Beware of falling rocks…

Monday is a day of tiding up from the week before. I go to Boxito to check on my missing boxes of tiles but I find they are in the middle of yet another redesign/remodel. They were devastated after Wilma, their bodega (warehouse) was totally trashed but by the beginning of this year they had rebuilt a larger and better one and a much poshed up showroom followed close behind that. Today it has regressed to its appearance in the weeks following Wilma. The entrance way is an obstacle course and it’s hard even to be heard above the sound of hammering, chipping and welding.

As one who is accident prone, I don’t really feel safe in this environment. Small chunks of masonry are flying around from the chipping. Large sections of seriously harmful sharp metal are protruding and multiple cables are snaking the whole environment. The guys behind the counter work on as usual and no-one is wearing a helmet! It’s a safety inspector’s nightmare (or dream if they are that way inclined!). I feel happy to get out intact, even though I am without my tiles.

I often seem to find myself in the building line of fire on Cozumel. I was hit on the head with a stray chip of flying rock a couple of weeks back while talking to my builder …ouch! I narrowly missed being hit with a much larger falling chunk of rock last year while my builder was adding an extension to the roof.

I was briefly gassed during another ill-fated series of events after Emily, when a chunk of rock inadvertently fell from the roof on to the lever handle of a gas tap.

By sheer fluke ...the rock hit the handle spot on and turned on the gas, releasing the remains from the tank. Gas smells a little different on Cozumel and it took me a while to work out what the smell was. I can be a bit slow sometimes – even without gas!

We finally removed all the gas lines around the house and dispensed with the gas water heater after Wilma blew the old gas tank off its support and ruptured the pipes. We now have electric instant water heating and use a small gas bottle with accident proof, turn handle, for our dryer and oven.

I tend not to dwell on my close encounters with electricity … they are much less frequent. Originating from a country with 220v flowing from the sockets, I tend to give it a little more respect than my US counterparts do with their 110v.

Whereas in US or UK these incidents would be a big issue – and probably require a detailed reporting in case required for later medical claim or even lawsuit (read USA here!) its part of building life on Cozumel. Unfortunately I see more people with injuries here than back home. You constantly need to be on the alert for falling, flying and hidden dangers while on a building site here. Your safety is your own concern, blaming others for accidents won't cut it here.

I suspect the injuries I see are not wholly from the building industry though. The other main source of mishaps here is the moto (motocicletas – motorbikes, scooters and mopeds) but I’ll save that tale of peril for another day.

With no further news of the delivery of our much needed tiles, we are now forced to plan a trip to Cancun. If they haven’t arrived by Tuesday my builder will make the trip on Wednesday and transport the tiles by bus and ferry from Cancun. It’s a nuisance but there is no other option as there are no refunds on our order and we will otherwise have to halt work and just wait it out.

The guys lay the boards for the pool surround and fill this mould with the more attractive concreto blanco (white concrete) for a prettier look. They next day they remove the mould and scrub the top with a wire brush, leaving a coarse but attractive surface, described as rustico (rustic) and much safer for walking on than a “slippery when wet” tiled surface.

That evening I suddenly find myself looking for the first time at a recognizable pool.

Regarding the electricity flowing from the sockets –James Thurber’s “My life and hard times” includes a tale of his great aunt who believed electricity flowed freely from the sockets and had to plug each one for safety. Treat yourself to a copy for great travel and beach reading and have everyone around you wondering what the heck you are laughing so much at.

Good greif, this is almost getting like a school recommended reading list!

Bears in the night …

…a brief deviation from the normal plot line

On Friday morning my house plumber/electrician, who I have recently persuaded to also become a carpenter, arrives much later than usual. When he does he is very animated. He had an attempted robbery in the night and has been up for some hours going through the mountain of red tape required to report the incident. He still has to return to the police station for further reporting and asks if he can time off. As if there were any doubt!

He is presently living some two miles out of town without power, making his property an easy target. The thief was a “chancer” (see footnote) who had tried to make off with his bicycle. Fortunately it had movement activated wheel light, which easily pinpointing the thief’s exact location in the darkness, thus allowing my plumber to captured him in the act.

According to the tale the thief is an almost 2 meter tall (6 foot+ as opposed to my plumber who is under 5 foot tall) shoddily dressed chilango with no shoes and unsurprisingly, not a resident of this small Cozumel community. (chilango - a person from Mexico City, not of mayan descent –a term occasionally used on Cozumel to describe “non mayan, no-gooders”)

The next day it turns out my plumber/electrician and now carpinter’s wife has persuaded him to move. She will have no more of this type of trouble and wants to come back into town and into a property with power. So a house hunt is on.

