December started out in a very interesting way for us. Although still not 100% recovered from the chest cold both of us had gotten in mid November, we decided to get out on the water in our kayak. When we launched I noticed that Dan seemed to have a bit more water than usual near his seat. Water does get into where we sit a bit, but this looked like more water than normal. I made mention of it but Dan didn’t seem worried and so we headed out. We got a good two miles off shore and were just puttering around. There was no wind to speak of, so it was a lot of peddling. Without the breeze it was also getting quite hot. I decided to venture onto the trampolines to cool off. When on those the full weight of your body sinks them down a bit so the water splashes up at you. I was just contemplating jumping in…something I am too chicken to do as my mind goes into overdrive “do you know what is down there in the depth? There could be sharks, jellyfish, barracuda all kinds of things!” Something about big deep water freaks me out now. Not to worry though, before the panic attack set in as I contemplated a quick dip into the water, another fear took over when Dan looked at me and said “I think we’re sinking!” WHAT!?! I quickly looked to him and saw he had water up past his ankle close to his mid shin which wasn’t normal. He opened his hatch to grab the bailing bucket and pump and as soon as he did that, the water that was in the boat started rushing extremely fast into the open hatch! SHIT!! He quickly shut the hatch and was then almost up to his knee in water. I jumped up to the front of the boat and stood on the bow, in front of the sail to try and balance the water that was more heavily concentrated in the aft of the boat. Dan then began bailing water until he could once again open his hatch. All the while we were both trying to figure out what had happened. Where was water getting in? We had checked that the plug was in when we launched, as we always do. It had to be a fairly slow leak to let us get out so far before we realized we were sinking. Thankfully Dan was able to bail out enough water so that I could get back into my seat. He then passed me the bailing bucket as he started to paddle and we both started peddling our way back to shore. Thankfully, we made it without incident, but it required us to keep bailing the entire way. When we got to shore, the boat was laden down with water and was nearly impossible to drag up off the beach. We needed to pull it up enough so that we could open the drain plug at the very back of the boat to let the water drain. We stood there for quite some time before we were able to pull it up and get it on the beach wheels. It wasn’t until we got it back to our site that I was able to crawl under it and take a look. That’s when I noticed a large crack of about 5 or 6 inches long up near where the sleeve the sail stands up in meets the bottom of the kayak. Great! How were we going to fix that?
Well, MacGyver Dan and Amazon to the rescue! He ordered a plastic soldering kit in hopes of repairing the crack. In the meantime though, he thought he’d try melting some plastic into the crack using a torch he had brought. He researched the type of plastic we needed to use and we found some. He then set to attempt a repair, melting plastic into the crack both from the top and the bottom of the crack. A week or so later he and our neighbour went out to test out the fix. Well…..let’s just say it didn’t work but they didn’t realize it until they were 3 miles offshore. And this time they actually SUNK the main part of the kayak. The only thing that kept them afloat were the two AMA’s on either side of the main kayak. That was a bit more of an adventure than either of them wanted! When we inspected the crack, it was evident the plastic weld Dan attempted did not work at all. You couldn’t see any of the weld material, only the original crack which was now almost twice the size! So, all we could do then was wait for the plastic weld kit along with some cool patches Dan had discovered called Gator patches https://www.gator-guards.com/products/gator-patch. These supplies wouldn’t come until late in the month so the kayak stayed “garaged” for basically the entire month. We still aren’t sure what caused the crack, but we think it might have something to do with the beach wheels we added to the front to help us manoeuvre it on land. We could see they had warped the bow somewhat due to the weight of the boat on them coupled with the heat down here. We never took it off those wheels while it was stored. We’ll do that from now on to prevent any further stress points from opening up.
 |
| A picture of us beside the Kayak from last year |
By early December the park was almost full with only four spots open. Many of the same people who were here last year returned along with others who are “regulars” but hadn’t been here for the last couple years due to Covid.
This year we’ve noticed that the water pressure isn’t as good as it was last year. Some times during the day it is “ok” while other times it is plain old bad or non-existent. The water here comes from a well so we are at the mercy of it’s “refresh” rate. We noticed issues last year with the water pressure but not until near to the end of our time here. Having issues in December was a bit worrisome. But, so long as the well eventually does replenish, we can manage. We just go between using our onboard water tank and pump and the water outlet at our site as necessary. In later November we had started to have intermittent hydro outages too. We experienced that last year as well to some extent. Thankfully Juan Jose was able to get some Electricians in to resolve the issue for the most part.
