A New Website!

Recently I decided to upgrade this blog - and re-name it.  Everyone can use a fresh start once in a while, right?  Now I have my own domain name - www.vagabondgene.com.  The name was chosen to reflect what I consider my genetic makeup.  As concluded by scientists recently, 20% of the human population have a single gene that is strongly associated with the strong desire to roam, to explore, to travel.

The new blog will not continue to mix in posts about software - it is strictly for topics related to my travels and living in Mazatlan.  The new website format gives me a wider array of options for design and posting pictures.

So please go take a look and don't forget to Like the new Facebook page also - www.facebook.com/vagabond-gene

Airbnb - I'm a fan.

My second article published on www.mazatlanmycity.com

I love Airbnb!

Many people have likely heard of Airbnb by now and maybe 50% (I’m guessing) of you have tried it, either as a Guest or as a Host.  I am writing this for those who are curious and would like to know more about it from a first-hand experience basis.  I do not receive any compensation from Airbnb.

I have stayed in 10 or 12 different properties in 4 different countries, ranging from a room in a house to a full two-bedroom apartment.   Right now, I have listed our condo in Calgary on Airbnb for the rest of the year and will be experiencing what it is like to be a Host.  Since I will be in Mazatlan and my husband, Mike, is working on contract in Winnipeg, I thought I would try it and earn a little money from it.  I could just rent it out, furnished, in a normal way as I have done in the past with a house we owned, but using Airbnb as my middle-man gives me a good layer of protection and regulation.  Guests must have a profile on the site which Airbnb verifies as true.  If they have stayed in other Airbnb properties, the Hosts will have put up a review of that Guest that you can read.  You can decide to rent to only people who have good reviews if you wish.

However, Airbnb provides an insurance policy of sorts for any damage or theft done to the property by a Guest and acts as a mediator should any problems arise between the Host and the Guest.  So, even if they have had no reviews yet, a Host does have a certain comfort level from that.  Airbnb handles the payment from the Guest by charging a credit card after they have checked in – if the Guest does not contact Airbnb and say there is a problem upon arrival, then the funds are released to the Host in full.  It goes to your bank account electronically.  You can even specify that you charge a cleaning fee and a security deposit, extra charge for extra people, and Airbnb will collect that as well.

As an experienced Guest, I can say I have not yet been disappointed with any place I have stayed.  Hosts shoot for a 5 star review from you because it enhances their online image and they can begin to charge more and get return customers.  However, there was one host who thought it was acceptable to keep the cat litter-box right inside the entryway by the front door where you came in!

When you go to the www.airbnb.com, enter the city where you want to stay and the dates (it isn’t necessary to enter dates at first if you just wish to browse), and also check off criteria such as you want to share a room, have a private room, or rent the entire place.  You can also search by pet or children-friendly, among other things.  The appropriate listings will come up with pictures and a map where they are located.  The profiles of each property normally have a very detailed description and other information, as well as reviews by other guests and the star rating.  You can send an inquiry only if you wish to ask for more information.  Once you put your dates in and send off a request to book, the Host can either approve it, deny it, ask for more information from you.  You will see the total price of the booking when you make a request and if you wish you could send the Host a message and try to negotiate a lower price.  Usually, the Host has pricing by night, by week, and by month with discounts for longer stays.  But you can also ask for a special deal and if the Host agrees he/she sends you a “special deal” offer that you can accept or not.

I had an inquiry myself today for my condo and used the “special deal” feature to send to the potential Guest, but it was not accepted in the end.

Arrangements for your arrival at the property differ with each one.  At the very first one we stayed at in Dartmouth, NS, our instructions were to enter the back yard and get the key from under a can in the back shed!  The owners were just renting a room with bathroom to us in their house, but they were not going to be at home when we arrived.  So we let ourselves in.

At another, just recently in the UK, the instructions were to take a gate key off of a hidden part of the gate where the key was taped to it, then open the gate, and once inside the gate, open a box where the house-key was hidden and let myself in.  In this case, the studio apartment was in the back of a big Victorian house with a separate entrance and the people who lived above me were unrelated to the owners of the apartment.  It was self-serve all the way.  The owners were not even in the country.  They were in easy contact with me by texting and they did say there was a local person available if I had need of her.  I was quite happy with the apartment which was well-equipped with small kitchen completely outfitted with pots, pans, dishes utensils, a few spices, instant coffee, stove, fridge and even a clothes-washer.  I walked down the street to a small shop and bought a few eggs, milk, and bread for breakfast.  There was already some butter in the fridge.

One Host in Calgary had 3 bedrooms for rent in her house, one with an ensuite bath and the other two shared a bathroom.  She had coded electronic door locks on each bedroom with a chalkboard hung outside that had the code written on it.  You could then change the code for your stay.  She lived in the basement, but was rarely there.  I had let myself into the house with a key in the mailbox.

In Malaga, Spain, the owner of a two-bedroom apartment was also the owner of the restaurant it was above.  I arrived and found the owner in the restaurant and he showed me up to the apartment and left me with the keys.  My son, Tim and his friend Amanda arrived later at night after I was already in bed and the owner let them in.  If had any questions or issues, he was right downstairs.  He also gives a 10% discount on purchases in the restaurant for Guests.  We left when the restaurant was closed and so we were told to just leave the keys in the apartment.

At another apartment in Malaga, my flight arrived very late and I told the Host I would not be at the apartment until after midnight.  For an extra fee, she arranged for two nice Spanish ladies to meet me outside the apartment and let me in.  Otherwise, I would have picked up the key from a little café across the street.

