Noise level on Zaragoza

We are considering a longterm rental on Zaragoza about halfway between Alvaro Obrego'n and 5 de Febrero. Can you tell me what the noise level might be in that area? I know a bus goes by every 30 minutes, but it looks as though it is a paved rather than cobblestone street. Would that make a difference? Any info is appreciated.

That's far enough away from the plaza that you should not get much noise from there. Probably just the bus noise during the day.

Bus noise is it agree with CB you are far enough away.

Z

Thanks so much! My daughter and I both saw this house on the internet separately and sent it to the other as our "perfect place." It seems to meet all our needs, and I think it even has an avacado tree! It comes available at just the right time for us, so we want to be ready. We are coming for a visit the end of Dec and first wk of Jan and can actually spend time at various times of the day at its location to evaluate bus noise. Glad to hear buses stop during night hours.

We have thought we might offer to pay one month's rent as "earnest money" while we are on our visit in order to make sure no one leases out from under us. We would then negotiate the lease and pay the other two month's rent when it is actually available to view inside. What do you think? We have also thought we might ring the doorbell and ask the present tenants if they would mind our doing a walk through while we are there in Jan. Would that be rude?

One concern we have is that the property is leased "unfurnished." The present tenants have only been there for one year and are letting it go. They may have just leased until they knew where they wanted to live, but because it is unfurnished, we were a bit concerned at their short occupancy. Should we be?

We are choosing not to bring a car and figure we can hop a bus to the farther markets to shop, but we do want to be able to walk about in Ajijic. I estimate that the plaza is about a 10 minute walk. Am I close? Is it a viable walk about area?

You would think I would ask about safety being 2 females, but my experience previously with Ajijic (10 years ago for 1 week) is that there are really no "unsafe" areas in Ajijic unless you go nosing into other people's business. Am I accurate in that?

We will want to go to the plaza sometimes on some nights. Will it be safe to walk from our location to the plaza (2 females)?
I also believe the LCS singles have events in the evening we will want to attend. Again, is it safe for 2 females to walk from our house to LCS or other locations in Ajijic during evening hours?

Lot's of questions, but we are in the thows of combining two households and deciding what to ship and what to leave behind. We read some places to bring our small kitchen appliances and other places that they are inexpensive to purchase. We plan to bring them and our cooking vessels. Is that a good plan?

We are also bringing towels, linens and our beds. Have an opinion?

Enough questions for another thread, but hope you get back to this one and answer. I respect that you are long termers and know the ropes. We have lived abroad before, but it has been years ago. Things change--sometimes rapidly. We were in Libya before Gadaffi and in Iran during the last years of the Shah. Good memories both places. Being in SA area of Texas, Mexico should not be quite such a cultural shock as, say, Libya.

SuzieQ

Zaragoza is a long street so it's hard to estimate walking time to Plaza without more info. What is the nearest cross street?

As posted above, the nearest cross street is Feb 5 so yes it will be a 10 to 15 minute walk depending on how fast you walk.

Ring the bell and ask them why they are moving. They may not tell you but it's worth a try.

As for walking at night, you should exercise the same caution as you would in a big city. Most nights there are many people on the streets until 10pm or so. I wouldn't recommend that women should be walking around after midnight. There has been a couple of incidents that I am aware of within the past 8 months.

You are correct...I didn't go back to OP to see which block.

Unfurnished seems odd for a short term rental. That would leave you a LOT of stuff to buy, and that takes time and money. You would need to book into a B&B first or else arrive with your sleeping bags and coffeepot in hand, would you not? I know some townhouse rentals on Zaragoza, nice places, relatively quiet neighborhood, BUT those places are rented furnished, targeted to short-term or seasonal renters. Why not book into a B&B and look around and see rentals first-hand? Things can look great on the internet but have some fatal flaw--or two or more fatal flaws. My advice is: don't rent anything sight unseen for more than 3 months.

All good info. Thanks. We don't plan to walk about during late hours but would like to walk to the Plaza for dinner on a Sat night and people watch or something.

