Author: Rae

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A Weekend Off

I haven’t had a real weekend off since I arrived on Isla, a couple of days that I choose to take off rather than them being imposed, days where there is absolutely no need to be glued to my computer hoping that a last minute project will come in, and which I can truly enjoy because there are plenty of projects behind me and I know when the next ones are coming in.

I finished work around 11:30 yesterday (Friday) morning (putting in a full five hour day!) and then spent a few hours updating my professional website before giving the house a thorough cleaning. After that, I collapsed with a movie and a beer, stepping out to get some hot dogs for dinner. I went to bed early since I’d been up since 5:00.

It was 6:30 when I woke up this morning and I enjoyed the incredible luxury of fixing myself a cup of coffee and going back to bed with it! I obviously don’t bother doing that in Miranda since once I’m down that ladder, I stay down!

I stayed in bed for a good hour reading and playing games on my iPad. I finally got up, put some laundry on, took out the water bottle, brought a full bottle in, and made a ridiculously huge breakfast.

After I ate, I went over to my landlady’s house and, yay, she was finally home! I paid my rent and told her that my roof had leaked during the recent rain, just in the bathroom, and it had messed up the ceiling paint. (By the way, roof and ceiling is the same thing in Spanish, techo.)

We then discussed something important. Drum roll please… I told her I am 90% certain I want to rent this house again next winter! I’ve been looking at other options and have decided to play it safe and just come back here. I really do like the house (and location!), I have laundry and internet, and the rent, while a bit higher than I’d really like to pay, is very reasonable. She said to call her late this summer to confirm. Of course, it’ll be a shorter stay next year, five months instead of six, and so I’ll probably arrive at the end of November and then leave mid-April.

All that done, I packed up my tote bag and headed to Maz, with the plan being to visit the aquarium. I arrived on the Maz side only to realise that I had never actually looked up where the aquarium is exactly. But I’d seen plenty of signs for it and had a pretty good idea of where it was, so off I went. I’ve come a long way from the frustrated gal walking around in circles!

I took Gutiérrez Nájera towards the Malecón, got myself a grapefruit juice, and then turned northish (Golden Zonewards) one block before the Malecón. I just walked this road for quite a while, enjoying how peaceful it was. I could periodically see Avendida del Mar (what this stretch of road along the Malecón is called), so I had quite a few landmarks.

No idea what this building is, but it made me laugh.

No idea what this building is, but it made me laugh.

Detail of the exquisite doorway.

Detail of the exquisite doorway.

And then, I spotted a big blue building off in the distance.

Could that be...

Could that be…

It is!

It is!

Well, that was easy. 😀

I’ll do a separate post about the aquarium!

I came out of there after a few hours and spent two hours literally just walking aimlessly. I found myself on the Malecón, the hilly part of Centro histórico, Olas Altas, Plazuela Machado, the Mercado, and then Zaragoza, at which point I was ready to go home. I had vague plans to get lunch, but it was just too dang hot!

I did get some ice cream from my favourite vendor. I now know that it is called nieve de garrafa (English article) and is a water based fruit sorbet native to Mexico. They had pineapple today for the first time, and I got that with mandarin and prune.

One of the many papier mâché statues along the Malecón.

One of the many papier mâché statues along the Malecón.

Colourful houses on a street in the hilly part of historical Maz.

Colourful houses on a street in the hilly part of historical Maz.

A sweet little bench across the road from the Malecón.

A sweet little bench across the road from the Malecón.

Devil's Cave.

Devil’s Cave.

Well, that was anticlimactic.

Well, that was anticlimactic.

I got in around 2:45 after stopping for fresh tortillas and made a salad with some cream cheese roll ups and a beer for lunch.

It’s been a wonderful day with lots of entertainment, sun, and exercise! I’ll finish it up by getting some shrimp burritos from Miguel’s and watching a movie.

Tomorrow will be an at home day where I’ll catch up on bookkeeping and admin tasks and do a project for Contessa. None of this counts as work in my book!

Off to prepare my aquarium post. First, I need to splice together a movie!

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Butter in Mexico

I’ve turned off comments on this post, but, as of 9/28/20, I favour Lurpak and Président butter in that order.

One of the common complaints I hear from Gringos in Mexico is that the butter here is terrible. Croft and Norma go so far as to load up their fridge with Canadian butter before coming here.

My first experience with Mexican butter had me wondering what the heck they were talking about because the butter I bought was exactly like unsalted butter back home, sweet and creamy and delicious. I mixed a little salt in when I wanted a spread for fresh bread and it was perfect.

But the next time I got butter, I got a seemingly identical package, only this time with salt. And it turned out to be margarine, not butter, and tasted like the topping for movie popcorn, very artificial and salty.

Next time I saw the no salt real butter, I bought it. And, again, it was just like butter back home.

