As I said I will go back from time to time and go over some of the things that we have gone through.
Here are photos of our home. We are in the process of making some changes and I will take photos.
I just wanted to share our day this last Wednesday when we went to pay the electric bill; actually the saga started before that.
For whatever reason we did not receive an electric bill for last month. Before I go on with that, I just want to mention that here in Salinas there are no maps and no street names, so if you have been to Tokyo, you will know what I mean, in that you use landmarks to get around.
So receiving a bill of any sort is major; because we did not receive a bill, we could not pay it at the bank or post office.
So now we are back to Wednesday- we get to the power company office and there is a line; that is not unusual here, I think it is a pastime.
This turns out to be no ordinary line, because there are people pushing to the front and other people paying people to pay the bill for them.
This could be a Seinfeld episode; the office is miniscule and as we make our way to the front of the line one particular lady POed Evelyn and she told the lady to get to the back of the line. (in Spanish)
This action was not seen in the line before, and it caused a ripple effect; now other people in the line started to assert themselves and tell the pushers to get to the back of the line.
This process took almost three hours of our day; to get to the power company office, we took a bus which cost $0.25 (that is the price to get just about anywhere in the Salinas and La Libertad area). Such a deal!
Then we walked over to the Mall where we had lunch, and then we needed to get some passport photos for our visa. The passport office does not have a photo machine, so they sent us to a photo shop; that also did not take passport photos, but they did direct us to a store in the next town.
For this we took a taxi for all of  $1.00 and went right to the store that took the passport photos. We got the photos and then decided to take the bus back home, again $0.25 and it took us around parts that we had not seen before. These 2 errands took all day.


Front door

Front door

Front door from the driveway

Outside entertainment area and pool

BBQ

Hallway leading to one of the four bedrooms

As you enter through door this is on your left

Seating area

Kitchen and bar; to the left are the maid's quarters

hall leading to bedrooms and a seating area

front door

Laundry area

outside shower for the pool

outside WC and pump room for the pool

Evelyn and Gerardo by the pool

Now this took us a full day, and people ask, "What do you do now that you are retired?"