Mazatlan

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Sunday Afternoon in Mazatlán

I went from having a reasonable queue of work from Client A this weekend and into the new week to having an “OMG, must type and not stop till I’m done, holy cow!” type of queue when my, “Definitely not going to have anything for you this weekend,” Client B pulled his, “Can you do about 50 billion hours of work for me by (impossible deadline),” stunt. Since I’m taking next weekend off, I agreed to take the assignment, but negotiated a more manageable deadline.

Everything was going well until this morning when I realised that there was a major issue with the second part of a project due for Client A that meant I could not proceed at all with it. Because it’s ultimately a government contract, there could be no answers till tomorrow, a business day. So that meant that I’d be scrambling tomorrow to do that project and should therefore start Client B’s project so that I wouldn’t be scrambling with it on Tuesday.

By noon, I had already done three hours of work finishing the first part of Client A’s project that I could finish and I’d done nearly three hours of work for Client B, enough to determine that this was a very rare easy file from him that I could easily complete between Tuesday and Wednesday morning.

Dale and I had made plans to meet downtown for one last beer today at 2:00, so I found myself going from, “Need to make this super quick!” to “Hey, don’t have to go back to work after!” Woohoo!

I left a little earlier than I needed to so I could run two errands before meeting Dale. I got to the panga and had only a 100 to pay for my 8-peso fare. Contessa had offered to loan me a 20, but I figured the panaga folks would have change or, worst case, I could run into the City Deli for a water. I asked the lady at the panga booth if she had change for a 100 and she said yes, but only because I asked her so nicely in her language and then winked at me as she pulled open a drawer with heaps of change in it. Hee!

The first errand in town was picking up some avocados and red onions. Avocados were easy, but I had to go to about six merchants before I found non-rotten red onions!

Then, I needed a jewelery repair shop because the chain on my pendant broke a couple of days ago. For some reason, I actually noticed and remembered that there was a jewelery repair kiosk on the exterior perimeter of the Mercado. I walked around until I found him on the side across from Waldo’s, towards Leandro Valle.

The man greeted me in perfect English, so I didn’t bother to look for the correct Spanish words. I pulled out the pendant, spread it out, pointed out where a link had broken, and asked if he could fix it. He confirmed that it was silver, then said, and I quote, “Absolutely! Take five minutes! 40 pesos!”

It indeed toook about five minutes and he showed me the link, explaining the discolouration was because of the welding process and that the colour would even out over time, none of which was an issue.

He dug and dug for 10 pesos in change from my 50-peso note and I told him to not worry about the change. I was so grateful that the repair had been done so quickly and well, knowing that I would have had no idea where to have a repair like this done back home and that it would have cost me a fortune. He was so grateful for an extra what amounts to 80 cents for me that I think both our days were made.

I then went across the street and Dale arrived a couple of minutes later. We headed down to Olas Altas as I unloaded about my work day.

I hadn’t planned to have lunch because I thought Dale was having a dinner out with friends this evening, but I wound up only having more than some crackers, cheese, and fruit at 11:00. So when Dale said she was hungry and was only doing drinks with her friends later, I suggested we go to the Copa de leche restaurant for a proper meal.

There, I ordered the enchiladas mole like last time and Dale shocked me by ordering the beef tacos. Beers were two for one and so we had two each. The food was just as good as last time (although I didn’t have any sesame seeds this time and had to ask for extra tortillas for the sauce). Dale loved the mole sauce and one of her tacos, loaded with extra grilled onions, materialized on my plate…

We drank our first beers really fast and so hit the pair of them hit us pretty hard. Dale was in hysterics watching me try to figure out the tab, something I usually do effortlessly for us. We were stuffed with good food and just about rolled out of there. We were rather giggly walking back to the Mercado. 🙂

There, we stopped in at Panamá’s so I could get some sandwiches for tonight and a croissant for the morning. Dale didn’t have any change, so I made her pick out something for her breakfast as my treat. The cashier had no trouble understanding me when I said that I wanted two bags, but the fact that I wanted two sandwiches and a pastry in one bag and one pastry in the other made her scratch her head a little.

Then, Dale went, “Oh!” which told me she had almost forgotten something. As it turns out, she had gone to the fabric store before meeting me looking for Velcro. It had taken 10 minutes to get the clerks to even pay attention to her and then saying Velcro and pantomiming got her nothing but disdain from the young girl at the notions counter.

