7 months later...

I can't believe we've lived in Mexico for 7 months already.  It strangely feels much longer and much shorter than that all at the same time... It's crazy to think we were both working 50+ hours per week, setting alarm clocks for 4:30am, and dreading Sunday nights because they led to Monday mornings at the beginning of the year... It seems like soooo long ago, and yet this year has flown by.  

Let's recap 2016, shall we?

January

• we (I) started freaking out about our "big plan" like literally as the ball was dropping on New Year's Eve because it was suddenly 2016, and that meant we had to start actually checking things off our giant to-do list rather than just daydream about becoming beach bums like we had been for the 4 months prior
• we spent two weeks in Nicaragua because that's where we were originally planning to move to and had already booked a "research trip" that we turned into a relaxing vacation instead... The trip was great, but it made us even happier to be moving to La Cruz because Nica was way too hot!

February

• we (I) decided we should "probably get married before we move" ....as if we didn't have enough to do already!  We got engaged the previous May (while vacationing in La Cruz!) but hadn't set a date yet.  It seemed smarter to get hitched while still in the states because who knows how alla that stuff works in Mexico?!  (Honestly, what it boiled down to is that I am lazy and didn't wanna research how to get married in a foreign country.)

March

• we both left our jobs (after putting in our notices 6 months earlier)
• we finally obtained our Mexican Visas... A major "this is really happening?!" moment 
• I talked a lot about needing to pack and start downsizing but didn't do it

April

• I started giving away my winter clothes 
• I started packing several times and then stopped because I'd come across some sentimental something or other and I'd spend an hour looking through baby photos and then be too tired to continue "packing" 
• we had the most fun wedding / going-away party in the history of ever!!!  Our (my) "vows" were hilarious, and I literally danced down the aisle to a Bruno Mars song.  Because, duh...I'm allergic to being serious.    

May

• we sold our adorable river house for asking price
• we sold both cars and bought a mini van
• we sold, donated or gave away 90% of our possessions with the help of my estate-selling mama
• we loaded up the van and our pup and drove the 2,800 miles from Seattle to La Cruz...making a few stops along the way 

• we moved into Simply Baku for the off season 

June

• we tried to figure out how this whole "living abroad" thing works
• we ate a lot of tacos
• we got tan 
• I nearly died by way of heart attack thanks to the "nopes" 

July, August, September

• Bloo needed minor surgery and I remained totally calm about it
• we nearly died of mosquito bites, suffered through miserable heat, humidity, mud and thunderstorms 
• Ty survived the biggest storm of our lives by being totally manly and not being a scaredy cat at all 
• a lot of restaurants closed down and the town just seemed kinda grim and blah
• we made a lot of friends! 

October

• I got homesick and depressed and cried a lot because I felt purpose-less and essentially homeless and unimportant and I gave up a career I loved to follow Ty to a foreign country that I was struggling to find my place in all because he was having his second mid-life crisis before the age of 40 and I was questioning the "why" of it all........ 
• I turned into an anti-social turtle/hermit crab hybrid and became too anxious and nervous to do anything without Ty 

November

• all of the Gringos showed up at the same time.  Like, we literally went to Mega one day in November and every shopper was suddenly a white person
• we started Spanish classes and I realized how friggen long it's gonna take to become fluent
• restaurants started opening back up after being closed all summer and La Cruz started feeling alive and buzzing again
• my family came to visit us!!!  

December

• we moved out of Simply Baku and into a new place 

Yes, that's right... We moved AGAIN!  This is our sixth move in less than 5 years mostly thanks to Ty...but at least this was an easy move.  When you only have one van-load of "stuff" and you move into a place that's fully-furnished, moving ain't so bad.  

We spent the summer and fall at Simply Baku helping the staff spruce up the place before high season.... We refinished all of the wood shutter windows (20+ panels per house!), repainted the exterior of the casitas, refinished gate doors, helped with yard work, guest bookings, pup-sitting, errands, etc. etc.  The pools recently got refinished, the garage doors are being rebuilt, new pathways have been paved, new bodegas are being constructed... And Baku is looking fabulous!  Our friends are staying there in March and I'm excited for them to see it...    

When we moved into Baku in May, we knew we'd have to find another place to live before high season started because we'd be taking up a rental space meant for guests to book.... We assumed we'd be renting a small place nearby, but then we were approached with an opportunity too good to pass up.  Marianne's long-time friends own a stunning, beachfront, vacation rental property on the outskirts of La Cruz and they needed someone to manage the property and live onsite, so they could stay in the states and not have to come to Mexico as often.  So, instead of paying too much rent on a cramped apartment in town, we're renting out the main house of a sprawling, magical "estate" smack dab on the beach and renting out the other units for the owners.  

We've only been here a week and a half, but things are going well enough so far.  We're getting settled into our new digs and new routine, we're getting to know the staff and the resident pup, Luna, has turned into my little shadow... Someone please pinch me, because our life doesn't seem real.  

Sappy side note:  As a creative person who loves to customize/design/remodel/decorate houses, it is very strange moving into someone else's house.  Yes, it's convenient to rent a place that is fully-furnished and already decorated, but it's also very weird having no control over your "home" and your surroundings and not being able to customize spaces to your liking. 

