Sinaloa

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A Full Half-Day

I’m trying to get into some better habits here, including not going straight to my office first thing in the morning, but rather going for a walk. I did that, came home, had coffee and a sincronizada, and started on work.

This is my neighbour literally right across from me. No windows, no doors, no running water, no power, but look at the pride of ownership with the neat front yard and vegetable garden. He's a nice guy!

This is my neighbour literally right across from me. No windows, no doors, no running water, no power, but look at the pride of ownership with the neat front yard and vegetable garden. He’s a nice guy!

Lots of pretty flowers blooming today.

Lots of pretty flowers blooming today.

This was my first view of Isla. You turn onto this road from The Road and it brings you to the RV park.

This was my first view of Isla. You turn onto this road from The Road and it brings you to the RV park.

Bottle wall.

Bottle wall.

This Quebec-plated vehicle was purchased in the city where my older sister lives.

This Quebec-plated vehicle was purchased in the city where my older sister lives.

On this dirt road next to busy stables sits this gorgeous modern construction.

On this dirt road next to busy stables sits this gorgeous modern construction.

And next to that modern house sits this family compound. I don't find the contrast that startling considering that I live on a street with proper houses and have an RV and two old sheds for outbuildings. :)

And next to that modern house sits this family compound. I don’t find the contrast that startling considering that I live on a street with proper houses and have an RV and two old sheds for outbuildings. 🙂

I'm seeing lots of Christmas decorations.

I’m seeing lots of Christmas decorations.

I would never have realised that this is a public alley if I hadn't come from the other direction.

I would never have realised that this is a public alley between those two houses if I hadn’t come from the other direction.

Janet and Grant came by at one point to pick up something I had for them, so I got to meet their super friendly and sweet pooch, Boo. We’ve already arranged that I’m Boo’s sitter if he ever needs one, so it was especially nice to get to meet him.

Grant left with the seat for my computer chair in the hopes of getting access to the necessary tools to make it work. I’ve asked for tools and received offers for them, but everyone is on Mexico time in terms of the tools materializing and I really wasn’t in the mood to wait any longer. My back is really sore and I’m having trouble focusing on work because I’m in so much pain.

I went back to work and Dale emailed to say that she’d come by around 11:00 to show me a new-to-her shop on Isla that I surely didn’t know about either. Great! I was peckish by this point, so I peeled a massive grapefruit and made my way through half of it by the time Grant returned.

Big bowl of toronja. I LOVE grapefruit. Please don't ruin it by adding sugar.

Big bowl of toronja. I LOVE grapefruit. Please don’t ruin it by adding sugar.

Between the two of us, we got the chair assembled! Yay!!! It is soooo comfortable. The only disappointment is that the arms are too low to be useful, but everything else is wonderful, especially since I only paid 1,200 pesos for it.

Yay for a comfy chair!

Yay for a comfy chair!

As Grant was leaving, he noticed the better veggie truck going by and I yelled out, “¡Verduras!” but the driver didn’t hear me. A guy walking down the street did and chased down the veggie truck for me!

I really didn’t need anything, but I still loaded up on things that have been elusive on Isla, like dark lettuce, green beans, and even a broccoli! I also bought a whole pineapple! I’m having salad for lunch to eat up some of those veggies.

Dale showed up as I was done shopping, so off we went. She took me to a part of Isla I hadn’t been to yet (I really need to explore more, I’m ashamed to admit) and found a whole street of shops to explore, including a bookstore, Telcel service store (!), and a tiny grocer that has a few things the City Deli didn’t, including rubber gloves. I picked up a pack of those, some baking soda for my fridge, chihuahua cheese, and crema for something like 83 pesos. Crazy!

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Paradigm Shifts

Paradigm: a theory or a group of ideas about how something should be done

Quick poll:

1) How many of you wash your dishes in cold water?
2) How many of you are absolute in your belief that water has to be scorching hot to clean dishes properly?

My answers were no to the first, yes to the second right up to this morning.

I asked my neighbour, who had this suite last year, if she had hot water in the kitchen last year. No. She said that the water heater for my shower (doesn’t reach hers!) is a Gringo luxury and that most of the residents of Isla make do with whatever temperature their water is as it comes out of their taps.

That didn’t shock me too much. I know that hot and cold running water is a luxury only a very small portion of the world has. But what did surprise me was being told that the dish detergent down here is meant to be just as good in cold water as hot.

Never taking anything at face value, I headed off to do some research. I use blue Dawn dish detergent exclusively. Every time I switch to save money, I regret it. So I Googled “dawn dish detergent cold water” and found a page on Dawn’s U.S. website that had the following paradigm shattering information:

You can wash your dishes in hot or cold water, as our products are formulated to perform in any water temperature. Try helping to save energy by washing in cold water. You’ll find you get a great clean, with less energy used.

WHAT?!

HUH?!

Of course, I had to run an experiment and see if that was true. This was a good day for that because I had a lot of greasy plastic to deal with. I added my usual amount (less here than at Haven where the water is super hard) of Dawn to a bowl of cold water and proceeded to wash everything, rinsing again in cold water.

Guess what? My plastic got just as squeaky clean in the cold water as it does in the hot!

I find washing in hot water so much easier on the joints, but washing in cold is so much easier than heating pot after pot of water on the stove, like I’ve had to do at Haven in the past when I didn’t have running water! Imagine all the energy I could have saved, both personal and in terms of power and propane, if I had done that Google search then!

I came to Mexico hoping to gain a broader view of immense diversity of our world. Cold water dish washing is a small thing, but holds the promise of many even more shattering revelations.

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Geckos

One thing no one told me about Mexico is that I would have pets here, the common house gecko. They are super cute tiny tan-coloured lizards with big eyes.

