Month: December 2015

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Visiting Mazatlán’s Tianguis de la Juárez (Flea Market)

After hearing about the ‘Juárez flea market’ through readers Michael and Rochelle and seeing some pictures on Contessa’s blog, I was intrigued. I didn’t have much to go on, besides Michael giving me a very rough idea of the location. Googling Mercado Juárez didn’t give me much other than super old information. But cobbling together a bunch of clues, I finally found the right combination of words (tianguis and Juárez) to get a jackpot of information on the Spanish-language sites.

From these sites, I learned that this market is where the locals shop to get much better deals than at the Mercado Pino-Suárez in Centro and that the market is located in a colonia (neighbourhood) in Maz that is almost a self-contained city. Sunday mornings, folks sell all manner of used goods and this is the most exciting time to go.

Now, to get there…

A lot of the buses that go by the embarcadero have the name Juárez written on them. So this morning, I decided to flag one down and ask if they went to the tianguis de la Juárez. Yup! It was a rather short ride and I knew I was there when the bus slowed to a crawl as it went through the heart of this open-air market. No street closures in Mexico! I hopped off, picked up a giant guava agua fresca (just $10!), and spent quite a bit of time just walking up and down the streets, orientating myself.

This was ‘my’ Mexico, with air smelling of cilantro and grilled meat and laundry detergent, with a whiff of exhaust. Listen carefully and you could hear under the music bartering, cleavers chopping meat and coconuts, vehicles going over topes, and the swish of brooms. It was crowded and busy, but not in the least overwhelming, not the way it would have been at this time last year.

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Everything was for sale and I had fun poking through hardware and kitchen supply shops, as well as looking at clothing. So many sandals!

After exploring the roadside stands, I discovered the flea market part of the market, where there were a lot of clothes for sale!

This was my favourite part of the experience, reminding me a bit of going through the mercado in Durango. Just a warren of stalls with little rhyme or reason to the layout and lots of treasures to be found.

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And treasure I did find! I have been looking for something since last year and which I cannot believe has been so elusive, a lime press. And just like that, I found myself facing an assortment of them! I had a choice of metal or plastic for the same price, but with the metal being aluminum, I preferred to go with the plastic. The seller admitted that he preferred the plastic ones since they have little poky bits that do a better job of fully squeezing the lime. So sold! Oh, and just $25, not negotiable.

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I was trying to decide which taco stand to grab lunch from when I noticed the pizza quite a few people were eating. It looked rather like New York style, so I changed my lunch plans and grabbed a slice for something ridiculous like $24 (prices were definitely lower in this part of Maz than in Centro!) to assuage my curiosity. Well, it wound up being the best pizza I’ve had since Idaho Falls! The cheese and sauce were spot on, the dough not quite chewy enough. But dang! I’ll be spoiled for pizza if I got anywhere else in Maz, methinks!

Just as I was finishing up and found myself wishing for a nieve vendor, what did I spot?! She had most of the usual flavours and I went with prune. $15, same price as I pay in Centro, got me nearly three times as much, and in a cone! It was almost too much, but nieve is so light and refreshing that it goes down easily.

I’d managed to fill almost two hours and I was ready to go, so I decided to take a bus back, not having any heavy shopping to carry. I figured I could grab any bus that would go back to more familiar parts of Maz and make my way back to the embarcadero from wherever I landed. Since I had come from nearly Centro on one one-way street, it stood to reason that I had to catch a bus going in the opposite direction. And when the first bus was Cocos-Juárez, I figured, great, I’ll end up pretty near to the embarcadero.

Well, all was going well for quite a bit. I had no idea where I was and the route was terrible, going over 50 billion topes, but then we turned onto Gabriel Leyva, which becomes Emilio Barragán and I figured I was nearly home… Then we turned off of Gabriel Leyva and went very deep into a residential neighbourhood and even traversed some muddy streets I wouldn’t have taken in anything else than a four-wheel drive before the bus stopped and the driver told me I was at the end of the line. I had taken the bus going in the wrong direction. OOPS!

Now, before anyone has a heart attack, I was not ‘in the middle of nowhere.’ It was a busy neighbourhood, with kids playing outside and tons of buses and taxis going by. I’ve been stranded in bad parts of Chicago, New York, and Baltimore, so let me tell you to get any thoughts of my being ‘in trouble’ out of your heads. I knew exactly how to get to the embarcadero and had the option of waiting 20 minutes for the driver to finish his break and take me back out to Gabriel Leyva, flagging down a taxi, or walking.

