01-Oct-2009 8:50 PM
Yesterday we left the Bay Area and headed east to a new Bum friend’s house for a little work on the car. This new friend just happened to have a ’64 Porsche parked in his garage and had offered to help me replace our windshield seal. He estimated it at a three hour job. Three hours later we were about a third of the way done. The reason for doing this now was that the original seal was leaking and we really have no idea where we’ll be parking the car once we get settled in Mexico. If it’s sitting outside with a leaky windshield it’ll turn to solid rust in no time.

The understanding wife in this household cooked up some steaks for all of us and we soldiered on. Eventually finishing the job around midnight. Needless to say the ladies had all retired a bit earlier. We had fun making new friends and learning a few more things about 356s.

02-Oct-2009 9:55 PM
Driving out of Discovery Bay we had every intention of heading back west towards the coast. But when we cracked open the atlas all we saw were lines and lines of highways and major cities in our way. Looking east we saw mountains and desert. Easy choice. And it turns out a great one. This was one of the best couple of days driving we’ve had.

We traversed the Sonora Pass at 9600 feet and climbed a 26% grade in the process. A lot of people worry about these old cars at altitude. The thinking is that the thinner air will cause them to run rich and lose power. But just like with the bus we didn’t have any issues.

Really the only issue of the day came when we decided to start looking for a hotel. The first stop was a small town just a bit north of Yosemite National Park. Cost for a run down pink door motel room here was $140. That wasn’t happening, so we continued on. Out here on the 395 the towns are spaced about forty miles apart and it was getting late, so at the next town we told each other we’d just have to pony up. So we get to the next town right at the entrance to the park itself and surprise, surprise, there isn’t a room left in town. We eventually found a room in Mammoth Falls and fell almost immediately to sleep.

Today the ride was great. The Eastern Sierras are beautiful. We love the desert, especially when there are huge jagged mountains rising up right alongside of us. The scenery was just fantastic. Unfortunately the beauty eventually ended and the interstate highways got in our way again. We got off as soon as we could and cruised into Palm Springs.

Another Bum friend contacted us last week and offered us their gorgeous rental home in Palm Springs for a few days. Free! Umm, yes. Please. Thank you. So tonight we’re kicking back enjoying perfect desert weather with mountains rising up over the swimming pool. Nice.

02-Oct-2009 11:09 PM
Three months to go and Ali and I are both ready for our baby. Ali’s starting to find sleeping a little less comfortable and is already wishing she could lie on her stomach again.

05-Oct-2009 9:14 PM
It’s a little frightening just how little we’ve done the past three days. Friends give us a beautiful desert home to enjoy and we turn into sloths. We did little but hang out by the pool, catch up on email, and watch the Twins and Vikings play. Anybody with a Mexican beach house looking for housesitters? Because we’re really good. No fires and no burglaries during our entire stay. And it can get pretty rough here in Palm Springs.

I did make a couple of halfhearted efforts at solving the car’s backfiring issue. From everything I’ve been told this isn’t a big deal so much as it is annoying. Decelerating on hills with my foot off the gas the car starts popping. Scaring women and children to death. And in the wrong neighborhood drawing some return fire as well. I got some sort of epoxy for mufflers and sealed up the joints, hoping this is where air was getting in and causing the popping, but on the road it proved unsuccessful. I’m not really sure what to check next.

We went to McDonald’s yesterday and spotted a pretty funny sign. There was a newspaper box right outside the front door and on it was a sign advertising what its big Sunday paper in-depth article was about. In bright red and yellow, with a big picture of a box of french fries the headline read, “Who is supersizing our kids?” Hmmm? I wondered how many Macca’s managers had walked right past that headline on their way into work.

07-Oct-2009 5:35 PM
From Palm Springs we drove to Phoenix where we spent last night with friends eating tacos, drinking beer, and discussing their upcoming cruise around the world. They’ve got a big fifty-five foot steel trawler with a three thousand gallon gas tank that they’re planning to charge around the world in starting next month. And people thought we had a pretty cool boat? That hulking beast can go places that we wouldn’t have dreamed of. Think about the route that’s now opened up across the top of North America. That’d be sweet.

After leaving them we cruised just down the highway a bit to my uncle’s winter place just south of Tucson. Ali and I are loving the way we’ve managed to zip across over two thousand miles of the U.S. while only spending a couple of nights in hotels. I’m starting to wonder if we could manage to hop across the entire lower forty-eight without a hotel room. That’d be a fun little challenge.

Right now we’re waiting for our title to arrive. About two weeks ago, after nearly two months of visiting with family, Ali suddenly realized that our title for the Porsche had a different license plate number on it. When we switched over our BUMFZLE plates we neglected to have them issue us a new title like we should have. Around the States this wouldn’t be an issue, but trying to cross the Mexican border with paperwork that doesn’t match up with the car would be nothing but trouble. So anyway, we sent off for a new one, attaching the extra fee for expedited service, and were happy to find that the Department of Motor Vehicles actually accomplished this task in just one week. Yeah, I know. The DMV doing good work. Crazy.

