Month: January 2016

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Off to Mérida!

My trip to Mérida is booked! It was hard to get a nearly perfect flight, so I’m going later than planned, leaving February 19th and coming back February 28th.

I wanted to fly around my work schedule, so that meant I could only fly on a Friday, Saturday, or Sunday (giving me Monday as a buffer to settle in or in case there is a flight delay). I’m leaving on a Friday and coming back on a Sunday, so nine nights total. The other thing was that I didn’t want to have to overnight in DF (Mexico City) or get back to Mazatlán after dark. Finally, I really preferred not to fly out before 8AM. Price ended up being my last consideration, but I did okay. I think it will come out to between 500CAD and 550CAD with the exchange rate.

I used Sky Scanner for the first time and it was worth it because it found flights on discount sites that weren’t available directly through the airline. I didn’t save any money, but I got a better choice of dates and times. My flight is with InterJet, but I booked through Travelocity.

So I leave Maz at 3:05 p.m. local time, have a 1.5 hour layover in DF, and get to Mérida at 9:10 p.m. local time. I’ll take a taxi to my destination. My hosts (more below) are prepared that I might not get in till 11:00 p.m.

For the trip home, I leave Mérida at 8:25 a.m., have a 3.5 hour layover in DF, and get home at 2:35 local time.

After speaking with a few friends who have tons of experience flying out of Maz from Isla, I’m planning to leave my truck here, take the lancha to Maz, and grab a cab there to get me to the airport or investigate the possibility of a bus.

I will get eight full days in Mérida, of which I will work for three. Mérida is on the same time zone as work, so that means I’ll be working 8:00 to 4:00 and so those days will be pretty much a write-off, but I should at least be able to enjoy a few evening hours out.

Now, for housing. I really wanted to rent an apartment in a neighbourhood I might want to move to to get a feel for what life could be like for me in Mérida. I’d spent some time on TripAdvisor learning about the various neighbourhoods in Mérida and made a list of the neighbourhoods to investigate. One of the neighbourhoods at the top of my list had nearly the perfect place. All-in, it’s 32CAD per night. The only thing I’m not happy about, based on the pictures, is that it’s a boring white house like my casa here in Maz. I had hoped to find something more architecturally interesting. But it’s fine for a week. I’ll be choosier when I’m looking for a long-term residence!

A couple of people asked me why I’m not driving or taking the bus. Here’s why:

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Mérida is 2,500KM away. It would be like my driving 63% of the way back to Haven for just a week!

Just for kicks, I checked out the bus option. It’s 26 hours and 2,000MX each way. So 52 hours of travel time for 4,000MXN total. For 2,500MXN (200CAD) more, I can get there and back in about 18 hours total travel time. Air travel is a wonderful option! 😀

There is tons to do around and outside Mérida, but I won’t be focused on cramming in too much tourism since I plan to move there full-time! Really, the purpose of this trip is to try out life in the city and focus on practical matters so I can hit the ground running when it comes time to searching for an apartment to rent long-term.

Next project, wrapping my brain around my summer in Europe…

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Lunch in Town

I had a bit of a homey morning, doing laundry and catching up on some chores and bookkeeping. Around 1:00, I decided it was too nice of a day to spend on the computer so I put on my new dress and a new scarf and headed off for lunch on the Malecón.

On the way, I stopped in at the Mercado with the hope of finding a very lightweight dressing gown, something I’ve been wanting for quite some time. I struck out at the thrift shops back home and I didn’t like the selection in stores. I just wanted a pretty cover-up to wear over my skimpy jammies so I can have my coffee outside or run out to get the water without having to get dressed first.

I went up two aisles in the Mercado when I spotted something on a dummy. I had it taken off for me to examine more closely and was surprised that it was absolutely perfect:

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It’s almost like a kimono, so it has a very ample cut. The length is perfect, not so long as to get tangled in it, but long enough to be modest. It will make a good beach/swimming pool cover up as well. I was quoted $250, countered with $200, and was told that the best price was $230, which seemed fair to me so I happily forked over the money.