I was a homeowner by the age of 21, so for the past 10 years I've had that really comfortable feeling of "home" and pride of ownership and privacy and all that... But, I've essentially felt "homeless" since we moved here and it's a really depressing feel for me.  (Ty, of course is unscathed and fluid as always.)  There have been many times where I've broken down in tears and said "I wanna go home" only to be reminded that we have no home to go back to... It's definitely been a big downside to living in Mexico for me... I feel like I'm been tiptoeing through someone else's house for the past 7 months.  I honestly don't feel like I have fully relaxed since I've been here because of it.  But, don't tell anyone that I actually have feelings!  

Jardin del Mar, as our new place is called, has been mostly unoccupied for the last two years while the family took a break from the rental business, but now that we're starting it back up again, Ty and I are in the process of thoroughly checking each of the six rental units to upgrade outdated, rusted, broken or mis-matching items and deep-cleaning everything.  Never ever did I think I would be scrubbing mold off a fridge with bleach and a toothbrush, dusting palapa rafters, doing loads of laundry and pulling (someone else's) hair out of drains on Christmas Eve.  But... that was my day yesterday because we had guests arrive from Canada last night and I wanted Casa Palapa to be as clean and comfortable as she is cute! 

The owner's family is here for the holidays taking up most of the other rentals and we have two other bookings arriving for New Years Eve weekend, and we've been handling all of the behind-the-scenes goings on that are required to run a rental business...so we've been very busy since moving in.  We (I) have been acting as graphic designer, webmaster, writer, booking manager, photographer, social media manager, interior designer, problem solver, and just all-around badass boss lady.  Because...have you met me?  There have been several days where I've sat in front of no less than 3 screens all day like a multi-tasking rain man working my nerdy magic all over the place while Ty brings me food and water as if he's a pit crew boss and I'm racing in the Indy something or other.  

It's been such a strange way to spend the holidays though... It doesn't feel like Christmas in the slightest.  Ty's going to the airport today to pick up some Baku guests and I plan to do more room inventories and admin work.  I'm currently sitting on the couch in my (Ty's) pajamas with wicked bed head like I would any normal Christmas morning, but I feel like I gotta make myself presentable here soon since we have guests around and whatnot.  Weird.

I hung up our stockings about a week ago (the only holiday stuff we kept) but they're looking pretty sad and empty this morning.  I plan on being doted on and spoiled and snuggled with and kissed and cooked for and treated like a Christmas queen today though because Ty loves me soooooooooo much and his gift to me today is undying love for his awesome wife!  (Actually, I've been threatening him for days with homesick tears if he doesn't make my day special and he'll do anything to keep me from crying, but whatever...same thing.)  

Feliz Navidad to you and yours!  Much love from your favorite weirdos south of the border!!  And also...book your vacation for 2017 and come visit us!  Duh. 

How to Know it's Winter in Mexico

As I mentioned in my last post, the season changes are much more subtle here and definitely not what we're used to having moved here from the Pacific Northwest... I've been seeing friends back home post pics of below freezing temps and snowy roads and here people are commenting how they haven't been turning on their A/C at night so it must be winter.  So weird.  Last night while I was sleepily pulling a blanket up over us, the idea of this post popped into my head... Enjoy. 

How to Know it's Winter in Mexico:

• you start turning the ceiling fans off in the evenings because it's "too cold" (low 70s)
• you start pulling a light blanket over you at 4:00am instead of just the top sheet because you're "freezing!" (low 60s)
• you start wishing you had kept more than one hoodie when you got rid of all your winter clothes and drove to Mexico
• you start wearing socks around the house (still wearing shorts, mind you) because the tiles are cold on your bare feet 
• you start wishing you hadn't given your favorite pair of slippers away before you moved
• you start wanting (your husband) to make soups and chili and homey comfort food and stay in at night instead of roaming the streets in search of live music 
• you get a hacking cold that lasts for two weeks because of the major temperature drop (85 down to 75) 
• the sun starts going down super early (like 6:30pm) 

• your husband starts wearing "pajamas" (shorts) to bed
• you start wearing more than just your husband's t-shirts to bed
• your husband starts swapping his frat boy tank tops for grown up shirts with sleeves
• your husband actually wants to snuggle on you at night! 
• your husband stops commenting on your "sweat stache"
• you don't go through like 10 napkins during dinner because you don't hafta keep sopping up your dripping face
• you start closing your sliding glass doors and a couple windows before bed 
• you start watching football inside on the couch instead of on the patio
• you see houses fully decked out in Christmas lights and decorated Christmas trees in windows and you say to yourself, "Oh yeah, it's December." 
• you don't leave a butt crack sweat mark on your chair during your outdoor Spanish class 
• you don't sweat off all your makeup before you're even done putting it on
• you can actually blow dry your hair without just re-wetting it with your sweat in the process
• you start taking warm-ish showers instead of cold 
• you start turning the A/C off in your car and roll the window down instead
• when a random rainstorm moves through you think about getting your "warm clothes" (long pants) down from the top closet, but don't actually do it
• the coconut oil in your pantry isn't in liquid form anymore
• you delay your pup's haircut because surely he will freeze to death on his morning walks

Welp, that's all I can think of for now.  I'm really curious to see what celebrating Christmas in Mexico will be like compared to back home...and of course, there will be a post about it! 

