July 29th, 2007

Photo: Tecajetes Playground

Sunday

We were already so tired of looking in all the wrong places! We had found really bad homes, or really nice ones that just did not suit us in one way or another... that is until the wonderful orange house up-the-street that Margarita had shown us Saturday morning!
We were both in love with that house and started studying how life would be driving every morning to Coatepec. Although it is only a 15 minute drive, it still is a commute that made us uneasy since we had never seen the amount of traffic that might be driving at that time during school days. We were going to put up with it, though, because the house was the best fit we had seen so far. Yes, it was right in downtown Xalapa, but that made it close to many things which we were already very familiar with!
In adjusting to our life in México, we also had to scout grocery stores, markets, etc. This morning we were going to visit "Comercial Mexicana", a store I used to go to when I lived in both Monterrey and Mexico City. It was rather far (in Xalapa scale), so we decided to break-up the trip and treat the boys to something different: we took them to one of Xalapa's famous urban parks: Tecajetes.
Tecajetes is no less than amazing. It is set near the perimeter of downtown Xalapa, on one of the hills. Set in the middle of the city and surrounded by high to medium density neighborhoods, the park rises in its entire splendor as more than an Oasis. It has been carefully landscaped with what seems to be nothing but native plants and trees. Cobbled trails twine through lush gardens, fountains, ponds with wildlife, playgrounds, skateboarding rinks, soccer courts and even an outdoor theater. The park is magnificent, and being in it is quite an experience. The forest is so lush that you forget that you are in the middle of the city. The jungle gyms really are in the middle of the jungle and the slopes densely forested easily buffer any automotive sound that might want to filter into the serenity of Tecajetes.
We probably spent close to two hours walking around, watching the boys try every single play structure and checking out the many ponds filled with fish and turtles the size of basketballs. Then we slowly made our way back to the entrance gate on the cobbled paths enjoying the many fountains and the one or two friendly soccer games in the courts.
And, of course, we couldn't leave without buying a drink from one of the many street vendors that congregate at the entrance of the park, patiently waiting for the Sunday clientele to leave hungry or thirsty. I treated the boys to a classic: a Boing triangle. "Boing" is a brand of fruit drinks (more sugar than juice, of course) that has been in México forever. Their drinks are flavored with juices of fruits like mango, tamarind, guava, etc. and they come in cardboard containers (like juice boxes) but shaped as a pyramid. The boys have a new favorite: mango Boing!
Going to the supermarket in Mexico has always been quite the experience, it's almost like a mix of a US supermarket with a little bit of farmers market charm. Again, the cleanliness isY optional. In the US I really miss some of the more Mexican foods, veggies and fruits. Now I know I will not miss American stuff here! Have stores changed in the past few years. The amount of imported stuff is staggering; there are almost more imported groceries on the shelves than Mexican brands! And the prices are very much imported, too! I will usually head for the brands I grew up with, and they usually will be the better value brands, but not always. I find it really frustrating that prices are getting very close to US prices in many items! Meats are still much cheaper than the US: chicken is less than 2dlls a pound for skinless, boneless. Peaches, though, are imported from Alabama (yeah, US) and they are over 1dll a pound. OK, it is still cheaper to buy food in Mexico, but inflation is making it really hard for people in Mexico to catch up with the prices!
So after finding food for the week, and very high prices in some of the furniture pieces we would need to get to semi-furnish whatever home we would end up in... we headed home, to rest!

