Travel

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Not Sure Who Will Sleep Better Tonight…

A few days ago, a gentleman living in the RV park approached me to ask if I could dog sit for him today! Wow, I don’t know what made him think of me or that I’d be a suitable dog sitter, but I was interested in the job! I went over the next day to meet the dog, a sweet Labrador Retriever (I think) named Cody. I knew right away that we’d get along just fine today.

A bit disoriented by the time change, I headed over to the RV park around, oh, 9:00ish this morning, knowing that Cody had last been walked around 5:00. He was happy to see me. I clipped on his leash and took him to a nearly deserted beach, where I let him off the leash, having been assured that he is not prone to running off. He found a giant stick and we had fun playing with it, me throwing it into the surf for him and him bringing it back to me. He essentially told me that he’d had enough by eventually dropping at my feet. I clipped the leash back on for the walk through the more populated part of the beach, brought him home, and hosed him off.

We repeated the exercise around 12:30 and just past three, after I’d fed him. I can’t believe what a good boy he is, so obedient and vital. I can’t remember the last time I laughed so much, especially when we played tug of war and I ended up going for my first real swim here. In a full skirt, no less! I swear Cody was laughing his head off. He attracted the attention of a lot of kids and I felt comfortable letting them pet him and throw the stick too.

When we came back to the RV park the third time, neighbours who are friends of mine were out on their patio and invited me over for a beer. I had a Modelo Negro for the first time. It was veeery smooth and would give Guinness a run for its money! One thing led to another and I ended up going home with a much appreciated eggshell topper for my bed, brand new and in the bag, a leftover from a project that didn’t need it! Yes, I have a 1″ memory foam topper, but it really isn’t enough. Wow! I had refused payment for taking care of Cody today, so I guess this was the universe’s way of giving me recompense for my time…

I came in, put the new topper on the bed, and then tried it out. Next thing I knew, it was an hour later ! That’s what a time change, beer, sun, exercise, and a comfy bed do to me! 😀

While sitting with the beer, Cody’s dad called to check in and to advise my neighbour he wouldn’t be in till about 9:00. He asked for a final walk around sunset and that would be good for the day. I just got in from doing that.

What a fun day! I really want a dog and know having one would be good for my health, but I’m just not ready to give up my freedom to travel at this point. Borrowing other people’s dogs is a good compromise!

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Not the Best Day to Go to the Movies

If a movie has “Batman” in the title, you can bet I’ll be interested in seeing it. So I decided to head to town today to see “Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice.” I decided to try the Cinemex at Insurgentes, next to the Soriana, as that was by far the easiest theatre to get to. But I had a sneaking suspicion they don’t have subtitled movies since the website wasn’t clear on that subject. There was a 1:20 showing there and a 2:30 showing at Cinepolis in Gran Plaza, so if I struck out at Insurgentes, I had plenty of time to get to Gran Plaza.

I left home around noon, didn’t have to wait for a lancha, and the bus stopped at a red light at the corner of Juan Carrasco was heading to Plaza Ley, so I was making record time until that point. But traffic on Juan Carrasco and then Ejército México was really heavy, so it was rather a long ride. I got off in front of the Pemex at the corner of Insurgentes and then hoofed it to the Cinemex, the equivalent of a block or two away. Sure enough, they only have dubbed movies. Oh, well, it was worth a try!

The walk to Gran Plaza wasn’t long, only about 2.5KM, but getting across Ejército Méxicano was scary! Insurgentes was busy, but there was a sidewalk the whole way, so the walk ended up being okay even if traffic was heavy. I got to Gran Plaza with a full hour to spare before the movie started there, so I went off in search of lunch.

After some wandering around, I found a food court. In my limited experience with Mexican food courts, they all offer Chinese, sushi, Mexican, and pizza, with some adding in a salad and sandwich place. And you know you’ve been in Mexico for a while when the Chinese and sushi are satisfying instead of being disappointing. The trick for Chinese is stick to rice since Mexico apparently hasn’t figured out Asian noodles and will serve you spaghetti instead. And the trick for sushi is to accept that the “soy sauce” will be sweet and citrusy, there will be cream cheese, and forget about ginger. Even though I had sushi a few days ago, that was the most appealing option and something I really haven’t had much this winter (this was only my third time since I got here!). I went through an extensive menu and settled on their ‘special California’ roll, with it being special because the outside had masago (fish eggs), a treat I haven’t had in ages. At $68, this roll was their best deal, too. I was amused when I was handed this lobster with my receipt. It vibrated to let me know my food was ready!

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I don’t do popcorn at movies, so I decided to have a Thrifty’s ice cream for dessert since there was a stand right there in the food court and I still had 30 minutes to kill.

