Month: December 2015

by

Standards

Having toured a bunch of rental places in the last weeks, I’m getting a sense of the difference between ‘Gringo’ and Mexican standards when it comes to housing, if only here on Isla and in Maz (based on what friends have told me about house hunting on that side of the channel). One thing we Gringos expect is running hot water throughout the house. I’ve learned over the last year that hot water isn’t common in the average Isla/Maz residence and if a house has it, it’s just at the shower, with an on-demand heater installed right into the shower head (regadera electrica).

My house was built with an attempt to provide the Gringo standard of running hot water throughout the house, but the person who did the plumbing screwed up royally (my landlady’s judgement, not mine, although, knowing more than a thing or two about plumbing, I agree!). The house has an ancient propane water heater that is nearly as temperamental as my water heater at home. It’s a joke between my landlady and me that I have a water heater curse. But not only is the water heater unreliable, so is the water pressure in the hot water lines. Right now, I have zero water coming out of the hot side in the shower.

Because running water, never mind running hot water, has been something of a luxury most of my adult life, having spent so many winters in housing where keeping water running wasn’t an option, I’m very tolerant of my situation. The woman who was in the little suite last year wasn’t and so they installed a regadera electrica for her that runs off the cold water line, which has plenty of pressure.

Early last week, I brought up the subject of the no hot shower thing in my suite and my landlady said that she would have a regadera electrica installed for me ASAP because it was time to stop fighting the decrepit hot water heater and badly plumbed hot water line.

As an interim solution, I have the key to the little suite so I can have a warm shower there. Warm rather than hot since you can only set the shower head to the lower setting. This is something Wandering Mike discovered after blowing a breaker and which I completely forgot. So there I was in the shower last night when the lights went out and the water got freezing very quickly! You should have heard me laughing as I fumbled around in the dark to get myself presentable enough for the quick dash back to my suite!

Oh, and guess where the breaker is for the little suite? In my kitchen. That’s another thing I have to get used to here in Mexico. There are apparently no electrical building codes!

Maybe it’s because I’m used to living in places that don’t meet Gringo standards or because I am aware that clean running water and a flush toilet are something only a small percentage of the world has, but I just can’t get upset about the situation. My landlady is doing what she can and has given me a solution. And, of course, the longer I have to use the little suite for a shower, the longer I’m guaranteed not to have a tenant in it! Having Mike here was, of course, not an issue, but what if I end up with a horrible person like I did last year, even if only for a week or two?! Really, this is for the best!

by

Off to The Beer Company, Mazatlán

Finishing at 2:00 continues to be worth the 5:30 a.m. wakeup time! I can go have an adventure, explore unfamiliar parts of Maz, get some exercise, and be home in three hours flat before dark!

Wandering Mike, Chris, and Juan went off gallivanting on Sunday, with their main destination being a place that Mike discovered in Guanajuato, a chain of stores called The Beer Company, which features beers from all over the world as well as tons of Mexican craft beers. Lovely souls that they are, they returned with a Mexican stout and some Veracruz coffee beans for me!

I couldn’t believe that I’d never heard of this place and when I discovered just how easy it is to get to (walking distance, even!) I decided to go check it out this week. The store is on Avenida del Mar, between Lola Beltrán and the turn for the bus depot, and only 6.4KM roundtrip from the embarcadero.

map

It was a lovely hot and sunny day until I left at 2:00, when clouds rolled in and the wind picked up. It was very chilly crossing over to Maz on a choppy channel and the lancha’s engine cut off partway. What else was there to do but take in the scenery of a shrimp boat coming into port?

IMGP2848

IMGP2849

We eventually got underway again and once I reached the other side, I decided to take Ejército Mexicano part of the way north so that I could do a withdrawal at Scotiabank. The bank was really busy today! There were two people ahead of me at the ATM and at least a dozen ahead of me in the queue inside. Needless to say, I was there a lot longer than I had planned on. I guess everyone was doing their end of the month stuff because it’s normally very quiet around that time.

Next stop was the Rin Rin pizza by the big Ley. It’s not as good as the one at Mega, but it’s a bit cheaper and you get a drink, all for just $25.

I then turned towards the water, turned right on Avenida del Mar, and very shortly thereafter, saw the bus turnoff sign:

IMGP2850

Which is when I figured out why I’ve passed The Beer Company so many times and never noticed it. There is just one sign and it is quite high up, to be seen from a distance. It wouldn’t be particularly visible from a bus seat.

IMGP2851

It’s a bar as well as a store, so you can sit out with a beer. I was tempted, but I wanted to get home before dark so I stuck to shopping.

IMGP2852

There are several fridges with dozens of different beers, including nearly two full of only Mexican beers. A very attentive clerk came to give me a hand. I first had him narrow the selection down to Mexican beers, then asked for something similar to Pacifico, ie. a crisp easy drinking lager. He handed me two, including one called Olas Altas that he says is the original recipe for Pacifico.

