MY MEXICAN PIED A TERRE

This is the posting you have been waiting for. Finally the: pictures of my newly completed apartment.  Only after three months, it is still not finished. Nothing happens quickly in Mexico.   For those of you who have fussed that I do not have enough photos, this one has too many pictures.   The location is a couple of blocks east of where the "snow birds" and visiting tourist frequent, but it is a very respectable neighborhood.  Besides the fish taco restaurant, there are two upscale clothing stores.   The street is one of the few remaining original streets where the cobble stones were laid in sand in a pattern.  Most of the streets now are concrete where they have thrown in some stones for effect.  Of course  it had  lots of pot holes (like most streets here) and I expected one day to find out that they had either dumped concrete in the holes or worse yet asphalt.  To my delight and amazement a group of men arrived dug up the street and relaid the cobble stones in sand and matching the original pattern.

The exterior is quite plain and unassuming (which I like).  It does not look like a place where a rich American would live here (I am not rich, but everyone assumes I am).  The starkness of the outside makes the impression of brilliant color even more impressive when you open the door.  Yes, it is much smaller than my spacious former apartment, (made even smaller by all the furniture I have crammed in it),  but I love it!  It does have an extra bedroom (if I ever have a guest again).   Two of the things I like best are having my own door on the street and the large private deck.  Of course just getting out of the Little House of Horrors would make anything seem wonderful.  Mexico is a noisy place and the bells on the church tower are really loud, but all in all it is so much quieter than my old place (with the exception of an occasional grenade!).

I did use pretty much the same color scheme (when you have a winning combination, why change?)  I did add blue and the yellow and green are far brighter and more brilliant. You will also notice that I did incorporate some of the furniture I had brought down from storage. I also had a few pieces from my previous apartments.   The two straw chairs I used at the breakfast counter at the old apartment went outside on the balcony.  I added the two bar stools and also more equipauli (pig skin furniture).  I needed someplace to read (when I have time) and with the lamp table, it made the perfect reading spot.  I ordered the chairs and table a month before I left for the States and they assured me that I would have it in 10 days.  I knew I wouldn't get it that fast, so I waited over two weeks and went back.  It would be delivered the next Monday.  No, and when I returned from my trip, it was still not ready.  After a total of six trips I was finally told why they were not ready.   They could not get a piece of leather large enough to do the high backs that I wanted.  Why they did not tell me that two and a half months earlier, I do not know. They offered to return my money.  So I decided to go to Bucerios (the only other place I knew of where they made the furniture) and start all over again.  They said that they "could" do the high back chairs, but they would cost over 3,000 pesos each! (I paid 750 pesos for the usual ones).  I was not asking for something totally out of reason, for I had seen them with  the high backs.  But they did have two old padded ones.  The arms and seat were padded and they were quite comfortable, so I bought them on the spot.  In Mexico you reach a point were the fight is just not worth it, so you settle for less than what you wanted.  That is just the way it is here.

The royal blue sofa to complete my living room area, still alludes me.  I guess I will have to have it made. 
I also had to buy a dresser for the bedroom (as this apartment has no drawers anywhere).  I was very excited when I found the mirror at the consignment store around the corner to put above it. .  Of course I used the same drapes and colors to match the bedspread.  The guest room had to start from scratch.  Since it is half the size of my room,  It is very sparsely furnished, except for the elaborately carved desk I bought from a friend of mine.  The mirror was there, I just added the frame.  I decided to name it the "Monk's room" and put a cross over the bed.

My favorite space is my cabana upstairs.  The plants all seem to love it and I have added even more.  It will take a year, but I think I can make the bougainvillea crawl across the whole railing.  I really love the blue and white pot that matches my ceramic light fixtures.  I bought a tiny bougainvillaea for it, but it will grow too.   The tall dead stick will be a gorgeous Hawaiian halcyon with two foot red and yellow flowers.  My friend had a forest of them in one pot and divided it and gave me two bulbs.   I had the canvas drops made to hide the laundry area.    There was only one light on the deck and it was on the wall opposite my cabana.  In order to turn it on, you had to cross the deck in the dark and find the switch behind the washer.  This would not do, so I told my electrician to add two lights in the cabana with a switch inside the door.  I came back one day and it was all done.  There was a switch in a little electric box on the wall and the electric cord connecting the lights on the brick wall was covered with a plastic strip.  It all looked very professional.  Then I looked over the ledge.  There was lamp wire coming  out of a hole near the washer runs along the wall then over the roof.  The wire even has two slices wrapped in tape.  Mexico!!