Love and miss you all!  

Some Blah Blah for my Mamas...

I've been slacking on my posts... I have about 8 posts in draft or just in idea-mode at the moment and I've been bad about seeing them through.  I have absolutely no topic for this particular post, so I'm sorry in advance.... But the two leading ladies in my life are overdue for their dose of nonsense from their favorite daughter.  

IT'S NOVEMBER?!  Seriously.  How did that happen?  Time is such a strange and unfamiliar sense here... Feeling the temps drop from warm to brisk, seeing the leaves turn orange, opting for boots and scarves and smelling that crisp autumn smell are all the ways most Americans internally know fall is coming...but not for us.  I'm seriously stuck in Groundhog Day here and sometimes it's kinda a bummer.  Everyday feels the same and I have to remind myself regularly that it's almost December.  Not gonna lie... flip flops and tan lines are fun, but cozying up on the couch with my family and a fire on a frosty Sunday to watch football doesn't suck either.   

The weather changes here are much more subtle.  Suddenly you realize you feel just slightly more comfortable and less sweaty during the day, the mosquitoes gradually disappear and you're finally able to put makeup on your unsightly face without sweating it all off in the process.  The last 4-5 nights I've actually gotten "chilly" (it's been low 70s in the early mornings) and I needed a light blanket instead of just a sheet.  I guess these are the ways I'll now know that "winter" is coming.  Weird.  

Know what's even weirder?  The American holidays are alive and well in Mexico!  Which has been a big surprise to me... Any American could walk into Mega right now and feel like they were in any big store back home... American Christmas music playing over the speakers, mountains of glittery holiday decor for sale, fake Christmas trees decked out in lights and bows...not to mention tons of white people!  It's like November 1st hit and all of the Snowbirds showed up at once.  After barely surviving our first Mexican summer, we totally get why people go home July through September (and we have no intention of staying here next summer.  Yuck.) 

We even saw real (exported) Christmas trees at Home Depot yesterday.  Um, what?!  The biggest surprise... Mexico even has an equivalent to Black Friday which is called "Buen Fin" and it starts the third weekend of November.  Aside from it being 85 and sunny everyday, it's like we never left the states... Just kidding. 

Last night we had Thanksgiving dinner with some new friends who just docked in the La Cruz Marina last week.  We (me) had originally thought it would be "fun" to try to recreate Thanksgiving dinner at home, but then the idea of having to go to several different stores looking for limited Gringo ingredients (along with every other American in the bay area), and then having to cook everything on our small stove all day in the heat...and then deal with the mess and clean up.  I must be getting old because all of that just sounded like too much work for one nostalgic meal.  It's even harder to get in the holiday mood when you're still sleeping with all of your windows open and ceiling fans on.  

Instead, we booked a table at the La Cruz Inn around the corner from us because they advertised they'd be having a traditional turkey dinner.  Perfecto!  The company, conversation and food was all great...and for 250 pesos per person, it was a perfect evening!  

The only downside to Thanksgiving this year, aside from being away from family, was not having any leftovers to gorge myself on late last night and again for breakfast this morning.  And not having an entire pumpkin pie to eat in shame during the course of the weekend.  Oops.  On the other hand, this will be the first Thanksgiving weekend where neither one of us gains weight for being little piggies!  Ha.  All in all, we had a great holiday south of the border.  

What else.  My family was here visiting last week!!!  I've known for months that my grandma and aunt and uncle were coming, but lo and behold when we picked them up from the airport they had a few stowaways with them... My parents!  I've suffered a few bouts of homesickness over the last six months while trying to adapt to an entirely new life, language and cultural and it was refreshing to have a sense of home for a week.  We went fishing, zip lining at our friend's family ranch, swimming, beach-ing, snorkeling, boating, shopping.....and we ate a LOT of good food.  I had also intended to throw a mini Thanksgiving while they were here, but again, the heat and laziness won and we went out to a tasty restaurant last Thursday in Nuevo instead... 

What else.  Ty and I have been making more of an effort to get outta the house on the weekends (hence the lack of blog posts) and explore Mexico more rather than just stare at computer screens all weekend.  It's led to some, let's call them "interesting," adventures.  

I mentioned in my last post that we found some awesome hot springs about a scenic 90-minute drive from us and a couple of weeks ago we tried to find the "back way" there hoping it would be less of a drive.  Picture a couple of gringo kids in a mini van with their pup asking at least a dozen non-English speakers, "Donde estan las aguas termales?" as we got lost in little villages and farm lands trying to remember where we had come from the previous trip... We asked an old man on horseback, a man working at some sort of power plant, women chilling in the shade on the side of the road... We understood almost none of what they told us, but hand gestures and waving and pointing are more useful than you realize until you move to a foreign country.  

Amazingly, we found the hot springs...buuuuuuuutttt not before being stopped on a dirt road in the middle of the mountains by a caravan of AK-47-toting Federales.  Watching a man with a gun strapped to his chest ask your husband to get out of the car while your dog is barking at the men in the back seat, makes you wanna crap your bikini bottoms, turns out.  They didn't speak any English, but motioned for Ty to open up the trunk, which he did.  We think they were looking for drug traffikers and we explained we were headed to the hot springs.  The camo-clad military man in charge told us it was about 5 more kilometers and let us continue on.  

