Moving Day!

It’s moving day here in Mexico. We are checking out of our vacation condo in Playa del Carmen and headed for our new casa in Cancun. We don’t have a lot to move, just the suitcases we brought with us and a little food. But the house is already filling up with purchases we’ve been making in Cancun. Yesterday Dan and I had a 15 hour day getting things situated. We finalized our car purchase, signed our rental agreement, did the walk through of the house, and then we started the hunt for furniture and household essentials. We returned to the condo at midnight, with even more appreciation for Aunt Kim holding down the fort and the girls.

The nice thing about Cancun is that there is no shortage of options for the home. We found tons of furniture stores and of course the old favorites like Costco and Sam’s Club. So we had quite a few things to choose from and even arranging for delivery was not a challenge nor expensive. We learned one lesson the hard way… Sam’s Club does not take debit cards from tourists. Only American Express. Well we do not have American Express so we had to pay in cash. Paying for 4 mattresses, a fridge and various household items in cash really adds up! And add to that we have a limit for how much cash we can pull out of the ATM in one day. And we had already paid rent! So it was a little comical trying to figure out what we could pay for at that moment and what had to be pushed to the next day. To make matters even more crazy, the largest bill we had was about USD $30. Imagine buying a fridge for $1000 using $30 bills. That’s a big stack. The good news is that prices are very good here.

It’s complicated to live in a home in a new country. We have to figure out bottled water, get the gas refilled, arrange for internet, get a pool guy, find a gardener for our 4×4 patch of grass and all of this in a different language. Thankfully the neighborhood is well established and these service guys are everywhere so you just flag down the truck as you see it rumble by, or swap contacts with a neighbor and use his connections. So far everyone has been incredibly nice and helpful and really wonderful to work with. Just like in Panama, employees will give you their personal WhatsApp number for any questions (that’s texting for you ‘Mericans who haven’t caught on yet).

So today is going to be exciting. We will have soft mattresses to sleep on (albeit on the floor), clean sheets and towels and a fridge to keep our food cold. We have patio chairs for the living room and a homeschool table as our dining room table but it’ll work just fine for now. We’ve got nothing but time so we can take it slow. Except for the internet. We need that NOW and we need it FAST. I have a feeling the internet guy will get a nice Sherman Christmas Bonus if he is able to service the new gringo family today.

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