The Wanderings of busman7

Skimmer & tubing al installed for the pool filter, should be taking a dip before the week’s out.

Actually everything should be pretty well wrapped up by the weekend.

Due to some restrictions on advertising here on Word Press, I decided to start a new blog for the Las Brisas B & B on blogger.

Shall continue this blog for my travels & personal trivia, while using the new one for the B & B + El Salvador news. 

http://wwwlasbrisasplayasandiego.blogspot.com

The site is a work-in-progress by a ‘puter illiterate dude so Y’all just have to bear with me—or not!

There’s an old saying (from WW1 I think) “Once they’ve seen Parree, you can’t keep ‘em down on the farm”. In reference to the doughboys from the country who served overseas.

Same holds true for this ole ‘Townships” farm-boy, who had the good fortune to see a bit of the world + on a whim decided to get a TEFL  certificate in fabulous Bangkok, thus making “the world my oyster” by opening employment opportunities most anywhere!

So in my case it’s “Once I saw Bangkok you couldn’t keep me in Canada!”.

I bought me a house (yeah I know that’s not proper English grammar) in Playa San Diego, El Salvador where I looked after mother, no one else to do it & Ontario nursing homes would all be closed (by the SPCA, if they were housing animals) until her passing.

Now I am free to return to SE Asia as my obligations have ended.

I know, yeah I know what you’re saying, “You just found your Paradise in El Salvador, what to Hell’s wrong with you?”

Had been renovating the house to make a private apartment for myself but now the plan is to use it as a B & B + give some private English lessons on the side (TEFL teaching in CA doesn’t pay worth a damn).

However after doing some number crunching, things turned up to be a tad short (another 8 months before will receive a social security check), time for plan B.

Renovations will be done by the end of the month, likely be the end of April before all the affairs are tidied up & taxes filed. As Canada will now direct deposit social security checks in a few other countries, the US being one & there is a cool US address company http://www.virtualpostmail.com that has UPS’s Mailboxes beat by a country mile, will just sign up with them & have checks deposited in my US account, from which I can get free transfers to an account in El Salvador, Canadian money & checks are worthless & NOT accepted here.

The new caretaker & his daughter, one of mothers nurses, whom I  kept on, as she is a smart lady with experience working in a hostel, are working out well.

Plan “B”: An X-pat Brit owns a hostel just down the road, an X-pat Canadian runs a small resort, down the beach a bit, my B&B will be priced in between, likely be used mostly by El Salvadorians from the city, my help is perfectly capable of looking after that & most importantly trustworthy so I can leave them in charge. So open the B&B, train the help + give them some English lessons until May.

Then it will be time to renew the licence on the Kia, change it into my name (es El Salvador things work differently here), trade my BZ ON drivers licence for the equivalent here & it’s Hasta luego Playa San Diego!

! had originally planned on returning to Thailand in October but had to put that plan on hold. Now, it appears, for a few reasons, my best bet is to head for Cambodia to gain some teaching experience. However as I still have a couple vehicles in Canada, I might as well stop by & deal with them + make sure the family grave markers have mothers information on them.

Flights SAL-YYZ are a tad on the dear side + there’s only one super expensive direct flight on LASCA, otherwise it’s AA with a plane change in MIA (am boycotting US airports due to the TSA pervs) so I checked out doing it by bus & hey it’s pretty cool with lots of choices & executive buses through CA &  Mexico. Of course once you hit the US border at Laredo Texas you have 2 choices, The Grey Dog or walk.

Don’t you just love 1st world countries!!

Going to cost, when all’s said & done, about the same as flying but think I’ll do it, taking around 7 days, just because I can + not called the busman for nothing LOL

Once I have finished my business in ON & QC, shall catch an Aero Svit   www.aerosvit.com   flight YYZ-KBP-BKK $634 (COOL) spend a few days renewing old acquaintances in BKK prior to heading over to Phnom Penh & a job search.

Sounds like a plan but as always, subject to change!

Really getting a crash course in El Salvadorian ways in the new year & it’s still only January.

So far we have learned that they are really serious about the age of imported vehicles & a couple ways to legally get around them.

Also have learned, trial by fire, what the protocol for arranging a funeral is.

Presently I have a couple more irons in the fire to help round out the learning curve a bit.

Getting back to the bus saga, part of the deal was the church would find me a car worth the value of the bus. the major problem there is that due to the stroke I had as a result of having an Ontario doctor who got his licence out of a Cracker Jack box, I need an automatic transmission. Now here in El Salvador automatics were a major no-no until recently so they are as scarce as hen’s teeth.

Anyhoo after a couple months search they managed to locate a fairly decent Kia in my price range & apparently tentative approval to import the bus has been given. The car was supposedly been brought down for me to see on Thursday, finally made it last night, only 3 days late. Actually a pretty decent vehicle for the price so now am in possession of a vehicle worth the approximate value of the bus so I am happy, the church sees the “light” (pun lol) at the end of the tunnel concerning a bus so they’re happy. Have learned a lot about vehicle dealing down here so all in all, all’s cool on the bus front!!

