ON THE WAY TO OUR NEW HOME

On the North West side of Banderas Bay you will find the town called Bucerias.  This is the area that we have chosen to live in.  As you can tell from this map, there are many area's within the Banderas Bay area other than the actual downtown Puerto Vallarta is in.

On the opposite side of the bay from where we bought our home is where we entered the Banderas Bay from the rental house we had in Colima.  On this map it shows and inlet of water marked "To Manzanillo Colima".  

The drive from Manzanillo Colima is quite beautiful.

Beautiful but the picture above is as straight as that road ever got.  Usually the road was one hairpin turn upon another.  We had our truck loaded to the hilt and we also had another friend with his truck loaded.  It was a long hard drive.

The inside of the car was packed and then we put Butch in, the birds in a shoe box with little holes then Ken and myself.  Butch was very good on the drive but our little birds were not.  They were busy inside this shoe box making holes to get out of.  Sure enough while I was driving around these hairpin turns with the windows down, I now had two birds flying around in the car and one dog trying to eat them and Ken screaming that the birds were loose.  I was dodging birds, one excited dog, turning around the hairpin turns and trying to roll the windows up.  There was no place to pull over at.  Butch was barking her head off, Ken was yelling his head off - the birds were chirping loudly and this continued until I found a place to pull off the road.  This road had a cliff on one side and a mountain on the other.  It took about one hour till I found enough land to pull off the road.  

I had to figure out how to open the door, get enough stuff out of the packed car without letting the dog or the birds out.  I remembered that I had sheets packed somewhere in the back seat.  I got one sheet out and hung it around the door and eased my way out of the car without creating an opening for the birds.  Once out of the car, I felt like I could be happy just walking the rest of the way to Puerto Vallarata and leaving the barking dog, screaming kid, and the chirping birds. But I didn't and long story short I got both birds in one blanket and continued driving to Puerto Vallarata with Ken holding the towel.  The birds survived, the dog survived, Ken was calmed down and I needed a drink.

Entering Puerto Vallarta from this direction you come to a bridge where water flows from the mountain rivers into this bay and then into the Bandaras Bay.  This little area is known as Buca de Tomatlan and I think that it is one of the prettiest sights to see in all of the Bandaras Bay area.

From this bay, boats will go that you to other very remote villages that are at the tip of the Bandaras Bay.  Also from this bay there are a lot of private fishing boats that will take you out to fish.  Then there is the diving groups that take off from here.

 Kids in the area just having fun in at little bay.  They may be poor and not have a lot of things, but they will have great memories of fun times.  

The third building where there are two people sitting on the porch - I did look at renting the top unit but figured that it was a little too remote to get to with Ken.  John Huston uses some of those remote villages that these boats go to in the movie Night of the Iguana.  

From Boca you pass by some lovely homes and areas.  One known as Arcos.  Los Arcos looking rocks are really islands and they are a national park.  There are deep tunnels, caves and arches and around the islands are some of the deepest waters of the bay.  This area is known for breathtaking reefs.  They are very beautiful.  This is the site where I went diving.  Some places the depth is 1,600 feet. I was very uncomfortable going that deep and into tunnels and caves.  

Give me a surfboard or a sale boat any day

This is another map showing in circles some of the areas.

Find the red half circle on land where the river goes through it.

That is actually the downtown area of Puerto Vallarta.  The other circles in white that are in the bay are different towns but regarded as parts of Puerto Vallarta.

This map shows an island outside of Banderas Bay that most people who visit P.V. do not know about.  They are called the Marietas Islands.  We have not been there and I do not know if we will go there or not, but here is a link that shows the hidden beauties of that area.  http://youtu.be/MRogSGL0qVw

Downtown or Old Town is very touristy.  There is a board walk that free shows and entertainment, beautiful sunsets and wonderful statues.  There are free tango lessons, shops to visit, and tons of people to watch.  But my favorite thing is that there is also a real live Baskin Robbins Ice Cream shop - YA!

