# Strange experiences you have had or heard about in Mexico



## AlanMexicali (Jun 1, 2011)

Has anyone had an experience or heard of something that seems strange to you in Mexico?

I had 3 flat tires in 2 weeks visiting a family I know close to their house in a small pueblo with all dirt roads. They were all done by new short roofing nails. I was not alone. Many more people experienced the same thing there. All the evidence pointed to the guy who owned the only llantaria in town.


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## conorkilleen (Apr 28, 2010)

AlanMexicali said:


> Has anyone had an experience or heard of something that seems strange to you in Mexico?
> 
> I had 3 flat tires in 2 weeks visiting a family I know close to their house in a small pueblo with all dirt roads. They were all done by new short roofing nails. I was not alone. Many more people experienced the same thing there. All the evidence pointed to the guy who owned the only llantaria in town.


I posted this in another thread a while back. The only situation that I thought was weird and was very off put.

We signed up for Cablevison internet/cable/telephone service on the 18th of March. They said they would install in 15 days. We had to call them to find out that they would install on April 1st. Hooray! Well they never showed up and didn't give an explanation why. So they told us that they would install in another 5 days..well they guy came, pulled into the driveway, looked at me, then pulled out and sped off down the street? We called the office to ask what the heck was going on and then they proceeded to tell us that we live too high up on the hill to install cable....well why didn't the guy get out of his car and tell us that? He looked right at me standing in the doorway. We had to go down to the local Cablevision office and cancel the contract and get our installation deposit back...then they said they would not give me the money back we paid up front for the installation. Well, I did not agree and asked for the manager. Once he saw the ****** that could speak better Spanish than the customer service lady, he agreed to give me my money back in 30 days...its "policy" he said. "But the lady at the window said we lost out on the installation deposit and could not get it back?". He said he did not have an explanation for that either. Maybe she thought that you could not read Spanish because it says right there in the contract about canceling service before installation was complete. I think she wanted to take advantage of a ****** and keep the 450 pesos. Unbelievable. Went to Telmex and they set us up with phone, Dish, and internet in 5 days.


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## tepetapan (Sep 30, 2010)

I have had plenty of flat tires in Catemaco, a town that is 97% cement. I found it weird also. Walking the streets I have found nails many times, which I usually toss into an empty lot or something, thinking it may save me or some else a flat tire. 
Who knows in your case, if it is someone trying to drum up business, people besides yourself will handle it ...
I am not sure what the cable guy had to do with flat tires but our cable company will not connect more than 150 meters from the street. Meaning my casitas 1 - 4 get cable and 5 & 6 don´t get cable. Such is life in Mexico.


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## AlanMexicali (Jun 1, 2011)

*Nails on the road*



tepetapan said:


> I have had plenty of flat tires in Catemaco, a town that is 97% cement. I found it weird also. Walking the streets I have found nails many times, which I usually toss into an empty lot or something, thinking it may save me or some else a flat tire.
> Who knows in your case, if it is someone trying to drum up business, people besides yourself will handle it ...



I got the same message from my friend and her neighbors about the guy who owned the llantaria. They thought he was probably visited by a few angry locals and that is why this problem went away. 

On another note. People in the local area of a restaurant or street vendor who sells rotten food doesn't last long either from what I have heard. Word of mouth travels like lightening in Mexico as everyone seems to know everyone because of the way they socialized indiscriminately very often. Decades ago eating the street vendor food was cheap but more risky than the last 10 years or so.


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## AlanMexicali (Jun 1, 2011)

*Pueblo problems*



tepetapan said:


> I have had plenty of flat tires in Catemaco, a town that is 97% cement. I found it weird also. Walking the streets I have found nails many times, which I usually toss into an empty lot or something, thinking it may save me or some else a flat tire.
> Who knows in your case, if it is someone trying to drum up business, people besides yourself will handle it ...



I got the same message from my friend and her neighbors about the guy who owned the llantaria. They thought he was probably visited by a few angry locals and that is why this problem went away. 

On another note. People in the local area of a restaurant or street vendor who sells rotten food doesn't last long either from what I have heard. Word of mouth travels like lightening in Mexico as everyone seems to know everyone because of the way they socialized indiscriminately very often. Decades ago eating the street vendor food was cheap but more risky than the last 10 years or so.

