Real Life in Paradise

Last week, up until Monday afternoon even, we were feeling the effects of Tropical Storm Arthur here in Playa Del Carmen.  I wasn’t even aware of the “tropical storm” part of it all until different friends and family from the US started to call me to ask if I was weathering the storm OK.  It is funny, I just thought it was typical June weather on the Yucatan Peninsula.  Anyway, I figured I would write a little bit about hurricane season and my experience with hurricane preparedness.

I got to Playa Del Carmen about a month after Hurricane Wilma ripped through here so I (thankfully) didn’t get that experience, but I got to hear lots of horror stories about Wilma and got to see the damage that was done that hadn’t been cleaned up yet.  I did on the other hand get to be here for Hurricane Dean, which was not much of a hurricane.

When Dean rolled up most people around here expected her to miss us, so a lot of people waited until the last minute to make the hurricane preparations.  The weekend before the hurricane was supposed to hit everyone went into frenzy mode of finding plywood and getting it up on.  The stores were packed, the prices of plywood doubled, and the “fletes” or rentable pickup trucks were backed up for hours or days.  It was a mess, when I finally got the go ahead from all of the owners of the condos I administer the line for plywood was a couple of hours.  When I got the plywood and arranged a delivery, through a furniture moving service, the next step was getting guys to help me put it up.  At the time, luckily, I was managing a construction in the Ejido and I pulled all of the workers off of there to put up plywood in various different locations.  It seems like a small task putting up a few sheets of plywood, but it ended up being a lot of work.  We slapped up 50+ boards over the three day period, sometimes having to really get creative because of tight working conditions and some irregular constructions.  In some places we couldn’t fit the plywood through the doors or windows so we hauled it to the second and third floors with rope and ladders, some doorways were too big even for 2 sheets of plywood so we had to get creative with a third piece, even some places we only had marble door frames so nails or screws were out of the question.

After two days of getting the plywood put up in various locations we were mostly done, I took a couple of guys with me to my home to get my plywood ready and sent the rest of the crew back to the construction site, where they also lived, so they could make the proper arrangements there as well.  My apartment was the most challenging for them because it had a 4meter X 3meter glass wall in a balcony so there was no place to nail to and technique we had used earlier to prop the wood up with 2×4’s wasn’t going to work either.  One of the lead guys came up with the idea of building a freestanding wood frame that wedged tightly against the side walls and then covering the wood frame with plywood.  It looked like a framed in wall like they use in the US to build houses.  After this problem was taken care of the next step was to figure out how to cover the only entrance to my apartment, which was a sliding door.  Nailing up plywood wouldn’t work there because then I would not be able to get in and out easily.  They came up with another ingenious invention, a sliding door made out of plywood and 2×4’s, using the 2×4’s as tracks for the plywood to slide on, then when it was time to shut the door I could slide it shut and then secure it to the tracks using wire ties like they use on concrete forms.

We then made a run the the grocery store, stocking up on water, tuna, candles, playing cards, etc.  I had heard that before Wilma the grocery stores started running out of food, but I didn’t notice that much at walmart.  When I went to drop off the guys at their home they had moved all of the portable water containers inside and were filling them with water, this included a big 2500liter tinaco(big black water containers you see on roofs in Mexico) that we had.  They had tied the tinaco on the roof down with various cords and ropes so that it would not blow away in the storm.  They suggested that I do the same to the tinaco where I lived.  Before the storm hit I made sure that the tinacos on the roofs were full and that the cistern was filled as full as I could get it.

At the time my gas tank, as well as the gas tanks from a few other apartments in the building were loose, attached via hose through a hole in the kitchen wall.  I disconnected the tanks and stored them so that they would not blow away in case of a storm.  I attached a 10-kilo gas tank inside my kitchen so that I could still cook during the storm, though I don’t really suggest this because it can really be unsafe in case of a fire.

I filled up some 5-gallon buckets with water and put them in the shower, so that I would have water to flush and wash with if the tinaco ran out of water.  I stored all of my important documents in large ziplock bags and made sure that anything that I didn’t want damaged by water was off the ground.

Then I waited.