I love the creativity and flexibility of this new “sharing economy” service!

When the Founders of Airbnb first got started in 2007, they were young and broke and decided to advertise on a blog that they had two air-mattresses for rent in their apartment.  They succeeded in renting them for $80 a month, which was the reason for the name Airbnb.  They went on to try to build a business out of it and created the first website but for months and months they only earned about $200 a month.  They went to a well-known VC for funding and were turned down.  The VC stated that he did not see any potential and that people would not be interested in allowing perfect strangers to stay in their homes.  Later, they were able to raise a first seed round of $600K in about 2010, after the drummer of Barry Manilow rented an entire house on Airbnb.  A year later, they raised several million more from several investors, including Ashton Kutcher.  Airbnb is now valued at $10 Billion.  Yes, with a B.

If you haven’t tried using Airbnb, I highly recommend it!

PS.  Our condo has now been rented through Airbnb until Aug. 31!  It is not the norm to rent for this long on Airbnb - short terms of a few days or weeks is what Airbnb was designed for, but since I am a beginner and don't have any reviews by Guests yet, I decided to do this mid-length rental and know that I have the solid income for that time period.

A series of articles for MazatlanMyCity.com

This is the first in a series of articles I am writing for MazatlanMyCity.com and posting as blog posts after they have been published.

A trip on my own

Sometime in March of this year, I began to think about taking a trip somewhere in May.  It was a nebulous plan at first but I knew I wanted to tie it into the need to drive my Jeep to the border before May 24, and a visit to my father in Toronto for his birthday on April 26^th.  I also knew I should check in at Calgary, where Mike, my husband, was to take care of some business matters and perhaps get a little more work done on our condo.   How could I tie this all together?

I browsed the home-sitter site, Housecarers.com, with no idea what I was looking for.  I like the idea of travelling to a place and staying put for a while to immerse myself in the local culture and surroundings.  I’m not the “tourist” type, who wants to see all the common sights, and check them off my list, all while staying at comfortable hotels.  Or going on organized group tours.  I don’t mind an organized day tour of a new place to get an overall feel for it – like a “hop on-hop off” open-top bus.  That to me is the best way to go the first day – it’s organized and informative but flexible.  I don’t like to be herded around in a group and forced to stand and listen to someone talk about something I may not be interested in.  I also enjoy solo travel – not all the time, but there is a special level of enjoyment to be had from travelling alone, especially for a woman.  It can be challenging to take on things like finding your way around, driving in a strange city or country, functioning in another language, dealing with the unexpected – but therein lies the deep satisfaction and building of confidence in oneself.  You come to feel that whatever happens, you can handle it.   It is freeing too.  You can do what you want, when you want, without having to consult and compromise with your spouse or travelling companions.  Not everyone would enjoy that, I know.  But I do.

A couple of listings caught my eye – both in Spain.  I had not thought to go to Spain before.  I am generally not that interested in Europe unless it’s something out of the ordinary.  And this certainly looked unique.  A tiny mountain village near the coast of Southern Spain.  Two weeks in a home with 3 cats and a dog to care for, but with plenty of other spots close by to explore on foot or by car.  I applied and got a response from the owner, a UK woman named Wendy.  I asked for more information on everything, and more pictures too.  She sent them and also said I would need to rent a car for myself to get around.  I was intrigued.  It looked rugged and remote but still only 20 minutes from the coast and beaches.  She said she often rented out the house as a holiday home and took care of other holiday homes for people.  It had to be comfortable and attractive if she was able to rent it out to people.

I looked at flights.  I knew if I could get to a point in Europe inexpensively, I could then take an inexpensive flight within Europe on the little discount airlines like Ryanair.  My favourite airline, Westjet, had limited European flights from Canada until later in May and I needed to be in Spain by May 6.

An overall plan began to formulate.  Starting with a drive from Mazatlan to Phoenix in April.  Then parking the Jeep in storage there and flying to Calgary.  After about 10 days, a flight from Calgary to Toronto with a 2 day stop to visit my dad and mom (both in care for Alzheimers).  Now I needed a flight from Toronto to Europe. 

I looked at Icelandair which had a reputation for inexpensive flights, and saw on their website that since all their flights stop in Reykjavik anyway, they offer a free stop-over for up to 7 days on your way to Europe.  Hmmmm.  Should I?  Seemed a shame not to take them up on that.  I researched hotels and possible Airbnb rentals – my other favourite way of staying somewhere when I travel – and made the decision to book and stay 3 nights there.  I really only had a vague idea of what it was like there – I knew there were geysers, volcanoes, glaciers and hot springs but it hadn’t really caught my interest to go there before.  Didn’t a volcano erupt there not long ago?  Well, I could at least say I had been to Iceland even if I didn’t like it, I figured.

1 by Jón Gunnar Árnason (1931 - 1989). Sun Voyager is a dreamboat, an ode to the sun. Intrinsically, it contains within itself the promise of undiscovered territory, a dream of hope, progress and freedom.

Then, I looked at where to land in Europe.  I have been to a few places in Europe, and most recently to Paris, but that was 10 years ago or so.  I decided on Paris because the timing of the flights and cost looked good and the flight from Paris to Malaga, Spain was only 2 hours or so.  Now, I could have just had a layover in Paris and hopped on my next flight, but again I figured, well, since I’m going there anyway, I might as well take a couple of days to re-acquaint myself!  Ha!  Okay, let’s look at Airbnb and Expedia for a place to stay.

