Month: April 2016

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Last Full Week

I’m starting my journey north next Saturday, April 23rd. So this is my last full week in Mazatlán.

Things are kind of in limbo right now because of work unexpectedly grinding to a halt. I’m not worried as things always pick up and I did better in February and March than I thought, although I have a significant outstanding receivable that I’m concerned about. But it doesn’t look like I’ll have any income worth mentioning for April and May. That determines what kind of trip north I’ll have. Thankfully, the coffers are in fine shape and so far I don’t need to change my Europe plans, even though I’m still not at a point of being able to focus on that. I tend to be a one milestone at a time kind of gal.

One thing that is helping me be so relaxed about this lull is my beloved Haven. I remember when departure day would loom when I was full-timing and I was always stressed about where I’d land and how long I could stay. With Haven, I know I can land sometime in May and be in absolutely no rush to head out again. I’m not looking forward to insane grocery prices and crappy internet, but setting foot on my very own 5,000 square feet of property?  I can’t wait. Four years now that I’ve owned Haven and the novelty of having my own land hasn’t worn off.

But there is a whole country between my Mexican casita and Haven. It’s not like I can snap my heels together and, poof, be in Saskatchewan. Because of work commitments in the spring, I did a mad dash south. With spring having come early to Haven, I thought of doing the same thing to go north, only with a long stop in Wyoming rather than in Nogales. My friend Vicki, whom I stayed with in Keystone last year, is going to be in Cody for the summer and has graciously invited me to pop in. Cody is on one of my three most direct routes home from Nogales, not even a detour, so it’s a no brainer to go!

That means I’ll be driving through Utah. And if I’m driving through Utah, I have to find a way to spend a week at Arches National Park to do some hiking. So now, I’m looking for reasonably priced accommodation around the park, similar to what I did to visit Zion Canyon. I haven’t started doing any real searching yet, so I hope this will be possible. With the current exchange rate, anything more than 40USD a night will be a stretch (I paid less than that in Hurricane to visit Zion, at a weekly rate). Of course, I can reduce the stay to a few nights only if I don’t find a reasonable weekly rate. I just want to make sure I can fit in at least two really good hikes.

So far the trip home looks like this:

April 23rd: Isla to San Carlos. I need to find accommodation in San Carlos since I refuse to stay at Totonaka. I’ve been asked why I go out of my way and don’t stay in Guaymas instead. San Carlos will be my last chance to see the ocean before heading into the desert, then Prairies. I cherished my last Mexico evening last year and think I will regret skipping San Carlos this year.

April 24th: San Carlos to Tucson or even Phoenix. Last year, I had work to do right around border day, so I was glad to have an excuse to stop in Nogales after a tiring morning. But this year, if I don’t cross too late, I’d like to start pushing north, especially since I’ll be gaining an hour. In fact, I’d really like to get as far as Phoenix.

April 25th: Tucson (or Phoenix) to Moab(ish).

Then Moab(ish) to Cody, very likely with a stop halfway. Then Cody to home. As long as I’m on the road by 7:00 or 8:00 am, I’ll be able to get to the border well before it closes and still get home before dark. I don’t feel the pressing need I did last year to be home early in the day.

So at this point, I’m seeing myself at home by the end of the first week of May to the end of the second week of May, two weeks earlier than last year. I’m prioritising the trip to Europe over more gallivanting in the U.S., of which I’ve done plenty. 🙂

This week, I’m just enjoying being on Isla. I went out both days last weekend, so I’m glad to stay in this week and enjoy the beach. I had an nice dinner at Miguel’s last night and my yardmates and I are going out to Che’s on Thursday evening. Next week, I’ll probably want to do a couple of excursions into town, to say my final goodbye to at least the Malecón. I don’t think I’ll be heading back up to the Golden Zone, though. And, of course, I need to start packing and deep cleaning!

