Cat Fight!

About a week and a half ago, at our little house we had initially rented in the hill, I was woken up in the middle of the night to the guttural sounds of a cat fight. Right away I scanned for Diego, who was not with me in his usual sleeping spot in bed! Yikes! I rushed to the window and called him, interrupting the cat fight. He came inside shortly afterwards, and as soon as he got in, i had the light on and was pinning him to the bed to try and see if he was the one who had gotten into the fight. He was! His little ear had some blood on it, and he was terrified. I cleaned him up as best as he would let me, put a little bit of antibiotic on his ear, and figured we'd wait and see.

Well two days of him hiding in the closet, and I decided on the third day that if he was not better, we were going to the vet. We came home from painting at the new place to find his ear covered in blood and he smelled of infection, from two wounds I had not previously seen.

Search for vets online.
Call. No answers. It is 3:40. Siesta is over at 4:00.
Wait 20 minutes. Ugh.
Call at 4:01 the vet that is closest to our new place. They pick up!
Do they accept cats as patients? Yes!
Can I come right now? Yes!

Grab cat carrier, favorite fleece blankie and Diego and into the van and off to the vet we go.

I now realize, on the 7 minute drive there, that I have no vet vocabulary. I have his vet records from Canada from before we left. That's it. I don't even know if the definition of cat fight is different for the cat version versus the version between women.

We arrive. How to describe the event which has brought us to Dr. Diez?

Me: Hace quatro noches... MEOW, KSSS, GRRR, WREEE!!!

(You must imagine me trying to intimate a cat fight, hands curled into claws, scratching, making these weird cat like noises...)

Ralph and Diego look on sadly. The vet says, "ah, si".

She then asks a series of related queries, in Spanish, which we are able to answer, miraculously. She says she is going to get some supplies and she'll be back. When she comes back she tries to clean the wound and Diego is NOT happy. She looks at him and I ask her if she would like to give him a sedative. I am presuming the word is roughly the same: sedativo.

She says yes, and then has a long look at him and then tells me she is wondering if it should be by injection or gas.

What a second! We're talking about the same thing, here, right? You are just doing to sedate my cat, not put him to sleep, right? How to ask this? I stumble around the words "para calmar" and "no para dormir pour la vida" and she assures me that no, she is not going to euthanize my little fur ball, just chill him out so she can shave him, clean the wounds and assess the damage. She wraps Diego up like a little burrito in his fleece blanket and as she is carrying him to her surgery, she tells us we can come back in 30 minutes.

We go for coffee in a failed attempt to pretend we are fine and not worried.

Thirty minutes later we are back with a partially shaved and very stoned Diego. Dr. Diez explains that there were actually several puncture wounds, and one on his ear actually went right through the delicate ear skin. He was quite infected and will be on strong antibiotics and pain meds, and she will see him again on Saturday, please.

Time for the bill. Ralph and I hold our breath as she calculates it. In Canada, we estimate we would be talking roughly $600 or more.

She shows us the figure. 410 pesos. The rough equivalent of $35 Canadian. Amazing.

Just imagine the story she told to her family that night at dinner!

Lights and Gas

We just sort of moved in last night. This means that we slept in the new house and brought over the cat (Diego). We still have clothes and a few other things at the little house in the hills that we rented for 3 weeks while we got established.

Established is a big word. I will consider us established when we can cook on the new stove. Let me back up a little here.

Last Friday which was our second week in Oaxaca we received the keys to the apartment. I call it a house because it has four floors. Maybe an apartment because we rent. Anyway, we received the keys late in the day.

First off we discover that the upstairs bathroom door is closed and locked. We do not have the key to unlock it which means that we need a locksmith. So on last Saturday we go to Home Depot (yes we have one here) and buy a new door knob, a light sconce and 2 track lights for the kitchen.

I drill out the key hole to remove the old lock on the bathroom door. Boy! That metal is hard. But while I was trying to drill out the lock I see that the plate over the knob cab pop off and then the whole lock can be easily removed. Lucky me.

Next is the installation of the track lights. The 2 existing kitchen lights are bare bulbs that dangle on the wires protruding through a round hole in the centre of a square metal plate.

No problem I think, just snip off the bulb par, keep the wires and attach the new fixture using the screws that hold the square plate in place. Oh, oh! The screws are set wider apart than the new fixture. I have a fix for that, just drill 2 holes in the plate the right distance apart and screw the fixture bracket to that. Super. Oh, oh! The bracket now covers the hole where the wires protrude. Okay then. Let's drill two holes in the plate beside the bracket large enough for the wires to come through. Note that I was not stupid and did the drilling while the metal plate was attached to the ceiling. I removed the plate and did all the drilling outside.