I then headed to the Malecón to have lunch at El Shrimp Bucket, a chain of shrimp restaurants. I was wary about eating there, but read several reviews that left me intrigued. I knew it would be a pricy meal, but haven’t had a really nice meal out in ages. I ordered a Pacifico, which came with a frosty mug, and hemmed and hawed over the menu. Everything looked good! I ended up having the “camarones a la suiza” (Swiss-style shrimp) because it had tomatillo (green tomato) sauce, which I love.

Shrimp-wise, the meal was worth its hefty $212 price tag. The portion of plump charbroiled shrimp was generous and perfectly cooked. But the dish could have stood a few minutes under a broiler to properly melt and even char the Chihuahua cheese. The roasted vegetables (zucchini, carrot, and eggplant (!)) were sparse, but very tasty. I was surprised that the rice was of the plain old white variety since rice tends to be so flavourful in Mexico. But it wound up being the perfect base for consuming a very tasty red sauce. There was also a sweet salsa that I’m pretty sure had real maple syrup in it (!). It was great for dipping the veggies in and even complemented the green sauce. Oh, and I had a bun, which I used to mop up every last drop of that yummy green sauce. All the salsas were just spicy enough for my tastes. The only one I didn’t try was what appeared to be a tartar sauce, since that’s made with mayo.

The meal was good enough that I’d go back to El Shrimp Bucket to try their much more reasonably priced shrimp, bacon, and avocado tacos! Their beer is the same price as everywhere else on the Malecón, so the frosty mug alone makes a return trip inevitable!

There’s a raspado (shaved ice) shop almost right next door, so I popped in for a dessert that would be much lighter than an ice cream and more refreshing on a super hot day. They had a gazillion flavours and I opted for piña colada. I want to go back and try some others!

I got in to discover that the plumbing faery came by in my absence! I have hot water AND pressure in my shower!

Am I glad I did my housekeeping before heading out, though! 😀

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Sometimes, Even the Dictionary Can’t Help

Today was the day to go pick up my new scarves and dress, so the plan was to do lunch, pick them up, then do a big shop for groceries.

For lunch, I went to Tony’s Burgers in the mercado to have one of their beef burgers. It wound up being quite good since it was made with real beef, but the patty was really thin and there was too much bun. I would rather pay more (it was $37) and have a better meat to bun ratio. Next time, I’ll ask if I can have two patties and I’m sure I’ll still come in at less than I would pay for a burger at Beach Burger. I even found Tony’s burger better than the super pricy ones at Mary’s in the Golden Zone, even if those have more meat. I still can’t believe it took me this long to discover Tony’s!

My things were ready for me when I arrived some time later at the seamstress. I hadn’t double checked my receipt when I went in last time and didn’t realise that her sister had put down seven scarves instead of eight. I paid for the eighth one and will have my friend Janet pick it up sometime next week and bring it to me on a Monday when she comes to Isla to ride.

Here’s my finished dress:

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I look forward to being able to wear this one in Maz.  I’ve been wearing it around Isla without the straps, but I’m too much of a lady to go to town dressed like that. It’s a really flattering style and I’m happy to now have two dresses in that cut and fabric.

Here’s the first batch of scarves:

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The colours are a bit off because of the weird lighting in the house. The far left one is actually a really deep brown, the middle one is steel-coloured, and the one on the right is a very dark purple. They’ll make nice neutrals.

Here are the more fun ones, with their colours being more reflective of reality:

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The one on the far left is blue and white, then there’s a dark pink with white splotches, then a lighter pink with white flowers, then a mint green with purple flowers. The eighth scarf also had a bit of a tropical vibe and is similar to the one on the right.

The seamstress wasn’t pleased with the fabric I bought since it’s not super great quality and warned me that I shouldn’t be surprised if I snag a scarf and the fabric starts to run. I expected this. Modatelas (literally fashion fabrics), a higher quality fabric store, just opened by the Mercado to compete with Parisina and I’ll go there and look for better fabric, preferably a stretchy cotton, since the seamstress is available to make me more!

