Mazatlan

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Wrapping My Brain Around the Time Change

Get this, the clocks moved ahead in Canada and the US this morning, but they don’t move ahead in Mexico until April 5th, if the internet is to be believed. But I can’t ignore the time change since I have clients in time zones that are being affected by the clocks changing. Thank goodness for technology so I don’t really have to track this myself!

First of all my computer, iPad, and iPhone all adjust the time automatically, so I never have to worry about knowing what the time is where I am… unless I am in Arizona and connected to a Utah cell tower.

Next, I use a nifty app called LoversClock that lets me have clocks for multiple time zones in my menu bar. It also adjusts the times accordingly. So when I got on the computer this morning, I could see that I am now essentially in the PST time zone and three hours behind EST.

clocks

So this little cosmic upset means I lost an hour to do a job for an EST-zone client that’s due on Tuesday, my deadline moving from 9PM to 8PM. I’ve also lost my advantage with the PST client. He tends to hit me late in the day and I do his work first thing in the morning since I have an extra hour. Now, his 8AM deadline is also my 8AM.

I won’t both advising my clients of this change. They really don’t think about the fact that I’m in another time zone and schedule me as per their time zone and it’s wholly my responsibility to do the conversion and get things in on time. I find that this just makes it easier for everybody.

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Airport Run

This afternoon, I went to pick up the a friend of L&N’s who was flying in from Winnipeg via Calgary. I left around 1:45 and by the time I backed out of the yard (first time doing it that way) and made it to The Road, it was 1:55, with one hour before the flight’s arrival.

The first 6KM of The Road were bad. Tons of big potholes. Then, there was a 1KM stretch of nicely graded gravel, then several kilometres of PAVEMENT. That short bit really showed me how life on Isla would change if road access to it was easier. After that, it was nice graded road all the way to pavement. I did The Road in a record 27 minutes!

I parked at the airport at 2:36, with 20 minutes till the arrival time. Rather than get a coffee, I decided to try the frozen yoghurt as I had come in rather overheated. It was ridiculously expensive at 65 pesos, but very yummy with lots of fresh fruit.

The plane was on a time, but for some reason everyone I pick up at the airport is the last to deplane! So I had a good 40 minutes to wait standing at the gate. The next time I pick up someone at the airport, I will tell them that I’ll be on the benches in front of Señor Frog reading on my iPad. Anyway, I caught up on all the Facebook gossip on my phone and had a very nice chat with some ladies who are here for a few weeks and were waiting for their daughters and grandchildren.

Once L&N’s friend arrived and we got the truck loaded, it was about 4:05. We made it to L&N’s at just about 4:30, so I obviously drove faster than on the way in since there is a long stretch on pavement between the airport and The Road. It helped that I knew where all the worst potholes were!

At the hotel, a boy offered to carry the very heavy bags up the 50 billion flights to the top of the building, which earned him a tip that he was quite grateful for. I accepted a beer, then left to let them all catch up.

Doing the airport pick up run really eats into the day, but it’s so nice to be able to drive! I hadn’t started Moya since the end of December and she started right up today! I’ll be doing the reverse run on the 21st, with the plan being to drop their friend off and continue on to Durango. We’ll see if I can pull that off! 🙂

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Shrimp Shortage

Contessa and I went to Miguel’s for dinner tonight. I ordered first, a shrimp burrito and a chorreada. Then, Contessa ordered two shrimp burritos. We were informed that they only had enough shrimp left for two burritos, not three! WHAT?! The guy who brings shrimp has apparently not been answering his phone.

Since the only meat Contessa eats is fish and seafood, I obviously let her have her two burritos and I ordered two chorreadas instead. Dang those are tasty! For some reason, I thought they were made with pork, but no. They’re made with beef and I’m pretty sure she said sheep, too! It just goes to show that with enough seasoning, anything can be tasty. 🙂 I like them dripping with their very thin guacamole. They have cheese, too, and come on thick corn tortillas.

Contessa brought most of a bottle of wine for us to share and we gabbed for ages. It was nice to have a girls night out while her husband is out of town.

Two shrimp and cheese burritos=70 pesos. Two chorreadas=50 pesos. I don’t think I’ll bother cooking at all next year. 😀

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First Time in an Auriga

This morning, I accompanied my friends L&D to Office Depot to help them purchase a printer for the Isla school, where they teach English. This was a sponsored trip, so I was not uncomfortable that all transportation costs and tips were covered for me. What a treat this trip was since I barely had to carry anything and it took minutes to get across town, not an hour!

We took a pulmonía to Office Depot and were out very quickly because I had done research prior. We’d met at the Isla panga at 9:00 and left Office Depot at 9:50! We wanted to go to Soriana next door, so I asked if we could leave the purchases behind the till (not so eloquently) and the cashier understood and said not a problem.

