An evening in Jarretaderas

Some of you might remember a story we told a few years ago about a car in a hole. Well, here’s another one and it is the hole truth.
First a disclaimer – Harold did not want me to write about this. He says everyone will think “what a dummy he must be.” I thought the story has a happy enough ending to be worth that risk.
We had finished eating dinner in the little town of Jarretaderas. Most of the streets there are pretty rough and bumpy. Sort of like many of the towns around here! And curiously, many of the streets are one way for no apparent reason. The streets are wide and there is very little traffic. It also seems most everyone ignores the one way signs.
We had driven by a big tent that we saw from the restaurant, it was a circus set up in the middle of a big field. The loudspeaker announcing the circus, the times and the prices was loud enough to hear for blocks around. After passing the circus, we drove toward the plaza. Jarretaderas has a very nice plaza with lots of plants and a nice gazebo.
The street on one side of the plaza was blocked by big piles of dirt. We headed down another side of the plaza, the road looked like it had recently been worked on. As we turned the corner, we saw a big pile of dirt in that street. We drove down that street and were going past the big pile of dirt when Harold noticed a very large hole in the dirt street. It was right next to the big pile of dirt. And right about then the car came to a sudden halt. We were stuck! I got out to look and the 2 wheels on the passenger side were firmly on the street, almost in the big dirt pile. The front driver’s side wheel was on the dirt, but inside the hole. But the major problem was the rear driver’s side tire, which was, well, just hanging over the big hole, not touching the ground at all!
We walked up to the nearest person we saw and asked if they knew where we could find a tow truck. They did not. On the next block were a couple taco stands. I asked at the first one, and the woman running the stand said yes, she knew a guy, Chuy, who could help. She had her son take me to the Chuy’s house about 3 blocks away. Harold stayed behind with the car.
When I got to the house, the kid, Reynaldo, explained to three guys standing on the street what had happened. They had him repeat the story and they all looked surprised and laughed. They asked me, did I really drive my car in the hole? Well technically I hadn’t, but this was not the time for explanation. I said yes, I did not know the hole was there and yes, the car was stuck. They asked a few questions about the car and told me they would meet me back at the car with the dump truck which would pull the car out.
They arrived with the dump truck and chains. After analyzing the situation, they wrapped the chain around some portion of the back of the car, underneath. I am sure they knew what they were doing, and I didn’t have a clue. Harold had the dubious privilege of staying in the car to steer while they pulled it out. They seemed to be taking good care to not cause any damage to the car, but just as the chain got tight, the car shifted and I was sure it was going to flip over into the hole. But, it didn’t and the dump truck was able to pull it out with no problems.
I talked to the truck driver an asked him how much I owed him. He said, nothing, that’s OK. I asked couldn’t he use some money to buy his buddies a beer for the help. He said, well, OK, I guess. I tried to hand him a 200 peso bill (about $20 US) and you would have thought I tried to hand him a snake. He pulled his hand back quickly and then said, oh no, I can’t take that. He really wouldn’t take it, he said next time I could pay him. (ha ha, next time!) I hurried and got a 100 peso bill and asked could he please take it. He still looked uneasy about it, but did take it.
This was after dark in a little town where we knew no one and barely can speak the language. Don’t you know we would have been willing to pay much, much more to get our car safely out of there? And the man wouldn’t take 20 bucks! You just have to love it!

