Real Life in Paradise

Dear Reader,

 

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Here’s the thing: My friend Hans is a technology guy, he runs an internet software company. He was a big part of the reason why I started to blog in the first place. He also helps me a lot with the other websites that I publish, by suggesting new methods and new software, even quite often telling me the way I am doing it can be improved in so-and-so manner.

So I started Real Life in Paradise without checking exactly how to do it, as is my way. I don’t ask directions for most things, I just assume that I can figure it out. So I jumped on Blog.com, because I saw other bloggers from Mexico doing it. They offer very sufficient services, but somewhat limit what you can actually do with the blog. When I told Hans this, he mentioned that I might want to think about getting my own domain and hosting the blog on there, because I would have more control and be able to customize the blog more.

I am very hard-headed sometimes, I told him that blog.com would work just fine for me. He outlined exactly what problems I was going to come up against with blog.com and I dismissed his suggestions.  Everything was going to be just fine.

Then I started to realize that Hans was right.  I couldn’t add Google Analytics to the site, uploads were slow, sometimes posting a comment was difficult and I got emails from people who just gave up.  Then the statistics program on Blog.com started failing, it erased all my stats, etc…

I decided to look into the idea of moving the blog to my own domain.  I searched for domains that I liked and found ‘lifeinplaya.com’.  Listening to the little voice of Hans in my head saying “If you search for a domain that you like, you have to buy it”, I purchased it.  This is due to a new technique people are using to make money on the internet, industrious people on the internet buy a list of recently searched for domains from the popular domain providers and then buy the recently searched domains.  Many domain providers allow you to hold a domain for a short period of time without paying for it.  When you search for a domain and then go back the next day to buy it, somebody has already purchased your domain, but they will offer to sell it to you for slightly more than what they paid for it.  Pretty tricky.

Anyway, back to the point, I am now moving the “Real Life In Paradise” blog to “Life In Playa”, I hope it doesn’t cause anyone too much hassle.  Thanks for reading and I hope I will have more time to blog in the future.

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Solomon

This last weekend I went to the bullfights, a first time for me.  I was expecting the bullfight to be a brutal spectacle that would horrify me and I was pretty sure I would leave after the first show.  Why did I go, you ask?  Because I live in Mexico and have been asked by every person I know that moves here if I have ever seen a bullfight, as well as all of my friends that come down to visit.  I must admit that I had a cultural bias against the bullfights, because I was raised with the idea that animals have some sort of feelings.

I showed up at the bullring about the time the “Corrida” was supposed to start, there was plenty of seating but lots of people still showing up.  The tickets were $225 pesos per person, I was a little surprised because I can imagine that this price is a little prohibitive to some of the local population.

A band with about five players was seated at the back of the ring near the exit and the crowd started shouting for them to play something soon after I found my seat.  The band seemed rather hesitant to start but soon was belting out familiar traditional songs and the party started going.

I was amazed at the way the crowd seemed to direct the goings on of the event, after a few minutes of sitting a few of the rowdier spectators started shouting for the lights to be turned on. After a while, more and more people were shouting, some standing up and waving there hands, even screaming obscenities at an unseen (at least to me) entity, who eventually acquiesced to the requests.

The crowd started to get more and more rowdy, the band played rowdy music, venders offered cokes and beers and deep fried hotdogs and I felt right at home in the middle of this party.  I kept getting the sensation of “What is going to happen next?”  Finally, after about 15 minutes, the band started playing the typical bullfight song (I believe it is called “La Malageña” and the crowd quieted down for the show to start.

The bullfight starts with a parade of the bullfighters and support staff, all dressed in very bright clothing and very decorated.  They walk around in funny hats and salute the crowd, going to each part of the ring to get approval from all of the crowd.  One of the matadores appeared to be in his mid-sixties and was dressed in a black, grey, and silver suit with lots of piping and sequins, the other was wearing a hot pink suit with gold piping.  I am not sure if this is traditional but it certainly made an impression on me.  The crowd roared as the matadors walked around the ring and waved, receiving hats and scarves from the crowd, at one point even a pair of sunglasses, all of which was used quickly by the matador and then thrown back to its owner.

Another interesting player in the show was the “Picador” who is mounted on top of a horse that is wearing a thick blanket of armor and is completely blindfolded,  he wears steel boots and carries a spear, I didn’t put it all together at the time but his role gets interesting later.  There was also another guy wearing a red suit and a funny had, but I never caught what he was called, his role will be explained later as well.

