Life in Playa

Trip Report: Mexico City(Part 1)…

I have been out of town for the last week, I took a little trip to Mexico City to kind of alleviate the Playa Del Carmen blah before high season kicks into full swing.  I had a great time, got to see a lot of stuff, and took a ton of pictures.  I am pretty backed up with work after being gone for a week, but I will try to put this trip report together in lots of small parts.

I arrived in Mexico City at 2pm and went to the hotel in the “Reforma” district.  It was a nice enough hotel and really close to everything.  After taking a few minutes to relax and get comfortable after my trip I decided to go to see the Zocolo, the main plaza where all the federal government buildings are located.

I made my way to the Zocolo and when I arrived I found it full of people and television cameras and general chaos.  It was possible to walk around in there but quite crowded so I decided to just look around at the federal buildings instead.  Apparently, there was some fundraiser going on that involved the stars of some popular Telenovelas, but I didn’t find this out until later that night watching the news.
I made my way around to various historical buildings and saw the pyramid that is right there in the middle of the city, but didn’t go in because it looked a little bit cramped.  It was starting to get dark, so I walked back towards my hotel.

After wandering around for a while trying to pinpoint my hotel I started getting hungry, so I stopped for tacos and a juice at a little taco place that was pretty busy.  The specialty of the place seemed to be their juices, so I tried the one they recommended, “Lettuce-Cucumber-Lemon”, which was actually really good.

The next day, I went to the “Bosque de Chapultapec”, which is sort of the central park of Mexico City.   The park has been part of Mexican history dating back to the Aztecs, but more recently is the location of the presidential residence and the national history museum.  Chapultapec is about 3 square miles and has an amusement park, a zoo, miles of trails where vendors set up to sell everything imaginable, and some little waterways where you can rent paddle boats.

Chapultapec means “Grasshopper Hill” in one of the native languages, the hill they are talking about is the home to the national art museum.  After a 20 minute walk up the hill, you come to the amazing castle that has been used for everything from the Viceroy’s residence to the Military College and then later the home of Emperor Maximilian.  The castle is now a museum housing thousands of different articles are Mexican history.  Everything from Pancho Villa’s wooden leg to clothing worn by Benito Juarez.

One of the exhibits in the museum is the memorial to the “Niños Heroes” or Child Heroes, military cadets that were killed during the American invasion of Mexico city in the 1830’s.  I felt a little uncomfortable as the only American in the room as we watched the video explaining how the American Military surrounded the school and was shooting kids as they tried to jump out a third story window.

The view from the top of the museum is really amazing, it gives you a great perspective of exactly how huge Mexico City really is.  I tried to take lots of pictures, but the smog was doing funny things with lighting so not a lot of them turned out how I wanted them to.  (After that comment I am going to get comments about how to adjust the settings on my camera to deal with smog.)  The city goes on and on as far as you can see, and being in a valley even the horizon is covered with houses.

After the museum I went to the Chapultapec zoo.  The zoo had a lot of variety of animals and birds and was pretty busy.  The aviary of the zoo is probably the most impressive part, they had huge enclosures with hundreds of different types of raptors.  Zoos always have the same feeling about zoos, caged animals are just that, caged animals; once you have seen one elephant you have seen them all.  I did, however, get a kick out of the Panda bears, all of which were sleeping or trying to find a comfortable place to sleep.

The last thing I did while in the Bosque de Chapultapec was rent a little pedal boat and ride around in the dayglow green lake for a little while.  It was a nice experience, though I was a little concerned about the signs posted up around the place asking that you not get any water on the life jackets.

That is about if for the first part of my trip report, stay tuned for Six Flags Mexico, Tepotzlan, and the Botanical Gardens in Toluca.

Praise for the new 115th Avenue

If you haven’t been out that way in a while, the new 115th Avenue has in Playa has been expanded to go all the way from Centro Maya to Santa Fe/Mission del Carmen II.  I am now able to go from my home in the Colosio to PlayaResale in the Ejido to my bank in Centro Maya without waiting in any traffic.  Big time saver.

