City Tours

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Impromptu Walkabout

Work has been in an unexpected lull this week so after finishing up a small project this morning, I decided I might as well go to town for exercise and a change of scenery. Including the bit here on Isla to the embarcadero and back, it wound up being an 8KM walk:

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I decided to head to the Mercado first to get an agua fresca. I don’t think it’s a good thing that I’ve found a reliable source of something with pink guava flavour… But at least there is real fruit in there so I’m getting some fiber with all that sugar!

While coming down the giant Leandro Valle hill, I finally remembered to take a picture of this lovely passive-aggressive sign:

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It says, “We will puncture your tires for free!” Basically, we’ll slash your tires if you park here and block our entrance. I couldn’t believe what I was reading the first time I saw it and so the first time I spotted someone coming out of the parking lot, I actually asked if my understanding was correct! I phrased it along the lines of “Are you having problems with people parking here?” I learned the verb ponchar in this context in Mérida as I would frequently pass a building with a sign right above tire spikes that an entrance was not for cars and that their tires would be punctured.

From the Mercado, I meandered my way down to Olas Altas and crossed over to take the Malecón. I had had a brilliant idea on route. My riding friend Joan had suggested that I try the roasted chickens at a place I pass frequently on Gutíerrez-Nájera, but never on my home. So I decided I would walk the Malécón to Gutíerrez-Nájera and then stop at the chicken place to get a chicken for a late lunch, with leftovers for dinner.

I’m not sure if I’ve ever taken a picture of her before, but she seems to embody my spirit. I really love this statue.

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Notice that one of these condo owners put a giant roller shade/awning outside his south-facing window?

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I was surprised that no pulmonía drivers flagged me down as I walked, enjoying the sunshine and warmer wind than we had yesterday (brr!). I perused the wares of a few vendors without being harassed. It was a really lovely walk.

There are two chicken places on Gutíerrez-Nájera and the one I wanted was the second one in this direction, just before the Red Cross (Cruz Roja) building. The advertised deal is two roasted chickens for $120. I asked the price for one and it was $65. The lady confused me a little by quoting the price as “six-five,” though. Her chickens are roasted in a cage that goes around a heating element. She selected one at random, chopped it up for me, and bagged it up with a giant pile of tortillas and some hot sauce. It smelled wonderful!

It was then a short distance to the embarcadero. The captain saw me coming up to the ticket booth and waved to let me know he’d seen me and would wait. One etiquette thing I have learned is that if you board the lancha after everyone else, you need to greet everyone by saying buenos días, buenas tardes, or buenas noches, depending on the time of day. I’ll be honest and admit that I always feel silly doing it, but I always get a reply back from at least a couple of people on the lancha and more than a couple of smiles. It was another very long and choppy ride back across the channel.

On this side, I remembered to take a picture of the City Deli’s new paint job. Wow! It makes it look so fresh! The inside has gotten a bit of a spruce up, too, with better produce, coolers with more beverage options (I can get a cold Electrolit now), and even a freezer with some frozen foods (I think I saw fries). I don’t think they carry beer anymore, though. I know there was a problem with their liquor license and maybe they’ve decided not bother with alcohol anymore. Anyway, I can get beer much closer to home!

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I came in and tried the chicken. I disagree that it is better than the weekend chicken lady here on Isla, but I’ve gotten good at timing when to get the best chickens from her to avoid the not sufficiently marinated and possibly not cooked enough ones. The Maz ones would be a lot more consistent since they are commercially prepared. I found the chicken a bit salty and dry in parts, but still very good. I pay $55 for half of a scrawny chicken here and I paid $65 for a decent sized full chicken from the Maz lady, so just for that, it’ll be worth making the trip over the next time I want chicken, and I’ll probably get two. Needless to say, I have way more leftovers than I expected. But, hey, I got all those tortillas, so I’ll go get a can of salsa verde Saturday to make enchiladas.

Not tomorrow? No, tomorrow I am going to get my revenge…

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Mercuriality

It was incredibly windy yesterday, with huge waves breaking on the beach and a storm warning for today. It made for a very dramatic ride.

I woke up really early this morning and when the sun finally rose, it wasn’t sure what it was doing. It would shine for a moment and then be blocked out by heavy grey clouds that would spit angrily. This went on all day.

Because I had worried about losing power if there was a storm, I only had a very light load of work that I was able to complete by about 10:00 this morning, and that included an unexpected proofing project that had dropped into my inbox around 7:00. I puttered all through the rest of the morning and into afternoon, then decided to go out.