At about 2:15, I headed to the cinema. I had a thought en route about the last time I went to the movies here. I had made a note in my post about the seat I had chosen then. So I referred back to the post and was reminded to ask for a seat in the H row. What would I do without my blog to remind me of stuff?! 🙂

And then, it was time for the movie, which was rather disappointing. I’d gone in “cold,” having only seen the trailer and no spoilers, which was a mistake. I should have seen “Man of Steel” first for context on the Superman side of the movie. I really enjoyed the Batman side, but the Superman stuff left me cold. I’m glad I saw the movie and would see future movies in this universe that feature Affleck’s Batman, but I would have been annoyed if I had paid a Canadian price for my ticket. But at the Mexican price of $43, it was worth taking a chance.

I came out and once again wasted too much time and energy trying to get out of Gran Plaza. They really need better signage to the one exit on Reforma. I headed up to Mega, noticing that traffic down Reforma (heading towards Centro) was at a standstill. I realised that getting home might be tricky…

Mega really isn’t my first choice of grocery shopping destination, but it was the most convenient. I picked up a few sundries, including veggies to make a stir fry when I got in. And I’m embarrassed to admit I had to get more hummus…

It was still light when I came out and there were no taxis… I waited and waited, then decided to cross the parking lot to Rafael Buelna and see about a bus instead. No buses either. There was tons of traffic and loads of people because of that motorcycle rally, so I suspected that public transportation wasn’t going to be very difficult to find in that part of town. Thankfully, I didn’t have an unmanageable amount of shopping, so walking was an option. But it was going to get dark fast. I stood at the corner of Rafael Buelna and Reforma for a bit trying to decide what route to take that would be more likely get me an appropriate bus or, ideally, a taxi fast. I think that last year I would have been concerned faced with such uncertainty as to how I’d get to the embarcadero, but I was fine tonight, just annoyed with myself for not having taken this into consideration when I planned my day.

As I was mulling that over, I saw a pulmonía heading my way! I couldn’t see if there was anyone inside, so I waved at it. The driver pulled over. Crisis solved! 🙂 I expected to be quoted $100 for the ride today (normally $60-$70) because of the traffic and he said $80! I made sure to say that I was only accepting that price because of the traffic. He said, “Of course! Normally it’s $60 but this will take a while!” I assured him that the price hike was fair and we headed off down Reforma. It was moving fluidly by this point, but traffic was heavy and I could have walked faster!

After a few minutes of not really getting anywhere, the driver asked me how well I know Maz. I replied, “Well enough to know that we should head towards Juárez and take Gabriel Leyva.” He gave me a thumbs up sign and replied, “Exactly what I thought! Hold on!” He took me on a dizzying route of side streets to reach the corner of Deportes where you turn right to go towards the water, but we went left. We chatted as we whizzed along and he asked me if I’d like to go out sometime… If I wasn’t three weeks to departure, I would have said yes. But I don’t see a point in entangling myself with someone when I’m leaving for good so soon. Shame. I suspect I won’t have a hard time meeting a special someone when I’m settled in Mérida and ready to start thinking about such things…

The lancha was leaving the dock when I arrived, but it came back for me. On board, I met an American fishing boat captain who is picking up a load this evening and had a few free hours. I gave him some Isla tips about taxis, beer, restaurants, and the lancha. He seemed very grateful to find an English speaker who could assure him that he wasn’t going to get murdered or kidnapped walking around Isla after dark. I told him that concern is very valid these days on the outskirts of Maz, but not on Isla!

It got properly dark about halfway home from the embarcadero. Isla does have some streetlights, but I take the back alleys to get home and many of them were in pitch darkness. I know my way around and I rather enjoy these quiet dark hours… as long as I don’t wake up a dog. Once one starts barking, they all do!

I got in and set to work making that stir fry even though it was super late. I threw rice in the rice cooker and then got the veggies washed and chopped in record time. They were done at just about the same time as the rice, so I threw in some of the chicken I picked up yesterday as well as some sauce and voilà! It was more work than I’d been in the mood for, but was worth it, especially when paired with a glass of crisp cold white wine!

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Sometimes, You Gotta Run All Over Town

Today’s errands were to go to the bank, get coffee, and come home with chicken. Unless I wanted to bring my chicken back from the northern end of town (no), I had quite the route ahead of me. Red is what I walked, blue is the first bus I took, and green is the second bus I took. The whole thing represents 20KM of travel.

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I started by going up to Rico’s in the Golden Zone for coffee. This will likely be my last trip for that… 🙁 It was very slow going and standing room only on a very crowded bus that lurched through nearly standstill traffic. Thankfully, a gentleman offered me his seat. As we inched our way north, I was glad that I’d decided to postpone a trip to the Mercado first since I’d gotten a late start and would never have had a chance to get to the bank before it closed at 4:00.

