Hi Everyone
I apologize for not posting before now but things were pretty routine. We spent January in Mazatlan and had a great time. Brad came down for Christmas, Patty and John were down between Christmas and New Years and Tami was down on January. We drove home at the end of January and spent three days in AJ visiting my dad before the final push home, where we arrived on Feb 8thy.
We've decided on passing on buying in Mexico for the time being for a variety of reasons so we're going to look for something in the Phoenix area. Now that we're back I'm really busy with work for the next few months but by June we hope to be able to make a trip back with the specific purpose of buying something in the Gold Canyon or Mesa areas.
In the interim I'm heading to MB this Sunday for four days and then I'm off to Dawson Creek for a couple of months - maybe longer. Rosi is staying home with Dexter to hold the fort but may join me up there if I stay for May/June.
That's it for now
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Monday, December 20, 2010
Feliz Navidad!
Greetings from warm and sunny Mazatlan! Since my last post Rosi and I have basically fallen into the “groove” of day-to-day living down here. Nothing too exciting, just basically all the things we’d do at home. Which is why I haven’t been posting anything. No one really wants to read about shopping at the supermarket, getting our eye exams and buying new glasses and contacts or our 5 K walk each morning. Just know that we’re alive and well and thoroughly enjoying ourselves. Brad is coming down on Friday to join us for Christmas, Patty and John will be here next Monday for New Years and Tami and Marilyn will be here at the end of January. We’re going to save some of the touristy stuff for when they’re all here so we may have a few things to share after that. As for now, we just want to send Christmas greetings to all our friends and family and wish everyone all the very best during the holidays Feliz NavidadThursday, December 2, 2010
Our hearts still belong to Mexico!
Hi Everyone
Greetings from Mazatlan!
I wish I could tell you tales about the ongoing drug war and how we bravely fought our way south through bandito infested badlands. Or how the "vibe" has changed in Mexico because of all the problems. Or even how crossing the border has become an issue of running a gauntlet of death and destruction............but I can't.
But don't think we weren't just as worried about all these things as some of our friends and family. We were! As a matter of fact, by the time we were close to Nogales we had pretty much convinced ourselves that we would cancel any plans to buy in Mexico and concentrate on some of the alternatives in the US: Phoenix, Palm Springs and others - all places with warm weather, no language barrier and best of all, HUGELY depreciated property values. Places where it's now possible to buy a nice townhouse or patio home in a gated community for less than $150,000.
But then we crossed into Mexico.
Prior to arriving in Nogales we corresponded with other Snowbirds we'd "met" on a discussion board specifically set up so people could convoy down together to mitigate the risk of road blocks and (insert whatever you fear the most at this point: carjacking, theft, murder, gang rape etc. ) The theory being that there's strength in numbers. So at 8:00 am we joined three other Snowbird couples at the Wal-Mart parking lot, two from BC and one from Ontario, them with motor homes and fifth wheels and us with our CR-V loaded to the gunwales, and we headed to the border.
The border is only five minutes from where we started and the first realization was that nothing much had changed. We expected guards, tanks and machine guns - or at the very least someone - anyone - with some sense of concern. Instead we drove though a checkpoint on the US side where smiling US border guards simply waved us through and on the Mexican side......nothing. No press the button for red light/green light, no stern guards with guns and dogs.....in fact no anything. One minute we were in the US and the next, Mexico. And because this time we used the truck crossing south of town rather than the main crossing we crossed over onto a ring road that by-passes Nogales on the Mexican side altogether so there's even less of the normal culture shock of crossing from the US into Mexico. So, Voila! We were in Mexico with no muss, no fuss, and even more important, no apparent changes.
Our second realization came within a few more minutes of driving south; driving in a convoy, especially a convoy made up of RV's, is a HUGE PIA if you're the one in a car. We stuck it out until we reached the customs and immigration checkpoint 20 klm south but when we got there we were the only ones apparently, that knew you could make all your arrangements in advance on-line through the Mexican govt website. Rosi and I were done in five minutes but everyone else was going to take at least an hour.