I avoid margarine, so I started buying salted butter in different brands, to find one I liked. Guess what? It was the same over salty disgusting movie popcorn topping taste, regardless of the price I paid.

So now, I just stock the unsalted butter, stock piling it because it’s hard to find and I can only get a small stick at a time. I let it soften, mix it with a little salt to taste, and refrigerate it because I don’t use enough to keep it from going rancid in this climate.

So Gringos, this is the butter you want in Mexico:

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It is Lala brand. Make sure you buy mantequilla sin sal, not margarina con sal as the packages are almost identical!

barra-margarina ss copy

A good clue is that pasta can be healthy, pancakes not so much. 🙂

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Mexican Blanket

One of the things I budgeted for this month was the purchase of a hand woven Mexican blanket sold by one of the beach vendors. I was due for a new bed spread at home and I need an extra one here for the chilly nights like we’ve had this week.

I’ve been chatting with the vendor for weeks, getting a feel for prices and colours available, and promised to buy a blanket this week.

I went down to the beach today to see if he would be there and, if so, what colour blankets he would have. I wanted primarily pink with some yellow, orange, and green to go with my current colour scheme, and also some purple to fit a future colour scheme. Well, he had a blanket today that was pretty dang perfect except that it had blue instead of purple, so I bought it!

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When I first saw these blankets, I found them a bit garish for my tastes, but they have really grown on me! I am really pleased with it and especially that the vendor remembered and honoured the last price he quoted me.

I know that just about everyone at the RV park has bought from this guy, so Contessa will know if I got a good deal or not, but I think I did very well. When we discussed blankets at the end of December, the man told me that the big hand woven ones (my size) were 500 pesos, but he’d let me have it for 400. The price went down on each visit, with no prompting on my part. Today, I handed over 250 pesos.

The tightly woven texture is just gorgeous. I was advised that they wash beautifully in the machine with cold water and, of course, no bleach!

It was so inexpensive that I am going to budget to buy another one in April in case he happens to have one that features purple and orange or blue and orange. I just might be hooked!

Oh, and the blanket is on the small size. It just covers the double bed with no overhang, so is probably meant to fit a twin bed. It’ll be perfect for my overhead loft bed, where there is no room for overhang anyway.

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Glorious Ajonjolí

Back home, I started to make my own hummus for many reasons:

-tastier

-more natural

-much cheaper

-could customize to taste

To make hummus this winter in Mexico, I would have had to bring down lemon juice since you can’t get lemons here and also tahini (sesame butter), something I haven’t been able to make on my own successfully. I decided to just do without this winter and have avocados instead for breakfast.

Well, I saw hummus at Soriana the other day and decided that, yes, it was going to be disappointing, but I still had to have it. Lo and behold, Big Ley had the exact same product in its cheese case today, for a whopping 35 pesos, and I brought it home. Waitaminute. 35 pesos is still much less than I pay for commercial hummus back home!

Lunch was super filling, so I skipped supper and was due for a late evening snack. You would think I would have been eager to get at the hummus, but I wasn’t. I can buy a lot of cheese for 35 pesos. What was I thinking?

I opened the container and smelled it. That was my first clue that something unexpected was going to happen. I took a tiny taste and did a double take. Off I ran to Google Translate to get confirmation of what my nose and taste buds already knew: ajonjoli is Spanish for sesame.

The commercial hummus I’ve bought in Canada and the US has always been very strong on the garlic flavour and light on the sesame if it even includes it at all (read the labels, people!).  This Mexican hummus is all about the hummus and the tahini, and gloriously thick.

If I could get this back home, I’d probably stop making my own and just drizzle this one with fresh lemon juice and olive oil, it’s that good!

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*put down the spoon, Rae, and back away from the hummus*

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Much Bigger Spender

I did a good morning of work and then headed to Maz to hit a bank, the big Waldo, and the big Ley, all on Ejercito Mexicano, a road I’ve now taken a few times by motorized transport, but never on foot.

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Swabbing the deck.

Swabbing the deck.

My world was so picturesque today.

My world was so picturesque today.

Still not tired of the view.

Still not tired of the view.

I felt a little thrill as I turned onto Juan Carrasco, which becomes Ejercito Mexicano. A new area to explore! I walked for a bit, taking in all the marvelous commotion of vehicles and music and people walking, inhaled the rich smell of tacos, churros, and other goodies being cooked right on the street, and felt absolutely right with the world.

Noroeste building (major newspaper)

Noroeste building (major local newspaper)

Contessa had asked me to pick her up some croissants, so my first stop was the Panamá bakery, where they only had one left. The following conversation ensued:

Me: (pointing to croissants) Do you have more of these?

Clerk: That’s it.

Me: No more today?

Clerk (points to oven, in which I can see croissants)

Me: How long?

Clerk: Eight minutes.