After settling in for the first month we were getting into some good routines which of course included things like walking the animals a few times each day and doing our own laundry in our little washer/spinner we bought last summer. Our loads were never big, the big stuff we took to the laundromat. That is until they LOST a full king bedding set on us! Never have we had any issues with our laundry coming back in tact. This was a HUGE mistake though! They didn’t seem overly stressed. They had actually given me someone else’s sheets. I noticed them in my bag right away and gave them back to them. They said they would fix it and get my sheets back and to come back in a couple hours. Obviously they mixed up my sheets with someone elses. Two hours later I return….no sheets…”please come back in a day or two”. Ok, two days later….sorry “she’ll be here tomorrow, can you come back tomorrow”. Ok….tomorrow comes….no sheets yet “she” has picked up her sheets…the ones that were in my bag by mistake. Yet, she didn’t return MY sheets. Unbelievable! So, after about a month of this back and forth I had to actually feel for the laundromat. Sure, it was their mistake in the first place but they couldn’t make this person return our sheets. They tried and even showed me their texts to this person named “Summer” and shared her number with me. When I called it though, the number had been disconnected. Wonderful! It’s not like a full cotton king sheet set is expensive right? ARGH!! So, from then on in I was determined to do our own laundry. As much as it pissed me off, I tried not to let it get to me for too long. It just wasn’t worth the frustration.
In December Dan and I got some new tattoos from a very talented local tattoo artist named Bobby. He had given Dan a forearm tattoo last year and this year Dan wanted to add one to his other forearm. I was also wanting something to commemorate my big year, turning 50 and making the big decision to leave my career and retire early. I wanted a simple line tattoo that would have meaning. So I designed one that incorporated Dan & I (and my sister) = Virgo symbol , my love of dogs and cats = silhouette of a dog and cat encircled by an arrow with a heart tip, and the big changes I’d undertaken this year and my path in life to now = a unilome. https://symbolsage.com/unalome-meaning-and-symbolism/.
I also found a beautiful fine line drawing of a hummingbird and decided to get that tattooed on my upper arm. Dan got a beautiful intricate tattoo of Cuautemoc (pronounced kwaw’temok). It took 6 hours to do and cost only $5500 pesos. My two tattoos and the deer skull were $4500 pesos total
We’ve experienced some new things with Heffay his year. Last year he was a young pup and I remember him scratching pretty frequently. I thought it was because I didn’t get the salt water and sand rinsed off him good enough after being on the beach. But then it continued, even after we left. The vet in Canada said he likely had a food allergy so we experimented all last summer with different foods before we landed on one that seemed to reduce the scratching. Well, sadly the scratching continues down here to the point where he’s got a few bald spots on his chest and under his arms from scratching. He has also been licking his paws incessantly. When we checked his paws I noticed there were sometimes small scabs in between his toes. It wasn’t ticks, it turned out to be tiny grass seeds that work there way into the fur and between the toes, eventually rooting themselves in a pore. They are determined little things, you’d swear they were alive! Although they don’t have a point that is sharp to the touch, it is a point fine enough to work it’s way into a small skin pore. Once I discovered those it became a nightly routine to wash in-between his toes every night. I also found that a microfibre cloth worked the best as it could actually grab the tiny seeds. I also wash and dry his chest and under his armpits every night. A vet down here recommended giving him a bath once a week with a special shampoo for sensitive skin as he thought environmental allergies might be the culprit. So, that is our routine, daily “bird” baths and a weekly bath. So far it seems to be making a difference. He still scratches and licks at his paws, but not nearly as often and intensely.
In December we started to experience more power issues with our breaker on the post flipping way too frequently. We have a volt meter plugged into one of our outlets inside and can see what voltage we are getting from the post. It should be 120 but we noticed it often drops quite a bit and has gone as low as 103 volts, particularly in the evening for some reason. Because of the fluctuations and how low it drops, running anything in addition to the A/C unit is difficult. Last year we didn’t have this same issue, perhaps this year it is because more people are “on the grid” now that business have resumed to post covid levels. To reduce the power incidents we had to unplug our small outdoor fridge/freezer and we also turned off the electric water heater. We only turn the electric water heater on now in the early morning when the AC is off. At night we’ll turn on the gas water heater for an hour our so to clean up the kitchen and have an evening shower. We also found that the auto former we used all last year didn’t seem to be working as well or perhaps at all. It is supposed to boost the power when it drops, to avoid a power outage and dangerously low voltage. It didn’t seem to be doing that and instead the breaker on the post just kept flipping. We decided to remove it and instead plugged in our Camco surge protector between the post and our power cord. It seems to be working better than the Sola auto former box was.
