Month: November 2015

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Driving the Mazatlán-Durango Cuota

I left home around 9:30 on Thursday, with my ETA in Durango being about 2:30 with the one hour time change. The Road out of Isla took me 28 minutes, but that’s only because I was taking my time. It was in surprisingly good shape!

I stopped for fuel in Villa Union, where there was also, very conveniently, an Oxxo (coffee) and a Panamá (goodies for the road)! I started on Mex 40D (cuota) at about 10:30.

To my surprise, the brand new road was in terrible shape and huge sections were under construction. It was very slow and tedious going. I didn’t take a lot of pictures because there weren’t many places to stop, including on the Guinness Record-holding Baluarte Bridge, which wound up being very underwhelming from the point of view of driving over it. There are tons of spectacular photos of it on the web showing it off from better vantage points than I ever had!

The drive was very, very, very scenic:

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I had plenty of time to admire the scenery:

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I liked how this tunnel is open to the world:

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Sometimes, I felt like I was on top of the world:

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I did not like this super, super, super long tunnel with lots of glaring lights. I drove it almost blind:

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A miniature version of the Baluarte Bridge:

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Here, you can see the tunnel with windows in it:

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Coming to the Baluarte Bridge. Lots of signs saying no stopping, no parking!

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At the end of it, I crossed over into the state of Durango. Another state for my visited Mexican states map!

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Welcome to the state of Durango!

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Weather conditions were perfect, increasingly cool as well as overcast, so I wasn’t baking in my truck:

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Coming into the city of Durango, there was a long downhill stretch. You can see a red stripe in the picture above. It leads to a runaway lane:

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First glimpse of the city of Durango!

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Stopped at a rest area just before the final toll booth and was amused by the bathroom door signage:

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Made it to Durango!

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Considering what a disaster the road is, quality-wise, even all the feats of engineering in the form of tunnels and bridges did not make the $500 I spent in tolls seem reasonable for how tedious this road was to drive. I looked forward to possibly revising that opinion on the road back!

Unlike Mazatlán, Durango believes in street signage, so with the help of my GPS, I found my hotel without a single wrong turn. The parking beside it wasn’t attached to the hotel, though, so I took some street parking to go check in and find out where to stash my truck. When I came back, I had a warning on my windshield that I was in a pay parking zone (metres) and would get a ticket if I didn’t move ASAP. That’s when I knew for sure I was in a very different world from Mazatlán, but more on that later. First, let’s get settled in the hotel!

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Off to Durango At Last!

I’m really glad that my trip to Durango last spring got postponed. I just know that I would not have had as good a time as I did this past weekend back last March, when the budget was so tight and I was only starting to get comfortable in Mexico. But I just finished crunching the numbers for the past weekend and the result is rather funny….

Last spring, I had a fairly strict 300CAD or 3,700MXN budget for the trip. To be honest, I didn’t have a budget for the past weekend. I was overdue for a holiday, Mexico is inexpensive, and as long as I didn’t do a ton of shopping, I wasn’t going to worry about how much I was spending. Well, the trip, including tolls, fuel, and lodging, cost me a grand total of 388CAD or 4,750MXN! I could have afforded this trip last March!

From now on, all prices are in MXN.

Like this past spring, I started by looking for accommodation. Not knowing then that the rest of the trip would be so inexpensive, I had a paltry accommodation budget and could only look at places outside of Centro. This time, I was willing to pay up to $1,000 a night to stay somewhere decent in Centro. Turns out that I didn’t need to spend nearly that much. The Hotel Posada San Agustin, rated four-stars by TripAdvisor reviewers, was right in the heart of Centro and a basic room was a mere $600 a night! Now, I knew I was getting a two-star room in a four-star hotel, but that was perfect for me. I wasn’t going to spend that much time in my room anyway! This hotel also offered free parking, which was very important! I will have pictures in due time. 🙂

That out of the way, I took advantage of not having a proofing shift on Thursday to head out for three nights. The plan was to drive the new toll road to Durango and the old libre back. I decided to do it in this order for a number of reasons, including that the libre takes several hours to drive and you ‘gain’ an hour on the trip back to Maz due to a time zone change, while ‘losing’ one on the way to Durango. I also preferred to do a narrow twisty road that would take who knows how long with home at the other end and I also preferred to coast downhill than burn a ton of gas climbing the switchbacks.