(You can start to see how I get enthusiastic and start extending and expanding my travel – sometimes to the point where I realize later I have committed to too much!  Travel from place to place can be exhausting – especially airports.  I forget all that when planning my trips.)

Nevertheless, I found a small hotel in Paris that was quite reasonable and got good reviews on Trip Advisor for location and, at the very least, cleanliness and internet in the room.  The reviews did all mention how small the rooms and bathrooms were but that, for the price, it was a good enough place to lay your head at night.  I had stayed at a small pension in Paris before so I knew about the small rooms and limited facilities – possibly even needing to bring your own soap. 

Then I researched online a possible guided day tour since I was only there 2 days, and found a unique-sounding “foodie” tour of an ethnic area in Paris for 4 hours.  It sounded really good and the size of the group was limited to 8, which appealed to me because I hate large groups.  So I booked that too.

2  Cheese Shop in Marais, Paris.

Whoo hoo! I’m only getting started!

Wendy had told me that the best airport to land in in Spain was Malaga.  Her home was an hour and a half east along the coast from there and I would need to drive.  Okay, so I am going to be in Malaga, and I’ve never been there, so why not arrive a couple of days early and explore Malaga?  Here we go again.

This time I found an Airbnb apartment right in Centro for 3 nights, on the recommendation of Wendy, who had a friend stay there before.  I left off renting the car until I needed it to drive to Rubite (pronounced Ruubeetaye.)  I booked a hop on/hop off open air bus city tour.  I knew next to nothing about Malaga but by reading up on it online, it certainly sounded very interesting and with a lot of history including Phoenicians, Romans, Moors….oh my.

Figure 3 The Cathedral of Málaga is a Renaissance church.

Once my son, Tim, heard about this house-sit in Spain, he was bitten by the travel bug too and told me to plan on him joining me there, at least for part of the time.  Yay!  What more could a mom ask for!  An adventure with her son!

So, it all began on April 11, when Mike flew down to Mazatlan and drove the Jeep with me to Phoenix.

Next article – Reykjavik!

Software update for those interested

I received a nice compliment today from a couple here asking about Mike and the software company. They've met Mike and are from Nova Scotia - actually the woman went to the same High School as Mike but 10 years earlier.  She follows my blog too.

They said Mike was a very lucky guy to have a wife like me supporting him.  I said I'll tell Mike you said that, thank you. ;)

Things are moving and shaking in software, and we have revenue trickling in.  There are at least three Channel partners now who are beginning to include Move in their own projects for clients.  It continues to be further developed as different clients request further adapters and functionality.  Mike has been hiring offshore programmers for short jobs - they are relatively inexpensive and usually excellent.  Our co-founder and lead developer, Andy, has been working in a full-time job so sometimes he just doesn't have time to do what we need done - and it's a good idea to begin finding and familiarizing other developers to have ready for future needs.

Our website is undergoing a complete overhaul and upgrade.  Man, our current one sucks!  That will help a lot to raise our profile in the business world.  

Every day now there seems to be fresh good news from Mike.  He's been doing some local networking and finding many new potential customers and channel partners that way.  One good thing about him not working somewhere on a consulting job - he has time to do that kind of thing. But he continues put his name out there for gigs - it's been another long dry spell for that which is nerve-wracking. Fortunately, software has been bringing in some revenue and Mike has done a couple of small consulting jobs from home.  He has bumped into a potential investor along the way too, and will be talking to him more next week.

Mike's son, Matt, a business and communication graduate of University of Ottawa, has been working with Mike a lot too!  Working remotely from Toronto, he has been re-writing an Executive Summary, creating cash-flow spreadsheets ready to show to potential investors, writing content for our new website.  He has been very helpful and he also allows me to step back more.  Mike seems to have a thousand things on the go to work on, and respond to, every day so it's great to have a right-hand man helping him, as well as me.  He really does need a full-time executive assistant at this point, but this comes close.  And Matt is being so flexible with us on getting paid.  There are projects in the pipeline that he will be paid for as a Business Analyst by the client too.  He plans to go to Spain in the fall to complete an International MBA program which I'm sure will be very exciting - and useful if he should choose to come work for us full-time eventually.

I'm happy to be here in Maz for now and stay involved online.  I will soon have to return to Calgary for year-end tax filings with the accountant and also plan to visit my dad for his birthday, April 26, in Toronto.

My weird life....

I'm back in Maz.  It's Carnival - which means lots of ear-drum busting sound stages steps from my apartment, and huge disruptions of normality in getting around for a week.  Oh yes, and parades and fireworks and festivities and costumes.  I'm sure it's all lots of fun.  But I would rather not live in the middle of it all, and so I de-camp to my favourite hotel north of the downtown and use some of my timeshare points to stay for more-or-less free since we had already made the expensive decision years ago to buy the timeshare.  Might as well use it.

I am getting the usual questions from my circle of friends here.  How long are you staying?  How is Mike?  Where is Mike?  When will Mike be down?  Except for where and how Mike is, I can only say I don't know.  My life and my comings and goings are always in flux.  Most of the time, I like it that way.  I like unpredictability and serendipity.  I embrace it.

While I was in Calgary this last time, I actually submitted an application for a job at Canada Post.  I do this kind of thing from time to time - I begin to think sometimes that maybe I should get a job. Our financial life is, and has been, so unpredictable and, at times, downright panic-inducing.  Sometimes I think I should do something more than be chief cat herder, financial manager, personal assistant, head butt-kicker, operations manager, lead life organizer, and concerned worrier.  And I apply for a few jobs.  Usually, I hear nothing back.

