December 5, 2014 by Rae

Live Music at Macaws in Mazatlán

Dale drove down to Maz with a musician friend who plays at a bunch of venues around Maz. She’s been wanting to go hear him play since she got here, but was leery of going out alone after dark. Now that we’re both comfortable going from the panga to the historical district, going out after dark didn’t feel like a big issue.

She swung by my place at 5:00 and we headed out to the panga at around 5:15, already dusk, with a huge moon hanging over Isla. It was getting on dark when we landed. We had decided to walk to the venue, a B&B/restaurant called Macaws, but take a pulmonía back.

We walked down Emilio Barragán to Constitución, which took us to the Plaza Machado. It was so different from the plaza during the day, lined with restaurant tables and full of vendors and live music!

At the end of it, we had to turn left, then immediately right, and then walked more or less straight down to Macaws, which is right in front of the art museum.

Dale wasn’t hungry, but I decided to order dinner. Being tired of Mexican food (*sheepish grin*), I was very happy to order a burger, 60 pesos for a basic one with fries, but I added a whopping (*tongue firmly in cheek*) 30 pesos worth of pepper jack cheese, sautéed onions, and bacon. It was a really good burger, missing only a bit of mustard and relish, but otherwise as good as anything I could get back home.

The music tonight was jazz and absolutely lovely, providing atmosphere, but not so much volume that we couldn’t talk. My favourite song was their rendition of ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’, played very slow and melancholy. I said to Dale that I think I live over the rainbow and she clinked my beer bottle in agreement!

Dale is a slow drinker and had just one beer. I like mine cold, so I easily made my way through two. 🙂

At one point, an older gentleman sat with us because the place was quite full and he and I had a nice chat while Dale and her friend headed out to see another friend during a break in the music. He’s from Vancouver, is sailing, and is anchored in Maz.

Macaws makes homemade ice cream and Dale had decided when I ordered my burger that she was going to order their Butterfinger ice cream near the end of the evening. I asked if they had chocolate, yes, so I caved and got some too. OMG. Dale and I are pretty sure it was the best ice cream we have had in our lives! I couldn’t have had a full dish of the delicious Butterfinger (I have trouble now with ice cream that has a lot of extra stuff in it like caramel), but the chocolate was perfect with me and I had no trouble with the bitter chunks of dark chocolate that studded the ice cream.

It wasn’t a cheap night for me in pesos, almost 300 after the tips to the waiter and band, but such good value!

We left Macaws at about nine after the music was done and Dale could say goodbye to her friend. We then walked back to Plaza Machado. We had a look at all the wares and no one was pushy, to my immense surprise.

I somehow managed to come here without a notebook or much paper and have been scrambling to take notes, so I’ve had a notebook on my shopping list. Before going to Macaws, I had seen some beautiful notebooks made of recycled paper, the covers of which featured artwork that could later be framed. One struck me in particular and I was still thinking about it as we headed home.

On the first pass around the plaza, I saw that it was still there and as we walked around, I thought about how much I would be willing to pay, settling on 50 pesos. I stopped a third time in front of the table and asked how much. 50 pesos! I offered 35 and the guy said absolutely not, no less than 40. Sold!

We then headed to where all the pulmonías stop and I asked how much to get to the panga. How much were we willing to pay? Dale said no more than 40. The guy said, ha, no less than 50. Dale said that we would walk. The guy said fine, 45. We both found that pricey for the short distance that we were going, but fine split two ways. It really makes me realise that my trip yesterday from the Golden Zone was a good deal!

The panga runs at the regular price until midnight, when it jumps to a whopping 60 pesos each way. It was only 9:40 when we got to the dock, so we paid just 8 pesos each.

Dale doesn’t wear her reading glasses and relies heavily on me to sort out her currency when we’re together. I said drily to the rather morose cashier that Dale needed her glasses and the cashier burst out laughing, which was very rewarding. Dale said that ‘gafas’ is her word of the day.

The panga arrived after about five minutes, the first time I’ve had to wait for one. After that, home was only about 10 minutes away and I made it home at just about bang on 10:00.

We’re both so glad that we went out tonight. I would feel perfectly comfortable going out like that on my own, with the pulmonía ride back. The area around Plaza Machado was hopping and the ambiance was warm and welcoming. But Dale is eager to go try out another venue her friend plays at, so I doubt I’ll have much need to go out alone!

The singer. Notice the light above her is shaped like a firefly!

The best chocolate ice cream I have ever had in my life, even better than the best gelato.

Butterfinger has peanut butter in it.

The lights of home.

Ship in the harbour on the Maz side.