So this morning Ali suddenly decided that maybe she didn’t feel like going to the city anymore and that she was in the mood for the beach. As in no more Mexico City and maybe a lot more Pacific Coast. So now instead of heading over to El Paso and cruising down the heart of Mexico we’re going to cross just down the road here in Nogales and zip straight to the Mexican beach towns that we all know and love.

We’ve actually found ourselves a little nervous about what it is going to be like to settle down. Even if it is only for a few months until we decide what is next. Next is something we’re really not even trying to predict, knowing that any plans we make before having the baby will probably completely change the minute there is three of us. The problem right now is that the two of us can’t seem to stay in one place for more than three days before we’re chomping at the bit to move, to do something else, and to see what is around the next corner.

So we’ll see what happens. Fortunately Ali is doing great and is traveling easily. We’re just going to cruise down the coast, check out some different homes and hospitals, and stop wherever we feel comfortable.

Yesterday we were at a rest stop and as I was walking along I came sort of face to face with the dark skinned maintenance guy. It was one of those sort of awkward moments when your eyes meet a stranger’s and you have to say hello. Know what I mean? Anyway, instinctively I said, “Hola.” But right away I thought that it didn’t quite feel right to say that. I looked over at Ali and she was just rolling her eyes at me. So back in the car we started talking about whether it was okay for me to speak Spanish in the U.S. She said no, especially without knowing for certain if the other person even spoke Spanish, but I didn’t think it should be a big deal. So we argued that back and forth for a while and then as we came over a hill we spotted a sign saying, You Are Now Leaving such-and-such Reservation. Indians? Oh. Crap.

09-Oct-2009 7:14 PM
The big day. Time to cross the border. We were up early this morning and on our way. First stop was to buy insurance. We’ve gone both ways on this in the past, getting insurance and not getting insurance. Everyone says you have to have it in Mexico but the truth is that nobody asks. Unless of course you end up in an accident. Then if you don’t have it you can pretty much count on at least a few days locked up. We decided this time that getting locked up wouldn’t be such a great idea so we sprung for the ninety dollar six month policy. I’m sure it’s excellent coverage.

From there it was just down the road to the border. We breezed through without getting searched by customs and then stopped at the Kilometer 21 checkpoint to get our tourist cards and vehicle permit. On our way into the office I told Ali to try and not look so pregnant. She tried holding her purse in front of her but that just made it look more obvious, so then we just had her walk right behind me. I wasn’t really sure what their reaction would be to an obviously very pregnant lady getting a six month tourist card would be. Fortunately the officer didn’t even look up from his desk, stamped our papers and sent us on our way.

Driving out we just had to pass through customs one more time. They pulled us over this time and asked if we had any DVDs or electronics. We lied on both counts and said, “Nope.” The agent scanned the inside of the car and then apparently decided that southbound smugglers probably would drive something with a little more cargo space and he waved us on.

We were in. For some reason it’s always a small thrill when we get into a new country. It feels sort of like we’re getting away with something we’re not supposed to be doing.

Not too far down the highway we made our first taco stop. Anybody who doesn’t like Mexico must never have had carne asada tacos at a roadside stand. We were in heaven. Just looking at this picture makes my mouth water.

The car got more attention than we expected. Nobody knows what the heck it is, but they all know they want one. First a cop flagged us down at a tope and asked us, “What is this cars name?” I thought about telling him Amarillo, but giving the car a name hasn’t really worked for us. We still just call it the car. Anyway, I told him it was a Porsche and he then offered to buy it. And I suppose with cops you just never know, he very well may have been able to afford it.

At the taco stand a half dozen waiters surrounded us before we had even set the parking brake. They quickly offered to buy it as well, but we laughed it off and told them, “No se vende.” So since it wasn’t for sale they asked if they could just take it for a little drive. That got some good laughs all the way around.

Our original plan had been to stop in Hermosillo but we were making such good time that we decided to continue a bit further on and stop in San Carlos along the coast. The guidebook had made this place sound pretty good, if not a bit on the touristy side. But driving in we thought the place looked crap. And after a couple of hours here we’ve determined that our first impression was right. This is one of those places that despite being on the water you can’t really get anywhere near the water. Honestly I just don’t understand how some of these places get a reputation and manage to bring in tourists. If we were booked for a week here we’d fly home six days early. On the plus side our hotel did give us free drink vouchers. Ali’s pregnant so that means more for me. Tomorrow we move on.

10-Oct-2009 9:10 PM
In the past few days we’ve had four people come up to us and tell us that they used to have a 356. Key words there: used to. Have I mentioned just how awesome my uncle is for keeping this car for thirty years. My mom selling him this car back in the seventies was a very, very good thing. Why is that? Because moms don’t hang on to awesome cars, they sell them and buy SUVs. I’ve probably never mentioned that she sold her ’65 Mustang to a stranger when I was twelve years old. Our other car at the time was an ’81 Chrysler LeBaron. Brown on brown. Sweet choice that one. Proceeds of the Mustang went towards a Chevy Blazer. And the rest is seating for six history.

On our way through a toll booth today I heard a guy in the next booth over yell something to our booth operator. Our guy then yelled back over his shoulder, “Volkswagen!”

