Furniture Trickling In

 I had an acquaintance ask for a video call for me to tell her all about Mexico and everything that happened on our journey.  I gave her the link to this blog instead.  

I guess when you do something crazy you have a lot of people who want to hear all about it.  They want to know if it's something they could do one day too.  Knowing someone who's done it is a link that some people need before taking a leap themselves.

But, between family, therapist, and friends, I'm all talked out.  So I'm glad I started up the blog again to give people the link.  I should take more pictures but...lazy.  So here's some video from my dashcam.

Speaking of the dashcam, I got one because it was supposed to help with police asking for bribes when they pull you over.  But I've never been pulled over.  I'll keep it anyway just to be sure.

Two days ago we got a call that they were delivering packages.  😡 Not good.  We're at the air bnb and they're delivering to the house.  I scheduled everything to be on the 28th.  WTF!

But yeah, I had to run over and we got a mattress and table.  The next afternoon we went there anyway because I had a sense that this was going to happen again, and sure enough, more furniture was delivered.  We'll be there again this afternoon to receive anything else.

Basically:  Don't trust delivery dates.  They ship stuff whenever here.

Other news:  as you know there is a great mystery on how to eat fruit and vegetables here.  You need to wash vegetables before you eat them, right?  Well, the water is contaminated so it doesn't clean anything.  Especially not something you need to eat.  I thought I'd wash and dry fruit and that would be okay.

Apparently I'm wrong.  In the fruit aisle they sell disinfectant you're supposed to use with tap water.  You're supposed to soak fruit and veg in disinfectant for 10 minutes and then eat.  Don't rinse them off after.

I learned this after eating several mangos.  I hope I'm okay.  I may have to take an antiparasitic just to be sure.  Someone said you need to get antiparasitics in Mexico once a year anyway.

We'll see.  I don't know if I recounted this story here, but here's something I texted to friends below:

I've been in Mexico 2 weeks and I know all my neighbors and the family of the person who owns the Air Bnb.  And we aren't going out to get to know people.  It just happens organically.

It started with this beautiful tortie cat.  She came over and flirted with us.  I asked the vet on the way out if she was a stray because we'd love to adopt her as an outdoor cat.  He said probaby not, because she looked too good.

A neighbor overheard the conversation and put a collar on the cat.  We laughed.  Oops.  They know we want to steal their cat.  So we put a note on the collar apologizing and giving them $200 pesos to buy her nice cat food.

That broke the ice.  Neighbors have been hitting us up for eggs, butter, and buckets of water since the water goes off randomly here.  The two little girls next door are always talkign to us when we come out.  Yesterday I bought them ice cream from the vendor who comes around.  The mother is nice to us.  Everyone likes us.

It's not like this in the USA.  I lived 3 years in one place and never spoke to my neighbors.  The sense of community is so much stronger here.

The workers in the stores bend over backwards to help you.  Like a cashier literally leaving her register and going halfway across the huge Walmart sized store to get me reusable bags because I didn't know I needed to bring my own.  People care.  They have empathy.  They want to help.  It's the village mentality that everyone helps each other.

Things are unorganized here and a little more difficult.  Stores don't have web sites.  It's all WhatsApp where you have to ask them stuff directly, or maybe a Facebook page.  Getting furniture was difficult.  You have to buy one thing here, another thing here, another thing here, and you never know when it's all going to be delivered.  America is more organized because of all the corporate influences.  But I don't mind how disorganized Mexico is.  In the end, having money solves any problem.  And I'm wealthy here, even with my measly $2k/month after expenses.  We'll get all we need.  Even if it's a little difficult.  It's worth a little hassle to live here.

Trying to Cook in Mexico

 Here's the Status Report!

• We're in the Air BnB in Mexico
• My mom and I got our residency cards
• We got a nice rental to move into April 1 with a 1 year lease
• We have furniture coming Mar 28 from Walmart.com.mx
• We've bought a lot of the things we gave up to drive down here and have boxes stacked in the new rental.

Buying stuff online to be delivered via our American credit cards is a mixed bag.  Sometimes they reject it out of the blue and we need to pay cash instead (not a scam, the truth).  But Walmart in Mexico takes Paypal.

Paypal is the secure payment for Mexico.  It never fails.  You can order expensive furniture to multiple addresses and it all goes through.

So today I scheduled a grocery delivery from Walmart.com.  Pro: they have a lot of food I recognize.  Con: more expensive than a local Mexican grocery.  But we needed food and we've been running around so much my mom is in pain.  