That night the wind started to pick up and sometime early that morning the light went out.  I remember getting up to go to the bathroom and thinking how absolutely inky dark the house was all boarded up.  The wind howled pretty good and the plywood occasionally banged in the wind but overall it held up pretty well.  When the wind died down I opened up the sliding plywood door to survey the damage.  Playa was pretty much untouched, there were some things scattered around the streets but overall no big deal.

My cell phone wasn’t working so I couldn’t immediately check on the damage in the other buildings, but I had a little bit of work to do in the building I was in.  One of the tinacos had drained, one of the toilets was running or something, so the water drained out pretty quick.  We dipped water out of the cistern until the power came back on, no big deal really.

Two of my buildings only had hydro-pneumatic water systems, i.e. no tinacos or water storage on top, so without power there was no water in the building.  Lomas Mariposas has a pool so the tenants there just dipped pool water out to flush their toilets and wash with.  The other building was stuck without water, which in a false alarm hurricane like this is no problem, but after a real disaster a the building would not have water for a while.

The next day I started to take the plywood down, that ended up being the hardest part of the whole ordeal.  The excitement of the upcoming hurricane kind of made putting up the plywood tolerable, but the taking it down just seemed to drag on and on.  Then we had to patch the wholes left in the cement and repaint everything.  Repair from the protection took much longer than putting it up. 

Now, what do you do with 50+ pieces of plywood spread out between 3 buildings?  In the building where I live we put the plywood on the roof and nailed the pieces together, making a large heavy block of wood that would be available in case of another hurricane.  In Mariposas we stacked the pieces and screwed them together, this time in the parking area of the building in an unused parking space.  In Las Olas we had a space under the building that we converted into a bodega so we could put everyone’s plywood in there.  I guess we are prepared for next time.

This year I recommended to all of the condo owners that they install hurricane shutters.  Some of the property managers we work with are telling their clients that if they don’t install hurricane shutters they will be unprotected during the next hurricane.  I don’t know how strictly they will adhere to this rule, but for my clients I will still install plywood if it is absolutely necessary.  I also suggested to the clients in the buildings that have hydro-pneumatic water systems(no tinacos) that they install a backup type system where possible, a couple of tinacos on the roof will supply a building for a day or so if the tenants are careful with there water consumption.

I live in a different apartment now, it will be less hassle this time to install my own protection.  I plan to prefit the plywood to the door and have it predrilled and install anchors in the concrete so there is no drilling or nailing involved, just a few screws and nothing more.  We used nails during Dean to hold up the plywood, but when we took the wood down it left gaping holes in the cement.  We tried anchorless screws but found out that they were very hard to get to work properly and they also tended to break off when removed, therefore leaving a piece of metal that has to be chipped off later.

Everything else I think will be about the same for the next hurricane, lots of water and lots of food.  I really didn’t feel like I lacked for anything during Dean, but I am sure there is something I am missing.  I don’t look forward to a hurricane, but I heard so many stories about the comradarie that happened in Playa Del Carmen after Hurricane Wilma, so I am sure that whatever happens everything will be all right.  People tell stories about after-hurricane parties where everyone brings something that they stocked up on, sharing what they have with others.  Not so bad I guess. 

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The talk was held at Ytsasil(sp?) school on 26th and 25th, I went with some friends and we showed up at about 6:45pm and the conference was not scheduled to start until 7:30 so we decided to walk down to a coffee shop on La Quinta for a cup before the event started.  We returned at 7:15 and there was a line to get in out the door, we finally got our seats at around 7:45 but the conference did not start until about 8:30.  The room filled up, by the time it all started it was standing room only with people stacked up in the doorway and out in the hall listening to the speaker.  I had no idea so many people in Playa Del Carmen would be interested in this sort of thing.

The speaker was Lama Ole Nydahl, one of the few Buddhist Lamas from the western world.  He had a lot of good things to say, often joking and wandering off into interesting stories.  The translation into spanish was phenomenal, the girl who translated didn’t miss a beat and really got the message correct.  I actually had a hard time hearing the Lama’s microphone so I payed more attention to the translator.

