It sounds like a “Welcome” but it is really a “welcome” with a jab, a greeting’s version of a back-handed compliment. “You don’t look nearly as tired as you did last week”, “the turkey isn’t as dry as it was last Thanksgiving”, “this dog is so much better behaved than your last one”, “bienvenido a Mexico”. It’s all the same, and I see you people.
It’s simple really. No one says this to us at the beginning of a conversation. They only say it in response to any one of the mishaps that have happened in the last two weeks. So you don’t really mean “Welcome to Mexico!” you mean “Welcome to Mexico — ha ha!”
In the past two weeks, we have been ‘welcomed’ a lot, which means that — if you are tracking — we have had more than our fair share of mishaps. Each one deserves their own post, so we will start at the very beginning. Buckle up, peeps, this is going to be a ride.
Our first mishap took place before we even moved here. We rented the house beginning in December, allowing us to use part of our December vacation time to meet with our property manager, walk the house, and create a punch list of outstanding projects. Some were more critical than others, including a new railing for the stairs and replacing the sliding doors in the living room; others were less important, replacing light bulbs, fixing a shelf, etc.
Nothing though, was more critical than “fix the broken hot water heater”.
We spoke with our property manager frequently after we came back home from our December trip. She was brand-new to her job, and to a career in real estate, but what she lacked in relevant experience she more than made up ground with her enthusiasm, her earnest desire to help us create a beautiful home, and her fantastic mastery of the English language.
So we were happy when we got a text in mid-January that the hot water tank heater had been fixed. We arrived a week later, with close friends, to deliver some of our belongings (read: booze), make sure the internet was set up and strong enough for both of us to work remotely, do a few simple house projects, and go furniture shopping. When we got here, we loved the new railing, the new doors were fantastic, and the hot water heater? Yeah. that damned thing was still broken.
I got annoyed and hired a local plumber who, after two visits, and a great deal of research, was able to fix it enough to allow it to limp through our visit. He also recommended we replace the hot water heater with a new, smart one that could manage the house’s temperamental water pressure. We gave this information to our property manager, the landlord agreed. Great. We will see you, and our shiny water heater in March.
You know what happened. Yup. Requests for updates confirmed they were working on it, but then it all seemed to devolve. No one seemed to be buying new hot water heater and certainly no one was installing one.
My requests became a great deal stronger and by the time we left Seattle, I was assured everything was back on track and it would be fixed in the coming week. Then, halfway through our trip, our property manager quit her job, citing irreconcilable differences over out hot water heater. We were now two days out and working with a new manager, starting the entire negotiation all over again.
Finally, I lost my patience. I called a girlfriend who spoke fluent Spanish, gave her the backstory, and requested she call our new property manager. They agreed that the easiest thing for us to do would be to buy the heater, hire the plumber, and take the expenses out of the next month’s rent.
So, on the day we drove into Bucerias we were met at our house by a good friend who had managed the project for us — sourcing the heater, hiring the plumber, and working with him THAT MORNING to get it installed.
When J joked with our friend that it was mind-boggling that it took two and a half months to get the hot water heater replaced and in the end it only happened because we took care of it ourselves, our friend replied with a laugh “Beinvenido a Mexico”.
Sigh.
#nedventures 