Zihuatanejo, the next 2 1/2 months!

It's been a while since the last post!I'll try to keep it brief without missing too much.

By the second week of December the regulars were starting to fill up the empty lot. Nice to see old friends again.

Art found that his new electric bike was all he hoped to be, up the La Ropa hill without strain, sitting down and pedaling lightly, the 350 watt motor took him up in second gear. To centro and back with lots of battery left, easy run to the supermarket for small things, (the carrier won't carry much).  Art is looking forward to a run out the other side of Ixtapa via the cyclopista.

He should know better than to plan.  He woke one day with a fever which soon progressed to a high fever with sore throat and cough. Eventually our good friend Jorge, from Morelia,  who had arrived a few days previously and was parked across from us, came over with his stethoscope to investigate the coughing sounds he had heard. Bronchitis.

After the fever had subsided, though with the cough still very much present, he recommended that Art go for a chest X-Ray, which cost all of 250 pesos if memory serves right, ($20.00) Jorje had a look and said that there was nothing serious to worry abouts, continue on the meds to loosen the phlem and help clear the lungs. He also had a culture done on the expectorate to check for bacteria (about $60.00) which came back negative. Nice to have an Internist handy!


However the cough and sore throat persisted though Christmas and New Year, and as Art began to feel better in the new year, Gillian decided that it was her turn! The dogs enjoyed their Christmas toys though!

Through all this of course , we had no air conditioner. Inside temperatures were in the high 20's to 30C even with both fans running on high.

Jim,the Air Conditioner Guy, had returned in the second week of January with the new compressor for the heat pump. It was a real chore getting the heat pump out, I'm glad we didn't tackle it ourselves although our friend Brian had come over to help.

  There was very little room to work. Jim had to remove the last 4 screws along the top lying on his back under the unit, one arm up each side and working strictly by feel. Better him than me.


 It took about 4 days to get it up and running! The first major problem was the reason the compressor had failed in the first place: A copper line had fractured, all the cooling gas was gone, the compressor had been running empty.

Tested for leaks,

Old compressor out and new one in:

Fired it up: Fans working but when the compressor tried to kick in everything stopped. I won't go into all the details but it had new start capacitors, even a hard start kit, but it would not run. It kept trying but as soon as the compressor tried to start the unit quit.

Jim tried everything he could thing of, so Art called RVP Tech support in Illinois on his Mexican cell phone and we got the answering machine--it was Saturday!

So we covered everything up and Jim left for the rest of his weekend.

Monday he had an emergency at work but later contacted tech support and arrived Tuesday with some info they had faxed to him. Nothing worked. We thought that perhaps the power in the campground wasn't adequate so Art fired up the 7.5 KW generator. Same problem.

There was nothing left but to call Tech Support Again. Jim and the tech conversed for some time then Jim began a series of tests and measurements. Art checked the balance his cell phone--there was only 3 pesos left! He dashed off in the Jeep to the nearest OXXO, a chain of corner stores, to add some money to his balance. On the way Art remembered that some weeks ago he had reset the low voltage parameters on the Xantrex Inverter/charger which monitors the incoming voltage and temporarily cuts it off is it is too high, two low, wrong frequency etc.

Back at the motorhome Art reset the low voltage cutoff and we were off and running! It would appear the the just as the compressor starts there is an instantaneous high current draw, too fast for our meters to see it, but enough for the Xantrex to respond to the ensuing voltage drop.

Sometimes the second stage wouldn't start, and the problem would reappear so for now, we have switched off the breaker for the second compressor and all is well. At least we're cooler now.

The daytime temperatures here are in the high 80's. usually around 88F and the humidity is relatively high. We usually set the thermostat to 79 or 80 which is comfortable i.f the AC had taken the humidity out. With just the first stage running we have found that if we wait until the inside temperature gets of 82 or higher it's all the unit can do to keep it at 82 until later in the afternoon when we get a little more shaded. It runs continuously without a break until about 5:30 or 6 and is usually off for the night by 7.  If we start it a little earlier when the inside temp reaches 80 it will maintain that relatively easily and will cycle on and off a few times during the day. When the second stage was running it cycled on and off regularly and had no trouble keeping things cool. When we next run the generator for it's monthly exercise we'll try the second stage.



A few days later we had major shore power problems with the voltage rising and falling very quickly and upon investigation we trace the problem to the breaker box on the campground wall--it was very hot, and looking inside we could see that the breaker was burnt along with the mounting screw and a foot or more of wire! The breaker hadn't tripped, and would still pass a little current but we shut if off and went to the inverter until it could be fixed the next day.

Next day Mundi, the owner, arrived with the electrician who changed out the box and installed a new breaker. Art noticed later that although he had cut back the burnt wire it wasn't as clean and shiny as it should have been, still looking a little burnt.

That evening the neighbour called me to say that the breaker box was very hot. It was! Art called Mundi and we reverted to the inverter and batteries for the night.

The electrician arrived again with a new box and this time only put in a 20A breaker because I was "using too much power which is why the 30A Breaker burnt up" !!!??? I mentioned that the high resistance of the burnt copper that he had attached to the screw was more likely the problem. He insisted that he had cleaned the wire first, which he had not done, but at least he cut back to good wire this time.

Now we can't use the microwave with anything else that draws much power, but we can live with that. Next year we will insist on 30 Amps or a reduction in the rates.

The trade qualification required here to be called an electrician, plumber or what ever is just to have a few tools and the willingness to tackle the job! Though many are very skilled there is often a serious lack of knowledge.

Bronchitis had pretty much slowed us down throughout December and January, we weren't really up and about and doing much until February. Just in time for Sailfest, where we both volunteer.

We enjoyed the Benefit Concert, the Chili Cook-Off and Street fair, Art won a couple of raffle prizes--T shirt, bracelet for Gillian, Bobble head armadillo (Just what we need!) and a 300 peso voucher for lunch at one of the restaurants at Playa Las Gatas.

One Friday Art volunteered to stay home with the dogs (too much walking for him!)while Gillian took two other couples, friends of ours from the campground, in the jeep to the ruins and museum of Xihuacan at La Chole.

We had been there for the first time about 9 years ago, prior to the authorised dig, and had visited the small museum that Adan had put together in his home in the nearby village of La Chole. During that visit Adan had take Gillian to a hilltop where a huge cactus grew on the summit and told her that he was sure that there was a pyramid beneath. Seems there was! Although the cactus has since died. We have a photo of this somewhere but I believe that it is on our backups and Art's computer, both of which are at home. It may get added later if I remember to look for it!

Much of the ruins have had to have been rebuilt as unlike most ruins in Mexico they were not built of blocks of stone but of adobe bricks. They did not fare well when a tsuname roared through the area centuries ago.

After the ruins Gillian drove a little further south to Bahia, Papanoa, where they stopped for lunch.

Gillian is thinking of kitchen reno's at home in a year or so; Art was a little concerned to see her return with this photo of  this very functional stove in the restaurant.

 

Other than that, we visited a few restaurants have spent much of our time resting and recuperating, doing lots of reading, when we could get at the books on the restaurant "library" table, often occupied by Totopos, one of the restaurtant cats who seems to read herself to sleep quite regularly.

As of the third week in February Art has yet to do the cylopista! Though he did ride to and from his volunteer stints in Centro, the last time getting a flat and having to call Gillian to bring the Jeep instead of taking the bus when she came in for her shift at the desk! He has two weeks to get it done.

Here is a link to a video of the same model and year of  Art's electric bike a 2010  Wisper 905SE, climbing Kootenay Pass in British Columbia. 2010 Wisper 905 SE