The Lama talked for about an hour and then opened the room for questions.  Many people had very well thought out questions, the questions section went on for at least another hour.

Before the questions ended we had to leave because we were late for another engagement, but we got information on group meditation sessions in Playa Del Carmen on a regular basis.

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It turned out that they had ripped the screen out of the small hallway window that goes into the kitchen above the sink.  They then rocked the kitchen window until the locking mechanism disengaged and then opened it.  They crawled in there.

So, I still didn’t know how the thieves got into the building.  I thought maybe they had climbed up the metal grating that goes up the front of Lomas Mariposas, that would explain the turned over plant on the balcony.  The gardener later informed me that the lock on the front gate had been broken.  They had used something to pry the cover off of the lock so that they could slip a finger into the bolt and undo it.

The only things that went missing were the flat screen TV and a cell phone.  The computer and all other valuables were left alone, it looks like somebody knew what they were going for. 

My opinion of what happened is that it was only one person, they grabbed the TV and left.  They seem to have left through the balcony doors and passed the TV to the landing of the stairs which is accessible from the balcony(where the plant was knocked over), then he crawled down into the stairway himself and exited through the gate.

I replaced the gate lock with the newer model of the same type of lock.   The lock store told me that they no longer sell the old type of lock but the new one is very similar.  It was pretty close, it had some design changes to make it sturdier but also didn’t quite fit the hole that the old lock used.  I had to modify the door a little bit.  I also got the new lock rekeyed to fit the old key, since changing keys is a bit of a hassle in a rental condo building.  Rekeying the lock cost only $100 pesos and key copies have gone up to $12 pesos in almost every key shop, so with 9 units in the building it is more or less the same price.  Installing the new lock took about 2 hours but it works great.  It is still vulnerable to having somebody break it with a hammer and chisel like the old lock, but I have asked all of the tenants to start locking the deadbolt at night, so thieves won’t be able to do the same thing again.

I went to Telcel on saturday to report the cell phone stolen, the line there was atrocious but I finally made it.  I explained to them the situation and it ended up not being that big of a deal to get the old phone canceled and the number transfered to another phone.  Not so bad. 

It is really too bad about this whole thing but I guess the upside to this is that in the last couple of days there has been a big uproar around Mariposas and with the surrounding buildings about security.  We have been installing security bars in all of the sliding glass doors that do not have them and investigation secondary lock options for the windows.  There has been discussion of sharing a security guard with the building below Mariposas.

The neighbors have also been talking about putting up some barbed wire or broken glass over the wall that separates our buildings, though I am not so sure as to how effective this will be.  The glass is very ugly also, but I guess that is the price you pay for better security.

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My meeting last night about the land didn’t turn out so bad, but the owners didn’t show up.  It was just myself and their agent.  It was good though, we talked about the details and now I just have to find a buyer.

Last night at about 9:30 at night the guy from the machinery shop called, my pressure washer was ready.  I went to Dairy Queen with some friends, we sat on La Quinta and discussed the world.  It was nice.  The blizzards there are always so good, they remind me of home.

Today was another hot day in Playa Del Carmen, my cable internet was not working when I woke up this morning.  Obviously it didn’t stay off for too long.  I picked up the pressure washer this morning early and took it over to Lomas Mariposas to test it out with Agustin, the gardener.  We played around with it for a few hours and found out all kinds of things that a pressure washer WILL NOT clean.  Pressure washers DO NOT get the bird droppings off of the white paint on the walls.  The pressure washer WILL NOT take the black stuff out of the conchuela marble tiles.  The pressure washer DOES, on the other hand, take the paint off of any surface that has been in the sun for any period of time, leave gouges in the stucco on the walls, and gets lot of small particles of paint/dirt/etc in the pool.   I am pretty happy about it anyway, it will get lots of use.

Agustin started using the potting soil today, it looks good.  He seems to have spread a fine layer of dirt over the whole lawn, he says that it is because the sand comes to the surface and the grass won’t grow properly if you don’t add more dirt.  I guess that makes sense.  The pile of dirt is getting a little smaller, its still an eyesore.