Even though there was more blue sky than cloud cover, it was still spitting and quite cool as I reached the nearly deserted beach. Semana Santa is coming up fast, so I might as well savour these quiet beach days while I have them. No restaurants had seating set up on the beach and some were cleaning up palmas from their palapas. So the beach saw some action that I missed in the last 26 hours.

I came off the beach at the Goat Island causeway and headed towards home. The empanada guy was coming out of someone’s yard as I did so and I called him over to see what he had left. It’s a good thing I don’t run into him often because I cannot resist his fruity flaky treats! His empanadas are basically a folded over circle of pie crust with a jammy filling. Today, I went for strawberry. They taste best with a cold beer, so I stopped off at the Mercado Isla de la Piedra, a tiny shop kitty corner from the butcher shop, to get a few Tecate Light. They don’t carry Pacifico, but otherwise have a good selection of beers for such a small shop, including XX in cans.

Here’s a map of my world (and my walk today — click to embiggen):

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Caught in the Act

Running dangerously low on coffee, I put in a good morning of work and then headed out just after 12:30. I walked to the Fisherman’s Monument to grab a bus and as I did, a group of six tourists passed me sounding very unsure of how to get back to their hotel and nervous that they hadn’t seen an auriga (pickup truck taxi) in some time. I asked where they were going and it was near the marina, so I told them they should just get on the bus. They replied that that’s actually what they wanted to do, but couldn’t remember which one or where to grab it.

I ask if they were looking for the Camarón-Sábalo bus and they said yes. Then were very happy to learn they were at the right place to catch it and that they’d be saving at least 40 if not 60 pesos, on top of having an adventure for the grandkids about taking a city bus in Mexico. I waved the bus down for them, helped them buy tickets, and told them to hang on to their tickets in case an inspector came on board. They met other people from their hotel on the bus, so they were fine from that point on. I wish I’d thought to ask people about the bus a lot sooner than I did last year as I wasted a lot of money taking taxis to and from the Golden Zone!

I got off in front of the Santander bank almost next to Mary’s, which is almost next to Rico’s. Thankfully, Rico’s had Veracruz dark roast so my long journey had not been in vain.

Next stop was supposed to be the Thai restaurant, but they’re on my barred list now as well because they are rarely open when they say they will be open. 🙁 It’s twice now that I’ve purposely arrived 1.5 hours after they are suppose to open and they weren’t. Friends of mine here on Isla have made the trip there multiple times to have the same thing happen to them. Shame because the food is so good. I regretted organising my schedule around theirs today because there I was at almost 3:00 p.m., ravenous, and not near any other really affordable food except for the taco place. I actually wasn’t in the mood for tacos, but went there anyway and had their “huarache loco al pastor,” which was a soft maize base topped with beans, al pastor meat, and cheese, serve with avocado and lettuce (and a bunch of salsas). It was about three times as big as I would have expected for the price, so I didn’t come close to finishing it. Al pastor meat is different in Maz than what I’ve tried in Durango and Mérida and I like this version best!

Since I was in the area, I stopped in at Mega in the hope of finding hummus. And did I! They had just stocked up and they had dozens of tubs of all sorts of flavours all with an expiry date of a couple of days past when I need to be out of the country next month! I grabbed six giant tubs (four plain, two roasted red pepper) as well as a huge packet of pita and headed for the checkout. As I was waiting patiently for the person in front of me to pay, I heard behind me, “What is that?!” in Spanish.

I turned and burst out laughing when I saw my server from Ta’Loco! I explained that it’s hummus, an Arabic snack or spread (untable) and gave the list of ingredients. He said it looked like ice cream and I laughed and said no, it’s salty. I gave him tips on how to eat it and said that I love it for breakfast. His reply, “I learn something new every day. But I don’t like new foods!”

I was still chuckling as I headed out of Mega. I mean, what are the odds that someone I know would be in line behind me while I’m buying enough hummus to get me through the apocalypse?!

Having an errand to run around the Mercado, I caught the bus back to Centro. It was standing room only most of the way and I was glad to get there. First stop was the agua fresca vendor I favour and I asked if she had smaller sizes than a litre. Yes! The smaller glass wasn’t as good value, but it made more sense. Thirst quenched (and guayaba craving satisfied), I visited several magazine vendors looking for something for a friend, but struck out. I did get a nice pair of earrings from my favourite vendor. She hadn’t had anything I liked in a while, so I was pleased about that. She recognised that I was wearing one of her pairs. At $10 a pair (yes, pesos!), they’re fantastic value.

