Above: The flash-flooded northern Mexico canyon we drove around Monterey. Below: The van as we brought it.......
The Casa as we found it....
The obligatory sunset.....
December 13, 2010
Well we've been back at the Casa for about 2 weeks, pretty much working every day, mostly all day, getting the first and second floor apartments ready to go for guests coming in another week. Not to mention getting the palapa level we are living in up to speed again. Adding a light fixture or a towel rack or curtain rod or mirror bracket or appliance here or there is normally not a big deal but doing all of those many times, while also managing painters, masons building a tiled walkway, a plumber finishing up undone work, and all the rest becomes a full-time job (or two, with Liz also putting in much time).
Suffice it for now to say that much is done and the rest seems do-able in the next week. We just need to finish the painting and floor waterproofing, finish and bury the drainfield, install all the curtains, shelves, two bathrooms and hooks in three, get the outdoor shower working, get two refrigerators, two beds, maybe some bookshelves or an armoire two mattresses, one stove (and grind away excess concrete counters to get it to fit), sand, paint and move two ceiling fans, install a fourth new one, level the lot )maybe with another dump truck or two of fill), and a lot more I'm not thinking about right now.
Not that there's been no fun. We went to the local Guadalupe Feastday celebration Saturday night and saw a good fireworks castillo show (more on that later) and have had a few good meals out when we're too tired or unable to cook for some reason. We've walked the beach some, I've been running some mornings, Liz is half through the Stieg larson trilogy, and most of all, when it is cold here it is around 68F, about 80 degrees more than Minnesota these days. (And 25C more than Port Hope).
Liz has also taken the time to write about the trip down and the experiences here the first week or so, so I'm going to cheat and post her journal here. I will try to write more as soon as time and energy permit.
Liz's Journal (with a few Den edits):
Bienvenidos a Mexico!
We left Port Hope Wednesday November 24 less than two weeks after I got back from Quebec City and the Engramme Exchange. As well as decompressing after a very busy month of printmaking with Open Studio’s Printopolis conference, the beginning of the exchange project in Toronto and then ten days in Quebec, there were many things to do at home to get ready. Dennis also had a number of site visits to squeeze in to finish his energy monitoring projects for 2010. We made lists, scheduled car repairs and family visits, inventoried our collection of “Casa Den” supplies and went on a shopping marathon one day to complete the list. Dennis squeezed everything into the van—including a washing machine cleverly stuffed with the new sheets and towels I had so carefully washed and folded—and we were off!
We missed the snow and ice in Ontario but drove through increasing cloudiness towards the border. The American border guards were bored the day before Thanksgiving and decided to dismantle the van. We sat and watched while two guards opened a side door and narrowly missed the explosion of pillows stuffed into that location. They took out our suitcases and poked around in a few boxes, invited a dog to sniff around too and finally decided it probably was a bunch of used appliances, garage sale finds, beach wear and tools like we said. They did their best to shove it all back in but they eventually called for us to take over and wished us luck with the shock absorbers in the old van on our way to Mexico.
It seemed to start raining in Michigan and kept up right through northern Texas—at times it was so bad on Thanksgiving Day that Dennis’ proposed nap while I drove became for a time a white knuckle experience for both of us, navigating blind through rain with the windshield wipers unable to keep up with the downpour. We stayed the first night south of Effingham, Illinois, the second south of Dallas in Temple, Texas and a third night in Mercedes, Texas (near McAllen) after spending the afternoon making last chance US purchases at Home Depot etc.
We decided to cross at a new bridge near Pharr/Reynosa because of reports of Zeta Gang trouble south of Brownsville/Matamoros in the state of Tamaulipas. Instead of paying forced bribes --mordidas (not really bribes in this case..tributes?) to them through that state on down the gulf coast, we chose a longer inland route of faster but mostly official toll roads that cut though only a small corner of Tamaulipas before entering the state of Nuevo Leon. We skirted Monterrey to the east and cut through the mountains on a spectactular back road that went through a canyon. There were many steep drop offs to the river below that had become even steeper in the rainy season storms—Dennis thinks it was from a hurricane that had passed through that way last summer. In some places the road had eroded to a single lane and was marked with white painted stones to indicate how closely traffic could (probably) safely pass near the edge. In other areas there had been ’derumbles’ from further up the mountain blocking the road with large boulders or great landslides of rubble that traffic would drive up and over. We were glad that the American rain-storms were behind us.
