In the idyllic category is things like sunset sailing on a 50 foot yacht while being served great food and drinks. Of course, life can't be like this all the time (such a shame).
More often we experience the frustratingly ridiculous, for which we have to take full responsibility for our part - i.e., not speaking any Spanish. We probably deserve anything that happens to us because we barely speak a word of Spanish and are making no effort to learn. John's excuse is he's barely mastered English, and my excuse is "menopause brains." At various times in my (much earlier) life, I studied and had some facility with French, German, Japanese and Italian. But my foreign language ability seems to have dried up along with my monthlies. That's mid-life for you, or it is for me anyway.
Since I refuse to frustrate myself with trying to learn/remember Spanish, I have to realize that resigns us to frustrating interactions, where lack of comprehension leads to misunderstandings and wasted time. In the space of one day last week, we were held hostage by both Carlos Slim's "Telcel" and Chrysler Puerto Vallarta.
Our internet connection at our condo is so pathetically unreliable (way more off than on) that I had to resort to buying a USB/"air card" and service that gives me 3G access to the internet independent of our condo service.
No wonder Carlos Slim is the world's richest man (he's the giant of Mexican telecom who owns Telcel). We waited in an endless line to buy the necessary USB and SIM card only to be sent away and told to come back in an hour...it appeared that internet access problems were not allowing the SIM card to be tested. So we went away and came back and waited some more to see the same rep. Turns out it was the SIM card that was faulty and she had to go get another one (so, there was no need to send us away and have us come back and line up all over again, if she had thought to suspect the SIM card in the first place).
There was no apology for wasting our time. In fact, the whole Telcel business is the least customer-centric one I have experienced. It appears to be organized and run like an antiquated banking system - the counter reps are like tellers who have to go to the vault and stand in line for stuff you are there to buy, then they send you to another line to pay a cashier, after which you come back to the same counter rep to show her you've paid, and then you get your stuff. A transaction that would have taken less than 15 minutes in Canada at a Rogers Wireless store took well over 3 hours - and seemed typical, judging from our lengthy hours of observation time in the store.
All of this made us late to pick up our Jeep from Chrysler PV where we were having some work done on it. But we didn't know we were late - because no one told us "lunch" is from 2:00 to 4:00 every day and the place is closed. You cannot show up between 2:00 and 4:00 and expect to pay for/pick up your car.
We got there a little after 3:00 and were told we'd have to wait until 4:00 when the right staff would be back to deal with us. The four guys who were there who we were talking to claimed to have no idea where our car keys were, nor the paperwork and bill. WTF? Who runs a business like that?
John actually spotted and grabbed our car keys from the desk tray of the rep we'd been dealing with, and tried to negotiate coming back and paying the rest tomorrow (we'd already paid a 50% deposit which he showed the receipt for). But they weren't having any of that. Our time pressure was I had a client coaching call scheduled for later that afternoon (which is why I needed the 3G USB), and waiting until 4:00 for the car, and then getting back to Bucerias, was going to make things really tight.
The Chrysler guys got very nervous when John laid his hands on the keys! We did consider just driving off and coming back the next day to pay the balance, but quickly realized that would just mean a speedy trip to the local hoosegow. The Chrysler guys were suspicious, and none too subtly moved to block our exit with a couple of other cars.
So, we were held hostage at the Chrysler dealer for about an hour until our gal got back from lunch. She looked disgusted with the guys she works with, and went straight to the office where the cashier (who had been there the whole time) had our paperwork and bill ready. Again, no apologies for the inconvenience.
We paid and left to beetle it back to Bucerias, got hooked up to the net for my call, and then my client e-mailed me moments before the call and cancelled. Oh well.
The latest local excitement is Bucerias festival week which involves letting off a lot of "fireworks" which make very loud sounds (like what I imagine a grenade sounds like) but give off very little light - more like muzzle flashes.
These "grenades" are let off irregularly at all hours of the day and night, and right in our neighbourhood. And if that isn't enough to fray your nerves, the "grenade" blasts are being punctuated by some poor little feline who has been in heat for over two solid days - the catterwauling is simply indescribable.
We looked each other and just burst out laughing last evening as we sat watching TV - interrupted by boom blasts and screeching that sounds like feline torture. That noise alone should be incentive enough to spay or neuter a cat! From what we've heard, there will be quite a litter of new kittens in the neighbourhood soon.
Todo bien. (It's all good.)
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