With mothers passing I am left with an extra room + a tad shy on the dinero side until I can collect my full social security. The idea of going to Cambodia (not really impressed with the options here) to teach English crossed my mind. Then I thought hmmm, extra room, pool, why not run a Bed & Breakfast + teach a bit of English privately on the side?

A bit of research showed it to be a viable plan. Priced out what was needed & it came in on a reasonable budget.

Only problem was getting the property up to snuff & the grass greener. Now this boiled down to getting the caretaker to do the job he was getting paid for. Haven’t really been happy with him for a while, now when I get that way I give some subtle hints then tend to sit back & give the person enough rope to hang himself.

He finally tightened the noose this weekend, never watered the lawn all weekend & when confronted with several of his faults (with the help of an interpreter, who doesn’t like him either) it became evident that the pigheaded, lazy SOB wasn’t going to change his ways. He refused to do anything but water the grass so I said fine then the pay will be adjusted accordingly + he had to get rid of his chickens.

He quit, I didn’t can him he drug-up of his own accord!!!

Told him I would keep him on until the end of the month but he got a snit on & said he would be out manaña. Shall have to wait & see what transpires on that front.

All that has to be done now is get the i’s dotted & the t’s crossed on the vehicle deal. Hire a new caretaker, one already in mind, find someone to complete the renovations, lots around who would be glad of the work & install pool filter, not a problem.

Get moving on the B & B plans, finalise a curriculum for the English teaching & guess probably should get a 90 day extension on my visa, can get one extension, then it’s border runs every 90 days.

Leastwise the foreseeable future won’t be boring, as the learning curve continues.

On the way back from my little Guatemalan excursion we stopped in the city at a notaries where we met the pastor of the church, that was looking at the bus, signed the papers for a tentative sale for government approval (churches are exempt from the import age rule providing the bus is “donated”.

Life then returned to normal for a week or so until mothers sugar level rose, for no apparent reason, to a level where it was a concern. The doctor came out on Friday, found her blood pressure was also high & adjusted her medications accordingly.

She stabilised, then on Sunday made the statement that she didn’t want to continue living like this (wheel chair bound & wearing depends) & was going to die. Spent the next 3 days sitting there listless, not caring about anything. Think she had a slight stroke Sunday night as her speech was a bit slurred the next day, however sugar levels, checked twice daily, were back to normal.

Wednesday morning she got up as normal then about 7:30 she spit up a bit & looked like she was trying to go back to sleep. Doctor was called but when he arrived 20 minutes later she was in a coma. He tested her sugar level & her an insulin injection, by this time the ambulance had arrived, less than 5 minutes after being called.

At this point it was apparent that she likely wasn’t going to come out of the coma & it was just a matter of time. Also factored in was a strike of clerical workers at the hospital so that when the body would be returned was in question & given the fact that she had signed a DNR, I went with the doctors suggestion that she be left in peace where she was.

The way it appears to me is that once the overprescribed drugs that the Ontario quacktaters had given her wore off & she was back to some where normal & had enough free will to end a life she never wanted, in a wheel chair, unable to even feed herself.

The ambulance was sent away & at 08:30 Central time death was pronounced!

Now of course that hour was just a tad hectic as the daytime nurse who was on her way in on her bike, was called for advise while awaiting the doctors arrival. Then when he got there we had to call a friend to interpret, as my Spanish is still pretty rudimentary & not up to that situation.

During all this the night-time caregiver + the caretakers wife & her sister, the alternate night person reacted extremely well, the daytime nurse was very professional, the doctor amazing & the ambulance crew were there in no time giving what assistance was necessary.

A person in Canadian nursing home would have to be extremely fortunate to receive the quality attention she did. At home in the country, NO WAY!!!

Apparently some religions like to keep the bodies around for quite a while before burial & since embalming isn’t widely practiced the government passed a law that burial must take place within a day so arrangements have to be made quickly.

This amazing doctor who is overworked at the free clinic in La Libertad took the time to get cremation prices as per her wishes however the $3000 quote put the kybosh on that idea! He then went back to his office & made the arrangements with the funeral home & ordered the casket.

In the meantime my real-estate lady, a Salvadorian who married to a Canadian, lived in Canada for 30 years then retired back here looked after getting, my pigheaded maintained man (more on him later) to arrange for the grave to be dug that day, not the next as he wanted, in the cemetery a couple miles up the road in Hacienda San Diego. Then picked me up to go to the town hall for the burial permit.

We arrived back at the casa at the same time as the funeral homes pickup with the casket, as it would still be a couple hours before the grave was ready they sealed the casket & would return at 5:00 pm for the trip to the cemetery.