Last time we ordered from Ley Express and my credit card was rejected right before they came to deliver.  So I had to use the last of my cash.  And...stuff was missing.  I didn't get the shrimp I ordered and a few other things.  Did they keep that stuff?  Did they deduct it from the bill?  I don't know.  They showed me a receipt briefly, but I didn't think to ask to keep it.  I should have.

Meanwhile, Chedraui is a really nice mega-grocery store here.  Owned by Walmart, and like a Walmart with groceries, furniture, electronics.  We've bought a lot of stuff from there.  And I need to buy more.  Like all the regular pantry items I had on hand in the USA:  flour, sugar, oats, beans, rice, etc.  

So I have a cart already full of stuff I plan to order when we move into the new place.  I didn't want to empty it to get the stuff we need for the rest of the month at the Air BnB.  So I did a Walmart order.

I got $3,500 pesos worth of stuff which is $173 usd.  I don't have the pan set I bought here or any of my utensils or dishes.  Just the weird odds and ends the Air Bnb had.  I can't really bake stuff here.  So...what do I cook?

In the USA a staple of my food budget was the $2/lb ground turkey.  Healthy, cheap, versatile.  I can make cheeseburger mac and cheese, spaghetti, shepherds pie, salisbury steak, all sorts of things.  I can't find an equivalent in Mexico.  

I've had to settle for 400 gram ground beef tubes that are $3 each.  So what can I make with that at the Air Bnb?  It's been spaghetti twice already.  

I wanted to just get convenience food for the time being since cooking in the tiny kitchen with weird implements is not easy, but convenience food isn't a big thing in Mexico.  They eat healthy by default.  It's the cultural cuisine.  

I looked at other shopping carts when I went to the store for ideas.  The mainstay is: a tomato, onion, and bell pepper.  That makes pico de gallo which they eat with tortillas and some kind of meat.  Often just a few cheap hot dogs.  A lot of carts in the store only have these items.  1 Tomato, 1 onion, 1 pepper, some tortillas, a cheap meat. The tomatos, onions, and peppers are always together in the store for easy access.

It's not what we're used to, and I don't like having to chop these white onions that make you cry.  (I haven't found the milder yellow onions anywhere here).  My mom doesn't eat raw onions.

I want to order meat that I can serve with potatoes and the Italian squash that's so popular here.  Ordering meat is something I'm going to have to learn as I live here.

1. They don't have the same cuts that we have in the USA.  I don't know what this stuff is.
2. Everything's in metric which I need to learn.  I try to do the:  1 kilo is 2 pounds rule, but you often order in 200gram increments which means you get either 600 grams or 400.  600 is too much for one meal.  400 seems a bit short.
3. It's expensive.  As expensive as the USA, and sometimes worse.

Mexico has different cuisines in different regions like the USA.  Some things are popular everywhere, like tamales, but in this area a tamale is meat wrapped in a corn tortilla with tamale sauce, not masa tamales wrapped in corn leaves like we're used to.  We don't like corn tortillas.

I cooked some 'beef'.  I thought it was strips, but it was one whole long skinny piece folded over on itself with lots of round sections separated by gristle.  I don't know what that was.  It was tough.  

I'm guessing the cheap cuts are the thing in Mexico.  I did order some ribs but they're not like USA ribs.  They're weird.  Some sections have bone, some don't.  I in the USA a rib looked like a rib with flat bone on one side, meat and fat on the other.  Or the Korean cut ribs.  That's not what they have here.  

Chicken is chicken, no matter where you go.  They don't have the cornish cross mega-breast meat chickens here, but it's still chicken.  I can bake a whole chicken, eat the dark meat one day with my mom and have the white meat in fajitas or whatever the next day.  That's fine.  But a whole chicken is still pricey.  

Chicken quarters, thighs, and legs are reasonably cheap, so I'm thinking I'll do 1 piece of meat, salad or squash, refried beans and yellow rice.  We can eat that every day just swapping the meat.  That's probably how I'll manage once I can bake chicken in the new place.

I did figure out how to light the oven!  In Mexico they don't keep the pilot light on all the time.  It's less toxic and less wasteful.  Lighting the pilot isn't the scary hand into a dark area hoping you won't get burnt affair either.  There's a clear hole on the bottom of the oven that you need to light.  So, I'm fine with that.

We have enough food until the end of our stay now.  Then I can really get organized and set up for long term living in the rental.

I do plan to buy a house in Mexico at some point.  There's no mortgages here (they wouldn't give me one anyway with my zero credit history) but I can buy a place with the proceeds of the house in the USA once it sells.  For now, we're happy with the rental and our landlord is really nice.