Nearly done in, I schlepped to my last stop of the day, Ley, and had to resist buying out all their pineapple coconut yoghurt since it was half price! What a deal!

I found this at Ley:

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Looks like a spiny chayote? Anyone know what it was? I asked a guy, but he was too busy laughing at me poking at it to see if it was spiny like a cactus (almost) to be of any help!

My bags were pretty heavy by this point, so I decided to treat myself to a pulmonía since there was one right there. It would have been cheaper to take one on this side instead, but the walk on this side doesn’t have hills!

Oh, and if anyone is paying attention to what I said in my last post, I came home without headphones. 🙁 The brand Croft directed me too is too cheap for me to take a chance on. Soriana and Mega’s electronic departments had nothing. I think it may be easier (and cheaper) to find someone capable of fixing them than to buy another pair. Very frustrating.

I think I’ll call today a draw since I came home with hummus, coffee, and earrings, but without Pad Thai, a magazine, or headphones!

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A Fool’s Errand

It was not a good return to work this morning. My brand new headphones were malfunctioning (sound only coming out of one ear) and a key piece of software I use to transcribe was disabled. I could work with my earbuds, but not without the software. So I spent a bit of time finding a potential replacement before going to town. With the current CAD/MXN exchange rate being as good as it is, I wanted to make a large withdrawal. Since there is a Scotiabank right next to Office Depot, where I bought the headphones, it made sense to go all the way out to Rafael Buelna in the hopes of getting a refund or replacement on my headphones. My receipt said they will do refunds within 60 days as long as you have the original packing and receipt, so I figured I had at least a fighting chance.

I saw a rather unique lancha when I got to Maz. It had a bathroom!

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Since I didn’t have much time today to go clear across town and back, I had a first — taking a pulmonía both ways on my own! This was my best ride ever. The driver only charged me $60 and took me on a super convoluted traffic-avoiding route by the outskirts of Juárez and down Insurgentes. When we got to the corner of Insurgents and Carretera Internacional, the driver asked if I was lost. Nope, I told him, the other Scotiabank is about 3KM to our left. He was suitably impressed and asked why I didn’t go to that one. Then, we ended up chatting the rest of the drive to the bank (Insurgentes becoming Marina, and then we turned left on Rafael Buelna). The red in this is roughly the route we took to get to Marina (we did a lot more turns), and the grey and orange are the most direct route. It’s probably not that much more mileage, but it’s a whole other Maz.

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I was able to make the withdrawal I wanted to make by splitting it up into increments of $6,000. I then went in and had my $500 bills turned into $100s, $50s, and $20s, plus a bit of change. The counting machines make this job very easy and quick, but the lady still manually recounted everything, the first time I’ve had a teller do that.

Then, I went next door to Sole Mare to grab a bite to eat. I won’t be having lunch there again; the food is too much like the average fare you get at any chain restaurant up north. My “piña colada” iced tea was an interesting red colour, but tasted good. The sandwich was pretty lackluster though, just a very thin slice of processed turkey with lots of black olives (yes, I eat such things now and they’re the reason I picked that sandwich!), romaine, tomato, onion, avocado, and melted gouda on a bland bun. I asked for no mushrooms and the cook subbed chiles curtidos for them. Rather funny, but I’m always happy not to be treated like a Gringo when it comes to spicy stuff now. 🙂

Office Depot was hopping when I got there. They were having some sort of sale or promotion and it was a mad house. I always feel like I don’t speak a lick of Spanish when I go there because they make no effort at meeting me halfway speech speed-wise and today was no exception. It took ages for me to get to the head of the line of the customer service desk and then I was ignored for a bit until they were ready to deal with me. The clerk called the manager and she sneered at me and said that there is no refund on electronics past seven days! It’s not on the receipt, but it is on the wall behind the customer service desk. And then, she told me to leave/not make a fuss because they were busy. I found my Spanish again and told her that was fine and that I’ll never shop there again. That I’m leaving Maz next month for good is neither here nor there. I’d find another place to buy my office goods since I’ve always disliked shopping there.

Next stop was Soriana and they didn’t have much on my list. Between that and this being my third time in a row where I had a hard time finding a taxi upon exiting, I wouldn’t be shopping at that store anymore also. Knowing the buses the way I do now, I’d do the Insurgentes Soriana instead. At least when I did find a taxi, he only charged me $60. It’s normally $70 home from Soriana. I did well on my rides today! This driver took the more direct route that I would have taken last year when driving, Marina to Carretera Internacional becoming Ejército Mexicano becoming Juan Carrasco, then left on Gutiérrez-Najera, then the jog to the embarcadero. There was so much traffic and the drive took ages!