This time, after I got back here this week, I did hear from the Post Office.  They wanted me to come in and interview (I guess) and fill in a number of forms.  Think of that.  I could be the 3rd person in my family to become a - postal worker.  Yikes!

Don't get me wrong.  I am not disparaging postal workers or other government union workers - or even union workers who don't work for government.  Many of them are now retired and living in Mazatlan on a nice pension.

But.

I know I am not alone in feeling this way because I have met like-minded people - Mike is one of them.  I have always been extremely allergic to the idea of working at a "job", 9-5, Monday to Friday, with two weeks vacation a year, for 25 years or so, and then retiring.  The very idea makes me shudder.  Even though I know, right now I could be approaching an early retirement with a nice pension - one that would pay all of my living expenses, and then some, if I lived somewhere like Mazatlan.  Not so sure about living in Canada.

Doesn't matter.  I could also have been doing that for the last 30-odd years and be dead or ill by now. What good would that have been? I only have to look as far as my own parents to realize that life offers no guarantees.

So, here I am again in Mazatlan.  My husband is elsewhere.  We work together by internet and phone. I never know where he will be working, or not working.  Maybe he'll have a chance to come down for a few days.  Maybe I will go to where he is for a few days or weeks.  I have something of a life here and getting away from here means getting my dogs looked after while I am gone.

It's complicated.  It's messy.  It's unpredictable.

I don't see how it could be any other way.  People must wonder how Mike feels about me being here on my own while he is somewhere else - working.  It must look like I get to loaf around in paradise, going to parties and the beach while he slaves away in less appealing locations - like winter in Calgary, or in Kuwait.  Maybe they don't realize how much work it is for me to be here.  Believe me, I am always on the job.  Always in touch with what is happening with our businesses, always responding, always thinking.  There is no 9-5, no Monday to Friday - for either of us.  There is no "off".  

And yes, we like it that way. For now.  I could ask Mike to stop working on our software and get a full-time job.  I could suggest that he give up all further ambition about it and join me here for 6 months a year and work in consulting for the other 6 months.  I could even tell him I would move the dogs back to the Calgary and get a full-time job if he did the same for the next 10 years.  All in the interest of some predictability and being together all the time like most couples.

He wouldn't do it.  Would. Not. Do. It.

So, while I make my weird life more interesting by spending time in Mazatlan with my dogs, don't ever assume that I do this in protest, or in selfishness.  This is just my weird life - our weird life.

My father, Tony Jessup

Last week was a difficult and stressful one.  My dad, sitting here with my mom a few years ago outside the nursing home where my mom was in full-time care for Alzheimer's, had reached a crisis point that we children had to respond to.  He lived by himself in the house shown below since my mom had to go into care. 

They had emigrated from the UK in 1957 to Toronto, and after living in a couple of rentals for a few years, this was their first and only home purchase in 1962 - for $14K.  They had very little money and had a first mortgage of $9,500 and a second mortgage from the builder for much of the rest.

I can remember my mother telling us how much they pinched pennies to make those mortgage payments.  I think it took about 10 years to pay the whole thing off, which was their biggest desire. Now it is worth many, many times more - a shocking amount more - mainly for the large lot it sits on.

My dad, we noticed, had begun having memory problems about 4 years ago.  Nothing too serious, just age we thought.  Still, when I would call and tell him I was flying in to visit and gave him the date, time, etc. to pick me up at the airport, he would call back again and again to ask me for that information.  The same thing happened to my sister, who lives in Denver.  And there were other things.  But all in all, he seemed to be managing fine by himself.  He refused any help offers.

He is a man of routine; and his routine was to go visit my mom for a couple of hours in the morning, come home and have lunch, then go to the community centre and play snooker (pool) with a group of men.  On Fridays, he went food shopping too.  This routine is what gave him the ability to continue to manage himself living alone, even as he descended into Alzheimer's himself. 

We found out he also has Alzheimer's last week.  He had gone to visit my mom in hospital where she had been moved due to a flu outbreak in the home.  It took him out of his schedule and to an unfamiliar place.  He left the hospital and began walking - taking a taxi was beyond his cognitive ability - and was lost for 5 hours.  The police finally located him 16K from the hospital.  The state he was in and the state of the house (they went into his house to look around) caused them to decide to get him admitted to the hospital - the same hospital where my mom was - on a 72 hours mental health hold.

It was the best, and the worst, thing to happen to him.

A CT scan revealed multiple small strokes had been happening and the brain showed signs of progressed Alzheimer's. 

My sister and I arrived and went to work, along with my brother who lives 2.5 hours away, to get him into a retirement home with a secure floor for residents with dementia.  He was never going to go home again.

This might seem cruel to some, but my dad is an incredibly strong-willed and stubborn man - combative even - and if he were allowed to go back inside the house, we would have an impossible time getting him back out.  And home-help, even full-time, which is what would be necessary, was not an option for us.  None of us live close enough to monitor that kind of situation, and my dad would have fought it endlessly.  We have tried many times to get him to accept part-time help, meals-on-wheels, a cleaning person even once a month - not a chance.

My dad is extraordinarily attached to that house.  Now, in his state, it is almost a child-like attachment.  His recliner by the big patio door looking out onto their rockery and garden, mature trees in the yards behind and beside him, was his joy.  Whatever joy he still had.

The last time I saw him in September, we sat together there, and he told me once again how he could never leave the house.  He would never have a spot to sit and look at the nature outside anywhere else, he said, and he would miss it terribly.  Then he said something shocking.  "I think about offing myself sometimes - but your mother is still alive and I couldn't do that to her".  I paused and looked at him and asked, "Do you really think that way, dad?"  He nodded.  My heart sank, knowing he was reaching the end of his rope.