11-Oct-2009 6:08 PM
From San Carlos we drove to El Fuerte. The highway along this stretch was mostly uninteresting flat scrub with the outline of mountains in the distance. Eventually we turned off the highway onto the little used road leading up to El Fuerte. So little used in fact that there was no sign along the highway marking the turnoff. At least on our side of the road. Fortunately we’re hip to their games down here and know to always turn our heads and read the road signs on the opposite side of the highway as well. That’s where El Fuerte’s sign was. Presumably only drivers headed north need to know this.

We particularly liked this road sign for all that it implied.

El Fuerte was meant as little more than a staging point for our train trip up the Copper Canyon. But in the end it turned out to be a cute little place with a pleasant town square. And our hotel choice was excellent as well. Put that room on the beach and we’d spend a year there. The icing on the cake for this stop was dinner at a red plastic chair street corner place where we ordered some sort of cheesy steak quesadilla contraption with all the fixings. Just two of them and I went away feeling as if I had really overdone it.

This morning we had a tour group surround us in the parking lot by the car. There had been lively debates about what year it was with the consensus being ’67. Not bad. They told us about their tour, where they had been and where the bus was taking them today. Talk then turned to Ali’s baby bump. When it eventually became known that we were not driving north but were headed south and planning to have the baby in Mexico one of the guys actually choked. Literally. Like on television when somebody chokes and grabs the wall while trying to catch their breath. That was this guy. That gave us our laugh for the day.

When we finished packing the car back up we headed for the door to catch a cab to take us to the train station. But just as we did that we caught site of a clock on the wall. It was 8:40, not 7:40. Somehow we never seem to know the real time. This time it cost us. We missed the speedier first class train. But at 10:15 the slow train would be rolling out. Unperturbed we grabbed some coffee and took our time leaving the hotel. About half an hour before the train was due we had a cab bring us to the station. And about one minute later the train rolled in. We came that close to missing both of the day’s trains.

We were a little nervous about the large crowd of locals that had shown up for the train. We started having flashbacks of our train to Paris sitting on the floor next to the toilets for hours on end. Thankfully though there were enough seats to go around this time.

Now for the train ride. Everything we had read about this train ride claimed it to be one of the world’s greatest. Copper Canyon is supposedly two times deeper and four times longer than the Grand Canyon, though much less accessible. It all sounded great. Unfortunately we just didn’t see it that way. Sure it was nice, but ninety percent of the ride was spent staring at trees or rocks ten feet from the window and the other ten percent was pretty standard mountain views. Nothing truly extraordinary. Pleasant but not awe inspiring. We were seven hours into it before we finally looked at each other and shook our heads.

Right near the end of our trip the train made a stop in Divisadero where we were told we’d have fifteen minutes to gaze out into the canyon itself. This was to be the only actual view of the Barranca del Cobre. Unfortunately the overcast day chose this moment to open up and pour the rain down upon us. Soaked to the bone and the view was socked in by rain clouds. Not good. On the upside, the market stalls served up some heavenly gorditas, salvaging a little something of our trip.

We reached the end of our line in Creel. And here I realized that the authors of Lonely Planet’s Mexico guidebook took extraordinary liberties in their descriptions of virtually everything pertaining to, well, Mexico. At this particular moment Ali and I are lying on our seventeen dollar bed in our rundown hotel debating whether or not to make the run through the rain across the outdoor courtyard to the bathrooms. A quote from one of us tonight: “We’re getting too old for this.”

Okay, chin up. Tomorrow we will have blue skies and an upbeat attitude. We’ll sit on the other side of the train and will be blown away by what we missed on the way up the mountain. And, worst case, at least we’ll get a few more of those blue corn tortilla gorditas.

12-Oct-2009 10:38 PM
It was still pouring this morning when we woke up in our tiny hovel. Eager to escape we waited for the rain to let up and then sprinted down the road through the flooding streets to the train station. Our train didn’t leave until 11:15 but we still felt 9:30 wasn’t too early to be there.

We were full of smiles when the train arrived right on time and we got good seats on the right side to actually see the few views we were hoping to get a glimpse of this time around. An hour later our smiles faded as we pulled into Divisadero and found the view of the canyon completely socked in by clouds. The gorditas were fresh and delicious however.

About two hours later the train stopped in some random tiny town. And there we sat for two more hours. We were scheduled to be back in El Fuerte in about an hour but that wasn’t going to happen. One of the conductors got on the microphone and broke the news to us. The rains had caused three landslides across the tracks up ahead. He told us we were looking at a four hour delay. Actually a friendly local told Ali and I the news since we were the only two gringos on the train and he was the only one who spoke English. Shortly after that announcement he came back with even worse news. They weren’t going to be able to clear the tracks today and they were sending the train back. After nearly six hours we were being turned around.

The thing was, the town we were sitting in had absolutely no outbound roads. They were out in the middle of nowhere connected to nothing. We couldn’t just get off the train and take the bus because there were no roads. Really the only option was to return to Creel. From there it is possible to take buses back to El Fuerte, but it would be a huge journey way up north and then back south again and would probably take about three times longer than the already long train journey. Our options are extremely limited.