After much ceremony everyone retreats back into the inner section of the ring and waits, this gives an opportunity for the crowd to get a little bit of excitement worked up as well as a window for the beer venders to wander around and supply the crowd with re-enforcements.   The anticipation builds to a head and the crowd starts shouting for a bull, about that time I started to hear a loud crashing noises from the side of the ring opposite my seat.

Finally, a door near the crashing opened, after about thirty seconds an angry bovine emerged from the dark hallway behind the door and started across the ring for one of the men who was waving a large pink cape at the bull.  At the last minute the man with the cape ducks behind a barrier that is especially for this purpose and the bull grazes the barrier but keeps going to another part of the ring to attack yet another one of the men with capes.  This goes on for a little while, I am not sure what it accomplished other than to give  the crowd the feeling that the bull is really pissed off.

After a little bit more of the bull running around showing that he would attack anything that moved the Matador enters the ring and waves the cape at the bull for a little while.  This pisses the bull off more, inciting him to attack the matador and everything else in sight.   The bull apparently needed more excitement, because next, the picador on the horse enters the ring and the matador leads the bull over near him.  Now, I am thinking, “Spear, bull, ok, I know whats coming”, but I really had no idea about the reality.   See, its not as if the bull stands still and lets the Picador come to him to stick the spear in.  I think he figures that the best defense is a good offense, so he attacks the horse brutally,  hence the steel boots and padded armor.

The horse seemed not to notice that a thousand pound bull was charging into his side, I guess because of the blindfold (I know people like this, actually), so he did not move or run or really even flinch.  I wonder about the training they used to get no reaction out of the horse in such circumstances.

Here is where the bullfight got a little more bloody, while the bull was attacking the horse, the man on top of the horse was ramming the spear into the hump behind the bull’s neck, opening up a large wound.  Not once during this does the bull stop and evaluate the situation, he just keeps pounding away at the horse until the crowd shouts enough for the horse to be retired from the ring.

Next, another crazy man who we don’t recognize, wearing a red and white suit sprints into the ring with pointy sticks with lots of flare, jamming them into the already frustrated bull.  These sticks, upon further viewing, have metal spike and a barb on the end, but the spike doesn’t seem to be long enough to do much other than annoy the bull, but the barb keeps it from falling out, therefore the bull exits the encounter with these sticks hanging out of his back.

After a little bit more of the bull running around the ring attacking things, the matador comes in with a  sword and his cape and toys with the bull a little bit more.  The bull follows the cape around charging it and barely missing the matador, it looked challenging getting the bull to do exactly what he wanted it to like that.  I knew what was coming now, the bull looked like he was getting a little bit tired, though he was not losing any of his resolve in terms of needing to attack things.

The matador went to the side of the ring after a little while and asked for a different sword, I wasn’t sure what this was about but it seemed important.  Right away, he started holding the new sword up with the business end towards the bull.  He seemed to be aiming, after a little while he lunged at the bull with the sword.  The bull lunged back at the matador and the sword glanced off of the back off the bull.  Twice more the matador aimed and lunged, twice more the bull attacked back and fended off the sword.

By this time the crowd started shouting insults at the matador, making jokes about his age and his inability to distinguish the bull from the surrounding area.  He seemed to take the insults rather well, on the fourth try he managed to land the sword squarely in the back of the bull.  It didn’t take but five seconds for the bull to fall to the ground, dead.  Soon afterward the man in the red and black suit came to make sure that the bull was dead, driving a blade into the base of his skull.

While the bull lies there the matador walks around the ring and people cheer and throw things for him to touch and throw back.  I found it a little odd that somebody threw a rag to him and he picked it up, wiped his brow with it and then threw it back.  Maybe it’s good luck.

After the matador pranced around for a while a pickup truck drove into the ring and hooked the bull up by its back legs, dragging it out of the ring.  I had heard that the bull would be pulled from the ring by donkeys, which I thought much more appropriate for the event than a Chevy.  What do I know?

The other three fights were more or less the same, nothing really to talk about.  The point I would like to point out is that at no point during the fights did I feel disgusted or horrified by the event and the bull did not seem to be in any pain.  I actually felt worse for the calves that were tortured during the “Midget Bullfights” than I did for the real bulls.

My favorite parts of the bullfight were actually when something went wrong and the bull got his chance to get some vengeance for what was happening to him. Once during the second fight the bull managed to catch one of his tormenters and drag him across the floor for a little while, I didn’t manage to get it on film unfortunately.  The other time the bull got points was when he attacked a horse and managed to get the Picador off of the horse’s back and onto his.  This caused a little bit of chaos and was pretty exciting; I managed to get video of this.