After that it was easy to attach the light.

The fridge and stove arrive on Monday. That's a good start. But I have to connect the gas to the stove so off we go to the handy dandy hardware store that has everything. That is, if you know the Spanish words for things. But with pictures that I draw and the manual for the stove I get the connectors, the flexible hose and an adjustable wrench - we are good to go.

Back home I connect the stove. Now let's turn on the gas. The gas (propane) tank is on the roof. So Tanya and I take the circular iron staircase up to the roof with the plan to have Tanya open the valve while I go back downstairs to check for leaks using soapy water. Great to have a plan. Oops! The gas valve does not budge. We are stopped. Let's call the landlord to get the valve open.

Days go by and no response from the landlord. But good news, the beds arrive on Thursday. Fantastic. We decide on Friday night to sleep over and bring the cat. I'll get the gas resolved in the morning.

Ah ha! I get the gas valve open but too bad-no gas in the tank anyway. So we call Gas de Oaxaca who will deliver gas sometime. I cannot understand the gentleman's reply of when the gas will arrive. Maybe this morning or afternoon. Maybe never but I will stay home and wait.

Good news though. After waiting all day yesterday for the cable guys to come and install internet and TV access they arrive this morning at 9:30 am and we had service by 11:00.

So here I am, Saturday afternoon sitting alone in our kitchen waiting for the gas to arrive while Tanya is out at the fabric store getting materials to cover all of our windows. Maybe we will be established by nightfall.

Between 11:30 and 4:00 on Sunday. Yeah, right....

Last week and this next week will be filled with moving. I am so sick of moving. In preparation for moving to Oaxaca, we have sold three houses in 18 months, moved 4 times, staged 2 of the three houses, which means stuff in and, sometimes, out of storage, and more cleaning and scrubbing, painting and curtain hanging that a normal-ish person would do in a lifetime. I have lived in boxes, in limbo, for way too long.

Interesting, Ralph and I are stressed about such different things. Ralph about actually living here, me about getting Ralph to understand that we need furniture. We decided to not move the majority of our furniture here, as the cost to ship was about the same as it will cost us to replace.

(Let's take a moment here to talk about the word replace. Finding a sofa in this town that is not one of those overstuffed things that scream "bachelor pad" is like finding a needle in a haystack. Same for chairs. Small side tables - no such thing. I may toss in the towel and buy an 80 inch TV - you can get one of these at the grocery store - and really bad furniture and call it "guy chic", but not for another week!)

The apartments here do not come with a fridge or a stove, actually no hard appliances at all. You cannot buy a dishwasher here, by the way. Takes employment away from someone. It is also common to take your laundry out to have it done for you. Inexpensive, but not a lot of customization options, like if you want your pants shrunk, they can do that in a snap. Hang something to dry? Use soap? Nope, not a chance.

Now, at home when one orders appliances, you are given an inconvenient delivery time that spans the entire day. Someone either has to work from home or take the day off. And if you are lucky, and the stars collide, nothing goes wrong and the appliances are delivered, and they fit, and the delivery persons take the garbage away.

Ha, ha, ha. Right. I ordered appliances on Thursday. After the fiasco of ordering them (this deserves its own post, but in short, sales kids who know nothing about their products, a cashier who doesn't believe I live where I live, and Mastercard who block the international transaction, todo en espagnol, por favor) the cashier lady says they will be delivered on Sunday the 9th, between 11 and 4:30. The 9th? Sunday? Really? Yes she insists, the 9th!

Well guess what? No appliances.

What are the chances my mattresses will be delivered on "Wednesday or Thursday" and that they will call me 1 day before delivery?

Start the laugh track now.

Typical... For us, anyway

We have found a house to live in. Although we put the deposit down on it today, and we get the keys on Friday, we had initially looked at the locations last Thursday, October 30th, about 3 days after actually arriving in Oaxaca and selected it one week in, so all things considered (like nothing happens here work wise for the entire 4 days of festivals for the Day of the Dead) not bad overall.

I had been hesitating posting about our new house because I wanted to get a Day of the Dead/Tour Research post in here. Then I thought it had been WEEKS since we had posted and I realized in has only been about 5 days.


We selected charm and location over renovated. I am pretty sure the sight of the place as it is now would send many of our friends running to their budget spreadsheets and reworking their numbers to figure out how they could pay more rent or, heaven forbid, live out of town. Perhaps because we have owned homes before, and renovated 3 and built a 4 season bunk house from scratch, the roughness around the edges of this place does not have us that concerned. And there is a Home Depot in Oaxaca. Wait. That was worth saying twice. There is a Home Depot in Oaxaca. Can I get a whoo hoo, please?