I ask what became of the thief. He was locked up, but it seems a friend had emerged later in the day, paid the equivalent of my plumber's lost days wage and the guy is now free. I am gobsmacked! “But he needs to return for trial later?” I ask. No … its finished, he is totally free and apparently he and the friend returned to the mainland muy rapido as soon as he was released.

My plumber appears to take it in his stride … but I remain frustrated by the unsatisfying, wheel of fortune. In a feeble attempt to put something right, I add a little more to the Saturday pay.

If you, like me, you must watch Crimewatch right to the very end to hear Nick Ross’s reassuring “don't have nightmares” after all the bad stuff. Here is a “don’t have nightmares” Cozumel ending.

Crime on Cozumel is very unusual … if it ever does happen it is usually just a “chancer” taking advantage of easy pickings. Lock up at night (we have a wall safe for extra security) and don’t let your wallet, jewelery, Rolexes, lay around sunbathing on their own, and all will be well.

If you do have nightmares, I suggest grabbing a copy of …”Bears in the Night” and reading it to the nearest child. Its a simple read, but very impressionable on kids. My kids loved it … (when they were kids!), and were totally oblivious to the, surreptitiously delivered, English preposition lesson. They may still not recognise a preposition if it fell into their soup, but I am sure they will still remember the Berenstain Bears’ escapade into the night!

The authors even have their own sweethearts story too … so how can you resist that!


Footnote
regarding the meaning and origin of “chancers”:
I scoured the web for a worthy explanation and found this little snippet from hansard -


Madam Speaker: Order. Obviously I have missed something. Will the Under-Secretary of State tell me what he is shouting about?

Mr. Raymond S. Robertson: Is "chancers" parliamentary?

Madam Speaker: Chancers?

Mr. Robertson: The hon. Member for Dundee, East (Mr. McAllion) used the word "chancers".

Lord James Douglas-Hamilton rose--

Madam Speaker: Order. I did not hear what the hon. Member for Dundee, East said. If the hon. Gentleman said something that might have been unparliamentary, I expect him to develop the point that he made so that I understand completely what he said.

Mr. McAllion: Madam Speaker, I used a word from Glasgow patois--"chancer". It means that we do not really trust the person who is described as a chancer. I think that it is parliamentary.

Madam Speaker: I live and learn every day, especially from the Scots. Thank you very much.

The pool takes shape

After pouring day the remainder of the week is a bit of an anti-climax. The wood structure is finally taken away leaving a very bare looking pool shape. Now these walls are to be prepared for the tiles.

Once the wood is removed the concrete inside the mould has a smooth surface. Good enough to tile you might think but no! This smooth surface now needs to have 1cm (1/4 inch) completely chipped off leaving a rough surface to hold a further layer of grey cement.


The chipping is done by hand using axes and any other chipping tools available. This takes a day and a half. To avoid the midday sun, the guys rig up a tarpaulin canopy, which keeps the sun’s glare off the site. Unfortunately it’s a catch 22, the hardened concrete is still in the midst of its chemical reaction and giving off heat, the canopy is also keeping the heat in.

The second layer of cement is thrown onto the chipped first layer with a trowel, which causes much cement to be splashed around and lots of clean up work for the guys later. This layer holds the final third layer of adhesive for the tiles.

By Saturday the stairway into the pool and the little seat step on the far corner are formed. The pool looks ready for the tiles.

Unfortunately two of the boxes of the all important cinefa tiles ordered some four weeks ago (for two-week delivery) still haven’t arrived at Boxito and no-one seems to have any idea where they might be. (cinefa - "sin e fa" the border section of the pool that is partially out of the water.)

They are able to offer me one spare box from a previous clients order (made six weeks ago and only just arrived!). I keenly accept and am taken to the bodega (warehouse) to get them. There I see over a dozen boxes of the desired “paradise luminescents” belonging to other client piled high. It’s almost painful. I suggest since their other client can’t possibly use them all at once could they or their client spare just one more box? Then when mine arrive (by their own accounts … any day now) they can have a box back in return.

They have been swayed in the past but this time its not to be and I leave with my solitary but much prized box. My builder, who is well known to them, tries to persuade them again later in the day but meets the same response. We cannot wait much longer as the cinefa needs to be done first. If they have not arrived by Monday we will have to make plans to travel to Cancun to hopefully find some from another supplier.

. . . . . . . .

Toward the end of the week we put in place my builder’s “cortina de agua” gadget for our waterfall.

