Day 4 Coatzacoalcos to Playa del Carmen

Day 4 Rise and shine...4:38 am. Let’s go! I stumbled over to the bathroom, brushed my teeth, washed my face and holy cow....what are these black things under my eyes???? What do I do, I look like I’ve been beat up! I searched for some eye cream...I got nothing. No close up shots of me today! I threw on my blue jeans, a tee shirt, ball cap and flip flops, helped Dave load the truck and off we go. No coffee, no breakfast, no nothing. It’s going to be a great day! The drive this morning was pretty boring because it was still dark outside and there was not much to see. We did see a large big rig turned over on its side with so much fruit covering the highway. Everyone seemed okay. The sun did not come up until we reached Villahermosa. Filled up with gas, grabbed the worst coffee ever and on the road we went looking for hwy 186... Found it. By my calculations, we only have 611 km to reach Chetumal, which should put us there around 12 or 1:00 pm today. I’m starving. We’ve eaten nothing in 24+ hours except a pp&j sandwich that I made driving down the road. Maybe we will find something soon. Driving down 186 was really no different than some of what we’ve experienced over the last couple of days but maybe I really took notice this morning. It’s about 8am and we are still in the state of Tabasco; the children are off to school. Hwy 186 is a 2 lane hwy, a lot of which is under construction so the road in many places is very dangerous. What you see though is many open air shanties that these people call their home. I’d be very surprised if any of them had electricity. This sight made me realize why so many Mexican Nationals want to leave Mexico to seek a better life. The conditions were deplorable, the people looked sad and what concerned me the most was that the Mother’s would walk their children miles down this main hwy to go to school, cars exceeding 100km with many trying to play chicken while passing other drivers. I know that these are daily life tasks for these people and they may or may not think twice about it but as an outsider, my heart goes out to them because I know that there is danger there. Not intentional danger, just very high risk for a tragic accident. We have not experienced any rain today; I really hope that it stays clear. I haven’t been able to check the bed to see if it’s ruined or not and I will wait until I reach Playa to do so. Why put a cloud on my good day because there would be nothing I could do about it anyhow. Just north of Chetumal, about 400km, we come to a checkpoint. Took out the passports and visa expecting them to look over them but they didn’t. However, they wanted to see in the back of the Tahoe. Now I don’t remember if mentioned before or not but in order to get to the back of the Tahoe, you have to take the bikes off the rack; the bikes that are rigged to the rack. This is an ordeal and they did not care. There were at least five military and police watching in anticipation on what they were going to find. HA...you find nothing, I want to loudly say. Instead, I waited in the car like a good little wife in a culture where the man makes the rules. Besides, I did not want Dave to get into trouble because he could not control his wife from running her mouth. God I am such a thoughtful person. hehe. We finally find a Pemex to stop at and get a little snack...my belly has not forgotten that I’ve not eaten yet and it’s 9:30am. So the only thing that this whole in the wall Pemex station sells is coke, not diet coke but the real life, sugar-laden, make your teeth scream coke. Ok...I will have a coke. They also sell junk food such as chips, cookies and a couple of other things. Where are the nuts? They would hold me over until Chetumal when we find decent food. No nuts. Okay, I will take a coke and a bag of ruffles; not baked ruffles but the greasy ones. 3 chips, a drink of coke and I am on a sugar high for the day. Can’t do it; it was not good. I’ll wait for Chetumal. Three miles later, another check point. We stop. The military asks where are you going. Playa del Carmen we say. Okay...buh-bye. Much of Hwy 186 is under construction just past Escarcega. We were cruising along following a van and a Volkswagen was following us...we were making good time and it was quiet entertaining for the three cars to try to keep up with each other. But then we looked down at the gas gauge..1/4 tank left. Oh no!!! It’s exactly 157 km from Escarcega to the nearest Pemex. Then one appeared right before our eyes just south of Xpujil. Be careful here though, they are sneaky! The little boy washing my windshield was trying to distract me while the other two men were looking in the car, eyeballing what they wanted. UGH...no problems with this kind of thing until now. And there it was; hwy 307! My heart was pounding and everything just looked so differently than the rest of the country. It had the feel of the place I love and the smells that are all too familiar. STOP THE CAR!!! Right before my very eyes was the first sign of the sea.. Who cares if it was the lagoon in Bacalar; it was still Caribbean water. There were ribbons of deep blue against the teal; the colors that make the water so beautiful. I knew I had less than 3 hours to Playa. Once I arrive, I will check into our hotel, find a margarita somewhere and listen to the sounds of Playa. This has been a wonderful trip and I am thankful that I was able to do it. I’ve seen some of the most beautiful countryside and some of the worst, too and there is nothing that I would do differently. The way that I look at it; Total cost for the 3 nights hotel with tax.$374. Total cost of gas to get to Playa.$480. Driving through Mexico with my best friend. Priceless. So that’s my trip...My 2300 mile journey. Thank you for sharing it with me. If you ever have the desire to take a journey of your own, wherever that it might be, I hope that you will take the time to do it; I have a feeling that you will not regret it. A couple of must have items if you make this drive: Rainex for the windshield Windshield wiper fluid Windex and squeegee so that you can clean the bugs off the windshield Toliet paper, paper towels and hand wipes A compass if your vehicle does not have a built in one. This is probably the most important as you WILL get turned around. However, as long as you can see that you are going either in the south, east or southeast direction for 90% of the trip, you are heading in the right way. Pesos. Even OXXO does not take dollars until you get into a more of a tourist area. Here's a link to all of the pictures from our drive to Playa. I have not attached comments or tags to them yet but will do it soon. http://s236.photobucket.com/albums/ff31/macanded/Drive%20to%20Playa/