The customer is always wrong

One of the big differences between retail stores here in Mexico and in the US is their view of customer service. In the US, once you get home if you notice a product is defective or even just not what you really wanted, you return it to the store and get your money back or another product. If you see something advertised on sale and they are out of it, you generally can get a raincheck. If an item has a sign in front of it that says it is on sale and the register doesn’t show the sale price, the cashier corrects it. (I know there are exceptions, but you get the idea.)
Well, shopping here in Puerto Vallarta really demonstrates that you aren’t in Kansas anymore!
We like the bakery at Gigante, and buy chocolate croissants there frequently. One day we got some off the tray and the price card said 3 pesos each. When we took them to be wrapped and priced, they were marked 4 pesos each. Harold told the clerk the sign said 3 pesos. She went and looked at the sign, then moved the tray elsewhere on the shelf. Then she went behind the counter and looked in the big box of price signs and found one that said 4 pesos. She took it over and put it in front of the newly relocated tray, and then proudly pointed at the sign and said, “See they are 4 pesos each.” Yeah, how silly of us to think they were 3 pesos. Of course, now the normal price is 3.5!
When shopping at Soriana we saw signs all around the paint department for Meriadano brand paint 20% off. Well, it actually said “tola pintura”, not toda. We took a can of spray paint, which was directly behind one of the signs, to the register. It was not 20% off. I went back to the paint department to check. Sure enough, the sign was right there in front of the spray paint. I asked the clerk if the spray paint was 20% off, he said no, only the regular cans of paint. I asked then why did the sign say all the paint, he said he didn’t know, but spray paint wasn’t on sale. I went to the service counter and she thought about it for a minute and looked at the spray can and pointed to where it said acrylic. She said it was acrylic, not paint, that’s why it wasn’t on sale. I showed her the sign and my receipt which clearly said “pintura”. Then she tried telling me that the sign said “tola pintura”, which doesn’t mean anything, not “toda pintura” which is all paint. Next, she called the paint department and the same guy that I already spoke to came up to the service counter, so I knew we were doomed.
One day at Walmart we had a similar experience with caulk. I think they would have sold it to us for the sale price, except it did show in very tiny print on the sign, the particular type of caulk (not the one we got!)
I tell this to people who have lived here a while and they give me the look that indicates “rookie” and tell me that I’ll learn to accept that the customer is rarely right. Even if you try to bring something back that is defective, the store attitude is that if it was defective, you shouldn’t have bought it in the first place, so why should they take it back?
We did actually successfully return something once! We bought 3 gallons of paint at Gigante and 2 of them didn’t end up being the color we wanted. One we kept as it didn’t need to match anything. The other was for touch-up so it needed to be correct. We went to the service counter and were told the paint person would be in later, come back in 45 minutes. So we came back in an hour. Still no paint person, so they wanted us to come back later. Luckily for us, one of the timeshare sharks was hanging around near the service counter and he convinced them that we had waited long enough and we didn’t want to come back with our gallon of paint. So they actually gave us a refund!
But for the most part, “buyer beware” really applies here!

El Bombero Harold

When we lived in Iowa and Texas, Harold was a volunteer firefighter (total of 17 years). He had some old fire gear that he brought with us when we moved to Bucerias. He donated those things to the Bahia de Banderas Bomberos, whose fire station is located in Jarratederas.
Board member mddfire has also donated equipment to the Bahia de Banderas firefighters
Harold has always been a "siren chaser." We have witnessed several grass fires and other civil protection calls just by hearing the sirens or following the trucks while we were out driving around.
We have become acquainted with many of the bomberos that serve this area.
Thursday night, we heard the fire truck sirens and they sounded very close. Harold looked out the window and saw the fire trucks go by. so he drove to see where they were going.
The fire was one block from our house. Harold thinks there was an electrical short in the bedroom and things had smoldered all day before a neighbor smelled smoke and, upon investigation, saw flames in the window of the house at about 10 p.m.
Lacking spotlights or flashlights, the bomberos were working in the dark (the electricity had been turned off) trying to put the fire out.
Harold came back home, got his flashlight and went back to help the bomberos light up the scene, remove smoldering clothes/furniture and ventilate the house.
When he got home 2 hours later, he said that was just like the old days.
Harold is in contact with a fire department in Texas to get used equipment donated and perhaps establish a “sister fire department” agreement.

