Haven

by

Mazatlán Suits Me

One of the biggest compromises I made when I purchased my property was that I can’t walk to anything, like a bar, food store, or coffee shop. I was really hoping to find something on the outskirts of a town about the size of Assiniboia, but still within walking distance, but Haven was just too good of a deal with big investment potential.

Isla de la Piedra, early morning noise notwithstanding, is pretty dang close to what I was hoping to find in Canada, but even better because there is also a very large full service city right at my door step. I have life in a small vibrant village with most of the basic services I need, but I can also walk and take public transportation to everything that I’m missing on Isla.

I work at a desk all day and try to get out to walk several times if I can. At Haven, that means a walk to the post office or around the block or perhaps mowing the lawn when I have grass. It’s very limiting and not particularly fun. Isla has miles of beach, tons of small streets to explore, and if I have time for a longer break, Maz is less than 15 minutes away. I don’t really bother stocking up on anything because stores are so close that a 10-minute break from my desk can mean picking up tortillas or a block of cheese at the store.

Maz feels like a very approachable city for its size. The downtown core is very walkable and there is tons of inexpensive public transportation. I think pulmonias would be great when I’m carrying heavy groceries to the panga, but I plan to learn the bus route to go to Walmart, Soriana, and the cinema. The city is clean and the parts I have visited do not have many panhandlers or homeless people. There are some sellers who will approach you, but it’s not at all a gauntlet like the ones you have to pass in border towns.

I doubt I would like Maz in summer (too hot and humid!), but the winter climate is wonderful. Today was really hot, but the nights are cool and comfortable for sleeping. My house does not retain heat, so it’s always cooler inside than out.

A lot of people told me that I would not like Maz because it is such a gringo destination, but living in the village next to Mexicans, shopping as they do, and speaking Spanish really makes we wonder how much more real Mexico can get. I have no regrets about my winter destination and am pretty sure I’ll end up spending another winter here…

by

High Speed Internet Is Relative

This post will be redundant for those of you who follow me on Facebook, but it does contain additional detail.

Last night, as dinner (a lovely Moroccan-spiced lentil stew!) was just about done, I ran out of gas. Wonderful. So much for not having to deal with propane this winter!

I called my landlady and, to my immense surprise, immediately got hold of her. She said that she had ordered gas for me the day after I arrived and why did I not tell her they hadn’t come yet. Um, maybe because I didn’t know they were supposed to?

She said she would put in another order and then I asked if she could call TelMex again to find out what the hold up is. She said she would make both calls first thing this morning.

Around noon, she came by to give me bad news in person. First of all, the gas company said that I have been scheduled for delivery since the 11th and that it should happen between the 7th and 11th of December. OMG. She is calling around to other companies and her husband is going to try to jury rig something for me before then, but it’ll take a few days. The tank is welded to the roof, so I can’t take advantage of door-to-door delivery of little tanks.

She also had a brand new internet contract for me, showing that she had gone to TelMex in person. She said that for whatever reason, my original order was canceled and that the clock had reset for installation! I couldn’t even be angry at that point, just frustrated.

I thanked her for her help and decided that since I wasn’t going to get internet till Monday at the absolute earliest and was no longer tethered to my casita, I would go for a mid-day beach walk! I did that, wading into the surf to my thighs, enjoying the hot sun and the warm water. Being a weekday, there were almost no vendors and I didn’t get hassled to buy trinkets.

Instead of going straight home, I took a slight detour to see if the peanut vendor was out today (he’s next to the police station). Yup, so I picked up another big bag of plain roasted peanuts in the shell for 10 pesos.

I came home and continued to work on an easy but excruciatingly boring medical lecture. Around three, I heard a knock at my door to find a man wearing a TelMex shirt…

I swear that my heart stopped, my shock was so great! It took me a moment to recover. He looked at me quizzically and said “I’m here for your internet installation?”, just like that, as a question because I looked so puzzled and he must have thought he had the wrong house!

I let him in and showed him the modem box and contract. He asked me where I wanted my modem installed, immediately going to some outlet covers by the entertainment unit in the living room.

Here’s the thing about those outlet covers, which I thought were hiding phone outlets: they’re empty!

IMGP0234

When I saw this the other night, after curiosity got the better of me, I was certain I’d been had regarding internet because surely they weren’t going to bring in new wiring for me, were they?

