the morning or during the night, so nothing stopped us from being beach bums every day. I'm sure we supported the restaurants that featured beach service quite well during our time there! "Joven, tres margaritas más, por favor!"
After four days of sunning, eating, and drinking, we gathered ourselves up and made our way northward, stopping in Guadalajara again. On the way to Guadalajara, another big storm hit us, making driving a bit of a chore through the mountains. We had slowed for an off-the-road accident with an ambulance in attendance when a dark Altima whipped past us and rounded the next curve at speed. As we picked up speed and rounded the next curve, there was the Altima - upside down and spread across most of the lanes of the highway. Even in the hard rain, we managed to miss the other car that had stopped to assist - right in front of the wreck, limiting the space for us to squeeze past, once we managed to stop without hitting them. The rest of the trip was a bit drier and calmer.
After a stop at Mom's condo, the New York-style deli, New York, New York, again provided a tasty breakfast and we were headed home with a stop in Léon to drop our friend's mother off at a cousin's for a birthday celebration.
Arrived back in San Miguel in time to be inundated with horseback riders returning from some of the weekend festivities downtown - and an evening storm that had some of the most powerful lightning and thunder that we'd yet experienced. The thunder set off car alarms and rattled windows throughout town.
But now we're back and it's almost like we never left. Puerto Vallarta is just a memory - and a dream as we plan our next escape to the beach! (Maybe Spring?) We get the dogs back on Tuesday from their vacation at the Daisy Hill Puppy Farm (Maria's Pet B&B). Hope they escaped the force of the storm which we found threatening, ourselves - they don't do well with thunder and lightning....
Friday, September 20, 2013
Nationalization II
We now have a place to stay in Laredo while our car is being nationalized in Nuevo Laredo! Rather than stay at our stand-by La Quinta Inn, we chose La Posada, just a few blocks north of the border. Our facilitator wanted a 2-day window for the paperwork, but I told her that we were only going to book 2 nights at the hotel, total. If something went slowly, we'd add a night. Booking the 3rd night in advance would require us to cancel the entire stay a couple of days in advance to avoid a penalty (we'd be paying for that 3rd night whether we stayed there or not!).
We even suggested that since check-out wasn't until noon, if things ran long, we could stay another half day. But that would mean we'd be driving back to San Miguel in the dark. Driving in Mexico in the dark isn't recommended!
On our initial drive to San Miguel, we stayed in a dump in Zacateros. We were so anxious to get out of there that we loaded up the van and began our trip early in the morning - before the sun came up. Won't do that again! There is no additional lighting on the roads and it was the first time we had driven that route. Scary!
The only other hitch in the get-along is the paperwork that's required. Aside from the question of whether they can list both of us as owners of the van (so common in the U.S.; not in Mexico), there is a question about how we document our address in San Miguel. For our Mexican driver's licenses we had the same situation: present a utility bill (only an owner can change the utilities to another name and must show that they now own the house) with our address on it and present a copy of the landlords IFE card (a government ID - proving voting rights, I think it is). For the driver's licenses, there was an alternative: a letter from the Mayor's office that we were who we said we were (requiring a birth certificate, passport, visa, the utility bill, etc). The Transito office kept the original of the letter, so if they decide to accept on for the car, we'd need a couple of days to procure another. But it's still simpler than telling our landlord he needs to let us copy his IFE card - as he speaks only Spanish and we speak English. Guess we'll have the answer to that once we get home from P.V. - where it's hot, steamy, and rainy for the next week! Did I mention that we're heading to P.V. for a week tomorrow?
Til then....
We even suggested that since check-out wasn't until noon, if things ran long, we could stay another half day. But that would mean we'd be driving back to San Miguel in the dark. Driving in Mexico in the dark isn't recommended!
On our initial drive to San Miguel, we stayed in a dump in Zacateros. We were so anxious to get out of there that we loaded up the van and began our trip early in the morning - before the sun came up. Won't do that again! There is no additional lighting on the roads and it was the first time we had driven that route. Scary!
The only other hitch in the get-along is the paperwork that's required. Aside from the question of whether they can list both of us as owners of the van (so common in the U.S.; not in Mexico), there is a question about how we document our address in San Miguel. For our Mexican driver's licenses we had the same situation: present a utility bill (only an owner can change the utilities to another name and must show that they now own the house) with our address on it and present a copy of the landlords IFE card (a government ID - proving voting rights, I think it is). For the driver's licenses, there was an alternative: a letter from the Mayor's office that we were who we said we were (requiring a birth certificate, passport, visa, the utility bill, etc). The Transito office kept the original of the letter, so if they decide to accept on for the car, we'd need a couple of days to procure another. But it's still simpler than telling our landlord he needs to let us copy his IFE card - as he speaks only Spanish and we speak English. Guess we'll have the answer to that once we get home from P.V. - where it's hot, steamy, and rainy for the next week! Did I mention that we're heading to P.V. for a week tomorrow?
Til then....
Tuesday, September 17, 2013
Nationalization
No, not us; our minivan! Although we won't become a Residente Permanente until next fall, the folks who made the transition this year are scrambling and the feeling is catching. Under the new types of immigration status, Permanent residents aren't allowed to drive their US-plated cars under the terms of the TIP we all used to bring them SOB with us.
Seems that Aduana (Customs) takes the 'T' of the TIP (Temporary Import Permit) very seriously. If you're no longer a temporary resident, you need to drive a Mexican-plated vehicle. That leaves a choice between taking your car back to the States and selling it (there are repercussions to that, i.e., registering it in Texas, insuring it, et cetera) then buying something in Mexico, or going without a car. Costco would miss us, as we would miss them - and we're not going to travel there and back via a local bus with our arms full of supplies!
We had originally thought we'd go for the Permanente visa (I know it's not really a visa, but a different immigration status) this year, but decided - with our travel plans this year and next - that it would be simpler to remain a Temporal one last year on that level.
So we were sorta getting prepared to make the change over by nationalizing our minivan. It's old enough that it's not worth too much and while we had saved up some money for the nationalization process, the total wasn't enough to buy the type of vehicle that we would have wanted. And the van, with fold-into-the-floor seats, was just too handy - even if we no longer traveled to dog shows with all the paraphernalia involved.
We had managed to save up enough pesos to afford to nationalize the minivan using a facilitator who promises that both we and the van could stay in San Miguel and the change of status for the vehicle would occur without making the border trip. Sounded iffy and we were trying to verify that someone actually got his local plates for his car when we tried another facilitator who used the time-honored process of a trip to the border, but it was a shortened trip - one day to the border, one day with the broker, and another day to drive back to San Miguel. Presto-bingo!
The catch came when we discovered that the fee (about the same as the first one) was due in dollars, not pesos. Didn't want to lose money re-converting our pesos back to dollars, so have done some borrowing from our savings (and will do some mumbo-jumbo to make it work, paying our rent from the actual pesos while tucking the rent funds back into savings as dollars). On paper it looks like it will work, but it's more complicated than it sounds with loans between accounts and a pay-back schedule to follow to make sure the dollars are there when we need them!
The actual trip to the border will take place in October after we return from Puerto Vallarta. Look for reports of our adventure. The paperwork is another story.... Did you know that it's not common in Mexico to have two names on a car title???
Seems that Aduana (Customs) takes the 'T' of the TIP (Temporary Import Permit) very seriously. If you're no longer a temporary resident, you need to drive a Mexican-plated vehicle. That leaves a choice between taking your car back to the States and selling it (there are repercussions to that, i.e., registering it in Texas, insuring it, et cetera) then buying something in Mexico, or going without a car. Costco would miss us, as we would miss them - and we're not going to travel there and back via a local bus with our arms full of supplies!
We had originally thought we'd go for the Permanente visa (I know it's not really a visa, but a different immigration status) this year, but decided - with our travel plans this year and next - that it would be simpler to remain a Temporal one last year on that level.
So we were sorta getting prepared to make the change over by nationalizing our minivan. It's old enough that it's not worth too much and while we had saved up some money for the nationalization process, the total wasn't enough to buy the type of vehicle that we would have wanted. And the van, with fold-into-the-floor seats, was just too handy - even if we no longer traveled to dog shows with all the paraphernalia involved.
We had managed to save up enough pesos to afford to nationalize the minivan using a facilitator who promises that both we and the van could stay in San Miguel and the change of status for the vehicle would occur without making the border trip. Sounded iffy and we were trying to verify that someone actually got his local plates for his car when we tried another facilitator who used the time-honored process of a trip to the border, but it was a shortened trip - one day to the border, one day with the broker, and another day to drive back to San Miguel. Presto-bingo!
The catch came when we discovered that the fee (about the same as the first one) was due in dollars, not pesos. Didn't want to lose money re-converting our pesos back to dollars, so have done some borrowing from our savings (and will do some mumbo-jumbo to make it work, paying our rent from the actual pesos while tucking the rent funds back into savings as dollars). On paper it looks like it will work, but it's more complicated than it sounds with loans between accounts and a pay-back schedule to follow to make sure the dollars are there when we need them!
The actual trip to the border will take place in October after we return from Puerto Vallarta. Look for reports of our adventure. The paperwork is another story.... Did you know that it's not common in Mexico to have two names on a car title???
Thursday, September 12, 2013
Independence Day 2013
We noticed, walking into centro today, an inordinate number of vehicles proceeding down the main street into the Centro Historico section of town, including a few trucks with Federales in them. Why were there Federales in town? This weekend is the celebration of Mexican Independence Day, that's why.
The town square - as viewed from our table inside Starbucks - was not yet chock-a-block with citizens and tourists, but they will come, they will come.
Our Independence Day is celebrated on September 16th, the day Father Hildlgo gave a speech in Dolores (later renamed Dolores Hildalgo) whose text has been lost to time, but it included El Grito, his charge to the populace to secede from the Spanish Colonial powers. At his side were Ignacio Allende and his brother Juan Allende (both from San Miguel - later renamed San Miguel de Allende in their honor).
The War of Independence took nearly 10 years to accomplish their goals, but the festivities will be confined to the weekend. There will be a crush of visitors to the city, aerial bombs going off, church bells ringing, fireworks, and El Grito will be re-enacted by our dear Mayor from a balcony of the Allende mansion on the corner of the square in front of the Parrochia at midnight (the mansion is a museum now).
I think we'll be at home trying to soothe the dogs - who do not appreciate all the noise!
LATER
It was a soggy Independence Day this year. Rain, rain, rain. Wasn't going to stay up that late to watch on the webcam, but suspect that festivities were wet at best.
Several states in Mexico cancelled their Independence Day festivities because of rain and flooding. We only got the dregs of Ingrid (and perhaps Manuel), but it was enough to keep us home, safe and dry!
The weather even topped off Independence Day with a windly rain storm around 6 pm tonight. Glad we had an early dinner at Hecho en Mexico and were home before it began to pelt down!
The town square - as viewed from our table inside Starbucks - was not yet chock-a-block with citizens and tourists, but they will come, they will come.
Our Independence Day is celebrated on September 16th, the day Father Hildlgo gave a speech in Dolores (later renamed Dolores Hildalgo) whose text has been lost to time, but it included El Grito, his charge to the populace to secede from the Spanish Colonial powers. At his side were Ignacio Allende and his brother Juan Allende (both from San Miguel - later renamed San Miguel de Allende in their honor).
The War of Independence took nearly 10 years to accomplish their goals, but the festivities will be confined to the weekend. There will be a crush of visitors to the city, aerial bombs going off, church bells ringing, fireworks, and El Grito will be re-enacted by our dear Mayor from a balcony of the Allende mansion on the corner of the square in front of the Parrochia at midnight (the mansion is a museum now).
I think we'll be at home trying to soothe the dogs - who do not appreciate all the noise!
