Cardenas

[Bullfrog]

Sorry, we are in Cordoba, not Cardenas, altitude 3,000 feet. Low of 62, high of 73 yesterday. It rains every day so everything grows really well. There's a cantina right across the street and the owner Dante took us to look at land and a house. The city is beautiful, everything you need, a Home Depot, Walmart, Sams club, KFC, Little Caesars Pizza and a really old, historic city.

This is a home we looked at, will get the price today.

Or this land, flat and half is sugar cane, half bananas..

Gloria loves it here.

 

[Bullfrog]

If you look at the house, it's built from stones gathered free from the riverbed. Labor to build it is $15.00 per day, per man. All you buy is concrete, tile, wire and pipes. If we build, not buy, I'll do my own wiring and plumbing, they don't use a ground wire here. This is the first city we have looked in. Tomorrow we will go to Xalapa, then Papantla, then Oaxaca.

 

[Bullfrog]

I was told the flower is a bromeliad, he harvested and sold them for 9,000 pesos a month. The best coffee in the country is grown here and they roast it by the supermarket. You can get a major caffeine buzz just from the smell. Macadamia nuts, bananas, limes, you plant it and it grows here.

 

[j.w]

I think it's fun to look for new places to live and hope you guys enjoy living there in whichever home you choose or if you build. Having all those wonderful plants that provide food would be great! I love Macadamia nuts and they are not cheap.
Wow it rains everyday? It must only rain for awhile and then clears up fast eh? It rains too much here but doesn't clear up after, just continues on and on Fall and Winter.
What a near exciting adventurous place to get to live!
What no Costco

 

[Bullfrog]

JWIt rains every day my friend. For just a little while to give the plants a drink. We will go to Xalapa (Halapa) today where japeleno peppers were first grown. Also mountains but a little closer to the coast.

 

[Bullfrog]

We are in the capitol of Veracruz, Xalapa. Waiting for the realtor.

 

[j.w]

The buildings there all have class and character! Hope you have a fun search today looking for your perfect place you lucky guy you

 

[Bullfrog]

The buildings were old and nice, but the city sucks. Filthy streets, unfriendly people and way too much traffic, might as well live in Houston. We came back to Cordoba and are going to buy the banana plantation right next to the river. Live in the trailer until we got our own stone house built out of river rocks and grow our own. We are on the end of the road and it is beautiful, we have found our home.

 

[j.w]

Yay you have decided and now you'll have banana for breakfast every morning. Will be fun to build your own place the way you want it. You can fish right from the river. What kind of fish do they have there to eat?

 

[Bullfrog]

We are in love with Cordoba and all it took was one half a day in Xalapa. The difference is like night and day in the way that the people are. No realtors wanted to even meet with us unless we were prepared to spend at least 150 to 200,000.00. They said, "All homes are very expensive here." hich is total BS. We passed many small homes on the outskirts of town where we want to live, up in the mountains where the poor, working class live. Gloria asked where a washateria was and got no answers, the people were flat rude and the city was filthy.

Here, everyone is very friendly and glad to give directions. As soon as the parade was over, men and women with brooms and dustpans cleaned the streets before two street sweeping vehicles came by. We went to our favorite taco place yesterday and they weren't open yet, they said one hour so we walked one more block. We saw a restaurant that was obviously seafood but Gloria asked to see a menu anyway. She explained we live in Playa Del Carmen and eat nothing but seafood. An older gentleman said they would prepare anything we wanted and we politely refused. An older woman came out of the kitchen and said, "Please, welcome to my house, let me prepare a steak and vegetables for you." We sat and the entire family was so nice, we spent hours there. Gloria began interpreting my off colored jokes and I had mama laughing pretty good. The daughter sells real estate and will show us more houses this week.

The river flows so fast it would be impossible to fish it but there is a lagoon very close. I'm not sure what species of fresh water fish are here, but I'll soon find out.

 

[j.w]

It sounds like you have found the area you want to live in but are not quite sure on the exact place yet. Are you buying the banana one by the river for sure or do I understand that you are still looking?

What a nice family restaurant to visit and be treated so warmly. You would not find many places if any like that here in the states. Glad you had such a fun time w/them. And what fate..............the daughter sells real estate! Now you are really getting somewhere and bet you will get to see lots more places you might have missed before.

Would be nice for you if you can find a place where you can dip your kayak right into a river that was slow moving and fishing friendly. Are there lots of rivers around the area and what about lakes?

 

[Bullfrog]

We are still looking but are 99% sure about the banana plantation. Labor to clear the land, dig the septic system and well is $9.06 a day and skilled labor such as laying the stones, plumbing is $15.10 a day, that's a 12 hour day. With 5-6 men, it should go quickly. Looking yesterday reaffirmed our choice, we saw a junk lot in the middle of a small community for 500,000 pesos, thats $37,000.00 and it was very small. The next one had a river running through the middle and was truly beautiful, but would require a lot of clearing and leveling as most of it was vertical. It was $75,000.00 just for the land, the man was way too high.

The small village we are looking at with the banana plantation has already welcomed us as family.Dante has already declared me the Godfather. I don't know what qualifies me for this, but obviously it is an honor that has been bestowed on me as the newest to be member of this small village. The village in the mountains is very small and when you move in, everyone comes by to welcome you and introduce themselves. When someone dies, they mourn, but the entire village celebrates for 9 days in their honor. Then I become the Godfather, or spiritual custodian of that person's children. I have 9 days to eat an entire turkey with rice and mole (molay) a rich sauce. Thank God it's a small village.

 

[Bullfrog]

These grow wild, as does coffee and oranges.

The stones are free, so they are used a lot in construction.

 

[j.w]

Happy hunting for your new place. What are those things up there that grow all over in that pic? Can't wait to see what you do to your new place. Hope you love turkey and do they have wild turkeys there to hunt? Or do they even allow guns? You could end up w/ a boat load of kids there Bullfrog if that village prospers and grows! That place is a pond lovers delight w/all those free rocks just laying around

 

[Bullfrog]

Those flowers get a lot larger and bloom everywhere. Guns are allowed, just not any military calibers, a shotgun or 22 is fine. Turkeys are available, live or dead and EVERYONE has chickens. As far as a pond goes, I still intend to build one, but a really efficient pump will be a necessity. Mexico has a structured electrical system, if you go over a standard usage for your area, you pay more per kilowatt hour, as you should. They penalize the energy hogs so the poor can afford fans and such, you sure don't need much AC here, a ceiling fan and you are fine. We will eat at a small cafe this evening and the woman is going to take us to her village to see more homes and land. Maybe I'll lose the Godfather role.

We just went to the mercado and it was incredible. The sheer abundance of vegetables, meat, leather, tools, you name it was available.