San Sebastian

While walking down a street in Puerto Vallarta, I saw a poster for a festival called Arsterra to be held in San Sebastian. There was very little detail on the poster other than the date.
We’d been thinking of going there anyway, so we thought what the heck, let’s go! Our friend Debbie, who lives at the Suites Marbella agreed to come along, and so did Susan, a neighbor from Bucerias. Susan’s friend Robin from San Miguel came along, too.
The road to San Sebastian is pretty good for the most part. A bridge is being built over a river and that part is still ongoing. There is a detour, well not really a detour; we heard it was the original road. But now the traffic is limited to one direction at a time. We ended up waiting about 20 minutes for our turn to go. The road at that point is very narrow and is right on the hillside at times. The backseat passengers did a great job of not screaming too much!
The road into San Sebastian from that main road is pretty bumpy and dusty. From the Domino’s pizza on highway 200, it took about an hour and a half to get to San Sebastian.
The festival appeared to be more of an art show really so we looked around some. There was supposed to be some demonstrations and entertainment but they would be later in the day.
We all commented on how clear the air is there. And it was very nice and cool. We ate at a restaurant on the square. It was on the porch of one of the buildings. After we ate we just wandered around some of the streets.
As I was looking at a poster, I heard someone say, “Don’t touch that poster!” It was a woman named Geri that I had met at Casa Tranquila. She and her teenage daughter Alejandra were in San Sebastian getting away from the crowds in PV.
We told Geri we were thinking of driving to the mountaintop called Cerro La Bufa. She offered to go with us. In her VW bug and our Mazda Tribute, off we went up the mountain.
Our first stop was a little village called Real de Alto. There is a very huge, old church there. We visited the church, which was having Mass at that time. Alejandra told us the stories that go with that church. First was the story of the priest and the burro that brought the statue of the Virgin to the church. This church is way the heck up the mountain; it must have been quite a trip for them. Well, just as they got to the church with the Virgin, the burro died. They buried the burro in front of the church and soon a huge rosebush sprung up there. It is a massive rose bush!
The second bit of lore involved a thief who was robbing many churches in the area. He would enter the churches and take anything of value he could find. He robbed the Real de Alto church and took the communion cups, candlesticks and other things. But the gold crown remained on the statue of the Virgin. Everyone wondered why the crown didn’t get stolen as well. When the thief was finally caught, the police asked him why he didn’t steal the crown. He replied that he tried to take it, but every time he reached for it, it floated in the air just out of reach!
After the church visit, we went on to Cerro La Bufa. It is the highest point in the area, about 8,000 feet. On a clear day you can see all the way to the ocean. Only Harold and I were brave enough to join Alejandra on the hike to the top. It was about 2 km, I would guess. Not bad hiking at all. The view from the top was incredible! I wore my Crocs and was concerned my footing wouldn’t be good. Well, I wouldn’t recommend Crocs for strenuous hiking, but they were fine for this adventure.
After enjoying the crisp, cool air of La Bufa it was back down the mountain to San Sebastian. The road up to Real de Alto and La Bufa is mostly dirt and rocks. The car got very dusty! We were really glad our car has high clearance and good suspension. The scaredy-cat back seat passengers weren’t too white knuckled by the time we got back to San Sebastian. We walked around the square a little more, had an ice cram and decided to head back to the big city.
We had just gotten back to the main road when we heard a strange sound coming from the front of the car. We stopped and sure enough it was a flat tire. Harold looked and could see there was a small hole in the tire. I walked over to a nearby truck and asked the driver where we might find a tire shop. Keep in mind this was about 4 on a Saturday afternoon. He directed me about a couple blocks back down the road. I found the tire shop, such as it was, but nobody was there. I walked across the street to where some people were waiting for the bus. A guy helped me ask at a woodworking shop about the tire guy. They directed me down a side street. When I got there, a woman told me the tire repair guy was gone. I said he wasn’t at the shop, she said that wasn’t his shop it was another guy. So I walked back to the main road. The guy from the bus stop waved me over and said the tire shop man had returned.
I talked to the tire man, who had no way to go get our tire, and when I asked for a jack he told me ask the guy at a place nearer to our car. That guy, who sells gasoline from his house, found a jack much better than the wimpy little one we have, and helped us change the tire to the little spare. We gave him something for his time, of course, and drove over to the tire shop.
The tire repair guy was able to fix our flat tire (yay!) and then put it on the car, put air in our spare since it was low, and we got everything back in the car. His charge for the repair was 30 pesos. We had asked ahead of time just to keep from having one of those unpleasant surprises when the job was done. Under the circumstances, we would have not been surprised if the price was 5 or more times what it was!
The whole tire thing didn’t take all that long and we were very relieved that the flat happened so close to the tire shop. I would have been suspicious that the repair guy had put nails in the road or something, but he was too laid back for that have to been the case. I was glad to have Robin along as she speaks Spanish very well and she was able to talk more to the tire guy after we got to the shop. If anyone is interested, the Spanish word for a jack for the car is “un gato.”
The return trip was uneventful after that. We are now considering where to go on our next adventure. Any suggestions?
There are lots more San Sebastian and other pictures on my Webshots at http://community.webshots.com/album/549334263NXAjNE