Still, I had to leave him like that.  We kids seemed to have no options available to us.  We had called every social service we could think of.  None could help us until he went to see his doctor and got an assessment done.  And short of physically dragging him there, he wasn't going to go.

After that, he stopped being able to use his phone.  He stopped hearing it ring, and could not figure out how to dial it.  He stopped remembering his pin on his credit card, which he used exclusively for shopping - my brother would pay his bill online for him.  No-one could reach him to check in on him.  My brother and his wife went up a couple of times and tried to get him to accept help.  The only saving grace was his next-door-neighbour, a Vietnamese woman, who would pop in to check on him and report by email to me that she saw him coming and going and seemed to be okay.

We knew that it would take an emergency, a fall, a sickness to be able to step in and do something against his will.

Now he is in a very nice place, with excellent trained people, regular nutritional meals, and activities - even snooker - to participate in.  But he is fighting it with all his might still.  His cognition is really very bad.  Short-term memory is almost non-existent.  But he knows my mom is out there and so is his house, his chair by the window.  He will be taken to visit my mom when they feel he won't fight coming back into the home.  For now, we are not to visit, to give him and them time to get him settled and into their routine for him.  He likes routine.  I hope he can find a measure of happiness in his remaining years.

Adventures driving in Mexico with Big Red the Jeep

I recently drove with my most excellent house/dog-sitters, Anne and Mike Howard of www.honeytrek.com, who are globe-trotting travel bloggers of some renown, from Puerto Vallarta to Austin, Texas.  I needed to renew my permit for the Jeep for another six months, which means a trek to the border and re-entering with a new permit.

Anne and Mike had been staying at my apartment with the dogs for about 6 weeks while I was up in Calgary.  They fell in love with Mazatlan, my dogs, and apparently many people here returned the love.  They were very popular people, and for good reason.  They are young (both still in their 30's), energetic, engaging and friendly people with many fantastic stories of their travel adventures on an extended honeymoon.

I flew to Puerto Vallarta because flights were much less expensive to there from Calgary.  They drove down and picked me up at the airport - then we were on our way driving north.  We stopped in Tepic, Durango and Saltillo for a night each, then up to Austin where they had friends to stay with before flying back up to New York.

I planned to meet up with a fellow driver in Laredo, Texas, a border town, the next day to drive tandem with him back over the border and back to Mazatlan, 1060 kilometers.

However, my Jeep had other plans.  

I had experienced some signs that all was not well with the Jeep when we sat at the border crossing on the way up for over 2 hours in the heat, idling the motor.  But, after a some TLC at a Pep Boys after crossing, it seemed to be fine. 

I left the hotel at 5 am in Laredo to get to the border crossing, 4 kilometers away, at an early hour when it wouldn't be busy.  My travelling partner was driving behind me on the highway when the Jeep suddenly began back-firing and stuttering.  I pulled off and he followed me to a parking lot.  The Jeep died.  I told him to go on without me, I would have to get it towed to a Pep Boys for repair - and god knows what was wrong with it.  

He had it set in his mind that he was going to drive the entire distance in one day and so was not about to delay his travel - he left me in the dark in an empty parking lot in a border town.  I didn't know quite what I was going to do then.

As bad as that guy might be, another guy was great.  A man in a pickup pulled up near to me (I was a little nervous about that) and rolled down his window.  I rolled mine down a little.  He asked if I was okay - did I need help? What a lovely man - he was Mexican-American.  He drove to a Pep Boys to see if they were open (they weren't) and then came back and called a tow truck for me to get towed to the Pep Boys and wait for them to open.

They opened at 8.  I sat in the Jeep needing a bathroom but finally got in and explained the issue.  They took the Jeep in and said it was a blown distributor.  It was replaced and I was back on the road by noon - $500 lighter.  But it could have been worse.

Then I was faced with driving on my own across Mexico.  I debated with myself about it, but in the end I sucked it up and figured I had no choice - anyway, a lot of people do it every day and the toll-roads are excellent.  I actually decided to wear a black, loose-fitting shirt and no makeup or earrings to make myself as non-attention-grabbing as possible.  Anyway, a middle-aged woman with short grey hair, in a 1998 Jeep, isn't going to get much attention.

The first day, leaving around 1, I drove to Saltillo and stopped for the night before dark at 5ish.  About 300 kilometers, but with an hour of processing at the border for my visa and the car permit.

The next day, I was on the road at 9 am and drove the rest of the way, descending out of the mountain passes 30 kilometers from Mazatlan before dark.  The Jeep ran like a dream.

A post for Blanche Clarke

We have been busy renovating our condo in Calgary this fall and I just wanted to write a short post with pictures for Blanche, Mike's mom, who turned 91 on Oct. 25.  She has a laptop and is trying to learn how to use it more, but one thing she can do is find and read my blog regularly.  Sending pictures to her by email for her to see is still a challenge but I'm sure she will master that by 92!  And then - Facebook!  Don't get me wrong - she is as smart and sharp a 91-year-old woman as you are likely to find.  I hope I do as well as she is.

The bathroom was updated with new ceramic tile flooring, cabinet with deep drawers, counter-top and sink in one, new light fixture, mirror and paint.  I should have taken a before picture but suffice to say this is a HUGE improvement!

All of the carpeting was taken up and new laminate wood flooring was installed throughout.  We love how it turned out!