All mothers care givers, their families attended the burial along with a couple people from the local X-pat community & the doctor. Not a bad send off for a lady that didn’t want to bother any one when she went.

Now the doctor (who must remain nameless on a public forum) took a house call at 07:30 in the morning, did what he could to ease the passing of a patient, paid the ambulance crew out of his own pocket, went above & beyond any reasonable call of duty in making the burial arrangements, closed the clinic early to attend the burial.

Then absolutely refused to accept ant payment for his services. Try to find a doctor like that in Canada. On top of all that he is an excellent doctor!!

Unfortunately I couldn’t fulfill her wish of cremation & her ashes buried in Perth ON but I figure the quality of the last couple months of her life more than made up for that.

A new year, filled with new experiences, in a new country, this is good as life never gets a chance to be boring.

I always was a pretty good judge of character, when the superintendent customs officer on duty when I spent my 5 hr entry process into El Salvador told me that the bus must leave the country within 60 days I got the impression that he was a straight shooter, knew the law & that’s the way it was!

However it’s only human nature to try & find a way around laws one doesn’t like so when an importer says that it “should” be possible to leave for a day then come back in, one tends to feel it’s worth a try. Then when a customs officer informs a potential buyer the same story, it’s time to take a short road trip to Guatemala.

Bus has to be out of the country by Jan 2nd, there was 1 legal way to keep it (not divulging that info for free) but by the time it was discovered there was no time to get the appropriate paper work done, so New Years day I was Guatemala bound on CA-2. Got a new 2 month permit for Guatemala.

Spent a relaxing night a an auto hotel near Taxisco then in the morning headed for Valle Nueve, the next crossing to the north (no point in pressing your luck trying to re-enter at the same point. Got lost in Chiquimulila, typical Guatemalan thing where the main road divides into 2 one-way streets with absolutely NO signs telling one how to rejoin & of course the actual route having a different # than the map makes it that much more interesting. Then spend a couple hours on a rough, winding mountain road with a couple really bad sections where bridges had been washed out, another couple hrs (a nice day & I am in no rush) gets me to the border on CA-8.

Being kind of Leary about all the “good” advise I had been given tell the Guatemalan authorities that I am just visiting El Salvador (keep my 60 day permit that way). Which was a good thing because—.

You guessed it!

No permission por entrada el bus!!

A call to my importer dude results in the advise to go to the border at Anguiatu where he crosses on his way to Puerto Barrios, to pick up American insurance write-offs they bring in to be rebuilt. He has a friend in customs there, so it will be no problemo!!

Backtrack again, spend the night in Jutiapa at the Del Sol Hotel, a really nice place in a not bad town & only 250 Q/night. More mountain roads, ‘tis Guatemala you know, to reach the border, CA-12 now. The amigo (who has been offered an incentive to facilitate entry) is there & after a couple hours messing around.

NO entrada!!!

Another night spent in the Hills of Guatemala. Next morning arrangements are made to park the bus at the house of my importer dude’s friend at the border, where it still sits.

How time flies when one travels, lots of water under the bridge, lots of changes + I have changed myself.

Just perused my old blogs, can hardly believe my first blog post was April 26, 2008 & that as of 1/2 hr ago there were 47,798 hits on it, guess some must find it interesting.

My goals & beliefs haven’t changed from those first postings however some less than stellar experiences with the federal/provincial governments have left an extremely bitter taste in my mouth, making me utterly detest Canada & everything it has come to stand for!

My first New Years on the road was 2009 in Havana, the 50th anniversary of the revolution, pretty cool being in Havana at the Hotel Nacional on that historic occasion. had also pretty much narrowed my search for a retirement location down to Antigua Guatemala.

A year & many miles later I saw 2010 arrive in the fabulous Bangkok, where I never even dreamed at the time, that I would be returning in a couple months time to take a TEFL course & grow to love the city.

Now the eve of 2011 finds me in my house at Playa San Diego, El Salvador (property way overpriced in Antigua), revisiting the memories of the past 3 years & the life changes it has brought on.

I saw the Taj Mahal, Mount Everest from Tibet, Kipling’s Burma from the deck of a slow boat out of Mandalay. Took a balloon ride over the Australian outback, rode a camel in Mongolia & an elephant in Nepal. Traveled the north from Greenland, Iceland, Scandinavia, Siberia, Alaska, the Yukon & the south Tasmania to Christchurch. Stood on the equator in Borneo & came within a cat’s whisker of getting married in Bali. Drove US Route 66 from Chicago to Santa Monica, taking a side trip to Roswell.

Met, in person some fine people that I had talked to on internet forums & others on the road especially in Thailand.

No regrets at all!