Another thing that really stood out was how the second matador was very showy, a little overkill in any other event really.  I think this might be a normal occurrence in bullfighting, I remember reading “Ferdinand the Bull” when I was a kid and it talked about the matadors and their egos.

Overall, I cannot say whether or not I would go to another bullfight, it was definitely an experience that I am glad that I had.   I can now say that I have seen a bullfight and my experience was not horrible, but I know that the event is really gory and very vivid.  

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This week I have gone to the Municipal Palace various times, each time they have told me to come back tomorrow.  I don’t feel too upset with this progress because the workers at the office have now assured me that the Licencia de Uso de Suelo is going to be approved, that there is nothing missing, it is just taking more time than they anticipated.  What I was told today is that the new boss has instated a new policy that she needs to read every piece of paper that comes across her desk, so it is just taking longer than it was supposed to.

When I got to the Municipal Palace this morning, the line in front of “Desarollo Urbano” was out the door, down the hall, and down the stairs, which really surprised me because I arrived really early to avoid a line.  I asked somebody if this was the line for the urban development department and he assured me that it was.  I hadn’t ever seen a line like this before, but I figured maybe friday was just a bad day for city hall.  I was told to come back today, so I was going to follow directions, that is an important part of any “tramite” that is done here: Follow directions.

After a few minutes of staring off into space I looked more carefully at the line and realized that some faces were very familiar to me, they seemed to be the people that worked behind the counter of Desarollo Urbano.  I quickly asked the man that I had asked before if he worked there, he replied that he did.  I guess I really arrived too early. 

The woman who normally helps me at the counter arrived shortly after and made a joke about me being there early every time, then told me that the boss who had the key was running late and we had to wait.  This gave me a nice opportunity to chat with the ladies from behind the desk and ask all sorts of questions about the job and how things worked.  In my time here in Playa Del Carmen I have really gotten a chance to learn about getting more flies with honey than with vinegar, a smile and a kind greeting works so much better for me than the normal curt gringo attitude that I was accustomed to back in the states.

After the Palacio I went to Lomas Mariposas to take care of some administrative tasks and was there just in time to hear the pump making funny noises.  I know the sound of the pump sucking water, so I checked the cistern and it was mostly empty.  I looked to see if the water was running in from the city, it was, it seems that we had just used a lot of water in the last couple of days.  I have noticed a trend in Playa during July that sometimes the water runs a little slowly, sometimes not at all.  It was about 11am so I figured it would be safe to leave the pump off for a while and give the cistern a chance to fill up.  The cistern was back at an operational level at 5pm, so the tenants have water tonight.

I am looking for a solution to this problem, I have heard that I can drill a well and have it metered, so I don’t have to rely on city water, but I need to look into how much this costs.  Note the “and have it metered” part, when Lomas Mariposas was first turned over to me the contractor had installed a well on the empty lot next door and did not have a CAPA(Water Company) meter installed on it, the city found out about the well and took exception to it, costing the developer of the building a hefty fine.

This afternoon was spent getting a load of furniture for PlayaResale, a local importer is changing his focus from furniture and he liquidated his entire inventory to us.  We now have a full warehouse and I am worried about where we are going to put any new stuff that comes in, but I guess it will all work out.  I have to fix the webpage so that it shows all the new stuff, but I guess that will happen next week.

We still have a few things left to do at PlayaResale but we will be open at regular hours starting Monday, July 28.  I am excited and I think it will do well.  My business partner and I keep coming up with new ideas for the business, something is bound to work out well.

Some friends of mine are starting a Playa Del Carmen food blog, called PlayaEats and have invited me to be a contributing writer.  I think that this will be a fun project too, because it will give me the chance to try new and exciting restaurants with and excuse.  I’m a journalist!

This sunday is the big bullfight at the Expo Riviera Maya 2008, I am hoping to get to go to that. Monday morning at 7:30 there is a beach cleanup at Coco Beach, I have been feeling like a little bit of volunteer work might do me good, so I am going to try to make it to that as well.

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The local fair is going on right now.  I went on opening night to see the attractions and check things out, it was kind of cool.  The real reason I went was for the midget bullfighting, a big draw for a child of the “Jackass” generation.   I was told on one of the online forums that “Midget Bullfighting is to a Corrida(bullfight) what midget wrestling is to Olympic grappling.”  I think the metaphor was meant to discourage my enthusiasm, but it honestly just made me want to see it more.