Needless to say, I did a bit of freaking out the rest of the way to the springs.  Luckily, they weren't there on our way back home which was a big relief... We're always reminded that the military are the "good guys" by both expats and locals, but DAMN, they're scary.  I wish I had a picture for you, but I was too busy mentally planning my husband's inevitable funeral and trying to quiet our loudmouth pup to think of taking one.  In hindsight, that probably wasn't a good story for my mothers to read today, but such is life in Mexico!  Never a dull moment! 

Happy Thanksgiving from your favorite kids (and pup) south of the border.  Love and miss you all!  (And GO DAWGS!)

  

Mexican Life Hacks

There are lots of super-helpful expat blogs out there in Cyberland meant to assist Northerners looking to move south of the border full of detailed information on how to navigate through this or that......this, however, is not one of those blogs.  

Yes, we spent months preparing for this move and made several trips to the Mexican Embassy in Seattle to obtain our visas, had to figure out all of the logistics involved in driving the 2,800 miles from Seattle to La Cruz, etc. but all of that is much too boring for yours truly to write about... And in all honesty, I had very little to do with all of the important adulting that was needed for this major move.  Ty handled business like a boss, as per usual, and I flitted around in la-la land buying flip flops and sunglasses.  Because, duh.  Adulting is the worst. 

Anyway.... We've been in La Cruz for almost 5 months now and we've learned some "Mexican life hacks" since being here.  So, here are some little tips and tricks we learned the hard way... This is probably the most "helpful" this blog (or me in general) will ever be.  So, enjoy.

• When you're eating at a taco stand or outside somewhere (which is nearly every meal when you live in Mexico) and flies are an issue, try to keep a dirty dish at the end of your table.  It'll keep the flies from hovering around your food.  Yes, it's gross to look over and see a plate full of flies... But better them hanging out at the end of the table than on my tacos!  

• If you plan to take lots of long drives or day trips to explore other towns and villages (like we do) then make sure to keep spare napkins or toilet paper in your car in case you need to take a bathroom break.  We often stop at the Pemex gas station bathrooms (you don't have to ask for a key and they're usually pretty clean) but they rarely have toilet paper stocked in them!  It's also smart to keep spare change in your car because "public" bathrooms (especially at the beach or popular shopping areas) charge 5-10 pesos for you to use them.  You'll hand your change to an elderly lady or a kid and they'll hand you a few squares of toilet paper in return.  Good luck! 

• If you decide to drive to Mexico with your belongings, make it a priority to bring high-quality kitchen stuff with you, because cheap stuff will rust within a week of being here.  All of our cheap stainless steel things (dog bowls, cheese graters, bottle openers, etc.) are riddled with rust spots thanks to the humidity and the calcium-rich water, I'm guessing.  And, thankfully, all of our Calphalon pans and expensive knives are unscathed.  We've been told that the quality of stainless steel isn't the same as the US and good stuff is hard to find and/or it's more expensive here than in the states. 

• If you're already living in Mexico, then you know that a glass of ice water doesn't stay a glass of ice water for more than 5 minutes.  Instead, it morphs into a room-temperature let down sitting in a puddle of its own condensation.  Next time you're in the states (or you have someone coming to visit), pick yourself up one of these bad boys!  I bought Ty this Asobu vacuum-insulated water bottle for $20+ at Fred Meyer before we left and it was worth every penny.  We can literally put cold ice water in it in the morning and it's still freeeeeeeeeezing cold 12 hours later.  Like, brain freeze cold.  Like, even if it's left in the blazing sun and the outside of it is hot to the touch.  Which is amazingly satisfying when it's a billion degrees outside everyday and you're painting houses and trimming hedges and sweating your friggen face off.  We never leave the house without it... 

• Another thing I bought before we left is this little weird-looking gadget.  I was skeptical about how well it would work when I bought it, but it was only like 7 bucks so I wanted to try it out.  And turns out, it's AWESOME.  It takes less than a minute to have perfectly peeled, cored and sliced pineapple rings with no waste.  And you could use the hollowed-out pineapple husk as a margarita glass if you were feeling festive.  We eat 1-2 pineapples per week, so this has been a great buy.  But beware, you and your spouse will argue over who gets to drink all of the pineapple juice left in the husk... 

• Another kitchen gadget... Ty bought this strainer when we got here to strain pasta or whatever and we have yet to use it for cooking... Instead I use it to catch GIANT moths when they get trapped in our kitchen window and can't figure out how to get out.  Picture me remaining totally calm and definitely not shrieking while trying to coax a big, fluttering cockroach with wings into the strainer and out the door while tripping over two dogs who are trying to eat said cockroach with wings.  Fun times. 

• Be careful when moving/handling rocks or bricks (or anything heavy or durable) that hasn't been disturbed in a long time... We haven't seen any scorpions yet, but we're told that's where they like to hang out.  And our maid's son got stung at school a few months ago while he was outside playing... 

