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Alphabetically
There is nothing special about reporting events in alphabetical order other than that very order places a mask on an upside-down world. Like ending the Israeli-USA, (and others), led genocide. Power to all of those standing in solidariy with Palestine.
Long live Palestine.
A box
The box is called a U-box, but to fit the alphabetizing of this page, I am calling it a box. I discussed this with Victor and he agreed that to call it by it’s proper name would mess up the symmetry of the page. He then asked what symmetry meant. I looked it up.
The box arrived on Monday full of our belongs from Canada. Roughly, 30 boxes of books; 30 boxes of toys; 5 boxes household goods and 8 boxes of paper. A box of boxes that contained all that was precious to us. Especially the toys, the rest not so much.
A bit about the box and moving of goods
When we decided to move to Mexico, we had to decide what we would take and what we would leave behind. Most household goods could be left behind because we had duplicated many of these things in the house we rented year round in Mexico. What we hadn’t duplicated was our book collection, many of which we hadn’t read but we hung on to the idea that one day we might read them. Other items included sentimential stuff, like my grandmother’s wall hanging; my framed blues photos; Lucia’s boxes of papers from all the studying she had done over the years; and a list of other stuff too long to type out here. We had way too little for a truck, and way too much for Fedex.
Originally, I had sought estimates for 40 boxes of goods. The estimates I received ranged from $6,000 CAN, to $20,000 US. Each company had an assortment of requirements. One company offered to have their crew fly to Hamilton, rent a truck, drive the truck to the Mexican border, bribe the customs officials (They used the word “tip”!) and deliver the goods to our house. This was at the high end coming in at $20,000 US.
The best estimate we had was from a Canadian company coming in at about $6,000 CAN. The estimate left a number of things up to us, including arranging for a customs broker at the Mexican end, and paying additional fees to have the goods delivered from the border to our house in Mexico. There was no way of knowing the end cost.
There was another company that would look after everything, but we could never get the representative to answer our questions in a timely manner. My dad always talked about providing a service where the customer paid him for “no worries”. All I did with this company was wonder when they might answer me. This was something I did not want to experience when transporting our goods across two borders.
One day when I was picking up some boxes at a local U-Haul, I asked if they provided any service for an international move. To my delight, the girl said, “Yes.” but when she found out that the destination was Mexico, she said, “No.”. Mexico did not allow rental vehicles into the country.
It wasn’t until a subsequent visit to a different U-Haul location, that I noticed an oversized box outside the entrance to the store. It had a big sign promoting international shipping. In this store the guy assured me the U-box, service could be used to get my belongings to Mexico. Technically, the U-box was not a vehicle.
The U-box ended up being the most flexible service, not to mention, very competitive in pricing. It ended up costing $6,000 CAN, with no unknowns. We were assigned a customer service reprepsetative who promptly answered all our questions. The box got dropped at our house where we filled it. It was then picked up and returned to the U-Haul storage facility. While at the local U-Haul, we were able to add last minute items.
There was a bunch of paperwork we needed to provide. Once it was ready, we sent it to our U-Haul contact and gave the go ahead for the U-box to begin it’s journey to our house in Mexico.
Six weeks later and two border crossings, the box arrived in our house in Mexico. Everything is now sitting in our extra room waiting for the arrival of the custom bookcase we had built for the 30 boxes of books we may or may not read.
Victor has been reunited with his toys, in particular, all of his lego pieces that were absolutley necessary for his next creations.
A car
Buying a car in Mexico seems to be pretty much the same as buying a car in Canada, complete with questionable sales people and brilliant sales people.
A bit about the car purchase that wasn’t and then was
Lucia wanted an electric car. I wanted a car we could afford. Victor, as previously mentioned, wanted to be free from bus travel. In the end, we agreed that $20,000 CAN, (300,000 pesos) would be the budget. There was pressure to get this car soon because we were going to get a dog (if you can’t wait, skip to the next section). Lucia also wanted to start showing Victor and I all the wonderful places in Mexico. Not unsimilar to the time I took her to Niagra-on-the-Lake. Ah, our first overnight date. And, for those of you wondering, Victor came much later.
Back to the car. We set out to find a used car. Lucia wanted us to go to an established dealer. She did not trust outlets like “Chuck’s Used Cars, Good to Go – Trust Us”. She wanted reputable dealers. Dealers that we are told we can trust.
In Xalapa, all the big dealers are concentrated in one area. We started at JAC Xalapa, still dreaming of electric, and quickly moved across the street to Toyota where we found new Toyotas and used cars, all brands. While walking around the line of used cars, I came across a Nissan March. It was from 2018 had 28,000 km and only cost 210,000 pesos ($17,000 CAN at the time). It was Victor’s favorite colour, teal, and if you haven’t noticed, he is the artist. He is the one with the eyes.
