Day: October 5, 2014

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A Little Cultural Research

I’ve done a lot of research about Mexico over the years, confident in my belief that I’d eventually live there, if only as a snowbird. But now that it’s really real, I’m having a burst of panic thinking that I really need to know things I take for granted in Canada and the US, like tipping and how the currency works, never mind all the cultural etiquette!

My only experience traveling in a country that doesn’t use dollars was a month-long trip to Scotland in 1998. I remember my first night in Edinburgh (third night in Scotland) like it was yesterday. A fellow backpacker, Michael, and I decided to go have dinner together. I ordered penne in a rosé sauce and was shocked to find meat in it (I was a vegetarian back then). But even more clearly than that I remember paying the bill and Michael asking me three times if I really mean to tip what I was tipping. It was only later that night that I realised I’d given a nearly 30% tip on a mediocre meal with poor service! I had a good laugh at myself about it.

This is how I’m going to approach my first trip into Mexico proper (I’m not counting the two trips I’ve taken to border towns). I am going to make mistakes. I will likely get scammed more than once. It’s just part of the experience and I will do my best to keep my sense of humour!

Living in another country that does not use dollars and whose primary language is not French or English has been a major dream of mine. I can’t believe it’s about to come true!

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Mexican Apartment!

Whew! I just cold called a lady in Mexico and between her English and my Spanish, we made sense of what I wanted and worked out a deal of sorts for a two-bedroom apartment on Isla Piedra (Stone Island) near Mazatlan.

I’ll be paying 5,500 pesos per month, which is about 450CAD. I have seen pictures, but don’t have permission to share them, so you’ll have to wait till I get there. 🙂

Reader Contessa is the one who told me about the apartment. THANK YOU. I am super happy — the place is fairly new, right near the beach, in a non-gringo community, HUGE, and the price is right. We haven’t sorted out internet, but I will have a mobile plan to tide me over.

I’m expected around November 5th. I promised to touch base with her at the end of October when I have a better idea of what date I’m arriving, and then when I’m in MX so she can meet me and show me where the place is.

Wow, this is really starting to feel real!

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Settled On a Route

With fall coming so fast this year, I’ve decided that a westerly route through Utah would be my safest bet. There are a lot of things I want to see on my way down in Montana, Wyoming, and South Dakota, but I will be coming north quite late next year and better able to take time off to have a proper vacation (I’ve been taking too much time off lately!).

The route through Utah will serve a greater purpose. There isn’t much left on my North American bucket list. Off the top of my head, there’s only L’anse aux meadows, Yellowknife, and Zion National Park. Guess which one is directly en route between Haven and Nogales?

final route This route has me off highways all the way to Nogales and will let me see a good part of western Wyoming, quite a bit of Utah and Arizona. I’d like to drive pretty hard to Springdale and then stop there for a week or so to work and explore Zion State Park.

I’ve routed myself through Billings rather than Great Falls, which is a more direct route, for two reasons. First, I haven’t been to Billings. Second, going through Billings will have me cross at Scobey rather than Opheim. I haven’t had good experiences crossing at Opheim just to get packages, but I had a very good experience at Scobey last time.

Now, I need to sort out accommodations along the way. I really do want to sleep in my truck for the first few days before taking a hotel for four days or so, but I’m struggling with having enough room in the truck to both sleep and carry everything I want to bring. Moreover, the bed setup I’ve been using for camping just isn’t going to work for this trip.

I bought an inexpensive cot at Cabela’s in Regina that I was hoping would work well, but it’s two inches too long for the bed of the truck and a bit of a pain to set up and take down. I’m rather disappointed. I’m going to take it apart again today and see if taking a hack saw to it could help solve the length issue. If so, that’s what I’m going to do and just store stuff on top of it while I’m traveling (it has a weight rating of something like 200lbs, so it can definitely handle a few totes) and store the stuff on top of it in the cab of the truck at night.

Besides working out the bed issue, today’s plan is to get the front room all packed up and clean. Somewhere in all of that, I am going to drive up the hill to better cell reception so I can make a Skype call to Mexico about an apartment that would be perfect if it’s still available. All appendages crossed!