Tag Archives: La Yacata Revolution

February 15, 2025 · 9:51 am

Power Outages in La Yacata

Things were trucking along with the electricity until suddenly, they weren’t. A freak hail storm just happened to hit the road the only transformer station in the area was located, which not having internet access (the towers providing internet access apparently went out as well), we didn’t find out until later. 

When the power went out, I had my son call and make a report. There was an option to report for the entire community, so he did so. The average repair time varied from 10 to 24 hours. I had just stocked my new fridge with perishables. 24 hours would be pushing it. I had no classes that day, so that was one less stressor. Eight hours later, the electricity finally came back.

During the interim, my son went to the corner store in another colonia near us. Here, he discovered the power was out all the way across town as the owner had gleaned this bit of knowledge from customers who had stopped in from various parts of town. He also confirmed that Telcel wasn’t working to add minutes to our phones. 

Once I found out that it wasn’t just La Yacata that didn’t have electricity, I felt a little better about the situation. I was imagining all sorts of worse-case scenarios, including CFE coming to take back the installation that connected us to the grid because they believed “we didn’t qualify” or some such nonsense. 

Well, less than a month later, the power went out again. This outage seemed to be localized to La Yacata, and the internet was not affected. The power went out 30 minutes before my morning class, so I had my husband haul a desk to the third floor of my son’s house, where the solar batteries had been relocated. It’s an unfinished room with no windows, so the breeze created a sort of vortex, but the internet worked, and there was power to plug my laptop in. I got everything set up minutes before class was due to start and then got a message that the student had canceled. Whew!

I sent a message to Super Prez asking him to call the report in. He did. The estimated time for the service call to the community was 10 hours. Dios Mio! That would interfere with my other classes. Fortunately, in under 2 hours, we were back in business, and I moved my laptop back to my office in the main house. Ahh, the stress!

These incidents made it clear to me that I would not be able to rely exclusively on grid power. The plan is to finish that upstairs room as an emergency bunker for when the lights go out so that I can scramble over there and teach my classes. It seems you have to roll with the punches when it comes to CFE electricity.

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Want to start from the beginning? Check out La Yacata Revolution: How NOT to Buy a Piece of Heaven in Mexico, available on Amazon.

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December 31, 2024 · 8:47 am

Convivio without CFE

A week after the official power inception, the CFE supervisor was back doing some final checks. He asked for, and I handed over the solicitud (application) for the last murete (meter post) that was installed and connected. I asked him if he had a date that he and his supervisors would be available to plan the convivio (community gathering). He said that week he was busy, but perhaps Monday or Tuesday of the following week.

Super Prez got a confirmation for Thursday between 2-3, and preparations began. R. bought a borrega (sheep) and a chiva (goat from my sister-in-law L. and assured us he knew just the person to have them prepared with montalay (which is a vegetable dish in guajillo sauce commonly served with birrira). R. was also in charge of the beer. My other sister-in-law, T., made 12 kilos of tortillas. C. made rice to accompany the meat and montalay. Her son-in-law provided disposable plates, cups, napkins, and utensils. We asked that anyone who was attending bring a family-size bottle of soda. We rented the chairs and tables from another colono. And the best part is I didn’t have to lift a finger to organize it! Anyone who asked what they could do or bring, I referred to C. and let her handle it. 

I posted the date and time in the WhatsApp community group, which started a firestorm. Immediately, the question was how much this would cost and whether they would have to pay if they weren’t attending. I explained that the cost would be divided equally among the lots and would come out of the fees for the second semester. A few colonos said they weren’t paying a peso. Others responded that they would gladly pay their part even though they couldn’t attend. One individual reminded everyone that in the old days, a meal was an appropriate demonstration of gratitude, and it was only fitting that we offered CFE the same for the enormous benefit our community received in having electricity installed, even if only a part of the fracionamiento (neighborhood). 

I tagged Super Prez in the conversation, and eventually he swooped in to smooth ruffled feathers, pointing out that divided among the properties, the cooperacion (contribution) for the convivio would not be more than 20 pesos, and there was really no reason to put up such a fuss. That settled everyone down, and we had approximately 80-90 colonos confirm their attendance.

The day of the convivio arrived. Super Prez confirmed that the CFE delegates were still planning on attending. The tables and chairs were set up on the first road with the hope that there would be some shade. We really need a community palapa for this type of event! Everything came together, and the tortillas, meat, and beer were delivered almost at the same time the rice was ready, which was seriously some sort of miracle. At just about 3 pm, colonos began arriving, and the serving table was set up.

Then Super Prez got a call from the CFE supervisor saying they could not make it. Apparently, his boss had just been fired, and the office was in a major upheaval. Hmmm, we’d have to look more closely at that situation, but not this day.

We went ahead and had our community gathering without them. The food was yummy. I had my husband haul the speaker we bought for the juntas (community meetings) down to the corner and got some tunes playing. The feeling was decidedly pleasant, and I enjoyed myself immensely. 

The sun disappeared behind the house, leaving a chill around 5 pm, and we started winding down. Attendees helped fold the chairs and tables and pick up trash. And that was that.

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Want the background to our little community adventure? Check out La Yacata Revolution: How NOT to Buy a Piece of Heaven in Mexico! Available on Amazon.

Get your copy today!

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November 26, 2024 · 7:42 am

Let There be Light – Part 4

The date was finally set for the CFE crews to coordinate on making the live connection from the intersection to La Yacata on Tuesday, October 29th at 10 am. Having faced delay after delay, I wasn’t convinced it really would happen as scheduled, so there was no fanfare at our house. Gotta see it to believe it!

We finished up adding the bits and bobs to switch from our solar setup to grid power. It was the longest 5 days ever. Our solar system needed renewal. The batteries were no longer holding a charge. The days were overcast, and even during midday, power was an issue. And I had classes to teach! I was as power-saving as possible. No lights on, only my camera light. As soon as the beeping started, I would switch to battery. The screen brightness was lowered, and all power-saving options were enabled. Still, I was counting down the minutes to see if the class would end or if my battery would give out first.

Super Prez had his work crew come out and install the muretes that were not yet placed. It took two days and considerably more effort than if the CFE crew with their winch and pulley setup had done it. I watched as the guys roped the murete and picked it up with the backhoe, then hold on to the other end while they bounced up the hill to the designated location.  

Finally, those were done, even though they would not be receiving electricity with this first group of 43. I’m still a little fuzzy on what needs to be done to make those connections, but that’s a problem for next month.

Tuesday finally arrived, and then we waited and waited and waited. 10 a.m. came and went. Around 11 a.m., we disconnected the solar setup and waited some more. My husband said he wanted to make sure the CFE workers had lunch, so we raced to town for some carnitas and coke. On the way, we passed the first CFE crew, who were readying their part for the live connection. On the way back, the second crew had arrived. We told them to stop by for a taco when they had finished and headed home to wait some more.

We sent a message to Super Prez’s crew to come for some carnitas and gathered in my son’s house. And then, suddenly, there were lights!

The meter ran a full 24 hours before the CFE truck came by with its GPS locator and booped it into the system. The relief I feel knowing that I have enough power to finish my evening classes has been immense.

There is still more work to be done. We have started the application for the electricity project expansion so that EVERYONE can have electricity in La Yacata and hope to hear back sooner rather than later on that. We also need to move the process to electrify these muretes along. Meanwhile, we went window shopping for a refrigerator and TV just to see the prices and hope to add them to our home soon.

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Check out where it all began in La Yacata Revolution–available on Amazon!

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