An intriguing thing about the Nissan March is that it is widely used by taxi drivers. This suggested to me that it would be good on fuel and durable given the driving terrain in and around Xalapa, not to mention Mexico as a whole.
We found a member of the staff, took it for a drive and immediately declared that we wanted it. They needed a deposit of 5,000 pesos. We didn’t have enough cash. Why waste time with a deposit, we told them I could pay for the car with my credit card. They told us there would be a 2% surcharge. I hate paying unnecessary charges. We said we could use the credit card to put the 5,000 peso deposit to hold the car, and pay the balance in cash. The credit card wouldn’t work because the cashier was on break until four. Only cash would work for the deposit. We agreed that we would go across to the mall and get cash from the bank. The employee said he would hide the car till we got back.
Off we went. Lucia was giving the employee updates as they happened. We’re at the mall; my husband has gone to the bank; my husband is returning to the car; we are returning to your dealership; we’re at the dealership; we’re getting out of the car; we’re entering the waiting room; we’re sitting down.
As we sat down, the emplyee appeared, looking grim, “The car is sold.”
How could this be?
It turned out the employee that had been dealing with us, was not a salesperson. The salesperson had sold the car to a “regular” client who had managed to give him a deposit five mintues before us. They had the nerve to ask us if there was another car we might like to buy.
We were furious. We tried to get satisfaction by complaining to the manager of the dealership. The manager held firm.
We walked next door to Nissan and bought a brand new March Nissan for 278,000 pesos. It came with a 3 year guarantee, no miles, and one year of insurance. Lucia had a great time with the salesman. We came in on budget (almost), and Victor got his second favorite colour. The salesman, knowing we had just adopted a dog, went out and bought a cover for the back seat so Chiquita could travel in style. Two days later, she threw up all over the cover!
A dog
As previously reported in It’s a dog’s life, we fostered a husky. The fostering was short. After Buster left us, Lucia set about researching other options for fostering.
We visited a local animal shelter to see if we could find a doge as defined by Victor. For Victor a doge is a brown dog with pointy ears and a long snout. There were lots of dogs in cages, jumping and barking as we walked by, but none caught Victor’s eye and we ended up leaving empty handed.
Lucia then discovered GUAUdería in the Xalapa area. She gave them a call and arranged for us to go and visit. The next weekend, we rented a car and off we went. We past all the car dealers we were later to visit, turned down a dirt road with random numbering 12, 15, 40, 8, 32 and so on. We arrived at GUAUdería, pulled a cord that rang a litte bell. A man appeared and lead us through an office on to a porch that overlooked a luxurious spa for dogs. I’d never seen anything like it.
GUAUdería is run by Rafael, a dentist, and his partner, a vet. They have 70 dogs at anyone time, and Rafael, to my amazement, called every dog by name. The spa is their project. They staff it, manage it, finance it etc. all out of love of dogs.
We had to go through an interview process where the owners explained their approach to taking street dogs off the street and nurturing them. They explained that the dogs were their children, and they would expect visitation rights. Most of the interview was in spanish so I wasn’t entirely aware of what was being discussed. Part of the interview was geared to learn why we wanted a dog and what kind of dog.
After about an hour visit, we were invited to return the next week. Rafael would pick a dozen dogs or so that he felt matched the criteria we had provided in the first meeting. From those dogs, we would select three or four that we liked. Each dog would come and live with us for a week and from those visits we could pick the dog of Victor’s dreams. Long story short, Chiquita arrived on the back of a motorcycle, and after ten minutes in the house, she threw up, and we knew she was the one.
Part of the adoption agreement includes Rafael offering hotelling service, free of charge, should we go travelling and are unable to take Chiquita. The adoptees can even return the dog should they decide for some reason, that they no longer want the dog. The last thing Rafael wants to see is his children being abandoned to the street.
He explained to Lucia, “My dogs have everything they need here, except the individual attention every dog needs. Your family can give Chiquita that.”
A couple of side notes.
- While Victor identified Chiquita as a candidate, she picked us starting at our first visit.
- She seems to like Victor’s toys, finally giving him a reason to pick them up off the floor.
- Victor has taken on the responsiblity of feeding and walking the dog (with parental guidance of course).
- We need to work on upset tummy while travelling in a vehicle. She went on her second car trip with us today and did not throwup. Anytime if looked like she might throw up, we stopped the car and I walked with her for a while.
[…] each other. Ok, well I looked after Victor; he kept me on my toes; and Chiquita, (remember that new dog?) kept Victor clean. They are best of friends now. Inseparable, except when Victor is at […]