Puerto, 2008

December 2, 2008

Work continues on the house apace; this morning I went over to see Lencho at 8:00 AM and the crew was already at work, laying the block for what will be the water tank, mixing mortar in a depression on the ground above the house -- on the land of the neighbor I've never met. People tend to be tolerant but I'd prefer they mixed on the street, but the street isn't level. There are also piles of 3/8" and 1/2" rebar around, and a pile of blocks, grey solid rectangles. I gave Lencho another 11,000 pesos and might not need to provide more till Saturday, though I had better keep withdrawing 5,000 a day for a while.

With only that little to report about the house, maybe the time has come to discuss Puerto Escondido this year. It is the year of the road project. Apparently the Governor of Oaxaca came by in July to kick off three projects: 1) the expansion of the coast highway to four lanes from the bridge near downtown to the east end (including past zicatela beach, our lodging here at Derek's, and past my property), 2) Calle Del Morro along the town end of Zicatela including the biggest surf area, and 3) repaveing of the Adoquin pedestrian walkway. These happen to be the three main roadways for tourists (and in the case of the highway, for trucks, busses, and everyone else). At this point none of the projects is finished, though they seem close enough on Del Morro that it might open any day, and should before the main holiday rush, and we have heard the Adoquin is near completion also.

The highway is another story. It is a huge mess/obstacle course. For much of the route to town they have removed a couple feet of material right up to the side of the old roadway, which is still in use, so if you happen to drift a bit to the right you will drive off a cliff. In places one lane or the other is diverted to the lower surface over badly made and mostly unmarked dirt ramps, one of them abrupt and steep enough that we have see two tractor-trailer trucks stuck trying to climb up to the roadway in the last week, blocking westbound traffic. As the edges of the roadway collapse in places the road gets narrower, leading to minor games of chicken at the pinch points. There's sand and dust everywhere, and no reduction on overall traffic as there is no other route for long-distance traffic on the coast. At night there is scant lighting (some flaming cans of oil mark one of the diversions down) and no other markings. One wonders how much safer it could be with, say, $100 worth of little red reflectors carefully placed. Last night I was taking Dan back to Zicatela after dinner at our house and there was a vender wheeling a unlit food cart up on the edge of the highway; if a east-and west-bound bus and truck happened to meet near him he was going to lose at least his lunch.

Other than the roads, there is a bit of new building going on, though not so much as some years. the new Super-Che (Chedraui, a chain grocery/clothes/housewares/everything store) is open near downtown which is a big improvement but still not exactly a northern super-center. It has been cloudier than we remember from years past, or is it just selective memory? Not much else has changed too much. The stronger US dollar is helping me out with the Peso prices mostly unchanged. Gas is cheaper than in Canada but more than the $1.80 a gallon we were seeing in the US, which is simply too cheap. There are the usual roosters, dogs, construction sounds, fireworks, and car-roof distorted-loudspeakers touring the roads blaring about tortillas or fruit. We have seen some hummingbirds and a whale, leaping rays and fish, plus mosquitoes, dragonflies, and a scorpion or two. Derek's getting bananas from his trees, though no papaya lately, and the many flowers are seemingly always in bloom.

The gringo permanent and snowbird population seems typical, and it has proven difficult to get lodging during new year's week, though some hoteliers are worried that some clients will fail to show up with the state of the economy. The economy here seems less affected. Maybe there is something to be said for not having mortgages in the first place, let alone sub-prime ones. It goes without saying that the typical Mexican family has lost nothing in the stock market this year.

That's not so true for us; looking at my retirement funds makes building a house here seem cheap; also makes it look like we will need to raise enough fruit and vegetables on my fifth-of-an-acre here to feed ourselves in retirement. But it's hard to get too worried, sitting here in the shade by the pool. And the federal police below have finally run out of last nights' confiscated fireworks to blow up so the dogs have settled down for a nap.

Steel and Mud (1)

There is now something physical to show for all the pesos leaving my bank account on a daily basis. The steel for the footings, along with pre-assembled columns and the beams associated with the foundation, were all placed and wired together by Friday afternoon, and the concrete footings were poured on Saturday morning. Lencho and crew work very hard and things happen fast. Sunday is a day off though. The expectation is that the block work for the walls below the first floor slab will be in this next week -- walls that will define the bodega and cistern and also rise from the footings to support the walls and all else above.

As for the money, it is now a daily routine to go to the bank machine and get another 5000 pesos, (about $380 US or $470 Canadian) to pay for more materials, more labor, our rent, and the neccesities of life such as cerveza and comida (beer and food). Somedays I need 10,000 pesos so Liz has been advancing me a bit of cash, since I managed to lose one of my bank cards on the way down and can only get the limit of 5,000 a day from my one remaining card. So with living expenses our time here is costing about $450 (US) a day, which is not a particularly outlandish vacation-for-two daily budget, and at the end of the 2-month vacation there will be half a house to keep as a souvenir of the trip. But then we never have taken a $450-a-day vacation for two months.

The photos above are of the covered and uncovered (with concrete) footings from roughly the same spot on Saturday and Friday afternoons. Fortunately the freak winter rainstorm we had on friday night did not collapse any of the trenches. I feel fortunate that the soil is a mix of enough sand to drain and enough finer grains to hold a shape, with also enough rocks from fist- to refrigerator-size to make life interesting. These rocks are hopefully destined to become a retaining wall at the lower end of the top lot.

With the walls sort-of defined by the columns and footings, it's become clear that it is indeed a small building. I keep reminding myself that one does a lot of living outdoors in this climate and there is a lot of outdoors, plus the terrace (1st floor) , deck (2nd) and almost-open palapa (3rd) in addition to the enclosed spaces. We also enclosed the area under the east-side stairwell for a possible laundry (you only need a washer and a closeline here, and you just plain need to wear and wash a lot less clothing). Besides that we added a bit of deck aroiund on the south, accessed from the west deck on the 2nd floor, and extrended the terrace on the first floor around to the east to access the stairway to the 2nd level. There is now a stairway on the NW rising from the parking level under the terrace up to the terrace with a switchback, and a few steps will have to be added to access the east door from the street. I am going to have to draw up a new version of the building in my home-architect software to help us all visualize it.

The weather has beed a little less clear than most years but no less warm. it is about 83F days and 72F in the mornings. One cannot complain.