Mazatlan

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Oh, Crap!

I was invited by my friends L&N to attend a tournament of “Crap!” on the beach today with a bunch of other people. Thankfully, I was able to shuffle my schedule around so I could go. It was a great four hours on Chivos Beach, Isla’s best kept secret. It is that because the bay there  is super tranquil for swimming and there’s almost never anyone there. The weather was perfect to be sitting under the sun for the afternoon, just hot enough with a cool breeze. The bright blue water was chilly, though!

My place in relation to Palapa Mirador on Chivos.

My place in relation to Palapa Mirador on Chivos.

What is “Crap!” you may ask? Well, having attended and played, I’m pretty sure the best description is that it’s a beach sport that is rather a cross of curling, darts, shuffleboard, pockets, and the entertainment of watching a jousting tournament. A large target is drawn in the sand and you have to hit it with stones from a certain distance, with the rings of the target determining how many points you get. First one to get to 21 points without going over wins the round.

There was about a dozen of us and N had everything organised very well. Pairs of players would go and the winner would go on to the next round, then repeat that until there were only two champions. I did really well in my first round, but choked on my last turn and lost by a point! So I was just a spectator after.

There is a nice restaurant at Chivos Beach called Palapa Mirador so we had tables with food and beverage service. The server there is a Canadian and she has done a nice write up about the restaurant and the beach, so go to her blog for the pictures I neglected to take. 🙂 I have to laugh at her comment about the bathrooms having real doors when the toilets have no seats!

I had four Pacifico Lights and the coconut shrimp over the course of the afternoon. The meal was excellent although the shrimp were not as coconutty as those at the restaurants on this side (but also much less expensive) and didn’t have a dipping sauce. I wound up making tacos out of my meal and loading on the Valentina “hot” sauce, which isn’t hot at all.

What a great afternoon for just $200, plus a very generous tip for our hardworking server! A Monday afternoon on the beach is pretty normal, but a Wednesday is a luxurious treat that reminds me of just how lucky I am to have so much freedom — and how smart I am to be here in paradise instead of freezing my butt off in Saskatchewan!

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A Usually Special Morning Made Extraordinary

I’ve been riding every Monday morning since I got here. It is a cherished couple of hours out of my week. My riding group is wonderful and there’s something to be said about riding down a beautiful palm tree lined beach with a tropical sun beating down on you. Our guide, Daniel, has even let us go out on our own a few times so I have gained more experience and confidence on a horse.

Such was the case today. It was just Sue and me, so Daniel told us to go on and he’d join up with us for the ride back. The weather was just perfect, with a cool breeze and fluffy white clouds. Our horses were chomping at the bit, so we loosed the reins, dug in our heels, and let them fly.

On the trip back, Daniel asked why we didn’t want to go back through the forest and I explained that it’s because of the mosquitoes. I then told him all about the mosquito-borne disease from Africa that has reached North American shores and is causing babies in Brazil to be born with little to no brain. We then talked about the cost of life in Canada and the shock I’m going to experience at produce prices. Sue can follow a little bit and we’d frequently break to have her repeat words and make sure she was following the conversation, and we’d do the same for Daniel with English words.

As we were nearing the end of the ride, we came across a giant green coconut right in the middle of the road. Daniel scooped it up. When we got to our hitching posts on the beach, he set the coconut on a stump he uses to help people mount the horses, pulled his machete out from under his horse’s saddle, and hacked at the coco until there was a drinking hole. Sue and I split it and we both raved at how fresh and cool and flavourful the coconut water was.

But Daniel wasn’t done! He then used the machete to split the coco in two and hacked off a bit of the husk to make a spoon. He then fed us the coco meat! I’ve never had green coconut meat before and it was marvelous. I’ve heard it described as slimy, but it wasn’t unpleasantly gelatinous at all, very cool and smooth and sweet and filling.

Such a special morning deserves a special lunch so I’m off to the beach for a beer and something shrimpy!

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Sunday Morning in Juárez

I needed produce and wanted more variety than what my veggie has (going into grapefruit withdrawal…), so I decided to do a mercado run this morning, but to the one in Juárez for a change of scenery.

I was out the door at about 8:00, was disappointed that the bakery wasn’t open so I could grab some pan dulce as an on-the-go breakfast, but was pleased to find the doughnut lady at the embarcadero doing a brisk business.

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High tide this morning!