As a contrast, I wanted a stout and told him that my friends had bought me a very dark beer with a skull on the lid (not knowing how to say cap). He went, “AH!” and pulled out the correct beer. I asked for something similar and he recommended two.

I bought all four beers for a total of $281 (about 24CAD). The four-pack of beer just barely fit in my purse and was pretty heavy to drag home! Here’s my lineup with Sunday’s Imperial Stout on the far left.

IMGP2853

Here’s the “skull lid.” 🙂

IMGP2855

I’m drinking the Olas Altas now and it’s definitely hoppier/more bitter than Pacifico, but still very smooth. I’m optimistic about the others!

by

Update on the Scotiabank Account and INTERAC e-Transfers

I’m really glad I made that trip up to Moose Jaw to open a Scotiabank account before coming to Mexico.

Last year, each bank withdrawal cost me an average of 30MXN (depending on the bank) and 5CAD. I averaged four withdrawals per month, so that came to about 30CAD a month just to withdraw my own money!

With my Scotiabank account, I have cut these costs down to just 3.95CAD a month as long as I don’t make more than 12 withdrawals per month.

When I want to make a withdrawal, I sign into my CIBC account online and follow the prompts to send an INTERAC e-Transfer to my email address. This is absolutely free. Not too long thereafter (never more than an hour), I get an email asking me to deposit the funds. There are several links in the email itself to the online banking page for a number of banks, including Scotiabank. I click on that link, sign into my Scotiabank account, answer my security question, and the funds are deposited to my account and immediately available. I can even do this on the fly, using my iPhone banking apps. It’s happened once that I had no intention of going near one of the Scotiabanks, then something came up to change my plans. I initiated the transfer through my phone and had access to the money by the time I got to the ATM.

Having this account and the ability to make up to 12 withdrawals a month means added security in a couple of different ways.

First, I only carry my Scotiabank card, which only has a few hundred dollars in it at any give time, rather than my CIBC card, which is linked to my main chequing account as well as my USD account, my line of credit, and my Visa. Getting mugged for my Scotiabank card would be an inconvenience, but not devastating the way it would be to lose my CIBC card.

The other security advantage is that since I can make several withdrawals a month, I can make smaller ones and have less cash on me. Last year, I would try to maximize every withdrawal and find myself walking around with more cash than I could afford to lose if someone grabbed my purse.

These benefits will continue when I travel through the U.S. in the spring, only at Bank of America, and when I go to Europe this summer if wherever I land has a bank that is affiliated with Scotiabank.

If you’re a Canadian bummed out by the exorbitant cost of withdrawing your own money while abroad, it’s really worth opening a basic account at Scotiabank.

by

Handling a Power Outage with Aplomb

There was a planned power outage scheduled from 6AM to 2PM today. My laptop battery can last most of a day if I do a few tweaks to conserve power, so my only concern was internet access since my modem needs power. Of course, if I was home, power wouldn’t be an issue, but I’m not so well equipped in Mexico.

In case TelMex was also down, I made sure last night to buy some data for my phone so I could get internet through Telcel today. I picked their 1GB package good for a week as that would ensure enough bandwidth for the day while not being a huge investment if I ended up not needing it.

The first thing I did today was string an extension cord to the truck from my office window. The power went out at about 6:40, so I plugged my modem into the extension cord, went out to the truck, plugged my inverter into one of the truck’s 12V outlets, and came back in to see if I had internet. I sure did! That was fantastic since it meant that I could keep working from my office instead of having to do so outside with all the mosquitoes! As a reminder, that’s because I only have TelCel internet with a cellular booster, which needs to run off the truck battery as well.

To preserve computer battery life, I left the computer in sleep mode when I wasn’t actually working and instead checked my emails on my phone. This meant that by the time the power came back on at 1:30, I still had 10% computer battery life left (about one hour of run time if I kept it in power saving mode or 30 minutes if I had to work)! If the outage had gone on, I would have used a bit more truck battery capacity to charge my computer, no biggie.

The only thing I would have needed for today to be totally stress-free is small solar trickle charger to keep my truck battery topped up during the day. It’s one of those things I keep forgetting to get because I’m still so used to having everything I own with me at any given time. But I knew that one day of running the modem wouldn’t kill my battery (I mean, I ran my booster for several days when I first arrived), so, really, I wasn’t particularly stressed today.

Those of you who follow me on Facebook know that I did have one power-related emergency today: I forgot while I still had power to grind coffee beans for my second cup of the day. My solution to that was not a joke. I put some beans in a baggie, put a cloth around the baggie, and then put the cloth-wrapped baggie on a smooth rock from my yard. I then used a rounder rock to grind the beans. The cloth kept the rock from going right through the baggie and getting ground beans everywhere. My ‘primitive’ grinder worked perfectly!

by

So I Finally Had a Shrimp Burger at Tony’s…

Today was another very full day! I got my work done ahead of the deadline and waited for my client to confirm that he had received it, which he normally does promptly. Half an hour later, I got an email asking where the work was. I had successfully sent it, so I went to downdetector.com and learned that Gmail was having serious issues. So nothing I could do about it other than slip the job into a shared FTP folder on my server, Skype my client to let him know where to find the file, and to wish him luck with his email issues.