Also, the neighborhood that is growing up around Plaza Las Americas and Mission del Carmen is pretty amazing.  There is shopping, a gym, even some nice green area.  The other side of the highway is looking very promising for a nice place to live in the next couple of years.

Playa FAQ 1

I have been really losing interest in writing lately, maybe its the weather or something. I just can’t seem to take the time to sit down and write, I don’t know why.

I am going to start a frequently asked questions series.  People come to Playa Del Carmen from parts unknown and often think that things are going to be mostly the same as they were in their country of origin.  Not so.

I get questions from friends all the time about living here and how I deal with the little dilemmas that are presented to me in my life here in the Caribbean, so I figured I would share them with my blog-audience.

1.  Utilities Bills - Where do I pay them and what is the easiest way?

The easiest way I have found to pay my utilities bills is at OXXO.  When the bill shows up on your front-door/gate/mailbox/under-the-rock-out-front, put on your chanclas(flip-flops) and get enough money in your pocket to pay it.  Walk to OXXO. Do it now.  Pay it that day, at OXXO, because otherwise it will probably be late and then you will have to go to the respective utilities commission and stand in line.

You don’t want to do that.  The line is twenty-five people and they all have three bills to pay.  Paying at OXXO costs $5 pesos more, its is well worth my time. Oh, on time at OXXO means the day before the cutoff date on the bill.  Really, trust me.

Late electric bills and cable bills are a big deal.  They will shut off your utilities.  Probably the day it becomes late.  I don’t know how they manage to do this, they must have an army of shutoff technicians because they are very prompt with cutting service.

Pay your utility bill in a timely fashion to ensure that you have continuous service.

2.  What is my address?  Can I get something sent to me from home?

You don’t have a real address.  Not one that you will recognize at least.  If you need something shipped, it should be sent to the DHL or FedEx office, at least if you think its important.  You can be fairly assured that it will arrive there.

Your address looks something like this:

CALLE 4 ENTRE 10 Y 15  (4th Street between 10th and 15th)
COLONIA CENTRO (Neighborhood: Downtown)
SOLIDARIDAD, PLAYA DEL CARMEN, (Municipality, City)
QUINTANA ROO, MEXICO
CODIGO POSTAL 77710

There are no known street numbers, like 123 Duff Lane.  Sometimes you can find out your block and lot number, that can be helpful, but often people that live in a place don’t know that stuff either.  I lived in an apartment downtown for a year before I found out the block/lot.

Even if your mail gets to your place, you might have a hard time getting to it.  My electric bill gets stuck between the gate and the frame, if a hard wind comes it blows away.  I know people that have received their bills under rocks.  Mailboxes work sometimes, the mail got into it about half the time.  It rusted and fell off its hinges, I never bothered to put it back up.

If I want to receive something important, I get it sent to FedEx or DHL.  With the internet being such an important part of everyday life, nothing that I want to recieve gets sent to me via terrestrial mail unless it is REALLY important, I don’t risk the mail service.

More to come…

Local Wierd: Streetlamps…

I was had to go to Cancun the other day and on the way there I noticed that there were a string of streetlamps on the way that were lit up.  Probably about 25 of them, with a few intermittent lamps not working.  I wasn’t sure what was going on, but I noticed a boom-truck at the end of the line of the line of lamps, preparing to do something.

I was returning to Playa a couple of hours later and noticed the lit up lamps and the boom-truckagain, this time with the boom somewhat extended and a with a lamp pulled off of its base(pole and all) and laying down on the ground.  There were guys doing work on the heads of the lamp, apparently changing the light-bulbs.

Now I am not sure, but it appeared to me that they were changing the lightbulbs on the lamps.  Is it possible that they pull the lamps down and change the burnt out lightbulbs while they are on the ground?  The logic really wouldn’t surprise me.

I didn’t manage to get pictures of the guys changing the bulbs, because I was going 70 down the highway and the thought didn’t register until I was past the men at work, but I did manage to get pictures of the streetlamps, so everyone knows what I am talking about.

Be on the lookout for this type of thing, I want to know if anyone else has observed the changing of the lightbulbs.