It was a gorgeous day, I had spent yesterday cooped up because of a rain storm, and this was a vibrant neighbourhood with lots to see. I decided to start walking and if I got tired or didn’t feel safe, I’d flag down a pulmonía. I ended up walking the whole way, nearly 6KM total! What a happy OOPS!

I was hoping today would be an adventure and I’d say I succeeded at making it one!

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Playing Hooky

I had a day of transcription to do, but by the time I got halfway through my work it was 1PM and I just had to get away from my computer screen, even if it meant have to come back home to the unfinished job.

Pad Thai was what I was in the mood for, so I decided to head up to the Golden Zone, then walk to the bank and Soriana. Getting to the Golden Zone felt like an eternity! I waited for ages on this side for a lancha, then I waited for eons on the other side for a bus. I waited so long that I considered getting into a pulmonía even if that would have meant a $100 trip to the GZ instead of just a $10 one!

Let’s just say that this was the perfect day for me to have given into my curiosity and bought a big fluffy doughnut with cinnamon sugar from the lady at the embarcadero because I would have passed out from hunger by the time I got to the restaurant! I thought I didn’t like doughnuts. As it turns out, I don’t like Canadian doughnuts. Mexican doughnuts are great. 🙂 And cheap! It was only something like $2!

A photo posted by Rae Crothers (@travelingrae) on

So the bus finally arrived and it was incredibly crowded, standing room only for me… until a gentleman got up and told me to take his seat! Chivalry isn’t dead in Mexico!  I was very grateful since it’s been incredibly humid the last few days and my knee is  being really bad, so I appreciated a rest between all that walking I would end up doing.

Like last time, there was no one at the restaurant, even though I arrived quite a bit later. I had the pork in my Pad Thai this time and it wasn’t any better than the chicken in terms of the meat being a bit bland. But that’s being nitpicky again because the Pad Thai was again worth the very long journey to get to it! Two stars didn’t even make my eyes water this time. Either I’m getting used to spice or the chef skimped! It’s such a shame the restaurant is tucked away out of sight. Hopefully, word of mouth will be enough to keep it running a long time.

Next stop was the bank. I make a withdrawal up to my daily limit each time I go by one of the two Scotiabank branches that are part of my normal routes so that I have a reserve of cash on hand since neither one is particularly convenient to go to in a rush. I always convert my big bills to smaller ones and have yet to encounter any reluctance on a teller’s part. I’m really glad I opened up the account because I am saving a bundle on withdrawal fees!

Right next to Scotiabank is Office Depot and I spent a blissful half hour in there getting a few things I need to do my taxes and close the books for the year, including separators with the month written on them. They are in English, which I guess makes sense even for Mexico since the months are so close in both languages, as well as French, with just January being the odd duck out in Spanish (enero versus January/janvier). I just love poking through office supply stores. 🙂

Then, I got a few things at Soriana. I was hoping to find Swiffer refills, even though I knew that was likely wishful thinking. I have to wash my floors a lot here because so much sand gets in and the only mops I could find last year were the string kind that just basically push the dirt around. So I came armed with my Swiffer. The refills are pricey (I go through up to four sheets to do the whole house), but the wet sheets both clean the floor and trap the dirt, doing a much better job than a broom and mop, so they’re well worth the money. A lady asked if she could help me and I just said, “Swiffer…” and she said they didn’t have any, but she could suggest something else. She handed me a reusable microfiber cloth that promises to do the same thing as the Swiffer sheets (and which are meant to clip onto a Swiffer-type mop head), only you have to dip the cloth in water and wring it out. More work, but more economical. At something like $30, it’ll be worth trying it!

I also treated myself to some new bedsheets, another attempt to bring a little colour into the house. A ‘full’ mattress in the U.S./Canada is ‘matrimonial’ in Mexico. Just an FYI. 🙂

By the time I got out, the sky had gone from grey to absolutely leaden. It’ll probably pour tonight. It was a pretty fast taxi ride to the embarcadero (taking yet another route I’ve never taken before, so I saw new things), a bit of a wait at the lancha, and then a short taxi ride home on this side, with the driver knowing exactly where to take me. He took some other passengers, too, and one asked what the heck we were doing stopping where we did. He was surprised that it was my house. Must have thought I live in the trailer park or the hotel, I guess… He hopped out and helped me with my bags. Gentlemen aren’t in short supply in this country!

Gah, I’d better get back to work. But I think I have the next three days off!