The not fun part of the day done, I had a late breakfast and then greeted Janet around 10:30. It was just the two of us again today for riding, but we didn’t go out on our own. Daniel was in a feisty mood, with today’s Spanish lesson being fall of naughty words! That Monday morning hour and a bit is so special and magical. As if riding on a beautiful tropical beach wasn’t enough, we get the linguistic lesson thrown in as a bonus. I really treasure my Monday morning ride.

I got in around 12:30 and put together a few things so I could run a very specific errand in town. First stop on the other side was lunch! I’ve been hearing so much about the shrimp burger at Tony’s in the mercado from several unrelated sources, including Chris and Juan, that it was time to have it even if the last thing I needed after all that holiday food was a burger!

This is what I got for $60:

IMG_0932

I like how they avoid having to wash dishes…

It’s pretty clear from the picture that the burger is all about the bun. There were barely any shrimp (related, I’m sure, to the shrimp fishermen having a hard time this winter), but what was there was perfectly grilled and fresh, so points for that! There was also lettuce, tomato, and crema. I found that it was missing something and I was about halfway through when I realised that all reports of the shrimp burger had it with avocado on top. What was there was delicious. I like how the bread was toasted and there were definitely some spices or seasoning, plus the veggies were very fresh. I’ll have to try again on a day when Tony himself is cooking because while it was good, I was underwhelmed after all the hype.

Next stops were the two Parisinas (fabric stores) near the Mercado. One has more fabric, the other has more notions. I was looking for fabric for head scarves. I was a bit disappointed by the selection of fabric at hand, not finding any stretchy cotton, only polyester, but I came out with enough satisfactory material for eight scarves for just $120 between the two stores. I’ll have three in solid colours and five with patterns.

I was carrying a rather heavy bag with a scarf pattern; sample scarf; and two dresses, one of which I was hoping I could add to my order (hemming and straps) and the other being the model, so I didn’t do any other shopping and instead headed straight for the seamstress. It’s not my fault that my favourite nieve de garrafa vendor was on that route… 🙂 I haven’t been there much this year and I was still recognised! The owner told his helper to give me two scoops of prune and one each of my two other choices even before I had ordered! So that was four scoops for the price of three. They are small! Four scoops is less than a standard scoop of ice cream, and not nearly as rich since there’s no cream in them. I sat on a bench in the Plazuela Machado for a break to eat my treat.

From there, it was a few blocks to the Costura Express on Carnaval. The lady I had spoken to last week wasn’t there, but her sister was. Between my Spanish and her limited English, we figured out what I wanted and she even called her sister to confirm my order and find out if she could do the dress, too. Yes, for $80, which puts that dress at the same price I would have paid if I had bought it finished. Perfect! I really understood their conversation, including where she bargained the dress price down for me since I had the fabric for the straps. I will get to pick up my order on Saturday! I’m so excited since I’ve been wearing the same three scarves for ages. The new scarves will be $70 each, plus $15 each for the fabric, for a total of $85 each, 5USD at the current exchange rate. I paid 30USD each for my current scarves! It will be nice to have that dress finished, too. I’ve worn it strapless around Isla, but it’s way too casual to wear into Maz.

I then headed back to the mercado to pick up some fruits and veggies, stopping at a few vendors until I got most of what I wanted. I was ready to drop by this point, but still stopped in at the Ley on Melchor Ocampo, which has been totally revamped! I got some more fruits and veggies (half each of a cabbage and pineapple) and meat.

Thankfully, my friend Sue was on the lancha coming home, so we were able to walk a good part of the way home together, giving me something besides my exhaustion and heavy bags to focus on! 🙂 I got in, had a break, then made a ginormous veggie and beef stir fry for dinner. I really like how the beef is sold in such thin strips here since it marinates in no time. I just threw it in a bowl for about 20 minutes with a minced clove of garlic, the juice of two (tiny) limes, soy sauce, and sushi vinegar and it came out so tender and flavourful!

No map of my day, sorry, since Google Maps aren’t cooperating. It was about a 5KM excursion.

Now, time to unwind so I can get to bed on time and be up and at ’em for 5:30. It is going to be a tough day tomorrow because there will be no power on the whole Isla after a transformer blew up in the Colonia yesterday (a guy who lives two doors from where that happened told me all about that on the lancha coming home). Needless to say, I’m worried about work. Hopefully, TelCel will work well enough for me to get through my day. I am also going to try plugging my modem into my inverter to see if my TelMex connection could work that way (the only reason it would be down, I’m told, is for lack of power, so…). My truck battery has a full charge, so I’ll have enough power, even if I have to charge my laptop for a bit. There’s no sense fretting about this until power actually goes down tomorrow. I’ve been told the outage will officially be 6AM to 2PM (my entire shift!), but that, in fact, it shouldn’t take more than three to four hours. We shall see!