Sinaloa

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An Island Welcome

I apologize for the lack of pics in this post. I was in rather overwhelmed/bewildered mode yesterday. Pictures will come soon enough. 🙂

Debra came right out to greet me warmly with a hug and we went to my apartment to see if anyone was there. She said that it seemed like they were getting it ready for someone, which further convinced me that the arrangement was going to work out as planned and that I was dealing with a Mexican who does things the Mexican way and that I was right to have not stressed out about the arrangements and lack of contact.

I’m really proud of my attitude about that. I was getting a little frustrated at not being able to reach my landlady, but I kept talking myself down and reminding myself that this is likely how business is done here and that it would all come together in the end. I don’t think there was ever a moment where I didn’t believe the apartment would be waiting for me.

Debra and I went back to the RV park and she introduced me to a single lady full-timer named Dale and then took off for a party. Dale took me under her wing, being a newbie to Isla herself, and got me settled in her tiny air conditioned rig with a cold Pacifico!

She shared the story of her arrival in Mexico and on Isla (no one warned her about The Road) and confessed to having been a mess when she finally got here. She said that compared to her, I was the picture of calm about being here!

We later went out and she introduced me to neighbours from MOSSBANK, as in the Mossbank about an hour from Haven! They said they knew where the landlady lives and that the family was having a meal, so why didn’t we all sit down and chat?

They introduced me to a nice French guy who knows about rental places on Isla. He suggested I go check out some apartments his buddy from Quebec (20 minutes from my mother’s place!) manages as they were internet ready and right on the beach. Yup, less than an hour on Isla and I was talking French to good looking guys my own age! This place was looking up!

We took a Mexico bus to drive around. That is, Dale and I sat in the back of a pickup! 🙂

Those apartments were exactly what I would have expected had I rented something sight unseen, kind of grungy and old looking, with a lot of dampness issues. Okay, but not as good as what I knew the promised apartment would be like as it was only three years old. My favourite part of the tour was the comment not to worry, that’s lizard, not mouse, poo all over the counters! Good thing I don’t mind reptiles!

That said, the apartments were architecturally interesting and right on the water, as well as spacious, with much better outdoor space than I knew the planned apartment would have. It was nice to have a point of comparison, but I was sure I’d stick with my original plan. Being on the beach just isn’t important to me. I’ve already had my winter on a beach so for the same rent, I prefer a newer place that I wouldn’t need to be scrubbed before moving into.

So the French guy (need to get his name!) took me to my landlady’s house, where he was told that she was at the apartment! We headed back there.

I’ll pause here to give you my first sense of Isla. I was bewildered as I knew it was a bit of a backwater kind of place, but that it has a large population and some services, so I wasn’t expecting the roads to all be mud tracks and for my neighbours to have horses in their front yard. Wait a minute, I think I just described my hamlet! 🙂

Otherwise, this is going to be life in a fairly big community for me, with neighbours close by and the grocery store within walking distance. Yes, there is a grocery store on Isla. Yay! I thought I was going to have to go back to Mazatlan on the ferry to get food today. Dale says the mercado is small, but has all the basics. She’s taking me there today.

There was activity at the apartment when we all got there! We went in for a tour and was told that they were just finishing a clean up. The place was sparkling and like a hotel, with nice laid out towels and made up beds. I was told everything down to the cutlery was cleaned with Clorox, which Gringa-N-Mexico claims is the preferred cleaning product of Mexico…

They worked really hard to make it ready for me and all the frustration of being out of contact melted away. I had kept telling myself that there was a clean, beautiful, welcoming place waiting for me on Isla and that’s exactly what happened! The apartment was exactly as expected from the pictures, except for the layout, for which I couldn’t get a sense from the pictures. It is long and narrow, just like an RV or mobile house, so that’s easy for me to get used to! 🙂

I was relieved to say the least, and pleased that they had worked so hard to make it so beautiful and welcoming. I knew I could move right in and not feel like I needed to clean anything.

My landlady turned out to be YOUNG, probably younger than me! She made sure I was happy with the place and I said yes. I told her that I had checked out another place that had internet included for 5,500 pesos and reiterated that I need internet.

She agreed to include the internet in the rent (!) and that she would call first thing in the morning to get the service put in. I told her that I wasn’t going to let her get away with that and would be nagging until it got done!

