Cozumel diary

Filling the pool and shocking information!

2006-09-28T09:46:00.000-05:00

At last the day has arrived when we fill the pool.

We are planning to use the cenote style well water (free), the other options are to use city water or to bring in a tanker load of fresh water. My builder tells me many choose the tanker option as they hope to end up with a clean pool straight away. This is not the case – even the freshest of water sources will take on a cloudy or tainted look at first until it has been “shocked”.

Shocking is the name given to the process of cleaning and clarifying new or tainted water and is only done when the pool is first opened or when there is a severe problem. A well-kept pool should not need regular shocking.

The shocking process involves treating the pool to a large dose of a chemical mix. There are many types of chemicals available to shock and treat various pool cleanups on the market, we will be using chloro (chlorine) and clarificador (clarifyer) for our maintenance. Simply put, the chlorine keeps the pool fresh and kills the nasties and the clarificador makes fine particles of debris clump so they are easily removed by vacuum or the sand filter. We will also use acid or alkali to keep the ph level correct.

The chemical treatment of a pool is a fine art. One needs to become familiar with ones own individual pool to look after it properly. For example, many people assume a strong chlorine smell is an indication of too much chlorine in the pool (myself for a start) but this is not the case. It is an indication of not enough "free" chlorine. Its quite an interesting topic if one cares to read up on it all.
Fortunately I can take a miss here as I intend to have my builder maintain my pool. He carries quite a reputation around Cozumel for being an expert pool maintainace guy.

Once again I sit in my favourite area on the wall just above the pool to watch the event. I make a mental note that this seating location is really too good to loose to a regular wood balcony and I will have to work on a method to keep it for seating.

We start around mid-day and by nightfall the bottom section of the pool is filled. The next morning we continue the task. Once the water level reaches a good height the pump is primed and the well pump sends the water through our plumbing system.

For the first time the pool jets spring into action, it is a great sight to see. We also add a second hose to fill faster from our submersible pump in the well. Both pumps run all day and thoroughly test the limits of our now sparkling clean well… will it run dry? By noon the pool is still filling and by 7 it is totally full without even a pause for the well to refill.

My builder declares it a super well!

Once we get the water to a fairly deep level, we start the processes of testing the cortina de agua. The filters spring into action, there are a few gurgles and splutters while the main tube fills then a stream of water emerges from the fountain. At first it is only a trickle but then we turn the pump volume up a notch and the cortina is there.

My builder takes little time to sit back. He tests the water and adds the required dosage of chemicals for the shock, he then mixes it by swirling buckets of water around the pool.

His wife who often calls round at the end of the day is there and I persuade them to have a photo taken by the fountain. They happily oblige but within a short time he is back to work, observing swirling water and checking all is well.

At the end of the day I reminisce. When we first came upon this house we wanted a pool. We looked at the large concrete area with its huge royal palm in the centre and never imagined it would ever be possible to have this pool there.

The concrete circle looked impenetrable and the grand old plam was larger than the ones at the neighbouring Corpus Christi Church …way too big for the area. But all this can be dealt with easily in Mexico, they have been doing it for years. The royal palm was eventually removed mid hurricanes Emily and Wilma by the marvelous bomberos and the concrete patio was removed almost as easily by my builders hard working team.

While we take time to ponder it all, I remind my builder of when we first met. Our evening spent discussing and measuring the details and chalking out the plan on our concrete path … now that it has all come together, I find it quite an emotional moment.

Eventually with the nostalgia done, we part for the day. The pool is still muggy but my builder says it will be clear tomorrow. I shut off the pump and the pool rests still and quiet in the darkness …I put the pool light on and gaze at it.

I still can’t take it in that it is finally all real!

First Washday and the Cozumel Glow

2006-09-21T21:15:00.000-05:00

...not a new washing powder.

Since my washing machine is now in its nice new housing and working I have told the guys am looking for ward to my first washday with this trusty machine. It’s a fairly new machine but has a long history and has “seen plenty of action” in its short lifespan.

The machine was new when we bought the house and had been rarely used. The previous owner offered to sell me it, but thinking I didn’t want to be hassled with domestic chores on a holiday paradise island, I refused. Shelater sold it to my (excellent) realtor. I changed my mind when I found the realtor wasn’t actually using it and my esposo decided he would like to have one available to wash his dive suit. So my realtor and I traded it back.

My builder at that time transported it from my realtors house, a mile or two away, to my place in his trusty tricyclo.

A tricycle is an adult three wheeled bike, they are very common here and very similar to the little three wheeler Raleigh bikes my friends and I would race around on as kids in UK in the 50’. They easily carry more weight than my rented ford fiesta ever could and are used to transport people, building materials, furnishings… mother-in-laws ... in fact there is very little they don’t transport on these vintage looking marvels.

But back to the washing machine.
We put it in a corner where it was well protected and it made it through Emily in one piece. We then decided we wanted the space for our dive equipment drying area and so tried to sell it.

One day while in Chedraui, I saw a local lady eyeing a new machine and so approached her and mentioned I was selling a similar, almost new machine for half the price. She was overjoyed and came straight round to my house and offered to buy it there and then. She would go back home and return with the money at the weekend. That weekend she still didn’t have the cash but offered to pay at the end of the month. In her exuberance she also invited me to their Sunday lunch. I declined as my Spanish was very lacking at that time (still is for that matter unless you’re talking building talk). Am not sure whether my refusal offended her though, as she never did return.

So machine stayed put, and went through the unexpected, three day, heavy duty, hurricane Wilma, during which time it spend a good few days of its short life up to its knees in water.

After Wilma we pretty much gave it up for dead, the engine buzzed but did little else. The gas dryer still worked well though as it was high above the Wilma water level so I gave it one last chance and sent it to the repair shop. Three men almost killed themselves trying to move it to the truck to take it for repair … like mattresses here, this thing is damned heavy. They gave me an estimate of $100 for total repair and clean … it seemed a fair price so we went ahead. When it returned it was cleaned and worked a treat … it just lacked the proper plumbing.

Anyhoo, to return to the washday.
I have all my clothes in and am about to start the wash when the power goes off. One might think that this is a common occurrence on Cozumel but surprisingly, its not. Hurricanes aside, we actually have more power outages/cuts in Virginia than we do on here Cozumel. An hour or so later the power returns and I go out to make a second start on my wash.

As I am checking all the parts prior to the wash I notice the hot water intake is still open. My builder mentioned this would be a problem but I am expert and not dissuaded by this. I find a plastic cap in my mini bodega closet and it fits over the hot intake perfectly. (You never throw anything away on Cozumel.) It would probably be better improved by some cinta de plomero (plumbers tape) but its ok for now.

Soon my first wash is happily humming around in the robust machine. The charming little girl I usually deal with “down the laundrette” has sadly lost a customer, but I am feeling triumphant. What would be a normal washday event at home its feels like a major achievement here.

The Cozumel Glow
So often simple things back home are great accomplishments here. like finding the right tiles for my path and pool, finding cranberry juice in Chedraui, finding a cheap hard drive (yeh …try that ... or anything computer orientated here!), getting paint of a certain color, the right lights for my new palapa. All this would be so simple back home in the land of infinite choices, but here it feels like a climb to the top of Everest (Ok …maybe a bit over-the-top here!). The Cozumel Glow is the feeling of satisfaction one gets when these things are achieved and is rarely experienced back home for such small endeavors.

While the washing is churning around, I keep my window open so as to hear any changes in tone and run out to check on each occasion it changes pitch. It is a bit noisy on the spin so I will maybe try to get a piece of insulation carpet to quieten it, otherwise, for all its past history, it seems to be in fine working order.

Unfortunately the last spin cycle seems to go on indefinitely. After what seems like an eternity of noisy disruption to this otherwise calm and peaceful Sunday, I eventually give up waiting and shut the thing off manually. It’s still been a successful venture. I do have nice clean laundry, spun to almost dry but I suspect I may also have a mechanical problem to be investigated later.

I have a second load but the stillness and quiet of this particular Sunday is almost magical. It’s a bright sunny day so I hang the previous load out on the line. Still glowing from my first washday success I retreat to the sun deck to enjoy the peace, the breezes and an ice-cold beer.

Washday blues … not likely!

Ding dong bell ...someone's down the well

2006-09-17T20:35:00.000-05:00

After almost two weeks with many intermittent “rain stops play” type holdups, the pool tiling is finally complete. My builders “second in command” and I have worked out inventive ways to use all but six single individual luminescent tiles! I plan to set these in a wood frame and take them back home as a memento and reminder on challenging days that a cool pool awaits us in our Cozumel home.

Once the tiling is complete the pool must remain dry for a week before water is added to allow the tiles to fully adhere to the inner surfaces. Quite a challenge since we are presently in the rain season! We now find ourselves in the odd situation of striving to keep water out of the pool.

The guys now rig the sun canopy to try to catch the rain, but it still seeps in and they have to bail it out by hand with sponge and bucket on a regular basis. We cannot use the floor drain as the system has no water circulation. Running a pump “dry” is a sure way to kill it. Fortunately we can use the sump pump when the rainwater reaches higher levels.

During this week of waiting the guys focus is on finishing other smaller projects. We plaster and paint the back wall and arch. Since we still have two or three boxes of the more plain, azul tiles to use up my builder suggests we add some around the wall base to protect the paintwork from splashing from the pool. I also add some around the poolside for decoration. We can then maybe use the remainder for the dive rinse tank. I suspected they would come in handy at some point!

This is also the ideal time for the builder’s son, the electrician and plumber of the family team, to tackle the all important cortina de agua fountain. Until now the fountain device has been hidden behind the vista maya rock. Now it is about to make its debut.

My builder has confidence he can cut the rock to reveal it again without hitch. I have been impressed by his expertise but will hold my breath for this, there are no markings to show the exact point to cut.