This is the board walk area 

The outside stage for nightly events.

waiting for the performance.

 Along the boardwalk are many statues.

This area was first to develop.  The reason for the development was  because of the movie The Night of the Iguana.  Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton were in that movie and both of them fell in love with the area.  They both built homes in a section known as Gringo Gulch.  The roads are steep and the views are beautiful.  To this day it is an area that many investors purchase condo's in.  If you are ever driving your own car in this area you will wonder why on earth you did not take a taxi.  I got onto a dead end street and could not get enough room to turn my truck around in and it was impossible to back out.  It was not a happy experience.  Eventually, a bunch of men actually physically moved my truck inch by inch so that I could get out of the area.

we looked at some houses there.  A--- no thank you.  heck of a view but a tad too close to the neighbors and the walk with groceries up the cliff just did not appeal to me.

From downtown you then pass through area's that were developed at different times.  You can see from section to section differences in time.  The city moved continually north along the coast.  Then the development of the harbor area with condominium upon condominium, mixed in with beautiful hotels.  The private boats in the harbor are very elaborate.

We found our house and while it was going through "escrow" we rented a penthouse condominium in the harbor area.

We enjoyed the convince of having everything right in the harbor area and found that it was a little community in side of itself.  Met some fun people there and had a great time except for one factor.

The air conditioner did not work in the unit and the realtor what rented this place to us was an absolute jerk.  So this lovely unit was changed into this hell hole of construction while the workers that this realtor hired put air conditioning in.  Where he found these people to do this job is beyond me.

Why it took three weeks to accomplish putting in a/c is also beyond me.  

But the house closed and we moved in.

This is probably the simplest home I have ever owned but I love it.  It is comfortable for us.  

Until next time - from Butch and Ken

  and Donna

BEAUTIFUL CONDO IN P.V. WAS HORRIBLE

What should have been a wonderful Puerto Vallarta stay was just a mess.  We did rent this very lovely three bedroom, three bathroom, penthouse condo on the beach.  However, the air conditioning did not work, the garbage disposal did not work and two of the bathrooms had leaks.  

The landlord did not want to put air in and I disagreed with that.  Well after 15 days of no air conditioning the property management person did get air conditioning put in.  Then there is this other issue of the electrical bill.  My concept is that since there were workers using the electricity, and I had to run several portable fans and mini-air conditioners in the unit for over 14 days, that the property management people should pay for it.  Now they do not agree with that.  

Property management came over to my home and screamed, yelled, shook with rage, showed his teeth and ground them moaning during the process as if in pain, glitched his hands into fists, pounded on his chest.  Well just on and on, I do not believe that I have ever seen such a display in my life.

Well at the present time, the property management people have been told that I think that I will stay there in the condo for a year or two and that I changed the locks on the door OR until we come to my terms about the electricity bill.  Furthermore this agreement will by done in a polite and respectful manner. 

On to new homes and adventures.  It strikes me so funny that of all the expensive homes that I have owned, Ken and I are more excited about this little under 95,000.00 dollar house.  

I think what has happened is this. After traveling and living in so many different places and in so many different conditions, we both have grown to understand just what is important to us.  Ken has seen the way others have to live.  Let's face facts - both of us were spoiled in America and did not have the opportunity to see and know the value of common things.  

Many would read that above statement and say - so why learn that if you do not need to?  Because believe it or not - understanding the common things in life adds quality to your values and your life.  It provides you freedoms - away from things.  It is something people should understand - freedom - your freedom come when you do not have to have, but are able to just enjoy what is.  

Many in America think that they understand this but they do not.  It is something you need to live in and around to understand.  Ken has learned this and I am so glad.  We have to go to the NEW house ever day for him to check up on it.  He is so very excited about this house and that is wonderful.  

So for now we sign off -

                                   Buddy2 and Amago

Butch

Ken

Donna

ENOUGH ALREADY - ENOUGH - THAT'S IT - NO MORE

You must read the past posts to understand (even if that is possible) what is going on now.

