5C's Que Pasa

……….One day, the father of a very wealthy family took his son on a trip to the country with the express purpose of showing him how poor people live.

They spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of what would be considered a very poor family.

On their return from their trip, the father asked his son, “How was the trip?”

“It was great, Dad.”

“Did you see how poor people live?” the father asked.

“Oh yeah, ” said the son.

“So, tell me, what did you learn from the trip?” asked the father.

The son answered:

“I saw that we have one dog and they had four.

We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden and they have a creek that has no end.

We have imported lanterns in our garden and they have the stars at night.

Our patio reaches to the front yard and they have the whole horizon.

We have a small piece of land to live on and they have fields that go beyond our sight.

We have servants who serve us, but they serve others.

We buy our food, but they grow theirs.

We have walls around our property to protect us; they have friends to protect them.”

The boy’s father was speechless.

Then his son added: “Thanks, Dad, for showing me how poor we are.”

Isn’t perspective a wonderful thing? Makes you wonder what would happen if we all gave thanks for everything we have, instead of worrying about what we don’t have.

Appreciate every single thing you have, especially your friends!

Friday started out with the following email to us by some Ontario friends…

….We are sad to let you know that because of out-of-province health insurance restrictions we won’t be doing Mexico this winter.

We bought our insurance earlier this year to take advantage of current year rates so we are locked in. One of us is insured through Manulife, the other is insured through  TIC (The Cooperators). Because we drive through the area and stay in the area mentioned by the Canadian travel warning, Manulife will not cover health issues that directly involving the activity mentioned in the warning (say we are injured if we get caught in a shootout or kidnapping).TIC will not cover any any health issues down because we would ignore the warning if we go down there.The plan at this point is to explore the US southwest, we should enjoy it but it won’t be as warm and pleasant as Mexico.Hopefully things will be quieter next winter down there……

Needless to say this got me thinking and checking….I made several calls as we also are insured with TIC.  I spoke with four different people, all with a different answer.  It seems that the bottom line is in the interpretation of the Canadian Travel Advisory.  Finally I was transferred to a lady in the Emergency Response Dept., this is the person who has the final yeh or nay on your claim.  I was impressed as she offered me a number to use if I had to call back in the future and refer to todays conversation, which was taped.  Sure hope it works if I need it.  The bottom line is that any claim resulting from an incident at the USA/Mexico border and all the way down through Sonora & Sinaloa involving banditos or drug gangs WILL NOT be honored because of the travel advisory.  If you catch a cold at the border she said, it would be honored.  I am referring to Emergency Medical Insusance.  If you are beaten by a bandito and left at the side of the road, they will offer assistance but will pay NOTHING!  The other thing to be aware of is if  you get in the middle of a shoot out while in Mazatlan or wherever while in Sonora or Sinaloa, you will NOT be covered.

Then I started to think about our vehicle insurance which we get through San Xavier Mexico Insurance (they use Mapfre).  Section V under the Exclusions section claims that “loss or damage to the vehicle (toad or RV) in question as a consequence of war-like operations, whether arising from foreign or civil war, insurrection, rebellion, expropriation, confiscation, seizure or dentition by the Authorities or any other similar cause.”…will not be covered. So this got Colin on the phone to San Xavier Insurance where he was told that the banditios/drug gangs were a different story and that WE WOULD BE COVERED!  I guess to a Mexican these road blocks are common place???!!!!  Not sure if I believe that we would be covered.

Colin and I are going…no ifs, buts or doubts.  But you all have to make a conscious decision as to what you are doing and as to what is insured or not.  For your own sakes, please check out what is or is not covered in your policies.  Keep me posted on your findings as we will all benefit from the information.

The last few days have seen us working through our lists.  Colin had the tow car serviced.  A very good thing as they found a screw in one tire and another tire has a crack all along the inside wall, which entails another appt. elsewhere. Ka-ching$

The dogs have new toothpaste and a new dog blanket for the trip.  They are packed and ready.

We visited Costco on Monday. A mere $299.56!

Next we went to Nature's Fare Market where we came away with this tiny amount of product for ka-ching $747.15!! Very hard to believe and I was there.

Yesterday we spent three hours at Safeway and managed to fill 2 buggies.  I was too tired to do anymore.

A mere $787.70 Ka-ching$

Maybe I should have bought some of the sun flowers in the aisle, it might have cheered me up.  The big challenge now will be to fit this all into the RV.  The cold stuff is in the fridge but I must have over 60 bags of goods to stow……..somewhere!  It is entirely my job as Colin has done the basement and even helped me with the shopping for which I am forever thankful.  This is so worth it now, so we won’t have to leave  the beach to go grocery shopping.  The veggies and fruits will come to us.

There is no doubt about it….we are definitely heading south to Mazatlan.  Colin just found out who is coming to the Culiacan International Guitar Festival in March.  Nothing is going to come between him and the world best guitar artist or the best composer of the last century!!  Besides, he really is getting tired of Canadian eggs and wants to eat real eggs.  I just want the sun, the beach and time to do absolutely nada.

While getting ready for your trip south you might want to think about picking up a motion security light.  They can be purchased for as little as $20.00.  A small investment for a huge amount of security.  You might want one for the front of your RV and another for the rear.

Our friends Robert & Michele took a weekend excursion to Adams River, near Salmon Arm to see the return of the spawning salmon.  This is suppose to be the largest sockeye run in a hundred years.  An estimated 34 million fish are returning to the Fraser River and its tributaries this fall. The fish take about 17 days to travel from the ocean to the Adams. In places, the water is so densely packed with salmon, it appears red.

Merci Robert! I do hope that one day Colin & I will have time to see this miracle of nature.