SO WHAT HAS BEEN GOING ON WITH KEN AND DONNA

We are now in the process of painting the inside and outside of the house we purchased.  In the living room I made some drapes for the side window and got that wall painted.  

Then I painted a mural on one wall.  Never had I done a mural of any kind and because of that I had to do this about three different times.

On the other wall of the living room I did a different style drapery because it is a door and for the other door I will make yet another type of drapery for that.  

Life in this house is not easy, it is hard work.  The roads around us are dirt and there is a lot of dust plus sand.  Yet it is a comfortable house for us and I like living here.  

We have friends but they for the most part are Mexicans and I do not think that gringos have real friendships with Mexicans unless there is years and years of constant interaction with each other.  

We go out with our friends to different restaurants and beaches. The one beach that I love to go to is called Boca de Tomatla

This is the entrance to the bay of Banderas from Boca.  Now around the point on the top of the picture you can take a boat to different beaches that can only be reached by boat.

Boca is beautiful and so peaceful.  The ocean come up to this beach and then there is a laguna and another beach .  You can just see some of the laguna on the left side of this picture.

Many a happy day and evening spent on this site with different friends.

This is fish that is marinated in spices and then cooked over a wood fire.  Just fantastic.

These are just different pictures of Boca  

NOW ABOUT MAKING MONEY

Making money is always nice and in Mexico it is important.  My original plan was to open a little lunch room with a retail shop attached.  But that would take a lot of money up front if I started out with a retail shop and restaurant.  So I looked for a job to earn the money to invest.

One job lead to another and I ended up working for a medical tourism company.  I like it but it is not what I want to do every day of my life.  This is total commission - which I am very comfortable with because I have always done commission base since I was in my late 20's.  However, I am use to having a little more control over determining the income I make.  With this job, the income is a percent of a cost for a medical procedure.  With real estate you take the price of a house and a percent on that - you have your commission.  You want higher commissions, sell higher priced homes.  Simple.  Well this has all sorts of variables that I can not predict or see ahead of time.  Where you have the operation makes a difference in the commission.  The type of operation makes a difference in the commission and so on and on.  Hence  have no clue how to figure out an income to shoot for.  I am looking at other jobs.

I still want my restaurant and retail shop.  But how to pull it off.  Well I have a dear friend that is a Mexican and he can do business in Mexico in a way that I can not.  The Mexican government does not make it easy or even nice for an American to have a business and earn money here.  But it is possible.  If I use my friend who is Mexican to register the business and get the tax ID number then it will be simple.  However, I need a contract between him and I and that will cost about $200.00 us dollars.

These are some of the items that I want to sell.

The blue pineapple looking thing is a huge punch bowl and attached to is are smaller punch bowls  So you take the lid off and one of the small bowls on the side, fill your bowl up and take it to your table.

   

Once a year in Patzcuaro there is a fair where all the indigenous artisan come to the main plaza and set up shop for about one week long.  That is where I want to travel and pick up about $400.00 dollars worth of goods and bring them back to sell here in Puerto Vallarta.  

There are tons and tons of shops in Puerto Vallarta that sell stuff to tourist, but nothing of this quality and they are outrageously priced.   I think I can mark these items up four times the cost of the item.  

So here is the plan.  I go shopping and come home and Rick sells these and we find out just how they sell and how much to mark them up from purchase price.  We save the money for the next trip and purchase and do it again making an extra profit to save for a building down the road.  But time and experience will be the trainer here.  

We had a wonderful time last week at the beach.  We went with some friends.  Most Mexicans do not know how to swim.  They love the water but never venture out very far.  We went down to the beach here in Bucerias and there is always a strong under tow here.

We got some chairs on the sand, we brought our own food but also ordered stuff and just spent the day. 

After the beach because I live so close, we just came over to the house and we fixed some dinner.  We rolled up the rug and danced and just had a wonderful time.  I took Rick and his family home and then the neighbors dog attacked me.  There was this lab and they are always so friendly I just bent down to pet him.  Well this one was not so friendly.  