LATER
It was a soggy Independence Day this year. Rain, rain, rain. Wasn't going to stay up that late to watch on the webcam, but suspect that festivities were wet at best.
Several states in Mexico cancelled their Independence Day festivities because of rain and flooding. We only got the dregs of Ingrid (and perhaps Manuel), but it was enough to keep us home, safe and dry!
The weather even topped off Independence Day with a windly rain storm around 6 pm tonight. Glad we had an early dinner at Hecho en Mexico and were home before it began to pelt down!
Driver's Licenses
In preparation for nationalizing our minivan (more on that later), we are required to have Mexican driver's licenses. So we set off on that path with the assistance of a good Mexican friend to guide and translate for us. There's nothing quite like hoping to hear a word or two you can recognize and put together what you think they are telling you.
Obtaining a Mexican driver's license is not difficult but does require some hoops to be jumped through:
The second day we first picked up our letters from the Presidencia and presented them as part of our packet for our actual license. We skipped the testing (thank Heavens - rules of the road in Spanish!?!) by turning in our California drivers licenses. (Luckily, we had held on to our old, expired licenses so we didn't have to give up our current California licenses.) We also requested 5-year licenses (the per-year cost goes down on the longer licenses and you don't have to renew them as often).
Once reviewed and approved, we went to the computer operator who entered all our information into their on-line system and took our pictures. Surprise - this time we could smile!
Then they printed out an invoice and we drove off to the office a few blocks away at which we would pay for our licenses. Upon returning with the proof of our payments we were handed our licenses which had been created while we were gone.
Yippee! We were on our way; now we could go ahead with nationalizing our vehicle. And then it became complicated....
Obtaining a Mexican driver's license is not difficult but does require some hoops to be jumped through:
- Take a computerized driving test in Spanish;
- Prove your residence with a utility bill (water, gas, telephone - not cable, et cetera - see below) in your name; [Unlike in the US, a utility won't be turned on unless you are the property owner and can prove it, so renter's pay the bills in their landlord's name.]
- Present the results of a medical test including a basic eye test, height, weight, blood pressure, any health issues, and blood type (performed separately);
- Present your current visa and passport (with copies - everything requires copies in Mexico).
- There is also a fee to be paid determined by the length of your license: 2 years, 3 years, or 5 years.
- Birth Certificate;
- Passport;
- Visa;
- Two photographs of a certain size with certain requirements (size of head in photo, no jewelry, no hair on forehead - or facial hair (there went the beard and mustache!), no eyeglasses, no smiling;
- Proof of residence (a utility bill - for this purpose one in our landlord's name was okay);
- Pay a modest fee (about $4.50) for the letter which would be ready the next day.
The second day we first picked up our letters from the Presidencia and presented them as part of our packet for our actual license. We skipped the testing (thank Heavens - rules of the road in Spanish!?!) by turning in our California drivers licenses. (Luckily, we had held on to our old, expired licenses so we didn't have to give up our current California licenses.) We also requested 5-year licenses (the per-year cost goes down on the longer licenses and you don't have to renew them as often).
Once reviewed and approved, we went to the computer operator who entered all our information into their on-line system and took our pictures. Surprise - this time we could smile!
Then they printed out an invoice and we drove off to the office a few blocks away at which we would pay for our licenses. Upon returning with the proof of our payments we were handed our licenses which had been created while we were gone.
Yippee! We were on our way; now we could go ahead with nationalizing our vehicle. And then it became complicated....
Sunday, September 1, 2013
P.V.
Now that it's September, we're looking forward keenly to our vacation in PV (Puerto Vallarta) later this month. Yes, retirement requires vacations!
Although there was a time (BR - Before Retirement) when we owned a couple of timeshares in PV and visited regularly, we haven't been there except for cruise ship stops in several years.
Okay, Michael was there last year while I was in Indiana helping my sister and brother-in-law rework an 1898 house in our old hometown. But this time I get to go along. We're staying on the economy (a condo rental in Olas Altas - the Romantic Zone - so-called because Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor stayed in that area while filming Night of the Iguana nearby).
I'll post our adventures on the Bahia de Banderas when we return.
BULLETIN, September 17th - 4 more sleeps before we leave for PV; 5 more sleeps before we arrive (a stop over at friends' in Guadalajara!
Although there was a time (BR - Before Retirement) when we owned a couple of timeshares in PV and visited regularly, we haven't been there except for cruise ship stops in several years.
Okay, Michael was there last year while I was in Indiana helping my sister and brother-in-law rework an 1898 house in our old hometown. But this time I get to go along. We're staying on the economy (a condo rental in Olas Altas - the Romantic Zone - so-called because Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor stayed in that area while filming Night of the Iguana nearby).
I'll post our adventures on the Bahia de Banderas when we return.
BULLETIN, September 17th - 4 more sleeps before we leave for PV; 5 more sleeps before we arrive (a stop over at friends' in Guadalajara!
Monday, August 12, 2013
Sana Fe Opera
So we've just returned from our annual trek to Santa Fe, New Mexico to see their season of opera. For three weeks each summer, their schedule is such that you can see all 5 operas in a one-week period - and we did!
The operas were uniformly wonderfully produced and sung: Traviata was staged on a stage covered with square-ish blocks (some called it a graveyard) that magically transformed to a party house, to a rural garden, to a sick-room. The Violetta was wonderful, even when singing on her deathbed (or hanging over the sides). The rest of the cast were also great; the orchestra played well.
La Donna del Lago (based on the Lady of the Lake by Sir Walter Scott) was very Scots and not only Joyce Di Donato (lately of the Met), but everyone else sang in the belle canto style (lots of coloratura, whether female or male singers). This style usually puts me to sleep, but there was no slumbering here - too exciting. Stagecraft was also wonderful to watch! This production will be going to the Met in 2015: lock, stock, and barrel.
The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein was a fabulously produced Offenbach ditty. The production was better than the music, though everyone sang well enough. Lots of stagecraft here, too. Just sort of a long opera, though it starred Susan Graham (also lately of the Met).
The Marriage of Figaro was next. A wonderful production (am I using that phrase too often?) with equally wonderful singing. I always get the two Figaro operas confused and kept waiting for the tenor to start popping off high C's - in vain. There were ingenious sets that conquered the space limitations of Santa Fe's stage well. One wall unit kept stretching as additional sections were added as it made it's way slowly across the entire stage and off the other side. All from 12-foot deep wings!
Last was the world premiere of Oscar, based on the final years of Oscar Wilde's life. Modern music from a composer new to opera, a fabulous counter-tenor in the lead, the usual Santa Fe over-the-top production. Not sure it shouldn't be subject to a re-write before it plays in Philadelphia in 2015, though. There will be time to make some adjustments, as the opera commentator remarked.
We also added a backstage tour of their opera house. Great to see the sets and costumes up close (no touching!) and the shops and workrooms that produce it all.
Our travels included a flight from our nearest airport in Leon to Tijuana, walking across the border, dinner at a restaurant in Pacific Beach, then (for something completely different) Sister Act - the Musical which was in town. The next morning we flew to Albuquerque, picked up a rental car (gosh, that guy wanted so badly to sell us the insurance add-on, but we'd already bought a rental-car policy, so no sale), and trundled off to Santa Fe. By that time we were running late, so went directly to our friends' house for dinner and eventually drove north of town to Buffalo Thunder (a casino and resort). By that time is was very dark and pouring down rain, so it wasn't a drive that I'd want to repeat. During the day it seemed like a short trip; under less favorable conditions it took forever! [Why don't they acquaint you with the car before you drive off the lot? We didn't find the complete wiper controls until much later in the trip - and it rained the first day!]
Our days were full of shopping, dining, opera house tours, naps, and spa times. Our hotel (we stayed at the nearby Homewood Suites) provided breakfast and dinners most days, so we had lunches out and about town. On the next Saturday - before repeating our earlier travel plans in reverse - we had time for an additional lunch with our friends before heading south to ABQ. We had attended two operas with them, taking advantage of the Opera Buffets and talks by Desiree Mays; good interpretations of the operas and fabulous food (the lamb in a chipotle-chocolate sauce the first night was particularly wonderful)! We may just book ourselves into the buffets every night the next time we're there.
Yes, whenever that is. We probably won't attend Santa Fe next year - too many commitments in August. But we're looking forward to hearing the repertoire for 2015 when it's announced later this year. Here's hoping for Thais....
The operas were uniformly wonderfully produced and sung: Traviata was staged on a stage covered with square-ish blocks (some called it a graveyard) that magically transformed to a party house, to a rural garden, to a sick-room. The Violetta was wonderful, even when singing on her deathbed (or hanging over the sides). The rest of the cast were also great; the orchestra played well.
La Donna del Lago (based on the Lady of the Lake by Sir Walter Scott) was very Scots and not only Joyce Di Donato (lately of the Met), but everyone else sang in the belle canto style (lots of coloratura, whether female or male singers). This style usually puts me to sleep, but there was no slumbering here - too exciting. Stagecraft was also wonderful to watch! This production will be going to the Met in 2015: lock, stock, and barrel.
The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein was a fabulously produced Offenbach ditty. The production was better than the music, though everyone sang well enough. Lots of stagecraft here, too. Just sort of a long opera, though it starred Susan Graham (also lately of the Met).
The Marriage of Figaro was next. A wonderful production (am I using that phrase too often?) with equally wonderful singing. I always get the two Figaro operas confused and kept waiting for the tenor to start popping off high C's - in vain. There were ingenious sets that conquered the space limitations of Santa Fe's stage well. One wall unit kept stretching as additional sections were added as it made it's way slowly across the entire stage and off the other side. All from 12-foot deep wings!
Last was the world premiere of Oscar, based on the final years of Oscar Wilde's life. Modern music from a composer new to opera, a fabulous counter-tenor in the lead, the usual Santa Fe over-the-top production. Not sure it shouldn't be subject to a re-write before it plays in Philadelphia in 2015, though. There will be time to make some adjustments, as the opera commentator remarked.
We also added a backstage tour of their opera house. Great to see the sets and costumes up close (no touching!) and the shops and workrooms that produce it all.
Our travels included a flight from our nearest airport in Leon to Tijuana, walking across the border, dinner at a restaurant in Pacific Beach, then (for something completely different) Sister Act - the Musical which was in town. The next morning we flew to Albuquerque, picked up a rental car (gosh, that guy wanted so badly to sell us the insurance add-on, but we'd already bought a rental-car policy, so no sale), and trundled off to Santa Fe. By that time we were running late, so went directly to our friends' house for dinner and eventually drove north of town to Buffalo Thunder (a casino and resort). By that time is was very dark and pouring down rain, so it wasn't a drive that I'd want to repeat. During the day it seemed like a short trip; under less favorable conditions it took forever! [Why don't they acquaint you with the car before you drive off the lot? We didn't find the complete wiper controls until much later in the trip - and it rained the first day!]
Our days were full of shopping, dining, opera house tours, naps, and spa times. Our hotel (we stayed at the nearby Homewood Suites) provided breakfast and dinners most days, so we had lunches out and about town. On the next Saturday - before repeating our earlier travel plans in reverse - we had time for an additional lunch with our friends before heading south to ABQ. We had attended two operas with them, taking advantage of the Opera Buffets and talks by Desiree Mays; good interpretations of the operas and fabulous food (the lamb in a chipotle-chocolate sauce the first night was particularly wonderful)! We may just book ourselves into the buffets every night the next time we're there.
Yes, whenever that is. We probably won't attend Santa Fe next year - too many commitments in August. But we're looking forward to hearing the repertoire for 2015 when it's announced later this year. Here's hoping for Thais....
Tuesday, July 23, 2013
Stormy Weather
I know you've secretly been wondering 'What's the weather like down there?' So here's a storm report.