As most of you know, I have absolutely no problem with reptiles, so I haven’t had a hard time getting used to my tiny housemates. They earn their keep by eating bugs.

I might not have expected lizards here, but I did expect bugs, and tons of them. Nope. I do have a fairly large spider in the office that has been hanging around for at least a week, but otherwise, I’ve had almost no issues with mosquitoes or other critters. I often catch my little geckos eating bugs.

I usually only see the geckos if I surprise them. They hide behind pictures, wiring, and headboards and scurry back into hiding when they see me. I once caught one on the (interior) window screen in my bedroom.

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It’s the largest one I’ve seen yet!

After one particularly cold night, I actually woke up to one in bed with me! I gave it quite a fright when I rolled over!

Geckos are named for the sound they make, but I’m pretty sure I haven’t heard it yet.

Between the geckos, the iguanas, and the guys on the beach walking their snakes,  this reptile lover is in paradise!

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You Don’t Need a Car in Mazatlán

I had a Skype call with my mother the other day and one of the things that came up was the cost of driving here versus my savings over the winter (which will merit a post of its own at some point).

One of the things I said was that I’m looking into flying here next year rather than driving to save some time, but that it’s a little more expensive than driving straight here and taking a hotel a couple of nights.

She was surprised by this, wondering if I really want to be here without a vehicle. The short answer is yes.

The only advantage of having a vehicle here is to go on day drips and explore the environs. But getting to Isla by The Road is such a pain that leaving that way isn’t very enticing, so day trips are pretty much out of the question. Besides, there is so much to do in Maz itself that it would take years to fully unravel the mysteries of the city. And you definitely don’t want to drive in Maz unless you have to!

What surprised my mother is just how accessible Maz is to me from Isla, that between a walk and a panga ride, I can be back from a proper grocery store in less than an hour, something I can’t do back home! There is an incredible amount I can walk to once I get to Maz and things that are too far away are easily accessible with very inexpensive and expansive public transportation. I’ll be exploring the buses very soon!

Much as I love driving, I prefer public transportation in a large city when the public transportation is inexpensive and easy to use. When I lived in Gatineau my last year in Quebec, I could take an Ottawa bus two blocks from my house. $1.50 allowed me to take a round trip to just about anywhere in the city. I’d frequently take a bus to a particular area and then walk to where I needed to go before getting on a bus home. I didn’t have to deal with parking and traffic and could make all the stops I wanted as long as I was on my last bus before the time limit for return expired.

Ottawa has, I believe, the absolute best public transportation system in all of Canada and I made heavy use of it when I could. Even when I lived in the country, I knew where to drop my car cheaply so I could grab a bus instead.

Mazatlán is offering the same vibe as my favourite Canadian city. Walkability and public transportation make it so accessible that I would not feel handicapped being here without a vehicle. I just have to decide if I could bring everything I need in a couple of suitcases!

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My Isla Kitchen, Revisited

I’m someone who needs to cogitate a problem before finding a solution. My Isla kitchen wasn’t working for me and I’d identified a lot of the issues in my post about it, but what to do about them? I thought long and hard about my kitchen in Miranda and what it’s taken to make it just about perfect for me. What lessons there could I apply to the kitchen here?

The first one was a huge duh: PURGE. There was tons of stuff in the cabinets that I don’t use. But I can’t throw anything away… No. But there’s a huge empty space under the sink and I have a couple of empty Rubbermaid totes…

After writing my last post about my day in Maz, I went back to the kitchen and emptied everything that I don’t use, right down to the toaster, into a single tote, which I tucked out of sight. I then arranged everything I do use into the cabinets and, low and behold, there was room for food!

I was able to clear off the top of the microwave and move my food processor to a more logical location. The end result is so much more functional for me and all it took was five minutes! I’m glad I didn’t throw money at the problem, although I will now spend a little to get an extra shelf for the far cabinet (to double the space in it) as well as a basket of some sort for the spices.

I know it's not ideal to store spices and such next to the stove, but this works. I will pick up a nice bucket at Waldo's at some point to store them in to make clean up easier.

I know it’s not ideal to store spices and such next to the stove, but this works. I will pick up a nice basket at Waldo’s at some point to store them in to make clean up easier.

Look at that!

Look at that! Middle bottom shelf, you can see on the far left my big box of powdered milk for the coffee and right next to it is my jar of yummy Isla honey. And then, lots o’ coffee. 🙂

The kitchen looks so much less crowded and cleaner now. I do need to get rid of the duck between the stove and crock (it holds matches).

The kitchen looks so much less crowded and cleaner now. I do need to get rid of the duck between the stove and utensil bucket (it holds matches).

My crock is full of not just the large cooking utensils, but also the eating ones, my can opener (glad I brought one!), and my BBQ lighter. During the purge, I found a large chopping knife that looks pretty sharp.

My utensil bucket is full of not just the large cooking utensils, but also the eating ones, my can opener (glad I brought one!), and my BBQ lighter. During the purge, I found a large chopping knife that looks pretty sharp that should be better than the steak knives for chopping veggies. One thing I forgot to pick up today is a couple of butter knives for spreading things like cream cheese. I can’t believe there isn’t a single one in this kitchen!

One thing I miss is my tiny strainer for collecting the pits from limes and lemons. This set was overkill, but at just 150 pesos, it was worth it just to never have to bit down into another lime pit again this winter! They should be good for jalapeño seeds, too!

One thing I miss from home is my tiny strainer for collecting the pits from limes and lemons. This set was overkill, but at just 15 pesos, it was worth it just to never have to bite down into another lime pit again this winter! They will be good for jalapeño seeds, too, as well as rinsing rice and lentils! I use both a colander and two sizes of strainers at Haven, so these will bring some sense of normalcy to my kitchen. 🙂