Category Archives: Traveling in Mexico

Christmas in Oaxaca

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For most of us, Christmas is unbreakably tied to long-standing,  comfort-creating traditions.  Activities, foods, songs, people, decorations, even smells – we find comfort in these familiar symbols of childhood, family, fun and belonging.  Like no other time of the year, change is unwelcome.  We cling to sentimental reminders of the times we felt the most loved.

20181126_153938When you move to another country – a really different country – traditions change and that can be hard.  Over these past 3 years, I have tried to hold loose those things that no longer work here and to cling to what is truly the most important.   I have been willing to exchange cold air for hot breezes, crispy snow for soft sand, hash brown casserole for chilaquiles, Christmas carols for tuba banda music.  This year we put up our tree and covered it with the family heirloom decorations we have been hanging since our children were babies.  But everything else was different and it was fantastic!

Oaxaca-map.jpgIn early Fall, our youngest daughter Brett suggested we travel somewhere different for Christmas this year.  She was planning a 5-month trip through Mexico, and although she could easily fly to our home, she really wanted to show us a place she had grown to love.  Her boyfriend would be there and our oldest would fly down from Canada.  Oaxaca.  Let’s all meet in Oaxaca this year.  Every part of our Christmas tradition would be different, but we would be together and that is the tradition that means the most.

So we rented a great Airbnb in Oaxaca and came together for a week to embrace Oaxacan Christmas traditions.  It was amazing, and I want to share just a few things we experienced there.

Posadas (Parades)

I have never seen so many parades.  Every night, the streets would explode with brass bands, dancers in traditional costumes, paper mache giants, and so many people.  Some were religious pilgrimages heading to the giant churches in the plazas, others were celebrating Oaxacan foods like radishes and chocolate.  Seriously, there is a parade for chocolate!

 

Noche de los Rabanos (Night of the Radishes)

Since 1897, every year on December 23rd, over 100 contestants gather in the plaza (Zocalo) to compete in a radish carving contest.  Many thousands of people gather to see the elaborate masterpieces – and when we found out the line to get close was 3-4 hours long, we decided to watch from a distance.   The atmosphere was exciting – and of course it started with a parade!

 

Check out more photos of this crazy competition here

Navidad (Christmas)

In Mexico, Christmas Eve is a much bigger family celebration than Christmas Day.  Again, we headed to the main plaza and watched 3 or 4 different parades go by.  There were at least 7 different Santas greeting children near the massive Christmas tree and 4 or 5 Baby Jesus’ going by in the parades.  We ate tamales oozing with mole and drank giant glasses of steaming hot chocolate.  It was chilly, and it was cute to watch the little Mexican children wearing wooly toques and long scarves.

 

Although they are more often associated with Easter, I purchased traditional cascarones, hollowed out eggs stuffed with confetti, and broke them on the heads of all my family members – and of course I got one too.    It is supposed to bring us good luck but I’m pretty sure I just gave Meigan a headache!

Although I had given up on the idea of a Turkey dinner, I was excited when my daughter texted on Christmas day to say she had seen a sign advertising turkey at one of the street chicken stalls.  She would bring it home for dinner.  Yay – turkey after all.  But when it arrived, it looked more like the leg of a tough old dinosaur, and the sweet macaroni salad was not exactly mashed potatoes.  But we were together, and we laughed at the sad Christmas feast!

Fireworks

Sparklers and fizzlers and cannons.  So many fireworks and noise makers.  Everywhere.  All day and all night.  If you can’t beat ‘em you may as well join ‘em.  We are now officially part of the problem!

Food

Traditional Oaxacan food is outstanding – some say the best in all of Mexico.  Over 200 kinds of mole (chile sauce), including my favorite, the thick slightly bitter black chocolate mole.  Tlayudas – crispy blue corn tortillas slathered in lard and bean paste and other vegetable and meat toppings and grilled over hot coals.  Tamales – pockets of chicken and tomatoes and peppers wrapped in corn dough, steamed in corn husks or banana leaves.  Quesillo – the mild white string cheese that is pulled off the round balls as needed.  Chapulines – grasshoppers that are eaten crispy like peanuts or are used in sauces or even in ice cream!  I can’t say I loved that – the taste was okay, but no one needs tiny grasshopper legs stuck in their teeth!  Giant plates of meat – thin beef and pork marinated in orange chiles, and small round links of spicy chorizo.  Big mugs of hot chocolate made with either milk or water to drink, or the local favorite mezcal, a smoky version of tequila.   All of it so affordable.  We ate many times a day, at the local markets or small restaurants, with no guilt because of the low price and the thousands of steps we knew would wear it all off.

 

Family Time

Most importantly, we just spent time together.  We played our traditional game of Upwords (I won…woop woop).  We went exploring throughout the grand historical city, shopping for small artisan gifts for each other.  Oaxaca is famous for its black pottery and for its colorfully painted Alebrijes, those imaginary animals that come alive in the movie Coco.  Intricately embroidered blouses and handmade jewelry.  We came home with a bit of it all.

 

We headed out of the city as well.  Mont Albán is a cluster of archaeological ruins dated to 500 BC.  We walked over 18,000 steps and climbed 78 stories as we explored these pyramid-like structures.  Another day we headed into the mountains to visit Hierve el Agua, an area that contains stunning rock formations (petrified waterfalls) and mineral springs.   We climbed to the base of the formation to see the stunning view up close, but of course what goes down…..

 

The thing with travel is that when we let go of what is familiar and embrace the experience of another person in another place, our own traditions become less rigid, more fluid.  We can build new ones.  We can see things we never knew existed and taste flavors that change our outlook.  Turkey flooded with gravy gives way to turkey bathed in black mole.  A slab of bread becomes a flat corn tortilla, my morning caffeine comes from chocolate instead of coffee.  But like every other Christmas tradition, it comes with my husband at my side and my daughters nearby.  We have grown, we have changed, we have risked….  But still we say, from our family to yours,  Merry Christmas and Feliz Navidad.  Happy New Year.  And most important of all,  Happy Birthday Baby Jesus!

