We have been in Mazatlan since Friday evening....and here it is Wednesday! It has been a VERY busy time, but we have been having a blast.

We spent two days at the B & B - which was wonderful but a pain since we had the dogs with us. Every time we went anywhere I worried they would bother someone but thankfully the only other guest was a working man who was gone all day. We couldn't take them with us since it is too hot to leave them in the car, and we did have to eat, once in a while, anyway!

But Sunday morning we got to move into our new place. What a relief it was to unload the van! The dogs explored and romped, and have settled in as Mexican dogs....barking occasionally as people pass but loving their walks on the malecon and trying to learn how to do their business on concrete when necessary.

But enough about them. We love it here. We are dripping wet sometimes but haven't really felt HOT. I will say, though, that our feet need to adjust! We walk so much that towards the end of the day we can't handle any more walking.

We have been doing a LOT of buying. We bought a gorgeous wrought iron table with a marble top for the sala fresca. We bought two leather chairs for the living room. Today we noticed our next door neighbor had a sign advertising chairs and tables for sale and we bought another wrought iron table and three chairs (with no table top or chair seats) from them. They seem very nice and we managed very well between their limited English and our Spanish.

We really had to buy a lot of lamps. The house here is very old and when the previous owner restored it he kept true to the house and installed ceiling fans with no lights. So in order to even walk around at night we had to buy some lamps, fast! I had brought a few spotlights but we still end up carrying lamps from room to room sometimes.

One exciting thing that happened is the other night there was a loud noise while we were sleeping. I got up to see what was happening and found a yucky looking poop in the central courtyard. I thought we had an animal get in or something. In the morning I was surprised to see an injured duck-like bird in the courtyard. When it was still there when we came back from errands I called Martha Armenta, a local woman who is part of an animal protection group. She came and picked up the bird and we had a nice visit. I really look forward to getting to know her and other people in Mazatlan who are active in the community. She also gave us some advice on bringing our bird into Mexico.

We have been buying groceries - and hangars - and food - and tons of stuff which we will be glad to had over with soon.

We went out yesterday with our realtor, Erin. She had offered her help getting the utilities worked out, even though it isn't her main business. So, at 9 am we set off to get the water, electric, and phone transferred into our names, get a bank account and to make a stab at registering our FM3's. Everything closes at 2 for comida so we knew we needed to be efficient. We went to Bancomer and of course she knew the man there. He cranked away at papers and we had a bank account with two bank machine cards in about 45 minutes. Then we went to the pest control to make arrangements for spraying (we had found some ticks) and then off to the water department.

The water department was a 15 minute wait, then the paperwork was done, we paid the bill ahead 500 pesos and we were off. Now to the Electric company. We had a little snag because the house has two meters but that got worked out and off we went again! We went to Telmex to change the phone to our name and continue the internet, too. Again, it was about a half hour project. And I am happy we have a phone book, too.

At this point it was 1 pm and we figured we'd go to Immigracion just to find out what we needed so we could have it ready when we came back. They were so amazing! Happy, helpful and nice. They said we should go to the tienda down the street where the lady would do everything including typing the documents and taking the pictures. We went there and she was incredibly efficient, and by 2 pm our visa registrations had been accepted and we were given a time and date to return to pick them up.

At this moment we are in our makeshift office and I am sipping a glass of wine from a waterglass. We are both getting hungry so we will head downstairs now for a little food before we take a refreshing shower and head for bed.

More later.