Then we all went to the hospital and they cleaned out the bits and Ken and I started home after dropping them off for the second time.  On the way home Ken wanted a burger, so I stopped to get him one and he locked the car up before I got my keys out.

This is Sunday evening at ten o'clock in the evening.  It took till midnight (all the time I was bleeding all over) to get the door opened up.  Got home at one o'clock in the morning.  

Now I know I have asked this question before but really can't I just leave my home some day and not have some kind of adventure.?  I sure named this blog correctly.  Maybe I should change the name of this blog to donna and kens calm and quiet life in Mexico?  Think it would help?  

Until we met again this is Butch, Donna and Ken wishing you the best.

  

   

NESTING DOWN AND MAKING A HOME

Ken and I now fully understand the word humid.  Ken is doing better at adjusting than I am.  I do not any longer use the air conditioner every waking and sleeping hour.  Our first electric bill which is for two months was $800.00 usd.  By next year we should be comfortable.  Remember that we came here from a stone cold place that we needed to have a daily fire and stuffed newspapers under the doors.

The rainy season I found to be rather nice and relaxing.  During this time of the year our town is slow moving and lots of stores are closed down.  By November the Americans, Canadians, and Brits will be all over the place.  It has been a really good time to know the community and get to met people.

We have made quite a few friends here and have gotten really close to some of them.  They are of all ages and nationalities.  But our closes friends are Mexicans and are younger than I am.  

 I fixed a Mexican style dinner and we just all really enjoyed ourselves.

These pictures are taken at Boca

I was playing Grandma and holding the youngest to get him asleep.  However getting out of that chair on the sand was not easy, and that baby was heavy!

At most of the beaches here, there are restaurants that serve on the beach.  In fact they plan on you coming causal or in bathing suits to swim.  They have the tables and chairs set up on the sand.  Each restaurant has a different color for their umbrellas.  Where you sit is what restaurant you eat at.  They all have showers and you just sit there all day and into the night enjoying and relaxing.  The food is not expensive and it is fantastic.  You can bring your own drinks, even your own food, just as long as you order something from them, you get to use their tables and stuff.

For Butch it has been a wonderful time without all the tourist.  The beaches are not crowded and she can run, swim and chase those pesky birds all day long.

 We have had time to explore and I found this nursery close to our house.  It is just amazing.  It is like some wonderland park place

Well it is getting late and best to wrap this up for tonight.  Our birds are now with Rick, so it is good night from Butch and Donna

 And Mr. Hyder himself.

MY IMPRESSIONS OF MEXICO AFTER 2 YEARS

After traveling and living in many different states and towns in Mexico I have a small idea about what Mexico is all about.

It is a hard place to understand.  There has been many wars and different governments within Mexico and this has a large influence upon the people and culture that make up the different states in Mexico.

Mexico is made up of 31 different states and one federal district.  It is the third largest country in Latin America.  Many different tribes and cultures lived here and there were wars among them for land and wealth.  Most Americans think of the Aztec and the Mayans when they think of Mexico's past, but there were lots of other cultures here as well.  There were many very well formed and prosperous cultures here.  

When the Spaniards came, they destroyed the Aztec and Mayan (along with the other groups) way of life.  The Indians were made to conform to the Spaniards culture.  By 1574 Spain controlled a large portion of Aztec empire and enslaved most of the population. They killed approximately 24 million people between 1521 and 1605.  

Missionaries started to arrive and convert the Indians to Catholicism around 1523.  Then the Spaniards born in Spain that were here ruling the country, started to have problems with the Spaniards born in Mexico.  The Spaniards born in Mexico had become rich and wanted the same rights in the political area's as the Spaniards that were born in Spain had.