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Maybe our Worst Trip Yet!

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It wouldn’t be the first time a road trip between Mexico and Canada clobbered us with challenges and frustrations, but our recent trip last week might top them all.

We knew we would need to take our truck and trailer back to Canada within the next 2 years – our truck was not the correct type or year to be imported – and since Grant’s family had planned a reunion for the August long weekend, we decided that would be a perfect time to drive north. Our intention was to leave Wednesday or Thursday at the latest, drive 2 or 3 days on smooth Mexican toll roads, eat our way through American restaurants, spend a couple of days in my Canadian hometown with my family and some friends and then hop on a plane to Alberta for the reunion on Friday. Somewhere in there we would take our trailer and our truck to a consignment lot and eventually jump on a plane back home. It was a good plan. It should have worked. But…..

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The first snag was that we really wanted to have the trailer painted a spiffy black, so it would look a lot younger than its actual years. Of course, when the painter guy said it would take 2 days, he actually meant 4 days, which meant we didn’t get away until Saturday morning. The driving days would need to be longer, the restaurants more fast food than sit down, but we could still make it. Until Guadalajara. Only 4 hours from home we hit our biggest, and scariest, challenge to date.

Guadalajara is a REALLY BIG CITY and we knew it was going to be tricky driving a truck pulling a 30-foot trailer through there. But the highway goes straight through the city. It really is just put the car in Drive and go straight. Unfortunately, Mexican motorcycle drivers seldom just go straight and, on this Saturday, a young man on a motorbike decided it would be faster if he could just weave in and out between vehicles, making the 2 lanes into 3. What he didn’t calculate well was the width of our dually truck and that trailer. As he tried to drive between us and the car beside us, he scraped against the side of the truck, bounced off the trailer and landed under the tires of a Jeep behind us. We didn’t see this happening, but we did hear the squeal of brakes and tires and when Grant looked in the mirror he saw the Jeep run over the young man. We still didn’t realize we had been involved in this accident until someone beside us yelled for us to pull over.

And that’s when we realized this was serious. It looked like the young man was okay, but we still didn’t have a clue what had happened and no one around us was speaking any English. Immediately we pulled out our insurance policy and called an agent – please come, we’ve been in an accident. It didn’t take long until our agent was there as well as the agent of the other driver. Still, no English. So of course, we did what we always do when we can’t speak the language – we called our friend Francisco. 35 times we called Francisco over the next 8 hours as we sorted this all out at the side of the road.

In Mexico, accidents are basically about the insurance settlement – you don’t leave the scene until the insurance has been settled. For the next 2 hours the police measured scratches and took photos and wrote statements while the insurance agents negotiated. Finally, our agent told us that they had reached a settlement – everyone would pay their own damages and that would be the end of this. Huge sigh of relief. Maybe this would be okay. The motorcycle guy obviously had injured his legs and feet, but basically seemed okay.

And then his dad arrived and decided that he was most definitely NOT taking that settlement, and in fact was deserving of receiving money for his injuries. Now I get that Dad was worried for his son, but the police were very adamant that this accident was the young man’s fault and he did not deserve any cash, but Dad was not having it. Either give us money, or we’re going to court.

At that point our agent told us that the deal had fallen apart, we would be going to court on Monday, which meant our vehicles would be impounded tonight. And they could keep them impounded for up to 2 months if they needed further investigation. Oh my gosh. 4 hours into the trip and our vehicles were being seized.

The negotiating continued. The police and the insurance guys kept pushing the father to accept the deal they were offering. If we indeed went to court on Monday, he would probably lose and then he would be responsible to pay all the damages on all the vehicles. But Dad stayed firm and then he made the call that escalated this all to the next level – he called an ambulance for his son. Now this young guy had been sitting there for 3 hours and definitely should have gone to a hospital, but calling an ambulance increased the severity of the situation – and that is when we got the call from Francisco who was clearly upset. The agent had called him to tell him that Grant – as well as the driver of the jeep and the motorcyclist – would be going to jail for 48 hours. Until court on Monday. Grant was going to freaking Mexican jail. I stood there shocked. 48 hours? In jail in Guadalajara? Where no one spoke English? This was so not good. The police lined the other driver up with Grant and 2 women officers came with the necessary paperwork to process the arrests. By this time our friends in Bucerias were frantically calling everyone they could think of who might be able to help. Shortly thereafter, an acquaintance of Francisco and Veronica arrived to see if he could help. He didn’t speak English either, so we will never really know what went on, but he started negotiating with everyone, pushing them to let us go, trying to find a way to make a deal. By this time 5 or 6 hours had gone by and just when we thought the day couldn’t get worse it started to rain. POURING with giant hail stones. They let us jump in our truck and then the streets flooded. Water to the top of the police car’s tires. Just so dark and dismal as we sat waiting for them to take Grant to jail. We hadn’t eaten since 7 am so we were starving. Our agent had gone to buy us a bottle of water, but we had nothing else.

The police kept going back and forth to the hospital and finally things shifted for us. The police had continued to pressure the boy and his family to make a settlement. They continued to resist until the police said “Enough, this accident is your fault and you’re going to jail. You’ll be paying all the damages as well as paying fines for dangerous driving”. Right there they arrested him and took him from the hospital to the jail. They were still planning to come for Grant and the Jeep driver, but after his arrest, motorcycle dude’s family left him alone – they had had enough of this mess – and he agreed to take a settlement. To pay for his own damages and not go to court. Which meant we would be free to go. It was another hour or two before all the papers were drawn up. We had to agree to:

  • not press charges
  • not ask for damages
  • pay the police officers 500 pesos for all their hard work (negotiated down from the 1000 they asked for at first).