I moved into this condo.  This condo was suppose to be air conditioned - and it is.  But I could not get it to work and called maintenance in to look at it.  

They showed me the air conditioner unit and the entire thing was fried.  A complete replacement would have to be done.

I then contacted the real estate office that rented this place.  Without going into - he said / she said dialogue here, I will just tell you that now they want ME to pack up everything I just unpacked and move into another condo unit.  Seems that they do not have the money to replace it right away.

What is it that I keep having to explain what a legal binding contract is to so called Realtor's here in P.V.?  GEEZ.

My answer back was NO - hell NO.  You do not sign a contract to rent without having the basic things like plumbing - water - etc. in working order and if the plumbing stops working ask the renter to move.  GEEZ

So my personal suggestion back to the Realtor's was to have our stuff stay here and 1) we move into their home until they replace this unit or they put us up at the local hotel that accepts dogs.  That would be the hotel we always stay at.  

Have not heard back from them about this.  However, this too shall work out.

In the last move, I must have pulled something wrong somewhere and was in a lot of pain.  I called this doctor and he came over to the condo and gave me this shot and pain was gone in 2 hours. The time of evening that I called was 10pm.  Lets see, a house call in the night time and medicine cost me 90.00 usd.  I think that is fair.

It is back to normal for us, and I do use the word normal loosely. You have to love life and embrace it with all the twists and turns it has or else one would have no fun at all. Life is short to spend your time not enjoying being alive.

Until the next adventure - Donna, Ken, Butch, Amigo, and Buddy

HOW ONE COMES ABOUT RENTING TWO HOUSES

When I moved from Putzcuaro, I found this one bedroom house on this mans property that he would rent to me for four hundred dollars a month.  I rented that place, put all our stuff in it, and we took off to Puerto Vallarate to look for a place to buy.

One of my goals was to purchase a home for under $100,000.00 usd.  There are certain requirements that my son Ken has in housing needs.

With his disability, the two sides of the brain do not connect with the fibers that are used to send information back and forth between the two brains.  Most of the people born with this die.  The body needs both sides working together to function so that life will be sustained. 

While most parents are teaching their children how to sit at the dinner table and chew with their mouth closed, I was working on reconnecting different message avenues in the brain so that my son could work the muscles in and around the mouth to even chew.

As for my son, well he needs life around him with as few distractions as possible.  I have forced his brain and processing to deal with situations that are different and changing so that his brain will further develop.  However, I do this very carefully and very controlled.  Although to a another person it would not seem to be orderly and well thought out, it is - but I present it in a way that his brain will process it.  That in itself looks to someone else to be disorderly.  

Anyway with that explanation, Ken requires a house that is quiet and does not have a lot of activity going on around it.  In other words a single standing home in a quiet area.

Finding a single home not connected to other houses, or a condo with floors of people - under $100,000.00 in Puerto Vallarata was quite a task.  But I did find one and it was well built - retaliative  new, the right floor plan, and in a good location.  Pretty sure that was not all my doing and I had help with this from above.

I made an offer on the house using the first agent that would work with me on a transaction in this price range.  The offer was accepted. 

I went back to the rental in Cuyutlan beach and intended on staying there until the house closed.  However, Cuyutlan is a very hot place temperature wise and this one bedroom house we rented was just an oven.  Not even an over head fan.  But our stuff was down and in so we just got a bunch of fans and aimed them everywhere we could.  Fans would not cut it so we rented another place down the beach with air conditioning so that I would not expire before my time.  

Mean while the transaction was not progressing along as it should have.

The agent did not understand his role and know what he was suppose to be doing.  The selling agent did not understand her role and know what she was doing.  Escrow  on the house was never set up in accordance to the time limit on the purchase and sale contract.  

I continued to ask the agent about this and he continued to say he was looking into it.  Well the date for buyer to deposit earnest money came and went and I called his broker and switched escrow companies and deposited money.  However we were out of contract by the time I did that.  

