Month: November 2015

by

Jajaja

I decided to go to town for a walk and lunch today. I took the village lancha and, while waiting for it, witnessed a man making ‘horns’ behind his wife’s head as someone else took a picture of them. Witnesses to this burst out laughing and she called out, “What did he do?!” which just made us laugh harder.

There was a huge cruise ship in port today:

IMG_0791

On the Maz side, I walked down Emilio Barragán nearly all the way to the embarcadero for the beach lancha, turning at the entrance to the cruise ship docks to follow the blue line to Centro. It was rather funny to see all the pulmonías spilling out of the docks!

I got to the big intersection that for some reason doesn’t have a tope or any incentive to get the cross traffic to stop, no matter how much tourist traffic there is there. A few police officers were guiding people and one came up to me. We had this conversation in English:

Cop: What are you looking for?
Me: Nothing. I’m heading to Machado. I live here.
Cop (taking a moment to process that): You live here and don’t need help?
Me: Not at all.
Cop: Thank God!

I guess the tourists have been keeping the police busy!

At the Plazuela…

IMG_0794

…I headed straight to Beach Burger, where I was greeted with a hug and cheek kiss from the server, who wanted to know how long I’d been back in Maz and was I still living on Isla and was there at a lot of snow at my house in Canada? I hadn’t even sat down yet! I should make a note that I only went to Beach Burger perhaps four or five times last year, at the absolute most! Perhaps he remembers me because I speak Spanish with him?

I ordered a Tecate and their Wipe Out burger, asking for no fries. He winked and said, “Okay, lots of fries.” I said, “No, I don’t need them!” and he laughed and offered to bring me a salad instead. Great! And then I had to refuse the chips and salsa!

The salad was made with hearts of romaine, not iceberg (!!!), and had a really nice dressing. It might not look like much, but I would have that as a main with some croutons and cheese, it was that yummy. The burger was great, too, and it had tons of Montreal steak spice, which I love. The price has gone up to $90, but it’s still very good value.

IMG_0795

An email came in while I was eating and it was an urgent message from a member of my proofing team asking me to please look over a short document. Thankfully, it was something I could do properly from my phone, so I fired off a response. My colleague replied, “Thanks! Must be nice to be off work before 4:00!”

I answered, “I start at 8:00 your time.”

To which she replied, “Oh! That’s 6:00 a.m. for you!!! I’m not even up then! Wow. I’d be off before 4:00, too!”

I really love my schedule, by the way. It’s not painful at all!

I stopped for a gelato after my lunch and then slowly meandered my way back to the embarcadero since I didn’t have any shopping to do.

I love how something so mundane as taking a walk and having lunch is blog worthy in my Mexican life!

by

Value

I had a very arduous proofreading shift today, pretty much eight non-stop hours of reading investment material. My eyes were burning by the time 2PM came around. I headed right to the beach for a beer, even knowing that I’d be paying $30 (with the tip) for a beer I had in the fridge and which was bought for half that.

But home doesn’t have:

-live music

-cute servers and lifeguards

-empanada vendors (met her last year; she sells pie crusts folded in half and filled with fruit compote, a lovely treat that goes well with beer!)

-those special rays of sunlight that bounce over the water

-waves and surf

-children laughing as they play in the sand and water

-the spectacle of dogs playing fetch

-and much more

I get a lot more value out of the $30 I spend on the beach for beer than I do the $15 I spend at the store for beer to drink at home.

by

Off to the Dentist

Whew, I had a busy weekend! Not sure what happened there with work, but I believe it was my very occasional clients requesting my services on top of all my regulars sending me stuff that threw my schedule into chaos. I was really glad to be able to take today off, but, unfortunately, I had to cancel riding because I really needed to go see a dentist and the one I chose was only available this morning or else I would have had to wait till late next week. With the tooth hurting and knowing that I would likely have to have a consultation first, then come back for the filling at a later date, I didn’t want to wait that extra week.

After much research and many testimonials, I decided to go to Doctora Susana Pedrero de la Cruz in Centro. I was warned by many people to only use her for a cleaning and basic fillings because there have been major issues with more advanced work that she has done.

My appointment was at 10:30 and I left home around 9:40 to arrive at about 10:20. I had no trouble finding her office, which is basically behind the cathedral and one block over. She was very prompt and spoke excellent English. Her office is tiny, spotless, and her equipment is modern.

After looking at my tooth, she put forth the suggestion of a crown, but I nixed that and said I just want a filling. So she will do that for me next Friday. I’ve had this tooth fixed so many times that at this point that my expectations are very low for how long the fix will last, but it will at least bide me some time and the work is super cheap. The cost was $350 today for a cleaning and exam and it will be $500 next week for the filling. Pesos!