By this time, it was after midnight. It was still raining, and we had to find a hotel. We were exhausted, hungry, scared and just really grouchy. But we were okay, Grant was not in jail and the hotel we found agreed to take puppy.

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Of course, this wasn’t the end of our troubles. Not even close. The next morning, we came out of the hotel and saw we had a flat tire. After changing it, we left the hotel, eager to get out of this city. We had only been on the highway for 2 or 3 minutes when a siren pulled us over. You have got to be kidding me. I don’t know if we were flagged in the system or if it was a coincidence but again we were on the side of the road trying to talk to policemen who did not speak English and did not look happy. We finally understood that we were not to drive on this highway with this vehicle – we could only drive on the side road, the lateral. Fine, we will do that. And we would have to pay a fine. On Monday. 1200 pesos. Oh my gosh. I do not want to stay here another day. Can we pay you here somehow? Well if you give us 2400 pesos we can pay your ticket for you on Monday. So another 2400 pesos down the drain to the Mexican ‘legal’ system. But we were free to get out of town.

Over the next few days we had challenge after challenge. 5 hours inching along in a 106 degree lineup to cross the border into the US. Vehicle problems. Tires wearing. 5th gear shot. Some kind of broken belt. Which pointed to some other part that was needing to be replaced. The realization that it was now August and Grant’s driver’s license had expired in July and he couldn’t renew online because it was time for a new picture. Every day more hours behind schedule.

We had already told our family we would not make the reunion by Friday. But Saturday. We would be there Saturday. Our oldest daughter was driving 2 days from Vancouver, so we were not about to give up. But each day it seemed less likely. Our flight was booked for 5:00 on Saturday morning and Friday at noon we were still in South Dakota. Which meant we had to drive through South Dakota, North Dakota and Saskatchewan. We had to drop the trailer at a consignment lot 40 miles north of Regina. We had to drop the truck at our mechanic’s shop. Which we did. At 2:30 am. One hour before having to head to the airport. One hour to spare. After 1 week on the road with accidents and breakdowns and border delays and police encounters, we had arrived with 1 hour to spare.

I know you’re asking why we keep doing stuff like this. Why do we keep driving back and forth hauling vehicles full of weird stuff, encountering weird people and experiencing weird situations? I guess because we’re weird people who are in the middle of doing something pretty extraordinary. Trying to build an unusual life in the best way we know how. Yes, we could have stayed in Canada until all our ducks were in a better row, until our language was better and our bank account bigger. But then we would have missed hugging little Perla today, would not have little girls who need a safe home living with us on weekends, and would not have realized that the things that are most worthwhile in life are always the most difficult.

“I want to be in the arena. I want to be brave with my life. And when we make the choice to dare greatly, we sign up to get our asses kicked. We can choose courage or we can choose comfort, but we can’t have both. Not at the same time.” – Rising Strong by Brené Brown.

In the end, we had a fun weekend with family from Canada and the US and Sweden. We celebrated being Swansons. We hugged our daughter and played fetch with our puppy and ate soup with Uncle Paul and Aunt Rita and celebrated cousin Albin’s new log home. We told our stories and laughed about the whole crazy adventure. And then we got on a plane and came home – because this is now home and it is indeed all worth it!

Birthdays, Birthdays and Birthdays

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Last week was a week FULL of birthday fiestas – from Cristofer celebrating his very first birthday to Grant enjoying his 60th.    And Mareli who is now 11 but having her very first party with friends and gifts.

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A selfie of me smuggling a pinata on a golf cart – lots of laughing neighbors!

First was Grant’s birthday.  I bought a Minion piñata and a cake and smuggled it into the orphanage on Friday before classes.  The children spent the morning making cards and letters.  Lucio spent all morning using a YouTube tutorial to make a box that exploded confetti when Grant opened it.   We had a YWAM team visiting that day, so they joined in with the singing and dancing and piñata smashing.  The children absolutely loved the surprise and at this age, our celebrations are more for these little ones than for ourselves. That night we took our weekend girls and headed to a pretty restaurant on the canal for a birthday dinner of flaming fajitas.   It was a good day and I know Grant felt the love many times over!

The very next day was Mareli’s birthday.   Although her mom had recently moved to Bucerias, we hadn’t heard from her and we knew we needed to make sure Mareli felt loved and special on this day when her family hadn’t showed up.  Our good friends Francisco and Anita offered us their home and pool for the afternoon.  We bought another piñata – a unicorn this time – another cake, chicken and ceviche tostados and we invited some Manos de Amor friends to come and celebrate Mareli’s day.  She knew we were going swimming together, but the rest was a surprise.  I loved the look on her face when the doorbell rang and 5 of her friends walked in as well as her precious Tia Laura, a caregiver from the orphanage.  Again, face planting in the cake, piñata breaking, and lots of food and drink.  She was thrilled with the MP3 player we bought her to listen to her Soy Luna music.  A super fun day for kids and us adults too.

 

And then one more.  This week was the first birthday for 1-year old Cristofer.   Last year Cristofer was born to his young mom – the second child to the then 16-year-old.   If you remember from my blog story last year, 2 or 3 weeks after Cristofer was born, he still didn’t have a name.  His mom just couldn’t decide, so she asked for my help and I was honored to name this little guy Cristofer Alejandro.  I visit Cristofer every Friday and Sunday  – along with his brother Kevin, and cousin Lupita and lots of aunties and uncles and his grandma.  His 6 year old uncle comes with me to Manos de Amor each week.  It is a full house and although there is not a lot of material stuff in the one room home, there is definitely love and family.

 

Happy Birthday Cristofer and Mareli and Grant!  I never could have guessed that when Grant turned 60, this would be the life we would be living.  It’s a weird combo of missionary social work retirement and we are loving every minute of it!  So Feliz Cumpleanos mi esposo – te quiero!

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The Timeshare Dilemna

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So the big question….. drum roll…… what do you do with your Timeshare when you move to the place where you own the Timeshare?