One of the things that struck me throughout these announcements was that not one Mexican seemed the least bit perturbed by any of this. Nobody raised their voice, nobody argued, nobody demanded refunds. Nothing.

The train did turn around eventually but we didn’t arrive back in Creel until ten o’clock. Eleven hours on the train and we were right back where we started. And it was still raining. We hustled down the street past last night’s hovel right to the Best Western. But we couldn’t afford that so we backtracked to a place right smack dab in the middle of the two.

The problem now is that there is no guarantee that the rain and landslides will stop tonight. Which brings us to the real problem. This was supposed to be about a twenty hour mini adventure on the train. We packed accordingly. Meaning we have nothing but our laptop, our camera, and the clothes on our backs. Being proactive Ali just washed undies in the sink. Seriously, this train journey has not been worth a tenth of the headache it has been. But without times like this I suppose we’d have nothing to look back on and laugh about.

At one of the stops today there were a few ladies selling fruit and hand woven baskets. The guy sitting in front of us went outside and bought a few things from them and then came back in and gave us a small basket. He didn’t speak English but said, “A souvenir.”

13-Oct-2009 8:55 PM
Yep, more rain this morning. We were a little nervous as our hotel manager lady took the initiative and made a bunch of phone calls for us this morning. But when she was finished she assured us that the trains were running. Still a little unsure we went straight to the train station two hours early, along with everybody else in town. I don’t think anybody wanted to spend another foggy wet day in Creel.

The train arrived and it was a mad rush for the door. Ali still got in first and when she told the conductor where we were going he gave us the bad news. The tracks were still blocked and we could be stopped anywhere from one hour to four hours to another day. He was trying to get us to stay in Creel another day, but we were just nodding happily. One hour, no problem. Four hours, fantastic. Overnight on the tracks, sounds perfectly acceptable to us. We climbed on.

At the stations the past couple of days Ali has been getting all kinds of attention from the local ladies. One lady pulled her shirt open and, looking at the belly declared, “Nino!” This has been the consensus from very early on in this pregnancy. It’s a boy. Which only leads us to concentrate all the more on girl names.

An hour in we stopped in Divisadero for the fourth time. And for the fourth time we did not see the gigantic gaping hole of a canyon. But for the third time we gorged ourselves on gorditas. This is really what made all of this worthwhile. Well, that and this cute little girl.

A couple of hours in the sky finally started to clear and the views forced us to reconsider our earlier appraisal of this train journey. While we still don’t think it really ranks all that high, it was much more impressive this time around. Being able to actually see it helped a lot. And I’m sure some hikes out to the canyons wouldn’t have been half bad either. Amazing just how much weather can play a part.

The train never did stop. The tracks were cleared and we made it back to El Fuerte just an hour or so late. Not bad at all. Our car was still in the hotel courtyard, and our favorite room was still available. So after just twenty-seven hours of riding the rails we are right back where we started from. Cost: train $195, hotel (2 nights in El Fuerte/2 in Creel) $164, gorditas a buck a piece.

14-Oct-2009 7:58 PM
Today was another relatively uneventful day. Highway 15 doesn’t hold a whole lot of interest for us, but it is about the only way to get ourselves south to the plethora of towns along the Pacific coast. The gateway to those is Mazatlán, and that’s where we find ourselves tonight.

We arrived in town and drove by our first three hotel choices based on our guidebook. We are now thinking about throwing this Lonely Planet in the garbage. Honestly, we’ve used Lonely Planet for every country we’ve ever visited, and it can be off base sometimes, but it always hits the high points and usually points us in the right direction. This latest edition has just been terrible though. Every hotel seems to get a glowing review or just some noncommittal babble. Anyway, point is, today’s hotels were not what they were touted as being. Finally, tired of driving back and forth along the waterfront, we decided to circle back to the Howard Johnson. Yep, HoJo’s.

The shocker came as we pulled into the driveway out front of the place. There sat a slightly worn Porsche Speedster. The car turned out to belong to the owner of the hotel, and the hotel turned out to be having a half price month. Done. If you’d cut into us you would have found us to be too well done too. Ninety-five degrees and humid as hell. Can’t imagine why the rooms are so cheap.

14-Oct-2009 8:14 PM
Ali’s got a rash. A perfect square on her left side that looks as if she slept on a mattress with a stray piece of wicker lying on it. Today was damn hot on the road though, so we’re thinking it has something to do with the heat. And we’re thinking that we’ve got to get our windows tinted. Or I just might screw the tint and paint them black. Even the windshield. We completely forgot what it is like to drive south all day. There is simply no escaping the sun.

14-Oct-2009 9:46 PM
A few days back a Bum friend emailed us a possible solution to the car backfiring. He thought it could be something as simple as a leak at the intake manifold. I took a look and could see right away that he might be right. I put a wrench on the bolts and one of them gave a tiny quarter turn. That was it. And now a few hundred miles later the popping is gone. We haven’t scared an old lady in days.

15-Oct-2009 8:04 AM
Woke up and Ali’s wicker rash is gone. So, yippee.

