Sinaloa

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No Go to Durango

Well, it looks like I am canceling my trip to Durango because of… snow. I am getting reports of bad road conditions, delays, and chilly temperatures there. Doesn’t sound like much fun to me! I’ll be hitting the road in about five weeks so I’m actually not sure that a long road trip this weekend sounds like much fun anyway.

I have advised my clients that I am taking the three days off and, of course, the trip is budgeted for. So I’m still taking the weekend off for a staycation.

I’m doing an airport run on Saturday and from there will continue on to a small town out of Mazatlán for a change of scenery. I’ve narrowed it down to two possibilities. That will let my truck stretch her legs (tires, I guess) and alert me to any potential issues before I take off next month.

Sunday, I think I will bus it to the far end of the Golden Zone and walk back until I drop, then take a pulmonía to the panga from wherever that is.

Monday could be a chore and relax day at home, and would mean not having to cancel riding!

I’m not disappointed. There’s so much around here for me to see and I really don’t want to run into snow! 😀

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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!