The Golden Zone was hopping as there is a motorcycle rally this weekend. But, surprisingly, Rico’s was almost empty. I was out of there in record time. I then crossed the street to get a bus back, but thought to do a little window shopping instead.  That was a dumb idea. The vendors were way too aggressive, even worse than in the Mercado, and prices were inflated. I gave up and went to a bus stop to grab the bus back down to get off a block past the Domino’s and casino to reach to the Scotiabank on Ejército Méxicano, but…

I waited and I waited and I waited. And then I waited some more. Traffic was insanely slow, which didn’t help. When I saw a little local bus marked Plaza Ley, that was good enough for me as it would get me to within about 2.5KM of Scotiabank. I wasn’t saving any time by far, but it would at least get me away from the traffic and give me what might be my last nickel tour of Maz.

The bus did its lurching route and after we passed the Ley del Mar I suspected, correctly, that we would be turning left on Insurgentes, my cue to get off. I did, debated getting on another bus to get me to the bank, checked the time, and decided to hoof it. That would mean a hike of about 4KM to the embarcadero, plus another KM or so on this side, a perfectly reasonable distance.

I reached the bank at 3:38, 22 minutes to closing. There were two people ahead of me in line for the ATM, so by the time I got into the booth, it was almost 3:45. I had 12,000MXN in my account and could withdraw up to 700CAD, so I requested 8,000MXN. The machine would not give them to me. I’ve heard that there is a withdrawal limit of 7,000MXN per transaction, but Scotiabank won’t let you take out odd numbers. So I had to take out $6,000 and then another $2,000. Thankfully, I’m not paying for each transaction!

It was just pas 3:50 when I was finally able to queue inside to see a teller. There were 37 people ahead of me in line. Yes, I counted. I had a sneaking suspicion that the doors would shut at 4:00 and whomever wasn’t being served would be kicked out. I decided I didn’t need small bills that badly when I heard a teller call for the lady with glasses on her head. I looked around and realised that she very likely meant me! I pointed to myself and she mimed for me to go to her window!

She greeted me with “How much would you like to change today?” Then, she asked me for my name, gave me hers, and said that from now on, I can cut ahead and go to her as soon as she’s free! Wow! I probably only have one more withdrawal to make here, but I’ll definitely take her up on that when it happens. I have no idea why I was able to get ahead in the queue and judging from the stares I got, I don’t think this is normal… But I was very happy! It would have really sucked to walk away without my smaller bills after the trip and a half I took to get to the bank by closing time!

Then, I headed to the embarcadero, stopping to get two roasted chickens for $120 along the way. They smelled like heaven and I was happy to tuck into them when I got in. I hadn’t thought I’d be that late and hadn’t had lunch, silly me. I have plenty of leftovers for the next couple of days, too, of course!

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El acuario de Mazatlán (Aquarium), Redux

My friend Sue is leaving on Friday and hadn’t been to the aquarium yet, so I proposed that we squeeze in a visit this week. Thankfully, she found some time to do so! I really enjoyed the aquarium last year and looked forward to seeing how it had, or hadn’t, changed this year.

We met at the embarcadero on this side around 9:30 and grabbed a pulmonía since we would have had to walk fully halfway to grab a bus.

The admission price had gone up from $100 to $115. I thought $100 last year was decent value so I assured Sue that as long as we got in at least one show, we’d get our money’s worth.

The biggest changes I noticed were the addition of sharks and the deletion of most of the tortoises as well as the ostrich. There were also extra shows. We were able to take in all four, and they were in rapid succession! The aquarium was packed and you could only attend a show if you had the right coloured ticket.

We did a tour inside before the first show. The big skeleton was labeled this year and as it turns out, it’s a grey whale.

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I liked how all the bones were labeled to show the similarities with humans.

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I liked the detail of this pelican skeleton with a fish in its beak.

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Iguana with a long tail.

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Sharks.

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Lion fish.

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I was hungry and these guys looked delicious.

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Seahorses.

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This guy looked a little deformed…

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We went outside after so Sue could get a sense of the gardens and zoo pens. Crocodiles:

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Deer.

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We headed back inside for the first show, called “buceo,” which means dive. It was a quick thing of a guy going into the “shark tank” and swimming with the fish. He got hold of the shark and took it around for everyone to get a good look. He was quite entertaining and I learned a few things about sharks that I have, of course, forgotten already. 🙂 The audio was echoey and difficult to understand so I’m glad there was lots of visual entertainment!