Cutting the rock one again produces a great deal of dust and is tough work. The rock must be cut but the plastic pipe within the wall must stay intact. As he cuts the pipe finally emerges. Once the pipe is out in the open he measures and then cuts the pipe to reveal the water container for the fountain. A tile is then mounted to the wall at a slight incline to the pipe. All goes without a hitch.

The last item to be tackled is the cleaning of the well which will supply our pool with fresh “cenote style” water. Earlier I asked how you would clean out this claustrophobic little hole in the ground. Well(?) …you just plop someone down there with a bucket for the debris and some cloro (bleach)!

The first time we did this I was horrified. The Victorian practice of using small boys to clean chimneys sprang to mind. It is usually a younger lad that gets sent down there. Firstly, because it’s a shitty job and the younger ones are usually at the bottom of the pecking order. Secondly, they are the only ones who will fit down there!

On this occasion, the muchacho (lad) chosen is a very amenable lad who is always up for a joke and a bit of fun while working ... as are so many of the workers here. Since I am constantly in the habit of suggesting alterations in the mornings when the guys arrive, he regularly teases me with "cambios ...cambios?" (changes changes?) when they arrive. To play along I often respond with some outrageous alteration suggestion.

Due to the alteration for the pool steps, the well is now even more claustrophobic. Once down there however, the lad obviously finds the acoustics very much to his liking and sings quite heartily throughout the whole process while my builder observes and shouts instructions down the hole to make sure he does a good job.

I watch the proceedings from the edge of the pool and obviously miss a joke or two since there is much laughter from some of his comments from the deep. Eventually he re-emerges and the well is clean again. To show gratitude … and also to somewhat appease my conscience … I usually give any muchacho chosen for this undesirable duty a good tip for his trouble.

The week flies by, and at last the pool is ready to fill!

Urban myths and nursery rhymes

The well known nursery rhyme "Ding dong bell" is said to have emerged sometime in the 16th century, the phrase is even quoted by Shakespeare in a couple of his plays. It is suspected it is a simple lesson in morality for the very young. On first draft however, no one actually rescues the unfortunate cat down the well ... only in the later versions does a rescuer come along in the shape of little Tommy Stout. I guess cats were ten-a-penny in those days!

Another well-known rhyme "Ring a ring o'roses" is now being subject to some urban myth scrutiny. The more interesting version is that the rhyme dates back to the days of the "Black Death", the bubonic plague that preceded the Great Fire of London in 1665. Now some are saying this theory does not hold water and that the little ditty did not emerge till the late 1800's.

I much prefer the latter theory ...and do not believe those who say that it could not have remained undocumented for so many years. Stranger things have happened at sea ...but judge for yourself.

Ring a ring o'roses - the marks of the plague were a ring of raised spots

A pocket full of posies - early opinion suggested fragrances could overcome illness

Atish-you atish-you - sneezing was an early sign of plague (ashes ashes is the US version)

We all fall down - nuf said!

Not Cinco de Mayo ...

2006-09-16T09:51:00.000-05:00

It is a commonly believed myth, especially in the US, that the biggest fiesta day for Mexicans is Cinco De Mayo. There are also implications that it is their Independence Day. It is not.

I was one of those who fell for this greeting card hype when I arrived in the US and fully expected my workers to disappear on that day for fun and fiesta. As it turns out, Cinco de Mayo is just another of those “Hallmark” days promoted mostly by the US consumer mammoth.

When I asked my guys last year if they would be taking the day off they just mumbled, hmmmm…Cinco de Mayo …” and continued on with what they were doing, courteously not putting me right with a lecture on our cultural differences. I was baffled and being such a screen sucker, went off and read up on the whole thing.

Cinco de Mayo is the commemoration of the battle of Peuebla, 5th May 1862. This was a famous victory for a small, ill equipped Mexican force against the greater manpower and expertise of the French army under Napoleon III. It is a recognized date south of the border, obviously more so in the Peuebla area, but the greater celebrations are reserved for Independence Day.

The evening of the 15th and the 16th September are the actual day/s of the Mexican Independence celebrations. On the evening of the 15th at 11pm prompt, the President delivers the Grito de Dolores. The translation of this phrase has double entendre, it can be translated as either the Cry of Dolores (the city of Dolores) - or the cry of pain and is seen as a decisive moment in the Mexican struggle for their independence. The following day is the day of the fiesta.

The original Grito was delivered 15th September 1810 by Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, a father figure of the struggle and a priest of the town Dolores. To stir the populous into earlier than planned action he rang the church bell and delivered words now referred to as “El Grio” (the cry). "Long live religion! Long live Our Lady of Guadalupe! Long live the Americas and death to the corrupt government!”

The “soup of the day” corrupt government of this era being Spain. After a long struggle Mexico finally won its independence from Spain in 1821 but still remained in debt to other countries who tried to lay claim to territory in leu of payment, hence the the battle of Peuebla.

The Grito is now delivered by city officials from balconies around the country as a sign for the start of festivities. The present day Grito is a less chastising version of the original …listing the heroes of the struggle and cumulating in the stirring cry of “Mexicanos, Viva México” - Mexican’s …long live [our free] Mexico.

Everyone gathers at the zocalos (town meeting place) of cities, towns, and villages for the 11pm delivery of the Grito by their city official. This is followed up by much fireworks fiesta and dancing late into the next day ... assuming it doesnt rain too much. Unfortunately this year it did rain ... but not till after the impressive firework display. My builder later tells me it has rained every night of the 15th Sept for the past 22 years!

To digress for a momentito. Grito is very similar to the auld Scots word “to greet” (to cry) which is still used regularly in Scotland to this day. Din'e greet hen … don’t cry dear. It’s demonstrated well in “Tam o’Shanter”, a well know poem by the Scottish Bard, Robert Burns.

Ah! gentle dames, it gars me greet,
To think how monie counsels sweet,
How monie lengthene'd, sage advices
The husband frae the wife despises.

The translation for the Scottish language challenged reader goes as follows:
Ah! Good ladies, it makes me cry,
To think how much helpful guidance
How many detailed wise pieces of advice
Are offered by wives but not appreciated by husbands.

It should be mentioned the guy was also a well-known womaniser … one can see from this snippet why he was so successful!

But to continue,

In Cozumel the decorations have been up for some time and the vendors of various trappings of the fiesta have been touring the streets.

Homes and businesses are decorated with flags and red, white and green banners, andt he fair is in town, complete with stalls, kiddie rides, a hair raising, 360 degree spinning, adult ride and animales con deformacions gemeticas (genomically deformed animals).

And in answer to what you’re thinking … no … I left that thrill for another day!

It’s interesting that both situations (and other well known conflicts) arose from the same old same o’. Any parent of a teenager will be familiar with the scenario … young country gets pissed off with older parent county. Then wants to go off and manage their own affairs, rather than be told what to do and fork out well earned dosh without having a say in the matter. Taxation without representation ring any bells?

More wordy references to the whole to-do can be found here.
Wiki - Miguel Hidalgo
The Significance of "Cinco de Mayo"
Wiki - War of Independence
History of Mexican Independence
The Grito
Mexican independence

You can see why the US greeting card industry chose not to focus too much attention on, “Quince y Dieciséis de Septiembre” (kin say ee de ace sigh eez day sep tee em bray… phew!). It doesn’t quite roll off the tongue nor have quite the ring of the nicely rhyming “Cinco de Mayo” (sin-co day ma-yo). And o-one likes to see two dates strewn across a card … (or a sentence start with an “and” for that matter) …very messy.

And speaking of independence fwiw …one Brit at least has reclaimed a piece of Virgina (Ha!) and is now working on same in Mexico …
You just can’t keep a good country down!

Viva México! Go Mexico!

How to avoid screen sucking and manage your life better try this for an interesting read.

Laying your own path ... literally

2006-09-12T09:32:00.000-05:00

Time is catching up on me and I need to work out what needs to be done now and what is merely cosmetic can safely be left for later. The sad state of my path is my present concern. An upgrade was not in the original plan for this trip.

But first a translation issue …
I come from a place where the walkway outside your house is referred to as a path (the “a” pronounced as one would when the doctor says “say ah”) or pavement.

Many from other lands may claim that since it is walk-way be-side your house it should be referred to as a side-walk. That’s not going to happen here – deal with it!

Not wanting to spoil our piedra de río (river-stone) garden path (which the previous owner had specially ordered) nor our gardens and walled front area, we have used the outside pavement for running the electrical cables to our main junction box.

My builder advises me this is a perfectly acceptable choice on Cozumel and has now cut a trough along the full length of my decayed path to accommodate the cables. It makes sense, since it is our responsibility to maintain our front path – “to the maintainer goes the access” I guess.

During this process my builder also had to remove the electric meter for a brief time. I returned from visiting a friend to find it casually lying on the grass unconnected to its power source. Seeing ones electric meter disconnected and casually sunning itself in the garden does cause your average gringa a pause for thought.

I asked why it needed to be removed. Apparently the hammering on the wall might have damaged it – and the current is off – so I guess since we have its best interests at heart – and are not using power anyway – that makes it ok.

I quickly dismiss any further thoughts on the matter!

Anyhoo... our sorry little crumbled path needed repair and elevation to keep our garden well out of reach of any street water “high tides”.

We are not in a flooding area but many are - those who buy property here do well to research this as it is a problem for many on Cozumel.

Hurricane Wilma gave us the highest water level for many a year. Those with single story properties were wading in water, with little opportunity for escape while the hurricane still raged outside, a most daunting experience.

A repair without elevation is pointless, we need as much protection as possible from flooding so I decide to go the whole hog and build a whole new path.

My builder suggests an elevation height and “common garden” concrete block path. Since one is hardly ever given the opportunity to personalise one’s own path, well legally anyway, I want something much more decorative.