I remain a little distressed by how quickly the winter flew by. I wonder what I did all this time and, yet, I know I did a ton, including two vacations! I think part of thing is that while I was here, I didn’t have as much novelty of discovery as I did last year. However I look at it, these have been the best six months of my life.

And now, ¡nuevas aventuras!

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A Backwards Day

Normally, I work in the morning and go play in the afternoons. But a tianguis Juárez day is backwards since you want to beat the crowds and get there before all the goods are picked over. So I had a lazy morning, going so far as to take my coffee back to bed, before getting ready to go out. I tried on one of my new blouses with a slim pair of black capris and the difference to the fit compared to my flowy black skirt was amazing! So I decided to wear that outfit even if the fabric weights were a little heavy for a day that was already hot and sticky at 7:30 a.m.

Needless to say, the brief lancha ride to town was woooooonderful. I’m almost jealous of the captains who get to spend their day going back and forth. 🙂

Since this was a “special” day, I treated myself to a doughnut from the vendor at the embarcadero. Don’t miss her if you see her. Her doughnuts are always fresh and never taste of rancid oil, with just enough cinnamony sugar to make them a fluffy treat.

I walked to Júarez last time, it’s only about 3KM, but since I knew I’d walk for a couple of hours there, I didn’t want to be completely wilted at the start. $7.50 for a bus that goes right by the embarcadero just makes sense in these weather conditions. I got on the first bus marked Juárez and the driver stared at me for a second before asking me in English where I was going. I replied in Spanish, “To Juárez, like it says on your windscreen…” All he could say to that was, “Oh.” Strange…

I have a routine now when I go to Juárez. I get off on the edge of the tianguis (flea market) part and go up and down each aisle, oggling clothes and other wares, until I find an agua fresca vendor, and then walk some more in the area. This time, I found a rare vendor who has a smaller size (poor value), but this meant I could get another flavour later and also not have to spend all my time holding a huge cup. My first one of the day was guava (but of course). I then continued exploring the aisles, even though I wasn’t really in a spending mode. It was just fun to see what was on display. I did keep an eye out for the flip-flops I normally buy at the City Deli, but which they don’t currently have in my size.

After about an hour, I headed to the interior market, where I knew I could find a clean bathroom, and then I was ready for tacos! I have my preferred vendor for those and, thankfully, they weren’t too busy, although I was unable to get a seat. I ordered two tacos with everything, confirmed that spicy was fine (whatever they call spicy isn’t), and then did my best to elbow my way to the condiment counter, but failed. A cook took pity on me and asked what I wanted. I said guacamole and salsa mexicana. He put enough of the former on, but not enough of the latter. When I asked for more, he said, “¡Picante!” and I just had to laugh before telling him to go ahead. Two very full and delicious tacos there are just $30! They’re the best deals on tacos I’ve found thus far in Maz. I then went across the street to get a litre of lime agua fresca.

Once I’ve had my tacos and done a circuit of the shops, I’m pretty much done in. I bought fruit from various vendors and then spotted a garbage bag man. I don’t know if this is unique to Maz or if it’s something seen in all of Mexico, but there are guys who collect for a children’s charity (they have official ID to this effect) and for a $10 donation give you two or three large and super thick garbage bags, the best quality I have ever seen. I put out my trash in little bags from the store, but they can add up when trash collection doesn’t happen (it’s not reliable) and I like to consolidate the little bags into a bigger bag for easier handling. Plus, I have yardmates now who have their own trash, so we share a larger bag. Anytime I see a garbage bag man, I “give a donation” so I can have a few of these big high quality bags on reserve. I’ve even flagged one down while sitting in a pulmonía at a red light!

Then, it was time to see if I could get home on the bus without going a million miles out of my way. I flagged down a bus that I thought went by the embarcadero and asked if the driver if that was the case. He said he would go “close” to it. Always the adventurer, I hopped on and started reading the Noreste newspaper I’d picked up at some point. As we approached the corner of Gutíerrez-Najera and Gabriel Leyva, about two blocks from the embarcadero, I had a feeling the driver would turn onto Gutíerrez-Najera, so I signaled to get off. Good thing I wasn’t relying on him to tell me when were close to the embarcadero because I was right! So first successful bus trip home from Juárez!

