December 28, 2015 by Rae

So I Finally Had a Shrimp Burger at Tony’s…

Today was another very full day! I got my work done ahead of the deadline and waited for my client to confirm that he had received it, which he normally does promptly. Half an hour later, I got an email asking where the work was. I had successfully sent it, so I went to downdetector.com and learned that Gmail was having serious issues. So nothing I could do about it other than slip the job into a shared FTP folder on my server, Skype my client to let him know where to find the file, and to wish him luck with his email issues.

The not fun part of the day done, I had a late breakfast and then greeted Janet around 10:30. It was just the two of us again today for riding, but we didn’t go out on our own. Daniel was in a feisty mood, with today’s Spanish lesson being fall of naughty words! That Monday morning hour and a bit is so special and magical. As if riding on a beautiful tropical beach wasn’t enough, we get the linguistic lesson thrown in as a bonus. I really treasure my Monday morning ride.

I got in around 12:30 and put together a few things so I could run a very specific errand in town. First stop on the other side was lunch! I’ve been hearing so much about the shrimp burger at Tony’s in the mercado from several unrelated sources, including Chris and Juan, that it was time to have it even if the last thing I needed after all that holiday food was a burger!

This is what I got for $60:

I like how they avoid having to wash dishes…

It’s pretty clear from the picture that the burger is all about the bun. There were barely any shrimp (related, I’m sure, to the shrimp fishermen having a hard time this winter), but what was there was perfectly grilled and fresh, so points for that! There was also lettuce, tomato, and crema. I found that it was missing something and I was about halfway through when I realised that all reports of the shrimp burger had it with avocado on top. What was there was delicious. I like how the bread was toasted and there were definitely some spices or seasoning, plus the veggies were very fresh. I’ll have to try again on a day when Tony himself is cooking because while it was good, I was underwhelmed after all the hype.

Next stops were the two Parisinas (fabric stores) near the Mercado. One has more fabric, the other has more notions. I was looking for fabric for head scarves. I was a bit disappointed by the selection of fabric at hand, not finding any stretchy cotton, only polyester, but I came out with enough satisfactory material for eight scarves for just $120 between the two stores. I’ll have three in solid colours and five with patterns.

I was carrying a rather heavy bag with a scarf pattern; sample scarf; and two dresses, one of which I was hoping I could add to my order (hemming and straps) and the other being the model, so I didn’t do any other shopping and instead headed straight for the seamstress. It’s not my fault that my favourite nieve de garrafa vendor was on that route… 🙂 I haven’t been there much this year and I was still recognised! The owner told his helper to give me two scoops of prune and one each of my two other choices even before I had ordered! So that was four scoops for the price of three. They are small! Four scoops is less than a standard scoop of ice cream, and not nearly as rich since there’s no cream in them. I sat on a bench in the Plazuela Machado for a break to eat my treat.

From there, it was a few blocks to the Costura Express on Carnaval. The lady I had spoken to last week wasn’t there, but her sister was. Between my Spanish and her limited English, we figured out what I wanted and she even called her sister to confirm my order and find out if she could do the dress, too. Yes, for $80, which puts that dress at the same price I would have paid if I had bought it finished. Perfect! I really understood their conversation, including where she bargained the dress price down for me since I had the fabric for the straps. I will get to pick up my order on Saturday! I’m so excited since I’ve been wearing the same three scarves for ages. The new scarves will be $70 each, plus $15 each for the fabric, for a total of $85 each, 5USD at the current exchange rate. I paid 30USD each for my current scarves! It will be nice to have that dress finished, too. I’ve worn it strapless around Isla, but it’s way too casual to wear into Maz.

I then headed back to the mercado to pick up some fruits and veggies, stopping at a few vendors until I got most of what I wanted. I was ready to drop by this point, but still stopped in at the Ley on Melchor Ocampo, which has been totally revamped! I got some more fruits and veggies (half each of a cabbage and pineapple) and meat.

Thankfully, my friend Sue was on the lancha coming home, so we were able to walk a good part of the way home together, giving me something besides my exhaustion and heavy bags to focus on! 🙂 I got in, had a break, then made a ginormous veggie and beef stir fry for dinner. I really like how the beef is sold in such thin strips here since it marinates in no time. I just threw it in a bowl for about 20 minutes with a minced clove of garlic, the juice of two (tiny) limes, soy sauce, and sushi vinegar and it came out so tender and flavourful!

No map of my day, sorry, since Google Maps aren’t cooperating. It was about a 5KM excursion.