I show him my illustration with decorative rajueleados (ra-hoo-lay-dos ...concrete chips) inserted in divides between the slabs of concrete and the occasional tile for decoration that I have admired on other paths around town.

My builder smiles the smile of one who realises he should have known better than to think I would take the simple route!

The guys start work and within a few days my old cumpled path is now a gleaming (if concrete ever gleams) new path to be proud of with an elevation level to challenge the best of hurricanes.

Unfortunately a surprise awaits... now our new path is higher ...our privacy wall has become "lower". So arises another problem to be tackled, we definately want privacy for our new pool.

Changes to the overall plan will inevitably crop up as one goes along. These may arise on a daily basis until your project becomes more advanced. Sometimes a new possibility will arise, sometimes a problem needs to be overcome.

You can hire an architect to plan, oversee and take care of these events and pay a portion of the costs for this service, or you can stick around and make the changes yourself.

I like to be very “hands on”, and much prefer the latter. I make a point of always checking how a new builder/electrician/etc reacts to my desire for changes. Some will point blank say a thing cannot be done and refuse to budge … or might make an excuse if they don’t want the hassle of a change. They don’t stay here long. Others will agree with requests but then carry on as before and act like they never hear you. They get short shift too! The “I didn’t understand you” can get played from both sides when convenient.

If someone makes multiple mistakes, you probably shouldn’t invite them back, even if only to repair their errors. You will probably end up with more problems. I tried this once, they guy came back only to build further on the first mistake.

On another occasion I found myself on New Years Eve without water for the upstair toilet! While my usual plumber was visiting family, I had hired a new plumber to keep the project moving. He rerouted the water supply but forgot to reconnect it. It wasn’t apparent until we tried to reinstall the toilet on completion of the work.

On his return my house plumber had to tear up brand new tiles to install a new supply. So much for saving time!. In my experience it's better to just take a deep breath, pay again for a reliable worker, and move on. Chalk it up to experience. It’s also cheaper in the long run believe me!

Fortunately, my pool building team are good realiable workers. They listen, make a point of following my wishes and rarely say no unless it is with good foundation. My house plumber/electrician does likewise.

I in turn respect their expertise and try to learn as much as I can about the building process here before I barge forth with my gringa ideas. Things cannot be done here as they are back home. A good tradesman will advise you.

If you trust them … you should listen…and if you don’t trust them, they probably shouldn’t be working for you in the first place!

Building “walls” …what ocean and when does it end - Time management on Cozumel (?!)

2006-09-08T09:03:00.000-05:00

The pool tiling continues throughout this week. Getting the sheets of tiles to line up is painstaking work. It’s now well into the rainy season and heavy rain showers interrupt the work, we can only tile when the surfaces are dry. When it rains the workers retreat to work on the new washer dryer area.

The stone masons continue work on, with little regard to the weather, to finish the vista maya wall and we are also making good progress with wiring of the palapa deck area.

I am pleased to see the washing machine closet is coming along nicely. We should probably have checked the washer dryer actually worked before we started the project, we didn’t – and there is no point in doing that now!

My builder suggests I may never get a car in the carport again with this closet in place, but I am not worried. We still have an area of garden I can extend into should the need arise.

Invariably, while building here, you hit the two “walls of progress”. The first is when you reach the stage when you forget you are actually on an idyllic holiday island … this is referred to here as “what ocean?”. The second “wall” is more disheartening. It’s the day when you start to feel the work will never end.

I hit the first stage some weeks back. It’s easy to spot. You become embroiled in building plans and trips to suppliers, then one day you find yourself near the front streets and are caught off guard when you see the sea … the sight of it actually comes as a shock!

I have now hit the second stage, This stage tends to creep up on you and gradually. I am finding it hard to imagine that my garden will ever be the same again. Since I have confronted this “wall” many times on past building trips, it discourages me less than it did at first but its still a bummer and saps your creativity and energy. (Thanks MS Word for clarifying that little blur of a sentence for me!) My builder has been very reliable too, which helps immeasurably.

When I hit the second “wall” I am always reminded of the 60’s TV series “The Prisoner” . Those who have memories of the show will know exactly what I mean.

For those who are unaware of this little cult classic, the premise is that the star, Patrick McGoohan, is a top secret agent and “type A” personality, who decides to resign from this lifestyle. On doing so he is kidnapped, and mysteriously wakes up on a strange little island, cut off from civilisation as he knew it.

The place is attractive, the people friendly and his accommodation is comfortable, but while in this unique and eccentric little place he has little control over his life and it appears he cannot escape.

In order to find a way back to his former life he attempts to adjust to the lifestyle and passes his days trying to understand what makes the place tick. He is invariably met with frustration and confusion … and often looses his "James Bond" coolness factor.

The intro on You Tube tells the story above in one very retro 60’s gulp . Relive the memory here.

For what its worth, the series was filmed in the bizarre little village of Portmeirion in Wales… a country many people have successfully escaped from. (and before I am attacked by hoards of Welsh spammers … as a Brit of a minority country myself, I do only jest).

Time management ...
is a contradiction of terms in Mexico. Determining how long a project will take (or eventually cost if you tinker) is next to impossible.

I have already extended my stay by one month. Abandoning my previous deadline was no surprise. My builder has performed admirably but due to a variety of reasons we are behind on our original schedule. I have been adding here and there, the weather has played some part, but generally the expectation of time needed to complete work is always on the wishful side on Cozumel.

Doubling the originally given time estimate is a good idea if you want to retain your sanity and keep hair on your head. If, like me, you like to tinker and modify along the way, tripling the time should keep you on track.

Then maybe add another week or two … just to be on the safe side!

The Cozumel Effect and the Chicken Step

2006-09-05T21:09:00.000-05:00

As mentioned in the previous post, it is quite surprising how often things unexpectedly fall into place here on Cozumel. At first I thought it was just happenstance, fluke, luck, but things have worked out for the best so often that I now almost rely on it. It is definately a different experience to back home ... I call it the "Cozumel Effect".

Of course I don’t just sit back and wait for this Cozumel Effect to happen. I do keep plugging away, but problems don’t concern me quite so much now. I have learned to accept the more fluid life …that things happen when they do rather than when you want them to. When you give up the desire for things to proceed as planned, life becomes much less stressful and things bizarrely fall into place … eventually. You do need to be without a time limit though.

“When will the carpenter show up?”, my dear diver esposo asks. “Sometime” I say, knowing that the carpenter will strangely show up at a more optimal time if I don’t force things.

For example, had I been back home, I would have had my two boxes of tiles straight away and would have lost surprise option to add the extra glitter pizzazz to my pool steps.

Another example would be my husband just happening to arrive on the day we were putting the final touches to the pool seating before the tiling started. Yes we do have pool seating! In the deep section we have decided to add a little loveseat, a romantic little nook …or a step to get out of the pool if you insist on being absolutely and totally unromantic!

It was my husband’s suggestion (altogether …ahhhh …) and on arriving he noticed right at the last moment that the seat design needed to be altered.

Now had the guys started to tile the pool and this would have been difficult and costly to alter, but due to a fluke of circumstances, we now have a much nicer little loveseat … or as I mentioned before for the unromantic … a much larger exit step!

Were it not so hot and the brain in gear, I could probably list a handful of more events that happened this way … they are not uncommon!

Julia Talyor notes a similar story on her very informative Home Sweet Home Mexico site

To quote her:
“I have an anecdote that shows perfectly how things always work out very well in Mexico. My husband was riding his bike at about 30 miles per hour down a hill (wearing a helmet, by the way) when a taxi driver pulled out in front of him and he hit the taxi.
He launched into the air and hit the ground with a painful scream. This is the bad part. The good part is that right at that moment a man happened to be crossing the street. The man was a paramedic. My husband received stellar, professional help right in the moment he needed it.
This may sound like a lucky break. It’s not. Take it from me, lucky breaks are to be expected in Mexico.”
From http://www.home-sweet-mexico.com/safety.html

I would be very interested to know of others’ experiences of this luck effect…as Fox Maulder might say… the truth is out there!

Introducing the Chicken Step ... all must for all pools!

Talking of exit steps … oh yes we were!

My dear esposo also pointed out a place halfway along the pool wall where it would be optimal to add a small step to allow one to exit the pool without having to wade over to the main steps (...and what a drag that would be!). The esposo is a Californian and therefore knows a thing or two about pools.

It is once again the Cozumel effect is at hand. The change comes at a most opportune moment and is an alteration that I, with my very non Californian, cold climate background, would have never considered.

I explain this new addition to my builder who then refers to it as a punta de apoyo. My only experience so far with a word sounding like poyo is pollo meaning chicken (ll is pronounced y in Spanish). Always wanting to understand more, I asked why my step in the pool is being referred to as a punta de pollo …a point of a …chicken?

I am met with much laughter from the workers who understand “chicken” and find it all very humorous. I am happy to provide the days entertainment but am still left in the dark regarding my “chicken step”.

I later look it up and all becomes clear. Punta de apoyo means point of support … but from now on ... the workers and I refer to this new step in my pool as the escalera de pollo “the chicken step”.

A little bit of Mayan ...

2006-09-03T17:41:00.000-05:00

On Wednesday, with no further sign of the tiles my builder heads off to Cancun. He expects to be back mid afternoon but it is late evening before he finally returns. He travels to Cancun first by ferry from Cozumel to Playa del Carmen then by bus from Playa to Cancun. He returns via cab with the heavy boxes of tiles to the Cancun bus station, then by bus to Playa, then catches the return ferry to Cozumel.

His trip is long but fruitful – he gets the full order, two whole boxes of glistening Paradise luminescent tiles! I pay for his trip but know it is a great deal of effort on his part ... others would probably leave the getting of the tiles to the property owner, but when I ask how the trip was he just smiles graciously and says it all went fine.