15-Oct-2009 6:09 PM
Mazatlán. Let’s face it, this is tourist central. It’s not an easy place to pretend that you are in real Mexico. Everybody wants to speak English to you and quote you prices in American dollars. You can’t fight it. We spent the morning at the pool and then made our way down to the Old Town. There we ate fish tacos, checked out the church, and wandered through the market. T-shirts, pig heads, and more t-shirts. All right, Mazatlán was okay for a little sun, but we’re going to move on tomorrow. We don’t have room in the car for any t-shirts.

16-Oct-2009 7:47 PM
I don’t think we’ve ever had a hotter drive than today’s. This was the first time that I actually kept one eye on the oil temperature gauge. It got pretty high but never tipped over too far. The two of us were soaking wet though. When the extent of the air-conditioning in the car is a triangle window and the temperature of the road is well over a hundred it’s tough to keep cool. Thank goodness then for Oxxo. The 7-11 of Mexico, and the only reliable place on the road to cool off.

We ended up the day in Chacala. A one dirt road town at the mouth of a beautiful bay. We got a room on the beach, changed into swimsuits and ran for the water. The Pacific was like a hot tub. Honestly that is the warmest ocean water I think we’ve ever been in. It still felt great but the cold shower afterwards is what really did the trick.

Later on we walked around town a bit. Everybody wants to discuss the pregnancy. We were talking to one local lady for a few minutes when she asked Ali to spin around for her. And her diagnosis? “Nino.” There just doesn’t seem to be any hope for a little Nina.

17-Oct-2009 7:53 PM
We liked the little town of Chacala, but for some reason just can’t seem to sit still. No place is really feeling quite right. So today we went just an hour down the road to Sayulita. We were there a while back in the bus and seemed to think it was an alright place to hang out. But today when we went back we drove through town and must have had ten people make the, “Ahh, I see you are an idiotic tourist. Welcome. How can I help you?” speech to us in English and we just said to ourselves, “Nope, this place has gone full scale tourist.” And we drove right out of town.

Another fifteen minutes along was Punta de Mita. We thought this place was a little further off the gringo trail, but we were wrong. We drove in, had a dozen frantically waving restaurant touts call out to us in English, and drove right back out again.

This just isn’t what we’re looking for down here this time through. Which is our problem I guess. What we’re picturing just might not exist anymore. Perhaps back in the 70s, but maybe not now. So what are we looking for?

First off we need relatively quick and easy access to a good hospital. Which means being within spitting distance of any of the many large cities in Mexico. We’d like there to not be many other gringos around. We can’t stand walking down the streets and finding ourselves surrounded by conversations being conducted in English. We’re finding this not so easy to do along the coast (these were both major reasons for our initially leaning towards Mexico City). Except of course in the tiny towns which tend to be quite far from the hospitals. And we’d like a nice clean one bedroom place with plenty of grungy local restaurants and shops nearby. This one seems doable if we can just meet the first couple of stipulations.

Anyway, we got back on Highway 200 and zipped into Puerto Vallarta. Yes, a major tourist hub, but one that’s also got an Old Town and lots of old school Mexican resort character. A few miles north of the city center is Marina Vallarta. This is where the best hospitals are located and also, according to our internet searches, an absolutely perfect one bedroom apartment a couple blocks from the beach. Unfortunately when we drove through the area we realized that all it is, and I mean all it is, is a gringo enclave. Gated condominium developments, high rise hotels, and shopping malls. I can’t imagine what we would do there for months.

We drove into Old Town though and instantly could see that the place still had possibilities. A maze of one way cobbled streets, palm shaded plazas, cathedrals, markets, and taco stalls. Now the trick appears to be finding ourselves an apartment.

It looks like the Category 4 hurricane that is raging offshore almost directly west of us right now is going to stay out there and continue bearing down on Cabo San Lucas. Good news for us. And some might argue after visiting Cabo, good news for Baja.

18-Oct-2009 7:37 PM
First thing this morning Ali and I drove over to Amerimed Hospital. There are a few of these “American” hospitals scattered throughout Mexico and according to what we’ve read they have a very good reputation. We went in and talked to a nice guy who gave us the name of a baby doctor who speaks English and delivers babies at the areas private hospitals. Turns out that Amerimed’s new building isn’t finished yet and they aren’t equipped to deliver babies, but all the doctors sort of float between the three nearby private hospitals. Anyway, we’ve got more research to do, but from everything we’ve found on the internet and what we’ve seen so far we feel pretty good about the process.

Afterwards we went to walk around Old Town a bit. Basically trying to decide if this is a place we can see settling down for a few months. After a little while I looked over at Ali and said, “What is our problem?” Jokingly of course. We usually make decisions like this in the space of about an hour. Cruising? Took just one discussion. Buying a boat? One afternoon. VW bus? Bought online without ever even seeing one. Having a baby? All right, that one took about twelve years. Renting an apartment for four or five months? Days and days of excruciating discussion.

We’ve obviously got issues. Commitment issues. Not with each other but with committing ourselves to responsibility and settling down. I suppose that’s a good thing in a way. It shows that we actually do give some real thought to those things that we deem important. That’s what we’re telling ourselves anyway.