• While we're on the subject of creepy crawlers... If you're planning on moving south of the border, do yourself a major favor and grab some Ortho Home Defense perimeter spray from WalMart or Home Depot when you get here.  You can read about my horrifying "nope" experiences here... And then you can thank me later! After we sprayed around our doors and windows (and down all of our drains, because that's how cockroaches get in -- gag) we rarely ever have wingless bug sightings indoors anymore.  Thank goodness, because I can't even.  

• This bullet point is Ty's contribution to this post... He golfed with a guy last week who told him, "If you lose your ball in the rough...do NOT go looking for it."  Apparently he's lived here a long time and has seen several very large snakes and crocodiles on the local course.  No thank you!  Just the other day Ty texted me, "I just saw a 12 foot crocodile" while golfing.  He, of course, only took a picture of his thumb covering the camera.

• Mosquitoes are a disgusting, miserable nuisance where we live and I spent July to September covered in no less than 20 itchy, painful, gnarly bites every single day... We tried every bug spray and cream and candle and fumigation spray and magic potion out there and nothing worked.  Until we found these!  They are basically like a coiled incense that you light and let smolder for hours.  We light them when we're sitting on the patio and it's the ONLY thing that kept us from constantly smacking at our legs under the table and cursing under our breath.  And I like that we don't have to slather our skin with chemicals.  (Although, who knows what we're inhaling.)  And bonus, a pack of 10 coils costs 14 pesos... Which is like 70 cents.  So, yes... We'll be stocking these in the house from now on.  I only wish we found them months ago!

• A simple trick... Take a cold shower before bed because it'll lower your body temperature and make sleeping more comfortable.  Even better if you dry off via floor or ceiling fan.  We didn't use our air conditioner all summer (even though it was miserable) in an effort to acclimate.  We don't want our comfort to be dependent on expensive electricity.  (Fun fact: when I traveled to Florida a couple weeks ago for my grandpa's funeral I was FREEZING cold the entire time.  Like, jaw-chattering cold.  Having not been in temps below 80 degrees for months, I was literally shivering through every airport, flight, car and building in the states.  Of course I didn't think to bring a jacket to somewhere even hotter and muggier than La Cruz!  No lie... The first thing I did when I got to my hotel room was turn off the A/C and get under the covers.  So, I guess you can say I've acclimated!) 

• A money trick... I still have to whip out my phone to calculate how much something costs in dollars when we're at the store, or I just blankly stare at a sign and ask Ty how much $1220 pesos is while trying to encourage my brain to shift gears from vacation mode to competent adult mode (same with the metric system, but that's another problem...) and after getting thoroughly annoyed with my constant questions, he said, "Just divide it in half, drop a zero, and add a little bit."  Sounds scientific, right?
• $1220 / 2 = $610
• Drop a zero = $61
• Add a "little bit" = $63
• Actual amount in US dollars = $62.56
• Mind blown

Some tricks we've learned to help us pick up conversational Spanish quicker is to:

• befriend lots of Mexicans and hang out with them all the time (because, duh, they're the funnest and they're actually eager to help you learn Spanish)

• always (attempt to) order in Spanish at restaurants, regardless of whether or not the staff speaks English!  
• watch Netflix movies with Spanish subtitles and/or watch your favorite movies in Spanish
• label household items around your house with stickers or post-it notes
• listen to popular Latin singers like Enrique Iglesias and listen to both the English and Spanish versions of their songs (it especially helps when you sing along really loudly and embarrass yourself in public, or at least that's what I'm telling myself.)
• take Spanish classes with fellow gringos!  We recently contacted a couple of local Spanish teachers in the La Cruz/Bucerias area and we're hoping to start next month!  You can read about classes here. 

Some TV tricks...

• It took us a few months, but we finally found a free VPN (hola.org) that actually works really well, so now we can watch all of our favorite TV shows on Hulu!!  And even listen to Pandora!  It's also nice when you want to browse an online shopping site or do a Google search and not have it default to Spanish... You'll have a little icon in the upper right hand corner of your screen and you can select which country you want to "view from."  It's. The. Best. 

• We were also told about a sorta sneaky site to watch football games, which is a must for two Seahawk fans!!  Not sure how legit this site is, but we've been able to watch all of our games from the comfort of our patio since the season started... Yes, you gotta shut down some pop-ups in the beginning and it's not HD quality, but when we pair up our laptop with our bluetooth speaker and kick our feet up on a sunny Sunday afternoon... Esta bien!! 

• Ty also watches a lot of ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX shows for free through www.ustvnow.com  (He mostly watches golf tournaments and 60-Minutes because he's 39 going on 69.)  You don't need a VPN to use this site, but you do have to create a free account.  According to their website they are "TV for US Military and Americans Abroad."  Very cool. 
• While we're on the subject of technology... If you see a big storm coming, do not hesitate to unplug your modem!  (Same with TVs and other electronics, actually.)  As I've mentioned several times in this blog, we've had about 5-6 modems/wireless routers get zapped by lightning since July.  We would lose internet for a day or two if Telmex wasn't open to give us a new one, forcing us to live like Amish people and actually talk to each other.  It was terrible. 