I told him that my computer is in the rear bedroom and there there was a similar outlet back there (conveniently enough). I didn’t know how to say outlet so I just said ‘caja’ (box) and he understood. He said that he would take the ‘alámbrica’ (which I eventually understood from context to be wiring) from outside and could bring it to any such outlet. So if there was one in the bedroom, he could definitely set up the modem there.

I led him to the back room and pointed out the plate cover. He immediately moved furniture out of the way to give himself room to work and examined the box, showing me that it is the outlet for conduit that goes up the wall to the roof. Of course. These walls are all made of cement or some such material, so the only way to pass cabling in them is during the planning phase or by having the foresight to lay conduit.

He went outside and onto the roof, then came down and told me to please wait, he would be back.

Time passed… Five o’clock came and went and the sky became tinged with pink. I resigned myself to using Banda Ancha over the weekend and then I heard noise. I looked out the window to see this:

IMGP0236

The job didn’t take long after that! I heard some drilling and saw dust come out of the conduit, then he came down to see if his cable had passed. No. Back on the roof he went, then back down and he was finally able to catch the wire.

Each time he came into the house, he asked for permission to do so even though I left the door open. Such a lovely and polite man!

After he pulled the wiring into the house he asked if he could wash his hands. Certainly! I’m glad I didn’t leave any embarrassing female stuff lying around the bathroom. 🙂

After that, he addressed the long delay that I experienced. As it turns out, TelMex had a glitch with their ordering system last week and a bunch of orders didn’t get put in the queue. After three days, non-processed orders get immediately cancelled and need to be redone. It was unfortunate that I bought into the old mentality that these things take time and was so patient because if a call had been made last week, I would have had service very quickly.

Because, yes, TelMex was known for being very slow at getting things done, but they have really shaped up and changed their business model and now anything more than three days is considered unacceptable to them. So when my landlady came in after 11 days I was moved to the very top of the queue for today, bumping several people out of line!

After explaining all of this, he wired in a phone outlet and tried to plug my modem into a power outlet. My office stuff uses a lot of sockets, so I had a power bar, but we couldn’t get the modem plug to fit in it.

Thankfully, I remembered where I had put another power bar. I shifted some things around to make sure that what needed to be on the surge protector bar were and the rest, including the washing machine extension cord, went on the non-surge protector bar. It’s a good thing I know a thing or two about electricity or I’d be worried about overloaded circuits!

All that done, he did some tests and then told me to sign on to my network. The modem has the network name and password printed right on it. Not very secure, but convenient! It took a moment for my computer to find the signal, but it locked on quickly once it did and loaded a page in moments. The tech was impressed with the speed. At some point, I exclaimed ¡Esta un milagro! (It’s a miracle!) and he laughed.

I told him my sob story about having slow poke cellular service in Canada as my only option and he said that he gets a lot of complaints about how slow the service is here but that I should be happy with it.

He showed me that the modem does come with an Ethernet cable, but I have a Macbook Air, so I can only connect with WiFi.

He then put all the furniture back. I thanked him profusely and sent him on his way so that I could get back to work.

Of course, I tested the connection first, though! Download speed was just shy of of 5Mbps and upload around 0.65Mbps. I’ve been informed that that is pretty slow. Well, I downloaded an 800MB file in about 20 minutes that would have taken me at least 24 hours to download at Haven. High speed internet is relative. This is truly fast for me and I doubt I will have any complaints!

So yay, I’m online and the little white casita on Calle Cholita is home. Or it will be, soon as I can cook again. 🙂

By the way, the tech was the first person to not address my Spanish skills. I think he went to the landlady’s house first and someone told him that I get by in the language or there was a note on the file because he didn’t do the usual language assessment folks have been doing with me. He dove right in in Spanish, speaking slowly, and we never had a moment’s trouble communicating.

I still find personal conversations so trying (especially with my landlady who thinks I’m more fluent than I am and constantly needs to be reminded to slow down), but the more business situations like these I get under my belt, the more confident I become.

It’s been a very long good day and I have heaps of work to do over the weekend and it’s already 9:45, so off to bed I go. I can’t wait to have a moment to actually enjoy my connection and try Netflix with it!

by

Two Mexico Idiosyncrasies That Aren’t a Challenge

When I started to talk to people about coming to Mexico and was asking if there are things to watch out for, two things kept coming up over and over again. 1) Watch the water. Whatever you do, don’t brush your teeth with the water or drink it in the shower! 2) No paper in the toilet!