Roving Reporters

When we moved to Bucerias, our friend Bob encouraged us to write some articles for an online publication he is affiliated with. That sounded fun, so we have been writing articles for the Banderasnews.com.
Writing for the Banderas News is pretty much fun. There is no particular thing we have to write about, and no particular deadline for doing so. The drawback is – no pay either.
A couple months ago, we were approached by the Guadalajara Reporter about writing a twice a month column about Bucerias area activities. We figured we’d give it a shot so we are now official roving reporters.
We met with one of the publishers of the paper and went over the expectations and requirements. We also received very official looking press credentials complete with pictures!
So far, we haven’t had trouble finding material to fill the column. There are plenty of organizations having fundraisers, new businesses opening, events in town, and festivals to write about.
With our very official looking credentials, we have been able to get into some events as press people. One thing we went to was the Senorita Bahia de Banderas beauty pageant. We knew there was an admission charge so we thought what the heck, we will try the press badges. Once they determined we were reporters, we were directed to reserved parking and not charged admission. We wandered around looking for a seat, and were shown to the press table, which was right up front. Harold said he thought the idea of a front-row seat at a beauty contest was OK!
Recently, we went to a number of events associated with the Nautical Festival. I rode on the press boat in the opening boat parade. We have been to a couple dinners and a concert as well.
I have now been on the lookout for upcoming events and contacting them regarding press passes. Writing for the Banderas News and for the Guadalajara Reporter has encouraged us to attend some events we wouldn’t normally go to.

Back to the Old Blog

I have neglected my blog (and my blog audience) for too long! I will try to do better.

Let’s see, what has happened? Harold and I both worked on the committee organizing the RISE children’s shelter fundraiser in February. It was a lot of work, as those event s can be, but a big success. It is something we will do again next year.
We have also helped the Bucerias Children’s Library with several events. Right now, the library is in the process of building a new building, so money is needed for construction.
The library group has had a couple used book sales which have done well. People are very generous in donating their old books and buying some new reading material.
Another event that took place was a Gourmet Texas BBQ. Another success!

We’ve had some company, too. Our friends Jamie and Rob came in late February. They were our first official visitors that we had to plan for. Rob had just taken his law board exam and was ready to relax. Since neither of them had been to Puerto Vallarta before we gave them a sampler of the fun things to do in the area. I think they had a great time and said they would come back next year.

Our next guests were my Mom and Dad. No entertaining needed for them. We had a nice visit and did a little sightseeing. We also had a cookout and some friends over, which was lots of fun.

The next week, my friend Kitty came from Waco. She and I used to sit right next to each other at work. I was so glad she came to Puerto Vallarta. She came with her 14-year-old daughter, her 18-year-old senior in high school daughter and a friend who is also a senior. They stayed at an all-inclusive resort which turned out really well for the girls. Harold and I took them shopping one day and another day went and picked up Kitty and brought her over to the house. While I may not miss working, I do is some of my former coworkers – especially Kitty!

OK, enough for now!