Going to the Dentist in Canada vs. Going to the Dentist in Mexico

I had a dentist appointment at 11:30 this morning, so I left quite early to give me time to hunt down chia seeds at the mercado. I decided to start with a lady who sells nuts and dried fruit and whom I could pretty find blindfolded from the entrance by Tony’s on Leandro Valle. She had chia seeds… That was a little quicker than I’d expected, I still had an hour to kill, and I couldn’t eat. Dang!

I wandered around the mercado a bit and found the dividing line between the tourist and the local sections. The tourist section is horrible, with the vendors being incredibly aggressive and unpleasant. There are a few things I’d like to buy that I know I’ll get the best prices on at the mercado, but the vendors really turn me off. You can’t just browse and take in all the sights and colours. Very disheartening and I wish there was a tourist bureau I could vent to… My friend Janet made similar comments to me during our Monday ride. She said she felt “assaulted” and I don’t think she’s exaggerating at all!

But the local part of the mercado is wonderful to wander around in! That’s pretty much anything that involves food. I had a leisurely stroll through the butcher and fish shops, realising that, really, I could buy meat and fish there if I came with a bag full of ice for the trip home. I’d definitely get better selection than at the supermarkets. I found the coffee roasting place a few people have mentioned, ogled the cheeses, and made a mental note of what fruits and veggies I wanted to pick up after my appointment.

Around 11:00, I decided to go sit in the dentist’s air conditioned waiting area and read. She had a few English magazines, so they were fun to browse through. She’s punctual, so I went in at almost bang on 11:30.

So going to the dentist in Canada:

Dentist: MY GOD. YOUR TEETH! Why don’t you go to the dentist more often?!

Me: I can’t afford it.

Dentist (tutting): Can’t afford it. *snorts* It’s all a matter of priorities. *gets to work*

Me: It hurts…

Dentist: Stop whining. It doesn’t hurt. *finishes* That’ll be an arm, a leg, and half a hand.

Going to the dentist in Mexico:

Dentist: MY GOD. YOUR TEETH! What is wrong with your country that dentists care so much more about profit than making sure everyone can afford dental care???!!!

Me: I wish I knew. 🙁

Dentist: This is going to cost you 800 pesos total (66CAD). Can you afford that?

Me: Yes! Thank you!

Dentist (gets to work): Does this hurt?

Me: Yes…

Dentist: We’ll wait another minute. *waits* How about now?

Me: Can’t feel a thing!

Dentist: All done. Are you okay?

Me: Yup! *happily hands over the agreed upon payment*

My tooth badly needs a crown, but I’m not willing to commit to that kind of work at this time. My plan is to get settled in Mérida next year/early 2017 and then find a dentist and orthodontist I could form a long-term relationship with and get my dental issues fixed, something I have to say I rather regret not doing before I hit the road in ’08, when my dental plan would have covered a good chunk of orthodontic work. But it was time to go and I went.

The dentist said I couldn’t eat for an hour and a half and I was ravenous by this point. So decided that I would get an agua fresca, which is rather filling, as a compromise. But first, I picked up some fruits and veggies. The vendor held up the mango I’d chosen and told me it was $29 and did I still want it? I replied yes and that I knew they’re out of season. She gave me a thumbs up at that and bagged everything up for me. Expensive mango, but I was in the mood and I never hesitate to buy fruit as a treat! I also got a really big jicama, which was less than $10.

Then, I picked an agua fresca vendor who had guava! I discovered guava last year and I cannot turn down an opportunity to have a treat made from it! The agua fresca was huge, with tiny pieces of guava in it, for just $17. Like most Mexican sweets, it was just sweet enough, and very refreshing!

Now, I have to get some work done even though I am really not in the mood to do so. Let’s see if I can finish in time to get my Friday night hot dogs!

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An Odour, a Sound, a Colour, a Taste

After work today, I headed to the big Waldo and Ley on Ejército Mexicano to get some household things as well as groceries.

I stopped at the bank first and discovered that the exchange rate is just getting worse when I only managed to squeeze $4,600 out of the ATM, instead of the $4,800 I was taking out each time I went in November… For once, there was no wait for a teller so I could change my bills, and the one I got was very impressed that I had a Post-It note laying out how many of what denominations of bills I want.

Waldo’s had nearly everything I wanted and a few things I hadn’t realised I could get there. Love shopping there. It’s like Dollar Tree!

By this point, it was very late and I wanted food!  I was looking forward to pizza at Rin Rin, but they were out when I got there so back to the Chinese place I went. This time, I got a server who was very sympathetic to my not being a native Spanish speaker and she spoke slowly and did a lot of pointing and pantomiming, which was appreciated, if not entirely needed. They were out of hibiscus water, so I tried their ‘lime tea,’ which was bizarre… I also tried a new main, pork with veg and potatoes, and it was pretty good (liked the hint of lemongrass), but not as much as the mango chicken since some of the pork was gristly.