So with all that bla bla bla out of the way, let’s head to Durango!

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Discoveries

I am heading out on a much needed mini-break tomorrow, three nights in the neighbouring city of Durango! This is the trip I postponed last year. I think I will enjoy myself more this year, being more comfortable in Mexico, less concerned about the truck, and not facing snow. I’m losing a shift because of the American Thanksgiving, so I’m taking advantage of that to be able to go have a few days in Durango and still be home (most likely) for riding and my dentist appointment on Monday.

There is a possible big storm incoming, but I’m not too worried about that. The absolute worst case scenario is that the Durango-Maz road will be washed out by mudslides and I won’t be able to get home as planned on Sunday. Solution: alter my plans to include bring my computer (which I otherwise have no intention of looking at all weekend) so that if I do get stuck into the work week, I can just work from wherever I am. The second worst case scenario is that the Isla road could be washed out. Solution: park my truck on the Maz side and take the panga over, then go get my truck when the road is clear. I’m not getting my ‘DON’T GO’ prickly feeling at the back of my neck, so I’m leaving on schedule sometime late tomorrow morning!

I therefore needed to do a withdrawal before heading out. There is actually a Scotiabank right by my hotel in Durango, but I didn’t want to have to look for it upon arrival tomorrow, having only enough cash to cover fuel and tolls to get there, plus spending money, but not enough to pay for the hotel room. So after my shift today, I headed to town. I had just pulled into the Maz-side embarcadero when I suddenly felt unwell and realised that I hadn’t eaten anything since about 7:00! So I got out of the lancha and made a beeline for the pan dulce lady, picking up a tasty bun of some sort for $5, which did the trick.

Normally, I would just walk down Gutiérrez Nájera and turn right on Juan Carrasco, but today I decided to turn right much sooner and meander through a residential neighbourhood. I had a route to get to Ejercito Mexicano, but, of course, that didn’t work out because of no road signage, construction, and landmark closures. No biggie. I just wandered in the generally correct direction. The houses were a mix of what I would consider tenements and really nice structures, making it hard to get a feeling for just what sort of neighbourhood this was, economically speaking (much like Isla). The few people I passed on the street were friendly.

Just as I was bitterly regretting not popping into the last abarrotes I had seen to get a water, I spotted an oasis, a fruit juice stand! That was a pretty good clue that I was very near Juan Carrasco/Ejercito Mexicano. I ordered a small grapefruit juice with ice and was told to pay the ‘special’ price of just $10! Wow! I pay $15 to $18 for a juice in Centro and near the Malecón. Two blocks from there was Ejercito Mexicano, so now I have a juice place that is almost on my route to the bank, big Ley, and big Waldo. Getting misplaced paid off!

I ended up just a couple of blocks from the Scotiabank, so I darted across right away when the traffic cleared. For once, the machine worked perfectly for me. I then went inside to change my $500s for smaller bills, and I’d even written down how many $100s, $50s, and, especially $20s, I needed. The exchange rate is getting worse and worse. November 12th, 4,800 cost me 392.39CAD. November 23rd, they cost me 399.00CAD. Today, they cost me 399.80 CAD. My daily withdrawal limit is just 400CAD, so I cut it really close today!

After I was done at the bank, I debated going up to the big Ley to have lunch at the Chinese place and decided it was too hot to do that extra distance. I headed back towards Gutiérrez Nájera, only this time I walked on the Scotiabank side. It’s amazing the new things you discover when you walk on the other side of the street!