A brief translation pause …
Playa del Carmen, which is only a 40 minute ferry trip from Cozumel, is also more commonly referred to here as just “Playa” (playa also meaning beach). When I say voy a playa (boy-a ply-a – I’m off to the beach) ...I do go occasionally when the esposo is around, they always tend to think I am off to catch the ferry to Playa del Carmen. I have still haven’t found out how one differentiates between the two, but when I do I’ll let you know!

Cancun is a ferry trip to Playa and then about an hour in the bus from here. It’s a very nice bus though by all accounts with movies, drinks and …uhmmm …facilities! (you know …loo’s).

Cancun is also spring break central for US college kids on the loose, (apparently they are trying to go upscale … Cancun that is, not the college kids). Anyhoo … Cancun is a Mayan word which some say translates to golden snake. The majority however says it is Mayan for a “nest or den of snakes”. I suspect it depends on your individual experience of Cancun but it seems to me that one translation is more appropriate these days than t’other … I’ll leave you to go figure for yourself.

Cozumel itself comes from the Mayan Cuzam (swallow) and Lumil (land of), which form the word Cuzamil (land of swallows). The Mayan word changed over time to the more Spanish name of Cozumel. (Hence all the little swallow shapes in the pavements downtown)

Other places on or around the island that have names derived from Mayan are
Chankanaab: little sea
Tulum: wall
Holbox: pronounced Holbosh - black hole (?) Nice place – shame about the name.
La Choza: the hut – a great little Cozumel restaurant
zonot: (we now use the Spanish derivative cenote) a natural hole in the ground or well, often a sacred place
Boxito: pronounced Boshito - the hardware and fittings store where I spend so much of my time – little black one - a cross between the Mayan box black and Spanish ito ending for little.

These is by no means all ... do feel free to add further to this list

But back to the building …
The stonemasons have also now arrived and make a start and our cortina de agua (curtain or water) fountain wall. The large chunks of vista maya rock are cut then shaped and fitted together like a heavy-duty jigsaw (see below). (vista maya - a hard stone/beige coloured rock with embedded fragments of small shells that has a rustic Mayan appearance).

The cutting process produces strong burning smell, a great deal of noise and a cloud of "smoke like" dust around the whole garden.

We also make a start on the new housing for my washing machine, which is now to be situated below the deck.

Since I have decided I do not want any view at all of my washing machine spoiling my nice new sun deck I have come up with a plan to house the machine opposite the entry to the pool equipment area. The plumbing we installed on the deck above will probably not go to waste though ... I have confidence it will come in useful at some point.

On Thursday we finally start the pool tiling.

We now have three boxes of luminescent tiles instead of the two originally ordered. I take full advantage of this and decide to have luminescent steps, cinefa and lower edging of the pool. As so often happens here, things have worked out well in the end. Of course, I do now have two extra boxes of non-refundable, Acapulco (plain light blue) pool tiles … but take it from me … something will crop up and I know these will become useful too.

All in all it’s been a very productive week!

Beware of falling rocks…

2006-08-30T21:05:00.000-05:00

Monday is a day of tiding up from the week before. I go to Boxito to check on my missing boxes of tiles but I find they are in the middle of yet another redesign/remodel. They were devastated after Wilma, their bodega (warehouse) was totally trashed but by the beginning of this year they had rebuilt a larger and better one and a much poshed up showroom followed close behind that. Today it has regressed to its appearance in the weeks following Wilma. The entrance way is an obstacle course and it’s hard even to be heard above the sound of hammering, chipping and welding.

As one who is accident prone, I don’t really feel safe in this environment. Small chunks of masonry are flying around from the chipping. Large sections of seriously harmful sharp metal are protruding and multiple cables are snaking the whole environment. The guys behind the counter work on as usual and no-one is wearing a helmet! It’s a safety inspector’s nightmare (or dream if they are that way inclined!). I feel happy to get out intact, even though I am without my tiles.

I often seem to find myself in the building line of fire on Cozumel. I was hit on the head with a stray chip of flying rock a couple of weeks back while talking to my builder …ouch! I narrowly missed being hit with a much larger falling chunk of rock last year while my builder was adding an extension to the roof.

I was briefly gassed during another ill-fated series of events after Emily, when a chunk of rock inadvertently fell from the roof on to the lever handle of a gas tap.

By sheer fluke ...the rock hit the handle spot on and turned on the gas, releasing the remains from the tank. Gas smells a little different on Cozumel and it took me a while to work out what the smell was. I can be a bit slow sometimes – even without gas!

We finally removed all the gas lines around the house and dispensed with the gas water heater after Wilma blew the old gas tank off its support and ruptured the pipes. We now have electric instant water heating and use a small gas bottle with accident proof, turn handle, for our dryer and oven.

I tend not to dwell on my close encounters with electricity … they are much less frequent. Originating from a country with 220v flowing from the sockets, I tend to give it a little more respect than my US counterparts do with their 110v.

Whereas in US or UK these incidents would be a big issue – and probably require a detailed reporting in case required for later medical claim or even lawsuit (read USA here!) its part of building life on Cozumel. Unfortunately I see more people with injuries here than back home. You constantly need to be on the alert for falling, flying and hidden dangers while on a building site here. Your safety is your own concern, blaming others for accidents won't cut it here.

I suspect the injuries I see are not wholly from the building industry though. The other main source of mishaps here is the moto (motocicletas – motorbikes, scooters and mopeds) but I’ll save that tale of peril for another day.

With no further news of the delivery of our much needed tiles, we are now forced to plan a trip to Cancun. If they haven’t arrived by Tuesday my builder will make the trip on Wednesday and transport the tiles by bus and ferry from Cancun. It’s a nuisance but there is no other option as there are no refunds on our order and we will otherwise have to halt work and just wait it out.

The guys lay the boards for the pool surround and fill this mould with the more attractive concreto blanco (white concrete) for a prettier look. They next day they remove the mould and scrub the top with a wire brush, leaving a coarse but attractive surface, described as rustico (rustic) and much safer for walking on than a “slippery when wet” tiled surface.

That evening I suddenly find myself looking for the first time at a recognizable pool.

Regarding the electricity flowing from the sockets –James Thurber’s “My life and hard times” includes a tale of his great aunt who believed electricity flowed freely from the sockets and had to plug each one for safety.

Treat yourself to a copy for great travel and beach reading and have everyone around you wondering what the heck you are laughing so much at.

Good greif, this is almost getting like a school recommended reading list!

Bears in the night …

2006-08-30T20:11:00.000-05:00

…a brief deviation from the normal plot line

On Friday morning my house plumber/electrician, who I have recently persuaded to also become a carpenter, arrives much later than usual. When he does he is very animated. He had an attempted robbery in the night and has been up for some hours going through the mountain of red tape required to report the incident. He still has to return to the police station for further reporting and asks if he can time off. As if there were any doubt!

He is presently living some two miles out of town without power, making his property an easy target. The thief was a “chancer” (see footnote) who had tried to make off with his bicycle. Fortunately it had movement activated wheel light, which easily pinpointing the thief’s exact location in the darkness, thus allowing my plumber to captured him in the act.

According to the tale the thief is an almost 2 meter tall (6 foot+ as opposed to my plumber who is under 5 foot tall) shoddily dressed chilango with no shoes and unsurprisingly, not a resident of this small Cozumel community. (chilango - a person from Mexico City, not of mayan descent –a term occasionally used on Cozumel to describe “non mayan, no-gooders”)

The next day it turns out my plumber/electrician and now carpinter’s wife has persuaded him to move. She will have no more of this type of trouble and wants to come back into town and into a property with power. So a house hunt is on.

I ask what became of the thief. He was locked up, but it seems a friend had emerged later in the day, paid the equivalent of my plumber's lost days wage and the guy is now free. I am gobsmacked! “But he needs to return for trial later?” I ask. No … its finished, he is totally free and apparently he and the friend returned to the mainland muy rapido as soon as he was released.

My plumber appears to take it in his stride … but I remain frustrated by the unsatisfying, wheel of fortune. In a feeble attempt to put something right, I add a little more to the Saturday pay.

If you, like me, you must watch Crimewatch right to the very end to hear Nick Ross’s reassuring “don't have nightmares” after all the bad stuff. Here is a “don’t have nightmares” Cozumel ending.

Crime on Cozumel is very unusual … if it ever does happen it is usually just a “chancer” taking advantage of easy pickings. Lock up at night (we have a wall safe for extra security) and don’t let your wallet, jewelery, Rolexes, lay around sunbathing on their own, and all will be well.

If you do have nightmares, I suggest grabbing a copy of …”Bears in the Night” and reading it to the nearest child. Its a simple read, but very impressionable on kids.

My kids loved it … (when they were kids!), and were totally oblivious to the, surreptitiously delivered, English preposition lesson. They may still not recognise a preposition if it fell into their soup, but I am sure they will still remember the Berenstain Bears’ escapade into the night!

The authors even have their own sweethearts story too … so how can you resist that!

Footnote
regarding the meaning and origin of “chancers”:
I scoured the web for a worthy explanation and found this little snippet from hansard -

Madam Speaker: Order. Obviously I have missed something. Will the Under-Secretary of State tell me what he is shouting about?

Mr. Raymond S. Robertson: Is "chancers" parliamentary?

Madam Speaker: Chancers?

Mr. Robertson: The hon. Member for Dundee, East (Mr. McAllion) used the word "chancers".

Lord James Douglas-Hamilton rose--

Madam Speaker: Order. I did not hear what the hon. Member for Dundee, East said. If the hon. Gentleman said something that might have been unparliamentary, I expect him to develop the point that he made so that I understand completely what he said.

Mr. McAllion: Madam Speaker, I used a word from Glasgow patois--"chancer". It means that we do not really trust the person who is described as a chancer. I think that it is parliamentary.