If the condition were not enough to scare the pants of the well seasoned, the work to be done in the short timeframe might. We need to clean, clean, clean, paint almost the whole house, put in a new faucet and shower head in the bathroom as well as new light fixtures, decide what to do with and subsequently arrange to do that to two of the three bedroom floors, select and order furniture and appliance and have them delivered, talk each other out of the 70 inch television, arrange to have gas delivered and the stove hooked up, arrange internet service and possibly phone service... And a few other odds and ends... In 10 days.

Typical Tanya and Ralph, right friends?

United States to Mexico Border Crossing

I am usually nervous when crossing international borders, it is the unknown aspect. Like, are we going to be detained and will we be stripped searched? No reason for any of that to happen but I am the negative person always anticipating the worst.

Flying into Mexico has always been simple and fast but driving a vehicle into Mexico requires that you stop and fill out forms. You may drive into Mexico without an import permit if you do not intend to stay long or travel very far. Apparently there is a distance limit which is enforced by a check stop along the road about an hour inland.

So, first of all you have to pay the United States a toll (maybe it was $3.00) for crossing their bridge to Mexico. Next you are presented with overhead signs indicating the lane you should take: Nothing to Declare; Self Declaration; and Automobile Registration.

We took the Automobile Registration lane and drove around a corner where we were greeted by a traffic guide who pointed us in the right direction. We parked and he came over and pointed us to go inside. Inside there was another helper who pointed us to the Migration counter. First step is to gain personal entry to Mexico. This was simple, just fill out a document like the examples over on that desk and then come back. We did this quickly and returned to the counter. The immigration officer took our forms and only asked where we were headed and when was the last time we were in Mexico. He stamped our forms and sent us to the payment counter where we were to pay the entrance fee of 306 pesos each for visas.

Off to the payment counter where we also had to get and pay for the Temporary Import Permit for the car. This took awhile. We provided originals and copies of my driver's license, vehicle registration and passport.

The young man at the counter was very pleasant. When I said in my limited Spanish that my Spanish was so-so he replied that it was okay as he spoke English. As he took copies and filled out forms on his computer we chatted about our trip. At one point I asked Tanya if she would get me a coca-cola out of the machine. Of course it takes pesos and we didn't have any yet. But, not to worry, the officer offered me a 10 peso coin. I offered him a US$ but he declined saying that the coin was a gift. Now, how nice is that? Don't see that at border crossings.

We paid the fees: 306 pecos each for the visas and US$400 for the vehicle permit. The US$400 is refundable if we exit the country with the vehicle within the 180 days as is
our visas.  We take the receipt back to the immigration officer where we get our visas.

That's it. Simple as that. We put the vehicle permit sticker on the windshield and off we go.

It probably helped that it was 7:00 am on a Sunday morning and there was no one else in line.

Planning for the drive, the scary stuff

Some people believe in God, or some sort of divine being. Others believe in the Universe, others in fate, others in a mixture of things learnt throughout a lifetime of living with some sort of faith. Others  don't. This, what you live today, is "it". Ralph is the later. I fall into the "God" category, with some other stuff mixed in for good measure. So when I say things to him such as "God is sending us a message that we should not be traveling through Mexico on Saturday." I generally get a bit of a look.

Our plan for our Mexico leg of the trip was pretty simple. Drive the same route that we drove in 2009: Austin to Ciudad Victoria on day 1, Ciudad Victoria to Vega de Alatorre on day 2, and then through Veracruz to Oaxaca on Day 3, with a short stop to see family in Cordoba along the way.

Snag: The pet friendly hotel we stayed at in 2009 in Victoria was booked solid for over a week, no availability and no other available alternatives.

The other city that is within a daytime drive of Austin is Tampico. Let the research begin. Well, the research scared the pants off me. Gang run city, drive by, broad daylight shootings, no one lives in the city centre anymore except the poor, abandoned buildings... scary stuff.

I then looked at the US and Canadian government websites for travel warnings. More scary stuff, but the advice was consistent. Don't drive at night, and leave your pink diamond wedding rings and other associated bling, along with your Mercedes SUV at home. Got it.

We had a few options, but we decided to drive to Brownsville, Texas on Saturday and stay there overnight, then drive a long day on the Sunday so we could get deep into Veracruz (and relative safety at a hotel we knew and liked). This kept us driving entirely daylight hours through the north of Mexico.

