Surviving Summer in the Sonoran Sun

It has been a long, hot couple of months here in San Carlos.  Before I came to Mexico, I thought I knew what hot was, but after living in Zihuatanejo, I learned a whole new level of hot. Summer in the Sonoran Desert is yet a whole ‘nother level up.  When I say it was between 106-115 degrees F for the last couple months, I don’t mean we hit a few highs that high, I mean it was well over 105 from about 9am until sundown all day, every day.  There were NO breaks.   Being the desert, it did cool down into the high 80s/low 90s at night, but the humidity was insane, so it was never comfortable out there.  There was really nothing pleasant you could do outside, even at night it was just sticky and uncomfortable, but sometimes worth putting up with to get out.  Rita’s big air conditioner has been running like a champ 24/7.  As long as I kept her cool, it was very nice inside.  If I had to run errands or didn’t turn the temp low enough in the morning and it got too hot inside, it could take hours to cool down.  I did my best to keep plugged in, or run the AC off batteries when I had to run errands.  I kept the driving to every 2 weeks or so, which allowed plenty of time to recharge the batteries if I were to run the AC for a half day of driving around.

Whenever I visit Mariana, I am able to plug in there, too, so makes it easy to get out sometimes.  One time, I decided to drive over there without plugging the AC into the inverter – it is only a 15-minute ride, I thought it should be fine.  The inside temp in Rita went from 77 to 95 in that 15-minute drive. Took a while to cool her down. Lesson learned.

I am super grateful to have been able to stay here in San Carlos, parked in front of this lovely house. I tried to take advantage of the time (and mailing address) to get a lot of projects done on Rita as well as keep up with my regular client work.  There was/is a surprisingly long list of things I want to get done and of course some pressing issues that came up along the way.

I also managed to have some fun here and there. Somewhat regular cooking and movie nights on Fridays at Mariana’s and outings with Zonia and Cecy, too.  I even went for a hike one day after we’d had some rain and it was vaguely cooler.   I have been biking to the gym at 7:30am Mon/Weds/Fri and enjoying the space and the pool while realizing I wasn’t in quite as bad shape as I thought.  It was good to get a routine again and feel myself getting stronger.  I started joining a Monday aquarobics class, it’s fun and really kicks my ass, too.  Biking the 2 miles back to Rita at around 10am has been a bit brutal, but I powered through and grateful I can hose off when I get there.

Across from the gym, Laura and Cesar are often set up with a table holding a giant cooler and umbrella, selling beans, burritos (the real kind, which are tiny – you get a 3 pack variety for $40 pesos (about $2US)), and tamales (which are quite possibly the best I’ve ever had and a deal at $25 pesos).  I have become a regular (as regular as anything can be here, I guess…).  They wave at me when I bike by to the gym and I stop on my way back.  The burritos make a great breakfast and I enjoy the variety. Except for the occasional one that is filled with chopped up hot dogs.  No me gusta.  Can’t bring myself to eat that one. The first time I got one I ate most of it before I realized what it was. Her chile colorada is amazing, so I’m always happy to get one of those.  Burritos in Mexico are just a very little bit of something (well cooked/spiced potatoes, or beans/cheese, chile colorada or other things I have yet to identify…) wrapped in a tortilla. They are not giant feasts bigger than your head filled with a million different things, like in the US. The 3 pack is barely a filling breakfast.   Sometimes I don’t love tamales, because they can be so dry and thick, but Laura’s are filled with interesting things like green beans, carrots, meat, and other surprising little bits of veg. They are delicious.