The lancha was packed like a sardine, with me being the last to board and grateful that I barely had anything and what I did have that was bulky was flexible (paper goods)! I didn’t need a taxi on this side.

When I got in, I promptly put the rent together and went to see if my landlady was home. She was a bit startled by the huge pile of bills I gave her and I explained that I have a hard time spending $500s, so I have them changed at the bank now. She was very grateful for that. I tend to give her a mix of bills most months, but usually pay in mostly $200s and $500s. So a stack of 55 $100s was rather impressive!

I came back home and decided to see if Sony could help me with my headphones issue. Sony Mexico claimed that my headphones were only supposed to be sold in Canada (!) and so they couldn’t help me. Sony Canada said that since I bought them in Mexico, they can’t help me. So I’m out about 30CAD and I have to start the process of finding a new set all over again. Croft gave me a tip for a Mexican brand that has a storefront on Zaragoza, so I’ll pop over there tomorrow or Thursday and see what they have. Office Depot and Sony both lost a customer today. And I learned that while Mexico may have many of the same stores as the Canada and the U.S., it obviously does not have the same consumer protections at those stores. I’m going to have to research this before I start making any expensive purchases in Mexico, including appliances.

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City Tour of Mérida and Barrio Itzimná

First on the agenda today was a two-hour city tour of Mérida with Carnavalito City Tours. The cost is $120 per person, plus a tip. The office is on Calle 55 between Calles 60 and 62, right in front of Santa Lucia square. Look for a sign that says Gua Gua (“Wah wah”). I left home around 9:15 and got there at 9:40ish, with departure being at 10:00.

I knew that the buses are open air trolleys, so I didn’t expect to hear much of the tour, and I was right. Our guide gave the tour in both excellent English and Spanish, but we could barely hear him. Between both languages, I think I caught about 25% of what was said. But don’t let that deter you from taking this tour. It takes you through the parts of Mérida around Centro that are of the most interest to tourists and will give you an idea of what to go back to and explore further later. This is my last day in Mérida (!) and I was quite pleased that only one thing on the tour stood out as a must go back to…

We saw a lot of beautiful old buildings. This is a building with Montejo in the name. It’s right off of Plaza Grande and is a museum.

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This is a ceiba tree, which was sacred to the Mayans. It is about 150 years old. In Maz, my landmark for routing is the Pemex La Ceiba near the embarcadero. Now, I know what that means!

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And then we came to Barrio Itzimná… I found that I really narrowed down this week where I don’t want to live, but I haven’t really nailed down a place where I could see myself living. I really wanted to be in one of the older barrios that is anchored by a square and a self-contained village, much like Juárez in Maz, but the ones nearest to the Plaza Grande are Gringoified. Itzimná is just a bit up from where I’m currently living and I knew I had to go back after the tour because I was pretty sure I could imagine myself living there!

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It’s definitely much higher up than I thought I wanted to live, but when that appears to be the only con…

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The church made me laugh. Can you see the face?

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A culinary institute.

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Hardware store. Love the logo.

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There were some really lovely houses in this neighbourhood.

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This one looks like a castle and is going to be converted to a hotel.

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These old gems are so inexpensive to buy, but I have to wonder how much it would cost to repair them…

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We continued on, had a break at a mall near the Hyatt hotel, and passed a Saturday farmer’s market. I wish I’d made a note of the corner where the market is!

This park has a cenote.

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Another gem for sale.

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If I understood the guide correctly, this is the entrance to a zoo.

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The bus depot is right downtown.

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I liked the colour of this church.

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The only place in the world where you can learn the Mayan language. My guide at Mayan Heritage says classes have been fully booked for ages and the soonest he can get in is August.

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This church altar is done in gold leaf.

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The tour office is just a block from Pita, the Mediterranean restaurant I spotted the other day. Same street! I call that destiny. 🙂 I sat in their sunny courtyard and ordered the falafel pita. As a free starter, I got pita with an herbed butter, a pesto-type thing, and a very spicy red thing. All were tasty.

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The falafel was adequate! I would sub the coleslaw for hummus next time, though, since I can’t do the mayo. Their menu says the falafel are made with garbanzos, but their bright green colour betray that they are made with fava beans in the Egyptian style. The salad was wonderful, with some of the best tomatoes I’ve ever had in Mexico. I paired my meal with an ice cold and super sour limonada mineral, probably the best limonada I have ever had.

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The bill came in a cute little watering can.

