He was in the apartment the first day my Realtor showed it to me. Although he spoke English, I had a terrible time understanding him. At first I thought he might be retarded (Sorry ! mental challenged). But I soon realized that he had a sever speech impediment. It is sort of like a bad stutter for he struggles for a long time with each word (in English or Spanish). He offered to help me with the apartment and indicated that he was sort of the maintenance man for the Rizo Family (who own the entire block). The apartment was a disaster and I knew I would need a lot of help making it livable for me.
The first day I had him meet me there, I was not happy when he announced that he did not do cleaning, floors, nor did he do painting. He only did electrical and plumbing. Well, I had plenty of that for him to do and so I hired Alex to help me with the rest of the work. I found out that Saul not only knew all about electricity and plumbing but was a genius with anything mechanical. He took the motor out of the fan in my bedroom and fixed it, then installed two more fans in the living area. The fan in the bathroom turned out to be beyond repair, so I had him buy a new one. I had asked the owner to remove the old stove and I would replace it with a new one. Not only was I afraid it might blow up, but it was so awful I didn't think I could eat anything that was cooked in it. The refrigerator was just as old and ugly but instead of removing it, I asked them to move it up to the deck and place it in the covered laundry area (I have no idea how they managed to get it up there). It was only later that I discovered that while it stayed cool, it would not get cold enough to keep beer in it (the main reason I wanted it on the upstairs deck). Saul discovered that the fan motor was not working properly. He took it out and rather than buy a new one, fixed it. As I said, he is a genius with motors.
I also had him install new wiring on the deck so I could have a switch at the top of the stairs that would turn on two lights under my newly built cabana. I think I mentioned earlier that while the placement of the switch on the wall made it look quite professional, once I looked around the outside wall I discovered there was an uncovered lamp wire running across the outside wall from the laundry area. If they have building or electric codes here, I am unaware of them (Obviously so are all the plumbers and electricians). Over the year, I always found new things for Saul to do and always was quite pleased and surprised at how little he charged me.
He still works for the Rizo family even though they have owed him back wages from a year ago when their grocery store was shut down by the city for not paying their help. He also works for anyone he can find that needs him. He works long hours every day. I can see the back door to his little shop around the corner (in an abandoned building also owned by the Rizos). I have seen his lights on as late as 10:30 to 11:00 at night. He always wears slacks and a short sleeve dress shirt (although the shirt is usually stuck to his body with sweat), When I need something done that is beyond his expertise, he always knows someone who will do it cheap. I needed a railing going up to my deck. My friend had had some iron work done so I asked him first. He informed me that it would cost thousands of pesos. I asked Saul and he brought over a little man (who spoke not a word of English). He measured the space, made the iron balustrade, painted it black and installed it in a few hours for 350 pesos (less than $30.00),
So, when I decided I needed a wall fan under by cabaña I called Saul. I explained that I wanted a small rotating fan like the ones at Apache's. Last year I always had a nice breeze on the deck either from the mountains or the sea. Not this year; many nights there is not a breath or air. He quoted a very low price and said it would be done the next day. It was a week later, but that is Mexico. When he arrived with it I was shocked. It looked huge (I think it would have worked just fine on a small prop plane). It was also white and I was afraid it was just too obtrusive for the ambiance I have tried to created up there. But he had gone all across town to buy it and carried it back on a bus (and it was cheap), so I let him install it. He had to bring in a new wire for a plug outlet (I never bother to look to see how it got there) I am still not happy with the look, but it does a nice job of cooling the air. As I have said many times before, you don't always get exactly what you want here (Let me correct that statement. You almost never get what you want in Mexico).
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