Furniture Woes Part 2

 When we last left this blog, I had bought $3,600 worth of furniture from a store called Dicos that they advertised as being available to be shipped to me in 12 days.  Then they sent emails saying, 'Ha ha, no.  It will be multiple shipments over the next month and a half.'

I thought this was just how things are in Mexico and tried to work it out with my rep so we'd have the minimum pieces we needed to move out of the Air BnB in time.  She made me pay another 500 pesos 'to expedite' and would let me know.  

Monday was a holiday.  I thought I'd hear from her Tuesday.  Wednesday I asked for an update.  Today she finally got back to me saying my card had 'irregularities' and I needed to pay for everything by Paypal instead.

Except I'd not only paid with credit card already, I'd already paid for those charges.  And I wasn't going to just pull another $3,600 out of my ass when there was nothing wrong with my payment.  We had an annoying phone call where she wouldn't take a breath to let anyone else talk while my mom desperately tried to translate for me with her not stopping talking.  I literally had to yell, 'Perdon!' to get her to take a damn breath.

I told her that I could do an alternate payment *after* they gave me back the $3600 and extra $500 I'd already paid.  She said if I do that then I won't get my stuff until the end of April.  Send money to this Paypal address immediately or I won't have furniture for weeks.

I was smelling scam, but I can't really say that.  I just said I didn't have the money because I'd already paid my credit card.  She ended the call.

Well, they have my credit card money, they haven't refunded me, and I'm not getting my furniture.  I messaged that she needed to refund me or I was going to dispute the charges.  She sent screen caps of refunds.  

I'm now buying everything all over again from Walmart.com.mx.  I should have just gotten stuff with them in the first place after this company lied about how soon they could deliver things on their web site.  (Something she berated us for saying other people were ahead of us, stuff is in Mexico City and Guadalajara and you can't jump the line.  Bitch, YOUR company said 12 days to trick us to buy this shit.  Figure it the fuck out.  Or don't.  I'll just do Walmart.)  

Conclusion:  Don't buy from Dicos.  Go to Walmart.com.mx.  Same prices, same stuff, honest delivery estimates.

Seven Years of Spanish and I Suck At It

Y'know, I don't get how all the foreigners I've met in the USA are able to become fluent.  Learning a new language is DAMNED HARD.

During the pandemic I started taking Spanish lessons while I worked out on my treadmill.  Just for communicating in the USA with Spanish speakers.  I had no plans to move.  I took the 4 year high school class, then the 3 levels of Metodo classes that forces you to really speak the language.  

Right now I'm going through the highest level they have out, intermediate, and redoing the class a 3rd time.  It moves so fast and becomes so complicated.  But I didn't really start to 'learn' Spanish until that class.  

I have a pile of Udemy classes I plan to keep taking as I work out.  Right now, I'm still going blank when I hear Spanish.  My brain turns off.  I can struggle through transactions sounding horrible.

Like I went into a Mexican Petco and I wanted to ask if they had any cat laxatives because my cat was constipated.  For some reason I assumed it was laxativo because I'm a gringo idiot.  Finally I just said, 'Mi gata no puede caca.'  (My cat can't poopoo).  😖  And yes, he laughed right in my face.  

But I won't give up.  I have dreams of volunteering here and being able to communicate at least as well as I've seen ESL people communicate in the USA.  

My mom is my go-to translator when it comes right down to it.  I drag her out of the car and make her do the things that are too difficult for me.  It's going to be that way for years, I'm sure.  

Furniture Woes

 So, getting furniture is not going well.  I bought a whole house full of stuff (see last post) and went out of my way to get everything that said 'arrives in 12 days'.  I ended up not getting the exact things I wanted in favor of getting it all the same day.

Watch your step

The next morning I get three emails for my 3 orders.  Two will arrive between April 15-21 and one April 4.  😑

Um, yeah, we only have the Air BnB until April 4.  WTF.  

While I was ordering stuff a chat bubble popped up and an actual worker from Dico started talking to me.  First to give me a coupon code.  But I already had a default coupon code there for 5% off.  She said to use hers.

So my 5% off coupon was replaced with her 5% off coupon.  😑  Her insistence that I use her code for each of my orders tells me that this was her commission code.  But that's fine because she gave me her WhatsApp (all business is done through WhatsApp here) so I can bitch about the shipping dates to her.