This has been cleverly devised using 2 and 4 inch plastic piping. The intent is that the large cylinder shape will fill with water from three directions. The top section will be cut open and water will then flow out of the tube container over a tile. Thus forming the the aforementioned cortina curtain effect which will then pour in our pool over a vista maya, mayan style rock wall.

Sounds exotic eh! … I came up with the design and even I am impressed … its one of those things you doodle while bored or admire in a magazine but never expect to have yourself.


One of the joys of building here … you can put your daydreams into action, and at a fraction of the cost back home ... who could not love that!

Pouring Day ... and celebrating builders, Cozumel style

After an evening with full moon (a coincidence not a tradition!), and despite the weather forecast for thunderstorms, our “Pouring Day” arrives with full sun. It is the first really hot day for some time, with temperatures reaching into the high 90’s, a blue sky and minimal puffy white clouds to ease the heat and glare.



My builder has decided to mechanize for this considerable task and has rented a concrete mixer, it arrives early at 8. Our bags of cemento are stacked high, our grava and arena are in piles around the house and we are ready to go. Neighbors notice the preparations and call to visit. There is an air of anticipation around the place.



Once mixing is underway the cement is carried in buckets from the street to the poolside and poured into the huge extraordinary pool mould. One person is then responsible for making sure it is all well packed in place without air pockets. He constantly shakes the varilla rods and digs the mix with a trowel and rod.


The guys work like Trojans all morning and a good part of the afternoon. There is a constant and steady flow of mixing, carrying and packing the cemen, in full sunlight, till 3.30pm. This process allows no chance to take a break.

Finally when all is done I, as property owner, am dispatched to buy the customary “Concrete Pouring Day Lunch”. The meal is of their choosing and they opt for fried chicken and trimmings from a local eatery. I also throw in some fruit and juice from other stores nearby. Once the meal is done they leave around 4.30pm leaving the concrete to “do its thing”.


Celebrating our builders …

Traditionally the owner provides lunches on such notable workdays as the pouring of a large amount of concrete and the finishing of the roof. The Día de los Albañiles (Día de la Santa Cruz, the Builders’ Saint’s day) is also a national day of celebration of builders (see below). I usually provide some food on Sundays as well, if any choose to work that day to finish a project.

The Día de los Albañiles is on 3rd of May. All builders celebrate this anniversary. On the days beforehand you will see small wooden crosses appear on the highest point of all building sites, attractively decorated with paper flowers, ribbons and streamers. The builders work half the day and the rest of the day is for fiesta and a good meal supplied by the property owner.

The little wooden crosses often remain in place for some weeks after.

Wooden ships ...

...If you smile at me I will understand 'cause that is something everybody everywhere does in the same language.
Wooden ships ...CSNY


On Monday my concern for the shaping of the wood around my pool is laid to rest when I find out there is way more to building the mould for the concrete than I had originally thought.

The first stage involves manually warping the wooden walls to fit the shape of the pool. This is done by attaching wires to top posts and gradually bending the wood, without snapping it, into a curve. A process better illustrated by photos than words.

The next stage is to support these wooden walls with internal cross beams on multiple levels to support the sides and the prevent them from caving in under the stress and weight of the concrete.

This amazing grid of wood takes two full days to construct and more than matches the previous
varilla grid for Tate worthiness. It is quite amazing how it is all put together. I can quite frankly say I have never seen the likes of this before.







It reminds me of the interior construction of a
Spanish galleon (see here)and looks quite awesome. A word we Brits don’t tend to bandy around freely!


Incidentally
The Burning Man mentioned in the above Spanish Galleon link refers to remains a bit of an unfulfilled ambition. A Woodstock style experience with a bit of artiness and a survival challenge thrown in for good measure. And a great place for photographs!

I peruse the website occasionally and ponder whether I might just go someday …in a Hummer. Yes I know! not very pc …and I’m not generally a fan of the gas guzzler ..but you would have to do it in style! Neil Young of Crosby, Stills, Nash Etc - Wooden ships ... in case you didnt notice!) actually has one that runs on 90% cleaner alt fuel! Strangely I’ve seen one or two of them appearing here on Cozumel in the past year … goodness knows why!

Anyhoo, its usually its the part about the porto-pottie regulations that bump me back to reality. The inner 60’s child says yes but AARP side says no – so might just leave it to one of my kids to achieve and enjoy my dotage with air conditioning, internet access and proper plumbing.

…but I digress.

With the Spanish Galleon skeleton mould well secured in place we are now ready for Pouring Day - the day we finally form the shape of the pool in concrete.

...and if reminiscing about all this hippy 60's stuff leaves you wanting a Woodstock fix try here at YouTube.com

Varilla installations and mattresses.