I passed a couple of interesting shops and then a tiny restaurant advertising sushi and Chinese food, a similar setup to the restaurant by the big Ley. I popped in and had a look at the food on display, which appeared very fresh. The exact same meal that I have at the other place was a couple of pesos cheaper and, overall, better! I didn’t like the main quite as much (the chicken was a little mushy versus crispy), but the hibiscus water, rice, and spring roll were tastier. So now, I have a better (and closer!) place to get  Chinese food when I get a craving for it! Never mind the sushi, though. These stores have Mexican-style sushi (very heavy on the cream cheese), which is not to my taste. I prefer to pay more and have it on Olas Altas or in the Golden Zone, where I can get more authentic fare and super inexpensive octopus nigiri.

I passed this hilarious sign in front of a bar on Gutiérrez Nájera:

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Roughly translated:

Husband Daycare
Does it get heavy around the house?
Does he bother you?
Do you need a break?
We have what you’re looking for!
Leave your husband here and pick him up later!
It’s free. Just pay for his drinks!
We have never lost anyone!

(That last bit especially cracked me up.)

So I’m off tomorrow. I don’t know how vocal I’ll be over the weekend since I’ll be avoiding the computer. I will check in on Facebook now and then.

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A Day Full of Treasures

I decided to split up the work due tomorrow so that I could take this afternoon and tomorrow morning off. I wanted to go to town to try a restaurant, the reviews for which I stumbled upon on Trip Advisor, and also go to the bank and the grocery store. Tomorrow is riding, of course. 🙂

I wound covering a lot of ground today! Here’s a bird’s eye view (click to embiggen).

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I started by walking from the embaracadero to Parisina in Centro (red line at the bottom). Parisina is a chain of fabric stores. I wanted something to cover the surfaces in the office because, surprise, a plastic table cloth was unsuitable to cover a desk in a hot humid climate! I forgot just how inexpensive fabric is in Mexico and realised as I browsed that I didn’t have to get something that would to have have another purpose later because I would be paying so little.

I wound up with some super cheap cotton in colours that sort of match the bedspreads on the twin beds in the office:

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I love the purple flowers and that’s quite probably my favourite shade of blue. It was only $40 (3.25CAD or 2.50USD) for two metres! Aesthetics were the only reason to cover the tables. This house is like a prison, with its neutral colours and the bars on the windows, so it’s proven very difficult to make it cozy and homey. This year, I’m adding colour where I can and that is making a huge difference to how happy I am in the house.

I then crossed the street (Benito Juárez) to catch the bus to the Golden Zone. The Sábalo-Cocos ‘local’ bus passed before the ‘tourist’ bus that goes up Avenida del Mar and that was my sign that it was finally time to figure out this bus route because it’s the one that goes by the big Waldo and passes Soriana (multiple ones, I was to learn), Home Depot, and Mega. The ‘local’ buses are super uncomfortable, with hard plastic seats that are so close to the ones in front that my knees are bruised from the ride, but the cost is only $7 versus the $10 for the tourist bus.

Go back up to the map to see the ride I got taken on (blue)! It was a long one, but very educational. What really impressed me is that I knew where I was at all times and was able to correctly guess when we were about to turn onto Rafael Buelna. Now, I know that I can catch this bus at the big Ley or Waldo, or even Soriana or Mega, and take it back down to Juan Carrasco/Gutiérrez Najera if I have only a bit of shopping and don’t mind walking from the intersection to the embarcadero. But the route is way too long to make it worth taking it back from Soriana or Mega with a ton of groceries.

Once we hit Camarón Sábalo, I knew to get off in the vicinity of Panamá so I could head to Playa Gaviotas.

I’ve seen the ads for this guy a few times. I doubt his name is truly Dr. Backman, but, then again, I once knew an electrician named Yvan Laprise (literally sounds like the French for “he sells the electrical outlet”), so who knows!

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The restaurant didn’t open till 1:00 and it was about 12:30, so I wandered around in super touristy Mazatlán, saying “No gracias” a lot to vendors.

Being so early, I decided to check out the “Seashell Museum” (Museo de Conchas), which is really a store full of tchotchkes, with some tiny exhibits upstairs. But you HAVE to go there because of the fountain! I think I stared at it for a full 10 minutes and I’m very annoyed I only had my crappy iPhone camera to capture it!

