Thursday, January 14, 2010

Zacatecas - Settling in, Trials and Tribulations

For those who are reading me for the first time, I better give a lot of background.

When I moved down here in Sept 2008, it was to a small house, the third floor of which was part of the hostel I had stayed in during my look see trip.

It was fine for one person and centrally located within an easy walk to anything that interested me. All utilities and maid and maintenance service were included at a very low (compared to the US) rent. The drawback was that during holidays and weekends it got pretty noisy and stayed noisy till very late.

Well, when Cristy agreed to move to Zacatecas, it was obvious my little place wouldn't do. Off and on over 3 months we looked for a place. Everything was either way too expensive or way too grubby or just too small. Then we saw the place we're in now.

My future landlord had built a small house over an arcade at the back of his patio and planned on renting it as an executive apartment. That really wasn't working; it had been occupied only 2 weeks out of 3 months. We talked and came to an agreement on rent and details that needed to be taken care of. He has been very cooperative about fixing things that aren't working quite right and making enhancements to suit our needs. Really, we're in a sort of rough luxury at about a third to a quarter of what it would cost in the US. It's comfortable, new and modern, but it's still Mexico.
No central heat. I have a couple of gas space heaters I bought last year.
Gas has to be delivered by pulling a hose 50ft. from the truck into his patio.

Drinking water is delivered in 20 liter jugs.


Shortly before leaving for vacation in December, I canceled the cable and internet because they had taken 31 days to get me installed and had screwed up my account royally. Two days before vacation, I signed up for phone and Internet with the phone company, bad move, you have to be around when they want to come. And, I signed up with the equivalent of Dish Network for TV.


Yesterday, they finally got my dish TV working.


Today, I got online and found out that the phone company's records show our phone and Internet being installed on Jan 4. Hell, there aren't even any phone wires coming into the house.


I turned around, smiled at Cristy, she smiled back and we broke out laughing.


It had to happen!


Part of the problem is we're well hidden. We only have cell phones. Companies:

A) Won't call ahead of time.

B) Won't call cell phones.

C) both of the above


Maybe I'm getting acclimatized.

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