day 18

february 12, 2014

1 pm:

we had starbucks this morning. it was kind of amazing. we also went out for brunch at this place called "100% natural" which was good (huge fresh fruit juices for $4 CAD, 3 giant tacos for $8 CAD) the food was spectacular, though it took them about 20 minutes to bring us our bill after we ate.

last night we were so hot and tired and sticky. i dropped mike's 7000 pound laptop on my leg. we were snippy with each other, and frustrated. we ended up checking into a holiday inn. the motivation for this is simple, we NEED someone who speaks fluent spanish AND english to call around re: storing the defiant, and also to get information from mexican customs re: leaving the defiant here while we're in canada. currently, the lovely lady at the front desk is calling around about storage. also, wifi in every room (important, given the amount of research we're doing, we don't want to have to live in the lobby).

anyway, although i feel like a copout for staying at a holiday inn, it's totally worth it to not have to struggle with communication at a time like this. also, they wanted $1400 pesos/night ($120 CAD) at the front desk, and some sketchy guy outside said he could get us a room for $1200 pesos, but i found a place online where it was $65 USD/night (about $750 pesos), so i sat in the lobby and booked online on my cell phone, then as soon as the confirmation email came, i took it to the front desk. muhaha.

this afternoon, we're going to walk over to the parking lot where the defiant is (hotel parking around the corner) and pop up the camper and give it a good clean, and haul back anything we need to take home with us. this is difficult, as we have no idea how long we'll be gone for.

10:30 pm update:

well, we got pretty much all of our research done - the people at the front desk here were actual literal superheroes, and were the most helpful ever re: truck storage and customs. we have found a place to store the defiant for $200/month CAD (it's a self-storage place, sounds good, i'll do a post just about that once we're back home), and it seems like customs will be ok - mike is going to call the embassy here tomorrow for advice, but it sounds like when we leave the country, they will just ask about the situation, and we'll tell them, and if necessary i will make a harmony-sized stink about things, and they will let us go home. aside from that, we can deal with things when we get back.

we had a nap this afternoon (or, mike had a nap and i laid in bed for a while then updated the blag) when it was super hot. later, we went out for sushi, then went to the camper and cleaned and organized it. the guy at the parking lot thought we were totally nuts, but chilled out once we gave him a beer. we've got all of our stuff that we are taking home, and tomorrow we just need to take the defiant to storage, repack our bags, and get massages (!!!). when we got back to the hotel room i got ice for our beer, and i dropped some on the floor, so i threw it over the balcony... then mike went out there, and apparently the security guys were sort of freaking out about it. when we went down for a swim i apologized to them for making them think it was snowing in mexico. they didn't think i was nearly as funny as i think i am. hmph.

i've been invited to a tobogganing party on saturday, which just seems so far from reality right now. i can't believe it's still winter anywhere.

leaving the defiant tonight was really weird - i know i'll see him tomorrow when we drop him off at storage, but it was like this weird leaving-home sort of feeling. i know we've only been living there for a couple of weeks, but i really love living there, and i really love doing this trip, and it's super hard to walk away and put it on hold, even though it's clearly what needs to happen. i guess this just means it'll be easy to come back to : )