Day: November 5, 2014

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Two Mexico Idiosyncrasies That Aren’t a Challenge

When I started to talk to people about coming to Mexico and was asking if there are things to watch out for, two things kept coming up over and over again. 1) Watch the water. Whatever you do, don’t brush your teeth with the water or drink it in the shower! 2) No paper in the toilet!

Both of these things seem to exasperate people after a while. They’ll never be an issue for me.

You see, the water at Haven is not potable. It is pure spring water that runs through cow pastures into our water system. There is E. coli and other nasty stuff in it. I ignored the warnings and drank it for a few days my first days at Haven, assuming I’d get used to the taste, and got a good sense of what the ‘turista’ is like… Keeping my toothbrush well away from the tap is something I consider normal now! Water on Isla will be managed exactly like it is at Haven, by keeping on hand two five-gallon containers of potable water and transferring the water into a more manageable container. The only difference is that I will get at home delivery!

As for the toilet paper thing, until later this past summer, when Willow Bunch got its wonderful new dump station (free!), dumping my holding tanks was a huge hassle. I was able to seriously extend the time between dumps by throwing the paper in the trash. I’d just bag it at the end of the day and throw the bag into my trash barrel, so the bathroom stayed cleaned. When I still had Neelix, I was dumping a bag of cat litter every day anyway, and then I just kept the habit of taking out a bag every evening.

So water and plumbing idiosyncrasies aren’t an issue for me and the telecom company is just as bad as any I’ve experienced back home. Mexico is feeling rather familiar. 😀

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Speaking to Los Federales

I had my first encounter with Mexican federal police today! It was at Navojoa. They were parked at the turn to the Libre to Los Mochis. I passed the turnoff for the Libre, realised that I ‘should’ have turned for Los Mochis, did a legal U-turn when I could, and headed back to the Libre. When it became clear that this was NOT the main road to Los Mochis, I turned back around to return to Mx 15 and a Federale signaled for me to stop. He asked me if I was lost, I replied not anymore, thanked him for his offer of help, and off I went.

I forgot to include that in my post because it was so insignificant, but I just got a comment about corrupt police officers and wanted to share a positive encounter!

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San Carlos to Guamúchil

I left San Carlos earlier than planned this morning because I had to go back to the TelCel office and had no idea how long that would take. I actually have no idea what time it was when I pulled out of Guaymas, fuming at TelCel, but excited about the day ahead.

I got clear of the city and pulled into a Pemex with an Oxxo attached. I got 500 pesos of fuel (I love saying 500 in Spanish — quinientos, not cinco cientos!) and then went in to get my second coffee of the day, feeling like I was embarking on a proper road trip!

When I got back out, there was five guys doing a really nice job polishing all the windows of my truck! One thing I’ve decided is that I hate fueling and I am going to tip the guy who does my fill even if he doesn’t do anything else. I also like having shiny windows and have decided that that’s worth a few pesos. So I gave each of the guys one peso for their hard work and enjoyed my spotless windshield for five minutes until a GIANT bug splattered across it. No problem, a called a window washer over at the next populated area. Am I getting the hang of this or what?! 😀

The first milestone of the day was leaving the ‘free zone’, where I now needed my temporary import permit! Real Mexico at last!

Early in the day, I got to a mess of construction and a worker stopped me and said something very fast. All I understood was a word that sounded like the French contre-sens, which told me that I would have to drive against the traffic. I was going to ask him to repeat himself and then thought, ‘No. Tell him what you understand and try to get a si or no answer.’ So I said “If I understand correctly, you want me to go left and then drive against the traffic?’ Yes! It was a long detour with no cones or markers and the people in the other direction didn’t really care that I was going the opposite way and were quite content to nearly mow me down. That was the start of my ‘OMG, so glad I’m not doing this in an RV!’ attitude. 🙂

After that, the drive was very steady compared to that in San Carlos and I got into a driving groove. It was hot, which kills my appetite, so I wound up not stopping at any one of the myriad of taco stands I passed.

All the bridges in Mexico, even little insignificant ones, have name, so when I passed the ‘puente sin nombre’, I got ‘I drove through Mexico on a bridge with no name’ stuck in my head for the rest of the day. 😀

The first city I crossed was Ciudad Obregon and I was really glad I wasn’t doing that in an RV! But then things got really interesting in Navojoa where I followed the Los Mochis sign to the libre, which was like an average road in Quebec, one pothole after another. I realised very quickly that I was off main MX 15 and turned back around to take the road through Navojoa, which was smooth going.

I really liked the look of Navojoa; it was exceptionally clean, with well maintained buildings. I thought of stopping at the Soriana at the south end of town for snacks, but was well stocked with coffee and granola bars and really didn’t need anything else.

