Week 2 in Mexico

Well….we survived our first 2 weeks in Mexico. And, so far,  Lulu and I have no regrets on our decision to come here. We really don’t feel that far away from anyone, especially family, since we communicate with everyone frequently. Email, blogs and facebook is probably the best and most reliable method that we use, mostly because we can do so quickly and share some photos with you. And, my favorite discovery is skype. I am so proud of my father for being able to stay focused on his laptop and being able to skype with me. The video is super, and the sometimes garbled audio, is sufficient to be able to hold a lengthy conversation, just like we were right next door.

During our first week, we did our shopping for our essentials; meats, poultry, veggies, milk and bread. And, we finally got to get a cel phone with a Mexico carrier. The plan wasn’t so bad either. For $499 pesos (about $40 USD) we got a plain Nokia phone, and a replenish-able minutes plan which was $1 peso a minute anywhere, including the U.S.. Our first load was $150 pesos ($11 USD) and will get us about 150 minutes. The only problem was that it was a Mexico phone number, and that meant that any U.S. caller would be paying long distance charges, with most basic phone plans.

    To avoid any confusion on our families, I just told them to call our U.S. cel phone number and we would get the forwarded calls on our Mexico line. Since Verizon was charging outrages prices for Mexico coverage ($1 USD a minute) I just forwarded all incoming phone calls to my local U.S. skype phone number, and then had skype forward all calls to my Mexico line for about .30 cents a minute. We just call people back, since we are paying only .07 cents a minute on all outgoing calls. It may sound a little complicated, but It is not, and it works great. I don’t miss any calls and our family don’t have to change their phone plans and can call anytime they want. And all our calls are very clear and have a strong signal.

     We also picked up our Internet access card, which allows us to go online anywhere there is cel phone coverage. The USB device cost us just under $50 and can be loaded with whatever peso amount we want. It is used up depending on how much on-line use we do. And that is where I am challenged, because I can never figure out how many bites I use while I am online. It doesn’t really matter while we are at Hacienda Contreras, because we use their very reliable Wi Fi service. But we will not be here forever, so at least we will be prepared if we get somewhere with no Internet service.

     Just for fun, we decided to keep track of our expenses while on the road in Mexico. Our blog friends, Kevin and Ruth, keep track of their expenses and they continue to boast about how they live in Mexico for under $1,500 USD a month. They are a very frugal couple and will not stay in RV parks that charge more than about $20usd a night. Many times they will find a place that will not cost them anything, usually someone’s land or a business lot. They usually list their expenses on their blog and show how they budget their money.  We will attempt to do something similar and see if we can keep our budget just as low.

    WE have only been here about 10 days so our first budget report would not be an accurate monthly report, and also because we had a huge truck & travel expense, that we would not normally have had, about $2,950 pesos ($219USD) for fuel and $1,632 pesos ($125) for tolls. That was due to our long drive from Texas. Next month should be a significant change. Our other expenses were for groceries and dining $12USD, Postage $8USD and campground fees $21USD. July Mexico expenses for 10 days were $494USD. We didn’t include any of our VISA fees, Truck permits, Bridge accident incident, and any US expenses. Just money we have spent since crossing the border.



We should be getting out to more places this month, now that we have settled in, and have a new paycheck to start with. Since here, we have mostly hung around Valle de Juarez doing some people watching and taking photos.  Valle de Juarez is at about 6,000 feet in elevation and is about 58 km (36 miles) Southeast from Guadalajara, West of Mexico City and East of the Pacific Coast. The town is only 35 square miles and has a population of about 5,000 people. Our weather at this time of year is mild, but will rain just about every day for an hour or two, and sometimes very heavily.  Our temps have been in the mid to high 80’s during the day and low 60’s at night. I am told that the this area remains warm throughout the year, but the temps will drop at night, and will sometime freeze.

WE are usually the only RVers in our park, and this is due to us being here in the “off-season”, as has been the case in Southern Texas. I don’t know why more people don’t come here, because we find the weather to be almost perfect. And, since most of the tourists that do stay here will do so during the winter months, we have our pick of the RV parks, the RV spots and we don’t have to compete for a wi-fi signal. But even with all the hoop-la about the violence in Mexico, these parks will see a significant increase come November. Most of these Mexican tourists know the real truth about the violence, and they have no reservation about their yearly trip. (The topic of Mexico Violence will be for another post. I need to set some things straight and just tell our American friends how bad things are here. Even though many of us in the U.S. carry a gun for protection.)

There is no major historical significance to this town, except that it was a major travel route used by the Spanish conquistadors to conquer the kingdom of Colima in 1521.  At that time, the area only had a few huts. It was not until 1885 that Pascual Contreras began to build some houses in, what was then called, La Loma and then began moving in the inhabitants of nearby Tequestquite. They named the small settlement Spring Valley and got it recognized by the State of Jalisco in 1894. The town was renamed Valle de Juarez in 1911 in memory of Benito Juarez, President of the Republic of Mexico around 1859. This information I retrieved from Wikipedia.

You can see by our photos that life here seems to be basic and simple. There is the Central Plaza that appears to be the center of the town’s activities. Around the plaza are all the important places you may need to find, such as the police station, town hall, the bank, post office, the butcher and a number of small restaurants, small grocery stores and Internet cafes. WE have seen small tour buses come and go, bringing tourists from nearby towns. They will walk around the plaza and take some photos, and many will go in to the church.