And that's when it hit us. We were "home". No anxiety, no more fear of death and destruction, and without even realizing it, were already more relaxed and upbeat than we'd been since leaving the house.
We also noticed something else.....Snow Birds - lots and lots Snow Birds! In the short time we were there, more and more motor homes, RV's and retires arrived and all stood in line for their paperwork (Have NONE of these people heard of the internet!?)
One couple though, behind us in the passport line, seemed to be just as “in the know” as us. We struck up a conversation and it turns out they’re a retired couple from Victoria driving down to their house in La Manzanilla, just outside of Barra de Navidad. They’re travelling with their 12 year old Husky/Shepherd mix, Jade, who looks exactly like the littlest Hobo. We ran into them again at dinner, when we both stopped at the same hotel for the night. We exchanged addresses etc and we would have invited them to overnight here in Mazatlan with us but because it was our first time renting here we weren’t sure what we’d find so we didn’t. But now we have our first Snow Bird friends so maybe next year!
We rationalized that if all of these Snow Birds(all of them older than us) are still coming down it must be fairly safe - and with the thought that there would now be people behind us to pick up the pieces so to speak, we ditched our convoy and headed out on our own.
And from there........there's not much to tell. How does one convey the absence of something? The absence of fear, the absence of......pretty much anything out of the ordinary? It was a normal, uneventful two-day drive on good Mexican divided highway, the last three hours or so of which was high-speed Autopista. We averaged 120 - 130 KPH, stayed one night in a great Best Western half way down and arrived unscathed at 2:00 on Tuesday.
We're now firmly ensconced in a nice townhouse in an area north of Mazatlan known as the Cerritos district. It's a new area under development approx 20 minutes from downtown, similar to Nuevo Vallarta in PV. We're in a large gated community with a mix of middle-class Mexican families and Mexican retirees, seasonal Snow Birds and a few permanent ex-Pats. Since arriving we've made a HUGE grocery run to a VERY modern Mexican grocery store - think Wal-Mart Supercentre except much more high-end - and today our mission is to buy a Mexican cell phone so we can stay in touch with friends and family back home. All pretty routine and pretty boring stuff so, unless there’s something new or exciting to report, this will be my last blog entry for a while.
As Ward said to us once, we're not on vacation, we live here. For the first time Rosi and I can say the same thing.
We're not sure what we'll decide vis-à-vis buying here vs. the US. All it would take is for the drug war, which still exists whether we sensed a change or not, to escalate and real estate here will be worthless, but we're certainly more open to the idea than a few days ago. As Johnny Depp would say, are you a Mexi-can, or a Mexi-can't? I've often said God seems to favour the brave, or the blissfully ignorant in our case, so don't be too surprised if we end up here after all.
Take care all
Adios Mi amigos Y Mi Familia
Cheers!
Dale
Greetings from Mazatlan!
I wish I could tell you tales about the ongoing drug war and how we bravely fought our way south through bandito infested badlands. Or how the "vibe" has changed in Mexico because of all the problems. Or even how crossing the border has become an issue of running a gauntlet of death and destruction............but I can't.
But don't think we weren't just as worried about all these things as some of our friends and family. We were! As a matter of fact, by the time we were close to Nogales we had pretty much convinced ourselves that we would cancel any plans to buy in Mexico and concentrate on some of the alternatives in the US: Phoenix, Palm Springs and others - all places with warm weather, no language barrier and best of all, HUGELY depreciated property values. Places where it's now possible to buy a nice townhouse or patio home in a gated community for less than $150,000.
But then we crossed into Mexico.
Prior to arriving in Nogales we corresponded with other Snowbirds we'd "met" on a discussion board specifically set up so people could convoy down together to mitigate the risk of road blocks and (insert whatever you fear the most at this point: carjacking, theft, murder, gang rape etc. ) The theory being that there's strength in numbers. So at 8:00 am we joined three other Snowbird couples at the Wal-Mart parking lot, two from BC and one from Ontario, them with motor homes and fifth wheels and us with our CR-V loaded to the gunwales, and we headed to the border.