My prize is the kitchen.  Yes, it is small, but I like being surrounded by the three counters.  Everything is within reach.    I have even started to cook in it.  Since there were no drawers and no overhead cabinets, I bought a beautiful carved chest with four drawers and put it under the staircase.  I still did not have enough room so I added shelving under the counter and then just set some pots above the chest.  I like  the look.  I also added the three rustic shelves and painted them to match my color scheme.  Since there was only one small light in the ceiling I added more lights.   You could operate in that room now.

All in all, I think it is a very attractive apartment and I am very happy here.  Let's hope I can stay here for a long time as I have spent a fortune furnishing and decorating it.  You should visit me sometime.

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THE CAT AND THE COFFEE CAKE

Sadly parents use their children to peddle stuff on the streets.  They try to sell everything from Chiclets gum (yes they do that here too) to peanuts and trinkets, to home baked breads or tamales.  Many are too young to be in school, but it is not uncommon for parents to pull their kids out of school to peddle goods.  The poverty here is heart breaking and the parents know that it is harder for tourists to resist a little kid.

The kids are all cute here with their large brown eyes and ready smiles,  and some are really good at pulling on your heart strings.  Normally I ignore them but sometimes I will give them 5 or 10 pesos just to get them to go away.  There is one kid in his teens who has been selling his mother's coffee cake for many years.  When his mother became too ill to bake, he tried other products but it did not work out.  So he learned how to bake the coffee cake himself.  My favorite is the carrot cake.  They are about 8 inch long ovals and delicious with coffee in the morning.  He now knows me and my preference for the carrot and will seek me out.  Sometimes he also works the beach as well, trekking up and own the beach with his basket of bread.

One day I had purchased the bread while at the beach, and usually place it on top of the coffee pot.  When the coffee brews in the morning it warms the bread.  But before going to bed I tore off a couple of pieces and ate them with a glass of milk.  I retied the plastic baggy but I think I left it on the counter.  The following morning it was gone!  I looked everywhere for it.   NO! it was nowhere.  Since I have almost no drawers there isn't a lot of places to put stuff.  I spent all day trying to figure out what happened to it.  I know I brought it home from the beach for I had a piece before going to bed.  The half finished glass of milk was in the frig.  Was someone trying to "gas light" me or what??

Then I remembered the cat.  Although I have not encountered him again, I find dirty little paw prints under the open window so I know he has been here.  But that did not make any sense.  There wasn't even a crumb left and the whole plastic bag was gone.  Could he have jumped through the window with the bag in his teeth.  If he was that interested in the cake, what was in it??  I could not come up with another explanation as impossible as it all seemed.

Yesterday I bought another carrot cake while I was at the beach.  I left the bag tied up and placed it on the coffee pot.  Remembering what happened the last time, I intended to close that window before going to bed.  There is such a nice sweet breeze coming down from the mountains and through that window that I leave it open a lot.  But that night I had been to dinner with Nancy (my old neighbor from the Little House of Horrors).  After three margaritas and a few beers, I forgot to close the window.  The following morning as I staggered toward the coffee pot I noticed something on the floor.  Sure enough it was the half eaten bag of bread.  He had ripped through the bag but only managed to eat a little and with the ripped bag, I guess he could not get it out the window.  If he is that fascinated with it, is it made of fish oil or what?

Now, I am assuming it was a cat.  The thought of some other kind of creature crawling thought the window and roaming around the house is just too distressing to think about.  What is your opinion?


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CAUGHT AT CUSTOMS !

