On Tuesday, March 13th, U.S. President George Bush will be meeting with Mexican President Felipe Calderon and other government officials in Merida, Yucatan. The city of Merida is a few hours from Cancun so travelers to Cancun will not be inconvenienced by the visit. Merida, however, is under very tight security. The ruins at Uxmal will be closed on March 13th because the Presidents will be making a visit to the site.

My first apartment in Cancun was fully furnished. The term “furnished” does not necessarily mean the furnishings will be pretty or will be in good working order, but it will mean your apartment probably has a bed, a chair, a table of some sort, and maybe even a way to cook your food or keep it cold. Every apartment is different, of course, and some are nothing short of dreadful. My furnished apartment had some lovely pieces of furniture, but it had an equal amount of ugly pieces. You deal with the ugly ones…and toss them in the dumpster down the street when nobody is looking.

In my first apartment, I had a stove (the usual cooktop/oven combo). I had never had a gas stove and wasn’t happy to find out that the stove didn’t start automatically. I had to turn on the gas and then use a lighter or match to light the burner or oven. Not fun! The burners on the cooktop and the oven basically had 2 temperatures…..super-hot and hotter than the surface of the sun. There was nothing in between the two, even if you turned the knob to adjust the flame. In fact, if I ever managed to turn the flame down, it would be back to full blast in a matter of seconds. Perhaps it was possessed?? The other odd thing about the stove was that the oven had no numbers on the dial. You had to guess at temperatures. I thought maybe the stove was old and the numbers had simply worn off over time. Nope. That wasn’t the case. I asked several friends and they all looked at me like I was from another planet. Apparently, having numbers to indicate the temperature is a luxury here…just like hot water seems to be a luxury item. Who knew?!

When the time came for me to purchase a stove for my new apartment, I was on a quest to find a stove with numbers on the dial! I love to bake and, even with careful supervision, everything had burned to a crisp in my first apartment. In Telebodega the salesman also looked at me like I was crazy when I asked if they had stoves with numbers rather than just “minimum” and “maximum” settings, or the even more confusing settings of “1-2-3-4-5″. I didn’t take the time to look at every stove in the store on that day. I needed a bed, refrigerator, and air-conditioner first. I decided to shop around more for stoves and investigate the oven dials to find out if, in fact, cooking temperatures were really just something the fine people of Mexico were forced to guess at. Was I the only one that couldn’t figure this out on my own and needed the numbers to help me out?! I was starting to wonder…

After searching high and low, I found stoves with actual temperature settings on the oven dial! They were nearly twice as much as I wanted to pay but, without the properly numbered dial, I knew I wouldn’t use my oven. I went to Home Depot to make a purchase and, after about 30 minutes of waiting for a salesperson to assist me (even though they had been paged sevearl times), I left empty-handed. Knowing that stoves with temperature settings were available, I went back to Telebodega to see what they had to offer. After a few minutes of searching on my own (apparently, I was invisible to salespeople that day), I discovered the stoves with numbered dials!!!! Hallelujah! I could swear I heard angels singing and harps playing when I finally found those glorious stoves!

Upon further inspection, I narrowed it down to 2 stoves, both of which had automatic start. That meant that my days of lighting the burners with matches were over! One of the stoves was a lovely stainless steel number with 6 burners. It wasn’t a brand I had ever heard of, but the price was right. On the oven dial, I found something rather unusual. It had numbers to tell you the temperatures, but it also had a picture of a pie at one temperature and a picture of a turkey at another temperature. That’s great that they were trying to help out people that are cooking-challenged, but who really bakes pies or roasts turkeys often enough for those pictures to do any good? The second finalist was a black, 6-burner stove made by GE. It was more expensive than the other and it didn’t even have pretty pictures of pies or turkeys adorning the front of the stove. Since I prefer black appliances and products made by companies I have heard of (and that are known for making quality products), I went with the GE model.

They only had the display model left, but I still had to pay the regular price. I’m not sure why there are no discounts for buying display models here, but I always ask for one and am always denied. Regardless, I was beside myself with excitement at the thought of baking cakes and other delectable goodies! I happily paid for my new stove and was on my way.