Now the broker told me all the information on where to deposit but he does not remember doing so.  In this "email" computer world all he would have to do is check his sends in the email and he would see.  But he did not so the money was deposited into an account and the escrow was still not opened.  The money was just sitting there unclaimed and not in an account - plus no one in the transaction knew it was there.  No paperwork was created and  other than email, no paper trail.

From the sellers end, she was being told that her property did not have clear title.  I was being told that we could not open escrow without clear title and the whole thing was going to explode.  I had been trying to deal with this by phone but it was going to blow.

In the evening I got the kid and the dog into the car and drove all night to get to the sellers address by 9am.  I got yet another hotel and off I went to see her.

To make a long story short - she is a lovely woman that just want to sell her house so she could go back to the states to live around her daughter and grand kids. I just wanted to buy a simple house in Mexico and without agents we came to terms.  Then I had to find another agent an write another offer and get that signed and an escrow opened.

Since I could not complete the first offer - the move in date was changed.  However the rental that I had in Cuyutlan was having new renters move in.  I was going to be out of a place to stay. 

I rented this penthouse condo cause I had about three hours to find somewhere to live, find movers to move us, open escrow the right way, and drive back to Cuyutlan.

Because of all the time spent on real estate, I still had to pack up the stuff we had be using to live with.  Poor Ken, I just had him sit on the couch and I moved like the wind.  

Movers came - we moved (story on blog dated 6\3\13 and we now live in the condo I rented in PV.  WOW AM I TIRED.

Today is cloudy but this is from our 

 These are taken the night we moved in.  This is a three bedroom and three bath.  The building on the top picture is a restaurant for the residents of this condo association.  There is a pool and then the beach.  In the front of the unit is the golf course, the tennis courts, and basketball courts. 

  This is my latest art work.

until we met again

NEVER FEAR - JUST KEEP ON TRUCKING

For those of you who read this blog often, this will just be a normal driving  for me.  But those of you who are new to the blog, do not be alarmed for stuff like this happens all the time in my life and it is what I refer to as normal.   

We were moving into a condo in Puerto Vallarta from a beach town called Cuyutlan.  Sounds somewhat simple. ? (I will explain all of the events that lead up to renting the penthouse condo in the next blog.)

 I hired this man who was a friend of a friend for 2,000 mx to move me and drive and unload.  It is a six hour trip and a hard drive.  So two men showed up and loaded one rental house in Cuyutlan and then loaded up the other rental house in Cuyutlan and off we went. (the two rental houses will also be explained in the next blog) 

 Again I need to explain that years ago I actually went to a shrink and asked this person to listen to some events in my life and tell me if I was the one creating these - like having some kind of death wish - or is life just happens on top of me.  She told me that first of all I was the most capable and adaptive person she had ever meant.  She also said that I had the patience of JOB and that "s--- just happens - it seems more to me than most, but NO I was not creating or causing these events in my life.  

OK enough already.  We load up everything, get the dog, the birds, the kid and off we go.  Now mind you this man did not speak English and I do not speak Spanish (yet - ya I know but really I will learn the lang.)  So I had someone tell him that we were to met at this restaurant in Manzanillo for lunch.  We did but he also had a girl friend with him that he picked up somewhere?  

After lunch he said something about Casa and off he went with a truck load of my stuff and his girl friend and the other helper.  Now mind you I just had his cell phone number but I could not communicate with him so what good did that do.  

But trust in God and I took off with my truck loaded up. I had taken the birds out of their cage and put them into a box that was given to me when I bought the birds.  Butch gets front seat and the birds were up front in their box.  The back seat was filled with stuff and I shoved Ken in there on top of it all.  Butch is a great traveler and she was doing great but the birds were not happy campers.  The birds are squawking the whole trip, Ken is talking his head off and Butch is chiming in with her Butch talk.  My furniture is with some man in some truck who was going somewhere and I hoped I would see him again.