This is our rainy season, so it's not surprising that there have been storms, but I haven't seen storms like these since I was a kid in Indiana. That was when (I was in the third grade or so) my bed was under a double window and when a storm approached, I would be up on my knees on the bed, leaning against the window sill watching the lightning until Mom came in to check on us and shooed me away from the window ('You'll be struck by lightning!')
Living in southern California for many years, storms weren't so exciting and I had forgotten about them until last spring when I joined my sister and her husband in our old hometown of Brazil to spiff up a 1898 farmhouse. Boy, we had some storms there. In fact, we had a weather radio that sounded an alarm when a storm was predicted to hit.
After a few dry 'rainy seasons' in SMA, this year the storms are back with a vengeance! The last two nights it has rained, but quietly and softly. Last night we didn't really notice the sound of the rain at all - but things were wet when we awoke.
However, two nights ago all heck broke loose! I think this storm came in from the north; our storms usually arrive from the south and we can see them coming. A friend with a restaurant on the northern edge of town posted on FaceBook that they're received 1.99 inches of rain -- while the rain was just starting here on the southern edge of town.
Not sure how much rain we received, but it was one humdinger of a storm. Lots of lightning - really close and loud. We even lost power at one point in time, coordinating with a particularly close lightning strike.
Once we went upstairs to bed, you could watch out the french doors: lightning far enough away to be behind the hills lighting up the clouds from below; lightning higher in the sky lighting up the clouds from above; and the lightning right above us, crashing and reverberating enough to send the dogs into hiding between the bed and the dressers.
Then the rain began and it was a downpour. Not quite strong enough to wash all the dirt off the sidewalks down the block from last week's storm, but a storm proper.
I kept expecting to hear my mother's voice - 'Get away from that window!'
This is our rainy season, so it's not surprising that there have been storms, but I haven't seen storms like these since I was a kid in Indiana. That was when (I was in the third grade or so) my bed was under a double window and when a storm approached, I would be up on my knees on the bed, leaning against the window sill watching the lightning until Mom came in to check on us and shooed me away from the window ('You'll be struck by lightning!')
Living in southern California for many years, storms weren't so exciting and I had forgotten about them until last spring when I joined my sister and her husband in our old hometown of Brazil to spiff up a 1898 farmhouse. Boy, we had some storms there. In fact, we had a weather radio that sounded an alarm when a storm was predicted to hit.
After a few dry 'rainy seasons' in SMA, this year the storms are back with a vengeance! The last two nights it has rained, but quietly and softly. Last night we didn't really notice the sound of the rain at all - but things were wet when we awoke.
However, two nights ago all heck broke loose! I think this storm came in from the north; our storms usually arrive from the south and we can see them coming. A friend with a restaurant on the northern edge of town posted on FaceBook that they're received 1.99 inches of rain -- while the rain was just starting here on the southern edge of town.
Not sure how much rain we received, but it was one humdinger of a storm. Lots of lightning - really close and loud. We even lost power at one point in time, coordinating with a particularly close lightning strike.
Once we went upstairs to bed, you could watch out the french doors: lightning far enough away to be behind the hills lighting up the clouds from below; lightning higher in the sky lighting up the clouds from above; and the lightning right above us, crashing and reverberating enough to send the dogs into hiding between the bed and the dressers.
Then the rain began and it was a downpour. Not quite strong enough to wash all the dirt off the sidewalks down the block from last week's storm, but a storm proper.
I kept expecting to hear my mother's voice - 'Get away from that window!'
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
The Visa Game
Our ability to stay in Mexico legally depends upon having an appropriate visa. We've always had FM2 visas as that was a requirement before getting permanent resident status. There was also an FMM (tourist) visa good for 180 days at a time and the FM3 visa, a lesser visa that did not qualify you for permanent visa status. We knew we'd be staying here, so went directly to the FM2. The sooner we qualified for permanent resident status and didn't need to renew annually, the better.
Permanent residents qualified for a) no annual renewals and b) unlimited time out of the country. Under the FM2/3 (and the new Residente Temporal visa) time out of the country is limited to 75 days per year. And we're not gone more than that, but when they check for our permanent visas will they catch all the comings and goings? What if they think we've been gone since last year???
Then in 2011 the laws changed and a Residente Temporal (temporary resident) visa was created that encompassed the old FM3 and FM2 holders and also a Residente Permanente (the permanent resident). Of course, passing a law did not mean a great deal as the rules for applying the new law took about a year to formulate.
What they came up with was a rule that if you had a valid FM2 or FM3 visa, it would be good until your current visa's expiration date, at which time you would transition to the Temporal or Permanente visa. There were some good points to the law: Temporal visas were only good for 5 years, but after the first year you could purchase a renewal of one to 4 years. If you chose the 4-year renewal, you wouldn't have to deal with annual renewals until your visa expired. You could also change to the Permanente visa once you had cycled through the time period for the Temporal - or leave the country, visit a Mexican consulate for a preliminary approval for a new Temporal visa, and then return to Mexico and finish the application process. (Although there seems to be an interpretation that only one Temporal visa is permitted. One must move from Temporal to Permanente.)
We had originally used the services of a facilitator to gain our first FM2 and each renewal every August. It still involved going to the INM building and sitting around to be processed - in addition to the return visit for fingerprints and to pick up the visa.
Last year we sort of did it ourselves, using the services of a Notorio Publico whose office was across the street from INM. For a reasonable fee we walked in, answered some questions so they could fill out the forms, took another form to a local bank to pay the visa fee (fees are not paid at government offices in Mexico; fees are paid at a bank who gives you a receipt for the payment and then sends the funds on to a government bank). Upon our return to the Notorio with proof of payment, they took our visa photos, handed us the completed packet and we went across the street to go through the process of applying for the renewal.
This year, with the changes in the law, we thought it best to again use a facilitator and a friend recommended one. We talked to him, laying out our position and wrinkles that needed to be accommodated. We also emailed another facilitator about our situation, but received only a brief reply that repeated some of what I had written to her. We also briefly considered a few other facilitators, but decided against using them.
So we went with the first person we actually talked with. Because it would be perhaps a little tricky to financially qualify for the Permanente out of the hat this year (more later), he proposed that we renew at the Temporal level this year, giving us our 4th year, and then apply for the Permanente visa next year, when we would have satisfied the complete term at the Temporal/FM2-3 level and not be required to show financials.
The financial situation arose because of DOMA - the federal Defense of Marriage Act in the U.S. Because of the years of service to my employer in California, I qualified to have my health insurance premium paid by my retirement association. And because we are legally married in California, Michael's health insurance was also paid. However, the IRS is a federal agency and when it was time to file our taxes, his share of the health premiums were suddenly 'imputted income' on which taxes were due! I can tell you that the first year this came as a shock. So we adjusted our withholding amount, but that lowered the amount of retirement benefits I actually received at our bank - hence the trickiness. So I eventually cancelled the additional withholding and saved it in an account at the bank after being paid our monthly pittance so we would look more financially secure.
With the Supreme Court striking down DOMA, we have hope that the IRS will no longer require 'imputted income' for our health premiums, but we're waiting for our retirement association to tell us so - just as they are waiting for the IRS to re-write their requirements.
The other wrinkle to this business is that we had begun attending the Santa Fe Opera in Santa Fe, New Mexico during the summer. To make that journey more worthwhile, we scheduled our visit during one of the weeks that one could enjoy a different opera each night and see their entire season in one fell swoop. The first year we tried this, we had purchased tickets to a buffet on the grounds and the seaters at the event put us at a table with two other local guys, with whom we really hit it off. We visited each other during the rest of the year (they enjoyed the beach cities in California) and that sort of thing. We've been back annually since then.
To avoid the crush in town, we switched from the week of Indian Marketplace (or 'Indian Markup,' as it's known locally) to an earlier week that still featured the entire season. But this put us at odds with our visa renewals.
You can apply up to a month earlier than your renewal date, so that was okay. However with the changes to the visa situation, the visas were no longer available in just a couple of weeks, but went through Mexico City and took up to two or three months to be processed.
Our new facilitator recommended that we apply as usual for the Temporal visa renewal and request a 60-Day Exit Permit to travel on while our visas were in process (existing visas are turned in with your application). So we had our new photos taken at a studio that made you look like a person instead of a gangster (to which we walked in the rain, arriving looking like drowned rats although we had just had our hairs coiffed), while still following the legal requirements for the pictures - hair off the forehead, both ears visible, no smiling, et cetera. We filled out a bunch of paperwork, and gave him the photos and our filing fees at a subsequent visit.
After filing for our renewals, we could apply for the exit permit, so yesterday we met the facilitator at a local bank to pay the exit/entrance permit fees, sign more paperwork, and off he went to INM.. That's when he called us and asked about the extra set of photos! Well, we managed to get them to him and he went on his way to INM again.
A friend of ours, who had applied for her Permanente visa, just got it back in two-weeks time -- a record! -- but we really couldn't plan on that with our renewals, so the exit permit was still a go. We will get that permit before we leave for Santa Fe and have to run around at the airport to get it stamped. If we also get our visas before we leave, so much the better. The exit permits were not terribly expensive and the extra pictures were included in the original price for the photo session.
As we leave for Santa Fe in just about 2-1/2 weeks, it's nice to have things coming together. Next year will be trickier, as it includes leaving the country on our Temporal visas and returning after they have expired and using the 60-day grace period to apply for our Permanentes. I'm hoping that they've streamlined the issuing process by then and we can get our new visas before leaving the country, but we'll see. We may even skip the opera next year which would give us a bit more time before we travel.
Oh, and the current thoughts from Aduana (Mexico's customs department) is that once we have a Permanente visa, we are no longer 'temporary' residents so our 'temporary' car permits are no longer valid and we can no longer drive a foreign-plated car, So our South Dakota-plated car must be sold (in the US) or nationalized. Just another thing to worry about!
Permanent residents qualified for a) no annual renewals and b) unlimited time out of the country. Under the FM2/3 (and the new Residente Temporal visa) time out of the country is limited to 75 days per year. And we're not gone more than that, but when they check for our permanent visas will they catch all the comings and goings? What if they think we've been gone since last year???
Then in 2011 the laws changed and a Residente Temporal (temporary resident) visa was created that encompassed the old FM3 and FM2 holders and also a Residente Permanente (the permanent resident). Of course, passing a law did not mean a great deal as the rules for applying the new law took about a year to formulate.
What they came up with was a rule that if you had a valid FM2 or FM3 visa, it would be good until your current visa's expiration date, at which time you would transition to the Temporal or Permanente visa. There were some good points to the law: Temporal visas were only good for 5 years, but after the first year you could purchase a renewal of one to 4 years. If you chose the 4-year renewal, you wouldn't have to deal with annual renewals until your visa expired. You could also change to the Permanente visa once you had cycled through the time period for the Temporal - or leave the country, visit a Mexican consulate for a preliminary approval for a new Temporal visa, and then return to Mexico and finish the application process. (Although there seems to be an interpretation that only one Temporal visa is permitted. One must move from Temporal to Permanente.)
We had originally used the services of a facilitator to gain our first FM2 and each renewal every August. It still involved going to the INM building and sitting around to be processed - in addition to the return visit for fingerprints and to pick up the visa.
Last year we sort of did it ourselves, using the services of a Notorio Publico whose office was across the street from INM. For a reasonable fee we walked in, answered some questions so they could fill out the forms, took another form to a local bank to pay the visa fee (fees are not paid at government offices in Mexico; fees are paid at a bank who gives you a receipt for the payment and then sends the funds on to a government bank). Upon our return to the Notorio with proof of payment, they took our visa photos, handed us the completed packet and we went across the street to go through the process of applying for the renewal.
