Well-being in Mexico

My first sorties into Mexico happened more than 50 years ago while visiting with my mother in Tucson, AZ.  The first adventure occurred when visiting Douglas, AZ to see some of the mining history.  Douglas has a border crossing with Mexico at Agua Prieta  a town  in the northeastern corner of the Mexican state of Sonora   At that time Agua Prieta was just a dusty village and I paid a visit by walking across the border, did a little souvenir shopping including a couple tequila stops.  However, I was very impressed with the friendly and gracious natives I met in that short walkabout.

The next several visits were at the Nogales USA/Nogales MX border crossing. .  The downtown area consisted of bars, strip clubs, hotels, restaurants, and a large number of curio stores, which sell a large variety of artesanias (handicrafts, leather art, handmade flowers, and clothes).  One of the highlights was the La Caverna (The Caverns) Café, built into the hillside where the caverns (caves) were the dining rooms of the restaurant. 

Believe it or not, these memories were the beginning of my love of Mexico.

Dolores’s mixed ethnic background of Mexican/Philippine/Spanish had already instilled in her a strong bond with Mexico.  After graduating from High School and working at Boeing for a year she traveled to Mexico City to visit a pen pal and stayed three months with a woman who took in borders.  Later she also vacationed with a friend to Veracruz soaking up more of the Mexican culture.

Dolores and I started traveling to Mexico in the early 1980’s, initially to Acapulco to attend a MLM convention with a company called KM/Matol.  Later during our travel development-consultant years, we brought many travelers to Mexico for short and intense 7-10 day visits. 

So where am headed with this line of thought? 

When many of us start our retirement planning a major consideration is where.  Where do we want to spend our days of leisure?  Many have no desire to uproot from the current environment and there are many factors that have a heavy influence on that decision – family (children, grandchildren, cousins, nephews, nieces, etc.), close friends and acquaintances, familiarity with that around you, established living patterns, finances, and not the least of all  health, current and expected.

For most of us when we retire we’ve already lived 50-60 decades and are concerned with our longevity.  If we reached the decision that we want to change our living environment and make a long term commitment to live elsewhere, then the health issue and focus on available health care becomes a prime issue.

Dolores and I had already agreed that a move to a warm climate was a good idea for us.  Our children were grown and my grandchildren were already growing up.  My sister and brother-in-law were currently “retired” in Puerto Vallarta and were encouraging us to take a close look.  Both of us were in good health; and my hypertension was under good control.  We had already been tempted to buy a condo in Mexico so our decision to move was made. We purchased a condo in PV, downsized from our home to a condo in Seattle and began a six month/six month living arrangement in Mexico and Seattle, WA. We now have permanent residence status in Mexico and just recently sold our Seattle condo.

I found the same medication I used in Mexico at a substantially less cost and highly trained/educated Doctors and medical facilities were readily available.  In Puerto Vallarta, Pamela Thompson is an independent resource that can assist in finding/scheduling a physician, finding a hospital and-or service for any health care needs.  This is one of the most valuable and unique services I’ve ever encountered.  

Until late this February all our Dr. contacts have been limited to minor walk-ins.  We have heard and read numerous comments from persons who needed hospitalization and they were all glowing reports.  On February 24^th I was admitted into Hospital CMQ Premiere with a case of pneumonia and spent the next 4 day’s being taken care of by my doctor and the hospital staff.   Never could I have imagined the care and attention lavished on me.  The administration paper work was handled by a specialist as we drank Starbucks coffee from the comfort of lounge chairs in the lobby.  That’s right, the hospital restaurant is operated by Starbucks.  Checkout was just as easy.  In the assigned room I was surrounded and attended to by cheerful nurses, floor doctors, and technicians 24/7.  Even though the hospital food matched all definitions of blandness, Starbucks did room delivery and believe me we used them quite often. 

What struck me most, outside of the professionalism of all personnel, was the obvious concern and respect shown to me at all times.   