The cleaning was the best I have ever had done. She used baking soda to ‘sandblast’ (her words) my teeth and I came out of there with them noticeably a shade lighter than when I came in!

I made an appointment for next Friday for the filling and then headed out. It wasn’t even 11:00 yet. I went to Panamá’s for a snack, then went to wait for the bus to take me to the Golden Zone to get coffee beans at Rico’s. It’s so rare that I get on at the Mercado and rather a treat to get such a long ride! For the first time, I misjudged my disembarking request and actually missed Rico’s by a full block. I usually end up getting off a block early, so I really got my money’s worth out of my bus fare today!

I actually got service in Spanish at Rico’s today. They were out of Veracruz and it was suggested I might like Chiapas, another dark blend. I was confident I would, so I got a pound of whole beans. I can’t wait to use my new grinder on them!

From Rico’s, I headed back down to Rafael Buelna, checking out restaurant menus and finally deciding to just go to Taco Loco. I got across half of Camarón Sábalo, but was stuck on the median when the menu guy for Taco Loco saw me and waved his menu at me. I’ve never seen them try to wave down Gringos before, so I was surprised, and I think he was even more surprised when I nodded enthusiastically. He jumped onto the street and held off the traffic so I could get across! And they say chivalry is dead!

I had my usual, of course, the al pastor tacos. I was going to order four (a reasonable portion), but was brought chips, so I only got two, plus a limonada. The cook must have remembered me as not being afraid of a little heat because the tacos she sent me were spicy even before I added their salsas! Looks like I graduated to ‘real’ tacos. Dang they were hot (especially with my unknowingly adding super hot salsa to already super hot food), but soooo good.

After lunch, I continued on my walk and decided to get my groceries at Mega since I needed hummus. Surprise, they not only had hummus, but a bunch of other Lebanese things, including pita and labneh (strained yoghurt)! Wow! Guess who is having a Middle Eastern spread for dinner tonight?

I got a taxi to take me to the embarcadero (still no luck getting a pulmonía) and a truck on this side because I had way too much stuff to carry.

There was a small job waiting for me when I got in, so I did that, then I headed off to see Contessa, who arrived yesterday. She had some anti-itch stuff for me that, so far, is working great. I can’t believe how bad the bugs are this year and it’s been driving me to distraction!

It was a lovely day off and, so far, the week ahead doesn’t look too bad. We shall see how long the lull lasts. 🙂

 

by

My First Gorditas

After a very long work day, of which I will have two more in a row, but which was broken up by a brief wade in the ocean, I set off to find dinner. I headed ‘downtown’ and I had no sooner turned onto Calle Principal when I heard “Señora! Señora!” I know the world doesn’t revolve around me, but there was no else around, so I turned around and who do I see? Patricia, the owner of Patty’s defunct restaurant that I miss so much!

As it turns out, she had to close the restaurant because the rent was too high. 🙁 BUT she’s back in business with a smaller menu cooking right out of her house! Her hours aren’t as convenient in that she’s closed when I get off work at 2:00, but she is open for an early lunch on my days off and she’s open for an early dinner, too. Plus, she does things I actually eat for breakfast, like enchiladas. No burgers and fries, though.

Needless to say, my plans to troll the stands downtown for dinner were cancelled and I followed her into the front room of her house (cement bunker, essentially), where she had a few tables set up and two customers were eating. I asked her what a ‘gordita’ is and she explained that it’s a small fat tortilla topped with meat, lettuce, onion, tomato, beans, cheese, and crema, and served with caldo. Did I know what caldo is? I said yes, it’s soup juice (broth) and she burst out laughing. I agreed to have two of those and made myself comfortable watching the soap that was playing on TV! I saw a commercial for the Sin Fronteras TelCel plan and that confirmed that it includes Canada even if I can’t find any confirmation on the website yet. This is very exciting news. More on this when I have something to link to.

In between her managing the kitchen (I believe her daughter does the actual cooking or at least assembly of the food) and lighting mosquito coils, we caught up a bit. The gentleman customer left and the lady customer who was left, and who was eating a gordita (I took mental notes on her technique), suddenly opened up and started chatting with me, too. I’ll be honest and admit that I was mentally beat and wasn’t really up for company tonight or fighting another language, but this was too wonderful an opportunity to pass up to get my foot in the door of the real Mexico. I’m glad I made the effort!