By mid December temperatures were highs of 25 (although it still felt quite warm in the sunshine) and cooling nicely at night down to 18 or so degrees. This year most of North America experienced an extreme weather event causing temperatures to dip significantly and even snow to fall in Florida at Christmas time. Thankfully, where we are we did not get any cold temperatures. They may have dipped a little, but nothing significantly noticeable.
At night though humidity skyrockets up to the mid to high nineties. AC keeps humidity down inside most of the time, but sometimes even it struggles. Anything over 60% humidity inside and things like the bed and bedding starts to feel damp - yuck! We may get a dehumidifier for next year, but then we have to worry about drawing too much power if we run that and the A/C. I think it would likely have to be one or the other.
Near the end of December we had some not so fun pet issues. First we noticed Heffay seemed to have scratched his eye. Likely while playing with Yogi, his Rottie friend next door. We watched it for a day or two and when it didn’t get better we started him on some eye antibiotics. After a week on those, things weren’t improving so the local vet recommended we take him to a vet in Valle Dorado - about 1 hour drive per Google, typically 1.5 hours in reality and that is only if there are no accidents or obstructions on the two lane highway…which are VERY frequent occurences on this stretch of highway. Not exactly convenient, but the local vet wasn’t able to treat eye injuries other than just issuing antibiotics, and he wasn’t sure what was wrong with his eye. It had also started to cloud over which was scary! So, we set on on the drive to see the recommended vet in Valle Dorado. One amazing thing about vet’s (and most doctors) in Mexico is that you can text them or call them directly with any questions you have. There is no going through a receptionist, they are always very responsive too. It is wonderful. I reached out to the new vet to make sure he was working the day we were going to drive in, and gave him a heads up on what was going on. When we got there he put some dye in Heffay’s eye and then shone a purple light in his eye and diagnosed a corneal ulcer. I could see the white dot in the middle of the cloudy part. Treatment = 3 drops, 3 times per day for 3 weeks! Oh fun….it was SO much fun trying to wrestle Heffay to get one set of drops in, let alone 3 and three times a day. Oh well, we’d figure it out. Another wonderful thing about veterinarians in Mexico….they are incredibly cheap in comparison to Canada. The visit along with three weeks of medications and some medicated shampoo for his environmental allergies came to a whopping $907 pesos ($657 meds & $250 vet consult) = $63 Canadian! It costs me $95 just to walk into the vet in Canada! Wow! So for the remainder of December and into January he’d be on this treatment regime to heal the corneal ulcer.
It wasn’t very many days after that ordeal that I noticed HeyZeus had a golf ball size lump behind his right ear! What the???!!! A few days prior to this he and HoseHey got into a pretty fierce scrap while out in their tents. We figure HoseHey bit him or scratched him and it became infected causing an abscess. So, off to the vet we went…no appointment, we just brought him in first thing the next morning. Dr. Fernando confirmed it was infected and needed to be drained. So, right there with us in the room he gave a sedative, shaved the area, put a small incision in drained out the infection and then flushed the wound and gave him a shot of antibiotic. How incredible is that…right in front of us! Of course, we could have left, but he didn’t mind us staying there with HeyZeus while he worked. Total cost for that surgery and follow up antibiotics = $700 pesos or just under $50 Canadian 😳. Incredible! We were so grateful for his care and attention we gave him a $300 peso tip. We took HeyZeus home while he was still sedated and stayed with him, talking to him while he lay on our bed and woke up from the sedative a few hours later. Thankfully, his wound healed up nicely without any infection. That was scary though!
The rest of the month was fairly uneventful. At Christmas time many residents in the park got together and had a potluck over near the entrance to the beach. New Years Eve was quiet here in the park, but there were lots of bright and loud fireworks going off throughout the small town. Oh, and I experimented with more baking, trying my hand at a copy cat Starbucks lemon loaf as well as a chocolate cake. Both turned out amazingly! I finally got the hang of the convection microwave oven!
 |
| Lemon loaf 🍋 Yum! |
January was to bring more animal excitement. Lets just say we toyed with calling this year’s snowbird trip the winter of vet visits! January also marks the half way point for our winter stay in Lo de Marcos. That means time to start cramming in all the stuff we want to see and do before we hit the road at the end of March. We’ll see if I can get the January recap posted before the end of the month. I was sure I’d get the December update done before now…but in Mexico there is always mañana!