The border is only five minutes from where we started and the first realization was that nothing much had changed. We expected guards, tanks and machine guns - or at the very least someone - anyone - with some sense of concern. Instead we drove though a checkpoint on the US side where smiling US border guards simply waved us through and on the Mexican side......nothing. No press the button for red light/green light, no stern guards with guns and dogs.....in fact no anything. One minute we were in the US and the next, Mexico. And because this time we used the truck crossing south of town rather than the main crossing we crossed over onto a ring road that by-passes Nogales on the Mexican side altogether so there's even less of the normal culture shock of crossing from the US into Mexico. So, Voila! We were in Mexico with no muss, no fuss, and even more important, no apparent changes.
Our second realization came within a few more minutes of driving south; driving in a convoy, especially a convoy made up of RV's, is a HUGE PIA if you're the one in a car. We stuck it out until we reached the customs and immigration checkpoint 20 klm south but when we got there we were the only ones apparently, that knew you could make all your arrangements in advance on-line through the Mexican govt website. Rosi and I were done in five minutes but everyone else was going to take at least an hour.
And that's when it hit us. We were "home". No anxiety, no more fear of death and destruction, and without even realizing it, were already more relaxed and upbeat than we'd been since leaving the house.
We also noticed something else.....Snow Birds - lots and lots Snow Birds! In the short time we were there, more and more motor homes, RV's and retires arrived and all stood in line for their paperwork (Have NONE of these people heard of the internet!?)
One couple though, behind us in the passport line, seemed to be just as “in the know” as us. We struck up a conversation and it turns out they’re a retired couple from Victoria driving down to their house in La Manzanilla, just outside of Barra de Navidad. They’re travelling with their 12 year old Husky/Shepherd mix, Jade, who looks exactly like the littlest Hobo. We ran into them again at dinner, when we both stopped at the same hotel for the night. We exchanged addresses etc and we would have invited them to overnight here in Mazatlan with us but because it was our first time renting here we weren’t sure what we’d find so we didn’t. But now we have our first Snow Bird friends so maybe next year!
We rationalized that if all of these Snow Birds(all of them older than us) are still coming down it must be fairly safe - and with the thought that there would now be people behind us to pick up the pieces so to speak, we ditched our convoy and headed out on our own.
And from there........there's not much to tell. How does one convey the absence of something? The absence of fear, the absence of......pretty much anything out of the ordinary? It was a normal, uneventful two-day drive on good Mexican divided highway, the last three hours or so of which was high-speed Autopista. We averaged 120 - 130 KPH, stayed one night in a great Best Western half way down and arrived unscathed at 2:00 on Tuesday.
We're now firmly ensconced in a nice townhouse in an area north of Mazatlan known as the Cerritos district. It's a new area under development approx 20 minutes from downtown, similar to Nuevo Vallarta in PV. We're in a large gated community with a mix of middle-class Mexican families and Mexican retirees, seasonal Snow Birds and a few permanent ex-Pats. Since arriving we've made a HUGE grocery run to a VERY modern Mexican grocery store - think Wal-Mart Supercentre except much more high-end - and today our mission is to buy a Mexican cell phone so we can stay in touch with friends and family back home. All pretty routine and pretty boring stuff so, unless there’s something new or exciting to report, this will be my last blog entry for a while.
As Ward said to us once, we're not on vacation, we live here. For the first time Rosi and I can say the same thing.
We're not sure what we'll decide vis-à-vis buying here vs. the US. All it would take is for the drug war, which still exists whether we sensed a change or not, to escalate and real estate here will be worthless, but we're certainly more open to the idea than a few days ago. As Johnny Depp would say, are you a Mexi-can, or a Mexi-can't? I've often said God seems to favour the brave, or the blissfully ignorant in our case, so don't be too surprised if we end up here after all.
Take care all
Adios Mi amigos Y Mi Familia
Cheers!
Dale
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Oh my GOD!!