This year, with the changes in the law, we thought it best to again use a facilitator and a friend recommended one. We talked to him, laying out our position and wrinkles that needed to be accommodated. We also emailed another facilitator about our situation, but received only a brief reply that repeated some of what I had written to her. We also briefly considered a few other facilitators, but decided against using them.
So we went with the first person we actually talked with. Because it would be perhaps a little tricky to financially qualify for the Permanente out of the hat this year (more later), he proposed that we renew at the Temporal level this year, giving us our 4th year, and then apply for the Permanente visa next year, when we would have satisfied the complete term at the Temporal/FM2-3 level and not be required to show financials.
The financial situation arose because of DOMA - the federal Defense of Marriage Act in the U.S. Because of the years of service to my employer in California, I qualified to have my health insurance premium paid by my retirement association. And because we are legally married in California, Michael's health insurance was also paid. However, the IRS is a federal agency and when it was time to file our taxes, his share of the health premiums were suddenly 'imputted income' on which taxes were due! I can tell you that the first year this came as a shock. So we adjusted our withholding amount, but that lowered the amount of retirement benefits I actually received at our bank - hence the trickiness. So I eventually cancelled the additional withholding and saved it in an account at the bank after being paid our monthly pittance so we would look more financially secure.
With the Supreme Court striking down DOMA, we have hope that the IRS will no longer require 'imputted income' for our health premiums, but we're waiting for our retirement association to tell us so - just as they are waiting for the IRS to re-write their requirements.
The other wrinkle to this business is that we had begun attending the Santa Fe Opera in Santa Fe, New Mexico during the summer. To make that journey more worthwhile, we scheduled our visit during one of the weeks that one could enjoy a different opera each night and see their entire season in one fell swoop. The first year we tried this, we had purchased tickets to a buffet on the grounds and the seaters at the event put us at a table with two other local guys, with whom we really hit it off. We visited each other during the rest of the year (they enjoyed the beach cities in California) and that sort of thing. We've been back annually since then.
To avoid the crush in town, we switched from the week of Indian Marketplace (or 'Indian Markup,' as it's known locally) to an earlier week that still featured the entire season. But this put us at odds with our visa renewals.
You can apply up to a month earlier than your renewal date, so that was okay. However with the changes to the visa situation, the visas were no longer available in just a couple of weeks, but went through Mexico City and took up to two or three months to be processed.
Our new facilitator recommended that we apply as usual for the Temporal visa renewal and request a 60-Day Exit Permit to travel on while our visas were in process (existing visas are turned in with your application). So we had our new photos taken at a studio that made you look like a person instead of a gangster (to which we walked in the rain, arriving looking like drowned rats although we had just had our hairs coiffed), while still following the legal requirements for the pictures - hair off the forehead, both ears visible, no smiling, et cetera. We filled out a bunch of paperwork, and gave him the photos and our filing fees at a subsequent visit.
After filing for our renewals, we could apply for the exit permit, so yesterday we met the facilitator at a local bank to pay the exit/entrance permit fees, sign more paperwork, and off he went to INM.. That's when he called us and asked about the extra set of photos! Well, we managed to get them to him and he went on his way to INM again.
A friend of ours, who had applied for her Permanente visa, just got it back in two-weeks time -- a record! -- but we really couldn't plan on that with our renewals, so the exit permit was still a go. We will get that permit before we leave for Santa Fe and have to run around at the airport to get it stamped. If we also get our visas before we leave, so much the better. The exit permits were not terribly expensive and the extra pictures were included in the original price for the photo session.
As we leave for Santa Fe in just about 2-1/2 weeks, it's nice to have things coming together. Next year will be trickier, as it includes leaving the country on our Temporal visas and returning after they have expired and using the 60-day grace period to apply for our Permanentes. I'm hoping that they've streamlined the issuing process by then and we can get our new visas before leaving the country, but we'll see. We may even skip the opera next year which would give us a bit more time before we travel.
Oh, and the current thoughts from Aduana (Mexico's customs department) is that once we have a Permanente visa, we are no longer 'temporary' residents so our 'temporary' car permits are no longer valid and we can no longer drive a foreign-plated car, So our South Dakota-plated car must be sold (in the US) or nationalized. Just another thing to worry about!
Tuesday, July 9, 2013
Happenings (and a dash of weather)
Lest you begin to think that all we have in San Miguel is weather, a few notes about goings-on:
We have a friend who started a hostel. The owner of the building wants more business, but puts the kabosh on every idea our friend thinks of. Grrrr....
We have another friend who hosts a twice-weekly program in English about San Miguel happenings, who has done so well that he has recently been given a Spanish-language weekly program!
Another friend has recently met someone who lives in the South Pacific and is trying to figure out how to make it work out.
Yet another friend wants us all to go on a weekend-long retreat in the hills above Puebla.
Drama, options, frustrations!
Michael and I were supposed to attend a birthday party in 'nearby' Léon for the mother of a friend of ours who was celebrating a momentous birthday. We were unable to reach the owner of the puppy farm to board the dogs, so I stayed home with the two dogs. Michael enjoyed the partying; the dogs and I enjoyed the quiet.
Yes, 'two' dogs, not 'three.' Coca's health had been sliding and it was time to release her on the Thursday before the weekend of the party in Léon. She now presides over our entryway from her rather nice, ceramic urn.
Our 4th of July dinner party was held on Saturday, July 6th. Local groups held fundraising events on the 3rd and 4th. Why not a dinner on the 6th? We had planned on branching out and adding an additional person to our little group of stalwarts - and had done so. However, she cancelled at the last minute to support an old friend who was ending a difficult relationship. Guess we'll see her when she returns to SMA. We may even have finished the leftovers by then! [Note to self - Don't make so much! We finished one batch of ribs last night, but there's another in the freezer plus the rest of the Baja Chicken and side salads.]
Yesterday Michael and I went to see the facilitator who is helping us with our visa renewals this year. We would probably have done it ourselves (like last year), but there have been changes in the laws and our visas come due while we will be out of the country! A bit of help was needed. So we met Eduardo in his 'office' in the courtyard at Starbucks in the Centro Historico. Gave him a lot of information and will return to see him on Thursday to sign papers and hand over the government fees that will be due.
I must say, it will be handy to have someone else do the running around for us (government fees are not paid at government offices, but at local banks). We only had to get the necessary photos. [Accomplished a few days ago in the rain!] And since the renewal of our visas will most likely not provide us with physical visas before we need to leave the country for our annual visit to Santa Fee for the opera, Eduardo will handle getting us a temporary exit/entrance permit. So we'll be seeing him a few more times in the next week or so.
After leaving Starbucks, we picked up some more Controy at La Europea and began our walk home. Stopped for lunch at Hecho en Mexico - yummy as usual - and noticed a huge black cloud south of town as we walked along. Decided that if we wanted to be home before the rain reached us we would need to take a cab or bus, we opted for the bus ride (5 pesos vs 30-35 pesos). Riding the bus is always an adventure - and the bus was crowded when we got on it. Eventually snagged a seat and bounced and jostled along the street towards home (Michael bravely stood the whole way). Those topas (which double as crosswalks) are murder on a bus with a poor suspension system. The bus finally stopped at Mega (the big store we live near), so we hopped off and quickly walked the two blocks home - just in time to avoid the first drops of rain from that storm cloud.
Boy, did it rain! Not much thunder, but lots of rain and wind. Found out that the french doors in our bedroom are not impervious to wind-driven, slanting rain. And one of the windows in the cupola at the top of the stairs to the third floor even leaked a bit on the stairs leading up to the rooftop terrace.
If you're on FaceBook, Michael posted some pictures he took of the water shooting out of the bajantes de agua that drain rooftops and the huge puddle (read: lake) that formed at the bottom of our street which marooned a pickup truck (water up to it's windows). About an inch-and-a-half in less than an hour and our street slants downward so there's' lots of run-off. We need rain, but that was a bit much. Perhaps a lot of it will run off and end up in the presa??? There has been rain (usually with a lot of thunder and lightning), but it's been lighter precipitation-wise. Even today there continued to be light rainfall throughout the night.
Oh, and Fiyero was at the groomers in the afternoon, so Michael got to carry him around the local lake on the way home.
So, I managed to sneak some weather in this post, after all!
We have a friend who started a hostel. The owner of the building wants more business, but puts the kabosh on every idea our friend thinks of. Grrrr....
We have another friend who hosts a twice-weekly program in English about San Miguel happenings, who has done so well that he has recently been given a Spanish-language weekly program!
Another friend has recently met someone who lives in the South Pacific and is trying to figure out how to make it work out.
Yet another friend wants us all to go on a weekend-long retreat in the hills above Puebla.
Drama, options, frustrations!
Michael and I were supposed to attend a birthday party in 'nearby' Léon for the mother of a friend of ours who was celebrating a momentous birthday. We were unable to reach the owner of the puppy farm to board the dogs, so I stayed home with the two dogs. Michael enjoyed the partying; the dogs and I enjoyed the quiet.
Yes, 'two' dogs, not 'three.' Coca's health had been sliding and it was time to release her on the Thursday before the weekend of the party in Léon. She now presides over our entryway from her rather nice, ceramic urn.
Our 4th of July dinner party was held on Saturday, July 6th. Local groups held fundraising events on the 3rd and 4th. Why not a dinner on the 6th? We had planned on branching out and adding an additional person to our little group of stalwarts - and had done so. However, she cancelled at the last minute to support an old friend who was ending a difficult relationship. Guess we'll see her when she returns to SMA. We may even have finished the leftovers by then! [Note to self - Don't make so much! We finished one batch of ribs last night, but there's another in the freezer plus the rest of the Baja Chicken and side salads.]
Yesterday Michael and I went to see the facilitator who is helping us with our visa renewals this year. We would probably have done it ourselves (like last year), but there have been changes in the laws and our visas come due while we will be out of the country! A bit of help was needed. So we met Eduardo in his 'office' in the courtyard at Starbucks in the Centro Historico. Gave him a lot of information and will return to see him on Thursday to sign papers and hand over the government fees that will be due.
I must say, it will be handy to have someone else do the running around for us (government fees are not paid at government offices, but at local banks). We only had to get the necessary photos. [Accomplished a few days ago in the rain!] And since the renewal of our visas will most likely not provide us with physical visas before we need to leave the country for our annual visit to Santa Fee for the opera, Eduardo will handle getting us a temporary exit/entrance permit. So we'll be seeing him a few more times in the next week or so.
After leaving Starbucks, we picked up some more Controy at La Europea and began our walk home. Stopped for lunch at Hecho en Mexico - yummy as usual - and noticed a huge black cloud south of town as we walked along. Decided that if we wanted to be home before the rain reached us we would need to take a cab or bus, we opted for the bus ride (5 pesos vs 30-35 pesos). Riding the bus is always an adventure - and the bus was crowded when we got on it. Eventually snagged a seat and bounced and jostled along the street towards home (Michael bravely stood the whole way). Those topas (which double as crosswalks) are murder on a bus with a poor suspension system. The bus finally stopped at Mega (the big store we live near), so we hopped off and quickly walked the two blocks home - just in time to avoid the first drops of rain from that storm cloud.
Boy, did it rain! Not much thunder, but lots of rain and wind. Found out that the french doors in our bedroom are not impervious to wind-driven, slanting rain. And one of the windows in the cupola at the top of the stairs to the third floor even leaked a bit on the stairs leading up to the rooftop terrace.
If you're on FaceBook, Michael posted some pictures he took of the water shooting out of the bajantes de agua that drain rooftops and the huge puddle (read: lake) that formed at the bottom of our street which marooned a pickup truck (water up to it's windows). About an inch-and-a-half in less than an hour and our street slants downward so there's' lots of run-off. We need rain, but that was a bit much. Perhaps a lot of it will run off and end up in the presa??? There has been rain (usually with a lot of thunder and lightning), but it's been lighter precipitation-wise. Even today there continued to be light rainfall throughout the night.