Next thing that I know - I have a bird flying around in the car, a dog trying to eat the bird, Ken yelling, me rolling up windows and driving on this horrible hairpin turn road for the next 100 plus miles.  I am in the mountains and there is no place to pull off the road.  

So what are the options?  I continued to drive with the bird flying all over the place and the phone rings.  It is the man with my furniture and he wants me to met him at the last bridge into P.V.  Only I do not know this cause of the language.  So he found a person who spoke English and then called me back.  At least I know he did not take off with my stuff.  It seems that the bird eat a hole in the box and got out.  Little escape demon.

By the time I got to P.V. I felt like I was staring in the Birds...What a joy it was to catch that little bird.  Well that was our moving trip to Puerto Vallarta.  I just know that someone else would not have experienced it the same way as I did. 

 Fair well from Butch

 The Birds

 and Ken and Donna

WELL WE DID (MAYBE) BUY A HOUSE.

This has been the strangest business transaction I have ever been involved in.  Boy, oh boy, oh boy,.  I made an offer that was a clean and clear cut offer.  Offer was accepted and then the agent's just screwed up the whole thing.  An earnest and willing seller, an earnest and willing buyer.  Two agents and two brokers just plain flat dropped the ball and then they tried to cover the fact up with creating excuses for the buyer and for the seller.  Her fault verses her fault - just look at the seller miss buyer and miss buyer just look at miss seller.  Hoping that buyer and seller would be so busy finding fault in each other that they would not see the actions or lack of actions of the agents involved.  

The whole thing just was not even workable so I went directly to the seller.  Someone in this mess had to actually preform.  The seller had been put into a horrible situation and I just know that she was being lied to. At first I thought that she would not talk with me but thank heaven she did.  Bottom line was she does want to sell and I do want to buy.  So I found another agent that wrote another offer today and he notified the listing office that he had an offer and they will present.  

Mean while I gave notice to the landlords that I had for my one house where my stuff is stored and the other house where we are sleeping that we were moving as of the 30th so they have the places both rented to other people starting on the first and we have no where to move to.  

Between talking with the seller, taking care of Ken and his needs, writing an offer I found an agent to look for a rental for me to move to here in P.V.  I will look and rent the place tomorrow and then connect with the movers and drive back to Cuyutlan and move our stuff that day to P>V>.  

On Wed. I was on the phone with my old agents trying to figure out what the heck was going on and at eight in the evening figured out that if this transaction was going anywhere, I better drive to P.V. and talk with the seller and put it together.  A pillow has not touched my head since and it is Friday.  Today I have to drive back to Cuyutlan and then turn right around and drive back to P.V.  Maybe by Monday I will get some sleep.  Lucky for me I learned how to do 20 minutes of power sleep and on the road I would just pull over and sleep for 20 minutes and I would be ok for several hours.  

Having done everything that I could possibly do to purchase this house I will put it in God's hands and proceed forward by moving today to P.V.  Hopefully when I get back, the seller will have been given the new offer and things will be moving forward.  If not, then I will just have to accept that maybe it is for the best for the seller and Ken and I.

So until I get to somewhere that I can sleep in a bed I will bid you all fair well.

MAYBE WE DID NOT BUY A HOUSE

We did write an offer on a house and that offer was accepted by the seller.  Just one problem, the seller did not have clear title to sell the property.  Here in Mexico, if you build a home you have to attach the home to the property - and she did not do that.  She did know this and I understand that.  However, she did have a Realtor and the Realtor did have a broker that should not have listed that house.  Because they did list the house and the owner did not know what she was doing, they are costing me money.

I needed the agent and the owner to understand that this transaction is now null and void and that another offer will be presented when and if they get their act together but that offer will be less my expenses that they have been responsible for imposing upon me.

Verbally, the owner and the agents seem to understand and agree with my replay to them.  However, as with any real estate transaction, verbal does not hold water and only signatures with closed escrows do.  Therefor, there is a long way to go on this property.