December 5, 2014 by Rae

Camarones Al Coco En La Playa

I felt like having lunch out today. No reason and not for lack of food at home! I emailed Dale to see if she wanted to join me. Yes, for a beer only since she had just had a big breakfast. We went to El Velero, where I had the tacos my first morning here.

We ordered two Pacificos and they they didn’t have any of the 355mL bottles (!) so they brought us a 900ishmL ‘Ballena’ bottle to share. Total cost for that was 30 pesos. Two of the smaller bottles would have cost us 50 pesos for less beer! Dale and I had a good laugh about that. We “dressed” our beers with salt and lime!

I decided to order the coconut shrimp! I have no idea what is getting into me these days. 🙂 The shrimp came with buttered toast (Dale laughed at my, “Oh, it’s BREAD!”), delicately seasoned rice, frozen veggies (carrot, broccoli, cauliflower), and an incredible mango dipping sauce, for 120 pesos. The shrimp were huge and the coconut crunchy. Yum!

The only downside to the meal was that we were hounded and hounded and hounded by vendors. The only vendor who scored was the one selling honey. I got a residente price of 70 pesos for a big jar, way more than I could hope to eat anytime soon, but honey doesn’t spoil. Sugar is sugar and I have no illusion about honey being any healthier than other sweet options, but I love the taste and sometimes a schmear of something sweet on a tortilla is a nice treat.

Tonight, Dale and I are going to the historical centre to hear live music! It will be my first time experiencing Maz after dark. We are walking both ways from the panga on Isla, but will walk to the venue as it will still be early and then take a pulmonía back to the panga.

December 5, 2014 by Rae

Mexican Currency

I am using cash exclusively in Mexico simply because the places where I shop don’t take cards. In one way, this makes it easy to budget because I see how much money I have and can divvy it up to last me as long as I intend for it to last. The downside is that most places don’t give a receipt, so it’s hard to keep track of exactly where my money is going, although, really, most if it is ultimately food

I’m learning what coins and bills are the most useful to have on hand and which are a pain.

The worst at the 500 peso bills (brown). Think of them as as $50 bill. I can’t think of any place on Isla where I would feel comfortable pulling out a 500 peso bill unless I was buying at least 400 pesos worth of something because most place just don’t have the change for them. For my situation, the 500 peso bills are so hard to break up that I feel like I might as well have no money. I do like them for paying rent, though.

Next are the 200 peso bills (green). Think of them as a $20 bill. I feel embarrassed when I have to pull one out for a purchase that is less than 100 pesos and have been frequently told by vendors that they can’t make change for them. They’re not as bad as the 500 peso bills, but I still feel hampered when that’s all I have. I was glared at yesterday when I bought my 8 peso panga ticket with a 200 peso bill.

Next are the 100 peso bills (orange). Think of them as a $10 bill. I don’t have any problem spending them, although I was embarrassed at the City Deli the other day buying 9 pesos worth of veggies with a 100 peso bill and the gal had to scramble to find me change.

Then, there are the 50 peso bills (red). Think of them as a $5 bill. These are great! I seem to make a lot of purchases that are about 50 pesos and I’ve never had trouble spending them.

The last bills are 20 pesos (blue). They are like a toonie and very useful, too, especially for tips at a restaurant or buying a beer or ice cream!

And after that, you get the 10 peso coin, which is like a loonie. This one is invaluable! So many things cost 10 pesos or so, like a panga ride, a 5-gallon bottle of water, or a bag of peanuts.

Next, you have a 5 peso coin, which is like a 50-cent piece. Very useful for buying tortillas!

Finally, there are 1 and 2 peso coins, which are like a dime and a quarter. These are best saved for tipping.

There are also smaller coins for centavos, which are a division of the peso. I’ve been given them as change, but have never been asked to provide some, with partial amounts rounded up or down to the nearest peso the way that we do in Canada now that the penny is out of circulation. I give those plus a peso or two the grocery store baggers.

I am getting more comfortable with the currency, especially when it comes to telling the coins apart. The 10 pesos have a gold border and a silver centre and are slightly larger than the 5 pesos, which have a silver border and a gold centre. So they would be easy to tell apart even if they were the same size. I’m still struggling with the 1 and 2 peso coins, which are essentially identical except for size, and more than one honest person has told me I gave 2 pesos instead of 1!

There are also 1,000 peso bills and 20 peso coins, but I’ve definitely not seen the former and fairly certain I have not seen the latter.

Except for blogging purposes, I rarely feel a need to convert pesos to CAD to decide if I want to buy something because I already have a very good idea of how far my money can go here and what’s a reasonable price or not. I am thinking of going to Walmart tomorrow to buy a proper computer chair and for that I will likely do some currency conversion, but for groceries and basic household items, I know that the price is so low I don’t have to worry about how many dollars I’m spending.