Madam Speaker: I live and learn every day, especially from the Scots. Thank you very much.

The pool takes shape

2006-08-26T08:57:00.000-05:00

After pouring day the remainder of the week is a bit of an anti-climax. The wood structure is finally taken away leaving a very bare looking pool shape. Now these walls are to be prepared for the tiles.

Once the wood is removed the concrete inside the mould has a smooth surface. Good enough to tile you might think but no! This smooth surface now needs to have 1cm (1/4 inch) completely chipped off leaving a rough surface to hold a further layer of grey cement.

The chipping is done by hand using axes and any other chipping tools available. This takes a day and a half. To avoid the midday sun, the guys rig up a tarpaulin canopy, which keeps the sun’s glare off the site. Unfortunately it’s a catch 22, the hardened concrete is still in the midst of its chemical reaction and giving off heat, the canopy is also keeping the heat in.

The second layer of cement is thrown onto the chipped first layer with a trowel, which causes much cement to be splashed around and lots of clean up work for the guys later. This layer holds the final third layer of adhesive for the tiles.

By Saturday the stairway into the pool and the little seat step on the far corner are formed. The pool looks ready for the tiles.

Unfortunately two of the boxes of the all important cinefa tiles ordered some four weeks ago (for two-week delivery) still haven’t arrived at Boxito and no-one seems to have any idea where they might be. (cinefa - "sin e fa" the border section of the pool that is partially out of the water.)

They are able to offer me one spare box from a previous clients order (made six weeks ago and only just arrived!). I keenly accept and am taken to the bodega (warehouse) to get them. There I see over a dozen boxes of the desired “paradise luminescents” belonging to other client piled high. It’s almost painful. I suggest since their other client can’t possibly use them all at once could they or their client spare just one more box? Then when mine arrive (by their own accounts … any day now) they can have a box back in return.

They have been swayed in the past but this time its not to be and I leave with my solitary but much prized box. My builder, who is well known to them, tries to persuade them again later in the day but meets the same response. We cannot wait much longer as the cinefa needs to be done first. If they have not arrived by Monday we will have to make plans to travel to Cancun to hopefully find some from another supplier.

. . . . . . . .

Toward the end of the week we put in place my builder’s “cortina de agua” gadget for our waterfall.

This has been cleverly devised using 2 and 4 inch plastic piping. The intent is that the large cylinder shape will fill with water from three directions. The top section will be cut open and water will then flow out of the tube container over a tile. Thus forming the the aforementioned cortina curtain effect which will then pour in our pool over a vista maya, mayan style rock wall.

Sounds exotic eh! … I came up with the design and even I am impressed … its one of those things you doodle while bored or admire in a magazine but never expect to have yourself.

One of the joys of building here … you can put your daydreams into action, and at a fraction of the cost back home ... who could not love that!

Pouring Day ... and celebrating builders, Cozumel style

2006-08-21T09:14:00.000-05:00

After an evening with full moon (a coincidence not a tradition!), and despite the weather forecast for thunderstorms, our “Pouring Day” arrives with full sun. It is the first really hot day for some time, with temperatures reaching into the high 90’s, a blue sky and minimal puffy white clouds to ease the heat and glare.

My builder has decided to mechanize for this considerable task and has rented a concrete mixer, it arrives early at 8. Our bags of cemento are stacked high, our grava and arena are in piles around the house and we are ready to go. Neighbors notice the preparations and call to visit. There is an air of anticipation around the place.

Once mixing is underway the cement is carried in buckets from the street to the poolside and poured into the huge extraordinary pool mould. One person is then responsible for making sure it is all well packed in place without air pockets. He constantly shakes the varilla rods and digs the mix with a trowel and rod.

The guys work like Trojans all morning and a good part of the afternoon. There is a constant and steady flow of mixing, carrying and packing the cemen, in full sunlight, till 3.30pm. This process allows no chance to take a break.

Finally when all is done I, as property owner, am dispatched to buy the customary “Concrete Pouring Day Lunch”. The meal is of their choosing and they opt for fried chicken and trimmings from a local eatery. I also throw in some fruit and juice from other stores nearby. Once the meal is done they leave around 4.30pm leaving the concrete to “do its thing”.

Celebrating our builders …

Traditionally the owner provides lunches on such notable workdays as the pouring of a large amount of concrete and the finishing of the roof. The Día de los Albañiles (Día de la Santa Cruz, the Builders’ Saint’s day) is also a national day of celebration of builders (see below). I usually provide some food on Sundays as well, if any choose to work that day to finish a project.

The Día de los Albañiles is on 3rd of May. All builders celebrate this anniversary. On the days beforehand you will see small wooden crosses appear on the highest point of all building sites, attractively decorated with paper flowers, ribbons and streamers. The builders work half the day and the rest of the day is for fiesta and a good meal supplied by the property owner.

The little wooden crosses often remain in place for some weeks after.

Wooden ships ...

2006-08-16T20:52:00.000-05:00

...If you smile at me I will understand 'cause that is something everybody everywhere does in the same language.
Wooden ships ...CSNY

On Monday my concern for the shaping of the wood around my pool is laid to rest when I find out there is way more to building the mould for the concrete than I had originally thought.

The first stage involves manually warping the wooden walls to fit the shape of the pool. This is done by attaching wires to top posts and gradually bending the wood, without snapping it, into a curve. A process better illustrated by photos than words.

The next stage is to support these wooden walls with internal cross beams on multiple levels to support the sides and the prevent them from caving in under the stress and weight of the concrete.

This amazing grid of wood takes two full days to construct and more than matches the previous
varilla grid for Tate worthiness. It is quite amazing how it is all put together. I can quite frankly say I have never seen the likes of this before.

It reminds me of the interior construction of a
Spanish galleon (see here)and looks quite awesome. A word we Brits don’t tend to bandy around freely!

Incidentally
The Burning Man mentioned in the above Spanish Galleon link refers to remains a bit of an unfulfilled ambition. A Woodstock style experience with a bit of artiness and a survival challenge thrown in for good measure. And a great place for photographs!

I peruse the website occasionally and ponder whether I might just go someday …in a Hummer. Yes I know! not very pc …and I’m not generally a fan of the gas guzzler ..but you would have to do it in style! Neil Young of Crosby, Stills, Nash Etc - Wooden ships ... in case you didnt notice!) actually has one that runs on 90% cleaner alt fuel! Strangely I’ve seen one or two of them appearing here on Cozumel in the past year … goodness knows why!

Anyhoo, its usually its the part about the porto-pottie regulations that bump me back to reality. The inner 60’s child says yes but AARP side says no – so might just leave it to one of my kids to achieve and enjoy my dotage with air conditioning, internet access and proper plumbing.

…but I digress.

With the Spanish Galleon skeleton mould well secured in place we are now ready for Pouring Day - the day we finally form the shape of the pool in concrete.

...and if reminiscing about all this hippy 60's stuff leaves you wanting a Woodstock fix try here at YouTube.com

Varilla installations and mattresses.

2006-08-15T07:42:00.000-05:00

Now that the sun deck palapa has been finished my builder has moved on to the pool and over a few days has put together an intricate grid of varilla to line the pool (varilla (wareeya - rebar – metal bars encased in the concrete for support).

Each piece is laid and bent to position then tied with a small piece of alambre (wire). The whole thing looks like an exotic piece of installation art that one might see in the Tate.

Incidental:
Question: Where would one think to look for the Tate Gallery on the web?
Answer: Tategallery.co.uk of course or maybe even tategallery.com … but no!
For some reason the Tate has gone for the publicly orientated but very obscure domain name, tate.org.uk.

The Tate Gallery, now more casually named the Tate, has chosen not to register these two obvious names (well caught Philip Morrison on tategallery.co.uk and thetate.co.uk!). Furthermore, it has sadly not acquired other obvious .org candidates such as tategallery.org or tate.org, leaving these and tategallery.com to those annoying adware site builders. Fortunately a person of a more altruistic nature spotted this oversight and has removed thetate.org from spammers reach and pointed unsuspecting visitors in the right direction. De nada guys!

…but to resume the tale

The workers then build large walls from various sheets of plywood and older planks.

When I return to my house on Saturday evening I notice these straight wooden walls do not fit the form of my curved pool. I call my builder to ask if this is an oversight and does he want to come over to discuss before Monday? He says no … Monday will be fine for discussion, so we leave it at that.

Sundays are such a treat on Cozumel. No cruise ships in port, but more to the point, no workers around the house! Its raining outside, so I enjoy a long lie in with croissants, jam and cups of tea, while I watch the telly and read in bed. Peace, quite, solitude - its great.

On another side note:
Soft mattresses are difficult to come by on Cozumel. Local mattresses have solid iron interior springs and are generally known to be very hard and extremely heavy! I was trying to lift one last year and it fell on top of me. For a while I was pinned between two mattresses, the old and the new. It wasn’t painful, more amusing actually, but in the heat I wondered for a moment if I was actually going to be able to summon up the energy and strength to lift the thing off me. Or was I destined to wait in a mattress sandwich for my esposo to show up from his dive and rescue me.

A friend suggested, rather than go to the mainland for an expensive soft mattress, we get one of those memory foam mattress toppers to add extra comfort. Eventually we hauled three of them over from the states and were glad we did. Our beds now feel so comfortable here … I really need to get another for home.

… or maybe it’s just the combination of heat, work and sea air that make me sleep like a log here. Who knows!

(…did I just hear someone say its probably the beer?).

Despite its female orientated "romance novel" type advertising campaign, Overstock has some of the best deals for these mattresses. Shipping is usually just a few dollars or sometimes free. I have used them for many of items needed around the house.

Try the Memory Foam 2-inch Mattress Topper with Bonus Contour Pillows
or the Serta® Memory Foam 3-inch Mattress Topper (All Sizes) for more info.