12 years ago, we took our first big trip to Mexico with our daughters and like many tourists, we went home with the dreaded Timeshare purchase.  It had been a great week at beautiful Paradise Village – as soon as we had made the *gulp* expensive purchase on Day 1 of the vacation, they had moved us from the crappy cheap hotel at the Marina to the 2-bedroom beauty on the beach.  We fell in love.  Not only with the hotel but with the ocean and the bay surrounded by the mountains, with the people, with the food, with the whole Mexico thing.  But when we got home, well I just thought we were probably dumb. That we would never use this crazy impulsive purchase.  I was wrong.  Every year since then we have spent at least a week or two in this favorite spot.  As soon as we drive in the entrance, I feel the stress melt and the smell of the lobby just makes me happy.  We used the Exchange program to travel to many other places around the world, but every year we were drawn back to our favorite spot on the Bay.  We brought family, we brought friends, we even brought a few missions teams who appreciated the peaceful surrounding after a long day of painting orphanages and chopping down fields with machetes where churches would be built.

In fact, we loved that Bay so much that eventually we sold our home and our business, and we moved here for good.  We definitely don’t live in a 5-star resort – we live in a modest home on an unpaved street full of chickens and potholes.  But we are surrounded by those mountains and a 5-minute walk takes us back to the Bay. So what are we going to do with 7600 points at a Timeshare resort 10 minutes away?   At first our plan was to exchange those points for visits to new destinations.  But then it hit us….. STAYCATIONS!  We can skip the airports, the layovers, the lost luggage, the customs lineups…. we can throw a bathing suit and a toothbrush in a grocery bag and head to paradise.  For a long weekend or a whole week.   And that is just what we did last weekend.  This time, we shared the fun with our two little weekend girls who have never stayed in a hotel.  We had a blast.  I think they had as much fun on the elevator in the hotel and on the escalator at the mall as they did at the pool with the crocodile slide.

We ate ice cream and nachos, we spent hours in the pool and then swapped for hours on the beach, we collected shells full of tiny crabs and boiled little white clams, and in the evening we watched the dancing entertainment in our pjs.  I felt the same magic I had felt on the very first visit to our favorite spot, the same joy I always feel here.

 

On Sunday night, we left to pick up children and return them all to Manos de Amor and then we returned for one last night alone.  We ate a picnic and watched the sun set and reflected on how our lives have changed since our first visit 12 years ago.  We both agreed that if we hadn’t found this place, if we had stayed at the cheap crappy hotel, we probably wouldn’t have fallen in love with Banderas Bay, probably wouldn’t have found ourselves here, probably wouldn’t have little children hanging on our necks every afternoon and living in our home most weekends.  On this crazy journey, we’ve found that sometimes dumb is actually smart and expensive is actually a bargain.   (Ok I’m not talking Economics here – then expensive is just expensive!)  So we’re keeping the Timeshare – and the next time you can’t find us, well we might just be in Paradise!

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Miracles on the Road

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Everything that is good….. is also hard

After our disappointing trip with Gael to Guadalajara last month, we are back on track! But none of it has been easy and I realize that good stuff is sometimes just hard to pull off. You must believe deep down that it’s worth it or you might be tempted to cry or scream or quit.

You’ll remember that last month Gael absolutely refused to allow the audiologist to do the essential brain stem test at the hospital in Guadalajara. He wouldn’t put the headphones on, he wouldn’t let her look in his ears, he just wouldn’t cooperate. She told us he should have come sleepy or asleep, but no one had told us that. She did suggest we try to convince him to wear a hearing aid for a few months to get used to the idea of a device and miraculously he loves his blue hearing aid and wears it all the time.

Gael Goes to Guadalajara

We were pleased when we found another audiologist who could do the test in Tepic. That’s 2 ½ hours from here, as opposed to the 5-hour drive to Guadalajara. It’s an ugly, windy, curvy, narrow single lane road through the mountains, but a couple hours shorter, so we set an appointment with Dr. Veronica and set off.

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Narrow curvy mountain roads

The appointment was at 5:00 in the afternoon – which meant we had to figure out how to be sure Gael was ready for sleep at exactly 4:45. On Wednesday night the orphanage director Veronica took Gael home and kept him busy playing and dancing until 12:30 am. She then woke him up at 4:00 and took him back to the orphanage at 6:00 to get ready for school. After lunch he had his mandated shower with no fragrances or gels and at 1:30 we hit the road for Tepic. He was tired…. really tired…. and we kept him busy with tablet games and sandwiches and bananas and juice and anything to keep him from falling asleep.

We also took a set of headphones like the ones the audiologist would use. In case he wasn’t asleep, we wanted to make sure he would be cooperative, and our German friend Manuela looked hilarious wearing the headphones that were connected to nothing. He liked them and was happy to put them on during the drive. Unfortunately, that led to our first challenge of the day. To wear those headphones, he had to take off his hearing aid and his mom, who wasn’t carrying a purse, wrapped the device in her shirt. And then we stopped at a Pemex gas station to use the bathroom and buy some drinks and an hour or so down the road when Gael decided to put his hearing aid on it was nowhere to be found. We searched every inch of our van, but the hearing aid was definitely not there. We knew the gas station was a possibility, but it was too late to turn back – and who could even remember which of the one million Pemex stations we had passed might the be one we had stopped at.

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Maybe?

After arriving in Tepic, we got on Google maps and Google Earth and narrowed down where we thought we had stopped. I remembered the nearby grocery store, we knew it was on the edge of a town (but was in Las Varas or Zapulcan?) and we remembered the general shape of the building. Once we felt confident where it was, how could we contact it? The internet only had a 1-800 number for Pemex in Mexico, no local numbers, and I am not kidding when I say there are millions of them. Every couple of miles. They’re everywhere. And then I remembered that our church has a sister church in Las Varas. I only knew that because our team from Canada had done some work there a few years ago. I messaged my friend Pastor Fredy and his wife Michele and begged them to contact the pastor in Las Varas and ask if someone would go on a hunt for us. Which of course they did and within a ½ hour they messaged – they had found the hearing aid. They had it. We could stop on the way home and pick it up. Disaster narrowly averted. That was Miracle #1.