Both of these things seem to exasperate people after a while. They’ll never be an issue for me.

You see, the water at Haven is not potable. It is pure spring water that runs through cow pastures into our water system. There is E. coli and other nasty stuff in it. I ignored the warnings and drank it for a few days my first days at Haven, assuming I’d get used to the taste, and got a good sense of what the ‘turista’ is like… Keeping my toothbrush well away from the tap is something I consider normal now! Water on Isla will be managed exactly like it is at Haven, by keeping on hand two five-gallon containers of potable water and transferring the water into a more manageable container. The only difference is that I will get at home delivery!

As for the toilet paper thing, until later this past summer, when Willow Bunch got its wonderful new dump station (free!), dumping my holding tanks was a huge hassle. I was able to seriously extend the time between dumps by throwing the paper in the trash. I’d just bag it at the end of the day and throw the bag into my trash barrel, so the bathroom stayed cleaned. When I still had Neelix, I was dumping a bag of cat litter every day anyway, and then I just kept the habit of taking out a bag every evening.

So water and plumbing idiosyncrasies aren’t an issue for me and the telecom company is just as bad as any I’ve experienced back home. Mexico is feeling rather familiar. 😀

by

Tracking Hurricane Vance

After checking weather reports and speaking to RVers headed for Mazatlan, I have decided to renew the room in San Carlos for tonight and push on to Los Mochis tomorrow, where I will likely be truck camping, arriving in Mazatlan on Thursday. That’s the plan at least unless I hear to do otherwise from people on the ground there. The biggest question mark is if the road to Isla is passable or not.

The RVers I spoke to are experienced in Mexico, know the road between here and Mazatlan, know their RVing capabilities, and have had experience reading these kinds of forecasts. They are all deciding to wait this extra day and will do the drive straight to Mazatlan tomorrow! Wow! They say it’s a 10-hour drive for them pulling, but they are allowing themselves another two hours for weather and will leave around 5AM! I will probably leave here noonish to get to Los Mochis dinnertimeish. If I do end up truck camping, I won’t want to have to spend a whole afternoon and evening at a truck stop!

The clerk at the office gave me directions to a nearby beach. Can you believe that I have never swam in the Pacific Ocean?! I need to find some sun screen and flip flops and am kicking myself for forgetting my beach hat! I’ll have to see if I can find an inexpensive one here.

I also asked the office manager about the best coffee in town and he told me to go to the Oxxo! I found that my cup today was even better than yesterday’s. It always takes a bit of time for my taste buds to adjust to a new coffee and decide if they like it or not.

On the way back from the office, a lady carrying a bucket stopped me. I looked inside the bucket and saw shrimp. I said no thank you and she was surprised and crestfallen. I explained that my room doesn’t have a kitchen and she went, ‘Ah! Okay!’ and left with no hard feelings. 🙂

I just received an email from my neighbours Caroline and Charles advising me that they just had a major windstorm that took half the shingles off another neighbour’s roof! This storm shifted the tarp I used to cover my RV, leaving my roof exposed. That must have been some storm seeing as we had super, super high winds before I left and my second attempt at tarping didn’t even budge in those winds! Being the wonderful folk that they are, C&C resecured the tarp for me and now I know it will be okay for the whole winter! I’m glad that I don’t have to worry about home. And, yes, I miss home. 🙂 I’m really looking forward to being settled in the apartment and getting back into my routine and feeling like I’m ‘home’ again. Vagabonding is tiring! 😀

by

Haven to Billings, MT

I was up quite late this morning, almost 8:00. I made and had coffee, then went out to winterize the water system.  That done, I finished packing the truck. It was then time to go to the post office. My cheque had finally arrived! There was also a new SK health card giving me permission to be out of the province till May 31st, 2015. So that’s my return by date!

I came in and did some banking stuff, called SaskTel to suspend service (need to wait till I have US service to do that since they can’t postdate it), and called my mother to let her know that I was heading out. I then did the final swing around the property, putting away the garbage barrel and propane tank, reading the metre, putting away the power cord, etc.

I made a set of keys for Caroline and was halfway to her place when I realised I had forgotten something important: PILLOWS! I went back and grabbed then, then went to C&C’s. They are away this week, so there were no goodbyes. Caroline had told me where to leave keys and I did so with note informing her that I only have one house key (really?!) so to please not lose it. I can get back in through the cab when I get back. 🙂

It was 11:30 when I pulled out of Haven and I was at the border by 12:15. I crossed at Opheim, MT. There had been big changes since I was there in April; CDN customs now has a shiny new building and the US has a new scanner thing that I drove through too quickly… Oops. The customs official was super nice about it and told me to just circle around the building and try it again. I was mortified!

