Back to life on the island

September is the month we have to renew our FM3 visas. We have to start preparing for this in June actually. We maintain bank accounts here on the island and we have to be able to show immigration that we have a certain amount of income each month. I guess they don't want foreigners here becoming wards of the state or something! They require copies of our bank statements from June, July and August. Yesterday was the day we had to go over and drop off our application, with the 68,765 copies of everything else they want. We took the car since our friend, P, has to renew hers at the same time. Her knees are so bad she can hardly walk so it was easier for her if we took the car.

There is something going on at immigration. I don't know why. Maybe a new director or something? Anyway, they were actually polite!!! And all the people who did not have a number and tried to jump in line? They were politely told to go get a number and wait their turn! I was flabbergasted. When it came my turn, the lady at the counter went through my folder of papers, stamped them as received and thanked me for having everything so neatly and orderly arranged for her! Spooky. The three of us dropped off our papers and applications and were out of their in 40 minutes. An unheard of amount of time. We have to go back next Thursday and pick up our new FM3's. It was just so weird and so unMexican.

I saw the most fantastic thing while in line to get back on the car ferry. There is another dock adjacent to the one we have to drive on to load onto the ferry. I have never seen this dock actually used. Yesterday there was a shrimping boat tied up to it and another, smaller fishing boat. I could see the guys unloading something from the fishing boat but it wasn't until we had inched our way further along the line that I could make out what it was. It was sharks! There must have been a pile of about eight of them. Including a hammerhead. And they were big. Maybe ten feet long or more. No way I could get a picture of them. I sure would have like to have gone over to that dock and gotten some pictures and talked to those fishermen though.
I think they export them to Japan but I'm not sure.

Not much else going on right now. Slow season is in full swing and we have no reservations for the cabana until December. That's why we are taking this chance now to redecorate, repaint and really deep clean over there. I hired somebody to finally break out the cement slab in front where the workers mixed their cement. We are currently looking for something big and attractive to plant there. No easy task. It has to be able to take full sun, full wind and lots of salt! A cactus would fit the bill but I don't want more cactus over there. We will probably end up with a blue agave if we can find one around here.

Ok, time to sign off and go see what the rest of my blogger friends are up to!