banking on my modem

They say it is an ill wind that blows no good.

I am not certain what adage could be spun out of a wind that blows nothing but good. But I had one of those today.

After returning from Oregon, Mexico served up two problems: getting pesos for my daily needs and a modem that would have done Camille proud.

I will not trot out my ATM woes. You know the tune well enough to sing along.

For almost a half year, the ATMs in town have been refusing to honor northern debit cards. Usually, it is simply Banamex, the only traditional bank in these parts. But, whatever the affliction is, it also occasionally affects the ATMs at Intercam and the Mexican Army base.

Not many businesses locally take credit cards. But there enough grocery stores and restaurants that do to tide over a starving tourist.

My problem is I do not want to tide over. I want to hoist sails and get on with it. And so I have.

We have a branch of Intercam in San Patricio. When it came to town, it offered investment possibilities. But, years ago, it expanded its operation to include almost all forms of banking. Checking. Savings. Long-term investments. Even an ATM.

For various reasons, I have put off opening an account there. I cannot even remember what excuses I used. But I did. Banamex's failure to resolve its customer service failure with its malfunctioning ATMs sent me over the edge.

I would like to say it is simple to open an account at Intercam. And I suppose it is. But it is a bit more difficult than opening an account in The States.

I needed the usual documents. My passport. My most-recent CFE bill. My permanent residence card. (For those of you who have asked the question, you can open an account with a permanent or temporary residence visa -- or a tourist card. The tourist card requires a few additional documents I did not have to produce.)

But I did have to produce a slough of information. My marital status. My address. Two references living permanently in Mexico. My Social Security number. My former occupation. The name of my former employer. My CURP. A sample of my maternal grandfather's hair. And a partridge in a cashew tree.

Well, maybe not the last two. But I felt as if I was applying to take money from Intercam instead of desperately trying to give it dollars as seed money for my account.

After two appointments, I wrote a check to open my account. And waited. Two weeks. For the check to clear. So said Intercam's representative.

Last night, I received the good news that as of this morning my Banamex shackles have  been broken. I am now a card-carrying Intercamunist. The next time the Banamex ATM acts up (and I predict that will be tomorrow), I will have another port where I can ride out the storm. It is better than tiding over.

But that was just half of my good day. I am now the proud owner of two internet modems. As I already told you (singing the internet blues and hallelujahs), I was surprised on Monday when a Telmex technician showed up with modem in hand to get Mexpatriate zipping down the digital highway.

Even though I was up and running, I decided to put my internet backup plan in motion. On Sunday afternoon I had purchased a Telcel modem that operates on our area's cellular signal. I would have had it up and running on Monday morning when the Telmex modem arrived, but the vendor asked for another day to get it ready to operate.

On Monday evening, I picked it up. I took one look at the setup manual and set it aside. According to the manual, I needed an ethernet cable to enable the modem for wifi. My laptop does not have an ethernet cable connection.

Julio, the manager at Rooster's, told me he spent a couple of hours setting his up his Telcel modem. But he was surprised that the vendor had not done that for me. As he was talking, I realized that is exactly why the vendor had asked for the second day. He needed to contact Telcel to hand me a plug and play modem.

And that is exactly what he had done. With one little tweak, the modem was up and running. And I mean running like a greyhound rabbit. I am lucky to get 10 mps connection speed on my Telmex modem -- even though I am right next door to a Telmex switching station.

My Telcel modem leaves it in the dust. A number is not necessary. Take my word for it, it is fast. If you do not take my word for it, you might say that if it were a speed limit, it would not be just the law, it would be a good idea.

Telcel has offered home internet over its cellular service for some time. It was marketed primarily to people who could not get an internet connection with Telmex. Since then, the service has improved markedly.

So, I doff my feathered hat to Chavita Ruiz at Los 3 Mosqetecnicos (I have no idea which one is Athos) in Villa Obregon. If you live in this area and would like to slip into a digital Lamborghini, Chavita is your man.
You probably figured it out already (because the readers here are a clever lot), but that is the shop front at the top of this essay. On Calle Benito Juarez, a block west of the jardin.

New bank. Better internet connection. What could make a better day?