I’ve had more doughnuts since I got here in November (three!!!) than I’ve had in the past several years. They’re very light and fluffy, with cinnamon sugar. When I was in Durango, I saw doughnut vendors calling them ‘donuts,’, masculine (un donut, el donut), but here in Maz, they are ‘donas,’ so feminine (una dona, la dona). I had just enough time to enjoy it before a bus marked Juárez pulled up.

It was a very quick ride and, knowing where I was going this time, I hopped off before the bus started its very jerky stop-and-go ride through traffic in the heart of the market area. I decided to start with a tour of the tianguis (flea market). It was much larger than last time. I bought a blouse in the first aisle I passed. The lady wanted $40, I said $30, and we finally settled on $35. Fun. 🙂

The tianguis was very crowded, but I’ve learned ‘con permiso’ to elbow my way politely through a crowd. I felt so comfortable there, with all the wonderful odours and chatter and colourful goods. One man tried to sell me a dog leash and when I told him I didn’t have a dog, he said it would work for my husband. ¡Jajajajaja!

Feeling a tad parched, I began to scope out the agua fresca vendors and finally conceded that no one had guava today. So I settled on lime, which was predictably very refreshing.

Then, I could no longer ignore the siren call of grilled meat and onions. This was a mystery meat taco ‘con todo,’ to which I added salsa mexicana and guacamole (the thin liquidy stuff). The cook did ask me to confirm that my definition of ‘con todo’ included ‘picante’ (spicy) and I said yes. They weren’t spicy in the least, though! Soooo yummy. 🙂

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I then walked around Juárez a bit and made a discovery that surprised me. I found an indoor market just like the Pino Suárez one in Centro! How did I miss it last time?! This market was almost only meat, which looked a lot more appealing than what I see in Centro. I need to go back with a cooler bag and ice! I also found public bathrooms in this market and except for the hand washing facilities being a bucket of soapy water everyone could plunge their hands in (yuck — thank goodness I had wipes!), I was very impressed by how clean and new the facilities were. I tipped the attendant $5.

It was just past 10:00 by then and already getting very hot and uncomfortable. I was ready to go home. So I picked a produce vendor and spent a whopping $36 (do note my sarcastic tone) on this:

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Funny how I never never noticed sweet potatoes last year, and now I have no trouble finding them.

I’d promised myself a pulmonía ride to the embarcadero, so I flagged one down as I came out of the produce store and was quoted $50, which sounded fair. I saw a lot more from the back seat of the taxi than I do a bus and now I know how to get to Juárez on foot. It’s only 3.5KM down busy streets, so it’s ridiculous to take a bus there since I walk to Pino Suárez and back and that’s 3KM round trip.

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Coffee Run

Work is funny sometimes. I can have days like yesterday that I think are going to be quick, but instead run super late, and days like today that I think are going to be very full, but instead finish early.

As I signed off at 2:30, I realised that I had just enough time to run up to Rico’s for coffee beans, have a late taco lunch, and be home before dark without having to rush.

By the time I got to the bus stop at the Fishermen’s Monument, it was already 3:20 since the lancha ride was a a slow one. Traffic on Avenida del mar was at a standstill and I debated whether to go ahead with my plan or not. But a bus pulled up quickly, so I decided to get on and see how bad the ride up to the Golden Zone would be.

To my surprise, traffic felt a lot smoother in a vehicle than it did staring at the long line up of cars. I had a window seat, air conditioning, and my phone, so the ride felt like it took no time at all. I got off in front of the Santander bank and walked the half block or so to Rico’s.

I was a little disappointed when I saw that the Veracruz dark roast dispenser was empty, but I asked for confirmation that they were out and they weren’t! Someone was sent to the store room for my beans. When she came back out and started pouring them into the dispenser, the most wonderful aroma filled the air. I don’t even need to drink coffee for it to make me happy. 🙂

Next stop was tacos. I always go to Ta’Loco and decided to try another place just to have a point of comparison. Well, it wasn’t a mistake per se since even mediocre tacos are good, but I won’t be doing that again. The menu in badly translated English should have been my first clue that walking out would be a good idea. The salsas were watery and the meat had almost no seasoning and was over cooked. I’m making it sound really dismal, but it wasn’t terrible, just bland, not something I ever thought I’d say about tacos. So Ta’Loco it will be from now on.