July 28th, 2007

Saturday
Kiwi adores his three to four times a day walks down the street to his park. He loves saying Hi to all the neighbors who might be around. He very much enjoys stepping into the Tailor Parlor a few houses down and wagging his happy tail at the old tailor that opens shop as early as 6:30 a.m. Then he leisurely sniffs every single smell on the sidewalk until he gets to the "callejón" (alley). He might leave a little puddle on the weeds and grass that grow between the cobblestones on the alley, or he might just pull the leash across the street to the little grassy park, and then do his stuff. Then he will cross to the other sidewalk and walk back, checking for Romeo (the old Fox Terrier) at the Silver Jewelry store. Then it is off to have "La Beba" (the over-protective toy black French Poodle) at the house next to Romeo's bark at him. He loves to make her bark, and then they smell each other through the mesh on her window. Finally, he heads home and runs up the stairs in 3 seconds flat... Not today.
He had been having diarrhea for a couple of days now. He is a small dog, so I was getting worried about dehydration. He got out of bed, walked slowly down the stairs, made it to the park (bypassing the alley), did his stuff in an almost painful way, and then fell from the sidewalk. I initially thought he had missed the step, but when we got home he could not make his back legs go over the steps.
He looked sad and in pain. He still ate, but his back was arched and his little tail would not wag, at all! I was terrified, even Jevon was terrified. Kiwi had never been sick, and he did not look good.
We had our appointment to see the house at the top of the street at 10 a.m. The Veterinary down the street, that Roy recommended, did not open until 10. Kiwi was curled up shivering, having spasms of pain.
We left the boys to watch Kiwi while we went to our appointment with Margarita, the lady from SiiX that was going to show us the house. Needless to say, looking at the house was not high in my priority list, but it had to be done, the Vet was not open, anyway.
Margarita was already there when we got to the top of the street. She is a very nice and sweet woman with not one bone of Real- Estate broker in her. She is just plain nice. She had her daughter with her, and I wished I had brought Armando along so he could meet another kids his age.
Margarita opened a section of the garage door that was scaled for people and showed us in the single car garage. She explained that there was a very curious thing in the garage, that the owners had built a full size bathroom right there. Yes, that was weird. Then we went upstairs, being that the one car garage and the bathroom are the only things in that first level. The house occupies the whole second floor of what probably was a huge house. The master bedroom has a balcony to the street and the living room has one big arch window also to the street, the rest of the windows are open to light wells with skylights illuminating all the way down to the first floor house (right under us). The floors were immaculate, with wonderful red tiles inlayed with hand painted blue tiles. There were carved wood columns here and there and a nicely sized kitchen. The best thing was the huge rooftop! A huge flat area that could easily be converted into a roof garden (oh, and fully fenced so that little boys or little dogs didn't do base jumping from the roof).
We were still not sure about living in Xalapa, so Margarita promised to show us a house she had for rent in Coatepec in the afternoon.
I ran back home, called the Vet, and was told that she could not see Kiwi until Tuesday!
I had walked into another veterinary clinic on one of our walks, it was on one of the lower streets, so I went to it to see if the Vet was available to check on Kiwi. The Vet was in; right away she recalled Kiwi and told me to bring him in right away.
Dr. Liliana is very young, but she really loves and cares about animals. Between her and her business partner, Dr. Mireya, they run a very clean, small and friendly animal clinic.
She right away checked Kiwi, while her 15 month old daughter roamed around the clinic on her little walker. Talk about growing up in the family business!
To make a long story short, she found that Kiwi had intestinal parasites. It was amazing to see her doing even the lab work, and showing me, under the microscope, the results of Kiwi's labs! Yes, he had worms. She skillfully shoved a de-worming medicine in his mouth and then we wrestled him to get a few other medicines injected (pain medicine). For such a little guy, he is a fighter. It took two vets to be able to get two shots in Kiwi! But, three shots, one pill, three prescriptions medicines, full labs, $20dlls and two hours later, Kiwi was again wagging his tail.
Later we drove to Coatepec, looked for the address Margarita had given us and studied the neighborhood while we waited for her to show. The neighborhood was a couple of blocks off downtown Coatepec, with some charming streets filled with colonial architecture. The house was small, not very charming, but practical. The really big down side: location. The street it is located at is the main entrance to the Town from a freeway. The amount of buses going uphill made Xalapa rush-hour traffic look minimum! And the fumes! The Diesel was already making us sick in the few minutes we spent inside...

July 27, Friday
Early morning, we decided to take the kids to the Museum of Transport, finally! It was very early and it was pretty empty. There isn't much information at the entrance, just a sign that reads: entrance $5 (pesos). We paid and walked in the gate. There was a big group of kids doing some kind of stretching guided by what seemed to be either a teacher or a camp counselor.
Our boys were very unimpressed by the antique locomotive or the WWII fighter plane; they headed right for the inflatable playground. The old trucks, tanks, etc. might be impressive, but not for our children. And, although it cost us $10 (pesos) for each kid to jump on the inflatable
"Titanic", it was well worth the amount of energy they got to burn there! We also braved the "Little Teacups"! Safety, again, is optional in Mexico. The Teacup's restraints stay only if you hold them tight and you stay in your seat purely because of the centrifugal force! And boy, do they turn fast! The boys had the time of their life, me... I was glad it was over.
We checked Coatepec one more time, just in case... Then we went back to Xalapa to visit another Real Estate office.
We had seen a few offerings from a company called Leru, so we drove to their office. They were nice and seemed to know Aurora, the principal of the school. They right away showed us four properties that they thought would fill our needs, one in Coatepec, the others in a residential area near the old freeway (windy little road) to Coatepec. We made an appointment to see them for the next day, but decided to check them out from the outside first.
Glad we did, two of them we couldn't even find because of how complicated it was to get to them. One was way too expensive for what it was (a brand new side by side in Coatepec). The fourth one was in a very run down neighborhood and was pretty homely. So we just called Leru and said thank you but no thank you.
Running out of options, we finally noticed a "for rent" sign on Roy's street. It had been there, on a second floor balcony on a wonderfully orange colonial house at the top of the street. We had not paid much attention to it because, at first glance, it looks like a huge home with three wood garage doors. Then I looked closer and saw that each garage door had a different street number.
We gave SiiX, the real-estate company offering it, a call. The woman that answered was very helpful and gladly offered to show the house to us the next day.