Well, that's about as "helpful" as I feel like being today... Yesterday we felt like going on an adventure so we went in search of some super cool hot springs about an hour and a half from here deep in the jungle... They are ahhhhmazing and we cannot wait to take our friends and family there when they come visit.  I've already started writing a blog post about it!  Stay tuned!  

GO HAWKS!!! 

The Storm

Well, we had our first major storm here in La Cruz two nights ago.... and it was definitely an experience to remember.  Not because of the affects of the storm, but mostly because of the hilarity that ensued in our house for 3-4 hours that night.  Please enjoy the tale of two gringos trying to survive their first Mexican summer.... 

I don't know why, but it almost always only rains at night here....occasionally in the evenings or very early mornings, but almost never during daylight hours.  And the rain is usually accompanied by thunder and lightning... Usually, storms aren't enough of a bother to keep us awake at night and it's become a pretty routine occurrence around here.  If it's raining really hard we close our north-facing windows and if the thunder and lightning look and sound like they're nearby we unplug our modem so it doesn't get fried (and yet we've still had to replace it 4-5 times this summer already!!) and the muddy streets are a major bummer, but overall...the storms are pretty harmless here. 

And then THE Storm happened.  For some dumb reason, I couldn't fall asleep that night and was lying in bed when I heard it start to rain pretty hard after midnight.  No big surprise, it's still the rainy season and September usually brings about 14 inches of rain on average.  (I literally just checked my phone to make sure that it's still September.  I have no clue.)  The wind picked up and our bedroom would light up at random due to flashes of lightning and I heard rumblings of thunder a ways off... Still no big deal, just another night.  

Ty says that he was once told that the seconds between a lightning strike and the following thunder indicates how far away the strike was.... "One-one thousand" being about a mile....so if you count to ten between lightning and thunder then the strike was about 10 miles away, for example.  I have no idea if that's true, and I'm too lazy to bother Googling it, but it seems pretty accurate.  

The rain and thunder got progressively louder until it woke Ty up... We closed the windows above our bed and Ty went to the kitchen to unplug the modem, because according to Ty's rule-of-thumb, the storm was passing right over us and it was gonna get ugly.  As he was coming back to our room and closed our bedroom door, lightning either struck our house or a nearby electrical line/pole because the light above our bed made a huge POP that sounded like glass shattering and I ducked thinking I was gonna feel glass rain down on top of me.  And Ty told me later that he felt like he got zapped while he had his hand on the metal door knob.  Immediately following the lightning, the LOUDEST, LONGEST, SCARIEST thunder to ever exist in the history of ever came down on us like a bomb exploding in our bedroom.  And then the most adorable thing in the history of ever happened...  

I proceed to watch a 39-year old man race across his bedroom, LEAP into bed and cling to his wife like a 4-year old clinging to a teddy bear because there was a monster under the bed.  And then I watched as he was immediately embarrassed for doing so.  It will forever be in my top ten favorite Ty moments.  Every time I've thought about it since, I get this doofy looking grin on my face.  Adorable, I tell you.  

The lightning struck our house, or very nearby, 3 more times that night and there were at least a dozen instances of the loudest, bone-rattling thunder imaginable and hours of clinging to each other like scared little kids in our bed.  Me squealing every time and sorta laugh-sobbing in hysterics, Ty burying his head under his pillow.... Both of us worrying that the vibrations from the thunder alone were gonna shatter our windows... It was very intense (and very hilarious) to say the least.  

During the storm, we noticed that Bloo was hunkered down in his bed and looked really frightened so I invited him up to snuggle with me...solely to make HIM feel safer.  It definitely wasn't for my sake.  Nope, not at all.  Bloo was to my left and Ty was to my right and together we "braved" the rest of the storm like the whitest, gringo-est, most adorable, scaredy cat little expat family you ever did see. 

Welp, that was our first major storm experience, and we hope it's the worst storm we see.... Ty is for sure gonna hate this post, but I'm okay with that.  Adios mi amigos! 

That's a Thing? -- Part 2

I wrote a post a couple months ago called, “That’s a Thing?” about things we were surprised to learn about our new life in Mexico.  I’m sure it’s no surprise since writing that post we’ve come across many other “things” so I think this topic may need to be a recurring one! 

More things we didn’t know are things:

• Apparently pointing in your spouse’s face is considered an angry gesture… Like, “You’re in trouble, mister!”  I found that out after I pointed in Ty’s face when I was trying to get him to admit to something when we were hanging out with some new Mexican friends… They explained when a wife points at her husband that usually means they’re in an argument, but because I was laughing/smiling/teasing Ty (duh) when I pointed at him, they understood that we were just playing around… Kinda funny, but it made me realize that I need to be more careful with gestures we see as “normal” so I don’t unintentionally offend anyone (more than I usually do.)

• Eggs are not refrigerated here.  When you buy them in the store they’re just in a normal aisle…not in the refrigerated section.  And if you buy them at one of the little tiendas in town, they’re usually just in a stack behind the counter and you tell the cashier how many you want and he puts them in a little bag for you.  You can buy just one egg if you want to.  For the first month or so, we were still storing eggs in our fridge when we brought them home, but Ty now insists on keeping them out on the counter like a real Mexican. 

