No Longer Homeless - Well at Least for Four Months

We are in Ajijic!  What a day we had getting here!

We left Saltillo at 7:30 a.m.  The GPS said we should be in Ajijic at 5:30.  OK, so a 10 hour drive.  And that is without long breaks.  So we knew we knew this would be a tough day.....no long stops.  But we had yogurt, cheese and crackers, and of course Matt had lots of sweets so we were prepared to just drive without stopping for lunch.

After harping about the GPS yesterday, I must say she really came through for us today.  I had jotted down some directions I found on a blog and we used those, the map and the GPS.  She was nearly spot on....of course when she failed us was when we needed her the most....but more on that later.  It was a trip listening to her trying to pronounce the very Mexican street names!

The roads were all great and the scenery was beautiful.  Although we were very near the mountains for at least eight hours of our ten hour drive, we didn't have any seriously steep grades....although steep enough to concern Matt.  He is NOT a mountain driver!  Nor does he make a good passenger in the mountains!  The speed limits varied, sometimes we the max was 80 kilometers, then it would jump to 100 and then 110.  And then after about 1/4 of a mile it would go right back down to 80.  Never seemed to be any rhyme or reason why they changed so often.  Unlike in the US, probably about 95% of the drivers respect the speed limits.  And aI would say 99.5% of the truckers follow the limits.  The truckers were the most respectful and safe drivers on the highway....wish it was that way at home.   On level grades, I'd try to get behind a truck and just match there speed...then no need to worry about the constantly changing speed limits.  On steep grades this was not an option, the trucks were lucky to go 30KM an hour up hill.  But they were almost always in the right lane on four lane highways and on two lane highways they always signaled the cars behind them when it was safe to pass.

We came to two police checkpoints today.  At one, he just asked where we were going and for how long and then let us through.  At the other checkpoint, he waived us over to the side where they were searching cars.  There was a car in front of us with Texas plates and a young hispanic driver.  He was getting a thorough search of his car.  We were both thinking "Oh Crap!"  Not that we had anything to hide, but we definitely didn't want to empty this car.  But the police officer came up to our car, asked where we were going, why and for how long.  Then he opened the rear door, stared into Hermann's crate, looked at all the crap we had in the car, and told us we were good to go!  Whew!  Big relief.

And we drove and drove.  We ran into a little rain, but nothing like the first day.  Matt had driven all of the first day in Mexico so he was ready to let me take the wheel.  I probably drove about six of our ten hour drive.  I really never knew this about Matt before, but he's a pointer.  Whenever there was some confusion about what ramp to take, he'd point and say "here" or "there".  NOT a good option when you are trying to drive in a foreign country where you have no idea where you are going!  I kept saying:  "right or left????"  or maybe you could say I was yelling "RIGHT OR LEFT???".  Then next time we came upon the same situation, he'd point AGAIN!.

All went fairly well.  The GPS at this time still said we'd arrive in Ajijic at 5:20 and we were scheduled to meet the property manager at the house at 6:00, so all was good.  We were tired but hanging in there.  And then we hit Guadalahara!  This is where the GPS had the most trouble, there were multiple ramps going multiple directions and some highways running side by side and she couldn't figure out where the hell we should be.  Whatever the reason, we missed the ramp that would take us to Chapala and ended up in downtown Guadalahara!  At rush hour!  Of course I was driving.....and Matt was pointing.  Let's just say this was a nightmare I never want to go through again.  But after about 30 minutes we found our way out of that mess and were back on the highway to Chapala and Ajijic.  We found the town of Ajijic OK but couldn't find the street our house was on. Months ago the owner had sent me a map of the town with the location of our house marked on it.  I used to keep it pinned to the tack board at my desk as a reminder that we'd be there soon.  So I had that memory, but not the actual map.  We drove around aimlessly for a bit and didn't find the street so I stopped at a restaurant for directions.  The man I spoke with was great, he even had a map.  Our street is Privada Guadalupe Victoria and he showed me where Guadalupe Victoria was.  He just didn't know where Privada Guadalupe Victoria was.  So we found Guadalupe Victoria no problem, turns out the privadas are small dead end streets that run off the main road but we quickly found a Privada Guadalupe Victoria.  It was a very narrow, very Mexican street with a mix of Mexican and ex-pat homes...which is what I expected.  But we couldn't find our house #.  Our house # is 26A and there seemed to be no logical order of house numbers.  We'd see a house # 4, and next to it would be house #16.  There was a lady on the street, Spanish speaking of course, and I asked for help.  She said this wasn't the correct privada, there was another Privada Guadalupe Victoria a few blocks away.  Lots of one way streets in Ajijic so we had to go back up to the main road, circle around and we found our privada and our house!  So happy and it was only about 6:05.  Problem was, no one was there.  Our property manager, Coco, seemed to have forgotten about us!

