Our Mexican Adventure

Here in Playa del Carmen and the Riviera Maya, we are in serious need of a Best Buy, a MicroCenter, or a Circuit City for computer supplies. However, many little computer shops are popping up with random collections of supplies to feed the needs of the growing computer user population here.

USB thumb drives, web cameras, and wireless accessories are pretty standard gear at these shops. However, looking for specialty equipment is sometimes a challenge. Cat 5 cable and connectors are at one store, but the crimp tool I need is in a store across town (and they might need to have it shipped from their store in Cancun or Merida). It can be quite frustrating at times.

I had an interesting experience yesterday. I had a client with a fried video card in her business computer. She needed a new one ASAP. I went on a mission to find her a replacement. After visiting 4 different stores, I was only able to locate 1 compatible card. All the new AGP cards had prices marked, but the PCI card I needed did not. I asked how much, but the employee was not sure – he guessed it was around $90. Unfortunately, he had no way of verifying the price until the owner came in the next day. Say what?!

Great! I have a client who cannot do her job because her video card is dead and the only replacement card in town can’t be purchased because there was no price tag.

I spent a few minutes speaking horrendous Spanish, trying to explain that my client needed it right now. After I got that point across, he asked if I lived here. I assured him that I did and gave him my business card. He said I could come back tomorrow to pay for it. Wow!! Although I’m honest, and he was obviously very trusting, I felt much better convincing him to let me pay the $90 now and promising to return the next day to settle any differences.

Experiences like this are priceless. I can’t imagine something like this ever happening to me in a place like Chicago.

And, for the curious, there appears to be a markup between 20-30% on most computer equipment compared to U.S. prices. I’d imagine bigger chain stores with more inventory would be able to cut that down a bit and still make a nice profit. Hint, hint – Best Buy!

We’ve been meaning to capture some of the unique sights and sounds of our neighborhood here in Playa del Carmen for our blog readers. Some we love, some we tolerate (sights and sounds, not blog readers).

There’s the gas truck with its catchy jingle, the occasional barking dogs, the tomcat calling for a mate, the birds singing in the morning. And then there’s the agua guy. We love our agua guy. He’s one of the many reasons we love living in Mexico. We’d tell you all about him, but our friend and neighbor, Sherry, already has in her own blog.

So, please read Drinking the Water in Mexico and enjoy. And we promise … we’ll get back to blogging our own stories again real soon.

Our apologies for not writing a blog entry for close to two months. Unfortunately, we do not have a good excuse for our silence. We’re not even going to say that we’re lazy this time! We’ve just been living our daily life. Here’s a brief update…

In the first half of December, we were racing around trying to make sure things were in order to go on a two week trip back to Chicago for the holidays. We had to make sure our business was in order, our bills were paid, and someone would watch our cat, Mindy, while we were away. Little did we know that we’d hear about a 3 month old kitten in need of adoption. Knowing that Mindy was lacking a playmate, we adopted little Nanu. (She’s kind of like a little alien, so we’ll leave the explanation of the name for you to figure out.) Nanu has lots of energy, which Mindy isn’t too pleased about, especially since Nanu’s favorite game appears to be “Attack Mindy’s Tail.” Otherwise, they appear to be getting along just fine.

The later part of December, we were in Chicago. During our two weeks there, we managed to see many relatives and just a few friends. Unfortunately, we had presents to buy, and work to do, so we didn’t get to enjoy the city as much as we would have liked. The next time we visit Chicago, we plan to leave our work behind and make it an official vacation. Our scale is happy to inform us that we apparently managed to eat our fill of Italian Beefs, Vienna Beef hot dogs, and Chicago style pizzas while in town. Ah, the food is excellent here in Playa, but how we’d kill for a Portillo’s!