And, finally, here is a picture of a picture she bought for us from a local Nova Scotian photographer as a house-warming gift so that we have a little bit of home to look at.

Just the kitchen to go but I think that is going to have to wait until spring.  We've been lucky so far with weather but winter has arrived and since I want any sawing or cutting tiles to be done outdoors on the patio (the dust it creates indoors is horrendous), I'll wait for warmer weather.

The universe is shifting.

Before I jump into this post, I just want to note that the post "How to find a rental and live cheaply in Mazatlan" has surprised me by being the most read post - 10 times more popular than any other post. Obviously, I have struck a cord of interest and various articles I have read in major media lately confirm that.  With Baby Boomers retiring en masse and wondering how the heck they are going to be able to do that in North America, they are looking at Mexico as a viable alternative.

I will probably write a follow-up post on that subject but I just want to mention now that some of the rules for becoming a resident of Mexico have changed and there are many places online you can go to get this information.  It's a little complicated, particularly if you want to bring down a vehicle, so I strongly recommend that you google "residency visas in Mexico" or something similar and inform yourself.

I have been a busy woman this summer.  After returning in June, I left again six weeks later to go up to Calgary where Mike started a new consulting job.  Our intention was to find somewhere to rent but instead we did something I never thought we would do again.  We bought a condo.  Real estate in Calgary is booming, unlike many other places, so the thought that we could actually buy something was astounding.  We moved in almost right away and rented for a month while the mortgage was processed.  That was a lot of work for me - our financial status was iffy given our struggles in the last two years, but I managed to pull off a miracle of shuffling money around to at least make it look like we were a good bet to the mortgage company.  They really have nothing to worry about, we have recovered quite well since Mike went to work for Chevron in 2013 but banks are nigglers.

So this is all part of the "shift".

First:  After about 5 years of Mike NOT working in Calgary, making my staying in Mazatlan during winter months make sense (I did visit him in various work sites like Sacramento and Houston), it now appears that Mike will be permanently located in Calgary.

Second: After more than 5 years of developing, pivoting, promoting, begging and struggling, Qtility Software has paying customers - oil and gas companies, government departments, and others.  That means I need to be there to help manage it until we find someone to replace me.  Mike is under contract to consult until the end of December and is walking a fine line between obligation to the consulting client, and being CEO of Qtility Software.  There is a blending there because the consulting client is the one who is selling our software to their clients.  We are working on some kind of partnership deal with them to make sure the blending is clear to prevent conflict of interest issues.

And so, I am going back again, less than a month after getting back here in Sept.  I have lined up a great couple for house/dog-sitting - they are world travelers with an active blog and travel business.  www.honeytrek.com   Very interesting story and I am sure they are going to love Mazatlan.

I have to come back in late November again in order to drive my Jeep back to the border to renew the sticker for another 6 months.  No getting around it.  After that, we'll see.  If I have to spend a winter in Calgary, I am very happy to do so if it means that I am helping to get us to the point when Mike and I are free to have adventures - together!

More details and where I stayed in Calgary, Vancouver, Houston, and Durango.

I used Airbnb properties a lot on the May trip and only had one slightly bad experience - in Calgary.  I won't even post the link to that property because I can't recommend it.

The owner seemed to think that an open cat litter box just inside the front door where people came and went was just fine.  What?  Do you have a problem with animals in the house, she asked?  It states right in the profile that there are animals, she said.   No, I said, I love animals,  but an open litter box in that location is just unpleasant, not to mention something of a health hazard.  I wouldn't subject my own friends and family to that, let alone paying guests.  She didn't get it, and claimed that there was no other spot to put it. C'est la vie.

In Vancouver, I stayed for two nights at an older, 1930's row house in the Mount Pleasant section of Vancouver, and area that was great for walking and stopping at interesting shops and cafes/restaurants. Hosts were a younger couple who were very nice.  https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/2045298

In Calgary, for one of the other nights, I stayed at a good, comfortable house that we had stayed in before. https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/764034

In Houston, I stayed with an older, single retired man, a long time resident of Houston, and his dog Duke in gorgeous area of Houston called The Heights - leafy, green and very interesting architecture in that area.  It was very comfortable and I had my own ensuite bathroom which is always nice. https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/598228

Gwen and I stayed at a Wyndham hotel in San Antonio using my time-share points.  It was fine, but nothing special and I am always annoyed by the salespeople there trying to get me to go to a breakfast presentation when I am only there for 2 days!

We stayed in Durango at Hostal de la Monja, a hotel housed in a beautiful 200-year-old building across from one of the Cathedrals and right on a walking street, closed to traffic.  It used to house nuns at one time. The rooms were very spacious with 20 foot ceilings, two double beds, and air-conditioning. It was a treat to be there for two nights. There is a lobby bar and restaurant - breakfast was included.  The staff were wonderful and there was parking behind the hotel in a secured lot.  http://www.hostaldelamonja.com.mx/

We absolutely loved Durango, a colonial city dating from the 1500's.  It has recently become a tourist destination for those who live in Mazatlan due to the opening of a new toll highway and the second largest suspension bridge in the world between Durango and Mazatlan.  It cuts the time of the journey from the border of Texas to Mazatlan by about 4 hours I am told.  We found it to be well-maintained with actual clean, modern bathroom buildings and SOS phones placed frequently along the way.  Not to mention incredibly scenic.