I then hiked a couple of blocks to Alemán and waited a few minutes for the Sábalo bus. On it, I met a Colombian hotelier who made me promise to go check out Colombia someday, something a colleague of mine has also told me. They both said the same thing: Colombia is a cleaner, better organised, safer, and cheaper Mexico that is currently a really well-kept secret since most of the world hasn’t figured out yet that Colombia is no longer the terrifying place it was 20 years ago. One day. 🙂

I really didn’t feel like going all the way up to Soriana, so I decided to do my shop at the big Ley. The bus was extremely crowded and I was concerned that I wouldn’t be able to get off. So as soon as I saw the Domino’s in the distance, with the turnoff to go to the big Ley only a block or two past there, I beeped the button. Sure enough, it took so long for people to let me through that the bus driver got impatient and drove off, only stopping again when I made it to the rear exit door and beeped again. That was fine as it brought me about a block closer to Ley. I hopped off and walked the three or four blocks to the store.

Ley had everything on my list, including hummus, but I got a little frustrated that all their beef was labeled “beef flesh.” I have no idea what I bought, but I’m hoping it’s similar to the “sirloin” stuff Soriana sells that I like. I really stocked up on meat for once since they had some good prices.

There was a woman promoting a product’s two-for-one sale. I had her hand me one and realised that it was a competitor brand for Tajín, the fruit seasoning (salt+chile+lime) I’m not nuts about, but which is strangely addictive. I’ve been wanting to try this other brand, La fina, so I put two bottles in my cart (for a grand total of $14).

The veggie section surprised me when I found kale. It wasn’t labeled and there was no price, but it was very fresh and there was so little of it that I grabbed it all, about the equivalent of two bundles’ worth at a supermarket in Canada.

The cashier asked me what the kale was and, of course, I completely blanked out. I pulled it up in the dictionary on my phone and told him to look up “col rizado” (spelling it out) or “repollo rizado.” Neither one came up. The produce manager came over and asked me where I had found the kale because he had no memory of it coming in. He went to look and confirmed that there was no label for it.

Finally, he said, “How much would you pay for this in Canada?” I did some math and figured about $40 (3CAD). His eyes went wide and he said, “That’s crazy!” He scrolled through the produce prices list a bit more and said, “It looks like fancy parsley. How does $14 sound?” SOLD. Then I told him I bought it all and he wouldn’t have to go through this again, which is where the accumulated crowd just lost it and doubled over laughing at the absurdity of the situation.

I then grabbed a pulmonía for the embarcadero (had a nice conversation with the driver), struggled to get my bags to the lancha because the package carrier guy wasn’t around, and accepted help on this side to get them into a pulmonía. I had to share it with a family going to the beach and as soon as we turned off the paved road and started to weave through the alleys to get to my house, the patriarch of the family asked where the hell we were going because he knew the beach was “that” way. I interjected and said that he was dropping me off at my house, which surprised him. Where the heck did he think I was going laden down with toilet paper, laundry detergent, and tons of food?! 😀

It never ceases to amaze me how a mundane day of running errands is so special down here!

Now, to figure out what I’m doing for dinner with all that kale!

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Number Crunching Day

The ‘new year’ is just an arbitrary change of number that could really happen at any time. So I don’t really treat it as a special event. Last year was the first December 31st that I can remember since that of ’99 going into ’00 that I did anything. I’m sure it’s not the only one, but the night is such a non-event that I’ve have to go back over old journals to see if there are others.

I’m more of a follower when it comes to social engagements, attending parties and other events if I get an actual invitation, especially on a super busy night where going out on my own wouldn’t be much fun anyway. No invitations for last night came, so I stayed in. I’m not sure I would have accepted one anyway. I’d been up since about 4:30 a.m. and was not sad that I was able to conk out at 9:00, despite a loud party going on next door!

January 1st tends to be a bookkeeping day for me. It’s always quiet and I can start to close the previous year’s books, open the new year’s, and take stock of my goals for the year. For 2016, the goals are to find another steady client who pays well and to end the year in Mexico with a residency visa. I’d like to spend the summer in Europe, but I wouldn’t consider having to put that off as a failure. It’ll all depend on whether the current income levels continue or not.

2015 was an extraordinary year. It started and ended in Mazatlán and ended up being the year where I spent the bulk of my time outside of Canada! I was only home for about five months, spent just about a full six months in Mexico, and just about a full month in the U.S. It was the year that I started to figure out how I’m going to manage to see the world, by renting apartments in the locations I want to experience. It was also the year that I was able to look back on all the grief I’ve experienced and think, “It was so worth it!”

Happy 2016 to all my readers!