Author: Rae

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Shopping Trip to Maz

I ended up going into Maz after all today, starved as I am for a little social stimulation. It didn’t matter how hot it was, the sun completely booted my batteries and I was happy to walk from the embarcadero to the Fisherman’s Monument. Of course, I stopped for a cold fresh pressed grapefruit juice on the way!

I failed at flagging the first bus that came by down Avenida del Mar, probably because the bus stop was just ahead and he didn’t want to stop twice (you can flag a bus down anywhere and they’ll stop if they can, not just at official bus stops). Thankfully, the second one came quickly and I rode it into the Golden Zone, getting off just past the Rafael Buelna roundabout. It was then just about a block to Taco Loco for tacos al pastor!

They were as good as last year, as were their various salsas. The server told me to try the one I call ‘pimento’ and I told him it’s my favourite… even if it burns off my taste buds! I like it on cucumbers. Their pico de gallo is perfect, there’s another spicy tomatoey sauce, and, of course, there’s avocado sauce, which is brilliant on radishes.

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Not being in need of coffee yet, I didn’t hike down to Rico’s for beans (in fact, I would be more likely to ride the bus there and then walk back). I did grab an ice cream at Thrifty’s for the walk to Soriana’s. It wound up being much quicker than I had expected. Mega might be nearly right off the bus, but, truly, it’s not that much more trouble to walk a little further to Soriana.

There, I found most of the stuff I wanted for the house. I was hoping to find a cheap shelving unit for food, but didn’t and realised that a set of plastic drawers on wheels would actually serve me better, and be something I could use back at Haven.

I spent some time looking at tablecloths, wanting one for my six-foot table and one for the dining table as it is glass with a lot of edges where food gets stuck. I easily found one for the long table that I liked, even if it matches nothing else in the house, and made a compromise for the dining table that wound up working perfectly. The dining chair seats have a bit of red in their dark browness and the tablecloth is just dark brown, but they look decent together. Folded in half, the table cloth is just the right size for the odd shaped table.

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I also needed something in which to put smaller utensils and realised while shopping for said something that the pink bucket I picked up at the Willow Bunch Thrift Store would be perfect for that! My dad’s cookie jar is still my larger utensil crock. 🙂

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And here are my new kitchen curtains. I love the purple gingham and the sunflowers, even if the material is cheap and the edges are unfinished.

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I came out of Soriana and a taxi driver promptly accosted me. I’ve never ridden in a taxi in Maz, just in the pulmonías and aurigas. I would have preferred a pulmonía but there were none in sight and the driver quoted me the same price, so I accepted his offer. He loaded the car for me and then took me on a dizzying ride through some familiar, and some completely unknown, parts of Maz. What fun! I told him that I liked having a different route than I was used to and he asked how I would have normally gone from Soriana (Ejercito Mexicano). He frowned and said, “Too much traffic!”

The package carrier guy at the embarcadero came right over and took all my bags and drawer unit. He was loaded down and gasped, “Boat?” in heavily accepted English. I said yes and he promptly ran down to square my things away while I bought my ticket. Let me tell you, I wouldn’t have trusted that process NOB!

On the other side, a teenage boy helped me get my things into the back of the pickup taxi that looks just like my Moya and refused a tip! The truck driver wasn’t too sure where I lived even though the instructions I gave him have been perfectly clear to other taxi drivers. He at least knew where my street was and then I told him, “a little further, on the right, with a truck like yours in the yard.” That last bit helped him more than the house description! He brought everything to my front door. Home!

Let me tell you, I wouldn’t schlep home on public transportation with that much stuff NOB. But a few pesos in Mexico buys a lot of help and it’s not unusual to see someone lugging home a ton of stuff on the lanchas, whether it be a ton of shopping, a fridge, or an ATV!

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There was a casualty to my adventure… My butter got totally squished and quite melted! For some reason, I chose to buy two sticks and I was able to just barely salvage one, so it’s not a total loss. Good thing butter (and all dairy, actually) is so cheap in Mexico!

I actually didn’t come home with much in the way of groceries, but I should be able to get through most of the week. It’s not like Ley is that far away if I need anything I can’t find at the City Deli!

One sad note to close off with: Patty’s restaurant, which had the great burger and fries, is closed. 🙁 🙁 🙁 I’ll have to find another place open for lunch that isn’t a beach restaurant.