There is cell service on Isla, but it’s not great and I’m not getting it reliably at the apartment, so I’m relying on public wifi until the service comes in. At least, there is public wifi! And I am getting cell service at the apartment this morning, so perhaps it’s a time of day issue.

I also asked if she could check around for a desk and chair. The kitchen table will be fine for working for a bit, but I want to use the second bedroom as my office and really can’t type at a table (too high) for six months!

I was told that the apartment would be ready for me in a couple of hours as they were finishing up. I went back to the RV park with Dale and a nice gentleman came over to drop off my apartment key!!!

After a bit, I decided to go back to the apartment and see if I could park Moya and move in a few things. Dale told me to come back and have supper! I actually hadn’t eaten all day (heat, not nerves) and was starting to feel a bit faint. I had nothing but granola bars, so I gladly agreed when she said that all she was going to do was heat up a can of stew for me as it didn’t make me feel like I was being too huge a burden.

Coming out of my spot at the RV park, I hit something pretty hard and thought that my trip here was going way too well. Of course I had to hit someone’s RV. 🙁

Well, fortune favours the bold as they say and all I hit was a palm tree! It was fine and Moya looked none the worse for wear, although the impact was loud and everyone in the park heard it and I’ll likely forever more be the gal who hit a palm tree her first night here!

I went back to the apartment and it was ready! They had moved in a fridge and some extra counter space for the kitchen. My landlady’s mother took me around the yard, making a point to show me the clothesline and the hammock. 🙂 There is also a washer on the porch!

I paid for this month’s rent and made it clear that next month’s rent won’t be paid till near the middle of the month. Not a problem!

As the landlady headed out, I asked her about drinking water. I am to take the 5-gallon bottle under the sink and put it on the curb with 12 pesos and water will magically appear…

Then, she preempted my question about garbage. It’s collected Tuesday and Thursday mornings, which is easy to remember since garbage at Haven is Tuesday mornings. I was told to put out my bags around 10:00, otherwise the dogs get at them. She was amused when I said it’s the same thing at home. Really, it won’t be hard to get used to this place!

Finally, she started talking about gas and I lost track of what she was saying, another case of understanding the words but not the whole of the meaning. I apologized and asked her to start over. She speaks good English and she still repeated herself in Spanish, which again tells me that I’m obviously doing okay with the language.

As it turns out, heat, cooking, and hot water are just like at Haven, with propane! What she was saying is that the propane is NOT included in the rent and that they will order as much as I’m willing to pay for. I’m going to start with 400 pesos and see how far that takes me. There is a little gas now, but not much. I don’t mind that not being included in the rent as I know it will be cheap and that I won’t go through that much. So I am still going to have to ‘worry’ about propane this winter, ha ha ha. Her husband is going to be the propane lookout and will tell me when I’m getting low. I will then pay him to have the tank filled, so it’s much easier than having to deal with propane with the RV!

I unloaded a few things, then went back to Dale’s. A bowl of stew, a slice of buttered bread, and some conversation later, she took me to the beach so I could see the lights of Mazatlan. The city is SUPER close! It’s about an hour by car, less than ten minutes by panga (ferry)! As for the beach, it’s just minutes away on foot!

I then headed HOME where I ended up doing more unpacking and putting away than I expected, probably because I couldn’t get online. 🙂

Eventually, the only thing I wanted was a cool shower. It’s very sticky here and I feel grimy very quickly. The apartment does not have AC since I would then have to pay for my electricity. There are some VERY good fans in the three main rooms.

I wrote this post in bed. I had a fan going and was very comfortable once I showered. The bed was good! Not as soft as I’d like, but better than my two previous Mexico beds! I brought in my pillows even though I was provided with several.

I fell asleep quickly around 10:30 and was awoken rudely by our resident rooster around 4:00. I managed to get in a cap nap again, but gave up at 7:00. I’m going to need a sleep mask and ear plugs, I think, since the curtains are very thin and a streetlight shines in. But I did get used to sleeping in a bright room in Yukon, so I might get used to it again. Not so sure about the rooster, though!

I haven’t poked around the kitchen much, but it looks like everything I need is there except perhaps a kettle and room to store my food! There is a coffee pot, so I’m just going to heat water with that. That didn’t work well at the hotels because the water wasn’t getting hot enough, but it’s fine here. I could make the coffee in the pot, of course, but I really do prefer the French press. I made sure last night to put out my favourite mug, a bag of coffee, and the box of powdered milk so I would have an easy morning.

