Nick
Feb 12, 2004, 6:44 PM
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I am depressed.The wife and I left for the Guadalajara area in the middle of December and returned this last Friday (January 9th). This was my ninth or tenth year of the annual trek to "Mi Esposa's" homeland. We have been working on our land for most of that time and this year finished the wall that surrounds the area and protects our home (Thanks Rolly for your suggestions on how to protect ourselves with worker insurance). Many costs seemed to be increased from last year. Toll roads, although still worth the cost considering some alternatives, are up. Gas has increased from last year. Labor costs in our remote area has increased somewhat, and for the first time I ran into a Mexican Citizen who would not serve us because of my nationality (believe me, my wife took care of that attitude and when we returned to the shopping area the next few weeks he was not around). The weather was unseasonably cold and our usual travelling to vacation spots was curtailed.
However, it was still worth the trip.... We have the wall around our property. We put in a new water line that delivers the municipal water every other day (one week it was off for five days). Our family adopted (and tried to get us to leave) Pecos, our Queensland Heeler. The tranmission went out on our truck when I was in the middle of Guadalaraja and was probably the only English speaking person in the area. When two workers saw my difficulty they pushed me to the curb and wishing me well. After trying to wave down a couple of traffic officers (no doubt the rudest public servants on earth) who ignored me, a patrol officer from Guadalajara patroling on a dirt type motorcycle came by and checked me out. Instead of leaving me stranded, he indicated he would watch my vehicle while I took a taxi to where my wife was so her family could arrange for a tow and mechanic. When I returned, he was still there and would not take anything for his assistance.... We had the transmission rebuilt for at least one thousand dollars less than it would have cost us here...
The drive down and back was as almost it usually is. This time however, the military check-points were more evident and more often, although those soldiers who contacted us were very friendly and joked with me about not speaking Spanish better than I did, being married to a Latina....
The border crossing took an hour and a half. After reaching the check station, the officer asked if we had Weapons of Mass Destruction (no we didn't) or if we had tobacco (ditto) and how much alchohol we had (four bottles). Well, at Nogales, only one bottle each is allowed. We spoke to another officer in lane #2 who asked the questions again. Telling her that I wasn't about to hide the information about the extra two bottles we thought we could bring across, she focused on our Queensland Heeler and that was the end of the inspection, except to an admonition that when crossing in Arizona, only one bottle each is allowed.... We were never asked about any records for the Heeler...
Depressed? Yep. Instead of being in Northern California, working part time for funds to head back in November or December, we should be in El Salto working at landscaping the "Rancho". One more short trip to finish up the inside of the Casa, then in 2006, no more coming back.... Oh! Teresa said to mention I lost twenty-five pounds eating the best food on the face of the Earth and putting in many more days of honest work than I do here...
The measure of a person is determined by the way he accepts responsibility for his actions.
(This post was edited by Nick on Feb 12, 2004, 7:05 PM)
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