Meanwhile we are moving ahead on our immigration paperwork.  When I first came you had to go through this ever year, now you can get cleared for three years.  Our paperwork will be filed in the courts on Monday and we should have our new cards.

Also moving along, I have contacted a dentist here in Puerto Vallarta and have an appointment this Monday.

I have been a busy little girl for I also have connected with some agents that I had worked with in the past and told them that I would be working again.  Also connected with the real estate company that I worked for and suggested a concept that they look into developing offices here in Mexico and that they work with me to put those offices together.

Many different things are in the works here in town but I do hope to leave and get back to Cuyutlan Monday.  That is if my car (truck) is ok to drive.

Yesterday we drove to this town I had read about in the mountains outside of Puerto Vallarta called San Sabastian.  On the two hour trip up single mountain roads and roads that were removed by landslides we got to this town.  My goodness, the entire street is a one road street with rock walls on both sides of the road.  Two cars going in different directions - one has to back up.  It is such a very old town.

On the way home, I noticed that the oil gage on the car registered 80 when it should have been 40.  I do not know what that means but I need to take it to someplace on Monday to have someone who knows engines and oil stuff to tell me if I can drive it.

The harbor in P.V.

Swimming in the rental house in Cuyutlan

Statue in the P.V. harbor area. 

On the road to Manzanillo is this ranch.  On this road the ocean come in and out and around.  It is quite a beautiful trip from Colima to Manzanillo.

One the far side is a restaurant but you have to get a boat to get to it.

Well until tomorrow.     

WHAT THE HECK DO I KNOW??

We stayed several days in Puerta Vallarta getting paperwork for the purchase of the house done.  We did find a hotel there that would allow Butch to stay with us in the room.  We also had Butch have an operation so that she would not have any babies.  The hotel was lovely.  

I also checked with a couple of brokers there about working as an agent.  To my understanding, I would have to start out selling and then become a broker.  

I was rather surprised at what agents work for here.   The brokers use a 50/50 split.  I have not worked for that since 1974.  I also am not about to work for that now.  So there will be some "talking" about what I have as far as expenses in the office are concerned.  

After we got through a lot of business in P.V. we headed home to Cuyutlan.  But it is a long drive and Butch was not at her best so we looked for a hotel on the way that would accept dogs.  Good luck....

I had seen these places that you just drive into a garage - park your car and pay for the room and nobody runs a registration desk.  So I figured that we could get a room there and no questions asked about Butch.  

Well we got this very nice room with a huge Jacuzzi in it.  That was all Ken saw and he was in right away.  But I say this other piece of furniture that I had never seen before.  I thought maybe it was for massages.  Then I noticed this picture frame above piece of furniture that had a man an woman displaying different sex positions to use on the "sex" furniture.  OK so I am not the brightest bulb in town.  (I can just hear my son--in-law laughing his head off and my daughter saying "OH Mother).  P.S. I learned a few things, however we left soon after Ken was out of the Jacuzzi.  (He did not need to learn new ideas.)

So we drove home and our landlord put poison out  on the ground and did not tell us about it.  I was sitting there talking with him and I saw Butch eat this stuff of a plate on the ground.  I asked what it was and he told me it was poison.  

I got Butch in the car and drove like crazy to the closest big town - 45 miles.  Then I by the grace of God, got four non-English people helping me find a vet that was open on Sunday.  Three hours after she eat the poison, two convolutions, loosing consciousnesses, vomiting after I gave her milk, and then shaking and falling down.  we did locate a doctor and to cut a long story short - Butch is now fine.

I notified the real estate office in town and asked them for a rental and I do not care what price it is.  I will not put Butch back into that place ever again.  So we will move tomorrow into another house - one there just we live.  

What a horrible experience that was.  We found some birds that I wanted = so we have two new personalities in our home.  They are male and female - Buddytwo and Amago.   

So until manana 

Ken 

Butch

Buddytwo 

Amago

and Donna