•  You know how you go to Fred Meyer or Safeway and there’s a bakery section?  And you can buy donuts or artisan bread or whatever?  Well, US bakeries have NOTHING on Mexico.  Here the bakery sections in large grocery stores (WalMart, Mega, Chedraui) are glorious, carb-filled playgrounds that I’d like to eat my way through.  There are trays and trays of the tastiest-looking pastries you’ve ever seen, bins full of freshly-baked bread, cakes, donuts, homemade ding dongs (!!!) croissants, bagels, cookies, cupcakes, muffins, everything.  After you do a fair amount of drooling, you grab a big, silver tray and a pair of tongs and you load up the tray with all of the things you’ll regret eating later, and then you take your tray up to the nice lady at the counter and she bags up your stuff and prints out a barcode sticker with the price (just like when you go to the deli counter and buy meat or salads or whatever) and then you put your pastry bag in your cart and whine at your husband to hurry up with the rest of the shopping because you have every intention of eating a donut as soon as you get in the car.  Also, donuts are basically like 10 cents here, so…I’m screwed.

• There are these little flying bugs (about an inch long) here that have NEON green eyes that GLOW IN THE DARK.  I wish that was an exaggeration, but it’s 100% true.  The first time we saw one, we were in bed in pitch blackness and we saw the bug’s eyes flying straight at us like a shooting star.  Ty let out a girly shriek and swatted him outta the air, causing him to smack into the concrete wall and fall to the floor.  As he was dying, we watched his creepy headlights go dim until they were all the way “off.”  Um, no thank you.

• While we’re on the subject of bugs, flies come in 4 sizes here, in case you were wondering.  There are little flies that like to follow the dogs around (gross), then there’s your standard black house fly like we’re all used to… And then there’s the grande fly that’s about the size of a nickel which causes you to go “Ugh!” while quickly shooing it away from your immediate area.  And then there’s the Big Nope Fly who is the size of a quarter and will cause you to slowly back out of whatever room he is currently occupying.  And if he wasn’t creepy enough already, he also has a giant, unicorn-like antennae on his forehead and sounds like a lawnmower when he buzzes past your ear at 20 miles per hour. 

• We received a couple pieces of mail from people in the states and based on the date stamp, it seems like it took about 5 weeks to get here.  Overall, the mail system is still a mystery to us though… Something that’s vastly different than back home are the utility bills here.  They aren’t mailed to you…someone literally comes around and sticks your water or electric bill into your gate or fence and you just have to hope you notice it, it doesn’t get blown away or rained on, etc.  After you get your water bill, you take it to the little city water office here in La Cruz to pay the balance.  To pay the electric bill, you drive to the CFE office in Bucerias and feed cash into an ATM-type machine.  Weird.

• Everything is a bottle opener in Mexico.  Everything.  We’ve have seen countless coke and beer bottles opened with machetes, other unopened bottles, shovels, candle holders, teeth, chairs, you name it…it’s a bottle opener.  The only time we’ve ever seen a Mexican use an actual opener…was to purposely use the wrong end of it to open a beer.  Much to everyone’s entertainment, Ty often tries to open bottles with random objects and usually fails miserably.  Our Mexican buddies get a good kick out of watching him try though… 

Welp, that's all I can think about right now... But stay tuned for the inevitable follow-up to my "That's a Thing?" series.  I'm sure you're on the edge of your seat! 

Guadalajara!

As I mentioned in my last post, we've been miserable for the last several weeks because of the heat, humidity and mosquitoes.  After Ty looked up the weather in Guadalajara and saw that it was in the 60s in the evenings and 70s during the day...we decided to get the hell outta town for a couple of days and find some relief.  So, we did the least amount of research possible (as per usual, because we're lazy) and booked transportation and a hotel room for the following week.  

We took the Vallarta Plus bus there for about 50 bucks per person round trip, and I'm so glad we did.  I would have been all kinds of stressed out had we decided to brave Guadalajara traffic and I'm sure we would have spent more time being lost in our car than actually seeing any sights.  The Vallarta Plus buses are more comfortable than any first class flights we've been on... The seats were big, comfy recliners with pop-up foot rests and lots of leg room.  Each person had their own personal TV complete with English and Spanish movies, games and music stations.  The buses also have free WiFi (that worked most of the trip) 2 bathrooms and it included a "sack lunch."  (The sack lunch was really just cheap, processed snacks...next time we'd bring our own food.) 

We had our buddy, Ernesto, drop us off at the Bucerias bus stop on Tuesday morning at about 8:45 for our 9:00 bus.  We checked in at the counter and got our tickets for the trip there as well as our return trip a few days later (we purchased our tickets online and took our printed confirmation in with us.)  Our bus was 30 minutes late, but we still made it to Guadalajara around 1:00-1:30.  

I guess this is where I should mention the downside to our bus ride.  For the first time in my entire life, I got super car sick.  A big stretch of the road to Guadalajara is through curvy mountain roads and when you're in a tall, lumbering, swaying bus that's constantly jostling your stomach...you start to feel a little queasy.  Let's just say it's a very good thing the bus had a bathroom on it, because yours truly puked her guts out after trying to keep it down for over an hour.  Imagine kneeling in an airplane bathroom while trying to aim your vomit into a tiny toilet during extreme turbulence.  It was like that.  The bus was swaying so hard I was literally crashing into the bathroom walls while trying to clean puke off my chin.  Awesome.  