I complained that it said 12 days and even the April 4th shipment is longer than that.  Note:  I accidentally broke up the order into 3 orders because I was too stupid to update the shopping cart when I tried to get multiples of the same thing, and I forgot a lot of shit the first and second time around.  So I got a 500 peso shipping fee three times instead of the one time I should have gotten it if I'd ordered everything at once.

She said 'Mexico' for the date issue.  Then she gave me a link to pay another 500 pesos for expedited shipping to get stuff sooner than the dates they emailed.  😑

So we'll get everything sooner apparently, but we won't know when until Martes (Tuesday) because Monday is a holiday and it's Sunday right now.  

The worst case:  We'll get one bed and the sofabed we bought for the 'guest room' so we'll still be able to get out of the Air Bnb as scheduled and sleep at the new house.  Without anywhere to sit beside that bed and couch.  😤

Meantime I'm trying to order other things for the new house so we don't have to wait weeks for stuff once we move but all my credit cards decided to stop working.  

It's a minor inconvenience in the grand scheme (as long as we don't have to get a hotel due to no beds after the Air Bnb kicks us out).  

Someone warned me it would hard to furnish a whole house but I thought I found a cheat code.  Oh well.

Getting Our New Life In Mexico

We're still at the Air BnB but life is happening hard and fast.  

First of all, we heard that it's best to get a facilitator to help you get your temporary residency cards.  We already had our temporary residency visas, and we have 30 days to report to immigration and get our cards.

Did we need a facilitator?  Yes and no.  The Consulate in La Paz BCS was not busy at all.  I'd heard that only the facilitators could get appointments and they stay in line all night to be first or something.  But that doesn't apply to hear. 

Other gringos didn't have a facilitator and got seen, but they didn't get it done.  They couldn't figure out the bad government web site and thought they could show up and figure it out there.  They couldn't.  They were told to leave and figure out the web site to get their proper form.  

While we were traveling to La Paz we met another gringo who asked if we needed anything.  We said we needed a facilitator.  They gave us the number to an older woman who'd helped them.  She's retired, but her two sons continue her work.  So we used them.

It's $150/each for them to take us to immigration and get our cards in 2 weeks.  Or an additional $250 each to get it the same day.  Plus the fee which is like $125 each to the government.  

We opted for the faster service.  I was fine waiting 2 weeks, but my mom wanted it over with.  

I got my card the same day (yay!) but there was a problem with hers and we must go back next Tuesday to get it.  They've sorted it out, just waiting for Mexico City to sort it out.  Doesn't seem like a big problem yet.  So next Tuesday we'll get her card and then we'll both go to the BBVA right by the immigration office and open bank accounts.

Yesterday we paid 2 months rent up front to get the keys to our new apartment that we will be moving into on April 1.  For now we have access to get our furniture delivered, appliances, toilet upgrades, etc.  

I was warned it would be hard to find all the furniture, so I did the nuclear option today and bought everything online at a big box furniture store Dicos.  They'll deliver to the new apartment in 12 days and set it all up.  It was $3,600 American and I still need a washer/dryer, treadmill, pots/pans, and my mom's special chair that lifts her up that's $750 in Mexico because they don't have it anywhere in the country.  

Anyway, trying to get everything piecemeal from 15 different stores which all have a 12 day lead time when we don't live in the house yet was just a nightmare.  I pulled the trigger on furniture.

I remember four years ago when we were broke and had to furnish that apartment we moved into after living in our RV for years.  I had $1,200 total and we made it work.  Got a big TV too.  Now?  $3,600 in Mexico and I don't have everything yet.

Here's what we got:

Articles	Shipment	Amount	Price
Santy Nepal Sofa Bed Product code: TAP36113S1	Dico Furniture	1	$4,499.00
Amsterdam Pink Double Headboard Product code: RAD39127S1	Dico Furniture	2	$5,548.50
Landmark Red 2-Seater Sofa Product code: SAL41897S1	Dico Furniture	1	$8,024.25
Merida Cafe Pantry Product code: COC18655S1	Dico Furniture	1	$4,499.00
Sealy Muga Double Mattress Product code: COL19418S1	Dico Furniture	1	$16,999.00