The church was very strong and Spain was getting worried about the power of the church and its influence in Mexico.  King Carlos of Spain expelled the Jesuits from Mexico in the late 1700's in one of the bloodiest wars ever.  It was a horrible time in Mexico and during this time the United States was also involved in that war.

Napoleon Bonaparte's occupation of Spain in 1808 weakened Spain's grip on Mexico.

In 1810, there was a huge war against the controlling government - much like the war that the Americana's had to gain their freedom. The Mexican constitution was established.

Unlike the United States, the Mexican government was not ever really in a stable strong position.  Many policies and changes in government took place over the years.

The Mexican people grew tired of the unbalanced distribution of wealth and power, initiated the Mexican Revolution in 1910.  (kind of like the civil war in the US).  This 10 year civil war in Mexico resulted in no less than 2 million casualties.  I think that the big difference between the Civil War in the US and the Civil War in Mexico was who died.  In the US it was military deaths for the most part - 620,000 military died.  But in the Mexican Civil War it was everyone - everyone in the town, everyone in the city fought side by side, there was military but basically everyone was fighting.

In Mexico today the wars are evident all over every where.  There are statues of the leaders of the revolution in every town, streets named after them and they are held with great esteem.  

Each state was influenced by the wars and how involved the people were in that state.  Each state was influenced by the Aztec or and the other cultures that were here before Spain.  Each state was influenced by the amount of Spaniards born here and the amount of Spaniards born in Spain.  All blending down to what is known as the Mexican.  But I see each Mexican (depending upon where they live and the degree of influence of the past upon that state) as being different from location to location.

Despite the political and social changes that have occurred over the centuries, evidence of past cultures and events are everywhere. The pre-Columbian ruins still exist throughout Mexico, reminders of the colonial past are evident in the architecture and the haciendas of the Don's are still around.  All that blends down to the individual Mexican and makes up their unique profile.  I find that evidence is within each Mexican I met.


Some Mexicans resent the American very much and do not want anything to do with America.  There are Mayans in Chapas that still speak their old language and each tribe of Mayan speaks a different Mayan language.  Some cannot or refuse to speak Spanish.  They cook outside, live in these structures that are just boards put up in to a one room structure with no windows or doors and huge spaces between the boards.  In one way the Mayans are the one culture that was not conquered.  The jungles hold may such places.  There
are 60 indigenous languages still spoken in Mexico.

Therefor the Mexican culture is so varied.  There is great wealth and education among the Mexicans.  There is great poverty with no birth certifications or educations on any level.  Many live without water in their homes and with dirt floors.  There is not really a middle class in Mexico but shades of wealth and shades of poverty.

The origins of the legal system in Mexico are based on the Greek, Roman and French legal systems.  The U.S common lay system is based on the case law and statutory law of England and the American colonies before the American Revolution.  Mexico's civil law system is derived primarily from Roman law as set forth in the compilation of codes and statutes of the Emperior Justinian, called corpus Juris Civilis.

But as everything in Mexico - the legal system is also very involved.  Customs of accepted legal practices, that require the use of intricate regulations and elaborate writings associated with every important at in one's life, such as birth or marriage, and canon law, or religious law.  The paperwork needed to do anything in Mexico is just unbelievable.

Life here in Mexico can and is anything you want it to be.  Mostly dependent upon money not education or the law.  There is no system here where the government helps the people to any great degree.  Here a family or individual is expected to take care of their own.  

In one way there is more freedom for the American here in Mexico than there is in the states...if you have money.  Money is the key factor to the amount of freedom you have in Mexico.  That is true to some extent everywhere in the world but in looking at the difference between the U.S. and Mexico - having money in Mexico allows a person to live with more freedom than in the states.  Mainly because of the social system differences between the two countries.  In Mexico, no one really cares how you live your life, they do not care if you go down a one way street the wrong way as long as you do not hit them.  Society here does not care if your house if five stories or a shack.  Society here just does not put any labels or limitations in your life.  There are pros and cons pertaining to weather or not that is good or bad.  Maybe the word I should use is diversity rather than freedom.  I do not know but I know that I like the difference.

