By: Mari Pintkowski

A dream of building a B & B South of the border.

We had planned to fly together to Merida, where I was to attend an early-childhood conference. A professional colleague and her husband were planning to meet us in Merida. I realized Lou’s sleepless nights meant something was troubling him and gently approached the subject.

“Lou, I can tell that you are concerned about what might be happening on our property in Tulum. Maybe you should follow your premonition and go down to Mexico a few days early to check things out.” That very night he changed his ticket and headed south a week early.

When he arrived on the property in Mexico, he saw the white stickers on the fence with the words “Clausurado” (closed) dated Dec. 27^th. He headed over to find Victor and uncover the mystery. It turns out that Victor had not told us of the closure because he was afraid that we would be angry. Solving the “Clausurado” problem together became the focus of their next few days.

The two amigos drove north to Playa del Carmen to see the powers that be. The secretary told them they needed to have a letter typed up immediately and brought back to the office. The purpose of the letter was to explain the problem about building the retaining wall without a permit and to ask for forgiveness. With the help of an old man, who ran a one-seat secretarial business consisting of a desk and a 30-year old typewriter he had set up between two buildings under a second-floor balcony, they drafted a letter in Spanish. They returned with the letter and were told they needed to present it to the Perfepa (environmental police) in Cancun. Once in the big-city offices, they waited for three hours to see the same man they had just met in Playa del Carmen. They handed him the typed letter and were told that they would have an answer in two weeks to three months.

Back at the property in Tulum, there were two strange men waiting to see Lou: an Argentinean architect/builder, Javier, and a stocky Mayan with a mass of graying dreadlocks who acted as the interpreter. Cristobal, the Rasta-man, translated and told Lou that we were in big trouble and needed Javier’s help. He would be able to get the “Clausurado” removed and fines reduced due to his personal connections in the government offices. He said he would not charge us for this work if we hired him as our architect and general contractor on the house we were going to build. We agreed to let him work on solving the closure problem. We told him we would decide later about hiring him to perform future work on our project.

It was days before the architect/building inspector in Tulum had our plans ready. To our surprise, the drawings of the house were presented with only one tall, boxy building. He explained that this is how things are done in Q.Roo (at that time). The important thing was to just get approval on one structure, and later you would be able to add-on whatever you wanted. Lou clearly did not like his plan and decided to find an architect we could communicate with at home in Vail, Co. who would create something more aesthetically pleasing. Lou was aware that everyone seemed to use the same computer program. Once the house was designed the way we wanted and saved on a disk, it would be easy later to make small changes, so we thought, with a qualified Mexican architect or engineer. Lou also had a survey done by the building department in Tulum. This gentleman, who we would find out later, was the original owner’s father, snarled as he told Lou that he would give him the certified paperwork “when and if we could show proof of ownership with a title.”

Lou needed to put things on hold and pick me up at the airport in Cancun and drive together to Merida for our four days in the city. When our little vacation/professional training ended, we were fortified and ready to pounce on our prey. We had a slow start, as our first meeting ended before it began. The notary was not in the office, the interpreter did not show up, and we sulked out of the office to see what our next appointment would bring. Javier met us as scheduled, but this time instead of the Rasta-man, he brought his distinguished-looking wife along to be the interpreter. They had nothing to tell us yet about the retaining-wall situation but said they would be in touch through e-mail when they were notified of a decision from Perfepa. He let us know that as far as getting building permits on our proposed house, he would only be able to get approval to build on 15 % of the property because of the sensitivity of the lot to the fragile coastal ecosystem and Tulum ruins. We would definitely have to downsize our plans.

We returned to the notary’s office, and many hours later we walked out with our corporation documents. We were told we would need to return in a month to complete the corporation papers. Could it be possible that we would actually be returning to Mexico so soon?

This is another excerpt from Mari’s newly released book, Embarking on the Mariposa Trail, available at local book stores and www.amazon.com or go to the website www.laselvamariposa.com.

STAY TUNED FOR MORE STORIES OF ONE COUPLE’S DREAM TO BUILD A B&B SOUTH OF THE BORDER.

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