Sealy Muga Double Mattress Product code: COL19418S1	Dico Furniture	1	$16,999.00
Morrison Gray Desk Product code: OFC33630K1	Dico Furniture	2	$5,998.00
Scott New Gray Office Chair Product code: OFC32896S1	Dico Furniture	1	$999.00
Naro Life Rosa Bureau Product code: RAD36216S1	Dico Furniture	1	$999.00
Warma Café Dresser Product code: RAD43760S1 Dico Furniture 1 $2,699.25 Naro Life Rosa Bureau Product code: RAD36216S1 Dico Furniture 1 $999.00 Warma Café Dresser Product code: RAD43760S1 Dico Furniture 1 $2,699.25 Tammy Café Rectangular Side Table Product code: MOC42988S1 Dico Furniture 1 $3,599.25 Kenza Tempered Glass Coffee Table Product code: MOC28129K1 Dico Furniture 1 $2,249.25 Yes I got duplicates of some stuff.  I kept having to do more orders because I didn't update after changing quantities. To get the USD price, drop the last digit (ignore what's after the decimal point) and divide by half.  So $2,249 becomes $225 and $225/2= $112.50  That's because $1usd is 20 pesos.  That's the easiest way to calculate things. I also bought from Mexico's Amazon.com which is Mercado Libre.  Yes, they also have Amazon, but so far I've only gone there to get American products imported, like a bidet toilet seat that I can't live without. At Mercado Libre I got a doorbell, anti-slip tape for the stairs in the new place, the floor elliptical my mom uses to exercise that we couldn't fit in the car, new showerheads with handhelds, a shower seat and raised toilet grab-bar seat for my mom. I need to buy a lot more, but I also need to be here when it's delivered and give a code word.  So I'm holding off. I had my first remote therapy session two days ago.  I walked around with my phone and showed him the Air BnB.  When outside and a neighbor girl ran to the gate and said Hola!  Also had the local dog and cat greet us.  And told him my adventure coming down and all we were doing. I feel like he was impressed with me.  That I took the leap and did this.  Staying home and doing nothing was the easiest option, but I'd have to keep dealing with poor medical care and poor elder care options for me and my mom.   I'd have to keep saving like crazy for retirement and things get more and more expensive, yet here I'm already good.  Social security will be enough.  Especially after I buy a house.  (I can't get a mortgage, but the proceeds from the house we're selling in the USA should be enough.) He said he saw me smiling for the first time.  I'm lighter here.  I'm less burdened with future fear.  And I'm getting used to the rhythms of life here and feel I can solidly get by.  I don't have to give up anything, and I'm getting more than I got in the USA. Yes, we're going crazy right now trying to get settled, but that's temporary and we'll be relaxed soon.  Less stressed.  More free.  I don't think anyone actually reads this blog anymore, so I won't bother with pictures.  Unless I remember.  I'll try my best.

We Moved to Mexico!

  Hey people, 

I know I haven't updated this blog in...oh...8 years, but I might have a bloggable life again.  So let me catch you up:

We stayed at the commune a few years until I got back on my feet financially.  I switched from writing novels to writing computer games and started making a decent income.  I wasn't quite back on my feet yet, but there was a new depression treatment I wanted to try and I needed to move to a bigger city for it.

So, despite having only one month pass where I could afford an additional $900 monthly rent on top of my $650 RV payment, we moved to Las Cruces New Mexico, an hour or so from the commune, so I could take part in a Spravato trail to see if that would help my treatment resistant depression.

It didn't work for me.  In fact it just made me extremely irritable as well as depressed.  

But the good thing was that it got us out of the commune (which had become oppressive for us, and my mom hated it there) and into a city with amenities...RIGHT IN TIME FOR COVID!

So, we quarantined in an apartment in Las Cruces where our packages and license plate were routinely stolen.  Even had a food delivery stolen once.  But honestly, it was better than the commune.  The dust storms there gave my mom asthma, and commune bickering and politics had us hiding in our tiny RV all the time and not 'communing' with anyone.

While in quarantine I built up the video game business.  I kept telling my mom I wasn't sure if I would make enough money to pay rent every month.  I was worried.  But needing money for rent lit a fire under my ass to work work work and my income grew dramatically.  Like to six figures after a year.  

While in quarantine I found that I didn't have the strength to stand long enough to take a shower.  My legs gave out under me.  I didn't want to go to the doctor during covid, but I was in rough shape.  My heartrate at rest was 145.  Something was really wrong with me.

I had developed a new disease:  Graves disease.  And I had congestive heart failure from it and was forced to stay in a hospital at the height of covid.  I walked through the hallway to my room and the bodies were lining the corridors, covered in sheets, waiting to get to the morgue which didn't have room for them.  This was every floor.  There were signs, 'Please do not lift sheets, give the dead the dignity they deserve'.  Argh.

Behold, my goiter. Left side there. Very annoying.

But I got the treatment I needed and reversed my heart condition fast. It was at the early stages. I also wanted to deal with my bone cancer in my leg and the doctor said that if I wanted to keep walking and wasn't going to do the amputation I should try physical therapy.

