Vincent is alive & well

The "Mexican-ized" repair job worked; Vincent is back up & running!

Carl & Melody bought their house in Puerto Peñasco from Eduardo. Eduardo has a brother called Oswaldo and Oswaldo is married to Marisol. (Have I lost anyone yet?) We've been hearing a lot about how Oswaldo helped with this, or Oswaldo recommended that. This guy has been amazing at helping Carl & Melody settle into their new life here. I'm not sure why, but I had pictured a heavy-set, somewhat paunchy middle aged guy. Probably because he's been able to help with so many different things: air-conditioning, plumbing, door-hanging - you name it. Even when I learned that he & Marisol are expecting their 1st child I didn't bother to adjust the image of them that I had in my mind. Well we finally got to meet them a couple of nights ago. We went over to their place for pizza and beer. Boy, was I off base! Not even close!

They live in a fabulous condominium in a beautiful complex that Oswaldo & Eduardo built. Yes, that's right - they conceived of and built the whole complex!

Their place is actually for sale now, because the new home that Oswaldo is building is almost finished. So, if anybody is interested in a condo in Puerto Peñasco, Mexico - check this one out!

This is the front gates to the complex. (All automatic, of course)

Note the round window above the porch. There's a picture of it from the inside further down.

This is called a "bodega" ceiling. It goes against the laws of gravity and physics, but it's gorgeous. All brick and rounded.

Here's the stained-glass window. Nice eh?

There's an enormous patio upstairs.

These cool showers seem to be a signature of Eduardo and Oswaldo. They did the ones in Carl & Melody's house when Eduardo lived here.

This kitchen makes Melody crazy. There's about an acre of counter space. (She has about 6 inches in her kitchen.)

Another cool bathroom - this one is an ensuite off the downstairs bedroom.

Oswaldo & Marisol have a wild and crazy puppy called Daisy.

The pizzas were pretty good.

Here are some odds & sods from the last few days:

What a couple of attentive dogs. You don't suppose that Melody has treats in her hand do you?

Marisol is taking an on-line computer course. She comes over to Carl & Melody's house most days to use the computer.

The waves were a bit wilder the last couple of days.

The dogs don't care. They live to romp in the surf.

This is a neighbor kid. He looks pretty cute doesn't he?

He just finished throwing rocks at these bigger kids. This is on C & M's front street.

Most of the stores on the tourist strip have the same stuff for sale.

This store just has more of it than most!

I love to watch the pelicans.

Shopping for another delicious dinner.

Dan the handy-man hard at work.

The end result. New lights outside the back door and outside the casita (our little house)

Nothing's ever easy

A couple of days ago we found the name of a place that might have the part needed to repair Vincent. We had the address which turned out to be useless due to the lack of street signs. We stopped to ask a guy if he knew where it was and he pointed us in the right direction. Unfortunately, there was no sign of a shop anywhere near the place. We stopped to ask another guy and he'd never heard of it, but he knew of another place that might be able to help. He even phoned them (still in business!) and gave us directions to the shop. The guy at the shop spoke pretty good English and said that he could order the part from Mexicali; it should be here by Friday morning and it would only cost about $50.00.

Sounds too good to be true eh? Well, a part did arrive on Friday, but the price had almost tripled and it was the wrong part. Dan took it anyway thinking he might be able to rig it somehow. And he might be able to if he could find a bolt the right size. An M8, 125 pitch, hex-head. The repair web site that Dan consulted said that it should be available at any Home Depot or large hardware store. That's great, but we're in Mexico - not a Home Depot in sight. Melody & Carl left for Phoenix for a book sale on Friday and they looked, but weren't able to locate said bolt there either. Dan phoned every VW dealer in Phoenix, but wasn't able to find the right part.

We wandered around on foot today and found a little store that had a bolt with the right thread, but it's too short. We took it anyway on the theory that not-quite-right is better than nothing at all. We'll see how that goes.

While Dan is working on Vincent and there's nothing that I can help with, I'm hanging out in "Siestaland" (The back-yard). I know, it doesn't seem fair, but he says he'll get me to put on the new belt while he's working on the pulley thingy later. Yeah, that should be fun.