Durango was VERY clean and orderly.  Everyone we met was so pleasant and helpful, and happy to see tourists from north of the border in their city - something they are not used to yet but they seem to love the fact that we want to visit the city - they are very proud of it.  The architecture, museums, walking streets and parks are all so worth going for.  We had dinner at two different restaurants that we just have to go back to. One called El Esquilon and the other La Fonda de la Tia Chona.  Unique interiors and ambiance and excellent food for such reasonable prices, especially when compared to prices north of the border.

I tried a dark, rich mole sauce that had the taste of a hint of dark chocolate and cinnamon, on chicken in Tia Chona, and a lighter-flavored yellow mole at El Esquillon.  Both were delicious.

Have to go back!

Catch-up long overdue

My friend, Gwen, and I had an road-trip adventure together in May.  The '98 Jeep parked in Houston since Mike left there in April needed to be driven down to Mazatlan.  I asked Gwen to meet me in Texas and play co-pilot and navigator.

Since it was to be my first time driving through Mexico, I wanted company.  And since she said enthusiastically agreed, we decided to add a few days to the trip and explored San Antonio, Texas first for a couple of days, then made stops in Eagle Pass on the border (for the night), Torreon, Mexico the second day (for the night), and then Durango, Mexico for two days.

We reached Mazatlan on June 1st, after getting a flat tire about 40 kilometers out.  It was fixed by a very nice Federal policeman (see picture) soon after it happened in 104 degree heat (phew).  We were slightly panicked by that time and yet, afterwards, we congratulated ourselves on our "most excellent adventure" that will be told and re-told to our (eventual, hopefully) grand-children. 

We rested up for a night then flew to Mexico City for two days.

This was all after nearly a month in Calgary and Vancouver, BC, catching up on business and personal stuff, and visiting my two sons, Tim and Simon.

It was a VERY busy month.

My house-sitters have gone on to the rest of their adventure, after admitting they had been bitten by the Mazatlan bug and had loved it here, even in the extreme heat.  They are somewhere in Europe now.  I am getting occasional emails.  They did a great job, and many people here have told me they spent time with them and found them to be a wonderful couple.

So, I've been back since June 4th and Mike will be here on June 28th for two weeks in between contracts.  The new contract is in Calgary!  No more Kuwait (or will there be?)

We may have some very big news on that front - coming soon!

I am flying up to Calgary on July 18th for two months.  No house-sitters this time - the girls are going to stay at their beach vacation home with my dog-sitter and their canine boyfriends.

Here are a few pictures from Gwen and Susan's Excellent Adventure:

New Durango Highway Bridge

Fellow travelers on the road.

Cathedral in Durango at night.

New Durango highway between Durango and Mazatlan

More on the House-sitters

Jen and Steve from Ontario, Canada are now here in town, staying in a nice place for a couple of weeks before taking up residence in my apartment May 1.  They will be house and dog sitting for a month.

I have learned some more about them and their motivation to sell everything and quit their jobs in order to fulfill their desire to travel for a year more or less, depending on how long the money lasts.  They have been regular, normal people for 20-plus years, working and raising a family.  When the kids moved out (for the last time) about three years ago, the itch to do something radically different began to grow.  Some family members began to have life-threatening illnesses, and their own family doctor, a very healthy man who exercised and ate healthy foods his whole life, suddenly dropped dead of a heart attack.  The phrase, life is short, began to be a mantra for them.  They realized that working another 20 years with the idea of retiring and travelling THEN was something that life could simply not guarantee for them.  That was when they put their plans in motion.

Telling friends and family was at first greeted with great surprise and concern that they may have lost their minds, but, they say, most people came around and supported the idea eventually.  They know they will have to return to a "normal" life in about a year, and go back to working for the next 20 years in order to officially retire around 65, but taking this adventurous sabbatical will, I think, open their eyes and minds to many new possibilities and ideas for their future.  Already, in just a couple of days of being in Mazatlan and meeting expats and snowbirds and hearing their stories, I can just hear the wheels are turning in their minds.  Taking the plunge and doing what they are doing cannot NOT change them - forever.

I am very happy to be their first stop on this journey and I will try to help make it a great experience!

For those wondering - I found Jen and Steve on the website www.housecarers.com    There are three websites that I have used.  The housecarers one, www.trustedhousesitters.com and www.mindmyhouse.com

I, myself, have a profile on housecarers.com as a potential house-sitter.  I think it is a great way to travel the world inexpensively and uniquely.  Yes, there may be pets to take care of but not all of them have pets, and taking care of a cat or two is much easier than dogs.  So, if you have an adventurous streak and love to travel, check out these websites for yourselves.

Of course, one consideration for travelers should be emergency medical insurance.  My new portable business as a Skymed representative for Mexico now allows me to offer emergency medical evacuation services - something most people assume is a part of their travel/medical insurance policy, but if you read the fine print, being evacuated to your home city is something you will have to pay for upfront and claim back - if you qualify and meet the restrictions of the policy. It can cost many thousands of dollars upfront - who has that much room on their credit cards in an emergency? Skymed is a service offered to supplement your emergency medical policy and once approved you can never be cancelled for any reason.  You, your travel companion, your family, your vehicle, even your pets will be transported home at your request should you have a medical emergency while travelling, and you will not have to pay a dime upfront or file a claim, nor are there any deductibles.  I am very happy to be able to offer this valuable service.  For more information:

www.skymed.com/susanjessup

email: sjessupskymed@gmail.com

Upcoming story of another adventurous Canadian couple

Olas Altas Beach with son, Tim.

