Some months ago, I failed at getting an Amazon delivered order here in Chelem. Actually, the failure was on FedEx’s part. Despite having very clear directions and my phone number, they could not be arsed to get the package to me nor would they agree to let me pick it up, saying their depot isn’t set up for that. I ended up sending the package back to Amazon and Amazon left some generous credits on my account to try again.

One of the items in the order was a Moleskine notebook that I now find myself needing again, having nearly exhausted the notebook I bought locally to make do. With Amazon’s credits, buying the notebook online made tons of sense as it would be fully half what I would have paid had the local bookstore brought it in for me. So I ordered the notebook on Tuesday and paid a ludicrous (as in I can’t believe how cheap it was) $150 for overnight delivery to my house in Mérida since I was planning to be there on Wednesday.

Then, we had an earthquake. Amazon’s depot is northwest of Mexico City, so probably not really impacted by the earthquake in terms of damages, but certainly in terms of telecommunications and roadway access.

Thursday, Amazon emailed to let me know my package had shipped and I was being credited the $150 since I would not get the package until Monday.

So imagine my shock when I got a phone call later Thursday (which I just realised was yesterday — it’s been a couple of long and full days!) from DHL here in Mérida saying they hadn’t been able to deliver my package! I was a bit shocked, needless to say! Shocked that it was here so fast and shocked that they’d called.

I told the man that I would not be at my house until next Wednesday and asked if I could pick up the package since that would be easier for everyone. He said yes and hung up before I could ask him where.

This morning, I checked my tracking number and my package status had changed from failed delivery attempted to “ready to be picked up by client.” Still no address. I thought that they might have left me a little paper at the house, but I wanted to know now where it is because they might be open on Saturday and it might be more convenient to go there first thing tomorrow and rather than going first to the house.

I went to the contact page on the DHL website and was going to call when I saw a chat option. I much prefer chatting to speaking to someone, so I tried that. I put in the package tracking number and asked where I could pick it up. I had to wait about five minutes for someone to respond with an address in a place I can’t even pronounce: Xcumpich.

I put “Xcumpich DHL” into Google Maps and it promptly spitted out a location… between Chedraui and Bodega Aurrera that is open between nine and one tomorrow. Talk about convenient! It’s barely a detour to swing by there on the way to the house tomorrow so I don’t care that I’ll have to go back later in the day to get my groceries.

It’s been quite a journey to get that notebook, but considering that they are 30CAD plus tax in Canada and about 60CAD here in store and that I’m getting it for 10CAD, all the hard work has been worth it! And before anyone asks, yes, it is a special type of notebook. 🙂

I’m glad I planned to go to the house tomorrow — my landlady no longer has keys for it, only for the main person gate from the street, and she just texted me to say that she left me some presents in the parking area, “a small table, a few chairs, and a lamp.” Very curious to see what they are! Considering how nice everything else she’s left me has been, I’m optimistic!

It’s been a couple of really busy days, so I went to La barca tonight for a few beers and a burger (the worst of the three I’ve had and still really good with super thick bacon — yum!). It was the first time I’ve ever had to request ketchup and let me say I did a double take when I uttered the word catsup out loud — it’s “cat soup”!!! That struck me as rather funny.

Sunset down my street this evening (not as pink as in reality):

Progreso might be paradise for retired expats, but it is most certainly not for someone who works full time and needs a basic level of stability of services. The town (and its suburbs) has major infrastructure changes due to problems (ie. corruption) at the administrative level. I’ve been following things closely on social media and by talking with both Mexican and expat neighbours. It’s really bad and, frankly, I wouldn’t want to be paying taxes and utility bills here because there are problems at all levels of services in Progreso including, but not limited to:

• Garbage collection, which is almost non-existent. To avoid it piling up, I have to take it to the dump myself.
• Being so far behind on the water bill to the provider that most residents have had no water all summer — not just on the beach but in town as well — despite paying their own bills (where is that money going is the question everyone’s asking). Thankfully, the owners of this house had the foresight to install a well.
• The beach communities like where I am have poor internet service — very slow and extremely expensive because there is no hardwired service. It’s not quite as bad as in Canada because customer service is really good and there are few outages, but the speed and price are unacceptable for this country.
• The power grid is extremely fragile.

Which brings me to today. We lost power at 7PM last night and, of course, the emergency line wasn’t working (overwhelmed by the situation in the earthquake zone or just useless? I’ve never been able to reach anyone with it.).

Since it is impossible to be comfortable in this house without AC, my first instinct was to bug out for the day, but it is extremely expensive for me to drive back and forth to Mérida. I hadn’t scheduled a trip for today and wouldn’t have been able to maximize my trip, plus I wouldn’t have had time to do today everything I planned to do tomorrow on top of my work. So I made the decision to stay put and swelter (there isn’t any patio furniture suitable for doing transcription so working on the terrace is out of the question).

I called the power office in Progreso when they opened at eight and, unlike last time, I got a helpful person who didn’t hang up on me. It took a bit of effort because she was using technical terms I didn’t know, but after a bit of back and forth and my running out to get a few of my neighbours’ metres, she was finally able to confirm that there was a total outage in my immediate area and promised me service at some point today.

CFE Peninsular later reached out to me on Twitter to let me know that they were dispatching crews and to confirm that the issue was my entire block, not just my house (ie. not just an issue with the so-called “smart” metre that is actually super dumb). I had to trek out to a neighbour with an analogue metre and confirm that it wasn’t getting any power either before they agreed to escalate the issue since it wasn’t just the house here. Power finally returned around 10:15.

My vocabulary for dealing with such matters is super lacking, but, thankfully, I’m good at describing things and Mexicans are generally patient enough to do the same if I don’t understand a key word. For example, the woman in Progeso was talking about my neighbours’ something and I could not understand what she meant. It was only when she said, “the equipment that gives your house power!” that I realised she meant the metre!  I just went to Translate and with a bit of work found that she was using the word “medidor” — measurer. I have successfully heard and used “contador” — counter, which his a literal translation from the French compteur — but medidor was a definitely a new word. If I had taken two seconds to sound it out and write it out, I would have come to the verb medir — to measure — on my own and made the connection, but at any rate, we finally got there and I have power!

Folks who haven’t been following me for a while might find me a bit ridiculous. Oh, what’s a day without power (which also means no water and internet), toughen up, bla bla bla. Those who have followed me for a while know that I’m very good at living without power, water, and other utilities when I’ve planned for it. But that’s not where I am in my life right now. My growing business demands that I live somewhere with infrastructure stability, which had a big part to play in my choosing where I was going to move. Frankly, this is the level of service that I’d expect in a poorer or more remote part of Mexico, certainly not a bustling suburb of a sizeable and important community in the rich state of Yucatán.

Progreso really is a dream retirement destination for some folks I’ve met and they are not bothered by the service deficiencies because they have other, more important, needs that are met by living here. I’m just thankful to have had the chance to try out beach life before committing to living in Mérida. I’m so grateful to my hosts for having given me this incredible gift of time to try out life up here so that I could rent in what should be exactly the right area for me. Because Mérida is not without problems either, but my neighbourhood appears to be well out of the parts of town that are constantly dealing with flooding and other issues…

Back to work I go. I took some time this morning to pack a few kitchen boxes and to make an appointment to go look at some turquoise shelving units tomorrow morning. Things continue to fall into place!