I’m now home, recovering and feeling better than I have in many months.  Once again my point is you should have no fear about the health care in Mexico.  I never did and that has just been powerfully reinforced.

Hasta Luego

Copper Canyon, Mexico - One More for the Bucket List

 

During the 1970’s a friend and I conducted tax seminars for investors and small business that we held at various remote locations.  We asked my spouse, Dolores, to do the administration work handling the site locations, registration, travel, etc. while we focused on the presentations, investment, and tax intricacies.  While the seminar business didn’t grow as we had anticipated, Dolores efforts as a tour developer-organizer blossomed.  One of the perks of such a business were “familiarization trips (Fam Trips) sponsored by industry wholesalers.   Therefore, approximately 25 years ago she was asked if she’d like to participate in a Fam trip to Mexico’s Copper Canyon sponsored by a recently formed group of West Coast travel wholesalers.  She did and as they say the rest is history.  Even though we never formed a trip offering Copper Canyon, the memories-experience left her with a desire to visit once again to share the experience with me

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Copper Canyon (Barranca del Cobre) refers to a geographical area which covers 25,000 square miles located in the Sierra Madre Mountains of the state of Chihuahua.  Five of the six major canyons are equal to or are greater depth than the US Grand Canyon (4674 ft.)  The Urigue Canyon (6136 ft.dp.) is the deepest canyon in the system.

We had invited Dolores brother and wife, Jose-Stephanie, to join us on this adventure through Superior Tours of Puerto Vallarta and along with 12 other passengers, our driver and the tour guide, we boarded our road trip vehicle, a Mercedes Benz Sprinter, and began our first days trip north to Mazatlán arriving mid-afternoon for an overnight stay, then the next morning on to El Fuerte, The Gateway to Copper Canyon.  I’ll gloss over the combined (going/returning) 12 hour road trips except to say that my legs and back still have barely forgiven me! 

 

Arriving in El Fuerte early the 2^nd afternoon we signed-into the Hotel Poasda del Hidalgo originally a beautiful colonial mansion[RB1]  built in 1860 and was the largest in El Fuerte.  El Fuerte is known as the birthplace of Senor Diego de la Vega also known as “El Zorro.”  A statue erected in his honor is found in one of the hotels gardens.  After a quick assignment of rooms we stored our luggage and with, Jose and Stephanie, headed for the open air restaurant to satisfy our “hungries.”  Dolores and I had the featured broiled freshwater lobster (also known as crayfish) combined with freshwater black bass.  Steph had the “Anahuacalli” tortilla soup and a shrimp dish while Jose enjoyed the Mexican shish kebab.  One of the finest meals I’ve experienced in years.  What a way to take the edge-off the long bus drive.  Most of our party did some exploring of various El Fuerte points of interest.  We crashed with our Kindles for the evening.

After breakfast early the next morning we departed the hotel to the Chihuahua al Pacifico Railroad Train Station to board the Chepe at 8:30AM for our first stop at the Bahuichivo train station 4 hours later where we were transported by a converted school bus to the Hotel Mission located in the village of Cerocahui.  The hotel and its vineyard, which produces Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Chardonnay, is located adjacent to a 300-year old Jesuit cathedral and a Misson Indian girl’s orphanage.  The next morning early we boarded the bus for a grinding trip to The Cerrto de Gallego Urique Lookout at 7500 feet to view the Urique Canyon, the deepest canyon in the Copper Canyon system, then returned to the train station at Bahuichivo for an hours spectacular ride to the Posada Barrancas train station then transfer to the Mirador Hotel and our room on the canyon rim. Each room has a private terrace overlooking the canyon.  The Tarahumara women weave their baskets in front of the hotel and are considered the best made in the whole Canyon system.  The afternoon was spent, hiking around the hotel, dining and enjoying the scenery.  