I had a physical therapy right across the street from my apartment so I did it.  And it didn't work.  I had nerve damage from the surgery and no amount of exercises were going to fix it.  The therapist had me really try harder.  It was an exercise where I curled my back.  He said to really jerk it to see if we could finally get it to work.  I did.  I injured my back.

I had horrible back pain for months where I couldn't walk more than ten steps without having to sit down due to the pain.  So I went to pain management, where I should have gone in the first place for my bone cancer leg pain.  They burned out the nerves in my back with some procedure so I could do exercises that would strengthen my back muscles so the pain wouldn't return when the nerves grew back.

I know this is all boring old lady drama (I was in my late 40s by now) but let me tell you: my depression was out of control with this back pain.  When I got up after the nerve operation (which six nurses held me down for because it was so fucking painful and I was literally screaming) and didn't feel the horrible back pain, I cried.  I cried tears of joy.  And I was able to go to a grocery store and actually walk through the whole store and shop.  It was an ordeal to do that operation, but it got my life back to normal.

We saw that home prices were going up during the low prime rates of the pandemic, and like I said, my income recovered to 6 figures.  We decided to buy a house in a larger city than Las Cruces so we could access better medical care.  I couldn't find an endocrinologist for my Graves disease in Las Cruces and my mom needed a cardiologist.  

We bought a mobile home in a gated community in a larger city.  Since we still own this home (we're selling it right now) I won't say where, but it's a large Southwest city.  

We were happy in this home.  We had our own space.  It was only $900/mo for the mortgage, same as our old rent.  We had a carport and giant shed attached.  The community was safe.  Packages would sit out for days without getting stolen.  It was quiet.  I never made any friends there, but our house was SO nice.  

We had a washer and dryer, two full baths.  Three bedrooms so the master for my mom with a walk in shower for her to be safe.  And I had an office and bedroom, and even room for a treadmill.  

We sold the motorhome.  That life was over.  We needed a stable home for our medical problems.  It was also too exhausting for us.

When I tell you it broke our heart to leave that home...yeah.  But November 20th, 2024 we realized we could no longer be happy in the USA.  So after three years in what we thought was our 'forever home' we went to the Mexican Consulate in that city to apply for residency in Mexico.

I got the residency easily due to my high income.  I was then able to add my mother on a family visa.  

These visas are still in our passports right now with our FMM forms.  We left our home, empty and for sale for $100k more than we bought it for, and we left to visit family before leaving the USA forever.

The border crossing was easy because it was right before Mexico started enforcing making Americans fill out a form to get into Mexico leading to crazy long lines to get in.  Like...we literally snuck in 3 days before that happened.  Just by the skin of our teeth!

They put health warnings on junk food here.

We had our car full of everything we owned after selling all our furniture and giving away or selling everything.  We were told that we would have to open every box and unpack everything for them to inspect.

We had to get rid of our grocery stash.

Well, we didn't have to.  We just told them what we had and paid $140 in import costs.  It may be because we're two old ladies who don't look like drug mules, or because my mom is fluent in Spanish and everyone she meets warms up to her.  I don't know.  But that part was easy.

We had tried to get our cat her shots and everything before we crossed, but we showed up to the vet only to be told they don't honor appointments people made online. You have to call.  -_-  wtf.  

We found out that you don't need documentation if you have your cat inspected at the border.  So we did.  They opened our carrier.  Glanced at her.  Pet her.  (Didn't take her out). And said she was good to enter.  EASY PEASY!

We got our visa and FMM forms stamped which is something you must not forget to do, or they'll send you back to the border at the first military inspection you get to.

So now we had to drive through the border down to our Air Bnb deep in Baja California Sur.  We're in the Baja Peninsula, so we're allowed to drive with our US plates, and don't need a temporary import permit for the car.  As long as we have valid license and registration in the US we're okay to drive here.

I didn't want to take the car.  I wanted to sell it in the USA and buy one here later.  I wanted to fly to San Miguel de Allende and live in the large expat community there.  But my mom said she would have to give up too much to get her life into the suitcases.  I tried to compromise.  I'd buy extra luggage.  We'd have luggage for our cat since we'd have to buy a ticket for her.  No go.  So we agreed to settle somewhere we could drive to, at least for the first year.  

We got a bike rack to take her two walkers.  A plastic carrier box to put on our roof rack--which didn't survive.  We had to get straps to hold our exposed boxes on the last 200 miles.  and we filled up the back of the car with all we could fit.  