High wire palaperos

2006-08-10T22:01:00.000-05:00

Mid week and my builder has now fully finished and plastered the varilla supporting columns and deck walls. The wiring and plumbing is all installed so with that finished we are finally ready to move on to the pool.

I am very happy with the progress and working standards of my builder.

Thursday brings a third load of zacate … the guys arrive early and tell me its waiting outside for my approval. I toy with them a bit ,asking if it is safe to look – will I like it? Everyone here seems to love a bit of fun while they are working.

The new batch doesn’t have the yellow glow I had hoped for but it does look clean and smell fresh, there are even green bits indicating that it has been freshly gathered and is not even dried out completely yet. Can't get much fresher than that. I hum and haw a bit for effect then ok it. They all smile and its up on the deck before you can blink.

The muchachos de palapero (palapero's lads/workers) are a nice bunch, always pleasant and cheerful. They seem refreshingly happy and contented in their jobs. They work hard during their work hours, mostly on the roof without shade, and chill out in the piles of zacate during siesta (lunch break). Watching them at work is like watching a high wire circus act, like in the scary old days, without the safety wires and the nets.

They wander around the roof skeleton like it’s a walk in the park.

While I am working in the kitchen I hear an unnerving yell and then whoop of laughter. I go out and it seems that one of them nearly had a mishap. The incident is greeted with much frivolity by the group and the victim.

Eight to twelve of them spend three days perched on the roof in full sunlight, tying each section in place individually. By Saturday its almost finished. The roof top section and a bit of varnish – and we will be done. Since they have made a good job of the balcony woodwork, I ask if they might be interested in putting together a bit of furniture in the same style and they say they will give it a try. I give them a rough drawing and they will give me a price estimate later.

Concrete and cakes.

2006-08-07T20:26:00.000-05:00

The concrete floor on the palapa deck is now laid and we have a working stairway to the palapa sundeck. One might think the stair would be the first thing to be built so that materials can be easily transported, but no.

All the equipment and materials needed for work on the deck are hoisted aloft via the stepladder, including the many buckets of concrete needed to lay the floor. The stair is completed last to avoid it being damaged by constant wear and tear of transporting materials to and forth.

(Yes I know, you are looking at the photo of the stair and wondering what possible damage could make this look worse! ... It will get prettier I promise!)

The nice rounded stair edge is cunningly formed using plain old plastic pipe cut in half and filled with concrete. I love the simplicity of the way things are done here!

Concrete tends to be mixed in the street here … no-one minds this and the occasional traffic down our way has to manoeuvre delicately between the paraphernalia of my project and that of my neighbour.

Mixing concrete is an art; too much water or too much sand will ruin the mix or weaken the structure. The technique is rather like that of a good cook who senses the right consistency of a cake; a good builder can tell when the concrete is right. And no ready mix cakes here … we are building with raw ingredients, cement cemento, sand arena, concrete dust polvo or cal, gravel grava, and of course water agua.

The master builder (Maestro) supervises the whole mixing process with the care of an expert chef. The truth of this pudding is in the hurricane … so to speak! They mix a lot of cement down here, and they are not stopping anytime soon, so if you’re into the markets, Cemex (nasdaq CX) is probably a reasonable bet!

The floor of the carport was originally pitched at an angle for the rain. To avoid too much depth and weight of concrete on one side when we leveled it we have use polystyrene blocks to make up the difference. A metal mesh has also been laid below the new concrete for strength. All the wiring and plumbing connections then disappear under this concrete layer, never to be seen again.

Coming from a background of “housing with easily accessible wiring and plumbing”, it still causes me a bit of discomfort to see everything disappearing under a couple of inches of solid concrete … still, if there is a problem we will just dig it all up again. We don’t have to deal with variations in temperature, frosts etc and on the whole, it certainly seems to work.

A few days after the first batch, the palaperos turn up with another load of zacate for the roof. Some of it looks ok this time but much is still bad. I remind them I am here for another four/five weeks and I am willing to wait for the right stuff. I suggest they keep the good bits and work on finishing the palapa roof and the balcony while we wait for more. I ask my builder to monitor what they use when I leave he house. When I get back at noon, this load, like the last is gone.

During our venture onto the now floored and accessible roof, we decided to alter the design and eliminate the plan for an open sun deck. We decide to thatch the whole roof. (Sorry sun lovers … but with skin cancer rife you will thank me later … oh yes you will!).

The acrobatic palaperos get to work on the changes with gusto and by next day my balcony and extra roof are finished and looking great!

When good zacate ... (and other things) go bad!

2006-08-06T18:04:00.000-05:00

On Monday the palapero brings the zacate (grass thatch) for the palapa in early morning. It is wet and moldy looking, as if it had already been through a few hurricanes. There is a bit of discussion as to how it would dry out and look better but I politely and firmly refused it.

The Palapero mentions it has been stored outside and that this section was stored in the middle of the pile for a while, which is why it looks so dark and damp. This only added to my concern. I have had enough farm experience in UK to know that this stuff was beyond recovery! By mid morning it is gone from my house.

Two days after starting my house plumber is still working on the changes to the plumbing lines. He is constantly hitting unforeseen snags as often happens here. A new canister of propane is faulty. It has possibly been stored badly and has dampness in it preventing a good hot flame for soldering. Exchanges are difficult here on Cozumel so we have to accept a credit note.

Then my plumber’s trusty three-year-old torch head gives up and the new solid brass replacement he wants will need to be ordered and will take 15 days to arrive. To keep up the momentum we split costs on a lesser quality one with plastic controls. It fails within the hour and we once again get a credit note on its return.

I eventually find the exact piece we need on the Lowes website at one-third of the price here. My husband (mi esposo) will bring it on Saturday. This evening I daydream of shopping in Lowes and Home Depot while I have one more city water hose pipe shower in the palapa guest studio.

By Tuesday night all is fixed and I have my first shower in the bathroom but we leave the hot water off as, fool maybe, I am going to attempt to remove some of the excessive hot water pipes now.

The next day goes without hitch, my plumber borrows a solid brass torch head from a friend, and the excessive hot water pipes are removed. We check and all works well. Its a major success and Casa Olivia returns to normal life with hot and cold running water, a water filter and a nice new backup water heating system … just in case!

The pool builder is making excellent headway, the ongoing design process is moving ahead nicely and the pool and palapa sundeck (presently without its thatched roof) are looking good.

Dare I say … all is well? It is hurricane season.

Hosepipe showers ... ain't so bad!

2006-07-27T21:20:00.000-05:00

I tackle the palapero when he arrives about the roof – best not to beat around the bush ... or thatch in this case.

It appears no-one had mentioned the lower roof over the stair to the workers but the present design has more continuity and is more as I had originally intended it to look. This time I think I will leave things be. I called my builder for a bit of advice on the potential for hurricane damage with this present design. We ponder upsides and downsides – and agree to leave it be this time. Things always seem to come together on Cozumel. It is Saturday and the guys are all paid and leave at three.

Since we knew it was going to be a quiet afternoon my plumber and I had chosen to start work on the plumbing today. By evening he has the filter installed but the numerous joins and additional llaves (“yabbes” valves) have taken time and we are not yet ready to switch on … the guy has worked diligently and offers to return tomorrow to finish. I do have street water and a hose that can be carried into the paplapa studio so I can shower (see casaolivia.com for photos of the palapa studio). My past experience here told me what I was letting myself in for when we started …so I cant complain!

A brief diversion:
Water on Cozumel for Dummies

Our house is very well served with water. We have;

the usual cisterna/tinaco arrangement with a bomba/hydro – a large underground water storage tank in garden fed from the city water supply, a water tank on roof (tinaco), a pump (bomba) to get the water through the system and hydro to add pressure. This, of course, all requires power to work.

a well (yes, as in “a big deep hole in the ground” and in the well known nursery rhyme) used mainly for garden and cleaning purposes and,

two faucets (taps) in our garden plumbed directly from our city supply. The city supply has little pressure without the assistance of the pump system so this faucet is our last resort.

Point of interest: the tinaco (shown above) on our roof is of the older style. Most now are large cylindrical black containers of varying sizes. Despite its age, this one made it through Hurricane Wilma intact, unlike some of the newer counterparts. One up to the oldies!

All of the above offer very clean water for household use – but it is not advisable to drink or cook with it. Most now use bottled water for drinking and cooking. Bottled water is delivered regularly. I prefer the “Crystal” brand, which has a good reputation. We usually keep six bottles on hand.
Many have used city water for years for brushing teeth without problems (including my husband and I), others diligently use bottled only.

Bottled is best for cooking and a few drops of “Microdyn” in the water is good for washing vegetables. Microdyn is available in supermarkets here, I always some in my house. Some even use it when washing dishes … but I never have.

Regarding the well, many properties here have a well. Ours was built at a time when blasting with explosives was allowed, which probably made life much easier to get 18 feet down into the karst.

When we first bought our house it was a novelty. During the various work projects I have come to depend on it. I never envisioned I would hear myself say “Thank goodness we have a well”. Of course for safety it’s well covered (sorry, couldn’t resist again!), with a locked iron bar grill and a wooden cover on top of that. It also needs to be cleaned out at least once yearly … I’ll leave you with a thought on that…how would you clean out a 30” (90cm) diameter, 18 foot deep (5.5mtr), hole in the ground?

On Sunday the plumber arrives a little later than planned. His mother has arrived from Merida, a four/five hour journey from here. He still insists on finishing the work and a few hours later it is done. We switch on the water. The palapa studio house has water but the main house has none. This is hardly a surprise since we are sailing in uncharted waters. We work out where the problem is. We have missed a connection. I tell the plumber to go back home to spend time with his mother …I have one shower back in action now. We will finish mañana (tomorrow …sometime).