My yardmates were home from a week away to Guadalajara when I got in around 11:00. I wish I’d made it to Guadalajara at some point, but it was not meant to be.

Now, I need to get to work…

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Torrid Afternoon in Centro

I’ll be well on my way to the border this time in two weeks… I really have no idea where this winter went. 🙁

Having only an easy job to do this weekend, I planned my schedule so that I could go to Centro this afternoon for shopping and lunch and do a final run to Juárez tomorrow morning.

It is hot and muggy this week, but I’m not letting that stop me from living. The trick is to stay hydrated! So once I was done with work around noon, I dressed for town and headed out.

En route to the embarcadero I finally remembered to take a certain picture. Remember this house from last fall?

house under construction

Here it is today:

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What a difference paint makes!

First stop in Centro was the mercado since I wanted to buy some blouses. I went to my favourite dress shop, where the owner can be trusted to be honest about what styles and colours suit a customer best. What she first showed me was exactly what I wanted, but she pulled out other models so I could be sure. They are a bit too big for me, though, so she suggested that I find someone to put a few darts in the sides for me. Hopefully, the dressmaker I used earlier this winter will be available to do that for me this week. “My” price was $280 for one, $500 for two. I’ll probably pay about $100 to get them fitted correctly. Still a bargain for such high quality clothing! The pink one is the same shade as my pink dress, so I wasn’t going to get it, but the owner said that it’s my colour, something her assistant and several friends have echoed so I caved.

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For lunch, I had thought to do a shrimp burger at Tony’s, but I’m really fastfooded out. So I bought a small agua fresca for the walk to the Water’s Edge Bistro for a nice lunch in their courtyard. They still have their lunch menu with several choices for $120 each, including a beer, limonada, or a soft drink. I opted for a limonada to stay well hydrated and asked for it sour. It was made perfectly and was very refreshing. For my meal, I succumbed to the lure of pesto (basil!) and Parmesan cheese to have their penne pasta with roast chicken. It was a bit of a heavy meal for the weather, but the flavours were most welcome and I liked how the chicken was diced and then caramelised on all sides. The food is so good at the Water’s Edge and the portion sizes are just right. It’s a nice spot for lunch when I’m tired of Mexican flavours.

I then wandered towards the water and popped in at the art museum to see if it might be open. I’ve been meaning to go for ages but knew that it’s tiny and not worth a special trip out. Well, it was open and admission was free!

The art was… strange. The museum only has a few rooms and the art just got odder and odder the deeper in I went. Here are a few things that caught my eye. None of these are the truly strange ones!

This one is called “night filled with love”:

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Lovely landscape.

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There were a lot of variations on this theme of dying and moving on to the next plane of existence.

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There is something about this one that spoke to me for some reason, even if I wouldn’t want it on my wall!

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The museum has those dark ceiling beams I love:

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I liked these black and white pieces showing the harshness of poverty:

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The courtyard of the museum had an interesting tree:

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This is an exterior corridor off the courtyard:

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And here’s the entrance, directly across from Macaw’s:

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I eventually made it to the Malecón and caught this image of Mazatlán’s Icebox Hill with an iconic pulmonía in the foreground:

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Found this house for sale that made me rethink my Mérida plans (*winks*):

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I eventually found myself on Miguel Alemán, from which I turned left onto Carnaval to head back to the embarcadero. I popped into the gelato place I like, where they’ve up their price from $25 to $35, and got their delicious “Snickers” flavour (chocolate, peanuts, and caramel), then enjoyed it as I picked my way down several streets that were under construction to eventually end up on Constitución, which led me straight to the Emilio Barragán a few blocks from the embarcadero. I was done in by the time we got to this side and the final schlep home felt very long!