Events in the Santa Maria Centro de Salud y Paz (health and peace) are only a few blocks from where I’m staying.  I’ve been attending some nice events, including a meditation and paint event and a full-moon women’s circle, which as you may guess, is once a month.  The full moon events are led by a medicine-woman from the US named Karen, who doesn’t speak Spanish, and she is supported by Mari Carmen who translates everything into Spanish. They teach us the traditions of the moon for that month (based on native people’s teachings about the time of year/type of moon, like Buck Moon, Sturgeon Moon, Harvest Moon, etc).  The bike ride is short and easy, it’s nice for me to be around a positive group of people and I always learn something.  Karen does a nice job putting together an informative lecture for us and we do some kind of activity.  One time she led us through a meditation to discover what our spirit animal is.  I was really hoping for something cute, or cool, like a penguin, or an otter.  But the only animal that chose me was a frog.  I was kind of disappointed, until I looked it up later to see what it meant.  Turns out it’s a pretty fitting spirit animal for me.   I also was reminded of several times frogs have come into my life. Most notably was long ago (1998), when I spent 10 days in a silent meditation retreat in a remote area in Thailand.  We stayed cement ‘cells’ situated around a courtyard. Every night when I would return from the final meditation that day, I would open the door to my cell and there would be a very cute, tiny frog sitting just inside, staring at the door, as if waiting for me.   And just before I left Zihua a few years ago, a green tree frog somehow got into my living room and attached itself to my wall. I had no idea what the strange bright green object was, it looked all smooth.  I had to get up on a chair and get close to see what it was. I finally determined it might be a frog, and gently pried it off into a bucket and relocated it to an empty lot.

 

In brief the frog as a spirit animal: symbolizes transformation, rebirth, and emotional cleansing, representing a person's ability to adapt to change and embrace new beginnings. As a messenger of healing, the frog encourages you to let go of past burdens and to trust your intuition and inner feelings.  Their ability to live on land and in water represents adaptability and resilience, encouraging you to thrive in any environment.  Frogs are believed to have heightened sensitivity, so the frog spirit animal may encourage you to listen to your instincts and delve deeper into your subconscious. 

One weekend, Mariana and I took Rita on a roadtrip to Hermosillo.  I stayed in front of her Mom’s house on a quite cul-de-sac. We attended a Temazcal outside of the city – it was amazing and I feel so lucky to have experienced it. Nothing like being in a sweat lodge to make 100+ degree outside temps feel cooler!

Due to the inhumane temps most of the day, it was really hard to get things done outside. There is a very short window from maybe 6 or 7am until about 9am and maybe an hour or so at sunset before it was totally dark, where it was possible to do somethings and only end up drenched in sweat (as opposed to dead).  Given that many mornings I also went to the gym, so I had even less time to get stuff done outside. There is also the thing where the heat just sucks your motivation to do anything. So, I struggled through as best I could.  Happy to spend most of all day inside with the AC on, working on my computer.

 

In between the bigger planned projects, little things went wrong as well…my water pump pressure switch went bad. Luckily, I was able to get a replacement delivered and I installed it in a couple of days.  My control pad for my Maxxair fan in the roof went bad. I was able to get a replacement and install it within a week. Not so bad, but it is always something!!

 

One of the worst projects has been trying to seal up the leaks in the roof around the skylight.  Very hot and unenjoyable and not 100% effective yet, but I’m over it for the time being, and it shouldn’t be raining TOO much more…

 

A few weeks ago, we had a huge storm, lots of rain, thunder and lightning. After that ended, it was like a switch flipped and the humidity dropped way down and it was barely over 100 degrees every day.  I thought we were out of the woods, finally! But this past week the humidity got insane again and now we have hurricane Raymond visiting.  Hoping when he passes, we will be back to the cooling that is promised for this month.   I did manage to get my screens re-installed (what a nightmare project that has been. I don’t even want to talk about it. They are less ugly and more effective than before).  From the inside they look amazing (as in, I can barely see they are there) and I got them up just in time to be able to open the windows for the cooler nights.  Grateful for them. I’m also beginning to appreciate Rita’s rough looking exterior is actually a good thing when it comes to theft deterrent. I’ve seen where some people put ‘wraps’ on their vehicles to make them look all rough and beat up as theft deterrent…none of that fake stuff for Rita. She pulls it off naturally.