The road south from this canyon pass was mostly smooth and relatively fast going so we aimed for San Luis Potosi by nightfall. We haven’t driven in this area for about ten years and were happy to see a toll road around San Luis Potosi. We never had much luck in this city finding acceptable accommodation or open museums—I’ve always wanted to go to the Mask museum here but on each of three previous attempts failed. Dennis wasn’t willing to try for a fourth. He hoped that by taking the toll road around the city we could find a tryst hotel in the industrial outskirts the opposite side of the city. We reached this part of the city as night fell and spent the next hour or so driving back and forth on a new “X##! Texas Style” elevated highway while peering over the edge looking for hotels. When one was spotted the next step was to drive another kilometer or so to the ‘retorno’ and make a u-turn going back, then find another ‘retorno’ to take us back on a road parallel to the raised highway. Of course most of these retornos had no on ramps but expected a quick leap into oncoming traffic of fast moving cars, trucks and motorcycles, only some which had headlights. At the end of the day with a fully loaded old van our quick leaps, were leaps of faith. After the third or fourth tour like this finding only not-open, or break-the-budget lodging options, Dennis bailed on San X##! Potosi and drove like a madman with the rest of the southbound traffic. A dot on the map 30 kilometres down the road called Santa Maria del Rio was our saving grace—it had a hotel and restaurant just off the main road. With food, a cerveza and somewhere to sleep that night, the mood changed and we toasted our first day of travel in Mexico.
We got up early the next morning and drove again. I suggested a late breakfast in the historic town of Delores Hidalgo, then San Miguel Allende and Queretaro (all off of the fast road some kilometers), but Dennis was a man with a mission. We found our way around Mexico City on the new Arco Norte toll road--250 pesos later-- then went on around Puebla on another toll road. Dennis thought we could make Oaxaca by dinner! This was amazing and despite being disappointed in racing past such interesting cities, I was excited at the possibility of getting to my favourite colonial city, Oaxaca.
We arrived in Oaxaca about 4:30 and surprised our friends Derek and Christine at their hotel with a knock on the door. We knew they were in Oaxaca for a few days getting their children’s passports updated, but thought we weren’t going to get there before they headed back to Puerto Escondido. We arranged to stay in their hotel—Posada Santo Domingo del Guzman—which was a palace compared to the usual ‘dog-oblivious’ places we had stayed before. Our suite had two rooms, tv, internet, a kitchen, a bathroom and we had use of a pool and secure parking. It was also well situated on Alcala, just up the pedestrian street from Santo Domingo which meant that we could walk everywhere I wanted to go and we didn’t have to move the car again until we left Oaxaca. At 780 pesos a night (cheaper by the week) it was more than we usually paid, for more than we usually got, but after we asked around at a couple of other hotels in the area it seemed a bargain, especially since it was getting dark by this time and we were tired. This hotel would be a perfect, quiet place to spend a relaxing week in Oaxaca.
We had dinner that night with the Tomkins family at a nice restaurant overlooking Santo Domingo and then we all retired to bed early. They had their passport meeting at 8 the next morning and were hoping that there were no complications and they could have the passports by early afternoon. We all planned to leave early Tuesday morning before sunrise to make the six-hour trek down the mountains to Puerto Escondido. Dennis and I lay in bed and watched an outrageous Canadian horror movie with Spanish subtitles called-“Slither”- (filmed in BC) and felt happy to have landed so well.
Monday of course the galleries were closed. Dennis and I headed out in the morning towards the Zocalo looking for a desayuno with good coffee. For some reason we rejected the many proffers of tourist food on the Zocalo and went down a side street to a tiny cantina. It was ok. Dennis had a huge Jugo Naranja, but my coffee was the usual warm Nescafe. We found the Mercado Artesanias eventually—I knew it was somewhere south of the main Mercado (our guide was conveniently packed somewhere in the van). Not too many stalls were open on a Monday morning, but one older man had the woven bedspreads I was looking for and we made a good deal for three. It made his day I’m sure and we were happy to have got Oaxacan Bedspreads off of our list. In Port Hope I have a tablecloth that I use for special occasions from Oaxaca, but have wanted a bedspread for years—now I have three for the casa in Mexico. In retrospect, we made the deal so quickly that I should have thought to buy one more for home. Later in the day I found a store selling the bedspreads near our hotel. It seems we did get a good price, despite the rapid transaction. After our purchases—we poked around a kitchen store and a fabric store as well—we went back to the Zocalo for some caffeine. I enjoyed a good café con leche and Dennis had his usual Coca Frio. Although we could have made a dash for Puerto that day it was so nice to not be in the car and enjoy the slow moving Oaxaca scene.