 

A group of six friends went to the fair after dinner, I was sure that the event started at nine but I had also heard seven and I couldn’t remember exactly, so at about eight we started out that way to see, we stopped in front of PlayaResale to look at the poster that I had originally seen there a couple of weeks before.  The poster said the “Enanitos Toreros” started at six-thirty, but I was pretty sure we could still make it, because I am familiar with scheduling practices here on the Yucatan peninsula.
The fairgrounds is rather hidden, you drive down Juarez until you get to the line of cars turning left, then follow the car in front of you until you get to all the police telling you that you cannot park here.  Then you find a suitable spot in a vacant lot or sidestreet and walk the few blocks back to the very well lit entrance.  Sorry folks, I can’t give better directions than that.
So we got to the gate and I was expecting to pay an entrance fee, a police officer waved us over and asked if we spoke Spanish.  Allie(Mexico-or-Bust) jumped in and said that she did, so  I kept quiet.  The police officer basically gave us the typical speech about this gathering is pretty far off the normal tourist route and if we want to be here we need to behave like we live here and don’t do anything that would jeopardize our safety.  I got sort of a “This ain’t spring break in Cancun” feeling from his message.

As we were walking up and talking to the police, the fireworks display had started, it was the closest I have ever been to a real fireworks show.  Burning embers were falling on us and the crowd around us, it was pretty vivid, I spent the whole time wondering if they were going to catch something on fire.  True to form, there was a chapel at the entrance of the fairgrounds, during the fireworks show, the large Virgin-Mary-holding-baby-Jesus on top of the chapel burst into bright pyrotechnic flames, a nice touch to any opening.

The first thing we did was made our way to the bullring, the Midget event didn’t start until 10pm according the the flyers, so we had plenty of time to look around.  We got something to drink, I tried an agua-de-naranja, which was a lot sweeter than the aguas-frescas that I am accustomed to.

There was a show being put on at the main stage, so we went to check it out.  Singing and poetry and dancers with baskets of fruit, pretty typical to many of the dances I have seen but always entertaining.This show seemed to be put on by the Honorable Ayuntemiento de Merida, at least it said so on their sashes.

We walked around for a while, noticing lots of food booths and puestos selling various fried goods. I have never been a big fan of deepfried hotdogs, but I did notice that if that was something you were interested they were in stock.  Allie’s husband Hans and I often venture about Playa Del Carmen looking for new and interesting culinary experiences, so I convinced him that he should try Marquesitas.

 

A Marquesita is a crispy crepe fried right in front of you and then sprinkled liberally with a parmesan-like cheese and your choice of caramel, lechera, or nutella.  I found the booth that seemed to have the most people frequenting it and we each got one, I got it with lechera and Hans had his with nutella.  None of the rest of the group was feeling up to trying these sweet treats, but we certainly enjoyed ours.
Next, we wandered over to the rides area of the fair, joking how there was no way we would get on any of these deathtraps.  Then I suggested to Hans that we ride the spinning wheel of death, sort of as a joke.  I was sure he would turn me down, because it was quite apparent that it was not safe. Unfortunately, he took me up on the offer.  We climbed the stairs to the ride and hopped in, what the hell, it was only 20 pesos per person.  We were buckled in(well, the buckle in our seat was broken, so the attendant tied a nice knot in it), and off we went.

The ride was an interesting spin-you-this-way-and-that-until-you-puke affair, I think they must be outlawed in The States because I don’t remember ever seeing anything comparable. We started to spin but then stopped, the loud grinding noise had been a clue to the operator that we were out of balance, they shuffled some people around and we were off again. It started out fine this time and the only complaint we had for the first few minutes was that the cart we were in seemed a little small.  Then, the loud grinding noise returned and at this point we were moving too fast to do anything about it, but we didn’t stop.  We spun forwards and backwards and sideways and the operator made fun of us…then the burning plastic smell came.  Nobody else seemed concerned, so we didn’t scream too much about it.

The spinning was really starting to make me sick and I wasn’t sure how much more I really could deal with, but mercifully the ride ended.  We wobbled down the steps and got on firm ground, I quickly made a mental note of where the nearest garbage can was in the case of spontaneous vomiting.   We had about 20 minutes before the midgets started, so we decided to walk off the nausea.  I am proud to say that neither Hans nor I got sick, though that was still questionable as we found our seats for the bullfight.
The tickets were $100 pesos each, I am amazed that they can charge that much but they about halfway filled the arena.  The midgets made their grand entrance soon after we sat down and the show began. 