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So reasonable! I know I will eat here a lot when I move to Mérida! I wish I’d had time to go try out the Thai place because having both Pad Thai and falafel would clinch the deal on Mérida being perfect for me. 🙂

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I headed home for a bit of a rest, then went out to explore Itzimná (home was right on the way, so why not?). I have actually been to the periphery of it, but did not get to its square. I can’t believe all of this was only about 1KM from my place, closer than Plaza Grande!

Here’s that hardware store again:

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So pretty!

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Coffee shop? Check.

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Traffic around the square was very busy!

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Here’s the church again. The ropes make it look like it’s crying.

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Ice cream parlour next to a bakery, nice!

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House for sale.

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This no parking sign is awesome. It says, “Palm leaves fall and dent cars.”

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A gorgeous fixer-upper.

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I passed what I call the “duck house” on the tour and was happy to find it again!

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Found my Mérida home! Just needs a little elbow grease. 😉

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Or maybe this one?

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Coming back out onto the Paseo de Montejo, I spotted a Mega. I’ve passed this intersection a few times but didn’t see it from those vantage points. That would have been useful last Saturday!

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Like in Maz, there are a lot of VW Beetles in Mérida. This one had no hood! I have to say that I think I would like to find myself one of these when I move here, just until I can afford what I really want. 🙂

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So ends my week in Mérida. I can’t believe how quickly it passed! I feel that I accomplished my goal and that I’ll be able to hit the ground running when I move here. I can also start to look at real estate online to get ideas of prices in the areas that interest me.

Mérida is such a sharp contrast to Mazatlán.

The most appealing part of it is that both the city and the state are safe. Sinaloa is in the midst of a drug war right now and there have been a lot of murders lately, with some in Maz and in the tourist village of El Quelite that I had wanted to visit. There’s none of that here in the Yucatán. I’ve even been told that I could safely drive from Mérida to Uxmal after dark to see the light show, no problem. Wow! I feel like my world in Mazatlán is very small and that I would get claustrophobic very quickly if I chose it as my forever home because I wouldn’t feel safe enough to go exploring in the environs.

Mérida is also more approachable because, like Durango, it has good signage and a strong tourism industry that understands the importance of strategically placed information kiosks, maps, signage, etc.. It took me no time at all to get orientated while it took months for me to be comfortable in Maz, and I still get disorientated. I love that you get actual addresses here, as well as the nearest intersection(s).

Drivers here are more like what you see in most of Canada and the U.S., obeying traffic signals, respecting pedestrians, and not driving like maniacs. I felt safer walking here than I do in Mazatlán.

I’ve always found Mazatlán to be fairly grotty and run down, but I imagine it will appear even worse now that I’ve spent time in a second city that is so well maintained and clean.

I didn’t spend much time on the buses here, but my experiences were less positive than in Maz. I found buses hard to flag down, with locals confirming that it’s not because I’m doing it wrong. Some said that they sometimes need to flag down four or five buses before one will stop!

I also didn’t get much experience with taxis, but I know that I will miss the Mazatlán pulmonías very, very, very much.

I thought that being near the ocean wasn’t important to me, but the realisation that I will not get to have a beer while looking at the ocean hit me hard this week, to my surprise. I don’t think I’ve ever really said how much of a treat it is for me to grab a beer on the Malecón. It is one of my Maz things that I will miss the most and which will be one of my favourite memories. I will also miss horseback riding on the beach!

Yucatán cuisine hasn’t wowed me. This isn’t an agricultural state and so the cuisine is very heavily meat-based. I’m pretty sure my salad today was the only real portion of good veggies I had all week! It’s no wonder I’ve been run down! Sinaloa is an agricultural state and produce is part of the local diet. I loved the meat I had here, but, really, the portions were too enormous and not balanced.

I’ll have spent a wonderful year of my life in Mazatlán and I am grateful for being the welcoming first port it was, but I’m ready for something different. I don’t care how much the locals (and not-so-locals) have warned me about the Mérida heat. Bring it on!

I’m still feeling a little rundown, so I doubt I’ll be going out again today, especially since I have to be out the door at 5:30 tomorrow morning to catch my 8:30 flight! My plan was to walk down 35 to the hotel at the corner of Paseo de Montejo, where there is a taxi stand. But, first, I emailed my host here to ask if he could request me a cab. He said that there is little point in calling as they would say that they’ll be there, but then forget to show up. He said that the taxi stand at the hotel is, in fact, my best bet to quickly get a taxi, even that early. Thankfully, I don’t have much luggage!

Glancing around the apartment, I realise that I’d better start packing! I really made myself at home here. 🙂