Now, time to unwind so I can get to bed on time and be up and at ’em for 5:30. It is going to be a tough day tomorrow because there will be no power on the whole Isla after a transformer blew up in the Colonia yesterday (a guy who lives two doors from where that happened told me all about that on the lancha coming home). Needless to say, I’m worried about work. Hopefully, TelCel will work well enough for me to get through my day. I am also going to try plugging my modem into my inverter to see if my TelMex connection could work that way (the only reason it would be down, I’m told, is for lack of power, so…). My truck battery has a full charge, so I’ll have enough power, even if I have to charge my laptop for a bit. There’s no sense fretting about this until power actually goes down tomorrow. I’ve been told the outage will officially be 6AM to 2PM (my entire shift!), but that, in fact, it shouldn’t take more than three to four hours. We shall see!

December 13, 2015 by Rae

Visiting Mazatlán’s Tianguis de la Juárez (Flea Market)

After hearing about the ‘Juárez flea market’ through readers Michael and Rochelle and seeing some pictures on Contessa’s blog, I was intrigued. I didn’t have much to go on, besides Michael giving me a very rough idea of the location. Googling Mercado Juárez didn’t give me much other than super old information. But cobbling together a bunch of clues, I finally found the right combination of words (tianguis and Juárez) to get a jackpot of information on the Spanish-language sites.

From these sites, I learned that this market is where the locals shop to get much better deals than at the Mercado Pino-Suárez in Centro and that the market is located in a colonia (neighbourhood) in Maz that is almost a self-contained city. Sunday mornings, folks sell all manner of used goods and this is the most exciting time to go.

Now, to get there…

A lot of the buses that go by the embarcadero have the name Juárez written on them. So this morning, I decided to flag one down and ask if they went to the tianguis de la Juárez. Yup! It was a rather short ride and I knew I was there when the bus slowed to a crawl as it went through the heart of this open-air market. No street closures in Mexico! I hopped off, picked up a giant guava agua fresca (just $10!), and spent quite a bit of time just walking up and down the streets, orientating myself.

This was ‘my’ Mexico, with air smelling of cilantro and grilled meat and laundry detergent, with a whiff of exhaust. Listen carefully and you could hear under the music bartering, cleavers chopping meat and coconuts, vehicles going over topes, and the swish of brooms. It was crowded and busy, but not in the least overwhelming, not the way it would have been at this time last year.

Everything was for sale and I had fun poking through hardware and kitchen supply shops, as well as looking at clothing. So many sandals!

After exploring the roadside stands, I discovered the flea market part of the market, where there were a lot of clothes for sale!

This was my favourite part of the experience, reminding me a bit of going through the mercado in Durango. Just a warren of stalls with little rhyme or reason to the layout and lots of treasures to be found.

And treasure I did find! I have been looking for something since last year and which I cannot believe has been so elusive, a lime press. And just like that, I found myself facing an assortment of them! I had a choice of metal or plastic for the same price, but with the metal being aluminum, I preferred to go with the plastic. The seller admitted that he preferred the plastic ones since they have little poky bits that do a better job of fully squeezing the lime. So sold! Oh, and just $25, not negotiable.

I was trying to decide which taco stand to grab lunch from when I noticed the pizza quite a few people were eating. It looked rather like New York style, so I changed my lunch plans and grabbed a slice for something ridiculous like $24 (prices were definitely lower in this part of Maz than in Centro!) to assuage my curiosity. Well, it wound up being the best pizza I’ve had since Idaho Falls! The cheese and sauce were spot on, the dough not quite chewy enough. But dang! I’ll be spoiled for pizza if I got anywhere else in Maz, methinks!

Just as I was finishing up and found myself wishing for a nieve vendor, what did I spot?! She had most of the usual flavours and I went with prune. $15, same price as I pay in Centro, got me nearly three times as much, and in a cone! It was almost too much, but nieve is so light and refreshing that it goes down easily.

I’d managed to fill almost two hours and I was ready to go, so I decided to take a bus back, not having any heavy shopping to carry. I figured I could grab any bus that would go back to more familiar parts of Maz and make my way back to the embarcadero from wherever I landed. Since I had come from nearly Centro on one one-way street, it stood to reason that I had to catch a bus going in the opposite direction. And when the first bus was Cocos-Juárez, I figured, great, I’ll end up pretty near to the embarcadero.

Well, all was going well for quite a bit. I had no idea where I was and the route was terrible, going over 50 billion topes, but then we turned onto Gabriel Leyva, which becomes Emilio Barragán and I figured I was nearly home… Then we turned off of Gabriel Leyva and went very deep into a residential neighbourhood and even traversed some muddy streets I wouldn’t have taken in anything else than a four-wheel drive before the bus stopped and the driver told me I was at the end of the line. I had taken the bus going in the wrong direction. OOPS!

