The Good, Bad and Ugly, a typical week in Mexico

The past week has been a wild week for me. As I sit here on Sunday evening, I am exhausted (and of course a little sore, but more on that later). The week started last weekend, when Agistina and Tomas (two people who work on our rancho) wanted to give my wife Jo Ann a surprise birthday party. Agistina prepared a excellent and extensive meal of mole, rise, frijoles negro, cerveza and of course tortillas. Tomas had arranged for a local band called Trio Dos Generaciones to play. So around 2 in the afternoon they showed up at the rancho with their families and we had a great celebration that lasted long into the evening.

Jo Ann had a great time and I believe that everyone else did also.

Then on Sunday, we went to the final fütball game of the year. Our local time, which is called Team Chivas (like the very popular one here in Mexico), had won the class C league here in San Miguel and was going to play the Class B league winner from Rodriguez. Well there is definitely a difference when you move from one class to another as the result was the ugly. Our team got pasted by a score of 4-0 but it was a lot of fun, even if the final run had to come to an end.

One Monday, I commenced a quick trip up to McAllen Texas. When we moved our belongings down here to Mexico, we had a complete inventory of these goods, that had been certified by the consulate of Mexico in Saint Paul Minnesota. When our movers got down to the border in October, they rejected one item on the list, a small garden trailer that goes on the back of the ATV. I use this trailer to move tools and supplies around the rancho and it is clearly off road. We argued over the phone but to no avail, the movers were not going to bring it as they were sure the Mexican customs organization Aduana would reject it and require it to be off loaded. The movers held this trailer for me at their warehouse, so the trip this past week was to pick it up, together with a bunch of drip irrigation supplies I had recently purchased.

Monday was spent driving up to McAllen, Tuesday was loading up the truck with the trailer and the supplies that I had purchased and then Wednesday was crossing back across the border. When I came to the Aduana check point, I had all of my receipts for the drip supplies and the certified inventory that included the trailer. Well, they wanted to see all of the receipts, but never even asked about the trailer. I paid my duty and headed south. That sure was a lot of time spent to get the trailer that no one even seemed to notice.

Thursday and Friday we spent riding the horses and working around the rancho. Most of the major renovation projects are getting close to being finished, I can't wait as I am tired of having the workers around all the time and not having a lot of peace and quiet.

Saturday we decided to go on a bike ride and headed out towards Galvanees. We were about ten miles from home when I punctured my rear tire. The puncture was very large so that the slime that I have in my tires could not stop the leak and I could not fix it while we were out in the compo. So Jo Ann gets to ride home and I start the long process of walking home.

Sunday arrives and we are looking to ride the horses over to Palo Colorado as the weather is just wonderful. We are finishing up our ride and Jo Ann decides that she wants to gallop her horse one last time, so we take off on a trail that we ride a lot. While in a full gallop, Chandon (my horse) gets spooked by something in the brush and decides, on her own, to turn left and jump over this large patch of brush. Well I was surely not expecting this, and I am far from an expert in jumping, so I hang on for dear life, but after we land, I loose my balance and fall of my horse. I am scraped and bruised, but nothing too serious, I just ache.

We mount up again and ride on home, this time very slowly. After cooling the horses down we turn the out in the pasture and head off to lunch.

After we finish our lunch we decide to walk up to the stables to see how everyone is doing. Well to our major surprise, Moet is running loose outside the pasture. It seems that the one of the burros had gotten between the fencing and some cacti and in a panic knocked down a portion of the fencing, the problem being that this portion was also attached to the gate, so there was nothing to stop any of the animals from walking out. We quickly (well as quickly as a person with a lot of aches and pains can) temporarily repaired the gate and got all of the animals back inside the corral. What a way to end up a very busy and active week. Now I just want to sit here and enjoy a glass of wine and try to forget the aches.

So how was your week?