Look what I came across in the Ley parking lot:

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Those are Christmas trees, folk. And right there, in the sweltering heat of Mexico, I was transported back to a northern forest, the sharp scent of pine in my nose and the crunch of snow under my feet. It was unexpected and delightful. It did not make me ‘homesick’ one bit, but it did make me realise that much as I love my rolling Prairie hills, I do miss the black pine forests and granite cliffs of the Canadian Shield.

I did an epic grocery shop (dropping $1,200 at one time!), including taking advantage of a 3 for 2 sale on wine (which, spoiler alert, was a bit sweet but delicious!), so I was loaded down to go home and willing to accept any help I could get. I’d also been up since 4:00 a.m., so I was eager to get home. But it was an odd sort of day. I waited forever to cross to Maz on the lancha, long enough that I could have practically walked to the bank from the embarcadero between the time I bought my ticket and the time we actually took off. Well, on the way home, I learned that those tracks separating the parking lot from the ticket booth and dock are actually in use!

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There was a very, very, very long train chugging along very slowly, making that sound trains make (cue ‘Folsom Prison Blues’). The wait by the time I got there was 10 minutes, and someone said she’d been waiting for 10 minutes before I showed up and she hadn’t seen the beginning of it!

The package carrier guy took the opportunity to tease me about my very heavy and clinky bag, asking if I was hooked on Mexican tequila. I told him about the wine sale and that I’d also stocked up on beer. “Oh, you have all the essentials, then,” he replied in heavily accented English with a twinkle in his eye. I did, seeing as I’d also cleaned out Ley of its plain and roasted red  pepper hummus. 🙂

I did a bit of impulse shopping today, remedying some impulse shopping from several years ago, when the size and price of this really dull bath towel overrode my common sense about buying something so bland:

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It’s not too bad in my colourful Miranda, but here it is pretty much the same colour as the floors. 🙁

By the way, I rented the house through photos I’d seen and in them, it was painted with bright colours. But by the time I got here, it had been painted bright white because my landlady realised that “Canadians don’t like colour.” 🙁 I told her she could paint with colours for me if she painted over the summer, but in the offer chance that I wasn’t going to come, she went with white again. At least, I got the purple and yellow curtains in the kitchen!

But I digress. Ley was having a sale on towels and when I saw this, I just had to have it:

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It goes with the lime green walls in the bathroom (a colour I normally dislike, but, in this house, it’s like an oasis in the desert), as well as with the blues in the office. It’s just so bright and beautiful and now I’ll smile when I go into the bathroom instead of staring at more beige!

The only further purchases I want to make are a few area rugs. I’m glad to be spending a little money on the casita this year. Last year, the purchase of a terrible computer chair was really the only expense I could afford at first, and then it was too late for it to be worth buying anything.

I wouldn’t go so far as to say the house feels ‘homey,’ but this year it’s comfortable and a bit softer around the edges, and that’s a huge improvement! I still can’t believe my landlady listened to my suggestion and because of that, I had a comfy place to sit down tonight, put my feet up, and enjoy some vino!

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A Chile Effect

I wound up missing lunch today because of Work Stuff and my blanket date. By the time I was done with work at 5:45, I was quite shaky with hunger (despite some quickly inhaled raisins and cheese upon return from my date) and I needed a walk. So I decided to get some takeout (para llevar) from Osuna, clear across Isla. I ordered and asked for extra pickled chiles (curtidos).

There were a few people waiting for food, so I knew it would be a long wait. There was an older lady sitting alone at the table across from me, with a clear view to the kitchen. At one point, I heard her mutter to herself, “Someone likes those pickled chiles!”

I laughed and said that was me.

She turned in shock and said, “You speak Spanish! Thank God! We can chat! Waiting alone is so boring!”

We must have chatted for over 20 minutes about her grandkids, weather, travel, our long and exhausting day, our hunger, what I do for a living, and more. And we also talked about chiles curtidos. Too spicy for her. 🙂

When I got home, I found my extra chiles sealed in a plastic bag sitting on top of my torta, which held the usual amount of chiles. The gal who put them together for me must have remembered me well because her extra was just the right amount! I have to say my favourite part is the carrots. Yes, those same carrots I was terrified of last year! Palates change!

No picture of the torta, sorry. Told you I was hungry!