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That fountain is a Work of Art. I couldn’t find an inch of it that didn’t absolutely delight me. If I were ever to buy a home by the sea, I would commission an artist to build something like this with seashells for me, perhaps a bathroom counter.

Then, I wandered around in the general area looking for the restaurant, Zab Thai. The address and the claim that it is near the Seashell Museum helped me narrow things down a bit, but it was extremely hard to find. I asked a few people, but no one could be bothered to help if I wasn’t a customer. I finally had the bright idea of putting other businesses into Google so I could essentially triangulate the location I needed and found Zab Thai at the end of a very lonely looking alley:

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An alley that leads to a beach:

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An alley that holds another business named “Lucky Bastard”!

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I went into the restaurant, which had an English menu but a server who was quite happy to serve me in Spanish. They had just opened and I was the only one there. They apparently do more takeout than eat-in business. The reviews I’d read claimed that Zab Thai is the place to go for authentic Thai in Maz.

I just ordered the chicken Pad Thai, but asked for two stars of spiciness out of three (!) and, for the first time, requested no egg. Pad Thai is something that I crave all the time, but which I haven’t had much luck finding to my taste in quite a while. I can’t articulate what it is about Pad Thai that makes it to my taste or not, I just know what I like.

When the meal arrived, it was alarmingly red:

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(I can’t believe I’m still traumatized by that ketchupy Pad Thai I had on Jarvis Street in Toronto 15 years ago! :D)

I took a tentative bite and almost fell out of my seat. This Pad Thai was perfect. The flavours were just right and I think the red might have come from Sriracha, with the spice level being just right for me. When it was a bit too much, I nibbled on some of the cabbage. I do have to say the chicken was a bit bland, but that’s just being nitpicky. I can’t believe I found this meal in Mexico. I’m pretty sure this Pad Thai is the third best I’ve ever had, after the ones at Siam or Bangkok Palace in Ottawa, Ontario, and the one at the Starfire in Skagway, Alaska! Pad Thai with chicken or pork was just $95! I think with shrimp or a mix was $115. Either price is a bargain for such a great Pad Thai. I find it interesting that two of the best I’ve ever had have been in such tourist trappy-type destinations.

Then, it was time to go to the bank (red route at the top). On the way, I passed this place that has never been open before and so I’ve never noticed it:

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That’s a drive-thru beer pickup place, folks. And I thought ‘Muricans are ridiculous (and terrifying) for having drive-thru liquor stores…

I cut across the McDonald’s parking lot and came across this RV from France!

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I actually waited a few minutes, hoping to catch the drivers, but gave up.

The walk-in ATM at Scotiabank was down, but, thankfully, their drive-thru one worked. My landlady is going to be so happy to get her December rent early. I don’t think I paid December rent till the 15th or even 20th last year (which I had told her on the day I moved in and she was okay with).

Look at what Soriana had: LEMONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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But check out the price compared to the little round limes:

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The Persian limes that look like green lemons were $14 a kilo, still a much better deal. That picture was worse than the one above. I have no idea how people take lovely pictures with their iPhones…

I decided to take a chance and buy some meat (went with hamburger) and saw this in the freezer. I don’t think I’ve ever seen rabbit sold at the grocery store before!

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One of the things on my list was chocolate almond milk for a recipe, but they didn’t have any on the shelf, which surprised me since the little Ley has it and Soriana had every iteration of the plain. A store clerk tapped me on the shoulder, had me turn around, pointed to a pallet in the centre of the aisle, and told me they were having a two-for-one sale on almond milk, one plain bundled with one chocolate!!! $44 for two containers was a steal! I started stocking almond milk last summer for cereal and am glad it’s so inexpensive, even here in Mexico, since I’ll be able to use it to make fruit smoothies!

From Soriana, I took a taxi (green) back to the embaradero. I decided to walk home on this side, sorely underestimating how heavy my shopping was (thanks to the beer I bought in town, which I’ve never done, because I knew the City Deli would be closed, and the almond milk). But there was a ton of traffic (possible funeral procession), so I actually wound up getting home faster than I would have in a taxi, even with all my rest stops!

It’s been a rich, full day!