Minor Miracles…

So I have been working on getting my FM3 for myself and my business partner, Dave, for the last month or so.  I submitted the paperwork on the 27th of August and was told to come back in eight days to pick up the FM3’s, which I knew was wishful thinking but I follow directions well anyway.  I have been going back every week or so, but I am pretty sure that the papers won’t be done until the end of August.  No big deal, I am in tramite so I am legal to work.

Dave has his other home in Galveston, Texas, so this last week he decided he probably needed to go back to take care of the damages that were caused by Hurricane Ike.  He let me know on Sunday that he was going to be leaving on Friday, so I should probably do something with immigration.  I told him that probably wasn’t enough time, but I would see what I could do.

Last Monday morning I went in to immigration to ask for a permiso for Dave to leave and enter the country.  I wasn’t sure of the process, but I had written a letter asking for permission.  When I got to immigration, I was given a list of things I would need, about eight items.  I went back home and got the stuff together and was back in immigration in about an hour.  I waited in their office for  four more hours and finally at about 3:30 I was done with submitting the process and was out of the office.

They told me to come back on Thursday, I had no faith that on Thursday the paperwork would be ready and I told Dave that he might not be leaving, he assured me that everything would work out.

I went back on Thursday morning at 8:30am and got my number.  After waiting for a while, they called our number and Dave and I went to the counter to get the paperwork.  I gave the clerk the file number and he looked it up, it was not done yet.  The guys at immigration usually have a pretty good attitude, he joked about why would anyone want to go back to the US right now anyway?

He looked through the papers I had brought with me, everything was fine except at some point I had lost the payment receipt for the $260 peso payment to immigration.  I had copies, just not the original.   He suggested that I go get a new bank payment and he would draw up the paperwork for the permit to exit.

I ran to the HSBC on Juarez but the line was out the door.   My next option was Santander, three blocks up.  I made it there and despite the small line at Santander I was back in immigration in 15 minutes.

I got back, I made the payment, we got the letter of permission to leave the country(in triplicate), all was good.  Its a minor miracle.

A little rant…

I don’t know what category this is going to fall under, I guess its just a general life statement.

I spend about 4 hours a day in my car driving around Playa Del Carmen, about 6 hours a week working on my various websites(I know it sometimes can be hard to tell), and another 15+ hours a week reading or puttering around my house.  During this time I like to listen to music, punk rock more specifically.

Now, I live in Mexico, I have for a few years.  SolRadio or Radio Turquesa here in Playa is absolutely wonderful if I need to find out the latest reports about the hurricane that is sitting 30 miles out or the teacher strike/riots in Chetumal, but they are seriously lacking in music that I can stand.  Don’t get me wrong, I even like the traditional Mexican style music occasionally, it makes me feel like I live in a Quentan Tarentino movie…But to relax or just zone out I like punk rock.

I was introduced to XMRadio about 5 years ago by the contractor I worked for at the time in Oregon.  We drove from job to job and listened to XM Comedy or metal or punk rock, whatever we felt like that day.  It gives a great break from terrestrial radio, which is often in the more remote parts of Oregon either christian radio or country(nothing wrong with country, just not all the time).

When I moved to Mexico I quickly learned from the guys that had been here longer than I had that if I wanted music here XMRadio would work great for me.  So when I went back to the States the last time I purchased a Pioneer Inno XMRadio and MP3 player.  It is great, it gets reception down here in PDC, its portable so I can move it from house to car to beach with ease, and it records music so when it isn’t getting reception I can still pull up my favorite music from its memory.

XMRadio has improved the quality of my life in PDC, I counted on it to give me quality punk rock music on Channel 53(FUNGUS) as long as the line of sight from the antenna wasn’t blocked to the south.  I could even tune into XMOnline from my laptop so when I am sitting in Coffee Cafe I can still listen to punk rock.

On September 16th when I got in my car in the morning that all changed.  The punk channel was silent, I left it for a while, sometimes there are broadcasting breaks or maybe a cloud was blocking the antenna.  No dice.  I checked the display screen on the Inno, the cute little “FUNGUS53″ symbol was no longer showing in the top-left corner of the screen, it said “AC/DC” and there was a scrolling message about AC/DC Radio starting at 6pm.

