Complications

We can still call out on the VoIP, but, except for the Primus customer service rep. (who was able to call me twice on the VoIP), no one has been able to call in to us. There seems to be some trouble with the changeover. Anyone calling us, gets the old voice mail intro we had with Aliant. Thus, it seems that calls to us are not being redirected from Aliant to Primus. Primus said that they were working on the problem, but no word yet.

We discovered a new problem yesterday; Barb had said it was so, but I couldn’t believe it. However, at the moment, Barb cannot drive our car in Mexico. When we got the new car, I thought that I had said to register it in both our names; however, the registration is in my name only. Not only that, but I filled out the importation permit for the car in my name only. Only married spouses and children of the owner are allowed to drive the car in Mexico. Common law marriage is not recognized in Mexico. Thus, according to Mexican law, Barb is not related to me. Apparently, we have only 2 options: either get the car re-registered in both our names in Nova Scotia (to do that we both have to go in person to a registry office in Nova Scotia); or we get married. However, I’m not sure that the latter is very simple in Mexico. [To see about the latter, go to the  LCS site http://www.lakechapalasociety.org/  and then look up “Legal” on the menu on the left side. Then from the list of topics, see “Apostille: What is it?” and then “Marriage and Divorce”. Getting all the required documents certified in Canada would be a real hassle. I remember old movies where they talked about slipping over the Mexican border from California for quickie marriages or divorces. Whatever the case then, it sure is not the case now.]

Until we get this sorted out, Barb can’t drive. If she were to get in an accident, the insurance company might use that excuse to refuse to pay (even though Barb is registered on the policy) and it is possible that the car itself could be impounded and confiscated although unlikely; when a number of foreign plated cars were impounded a while ago, all were later released. Not everything is as simple as it may seem.

We went back into Guadalajara today to visit the giant mall area. We went to Costco, Sears, Liverpool, Wal-mart as well as some smaller stores in the mall. It is huge; there are several buildings over a large area, but in total, I think the size of the retail areas might rival the Edmonton Mall. We did do a wrong turn on the way in and on the way out. However, we sorted it out eventually, but did arrive home a bit exhausted after about 5 hours or so. I think that it is a bit over 60 kms away. We still think that we shall go in as infrequently as possible although I doubt if we would make wrong turns another time.