Next, L&D headed to Soriana while I hit the bank. Now, this was one heck of an uncomfortable situation because the bank guard insisted on helping with my transaction. I wasn’t able to withdraw 7,000 from that bank (Scotia). The guard explained that I needed to do increments of 2,000 or 5,000. I can’t take 8,000 pesos out at once (daily limit), so that meant I would need to pay two withdrawal fees in both Canada and MX.

I thought of trying the bank across the street to avoid that, but the guard didn’t understand and was adamant about helping me do the two transactions. Frankly, crossing a very busy highway with no guarantee I’d have any luck at the other bank, that could have even higher fees for all I knew, wasn’t appealing, so I let him have his way, but I did not tip him! I don’t know if he was expecting it or not, but that an expensive enough withdrawal as it was. But the experience was worthwhile just to understand why I had issues at ScotiaBank in the past.

I then went to Soriana and spent almost 600 pesos! Unfortunately, they no longer carry hummus (I asked), but I did find a falafel kit with tahini sauce for 123! Wow! I did not buy it, though! My only real food splurge was some Spanish salami that I occasionally find in Canada. I also found the sweet relish! It’s not with the mustard and ketchup, but rather with the hot sauces. Heinz brand squeeze bottle for 30 pesos, very reasonable!

I loaded up on paper goods and laundry detergent, taking advantage of transportation! My only non-splurge was a 37-peso magazine at the checkout because the headline ‘A world without chocolate, the cocoa tree illness’ caught my eye.

The lady ahead of me in line noticed that I’d put the magazine on the belt and asked if I could do some translating for her as her Spanish isn’t good. She wanted me to tell the baggers to put her cold stuff in her insulated bag and distribute the rest into a lot of bags as she has had back surgery and can’t lift anything heavy. I managed it!

L&D had been just ahead of me in line, so they were waiting at the entrance. We took our carts to Office Depot to get the printer, then headed across the parking lot to flag down an auriga, a pick up truck taxi, since we had too much stuff to fit in a pulmonía. Home Depot is across the road, so there are always aurigas there to help people lug home materials. L has a good whistle and was able to catch the attention of a driver who swung around in traffic to come pick us up.

The aurigas have benches along the length of the truck bed, a canopy,  a gate because people have actually fallen out of them, and a healthy sound system! The trip to the panga took no time at all.

There, a guy was quick to grab our big stuff and bring it down to the dock for us. Funny how in Canada and the US I’d be worried about getting robbed, but this is perfectly normal here!

The water was really rough today, so we had to be very careful getting out of the panga. Someone brought our things up to an auriga on this side. I told the driver that L&D were going to their hotel, but first we had to go to my place. I gave my street name and said the white house with the orange door (I really need to learn the word for gate). He understood perfectly, took the exact route I would have taken, and even backed up to the gate before helping me unload.

The internet wasn’t back when I got home. I put together the rent money and went to see my landlady. I’d stopped first thing this morning to ask her to call TelMex and she told me that I should have internet by 1PM, which I do!

I’ve had a full couple of days, so I don’t think I’ll be working this afternoon. I’ll clean the house, go for a walk, and I’m meeting Contessa for dinner.

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¡Asqueroso!

Except for some stale tortillas, fruit, and cheese, I was completely out of food, so I ran to the City Deli a short while ago to pick up a few things to tide me over till I go to Soriana on Thursday (with possibly a trip to Miguel’s tomorrow).

The older lady was working the deli counter, so I asked for 20 pesos of bacon. I’ve tried many brands of bacon and their brand, Chimex, is by far the best but I can only find it in small quantities at Ley and Soriana, where it is more expensive per kilo than buying it from the City Deli!

No sooner had she parceled it out that I noticed MOULD on the bacon. Mould! I couldn’t believe it! She smelled the package, winced, and threw it aside, then opened up a fresh one. She said that that was strange and they were having trouble with their cheese, too.

Well, there was the window of opportunity I was looking for. I replied that the other girl who works there doesn’t wear a bag over her hand when handling the food and that I’ve come home with mouldy cheese, hence why I don’t buy it there anymore. There was probably some contamination.

The lady burst out with ¡Asqueroso!, which I now know means disgusting! She said she would talk to her boss about it and immediately went to the back, coming out with him. He chose his words carefully and said to me, “You mean the girl who is not nice to you?” and I replied in the affirmative. He said he will deal with her.

Uh-oh. I really hope I didn’t get someone fired, but at the same time, she should not be handling food! That she’s very likely causing waste in addition to being unsanitary and rude to the customers doesn’t bode well for her, though.