It’s 8:20 my first morning on Isla and I’m waiting for Dale to take me around. I thought I was set for breakfast since I have Malt-O-Meal, but the stove needs matches and the matches left by it are damp and useless. I wish I had thought to pack a BBQ lighter! I’ll see if I can find some at the mercado, as well as a broom.

I’m feeling very good this morning, not quite at home, but I think I will get there. I’m glad Dale is going to show me around.

Apartment pics will be next, but no idea when. Could be a few minutes, could be a few hours. I am on Island time now! 🙂

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Guamúchil to Isla de la Piedra!

It was a horrible night in Guamuchil, combination of a very hard bed and very loud traffic from the libre. I gave up around 6:00 and was ready to roll out by 7:00 when the sun was nearly fully up.

There was a bit of excitement on my way out as I couldn’t find my truck keys. After a search of the most obvious places I might have put them that weren’t where they should have been, I finally conceded that I likely did something really stupid and left them in a truck lock overnight.

So I went down to the office and asked the concierge if anyone had turned in keys. He seemed to think that was the weirdest thing he had heard in his life. Maybe people don’t turn in keys in Mexico?

I went back to the room and tore through my luggage, finding my keys at the bottom of my computer bag. Needless to say, I was relieved, even as I kicked myself for yet again not putting them in the purse where they belong!

All that done, I filled out the comment card saying that everything was excellent except the bed being hard as a rock and off I went towards Culiacán.

There was an Oxxo minutes away from my hotel, so I didn’t have to wait for coffee. This time, I was asked ‘sabor?’ and I just wasn’t in a Spanish mood yet because that made no sense to me even though I knew the word. The guy sighed and sayed, ‘Café negro?’ and I went, ‘Oh, SABOR! Si, negro!’ Some Oxxos have fancy flavoured coffees and regular drip, or black, coffee. I like the regular. I think I was charged 14 pesos, so the price of the coffee is not consistent from store to store.

Then, I drove. The libre was beautiful and the speed limit decent and steady. It was much nicer going than using the cuotas with their variable speed limits. I passed a single construction zone and then I was in Culiacán.

There, I managed to take a wrong turn and actually got lost. Forget misplaced, I had NO idea where I was or how to return to the libre. Maps are only useful if there are street names or landmarks! Continually turning right wasn’t working because the layout of the town was erratic.

Eventually, in the distance, I could see a giant Ley sign that I could use as a point of reference and worked my way towards it. I finally saw a sign saying Mazatlan thataway, but I was going in the opposite direction. I pulled into a Burger King to get turned around only to realise that I couldn’t do a much needed left hand turn there.

Guess what I did? I took a deep breath, waited for the light to turn green, and then gunned it left before anyone had a chance to block the road. Yippee Ki Yay ***!!!

I got back to the place where I made the wrong turn, correctly interpreted the directional sign this time, and I was out of there!

All of this took place in less than ten minutes. I didn’t even have time to get flustered. I’m mastering making my way through largish Mexican cities!

I think it was shortly after this that I CAME ACROSS A TOLL BOOTH ON A LIBRE. I was not impressed! I was even less impressed that the posted amount was 10 pesos and the guy told me I had to pay 20. But as it turns out, that was my only toll of the day. Had I taken the cuotas, I would have had somewhere between 300 and 600 pesos of tolls! So I got off lucky!

The libre from Culiacán to Maz was fantastic. There were a few towns, but it was mostly wide open road with mountains in the distance. Moya was purring and I just set the cruise control at about 80KPH and kept behind a large dump truck that warned me about topes!

And then, I passed a sign that made me pull over FAST for a picture. I had just crossed over the Tropic of Cancer! WOW!

I lost the truck after that and, the road being so smooth, my speed crept up a tad. A truck coming down a hill in the opposite lane flashed its lights at me frantically and I jammed the breaks, assuming that meant what it does in Canada.

Yup. Speed trap by the local police and they had pulled over some Canadians! The cops just waved at me as I was going by. Thank you for the warning, señor!

I made it to Mazatlan around noon, a full five hours after leaving. I’d done less than 300km! But, hey, I’d saved $30 to $60, was really not in a hurry, and I got to see some beautiful country!

From Mazatlan, I knew I had to keep going south on 15 to the airport, so I did that, getting off when I saw a Banamex in the distance, where I made a withdrawal. Then, I stopped at a Pemex for fuel.

