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I told you that I would keep you posted on our doings in Calderitas as we dove into the paper mill of ‘tramites’
which means ‘wander from municipal office to federal office and back to the municipal office to the notary’s office
to the accountant's office’ until you are dizzy. In the end, we are now incorporated as Maricasa SA de CV (the SA
de CV portion means ‘Sociedad Anonima de Capital Variable’ or Inc.). We have a lawyer and an accountant who
send us off periodically to do the ‘tramites’ and who are putting together all the documents we need and getting
us enrolled in the Mexican equivalent of the IRS…whoopee.
So here is the status….we found a delightful piece of property owned by people who live in Puerto Vallarta and
they were willing to sell…we have negotiated the price with them and were supposed to close the deal tomorrow
night, but they had to cancel at the last minute. We are leaving here on Sunday to go via Belize (and that
wonderful – hah - 14 mile stretch of road) into Guatemala and then on down to Honduras. So, the deal will close
on June 6th when we get back. We are disappointed that it didn’t happen like we wanted it to, but that’s life.
Since I last wrote, in addition to wandering in and out of government buildings, we have gone on a few day trips to
areas nearby to learn more about what is here. One day we went to La Union on the Rio Hondo and took a little
wooden boat 30’ across a river to Belize and then back again. We stopped along the way at cute little towns and
at places we could see on the map were close to the river.
Another day we went to Raudales by way of Laguna Guerrero and I fell in love with a baby manatee named
Daniel. He is 19 months old and was abandoned by his mother. A man named Eladio takes care of him and feeds
him 5 times a day with a baby bottle. In the bottle are liquefied algae and local marine plants which are what he will
eat as an adult. He is so loving and curious. Manatees are distantly related to elephants and use their snouts to
investigate the world around them.
It turned out that Eladio is pretty well versed on the names of the plants and trees here too so we went and picked
him up one morning and brought him to the land to help us with the names of the trees and shrubs. He told us
which ones would not rot if used as fence posts, which ones attracted a lot of ants and were pests, which ones
had medicinal uses, and which ones were likely to cause a nasty reaction if you get the sap on you. In fact, it was
that reaction that I had all over my legs and arms that started the discussion on plants in the first place. He went
and picked some leaves off of the Chacah tree and told me to crush them and rub the blisters hard with the
leaves. I did it and then took some leaves home with me to grind up into a paste to use later. The leaves did the
trick…I had been dealing with the nasty poison oak type reaction to the Chechen plant for 16 days to no avail and
these leaves cured me in two days.
So I don’t have any wild tales to tell you for this month but all is well and I should have some interesting
adventures for you for next month as we travel to Honduras to pick up our friend Tracey who is just getting out of
the Peace Corps.
which means ‘wander from municipal office to federal office and back to the municipal office to the notary’s office
to the accountant's office’ until you are dizzy. In the end, we are now incorporated as Maricasa SA de CV (the SA
de CV portion means ‘Sociedad Anonima de Capital Variable’ or Inc.). We have a lawyer and an accountant who
send us off periodically to do the ‘tramites’ and who are putting together all the documents we need and getting
us enrolled in the Mexican equivalent of the IRS…whoopee.
So here is the status….we found a delightful piece of property owned by people who live in Puerto Vallarta and
they were willing to sell…we have negotiated the price with them and were supposed to close the deal tomorrow
night, but they had to cancel at the last minute. We are leaving here on Sunday to go via Belize (and that
wonderful – hah - 14 mile stretch of road) into Guatemala and then on down to Honduras. So, the deal will close
on June 6th when we get back. We are disappointed that it didn’t happen like we wanted it to, but that’s life.
Since I last wrote, in addition to wandering in and out of government buildings, we have gone on a few day trips to
areas nearby to learn more about what is here. One day we went to La Union on the Rio Hondo and took a little
wooden boat 30’ across a river to Belize and then back again. We stopped along the way at cute little towns and
at places we could see on the map were close to the river.
Another day we went to Raudales by way of Laguna Guerrero and I fell in love with a baby manatee named
Daniel. He is 19 months old and was abandoned by his mother. A man named Eladio takes care of him and feeds
him 5 times a day with a baby bottle. In the bottle are liquefied algae and local marine plants which are what he will
eat as an adult. He is so loving and curious. Manatees are distantly related to elephants and use their snouts to
investigate the world around them.
It turned out that Eladio is pretty well versed on the names of the plants and trees here too so we went and picked
him up one morning and brought him to the land to help us with the names of the trees and shrubs. He told us
which ones would not rot if used as fence posts, which ones attracted a lot of ants and were pests, which ones
had medicinal uses, and which ones were likely to cause a nasty reaction if you get the sap on you. In fact, it was
that reaction that I had all over my legs and arms that started the discussion on plants in the first place. He went
and picked some leaves off of the Chacah tree and told me to crush them and rub the blisters hard with the
leaves. I did it and then took some leaves home with me to grind up into a paste to use later. The leaves did the
trick…I had been dealing with the nasty poison oak type reaction to the Chechen plant for 16 days to no avail and
these leaves cured me in two days.
So I don’t have any wild tales to tell you for this month but all is well and I should have some interesting
adventures for you for next month as we travel to Honduras to pick up our friend Tracey who is just getting out of
the Peace Corps.
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2005
2005
April 2005
Around the World with Kathe and Colleen