We had to get rid of so much stuff we wanted to keep.  For me:  Our floor ellipticals, the only way my mom could exercise safely and a great way for me to exercise while I worked during the day.  For her: her surplus toilet paper.  -_- She wouldn't let me hear the end of it.

I was told that the police might find a reason to pull us over and try to get a bribe, which is an unfortunate problem here.  So we got a camera for our car to deter them.  But, alas, we did end up paying one bribe.

It wasn't to the police, it was to a soldier at an inspection station.  He said we had to pay 20 pesos to continue due to having a cat with us.  With a smile, because we were friendly and joking with him before this.  And with a wink.  Because obviously, there is no such fee.  

But 20 pesos is $1.  So...yeah.  We paid it.  I'm sorry if you think less of me for this, but things would have gone from friendly and joking to angry and dangerous if we didn't, and it was only $1.  Except it was actually $1.50 because I only had a 50 peso note and he only gave me a 20 in change.  Oh well.

We weren't stopped by police the whole way down and we were speeding.  Probably.  I don't know how to switch my cars odometer to kilometers.  But I know I was going 70mph in a 70kph area so...

The roads were empty on the way down, which was good because they were precarious with no shoulders.  Lots of huge potholes to watch for.  The best way to drive was to catch up to another car and watch where they swerved.  

They say you'll be safe if you stay on the toll roads.  And that's true, in Tijuana and near the border. But there isn't a choice usually the deeper south you go in Baja. There's only one road to get through the desert and there's no toll.  But we didn't feel in danger at any time.  It's empty desert highway.  Just a military inspection here or there, but basically empty with just a few trucks to pass.

One stretch of road has 9 hours of nothing.  No gas stations.  No restaurants.  No nothing.  And I had to use the bathroom on the side of the road because I was dying.  It was...an experience.  But the signs were there that many other cars had to stop in the same place for the same reason.  What can you do?

When there was places to stop for the bathroom, you often had to pay 5 pesos ($.25) or 10 pesos ($.50) when they flushed for you.  This did not include toilet paper.  So it was good my mother snuck some rolls into the car.  They don't want us flushing toilet paper in Mexico, so they just don't provide any.  -_- But yeah, we had our own.  Or sometimes they'd give us some too if we asked.

You're probably wondering why we would need someone to flush the toilet for us, to the extent that we'd pay them for it.  By flush, it means the toilet has no water.  You do your business then the attendant pours a bucket of water for you.  This was only in the remote desert areas.

Before we left I had tried to book hotels along our journey so we'd have places to stay that allowed pets.  But we had to cancel everything in Mexico.  This is because the office that inspects the cat wouldn't be open until Monday.  

In hindsight, I think we could have crossed on Sunday, because the office was still closed that morning when we arrived on Monday.  We left at 7am thinking there'd be a line to get across, and there wasn't.  The office didn't open until 8am.  But the custom agent who was there just looked at our cat and let us through.

The day delay made me cancel our hotels and I'm glad I did.  Because I'd planned to stay a night in Tijuana.  The horror story of having to unpack for them to inspect stuff and then repack made me think we'd be at the border for hours.  We weren't.  It took less than a half hour and we didn't have to unpack.  

So we got out of Tijuana and started down to the peninsula.  We just found hotels along the way.  Most...not so great.  I had to sit in the lobby to get internet in one.  The same place only had half a roll of toilet paper in the room.  (Again, my mom's squirreled away rolls saved us).

The beds are hard.  I had a mattress on it's way out in the USA so anything was an improvement to me, but my mom suffered and insisted she got to pick which bed she slept in.

We also did not had hot water in any of the hotels we stayed at.  I didn't know that was something I'd have to give up in Mexico.  Apparently only the bigger chains or resorts offer hot water on demand.    

I saw very few cities on the map along our journey.  And that's how it was.  Basically, once you descend from the border into the peninsula there's one largish city, San Felipe, and then microscopic "towns" until you get to La Paz.  Just a gas station, hotel, and restaurant.  Sometimes there's 'colonies' made by gringos here or there, but only one was open for us to stop and have lunch in.

We never felt in danger anywhere.  Our walkers were zipped tied to the bike rack and could have been stolen easily if anyone was so inclined.  Our car topper carrier thing could have also been rummaged through if anyone wanted too, and I had a portable solar generator in it.  Nothing was touched.  Nothing stolen.  We worried about this for nothing.

Though, when we were toward the end of the journey I thought someone had ripped open the car carrier topper thing.  That someone was just the wind.  Nothing was stolen, and again, my portable solar generator was what got exposed.  An easy and expensive thing to steal.