Contessa warned me to fill up completely since there is no gas on Isla, but I wasn’t going to put nearly $100 in the tank the way my budget is right now. I promised my cousin I would pick her up at the airport when she arrives next month and take her to her hotel, so I can refuel then. I took on enough to get to Isla with half a tank and won’t be driving there anyway.

From the Pemex, I tried to contact my landlady, to no avail. I then tried a contact Contessa had given me at the Tres Amigos RV park on Isla. She wasn’t answering either. I then tried a maintenance guy Contessa had told me about, so he could meet me at the end of the road in and take me to the RV park. No answer there either.

I decided to just go. At this point I was frustrated not to know for sure that my place was ready because that meant I couldn’t get groceries, but I wasn’t concerned about my losing out on the place. I had a suspicion that the landlady being difficult to reach was just a Mexican thing and that it would all get sorted out once I got to Isla.

I followed the signs for the aeropuerto and then turned at the golf club onto the road to Isla. Or rather, The Road.

Isla de la Piedra (Stone Island) is actually a peninsula, but it is so difficult to access by land that people take a ferry to Mazatlan. Contessa had warned me to allow LOTS of time for the infamous Road. I have no idea how long it is. Maybe 20KM?

Heavy rains this week meant The Road was fairly washed out, with gigantic puddles. It took me about an hour to drive it slooooowly and my heart stopped each time I got to a lake-sized puddle. But Moya handled it like a champ and, frankly, The Road was better than some parts of the Dempster Highway, and I drove that in my subcompact! Still, the road to paradise was hell. 😉

I was awed by the coconut palms I passed, very different to the palm trees I’ve seen so far.

Eventually, I saw civilization in the distance and I was on Isla! I knew to make a left turn for the RV park and did so down a muddy track. When I got there, I tried my contact, Debra, again. I knew I was on Island time now and that it would all get sorted in the end. I heaved a sigh of relief at being THERE and waited for my Island welcome.

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San Carlos to Guamúchil

I left San Carlos earlier than planned this morning because I had to go back to the TelCel office and had no idea how long that would take. I actually have no idea what time it was when I pulled out of Guaymas, fuming at TelCel, but excited about the day ahead.

I got clear of the city and pulled into a Pemex with an Oxxo attached. I got 500 pesos of fuel (I love saying 500 in Spanish — quinientos, not cinco cientos!) and then went in to get my second coffee of the day, feeling like I was embarking on a proper road trip!

When I got back out, there was five guys doing a really nice job polishing all the windows of my truck! One thing I’ve decided is that I hate fueling and I am going to tip the guy who does my fill even if he doesn’t do anything else. I also like having shiny windows and have decided that that’s worth a few pesos. So I gave each of the guys one peso for their hard work and enjoyed my spotless windshield for five minutes until a GIANT bug splattered across it. No problem, a called a window washer over at the next populated area. Am I getting the hang of this or what?! 😀

The first milestone of the day was leaving the ‘free zone’, where I now needed my temporary import permit! Real Mexico at last!

Early in the day, I got to a mess of construction and a worker stopped me and said something very fast. All I understood was a word that sounded like the French contre-sens, which told me that I would have to drive against the traffic. I was going to ask him to repeat himself and then thought, ‘No. Tell him what you understand and try to get a si or no answer.’ So I said “If I understand correctly, you want me to go left and then drive against the traffic?’ Yes! It was a long detour with no cones or markers and the people in the other direction didn’t really care that I was going the opposite way and were quite content to nearly mow me down. That was the start of my ‘OMG, so glad I’m not doing this in an RV!’ attitude. 🙂

After that, the drive was very steady compared to that in San Carlos and I got into a driving groove. It was hot, which kills my appetite, so I wound up not stopping at any one of the myriad of taco stands I passed.

All the bridges in Mexico, even little insignificant ones, have name, so when I passed the ‘puente sin nombre’, I got ‘I drove through Mexico on a bridge with no name’ stuck in my head for the rest of the day. 😀

The first city I crossed was Ciudad Obregon and I was really glad I wasn’t doing that in an RV! But then things got really interesting in Navojoa where I followed the Los Mochis sign to the libre, which was like an average road in Quebec, one pothole after another. I realised very quickly that I was off main MX 15 and turned back around to take the road through Navojoa, which was smooth going.