Tomorrow it’s back to reality with a border run to Guatemala, hopefully to get another 60 day permit for the bus. Then find some teaching work & start saving for the next trip!

ps when relocating, try to find an ex-pat community with some Americans, Canadians are too caught up in themselves

Un Prospero Año Nuevo a todo

Hard to believe I have been here for 6 weeks, only seems like a few days ago that I arrived but am getting to know the places to go for the best deals around town & slowly getting things accomplished.

Found my caretakers forte, cement work. That’s a thing where he makes sure it’s done perfectly, none of the it’s good enough where concrete is involved. Pool repairs are done + skimmer & the piping for filter installed, shall let it sit a couple days then paint it the first of the week.

Been checking the weather lately, sure nice to have sun & 90’s when Canada’s getting dosed with caca blanca. Also noticed that the high temps here are almost exactly the same as Bangkok but the night time lows are normally about 10o cooler, on the coast, I guess.

Doctor ordered some blood tests done, just to see how things were progressing with mother, results came back fine. Ontario docs had her on thyroid meds but the tests showed they were unnecessary, so 1 more pill dropped.

When the medical team dropped her off, with the dogs breakfast of a dozen different meds + a bunch of insulin, they also gave the advice that she must eat right “lots of meat & taters”!

Now 5 weeks later, following a sensible, balanced diet (not lots of meat & taters) blood sugar levels (checked twice daily) are averaging 1/3 to 1/2 less than they were, the dozen meds have been reduced to one pill for blood sugar, one blood pressure + some vitamins in the morning. The sedatives she was prescribed, I was told to through in the garbage, which means she can get a tad cantankerous at times LOL!

Makes one wonder what in heck goes on in Ontario!!!!

Had my mail forwarded down & there was a bill for meds not covered by OHIP that totalled just over $500 for 3 months.

Picked up a months worth of meds at the doctors the first of the week, that included the thyroid meds that no longer need, cost $41. House calls dropped to $10, cost of nurse coming to house to take blood samples + lab fees $36.

Really makes one wonder what the hell is going on in Ontario!!!!!

Bought a trike, mounted a seat from the W/C bus on it so mother can get out ‘n about & down to  the playa.

Have an appointment with a vehicle importer, on Monday, to see about getting rid of the bus (have to before Jan 2) & picking up a van, or perhaps a truck, something more practical for getting around La Libertad anyway. Should be an interesting experience! Then see the lawyer about a residency permit for mother, have to do a border run every 90 days myself for now but have a plan on the back burner.

Once the holiday season has run it’s course will have to get serious about finding some teaching work, have a lead on that to. Then as an employed property owner all that remains is to find a novia to share it with.

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"!!!

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!!!

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 from Angels of flight & that of the local community.

First off, it’s not everyone, who when confronted by a wall negativity (seemingly contrived by vested interests) towards allowing mother to fly commercially to El Salvador. I have no concrete proof of this conspiracy but “if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck & quacks like a duck, in all probability, it is a duck! Also after making my feelings on the subject explicitly known to all involved, the resulting hold back of a piece of pertinent information on her condition, prior to her flight , reeks of payback!

With the only option being transport by air ambulance, most would have given up on the idea, instead of doing the math, which indicated that one flight from Oshawa to San Salvador was equal to only 9 months fees at the nursing home. Then factor in the fact that, one months fees at the home buys 7 months care at home in El Salvador. Lastly factor in the quality of care, merely adequate in Ontario against very good in El Salvador.

You come up with a no brainer, El Salvador is the hands down winner all the way! Sorry Bowmanville but you’ll have to find another sucker to fill that bed! Likely one that will also fall for the McGuinty governments $4,000 wheel chair scam!!

Finally with all the BS roadblocks eliminated, the day of transport arrives & she is flown down on an Air Nunavut flight from Oshawa airport to San Salvador’s Compalapa airport. I drive in to meet the ambulance, to lead it to the house, the local satellite dish installers had to ask directions, a city ambulance driver sure isn’t going to find it.

So we leave the airport in a strange looking convoy, myself in my handi-trans bus (sporting Ontario plates), the ambulance (with lights flashing) followed by an SUV containing 3 people from Air Support (no idea why other than it was a nice day for a drive in the country).

Now last spring’s floods took out a bridge on Hwy CA-2, turning the 1/2 hr direct route to Playa San Diego into a 1 1/2 hr journey through San Salvador. However with the advent of dry season, light vehicles have been fording the river just upstream from the bridge, so our little convoy takes to the river (gives a whole new meaning to “river road”), causing one of the Canadian medical team to comment that, that was a trip for his resume, as he had been in many strange situations but had never forded a river in an ambulance before! He didn’t comment on the 3 times we had to stop to let cows cross the highway, though.

Of course upon reaching the mile or so long street into Playa San Diego, our little convoy drew many inquiring looks from the locals, nothing like arriving in style with red lights flashing!

So that’s how mother made her arrival into our little seaside community!