Now that the sun deck palapa has been finished my builder has moved on to the pool and over a few days has put together an intricate grid of varilla to line the pool (varilla (wareeya - rebar – metal bars encased in the concrete for support).

Each piece is laid and bent to position then tied with a small piece of alambre (wire). The whole thing looks like an exotic piece of installation art that one might see in the Tate.

Incidental:
Question: Where would one think to look for the Tate Gallery on the web?
Answer: Tategallery.co.uk of course or maybe even tategallery.com … but no!
For some reason the Tate has gone for the publicly orientated but very obscure domain name, tate.org.uk.

The Tate Gallery, now more casually named the Tate, has chosen not to register these two obvious names (well caught Philip Morrison on tategallery.co.uk and thetate.co.uk!). Furthermore, it has sadly not acquired other obvious .org candidates such as tategallery.org or tate.org, leaving these and tategallery.com to those annoying adware site builders. Fortunately a person of a more altruistic nature spotted this oversight and has removed thetate.org from spammers reach and pointed unsuspecting visitors in the right direction. De nada guys!

…but to resume the tale

The workers then build large walls from various sheets of plywood and older planks.

When I return to my house on Saturday evening I notice these straight wooden walls do not fit the form of my curved pool. I call my builder to ask if this is an oversight and does he want to come over to discuss before Monday? He says no … Monday will be fine for discussion, so we leave it at that.

Sundays are such a treat on Cozumel. No cruise ships in port, but more to the point, no workers around the house! Its raining outside, so I enjoy a long lie in with croissants, jam and cups of tea, while I watch the telly and read in bed. Peace, quite, solitude - its great.

On another side note:
Soft mattresses are difficult to come by on Cozumel. Local mattresses have solid iron interior springs and are generally known to be very hard and extremely heavy! I was trying to lift one last year and it fell on top of me. For a while I was pinned between two mattresses, the old and the new. It wasn’t painful, more amusing actually, but in the heat I wondered for a moment if I was actually going to be able to summon up the energy and strength to lift the thing off me. Or was I destined to wait in a mattress sandwich for my esposo to show up from his dive and rescue me.

A friend suggested, rather than go to the mainland for an expensive soft mattress, we get one of those memory foam mattress toppers to add extra comfort. Eventually we hauled three of them over from the states and were glad we did. Our beds now feel so comfortable here … I really need to get another for home.

… or maybe it’s just the combination of heat, work and sea air that make me sleep like a log here. Who knows!

(…did I just hear someone say its probably the beer?).

Despite its female orientated "romance novel" type advertising campaign, Overstock has some of the best deals for these mattresses. Shipping is usually just a few dollars or sometimes free. I have used them for many of items needed around the house.

Try the Memory Foam 2-inch Mattress Topper with Bonus Contour Pillows
or the Serta® Memory Foam 3-inch Mattress Topper (All Sizes) for more info.

High wire palaperos

Mid week and my builder has now fully finished and plastered the varilla supporting columns and deck walls. The wiring and plumbing is all installed so with that finished we are finally ready to move on to the pool.

I am very happy with the progress and working standards of my builder.


Thursday brings a third load of zacate … the guys arrive early and tell me its waiting outside for my approval. I toy with them a bit ,asking if it is safe to look – will I like it? Everyone here seems to love a bit of fun while they are working.

The new batch doesn’t have the yellow glow I had hoped for but it does look clean and smell fresh, there are even green bits indicating that it has been freshly gathered and is not even dried out completely yet. Can't get much fresher than that. I hum and haw a bit for effect then ok it. They all smile and its up on the deck before you can blink.


The muchachos de palapero (palapero's lads/workers) are a nice bunch, always pleasant and cheerful. They seem refreshingly happy and contented in their jobs. They work hard during their work hours, mostly on the roof without shade, and chill out in the piles of zacate during siesta (lunch break). Watching them at work is like watching a high wire circus act, like in the scary old days, without the safety wires and the nets.

They wander around the roof skeleton like it’s a walk in the park.

While I am working in the kitchen I hear an unnerving yell and then whoop of laughter. I go out and it seems that one of them nearly had a mishap. The incident is greeted with much frivolity by the group and the victim.

Eight to twelve of them spend three days perched on the roof in full sunlight, tying each section in place individually. By Saturday its almost finished. The roof top section and a bit of varnish – and we will be done. Since they have made a good job of the balcony woodwork, I ask if they might be interested in putting together a bit of furniture in the same style and they say they will give it a try. I give them a rough drawing and they will give me a price estimate later.

Concrete and cakes.