Up until now our friends have all been Mexicans.  I have yet been able to define a Mexican but I like living with them and having them for friends.  

There are many very beautiful Mexican women and the Mexican woman I have known have been absolutely impossible to understand.  They are like a cactus.  The inside sweet and tender but be very careful of the thorns.

Many Mexican men are very attractive and good looking.  I have found them to be very polite and respectful to woman.  Every Mexican man I know that is married loves his wife and family completely. 

I have not felt myself in danger here at any time what so ever.  I have felt lost and alone but not in danger.  I have heard about dangers that others have had but with as much travelling that I have done, it has not been the case for me.  I have been stuck out in the middle of nowhere at night and we were safe.  I have been lost and not known where to go but I was safe.

Would I advise someone to visit Mexico.  OH YES.  The country is beautiful, some of the most beautiful beaches on earth, some of the most wonderful architecture, art, theater, history, - there is so much here to see and learn.  But I would advise you to know Spanish before you come.  Your trip will be a lot more easy and fun if you know the language.  

OUR TRAVELS ARE COMING TO AN END

Our travels will be coming to an end as of June 25th.  That is when the house will close escrow and we move.  We have been traveling around Mexico since late 2011 and have learned many - oh so many - things.  It truly was an adventure well worth the time and money it took.

We started out in the state of Chapas, in a crowded town by the name of San Cristobal da la Casas.

This was our very first rental in Mexico.  

I will never forget the first time I went to the grocery store. 

I left the apt. to go shopping for food with no idea where to go and never having been in a Mexican grocery store in my life.  I got a cab drive and got across to him I wanted food.  So he took me to a restaurant.  Then I got across to him I wanted food to cook with and he took me to this market.

It took me two hours to find the milk.  I had never seen milk in a carton and on the shelf.  My only experience was with milk in the refrigeration section.  

Well since I was setting up the kitchen for the first time I needed everything.  I was in that market for three hours trying to figure out how to adapt what was there to what I needed.

I had a ton of stuff and I got a cap to take me home.  He loaded this cap up and then he turned to me and wanted an address.  You guessed it - I did not have one.  I never had an apt. before = hay I never even rented before so when I left my home I knew where I lived and I was driving.  Now I had no idea on earth where I lived.  

The cap driver was more than a little upset with me.  I told him to just drive and I would find it.  WRONG!  Every street looked the same, I could find no land marks that I knew.  We drove and drove and drove.  

This cap driver was so mad at me and he was balling me out in Spanish and I was balling him out in English and long story short - 

I told him to just drop me off at this corner.  He did - he was crying and I was crying and all my food (frozen or not) was out on the street...with Ken and myself.

Ken guarded the food while I got a cap with a cap driver that spoke English...was not easy.  Told him my story and he was kind enough to take on the challenge. Hours went by and we drove and drove and drove.  Then this driver went and picked up this other person who spoke better English and we drove and drove and drove.  

Four or Five hours later we found our apt. and I was never so happy to be home in my live.  So much for frozen food.  I put our address on a string around Kens neck and it stayed there for some time.

Chapas is full of Mayan people dressed in their traditional ways

Before we found our apt. we were in a hotel.  I thought that we could just walk around and find a real estate store or a property management place.  Well that was sure a dumb idea.

But walk the streets we did and found that there were three 
"people" streets.  Only People could use these streets.  There were restaurant and shops lining the streets and they were crowded with people, most of them sitting in the outside restaurants.

Now were new Americans in Mexico coming with the thinking of an American.  We had been told that this was a dangerous place to come.  I did not believe it or I would not have come with Ken.  But while we were walking around town I heard this noise that sounded like guns shooting.  The nose was getting more and more intense the longer into the day.  Night time was coming and now I noticed that the noise was associated with fireworks.  It was not guns but fireworks.  By dark the sky was lit up with fireworks going off all the time.