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Settling In

I had a decent first night back on Isla. I woke up on and off because I was having trouble been too hot or too cold and, once, my sleep mask slipped off and the streetlight shining in my face was too much to sleep through. The mask will definitely not be enough and better curtains are in order!

I finally got up around 6:30 or so. After coffee, I hooked up the washer and ran an empty load through it because it was very dirty. While that was going on, I washed all my kitchen stuff. The water guy (not my usual one) finally came by so I was able to go out in search of food. It was only about 8:30 and already HOT out. Like last year, I’ve come at the start of a hot spell. That’s better than the years that I’d arrive somewhere at the same time as a cold snap…

I only got a few things at the City Deli because I decided that I am going out to Mega or Soriana later today. One top priority was a pair of flip flops like I bought my first day here last year. They are super high quality and have arch support. Last year’s pair lasted me through most of my summer and I missed them my last month there! The cashier was very happy to see me and, long queue of impatient people behind me be damned, he was going to catch up on what was new with me!

Then, I headed next door to the freshly repainted tortillería to get a stack worth $5, all warm and lovely. I won’t miss making my own this winter!

Halfway home, I FINALLY ran into the paperboy! I tried all of last winter to catch him and never once did. A copy of El Debate was $12.

A block from home, I caught the veggie man! He greeted me with a hug and cheek kisses and we quickly caught up. I bought $44 worth of stuff, including a couple of potatoes, a carrot, an onion, tomatoes, limes, an orange, and a grapefruit. When I asked for the green beans, he rolled his eyes comically and said that, yeah, my getting green beans and broccoli was a huge surprise! Hee!

I came in and made a simple quesadilla/sincronizada with fresh tomatoes, bacon, and Oaxaca cheese, then had my breakfast while reading the paper. Tourism in Maz was very good over the long weekend!

Now, I’m waiting for my load of laundry to be done so I can hang it and head into town. I really thought I was going to want a home day today, but my summer at Haven was so sedate that I just want to be out in the world again! I’ll probably walk to the Fisherman’s Monument and take the bus up to the Golden Zone for tacos, then walk to Soriana or Mega and get a pulmonía back to the embarcadero and a pulmonía on this side, too.

I thought being back would be a bit of a culture shock, with my having forgotten the smells, sights, and sounds of Isla, but nope. It’s like I never left even though there are plenty of clues that nearly six months have passed. I wonder what Maz will be like. The paper said that a lot of stuff in Centró is closed because of roadworks and that tourists were frustrated over the weekend. Not sure I’m headed that way anyway today.

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The Road to Paradise is Hell (or Guamúchil to Isla de la Piedra, Redux)

I had a nice evening in Guamúchil. I delayed dinner as long as I could, but by 6ish, it was time. I went down to the restaurant and ordered a Pacifico and the enchiladas mole. Like last year, the food was really delicious! They talked me into have their prune cake for dessert, too. 🙂 My food came out quickly and I made a comment to this effect. The waiter (same guy as last year!) winked and said I had the kitchen all to myself for at least another hour. That rather broke the ice and we chatted for a bit since he wasn’t busy. His children live in Seattle and he asked if I’ve ever been there because he’d been there once during the winter and the weather was horrible. I laughed and told him that Seattle has no idea what winter is really like!

After dinner, I headed back to my room to read. I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to get any rest because there was a party going on with very loud music (tons of bass, too, which makes me physically ill) and fireworks. Thankfully, by 9:00 there was just loud music with no bass and it made rather white noise that allowed me to fall asleep. I vaguely remember waking up around 11:00, but then it was 5:30, a surprisingly good night! It helped that I’d brought in my mattress topper, so I wasn’t sleep on a rock-like bed!

I Googled when sunrise was going to be to see if I was going to laze around or head out and the answer was 6:20, so I could definitely pack and start loading the truck. It was light enough out by 6:00 for me to go. I stopped at the Oxxo for coffee and, like last year, it was the worst Oxxo coffee I’ve had, as well as the cheapest (I sense a correlation). Never again am I going to that one!