Day 3 Tampico to Coatzacoalcos.

Day 3 Tampico to Coatzacoalcos.
9-7-08

6:30 am and it’s time to get up. My body just does not want anything to do with getting back into a car today. Can’t we just take a day off from driving and stay here today? If Tampico was nice or not so crowded and had a decent beach, I might entertain that thought but today is the day that we are going to try to push ourselves through to Villahermosa, 683 miles.

No breakfast for me, I was too tired to think about eating. Forget the vitamins, too! I just need a cup of coffee. I checked out of the hotel, paid my ridiculously over-priced bill of $182 which included the room, free happy hour from 6-7 pm, free internet, very bad Italian food and a couple of margaritas and hopped in the car for the day’s journey. A journey it was...at first. We were lost on how to get to 180 heading south and we drove for an hour trying to get out of this city, which I will be polite and call a hell hole. Finally we stopped to ask directions and found a Mexico Mapsco! A real life Mexico Mapsco! WOW! We hit the jackpot! Opened it up and there it was...all the directions that I would ever need to navigate my way around Mexico. http://www.guiaroji.com.mx/ (so that is what is printed on the book). It was raining pretty hard this morning, harder than I thought because many streets were flooded or completely under water. Maybe Tampico just does not have a good drainage system.

When finally finding the Hwy that we were supposed to be on, we came upon a toll. $28 pesos. Cool...must be a pretty good road ahead. WRONG! After about 5 miles, I began thinking, “I paid money to drive THIS road???” Not only did we have to contend with not knowing where we were going but also tons of potholes, enormous topes and flash flooding! It’s going to be a great day.

One thing that gets your attention going down the road south of Tampico is men hearding their goats to the roadside. Why, I wonder? Why does it seem as though all of Mexico’s goats, cows, pigs, horses and chickens eat at the roadside? Is this mere culture since there are so many roadside taco and pollo asado stands?

The 2nd checkpoint was about 1 ½ hours south of Tampico in Naranjos. We pulled over...we know the drill at this point but the Police did not ask us to see our papers. What? Don’t you want to check them out and ask where we are going and why there are two Gingos driving through Mexico? Well I was not going to force my papers upon anyone but what do they want? Word of caution...ALWAYS act like you do NOT know Spanish, even to say hello. After the Policeman spent 3+ minutes trying to tell us he wanted money and beer, he gave up because we kept saying that we did not understand. Whew...got out of that one.

Cerro Azul is a cute little town with a decent sized population. It’s a pretty remote town but everyone seems to be in a hurry. This can’t be Mexico! Where in the world are they rushing off to? Are they late herding their goats, have curfews or are they just anxious people? Regardless, the mountain views are spectacular and half of the town in located in a little valley. There’s a military camp on the south end of town off of 180 and this is one of the very few towns that post big yellow highway signs with arrows pointing to the over-sized topes. I bet this town would be a lot of fun during festivals but there is not any place here that I would want to stay for the night though.

I sure wished it would stop raining; it’s hindering my ability to take pictures.