Oh, and Fiyero was at the groomers in the afternoon, so Michael got to carry him around the local lake on the way home.
So, I managed to sneak some weather in this post, after all!
Friday, June 14, 2013
...[T]he rain has come...
Well, it looks like the rainy season has finally arrived. For a few nights we had soft, gentle rain; good for soaking into the earth. Then two nights ago we had a tremendous storm: the sky was filled with dark clouds, lightning began to explode in the skies south of town (our side), and eventually the lightning and thunder melded overhead.
Fiyero had been sleeping on the bed; Miyake joined him from the floor. I would have thought that Miyake would have stayed in her place (between the bed and the dresser on the side away from the windows, but she jumped right up, turned around a few times, and settled down up against me. Her fur is a bit warm, but with enough encouragement she stayed in place throughout the entire storm (I know this because I was awake calming her). Thunder freaks her out (as do exploding cuetas), but she handled it pretty well.
After we finally got to sleep (the storm had moved on out to the campo north and east of the town), Michael was awake later in the night and told me that a soft rainfall had returned early in the morning. The debris washed up at the bottom of our hill was prodigious, that's for sure. The parking lot guy at the International Fitness gym must have removed it because by the time I returned home from our Wednesday morning koffee klatch, it was gone.
It had been raining gently earlier in the evening and had chased our dinner guests in from the backyard where we had been enjoying jalapeño wonton appetizers and margaritas as a prelude to dinner. We watched the newly installed 'fireflies' flitter in the bougainvilleas from the dining room windows, instead.
So last night we again had a gentle rain. 'Gentle' is good, as it allows the water to soak into the earth rather than run off as fast as it falls -- however, I love a good storm now and then. And since they tend to come in from the south - and our bedroom's french doors face in that directions - we usually have a good view of them across our second floor terrace and the homes on the next street.
Guess we'll put up with the increased humidity as a trade-off for the rain. More bothersome than annoying: our glasses of ice water we suck down condense the humidity in the air and form puddles wherever they are sitting. A worthwhile inconvenience.
Fiyero had been sleeping on the bed; Miyake joined him from the floor. I would have thought that Miyake would have stayed in her place (between the bed and the dresser on the side away from the windows, but she jumped right up, turned around a few times, and settled down up against me. Her fur is a bit warm, but with enough encouragement she stayed in place throughout the entire storm (I know this because I was awake calming her). Thunder freaks her out (as do exploding cuetas), but she handled it pretty well.
After we finally got to sleep (the storm had moved on out to the campo north and east of the town), Michael was awake later in the night and told me that a soft rainfall had returned early in the morning. The debris washed up at the bottom of our hill was prodigious, that's for sure. The parking lot guy at the International Fitness gym must have removed it because by the time I returned home from our Wednesday morning koffee klatch, it was gone.
It had been raining gently earlier in the evening and had chased our dinner guests in from the backyard where we had been enjoying jalapeño wonton appetizers and margaritas as a prelude to dinner. We watched the newly installed 'fireflies' flitter in the bougainvilleas from the dining room windows, instead.
So last night we again had a gentle rain. 'Gentle' is good, as it allows the water to soak into the earth rather than run off as fast as it falls -- however, I love a good storm now and then. And since they tend to come in from the south - and our bedroom's french doors face in that directions - we usually have a good view of them across our second floor terrace and the homes on the next street.
Guess we'll put up with the increased humidity as a trade-off for the rain. More bothersome than annoying: our glasses of ice water we suck down condense the humidity in the air and form puddles wherever they are sitting. A worthwhile inconvenience.
Friday, May 24, 2013
Heat Spell Breaks
Although it's not quite rainy season yet, and there were some sputtering starts along the way, we actually got rained on last night.
Rain has been predicted this week, but only a small chance of it. That usually means there may be a cloud or two in the sky. But yesterday afternoon there were some sprinkles: small drops at first, then larger ones, a roll of thunder ... and then everything stopped.
After dinner, the wind came up, rattling our windows and French doors. Dogs went into frightened mode, quivering while laying under our computer desks. A great, loud crash was the result of our bedroom's French door swinging open and then closing rapidly in the wind. More terror for the dogs!
Eventually everyone went to bed, drifting off to sleep in a hot, humid atmosphere - only to awake close to midnight to the pitter-pat of soft rain falling. It felt glorious and it was falling so slowly that the rain should have a chance to soak into the earth rather than just run off. Just the kind of rain we needed!
Now if only the 'real' rainy season will arrive and continue to shower down upon us. Michael said that last year - when I was in the MidWest - it was unreasonably hot before the storms arrived. It did reach 91F yesterday. Let's hope it doesn't make it that high any time soon!
Rain has been predicted this week, but only a small chance of it. That usually means there may be a cloud or two in the sky. But yesterday afternoon there were some sprinkles: small drops at first, then larger ones, a roll of thunder ... and then everything stopped.
After dinner, the wind came up, rattling our windows and French doors. Dogs went into frightened mode, quivering while laying under our computer desks. A great, loud crash was the result of our bedroom's French door swinging open and then closing rapidly in the wind. More terror for the dogs!
Eventually everyone went to bed, drifting off to sleep in a hot, humid atmosphere - only to awake close to midnight to the pitter-pat of soft rain falling. It felt glorious and it was falling so slowly that the rain should have a chance to soak into the earth rather than just run off. Just the kind of rain we needed!
Now if only the 'real' rainy season will arrive and continue to shower down upon us. Michael said that last year - when I was in the MidWest - it was unreasonably hot before the storms arrived. It did reach 91F yesterday. Let's hope it doesn't make it that high any time soon!
Monday, May 20, 2013
Vacationing from Retirement
We will now try to book all our trips from our 'local' airport (only an hour or so away), rather than Mexico City. That long bus trip (3-1/2 hours) is especially painful (even in an executive class bus with spacious seats) at the end of the vacation. And we tried to save a few bucks on the trip to Mexico City and chose a bus line that stopped every few miles to pick up riders. Mistake! It became a 4-hour trip, but had left earlier, so it got us to the bus station in DF earlier than the other lines, which was a good thing, as it turned out.
It didn't help that the taxi-ticket-seller person sold us a taxi ticket to the Centro Historico district instead of the Aeropuerto - which cost us an extra $100 peso tip to the driver to take us to the airport instead. And then, upon arrival at the International terminal for our flight to Houston, we found out that all United flights are from the Domestic Terminal...so the taxi driver reloaded our luggage and took us to the other terminal - which has no direct connection to the international terminal - and when he drove out of Terminal 2 with passengers, the Federales stopped him and we had to show them our plane reservations for the flight from Terminal One before they would let us go. Needless to say, he got an extra tip of another $100 pesos. (I think he was shocked at that.) At least we got to the correct terminal and checked in with time to spare.
However, once on the plane to Houston International (I still can't bring myself to call it B*** International) things went swell. Their customs/immigration lines were really long, but moved along nicely. Disney had provided a limo to take us to Galveston where we stayed in the Galvez Hotel - it's a Wyndham hotel across the street from the waterfront (unfortunately the lobby was all torn up making it more wonderful) - and then Disney picked us up the next morning by bus and took us to the ship.
Our table mates for dinner were a couple from northern Scotland and another couple from Texas, but they'd lived all over the world and were civilized folk. We always were the last table out of the restaurant each night!
Anyway, we had a nice cruise with several sea days (which we quite enjoy) and stops at Disney's private island (Castaway Cay - which is completely and solely Disney), a day at Walt Disney World with parkhopper tix (we splurged and took two private tours: Wild Africa Trek in Animal Kingdom and a dessert party while we saw the IllumiNations fireworks show in EPCOT; the AK trek was fabulous, the dessert party not so much), and in Key West we had booked breakfast at the Latitudes restaurant on the beach at the Westin Resort on their private island just off the coast. Then a few more sea days and we were back to reality!
The Disney Magic was next to cross the Atlantic (we have friends on it) and do a summer of Mediterranean cruises before an extensive dry dock to upgrade it to something closer to the new Fantasy and Dream ships.
Once we made our way back to Mexico City, we chose the wrong bus line: we went with the 3-across seating bus instead of the 4-across seating bus. Both were executive class but the bus line we chose left an hour later.... At least we finally ended up in San Miguel and caught a cab home and were greeted by exuberant doggies just before midnight!
Sunday we spent unpacking and washing multiple loads of clothing - even though we'd done laundry while on the ship. We hadn't restocked our cabinets, so it was dinner out last night. And it will be dinner out tonight if I don't zip over to the grocery store when I finish this entry!
Just booked our shuttle transport for January so things are aligned for our visit to Cabo to see my brother and his wife while at their condo in Cabo.
We only have one other trip between now and then - a week at the Santa Fe Opera in August featuring Traviata, La Donna del Lago, the Duchess of Gerolstein, Marriage of Figaro, and a world premier of Oscar with David Daniels (new, hot countertenor in The Enchanted Island at the Met). The Lady of the Lake and Duchess each feature one of Santa Fe's semi-resident (they each own a house in Santa Fe that our friends' business takes care of when they're not around) divas: Susan Graham (in Les Troyens at the Met) and Joyce Di Donato (in Maria Stuarda at the Met).
Then it's on to Cabo! I think next year may be a year of respite....
It didn't help that the taxi-ticket-seller person sold us a taxi ticket to the Centro Historico district instead of the Aeropuerto - which cost us an extra $100 peso tip to the driver to take us to the airport instead. And then, upon arrival at the International terminal for our flight to Houston, we found out that all United flights are from the Domestic Terminal...so the taxi driver reloaded our luggage and took us to the other terminal - which has no direct connection to the international terminal - and when he drove out of Terminal 2 with passengers, the Federales stopped him and we had to show them our plane reservations for the flight from Terminal One before they would let us go. Needless to say, he got an extra tip of another $100 pesos. (I think he was shocked at that.) At least we got to the correct terminal and checked in with time to spare.
However, once on the plane to Houston International (I still can't bring myself to call it B*** International) things went swell. Their customs/immigration lines were really long, but moved along nicely. Disney had provided a limo to take us to Galveston where we stayed in the Galvez Hotel - it's a Wyndham hotel across the street from the waterfront (unfortunately the lobby was all torn up making it more wonderful) - and then Disney picked us up the next morning by bus and took us to the ship.
Our table mates for dinner were a couple from northern Scotland and another couple from Texas, but they'd lived all over the world and were civilized folk. We always were the last table out of the restaurant each night!
Anyway, we had a nice cruise with several sea days (which we quite enjoy) and stops at Disney's private island (Castaway Cay - which is completely and solely Disney), a day at Walt Disney World with parkhopper tix (we splurged and took two private tours: Wild Africa Trek in Animal Kingdom and a dessert party while we saw the IllumiNations fireworks show in EPCOT; the AK trek was fabulous, the dessert party not so much), and in Key West we had booked breakfast at the Latitudes restaurant on the beach at the Westin Resort on their private island just off the coast. Then a few more sea days and we were back to reality!
The Disney Magic was next to cross the Atlantic (we have friends on it) and do a summer of Mediterranean cruises before an extensive dry dock to upgrade it to something closer to the new Fantasy and Dream ships.
Once we made our way back to Mexico City, we chose the wrong bus line: we went with the 3-across seating bus instead of the 4-across seating bus. Both were executive class but the bus line we chose left an hour later.... At least we finally ended up in San Miguel and caught a cab home and were greeted by exuberant doggies just before midnight!
Sunday we spent unpacking and washing multiple loads of clothing - even though we'd done laundry while on the ship. We hadn't restocked our cabinets, so it was dinner out last night. And it will be dinner out tonight if I don't zip over to the grocery store when I finish this entry!