After 7 days of driving we finally made it to our Air BnB!

It was $1,200 for one month and is tiny.  We wanted two bedrooms to have our own space,  finally, after sharing hotel rooms for days.  The rooms are big enough for the beds only.  The bathroom is so narrow you don't have the room to stand up to wipe.  I've had to use my mom's bars (which we took on the bike rack) to get up.

And there is hot water here, but only once a day.  Not sure when.  The concrete entrance is uneven and I fell while bringing in groceries.  Thank God it was me who fell instead of my mom, but still...check out my bruise!

We just got here a few days ago.  We already signed a lease for a nice 4 bedroom apartment for $700/month.  It's unfurnished so we'll be dealing with that over the rest of the Air Bnb stay.  On Friday we have our appointment with Immigration to get our residency cards.  

We're finding both things we like and don't like here, but the things we like are more.  Pros so far:

• We got a vet to come to the Air BnB and treat our sick cat (the trip gave her some severe respiratory issue) for $35 and $10 of that was a tip.
• We walked into some random optical store and got eye exams ordered new glasses on the spot.  This was $680usd because we need a lot of special stuff and got multiple pairs.
• We bought the following for $15USD ($305 Pesos) At Chedraui-
• A liter of 2% milk
• 5 liters of soda water
• 2 six packs of diet coke (the tiny cans)
• a case of bottled water
• cheese slices
• cookies
• almonds
• splenda
• granola cereal
• beef of some sort
• fish sticks
• fish patties (we think it's fish, not sure)
• 6 yogurt cups
• loaf of bread
• pineapple fig newtons
• We bought a 35" TV and new Android cell phone for $250 at Chedraui
• People drive around the neighborhood selling and setting up the water jugs. They have speakers on top of their cars and go around every day.
• People also go around selling ice cream and strawberries and other things.  It's fun to buy stuff at the house.  Four pints of strawberries for $5
• We got approved to rent the house extremely easily and with little hassle.  Just 3 months bank statements, an application, copies of our passports and visas.  Getting the keys tomorrow.  And it's a lovely place with a big carport sort of thing in front where we can lock the car inside behind the gates. 
• Getting glasses and eye exams without an appointment and VIP service.
• It's fun to experience the new country and culture.  Grocery shopping is lots of fun.
• Super nice people.

Cons:

• Life is easier for us with a fluent Spanish speaker, and I was taking Spanish lessons while I exercised for fun before, and speak it so-so, enough to get by.  But you should learn as much Spanish as you can before coming or go to Puerto Vallarta or Ajijic where they all speak English.
• The roads and sidewalks are treacherous for my poor mother...and me.  (See bruise).
• Police are corrupt, but like I said, we haven't experienced that yet and we're driving a lot. It's a problem in theory, but I don't know how much they really pull people over.
• Water is not drinkable and you need to use jug water for cooking.  They say you should use it for brushing your teeth too, but we've just used tap for that.
• You can't flush toilet paper.  A small con.  Just have a waste basket in the bathroom.
• You need to always have cash because smaller stores/restaurants don't take cards.  Grocery stores and gas stations usually do.  

Cons Specific to us, and not Mexico's fault:

• Our Garmin didn't work here.  Probably my fault due to not updating it with Mexico?  I don't know. We lost the cord so I'm stuck.  But the Mexican Android phone is working fine for us now.  (It was a nightmare trying to find my way home when our USA phone had no connection).
• AT&T Phones DO NOT work here.  They lied to us.  They said they had a connection.  I don't know what we need to do, because we aren't getting any data.  Maybe we need a new sim card or something.  But we can use them on wi-fi so we can still log into banking etc.  Just get a Mexican phone ASAP.  They sell them at the Chedraui grocery store.
• Walmart is just as expensive at the USA it seems.  And not as good as the local Chedraui or Sorianan stores.  Just shop local.
• We can't withdraw money from our US Bank ATM card anywhere.  Thank GOD I have multiple bank accounts. My tiny local bank ATM works, but not US Bank?!
• Lots of International conversion bank fees and stuff.  Banco Santander ATMS are terrible and will have a 'hardware issue' and not give you your money.  -_- Thankfully it didn't deduct from my bank in the end.
• We need to give cash for the Apartment deposit.  So many daily ATM trips.

I'm sorry I didn't have many pictures.  I wasn't thinking about this blog as I traveled.  I doubt anyone will see this, but it's a good record for myself.  I'm on a new adventure and want to catalog it!

If you see this please comment if you want me to keep updating.