There are tons of auto repair shops along hwy 180 between Tampico and Tuxpam. I am quiet surprised that the people of this town are not living like Kings, in large houses, each with a staff of eight! The roads are so terrible between Tampico and Tuxpam (which is a semi-large town), that I am certain that these shops do ALOT of business.

We are doing pretty well on gas considering the monster load we have in and on top of this truck and climbing all of these mountains; averaging about 16 miles per gallon with a fill up in Dallas, San Antonio, Matamoras and Veracruz. I did not realize that Mexico was so mountainous. I took a picture of a mountain that had clouds on top of it...we were at eye level to it and you can actually see the clouds right in front of us! It was amazing. I would literally say that I could reach the sky and touch the clouds. It was very cool.

On the south side of Tuxpam we took the toll road. $26 pesos. FINALLY, a concrete road with no issues!

Military check point (some are police check points and some are military) and toll #3. $30 pesos. There were tons of people pulled over at the military check but they did not ask us to pull over. Probably because they did not want to deal with two gringos from the US that would not understand anyhow what they were asking...better not to waste time on us. PERFECT...so we kept driving.

Toll #4 in Gutierez Zamora. $18 pesos.

We have been anticipating on getting to the point on our drive in which we could actually run alongside the coastline and see the Gulf of Mexico. I heard rumors that there are beaches and waves crashing and you could see this going down the road. I was excited to know that we finally arrived in Costa Esmeralda, the town that would begin our short drive along the coast. BUT...IT WILL NOT STOP RAINING ENOUGH FOR US TO SEE ANYTHING!!!! We can barely see 5 feet in front of us much less see the Gulf that is 50 yards to our left. UGH...Oh dear Lord please do something. Finally, the next adjacent town, Casitas. Lots of small hotels and restaurants on the beach. Some hotels are nice, some are rundown but there’s a Best Western and a new hotel under construction (I did not get the name). I’d stay here for a night if I’m passing through town.

Military check point...are you kidding me...these guys are not leaving covered shelter; it’s pouring down rain. So we keep driving.

All along the hwy of 180 south of Tampico you see banana groves with bananas hanging from the trees that the workers must have just picked. There are orange tree groves everywhere and many wild orange trees just growing randomly. Do banana peppers grow on trees? I swear I saw a tree, only one though, that had the biggest light green peppers that you have ever seen hanging from it. I could not get a picture since Dave was so cautiously passing a big truck at the same time as we are going down a two lane road. Oh, that’s not the only time that he has done this...He figured out that he should just closely follow this ADO bus that would just start passing big rigs on a mountainous two lane road...What was going to happen to us...the bus would take the impact of the oncoming car, he said. Needless to say, I thought my life was ending on numerous occasions today...I thought I’d better say more prayers for me and definitely needed to say more for that idiot bus driver. Just as I was beginning to feel sorry for the bus driver because I thought he was an idiot and he was probably just having a lapse in good judgment today, he pulled into a roadside bar! The last thing is IDIOT needed was a beer! Fine...he was on his own!

Toll #5 in Nautla. $18 pesos.

4 pm and finally a break in the clouds. Thank God because this rain is making me want to take a nap! Besides, this rain has worked its way to my headboard on the top of the truck that is not only wrapped in plastic but also moving blankets and secured with duck tape. Oh I hope it’s not ruined! We will have to lug it inside tonight, unwrap it and try to salvage it.

So we came upon a town called Santa Ana with an old Mexican guy standing in the middle of the road selling what appeared to be fruit. “Let’s buy some”, I say, “I think that they are yellow cherries”. Who knows how much they were so Dave gave him $50 pesos, knowing that should cover it and we drove off. I opened the bag in excitement as I LOVE fresh cherries and I don’t recall ever having a yellow one. I popped one in my mouth, anticipating the pit to be there when all of a sudden I grabbed the trash bag...spit, spit, spit. UGH, what is this???? These things taste like crap! Here, try one. Of course Dave was a chicken (he is not a fan of fruit anyhow) so now I am stuck with this bag of yellow balls of God knows what, trying to pass themselves off as cherries!

Just north of El Viajon, right on the coast, sits the CFE plant (Mexico’s electricity provider). What a view they have; one side mountains, one side the Gulf of Mexico

Toll #6. $30 pesos

Now we are coming up on Veracruz...should we stop and stay here tonight?

Toll #7. $37 pesos

Hello Veracruz. WOW, this city is flooded! Bad drainage I suppose. Goodbye Veracruz; let’s try to push through as far as we can.