Just booked our shuttle transport for January so things are aligned for our visit to Cabo to see my brother and his wife while at their condo in Cabo.
We only have one other trip between now and then - a week at the Santa Fe Opera in August featuring Traviata, La Donna del Lago, the Duchess of Gerolstein, Marriage of Figaro, and a world premier of Oscar with David Daniels (new, hot countertenor in The Enchanted Island at the Met). The Lady of the Lake and Duchess each feature one of Santa Fe's semi-resident (they each own a house in Santa Fe that our friends' business takes care of when they're not around) divas: Susan Graham (in Les Troyens at the Met) and Joyce Di Donato (in Maria Stuarda at the Met).
Then it's on to Cabo! I think next year may be a year of respite....
Friday, April 26, 2013
It's Raining!
I know you've been missing our weather reports - so here's one: It rained yesterday! Not all day, but what started out as really large drops of rain sprinkling on us in the late afternoon turned into a furious storm with lots of rolling thunder. Didn't last too long - unfortunately - but it was rain. And we need it!
Things are kinda dryish here. The last few years we had storms in January/February, but not this year - so things are dry, the presas (reservoirs) are low, we have to water our lawn daily and the potted plants (including the lime tree) dry out quickly without their daily drink.
According to the weather forecast that Michael posted on FaceBook yesterday, storms are predicted daily for the next 7 or 8 days. What we really need is a gentle, night-long rain so that the water has a chance to soak in instead of running off. Run-off may help as the water makes its way to the presa, but it would help to have some stay local, ya know?
Luckily for Michael and Fiyero, Michael had walked him home from the groomers (Dusty Puppies - groomers to the gringos) before it started raining. We're hoping for the same luck today, when Miyake makes the same walk into Guadiana (a colonia a little over halfway into Centro; not quite to the Instituto). Fiyero looks pretty good but he has an Irish coat; Miyake's already looking good due to Michael's scissoring, but she has an American coat. We'll see what Rod does with her!
I think we're getting ready for our haircuts, too, soon. Will it be before or after our trip to San Diego next week to see Billy Elliott? It's gotta be before our Galveston cruise the week after or we'll have to eat on Deck 9 instead of the main dining rooms!
Things are kinda dryish here. The last few years we had storms in January/February, but not this year - so things are dry, the presas (reservoirs) are low, we have to water our lawn daily and the potted plants (including the lime tree) dry out quickly without their daily drink.
According to the weather forecast that Michael posted on FaceBook yesterday, storms are predicted daily for the next 7 or 8 days. What we really need is a gentle, night-long rain so that the water has a chance to soak in instead of running off. Run-off may help as the water makes its way to the presa, but it would help to have some stay local, ya know?
Luckily for Michael and Fiyero, Michael had walked him home from the groomers (Dusty Puppies - groomers to the gringos) before it started raining. We're hoping for the same luck today, when Miyake makes the same walk into Guadiana (a colonia a little over halfway into Centro; not quite to the Instituto). Fiyero looks pretty good but he has an Irish coat; Miyake's already looking good due to Michael's scissoring, but she has an American coat. We'll see what Rod does with her!
I think we're getting ready for our haircuts, too, soon. Will it be before or after our trip to San Diego next week to see Billy Elliott? It's gotta be before our Galveston cruise the week after or we'll have to eat on Deck 9 instead of the main dining rooms!
Monday, April 22, 2013
Yammering On
So months without a peep, and now there's lots to talk about!
Today we met with a facilitator who assists we gringos through the forest known as Inmigracion. With all the recent changes in the last couple of years, we need it!
Last year they hadn't implemented the new laws, so we did it ourselves, using the services of an Escritorio Publica across the street from the Inmigracion building. For a small fee, they wrote our letter for us (in Spanish), created the paperwork for the bank, took our pictures, et cetera. Quick and easy.
However, the new procedures have now been implemented, so we're using the services of someone who knows their way through that forest. The news wasn't all that we had hoped for (going directly to Residente Permanente without the 4 years as a Temporal under our belts would have been nice), but at least we now know what we can do and how to do it.
We've even got a schedule of when we go back to him (our visas don't expire until August), what we'll be doing this year and next (Residente Termporal this year; Permanente next year), how we'll deal with the fact that we're going to be out of the country on our expiration date both years, and the fees that we will be responsible for paying.
So it's a transition to Residente Temporal this August and then to Residente Permanente next August. We can begin the process this year in July and request a permit to be out of the country without a 'real' visa in our hands. Next year we'll leave the country with a 'real' visa still in our hands, but it will expire during our cruise, so we have to work within the guidelines to make it legal and make the transition to Permanente.
Of course, once we reach Permanente status, that's the last visa we need -- no more renewals to pay for, no limits to how long we can be out of the country and still maintain our visa. Guess we'll live making the changeover in 2014 instead of 2013. There's supposed to be a points system that can be combined with years in-country, but no one has even written the guidelines for that process. We should be permanent before it sees the light of day.
Today we met with a facilitator who assists we gringos through the forest known as Inmigracion. With all the recent changes in the last couple of years, we need it!
Last year they hadn't implemented the new laws, so we did it ourselves, using the services of an Escritorio Publica across the street from the Inmigracion building. For a small fee, they wrote our letter for us (in Spanish), created the paperwork for the bank, took our pictures, et cetera. Quick and easy.
However, the new procedures have now been implemented, so we're using the services of someone who knows their way through that forest. The news wasn't all that we had hoped for (going directly to Residente Permanente without the 4 years as a Temporal under our belts would have been nice), but at least we now know what we can do and how to do it.
We've even got a schedule of when we go back to him (our visas don't expire until August), what we'll be doing this year and next (Residente Termporal this year; Permanente next year), how we'll deal with the fact that we're going to be out of the country on our expiration date both years, and the fees that we will be responsible for paying.
So it's a transition to Residente Temporal this August and then to Residente Permanente next August. We can begin the process this year in July and request a permit to be out of the country without a 'real' visa in our hands. Next year we'll leave the country with a 'real' visa still in our hands, but it will expire during our cruise, so we have to work within the guidelines to make it legal and make the transition to Permanente.
Of course, once we reach Permanente status, that's the last visa we need -- no more renewals to pay for, no limits to how long we can be out of the country and still maintain our visa. Guess we'll live making the changeover in 2014 instead of 2013. There's supposed to be a points system that can be combined with years in-country, but no one has even written the guidelines for that process. We should be permanent before it sees the light of day.
It's the Little Things
So, we've noticed lately that the Bosch washer that we brought with us to Mexico three years ago has been acting squirrely. It ran for two years like a top, no problems - even after a few years' use in Reseda.
But lately it had been pausing mid-cycle which required a manual push of the Start/Pause button to resume the wash -- and it always seemed to go back to the beginning of the wash cycle. Then it began pausing several times during the wash cycle including the rinse portion as well as the spin portion. Sometimes the clothes were left quite wet and there was water in the tub (it's a front-loading machine).
We'd given up on it and were shopping for one of the new Samsung top-loading machines - the ones without a center agitator which depended upon jets of water from the bottom and sides of the tub to swirl the clothes around - and operated by fuzzy logic. New appliances are always fun to work with! Bright and shiny, too!
So Michael had discovered that, unless we sprayed water down the detergent chute to wash the liquid into the tub, there was absolutely no water to wash by. So he disconnected the water supply hoses and found enough mineral deposits to block the hard filter that is part of the connection.
A good cleaning/scrubbing (I knew we saved that old toothbrush for a reason) and it was good as new. Filter restored, water flow working again!
No new appliance needed - drat! But it saved us a pocket-full of pesos and we can always spend it on a new estufa (range) that needs looking at. Perhaps better than a new washer - though it won't be cherry red!
But lately it had been pausing mid-cycle which required a manual push of the Start/Pause button to resume the wash -- and it always seemed to go back to the beginning of the wash cycle. Then it began pausing several times during the wash cycle including the rinse portion as well as the spin portion. Sometimes the clothes were left quite wet and there was water in the tub (it's a front-loading machine).
We'd given up on it and were shopping for one of the new Samsung top-loading machines - the ones without a center agitator which depended upon jets of water from the bottom and sides of the tub to swirl the clothes around - and operated by fuzzy logic. New appliances are always fun to work with! Bright and shiny, too!
So Michael had discovered that, unless we sprayed water down the detergent chute to wash the liquid into the tub, there was absolutely no water to wash by. So he disconnected the water supply hoses and found enough mineral deposits to block the hard filter that is part of the connection.
A good cleaning/scrubbing (I knew we saved that old toothbrush for a reason) and it was good as new. Filter restored, water flow working again!
No new appliance needed - drat! But it saved us a pocket-full of pesos and we can always spend it on a new estufa (range) that needs looking at. Perhaps better than a new washer - though it won't be cherry red!
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
A Busy Summer
I know, I know: Where have I been? Mostly here in San Miguel. There just hasn't been too much to write about that I haven't addressed in earlier posts, ya know? How many weather-related posts can anyone read?
We have been a little busy: Friends from Canada who are having their house in San Miguel remodeled visited for a few months earlier this year. Our best friend in town hosted his mother's visit recently. Facebook friends from Orange County visited. All of which called for drinks at La Azotea, dinners, et cetera. So our life hasn't been dull.
Did I tell you that our friend here in town has opened a hostel? Michael got to 'volunteer' to help with the transition from small hospital to hostel. Quite the changeover (before and after pictures on Facebook).
Now we're looking forward to an exciting summer! Not expecting any more visitors, but there's plenty to do. We've been granted a new 2-year lease on our home, so it's time to do some of those things that we've been delaying: More pictures going up (in homes with cement walls inside and out, hanging pictures is a project); reorganizing the bodega (the former live-in maid's room, we use it for storage); install the solar fireflies in the back yard (we've been carrying around that kit for years, originally planning on using them in our home in Los Angeles); sorting out the Harry Potter Memorial Bedroom (it's the closet under the stairs to the second floor). Next up is getting the new light fixtures for the entry and backyard and having them put up; moving the light switches for the backyard lights to the inside of the house; we're saving money for (and window shopping for) a new clothes washer (the Bosch unit that we brought from L.A. has begun acting squirrely); and renewing visas and nationalizing our car.
Nationalizing our car??? Yes, when one converts to a Residente Permanente visa (sort of like a green card in the States), one can no longer drive a foreign-plated car with a Temporary Import Permit (TIP). [The police in Mazatlan have reportedly confiscated three cars driven/owned by recently christened Permanente holders. Yikes!] We've had such a TIP for our minivan since moving to Mexico, as we continue to accumulate time in residence towards that elusive Permanente visa. We're going to try for the visa this year in August.
While we're still a year short for making a simple transition, we're still going to Immigration each year, paying fees, having pictures taken, filing applications for extensions, et cetera. Once we manage Permanente status there are no annual renewals: No more photos, applications, fees - we're just here. The only other step would be citizenship, but with my language skills in Spanish, that's not a good bet! And with Permanente status we don't have to watch our time out of the country. Not that we're gone a lot, but with our current visas, that time is limited. No more worries with a Permanente visa. [I'm hoping that I turned in the correct forms when returning to the country on each trip or they may think I left years ago and never came back!]
If we can't manage the changeover to Permanente this year, we can change to a Temporal visa for one more year and then we don't have to prove income for the change to Permanente next year. There's some question as to whether there are lower fees for the second person if there's a familial relationship. We're dealing with a facilitator who handles this sort of thing, and waiting for her take on our situation. To take advantage of a lower qualifying financial base (if that is so), we'd try for a familial relationship, so we'd likely have to have our California marriage license registered with the federal government in DF [pronounced Day-effay for Distrito Federal] in Mexico City. And who knows how long that would take. Hence one of our concerns about meshing the timing of the car nationalization and new visas.