LAX certainly has the worst customs that I had ever experienced.  There are always very long lines and you are met by the rudest people you have even encountered.   By contrast Customs in Mexico is a breeze.  Normally short lines and you can whiz right through.  As you exit you approach a guard with a machine.  It has a large red button.  You are asked to push it, a red or green light will appear.  Green light and you are free to pass.  Red light and they want to go through all your baggage.  It is supposed to be a random choice and most of the time you will get the green light.  Is there someone in some hidden booth with a camera that actually chooses the red or green light?  I do not know, but I think that would be too technologically advanced for Mexico.

I was returning from a brief trip to Orange County to see doctors, friends, and take care of a little business.  I had also purchased a lot of stuff that you either cannot buy in Mexico or it is double the price.  So I had two suitcases.  I have gotten used to the Mexican cigarettes, but still prefer the milder American ones (even thought they are more expensive).  When I first moved here two years ago, I arrived with six bags and suitcases and brought three cartons of cigarettes.  That was my first "red light" experience.  After being caught once, I had two cartons, but then scattered another carton separately through the two suitcases.

First you have to hoist your bags up onto a portable picnic table.  No they will not help.  As old and feeble as I look they still stand there while you struggle to raise your bags up to table height.   One bag even had a red sticker on it stating that it was heavy.  No help.  I was sure they would figure out that I had more than 40 packages of cigarettes and I knew the procedure.  They take you in a little room and fill out some sort of paper work (IN SEVEN COPIES!)  Don't ask why seven copies, it is Mexico!  They  take the extra cigarettes you sign the paper and leave.

The customs agent began to paw through the stuff in my luggage.   I must admit it must have looked like I had raided a pharmacy.  Some things you can buy in Mexico but they are double the price so I had loaded up with mostly vitamins and cold stuff at Costco.  As you know they are not only large bottles, but often two are attached.  There were just a few prescription drugs as I don't need many.  He gave me a very strange look as be picked up and inspected each one.  Then he came upon the Japanese summer tea.   Years ago discovered it, so I have my friend in Japan send it to my P.O. Box so I can bring them back to Mexico.  I drink copious amount of iced tea.  This tea can be made in a few minutes in cold water and it is not only healthy, but no caffeine.  It is not really tea, but made from toasted wheat barley.  I had three large bags of it.  He wanted to know what it was (the label is in Japanese)  I tired to explain that it was not really tea (which was my first mistake) and opened one package to show him the little tea bags.  He looked curiously at it, then sniffed it.  Then he noticed the three tubes of tooth paste from Japan that my friend also sent.  Of course there is nothing on it but Japanese characters.  He wanted to know what it was, and then why I would import tooth paste.  Well it is gritty and you can't find gritty here.  He gave me that look again and went back to the tea bags.

Did he really think that I was smuggling marijuana to Mexico?  Why would anyone, and if someone did, why would Mexico care?  At this point I was escorted to the little interrogation room.  He left me alone with my luggage (locking the door behind him) .  Was there some kind of peep hole where they could watch to see ifI started to sweat?  I was annoyed, but fortunately I do not sweat.  My suitcases also contained two goose down pillows and two sets of satin-like sheets (the linens here are awful).  Maybe they thought I was going to open a brothel.  No, they really would not care about that.

 Then two men arrived with a dog!  Good Grief !  But luckily the dog did not like my summer tea or my tooth paste..  I offered to brew some up for them so they could taste it.  This idea did not help either.  Surely they wouldn't send my tea out for a drug test.  I would never get it back. After what seemed like hours to me, they decided to let it all pass.  Being old and feeble looking probably did help as well.  Had I been a teenager,  I would probably still be there.  And, they never did count the packages of cigarettes. So maybe if you really do want to smuggle something into Mexico, carry a couple of bags of Japanese tea.  NO !  You really do not want to go through the ordeal.   Oh, one more tip.   Once you pass customs run across that large room to the exit.  That corridor and room is overflowing with salesmen trying to sell you tours, time shares, and other scams. They are extremely aggressive, just ignore them.  You can buy your ticket for the cab there, but I just prefer to get away from there and buy  it outside.  It is set at $24.00 or 250 pesos (which is much cheaper).  There is only one cab company that is allowed to pick up passengers in the airport.  Or, you can drag your luggage up an enormous staircase and cross a bridge to the other side of the highway.  There you can get a cab for 125 pesos (half the price)     Welcome to Mexico and yes, I still love it here.



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