My food eventually came out. I was passed a bowl of salsa and told ‘picante.’ I smiled and added a generous amount to my food. Then, I did like the lady had done, pouring the hot caldo over my gorditas, and dug in with my fingers. Dang it was messy, but so good! Last year, I rather ‘got bored’ with Mexican food because it’s basically all the same ingredients in different combinations, but I completely missed the fact that the variations and true flavour are mostly in the sauces. I told Patricia how my tastebuds have changed and I can handle the spice now, so I’m not as afraid to try new things. She said that she doesn’t like things too spicy either, but with just enough to add flavour. I think I can trust her food not to kill me, then. 😀

The gorditas were just $14 each! All her prices are very low, so, as she said, I should come and eat at her house every day. We’ll see. 🙂

For those favouring a more traditional breakfast, she does eggs as you like them with all manner of sides, like ham or chorizo, with ‘coffee’ (instant) or orange juice for just $40. She buys her food fresh every day. And she has wifi! Look for her on Calle Principal just past where the road curves towards ‘downtown’ after the basketball court. She has fluorescent green handwritten cardboard signs with her menu right by the road. That should have been my clue that she was still around!

by

Hunkering Down

I have somehow managed to find myself swamped with work through the weekend. Because of this and my needing to make a withdrawal at the bank, I decided not to do any overtime today and instead go to Maz after my shift ended at 2:00, then hunker down and work for the next three days.

The nearest Scotiabank to me is the one on Ejercito Mexicano, about 1.5KM from the embarcadero. I walked there and on the way noticed several stores, even hole in the wall abarrotes, that said ‘recarga TelCel aquí’ (recharge TelCel here). I’ve been meaning to put money on my phone so I can make and receive calls, but the website has been so terribly slow that I haven’t had the patience to do so. I’d never put money on the phone from a vendor before and decided to see if that’s easier than using my credit card on the website. Is it! I gave my number to the clerk, told her I wanted to add $100 to my account, and she punched it into what I assumed is a cell phone, although it looked like a big old Nokia from 10 years ago.

After about 30 seconds, her phone dinged and I got five text messages confirming that I’d added the $100, what my rates were, special promotions, etc. Super easy! That’s all I had to do because I was going to use the money for calls and texts. If I had wanted to buy bandwidth, I would have needed to send a text message to that effect.

I just checked the text messages and one of them says that my $100 got me $100 in bonus time (saldo regalo/gift balance)!!! I can use that for calls, texts, and bandwidth at full price. Wow! I remember from last year that I pretty much spent the winter making calls on only saldo regalo, but don’t remember it being that generous.

The Amigo plan (pay-as-you-go) rates are also pretty amazing. Get this, I only pay $2 per minute… to Mexico, the U.S., and Canada. I have been staring at those numbers for the last five minutes trying to figure out what I’m reading wrong. That’s 0.16CAD per minute. There has got to be a catch. I am going to have to call someone in Canada to see if this is true! Skype is free, of course, but it’s good to know that I have the phone as a backup! I just skimmed the fine print and it looks like I can use my phone in the U.S. as though I was in Mexico, which is very interesting. I will get back to this as this plan sounds like a game changer because I could keep my TelCel account active when I’m home and use my Mexican SIM when I’m in Montana!

But I digress. From the abarrotes, I crossed the street to use the Scotiabank ATM, where I was able to take out $4,800. It came out in all $500s, plus a $200 and a $100. Ouch! I much prefer withdrawing from Santander, which gives some small bills… but I don’t miss the fee! I went into the bank and asked to change the $4,5000 worth of $500s to $100s and $50s. Not a problem. The teller ended up giving me almost all $50s! I really didn’t mind, of course, but that made for a rather impressive stack of bills!

Since the big Waldo’s is just a block or two further down the road and I needed a few things for the house, it made sense to head there next. But since I was still on the Scotiabank side, I decided to have lunch first. I knew there was a Rin Rin pizza by the big Ley (where I didn’t need anything this time), but they wanted over $30 for tiny slice with a drink. Pass! I went to the Chinese place instead and had a nice lunch for $48.

Then, I climbed up and up and up and up and up and up some more to get to the pedestrian overpass to cross Ejercito Mexicano and then came all the way back down to ground level. Whew! I still prefer that to playing frogger in front of the Scotiabank!

Waldo’s had everything on my list… and a few things that’s weren’t. For those who don’t know, Waldo’s is equivalent to a higher end dollar store in Canada and the U.S., like Dollar Tree. I especially needed some plastic containers for storing leftovers and the like since the ones I bought last year weren’t in the kitchen when I arrived.

Walking back to the embarcadero, I was struck by the fact that this was my first time walking down Gutiérrez Nájera in that direction and that everything looked so different!

There was a short wait for a lancha, but I was back on Isla in a flash.

IMG_0790

I made a quick stop for beer ($90 for seven, so $13 each, almost half the cost of getting a beer at a restaurant!) and then it was time to get home because I was ready to drop. It’s been a busy work week! I plan to get a bit of a later start tomorrow, which will probably mean 7:00 instead of 6:00. 😀