And just to make things more complicated, our original choice of visas was FM2 or FM3. We opted to go directly to an FM2 visa, so that we could gain residency more quickly. Then they changed the names of the visas to Inmigrado and Non-Inmigrado and some of the rules, but they operated much the same way.
Now we've got Residente Temporal and Residente Permanente to deal with and all the changes that came with it all. After knowing what to expect for the last few years, we're on a steep learning curve again. One of the changes creeps in backwards. The Aduana (customs) rules are based on earlier versions of immigration visas, but the named visas have gone away. So there's the question of what do you do with your vehicle now? Can Permanente holders still drive a car with a TIP? Can they not? What do you do with your car? That's why we're going ahead with the nationalization process - sooner or later we'll need Mexican plates on our van.
So, back to the car issue. One normally nationalizes a car at the border and the process takes up to two weeks. Rather than driving back to Texas, staying in a hotel/motel, eating out for two weeks, entertaining ourselves for two weeks, boarding the dogs for two weeks, et cetera, et cetera, we decided to take advantage of a recent, temporary Amparo and do it long distance. Don't bother looking up 'amparo' in your Spanish/English dictionary; I don't think it translates. Basically, it's the result of a court decision that gives the injured party the ability to do something that they were prevented from doing (which resulted in the court case). In our case, a particular broker was given permission to import cars of a certain age and lineage that would not otherwise be eligible for importation for a limited time. So we were under the gun to make a decision.
We found an agent in Guadalajara ('nearby Guadalajara') who had a relationship with that particular broker, so we are able to handle everything without leaving San Miguel and skip the trip to the border. While a bit more expensive, we don't incur the costs of living NOB for two weeks while the process goes forward, so it's at least a wash.
We contacted the agent, sent all the paperwork and photos via email, and transferred the deposit into their bank account (thanks, Tim, for helping with that! US banks are not very helpful with their rules for wire transfers - even to another US bank). Then we sat back to wait. That was last week.
I'm not the most patient person....so I was thrilled to receive an email from the agent that the Pedimento (the approval of the importation by Aduana - Mexico's customs agency) was in process and would be available early next week! We only transferred the funds last week! When the agent has the Pedimento they will let us know our balance (courier fees, differences in exchange rates, et cetera) and we will make the final funds transfer. Once it's couriered over to us, we take the Pedimento to our local DMV (okay; it's not called the DMV) agency to file it, have the vehicle's VIN verified, and pay for the registration ('buy the plates') and then we're legal! Still need to sort out the insurance ramifications (waiting for a second quote), but it's not required in Mexico (though wise to have it), so that shouldn't delay registering the car - and it sits most of the time in it's little off-street parking space here at home.
And this is all tied back into our visa situation because under the terms of the amparo, we had to possess an FM2/Inmigrado visa. (Which we do.) However, if we had to settle for Residente Temporal visas later this summer and the nationalization hadn't taken place yet, we wouldn't have been able to import the car. We would have the wrong type of visa. And with the way things sometime move in Mexico, there was a concern about which would be finished first. And Mr. Hope-for-the-best-but-plan-for-the-worst had concerns. Which are now ka-puff! With luck - and the creek don't rise - we should have the Pedimento in our hands by the end of next week.
As I mentioned before, we're already working with a facilitator on our visa situation. Once again, forewarned is forearmed. If we need to register things with the federal government, it could take time and might require a personal appearance in Mexico City. And our expiration date on our current visas occurs while we're in Santa Fe, New Mexico for the opera season, so this needs to be planned out. I believe that our facilitator can file our applications for us and then we return for fingerprints and photos afterwards (we return to town the day after the visas expire).
Anyway, that's our summer! Hope yours is good as well.
We have been a little busy: Friends from Canada who are having their house in San Miguel remodeled visited for a few months earlier this year. Our best friend in town hosted his mother's visit recently. Facebook friends from Orange County visited. All of which called for drinks at La Azotea, dinners, et cetera. So our life hasn't been dull.
Did I tell you that our friend here in town has opened a hostel? Michael got to 'volunteer' to help with the transition from small hospital to hostel. Quite the changeover (before and after pictures on Facebook).
Now we're looking forward to an exciting summer! Not expecting any more visitors, but there's plenty to do. We've been granted a new 2-year lease on our home, so it's time to do some of those things that we've been delaying: More pictures going up (in homes with cement walls inside and out, hanging pictures is a project); reorganizing the bodega (the former live-in maid's room, we use it for storage); install the solar fireflies in the back yard (we've been carrying around that kit for years, originally planning on using them in our home in Los Angeles); sorting out the Harry Potter Memorial Bedroom (it's the closet under the stairs to the second floor). Next up is getting the new light fixtures for the entry and backyard and having them put up; moving the light switches for the backyard lights to the inside of the house; we're saving money for (and window shopping for) a new clothes washer (the Bosch unit that we brought from L.A. has begun acting squirrely); and renewing visas and nationalizing our car.
Nationalizing our car??? Yes, when one converts to a Residente Permanente visa (sort of like a green card in the States), one can no longer drive a foreign-plated car with a Temporary Import Permit (TIP). [The police in Mazatlan have reportedly confiscated three cars driven/owned by recently christened Permanente holders. Yikes!] We've had such a TIP for our minivan since moving to Mexico, as we continue to accumulate time in residence towards that elusive Permanente visa. We're going to try for the visa this year in August.
While we're still a year short for making a simple transition, we're still going to Immigration each year, paying fees, having pictures taken, filing applications for extensions, et cetera. Once we manage Permanente status there are no annual renewals: No more photos, applications, fees - we're just here. The only other step would be citizenship, but with my language skills in Spanish, that's not a good bet! And with Permanente status we don't have to watch our time out of the country. Not that we're gone a lot, but with our current visas, that time is limited. No more worries with a Permanente visa. [I'm hoping that I turned in the correct forms when returning to the country on each trip or they may think I left years ago and never came back!]
If we can't manage the changeover to Permanente this year, we can change to a Temporal visa for one more year and then we don't have to prove income for the change to Permanente next year. There's some question as to whether there are lower fees for the second person if there's a familial relationship. We're dealing with a facilitator who handles this sort of thing, and waiting for her take on our situation. To take advantage of a lower qualifying financial base (if that is so), we'd try for a familial relationship, so we'd likely have to have our California marriage license registered with the federal government in DF [pronounced Day-effay for Distrito Federal] in Mexico City. And who knows how long that would take. Hence one of our concerns about meshing the timing of the car nationalization and new visas.
And just to make things more complicated, our original choice of visas was FM2 or FM3. We opted to go directly to an FM2 visa, so that we could gain residency more quickly. Then they changed the names of the visas to Inmigrado and Non-Inmigrado and some of the rules, but they operated much the same way.
Now we've got Residente Temporal and Residente Permanente to deal with and all the changes that came with it all. After knowing what to expect for the last few years, we're on a steep learning curve again. One of the changes creeps in backwards. The Aduana (customs) rules are based on earlier versions of immigration visas, but the named visas have gone away. So there's the question of what do you do with your vehicle now? Can Permanente holders still drive a car with a TIP? Can they not? What do you do with your car? That's why we're going ahead with the nationalization process - sooner or later we'll need Mexican plates on our van.
So, back to the car issue. One normally nationalizes a car at the border and the process takes up to two weeks. Rather than driving back to Texas, staying in a hotel/motel, eating out for two weeks, entertaining ourselves for two weeks, boarding the dogs for two weeks, et cetera, et cetera, we decided to take advantage of a recent, temporary Amparo and do it long distance. Don't bother looking up 'amparo' in your Spanish/English dictionary; I don't think it translates. Basically, it's the result of a court decision that gives the injured party the ability to do something that they were prevented from doing (which resulted in the court case). In our case, a particular broker was given permission to import cars of a certain age and lineage that would not otherwise be eligible for importation for a limited time. So we were under the gun to make a decision.
We found an agent in Guadalajara ('nearby Guadalajara') who had a relationship with that particular broker, so we are able to handle everything without leaving San Miguel and skip the trip to the border. While a bit more expensive, we don't incur the costs of living NOB for two weeks while the process goes forward, so it's at least a wash.
We contacted the agent, sent all the paperwork and photos via email, and transferred the deposit into their bank account (thanks, Tim, for helping with that! US banks are not very helpful with their rules for wire transfers - even to another US bank). Then we sat back to wait. That was last week.
I'm not the most patient person....so I was thrilled to receive an email from the agent that the Pedimento (the approval of the importation by Aduana - Mexico's customs agency) was in process and would be available early next week! We only transferred the funds last week! When the agent has the Pedimento they will let us know our balance (courier fees, differences in exchange rates, et cetera) and we will make the final funds transfer. Once it's couriered over to us, we take the Pedimento to our local DMV (okay; it's not called the DMV) agency to file it, have the vehicle's VIN verified, and pay for the registration ('buy the plates') and then we're legal! Still need to sort out the insurance ramifications (waiting for a second quote), but it's not required in Mexico (though wise to have it), so that shouldn't delay registering the car - and it sits most of the time in it's little off-street parking space here at home.
And this is all tied back into our visa situation because under the terms of the amparo, we had to possess an FM2/Inmigrado visa. (Which we do.) However, if we had to settle for Residente Temporal visas later this summer and the nationalization hadn't taken place yet, we wouldn't have been able to import the car. We would have the wrong type of visa. And with the way things sometime move in Mexico, there was a concern about which would be finished first. And Mr. Hope-for-the-best-but-plan-for-the-worst had concerns. Which are now ka-puff! With luck - and the creek don't rise - we should have the Pedimento in our hands by the end of next week.
As I mentioned before, we're already working with a facilitator on our visa situation. Once again, forewarned is forearmed. If we need to register things with the federal government, it could take time and might require a personal appearance in Mexico City. And our expiration date on our current visas occurs while we're in Santa Fe, New Mexico for the opera season, so this needs to be planned out. I believe that our facilitator can file our applications for us and then we return for fingerprints and photos afterwards (we return to town the day after the visas expire).
Anyway, that's our summer! Hope yours is good as well.
Saturday, March 2, 2013
A Change in the Forecast
So I had just put down the penultimate Lee Child mystery (I'm working my way through them all), when I stretched and looked out the french doors in the bedroom to see San Miguel sunshine! The cold cloud cover that we'd had yesterday had broken up (there were still plenty of clouds, though) and sunshine was streaming in. It wasn't going to be a miserable day after all.
I can hear you now: 'miserable' mentioned in the same paragraph as your personal shangra-la? Well, yes.
You see, homes here don't have central heating. If you're lucky, your home has a fireplace or three outfitted for a set of artificial logs that burn gas. Many homes have at least one fireplace with a gas supply attached. Fireplaces seldom burn wood as it is at a premium here in the central highlands. Most trees were chopped down and burned in the preceding couple hundred years. It's one reason our homes are built of brick and concrete instead of wood-framed stucco. We even have a set of the logs which live in the bodega since moving from our previous fireplace-equipped home.
Our home doesn't have a fireplace (yet - but that's another story), but we do have a portable gas heater that takes the chill off the living area in the early morning. Finally found the adapter we needed to connect the BBQ-sized cylinder to the heater, so we're in business. The fan is a bit noisy, but if we situate the heater just right, it can be minimized.
With concrete homes, we depend upon the sun to warm them up during the day so that they radiate warmth through most of the night; and then the cycle repeats itself with the coming of the sun. This is particularly important when we need to leave a door to the backyard open so the dogs can take advantage of said yard during the night, allowing cool air to envelope the ground floor living areas.