Now, before anyone has a heart attack, I was not ‘in the middle of nowhere.’ It was a busy neighbourhood, with kids playing outside and tons of buses and taxis going by. I’ve been stranded in bad parts of Chicago, New York, and Baltimore, so let me tell you to get any thoughts of my being ‘in trouble’ out of your heads. I knew exactly how to get to the embarcadero and had the option of waiting 20 minutes for the driver to finish his break and take me back out to Gabriel Leyva, flagging down a taxi, or walking.

It was a gorgeous day, I had spent yesterday cooped up because of a rain storm, and this was a vibrant neighbourhood with lots to see. I decided to start walking and if I got tired or didn’t feel safe, I’d flag down a pulmonía. I ended up walking the whole way, nearly 6KM total! What a happy OOPS!

I was hoping today would be an adventure and I’d say I succeeded at making it one!

Going to the Dentist in Canada vs. Going to the Dentist in Mexico

I had a dentist appointment at 11:30 this morning, so I left quite early to give me time to hunt down chia seeds at the mercado. I decided to start with a lady who sells nuts and dried fruit and whom I could pretty find blindfolded from the entrance by Tony’s on Leandro Valle. She had chia seeds… That was a little quicker than I’d expected, I still had an hour to kill, and I couldn’t eat. Dang!

I wandered around the mercado a bit and found the dividing line between the tourist and the local sections. The tourist section is horrible, with the vendors being incredibly aggressive and unpleasant. There are a few things I’d like to buy that I know I’ll get the best prices on at the mercado, but the vendors really turn me off. You can’t just browse and take in all the sights and colours. Very disheartening and I wish there was a tourist bureau I could vent to… My friend Janet made similar comments to me during our Monday ride. She said she felt “assaulted” and I don’t think she’s exaggerating at all!

But the local part of the mercado is wonderful to wander around in! That’s pretty much anything that involves food. I had a leisurely stroll through the butcher and fish shops, realising that, really, I could buy meat and fish there if I came with a bag full of ice for the trip home. I’d definitely get better selection than at the supermarkets. I found the coffee roasting place a few people have mentioned, ogled the cheeses, and made a mental note of what fruits and veggies I wanted to pick up after my appointment.

Around 11:00, I decided to go sit in the dentist’s air conditioned waiting area and read. She had a few English magazines, so they were fun to browse through. She’s punctual, so I went in at almost bang on 11:30.

So going to the dentist in Canada:

Dentist: MY GOD. YOUR TEETH! Why don’t you go to the dentist more often?!

Me: I can’t afford it.

Dentist (tutting): Can’t afford it. *snorts* It’s all a matter of priorities. *gets to work*

Me: It hurts…

Dentist: Stop whining. It doesn’t hurt. *finishes* That’ll be an arm, a leg, and half a hand.

Going to the dentist in Mexico:

Dentist: MY GOD. YOUR TEETH! What is wrong with your country that dentists care so much more about profit than making sure everyone can afford dental care???!!!

Me: I wish I knew. 🙁

Dentist: This is going to cost you 800 pesos total (66CAD). Can you afford that?

Me: Yes! Thank you!

Dentist (gets to work): Does this hurt?

Me: Yes…

Dentist: We’ll wait another minute. *waits* How about now?

Me: Can’t feel a thing!

Dentist: All done. Are you okay?

Me: Yup! *happily hands over the agreed upon payment*

My tooth badly needs a crown, but I’m not willing to commit to that kind of work at this time. My plan is to get settled in Mérida next year/early 2017 and then find a dentist and orthodontist I could form a long-term relationship with and get my dental issues fixed, something I have to say I rather regret not doing before I hit the road in ’08, when my dental plan would have covered a good chunk of orthodontic work. But it was time to go and I went.

The dentist said I couldn’t eat for an hour and a half and I was ravenous by this point. So decided that I would get an agua fresca, which is rather filling, as a compromise. But first, I picked up some fruits and veggies. The vendor held up the mango I’d chosen and told me it was $29 and did I still want it? I replied yes and that I knew they’re out of season. She gave me a thumbs up at that and bagged everything up for me. Expensive mango, but I was in the mood and I never hesitate to buy fruit as a treat! I also got a really big jicama, which was less than $10.

Then, I picked an agua fresca vendor who had guava! I discovered guava last year and I cannot turn down an opportunity to have a treat made from it! The agua fresca was huge, with tiny pieces of guava in it, for just $17. Like most Mexican sweets, it was just sweet enough, and very refreshing!