I then popped into Thrifty’s for an ice cream (choco brownie, please) and walked towards the Rafael Buelna roundabout debating how I was going to get home. It was only 4:28 by this point! I really didn’t need to go to Mega, after which I would have taken a pulmonía, so grabbing a bus that would get me close-ish to the embarcadero sounded like my best option. And as I made my decision, I spotted the tourist bus (Sábalo-Centro) a block away.

Instead of getting off at the Fishermen’s Monument, I decided to stay on a bit longer and get off at the corner of Aquiles Serdán and Zaragoza so I could walk up Zaragoza, something I don’t think I’ve done yet this winter. There’s nothing special there, but it would be a welcome change of scenery.

I did a double take as I watched the TV on the bus and realised that the show was taking place in Montreal after noticing “à louer” (for rent) signs starting with the 514 area code! I did some research and learned it was “Les gags,” a “Candid Camera”-style show for which I guess no translation is needed!

Here’s my route. The red marker is the embarcadero, the green one is the Fishermen’s monument, the green line is the bus route past the monument, and the blue lines are my walks in each direction.

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I do save a little walking time with the Zaragoza route and could actually go that way to catch the bus at Benito Juárez, but all I’m saving are a few steps, not time to get up to the Golden Zone.

I passed the beach blanket vendor as I reached the end of Zaragoza, so we had a bit of a catch up during which I assured him that I wasn’t sick or dying, just not spending much time on the beach. Business has been so-so for him. It was neat running into someone I know while off my regular route.

The lancha ride home was much faster than the ride over and I got in as the sun was starting to set, reflecting brightly off the harbour, a beautiful end to the day.

It’s amazing how much ground I can cover in Maz in three hours using just my two legs and a couple of buses!

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Compromises

I had a reminder pop up today to have my landlady’s husband check my propane levels, based on last year’s usage. Instead of going over there empty-handed, I figured that I might as well bring the February rent at the same time. So I Skyped Scotiabank this morning to have them increase my withdrawal limit for just today so I could make a larger withdrawal and then headed into town.

It took several tries before I could make the withdrawal and I couldn’t even come close to the 10,000MXN I was hoping to take out, had enough for in CAD, and was still within my temporary withdrawal limit. The machine let me take out 6,000MXN and then a further 2,000MXN even though I had well over another 2,000MXN in the account. Anyway, no big deal since I have plenty of cash on hand. The larger withdrawal was more about reducing the amount of time I spend in line at the teller to change bills than actually needing the cash.

Thankfully, the lineup was short today. I asked for $100s and $200s. The teller held up a huge stack of $100s and said that giving me 70 of those would be easiest for her, which was fine by me. She counted a few bills out of her stack, then put the remainder in the money counting machine, which confirmed there were 70 bills. It was insanely quick. Those money counting machines are amazing.

I then headed down to the big Ley to get a few things, stopping at the Chinese restaurant for lunch. I did a huge shop at the beginning of January and only needed a few things, but they were quite heavy like almond milk, yoghurt (my favourite kind was on sale!), and hummus (they only had two containers left!). The shopping wasn’t quite enough to justify taking a pulmonía back to the embarcadero, but enough that I wasn’t relishing the 3KM walk there, plus the walk on this side.

My compromise was to walk to Ejército Mexicano and grab the first bus that would take me to the corner of Juan Carrasco and Gutiérrez-Nájera, cutting my walk fully in half. I waited all of 30 seconds for such a bus to show up and even with the fare having gone up a whopping 50 centavos (0.04CAD), I got my money’s worth out of my $7.50! I had the driver drop me after we crossed Gutiérrez-Nájera so I wouldn’t have to do so on foot, which meant going nearly an extra block before he could pull over. He double checked that I was where I wanted/needed to be before letting me off.

I shifted items around after a couple of minutes of walking, putting a few things in my purse so that I would be better balanced, and then it was then a pretty quick walk up to the embarcadero and then home.

I would need another winter here to really master the buses, but I’m pleased with how much more I’m using them this year. I love riding in a pulmonía and they are really rather inexpensive, but walking and taking the bus is healthier. Even with my bus ride today, I managed a more than 5KM walk, which, when you sit at a computer all day, is as good for the soul as it is for the body. I just notice things more when I’m walking then when I’m in a moving vehicle, plus you get all the smells. That dang churros vendor is going to ensnare me one day, I’m sure!