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Tangible Linguistic Progress

I’ve been watching the US series “The Bridge” for a while now and highly recommend it if you like well plotted episodic mysteries like “Fargo,” “Broadchurch,” and “Happy Valley.” It takes place on the US/Mexico border between El Paso and Juárez and delves deeply into the dark side of Mexico. Needless to say, there is a lot of Spanish in it. I am surprised by how much I am understanding without looking at the subtitles and how much vocabulary I’m picking up, a lot of it “naughty.” I really need to watch more Mexican programming and having rather a crush on Demián Bichir now, I just might have found a way in. I’ll have to check out his filmography and see if he’s done anything else I could be interested in. 🙂

I’ll get back to this point in a bit, but for now, let me digress. Work has been very slow for the last week or so. I was supposed to start a large transcription project when I got back from Mérida, but the funding for that has been delayed and so the company does not want me to start just in case in takes longer than expected for the money to come in. When this project lands, it’ll keep me busy for ages, but it’s left a huge hole in my schedule. Moreover, I had to burn a bridge with a new client I picked up in February. So I really don’t have much on my plate right now. Rather frustrating since I’m starting to dip into my savings. But I’m not at crisis point yet and I’m working leads.

All that to say, I was done with my day by noon and by 1:00, I decided I wanted to go out. I looked up the movie listings and learned that “My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2” was playing at 3:00 at Gran Plaza. I had just enough time to hoof it over there and grab a quick lunch before the movie.

I took the Camarón-Sábalo bus up Avenida del Mar to Insurgentes, which took me to a couple of blocks of Gran Plaza. I got in at 2:30 and decided to have Chinese for lunch. The lineup was long and when it got to my turn, the server looked mildly panicked, then very relieved when I fluently started with, “I want a number one to eat here.” I’ve been to this chain before a few times, so I knew the routine. No, I don’t want to upgrade to the cheese and shrimp rolls and, no, I don’t need a double sized jamaica (hibiscus) juice for $9 more. 🙂 Interesting that the Japanese places have very strange soy sauce (despite Kikkoman brand sauce being readily available), but the Chinese places have the proper thick soy sauce for their rice. Hmm.

When I was done eating, I had just five minutes before the movie started, but I wasn’t worried since there are always commercials and previews. The title of the movie in Spanish is “Mi Gran Boda Griega” and I had to rehearse that because it always runs together in my head as “Mi gran bodega” (my big storage unit)! A Wednesday matinée was only $29! Wow!

The theatre was almost empty and every other person there was an older expat. The commercials started and there was a really funny one for Cinépolis about this guy calling everyone in his black book looking for a date to share his points with. When the punchline came, that he could only find a big hairy dude, I burst out laughing. There was dead silence from the rest of the theatre. Well, that was embarrassing!

The movie finally started after a few previews. It was very formulaic and recycled a lot of jokes from the first one. I loved the first “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” and the sequel was exactly what I wanted. I didn’t want the wheel to be reinvented, but rather to know how my beloved characters are doing. Of course, all the Greek had only Spanish subtitles, so I was once again the only person in the theatre chuckling to herself. I can’t wait to buy the movie so I can rewatch it. I’m glad I missed the 1:00 o’clock showing and that the one at 3:00 was the last one or I would have turned around and gone right back in to see it again!

Coming out of the theatre, I grabbed an ice cream for the walk to Avenida del Mar to catch the bus, with the intention of riding to Centro and doing some shopping at the Mercado. I waited at a proper bus stop with another person for more than 20 minutes for a bus that is supposed to run every 10 minutes… and it just flew past us. I was not impressed.