Ken and I were on one of the "people" streets and we were walking down the middle of the street when in front of us came these people with torches running at us chanting.  I noticed that people were moving out of the street so these people could run down the street.

So I grabbed Ken and plopped him in a chair at a restaurant.  

As these people ran by the people on the sidewalks throw little things made of paper at them.  

The group ran passed us but then another group was coming and another = there were constant groups of people with torches running down the street.

I had no idea what the heck it was all about.  Then I saw two boys in white shirts with ties on and they were Mormons   I ran across the street and grabbed this kid and hugged him like he was my savior.

He explained to me that these people come on a homage once a year.  They are different tribe's of Mayans.  They run non-stop from their village to this church in San Cris.  Some have been running for weeks.

This is the church that they were running to.  However, after running for days without stopping, before they could get to the church, they had to run up these stairs. 

It took Ken and I half a day walking up this hill, it is very high.  I did find another way down which is the picture below.

We stayed in Chapas for several months and then left and went to Cancun and on the way saw all the ruins and many different sights.  That film was lost with the camera,,,the first camera I lost.  There ended up to be four or five over the period of our travels.  

There is only one picture I have of that journey

Here is a link to a video made by someone else of this 

http://youtu.be/EKGrCElqD5k beautiful Agua Azul Waterfall area.

We went to Palenque and while walking around inside some of the buildings ran into bats and very big spiders.  We traveled along a river in a boat and met some people that lived in the jungle and they asked us to come stay in their village.  I was not quite sure about that one so we said thank you but no.

We traveled by bus through Chapas to Cancun.  I had no idea about how long a trip or what to expect from the bus company.  Everything was in Spanish and they used the 24 hour clock so I was flying blind where any knowledge was concerned.  

Found out on this bus run - you bring your own food cause they did not stop for anything.  It took a day and a half to get there and boy were we hungry.

Once in Cancun we found a place to stay and I set up a dolphin swim for Ken.  Best money I have ever spent.  That is a memory that he will hold forever and cherish. 

We returned to Chapas and another rental unit.  

Spent many evenings with people that I had met through different expat computer groups. 

  

Chapas has many wonderful restaurants and very good chiefs.  It is a town that is full of life - especially night life.  Sights and sounds,texture and flavors.  There is almost just too much of everything there.

Every woman and child in Chapas carries their goods to sell.

  

Babies are wrapped up in material and carried on their mothers backs - all day long.  The little bundle of blue on the ladies back is her baby.

From Chapas we went to Oaxaca.  

We stayed there only a couple of weeks in a hotel.  I will never forget this one place that we went to eat.  Someone told me how to get there and what to do.  They said, you go in through this door and in the yard you will see a table, sit down and wait.  We did just that and pretty soon this lady came out with some food.  It was fantastic and then she brought some more - it also was great - and she brought us some more.  After about an hour of eating this wonder dish after dish, she presented us with a bill.  Five dollars in American money was the total.  Now I have no idea what we eat or how to ever find her doorway on the street again - but she was a really good cook.

I purchased this hand embroidered piece of cloth, large enough for a queen size bed.  Some day I will quilt it.

From Oaxaca we went to Guadalajara 

Stayed there a few weeks in a hotel.  That is where we found Butch.  

I was told that Butch was a boy and hence her name is Butch.  She has been the very best dog I have ever had.  

With out new addition to our family we headed off to Lake Chapala in the state of Jalisco.

We found a wonderful home to rent in a town called San Antonio.

The house was two bedrooms with another one bedroom house in the back.

We stayed there quite some time.  Loved the area, but it was just not right for us.  Too expensive for one thing.  I did not want to pay 2 to 300,000.00 for a house so we moved on to a state called Michoacan to a city called Patzcuaro.

More about Michoacan, Patzcuaro, Colima, and Puerto Vallarta on the next blog.  For now we say good night from Ken and Donna