I quickly pulled up the programming menu, there must be some mistake, I must have entered the wrong channel accidentally.  No mistake, no wrong channel, Fungus53 is gone.

XMRadio and Sirius Satelite radio recently merged and now to pay the bills they have decided to cut punk rock out of both lineups and replace it with AC/DC 24 hours.  Apparently AC/DC is releasing a new album soon and they must have contributed a little bit to the Sirius/XM coffers to get their own premium payola channel.

I don’t mind a little AC/DC, despite the fact that it reminds me of getting beat up in the locker room after gym class.  You know what I’m talking about.  I just cannot deal with 24 hours of AC/DC in order to replace good punk rock variety.

I wrote a letter to XMRadio about this, their answer was rather patronizing, “Fungus was one of the channels that had a very loyal but also a very limited audience.” My subscription to XMRadio is paid until the end of the year, after that I am not so sure about renewing it.

So what am I going to do about the music situation?  I just so happens that in a recent update of ITunes, Apple released an add-on called Genius.  This thing is pretty cool, I can click on any song in my library and tell Genius to do its work, it picks out a playlist of songs that go well with the song I picked.  It also recommends songs that I don’t have in my library that I might like.

I was skeptical at first, I was thinking that I would put in a hard-core punk rock song like “Demonica” by The Dwarves and get back ten kinds of Blink-182 and other highschooly poppy punk bands.  Not so.  As a matter of fact, I was really impressed by the way this thing worked out.

Now, I like to think my musical tastes are unique, but it really doesn’t seem that way.  I was testing this Genius thing out, I put in a Steve Earl(Trucker Rock/Country) singer and asked Genius to do its magic.  How does Apple know that Social Distortion(Punk), Slayer(Metal), Reverend Horton Heat(Rockabilly) and Flogging Molly(Irish Punk Rock) will all go so well with Trucker Rock?  Well, I am officially impressed.

So, SiriusXM, you may have lost my business, but I will probably be spending more money on ITunes now for replacement music.  I am going to miss my XMRadio, but I guess an IPod will dock in my car just as nicely as the Inno.

Regimen de Condominio, part 1

So, I have been busy the last few months trying to organize getting “Regimen de Condominio” for one of the buildings that I manage.  I really don’t have to do a lot, the lawyer takes care of most of the details, but I have to be around to take orders from her.  It has been a long process and I thought I would try to explain what has happened and what I have done so far, as well as what the mystical “Regimen de Condominio” really is.

Regimen de Condomino -
When you build a condominium building anywhere in the world you follow the process of purchasing the land that you are going to build on, build the building and then the separate dwellings, then you have to break the building into legal parcels for sale.  The “Regimen de Condominio” is the official document that defines the legal parcels.

The building that I am getting the regimen for was started about four years ago by a group of guys from the United States. They saw potential in Playa Del Carmen and decided to exploit it for investment purposes, so they found a piece of land and started to build.  They had various problems with contractors and engineers and after two years of struggling to get the building done remotely they hired my company to get it finished.

When the developers turned the building over to me some of the apartments had been presold, but some where still not finished.  There were some basic infrastructure problems that had to be taken care of to make the place inhabitable, city water had to be connected and a few other major things had to be sorted out.  Then I hired a crew to finish the last three apartments that were not yet done.  In the middle of finishing the construction, we ran into a problem with plumbing in one of the sold apartments.  Anyway, it took about a year to get the building ready to actually be functional.

During this time, a local engineer was supposedly working on getting the “Regimen de Condominio” done for the developers so that the titles for the individual apartments could be processed and the builders could turn a profit.  The developers waited and waited and occasionally paid fees here and there, but this past January, the engineer just dropped off the face of the planet.  We couldn’t get in touch with him, the developers couldn’t get in touch with him.  Everyone was starting to get worried.

The developers finally decided to turn the process of the regimen over to us, so in early Spring of this year we brought all of the paperwork that we had to a local attorney and she agreed to do the job of restarting the Regimen.  Nobody could find anything that the previous engineer had done, so we were starting from the beginning.