I got some suspension work done – new front springs and a camber kit. We still need an alignment, but poco a poco… the suspension guy I have in Guaymas is great – excellent work and fast and inexpensive.

I also got a wild hair about taking the diesel heater out and selling it.  While it is a top-of-the-line, gold standard heater for sailboats, it is really overkill for me and my lifestyle. The amount of maintenance required and the time it takes to get it up and running, it really doesn’t make sense to use it for a little warm up here and there.  Well, once I get an idea in my head, it’s hard for me to wait on executing it…so before I knew it, I had pulled it out.  I’m excited about the space it opened up and am already planning how I will use it.  I still have to deal with the last part of the stovepipe that is on the roof.  That will involve sealing a hole, which I’ve researched but am not up for tackling quite yet. I guess when I sell it, that will probably force me to deal with it, if the buyer wants that part!!  No serious bites yet. I know it’s a risk, and I think if necessary, I can fit it in the ‘garage’ area.  Maybe I will end up pedaling it down the coast in all the sailing hubs… It is worth a chunk though, and I would really like to take that money and put it into getting the AC installed in the dash.  I found someone who may be able to do that for a fraction of what I was quoted in California, and it would be life changing for me to have fans/air conditioning while driving.  NEWSFLASH...someone came out of nowhere, messaged me and showed up and bought the heater in 15 minutes.  We had to pull the roof vent out and now I have a 5 inch hole in my roof and I'm still looking for a piece of fiberglass to patch it up.  It currently has a plastic mailer duct taped over it...

 

The biggest project I’ve put hours and hours into figuring out, ordering parts and planning out carefully, is FINALLY done.  Ever since I bought Rita, I wanted to install “shore power” so I could plug into a RV park or household plug, and charge the batteries/keep everything running.  Last year I did install the DC-DC charger, which was a much simple project – and allows me to charge the batteries when I am driving (which seemed like a no-brainer of an opportunity).  Shore power was more complicated and expensive.  I had to buy a battery charger (I got the same Victron brand as the DC-DC charger, it’s a top brand and I can use the same app to manage both chargers) and all the pieces/parts to make it happen.  I considered doing it myself, but electricity is not my forte…and this project also involved cutting a hole in the side of Rita.  I decided to go all out and hire an actual electrician to do the installation. I had a couple of them come out and see everything and give me a quote.  JD (and his brother Raul) seemed to be professional and very smart and also have experience with solar systems.  Their quote was also a bit lower than the clearly less experienced guy.  Unfortunately, our first scheduled appointment didn’t work out (they had car trouble). And our second appointment, they showed up 2 hours late (Raul’s daughter needed to go the doctor).  But in the end, they did great work and I’m super happy to have it all over-with.  I paid them a total of about $125 for both of them here working for 4 hours.  Well worth it.  What this means is that I can plug into a regular household plug OR an RV park 30 amp outlet and charge my batteries.  I also got an outlet run to the inside of Rita so I can plug the air conditioner into it. No more having to run the extension cord out through the back door – which damages the cord and keeps the door from sealing properly.   I did learn I should probably not run the AC and the battery charger at the same time, as I’d be likely to blow a fuse in a house. I’m working on getting a remote controlled outlet so that I can turn the battery charger on and off from inside Rita, without having to go crawl into the garage, open the box and unplug it.

The owners of the driveway and patio (and laundry room) I’ve been enjoying these past months are planning to return in the beginning of November.  That is my deadline for finishing up big projects and getting all my stuff loaded back into my ‘garage’ (I’ve been spreading out a bit under the covered patio area, it has been quite a luxury to have the safe, secure and dry space at my disposal.

I’m feeling like the end is in sight with projects, the stifling heat has gone and I am getting itchy for another adventure…or a vacation, really.

In November I will also be able to find out if I can nationalize Rita – get her some Mexican license plates so I can finally leave the state of Sonora.  I really don’t know how it’s going to go or what I will do if I can’t get them. Stay tuned for that!

 

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