NOW we’re getting somewhere! I told her I would wait and could I use the bathroom? Getting directions there was much easier to extract out of her!

When I came out, I had a bit of a wait and checked out all the wares, talking myself out of bringing anything home! Soon, the clerk was sliding the croissants out of the oven and asked me how many I wanted. I told her and she called to another clerk to ring up four croissants for me. Minutes later, I was presented with a greasy bag that smelled marvelous. Let’s just say that I added one croissant to Contessa’s order for myself and enjoyed it immediately. 🙂 There’s nothing like a fresh croissant!

Next, the bank. I played a live game of Frogger to get to the Santander, only to find that its ATMs were down. Darn! I went back across the street (the words with which to convey this death defying feat escape me) to try my luck at the HSBC. Success! Fees were comparable to Santander and I got a few small bills. I had hoped to only make one withdrawal this month to save on bank fees, but forget about my daily withdrawal limit, so I’ll take out more money later this month.

Then, I came to the Waldo’s, which is much bigger than the one in Centro. I went through and got a few things on my list, plus a little splurge for myself. Instead of looking for a manicure place today, I bought bottles of nail polish, polish remover, polish hardener, and a crystal nail file since I somehow managed to forget to bring one here and have been suffering along with emery boards that have gotten soggy in this humid climate. I haven’t done my own nails in a while, so it’ll be a fun way to relax one evening while watching a movie.

Biggish Waldo's

Biggish Waldo’s

Then, I used the impressive pedestrian overpass to cross the street and go to Ley.

Quite the climb up to this pedestrian crossing! The Ley is tucked way in the back of the parking lot.

Quite the climb up to this pedestrian crossing! The Ley is tucked way in the back of the parking lot.

As I landed on the other side, I saw a sign that said Chinese food and sushi. I knew the sushi would be terrifying (which it was), but non-Mexican food sounded very appealing. I checked out the food and combos and decided to eat there after I was given a couple of samples and they were all delicious!

The following conversation ensued.

Clerk: What can I get you?

Me: Hong Kong, please. (spring roll, rice, one dish, agua fresca)

Clerk: Bla bla bla chicken bla bla shrimp costs extra.

(Pause to let my computer process that and that this is about the spring rolls.)

Me: Oh, uh, chicken!

Clerk: Main?

Me: Mango chicken, please.

I then got foisted onto another clerk.

Clerk: Agua fresca bla bla bla bla bla hibiscus.

(Pause to decide if I want her to repeat flavours. Nah, I’ve been curious about hibiscus).

Me: Hibiscus.

Clerk: Bla bla ice?

Me: A little bit.

And then, I got passed onto the clerk and that was easy because I don’t have any trouble with numbers.

I find it hilarious how Mexicans just talk Spanish to us Gringos at full speed with no consideration whatsoever for our language skills or lack thereof! Once again, I wonder how I’d get by if I didn’t have the level of skill that I do.

Mexican Chinese food looks like American Chinese food: unappealing. It was tasty, though!

Mexican Chinese food looks like American Chinese food: unappealing. It was tasty, though!

The food was, I’m almost ashamed to say, really yummy. 🙂 The chicken wasn’t nearly as sweet as I expected and it had a bit of kick. The carrots were crispy and really good. The rice wasn’t mushy and had just enough soy sauce. The spring roll tasted strongly of cabbage and other veggies, very fresh.

hibiscus (jamaica) agua fresca (flavoured sweet water)

hibiscus (jamaica) agua fresca (flavoured sweet water)

Hibiscus water wasn’t particularly memorable, though. I expected quite a strong floral flavour and this was pretty bland. The beverage was also a lot less sweet than I expected and so I drank the whole thing.

I then hit the Ley. It is like a small Soriana or Walmart with household and personal goods in addition to groceries, but that was the only special thing about it. Otherwise, it had all the same food I can get at the smaller Ley or the City Deli, so I was rather disappointed and didn’t come out with much. I’ll definitely need to go back to Soriana! I did come home with a tub of hummus and look forward to seeing how it tastes.

Back outside, I repacked my bags and schlepped the block to Ejercito Mexicano, where I quickly flagged down a pulmonía. I was quoted a fair 40 pesos to get to the embarcadero. What a treat the drive was! I was quite tired and my shopping was heavy.

Yes, that's a motorcycle on a panga.

Yes, that’s a motorcycle on a panga.

My bags weren’t heavy enough to justify a pulmonía on this side, so I walked home, stashed the cold stuff, and went to Contessa’s to deliver her slightly smooshed croissants. She gave me some reading material for my trip to Durango next month (thank you!), so I have some reading to do in the next few days.

For the curious, today’s expenditures were about 500 pesos. 200ish at Waldo’s, 200ish at Ley, 60ish for lunch, and 40 for the drive home. So yeah, bigger spender than yesterday, but by Canadian standards, just peanuts. 🙂