Sinaloa

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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.

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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.