We bought an ATV!

Some people have questioned why we are having to put so much money into a place that we are renting. And there are several reasons, so I wanted to take this opportunity to clarify.

First of all, outside of expat or tourist areas, a local Mexican house or apartment is usually a bare-bones space with plumbing and electricity... that's it. 

You would need to bring everything else yourself... furniture, appliances, often even light fixtures and cabinets unless the previous tenant supplied them and left them behind. 

And of course, the same as in any other country, unless you are specifically renting a place as "furnished" you need to supply your own furniture. 

Two of the local dogs. They are very friendly.

This is the path leading down to our house from the main road. 

The dogs are always happy to see us.

In our case, we are paying 7,000 pesos ($533 CAD, $380 USD) per month for this two bedroom, two bathroom house. Which as near as we can figure is the going rate for a local place 5 kms outside of the city of Valle de Bravo. We are lucky in that it is partially furnished... we already have a stove and oven, a refrigerator, a water cooler, a bed, a couch, some patio furniture etc. But we need to buy more, for several reasons.

Who wouldn't want their living space to be set up for their own personal preferences? So we want to spend some money to make it our own. And, we'll probably do some painting and decorating, the same as you would do in your own country.

And, we have a second bedroom that we plan to rent out as a "shared" Airbnb while we are here. When we are not here, we'll try and rent out the whole place, but not to short term stays. Probably minimum a month at a time. And of course we want it to be set up the way most Airbnb tenants want it to be set up.

So all of this entails spending some money. We hope to be here several years, and if that's the case, then spending $5,000 or so now averaged over 36 months isn't so much. And we'll probably make most of it back over that period of time through Airbnb.

The lake is very calm this morning.

This is the house next door to us.

It's a little fancier than ours! And it has an inground swimming pool.

Our friends Paco and Oti stopped by yesterday afternoon on their way back to Toluca. They brought us some welcome treats, as well as a couple of patio lounge chairs that we can borrow for the time being. 

Also, they have sold their trailer here at the marina. Sad that we won't be seeing them as often, but they want to do some other traveling in Mexico so would not be using it as much. And, we have an extra bedroom for when they want to come visit!

Oh... other news! They had a small ATV that they used while here. They didn't sell it with the trailer, so we have bought it! It's hardly been used, and probably has less than 1,000 kms on it. This will make our time here much better since it will give us the flexibility to visit other areas and we can access hiking trails, and other villages without having to take collectivos everywhere. Many locals use them to get around town. We just need to buy a couple of helmets!

And how about them Blue Jays! They won again yesterday so the series is tied 2-2. Despite the series being tied, momentum is on our side. But I wouldn't count out the Mariners just yet.  I can see this going the full 7 games. It will be nice for the Jays to win at home.

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Record low deal on the Jackery Explorer 1000 Portable Power Station.

And in Canada...

Fantastic price on this Samsung Galaxy Tablet.