For New Year’s Eve, we had some friends (with children) in town, and wanted to keep the night rather low key. We planned on eating at El Oasis, because we were told they would not be having an expensive, New Year’s Eve menu. Unfortunately, when we arrived, we discovered that they were only serving a fixed menu for $90 per person. After a discouraging look elsewhere for cheaper fare, we ended up a few blocks away at La Famiglia, where we spent about $70 per person for their fixed menu. We love their pizza, but their New Year’s offerings were just okay. Bummer! After dinner, we raced out to the zócalo, where we were hoping for a big fiesta and possible fireworks to welcome in the New Year. We’re sad to report that we must have been the only ones who thought it would be fun to hang out in the town square for this celebration. I guess we managed to have our low key celebration after all!

We’ve had a number of visitors over the past few months, which is always fun. It gives us a chance to get out and experience the city and remember why we moved here in the first place. We’d just like to shout out to …

Jenni, Kyle, Pete & Sandy – You guys are wacky and you definitely know how to keep yourselves entertained. We never knew grocery shopping in a foreign country was such a treat.

Jenny & Laddie – We’re happy you two managed to get out of O’hare after Chicago’s biggest snowstorm in years. We hope you can stay longer next time.

Jen, Dan, Lewis, Josephine, and Isaac – Thanks for spending New Year’s with us. You showed us, by your example, that living in a foreign country was not only possible, but rewarding as well! John will let you know when he breaks the 20 second Speed Stack mark.

Loni, Pat, Max & Ian – Playing hooky from our jobs and spending time with you on the beach was a blast. We sure know how to build a good sand mound, don’t we?

Anyhow, we’ve had our hands full with the legal, accounting, and immigration issues involved with starting our small Internet and Computer Consulting company here, which will hopefully be the subject of another post soon. In the meantime, if you have suggestions on a good company name, please leave it in a comment. We’re looking for something that sounds witty in both Spanish and English. Thanks for you help!

Let’s Go Chicago Bears! We hope you crush the Colts in Superbowl XLI!

Hope all you Americans had a happy Thanksgiving! Here in Mexico, Thanksgiving is known as Acción de Gracias (literally action of thanks). But it’s more fun to say Feliz Día del Pavo (Happy Turkey Day).

We spent this Thanksgiving at the Playacar home of our friends, Michele and Rob, with over 100 other guests, spanning the globe from the U.S., Mexico, Argentina, England, Holland, and probably a few other countries. Everyone’s got something to be thankful for!

Aside from the large number of guests, this Thanksgiving was like many other Thanksgivings — excess, excess, excess. Eight turkeys, cranberry sauce, 4 trays of stuffing, 16 pounds of corn, 8 pounds of peas, 5 trays of potatoes (sweet, not sweet, mashed, all kinds), salads, carrots, pickled onions, tortillas and desserts filled a ping pong table doing double duty.

Before	After

But this Thanksgiving will be remembered for the not-so traditional Thanksgiving events. There was the fire in the smokehouse (okay, that one might be a tradition for some). Then there was the pea challenge, where Tracy the tourist was challenged to eat the leftover peas (about 4 or 5 pounds worth) for $500 USD. She wisely gave up after about a quarter pound.

And the best part of this Thanksgiving was that our friend DJ (seriously injured in a recent motor scooter accident) was able to join us. He was released from the hospital a few days ago, and is well on the road to a full recovery.

We have much to be thankful for!

More Thanksgiving pictures here.

Hope all you Americans had a fun Halloween! Although Halloween is not traditionally celebrated in Mexico, globalization has brought the concept of trick-or-treating to Mexican children. What kid can resist free candy? We came across these cuties trick-or-treating last night.

As many Mexican adults have not embraced the American tradition of dressing in costumes on October 31, there are very limited costumes available for purchase. This forces adult costume enthusiasts to get creative. Being way more right-brained than left-brained, we were a bit intimidated. But thanks to some inspiration from our Halloween fanatic friend Heather (aka Marilyn Monroe), and the creative genius of Heather and Sarah (aka Carmen Miranda), we made some pretty cool pirates. As you can see, the pirate theme turned out to be quite popular!

See our Halloween gallery for more pictures.