The next morning we visited the Divisadero Overlook of the Copper Canyon, Some of us rode across the canyon in a cable car that is 2750 meter in length – the third longest in the world and the longest in Mexico.  Some others took the zip line across the canyon, the second longest in the world.

Later in the morning we boarded our train back to El Fuerte.  This railroad is one of the engineering wonders of the world with 86 tunnels and 37 bridges along its complete route.  This includes a 180 degree turn inside solid rock at Temoris.  The Readers Digest calls it “the most dramatic train ride in the western hemisphere.”  Arriving at El Fuerte we were bused to Los Mochis for a late dinner and our overnight stay.

The return to Puerto Vallarta was pretty much a reversal of the trip up, arriving in PV in late afternoon of the 7^th day.  You might want to consider this a possible “must” addition to your travel bucket list!

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 [RB1]

Driving in Mexico

During our first three years of living in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, Dolores and I became very proficient in the use of public transportation, buses and taxis, to get around and about.  Obviously this allowed us to become somewhat familiar with the layout and location of the streets; however, we were very limited in our flexibility to vary or change our destinations when we were “out and about.”  An example would be  when we shopped for our cooking classes we’d go north to SAM’s/Walmart complex by bus, then return home by taxi with our many purchases missing many items that could be found at other stores and vendors.  Additionally, we found ourselves limited to the close in local scene – not able to explore the world around us.  Finally we were presented with an opportunity to purchase a car by our then administrator.  His partner had passed away and he inherited a car even though he didn’t drive.  He offered the car to us at a good price, thus began our driving experience in Mexico.

Our biggest advantage in beginning this experience was that both Dolores and I can be classified as “aggressive” drivers.  I as a result of spending my earlier years competing successfully in car time-distance Rallies and other SPCA sport car events and Dolores by also being involved with sports cars and in rallies.  This made it easier to adapt to the Mexican driving environment.  The following tongue-in-cheek guide lines was published locally and in my opinion is a very good description of driving in PV.

“Puerto Vallarta driving tips (according to Harvey)

Taken from Puerto Vallarta Mirror - www.pvmcitypaper.com

1. Turn signals will give away your next move. A real Vallarta driver never uses them.

2. Under no circumstances should you leave a safe distance between you and the car in front of you, or the space will be filled in by somebody else putting you in an even more dangerous situation.

3. Crossing two or more lanes in a single lane-change is considered going with the flow.

4. Never, ever come to a complete stop at a stop sign. No one expects it and it will inevitably result in you being rear-ended.

5. Braking is to be done as hard and late as possible to ensure that your ABS kicks in, giving a nice, relaxing foot massage as the brake pedal pulsates. For those of you without ABS, it’s a chance to stretch your legs.

6. Never pass on the left when you can pass on the right. It’s a good way to scare people entering the highway.

7. Speed limits are arbitrary figures, given only as suggestions and are apparently not enforceable in Puerto Vallarta.

8. Please remember that there is no such thing as a shortcut during rush-hour traffic in Vallarta.”

Many of the more unusual and different moves  we refer to as “doing the Mexican.”   We are waiting until we’re able to import our car and get Mexican plates before we attempt to duplicate them.  Our favorites include 1) - cutting in front of the lead vehicle at an intersection.  Envision this: you are the first car waiting on a lateral at a stop light to turn left. A car on your right drives up beside you in the next lane and then pulls his/her car in front of you to turn left.  You are now car number 2 waiting to turn; or 2) – waiting several cars back at a stop light on an arterial to make a turn when several cars will pull out into the opposing lanes and make a run to be the first cars into the intersection to make the turn (always check your rear view mirror before your turn).  These are just two of many tricks that we call “doing the Mexican.”

The most important thing to remember while driving anywhere is keeping your mind on the task at hand.  In Mexico that becomes your number one concern.  We quickly learned to always expect the unexpected when behind the wheel of our automobile.  There actually is a yin and yang balance between being both aggressive and being passive while on the road.  Find it, and driving in Mexico becomes a fun experience.