We have learned to do our shopping at these little stores and do it more often. The nearest Walmart is about 45 minutes away, and for the prices that these little places offer, it really does not pay to go all the way out there to shop at Walmart. We have learned to adjust to buying Mexican brand items, since American made products are nearly twice as much. So, it is cheaper to buy Made in Mexico. (Kind of ironic, that it is just the opposite in the U.S.??) At the butcher, he whips out a whole chicken and cuts it up the way you want it, and will wrap or discard those little things that we are not sure what they are. But, we have been keeping them and feeding them to Molly, since we can no longer buy Molly’s dog food. Lulu has learned to make a delicious chicken and vegetable medley for Molly to eat.

Even though diesel is about the same price as the U.S., we have not been spending as much, since we only go about 2 miles in to town and back. Our recent day trip to Jiquilpan took about 45 minutes, but Sal and Barb were nice enough to drive. And good thing they did. Sal had a hard enough time getting around some corners with his Ford Super Duty diesel, so I am sure that I would have had a challenge with my duallies.

 

We met a group at the RV park last week that invited us to their town for a little tour and lunch. We met American born Bob, whose son is the former guitar player for Quiet Riot and now plays for Ratt (for you headbangers that know these bands) and his girlfriend Lupita come to Hacienda about every weekend, and they were here celebrating a birthday when we were introduced to them by Barb. It wasn’t long before Lulu was singing acapela to the ladies; Angela, Martha and Lupita, and before we knew it, we were getting invited to lunch.

Jiquilpan is a city of about 100,000 and has a lot more activity than Valle de Juarez. Their central plaza was hustling and bustling with vendors, tourists and residents, and the traffic showed it. We went on a tour of the local museum that was built by former resident General Lazaro Cardenas, who was president of Mexico (1934–40), and was known for carrying out the social and economic aims of the Mexican Revolution. He distributed land, made loans available to peasants, organized workers’ and peasants’ confederations, and expropriated and nationalized foreign-owned industries. He was also known for expropriated and nationalizing the country’s oil industry.

That is it for the history lesson. As for the overall attractiveness of the town, we enjoyed our visit.  Jiquilpan is a very active city with many more people. We felt safe, but I can assure you that with this many people, they have their share of problems. The place was clean and neat, and the buildings had the same European style that we have been seeing throughout the country. There was a strong police and military presence, just as there is everywhere. It is just the way it is here. And, if you have ever visited any European country, you most likely have seen the same kind of presence. Even in little Portugal, I was stopped at the entrance to the police station with a sub-machine gun carrying officer, who would not let me in unless I had a good reason. I have also been stopped at random security checks in foreign countries. So this is nothing new.

We were at a much lower elevation than Juarez, so the temperature was a little warmer, but not over bearing, probably around the high 80’s and low humidity. So it was a very pleasant day. The people were friendly and courteous. The food was great and the sightseeing was awesome. Thank you Lupita and friends!!

On the ride back, Barb and Sal dropped us off at the local Walmart owned store, Bodega Aurrera, where we did some shopping. Although we didin’t find exactly what we were looking for, the store had everything you need, and more. A smaller version of the U.S. Walmart, but it had everything from computers, to clothing, to mattresses and to food. They even accepted our U.S. debit card. We spent $775 pesos, $60 USD, which I think would have been around $100 in the U.S. I think that some goods are priced lower in Mexico. And, again, that depends on what we buy. Lulu likes her air freshener spray, which we could not find a Mexican brand, so a small Glade can ran close to $4 USD. We have bought no-name brands in the U.S. for about $1 USD.

Yesterday, Sal’s cousins, Jesus and Bouganvila, invited us to join their family for a dinner up in their cabin high in the Sierra el Tigre hills. Jesus built a small 2 bedroom, 1 bath cabin out of pine boards  that were cut directly from the trees on his land, which sits high above the road and valley, about 25 minutes outside of Valle de Juarez. Jesus had paid a man about $1,600 USD for labor and material to erect the shell on this cabin, about 10 years ago. He paid about $1,000 USD for the 1 acre land about 15 years ago. And, you can see by the photos that he made a very wise investment in his “billion-dollar view.”

It was a very well spent afternoon, with some great home-made Mexican food that was made by “Bougy”.  Lulu entertained with an acapela version of “The Prayer” and Molly also sang her own doggie song, that we just could not figure out the title. The clouds rolled over at one time, but after a little rain and colling down a bit, things cleared up, and the temperature rose again.
We are making plans to visit Mazamitla, which is about 15 minutes West of Juarez, and we would like to get to see some Mayan ruins, but want to stay close by the RV Park. Molly prefers to stay home, but she wants us back before dark. I did find something just outside Guadalajara, which may take us about 3  ½ hours to get there, but it would be the closest ruins site to our location. There is much more to see and do, but we have to stick to our plan, which is to treat this voyage as if we are living at home.

When at home, most people don’t go sight-seeing and spend money every day of the week. We would soon find ourselves without any funds before the end of the pay period. So, we just take it easy, and go do touristy things once and a while. We still continue to do our crafts, the sun reflectors and jewelry, that we will sell when the opportunity arises. And one of these days, I will re-visit my book-writing project.

Oh yes, just to let you know, our Direct TV dish does not work here. We would need an 8 foot dish to make it work, and I am not about to lug around an 8 foot dish everywhere we go. So, Direct TV is suspended and we settle for 3 or 4 Spanish Channels from Guadalupe, which helps me out with my Spanish. But all is not lost, as long as we have  Wi-Fi, I can get the major networks live on USTVnow.com. So, we get to see ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX live, and it comes in very clear right on our TV, thanks to an HDMI/VGA converter box that I had bought. Yay!!

So, for now, Adios, Hasta-luego amigos. Take care of yourselves and each other. And don’t forget to LIVE, LAUGH AND LOVE!!~!