After our walk we decided that Vallarta probably was the best place for us. It’s got the good private hospitals and English speaking doctors. It’s got a Walmart for baby stuff. It’s got the beaches. And it’s got the food stalls and grubby back streets that help make a tourist town feel as if it is still there because the locals are going about their own lives.

19-Oct-2009 9:20 AM
A bunch of Bum friends just emailed us these little gems. We’ve always said the Charter Cats folks were crooks. Now the proof. This reminds me of all the “expert” advice we got when we were dealing with these people. A lot of people slammed us as just being ignorant first time boat owners and actually defended Charter Cats. Or gave some really bizarre suggestion such as shipping the boat back to South Africa and having CC cut the boat in half and apply an entirely new hull. That was our surveyors suggestion.

Instead we bit the bullet ourselves, had the boat fixed properly in New Zealand, and published everything we had about the ordeal in order to help other sailors make an informed decision regarding this company. It’s nice to know that we were right about them from the start and that we didn’t just sit back quietly. If we had, and all these people got ripped off, we might feel bad for them.

As it is, I think anybody who did any research on Charter Cats knew exactly the risks they were taking in dealing with them. We showed clearly that this was not a company that took its customers best interests to heart and that they built substandard boats. Honestly I’m not sure why anybody continued to order boats from them. Anyway, I have to admit, the thought of these two going to jail does bring a smile to my face. Here’s the link back to 2005 when we were dealing with our Charter Cats boat falling apart. Charter Cats Correspondence

Yacht-selling couple on fraud charges
Published in: Legalbrief Today
Date: Mon 19 October 2009

Cape Town yacht-selling couple Paul and Nicole Hough have appeared in the Goodwood Magistrate’s Court on charges of fraud and theft involving millions in connection with defrauding international and local investors.

A Saturday Star report says the two were also charged with contravention of the Organised Crime Act. Their arrests follow allegations they sold luxury yachts and timeshare to investors but did not deliver on the sales, or sold sub-standard products. The couple had been investigated since last year by the now defunct Scorpions, and their case was one of 288 investigations handed to the Directorate for Priority Crimes Investigations (the Hawks) by the Scorpions. The report says they were released on bail of R25,000 each and are due back in court on 8 December.

And another:

South Africa yacht brokers charged with fraud
By IBI Magazine

Two yacht brokers in Cape Town have been charged with fraud in connection with three companies they operated. Paul and Nicole Hough were also charged with contravention of the Organised Crime Act. They were released last week on bail of R25,000 each.

According to a story in The Star, the couple allegedly sold yachts and charter vacations, but did not follow through with the charter services or sold faulty vessels. The couple had interests in Charter Cats (Pty) Ltd, Multihill Builders CC and International Yacht Brokers (Cape) (Pty) Ltd.

Charter Cats, which operated for years in Durban and later in Cape Town, was liquidated in 2007.

Buyers of Charter Cats in the US and other countries, according to the story, complained about defects in their yachts after delivery. Investors in the company reported the couple to South African authorities after suffering what they claimed to be huge financial losses.

Police Captain Frederick van Wyk told the paper the Houghs had used company funds to finance their personal lifestyle. More arrests in the case could follow.

19-Oct-2009 5:19 PM
I love that Ali and I are thirty-five years old and still get excited about signing a lease on a one bedroom apartment tomorrow. It makes me feel like we’re ten years younger than we are. Plus, I am sort of proud of the fact that we have continued to live our lives in such a simple laid back way. “I’m pregnant! Great! Let’s get a six hundred square foot apartment and settle down for four months! Great!” Hugs and kisses all around.

So this morning a real estate agent we contacted a couple of days ago picked us up to show us some places. The first one was high on our list to see. A block from the beach, a walled in parking lot, washer and dryer, only six units in the building, and virtually brand new. All for well under seven hundred bucks. The only downside was that it was a five minute drive from the Old Town. The upside of the location was that it was directly across the road from the hospital we will likely have our baby in.

After that we saw a bunch of places in town with two different agents. Some were absolute dumps, some were fairly nice, some had terrific views, some didn’t seem to have any windows. One thing they did have in common was that they were all more expensive than that  first place we saw.

By the end we’d seen eight places and had a decision to make. A $650 one bedroom with great furnishings, parking, and a block to the beach. Or a one bedroom with a great view in the neighborhood we wanted, but with furnishings that we wouldn’t be too thrilled to lie our heads on, for a thousand bucks. In the end we decided that chances were that during these next four months we would probably tend towards being homebodies. So we gave up the cool neighborhood for a quiet sort of non-neighborhood and a couple hundred extra bucks in our pockets.

Tomorrow we move all of our stuff in. We’re not going to hire movers.

19-Oct-2009 6:44 PM
On the baby front, Ali is feeling great. No problems, no cravings, no soreness. Nada. Last night I laid my head on her belly and had the baby grind his elbow/knee/foot into it for ten minutes. There really isn’t a whole lot else happening. About three times a day he or she gets uncomfortable and rolls around and around. We just sit there and watch it like a television show.