We ambled back up Alcala and stopped to look at the good Spanish Language bookstore—they have wonderfully produced art and archeology books among other things. Next we wandered into Mano Magica a gallery/store with high end crafts, weavings, paintings and prints. A few blocks up we went to another bookstore which had some English language books among its selection. I’m still looking for a Mexican plant guide, but they didn’t have much. Another block up just past Santo Domingo, we found the Instituto Grafico (Printmaking Institute) had just opened. Dennis decided to take our parcels back to the hotel while I looked at an exhibition of international prints. By the time Dennis got back I was poking around in the art reference library. Dennis had had a call from Derek to say that they had got the passports and were going to some big store on the outskirts of town to buy some things unavailable in Puerto. We could meet up with them again for an early dinner. In the heat of the afternoon Dennis and I sat in the cool courtyard of the Instituto under a trellis of bouganvilla reading magazines. It was lovely.
Later that afternoon we had la cena with the Tomkins—none of us had eaten since breakfast and the kids were hungry. We ate at a restaurant called Las Danzantes which was in another beautiful courtyard. While the sun was still up a sail-like awning hung over the space. When the sun set a motor slowly cranked the sails away to reveal the stars. This courtyard had been rebuilt in adobe bricks and had a shallow fish-pond on one side that gurgled over rocks in a soothing manner. The food was a Mexican fusion with some traditional ingredients like squash blossoms, quesillo cheese, corn, tomatillos etc. combined with cuisines and methods of other nations. Dennis and I shared a organic mixed green salad –we couldn’t identify all the various leaves in it but I had seen some of them in the market. I had a delicious vegetarian lasagne of sorts filled with a variety of local vegetables. Dennis also enjoyed a pasta with a variety of local cheeses and wild mushrooms. Derek and Christine and kids were happy with their delicious choices too. I can’t remember everything they had, but the kids had some great looking empanadas stuffed with cheese and squash blossoms that they loved. It was a delicious meal, in a beautiful location with some good friends and a wonderful end to our stay in Oaxaca.
The next morning we decamped in the dark with the grackles just beginning to squawk in the trees. I woke up the hotel clerk to give him the keys and get him to open the gate and let us out. Circling Oaxaca on the Perifico at this time of the day was less challenging than usual, but we were definitely not the only ones with an early start. We rendezvoused with the Tomkins about two hours later at the town of Sola de Vega for huevos revueltas and then drove on. It was hard for our small convoy to stay together because the twisting road with new rainy season washouts to avoid, required all the drivers’ attention—I’m sure Christine was putting her foot on the break from her side as much as I was. Both actual drivers took any chances that came to pass slow trucks as well as pilgrims on bicycle and foot on their way to the town of Santa Maria Juquila high in the mountain pass about half way to Puerto Escondido. One year we happened to be driving down this road just in time for the Jaquila festival—December 8. It was extremely slow going with all the pilgrims, support vehicles and other traffic—but this year we were ahead of the saint’s day and had only about five or six groups to get by. Once past Juquila we climbed down the mountains and got to Puerto Escondido with few other problems.
Derek had called ahead to Lencho our Obra Negro contractor who was at Casa Den when we arrived to do last minute tidying up and give us keys. After greetings and hand shakes all around he left, and we had the job of unloading the van and deciding what went to the third floor and what went into the bodega until we had the other apartments ready. The bodega had a funky smell (which Dennis didn’t smell because his allergies had kicked in). At first we put it down to moisture that had seeped into the back bodega during the rainy season. Any textile or hammock that I had carefully washed and packed in sealed plastic bins smelled and had to be hauled out to be washed again or at least left in the sun to air. As the day wore on and the door remained open the smell did not go away. And then I saw movement in the corner. A family of Mexican possums had moved in. They are nocturnal animals and we had disturbed their sleep. The parents seemed to have escaped but there were 6-7 young ones scurrying back and forth whenever we moved their shelter. By this time it was getting late and the sun was setting. We left the lights on and the doors open and hoped the family would leave rather than have us try and find a way to make them leave. Dennis would have to secure the bottom of the bodega door better in future—last year’s wire mesh solution seemed to have been knocked off sometime in the past few months.