The sweet little Mexican lady across the street came out of her house and greeted us......along with about three chihuahuas....all of whom hated Hermann on site!  Poor Herm, this was his first time out of the crate in four hours and he was being attacked by a pack of yappy little Mexican dogs.  Not a great welcome for him.  Our new neighbors son came outside.  he's about 18 years old and speaks excellent English.  He asked if we knew the property managers #.......no I didn't but I had her email.  He offered to let us connect to his wi-fi (yes, even this small simple mexican casa was set up for wi-fi) so we could email Coco.  Coco had told me that emails went right to her mobile phone and if we had any problem finding the house to just email her.  So I set up on the neighbor's wi-fi, sent Coco and email and waited.  No response.  My very sweet little neighbor lady offered me "agua fria" or "el bano", so kind.  I had gone inside their casa to set up for wi-fi and inside there were at least six more chihuahuas (more mellow than the ones that had attacked Herm) and about three or four cats.  I didn't feel I could stand in their house indefinitely, although they were very welcoming, so Matt and I decided to find a cafe (by this I mean bar) that had wireless.  Luckily we found one right away.  I ordered a glass of wine and we each ordered a slice of quiche.  The sweet little server brought Herm and dish and a big bottle of water.  We connected to the wi-fi...still no response from Coco.  So I emailed the owner of the house who lives in Las Vegas asking for Coco's telephone #.  Then Matt had the idea to get the phone that we use for the Magic Jack and try to call the owner.  He got it set up, I called the owner, he had already received my email and was in the process of sending me Coco's #s.  Very helpful and concerned, but by that time I had an email from Coco saying she'd be at the house in five minutes.  We had the server box up our quiches, loaded our computers and telephone and the dog back in the car and went back to the house.

Remember I said how narrow the street was on the first privada was?  Well, this one was no different.  When we returned we couldn't drive down it because another car was on the street.  Matt let me off at the corner and Herm and I walked down the street to our house.  The doors were open and Coco was there, we stepped inside and into this peaceful, serene little slice of heaven.  Eventually, the other car backed out of the street and Matt was able to drive down.  When he walked in he felt the same way.  The house is beautiful and the garden out back is perfect.   This house is a perfect choice!  We spent some time with Coco checking out the house and then we unloaded the car.  At this time I was barelly functioning.  Matt however, had gotten a second wind and was ready to go.  Finally I told him, I need wine NOW.  So we left the house and walked the few blocks to the grocery store.  We bought a few groceries (mainly coffee and cereal for breakfast) and a bottle of wine for me.

When we came back home, Matt opened the wine for me and we went up to the roof top terrace.  Sunday is Cinco de Mayo and fireworks were going off all around our neighborhood.  The dogs across the street were barking and we could here our neighbors chattering away.  But all seemed perfect to us!

Now....we need pictures.  I took tons of pictures on the drive down.  And we need to take pics of this house.  But I can't find our new Ipod Touch which is what we used for the pics.  I hope it just fell onto the car floor and is under the seat, or stuffed in my backpack somewhere.  And that I didn't loose it!  But neither of us had the energy or desire to look for it last night.  We just wanted to enjoy our new home.  Hopefully we'll find it today!