So she had me go in and I pulled up a picture of Velcro on my phone. The girl haughtily said that they had some in black and white. I checked with Dale and then asked for white. Then, Dale put her fingers apart to show how much she wanted. The gal shook her head and showed us the metre stick. It a minute of her just shaking her head before I exasperatedly told her that I might not speak Spanish well, but I understand it and what was the problem? Dale needed to buy a whole metre. Geeze, Louise! That wasn’t so hard, was it?!

But it wasn’t over. The gal cut the amount and then handed Dale a ticket, telling me that we had to go to the till and then come back to pick up. We got to the till and Dale handed over a 50. The cashier would not take it and kept saying, “No, no. Five. Five.” I finally clued in and said that neither one of us had change. Okay, fine, Dale gets her 45 pesos in change. She had balked at buying a whole metre but I had told her it would be cheap and I was right!

It still wasn’t over. We went back to the notions counter and the girl looked at us like we were nuts and pointed vaguely in the direction of the till. I have to say that she clearly told me, “Regresa aquí” (come back here), so nothing was lost in translation!

We went back there to the till and I looked around until I saw a sign that, while I couldn’t translate perfectly, suspected meant merchandise pickup, which is exactly what it was.

Whew! This was my second unpleasant encounter with a merchant in nearly five months here. I usually think I’m doing well if I only have a couple a week back home!

And then, it was time to go since Dale had to get back to not just the Golden Zone, but really far up there, past where she lives even, to meet friends. She thanked me several times for being her buddy this winter and I said the same to her. It would have taken so much longer to figure out this place without her.

She pulls out first thing Tuesday and if the fates allow, she’ll pull into Haven sometime this summer. We both refused to say goodbye, just, “See you later!”

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Change Is Difficult in Mexico

I really need to get with the program and have all my withdrawals broken into 20, 50, and only a few 100 peso notes because too few vendors do enough volume to provide adequate change.

I picked out 23 pesos worth of veggies a few minutes ago and my smallest bill was 100, but I did have 3 pesos. I figured that 80 pesos would be easy enough to provide change for. Nope. I would never give a small vendor more than 100 for a purchase of 20 or more without checking that they have change, but I thought that 80 pesos of change would be easy to come by, especially that early in the day. Then again, if everyone does that…

So now, I have to find another way to break that 100 today so that I can give Mr. Veggie Guy the 20 pesos I owe him the next time I see him. But, YES, he let me have the veggies on credit!!!

Oh, well, that’ll give me change for hot dogs tonight, too, which I was going to skip due to my lack of change… I think I’ll do my walk early so I can stop in at a restaurant for a cold limonada after. Hmm, that sounds rather like a good idea. 🙂

I can’t count the number of times since I got here that I’ve not bought something because I only had a largish bill. I even got chicken on credit one day because I only had a 200 and they didn’t have the 150 pesos of change to give me, never mind that just about everyone pays with 50s and 100s.

Really, the solution is to get my withdrawals converted to small bills every time, regardless of the lineup at the teller.

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A Routine I Could Get Used To

Yesterday, I received a large project due late Monday. I divided it into chunks that would allow for days of reasonable length, time to see Dale one last time if she was free, and, of course, riding on Mondays.

I’ve been going to bed really early, catching up on a few weeks of short nights, and was up at 5:00 this morning and at work by 6:00. I pretty much powered through my day, with short, but regular breaks, including catching the 6:30 tortilla delivery!

By 3:00 I had not only completed the work I wanted to do today, but also made inroads on tomorrow’s. My back was sore and I decided it was time to quit since there was absolutely no reason to kill myself over this job. Time for a walk!

Rather than head for the beach, I took off for Goat Island for a change of scenery. On the way there, I passed the new mini supermarket and saw that they had a sandwich board outside advertising frozen treats. I decided to pop in to see if they by any chance had any chocolate ice cream. The offerings were slim, but they had a chocolate ice cream drumstick that fit my craving perfectly. At 21 pesos it was cheap enough for me not to balk, but expensive enough for me to not make a habit of it!

My knee being very sore, I decided not to climb Goat Island today. Instead, I circled back to the main road in the opposite direction of the mountain, following the coast line, where I discovered a cove with a lovely beach in front of the Pizza Benji restaurant. I watched a father and daughter build an impressive sand castle for a few minutes.

When I got in, I spent some time reading, made dinner, and crashed with a movie. It’s now 8:30 and definitely bedtime, I’m almost embarrassed to admit. Hopefully, I’ll be able to keep up that work pace tomorrow and finish early again.

