Customs & Deaf?

Next to my camp site on the east edge of San Juan Cosala is an outdoor restaurant called "El Globo". The place evidently has a deal with Coca Cola because to has a couple of large tents with no sides and tables and chairs with the Coca Cola brand on them. It has one building with a roll up door that contains coolers with Coca Cola and Corona beer and some racks of potato chips, etc. The kitchen is outside next to the building protected by some tarps. In a near by area is where the tortillas are made and cooked. A woman about 40 makes the tortillas and cooks them on a stove there. I see her walking to work early in the morning. She is crippled by what I assume is some kind of genetic problem that left her with knees that fail so that she needs a cane to walk. Her stove started out as a wheel barrow. It is now supported by a large stone and has stone and bricks that support a large circle of steel that serves as the cooking surface for the tortillas she makes. The wheel barrow stove is protected from rains by a plastic tarp and is fired by wood that is stacked behind it.

I stop in El Globo a couple times a week because the price is right, it's convenient and the food is pretty good. El Globo seems to do a pretty good business with its food and selling grande Corona beers (940 ml or about a quart) for 16 pesos with a returned empty bottle. It has a pretty good view of Lake Chapala across the careterra.

I usually get the Milanesa de Res for 40 pesos which is a breaded cutlet of beef with beans, salad and tortillas. Today I went there and decided to try the Camorrones con Ajo which is shrimp cooked with garlic and salad and Mexican rice for 75 pesos along with a grande Corona. It was very good.

Seated at the table next to me were a couple of fellows with several grande Coronas on the table in front of them. They were carrying on a spirited conversation in a sign language, not the usual sign language but more like speaking with their hands. At first I thought they were deaf mutes but later on friends of theirs arrived and they spoke in Spanish. So now I am confused. What was all that sign language all about?

If you followed this blog you know that I damaged my Vaio notebook computer when it fell on the floor at my son's house in Armeria last January. The hard drive 0 failed. I reconfigured the computer from Raid 0 to Raid 1 so I could use it with the remaining good drive. I didn't send it in for repairs right away because I needed to be in touch with the people that want to buy my house in Truckee. The house sale is still not finished and the end of my warranty is in June so I thought that I should get it repaired.

I looked for a place to get it repaired in Mexico but Sony said I needed to send it to San Diego, California to get it repaired. I went to Mail Boxes, Etc. in San Antonio Tylacapan to send it to San Diego. It cost 1,500 pesos to pack and send the computer to San Diego. The good news is the computer was sent and delivered to Sony in San Diego in less than 24 hours and Sony repaired it and sent it back via Federal Express in two days.

The bad news is that Mexican Customs (Adwana) put a hold on it at the Guadalajara airport. I went to my friend Judith's house for two days to await delivery there. After tracking the package, I figured out I had to go talk to Mexican Customs.

I hired my landlord and friend, Jose to drive me to and from the Guadalajara airport and talk to customs. The first day they said that I needed to pay a fine of $30 USD for failing to fill out a form stating I was sending a used computer to the US for repair. Even though I had the money and my passport and FM3 with me, they would not release the computer to me and told me I had to return the next day to pick it up.

The next day Jose and I returned. The fine had increased to $412 pesos but we got the computer. So it only cost me about $2,612 pesos plus a couple meals to get my computer repaired. Actually, I feel fortunate because I have heard stories of Mexican Customs charging the full purchase price in duties. So if you are ever in Mexico and need to send something across the border to get it repaired, make sure you fill out one of those forms.