We had a nice chat while two other officers poked through what I had in the bed of the truck. We talked about my job, why I picked Mazatlan, my hamlet, and my planned route and meetups while in the US. He was kind beyond words and just when I was thinking, “This is going too well. Secondary inspection, here I come!” he said, “Drive safe and have a wonderful winter. Exit’s that way.” Wow!

From the border, it was about an hour to Glasgow, the only sizable community between Haven and Billings. As is normal for me on departure day, I’d left on an empty stomach. The stress of the border behind me, I was ready for lunch. I’d done my research into some yummy, quick, and filling and headed to Flip Burger, formerly Quick & Tasty. I had a (veggie) burger my first night in the original Glasgow, so I think my choice was appropriate. 🙂 The burger was great and made exactly to order, no stock toppings. I had cheese, bacon, tomato, mustard, and relish. Service was great and pretty quick.

Quick&Tasty in Glasglow.

Quick&Tasty in Glasglow.

From Glasgow, I continued my European tour by stopping in Malta (ha!) for gas. $3.41! Wow!

After Malta, there was just… land. If I felt so isolated and overwhelmed by the open country around me flying down the highway at 70 miles per hour, imagine how it must have felt to the pioneers trekking across it on foot!

My ETA for Billings was 6:00 and I drove straight through from Malta. I decided to land at a Walmart and from there find a suitable place for overnighting. Because I sleep in my truck, I am not going to share the place I found, but it’s perfect and was the first location I scouted. I’m getting good at this!

Heading into mountains.

Heading into mountains.

I went into the Walmart and came out with an AT&T SIM card with 2.5GB of data, all for $70. I forgot to pack a paperclip, so until I get my hands on one, I can’t set up the phone. Who comes up with these designs?! I have to go back to Walmart for an oil change tomorrow, so I’ll go back to the tech desk and see if they one I can borrow.

Once I found a place to spend the night, I went to a nearby McDonald’s to do research on sushi. I knew Billings has several well rated sushi joints, so I just wanted the closest one, which turned out to be Nara.

Nara was surprisingly packed for a Tuesday night and the kitchen was slammed. Service was slow, but still managed to be attentive. My Sapporo and “OMG, so delicious!!!” miso soup came quickly once I was finally about to put in an order, but the wait for my food was interminable, about 40 minutes. After 15, I really should have gone out and grabbed a book. I wouldn’t have minded the wait then. I did have a whole evening to fill.

Just at the point where I was ready to walk out, a server plopped a big bowl of edamame (soy beans in pods) in front of me. “On the house, ma’am.” That changed everything. They realised that the service level was unacceptable and did something to fix it before I got huffy. The edamame was a smart choice: it’s a super overpriced delicious treat that I never get in restaurants because I can buy a huge bag for less at a supermarket. Their cost was small, but the value to me was big.

My meal came out after. Everything was very expensive, so I just went for a spicy tuna and salmon roll and splurged on two pieces of octopus nigiri. The food was worth the wait and the prices self-explanatory! Look at that roll! Just about every sushi place I’ve visited has had way more rice than fish to cut costs.

Succulent tako (octopus).

Succulent tako (octopus).

The spicy tuna and salmon was melt in your mouth delicious. I like how the salmon was whole piece, which varied the texture a little. It’s funny how I don’t like spicy food, but I love this roll!

Wow, rare to see sushi that focuses on the fish. No wonder this was so expensive!

Wow, rare to see sushi that focuses on the fish. No wonder this was so expensive!

As for the octopus, I can’t remember the last time I had some and I hoped I wouldn’t be disappointed. Not in the least. It was so tender and succulent. I think this is the first time I’ve had some with the little suckers still attacked. They’re very chewy, but not in a rubber band sort of way.

So while the wait was disappointing, my overall experience at Nara was positive and this restaurant will be filled into the category of some of the best sushi I’ve had.

Now, I’m at a McDonald’s near my overnight spot, getting a start on downloading work for the weekend and also just passing the time because I don’t want to go to bed too early.

Not sure how tomorrow is going to go. I have to get an oil change and run a few errands. I think I’ll meander my way towards Yellowstone National Park and plan to spend the day there Thursday.