When we come for our exploratory trip 24 Dec - Jan 7, we have a furnished house waiting. The Zaragoza house is the one we wish to lease long term for our move to Ajijic. It comes available about the time we plan our move, or at least one of us will come. Meanwhile, we plan to bring things like linens in suitcases as we make our short trips and store them in a rental unit. They include an inflatable bed. My daughter will continue to bring things down after I move, and we will shop together for the few pieces of furniture we must have. Both of us plan to ship our beds and mattresses. We hear the Mexican beds are short, and our linens fit our beds. We seem attached to them also. Wise idea?

We will come again in June, as I want my daughter to experience the weather without air conditioning if not in April/May then at least in June. She is a bit less adaptable than I, and I want her as fully prepared as possible for her new abode. I am not too worried about cultural shock, as she was raised from 5 - 11 in Libya and later resided part time in Iran. She has also done mission trips to Costa Rica, so she has some idea about expat living and different cultures.

Again, I thank you for all your help and look forward, hopefully, to meeting you all someday soon.

SuzieQ

April/May are the two hottest, driest months of the year. Once the rains start in June things cool down significantly.

SuzieQ1954 wrote:b] Both of us plan to ship our beds and mattresses.  We hear the Mexican beds are short, and our linens fit our beds.  We seem attached to them also.  Wise idea?[/b]

SuzieQ

Have you gotten an estimate on shipping beds/mattresses? Could be expensive and IMO unnecessary. Personally I like Mexican bedding...it's firm and good for the back. Regardless, there are places here to buy American-style mattresses.

I agree with bringing US linens.

I would like to add to C.B. comment on april/may hot dry  weather.  Hot is all relative. Normal high temperature is about 92F with 88F being more normal. Night does cool off just like high altititude does which we are at 5000ft. A hot day in the summer here is like a nice day in L.A.  Yes it may be hot in the afternoon (get it siesta time)but it really lasts until June when it starts to rain cool off and humidity goes up.  I like our dry hot summer but its not really too hot unless you are a northern dweller and not use to anything over 80F. Most US folks have no problem with the heat.  We do have little gas heaters for the winter for the six weeks of cold.  Maybe 50F is low and 75F is high when sun heats things up in winter.  
Please leave your electric small heater at home cause you can't afford to run it here because of electrical costs that why we use little catalytic LP heaters which you should buy one when you get here.  Also know our BBQ gas tanks you know the little ones are different here.  Don't bother bringing US tanks here as they are difficult to fill and take different hoses. From another traveler you will do fine here considering your experience.  I did the middle east also and lots of us are running around doing well here. I meet world workers here all the time.

Good luck

Z

The hot season is dusty and smoky in May because of burning otherside it is great no need in our house for a/C during the day so it is not that hot.

I love a hard mattress, but I understand the MX mattresses run shorter than US, and I have lots of linens that are only a few months old, so would like to bring them. Since we live in SA, TX area, we are thinking of driving a UHaul truck just over the border and letting a local lakeside moving company meet us there, transfer to their truck and drive our shipment down. That should cut costs somewhat. Any opinions on doing that? Obstacles we might encounter?

Can't take Uhaul over border. You have to bring title to come to mexico or letter from loan company giving permission. Also you have no insurance over border not like going to Canada.

Z

Customs will NOT allow a UHaul over the border and no UHaul franchise would let you take an uninsurable truck out of the USA.

Thanks I will reread the post by the people who used a UHaul to move from Plano, TX several years ago.

SuzieQ1954 wrote:I love a hard mattress, but I understand the MX mattresses run shorter than US, and I have lots of linens that are only a few months old, so would like to bring them.  

I have never had a problem using US king sheets on a Mexican king mattress [or US queen on Mexican queen]. You're correct that the Mexican mattresses are shorter but my sheets adapted without a problem.]

We used a small UHaul trailer as far as Laredo; put the stuff in storage and picked it up later with our SUV. You cannot take a rented UHaul into Mexico.

If the cross street on Zaragosa is Obregon, then it will be very noisy. I lived on Zaragosa for 1 year and the music at the eventos place near by was very loud. This was during the week and week ends. If you have no car, then you don't have to worry about someone parking in front of your garage door. This happened to me at least 3 to 4 times a week, and you won't find the owner anytime soon. I would not move back to that area again.