That evening I go into the studio palapa bathroom for my shower. The shower splutters out its last drop, coughs and dies, there is water in the kitchen and washbasin faucets (taps) but not in the shower! Oh well …its back to the hose and the city water.

A footnote of possible interest – a shower with city water is warmer than a shower with well water!

Best laid plans ... go oft awry

2006-07-25T21:45:00.000-05:00

The Palapero arrives shortly after the builders and makes great headway. By mid afternoon the bare bones are in place. Late afternoon my builder notices that the design isn’t quite as planned in our drawings and we tell the Palapero. For a brief moment we have a pause while each side waits to see if the other will give way.

I have occasionally backed down in such moments – a bit of give and take can be helpful here. On this occasion I was not willing to give way. The half dozen workers balanced precariously on the roof top beam “a la Cirque du Soleil” some 25 feet aloft, awaited further instruction. My builder and the Palapero conferred for a few moments and it was resolved. The design stays as planned and the changes would be made.

My builder provided me an estimate for the extra “privacy" meter (39") elevation of the wall behind the pool. I gave it my approval then advised my neighbour of the work that was due to commence. He was very amenable and we agreed an suitable timeframe to get it done.

All this, and the DOW is up 200 points … This day has almost been too easy!

Friday

This morning’s sunrise was a wonderful blaze of pinks and reds with golden highlights. My grandmother’s proverb came to mind. Red sky in the morning shepherds warning … red sky at night shepherds delight. She was a farmer’s daughter and knew a thing or two about such matters.

It turns out the old adage works in Cozumel too. The rain is heavy, and is on and off all day. It’s amazing how different a place looks when the sun goes. This could be Glasgow … but still a bit on the hot side.

When my builder arrives I ask why we are building a wall of rock and not bloques (breeze/cinder block). He tells me we are using the stone around the pool for greater durability – the stone will last forever while the bloques have a shorter lifespan. The water will add much stress to the structure and we are building for perpetuity – apparently my pool may outlast my house!

Our well overshoots the pool entry area and my builder suggests we need to cut off a piece the well. I am not sure about this – it’s a lot of extra work and I will need to make a new iron safety cover and wooden top for the new shape of the well. I measure and decide to avoid hassle we will have an angular entry, it will add character and make life easier. Leave it as it is! We agree.

Ten minutes later I decide this is a bad idea. It will look odd and we will not be able to hurl ourselves, carelessly from the steps into the pool. Fortunately, my builder takes my change of mind with good humour. He stops drilling and puts the drill aside with a smile. The workers give each other “that look” that men who deal with women know well. We all have laugh then I attempt to retreat back to the house with grace.

Despite the rain, the palapero’s guys get the skeleton of the palapa finished and shelter under a neighbouring canopy, waiting for their ride home. They are in good humour and certainly don’t seem to mind the rain. With all the work still going on under the carport, there is no room to shelter there. The builders eventually give way to the weather and leave at 4.45. The earliest finish time so far. As I go out to take a look around … a truck pulls up with the other guys from the palapa crew sitting in the back. One of the guys waves and shouts “Palaperos! Palaperos!” I guess it is their ride home. I tell the guys that the palaperos were waiting on the corner just ten minutes ago– maybe my builders gave them a lift. We comment on the heavy rain and then laughing and waving, they leave.

The rain finally dries up around 7pm and the temperature is unusually below 80. Strangely, without my blanket of warm air around me it almost feels cold!

I go out to see the progress of the day and find the palapa roof, once again, is not quite as we planned.

Hmmmm … to be continued.

Title from Robert Burns "To a mouse"
The best laid schemes o' Mice an' Men,
Gang aft agley

Plumbing and poetry ...

2006-07-21T20:07:00.000-05:00

The early week buzzes by. On Monday my carpenter arrives, a few days later than originally planned. He is going to custom build a shelf for my microwave “on the spot”, giving me more counter (worktop) space. He will return next Monday to replace our curved kitchen window ledge, which was rain beaten during the hurricanes and now is showing signs of deterioration. Custom “on the spot” built items are the norm here and can even cost less than you would pay for flat-pack.

The harsh sunlight and heavy rains here are tough on exterior fittings. If they are not kept up to scratch, decay soon sets into to exposed wood and metal – its like painting the golden gate bridge, (or forth road bridge depending on your location) the maintenance never ceases.

On the new palapa sundeck we add another line to the plumbing to prevent a washing machine located there from becoming the main feature. They also install a shiny new breaker (fuse) box for the palapa sundeck and I am glad to see they have installed a strong, capable looking box with multiple switches without needing prompting. Excellente!

On Tuesday my house plumber/electrician arrives early (plumbers here are always electricians! and vice-versa). I joked previously about him disappearing but he is in fact a very dependable guy. A forward thinker and one of my key workers. He chooses to be a plumber but can also turn his hand to other trades.

We had worked out that we may be able to remove more of the maze of plumbing pipes in our dive equipment drying area while installing our new “whole house” water filter. Im also installing a backup to our tankless water heater … overkill you might think but you can never have too many backups on Cozumel! I stress the need to leave me with water on at the end of the day. I have lost my water supply from the well while the pool work is in progress and will only have a trickle of water from the street supply until he is finished. I say this tentatively, knowing my plumber’s home is a rental and entirely without power. He will need to manually haul water for everything at his house.

The difference between the extranjero (foreigner) lifestyle and that of the locals is notable. There are so many levels of lifestyle here and yet we all seem to mix without envy or animosity. The Cozumel crime rate is extremely low. It’s a western arrogance to assume everyone wants to be us. The more humble lifestyles here show us how much pleasure we have lost in our convenience and wealth driven search for that “better life”.

And since the tone today seems to have become meditative, I will leave you with a slice of culture from this side of the world.

A poem by - Jorge Luis Borges
(get your hankies out… !)

Instantes (Moments)

If I were able to live my life anew,
In the next I would try to commit more errors.
I would not try to be so perfect, I would relax more.
I would be more foolish than I've been,
In fact, I would take few things seriously.
I would be less hygienic.
I would run more risks,
take more vacations,
contemplate more sunsets,
climb more mountains,
swim more rivers.
I would go to more places where I've never been,
I would eat more ice cream and fewer beans,
I would have more real problems and less imaginary ones.

I was one of those people that lived sensibly
and prolifically each minute of his life;
Of course I had moments of happiness.
If I could go back I would try
to have only good moments.
Because if you didn't know, of that is life made:
only of moments; Don't lose the now.

I was one of those that never
went anywhere without a thermometer,
a hot-water bottle,
an umbrella,
and a parachute;
If I could live again,
I would travel lighter.