I will be writing more later about the Canadian couple, Jen and Steve, who I have found on www.housecarers.com, who will be my house/dog-sitters for the month of May.  I chose them over others because of their story.  Here is what I know so far:

They live(d) in Barrie, Ontario and recently sold their house and stored their belongings with a new life plan to retire and travel the world doing house-sitting.  Their first stop will be Mazatlan.  They have never been to Mexico. They don't speak any Spanish.  I admire their moxie, and am happy I can help like-minded adventurers get started on what will surely be an eventful and memorable time of their lives!

After a visit with their son in Edmonton, Alberta, they plan to fly down here in April, ahead of starting the house-sit for me so that I can spend some time familiarizing them to Mazatlan and my dogs.  They are very excited!

My plans are to fly to Houston on May 1st and meet up with Mike there when he returns from this last stint of two months in Kuwait.  From there we plan to drive our Canadian-plated Versa up to Las Vegas for an industry conference from the 5th to the 9th of May.  After that, Mike will fly back to Houston and possibly back to Kuwait again (we aren't sure of the length of time he will be in Houston this time) and I will carry on up to Calgary to return the Versa to it's legal home in Alberta.  I will have to find a parking spot for it but that shouldn't be a big problem.

I may also be spending some time there looking at possible house or apartment rentals again.  It is possible that after this contract ends in July, Mike will be taking a contract in Calgary for six months or more.  We are weighing all the pros and cons on this because Chevron has verbally stated they expect to keep him on after July until at least the end of 2014.  But will they guarantee that with a contract? That remains to be seen.

In the meantime, Mike has a contract offer in hand from July to December in Calgary.  Its a good feeling to have that much security.

After some time in Calgary, I will fly back to Houston and pick up a 1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee we bought recently from a friend and drive it back to Mazatlan.  I hope Mike will be around to drive with me, but if not, I have great instructions and recommendations for the drive through Mexico.  Many people do it frequently without a problem and with the new highway from Durango to Mazatlan, the trip time has been cut dramatically and made safer too.  There are places along the way I am tempted to stop and explore.

Road trip in Mexico anyone?

A great video on retiring and living in Mazatlan.

A great comprehensive video on retiring and living in Mazatlan.

Back in my happy place

Annie, Teddie and son Tim

Our lives are a continuing work in process.  The other day someone asked me, shaking his head, "How the heck do you keep everything straight?"  I looked him in the eye and said, "I'm a genius."  Then I laughed because that's not true, and sometimes I screw up.  Despite my desire to simplify life, it resists simplification. It may appear to many that I am a young retiree.  At best, I am semi-retired.  I choose to live in a place where I would retire to, because I can, but it is not without challenges.

On my recent trip up to Canada to take care of things there, such as visit elderly parents, see my doctor to reassure him I am still alive and taking my medications. (Well, not ALL of them that he has prescribed - we have an understanding - I don't blindly accept the medical and drug companies' recommendations, but he continues to try.  This time he finally told me that the protocols for cholesterol have been changed - statins are NOT necessary, and, in fact, studies have shown that although they lower cholesterol, that has made no difference in preventing heart attacks. I could have said I told you so but I didn't.)

I'll just drink red wine every day, thank you very much.

Along the way, many people inquired about my tan.  Had I just come back from vacation?  When I briefly described my lifestyle (it's rather distracting and surreal to be talking about it while my doctor performs a pelvic exam), invariably I got responses such as - oh, that sounds wonderful, I wish I could do that too but I have another four years to retirement - or, I want to do that but I have a house, cars, and stuff here, but boy I would be happy to have a hot-dog stand on the beach and live there instead of here right about now.

My answer to all of them, if I had responded with something more than a smile because I didn't have time for more, would have been - it just takes imagination.  You have to step back, look at what is and imagine (as in "image") something different.  What would it take?  Would waiting four more years to retire really make a difference?  Do you really need all your stuff?  If you sold it all, would that finance an early retirement in a relatively inexpensive place?  Take a first step - you don't have to make a huge decision all at once.  

I started by coming to Mazatlan on vacation and talking to others who winter or live here full-time.  I scoped out the landscape of renting, transportation to and from Canada, all of details I felt I needed to know to take another step.  Then I took that step, then another, and another, until I had finally sold most of my stuff, including my house, and rented a year-round apartment. And I enjoyed myself in the process.

Of course, there are in-between lifestyles that don't include selling everything and renting year-round.  And some people wouldn't want to spend all of their time here - a month or two or three away from the deep freeze winter-time of their home is bliss enough.  But going all the way and making a place like this the home base certainly cuts living costs back dramatically, which is all it might take to be able to retire or semi-retire.

Even with lives as complicated as ours, Mike and I, it is workable.  And man, it is complicated.  And changeable.  A contract consultant has no security, no assurance that the client will continue with the contract he has (there is always a clause that allows both parties to end it with sometimes just a week's notice), or that the contract will be renewed.  On this contract, Mike can be sent to work in any of the client's locations around the world.  He, too, has to get up to Canada from time to time to visit his mother, see his doctor, and we have to make and take opportunities whenever we can to spend time together - either here or wherever Mike happens to be.  

We still have to maintain some kind of "residential" status in Canada, even if it's just a mailing address for now, to keep our health care there and for business purposes.  Then there is the Alberta-plated Nissan Versa currently in Houston that I have to drive back to Canada and find a place to park it.....maybe in April or May....  And the Jeep Grand Cherokee we just bought from a friend in Georgia that is being trucked to Houston and licenced/registered in North Dakota (no residency requirements) that I have to go up and drive back down here....maybe in March....

Yeah, it's complicated.  But if I can be here, in my happy place, I can handle it.