Toll #8 $70 pesos.

Wait a minute...you have to pay to get into Veracruz AND pay to get out of it, too? And does it seem as though tolls are more prevalent the further south we drive? I wonder what it would take to own my own city?????

Toll #9...good gosh, maybe I should take more pesos out of the bank!

So we are traveling down 150, south of Veracruz and the roads are great but we are beginning to feel the effects of being in this car too long. I’m getting a bit grumpy and I am ready to find a place and call it a night. Our goal though to try to make it into Villahermosa tonight and on to Playa tomorrow...so I thought. We pulled over to top off the tank with gas and asked where hwy 145 was. In my attempt to understand the directions given to me in Spanish, we realized that we had past our exit by about 30 miles! YIKES! Okay...don’t get mad, it’s okay. We just turn around and head back..no problem. Back through toll and finally find the exit. perfect. Now we need to make up some lost time. Let’s get to Villahermosa as fast as we can. Fast was not the correct adjective for this road.

Toll # 10 $150 pesos!!!! Holy cow! This road better be fast and awesome to drive down. By this time it was dark and we were doing something that we said we wouldn’t; we were driving at night. Tip...learn target driving prior to driving in Mexico and be especially careful as the higher the toll fees, the worse the roads (so it seems). This one was bad. Now to their credit, they appeared to be working on them but I guess we are in Mexico and everything is in Mexico time.

Toll #11 $140 pesos! WOW, $39 usd on 30 miles of stretch. Oh well...we were on the expressway when we could have easily taken the scenic route again. No thanks. The expressway only allows you to exit in about 9 places from once you hop on to the time you reach Villahermosa.

By this time exhaustion has kicked in and we just want to find a place to stay. As much as we want to keep going, we’ve been on the road for 14 hours, of which three of those hours were because we were lost. We stop in Minatitlan because the Mapsco says that this is a city of 100K-500K people. Perfect, we should be able to find a hotel here. We drove around the city for about an hour and it was not much bigger than Playa. All I can say is that most of this city is very dirty so when we finally found the highway again, we headed to Coatzacoalcos, which is a city about the size of Cancun. When we first arrived in Coatzacoalcos, it looked very clean; it was almost midnight. At last, a Best Western; this should be okay. We pulled in, went inside and paid for a room...$70 usd. The security guard took us to our room and said not to worry about our car, the stuff on top or the bikes because he was going to be there all night and would watch it for us. Thank you, thank you, thank you was all that I could say.

We got into the room; very dated but appeared to be clean. No big deal. Dave went across the street to get water while I stayed behind to shower. I turned on the water on in the shower and guess what...No hot water! You’ve got to be kidding me! I still need a shower and I am not in the mood to attempt my very poor broken Spanish to the front desk to explain that I need another room. Cold shower it was and now time for bed. Off goes the bedspread (ugh...in a hotel like this, they probably do not wash them often), keep one light on just in case, and closed my eyes. I have to say...a little freaked out but when looking back on it, the room wasn’t THAT bad.

The cargo trailer is loaded!

We have worked so hard getting rid of all of our stuff over the last year. I thought that we'd never get to a point to where it would all actually fit into our cargo trailer! WOW...it really fits!
Only a couple of weeks left before we head to the border. It's simply amazing how little one needs to actually live happily...our whole material life now fits in this little tin box.

Medical Insurance Solution

The medical insurance debate in my family...Since Dave is leaving his position in Texas to move to Playa with me, this means we also loose our medical insurance. This would not be such an issue but he is obligated to provide health insurance for his two children (previous marriage). Although we could opt to sign up for COBRA, this option seems just too expensive. We've talked to many people, read many blogs and have really stressed over this issue. Finally we found a solution that is affordable and appears to be just what we need. There are several people in Playa that use this insurance and they have had success with the claims.

http://www.imglobal.com/coverage/global/

I'm sure there are other companies like this one but this company came recommeded so we will try them.

FM3 Visa's

On March 25, 2008, we went the Consulate office in Dallas. Such nice people and very helpful. Although they had the documentation with the approval from the Insituto Nacional de Migracion, there was an application that had to be filled out. Very basic questions. We paid our $159 each, provided photos and we were issued our FM3 Visas with the ability to work for money in Mexico. The Visas look much like a passport but are green instead of blue.