If I could live again,
I would begin to walk barefoot from the beginning of spring
and I would continue barefoot until autumn ends.
I would take more cart rides,
contemplate more dawns,
and play with more children,
If I had another life ahead of me.

~~~~~~~~~

A cheery little tome that actually goes on to become even more poignant (you can look that up later should you please) ... a bit of food for thought!

Lazy weekend on Cozumel.

2006-07-19T09:29:00.000-05:00

On Saturday I wake at 6.00. I read for an hour or so while having my morning cups of tea and use the Franklin to re-remind myself of some words from the day before. It’s raining quite heavily outside, but that is of little consequence. It’s the rainy season, the air is still hot and the rain will end in a short while. I don’t even bother to bring the hammocks in. Im certainly not in Glasgow any more!

On making my morning round of the work I notice that one of the small windows in stair/ceiling support is going to overlap the line of the stairs. The stair support is not just cinder (breeze) block it’s filled with concrete for even more support and it might prove difficult to change. I consider options

Scrapping the idea altogether – not good, we want to try and get some natural light in the pool equipment area.

Putting some glass blocks (vitroblock) in – that would work.

Before tackling the builders with a problem its good to have a few options up ones sleeves. (not that one wears sleeves in this heat!). The workers need to keep moving and there is little time for indecision.

Stop to ponder … and all eyes are on you, awaiting your command. Ask for a day or so to think and they may take off for an unlimited period to work another project – not a good thing. I asked my house electrician to give me time to think on Tuesday and I haven’t seen him since. (I think I still have the upper hand though – I have a hostage - his workbag is still here.)

My builder checks the window when he arrives … no problem – we will just chip a chunk out of the concrete later. In my pre Mexico-building days I would never have guessed concrete would be so easy to work with. I swear, it’s probably easier to mess with than drywall (plasterboard).

I pop out to run around the usual suspects and check out washers and furnishings for the new palapa sundeck. When I return I have the place to myself.

To absolve any guilt of a whole afternoon doing nothing I spray arms and legs with “H24” (deet insect repellant – the mosquitoes are always worse in the evenings) and go out to paint our new dive rinse tank. That done, I lay on the couch, open a Sol and uninterruptedly watched two whole movies, without interruption, on the golden channel … golden bliss! (am I anti-social or what!).

Sunday is a beautiful sunny day. No workers …so I get social again and am a tourist for the day. The beach beckons - nuff said!

Photos to follow shortly …

Shuffling money and shopping.

2006-07-17T22:43:00.000-05:00

Today was mostly about shuffling money. Since I lost my other card in the card eating ATM I am now down to two, the latter never tested here so I am experimenting.

Fortunately the new card worked and I was awash with cash until the palapero showed up and asked for the usual half up front for materials. I had also to make sure I could get enough out the machine for the workers to get their cash at the end of day on Friday/Saturday. The lost card is a significant speed bump to my financial planning and has me on tender hooks now listening anxiously for the churning of fresh the cash each time I use the ATM.

The builders here on Cozumel always prefer cash when available. Cheques take time to process and don’t have the same safe “bird in the hand” feel about them. Credit cards sometimes work for materials but for building work… forget-about-it!

At the end of the day I go up onto our new sundeck for the first time ever and survey the work. (re first time visit - it’s a heights thing!) . We mark the power outlets. Our builder suggests two, maybe three – but we are gringo power hogs and so we mark six outlets and three lights. Always easier to put these things in place during the building process than mess it all up later. For the same reason we went for a water supply line to be installed before the floor was leveled.

I briefly note we have a very good view of my neighbours garden from our sundeck … this will need to be addressed later … but for now it’s a whole new breezy world up here and its looking really good!

We then check if our washing machine will fit the maintenance hole under the stair. When they leave I continue the measuring till sunset and then retire around 9 for a very welcome shower and beer.

Friday

I awake at 5.30 with thoughts washing machines and at sunrise I am back out measuring – the weather is much cooler in the mornings – its always a very pleasant time of day here on Cozumel.

Many are already up and so there is a bit of movement on the street. My neighbour’s workers who start at 7.30 arrive and start chipping away at their project – another repair to a damaged wall from Wilma.

I finally come up with a chalked out plan by 9. Washing machine upstairs and a storage area with side access door for pool equipment. Maybe some little windows – I have a louvered window left over from another building project that will be ideal – things often seem to come together on Cozumel but you do need to keep on your toes and think ahead.

When I measure up I find that the height of the deck and the height of the stair may eventually be a problem for the taller gringos so when the builders arrive we have some more serious measuring to make sure all falls nicely into place. I have an aversion to a spiraling stair option so for aesthetic reasons… and because I want it that way… we eventually decide on a plan that means more elevated guests will have to beware. (“duck or grouse” as the saying goes). My builder suggests helmets at the foot of the stair!

Around two we set off to order a boatload of plumbing and electrical items at Boxito … the bill is high but they take American Express, so all is well! We also get some estimates from two guys in town who supply the necessary items for pool set up and maintenance. One had the lower prices but the other takes the now melting Amex card… it’s a tough choice! We will probably opt for the best of all worlds - a bit from both.

To your average shopper I guess this sounds like a short trip …pop into town, run up a couple of estimates … and spend the rest of the day at the beach – a cakewalk! Not so on Cozumel – the whole venture took the majority of the afternoon. On returning we had still to decide how to add some natural light to the pool maintenance and storage area – probably using vitroblock.

Now vitroblock is one of those things to love on Cozumel. They are thick glass blocks that come in multiple patterns and colours. They add a bit of light in the most awkward of situations and are used pervasively here. Between the three of us we eventually hammered out a solution – the vitroblocks will be hidden within the “vista maya” wall under the waterfall area – it sounds great in practice – will work out well in reality… of course it will!

As if that’s not enough for the day, we also tackled the problem of how to avoid the ease of visibility into a neighbouring garden from our new sun deck… a courtesy taken seriously here on Cozumel. The options were limited … we probably needed to raise our already towering 10’ wall another meter. Less than a meter would not be worth the scaffolding and extra man hours required. It was a decision that needed to be made before the pool was built … alterations after would just be too much hassle … but … the extra meter would be on the boundaries of a hurricane hazard …it would need more support. Since Wilma everyone is treating hurricanes with way more respect. Ok, ok so … we need more varilla (rebar) … so we need more columns.

Our builder draws a very decorative design involving three Colonial columns with adornments. The whole thing suddenly becomes a joke in its extremity of embellishment. The father suggests a mural of dolphins and divers and fish and I throw in the suggestion of concealed spotlighting … we are all beginning to get quite carried away.

Eventually we consider a two column decoration … the all-important hurricane defying varilla will cleverly be concealed in this adornment and we will consider ambient lighting, colonial arches, murals and sky pointing laser lights “à la los angeles” later … the price is the thing for now. The workers, who have been waiting very patiently while we fantazise, are all paid and leave for the day.

The sunset looks good so I venture off for a hiatus to take a few snapshots.

If you would like a desktop size version of any of these shots - just drop me a line to blog at casa olivia (all one word) dot com

Decisions, decisions, decisions.

2006-07-17T00:50:00.000-05:00

On Tuesday morning the palapero (the guy who builds the thatched palapa roofs) dropped by. For the record, my builders are a father and son team. The son speaks good English, his father speaks slow enough for me to follow with my limited “building Spanish” vocabulary but the palapero spoke at over 100mph without even breathing. Clear instructions are important here so we called the builder for assistance. Within the hour my builder, the palapero and I, had finalized a design I was very happy with. The palapero will also quote me for replacement to our little palapa guest house roof (concrete with decorative palapa topping), which took a beating during Wilma and right now is looking like a bad Beatle haircut (– yes I am a boomer!)

That done my builder and I then went off to Boxito (Bo-shi-to), a well know building goods supplier here on Cozumel, to choose the pool tiles. Here in Mexico it is better to tile a pool. Painted pools have problems when the effects of intense sunlight and pool chemicals cause the paint to start peeling. This will eventually get your filters blocked and require a repaint in the long run. The labour costs are lower here too so the tiling work is cheaper. So although the tiles cost a bundle - in the long run tiles are your best bet for a longer pool life! The downside is that unlike paint, once in place, tiles are pretty well permanent. And at that price ... they will be staying!

The supplier Boxito is probably about as close to Home Depot (Great Mills) as you are going to get on Cozumel. I strangely enjoy my visits there. It’s a very different place since Wilma though … its all poshed up now and has a huge new bodega (storage area). Ah …the supplies, the possibilities - I told you I’m not a sunning myself-on-the-beach gal, and anyhoo, suntans are so passé these days!

After some humming and hawing and a bit of hands on checking through the boxes of tiles in the bodega ( they dont always know what they have in there), we finally chose pool tiles. My builder showed great patience while I wrestled with the choices.

Anyone who knows me well will know that I am a "decision challenged" person. When in doubt I usually prefer to leave decisions to the nearest person available ... strangers included! In the past I have had a whole wall of newly installed tiles removed when I forced a decision then decided they just didn’t quite fit my vison.

This decision understandably took the wind from the sails of the builder who had just installed them that previous day! Gobsmacked was putting it mildly, but he took it with good humour and agreed my new choice was much better. He benefited well later, when we made a deal and he took them home. Returns do not go down well here - (especially tiles just peeled off a wall!) so unlike back home, where returns are a walk in the park - when you make your choice here ... you are usually stuck with it.

Craters in the Garden and Card Eating ATM's

2006-07-17T00:15:00.000-05:00

We finally arrived on Cozumel on Friday to start the nitty-gritty work on our pool. We had hoped to start a week earlier but our builders were not going to be available and a second date was stymied by the airline deciding at the last minute to cancel the flight.

Once we dropped off the bags we went out to gawp in admiration at the extra deep crater in our back garden. I say extra deep because we have ventured further into the karst (limestone and dead coral) than most do.

Mi esposo, the diver, wanted a place to check his dive gear so we are intending to go for two meters (6’ 6”) at the deep end to accomplish this. Going deeper than around 4 feet is no easy task on Cozumel as the island’s karst core is literally rock hard. It took a three weeks of digging and drilling to clear the depth we wanted. While we were happily swanning around in Virginia our neighbours were probably getting pretty desperate but thankfully they all still seemed pleased to see us return and there were no complaints to our builders.

We hadn’t helped matters much ourselves by choosing a site which was originally a circular ten foot by one foot deep concrete patio with a whacking great 45 foot royal palm in the middle! The grand old palm had long past bitten the dust, mid hurricanes Emily and Wilma but its roots were pervasive. (Actually biting the dust is is putting it mildly – but that’s a whole other story yet to be told).

Saturday was a half day for the workers so for the first few days we hung out as tourists generally enjoying the house, the weather and the food.

On Sunday my bank card was swallowed up by the ATM outside one of the main supermarkets on the island. This was a serious dent to my financial planning but I had backups in place and my management company has a chunk of change I wired while the pesos was high so all is still far from lost . It will just require a bit more juggling now.

Life never flows smoothly on Cozumel but backups and perserverence usually help you to endure the bumps.

The story so far …

2006-07-16T23:18:00.000-05:00

We finally bought our home - Casa Olivia - on the island of Cozumel in 2005. Since 1998 we had been spending a lot of time in the Caribbean, and like all tourists on vacation, had often daydreamed of homeownership in these exotic locales.

When we decided to try to make our dream a reality our research was extensive. Considerations, too numerous to mention in this short introduction, figured in our choice. We had already enjoyed many vacations on Cozumel and felt it would definitely hold our interests for years to come, in the end there was little competition. We signed a contract in the early spring and have never looked back.

We had origionally planned to purchase a turnkey, income producing, part rental, part vacation home. We would then upgrade it gradually and maybe sell it further down the road but, as with many well-laid plans, we threw all our ideas out the window when we instantly fell in love with a little casa in Corpus Christi. Our house is in the Gonzalo Guerrero neighbourhood of the town, the area more commonly known to the many gringo renters and settlers here like us as Corpus Christi, because of the Corpus Christi Church and a park, just footsteps from our house.

For the record … the esposa is the planner/blog writer and general web nerd, who prefers a the building site to the beach (unless there is Sol and food involved). The esposo is the diver/tourist who prefers to enjoy the final product of the building work rather than pariticpate in the execution (and preferably after a dive!).

And so … we are now in the process of adding, upgrading, and generally re-styling our house to be the “home away from home” we had always wished for.

Stop off here from time to time or at Casa Olivia and find out more about trials and tribulations, ... and ultimately the pleasures of home ownership on Cozumel.

A note to readers:

I intend not to mention particular names or products here … it seems poor form to mention that or those who may not know they have been mentioned. If that seems excessively formal for a blog, it probably is … but i'm a Brit ... and we do formal so well!

If you want any info on the unmentioned, do drop me a line either to "myblog at casaolivia dot com" or at CasaOlivia.com and I will (probably) be happy to answer. But be warned, spam me, or add me to one of your joke of the day lists ... and very bad things will happen to you!