We were just talking a few days ago about the weather having warmed up enough that we could pack the heater away -- glad we hadn't quite gotten around to it! However, with the sunshine now back, things should warm up enough to let us do that. But we'll wait to see if it holds.... At least it hasn't been really rainy while it was cold, as the previous couple of years had really cold January/February weather. And the first year we had only electric heaters, which caused our electricity bills to soar. (We don't use them any more.)
Before this cold snap we had been enjoying sunny weather. Breezy, but not really cool. Even though 'breezy' probably would not have been the word the dogs picked to describe it - were they vocally inclined. It was downright windy. And while I don't mind the sound of the wind whipping around the corners of the house, they get freaked out! Especially when the wind rattles the french doors that are in most rooms. (One reason we don't worry about using unvented gas heaters - with the way windows and doors fit here in Mexico, we don't need to spend a lot of time worrying about that. There's always some air movement.) Poor Miyake starts quivering and it doesn't stop, even when she seeks out our company, up close and personal. And if the wind blows a door shut - watch out, they'll all be sitting on the bed with you.
But it looks like the dire predictions for a low temperature below 30F won't occur - which is good when you don't have central heating!
I can hear you now: 'miserable' mentioned in the same paragraph as your personal shangra-la? Well, yes.
You see, homes here don't have central heating. If you're lucky, your home has a fireplace or three outfitted for a set of artificial logs that burn gas. Many homes have at least one fireplace with a gas supply attached. Fireplaces seldom burn wood as it is at a premium here in the central highlands. Most trees were chopped down and burned in the preceding couple hundred years. It's one reason our homes are built of brick and concrete instead of wood-framed stucco. We even have a set of the logs which live in the bodega since moving from our previous fireplace-equipped home.
Our home doesn't have a fireplace (yet - but that's another story), but we do have a portable gas heater that takes the chill off the living area in the early morning. Finally found the adapter we needed to connect the BBQ-sized cylinder to the heater, so we're in business. The fan is a bit noisy, but if we situate the heater just right, it can be minimized.
With concrete homes, we depend upon the sun to warm them up during the day so that they radiate warmth through most of the night; and then the cycle repeats itself with the coming of the sun. This is particularly important when we need to leave a door to the backyard open so the dogs can take advantage of said yard during the night, allowing cool air to envelope the ground floor living areas.
We were just talking a few days ago about the weather having warmed up enough that we could pack the heater away -- glad we hadn't quite gotten around to it! However, with the sunshine now back, things should warm up enough to let us do that. But we'll wait to see if it holds.... At least it hasn't been really rainy while it was cold, as the previous couple of years had really cold January/February weather. And the first year we had only electric heaters, which caused our electricity bills to soar. (We don't use them any more.)
Before this cold snap we had been enjoying sunny weather. Breezy, but not really cool. Even though 'breezy' probably would not have been the word the dogs picked to describe it - were they vocally inclined. It was downright windy. And while I don't mind the sound of the wind whipping around the corners of the house, they get freaked out! Especially when the wind rattles the french doors that are in most rooms. (One reason we don't worry about using unvented gas heaters - with the way windows and doors fit here in Mexico, we don't need to spend a lot of time worrying about that. There's always some air movement.) Poor Miyake starts quivering and it doesn't stop, even when she seeks out our company, up close and personal. And if the wind blows a door shut - watch out, they'll all be sitting on the bed with you.
But it looks like the dire predictions for a low temperature below 30F won't occur - which is good when you don't have central heating!
Thursday, February 7, 2013
Happy News
Just a little happy note today. Yesterday we had a planned visit from our landlord to look the house over and talk about next year's lease/rent. We have stayed in each house one year since moving to San Miguel. The first house we decided to move from as it really didn't have yard space for the dogs. The second house was being put on the market and we didn't want to deal with realtors and lookey-loos traipsing through the house on short notice. So we were a little apprehensive about the visit - what if she didn't like something?
Margarita picked that day to be late, so Michael and I were dividing up the cleaning chores to whip the ground floor into shape in case Margarita didn't show at all. And then she walked through the door. Relief!
We had been told that the landlord (landlady, actually) was an older person and she had not granted our request for a long-term lease originally because she wanted to see how we kept the house. The last tenant had been 'adventuresome' with paint, we understand.
Imagine my surprise when the landlady and her husband walked through the front gate and they were the folks who had been coming by to pick up the rental checks in recent months, saving us a walk into Centro to deliver the check to the notary's office. I thought they were just saving us the trip to the office.
So it was a friendly visit. Hug-hug;. kissy-kissy greetings. We told them of our desire to replace the kitchen counters (tiles are chipped and bits missing along some edges), add some trees to the back yard, and our hopes for either a new tub in the master bath or conversion to a shower. Although she is not prepared to invest any additional money in the house, she wasn't adverse to our proposed installations.
And then the best news: a two-year lease with no increase in the rent! (I have a feeling that means the rent is likely to increase at the end of this new lease.) Our realtor friend said he was expecting the rent to increase for this next year, so he was surprised, too.
Whew! Perhaps it helped that we had folks here working on refinishing the front door to the house. Or that we always have the rent check ready for them? And the white walls are still white? Whatever the reason, it was good news. This moving each year is not what it's cracked up to be!
Margarita picked that day to be late, so Michael and I were dividing up the cleaning chores to whip the ground floor into shape in case Margarita didn't show at all. And then she walked through the door. Relief!
We had been told that the landlord (landlady, actually) was an older person and she had not granted our request for a long-term lease originally because she wanted to see how we kept the house. The last tenant had been 'adventuresome' with paint, we understand.
Imagine my surprise when the landlady and her husband walked through the front gate and they were the folks who had been coming by to pick up the rental checks in recent months, saving us a walk into Centro to deliver the check to the notary's office. I thought they were just saving us the trip to the office.
So it was a friendly visit. Hug-hug;. kissy-kissy greetings. We told them of our desire to replace the kitchen counters (tiles are chipped and bits missing along some edges), add some trees to the back yard, and our hopes for either a new tub in the master bath or conversion to a shower. Although she is not prepared to invest any additional money in the house, she wasn't adverse to our proposed installations.
And then the best news: a two-year lease with no increase in the rent! (I have a feeling that means the rent is likely to increase at the end of this new lease.) Our realtor friend said he was expecting the rent to increase for this next year, so he was surprised, too.
Whew! Perhaps it helped that we had folks here working on refinishing the front door to the house. Or that we always have the rent check ready for them? And the white walls are still white? Whatever the reason, it was good news. This moving each year is not what it's cracked up to be!
Friday, January 18, 2013
¡OUFF-TA!
[Ouff-ta! - A French-Canadien interjection they use in the U.P., too.] It's cold here today. Woke up to 39F, which is downright chilly for us. This is Sunny Mexico, right? Once we were brave enough to face the chill, we went downstairs and fired up the propane heater, which quickly took the chill out of the lower floor. Upstairs is probably still a bit cool, and the heat only travels up the stairwell. It's an iffy thing but easier than carrying the heater and tethered tank upstairs. Would be nice if we could leave it on low during the night, but as an unventilated heater - despite the leaky windows and doors that seem to be part of the building code down here - it's better to keep it off. Maybe next year we can afford a second heater for the upper story....
However, we shall soon be in a warmer place. Next Tuesday - only four days away, when it's predicted to be zero in Michael's hometown in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan - the weather folks are predicting a high of 81F in Cabo San Lucas. Beach time!
We're feeling a little guilty about going to Cabo this year. A great foody friend invited us to join her in one of her favorite spots - New Orleans - for her birthday in early February. However, search though we did, we couldn't find an airfare that was less than $600 each (too close to Mardi Gras, I guess, and not direct; nothing flies from Mexico CIty to New Orleans without a layover somewhere), plus the hotel and delicious meals out. Our friend can really pick restaurants!
Cabo, on the other hand, is as guests of my brother and his wife, staying in their beach front, 6,000 sq ft, 2 bedroom villa with their own pool and Jacuzzi on the third floor balcony overlooking the beach and ocean. (We'll still be found downstairs on the beach most of the day, before adjourning to one of the swim-up bars.) And the local airline had a great rate: only $103 per person, round trip. Since our sister-in-law has food issues, last year we opted to cook for them and it was so successful that we're repeating it this year. So we're traveling with recipes, shopping lists, and a few things like dried chilies and soy-free, homemade seasoning mixes. We'll still have the occasional dinner out. (I'm not cooking for my birthday!)
This trip covers the aforesaid birthday and my sister from San Diego will be joining us for the weekend. All three siblings will be together at once! (I guess that's the meaning of 'being together,' eh? - as they say in the U.P.) Plus the added benefit of my sister bringing with her all the things we've ordered on the internet in recent months and had sent to their home - anything to avoid the 17% service fee our mail forwarder charges.
We anticipate a week of sloth at a marvelous resort with no TV/radio/telephones. Time to get away from it all! They do have a pretty good restaurant (and many others in town which we will sample), food and drink service to your palapa on the beach, two big pools w/swim-up bars (with 2-for-1 drinks most of the day), a tennis court, a gym, and a spa - so we shan't be bored if the sand proves too relaxing.
Not sure if we're planning on a trip up the coast to Todos Santos this time (Cabo is an annual trip), but it's easily reachable if we have a yearning for wonderfully prepared lamb chops!
And I'll try not to drown this year (again). The resort recently resurfaced their pools with Pebble Tec to replace the easily discernible mosaic tiles. Looks great, but you can't tell where the bottom falls out of the pools!
However, we shall soon be in a warmer place. Next Tuesday - only four days away, when it's predicted to be zero in Michael's hometown in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan - the weather folks are predicting a high of 81F in Cabo San Lucas. Beach time!
We're feeling a little guilty about going to Cabo this year. A great foody friend invited us to join her in one of her favorite spots - New Orleans - for her birthday in early February. However, search though we did, we couldn't find an airfare that was less than $600 each (too close to Mardi Gras, I guess, and not direct; nothing flies from Mexico CIty to New Orleans without a layover somewhere), plus the hotel and delicious meals out. Our friend can really pick restaurants!
Cabo, on the other hand, is as guests of my brother and his wife, staying in their beach front, 6,000 sq ft, 2 bedroom villa with their own pool and Jacuzzi on the third floor balcony overlooking the beach and ocean. (We'll still be found downstairs on the beach most of the day, before adjourning to one of the swim-up bars.) And the local airline had a great rate: only $103 per person, round trip. Since our sister-in-law has food issues, last year we opted to cook for them and it was so successful that we're repeating it this year. So we're traveling with recipes, shopping lists, and a few things like dried chilies and soy-free, homemade seasoning mixes. We'll still have the occasional dinner out. (I'm not cooking for my birthday!)
This trip covers the aforesaid birthday and my sister from San Diego will be joining us for the weekend. All three siblings will be together at once! (I guess that's the meaning of 'being together,' eh? - as they say in the U.P.) Plus the added benefit of my sister bringing with her all the things we've ordered on the internet in recent months and had sent to their home - anything to avoid the 17% service fee our mail forwarder charges.
We anticipate a week of sloth at a marvelous resort with no TV/radio/telephones. Time to get away from it all! They do have a pretty good restaurant (and many others in town which we will sample), food and drink service to your palapa on the beach, two big pools w/swim-up bars (with 2-for-1 drinks most of the day), a tennis court, a gym, and a spa - so we shan't be bored if the sand proves too relaxing.
Not sure if we're planning on a trip up the coast to Todos Santos this time (Cabo is an annual trip), but it's easily reachable if we have a yearning for wonderfully prepared lamb chops!
And I'll try not to drown this year (again). The resort recently resurfaced their pools with Pebble Tec to replace the easily discernible mosaic tiles. Looks great, but you can't tell where the bottom falls out of the pools!
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