20-Oct-2009 8:37 AM
Ali realized this morning that we’d been robbed. It was bound to happen eventually. Everybody knows how ruthless and thieving these Mexicans are, right? Yeah, so we went out to the car this morning and Ali spotted it. Our little chrome tire valve covers had been swiped. Ninety-nine cents just gone. Seriously though, the funny thing about this is that we were already missing one. Unless this kid has got an early 80s Honda three-wheeler at home he just committed a pretty worthless heist.

20-Oct-2009 8:31 PM
We’re in. We met the agent in the morning and spent two hours filling out documents. We paid our money and then went over to the apartment to go over the checklist. One GE refrigerator, check; one glass topped kitchen table, check; two decorative pewter bowls with potpourri, check; three Asian style statues, check. They got everything on that list and Ali and I had to promise not to steal any of it. As much as we might want to.

Maid service was supposed to be included twice a week, but we went ahead and told them not to bother. Ali’s the type of person that the minute the maid had walked out the door she would get out her cleaning supplies and redo everything the maid had just done.

Which is essentially what she did for the next six hours. Cleaned the house and made it ours. As much as she could considering we arrived with only two bags. This is the first time we’ve settled down in a very long time and should be a good test to see if we can avoid accumulating things. Cost: apartment $685 per month plus gas, electricity and internet. Walmart stop $78.

Hurricane Rick has put a damper on the weather down here. We’re hoping the clouds clear out in the next couple of days and we can get into a beach routine.

21-Oct-2009 4:34 PM
It’s been raining so hard for so long today that our plumbing no longer works. Cars in the street out front have water over their wheel wells and we are thankful that our car is parked in a raised parking lot another six feet up. Biggest issue with the rain for us is that we can’t get out to get any food. We had one bag of jalapeno popcorn, but we’re going to have to supplement that eventually.

22-Oct-2009 4:03 PM
Tried to make our doctor appointment again today. Keep catching the doc in her car and being told to call back in the morning. She’s always really nice about it though. Yep, I think we’re going to like her.

24-Oct-2009 3:32 PM
This morning we met Dr. Laura. The first thing we thought was, “Oh crap, what is she, like twenty years old?” When she asked us later if we had any questions I asked, “Um, yeah, so how many babies have you delivered?” She smiled and answered, “I know, I look really young. I’m actually thirty-five though. It’s a good thing for me in normal life but a terrible thing for my profession.” She then went on to tell us that she’d delivered over five thousand babies, many of them in a public hospital in Mexico City before moving to Vallarta a few years ago.

Anyway, the first thing we did with her was an ultrasound. The baby looked very good. Weighed just shy of four pounds. Normal and healthy. However there was one problem. Ali’s placenta is sitting in the wrong spot. Apparently it should be sort of up above the baby, but instead it’s sitting low near/covering the cervix. If she were to go into labor today there’d be no choice but to have a c-section. The good news is that there is still time left for the placenta to get into position. The doctor told Ali she needs to crawl around on her hands and knees ten minutes a day and she gave us a prescription for something that is supposed to provide the placenta with more nutrients. So with a little luck we’ll get things in order inside there.

Overall we were happy after meeting with the doctor. She was nice, to the point, and seemed competent. She gave us two hospitals to check out, gave us the pros and cons of each, and explained how everything would work. And we agreed to get together in a couple of weeks for a Doppler scan to have a better look at how everything is lining up inside. Today’s ultrasound was the kind that only a doctor can seem to decipher. Like, that blob there is this, and that blob is that. So hopefully at the next appointment we’ll get a good look at our baby and will have better news on that placenta.

On our way out we paid our bill for the visit and ultrasound. How much? Five hundred pesos. About thirty-eight bucks. I’ll talk more about the costs involved as things progress, but even more importantly to us is the fact that before we even met her I was calling her directly on her cell phone. And she actually answered. She’s told us to call any time with any questions or concerns we might have. We’re very happy with the personal service.

Ali actually said this yesterday when we were sitting around, staring at the cloudy skies, and feeling a little bored, “I hope this baby’s a pain in the ass. I need something to do. What if it just sleeps all the time? I’ll be sitting there going, come on, wake up.”

25-Oct-2009 7:00 PM
Surprisingly today was our first day spent on the beach since we moved in. The beach is directly across the street behind some kind of timeshare or hotel. We can’t really figure out what the building is. To get to the beach actually requires us to walk about three blocks because of the wall of impenetrable buildings. But once out there, just off to the side of those buildings is a nice stretch of sand left all alone. There are three huge condo towers being built there, but condo towers don’t generally build five hundred thatch shelters with two chairs apiece like the hotels do, so I think we’ve found our spot for the foreseeable future.

Sometimes having access to the internet can be a bad thing. For instance, when a doctor gives you some news but tells you not to worry about it just yet. Well immediately you go home, hop on Google, and worry about it. She didn’t specifically call our problem placenta previa but that’s how we self-diagnosed it once on the internet. Because that’s what we all do these days. So despite the fact that there was nothing we could have done to prevent it and there really isn’t much we can do to make it go away, we get on the internet horror, oops, I mean internet health sites and what do we do? We worry. We’re trying not to, and deep down we both know everything will be just fine, but there is just no way to not think about it.