Next stop was Scotiabank because I was a little tight in my cash on hand if I had any surprises like rent going up or whatever and didn’t want to chance having to rush to a bank tomorrow. The GPS took me to the bank without fuss… and which turned out to be a HSBC! Bummed that I’d have to detour to the one on Rafael Buelna in Maz, I headed back to the main road. Judging by the amount of shouts I got from a handful of pedestrians, I must have done so the wrong way down a one-way street without signage to that effect. Really, driving in Mexico is no different than driving in Quebec! Anyway, this led me to make a few extra turns and, oh, look at that, there’s a Scotiabank!

It took a bit of work to make my withdrawal because their ATMs are really fussy. You have to put your card in and take it out really fast, then put it in again, where it will lock. I was hoping to be able to take out $5,000, which was tight based on my daily limit, depending on the exchange rate. I got the very terrifying, “Your card is not compatible with our ATMs” message that I knew, thanks to knowledge gained last year, meant, “You can’t take out that much.” So I tried again for $4,000 and that worked just fine.

(Pesos, folks, pesos!)

I then headed out of Guamúchil and pointed the truck towards Culiacán on the libre. I made it to the next to last city on my itinerary in record time. I passed a Panamá bakery, so I pulled into a very tight parking lot to get some munchies. They had the almond croissants and ham and cheese sandwiches I like, so I started with those, then asked if they had anything with apples. The gal went to the kitchen and came back with a tray of apple tarts “with lots of cinnamon.” Perfect! For the first time, they offered to heat up my sandwich, but I said no thank you because I’d be eating it later.

So of course, I stopped at the next Oxxo for a much better coffee to go with my breakfast. 🙂

Having accidentally driven the cuota much of the way from Mazatlán to Culiacán last year, doing so this year wasn’t even a consideration. Yes, it’s faster, but that’s all there is to be said for it. The libre is much more scenic and there are more services. To me, it’s worth the extra time. If I was in an RV, though, I’d find the cuota worth the money to save all that stopping and going and slowing down as we go through the towns!

I thought about stopping in El Quelite, but I had no idea what sort of shape The Road would be in and didn’t want to spend a few hours doing touristy stuff and then discover that The Road would be in worse shape than last year and take hours and end up on Isla rushed and burnt out. Maybe on the way home?

It feels like I made it to Maz in record time this year, even with my stops. There was a very tiny detour around an overpass, otherwise it was very straightforward to get through town. I nixed my plans to stop at Soriana since I wasn’t hungry and decided to head straight to Isla. I made a final pit stop because you do not want to face The Road with anything sloshing around in your bladder!

There was a huge accident right at the turn off for the airport and traffic redirection appeared to be a nightmare. I told the police officer right at my exit that I was headed to my home on Isla de la Piedra and he looked very relieved that I wasn’t a tourist he’d have to reroute!

The first part of The Road was better than last year, but that’s not saying much, in that it was just as rutty, but there were fewer lakes. When I got to the end of that bit, I came upon my water guy from last year, parked while talking to someone. He recognised me and shouted, “Hola amiga! Bienvenidos!” Funny how he was the last Isla person I saw when I left in the spring!

Then, there was the very nice paved section. Then a little bit of graded gravel. Then a long section with huge rocks that haven’t been graded. My truck could barely go over some of those rock piles. It was really bad. An RV would find The Road impassable.

Since I drove The Road several times last year and know what my truck can do, I wasn’t as nervous and drove it pretty quickly, making it to Isla in exactly 30 minutes.

I checked out the house and it was obviously not ready. I went to my landlady’s place and she was so relieved to see me, saying she knew I had said I would not be calling again, but she had still expected a final check in (serves her right for being so hard to reach last year! *g*). She said she needed a couple of hours, but the house was mostly done. I told her I was in absolutely no rush and was going to visit my friends L&N who live on Goat Island. As long as I had a bed tonight, it was all good. She said absolutely! I had thought to arrive around 2:00 and it was around 12:30, so I was early and hadn’t expected the house to be ready anyway!

L&N were thankfully home, so I spent a couple of hours and had as many beers. 🙂 I gave them their purchases and they were very happy, especially to see as much cat litter as I brought them. They only arrived yesterday and, like me, are glad to have landed. They had the flights from hell from Winnipeg!