It’s really much more important to know how many pesos I’ve spent so far that month and how much month I have left to determine if I want to buy something since the currency conversion was done at the ATM and those pesos are out of my CAD budget anyway.

Spending a currency that isn’t dollars or pounds is a lot of fun, to be honest. The novelty hasn’t worn off yet! But, yes, it still feels like I’m spending ‘real’ money! 🙂

December 4, 2014 by Rae

Well, That Was Exciting

From The Money Pit:

Anna: Well, the turkey’s done.
Walter: So’s the kitchen. Actually, it’s a little overdone for my tastes. Let’s not go there again.

I decided to make a potato gratin for dinner. I’d tried that once, but couldn’t get the oven knob to turn. Janet managed to get it going and I have propane, so I thought I was good to go.

The stove here is very basic, running only on propane, same as my RV range, so I figured that lighting it would be easy. I couldn’t see the element, but there was an obvious opening for where I stuck in my lighter and, woosh, the oven lit.

I lit a burner to heat up the cast iron pan and went to the fridge to dig for potatoes, onions, and bacon when I heard a loud bang. I went back to the stove and saw that the whole rear of it was lit up! There were no flames, but the wall appeared to be glowing (reflection).

I quickly cut the gas to the oven and saw that the flame had gone off on the burner, too.

After waiting five minutes, I lit the burner again. Since I got propane the other day, I’ve noticed that the burners haven’t been very hot and it’s taken ages to cook stuff. Well, this time around, the burner lit up properly and quickly heated up my pan!

I wonder if maybe there was some sort of obstruction in the gas pipe that got cleared when I lit the oven… I’m not keen to try to light it again, that’s for sure! And I need a fire extinguisher!

December 4, 2014 by Rae

Walking Mazatlán’s Malecón

I didn’t have anything pressing to do today, so I decided to hop over to Maz and walk a little of its famous malecón (oceanside boardwalk). I headed out around 10:00 after a Skype call with my mother.

The plan was to walk until I was ready to drop and then take a pulmonía back to the panga. This map roughly illustrates the route that I took, a total of about 10KM (6.21 miles).

I’m really glad that I did this route and then traced it because it’s really helping me get orientated. Maz’s roads run diagonally to the compass points. I am definitely getting to know my way around to a point, but not the most direct routes.

From the panga, I headed to Olas Altas Boulevard the way that I knew to go, through the Mercado and by the cathedral. I, of course, stopped for ice cream! 🙂

The vendor offered me strawberry and vanilla. I said that strawberry was fine and did he have prune? Yup. For my third flavour, I said I wanted more fruit, not vanilla, and he proposed mandarin. Great! I asked for the prune on the bottom and after some reflection and nearly going for the strawberry next, he decided that the mandarin should be in the middle. Gosh I love that stuff, more like sorbet than ice cream, and not too sweet. At 20 pesos, it’s an affordable treat!

I did have another reason to go this way, wanting to stop into a bookstore on Constitución between Plaza Machado and Olas Altas, hoping to find a verb conjugation book. The clerk said they didn’t have any and wasn’t keen on telling me where else in the city I might find one.

From there, it was a few blocks to the Malecón. I walked till I was ready to drop, taking photos of interesting things. There were a few vendors near Olas Altas, but there soon really wasn’t much, to my surprise, just endless miles of beachfront walking with some beachside seafood restaurants.

I made it all the way to the touristy ‘Golden Zone.’ I was hungry by this point, but the only open restaurants I found were Gringo-oriented ones that were very pricey. Anything that would appeal more to locals opened later since Mexicans eat a late lunch. I wasn’t that keen on eating out, so I flagged down a pulmonía to take me back to the panga.

There were tons of pulmonías on that boulevard and many had stopped for me, so I figured that now that I wanted one, they’d be elusive. Nope! I got one in under a minute (so much easier than hailing a cab on Broadway in Manhattan!).

I’d done my research and knew two things. 1) Get the price before getting in. 2) The ride shouldn’t cost more than 60 pesos and I should expect, as a tourist, to be quoted 70 or more and then have to bargain.

So I asked how much to get to the panga, specifying the north one off of Emilio Barragán, and was told 50 pesos! Perfect, no bargaining required! We had a brief chat before it got too noisy and then the driver played loud music. He had a much more direct route back to the panga, but it was still quite a drive. That was a lot of walking!

Back on the Isla side, I picked up some tortillas and had three before I even got home. 🙂

The whole trip cost me less than 7CAD and I got some exercise and to see new things. It was really nice to go to Maz just to go, with no plans to shop or eat out or spend much money.