Sad News - End Of An Era

living.boondockingmexico@yahoo.com

I practically threw myself in front of it as we signed the papers.  The Funfinder is no more.  A couple came yesterday to look at it, and even though the price was lower than we had asked, it was a good deal and time to move on.  He'll pick it up the first week of November.

I can't believe it's 17 years old.  It was a cheap model.  Some might remember the story.  We had sold our 18ft Funfinder, but I needed something on wheels.  We searched for months and found this unit on RvTrader.  I sent an email, and it turned out it was the factory.  They had done a trial with consignments to dealers.  It failed, and they returned the units.  This one had been on the lot for some time, tied up in the bankruptcy.   Brand new, everything in the box for $8500, no warranty or dealer repairs.  We took it.  I wanted to drive to Indiana, but the snows was coming.  I put it on a site where movers bid for it.  Prices were all over the place and over $2500.  One bid came in at $850.  What!  I asked the guy if it was a mistake, and he said that he used biodiesel.  He delivered it to San Antonio.  As he pulled up, we could smell the French fries.   I sold it today for $8100!   That was a deal of a lifetime.

So here I sit broken broken-hearted.  We have trips planned for San Miguel and San Cristobal de Las Casas this year.  Spring will take us to the United Kingdom, we're hoping.  Then, we will start again.  A van?  A very small travel trailer to keep in Texas?  We won't use a standard RV in Mexico anymore, but a van would do the trick.

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Back to the headlines in Mexico.  People really talk up the president.  Yes, she's a woman, but you vote for the best candidate, not gender.  Her approval rating is soooo high, and it's all we hear about.  Of course, for those it's high.  Everybody receives a check now.  

65 and over, you receive 3000 pesos a month 

60 and 64 women receive 1500 pesos a month

30 to 64 men with a disability receive 1600 pesos a month

Birth to 29 indigenous and Afro-Mexicans with a disability receive 1600 pesos a month.

Farmers with less than 5 acres of cleared land receive 6250 pesos a month.

Hell yes, people are happy and happy to vote too!

As Hugo Chávez from Venezuela said, "cuando los pobres dejan de ser pobres y tienen [propiedades], entonces se vuelven de derecha y viene el problema".  "When the poor stop being poor and have properties, they will return to the 'right' and then become a problem.  Promise them hope, give them enough to just barely get by, and they will continue to be on your side.  

At the same time, the perception of insecurity has risen and continues to rise.  Statistically, homicides are down, and at the same time, disappearances have replaced that higher number.  One has been traded for the other.  If you have disappeared and mothers are digging holes all over the country looking for their children, isn't that a pretty good sign that they are no longer living?