Lunes, 6 Diciembre
We didn’t have to quickly adopt a dog afterall! The possums were gone in the morning and I shoveled up all the shredded cardboard that they had called home. Slowly the bodega is airing out. It still smells damp, but with the doors open most of the time when we are here and the months ahead of rainless days, it should improve. This week building will begin on the cement walkway along the south wall with a slope away from the house. This should improve drainage in the rainy season as well. There are many scheduled projects in the next few weeks. A young woman called Cecilia presented herself the day after we arrived and offered to clean for us. She works for the small hotel, Sunset Point, around the corner and didn’t have many hours because it was not yet busy at the hotel. She came Thursday and Friday morning and cleaned walls, windows and floors on the first and second floors of construction grime. She was a good worker and agreed to come back before Christmas for a final cleaning before guests arrive and hopefully work a few hours a week during the holidays.
Alejandro the new plumber also came on Thursday and within a day had hooked up the gas lines for the stoves and first floor terrace bbq, as well as the kitchen and bathroom sinks, toilets and showers. Alvaro, last year’s plumber/electrician, had made some questionable decisions and has left some jobs undone. Derek tried in vain to contact him to finish the work but he has made himself scarce. Dennis and I happened to bump into him at the hardware store on Wednesday, and after an embararassed handshake agreed to come that night. He didn’t show. Thursday night at 7, he arrived and Dennis tried to talk to him about the electrical issues—in the dark—as the lighting doesn’t work on the first and second floors. He agreed to come back on Monday to have a meeting with Derek but he didn’t show up again. I don’t think he plans to do any more‘work’ for us and I’m pretty sure we don’t want him to. Dennis had hoped he could at least get a map of how the electrical wires were run through the conduits—but I don’t think such a thing ever existed. In the meantime Dennis has tested the circuits and made some dramatic changes. He found Alvaro had assigned one breaker to run the fans, fridge all lights and washing machine on the first floor interior and exterior. A second breaker ran all the outlets except one, situated by the logical place for a bed. This outlet, nearest to the electrical box, had its own breaker. This is as much as I understand. Dennis spent several days figuring all this out and more, making a map of wires and finally rewiring most of the first floor. He’s now working on the second floor maze. It looks like all the wires from the first floor panel come up through the bathroom…where they go next is the puzzle.
Derek arrived with Epiphanio the painter on Friday. Of course Dennis and I were of differing opinions as to colour. I would have painted the whole house one colour of yellow, but Dennis maintains the yellow stucco will be low maintenance and says the colour variation is ‘fine’. Besides Dennis argued painting the whole house would be expensive. Derek suggested painting a trim colour to cover the grey cement used to install the windows and doors rather than to try and match the varying shades of yellow stucco on the exterior of the house. I thought this would be time consuming to do correctly, potentially ugly depending on the colour and skill of the painter and would need to be touched up more often than a yellow over a yellow of almost the same tone. Dennis’ opinion prevailed and I agreed to do some photoshop colour samples for trim. Eventually we agreed on a terracotta trim colour that will also be used on the stair rails. We chose a yellow similar to most of the exterior for the new boundary wall, exterior stair risers and railing posts. We chose a paler creamy yellow for all the interior except a contrast wall on each floor. It’s a pretty simple colour scheme. I hope it works. The painter and his helpers arrived today and the exterior wall and riser colour was much paler and oranger than the colour chip. Dennis shrugged and said it looked ok. I had to explain the colour difference in two languages. The painter agreed with me. The terracotta also had more white in it than the chip. It also lacked a bit of black. Thankfully the interior colour was almost perfect and I could offer some simple praise (si, perfecto!) instead of struggling to describe what wasn’t right about the colour. The painter left his helpers working on priming and went back into town to modify the exterior colour.
Derek and Lencho arrived about noon. With Dennis they are working out the basic exterior landscaping that needs to be done. A crew should arrive tomorrow to start the walkway. A backhoe to move rocks and build a simple retaining wall should come next week. Then the drainage field can be laid and another load of soil over this will give a more level planting area to the west of the property. Dennis wants to make sure this work remains along the upper property line in case he ever chooses to sever the lower lots. Moving the rocks to this location will clean up the middle lot quite a bit, so hopefully some trees can be planted there so it looks less desolate. Pedro again has his goats penned on lot #3 which keeps the weeds down and is entertaining to look at, but eventually this lot will need a retaining wall as well. As much as having the goats there is ‘neighborly’ of Dennis, there is also some concern with regard to Mexican property rights. If you are Mexican, fence a lot, and keep it clear for five years, it is yours. Even though Dennis bought the property from Pedro’s family and gets along well with Pedro, there could be a scenario where Pedro’s family claims it back unless Dennis does some work to it.