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Back to the Beginning

I was running low on coffee, so I emailed Dale yesterday to see if she wanted to meet up today. As it turned out, she had a late morning meeting in Centro, so she suggested I give her my coffee order, she’d pick it up, and then we could meet in front of Waldo’s around 11:30. That worked!

I left early since I wanted to go to the bank and also stop in at the dress shop and have the straps adjusted on my new dress. Feeling lazy, I took 21 de marzo from Emilio Barragán to avoid the giant Leandro Valle hill. The ATM for the Santander bank is on 21 de marzo anyway, one block past the cathedral.

After my withdrawal, I walked the few blocks to get some nieve de garrafa. For the first time, they had lemon. I haven’t had lemon since I got to Mexico! It was so good, like frozen lemonade, and a perfect compliment to the sweet prune and mandarin scoops as well as being very refreshing.

Since there was a cruise ship in port, Maz was thrumming with people, but it wasn’t overwhelming the way it would have been when I first got here. I know my way around now, so I can easily avoid crowds and most of the places I shop and eat at aren’t places the casual visitors would frequent.

Refreshed by my sorbet, I hit the dress shop, which was empty. The seamstress said she had been expecting me. The straps on the dresses are stretchy, so everyone who buys them gets at least one adjustment done. I had brought another dress to change into while she fixed this one, but she preferred to do the sewing by hand with me in the dress to make sure she got the straps perfect. The adjustment was, of course, free and she said I could come back in five years with the dress and she’d still repair it at no cost.

Then, I hit a few produce vendors and bought two kinds of mangos, to do a taste comparison. And then, it was time to meet Dale. She had only one thing on her mind, a cold beer, so I suggested we go to Olas Altas and have one last beer by the water.

You see, Dale’s meeting was with some RVers who are headed east on Tuesday towards Texas and Dale is going to tag along. She’s leaving. It’s official. I am so sad. I hope that she makes good on her promise to come visit me this summer!

By the time we got to Olas Altas, it was only 11:45. I used to order beer in Scotland from 11:00 a.m. onward, but people were still eating breakfast here and it felt way too strange to order beer! So I suggested we double back and get some pastries at Panamá for later.

When we returned to the restaurant, it was noon. We ordered beer and after perusing the menu for a few minutes Dale confessed that all she really wanted was nachos to share and that we could have chorizo on them, too. That was fine and like the last time we ordered the chorizo nachos, they came with a side of chips and salsa. So two beers, ‘lunch’ and a generous tip came to total of 150 pesos!

A well balanced Mexican diet. Hey, pico de gallo more than counts as vegetables. :)

A well balanced Mexican diet. Hey, pico de gallo more than counts as vegetables. 🙂

We both marveled at how far we’d come since our first forays into Maz. We both know our way around now, have favourite haunts, and are much, much browner than when we arrived. We both know that we are forever changed by this experience, but we have yet to understand how exactly that will translate into our lives back home.

After we rolled out of the restaurant, I insisted that we both had room for a tiny scoop of gelato since Dale had never been to the little gelataria off of Machado.  She agreed and off we went. The place was packed with cruise ship tourists. One of the servers was doing a good job with her English, but the line was moving slowly. I may have done a little translating to get some people out of there more quickly…

My favourite flavour there is Ferrero, as in Ferrero Rocher, the little wafer balls filled with Nutella. I knew that Dale likes Nutella, so I told her that I was going to order and that it was on me! I got us each a scoop in a cup. She loved it, thanked me a couple of times for pushing her to go, and agreed that there was indeed just enough place left after lunch for such a yummy and tiny treat. 🙂

She needed to get home to her dogs, so we headed back to the Mercado, where she would catch the bus. I continued on to Ley to get a few things that were on sale, including some sliced ham I discovered at Soriana that is quite good compared to the brand I find at the City Deli.

Now, I need to get to work! I thought I’d get the whole day off, but my client apparently lost leave of her math skills and sent me a huge job that I am going to scramble to do well if I don’t at least start it today. I didn’t want to refuse since I’m taking a few days off soon to go to Durango.

At least, I’ve got tons of coffee to get me through the next few days! 🙂

Turkish proverb: Black like night, strong like sin, sweet like love, hot like inferno. Used by Rico to describe their coffee!

Turkish proverb: Black like night, strong like sin, sweet like love, hot like inferno. Used by Rico to describe their coffee!