We had a month of measuring the building and the lot and lots of the attorney calling me for this or that paperwork.  Many times I had to run to the municipal palace or the accountant or no se donde to find just the right piece of paper.  Also, a lot of fees kept coming up, sometimes in Mexico fees come up that seem to need to be paid “TODAY”, so much of my job has been running here or there to get money to so-and-so.

After getting the property properly measured, the attorney worked with an engineering firm in Guadalajara to build a portfolio for the building, which turned out to be a nice leatherbound notebook about five inches thick.  Every room in every apartment and every inch of common area and green area and every cistern have to be drawn up and then described in words.  The book came back after another month.

The building was built on three lots, so the next step was to convert the three lots to one.  This was another long process and involved an engineering team coming to measure the lots and the corners to make sure the records in the state and city registers were correct.  The fusion of the lots then had to be submitted to “Catastro” which is the department of government that keeps track of the ownership of land in the city.

After the fusion of lots was done, the latest step was getting “Factabilidad” from the utilities companies.  This is a written description from the water and electric departments stating the projected usage and availablility of services to the building.  For the water department this included setting up a water usage contract, which is basically paying a contract fee to hook the building up to the system, which ensures a large fund for building future infrastructure in the city of Playa Del Carmen.

Now, the lawyer has to apply for a construction bond for the building, to cover anything that may happen to the apartments for a year after the titles are given.  This was interesting, because very few people know that there is a recourse against faulty workmanship when they purchase a condo in Mexico.  In order to get this bond, the developer’s accountant is working up a financial resume of the company and any of its assets and or business transactions in order for the bond company to get a better idea of what they are dealing with.  After the bond is done, the whole package will be submitted to city and state governments for approval.

So, that is a pretty simple summation of what the regimen has been so far, I will write more when more as it happens.

Independence Donuts!

So I have been really slacking on the blog lately…I have been getting heckled by email for not being more diligent about posting.I have just been really busy and I can’t even really account for my time, I guess life just gets in the way sometimes.Sorry about all of this if you have all been waiting for something.I am writing a piece about getting “Regimen de Condominio” for one of my buildings, coming soon.

For now, I will just display the picture of “Independence Donuts” that I found at Walmart the other day.I loved them, I had to buy one and take a picture. Then I ate it.

Pump Solution

Well, I figured out the solution to my water problems.  Most of them at least.  I fixed it myself, which meant climbing into the cistern and unbolting the pump from its brackets and lifting it out and redoing the plumbing.

Here are pictures.

The cistern entrance

Me going in, see the smile.

Well, I wouldn’t say that fixing the pumps is fun or anything like, but at least it is done and I don’t have to think about it for a while.   I know that it isn’t going to break tomorrow, which I cannot always assume when I have a technician take care of the problem.

Now I just have to get somebody to come look at the electrical problem caused by changing the switches.  I cannot figure it out, maybe I better look it up on google.

I’d better cut this post short, I was just informed that Telmex was digging a ditch in front of Lomas Mariposas and cut through the water line feeding the building.  I’ll need to fix that.

Water Mayhem!

Let me start out by saying that its been touching 99 degrees here for weeks and I am beginning to feel a little bit cooked.

This week was going to be “tranquilo”, I didn’t have anything planned to do and all the paperwork for PlayaResale is either done or submitted for approval at a later date. All the heat makes people use their air conditioning a lot, when people use their air conditioning a lot, abnormal stress is put on the electrical system here in the yucatan peninsula. We get brown outs, we get black outs, we get power surges and voltage fluctuations. All of these abnormalities in the electrical system cause mischief with things like air conditioners and pump control boxes, I have had it happen before and expect to see it again. I have not encountered any viable options for safeguarding all of the electrical equipment in my buildings against this, its just not realistic to put voltage regulators and battery back-ups on everything.

So, on Monday morning I got a phone call from a property manager that lives in Las Olas and keeps an eye on the place. This guy got PDC Management the job for Las Olas, he takes great pride in the appeance and functionality of Las Olas, he is a big help with the daily operation because he is always around and can let us know if anything is wrong. I know that if I start my day with a phone call from him there are problems, but usually we can get them taken care of quickly.