I really liked the look of Navojoa; it was exceptionally clean, with well maintained buildings. I thought of stopping at the Soriana at the south end of town for snacks, but was well stocked with coffee and granola bars and really didn’t need anything else.

The next big milestone was crossing into the state of Sinaloa!

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I have now been to four of the 31 (plus MX City) Mexican states! Baja California, Tamaulipas, Sonora, and Sinaloa!

The roads in Sinaloa are MUCH better than in Sonora, comparable to the drive from Quebec into Ontario on highway 417.

My destination was a Pemex station in Los Mochis, where I arrived around 3:00, WAY too early to stop and truck camp! The bed of the truck is full and it was hot and sticky anyway, so a motel was in order. I decided to keep going and check out each motel I’d pass, giving myself a deadline of 4:30 to find something decent, regardless of the price.

Shortly thereafter, I saw the first sign for Mazatlan! Home stretch!

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I stopped at one point to get more fuel and my bladder decided that it had had enough holding all the coffee, thank you very much, and if there’s no baño here, you can go behind a bush! Thankfully, there WAS a baño and it was impeccably clean. There was no toilet paper or soap, but no problem, I had wet wipes in my purse. Ladies, carry wet wipes!

After four 65-peso fares and one at 20 pesos, I was DONE with cuotas (toll roads) and when 4:00 came along with no suitable motels behind me, it was time to get onto a libre (free) road, where I was more likely to find services (I’d done my research!). I stopped at two cheap but terrifyingly dingy motels and arrived around 4:30 at a motel in Guamúchil that looked decent.

They wanted 600 pesos, 200 pesos more than I was hoping to pay tonight, but it gets dark VERY early here and it was time to stop. Not negotiable! I asked if 600 pesos was their best price and the guy looked at me, quirked a smile, and said that he could do 550 pesos since I asked so nicely in Spanish. Done!

The room is okay, not as nice as what I have gotten for less in the US, but decent and I LOVE the balcony over the pool, where I am writing this post.

Sorry, should have taken this one in daylight!

Sorry, should have taken this one in daylight!

I sat with the AC on for five minutes and that revved up my hunger, so I went down to the restaurant. I got out of there for 100 pesos, including a good tip, and had a cold lemonade and a huge plate of enchiladas with rice and beans, plus chips and salsa! THAT cheered me up immensely!

The rice and beans were soooo yummy it was all I could do not to lick the plate! The enchiladas were filled with chicken and had a spicy red sauce, the first truly spicy food I’ve encountered since arriving. It was just at my limit of tolerance and very tasty. I just cooled my tongue off with a bit of rice or beans when I couldn’t stand the heat any more.

I was surprised that such a meal is real Mexican food, not Tex-Mex, although they didn’t drown it in cheese and sour cream the way the meal would have been north of the border. Plus, it’s corn tortillas here, not wheat.

I was amused when the server brought a pole with a hook on it for my purse (bolsa)!

It was getting cool when I got out of the restaurant, so I wrestled my suitcase out of the truck to find my bathing suit and ran up to my room to change. I headed back down and swam for a half hour until it got chilly, a really nice end to the day.

I didn’t stop as much as I should have today but that was typical for me on a day with easy roads, nothing to do with a fear of stopping or anything like that.

Going off script today says a lot about how I feel about being here in Mexico — safe. I have standard driving rules (like giving myself a deadline for stopping) and obeyed them. I now have an hour less to do tomorrow, although the libre might eat up that additional time as it will be slower going than would have been the cuota. I’m going to try to be out of here by 7:00 as Contessa agrees with my expected travel time of seven hours to Isla.

Now, I’m off to try my landlady again…

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Mexican Apartment!

Whew! I just cold called a lady in Mexico and between her English and my Spanish, we made sense of what I wanted and worked out a deal of sorts for a two-bedroom apartment on Isla Piedra (Stone Island) near Mazatlan.

I’ll be paying 5,500 pesos per month, which is about 450CAD. I have seen pictures, but don’t have permission to share them, so you’ll have to wait till I get there. 🙂

Reader Contessa is the one who told me about the apartment. THANK YOU. I am super happy — the place is fairly new, right near the beach, in a non-gringo community, HUGE, and the price is right. We haven’t sorted out internet, but I will have a mobile plan to tide me over.

I’m expected around November 5th. I promised to touch base with her at the end of October when I have a better idea of what date I’m arriving, and then when I’m in MX so she can meet me and show me where the place is.

Wow, this is really starting to feel real!