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Don David!!

Monday, November 29th, 2010

Another week has passed & it’s finally starting to sink in that my 2 years of traveling has come to a lull & I am truly an ex-pat living in a completely different country than I spent most of my life in.

It’s one thing to travel & sleep in a different bed every night or 2 or 3, even renting an apartment for a month or 2, which is just long enough to get to know the community before moving on. Then the couple months back in Ontario is just a temporary break during which preparations are made for onward travel.

However once one has emptied their storage unit, loaded their last remaining bus with all their remaining posessions & headed westbound on the four-nothing-one, towards another adventure, a five country road-trip, which includes the bucket-list US Route 66, that will ultimately take a month & cover a tad over 10,000 km.

The fact that you have cut all ties with Canada (except passport & bank account for social security checks to be deposited in) is still only an inkling in the back of the mind as you’re too busy seeing new sights, making new friends & having new experiences to dwell on the fact that you are embarking on a totally new & better life!

Spent the first couple nights in Playa San Diego at the Hostel El Roble, the owners of which have become friends, to unwind from what turned out to be an awesome road trip! Doing a couple things to the house before moving in & generally just getting used to the idea that I had arrived in Paradise!

From the time spent during my travels in Cuba, Antigua & even Thailand,  I pretty much knew what to expect however the aspects of day to day living with full time live on site help take some getting used to.

First of all one looses their privacy as their i always some one around, second my caretaker tends to do things in a slipshod manner, if it works it doesn’t matter what it looks like seems to be his philosophy (however not mine) so have to watch his work. However they are honest & not afraid of work so I guess I can get used to being waited on hand & foot & will learn to put up with the minor inconveniences.

Might even get used to being called Don David in time!!

Speaking of road trips, I am toying with the idea(when my Scout rebuild is finished) of doing a cross Canada, Newfoundland (only province I am missing) to Vancouver, then the Alaska Marine Highway to Anchorage. Road trip to Prudhoe Bay, then follow the Pan-American Highway to Tierra del Fuego Argentina, with a side trip at Dawson City to do the Dempster Highway to Inuvik). Think that would be the “Ultimate Road-Trip"!!!

Settling in

Sunday, November 21st, 2010

When the medical team was giving me the instructions from the nursing home’s doctor & staff, I was hit by a surprise when the insulin came out with instructions on when to administer it. Now when I last spoke to the doctor he said that everything was controlled by pills & it wouldn’t be necessary to have help that knew how to give injections. So I gather, he deemed, the change in meds to be insignificant & not worth mentioning to future care-givers, as did the nursing home staff.

Seems that Ontario has changed the taking of the Hippocratic Oath by it’s doctors to the Hypocritical oath!

Thanks to my real estate lady, who had accompanied me to the airport a quick phone call to a local nurse resulted in her showing up 1/2 an hr later for an interview & being hired, with her sister her replacement on weekends when she was under contract elsewhere.

Local doctor was also called & it was arranged that he would come out after his clinic closed the next day. On giving her a check-up & checking blood sugar he figured that it could be controlled by the meds she was on + diet without the need for insulin. A week later has proven him right as she hasn’t needed an injection since she arrived. Fee for a Saturday afternoon house call was $20.

Had originally figured on the caretakers wife + another lady for nights to care for her but now I had a nurse also which was a good thing since the work load was heavier than I had anticipated.

The original nightshift lady didn’t work out, so she was replaced by my caretaker’s sister with his wife’s sister alternating nights, now there are 5 ladies + the caretaker employed to look after all our needs. The payroll for all this help for 7 months is roughly the same as 1 month at the Ontario home + the quality of the help couldn’t be bought in Ontario at any price.

The weeks worth of meds sent down by the home ran out in 5 days (short weeks I guess) so went to the doctor with the dogs breakfast of meds she was taking, he eliminated 2/3 of them & substituted the high priced brands for cheaper ones that are every bit as good. Total cost is less than $3.00/day. Was paying way more than that just for ones not covered in Ontario.

Had a visit the other day from the lady who used to own all the property in the, I guess estate subdivision would be as close as you could define it in Ontario. She had heard about me, from our little convoy entrance, guess most everyone has, & wanted to meet me. She also wanted to thank me for giving employment to the local ladies, a very nice gesture on her part. She is also the executive director of a 7 district agency helping poor ladies in the San Salvador area. Good person to have on ones side.

Have installed a washroom & shower in the old kitchen/eating area at the east end of the house. A start on making it a self-contained apartment for myself, now just have to find a girlfriend to share it with.

All in all the first week has gone better than expected, prices of groceries about 1/2 what they are in Ont. Washroom, toilet, shower & septic tank, under $400. Diesel around $3/gal. Picked up a dozen cans of beer + small jar of peanut butter, jam & marmalade the other day for $11 & change & that’s at the expensive store not the cheaper one at the market. Of course there’s fresh fish daily at the pier!

Mother has a competent doctor instead of a quack!! The weather is GREAT!!!

Best move I have made on a long time was getting to f**k out of OnturkeyO & coming to El Salvador!!!

Convoy!!!

Sunday, November 14th, 2010
[gallery] Like the Duck in the movie we took to the river to!! Never one to be bound by convention or subtlety, it’s not surprising, then that mothers arrival was bound to stand out in both the minds of the medical crew ... [Continue reading this entry]

Las Brisas

Thursday, November 11th, 2010
Life at Las Brisas IS GOOD!!! I am sure most of us have all dreamed of retiring in a tropical paradise but never taken them seriously. I know for a fact that had you asked this ole farm boy, from Quebec’s Eastern ... [Continue reading this entry]

El Salvador & Home!!!

Monday, November 8th, 2010

Hit the El Salvadorian border (the last one) about 4:00 pm on day 29 & the fun began!

Seems that on my Guatemalan vehicle entry papers they had given me one day to transit the country but I ... [Continue reading this entry]

Guatemala

Sunday, November 7th, 2010

Three countries + 3 border crossings are now history & there is light at the end of the tunnel & I am pretty sure it’s not a dirty big ole train.

Made it out of Mexico without incident, spent ... [Continue reading this entry]

Mexico cont’d

Sunday, November 7th, 2010

A few miles south of the city things started changing again as we got into the mountains where it was impossible to make any time, loaded as I was. Towns big enough to have accommodations were virtually nonexistent, resulting in ... [Continue reading this entry]

8 days on the road in Mexico

Friday, November 5th, 2010

There is something I have to get of my chest concerning the false perceptions of this country, fostered by subtle government interference of the western news media, which skews the reporting so it is actually propaganda, limiting the average persons ... [Continue reading this entry]

From Santa Monica to Douglas AZ

Friday, November 5th, 2010

Well we didn’t have one of our finest inspirations when we left Santa Monica Pier shortly after 5:00 pm on a Friday evening!

There was a hotel just up the street from the pier but it was a couple ... [Continue reading this entry]