Now, I have to get some work done even though I am really not in the mood to do so. Let’s see if I can finish in time to get my Friday night hot dogs!

November 29, 2015 by Rae

Getting My Bearings in Durango

By the time I was settled into my hotel room, it was about 3:00 p.m. on Thursday. I decided to go out and get my bearings. That was easy to do since Durango’s Centro is laid out in a perfect grid pattern and all streets are well marked. There are also frequent maps with a ‘you are here and points of interest are here, here, and here’ being noted, as well as directional signage on all the main street corners (Plaza de armas is that way, Walk of Fame is this way, turn here for the Francisco Villa museum, etc.).

Within minutes, I knew that Durango was much more tourist friendly and accessible than Maz is and that Maz’s failures in that regard are not a reflection of Mexico, but of the Maz city planners. My Mexican education continues!

Walking a few blocks up 20 de noviembre, I found the main basilica, which is in front of Plaza de armas. I’ll just get it out right here that the architecture in Durango is gorgeous. This is a very, very, very old city (founded in 1563!!!) and the architecture reflects that, with a lot of Baroque influence.

A block from the Plaza de armas, I spotted the Museo de la ciudad 450 (city museum), something that I knew was on my ‘must see’ list:

I found the Mercado Gómez Palacio a few blocks later,, a bewildering and disorganized warren of stalls! Rather fun and disorienting to poke through, but I have to say that it’ll make me better appreciate Maz’s mercado! I picked up a new apron (something that was on my list to buy in Maz, so why not make it a souvenir?!). Very inexpensive, only $85.

More oggling of architecture happened:

I love how colourful Mexico is. I want this pink washing machine in my house in Mérida when I get there!

And another exquisite building!

Tacos al pastor!

The fabric store (Parisina) is housed in not-so-shabby digs!

Check out the McDonald’s!

Back at Plaza de armas, I was dumbfounded to discover that this rotunda holds a tourist information bureau! I got tons of info as well as several maps. Why doesn’t Maz have anything like this?!

Corner of Constitución and 5 de febrero:

Vancouver Donuts on 5 de febrero!

This is a palace that holds several cafés as well as the Francisco (Pancho) Villa Museum:

A cappuccino sounds good… But it’s late. Maybe another time.

I passed the Museo de arqueología (archeology) on the way back to my hotel (again, it’s right in front of the Palacio parking where Moya was staying). I was tempted to go in, but decided to save it for the next day.

Back on 20 de noviembre on the corner of Zaragoza looking towards my hotel:

Church across the street from my hotel:

I love Mexican alleyways!

Another not too ugly building!

On the street behind my hotel, I found a used book store and couldn’t resist going in. Oh, that universal smell of old paper! I browsed a bit and then asked if they had Mexican poetry books. The owner, who must have been 100 years old, pulled out a gorgeous and huge leather-bound tome. It was only $150, but way too massive, so I asked if he had something smaller and less expensive. Without hesitating, he pulled out a slim anthology of modern Mexican poetry, for just $75. Sold!

I took my treasure and headed back to have that cappuccino! I love how Mexicans put cinnamon in their coffee! I read for quite a bit as I savoured my treat. There’s sugar in the picture, but I didn’t put any in. I only like milk in my coffee.

I then headed back to the hotel to research dinner options. One of the best rated options in all of Durango was Fonda de la Tía Chona, just a few blocks from my hotel (but of course!). It’s next to this building, which I found very charming in a Sleeping Beauty’s castle tucked away behind the thorns kind of way:

Here’s the outside of the restaurant:

The menu is a bit bewildering as it’s laid out like a newspaper, with dish listings peppered between interesting articles. I ordered a XX beer and didn’t have time to order my main before I was brought free appetizers! Spicy and very yummy pickles:

And taquitos!

The decor was very traditional. I really like the white walls and dark wood and would like to find something like that in Mérida.

I ordered chicken mole for dinner and am sad to say I was disappointed at what I got for the price I paid. 🙁 The food was good (although I found the stringy chicken a little rubbery), but I’ve had mole that was at least as good as this for less money. The sauce was most chocolatey mole I’ve ever had, and that’s just a statement of fact, not a value judgment. Every mole is different!

I was on vacation, so I ordered dessert and coffee (yes, I was to regret all that late day coffee when I hit the sack!). My espresso was perfect and I was ‘disappointed’ (and by that I wasn’t) that ‘cheesecake’ in Mexico is exactly like cheesecake back home, with a Graham cracker crust and filling made from Philadelphia cream cheese. Worth the calories, let me tell you! I really don’t do dessert that often anymore and was thrilled that I was happy with this:

Dinner was expensive, but it wasn’t, $260 (just 20CAD for beer, a main, dessert, and coffee!).

