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Health, Leases, and Toxicity in Paradise - Part 1
 Terra Mar - PVNN
August 31, 2010
Puerto Vallarta was in our hearts and our dreams long before we moved here. It offered so much, including our version of paradise, a vibrant ex-pat community and a health-conscious citizenry where my acupuncturist husband could set up shop.
We had planned ahead since we intended our move to PV, like a desirable job, to be full time and permanent. Unfortunately, the housing part of our plan fell into the category o' mice and men and went 'a-glay,' as aft they do. Except in our case it wasn't mice, it was termites. More specifically it was the toxic spray used on the little critters. But I'm getting ahead of my story.
Through a no-fault situation, we were unable to move into the place we had rented from afar and needed a place fast. It was the beginning of June, so there was availability and we settled on what seemed a pretty good deal. Through a reputable agency we quickly rented a modest but modern 2-bedroom Condo in Amapas. It came with air conditioning, a pool, a six-month lease and a hefty, but doable walk to town. My husband grew up in the Austrian Alps and I'm a great walker; we could have been fine there - except that's not the way it turned out.
The first day we noticed a few piles of dust and dead 'animalitos' on the floor. They turned out to be - of course - termites. I'm going to leave out a series of problems including the worm infestation which I think that was a fluke. Weeks of attempts to get rid of the squiggly guys taught us a few things however. Mostly we learned our landlord was unconcerned with upkeep. That approach ended up creating health issues for us as renters.
We hired Sylvia, a cleaning woman who did a great job taking care of the existing mold and helped us keep it at bay while we lived there. But as the rainy season took hold the termites created various passage ways in different areas of the bathroom. We tried Raid and bleach, the handy man even tried Silicone. The termites must have thought we were funny and ignored us. It's amazing how much they accomplish in a day; I could get jealous! It was only when they began nose diving in kitchen drawers and cabinets onto dish towels and cutlery that we contacted the rental agency. They promised our landlord would hire an exterminator.
And so began an expensive lesson in health, leases and toxicity.
The exterminator they selected was chosen because he was the cheaper of two bids. He arrived late on a Friday evening. When I asked questions about the product he told me it had no impacts on humans. In fact he 'sometimes used a face mask and sometimes didn't.' He wanted to do the extermination right then. We countered that the next morning would be better so we wouldn't have to sleep in the apartment right after he was done. He shrugged as if we were odd, and agreed. The next morning he told us we could return in an hour, open the windows to air out and everything would be fine.
We covered all kitchen items and our clothes and hired Sylvia to come later that day to wipe things down and put things back. We suggested she wait four hours before coming into the apartment.
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