Day: December 30, 2015

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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.

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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?

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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:

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Here’s the “skull lid.” 🙂

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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!

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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.