Luckily, I felt a little better after throwing up and the road flattened out for the remainder of the drive, and despite getting sick I would still take the bus again... I'd just be better prepared next time.  

The view from the bus.... I feel like all of our family and friends think we up and moved to the desert complete with rattlesnakes and tumbleweeds, but Mexico is greener than Seattle!!  

After arriving at the Zapopan bus station, we took a short cab ride to our lovely, 1920s mansion-turned hotel, Villa Ganz, which happened to be in the perfect location for out-of-towners on foot.  Our hotel was in the Americana Zone and was surrounded by tons of funky, hipster taverns and restaurants.  

Guadalajara isn't at all what I was expecting.  On Wednesday, we spent about 6 hours on foot with no real plans... I was surprised to find that major sections of the city could have been in any major city in the States.  Certain areas looked and felt like they could have been in Portland or Seattle to me.  Busy traffic, high-end cars, eco-friendly public transportation, wide sidewalks full of 30-something business professionals all staring down at their iPhones in a hurry to get somewhere... It was definitely not the slow-moving, laid back, somewhat gritty version Mexico we were used to.  

Unfortunately, because we ignorantly assumed Guadalajara wouldn't be much different than here, we didn't pack very well for this trip... We live on the beach and we spend all of our time on the Banderas Bay where it's 85+ degrees everyday and it's the only version of Mexico we knew...so we packed accordingly.  Imagine crowds of young, Mexican nationals in fashionable coats, boots and scarves...and then picture a tall, blonde gringo wearing a frat boy tank top, board shorts and flip flops walking among them.  We stood out a bit, to say the least.  Ty looked like he was ready to whoop it up at Spring Break 2016!  Next time, I will be packing a jacket, for sure.  I was pretty chilly most of the trip.  

Click here to be taken to a photo album of our walk around the city... I really love old buildings, ornate architecture, and history in general, so I was in heaven.

I especially enjoyed the juxtaposition of old and new... Considering the city was established in 1542, Guadalajara is a visually interesting mix of the colonial era and current day.

Really, the only definite plan we made before traveling to the city was to go to the giant market I had heard about previously... The Mercado Libertad - San Juan de Dios is the largest indoor market in Latin America.  It's hard to explain how massive it was... It's like Pike Place Market and Portland Saturday Market had like 10 kids and they all lived under one roof.  It's HUGE.  (According to Wikipedia it's over 430,000 square feet with nearly 3,000 vendor booths.)  As a person who kinda freaks out in small, crowded spaces, I did pretty well navigating the narrow corridors jam-packed with people and merchandise... Amazingly, we didn't even buy anything!  

From the third story, looking over the market.... 

Overall, we had a great time... We saw lots of interesting sights, ate lots of tasty food we had been missing from home, (first time eating sushi since leaving Seattle!) and we'd definitely go back again.     

Thankfully, I didn't get sick on the bus ride home, but the trek back to La Cruz wasn't without a new kind of drama.  After we got off the bus in Bucerias, we grabbed a taxi for the 10-minute drive home... Normally we'd take the bus coming home from Bucerias, because it costs like 10 cents, but we were tired and didn't want to wait... And as soon as we were about a block from home, I realized that I didn't have my laptop with me.  "Oh crap...I LEFT IT ON THE DAMN BUS!"  Of course, I immediately started to panic and freak out and act like the sky was falling, because duh.  Meanwhile, Ty was perfectly calm and level-headed and told me not to worry because it wouldn't solve anything.  Easier said than done for a crazy person. 

After we got home, I paced the house and whined about never seeing my computer ever again instead of actually doing something to find it.... While Ty cooly made a few phone calls, researched where the bus was heading, and figured out all the hows, whos and wheres of getting my computer back.  Within 2 hours of stepping off the bus, I had it back in my pouty, incapable little hands.  Crisis averted.

******************

Let me just interject here for one mushy minute about how awesome my husband is... I have a lot of talents, but basic adulting skills aren't among them.  Most people don't know that I'm actually really shy in most situations (probably because I tend to mask my discomfort with humor.)  I struggle with change; I don't like talking to strangers (not even cashiers, waiters, bank tellers, etc.)  I have social anxiety issues and don't like crowded/busy places; I'm easily overwhelmed or uncomfortable and/or nervous; and I tend to "shut down" when something is too far out of my comfort zone (like calling a Mexican bus company and trying to explain in really bad Spanish that I'm an idiot.) 

Ty is the total and complete opposite of me.  He is so....steady.  He's never worried or scared or stressed.  He doesn't get nervous or intimidated by new or stressful situations.  He just does what needs to be done as if he's done it 100 times before.  He rarely ever gets mad and never raises his voice, (even though I give him plenty of bratty reasons to.)  He's so patient and solid and I envy him....and I have no idea what I would do without his calming magic.  You know those big, inflatable cartoon-looking characters you see at car dealerships with the arms waving everywhere?  That's us.  Ty is the rock-solid base, and I'm the freak show flailing in the wind.  It's okay to be jealous... 


Welp, I guess that's all for today... We love and miss you all!   GO HAWKS!