I also put in place a security plan with my sister and the Canadian consulate network in Mexico. I had been through putting these together as part of my job for international workforces for many years, but having to put one in place for myself was really... Scary.

Here is what the security plan looked like:

From Sunday morning, once we cross the Mexican border (estimated time is between 7 and 8 a.m), we will text you approximately every 60 minutes. If you can respond to the texts to assure us that they are being received, we will continue to text. If you don't respond, we will call you after 30 minutes. If we miss 2 check in times, please try to call us at 416 407 4601 every 30 minutes for the next 90 minutes.

If we fail to respond, please contact the consulate in Monterey to advise them. They will need to liaise with local police according to their usual protocols.

http://www.canadainternational.gc.ca/mexico-mexique/offices-bureaux/index.aspx?lang=eng&menu_id=18

Vehicle is a blue grand caravan, 2010, Ontario plate BVRC 665. Our travel path is in a screen shot attached. Basically the 101 and the 180.

I also registered on the Registrar of Canadians Abroad (ROCA) database and emailed the consulate in Oaxaca with our travel itinerary.

As you all know we arrived safely in Oaxaca, I am presuming you have two questions: was it scary, and did my sister have a nervous breakdown?

From the border all the way through to Tampico, the road conditions were excellent and there is a lot of military and federal police presence. By a lot, I mean you see military convoys (2 to 3 jeeps with 5 to 7 heavily armed troops) about once every hour, and you also see federal police stops at almost every gas station, and then about every hour as well. We were waived through the roadblocks in all cases. In each instance the officials were friendly and courteous.

We had cell service almost the entire way, so the hourly check ins went well. When we were going through a particular mountain pass (by Xoxotitla) and our hourly text message was not going through, we knew my sister would not activate any consulate assistance for several hours of failed attempts, and we were confident we would be back into a cell zone within that time frame., and we were.

Our lovely GPS guided us right through the centre of Tampico (ugh) but it was fine overall. I am very glad we did not stay there, there is a roughness to the town I have not experienced anywhere else in Mexico, but driving through in the middle of the day on a Sunday meant lots of people were around and it felt reasonable to be there.

Road conditions deteriorated quickly after Tampico, but safety obviously increased, as military and police presence dwindled at about the same rate the potholes got deeper and wider.

Would I do the drive again - yes, and following all the same steps we did this time. I felt secure in my plan. I would stop, though, at one of the many hotels along the Costa Esmeralda, as it was just about getting dark when we driving through there, but I did not want to waste time going from place to place to see if they accepted cats.

Before we left, our friends frequently asked us if Mexico was safe, and I always used to answer that Oaxaca is incredibly safe, which is still true. However, now I would add that they should please fly to come and see us, and not drive through the north of Mexico if not necessary.

United States Border Crossings

I thought that our border crossing into the United States deserved special attention. We are often asked how difficult it is to cross these borders in a vehicle and with a cat. Generally it is very straight forward.

The first border crossing was on a Wednesday morning in October at Philipsburg, Quebec south of Montreal. Traffic was extremely light. We stopped at the Duty Free to buy cigars. Sixty-five cigars to be exact. Then off to the border crossing.

Two lanes were open and only one car in front of us. Perfect, we should be on our way within 90 seconds. But no. We ended up with a chatty officer. He asked where we would end our day and I said Albany, N.Y. He asked where our final destination would be and I said Oaxaca, Mx. This did not seems to raise his interest. Tanya also said that we had a cat with us and if he wanted to see our Record of Good Health documents. No that was fine he said.

Next he asked if we had any fruit or food which we indicated, no. Then he asked if we had any alcohol or tobacco. I said that we had just bought cigars at the Duty Free. I did not say anything about the 12 bottles of wine and port we had with us. Well, the cigars perked his interest. He got out of his shack and walked around to the passenger side of the van. He opened the side door and peered in. I pointed out the bag with the cigars and he looked inside and asked if any were Cuban. No, they were Nicaraguan and Dominican.

Then he leaned over right into the van to look at Diego our cat who was sitting in the litter box at that time. "Oh, there's the cat." he said and then returned to his shack.

He still held on to our passports and started telling us about his three cats. He had two cats and then another turned up, "You know how it is." he said. He described his cats and from time to time he glanced at his computer. Was he delaying us while he was waiting for some report on his computer? Maybe.

Finally, he handed back our passports and wished us a safe stay in Mexico. All of this probably did not take longer that 5 minutes but when we are used to a cursory glance and few questions it seemed very long. And surprisingly, he never commented on the super loaded van or what was in there. He didn't follow up on the alcohol either. I don't expect that our personal bottles would have been an issue anyway. Then off we drove.