They had stuff to do, so I headed back to the house to park my truck around 3:00. The yard looked a lot neater, so I suspected I could go back to my landlady’s to get my keys. Yup! She confirmed that I have lots of gas (propane/butane) and that she’ll get my internet turned on ASAP. TelMex is apparently closed tomorrow, so it will happen Tuesday and I should be online by Wednesday…

In the meantime, I’ve discovered I have usable internet with my Wilson Sleek cradle in the truck. That means the phone has to be in the truck and then I’m limited by the computer’s distance from the phone. Ergo, I’ll be working from outside this week! That suits me just fine, it’s HOT.

Now, the house… It’s obvious that she was rushed to get it ready for me tonight in that I’m missing little things like a roll of toilet paper and towels, the washer isn’t hooked up, and the water heater wasn’t on. Absolutely no biggies.  Oh, and the fridge smelled like someone died in it, but ten minutes after putting a bowl filled with a couple of spoons of coffee in it, it was fine!

Other than that, everything was good! The house is freshly painted, there are new curtains in the kitchen (which aren’t as nice quality as what was there last year, but have a much lovelier pattern and offer more privacy), there’s a better (and nicer) bedspread in the bedroom, and…. she got me the armchair I asked for for the living room. I am SHOCKED. It’s not what I would have picked out for myself, but she did really well with my request. It has the arm rests and back support I want and a decent cushion for my butt. I wish I had a foot rest, but I can put my feet up on the couch and will pin a towel or something to the seat so I don’t get it dirty. I know I am going to spend a lot of time reading in this chair this winter!

I emptied the truck right away and set to work getting nearly everything put away! I want to wash all my kitchen stuff as everything is gritty but I promptly sorted through what was here and put away what I won’t use, then figured out where my stuff will end up. I don’t have the extra counter unit this year, so I’m glad I brought a table on which to lay out things. I may go pick up a set of plastic drawers because I really have no place to put things like dish towels or utensils. But I can at least make coffee tomorrow morning!

Tomorrow’s project will be to start setting up my office, but there’s no rush for that since I won’t be working from it for a few days. My landlady asked if I mind if she leaves both twin beds in the house and I told her it’s fine even though it will mean a more cramped office. I am going to take the liberty of doing some furniture rearranging and move one out of the way.

In between bouts of putting stuff away, I headed ‘downtown’ to see if the grocery store was open, which it wasn’t. No biggie. It should be open early tomorrow and I’ll need fresh tortillas anyway! I wasn’t planning to cook tonight, that’s for sure! I didn’t need anything badly enough to stop in at an abarrotes (convenience store), of which there were a handful open.

I headed out to Miguel’s restaurant around 6:30 and boy were they busy! Always a good sign! He and Angela greeted me warmly and took a couple of minutes for a super quick catch up. I had the shrimp burritos (surprise…) and they were as good as I remembered them! Angela asked if they were okay and I said, “With a belly full of good food, I’ll sleep well tonight!” She laughed and said that made her happy.

Like last year, I’ve come just after lots of rain, so there are huge puddles of water all around Isla. Unless I want to take a huge detour, there are two huge lakes between my house and the restaurant. I went around one to get there and around the other to get home. In the dark. With barely any lighting. I didn’t slip in the mud or fall in the water or trip on anything the way I did when I arrived last year until I got my Isla footing! It’s like I’ve never left! 🙂

It’s really good to be back! I wonder if tomorrow will be a ‘I just want to hang out at home in my PJs’ or a ‘Maz, here I come!’ day. We shall see. 😀

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Stops by the Federales in Mexico

I’m replying to a comment Contessa made about my interaction with the Federales yesterday. In short, I described the in-depth and honest conversation we had with them and her comment implied that honesty is not the best policy with them. Hmm.

I took her comment to my two other Mexican experts, Chris, who has lived in Mexico a very, very long time, and Croft, who, thanks to a small RV, has spent many winters traveling through Mexico and getting close to the locals. In their reply, both advocated full disclosure in interactions with the Federales. Chris went so far as to remind me that if I get caught in a lie, I could have things confiscated, or worse, depending on the law being violated. He followed up with this :

Federales have a base salary of 36000 pesos a month and a university degree is required. They are only one step down from the military. Many of them speak English also, or at least to some degree. Here in the north I would bank on 75% that speak English well.
My hat goes off to those guys, they take the bullets and are back up for military and state police in some pretty big stand offs.
You’re in good shape with those guys.  We have two safety nets in Mexico, our boys in green and our men in blue.

