Adios my wonderful Isla

Today, July the 11th and this is real time. I had written this on July 6th and when I went to publish I ran out of data. Very long story, we can’t get TotalPlay here ( fibre optic  ) because this park does not have it underground, nor Telmex. And Telcel said that I needed to be permanente to get a mobile modem or find a Mexican to sponsor me. It took four attempts and I found a sponsor. Yet each time I was offered a different package. I now as of a day ago have internet but it is not going to last the full month. I am working on that.  I ran thru way too many GB’s in 12 hours to make using the iPhone as a hotspot logical. Much too many different things happening there. There’s the flooding than happens in Mazatlan when it rains and then the fact that our roof is leaking and one A/C unit died but that one has been repaired but not the leak yet. We also happen to be sitting on a massive very huge red ant hill – both the size of the hill ( 10 feet x 6 -7 feet ) and extra large red fire ants. Of course Ciela sat in the middle of them and got bit a few times…..thank goodness the vet came here and knocked her out for only 400MXN. Poor girl, she was in so much distress that she was trying to bite her own foot off, she even drew blood. So we have been kind of busy just trying to get through each day. You may have read about the US government trying to shut down three Mexican banks as they think they are dealing with drug money and the cartels. You guessed it, we have all of our money for the next few years in one of those banks. I know that there is much more that keeps happening, well for instance, I just deleted all 686 emails in my inbox in error!  It seems to never stop.

 

Now back to the blog I wrote……………….

 

Well not back to the blog…..I am unable to to add photos….no idea why.  So here is the written part and we may or may not get photos to you another day………best to have an update rather than nada……so sorry.

 

Last Sunday  ( June 29 ) we left the Isla. We did not want to but it had to be done, mostly so that Colin can be closer to a different type of rehabilitation and of course as a protection from the summer storm and hurricane season. We were very sad and even more so arriving at the Las Jaibas Trailer Park. I knew it would not be to my liking but it was even worse.

I was told that there was only once inch to spare.

 

Everyone spoke so kindly about Rafael, the now retired manger. The new manager is a ‘very young person’ who is the son of the park owner who is out of the country for several months. This person does not want anyone here as that means work for him which he does not want to do. Erik drove us here, parked us, plugged us in and did a basic set up re water and sewer. Then the dude shows up and wants us to move to a far back corner. I said no – not realizing that it would make no difference as Didi can’t come and pick us up anyway. Nor can I get Amazon delivery, nor water delivery and so on.

 

 

 

Very long story but we had 27AMPS, then no amps and ran the generator and then Erik came back. That night during the rain storm we lost an air conditioner. Sadly the site we are in ( and most of the others ) are west facing so we get full sun coming in the front windshield. We have been living with 85- 88F inside during the day running 2 A/C’s.  I have done all I can to block the sun coming in. Erik came back and miraculously got the broken A/C motor re wound ( it was burnt ). So now I can run the front 2 A/Cs at the same time and we are okay at 78 – 80 F.  Also Erik did finally get us extra air conditioning by doing some magic and we now are running 80AMP via 2 40AMP plugs. But we don’t need to run 3 A/C units. Yet!!!  We have been told that it is not even hot yet – it will get much hotter in the months to come.

Everyday we remind  ourselves that the reason we are here is for Colin’s rehabilitation. We moved here Sunday, June 29th and on July 2nd Colin saw Doctor Miguel Patino Hernandez, a stroke and rehabilitation specialist. Colin is now doing an hour daily at his facility on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. He is supposed to rest to give his muscles a chance to rebuild but Colin continues pushing the rest of the time. New bloodwork was done and we meet the doctor again this ( last ) Tuesday to discuss decreasing his medication. It can be the reason for his constant fatigue. Dr. Miguel explained that each and every stroke is unique and unlike any other. He was surprised at the progress Colin had already made and is confidant that there will be further improvement, but time will tell.  I will update in a bit…..

We will be unable to use the pool here for Colin’s rehab as the current manger has it covered up and does not want the water to get dirty!! Also no one is here except a night watchman who is supposed to be here from 6pm – 6am but mostly is not. The rest of the time the gate is locked and the young dude with a huge attitude will not give me a key. I insisted that that we not be locked in, in case of fire or medical emergency. So they said they would fake lock the gate. I went out yesterday, Saturday, and could not get out – great fake lock.  Didi/Uber can’t get in because of the way the gate is set up. So Colin has had to learn to drive the car to the gate ( too far for him to try to swing his leg in a walk ) and open the gate and then get into Didi. I could not open the gate yesterday and Didi left!  So we are truly on our own here and it is most unsettling.

Of course we are sitting on a giant very large ( Mexican size ) red ant hill, about 8′ by 10′. Doxies are very vulnerable to ant bites, been there and dealt with that years back in Florida. Thanks to a good friend who did research, I am killing them bit by bit, day by day with boiling water but it has to be done multiple times per day.  I must be making progress as new ant mounds keep popping up.

So much to share but I am short on internet data. TotalPlay will not set us up here, nor Telmex or so says the dude. So sorry he said but I can’t help you. Erik suggested a mobile modem from Telcel. So off I went to the mall to the Telcel shop, they had closed the day before. So another taxi to another mall and they simply said no. I needed to be a permanent resident, not a temporal resident. We need internet, re doctors, re contact with the outside world, etc. Right now I am using my iPhone as a hotspot which died about two hours ago. Working on a situation. So as you can see, everything from water, to internet to transportation to security is an issue for us.

It is brutally hot and humid. The girls can only last about 7 – 9 minutes outside. I don’t think that we will ever get to the “close” beach. Too far to walk, even with driving to the front gate from our site here. Storms at night and we often wake up to a surrounding swimming pool. No sense setting a patio area as it is much too hot to be outside. Two wonderful things are the many lovely white flowered plumeria trees and the many mango trees. We have been eating free mangos since May and it continues here.

There are the 5 gallon garrafons of water here at the office here but I have to get them myself!  Like I can handle five gallons!!  Colin certainly can’t. So now the night watchman will bring them for a tip plus 40 pesos per jug. On the Isla we paid 18 pesos to have the water delivered to the front door. How I miss my Isla. Well as of today, July 11, I am not allowed  ( per the young dude ) to get an exchange until I empty both bottles and then he will replace them at the same time. I guess he does not want to create any extra work.

The worst was the sudden increase in rent from 11,000MXN to 15,000MXN. Reason from the dude was because we are big. Other than A/C we pretty much don’t use much electricity because of our battery system. I think I won that battle and only have to pay 12,000MXN. But he is going to check me in one month and run the numbers 🙁 I may have to pay more……

We have been here a week now and I can’t say that I am much happier. Yesterday  ( Saturday the 5th ) I went into Centro – took forever re the gate and Didi issues.  I needed to get to the ATM and my last hair cut was over 4 months ago. So that was done and I was able to get Colin his favorite muffins and a few things from the market.  We are ever so slowly settling into a routine. I even did laundry today ( that was the 6th ). We are still unpacking from the move and resetting up our home which we still love. To be honest we did talk about renting a place for the next four months but who has the energy to find a place and then to unload the RV.

We will stay here as far as we know and will make it work for us. The goal is for Colin to get stronger day by day so we can return to the Isla. Never thought we would be summering here in these sauna conditions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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