We’re both a bit tired today. The wind picked up last night and it was quite cool in our little palapa aerie. Derek said it was a downright cold 63 F when he looked at his thermometer this morning. I have given up on the airbed and for the last two nights have made a bed on the floor. The night before last I slept like a true northern camper on a layer of towel and extra mattress pads wrapped up in my summer- weight sleeping bag. Last night I was down a layer of mattress pad because Dennis believed it would help him on the airbed. I slept well for the first few hours, but in my tiredness going to bed had forgotten my earplugs. Dog arguments and roosters reacting to the occasional light kept me awake most of the time after that. I admit I preferred to keep my head tucked into the sleeping bag rather than venture forth into the breezy air to search for my earplugs in the dark. At least the wind kept the mosquitos away. Dennis seemed to have faired worse than me despite the “comfortable” airbed and to my mind, the usually stifling microclimate created under the mosquito net. His mattress pad didn’t help and he found the Oaxaca bedspread was not enough. About 5:30 he climbed down from his big airbed and wrapped himself around the “crazy person who would choose a tile floor for a bed” and promptly fell asleep. We both slept in until 7. When we go to town later today, mattress shopping is on both our lists.
Miercoles 8 Diciembre, 2010
Yesterday money was spent on a mattress, seco rapido for the last coat on the second floor tiles, stairs and new walkway as well as internet. Although the first stop was the bank machine, the cash situation was depleted again before we got back home. The seco was the most expensive item, but once done should protect the tiles from moisture and sun for years. We eventually found Armando the internet guy and Dennis paid him for a month and a half of internet. Armando seems to have a good business providing internet connections right across town. He also transmit Canadian satellite TV to many snowbirds. He said the Canadian feed was better at providing a larger and more diverse coverage, although some of his American customers were suspicious of the content.
The painters completed the first floor apartment yesterday and should finish the second today. Lencho also came with a crew and started building the walkway. They finished the retaining wall yesterday and poured the cement this morning. Early this afternoon Derek arrived to check on work and although lines were laid nothing is quite square—the new walkway, the previous walkway, the wall, the house, the tiles... The previously laid tiles along the east side will not line up to give us four full tiles along the south side walkway. We tried various layouts-lifting and laying tiles in the hot sun. In the meantime the workers are laying tiles four deep on the new walkway to the south edge of the house. They’ll stop at the east wall—manana, we’ll have to come up with a creative solution for them to finish the job on the east side by the gate. A border of Azulejos as a decorative welcome by the gate? (We’ve got a collection of leftovers in the bodega. This might work, but I have an aversion to anything as decorative as the entrance mosaic at XEXE.) Stones laid in concrete?
Today I brought all the light fixtures we have brought to the first floor apartment and Dennis and I made some decisions about what went where. The palapa level fans we installed last year are already rusting, so Dennis removed all the metal parts from the fixtures and I spray painted them with clear rustoleum to try and slow their eventual Oceanside demise. Eventually we’ll take down the palapa level fans, steel wool the rust off and spray them as well. We bought exterior grade fans in Texas so may move the ones from the palapa to the second floor apartment and see if these fans fare any better. Derek shrugs and says rust is a fact of life here, but the rapid deterioration of everything metal is disheartening. The sinks and faucets we installed last year are pocked as well.
It sounds like we have done nothing but work on the house and shop for things for the house since we got here. Its pretty much true, although I have gone swimming three times, walked on the beach each morning and Dennis has begun running again. We’re enjoying fresh tasty varieties of bananas, papaya and pineapple for breakfast and I’m loving the perfect avocados in salad and guacamole. I also have a new favourite crudite in Jicama. We’ve been entertained by the birds flitting by and the local goats. There are some new adorable baby goats that jump and play, but wail piteously when their mothers leave them. We have an iguana that suns on the rocks near our driveway everyday and I saw an even larger one in the palm tree yesterday while I was casually looking out and doing the dishes. Like our workers we rush to clean-up before sunset. A cold cerveza is always on order as we note the day’s variation of the classic “sun set with palm trees and ocean.” We’re both on our second novel and have played a round or two of cards and Quiddler after dinner. Oh, did I mention that I spend my day in shorts and tank top and not multiple sweaters? Life is good.
