Casa Update 26

Friends,

Well, I said that I would not get so far behind again. But I did it anyway. We have been settling back into watching the world economy crash. The news from up north has as you all know been very depressing. The only good news about it is the decline of the Peso. It is now trading at 15:1. That cuts our living expenses down here by 30%. I now wish that all of our expenses were in Pesos but we still go to the US to shop and pay the AT&T and DirecTV bill in dollars. I figure that our cost of living has dropped by 20% with the new exchange rate. We are starting to shop more and more down here as we find new places that we did not know existed. We found a bakery that sells the best apple fritters I have ever had. They were huge and two of them cost $22 Pesos. We will be going to Mexicali to get tires for the Tacoma next week. Our contractor just put 4 new tires on his truck from Costco for $6,200 Pesos. That works out to $413 Dollars. I will price the same tire at the Costco in El Centro on our next trip there.

We are both doing fine on the health front. Regina's Corn is still healing slowly and my headache is diminishing. I will have to go back to Mexicali and get a follow-up MRI soon. Thinking of doing that when we go to get tires. That way we can do our entire shopping trip in Mexicali instead of El Centro. With Mexicali's streets being "all tore up", we have been finding a few more places to shop there. So far we have found two Dairy Queens, Smart and Final, and two Office Depots. They have all of the US fast food places but we never expected to find a Dairy Queen!

As you know Mexican economy follows the US but with more devastating results. There is no welfare here, no unemployment insurance, no social security. So when the US economy tanks, the Mexican economy follows. We have a lot of charitable groups operating down here, including both the Rotary and the Lions. Both put on fund raiser events to help the Mexican population. Like I have already said, please go to http://www.sanfelipe.com.mx/ and see all of the work that they are doing. One of the events done by ZAPP (the spay and neutering clinic folks) was a second annual female impersonator show. This years show was called "Gospel Brunch." I have included two pictures out of the dozens that Regina took. We filled the meeting room at the Pavilion with over 250 people. It was a great show (though a little racy at times). The Blues and Art festival follows when Leslie is here but I'm getting ahead of myself.

We have been trying to continue to decorate the house. Regina has gotten a few additions to the kitchen and I have included pictures. It is really difficult to place plates and vases on top of the kitchen cabinets. The crown molding that is on top is almost five inches tall. We have to raise anything we put up there by at least four inches for them to be displayed properly. This has lead to a lot of creative use of Styrofoam and re-bar.

The start of Lent here is proceeded by three days of "Carnival." Very festive occasion with parades and partying all three days. We went to the first parade on Saturday and Regina got a few pictures before the camera battery died. The parade was supposed to start at 3:30. Everyone told us that we should expect it to really start around 6:00 as it had done in years past. Looks like they had a better team organizing the parade as it actually started about 4:15. We got good seats at the Taco Factory Restaurant and watched the parade with nachos and margaritas with friends. The nacho plate ended up being so huge we only snacked for dinner.

I finally got my work permit stamped into my FM3 the third week of January. I am now legal to work in Mexico. Got my business cards printed, got a stamp for my receipts and a few refrigerator magnets for select clients. Business has been slow but starting to pick up. I bought a new desk for the office. We ended up the Staples in El Centro after not seeing anything at both Office Depots in Mexicali. I have included a picture of it. I am still trying to get all of the computers organized. Down to three boxes of stuff. I hope to be up and fully in business by the end of March. Have been meeting with my accountant every month. He speaks excellent English and knows all of the ins and outs of doing business in Mexico. Great find and he has given me so many tips that I don't think that will turn a profit till sometime in 2013.

Regina continues to play Pickle Ball three time a week. Water Volley ball and the pool has been sporadic with the cool weather making it too chilling. I have been relegated to Line Judge for now. Hope to get back into it when the Doctor says so.

We are both members of S.A.F.E, sort of a neighborhood watch group. We perform checks on houses when the owners have gone on vacation or back to the US/Canada. We go out a few times a month for four hours and put on 35-40 miles of driving all over the Ranch. It is hard to believe that when built out the Ranch will be a rectangle five miles by nine miles. So far we are only concerned with a square about five by five miles. I don't want to even go into how many miles of streets we have here.

We are starting to meet a lot of our part time neighbors and we now finally have a full time neighbor (forgot their names) other than ourselves! They are on block 55 and will be getting together with them soon. First let me try to describe our community of Buena Vista. Our community consists of a main East-West road that is about three miles long. Off of the main road are 60 blocks of cull-de-sacs containing about fifteen lots each. The even blocks are on the left and odd are on the right. I would like to give you street names but first, I cannot pronounce any of them and second, numbers are easier to visualize. We have met Tom and Nancy of San Francisco who are building a house at the end of our block, Gordy and son Rick from Tahoe who has a house across from us on block 32. Others building are Nancy and Richard from Redding California (Block 27), Gardenia and Steve from Belmont California (Block 41), Steve and Daisy Ann from the Sacramento area (Block 45) , Marie and Jerry from Pleasanton California (Block 47), Roy and Sylvia from Elk Grove California (Block 13), Cliff and Karen from the LA area (Block 24), and Craig and Carol from Danville California (Block 24). All of them except Ron and Sylvia are within walking distance.

Leslie is going to come down for a week of her Spring Break on March 24th, although she said that she will not be "breaking" but working. She has her candidacy exams in May so she plans on a lot of uninterrupted studying. And this is a great place for that! We are planning on attending the Blues and Arts Festival and maybe a trip to Puertocitos while she is here. Pictures will follow in the next update.

I have been asked to start a blog to update everyone. I don't want to get an account on facebook, twitter or anything like that, too complicated for everyone. Maybe something easy where anyone can read it without any login stuff. Let me know and I'll look into it if there is enough interest.

This has been a laid back few months. Watching the US economy crash has been distressful but if you are going to receive bad news, this is probably the best place on earth to receive it.

Hasta Luego,


Larry and Regina


Larry gets back on his soapbox: DO NOT believe all that the US press is saying about the violence in Mexico. It is not everywhere, it is all happening in the border towns primarily used for smuggling drugs. I would recommend that you stay away from Tijuana, Nogales and Juarez. That is where the drug lords are fighting each other and the government. Mexicali is a minor smuggling point and San Felipe (is at the end of a 120 mile road with only one way out and criminals know this and know that it would be totally stupid to try to gun and run from here) is safer than any city we have EVER lived in. Larry gets back off the soapbox again.....

Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/LarEWill50/Casa19?authkey=Gv1sRgCIjW8JG_1ZGk_wE&feat=directlink