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Lunch at the Water’s Edge

Dale emailed me late this morning wondering if I had time to meet her at the Mercado for lunch and shopping. I decided that I had room in the schedule and agreed!

We met in front of Waldo’s. It’s a convenient place to wait because there is a little nook by the stairs that doesn’t see much traffic. She arrived a couple of minutes after me wondering if I wanted to grab lunch first.

Contessa had told me about a lunch special at the Water’s Edge restaurant near Plazuela Machado so I suggested we go there and see if the menu was available on Sundays. Dale was game and we wound and wended our way there. I really am getting very comfortable navigating some parts of Maz!

Thankfully, the restaurant was open. They do the special Tuesdays to Sundays (closed Mondays). You get a choice of several different meals with bread and beer, pop, or limonda for 100 pesos, or you can pay an extra 20 pesos to get wine or sangria. The restaurant is owned by Canadians and the menu is not at all Mexican.

Water's Edge restaurant

Water’s Edge restaurant

The courtyard was bright and cheery.

The courtyard was bright and cheery.

I liked the wire artwork on the walls.

I liked the wire artwork on the walls.

Since it was overcast, we ate out in the open.

Since it was overcast, we ate out in the open.

Every option looked good, but I zeroed in on the Asian salad with Napa cabbage, grilled chicken, fried wontons, mango, and a sesame-ginger dressing simply because this was the choice with the most flavours I haven’t eaten since I arrived in Mexico. The salad wound up being a healthier and lighter version of the Applebee’s Asian chicken salad and really, really tasty!

Yummy salad.

Yummy salad.

An absolutely unnecessary plate of bread.

An absolutely unnecessary plate of bread.

Dale, who was still vegetarian when I met her, is really expanding her horizons and surprised me by ordering the seared tuna sandwich on ciabbata, with a garlicky mayonnaise, something a bit spicy, and avocado, with a salad on the side instead of soup. She was a little daunted when she saw what the tuna looked like (I’d warned her; cooked on the outside, just about raw in the middle), but she bravely dug in and was immediately very clear in her opinion, “Oh, YUM!” She had me try a bite and it was indeed very good, a little smoky and spicy.

The meal came with okay bread, good butter, and our beers (choice of Corona (yuck) or Pacifico), all for 120 pesos each with the tip. Thanks for the recommendation, Contessa!

We then went to the Mercado. Last time I was there and bought my blouse, I stopped in at the little boutique I like and met a Gringa who told me that the best deal in the shop is some dresses with smocked bodices that are made on site. They are cut to the customer’s preferred length and the cut material is used to make straps. She said, “I always get two or three, so I get them for 330 pesos each.”

Ever since I first laid eyes on Leslie Mann’s smocked bodice dress in Knocked Up, I have wanted one.

dress

I have been dreaming of this dress for EIGHT YEARS.

Now that I have a body shape to wear a dress like that and a source for one, I had to explore this option further! So Dale’s and my first stop at the Mercado was the dress shop!

I went through all the smocked dresses and gasped when I found one in not only the weight of fabric but also colour that I wanted. The clerk greeted me warmly and told me I could have the dress for 300 pesos!!! SOLD. The seamstress put the dress against me and I told her I wanted it a little shorter than the dress I was wearing, with one-inch straps. I was asked to pay and come back in about 30 minutes.

Dale and I wandered around, picking up what we needed. While I know that Dale genuinely wants my company, she definitely relies on me for translation and monetary help when she’s shopping in situations like these where the total price isn’t rung up on a screen that she can watch and she has to ask for things and give quantities. I got a nice red pepper for my pasta dinner tonight and found some gorgeous avocados for a couple of breakfasts.

When we got back to the dress shop, the seamstress was finishing up. I examined the stitching, gave my approval, and the dress was bagged up for me.

Dream dress AT LAST!!!

Dream dress AT LAST!!!

The seamstress didn’t seem super busy, so next time I go to the Mercado I will bring a pattern I found for the style of headscarf I prefer and see if she would be willing to make me some if I provide the fabric. Fabric is super cheap in Mexico, so I’m hoping I could get a half dozen or so new scarves. Anyway, I’ll see what she says.

I really needed to get back to work, so that was it for me. Dale and I made tentative plans to meet later this week because I need coffee. I’ll either go to her and try out a restaurant in the Golden Zone that was recommended to me, or I’ll trust her with my coffee order and she’ll meet me in Centro.