July 26th, 2007

Photo: Steps of Xallitic, near Dr. Lucio.

Thursday
We had looked at some very promising ads in the newspaper on Sunday, so we drove to an area of downtown were there was a nice penthouse available. It was opposite the Main Plaza of where Roy's place is.
The area was very crowded, about three blocks from the big Jauregui Market (one of the big produce and product markets). The building is about one block from where the crowds end, but it is still close. It is a new building with offices and retail on the front, and three amazing apartments on the back. Remote control gate for the parking lot, metal and concrete details, and simple but nice landscaping make it very inviting, not to mention the really great modern lines that the buildings has.
Luckily the caretaker was there and he let us in to check out the apartment for rent- the penthouse had already been rented out-. The apartment was small, but it was outstanding. The design was so well done that every room was delightful. It had a beautiful wood inlayed floor, a little balcony, two nicely sized bedrooms and one and a half bathrooms. Yes, it was small, but the really good architecture made it worth it! It also had amazing views to a small colonial church that neighbored to the back of the building.
We all but fell in love with the apartment, the four of us- five if we count Kiwi-. Even the caretaker was exited about having us live there, since he had just arrived from working in Chicago. He said he never had had the time to learn English, but that he wanted to learn for when he went back North to work.
We walked to the real-estate offices that offered the Dr. Lucio (the street it is located at) apartment for rent... and then we got the bad news.
In Mexico, or maybe just in Xalapa, you can only rent if someone who owns real-estate in the city cosigns the rental agreement. Yolanda, from Ecomanía, had mentioned something, but since she is very accustomed to dealing with International costumers, she makes different types of rental agreements. Sepromex, the company that was renting out the Dr. Lucio apartment, could care less if we were the Queen and King of Spain: we needed a co-signer who owned real-estate in Xalapa... Good luck!
After being so rudely awakened to our ever slimmer possibilities of renting a place in Xalapa, we set out to find another Real-Estate company that we hoped was a little less... square. We also started doing more leg-work.
That day, both Jevon and I, walked the area around Roy's (mainly downtown) and the Parque Los Berros (the park we love to walk to) area. Jevon found a quirky "tin" penthouse (furnished) on the end of a narrow, little street. The down side: no garage. Every one parked their cars on the street which was just one lane, so it became a parking lot with no exit (since it was a dead-end street)... so good luck driving out when you needed to. The upsides: furnished, and the owner had a grandson about Diego's age (7) living in another one of the apartments.
I went another route and found a very cool house made out of brick (in Mexico they are really made out of brick, not just covered to look like brick). Kiwi and I had been walking and found some stairs, so we went down hill. There are so many hills in Xalapa, that some streets just suddenly end and there are stairs for people to go to another lower area. The stairs are usually adorned as little parks and little chapels, so it is always a pleasure to explore these steps.
I thought the house was a double, but later on we found out it was one house and it had been rented to one of the Universities to house some offices. It probably was not ready to be used as a home. We also realized that the dead-end street also housed two major schools (a technical and a junior-high) which made the traffic little more than impossible...
Kiwi and I also saw a very charming town home not very far from the brick office house. It looked very colonial, small with a one car garage enclosed with rod iron gates. It looked very pretty, decorated with hand painted white and blue tiles. Down-side: half a block from the two big schools, and... I had not noticed the urban bus traffic: lovely diesel fumes all day long on an uphill road! Up-side: it is located on a historic road called "El Callejón de la Calavera" (The Skeleton Alley) and it has very colorful stories behind the name: one, that a woman killed her husband and buried him there, they later just found a skeleton when they were digging to build a home. The other one says that it was a favorite place for a famous Mexican Revolutionary General to execute prisoners with a firing squad...