Not being in the mood to wait another 20 minutes, I crossed Avenida del Mar to walk along Insurgentes to Ejército Méxicano (2.5KM) to grab a bus to take me closer to the embarcadero. Imagine my surprise as I was walking along, just two blocks from Avenida del Mar, when I looked behind me to see a bus marked “Chula Vista” stopping a short distance away. I knew that one would take me right to the corner of Juan Carrasco and Gutíerrez Nájera, about a kilometre from the embarcadero! I had no idea that bus went out to Gran Plaza. This is a major revelation! But the bus was behind me and only a couple of people were getting on. I didn’t have a hope in hell of catching it, but I still went into a full out run and, sure enough, it pulled away from the curb just as I reached the door. But the door remained open and the speed was very slow, so I jumped on! Whew, I felt like an action hero! The driver took my $20, gave me my change and receipt, and told me to move as far back as I could, which wasn’t very far because the bus was packed.

Thankfully, someone got off not to much farther away and I was able to get a seat behind the driver. This was one of the older busses with no bell. I was quite proud of myself when we approached the corner where I wanted to get off and knew to call out, “Baja, por favor.” The literal translation is “down, please,” but it means, “I want to get off.” The driver pulled over exactly where I wanted off! It’s about a block before Juan Carrasco, where I can grab a street that runs at a diagonal and save myself a few steps.

I’d hoped to get a chicken for dinner, but the stand was closed, dang it. 🙁 And then, I passed the rough bar where men tend to say rather rude things as I pass. I normally ignore them, but thanks to “The Bridge,” I felt more confident in using certain rude words. So when a guy called out to me today, clearly not expecting this Gringa to understand him, I called him a “pinche cabrón” (Google that at your peril), told him he needs to respect women more, and asked him how he would feel about someone talking like that to his mother or sister? I must have made sense because he looked very ashamed of himself. Good!!!

I know I need to make more effort to listen to Spanish. I’m reading at a decent level now (got through the Harry Potter books!), so I’m really at the point where I need to find a TV show to suck me in. But still, this was a very good day language-wise!

 

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Not Sure Who Will Sleep Better Tonight…

A few days ago, a gentleman living in the RV park approached me to ask if I could dog sit for him today! Wow, I don’t know what made him think of me or that I’d be a suitable dog sitter, but I was interested in the job! I went over the next day to meet the dog, a sweet Labrador Retriever (I think) named Cody. I knew right away that we’d get along just fine today.

A bit disoriented by the time change, I headed over to the RV park around, oh, 9:00ish this morning, knowing that Cody had last been walked around 5:00. He was happy to see me. I clipped on his leash and took him to a nearly deserted beach, where I let him off the leash, having been assured that he is not prone to running off. He found a giant stick and we had fun playing with it, me throwing it into the surf for him and him bringing it back to me. He essentially told me that he’d had enough by eventually dropping at my feet. I clipped the leash back on for the walk through the more populated part of the beach, brought him home, and hosed him off.

We repeated the exercise around 12:30 and just past three, after I’d fed him. I can’t believe what a good boy he is, so obedient and vital. I can’t remember the last time I laughed so much, especially when we played tug of war and I ended up going for my first real swim here. In a full skirt, no less! I swear Cody was laughing his head off. He attracted the attention of a lot of kids and I felt comfortable letting them pet him and throw the stick too.

When we came back to the RV park the third time, neighbours who are friends of mine were out on their patio and invited me over for a beer. I had a Modelo Negro for the first time. It was veeery smooth and would give Guinness a run for its money! One thing led to another and I ended up going home with a much appreciated eggshell topper for my bed, brand new and in the bag, a leftover from a project that didn’t need it! Yes, I have a 1″ memory foam topper, but it really isn’t enough. Wow! I had refused payment for taking care of Cody today, so I guess this was the universe’s way of giving me recompense for my time…

I came in, put the new topper on the bed, and then tried it out. Next thing I knew, it was an hour later ! That’s what a time change, beer, sun, exercise, and a comfy bed do to me! 😀

While sitting with the beer, Cody’s dad called to check in and to advise my neighbour he wouldn’t be in till about 9:00. He asked for a final walk around sunset and that would be good for the day. I just got in from doing that.

What a fun day! I really want a dog and know having one would be good for my health, but I’m just not ready to give up my freedom to travel at this point. Borrowing other people’s dogs is a good compromise!