Friday, December 29, 2017

Got The Call

living.boondockingmexico@yahoo.com

I received a call yesterday at 2 p.m. to appear for the closing on our house in San Antonio.  We  arrived late last night with a short two hour border wait.  Last year, the border wait was so long we pulled out of line and spent the night in Nuevo Laredo.  When we approached the U.S. border agent, he asked for our passports and wished us a happy holiday and sent us on our way.

We closed this morning and now that is part of  history.   My life is now focused on our future  retirement here in Mexico.   

"Never look back unless you are planning to go that way." - Henry David Thoreau   

Monday, December 25, 2017

Mexico Apps Gas Prices

living.boondockingmexico@yahoo.com



With the advent of the energy reform, apps are now appearing that are similar to GasBuddy in the U.S.  There are three that I know of, one (Gasoapp) is sponsored by Profeco (BBB), one  (Guia Pemex) by Pemex for Pemex only stations and the third is Zenzzer.

All are available at the Google Play store.  All three pretty much work the same. stations within in a specific range, prices, ratings by user, distance and routing to get to a specific station. 

I haven´t downloaded any apps yet because my phone is full.  I´m anxious to try it as we saw prices yesterday in Monterrey with a range of 35 centavos.  May not sound like much but for the SUV a tank could mean a savings of 33 pesos or more.  Like in the U.S., you wouldn´t drive miles out of your way but if you see a station on your route that has a better price I´m sure you would take it.



Saturday, December 9, 2017

Let It Snow Let It Snow Let It Snow

living.boondockingmexico@yahoo.com

Dee asked if we were having snow.  Well, we did and we still do.  The mountains are covered and only 16% of students went to school.  



Here in the north we have snow occasionally, but this time around the cold makes it even worse.  It dropped down to a low of  -6C and it will continue tonight.  The snow on the ground is gone but last night all the water froze on the trees.  This morning it was raining under the palm trees.

Yesterday I received a call from a U.S. number on my cell phone.  I was headed home from school and figured it was the guy who worked on the house in San Antonio.  It was Sue and Brian who had crossed the border yesterday and were heading to San Miguel de Allende.

Croft posted this story but they were stranded on the highway between Laredo and Monterrey.  They wanted to know what was going on and I found the Policia Federales twitter site and it said snow had shut things down.  Great website by the way because it is constantly updated.



Sunday, December 3, 2017

December - What Next

living.boondockingmexico@yahoo.com


Don´t know if I posted this or not, but it´s bread baking season.

 


I worked in Puerto Vallarta on Friday.  I left Thursday afternoon and came back less than 24 hours later.  Funny though, how cheap travel by air in Mexico has become.  I started out dreading the travel agency´s mainstay of Interjet.  They have great on-board service but they are always delayed by  hours.  They don´t have enough aircraft and one is out of whack the whole system suffers.  

I checked my favorite for business travelers, AeroMexico but the cost was not justifiable.  I then moved to my last choice, Vivaaerobus and was pleasantly surprised to find out the following.  Here is the price breakdown of my particular travel plan:

AeroMexico 13,000 pesos
Interjet            9600 pesos
Vivaaerobus   4400 pesos

But here´s what happened.  I was late in the week, less than seven days due to the scheduling of the event which was out of my control.   I went with Viva because, believe it or not, is the only airline with a non-stop to Vallarta from  Monterrey.  They have one flight coming and one going.  It really worked out because AeroMexico had a pilot´ strike this week over medical benefits.  So even though it wasn´t an advance purchase, it only cost $237 U.S.  You just can´t beat that and rvers and snowbirds who come to Mexico should take advantage of that.

Not sure what Santa Claus has planned for us.  The house in San Antonio is showing regularly so there is interest and it won´t be long before we have an offer.  

Several things I want to talk about involving ex-pats living in Mexico, all good things that would help them make decisions on where to live and how to do it but I need time to sit down and write. 

The rv is getting some minor modifications for our winter trip if we take one and still not sure where to go.  I´d love to make it to the bloggers fest in Quartzite but that seems to be more of a dream than anything else only because of schedules.