PV part 2

I arrived with four suitcases, my computer, pass port bag, and a huge cardboard box containing a painting.  It was the card board box that got me pulled over.  I didn't really mind the "Policio" pawing through all my luggage or their removal of several cartons of cigarettes.  It was that I had to lift forty pound bags up to table height.  No one would help, even when I asked nicely, after all I am an old man.   By back and arms did not recover for weeks.

Finding an apartment was my first challege.  Naturally I arrived at the wrong time; it was "high season".  Most apartments were recently rented, or they were asking very high prices for the next few months.  I did find some really cheap ones, but they were like tombs.  Most of them are long and narrow with maybe one window at each end, leaving much of the rooms in darkness.  I like sun light (well maybe you wouldn't know that based upon my general disposition).  You don't want to use a Realtor for they won't handle anything under $1,000 a month.  I was looking for cheap.

Each day I would leave my friends home and walk up and down the streets writing telephone numbers of the "Se rente" signs.  Finally one called back that sounded promising.  It was just four block to the beach and practically over one of the bars I liked.  Everything was covered with sheets as the whole apartment was being repainted.  Two walls were lime green, two peach, and the bedroom a bright orange (very Mexican).  It was the kitchen that sold me on it.  The kitchen was not only new with granite counters and a new stove, but it had a dishwasher and garbage disposal (a real rarity here).  Maybe I should have lifted more of the sheets for it looked much smaller with out them.  I also liked the private roof top patio (in spite of the washing machine, tanks for gas and water, and two airconditioners.  It is small (you have to move the sofa bed to the middle of the room to open it) but I like it.

Looking to the east, you see beautiful mountains covered in palm trees and other jungle plants.  To the west are black (dirty) roof tops and squaller.  But if you look above that you see part of the city (even the crown of the main cathedral).  From my bedroom balcony I can lean forward and look down the street to the ocean.  Jutting up against the green mountain is a church bell tower, with a clock on top.  It took me about a week to realize that the time was off by two hours and twenty minutes (no one pays much attention to time here anyway).   It works, it just doesn't tell the right time.  The church is only a block away and the bell tower does chime.  At first you think it would be telling the time of day, but there are too many chimes.  It rings once, twice, or three times slowly, then twenty chimes in rapid succession, then the one, two, or three bongs.  I was told it was to summon people to the service, but that doesn't explain why it goes on all day.  On Sunday it starts at 6:00am.