By that time, it was about time for our appointment and just at the right moment, at exactly 4:45, Gael snuggled into his mom’s arms and fell asleep. Deeply asleep for the next 7 hours. Miracle #2. The test was done. The findings confirming once again that an implant will work for him – his brain function is good. The audiologist told us we are working with one of the best surgeons. We had the green light we needed to move on to the final step, the MRI which we can get done in Puerto Vallarta next week.

With the test complete, the hearing aid found and Gael asleep, we headed for home. It was already 7:30 in Bucerias and we weren’t thrilled about driving the curvy roads in the dark, so we decided not to stop for supper. We would stop at a gas station or taco stand along the way for a quick bite. We should be home by 10:30ish. Except we totally weren’t.

About a ½ hour into our drive it started to rain. Not good news for already dangerous single lane roads. At first it wasn’t a hard rain, so Grant calmly flipped on the windshield wipers – only to find that the wipers on the van we had borrowed from Manos de Amor were completely worn out. No rubber whatsoever on the wiper. Just a metal noise scraping on the very wet window. I panicked as the rain distorted our visibility. And then Miracle #3. The road widened with room for us to pull over. We were not in or near a town, basically in the middle of nowhere, but there was a tiny shop right there. Right there. And it sold car oil, and belts and windshield wipers. Within 5 minutes we were back on the road. And then we weren’t. We were standing still. For the next 3 ½ hours we stood totally still. And watched as 9 ambulances and a fire truck passed us. We knew it was bad.

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Waiting …. hoping the rains would stay away…..

We were starving by then and when Manuela saw a light far in the distance she decided to walk down the highway to investigate. Sure enough, it was a Pemex (I told you … they’re everywhere!) and she returned with sandwiches for all. And a cockroach. Whatever.

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Eventually we were able to move ahead slowly, and we saw the devastating accident that had stopped us. Today we heard the details. A semi’s trailer had shifted as he rounded a curve and the truck tipped on to a passing Tour Bus which flipped on its side. 32 people were badly injured. It was sobering and scary and sad and the rest of our ride was quiet. Today I read that shortly after we had finally passed through, a crane that had come to help move the overturned vehicles had lost its brakes on the hilly road and tipped over on its way back to Las Varas – the same place we were heading – and the highway was closed for 4 more hours. Perhaps Miracle #4 is that we had moved through in the small window of time before this next disaster and we had not been nearby when it happened.

We arrived home at 3:00 am instead of 10:30 pm. A one-hour test had turned into a 14-hour adventure. But the lost hearing aid was found, the windshield wipers were intact, we were safe, and Gael was cleared to move ahead with Miracle #5 – receiving his gift of hearing.

I like to think I’m stubborn. That I can persevere. But I am so grateful that I don’t know the details of each step of my life before I walk them. That I don’t know the frustrations and the mistakes and the pain that will be there. That I just trust that it is worth it. That life is worth it. That loving others is worth it. And that on the tough days, there will always be Miracles.

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UPDATE: Today we drove the hour back to Las Varas to meet the kind people from La Fuente church who had found Gael’s hearing aid. Turns out the aid was found in the parking lot but wasn’t run over or damaged at all. That’s Miracle #6!

Norma and My Lost Computer

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I still have no idea how I did it, but somehow, I lost my computer in the Mexico City Airport and did not notice it until I opened my briefcase in my home office in Bucerias.  Either I forgot to pick it up from the security bin (unlikely) or I forgot it in the Aeromexico lounge where we spent a few hours relaxing (quite likely).  I chalk it up to getting only 1.5 hours sleep on our overnight flight from Vancouver to Mexico City.  On top of that, after landing, we were trapped in the longest customs lineup of my life – 1 ½ hours of inching through the cattle stalls while women from Peru kept sneaking under the rails to bypass us.  I had a couple of free passes to the private lounge and I decided that since we still had 3 hours to kill, a comfy leather chair and some free snacks were definitely in order.  I remember finding us some soft chairs in a quiet corner with a plugin for my computer and then I don’t really remember if I actually plugged in the computer or not.   All I knew for sure on Monday afternoon was that I was in Bucerias and my computer was not.  PANIC!!!!!!   I had a lot of work to do after a busy week of meetings and losing my computer would be pretty much catastrophic.  The good news is that it is backed up weekly, so I would have most of my files, but I had done a lot of work over the previous few days that would be lost.

I started by googling the Lost and Found department at the Mexico City Airport, Terminal 2 and you won’t believe it.   First call…. they had my computer.  In broken Spanish I explained my problem and the woman who did not speak English understood me after asking a few questions.  Playa?  It has a playa?  YES it has a beach on the screen.   (Of course, it does, right?).  It says DIVA?  What?  DIVA?  What?  Oh yes Dive!  It says Dive Sask.  That’s the one.   In 10 minutes I had found the computer.  How hard could it be to get it home?

The woman suggested I call the next morning when the English speaker Mataya was there to help me get it home.  I was obviously pretty pleased with myself and thought I was freaking awesome for solving this problem.  I was actually pretty darn stupid to think this was going to be so easy.

The next day I called back to this office and Mataya told me to contact the Aeromexico Lost and Found department and they would be able to help me.  I would need a copy of my passport, my boarding passes and a power of attorney authorizing them to send it to the Puerto Vallarta airport.  She gave me their number.   After searching through the garbage can to find my discarded boarding passes (remember those dang boarding passes????) I called the number Mataya had given me.  Of course, that number didn’t work.  After a bit of searching online I did find another number and then my nightmare began.