I’m happy to know that I was right in answering the officer’s questions correctly yesterday and did not put myself into any danger.  I will continue to practice full honesty and knowledge of Spanish when interacting with all levels of Mexican authority unless, like today, something just feels ‘off.’

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A Grueling Driving Day (Or San Carlos to Guamúchil, Redux)

Today was a cautionary tale about keeping your driving days short in Mexico. In Canada and the US, I wouldn’t hesitate to plan a 1,000KM day if I was traveling on main highways, but more than 500KM at this time of year, when the days are short, is all I’d chance in Mexico. Still, I left San Carlos early enough this morning that I actually had a backup plan in case I wanted to push on to Culiacán since all I had on the table was a measly 450km and an 8AMish start time…

I took the libre through Guaymas to save myself a toll and pulled into a Pemex once I was free of the city, putting in $500 worth of fuel, which got me half a tank, so fuel prices are slightly better than last year.

After that, it was construction, construction, and more construction all the way to Ciudad Obregón. There, it was HUGE, vehicle destroying, potholes all through the city. I’m not exaggerating. I’ve only ever seen potholes that size on main roads in Quebec. Hit one of those and you’re not getting out with a tow truck and some major damage. I wouldn’t have wanted to be in a car low to the ground with no view of the obstacle course that lay ahead!

Once I finally made it through, it was construction, construction, and more construction all the way to Navojoa. Very slow speeds, too, since we were sharing the opposite driving lane. It was about 300KM to get there from San Carlos and it took over four hours to arrive. WHEW. The only stops I made were for toll booths and the Red Cross, who were collecting donations.

I learned another really important lesson today: if you think you need a bathroom, jump on the opportunity to use one even if you’re planning to use one only about 20KM away in case you encounter construction, traffic, a billion red lights, and a really bad accident resulting in a detour along the way…

Needless to say, I was very happy to reach the Soriana in Navojoa! I had lunch there, a really good slice of pizza, and then I picked up a new pump for my water bottle since I don’t like the style that comes with the casita and I wanted a spare for home anyway.

I was really parched by this point, having already downed the 2L of water of cold water I had with me and only infernal-temperature water left. I looked in the Soriana coolers to see if they had Electrolit, but struck out. Thankfully, the Oxxo across the street had some that was icy cold and I drained a whole container in just a few gulps! It did the trick, and I followed it up with a cold bottle of water over the next hour. I’m glad I was introduced to that stuff last year. No matter how much water I drink, it’s hard to stay hydrated in this climate.

I had one stop shortly after Navojoa by what I think is the major crimes unit and I didn’t ‘like’ this guy. He just made the hairs on my nape prickle. I gave him vague answers in broken Spanish and was finally sent on my way.

I saw a couple of things today that made we wish I had a navigator who could take pictures for me, or a driver so that I could take the pictures myself! One of them was a clever ad for a limeade drink that said, “Limón y nada.” “Lime and nothing” sounds like the Spanish for “limeade”, the product, and also insinuates that the product is all natural.

Another thing I saw that absolutely delighted me was a rather long stretch of road with a bunch of goats eating the weeds along the shoulder! They were not impeding traffic, just having a buffet. There was so many of them!

Finally, I saw the first signs announcing Maz! Home stretch! And speaking of Maz, it was SO GOOD to finally hit the Sinaloa roads. They weren’t great by any means, but much better than those in Sonora!

It was a tough driving day, very technical, but not stressful, not even when I was driving through the big city traffic. I’m a better defensive driver than I would have thought and definitely getting comfortable driving in this country.

My ETA to Guamúchil had started off as 1PM, but had stretched to 3:30PM as I approached the off ramp to the Culiacán libre. I was beyond done for the day! I found the motel from last year without any trouble, but they insisted on $700 when I only paid $550 last year. I wasn’t going to quibble over 12CAD. The rooms are still rather shabby, but clean, and I recognise the value they offer for the price, like access to the pool and a bottle of cold water waiting in the fridge! Speaking of the pool, I was in it minutes after arriving. 🙂

I’m off to have dinner. Early by Mexican time, but late by my body clock. 😀

Home tomorrow. I can’t believe it!