The main event was rather anti-climactic for the evening, we watched yearling bulls get manhandled by two midgets in torero suits and two normal-sized clowns, they had some comedic(?) acts involving a midget acting drunk and making cute little plays on words, then there was a weird midget dancing session.  Overall, it was entertaining but just barely.

The experience was worthwhile, even though the midget bullfighting wasn’t quite what I was hoping for.  I guess there was no way it really could have lived up to the expectations I had for it.  I had a very entertaining evening and I am glad I went, I think I spent less that $200 pesos for the whole night, which is pretty ok in my book.  I don’t know if I would say I recommend the fair to everyone, it is definitely not a typical 5^th Avenue experience, but I really had a good time.

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So, I have been working this last week on getting the Uso de Suelo done and getting the building completely ready to open.  The Licencia de Uso de Suelo is a Playa Del Carmen legend, anyone who has opened a business can tell you how difficult and time-intensive the this license is.  I didn’t have that experience.  I got the contract from the notary on Monday, which was the first requirement.  I took this to the accountant’s office and he helped me add a business location to my company’s tax information, therefore giving me the go-ahead from Hacienda (the tax authority) to set up a business where the shop is going to be.  The accountant then gave me a basic format for a letter I needed to write to the director of urban development asking for permission for the Uso de Suelo.  I had already gotten a list of all the paperwork I would need to take to the city for the license.

That afternoon, I took pictures of the interior and exterior of the building, including bathroom space and all identifying features around the building.  I put these pictures on in a MS-Word document and formatted them nicely and printed them out with the letter.  I had to get copies of various records, previous licenses that were given to the building owner and paid tax bills, etc. 

I got everything bundled up nicely in a folder and put on a collared shirt and went to the city the next morning at 9am.  I was told to expect to wait in line the whole day, again I didn’t have that experience.  I think I was in line for 15 minutes tops, then was called to the counter where a very pleasant woman looked through everything that I had, it seemed like she expected me to be missing some paperwork, but she was quite pleased that I turned everything in that she was asking for.

After she told me that I had everything I needed and I could come back in 8 business days to get the license, she made sure that I know about the publicity license that is required in Playa Del Carmen.  She got the list of requirements for these licenses and went through them step by step with me, explaining them all in depth.  She told me that it is much easier if I submit this paperwork right after I submit my Uso de Suelo paperwork, and explained how to do that without actually having the Uso de Suelo, which is the first requirement for the sign license.  She sent me away to get my paperwork done and said to come back the next morning.

The sign tax is something that everyone pays and if they do not the city inspectors come around and put big “CLAUSARADO” stickers all over your signs, so it is pretty necessary, but I was expecting it to be a much bigger hassle than it was. We had already prepared a space to put the new signs, but hadn’t painted anything on them yet.  This turned out to be a really good thing because one of the requirements for the sign license is a design plan of what the sign is going to be, how it is constructed, etc.  I took pictures of the sign spaces minus any writing and then did a separate page explaining the signs.

So, that next day I went into the urban planning department again to turn in the paperwork for my signs, while I was was there the inspectors from the city came and looked around at the shop.  They talked to Valentin, the guy who has been doing most of the real work while I am running around like a crazy person, they took pictures of the place and looked at the tax-permit that I had posted on the wall, then they told Valentin to tell me that I could come get the permit next week.

When I talked to the accountant about how easy the whole process was going for me he didn’t believe me, then he suggested (jokingly?) that should do all the license work that he has to do because it never goes that well for him.  I think that opening a business in July must be the key.

During all this we got our first truckload of furniture, a bed and a sofa and some plant stands, but this week while I am waiting for all the paperwork to clear I will be going around looking at other furniture and hopefully filling PlayaResale with stuff so we can open our doors for business soon. 

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For a long time my business partner, Dave, and I have been talking about the need in Playa Del Carmen for a consignment store.  So many people come and go from Playa and all there are a lot of goods passed around.  I have purchased many of the items in my house from people who are leaving town and need to get rid of their stuff, so we figured it was time to capitalize on this phenomenon.

Starting a business in Playa Del Carmen takes a lot of little steps, but I think it will be worth it.  The first thing we had to do was add change our incorporation papers of our corporation to include owning a store and buying and selling merchandise.  This took a few days and a notary, but it got done last week.