Screenshot_20171019-140003Over the next 2 days I called that number 35 times.  One call lasted 1 hour, 44 minutes and 58 secs.  Another was 31 minutes and 5 seconds.   Norma would ask the same questions, give me the same instructions (you must email your boarding pass and passport and a letter) and I would give her the same answers (Norma, I emailed that to you this morning – please check your email) and then she  would say “Okay let me check” and put her phone on the desk so I could hear her talking to the guy with the lost IPhone and then 15 minutes later we would have the exact same conversation.  For 1 hour and 44 minutes and 58 seconds.  I was starting to lose it.  I could see that computer slipping away.  She kept asking me which flight I lost it on and I kept saying “Norma, it is sitting at the Terminal 2 Lost and Found – please just check your email and then go get my computer and put it on a flight.  PLEASE NORMA!!!!”  “Okay let me check.”   “Okay I found your email and boarding passes, but I need a copy of your passport.” “Norma, it’s in the same email.” “Okay let me check”.   15 minutes.  “Okay I found your passport but I need a letter asking us to send the computer.”  “NORMA IT’S ALL IN THE SAME EMAIL.  PLEASE CHECK.”  “Okay let me check”.

“Okay all these documents seem okay, let me see if I can find the computer.”  Sigh.  “I know where the computer is.  It is at Terminal 2 Lost and Found.  They have my computer.  Please just put it on a flight to Puerto Vallarta”.  Okay I will call you right back when I find it.”.  That conversation took 1 hour and 44 minutes and I was no closer to seeing my computer.  A few hours later I hadn’t heard back so I called again.  31 minutes and 5 seconds later we had agreed that my computer was a silver Dell and that it was at Terminal 2 Lost and Found.  And that Norma would email me to tell me which flight it would be on the next day.  Of course, the next day Norma did not email me.  I checked my email every 30 seconds and I called a few more times.  No one had any answers for me.  “Senora, which flight did you leave your computer on?”  Aargh…..no….. I didn’t lose it on a flight.  Is Norma there?  “No Norma is not here”.  Click.  Dial tone.

Having had enough of Norma, I decided to try the Aeromexico office in Puerto Vallarta.  Let’s work this backwards.  I called the office in PV “No one here speaks English.  Try the airport.”  Honestly, my Spanish was exhausted so I called the airport.  I started telling my story and then Victor said to me “Ah yes, Senora Swanson, I have your computer here.”  “WHAT?” It’s in PV?  NOW?”  Yes it is – I will be here until 6:00.”  Obviously, Grant and I flew out of the house and sped to the airport.  Victor met me with a sealed box and then he said, “Well I can’t really give this to you unless you give me a letter authorizing us to give it to you.”  “Victor, I sent a letter to Aeromexico in Mexico City.  Many times.  Please, I really need my computer.”  “Well Senora Swanson, Aeromexico has been very kind to you but we can’t be held responsible if your computer is damaged.  (Looking at the look on my face….) Okay I will give it to you but when you get home please email me a letter for my files.”  And then he handed me scissors and told me to open it myself.  He didn’t want to be responsible.  I was terrified.  What would be in the box?  Would it be my computer or that other dude’s IPhone?  Would it be broken?

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The first thing I saw in the box was the letter I had sent – right on top.  I handed it to Victor who was very happy.  I dug deeper and there was my precious computer.  In perfect shape.  I was very, very happy.  And Norma?   I imagine she is still on the phone listening to tired traveler’swoes and ‘checking’ on solutions.  She is probably happy.

Mexican Bureaucracy in Canada OR Lots of Lost Things

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I can’t quite believe that even in Canada, Mexican bureaucracy followed me and tortured me this week.  We had a great work/vacation/family time in Canada, but after 2 weeks we were eager to get home to our life in Mexico.  We had commented many times over the weeks how very easy things are in Canada and the US.  Stores open when the sign says they will open, things cost the same for everyone no matter what color their skin is and rules can always be found in the fine print.  But still we missed our crazy unconventional life in Bucerias and were ready to head back.)

We boarded the West Jet plane that was the beginning of our long journey from Sasktoon to Vancouver to Mexico City to Puerto Vallarta.   The flights weren’t great but using Air Miles the price was right.  We had printed all our boarding passes and the luggage tag for our one suitcase.  We were assured the bag was checked through to Mexico City where we would pick it up at Customs.   We spent the day with our daughter in Vancouver, searching for maple leaves for little Lucio who had requested them and then headed back to the airport for our overnight flight to Mexico City.  That is when I realized I had lost my boarding passes.  No big deal right?  They’ll print me more right?

First we tried the West Jet desk in the Domestic arrivals area where we had first landed.  No, since the West Jet leg is finished, you need to go to the Aeromexico desk in the International Departures area.   We headed to Aeromexico and explained our dilemna.

Yes they could print me new boarding passes – no problem.  But Senora, where is your luggage tag that is usually attached to the boarding pass?  Well yes that is lost too but I’m not worried – I’m sure the luggage won’t be lost.  But Senora, you can’t board the plane without the luggage tag – they have to look at it at the gate.  And you won’t be able to get your suitcase in Mexico City without that tag.
Okay I have traveled a LOT and no one has ever asked to see the bag sticker – except that time in Ottawa when I lost my bag and filled out all the forms and then realized the bag was sitting right beside me all the time  – but that’s another long story.   Certainly no one has ever asked to see my sticker BEFORE letting me board the plane!  So I pushed back a bit.  That doesn’t really sound right.  My bags  were checked in Saskatoon all the way to Mexico City.  Why would the gate agent in Vancouver need to see my bag receipt before letting me board?  Senora, they need to prove it is your bag.  But it’s already been proven – in Saskatoon where it was loaded.  Well they won’t put it on this plane until we see your sticker.  So you mean all of these people in this line are going to show you their bag tag?  Yes Senora.  Can I double check this with your supervisor?  Who said this was certainly the case – no luggage tag, no boarding.