Hi Everyone Let's see, where to begin. The rest of the trip wasn't too bad. The roads opened at 10:00 but were pretty crappy with blowing and drifting snow most of the way to Salt Lake City but by then it was mostly clear sailing. We stopped for a brief visit to see my niece Arleen and then continued to St George Utah. On Thursday it was clear skies, warm temperatures and an uneventful drive to Phoenix. But.....today was the incredible part. Rosi gave me a gift for my 50th that was amazing! I received a four-hour fighter combat experience at Fighter Combat International in Mesa. I showed up at 11:15 and had ground school and a briefing that lasted about 90 minutes. After that I rode with an instructor pilot in a high performance aerobatic plane that's capable of 10G. It's basically one of the best aerobatic planes built and other than speed, is capable of maneuvers only a jet fighter could do. The pilot takes off and lands, and goes through a demo of each maneuver, but after that I was able to actually take the "stick" and fly! I flew three combat missions against another pilot, complete with simulated machine guns and smoke, and I flew several acrobatic maneuvers on my own: a full loop, the Cuban roll and a hammerhead stall. The whole experience was amazing! And more than a little frightening - and yes, at one point I got sick. You try pulling 4.2G inverted in a plane not much bigger than a Honda Civic and tell me you don't get scared - or sick. Anyway, it's now just a great memory - plus a plaque, a ball cap and my own leather call sign off of my flight suit..... Tomorrow we're only driving as far as Nogales and then on Monday we cross into Mexico for the last few days of the trip. Adios Mi Amigos!Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.....NOT!
Hi everyone
Just a short note to let friends and family know we're alive and well in Burley ID. There were a few "pucker" moments on the drive due to the weather but overall it went fairly smoothly. We're now firmly ensconced in a warm friendly hotel and I'm SOOOO glad I had reservations. The blizzard has closed the Interstate between here and the Utah border and from what we can tell, much of Utah itself, and there was no room at the Inn for those without firm reservations. We just got back from dinner at a truck stop cafe next door and there were people in there that are worried they'll have to sleep in their cars if they can't find something.
We've got our fingers crossed that the road will open in the morning and we can make our way further south but we won't take any unneccessary risks.......more to follow tomorrow
Cheers
Just a short note to let friends and family know we're alive and well in Burley ID. There were a few "pucker" moments on the drive due to the weather but overall it went fairly smoothly. We're now firmly ensconced in a warm friendly hotel and I'm SOOOO glad I had reservations. The blizzard has closed the Interstate between here and the Utah border and from what we can tell, much of Utah itself, and there was no room at the Inn for those without firm reservations. We just got back from dinner at a truck stop cafe next door and there were people in there that are worried they'll have to sleep in their cars if they can't find something.
We've got our fingers crossed that the road will open in the morning and we can make our way further south but we won't take any unneccessary risks.......more to follow tomorrow
Cheers
Monday, November 22, 2010
Notes from the road
Hola Mi Familia Y Amigos
Nothing new or exciting to report. It was a fairly uneventful drive down, albeit with a few wrinkles at the border because we didn't realize we couldn't bring dog food across. We had clear skies for the first half and then some fairly heavy blowing snow for a few hours but nowhere near as bad as a bad day on the Coquihalla. It was pretty slow going for a while - not because of us but because the truckers down here exercise MUCH more caution than at home - but we arrived here in Pendleton OR right around 5:00.
All is well
Cheers
Dale
Nothing new or exciting to report. It was a fairly uneventful drive down, albeit with a few wrinkles at the border because we didn't realize we couldn't bring dog food across. We had clear skies for the first half and then some fairly heavy blowing snow for a few hours but nowhere near as bad as a bad day on the Coquihalla. It was pretty slow going for a while - not because of us but because the truckers down here exercise MUCH more caution than at home - but we arrived here in Pendleton OR right around 5:00.
All is well
Cheers
Dale
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Finally, We're Snow Birds!!
Hi All
Nothing too wild and/or exciting to report other than we're finally joining the ranks of all the other Canadian snow birds that head south for the winter.