July 25th, 2007

Wednesday
And so started our seemingly endless search for the perfect house. We knew that the Blue House was too big, but it still was extremely charming and in the middle of great forests. Still we didn't know enough of the area, and we had not seen enough of whatever the rental stock had to offer.
We didn't call Yolanda right away; instead we decided to look a little bit more in the all areas to have a better sense of what was available. On some level, the remote area that the Blue House was at (Zoncuanlta), although charming, made me nervous. It rains a lot, there is no pavement, there are not too many lights and some roads are almost vertical...
Coatepec had little to offer. Our first find was one newly finished house, small but nice, with the yard the size of a closet and a 4 meter tall wall separating it from a chicken farm with about 10,000 heads of poultry clucking all day long... Oh, and the street, again, was not paved, or leveled. Of course, the nice gentleman that was offering the house to us promised the chickens were going to disappear in the next three months... yeah, right!
Another unfortunate find was a wonderfully charming duplex. Very colonial and with a nice façade... Then "El Orejón" (The Big Eared One) showed up. He did not stop barking for more than 1 minute with that hound bark that borders on a howl that Basset Hounds have! Hey, we love dogs, we just don't love dogs that roam free barking around and their owner is oblivious! As for the inside of the Duplex, it definitively could use some love. It was very simple and on the small side, but it was not very clean and needed much up-keep. Somehow light bulbs dangling out of the ceiling and Winnie the Pooh semi ripped borders don't add much to the charm of a place.
We decided to give Coatepec a rest and look around in Xalapa. The drive is 15 minutes, at the most!

July 24th, 2007

Photo: Helioconda Guacamaya in it's natural habitat!

Tuesday
The meeting with Yolanda from Ecomania couldn't come quick enough! We were very anxious to see the blue house she had to show us in the La Pitaya area.
Yolanda is another amazing woman. She is very friendly, knows a lot of people and places. She decided to start Ecomania when she grew tired of following her son and husband to their extreme sports outings, but had fallen in love with the nature wonders of the Coatepec area.
She surprised us with the news that there was another house for rent in the same area, and she would show both houses to us. She took us to the new road (old freeway) we had driven on the day before. She showed us the entrance to a very nice bilingual school, you could barely see the school from the road, but it looked like a summer camp with cabins more than a school.
Then she turned on a cobble stone road (one wide lane for a two way road) that would take us to Zoncuantla, the neighborhood the houses were located in. The road soon became a dirt road, a not very even dirt road. Yolanda explained that most of the neighbors preferred to keep it like that because it slowed down trafficY no kidding! We stopped a couple of times on the side of the road to let cars, coming the other way, pass. After a few bumpy minutes, we turned on Second Street. Second Street is unpaved, but it does have a name sign! Oh, and second street is one block with four homes on it, one of them the blue house we were going to look at.
I have to say that the deep forest green of the abundant vegetation really sets off the bright blue the house is painted with. The house was beautiful, with amazing wood details throughout and a small but cute yard. There was even a room that had been the studio of the ceramic artist that used to live there that was ready for a gas kiln and had plenty of shelves for drying ceramic. The boys loved the house, Jevon and I liked, but it seemed really big! Even so, we liked it enough to consider it as a very solid possibility. The boys did not like the outside, though; it was too buggy! My boys did not enjoy the amount of insect life that was resting their wings on the bright blue stucco walls.
The next house was on the corner of Second Street. Yolanda called it a rustic house and she explained that it had been built by a laudero (artisan that makes string musical instruments). The wood doors and some shutters had details that looked like violins. There were wood details that looked very hand made. It was a big cabin with a big traditional, antique kitchen (the stove looked 100 years old), and a huge garden. The yard had a natural well with stone walls and covered by a piece of plywood. At the far end grew huge trees, one of them a Macadamia tree. I had no idea that they even grew in Mexico, but I guess we could easily have the bys collect enough Macadamia nuts to send to our friends in the US. I think this house was a little too rustic and quite musky to be anyone's favorite.
Yolanda drove us back to Coatepec and we promised to give her a call later on with any decision we might make.
We drove around Coatepec for a little while more, and then drove back to the blue house, to see if we could actually get back there on our own. The area is unmapped; it doesn't exist in any map! We did find our way back to the Blue House, and even drove around some more, staring in awe at the huge homes built by artists (both Mexican and International) in the heavily wooded neighborhood. Zoncuantla is more a spread of forest with a mix of very poor homes made out of brick and enormous country homes built by the rich. Very interesting mix, in very uneven, rocky roads!