Next, we had to rent a Bodega, I showed some pictures of it the other day, but I will take more later.  Now that we have rented the bodega we have to get it ready to be a store.  First of all, there is a special license in Solidaridad called “Licencia de Uso de Suelo”, which is a special land use permit that everyone has to get in order to do anything in PDC.  This land use permit is kind of funny, because the owner had to get an Uso de Suelo upon termination of the building in order to rent out the property, then anyone that rents the store-spaces from her has to get a separate uso de suelo to do their own business.  Uso de suelo isn’t the actual business license, it is just a step towards the business license, and every time a business opens this is required.

Before I get the Uso de Suelo, I have to get approval from Hacienda(the tax authority) to open a business.  They take my paperwork and look it over to see that everything is right, then they should give me the go ahead.  Since we already have a business set up, we will be adding a branch to our business.  The accountant says that I can do this over the internet and that it is fairly simple.

Here comes the catch, once we add the business-branch to the tax authority, we have just 30 days to get all the licenses in order.  Hacienda sends somebody out to check on the business after these 30 days, if they show up and we are not in order then we get a “Clausarado’d”.  They stick a big sticker over the front gate of the business saying that we are not legal to do business.

We are in the process of getting a bunch of signs made up, but we are a little leery about actually putting them up yet, because in Playa Del Carmen, there is a sign tax, and if you put the sign up without paying the tax, you can also get the signs “Clausarado’d”.  They put a big sticker over my sign, then I have to pay a fine to get it taken off.   We have heard that we also have 30 days for the sign tax as well, but I am going to check on that on monday when I am downtown to see if it is true.

I was just starting to feel worried about having all this work to do and not enough time to do everything, when I got a phone call this weekend from a guy who used to work for me doing construction.  I taught him everything I know about building and he is very motivated and a great problem solver.  He has been back in Chiapas for the last 6 months, building a family home, but he gets back to Playa Del Carmen today and is looking for some work to keep him busy for a while.  This takes a huge load off of me, because he can take care of all the building stuff that needs to be done and I can spend my time doing administrative stuff.

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Well, the tournament is over.  Team USA played their best.  We lost horribly to all who challenged us.  We are broken and beaten but it was sure fun!

We had been practicing all week, not so much so that so that we could win any games, more so we didn’t look like complete fools out there on the beach.  We knew that we would probably not be winning any games, but we wanted to be able to say we tried our best.  I think we accomplished that goal.

Our team was made up of four Mexican guys, three Americans, and a German(who is a partner in coffee café).  We showed up at Coffee Café for the pre-team meeting at 8am Saturday morning and I handed out jerseys and got all the liability-waver paperwork filled out.  We read through the rules that La Quinta had given me and we signed them, then we walked down to the beach to get things started.

We showed up at 9am, right on time for our first game.  We were kind of hoping for a dramatic entrance, you know, showing up at the last minute and looking tough.  It was a great plan except that the tournament was a little late in getting started, so when we got there the first game was just getting underway.  We wandered around and schmoozed with the Playa color for a while, talked about team strategy, and casually observed the wildlife at Mamitas beach.

At 10:30 we played our first game against Israel, it went really well and we thought we were getting on a roll.  Israel was made up of mostly Israelis, possibly all special forces.  They were all about my size(6 footish) and very sturdily built.  We got scored on a couple of times in the first period, but we were pretty sure that 2-0 wasn’t such a bad way to start the second period.  We rotated out and played good defense, but in the end we just couldn’t stand up to the force of the Israelis.  Somebody at some point made a comment about “they beat most of the middle east in seven days, how could we expect them not to beat us in a soccer game?”  We almost scored a point in the second period, which was a big moral booster for the guys, but for some reason it was called no good.

Our next game was rescheduled because the Dutch team wanted to play in our time slot so that they could watch their match against Russia in the Eurocup, so we finally played again at around 3pm.

The second game was against Argentina, last years champion.  They had a cheering section of probably fifty people, some of their cheerleaders were VERY distracting.  They had drums and half naked women, people painted in light-blue and white, the Latin Americans take this thing very seriously.  We had one of the player’s wife and and a friend of ours.  One of our other player’s wives seemed to be sitting with the Argentinians, maybe for sabotage purposes?

The Argentinian team was very physical, most of them somewhat large, they started pushing the guys around the field.  They got really rough with us during the first half and were able to score a few points on us.  The guys weren’t used to that kind of abuse, some even said it was getting dirty out there, so they were a little shaken up.  We decided to change our strategy a little for the second half.  We were going to play less carefully, hopefully it would even up the odds a little bit.

We put in all of the Americans to start the second half, with orders to make room for the one Mexican to make some points.  After just a few minutes of this the opposing team asked us if we could possibly all calm down a little bit on the fouling, and apologized for getting the game started off with that tone.  We agreed and pulled most of the Americans out, but the game started getting a little physical again toward the end.