The stove was delivered the next day, but I was unable to use it until I bought gas and had it properly connected. I spent that time showing off the stove to envious friends that still are not fortunate enough to have temperature settings on their oven dials. Now, I spend my days baking cakes and gourmet dog treats for my unruly pups and everything is always cooked perfectly because I actually know what temperature my oven is set to!

Packing and finding movers may seem like a rather simple task to all of you living in the US or any country where things are done in an orderly fashion. That is not really the case in Mexico.

First of all, I needed boxes. I usually shop at Walmart and asked for boxes on my next trip. In the US, I always found that you needed to ask the store manager for boxes and they would hand them over. At Walmart in Cancun, however, you have to stalk the workers stocking shelves and take the boxes. They had empty boxes stacked in some of the aisles, but many were too small. After 2 or 3 trips to Walmart, I had managed to acquire more boxes than I would need for my big move. Not exactly the most convenient method of getting boxes, but it all worked out in the end. (I have since noticed that you can buy storage boxes in Office Depot so that is always an option the next time around!)

Once I had all the boxes and tape, I started the cleaning/throwing out/packing process. That part was just as tedious and boring as it was in the US. No big news flash there, I’m sure.

As the moving day approached, I asked everyone I knew about movers. Nobody was able to recommend anyone in particular to move all of my things, but many people did suggest I go to the parking lots of several supermarkets. They told me I would find movers sitting in the parking lot waiting for people to come and request their services for the day. Since I found the idea of hiring some random guys in a parking lot to be a bit sketchy, my boyfriend decided to enlist the help of his brother. Brother agreed to show up with a big moving truck on a certain day and that was that. Of course, nothing was written in stone and I had to hope that he didn’t get a better offer in the meantime.

Moving day arrived and, surprisingly, everything went off without a hitch. I woke early to finish packing before going to the new apartment to meet the delivery guys from Telebodega. They were bringing my new bed and appliances. After that, I ran back to the old apartment to wait for my boyfriend’s brother to arrive. He was only an hour late, which isn’t so bad for Mexican Time.

By the way, I priced furniture and appliances everywhere and found Telebodega to be the best by far. The service was also outstanding! I highly recommend them. Their furniture selection left a bit to be desired, but for the price-range they offer, it wasn’t so bad. I chose to wait and purchase a couch I really like rather than settling for something I didn’t care for, but I am overjoyed with my bed and appliances! In the meantime, we will just sit in the floor.

After all of my things were finally in the new apartment, there were still many things to do. Of course, I had to unpack, but I am referring to things that I have never had to deal with in my life. I had to get the gas stove hooked up, buy a gas tank, fill the gas tank, etc. These are not fun tasks to do and, for a couple of weeks, I lived on take-out and things I could cook in the microwave.

After almost a month of being in the new apartment, everything was in working order….EXCEPT my cable TV and internet service. I had visited the main office of the cable company to transfer my service, but they were unable to help me without a copy of a utility bill with my address. Since the apartment had never had a separate bill for the utilities, I could not simply transfer the service. I had 2 options….I could have my landlord (who happens to also be my downstairs neighbor) add me to his contract and pay him for my cable and internet each month, or I could wait until my first power bill arrived in 2 months and then have the service transferred to my new apartment. I didn’t care for either of those options and pestered a very patient customer service representative at the cable company. After 2 weeks of bothering him on a regular basis, he managed to get confirmation of my address and had the service turned on in my new place! I was ecstatic and couldn’t believe that someone actually understood the concept of customer service! How refreshing! Needless to say, I will be sending him a gift.

As you might imagine, I am very happy to have the ordeal of moving behind me. Even though I had to speak waaaaaaayyy more Spanish than I normally do (my Spanish isn’t very good, you see), it wasn’t an entirely miserable experience. I am finally getting to enjoy my new apartment and the puppies love their new terrace!

Nothing is easy to accomplish in Mexico, but many times, it’s worth the wait….even though it may be INCREDIBLY frustrating in the moment.

I would like to thank Chicago Tom and his lovely bride, Mrs. Chicago Tom, for a lovely dinner last week. Chicago Tom has been a guest blogger from time to time and he plans to move from the US to Cancun in less than one year. I was fortunate enough to meet Tom a few years ago and have been filling him in on life in MY Cancun I ever since. I haven’t scared him yet, so I think Mr. & Mrs. Chicago Tom will be able to handle life in Cancun.

Thanks again!

Susan