There is so much involved in this process of moving and starting a business in Mexico but to have the Visa's in hand and corporation documents finalized, it seems as though a weight has lifted. I thank God daily that he has allowed us to get this far without too many snags in the plan.

Our next venture is to apply for the Household Visa. Should be interesting.

The Beginning

My favorite place on earth is Playa Del Carmen, Mexico as I have continued over the years to visit every summer. There was a reason. On my 13th trip to Playa in June 2007, I looked at Dave (my dear, patient hubby) while poolside and said, OK…let’s make the move. He said that We’ll figure out the rest later. That is when it all started…
We returned home on June 20th and all I did for weeks was research businesses, how to make an income while in MX, how to move to MX, etc.
Starting a business and moving to Playa is not as easy as it may appear. We were unsure of how we were going to make money there. July 19th, Dave and I, along with four friends, went back to Playa as I needed confirmation that I was not crazy for wanting to move there. We stayed another 5 nights. We did not relax the entire trip as I lugged my friends all around Playa all the way down to Tulum. By that Sunday, the place that we would call home in Puerto Aventuras went under contract and Linda (a friend that I lugged down there) had decided that she and I needed to be business partners there! Linda will remain in the US and I will make the move.

Me and Linda

Just to give you a brief rundown of our recent experiences…We had to figure out what kind of company to start, what is going to be somewhat profitable, and what kind of company that could successfully run without much experience in Mexico’s culture and language. In my research, definitely catering to the locals that cater to the tourists is the way to go.
Everything was a challenge including coming up with a name for the company, as we had to come up with four different ones in case the one we REALLY wanted was taken. Actually, Prime Properties Management and Leasing was the last one on our list but the only one chosen by the Government. We had to figure out if we were to start a corporation, an LLC, or some other type of structure. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs had to authorize the creation of the company. Because we chose to create a corporation (S.A de C.V), Charter and Bylaws had to be drafted by a Notary. On Sept 13th we had to make another trip to Playa to meet with a Notary to sign “the big book” in which the Charter and Bylaws are printed in. Before the Charter and Bylaws are drafted and you sign with the Notary, we had to assign someone as your Attorney in Fact (Power of Attorney) for the company as this person will be able to make some decisions on on behalf prior to us getting our FM3 Visas. We also need a Statutory Examiner. This position must be held by someone unrelated to our company such as our CPA. I’m a little unclear of their role but as far as I can guess, they are basically an un-biased, third party person to make sure that we are not doing anything illegal within the corporation.

Me and Linda after we signed the "Big Book"

A page from the "Big Book" that shows are names. It's all in Spanish!

OK…So the “big book” has been signed, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs recognizes that we are a Mexican Company, all parties have been assigned to their respective roles and we are ready to start our new company. We secured an office space in Playa Del Carmen so that we could begin marketing the company and have a physical address to receive mail.
Hold on…there is MORE! Once we signed with the Notary, he provided two copies of the executed charter and bylaws (In Spanish). These are the papers that must be taken to the Federal Tax Register within 30 days (meaning another trip back to Playa) so that the State of Quintana Roo can assign you a Federal Tax ID #. Now, because we are foreigners without an FM3 Visa, we could not register our own company. This is why we had to assign a Mexican National as your Attorney in Fact when we initially set up the corporation. It is truly like the chicken and the egg debate…which came first??? We could not register the company to get a tax ID because we did not have our FM3 Visas. We could not get our Visas without the Registry of the company. ARGH! Fortunately, we have it all worked out though. My attorney that helped us set the company up and guide us in the right direction is a Mexican Citizen (law firm in Mexico City and Austin, TX). Because of this, we assigned him as our “Attorney in Fact” which is giving him power of attorney to make decisions. He was able to travel to Mexico City to register the company for us. We were VERY blessed as it could have potentially cost us thousands just to send Carlos to Mexico to register it for us but fortunately, his family lives in Mexico City and all he charged us was $280 for the plane ticket…no charges for his time or expenses while he was there. WHEW!
With all of that said, Carlos email me last night to inform me that the registration was a SUCCESS… it’s official. Prime Properties Management & Leasing is now a legal company in Quintana Roo, Playa Del Carmen Mexico. It’s not affiliated in any way to the company I work for now. It’s been a very trying last three months for both Dave and I but we did it! We are recognized by the Mexican Government as being an official, tax-paying Mexican Corporation! I am the CEO, Linda is the CFO and Dave is now the Attorney in Fact (legal titles).
Next...applyin for the FM3 Visa's.