As has been every past experience entering Mexico, we were welcomed at immigration with a smile and stamped in with a six month visitors permit. And then we were pulled over by customs for a closer inspection!
And that was entirely expected. In fact I would have been surprised if we weren't pulled over. Our two big suitcases had some oddball items in them, including shock absorbers for Igor.
There was a big fire training exercise going on at Toronto airport.
Arriving in Mexico City.
We flew right over the central area.
Anyhow, the customs guy was very friendly, but made us open both bags and sorted through stuff. No problem, except it took an extra half hour. When he came across the shock absorbers, he wanted to charge us duty on them, but I was able to open one of the boxes and show him that the shocks were actually made in Mexico, so we were passed through with no extra costs.
Then we made our way to get an Uber to the Poniente bus terminal. It's only 14 kms (9 miles), but it took 50 minutes because traffic was so bad. The cost was 270 pesos ($21 CAD, $15 USD). We had a really good Uber driver who was originally from Colombia but married a Mexican woman who he met in Los Angeles. Lots of good conversation.
Arrived at the bus terminal at about 3:45pm. Fortunately we know our way around and knew exactly where to go for our tickets. The bus was supposed to depart at 4:00pm, and there wasn't another one until 5:30pm, so we were lucky that we had just enough time to get the tickets and get on board.
The bus ticket price is the same that it was when we left here back in May. 310 pesos ($23.65 CAD, $16.90 USD) for the almost two hour ride to Valle de Bravo.
It was getting dark when we arrived. We had been in touch with the owner to let him know we were coming, but he wasn't around. The house we are renting was locked up, so we just figured we would sleep in Igor. But two problems... one, this is still the end of rainy season, and the entrance to Igor was wet and muddy. And two, once we did get inside, we found that he is infested with ants!
So we spoke to one of the workers, and he arranged to get us the key to the house. We can sort out Igor later.
We went to bed at 9:00pm, exhausted. There was a two hour time change between Toronto and Mexico City, so that was part of it. But we also hadn't had much sleep the night before. Then of course, we were awake by 5:30am this morning!
Ruth, enjoying the view of Lago Avandaro before sunrise.
Morning coffee on the patio overlooking the lake.
So, we've got a busy month ahead of us getting the house set up the way we want, and getting Igor ready to go for a trip in November. Lots of photos coming your way!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Record low deal on the Samsung Galaxy Watch 7.
And in Canada...
Oh my!! I hope you can get some product like Terro where the ants carry it back to the nest and kills off the nest and the new eggs that are waiting to hatch! Good luck!
ReplyDeleteIt looks like we may be able to buy Terro online here in Mexico so we will look into that but it doesn't look like it is sold in any physical stores here. For now we have two different types of sprays so we will spray the ants, vacuum them up and then wash everything down and we will just have to keep doing that until we don't see anymore of them. Thankfully we aren't staying in Igor at the moment so the spray won't be a bother for us breathing it in.
DeleteInteresting that it's not available there - it certainly was in the Yucatan. Pretty much everyone had ants, and we used it liberally. Good luck getting on top of the ant infestation!
DeleteI only just did an online seach for this product and that is what came up. When we go into town we will have a look around in some of the stores and see if we can find it on the shelf. In the meantime we have a great spray that seems to kill them instanly, we know that this doesn't help with the nest but we think that if we just keep up with it on a daily basis that we will eventually get them all.
DeleteAll info regarding your 'ant battle' will be appreciated including the kind etc.
ReplyDeleteI am not sure how much help we will be because some of the products that we will use might not be available in the U.S. or Canada. For now, we are basically just going to spray the ants, vacuum them up and then wash everything down and we will just have to keep doing that until we don't see anymore of them. Thankfully we aren't staying in Igor at the moment so the spray won't be a bother for us breathing it in.
DeleteSounds like it was a good trip. Welcome back!
ReplyDeleteOverall yes, it was a good trip but it was a very long and exhausting day. We are so happy to be back in Mexico but we certainly have our work cut out for us over the next few weeks. Good thing we don't have any big plans for the rest of the month other than getting Igor cleaned up and getting the house set up the way we want it.
DeleteIt may be FB hindsight, but it sure would have been swell if Igor had been napping on that slab until you arrived, possibly no ants or uncles either....
ReplyDeleteIt would have been nice to have been able to have parked on the nice big concrete slab on the other side of Igor but at the time there was another trailer parked there. We also think that we may still have had an ant problem as there is another trailer parked near Igor that is on that same concrete slab and they have ants running along the sewer pipe that is attached to their trailer.
DeleteWe had a bad ant infestation near San Francisco one year. We bought an insecticide "bomb", made sure there was no food out, set it off and went out for a lengthy dinner and a movie while it worked. When we got back we opened all the doors and windows for a couple of hours to let it clear and all was well, no more ants. Luckily there was a good breeze to help clear the air. - Croft
ReplyDeleteIt isn't looking like we can get any of these insecticide "bombs" here in Mexico but I did find another product called a fogger that might do the trick. We have been trying a few different things but they are still there. I will go in and vacuum once again today and see how much progress we have made. If we are still seeing ants after a couple of days we will order this fogger stuff and try that. It certainly makes things easier with everything out of Igor.
Delete