Not too much to say

Unfortunately some stressful personal events have kept us from blogging lately. However, slowly, things are beginning to mellow out. No worries. Just to briefly share recent good news though....this month we had 4 visitors here in Puerto!!! Mike´s friends Jay, Jason and Alfredo came and half way through Alfredo left and was replaced (to our very pleasant surprise!!!) by Albert. The dudes rented a SWEEEET beach house so we had a blast and got to take full advantage of their luxuries i.e. hot water, A/C, cable TV, maid service, swimming pool...talk about livin it up! We threw a belated birthday party there for Karlie and had plenty of good times visiting with some much needed old skool energy. It was good times all around and we were just as sad to see them leave as they were to have to leave this Mexican beach town. Otherwise it´s same ol stuff. Mostly busy, summer around the corner, the rains have arrived here with recent pleasant breezes to keep things cool.Our boss,Brian will be arriving soon from the U.S. but that shouldn´t change things much. Just a brief post, who wants to come visit next?

Make a Run for the Border

*The photo is of our humble abode. Ye ole school house.**
Six months have quickly expired(we've lived here in Puerto for half a year now logging a total of 11 months in Mexico in less than 1.5yr.) and that meant that our visas and permiso for the 4Runner will have expired as well. This resulted in 20 hours of driving to the Mexico/Guatemala border in just 2 days!!
The days before leaving we were both pretty nervous about facing "La Migra" and had high hopes that we wouldn't get sent right back to the U.S.A. Friday a.m. at 7 we set off on the windy mountain passes between Oaxaca and Chiapas to the border town of "Tapachula". 10 hours each way complete with multiple military check points where we stopped and searched each time.
Driving in the middle of nowhere Mexico is always an adventure. Views include your typical:runaway animals, scary drunk pickup truck drivers, loads of men standing in the beds of trucks hair blowing/faces bright and almost always smiling, families piled onto motorbikes, vendors in small towns pushing whatever fruit is in season(currently:mangos,yum!)...breathtaking flora and vast, undeveloped oceanfronts. Part of the challenge of this type of drive is finding road food, especially when neither of those partaking prefer innards, sausage(hot dogs, the Mexican sausage),or chicken. On the way there we had to settle for a shrimp cocktail served out of the back of a pickup truck. The fare served Karlie well but left Mike sick by the end of the night, a rare malfunction of "the machine.". On the way back we were lucky enough to find a "modern" hotel that had breakfast: fruit salad and white toast for Karlie/Huevos Rancheros for Mike and cold, thick, flavorless coffee for all!
Upon reaching the hundreds of yards before the Guatemala border our truck was bombarded by Guatemalan men, standing on the truck, looking through the window, offering to take us across, shaking us down for pesos. It was a little uncomfortable but of course we were prepared in that we had no valuables whatsoever and only 1 change of clothes each inside the truck. On the Mexican side we encountered and spoke to several Immigration officers, telling our story, pleading to get the paperwork completed without having to enter Guatemala. The only hitch was that since we didn't get our exit stamps in June last time, we are technically already on an extension. Rules and laws are negotiable here so we didn't know what to expect. There are limits to how long you can stay as a tourist and with a vehicle, but at the border anything goes. It's like, well, you're ALL the way the hell down here.....Another "real life" Spanish test. All of the men were quite kind and in the end, the man in the passport office quietly decided to stamp us (ahh the pound of the stamp: one of the best sounds in all of Mexico that no one can argue) once again for yet another 180 days. He even refused cash as encouragement. We were so incredibly grateful for not having to walk into Guate.! After receiving the "magic stamp" we drove back to the first office to get a new permiso for the vehicle which was equally painless and all things considered could not have gone much smoother.
So that's our story, here we are legal again, continuing the Mexican adventure.