There was no water in the building, but the pressure gauge was reading a little bit of pressure. I figured it was something easy like the float switch was broken or the cistern was empty, so I headed over there. The cistern was full, the float was fine, the pumps had power, they were just not working. The limit of my expertise with pumps is connecting wires and pipes and troubleshooting simple problems, the pump system at Las Olas is a complicated system using submersible pumps and control boxes and little electrical switching mechanisms that have never worked right and I don’t understand. I have known for a while that the electrical switches were a problem, because they blow quite frequently and have to be replaced.

I know how to replace them, you write down which wire goes where on which switch, take the old switch out, go to Promesa and ask for a new one. You put the wires back where they go and the pump works again. That is simple. I don’t know how it works though. Electricity should work with two, maximum three, wires making a circuit, this electronic switch takes nine wires and has all kinds of funny cryptic markings on it. I do know that these particular switches are microvolt sensitive, which means minuscule fluctuations in the voltage makes them stop working correctly.

Anyway, both of the pumps were not working and I couldn’t get them to start, no matter what I tried. I didn’t really have time to change the switches myself, so after discussing with the property manager our options we decided to try a new guy that he had heard of through the contractor that was taking care of various projects around the building. We called the guy, who was an engineer, he showed up promptly, with an electrician. We were very pleased with his timeliness.

The electrician looked at various parts of the system and pointed out a burning smell and odd noise coming out of one of the electrical control boxes, claiming that it needed to be replaced. He told me that the electrical surges we had been experiencing in the recent days had burnt out the box and the switches, they all needed to be fixed. I took it at face value, this guy is a trained electrician and the engineer came highly recommended.

So the electrician started tearing out control boxes and electrical switches and I decided that I did not need to watch, this is a trained professional and I need to give up a little bit of control over my pumps. Everything would turn out alright, whether I was there or not. I went to do some PlayaResale business and about an hour later I got a phone call, the engineer needed $5000 pesos for new parts. I went over to Las Olas because this seemed a little excessive to me.

The electrician had pulled apart the main switching box and decided that the pressure switches needed to be replaced as well, he gave me a detailed list of what needed to be purchased and what needed to be done. The pump control box was going to cost $2500 pesos, the new pressure switches, $1000 pesos, the new electrical switches $1500 pesos. Wait, new electrical switches? I had to explain to him again that I wanted the mechanical switches, not electrical. I had to explain why again. I thought I got the message across this time. The engineer went to the store and got the parts and the electrician started to put the pump back together.

Later on that night the engineer called me to tell me that it was done, I should come and inspect it and pay him. I checked out the work and it looked incomplete, everything was put back together but they had disconnected the part of the control system that allows me to turn the pumps on manually, now they were controlled completely by the pressure switches. That doesn’t work because some times I need to be able to turn on a pump for testing purposes without waiting for the pressure in the system to drop low enough to trip the pressure switch. I explained this to him. He said he would fix it tomorrow, but he still wanted to get paid today. I know better than that, I paid him half and told him that I would pay him the other half when the switch started working properly. He said tomorrow. He also pointed out to me that the second control box was going bad and would need to be replaced soon. My feeling on this was dismissive, I thought he just wanted more money.

The next morning I was awoken again by a frantic phone call from the property manager in Las Olas, neither pump was working and there was no water again. I rushed over there. Again, I couldn’t figure out how to get the pumps to turn on and I was extra-annoyed that there was no manual override so I could turn on the pumps by myself.

I called the engineer, he came promptly, but the electrician didn’t show up. The engineer looked around for a while at the pump and decided that the problem was that through the night the second control box had burnt up and that there was something wrong with one of the new pressure switches they had installed. He started fiddling with the pressure switch with a screwdriver to get it to kick on, but to no avail.

We waited for an hour or so and the electrician showed up, he looked around for a while and started testing things with their voltage-meter. For some reason there was no power coming into the pump that had the good control box. After about 30 minutes more of investigation, the electrician found the problem, the wires were connected so that both pumps had been run through the second control box, which went bad, therefore when it burnt out both pumps had no power.