Okay well can’t you just print me another bag tag along with the boarding passes?  No Senora, only West Jet can do that.  I can see the record of your suitcase on my computer so let me write the number down on your new boarding pass and you go to the West Jet desk and tell them you need another tag with this number.  It is not far.

So off we went to find the West Jet desk  – which was definitely far.  We were in the International Terminal – West Jet is at the far end of the Domestic terminal.  Of course when we got there they said what I expected them to say.  What?  That makes no sense.  I can’t print the bag tag since the flight is in progress.  But I’ve never heard of anyone ever checking the tag at the gate.  That’s total crap (quote).  But let me get my supervisor.  Who raised his eyebrows very high and said, Well that makes no sense.  I’ve never heard of that.  Are you sure that’s what they said?  Sigh.  Just like getting our trailer license plates all over.  The kind agent tried to help.  Okay well here is my computer screen which shows your luggage number – why don’t you take a picture on your phone of my computer and show it to them.   Which I did.  But the thing is, it was the same computer screen the Aeromexico lady had already shown me when she was writing down the number to show West Jet.

We headed back to the Aeromexico line, found the supervisor and showed her the photo on my photo – WHICH WAS ALSO ON HER COMPUTER – and she said that was fine, just show it to the agent at the gate.  We wandered around a bit – decided that it was not worth $34.95 to bring a tiny box of maple chocolates home to the children at the orphanage – and then headed to our gate.  Where the exact same lady we had been arguing with in the ticketing line was now the gate agent.  I walked up to the gate and handed her my boarding pass.  Oh yes Senora Swanson, we were just paging you.  We need to verify your bag tag.  I rolled my eyes and pointed to the spot where she had written our bag tag number.  She punched away on her computer.  Oh yes, I can verify this is the correct number of your bag tag.  WELL NO KIDDING – YOU JUST WROTE IT THERE after looking it up 30 minutes ago.  I never did show anyone the picture on the phone.  And as expected, no one in Mexico City asked to see my bag tag.  They didn’t even ask the standard questions like did I have alcohol or cigarettes or $10,000 or maple leaves from Stanley Park which I may or may not have had.


So I can say that the story of the lost boarding passes and lost luggage tag worked out just fine.  Unfortunately, when I opened my briefcase this afternoon, I realized that we have now moved on to the story of the lost computer in the Mexico City airport.   Stay tuned…

Arriving Home to Good News

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We did it!  After 15,000 kms and 41 days – all but 3 of them in a hotel or Airbnb – we are finally home for good.  This was a painfully long trip and I am glad I didn’t know how slow it would be.  We thought we’d be gone 4 weeks and it just kept multiplying until it was 6.  Although slow, it was truly a great trip with no breakdowns or illnesses or emergencies.  We explored 3 countries – mountains and jungles and deserts and rivers.   It was the necessary conclusion to our life in Canada.  Besides the people we love, we have absolutely nothing left in Canada.  Everything has been sold or donated or relocated.  No matter how sad or painful, the end must come before the new beginning can manifest.

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The border crossing was easier this time.  We hired 1 guy to drive our heavy equipment and trailer over, 1 guy drove 2 van loads of household and building supplies, and we drove our truck full of all that was left.  After 2 or 3 hours, – and a pile of U.S. cash – we were IN and so was our stuff.  For the next 2 days, we traveled through Sonoro and Sinoloa south of the Mexican border, and we arrived home in Nayarit on Thursday night.  The last 5 hours were the worst of the whole trip, but we were determined to make it home and we pushed through the beautiful but curvy mountain roads as the sun was setting.

On Friday morning, we headed straight to the orphanage and were greeted just as we expected – with huge hugs and toothless smiles.  The children wanted to know about Canada and looked through every picture on our phones.  They loved the videos of the waterfalls and wanted to know who every person was in every photo.20170714_124927

20170714_120655We had two surprises waiting for us.  The first was to be hugged by little Brittany and Priscilla.  I told you their story last year when they had to leave Manos de Amor because their drug addicted mom insisted she wanted them back.  (My Very Worst Day….)  We had visited them a couple of heart breaking times at their grandmother’s tiny home and then a few months ago they disappeared.  No one knew where they had moved to and I thought I would never see them again.  In June their Grandmother called the orphanage – she had taken the girls from their mom, could they come and live at Manos de Amor again?   20170714_172811.jpgI am not certain about the status of their legal papers and honestly, I am not going to ask.  I am just so happy to see them laughing again.  We drove them back to Grandma’s house on Friday evening so they could spend the weekend with her and we were relieved to find out where they now live in a nearby town.  We were also thrilled to reconnect with their two older sisters.

We then drove Jose to his home and met his 5-day old nephew who had been born to his 16-year-old sister Ibet.   One of my Canadian friends had given me a large bag of clothes and diapers to share with this young family and the tired mama was grateful.  This baby is the second son for this teenager and I worry how another little person will impact this already struggling family.  Even though he was 5 days old, this little guy hadn’t been given a name yet – Ibet said she was waiting for me to help her choose – so we threw around some ideas and today I got to give Cristofer Alejandro his name.   He is tiny – around 7 pounds – but I was happy to see him being nursed which isn’t always the case with teenage moms here.

 

Meet Cristofer Alejandro

And there was more good news.   On Saturday afternoon, we met little Mateo who had also been born while we were away.   On Saturday night we visited with Francisco and Anita whose adoption of little Ivan recently took a giant step closer to being complete.  On Sunday, we hugged Carmelo and Paola who are now engaged after a sunset proposal on a beach arranged with hearts and roses.  Many happy stories – new beginnings – God directed stories of great hope.

 

New Beginnings! Meeting Baby Mateo, Ivan’s dedication, Carmelo pops the question

As we reconnected with all these friends, I was reminded that although cultures differ in so many ways, we are all connected by our similar human experiences – births and marriages, poverty and riches, joy and pain, hopes and disappointments.   The shades may be different but the colors are the same.