The concrete floor on the palapa deck is now laid and we have a working stairway to the palapa sundeck. One might think the stair would be the first thing to be built so that materials can be easily transported, but no.

All the equipment and materials needed for work on the deck are hoisted aloft via the stepladder, including the many buckets of concrete needed to lay the floor. The stair is completed last to avoid it being damaged by constant wear and tear of transporting materials to and forth.

(Yes I know, you are looking at the photo of the stair and wondering what possible damage could make this look worse! ... It will get prettier I promise!)

The nice rounded stair edge is cunningly formed using plain old plastic pipe cut in half and filled with concrete. I love the simplicity of the way things are done here!

Concrete tends to be mixed in the street here … no-one minds this and the occasional traffic down our way has to manoeuvre delicately between the paraphernalia of my project and that of my neighbour.

Mixing concrete is an art; too much water or too much sand will ruin the mix or weaken the structure. The technique is rather like that of a good cook who senses the right consistency of a cake; a good builder can tell when the concrete is right. And no ready mix cakes here … we are building with raw ingredients, cement cemento, sand arena, concrete dust polvo or cal, gravel grava, and of course water agua.

The master builder (Maestro) supervises the whole mixing process with the care of an expert chef. The truth of this pudding is in the hurricane … so to speak! They mix a lot of cement down here, and they are not stopping anytime soon, so if you’re into the markets, Cemex (nasdaq CX) is probably a reasonable bet!

The floor of the carport was originally pitched at an angle for the rain. To avoid too much depth and weight of concrete on one side when we leveled it we have use polystyrene blocks to make up the difference. A metal mesh has also been laid below the new concrete for strength. All the wiring and plumbing connections then disappear under this concrete layer, never to be seen again.

Coming from a background of “housing with easily accessible wiring and plumbing”, it still causes me a bit of discomfort to see everything disappearing under a couple of inches of solid concrete … still, if there is a problem we will just dig it all up again. We don’t have to deal with variations in temperature, frosts etc and on the whole, it certainly seems to work.

A few days after the first batch, the palaperos turn up with another load of zacate for the roof. Some of it looks ok this time but much is still bad. I remind them I am here for another four/five weeks and I am willing to wait for the right stuff. I suggest they keep the good bits and work on finishing the palapa roof and the balcony while we wait for more. I ask my builder to monitor what they use when I leave he house. When I get back at noon, this load, like the last is gone.

During our venture onto the now floored and accessible roof, we decided to alter the design and eliminate the plan for an open sun deck. We decide to thatch the whole roof. (Sorry sun lovers … but with skin cancer rife you will thank me later … oh yes you will!).

The acrobatic palaperos get to work on the changes with gusto and by next day my balcony and extra roof are finished and looking great!

When good zacate ... (and other things) go bad!

On Monday the palapero brings the zacate (grass thatch) for the palapa in early morning. It is wet and moldy looking, as if it had already been through a few hurricanes. There is a bit of discussion as to how it would dry out and look better but I politely and firmly refused it.

The Palapero mentions it has been stored outside and that this section was stored in the middle of the pile for a while, which is why it looks so dark and damp. This only added to my concern. I have had enough farm experience in UK to know that this stuff was beyond recovery! By mid morning it is gone from my house.


Two days after starting my house plumber is still working on the changes to the plumbing lines. He is constantly hitting unforeseen snags as often happens here. A new canister of propane is faulty. It has possibly been stored badly and has dampness in it preventing a good hot flame for soldering. Exchanges are difficult here on Cozumel so we have to accept a credit note.

Then my plumber’s trusty three-year-old torch head gives up and the new solid brass replacement he wants will need to be ordered and will take 15 days to arrive. To keep up the momentum we split costs on a lesser quality one with plastic controls. It fails within the hour and we once again get a credit note on its return.

I eventually find the exact piece we need on the Lowes website at one-third of the price here. My husband (mi esposo) will bring it on Saturday. This evening I daydream of shopping in Lowes and Home Depot while I have one more city water hose pipe shower in the palapa guest studio.

By Tuesday night all is fixed and I have my first shower in the bathroom but we leave the hot water off as, fool maybe, I am going to attempt to remove some of the excessive hot water pipes now.

The next day goes without hitch, my plumber borrows a solid brass torch head from a friend, and the excessive hot water pipes are removed. We check and all works well. Its a major success and Casa Olivia returns to normal life with hot and cold running water, a water filter and a nice new backup water heating system … just in case!


The pool builder is making excellent headway, the ongoing design process is moving ahead nicely and the pool and palapa sundeck (presently without its thatched roof) are looking good.

Dare I say … all is well? It is hurricane season.