One of the Argentinian cheer squad at one point in the game tried to jump on the field after one of the American players and then team USA ended the last 2 minutes of the period with only 3 players because one of the Mexican guys got thrown out for illegal use of hands(mostly on somebody else’s body).  It was a little out of control, all of the foul shots in the end of the game ended up giving Argentina 6 points.  This game really brought our team closer, we felt like we had gone through something together.

This game ended at 3:30pm, two hours after we were supposed to play our last game. One of the Americans had an business meeting at 4pm and one of our Mexican players had to meet his mother-in-law for the first time, so our team we down to just six players. We were a little worried about not having enough players for the next game, but we decided to get some lunch and regroup for the next game anyway.

At 4:15 we were informed that we were late for our next match, against Britain.  We rushed over to the second field to find nobody but a couple of referees sitting in the shade of one of the tents that was set up for the game.  I guess Britain didn’t know they had to play either.  The ref’s wanted to call the game, which was OK with us, because that would have been a win!  At the last minute 4 of the British team showed up and convinced us to play anyway, they told us that if they beat us that they would advance against to the finals and Argentina would not.  We were exhausted and short a couple of guys, but we figured we wouldn’t rob the Brits of the chance to go on just to be spiteful.

Three minutes into the first half the refs called time, I guess they were taking time off of the clock for time we kept them waiting.   At the beginning of the second half a couple more British players showed up, so we were now playing against a full team.  They started playing really well, but it seemed that some of their players were not as tired as the rest of us.

Five minutes before the end of the game some Argentinians and some of the tournament organizers showed up for a little high-spirited discussion on the sidelines.  There seemed to be some question as to whether or not we were letting them win!  Team USA was flattered by this sentiment, and I can assure you we were playing to the best of our abilities.  Then the Argentinian faction pointed out that some of the British players were not the players who originally signed up to play, which started even more controversy.  The game ended, Britain beat us fair and square.  Unfortunately, I seems that they were disqualified due to the new players.  So we may or may not have technically won that third game.  We didn’t really feel like sticking around for all the arguing to find out.

As we were leaving, we heard that Team Israel was disqualified as well, because they were switching jerseys between other people.  I guess when they were asked about it they claimed they had “Eight players plus a goaly”,  which wasn’t quite what was in the rules.  This game really controversial, I had no idea.

Well, Team USA had a great time.  I was glad to get the opportunity to play and hope that I can do it again next year.  Maybe we will train more so we can legitimately win one game.

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It’s official.  We are a soccer team, we have the jerseys, we were presented to the world by La Quinta Magazine last night.  It was kind of a scary experience, I got to recieve the jerseys from in the front of a press conference in Coffee Cafe.

We have been practicing hard and I hope we are getting better.  We were a little worried last week because we tried a couple of runs up and down the beach with the soccer ball and was more difficult than we expected it to be, but today was a good practice and we left feeling pretty comfortable about our soccer skills.

Team USA is made up of three Americans, one German, and four Mexicans.  The four non-Mexicans are who really needs practice in this equation, the Mexicans are all “bien chavito”, about 18 years old, and all in very good shape.  A couple of them play for Interplaya(the Playa semi-pro team), which might actually give us some chance of winning a few games, or at least not making complete fools out of ourselves.

It is really amazing to watch our guys play, the American faction of the team runs around and wastes a lot of energy trying to chase the ball, and the Mexican guys seem to always be standing exactly where the ball is going.  This seems to be some sort of Tai-Chi that I just don’t have yet.

Our strategy will be very simple, get the ball to the Mexican kids.  They all have repeatedly told us that we need to stop moving so much or we or not going to make it through the first game.  Actually, at first they just said we weren’t going to make it through the first game, no qualification.  Things have changed and they have a little bit more confidence now.

The tournament has four groups of four teams, all of which will play three games.  The games will be two fifteen minute quarters with a five minute intermission in between.  There will be an hour and a half break in between games.  By game three I have a feeling we will be exhausted, but our coach Luis(also a player) seems to think that all of the teams will be exhausted by that time so it won’t be such a big deal.  He is very optimistic.

The practices this week have been kind of fun.  Yesterday was pretty tough, we practiced really hard and all of us ended up very sandy and very sore.  Today was much better, though some of the players couldn’t show up because of other commitments, we just played two-on-two in the hot morning sun and then did some passing and ball-handling drills.  The practices all end with a swim in the ocean, which makes me remember why I love living here.

