Day: November 1, 2014

by

Mexico Stockup Trick and Advice For Younger Ladies

I have just returned from my stock up expedition. I didn’t want to go crazy and buy stuff that I can get down in MX, especially since Mazatlan is a large city with a huge ex-pat population, even if prices might be better up here. I think half the fun of living in MX will be the hunt for things I take for granted up here and discover new things! Mexico is a civilized country. I’m sure I won’t starve. 🙂

There is one thing my research told me I absolutely had to stock up on, something that my older friends, most of them male, would never in a million years have thought to warn me about: tampons. Turns out Mexican ladies don’t use them and they are therefore extremely hard to find and expensive in Mexico. I already had several boxes and bought four more big ones. This is not one item you want to run out of!

I also bought toilet paper, paper towels, laundry and dish detergents, and cleaning wipes, as well as my preferred brands of body wash (on sale!), body lotion, and toothpaste, as well as a giant bottle of French’s mustard as I’m told mustard is not easy to find down there.

The Nogales Walmart was very dirty (do NOT go into the bathrooms unless you want to risk losing your lunch) and chaotic. It was definitely a place to get what I needed and bug out, with no temptation to shop for anything extra!

So I decided to go up the road to the Safeway for food items after. I have the bad habit on stressful travel days of not eating until the stressing event is behind me. I decided to be smart and get some easy to eat snacks for the road (trail mix, granola bars), as well as a banana to go with my coffee tomorrow morning. The motel (Motel 6) provides coffee and it is surprisingly drinkable, no worse than what I get at McDonald’s, which was a pleasant surprise this morning.

I also treated myself to a nice container of mixed cut up fruit to eat as a snack this afternoon. It’s so hot that water isn’t quenching my thirst at all, so I’m trying to eat lots of high moisture foods. $4 for the tub was actually quite pricey by US standards, but it did have a lot more variety than what I’d get for that price in Canada: mango, pineapple, blueberries, strawberries, and two kinds of melon!

Reader Contessa tells me to hit the border by seven. I’m just minutes away from it, so that will mean a not tooo early start tomorrow. She has also warned me of impending bad weather in the Mazatlan area, so I may be stuck in San Carlos a couple of extra nights. I hope I can speak with the landlady directly and get a sense of what things are like on the ground. But I definitely want to get across the border tomorrow. Hanging out here will just make the stress worse!

by

Mexico Liability Insurance and My First Pesos

Canadian and US car insurance isn’t valid Mexico. You need to buy at minimum liability insurance from a Mexican company. I asked Croft who he uses and he gave me the contact information. Unfortunately, after one online request for a quote, one email that was not replied to, an unreturned phone message, my not thinking to stop into their Tucson office, and the Nogales office being closed on weekends, I had to look for another option.

A quick Google search found Don Smith Mexico Insurance, better reviewed than the company Croft uses,  just minutes walking distance from the motel, and open Saturday mornings. I hoofed it up the hill to speak with a nice lady about my needs.

The most important thing I had to keep in mind is that while I will need coverage for 180 days, I am not going to actually do a lot of driving once I get to Mazatlan. I really need coverage for the trip there and back to the border. The small amount of time on the road means the less chance of something going pear-shaped. Moreover, I still have some limited coverage for my own damages from SGI. So I decided to buy a liability-only policy, plus legal aid, for $128USD. For $21, I would have been nuts not to get the legal aid option!

The lady also gave me detailed border instructions. I did a lot of reading about that over the past months and also this morning and have decided to just stop as I am making myself nuts! 🙂 I asked if I should have pesos for tolls and she said absolutely. I really don’t want to lose money by converting my CAD to USD to MXN, so I plan to do a large withdrawal (rent to pay!) at a Mexican bank, but I still want some local currency for tolls and incidentals until I find an ATM.

The lady sent me three doors down to a change house, where things got interesting. The fellow behind the counter did not speak a word of English. I’m pretty sure I’m still in the US and still, I rented my room last night in Spanish and also settled a restaurant tab in Spanish!

I carefully explained that I wanted a few pesos to get me to San Carlos and did he think that 40USD would be sufficient until I hit an ATM? Also, I am Canadian and do not want to lose in the exchange rate, so I will go to a bank and take out pesos with my ATM card once in Mexico. He said that, yes, 40USD in pesos would definitely do me fine for tolls and whatnot and I’ve been correctly advised about using my ATM card at the banks as that would give me a better rate than he could. The 40USD got me 504MXN. I like the peso coins, like our toonies only smaller.

IMG_0309

I thanked him for his ‘ayuda y paciencia’ and he laughed, saying that he could understand me perfectly and that I have a beautiful accent. I’m actually glad to have this pre-border experience with the language as it’s really boosting my confidence. My speaking vocabulary is a lot better than I expected (understanding is almost fluent except in technical areas) and people seem to get that they need to speak slowly. I’m at the point where if I don’t know how to say something, I have enough words to get the meaning across. I really should join a conversational Spanish class this winter and get over the hump of not understanding the spoken language that well!

Finally, I got hold of someone at the landlady’s house, a child. She was not home, but the child promised to tell her that I am planning to arrive mid-day Wednesday. I will try her again tonight because the child and I did not seem to communicate well.

I’m going to find lunch, then do some shopping. I’ve been waffling about buying a desk and chair here in the US, but I find it hard to commit to anything without knowing the dimensions I will have to work with. I think that, having worked fine in hotel room setups this month, I will use what’s there in the apartment to start and will find something locally. I might even be able to get something used. I’ll see what the landlady says. The budget is just really, really, really, really tight this month because I lost a week of income in October due to my client’s schedule and I would really rather not have to eat only rice and beans until the December cheque and PayPal payments come in. 🙂

I’ll be glad once the border fees and rent are paid as that will give me a better idea of what I have left to get me through the month. I’m just not sure what I’ll have to pay to temporarily import my truck. Research says 300USD for a vehicle from 2001 to 2007 and 200USD for a vehicle older than 2000. Notice the gap there? I have a 2000 vehicle. Is it going to be 300USD or 200USD??? I believe my tourist visa is going to be 25USD.

So border tomorrow. OMG. I am going to spend two nights in San Carlos to arrive on schedule on Wednesday at the apartment as the landlady and I had discussed my arriving the 5th. I’m surprised to be meeting that deadline! I know I need to hit the border early and it opens at 6:00, but I really don’t see myself there that early. It’s going to be a normal big travel day for me where I won’t want to eat, but I really should take the time to relax with a coffee before the fun starts. 🙂