We then went back out and passed these beautiful black swans. Hmm. I don’t think they were there last year!

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Sue’s highlight of the day was the tiger. We did a special trip back to his pen before heading home.

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I then showed Sue how to get into the two aviaries where you can walk around.

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We were impressed by what the animals were fed. Lots of fresh stuff.

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Imposing pelican.

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Ducks. I suddenly remembered that I got bitten by a duck when I was in Scotland. I do not recommend the experience. It didn’t break the skin, but I did get a big bruise!

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Magnificent peacock. They are starting to grow on me.

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Very chatty parrots.

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I think this was a prairie dog, or relative thereof.

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The next show was about predators. We saw snakes, lizards, and a variety of birds. I wanted to volunteer to go hold a boa, but I was way too far up in the crowd to be a viable candidate. 🙁 This one was a lot of fun even if I couldn’t understand a lot of the information presented.

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I liked the owl. The Spanish word sounds like their call, bújo.

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A sign that I spotted before going into the parrot show. “If at night you cry for the sun, you will never see the stars.”

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Sue helpfully volunteered me at the parrot show. Here I am doing the chicken dance.

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And attempting to dance La Macarena (that takes me WAY back!).

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But I was rewarded with getting two hold TWO parrots! Blue guy on my shoulder, red guy on my head (sharp talons, both of them!). I had a red macaw when I was a kid. This was a cute show, with the parrots doing a few tricks.

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Next stop was the sea lion show, for which I didn’t get any pictures for some reason. While entertaining, it was nowhere near as long or as good as last year’s show, probably because they had to pack in more viewings. I would have been disappointed if that was all we got to see today, but when you add this show to the other three, we really got a lot of value for our tickets!

Sue went to see the tigers one last time and I spent some time with the snakes, iguanas, and and frogs. I’ll spare you the pictures. 🙂

Except of one of the meals… Again, I was really impressed by how well fed the animals are. I do have an issue with the idea of zoos, but they are a valuable tool for education. I think the Maz aquarium does a satisfactory job of taking care of its critters, with clean cages, toys, human interaction, and a good diet.

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We headed out around 1:00 and went up to Avenida del Mar for a sushi lunch! Sue doesn’t do raw fish, but was very open to cooked Mexican-style rolls. We split chicken teriyaki, a Miami roll (crab, cream cheese, mango), and a California roll (shrimp, cream cheese, cucumber). The server assumed we’d want the larger versions of the rolls, so there was a mountain of food! Since it’s a cool day and we were coming home straight away, I took the leftovers. I was pleased that Sue really enjoyed her meal since I’m always nervous about taking someone to eat sushi, even when I have no intention of passing the “real” stuff off to them. Even with the error of our rolls being super sized, we only paid $175 each, and that was with a very generous tip. I much prefer eating this stuff with another person since we can get more variety.

It was a great day out with a good friend. Thanks for coming along, Sue!

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The Last Ride

Today was my last ride on the beach. 🙁 It was just Sue and me. We cantered a tiny bit, but were content to mostly just amble and talk. She leaves on Friday and we have one more activity planned before then.

I came in ravenous and with no pressing workload, so I pulled on a pretty dress and headed to town for lunch on the Malecón. For the first time ever, I decided to take a pulmonía there. I almost burst out laughing when the driver quoted me $70, telling him he was crazy and that I could get to Mega for less than that. Suitably chastened, he dropped the price to $50, which still felt steep, but was acceptable. We had a nice conversation on the way there and when we pulled up to the restaurant, I had to gently refuse his marriage proposal. I think that was my fourth one this winter… 😉

El Fish Market impressed me so much the first time I went that there was nowhere else to consider today since I wanted something special. I opted for the “brochetas mixtas” (mixed brochettes) with sweet peppers, onion, shrimp, chunks of salmon and mahi-mahi, and “callos,” which turned out to be scallops! I declined the potatoes and asked for some tortillas instead. Not a problem and… the chef subbed a lovely salad of romaine, tomato, onion, cucumber, and lots of avocado! Wow! I hadn’t seen a salad on the menu that seemed “subbable” for potatoes, so I’m glad it’s an option. There was some of their really good coleslaw and, surprise, they make their tortillas in-house on a comal. I am certain of this because they are just like the ones I make at home, drier and charred around the edges, and puffy in the middle almost like a pita. The fish and seafood were fantastic and very generously portioned. Two people could have had a decent lunch of this if they had the potatoes instead of salad. I added a cold Pacifico and a generous tip to come out having spent $220 (17CAD). Might as well enjoy the good life while it’s affordable!

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I then meandered my way back to the embaracadero, popping in at Ley for a few sundries.

I’ve got less than a month left…