Tomorrow we will be practicing at one of the municipal soccer fields, Luis wants us to take a day off of running on the beach to give our ankles a rest.  I was quite pleased to hear that he thought that would be a good idea because I have been feeling a little hobbled the last couple of days.  We will have another beach practice on Thursday and then take Friday off to rest before the big day.

I have never been really into soccer but this experience is really making me think that it might not be so bad.  Some of the guys have talked about maybe continuing to play after the tournament is finished and there have been some inquiries on one of the Playa Del Carmen forums I post to about a continuing team.  Not what I was expecting at all.

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So, a couple of weeks ago(could be a month even) somebody came to me and asked me to be part of Team USA in the annual Mundialito soccer tournament that is held here in Playa.  At first I said absolutely no, because I don’t know how to play soccer.  I played in a league when I was about 6 but I remember lots of grass stains and that is about it. 

I became convinced to play, a friend of mine is sponsoring the team and he can’t play and it sounded like a good chance to get together some other young people and have a little fun.  Then I became informed that I was the team captain because nobody else was on the team, it was my responsibility to get a team together.

I called some friends and got a lot of no’s but eventually my friend Hans got together some people he knows and we got a team together.  I still seem to be the captain.  There is almost no soccer skill between all of the Americans I got to play on the team, I was a little worried.  Luckily, we were informed that we could have four non-Americans on the team to even it out a little bit.  Good thing, because we were having a hard time finding Americans anyway.

Now, since I am not good enough friends with anyone from the Mexican National team, I figured I would have to look for talent elsewhere.  We got the next best thing, some guys from Coffee Cafe volunteered to play as our ringers.  They play all the time and I hear they are pretty good.  Since Coffee Cafe is our team sponsor, they were easily convinced to play, though I think they are a little amused by our lack of skill.

We had a team meeting on Thursday, which went well.  We got together, had a coffee, bs’d a little bit and got the details down.  It will be a fun experiment because all of us are sort of “managers” in our daily life and the team organization seemed to wreak of too many bosses.  It will all work out.

I went to La Quinta today to register the team, they showed me the jersey design, very cool.  They also informed me that there is a little pre-party tonight at Santanera and asked that I get all of the team members there.  We shall see, it will be our grand unveiling to the world I guess.  I am on my way there now, so I better cut this short.  I will try to take pictures and I blog about what happens next.

Stay tuned, Monday morning is our first “formal” practice.  This should be interesting.

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After a lot of talking about it and thinking about it we have decided to open a new business in Playa Del Carmen.  I know this is going to be a big adventure and somewhat of a challenge, but I am really looking forward to it.  This is going to be an ongoing blog topic for me for a while, but for now I will talk about what we have done so far.

My partner in the business and I already have a corporation set up in Mexico, so that is a big step already taken care of.  In Mexico as a foreign owned company(possibly any company has to do the same), we have to define the functions of the company upon incorporation.  We think the is taken care of, we had some extra bits added to cover almost anything we could think of at the time we set everything up, but we have to meet with the notary on Monday to find out if that is done and if not we will have to add it.  This shouldn’t be too much of a hassle, but we will see.  We are also going to have to find out about business aliases, because we don’t want to call our new business by the name we set up originally.  This should be pretty easy to fix as well.  I guess in The States this process would be similar, but it seems so much more daunting here.  We shall see, whatever it is it really cannot be as hard as everyone makes it seem.

We have been looking around for a spot and I think we finally found one today.  It is about perfect and the price range is right.  It is a little out of the way, but I think with proper marketing we will be ok.   We have to get the negotiations on this all worked out, we will probably start that as soon as we get the go ahead from the notary.  The idea we have requires some space and that is hard to find without paying a ridiculous price.  I cannot believe what some people are asking(and getting) for their locals.

Next step of course was to register an internet domain for the business…very important in this day and age.  It is funny, in today’s business world we choose our business name based on what we can get as a domain.  Anyway, I registered a domain and the site hosting will be active in a few days, I will let everyone know the details later.  I am not much of a web developer, but I guess I will get better with every attempt.

We already have some marketing ideas ready, I am sort of skeptical about mass flier distribution, but I think we are going to try it out.  It really seems to work well for other businesses that have opened here in Playa.  I guess there is nothing to lose by trying.

This is going to be a different work environment than I am used to, for the time I have lived in Playa Del Carmen I have always had sort of a mobile office situation, often I work at internet hotspots or at home, then the rest of my work I do at the various buildings.  The big change here is that I will be tied to a fixed location, which I guess will have its perks.

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