Another strange thing my friend had to do. She lived quite far from the automobile sensor factory were she worked from Mon. to Fri. The pay window with her weekly check was opened everyday except Sun. at 8AM to 1PM and she would get me to give here a ride on Sat. morning to get her pay [her old Civic was parked in the back yard for a couple of years]. The line up was always a block long [500 employees worked there] and there was no parking in the lot because the Sat. shift was working so we had to park a few blocks away and wait in the line for an hour or more across the parking lot in the Mexicali sun, even at 9AM this is torture for 6 months a year. Then we had to go to the bank were the check was draw on that opened at 10AM Sat. near the factory and wait in a long line there for more than an hour. She said if she waited until Monday lunch hour the line was longer still [the weekend shift people wanted their pay] and had no time to get her check, on Tues. it was better, but would have no food to eat [4 young kids to feed and no ex husband giving support] usually by Fri.


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## tepetapan (Sep 30, 2010)

one of the things my wife has told me, " you do not go to the barber to get a hair cut, you go because the barber´s family needs to eat" It took awhile before that made it through my thick skull, but in a small town it is how things are done.
Stop by once a week and have him check the tire pressure, 10 pesos is all he might make that day.
Speaking of haircuts.... I guess I am overdue.


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

tepetapan said:


> one of the things my wife has told me, " you do not go to the barber to get a hair cut, you go because the barber´s family needs to eat" It took awhile before that made it through my thick skull, but in a small town it is how things are done.
> Stop by once a week and have him check the tire pressure, 10 pesos is all he might make that day.
> Speaking of haircuts.... I guess I am overdue.


Good advice. The lady that cleans my house comes every week. She used to come every other week which was fine for me, but then she lost one of her other clients, so I found an excuse to have her come every week.


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## AlanMexicali (Jun 1, 2011)

*Any money helps.*



tepetapan said:


> one of the things my wife has told me, " you do not go to the barber to get a hair cut, you go because the barber´s family needs to eat" It took awhile before that made it through my thick skull, but in a small town it is how things are done.
> Stop by once a week and have him check the tire pressure, 10 pesos is all he might make that day.
> Speaking of haircuts.... I guess I am overdue.


That reminds of 30 years ago when we used to spend weekends in Mexico and everyone threw their garbage out the car window or dropped it while walking. I asked why? The answer was the people who get paid to clean it up have to feed their families too. Some empty lots sure did look bad as well as many of the blvd.s all the time. I don't see that kind of overall carnage lately except the empty lots or vacant buildings and houses.


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## DNP (May 3, 2011)

tepetapan said:


> one of the things my wife has told me, " you do not go to the barber to get a hair cut, you go because the barber´s family needs to eat" It took awhile before that made it through my thick skull, but in a small town it is how things are done.
> Stop by once a week and have him check the tire pressure, 10 pesos is all he might make that day.
> Speaking of haircuts.... I guess I am overdue.


We should all remind ourselves of that as we go about our daily lives.


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## AlanMexicali (Jun 1, 2011)

*Stange thing happened*

When I think about my friend in the pueblo and her family I feel sad because they were moving up in the world and moved out of their pueblo property to a new Urbivilla house [federal govt. small houses] close by in the suburbs of Mexicali. She tried to rent her house with no luck and eventually the house was stripped of everything including the doors and windows.

It became a nuisance to the police as it was a hangout. One day the police came and knocked what was left down to a pile of rubble on the slab. Today 5 years later it remains basically the same except people took the lumber and left the broken drywall. The trees are dead except the palms survived, quite a site, but not that uncommon.

I put up a picture of that house 6 years ago as it looked in an album on my profile.


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## AlanMexicali (Jun 1, 2011)

*Squatters paint my rental pink.*

When I had a hard time renting the small house because the many previous renters took the stuff out of it when they were evicted [toilet, kitchen cabinets with sink, circuit breakers, Etc.] and I didn't get around to getting it ready and it was empty for a year. In that year twice I had squatters move in and had to get them out. The last squatters were 2 families and they painted the house pink, outside and inside. I thought that was strange. I put up a picture of it on my profile album. LOL


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