The next big milestone was crossing into the state of Sinaloa!

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I have now been to four of the 31 (plus MX City) Mexican states! Baja California, Tamaulipas, Sonora, and Sinaloa!

The roads in Sinaloa are MUCH better than in Sonora, comparable to the drive from Quebec into Ontario on highway 417.

My destination was a Pemex station in Los Mochis, where I arrived around 3:00, WAY too early to stop and truck camp! The bed of the truck is full and it was hot and sticky anyway, so a motel was in order. I decided to keep going and check out each motel I’d pass, giving myself a deadline of 4:30 to find something decent, regardless of the price.

Shortly thereafter, I saw the first sign for Mazatlan! Home stretch!

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I stopped at one point to get more fuel and my bladder decided that it had had enough holding all the coffee, thank you very much, and if there’s no baño here, you can go behind a bush! Thankfully, there WAS a baño and it was impeccably clean. There was no toilet paper or soap, but no problem, I had wet wipes in my purse. Ladies, carry wet wipes!

After four 65-peso fares and one at 20 pesos, I was DONE with cuotas (toll roads) and when 4:00 came along with no suitable motels behind me, it was time to get onto a libre (free) road, where I was more likely to find services (I’d done my research!). I stopped at two cheap but terrifyingly dingy motels and arrived around 4:30 at a motel in Guamúchil that looked decent.

They wanted 600 pesos, 200 pesos more than I was hoping to pay tonight, but it gets dark VERY early here and it was time to stop. Not negotiable! I asked if 600 pesos was their best price and the guy looked at me, quirked a smile, and said that he could do 550 pesos since I asked so nicely in Spanish. Done!

The room is okay, not as nice as what I have gotten for less in the US, but decent and I LOVE the balcony over the pool, where I am writing this post.

Sorry, should have taken this one in daylight!

Sorry, should have taken this one in daylight!

I sat with the AC on for five minutes and that revved up my hunger, so I went down to the restaurant. I got out of there for 100 pesos, including a good tip, and had a cold lemonade and a huge plate of enchiladas with rice and beans, plus chips and salsa! THAT cheered me up immensely!

The rice and beans were soooo yummy it was all I could do not to lick the plate! The enchiladas were filled with chicken and had a spicy red sauce, the first truly spicy food I’ve encountered since arriving. It was just at my limit of tolerance and very tasty. I just cooled my tongue off with a bit of rice or beans when I couldn’t stand the heat any more.

I was surprised that such a meal is real Mexican food, not Tex-Mex, although they didn’t drown it in cheese and sour cream the way the meal would have been north of the border. Plus, it’s corn tortillas here, not wheat.

I was amused when the server brought a pole with a hook on it for my purse (bolsa)!

It was getting cool when I got out of the restaurant, so I wrestled my suitcase out of the truck to find my bathing suit and ran up to my room to change. I headed back down and swam for a half hour until it got chilly, a really nice end to the day.

I didn’t stop as much as I should have today but that was typical for me on a day with easy roads, nothing to do with a fear of stopping or anything like that.

Going off script today says a lot about how I feel about being here in Mexico — safe. I have standard driving rules (like giving myself a deadline for stopping) and obeyed them. I now have an hour less to do tomorrow, although the libre might eat up that additional time as it will be slower going than would have been the cuota. I’m going to try to be out of here by 7:00 as Contessa agrees with my expected travel time of seven hours to Isla.

Now, I’m off to try my landlady again…

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Taken By TelCel

Well, I encountered my first WATCH OUT in Mexico. Glad it cost me ‘only’ 400 pesos.

This morning, I ran out of bandwidth after using less than 1GB’s worth.  As it turns out, when you buy the 3GB internet plan, you need to send a text to activate said plan. I was paying a hefty per MB price!

When I was at the office Monday and had paid I asked if I had anything else to do and they said no. I am convinced that there was no language barrier issue. The person just couldn’t be bothered to tell the foreigner that she needed to send a text message.

I went back to the Guaymas TelCel office on the way out of town today and wasn’t able to get an English speaker. I argued my case in Spanish and was told that I was being very clear, but too bad, so sad. The woman who had served me on Monday even admitted that she didn’t tell me about the text I had to send and that if I had more questions I should have gotten back in line to speak to a general inquiries person! This is the same woman who very clearly told me I had done everything and was good to go!

I know that bureaucracy in Mexico is maddening to foreigners, but this takes the cake! I was very patient on Monday, waiting in all their lines and speaking their language and I got taken, plain and simple! I am so not impressed and frankly disgusted by my welcome to Mexico by such a large corporation.