For Grant and I, a new stage of this crazy journey has begun.  The forever part.  Stay tuned…. it’s gonna be a story!

To Canada and Back

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What an incredibly wonderful and awful month it has been!  We have traveled over 15,000 kms  – through 3 countries,  6 Mexican states, 3 Canadian provinces, 13 American states and 3 time zones.     That doesn’t include the side trips we took to see waterfalls and mountains and lakes and wineries and deserts.  We have seen some beautiful sights and met many kind and interesting people.  Lots of weird powdery eggs in free hotel breakfasts and crazy gas station snacks.   We have been to a graduation and a wedding and a planning retreat.  We hung out with our daughters, our parents and all our siblings but one (next time Connie?).   We visited 3 different welders for trailer repairs and replaced one bulging tire.   It was a great trip and it is almost over.  Unfortunately, the last leg is the toughest – getting all our building supplies and equipment imported and driving it all through Mexican mountain roads.  But we are close and this last load represents the end of the transition.  The start of the forever life.

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Heading back to Mexico

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Jungles and Waterfalls and Cities

 

Diana’s graduation and Jason & Bailey’s Wedding

 

Family time

I have learned a lot during this trip:

  • Hotels never have enough electrical outlets for all our devices
  • Americans still don’t know where Canada is
    • Guy:  It must feel pretty hot for you being from Minnesota
    • Grant:  Actually we’re from Canada
    • Guy:  Yeah same thing
  • People eat too much sugar
    • Girl in hotel breakfast room:  Dad, what are Corn Flakes?
    • Dad:  That’s Frosted Flakes without the Frosting – you have to add your own.  Proceeds to dump A LOT of sugar on daughter’s corn flakes
  • Avoiding mountains when you’re pulling a large trailer adds a lot of miles and states to the trip. In order to avoid Colorado we visited:  Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Iowa, Arizona, New Mexico
  • There is no place on earth where you will not see a Rider fan wearing his green
  • Oklahoma is really good at summer storms and Arizona is really good at summer heat
  • Apparently Google Maps doesn’t know about all the new highways and interchanges….. rerouting…..rerouting…….
  • You get what you pay for when you book hotels online, no matter what the pictures look like – we’ve had some nice ones and some really NOT NICE ones
  • USA has not embraced whole grains – almost every hotel offered white bread only for breakfast
  • Big dreams come with big challenges – I have never considered quitting on this dream, but I acknowledge that it has been difficult and somedays are downright scary. I don’t know if I could keep moving ahead if I didn’t have faith that this all part of a divine purpose.
  • When you’re traveling with your best friend even the bad days are fun – or at least manageable!

 

Road Trip Sugar Overload

 

Crazy weather didn’t slow us down

I think the main thing I learned is that Bucerias has become my home.  When I learned that we would not be able to meet with the broker on Wednesday but would have to wait until the next Monday, I bawled like a baby.  I am so ready to be home.  I miss hugging children and eating tacos and hearing Spanish.  I miss our garden.  I miss my friends and my church and my crazy neighborhood.  We were so fortunate to see our family this month but we are definitely ready to settle back into our new life.

20170703_152107Tomorrow we will meet with two different brokers.  We will unload the trailer and the truck and will get inspections and will pay all kinds of fees and duties and ‘honorariums’.  It will take a couple of days and then we will be on the road to home.  If all goes well, next Tuesday. we will go to Jose’s Kindergarten graduation.  We will meet Ibet’s new baby who will arrive any day and Mateo who was born last month.  We will celebrate little Ivan’s final adoption by his wonderful California parents.  We will congratulate Peter on getting his Mexican citizenship and Verito on graduating from Veterinarian school.  We will celebrate with Carmelo and Paola on their recent engagement.  We will go dancing in town squares and exploring around town in our spunky blue golf cart.  We will reach out and make a difference wherever we can.  And we will eat tacos!

 

On the Road Again

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I can’t quite believe it either – we’re driving north again to get one last load of stuff.  Business stuff this time – our bobcat and scaffolding so Grant can do some building.  And my BBQ and Christmas stuff which didn’t make the last load.   We have combined it all together with a graduation in Tepic, a wedding in Penticton, a visit with my sister in Squamish and our daughters in Vancouver, time with family in Regina, and a work retreat in Moose Jaw.  And if we have to drive through Mexico, we decided to add a few vacation days and check out some new territory.  So this is a combination family/vacation/work trip and we will be gone about a month.

Our first stop was to say goodbye to the kiddos at the orphanage.   On Thursday when we told them we were leaving, they were not happy.  Samantha just mostly glared, “you said no more Canada, you said you live in Bucerias now”.    Yes but we need to visit our daughters and our parents.  We’ll be back, we promise.  We hugged and kissed goodbye and reminded them to be good for the English teacher sub Luke.  We will be back – this is our home now.

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After driving 2.5 hours through crazy winding mountain roads, our first stop was Tepic for our friend Diana’s graduation from Vanguardia – a Bible school connected with La Fuente church.   After spending so much time every day seeing children and teens who seem to have so little hope, it was refreshing and emotional to see a room full of young adults passionate about their futures, all of them eager to start internships where they will care for others and live out their faith.

 

This 113 km trip takes almost 3 hours because of crazy roads and crazier drivers

We then headed to the historic center of Tepic to start the vacation portion of our trip.  We hadn’t been in Centro 10 minutes before we were pulled over by the police – who knew you couldn’t turn left at any corners?

 

 

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Good morning view from my bed

Today we are heading to Guadalajara – the adventure begins!  We are taking a different route this time so we can see some new places.  Some gardens and waterfalls and historic towns.  Some Pueblos Magicos – magical Mexican towns.  Stay tuned – you know there’s going to be entertainment along the way!