Rosi and I have always said we'd eventually like to buy a second home in Mexico and we're finally at a stage in our lives where we can maybe act on it. There's an old adage though, never buy a home in a place you've only visited in February, so we're driving down to rent a house for a couple of months to see how much we really like it. The irony is we've gone to Mexico for four-five weeks every year for the last 20 years but we've never stayed in one place for longer than 10 days. The real test will see if we like sitting still for that length of time.
There's also the factor of the time and expense to drive down and not even mentioning an ongoing drug war between the government and different warring drug cartels. So this will be a real test - on several different levels.
We're leaving first thing Monday morning and taking our time driving to Phoenix. It's normally a 2 1/2 - 3 day drive but we're taking four days because we'll have Dexter with us and we want to give him lots of opportunity to stretch his legs. We took him in to get an international health certificate from our vet this week and she mentioned for the first time the inevitability of his old age. It was a bit of a shock to hear her articulate what we've been thinking for a while. His eyes are getting dim these days and he's pretty much lost most of his hearing but he still gets around OK, albeit a lot slower than last year, and he goes for a short walk twice a day. We're at a real cross-roads. He's now too old to leave in a kennel - which we would never do for two months anyway - but a trip of this length will be hard on him. All we can hope is the Mexican sun will warm his old bones when we get there. And if looking out for him means an extra night in a hotel to keep the driving days short he's more than earned it. He's given us unconditional love and companionship for 12 years and it's our turn to give back a little.
But.....not to get too melancholy......lets not forget why we're stopping in Phoenix. (Yes, it's to see my dad but....) Fighter Combat International Baby!!! WooHoo!!! By this time next week I'll be flying an hour-long combat mission in the sunny skies of Phoenix!!
We'll post a few quick updates from the road to let family know we're safe and sound but for the most part - Mexican banditos aside - we don't expect anything too exciting for the next week or so or at least until we arrive in Mexico.
So until I can post from our first stop in Pendleton OR,
Adios, Mi Amigos!
Nothing too wild and/or exciting to report other than we're finally joining the ranks of all the other Canadian snow birds that head south for the winter.
Rosi and I have always said we'd eventually like to buy a second home in Mexico and we're finally at a stage in our lives where we can maybe act on it. There's an old adage though, never buy a home in a place you've only visited in February, so we're driving down to rent a house for a couple of months to see how much we really like it. The irony is we've gone to Mexico for four-five weeks every year for the last 20 years but we've never stayed in one place for longer than 10 days. The real test will see if we like sitting still for that length of time.
There's also the factor of the time and expense to drive down and not even mentioning an ongoing drug war between the government and different warring drug cartels. So this will be a real test - on several different levels.
We're leaving first thing Monday morning and taking our time driving to Phoenix. It's normally a 2 1/2 - 3 day drive but we're taking four days because we'll have Dexter with us and we want to give him lots of opportunity to stretch his legs. We took him in to get an international health certificate from our vet this week and she mentioned for the first time the inevitability of his old age. It was a bit of a shock to hear her articulate what we've been thinking for a while. His eyes are getting dim these days and he's pretty much lost most of his hearing but he still gets around OK, albeit a lot slower than last year, and he goes for a short walk twice a day. We're at a real cross-roads. He's now too old to leave in a kennel - which we would never do for two months anyway - but a trip of this length will be hard on him. All we can hope is the Mexican sun will warm his old bones when we get there. And if looking out for him means an extra night in a hotel to keep the driving days short he's more than earned it. He's given us unconditional love and companionship for 12 years and it's our turn to give back a little.
But.....not to get too melancholy......lets not forget why we're stopping in Phoenix. (Yes, it's to see my dad but....) Fighter Combat International Baby!!! WooHoo!!! By this time next week I'll be flying an hour-long combat mission in the sunny skies of Phoenix!!
We'll post a few quick updates from the road to let family know we're safe and sound but for the most part - Mexican banditos aside - we don't expect anything too exciting for the next week or so or at least until we arrive in Mexico.
So until I can post from our first stop in Pendleton OR,
Adios, Mi Amigos!
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