While we were wandering today, we had a funny thing happen. We had the dogs with us and we were walking along a dusty residential side street. A woman came running out of her house shouting for us to stop (in Spanish, of course). She had a photo album with her and she showed us a picture of herself with a dog that she used to have. A golden retriever that died of brain cancer about 5 years ago. We chatted for about 10 minutes while she hugged and petted Taz. She was thrilled to see a dog just like her much-loved "Gizmo" and we were thrilled to be able to practice our Spanish with her.

Life in Mexico

We're settling into a nice routine here in Mexico. Sleep late, breakfast, a couple of hours of grocery shopping/errand running/shop browsing, a beach walk, lunch/beverages, hammock time....Aaaahhh!
Melody is a good sport about being followed around the grocery store by the paparazzi.

This is a fun store. Chock full of furniture, knick-knacks, jewellery - you name it, they have it.

More beach time for Carl and the kids.

The afore-mentioned beverages. These ones at a cute little place called Rene's - right on the water-front.

Last night Melody cooked up a Greek feast and Carl the bartender whipped up "Athenas". (Mojitos pretending to be a Greek classic.) Rosie provided the entertainment just by being Rosie.

Rosie Glover & Melody work together to publish a weekly on-line newspaper. http://www.rockypointnewsonline.com/

How to describe Rosie? Y'know how people say "He's a pistol" or "She's a firecracker"? That's way too lame. She's more along the lines of those Yuma Proving Ground bombs! Or maybe a volcano erupting in the middle of a hurricane!

Part Nancy Pritchard (my highest form of compliment) and part freight train! Rosie has an opinion on everything and an absolutely hilarious (and usually slightly off-colour-profanity-peppered) story to demonstrate each of them. She's smart, articulate and wickedly funny. My face was aching from laughing so much. I am in awe - how can one woman so completely fill a room? I loved her instantly! But I'm also just a little bit afraid of her. You sure wouldn't want to do anything that would put you on the wrong side of that personality!

Limping into Puerto Peñasco, Mexico

We stopped at the local "LIBERRY" to make a donation as we were leaving the campground at Squaw Lake. This sign had to be a joke because the inside of the trailer was a fully stocked and very organized library.

This is the new highway Sonora #003 from Golfo de Santa Clara to Puerto Peñasco. It was great, especially after the 10 km of washboard that we drove over to get to it.

The highway cuts through some very scenic desert.Talk about fitting in with your surroundings eh?

Then it happened. The stinky burning smell was the first clue. Vincent lost a serpentine belt (the pulley thingy broke) which caused us to lose air-conditioning, coolant, battery power and power steering. Coincidentally, Dan lost his sense of humor about the same time....

We were still 55 kms from Puerto Peñasco and hadn't seen another vehicle in over an hour, so things got a little tense. Fortunately, we managed to limp into town (albeit very slowly) and found Carl & Melody's new house where there were margaritas served within minutes of us arriving. Ahhhh! What car trouble?

The Scott's Mexican abode is adorable.

The living room and the dining room.

Looking through the hobbit hole to the kitchen.

And it has a separate guest wing complete with sitting room, bedroom and the coolest shower ever. (A replica of their ensuite)

Dinner at one of their local favourite restaurants, Ramon's. (Delicious!)

We spent this morning at the beach with Shadow & Taz. The dogs had a great time

running into the waves chasing a toy. Even scaredy-dog Taz enjoyed it. It took her a while to warm up to it, but once she got the hang of the waves there was no stopping her.

The waves were fun, but they left her a sandy-faced mess.

A stop at the old port to pick up dinner fixin's at Mister Fish.

Then a stroll along the seawall.

This afternoon I spent some quality time in the hammock. This is the view from there.

Vincent lies in pieces in the driveway.

Dan needed a piece of wood to help with his repairs, so he went scavenging in the garbage across the street.

Success! This old spindle will work just fine.

Carl & Melody arriving home after running some errands.

The neighbours.

Checking to see what's on the other side of the wall.

So far, so good. Maybe mañana we'll look into finding the parts to fix Vincent....