This is when it starts to get good, the electrician said that it was not wired that way when he left the night before and I must have changed the wiring. I have one of those managers that has really had to work hard on not losing my temper, I have learned that not saying anything at this point and leaving is a good way to deal with situations like this. I left with the parting comment of, “Just fix it.”

I went and got a cup of coffee at Coffee Cafe, talked with Robert, the owner, for a little while, and decided I could go back to Las Olas to see if I could get this fixed. When I got back, the electrician had a pump wired to the correct control box(the brand new one) and was testing it.

I managed to walk in to the pump room as the same time as the pressure gauge was just about to reach 100psi. Normal systems run at 25-45 psi. We keep Las Olas at 55-65 psi usually, but that is a controversy because things like the hoses for toilets and sinks are not made for use at anything higher than 60psi and they break sometimes. I have explained this but the board of directors likes hard showers, not my decision.

Anyway, 100psi is too much pressure, and why wasn’t the pump shutting off at a normal 55psi like it was yesterday? The engineer looks at the pressure switch and the spring that controls shutoff is broken off(think back to the engineer digging around with a screwdriver), they volunteered to fix it for free. Thats great, but the problem is still that my building has no water, we cannot leave the pump running like that.

Engineer comes up with a great idea, he leaves the electrician in the pump room to watch the pressure valve while he goes to look for a new pressure switch and a control box. But first he wants another $2500 pesos for the new control box. I left because I had to get other things done and I figured this would all be taken care of in its own time, I didn’t need to be there. I reminded them about putting the switches back so I had a manual override.

Six hours later the new pressure switch showed up but no control box. The electrician installed the pressure switch and they told me that they would return the next day with a control box. We had water, but I started to get complaints about different hoses in various apartments exploding and flooding the apartments.

The next day came and went and there was no control box, but we had water. The problem is, I have grown to be very nervous when there is only one running pump in Las Olas, I know that they go bad. Running water is very important to the people that spend that kind of money for a vacation rental, I understand this.

On Thursday afternoon, the control box shows up, the electrician shows up and installs it. There is still a problem, the pump is not pumping water. They decide that the problem is the pump motor, they will need to replace it. I am starting to lose it. I just want my pumps to work, but this is getting silly. They give me a price of $10000 pesos to fix the pump motor, I tell them we need to make sure that is the pump motor. The engineer says he will come the next morning to take the pump out of the well to see if that is truly the problem.

Friday comes, no engineer. I call, he doesn’t answer his phone. I called a few times, the phone is off now. I start making arrangements to get another technician to come, but the problem is, I have gone through this before and I have a long “Don’t Use” list of technicians. It will all wait, we have one pump working and I can get a guy that I know is competent to come in from Cancun next week, that will have to do.

Las Olas is pretty full, it is hot, the guests are taking lots of showers. The building is using a lot of water. Saturday afternoon at five I get a phone call from the property manager, again the building has no water. I become really worried about what is going on since it is the weekend and there is no water, so I rush over.

I opened the cistern lid and could see the problem right away, an easy fix. The city water was not running into the cistern and had not been and the safety float switch was not allowing the pumps to pump the rest of the water out. The cistern was about one quarter full but the safety switch is set to not let it pump at that level, I overrode the safety switch. One quarter full on the cistern is 3000 gallons of water, so I figured that we would be ok. There was now water in the building.

Now here is the kicker, while I had my head in the cistern and because the water level was pretty low I could see the submersible pumps very well. Usually they are pretty distorted by all the water and it is usually pretty hard to get a good look at them. The pump that was now not working that needs a $10000 peso replacement motor had broken off of its feed pipe. This happens sometimes, especially when the pressure in the lines gets to 100psi.

This excites me, I immediately go to the switching station and turn on the “burnt-up” pump(I had to trip the pressure switch with a screwdriver because there is no manual switch). I rush back over to the cistern cover and look in, I gleefully watch as the water swirls around in the cistern from the broken off pipe at the end of the “burnt-up” pump.

So, at the end of all this, I can fix the problem myself. On monday morning, a $5 peso PVC fitting and a little bit of glue will fix the $10000 peso pump problem.