I managed to get hold of my landlady on Isla a few minutes ago (on the first try!) and confirmed that I can arrive early. I had talked about coming for November 25th, but now I want to be there November 1st. No problem, the house will be ready for me and I should have TelMex internet for the 3rd, which is going to be my first work day in Mexico. Worst case scenario, I’ll have time to get the booster antenna on the roof to get a reliable TelCel signal to tide me over till the hard wired internet kicks in.
I learned last year that my landlady doesn’t communicate well, possibly a Mexican trait. The attitude is, I’ve got the information and there’s no need to discuss it again unless anything changes. I nearly drove myself batty last year trying to get hold of her as I got closer to Mexico to confirm that I was coming and that the house would be ready. Now I know that she was thinking, “OMG, how many times does she have to tell me this?!” So on this call, I told her that I would not be calling again unless my date of arrival changed and that if anything changed for her, she could Facebook me. So for me, this is done. I’m arriving the 1st of November and the house will be ready.
The other big news is that I’ve decided not to take time off the new job to get to Isla. I’m trying to put off taking any vacation time until I’m feeling a bit more secure in the position and am ready to take a proper vacation. It would be nice in January to take a week, or maybe even two!, and go to a resort or something and be pampered a bit. Flights within Mexico are super cheap, so I could maybe even fly somewhere like the Yucatán to explore ancient ruins or fly to another city I could easily drive to from Canada to explore housing options for my third Mexican winter.
So the plan is to drive down to Isla in two chunks. I will finish work at 4PM on Thursday October 22nd and spend the evening finishing the packing of the truck and closing up the inside of Miranda. I’ll be up at first light on Friday the 23rd to close up the property and take off by 7AM to get to the border when it opens at 8AM.
Once I’m across, I’m going to drive till I drop and repeat on Saturday and Sunday to get to Nogales, AZ, by noonish on Monday the 26th. This will give me time on the Monday to get pesos, Mexican vehicle insurance, and do a Walmart run (I promised friends I’d arrive loaded down with kitty litter!).
I’ll then work my Tuesday through Thursday shifts, which will help me recoup a bit of energy from the mad dash down. I’ll then take off for the Mexican border super early on the Friday to arrive in San Carlos by early afternoon, like I did last year. Then drive partway to Culiacán Saturday, and then get to Isla around 2PM on Sunday. This gives me Monday to breathe and work on the booster.
WHEW! Of course, this doesn’t give me much leeway if I’m delayed for any reason, but I can of course stop sooner than Nogales to work if I need to and I know I could get to Isla in two days rather than two and a half if I wanted to now that I know the route. I could go from the border to Navojoa and then from Navojoa straight to Isla, for example. It really makes a difference that I’m not going into the unknown this time around.
So if you’re looking at your calendars, I’m already talking about leaving in terms of two months and a few weeks. The summer is going by really quickly!
It’s a plan! Yes, you can always stop earlier than Nogales if you have to. All you need is a cheap hotel with good Internet and Rae’s Office is open for business! It is a good plan!
And what’s especially nice about this job is I really don’t need a proper desk. If I wanted to be a masochist, I could pay $60 for my US SIM card with unlimited internet and just sit in my truck in a parking lot for three days and work from there. But if I’m still doing this job at that point, I’ll be able to afford a hotel room with, you know, a bathroom and fridge/microwave, so why suffer? 😉
I can already see myself pull into Isla, the house not being ready because the landlady’s always at the last minute, walking over to advise her that I’m there, and strolling down to a beach-side restaurant for a beer, then on to Miguel’s for dinner. No stress, no culture shock, no bewilderment like last year when I didn’t know where to get food. And I bet I’ll be in Maz Monday, making a jaunt to the GZ for coffee. It’ll be so nice to hit the ground running this year!
You might consider preordering pesos from your bank – it isn’t much different in exchange than withdrawing them locally. That might save you some time 🙂 I did this on our last trip to Mexico – plus if you have any left when you leave you can sell them back to them.
I am considering doing that, but I don’t like the idea of traveling with a lot of cash.
Seems that we are on almost the same schedule. We plan to leave here October 22nd and arrive on the Isla on November 2nd and stay for a full 5months. However things are always subject to change.
I’m staying the six months again. I’ll be crossing over a few days earlier than last year, so I’ll probably only be able to stay on Isla till the 20th or so of April; still worth paying for the sixth month of rent.
This is starting to feel to me like school days–what do you mean summer is almost over already?!!! It just started!
I really like the idea of being ready to hit the ground running, though. Going back to places you’ve been before can be very comforting.
I had the same thought, LOL!
There are two reasons I want to go back to Maz this winter:
1) I only really mastered the city very near my stay. I’d like to see what it’s like to spend six months there where not everything is new and exciting and I know where everything is off the bat.
2) Going back to the same place will mean I can do a lot of budget forecasting knowing that I won’t have too many surprises. For example, I know I’m going to get hit with power bills at the end, so I can decide to just pay a little extra with the rent each month. I’ve only just in the last six months really gotten back on solid financial footing and going into the known will help me to not derail my efforts.
Rae are thinking of using a booster with a Telcel stick or banda ancha? Have you tried it? I’m asking because I tried it here in SMA. I took the booster back and got a refund. The guy told me it wouldn’t work because the signal has to come from a router nearby. Let me know because I had zero luck with the booster being close to a router as well. It helped but i wouldn’t call it a great signal.
As for the landlady, I think it’s more of “it’s just another rental” than a communication issue. Mexicans are pretty good communicators but unless it’s really big bucks how much time is she going to put into it?
Chris, I did this last year. The set up is exactly like it is here in Canada. I put a TelCel SIM card in my iPhone and buy banda ancha, then use my iPhone as a hot spot. But there’s no signal in my casita, just like at home, so I put up my Yagi antenna on the clothesline and then the cable runs into the house (they even put a hole through the wall for the cable!) where the cable connects to my Wilson DT4G booster. It worked moderately well on Isla, but I really didn’t make much of an effort to put up the antenna particularly well. This year, I’m going to bring what I think I’ll need to roof mount and get the landlady’s husband to help me set it up properly so I can get a more reliable signal. I’m going to be even more in need of a backup internet source this winter than I was last year, so I really want the TelCel up and running in addition to TelMex.
You’d think that two years’ straight of six months of income on a house that was essentially sitting empty for two years would be worth returning phone calls or Facebook messages, but it’s not… I’m not angry or annoyed because I know her now and she’s a good landlady who gets repairs done and is flexible with when I pay the rent. I’ve just had to learn her style of communication.