I had lunch at HC Monterrey on CTM, an order of arrachera to go.  Excellent stuff.  The order was $100 pesos but it is enough for another meal later,  the roasted potato was excellent.  I wish I could get them to come out like that on my BBQ.

I had to get a padlock for the systern at Las Olas because a few of the condo owners have repeatedly found construction workers dipping buckets into it to make cement.  That should take care of the problem.

The new “For Sale/For Rent” signs were done today, they look good but I am worried that they are a little small.  We will see if I still get the same amount of phone calls.  I used to screw the signs into the side of the building with little wooden anchors, but they tend to get blown off after 6 months or so, this time I attached them with transparent silicon, the people at the sign store said that would work better.

There is some sort of talk by a buddhist monk tonight, I am going to try to go.  I went to something like this out in SacBe a few years ago, it was very cool.  I am hoping this will be the same.  I was told that it was at the Hotel Alahambra, I am going to check into Tai Chi classes while I am there.  I will talk more about it tomorrow.

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I got up this morning and it was already really hot out.  The dog had knocked the screen door off the track at about 6:30am, so I woke up then….but I laid in bed for another hour I think.  I got up and went to Lomas Mariposas, one of the buildings I manage, where I showed up just in time for the gardener leaving an hour early.  I asked him why and his very logical answer was, “I am going to get some breakfast.” I didn’t feel like this was a good way to start the week, so I asked him to go back inside and finish up his time there by spreading out the potting soil he harrassed me to buy that has been sitting in bags in the yard for the last five days.  He watered the lawn instead.  I decided that this was a fight I was not going to win, so I continued on my daily rounds, leaving him to his thing.  I wonder if he stayed around or left right after I did?

I then went to electric company to pay the bill for one of the other buildings I take care of, the self-service machine in front was not giving out receipts and I figured I couldn’t risk putting $4000pesos($400 USD) into the machine without getting any proof of payment, so I waited in line inside.  The air-conditioning in that office makes it all worth while.  I waited there for about 30 minutes, there were about 15 people in line and only one teller taking transactions.  Not so bad, I have had to wait for longer periods before.

I later got some banking done and got some “For Sale” signs made up, the bank really didn’t take that long.  Which was nice, I really cannot ever complain about the bank though, it is air-conditioned as well.

I went over to the little machine shop in my neighborhood where I have been trying to buy a used pressure washer for the last two weeks, they seem to be putting it together piece by piece.  Today the machine is assembled and there is a hose associated with its operation(though not yet attached), the only thing missing is the spray-gun.  He tells me that it should be done today.  I can only hope, some of the biggest excitement in my life these days is imagining all the things that I can get washed when I get that pressure washer.

I later got a call from the architect that is in charge of putting a new wood post on the terrace of one of the apartments at Las Olas, the building I manage close to Mamitas Beach Club.  We have been waiting for a few weeks for the piece of wood to come in from the jungle south of here, it is a special type of post that is actually a hardwood tree that has been attacked by a creeping vine(also a hardwood), killing the tree but leaving an the vine to grow into an exterior tree on the outside.  It is a pretty cool finished product, mother nature does good work.  I will try to include some pictures.  Well anyway, the post finally arrived today and the architect wanted me to come and have a look at it to make sure it was ok.  I didn’t think much about it at the time, but it turns out that the post was much too big and she wanted to see if I would notice.  I did.  The post was about 20 centimeters too wide, which would have thrown off the whole look of the building.  The building owners are funny about that sort of thing.  So I had to send it back, I hope it doesn’t take another 3 weeks to get another post…Arquitecta Lupe told me that these posts are cut to order, I don’t exactly know what that meant.  It was really too bad, the piece of wood they brought had some really amazing patterns that would have shined up really nicely in the finished piece.  Asi es.

I am going to finish my day today rooftop meeting with some guys from Mexico City that want to sell a piece of land by the beach and their real estate manager here seems to think that I will be a useful addition to the land sale, so we are going to talk about terms of the sale.  I am pretty excited because this will be the biggest deal that I have been involved in so far, it will be a learning experience.  I am also excited because the owners are members of the Mexican National Soccer team, so they are somewhat celebrities down here.  We shall see what comes of this.

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