Living South

Returning from our cruise we made all the final arrangments so that we could feel relatively confident about leaving the house and especially leaving Linda's parents. On the parental side, Linda took great care to inform everyone where we were, how they could contact us and then she worked a schedule where her brother and sister would be visiting, staying in our house and providing the parents some family contact.

The visits give the family chances to see each other and it provides important coming and going from our house. Everything will go smoothly involving their visits as long as I remember to shut off all the house security alarms and cameras before they arrive. If I don't do that, well, to say the least, they will get some surprises.

We flew into Mexico just a day or so before Christmas. It was good to get back to our little town of Melaque and as soon as our taxi dropped us at the front door of our casa, we ran into our first friends, Geo and Zoe who live on Vashon Island back up in Washington.  We said quick hellos and climbed the steps up to our apartment where we would reside for the next three months.

This year's living experience is something we have been talking about since we left Mexico last year. Our apartment is located downtown in the heart of the San Patricio business district. We have always stayed at the far east end of Melaque and walked to this area in the evenings to enjoy the happenings centered around the Jardin (central plaza). Living in this area never occurred to us until our friends Jacquie and Grant ran into a connection that opened up the possibility of renting the two apartments.  We checked them out, making sure they had the amenities that we wanted and sealed the deal.

At the time of writing this post, Linda and I have been in the apartment for three nights and are 85% settled. The amenities we had looked for when searching for our three month home were very simple. The place needed to first have a comfortable bed. No sleeping on the floor for me this year. A good shower with pressure and a clean updated kitchen area. Our casa has all this plus real good air conditioning (A big bonus!)

Moving in has been a little bit of an experience. First, you need to realize that we are arriving during Christmas, and everything is a bit tougher because the locals do honor Christmas on Christmas day. To Mexican families, Christmas Eve and Christmas day are times to gather and be with their families. It is an important holiday, but they don't get as involved in all the commercial stuff as we do up north.

At our arrival, everything that needed attention took a bit more time because of the holiday. For instance, we needed to have the gas turned on to the kitchen stove. Not a big deal. Then we also needed the hot water turned on. I didn't know about this until we took late showers in cold water. Again, no big problem and this was fixed the next morning. I was able to fix a couple plumbing problems dealing with the sink and shower by removing particle screens from the two heads. This gave us some much needed unimpeded water pressure in the bathroom.

These are all little problems that were solved and we moved on.  Today Linda contacted the lady who cleans and supervises the complex and she scheduled a day for her to come in and do some light cleaning. This is a good perk for us and it provides Rosa, our super, additional income which is sort of an expectation of her job.

Our To-Do list is basically down to two items at this point, we need the internet fixed and with that, we will then have access to television if we want it (not a very important item, but it would be nice).
Putting all this together, we find that our casa is a very nice spot. There are two-bedrooms, Linda and I have each taken one. This works out very nicely because the beds are very comfortable, but also Mexican short and not very wide. My feet hang over the bottom by about three inches. Sleeping in separate beds is not our first choice, but by doing so I am able to sleep diagonally in the bed and my feet don't have to hang over the bottom.

The two bedrooms have separate air-conditioner units and this lets us control the temperatures for each of our personal choices. I like to sleep a bit cooler then Linda does and this works out great.
In the late afternoon, we turn on the air conditioning and cool off the apartment. Then we go to bed and during the night shut the air conditioning off, and sleep with the windows open. This allows the air to flow and by morning the entire apartment is very comfortable. We do our morning thing and then when we leave we shut all the windows in the place and keep the AC off. When we return, we turn the AC back on. It does not take very long to cool the entire apartment down. We can then move about our place in cool comfort.

All this is very different from prior years where we depended on the ocean breeze to provide our cooling. There is a breeze up on our roof, with a small swimming pool, but shade is a bit hard to find in the later afternoons.

Every day we get up, Linda runs or walks and I make coffee. It takes me a while to wake up and by the time Linda gets back to the apartment I am ready to chat about the upcoming day. We usually have breakfast and then go to Las Palmas (our friends' property) to play pool volleyball. As we play, we hear all the scuttlebutt within our gringo community. Linda usually sets up evening plans and so our day is scheduled.

The group of friends we have developed is wonderful, amazing folks. Arriving in Melaque you are welcomed back with hugs and handshakes. Everyone is so nice. As we walk the streets we run into the many local Mexican friends that we have established over the years. They are so loving and we have come to look forward to seeing them all every year.

Our living in Mexico is now in full swing. Jacquie and Grant arrive today. We are getting invites out for dinners, our bodies are sore and tired from our daily volleyball workouts and life is good. Each morning I look at the framed quotes hanging on the walls of our casa and smile. One says LIVE LIFE, LOVE and be HAPPY and the other says Welcome to Melaque, your home in Mexico!