We went to a little restaurant down the street that made fresh salsa for us right at the table. Awesome. Smoking hot. And free as long as we eat something, which we did, and which was also pretty damn good. Now we’ve just got to find some fish tacos and we’ll be all set.

Speaking of food. There are guys all over the Pacific Coast beaches walking around selling shrimp kabobs. We’ve eaten a lot of sketchy food in our time, but eating warm shrimp on the beach is too much. Even for us.

25-Oct-2009 10:03 PM
Just captured a lizard in the bedroom. Sounds dirty, but I really do mean a lizard. Captured and set free in the great outdoors once again. Success. Now Ali can sleep.

26-Oct-2009 10:06 AM
Two days ago our apartment ran out of gas. Natural gas. One of our projects for today then was to figure out how to get somebody out here to take care of that. Then this morning Ali was standing out on the patio and noticed that a gas tanker was filling up the hotel across the street. I wandered down there and told the guy we were all out in #2. No problem. He finished up the hotel, came over, shot in 300 pesos worth and we were done in five minutes. I love how simple these things always seem to be down here.

Although for a couple of days we also had our eye out for a water truck. Didn’t see one, which was unusual, and had to go pick up a couple five gallon containers in the Porsche instead. Gas, water, and internet. We’re all set.

27-Oct-2009 11:46 AM
We just visited San Javier Hospital, a private hospital that is one block away from us, and we are very happy with it. It’s a small place but one entire floor is dedicated to babies. We were shown the suites, the nursery, and the ICU, and it all looked and sounded top notch. Sparkling clean. And just downstairs is the ER and all the surgeons and specialists needed should there be any complications. We’ve got one more hospital to check out, but there would have to be something pretty great about it to get us to not chose this place.

The lady showing us around took one look at Ali, smirked, and asked, “So when is he due?”

28-Oct-2009 4:30 PM
So today we visited the other hospital, CMQ Premier. This was another private hospital, with maybe twenty rooms total. Despite the small size though they’ve got an ER, a nursery, ICU, all the good stuff that you’d expect in any large hospital. Just without any of the people. It’s really amazing how you walk into these places and feel as if you are in some sort of spa. Everything is marble, the rooms are all big private suites with giant spa like bathrooms. It’s just overwhelming how nice everything is. And the cost is almost laughable. Roughly a hundred and fifty bucks a night. For everything. Including the operating room, the nurses, and all that jazz.

I shouldn’t say for everything. The doctor’s fees are separate. But they are pretty mind blowing as well. I’ll wait for the baby before talking more about all of those, but I must say that not having the financial side to worry about, and having such awesome facilities and doctors available, makes having a baby down here feel like a no brainer.

Today we actually ran into another norteamericano at the hospital who is due in about a month. Turns out she is with Dr. Laura as well. So we got just another little boost to our confidence in our choice. She was also the very first person to guess we were having a girl. The unsolicited tally is now 138 to 1.

Anyway, this hospital was about fifteen minutes away and seemed pretty much the same as the one right across the street, so we’ll be going with San Javier instead. Overall we’re feeling totally confident with regards to all the baby stuff. Now we just need to kick back, relax, and watch the next eight weeks fly by.

Oh, at the Doc’s office the other day we received a new due date of Dec. 26th. About a week earlier than expected. I need to Google Boxing Day and figure out once and for all just what that day means.

Okay, done. It’s historically been a day to give to the less fortunate. Though it appears it has lost almost all of that tradition. Wikipedia now basically touts it as a shopping day in which stores have big sales and open at five a.m. Yep, that sounds about right these days doesn’t it?

29-Oct-2009 10:14 PM
A friend just informed us that our high school now has seven policemen on duty due to drugs and gang fights. When we went there a four foot ten inch, sixty year-old lady named Mrs. Henry was the only one employed to keep the peace and try to catch us sneaking out the back door at noon on Friday to start our weekend keg party a little early. Even when she did catch us she’d just laugh and tell us to get to class. What must she think of Tartan High now?

30-Oct-2009 4:29 PM
At the beach today Ali and I made ourselves comfortable in our sort of random out of the way area that we like. About fifty feet away were a couple of other bums. Real ones. Sleeping next to their bottles of home brew. Yeah, I know, we always pick the nicest places to hang out.

After a couple of hours their shade disappeared and they began to stir. When they got up to walk down the beach they wandered over to us. We of course thought, “Here we go. Some drunken chit chat and then a sob story for money.” They came right up to us all egg yolk yellow-eyed, shirtless, and shoeless, and asked us in Spanish if we were having a boy or a girl. We said we didn’t know. This made them happy, “Ahhhh, sorpresa!” A surprise. They congratulated us and walked off. A surprise indeed.

Later we were walking down the street and within one block, out of the three people we passed, two were pregnant ladies. I don’t think I ever even noticed pregnant women before. Now it seems like every girl I see is in the pudding club.

31-Oct-2009 8:36 PM
The beach sunsets here are pretty great. And pretty much everyone in Vallarta comes down to watch them. Ali and I went out and sat for a couple of hours tonight and just watched all the happy families pose for the obligatory sunset in the background photos. I thought we took a lot of pictures. We watched three women take at least 300 cell phone pictures of each other in thirty minutes.