Welcome... After several months of entanglement with a hosting site that I won't mention, (it begins with Blue and ends with Host), we have finally decided to stick with good ol' Google Blog to continue sharing interesting experiences we are blessed to be faced with in the land of Enchantment. While most of our day to day challenges have not changed since the beginning of time, we still occasionally hit a wall on a new frontier. We change, the beach changes, Maya Chan changes, Mexico changes....well, Mexico never changes. We are always haunted with what we know will happen, but hope springs eternal. There's always that chance that Mexico has caught up with the real world and running a business will once again be a predictable, pleasurable challenge. Hahahahaha.
Anybody who has read the book or who has been following this blog, ( you know, the one on that other site), knows that we have been working for almost 17 years to get our Federal Zone in our own name. We have succeeded in doing that, however, since we are Gringos we want to see it in writing. The Mexican Government is not of the same opinion and does not want to put anything in writing. We do understand this: if it’s in writing the fun disappears. There is no longer a subjective interpretation of the law which a random government official can use to extort money from the Gringos. Game Over.
So our attorneys thought the best route would be to sue that particular branch of the government to force them to do their job, and give us that darn piece of paper. We won. But, as of today, they still haven't done their job. We are now in a penalty phase where the courts are requesting a financial payment from their own government, for noncompliance. I’m absolutely certain that financial payment will not be given to the entity paying all the legal fees and being harmed by their actions. Ok, I’m guessing, but….. we are no longer inexperienced Gringos.
Again, those who have read the book and have been following this blog, may be familiar with the term “sargassum “. I’m pretty sure I just heard a resounding stomach flop. Yes, it has been our number one challenge for the better part of the last decade. There has recently been some good news for us: the Mexican Government began issuing permits for those affected by the sargassum to build “walkways over the sargassum”. Do not confuse these walkways with docks or piers. They are simply “walkways over the sargassum”. Got it?
Being the Gringos we are, we filed for permission to build one of these walkways at Maya Chan. Because we are Americans. Because We follow the rules. We paid an astonishingly high fee, contracted with a local official to follow our request through the various hurdles, and waited. And waited. And waited. We eventually received a request from the prevailing government department to provide information on our septic system at Maya Chan. Not sure what our septic system had to do with our need for a “walkway over the sargassum”. However, we had recently replaced the whole system with the exact same system suggested by the government. We provided the paperwork and waited. And waited. I’m not talking days of waiting; I’m talking months. We filed early last season expecting to be through the process by the time our off season arrived. This would afford us plenty of time to build the walkway before our planned reopening in September. Silly Gringos.
Just last week we learned that our application received approval from three different government agencies. Yay us! But then somebody in the department of actually issuing the permit turned it down. Why? The actual denial stated that the original owners of the property, back when the early Aztecs still roamed the area, did not have a biological study done when the original septic system was originally installed. This system is no longer in existence, so it’s any ones’ guess as to why this is important, not to mention the fact that This was before biological studies had even been invented. If this line of reasoning sounds familiar, it’s probably because you read the book and have been following the blog.
The person we hired to follow our application through the process offered us a pretty unsettling suggestion as to what was really going on. It’s not pretty, so if you are one who believes in truth and justice and the American Way, well, let me remind you that this is not America. It was suggested to us that a particular government agency, which so happens to be the same government agency we are suing for our Federal Zone, is displeased with us. By bringing attention to the fact that they are not doing their job, we accidentally embarrassed them. And they are now retaliating. Like refusing to give us our legally acquired Federal Zone in writing wasn’t enough. And this is the country that swears they encourage foreign investment.
The most interesting part of all this is that it was suggested to us to go ahead and build our “walkway over the sargassum” without the necessary permits. What’s the worst thing that could happen? We would face a fine which would probably be a lot less than the attorneys fees we would spend trying to do things the legal way. Yeah. Read that again. Its the money pit we have found ourselves in with the Federal Zone all over again.
This reinforces the most important thing we have learned in almost 17 years: It is easier to ask for forgiveness than to legally ask for permission.
So, welcome back to a new season of fun and excitement, even without a walkway over the sargassum.