Needless to say, I needed to walk off at least part of dinner! Since my hotel was on a main street, I did not hesitate to go exploring after dark!

I wound up back at Plaza de armas, where I found a jewelry vendor who helped me remedy the fact that I managed to leave home without any earrings! These pressed flowers behind glass were bargained down to a mere $75 and were worn all weekend!

I continued quite a ways down 20 de noviembre to a huge Soriana to pick up bananas and water. Those of you on Facebook might remember that I posted that I got lost in it. I’m not kidding! I had to get help to find the bananas and then required an escort to get to the cash registers! Both purchases wound up making sense over the weekend, although the bananas weren’t always a morning food! The hotel gave me bottles of water every day, but I’d run out by this morning (departure day) and was glad I had more.

When I got back to the hotel, I laid out one of my maps and set to work getting a rough idea of what I wanted to see and do in my two days in Durango, although absolutely nothing was set in stone.

I also spent some time in that squashy armchair writing in a journal about my day, hence why my memories are so clear. 🙂

November 8, 2015 by Rae

Revisiting Mazatlán’s Museo Arqueológico

Well, it took a full year less eight days, but I finally made it back to Mazatlán’s archeology museum! I thought it would be something fun to do today since Sundays are free admission.

I’m glad I decided to go to town since I ran into one of my riding friends on the lancha and we are riding tomorrow!

It wound up being a cruise ship day and I guided some tourists to the Malecón from Plazuela Machado (just keep going straight till you hit the water!) before getting to the museum.

The outside of the museum hasn’t changed at all.

Nothing had changed at the museum other than my reading comprehension being even better than it was last year. I took my time reading all the informational placards and looked up the odd word on my phone. I think my favourite exhibit was the Aztatlán pottery, said to be some of the most elaborate pottery in all of the Americas. It is absolutely gorgeous!

This style of drawing never fails to amuse me. It feels so contemporary, something you’d see in the funny papers!

This is a statue of a hunchback and was found on the site of present day Mazatlán. I was surprised to learn that hunchbacks were revered as sacred figures and conferred important governmental jobs.

This striking statue is out in the rear courtyard. I think it’s a bird of some type.

I liked the mixed mediums used for this T-Rex.

There were some lovely paintings in the museum lobby. I liked this one, called “The Last Memory,” the best.

A large tour group came in as I was finishing up, so I didn’t dawdle. I headed the block back towards the Plazuela so I could have lunch at The Water’s Edge. They are still doing a prix fixe lunch menu, identical to last year, but $20 more, for $120. Still very good value for a gourmet lunch with a beer or soft drink!

I sat in their lovely courtyard.

After much hemming and hawing, I ordered what I had last time, their ‘Asian’ chicken salad. Mangos aren’t in season, so they subbed tinned pineapple, which worked! It was a perfect lunch for a hot day. It doesn’t look like much, but there is a whole grilled chicken breast under the greens.

After lunch, I met some more very lost tourists right in front of the Panamá’s a block from the Plazuela. One was a frantic man who had 40 minutes till his ship was leaving port and whose map was pretty much useless since there are so few street signs. He just needed to get back to the blue painted line on Carnaval Street, which would eventually lead him to the docks, and he’d be fine. I told him he had plenty of time and I would personally walk him to the start of the blue line, but, first, let me help these other folks.

They were looking for Hector’s, which was easy. I pointed and said, “See that yellow wall two blocks down with a green sign?” “Yes…” “That’s Hector’s!” They ran off to their own meeting and then I told the first gentleman to follow me. He had been wandering in circles for over an hour and whatever lovely morning he’d had in Maz was obviously ruined by the stress of getting lost. 🙁 I thought he was going to cry when he got to the blue line, he was that relieved. I made sure he didn’t want me to take him all the way to the dock (where I would have taken the more expensive beach lancha to get home) and he refused.

So I turned back and headed towards the other embarcadero, stopping for nieve de garrafa and a pair of earrings along the way. The vendor didn’t recognize me, but she did recognize the earrings I had on as being one of her pairs! There wasn’t much choice today, but it’s not hard to find a pair I like for just $10! And I have to stress again that I’m talking pesos here!

Then, I hoofed it up to Ley to get some sundries and my favourite yoghurt before making a beeline for the embarcadero because I was beat. I did stop in at an abarrotes to pick up a cold bottle of water for the remainder of my walk.

Well, the holiday is over. My first transcription job of November just landed and I really should make inroads in it today since I’m riding tomorrow!

A Life By Design

"Sometimes in life, we reach to a right place by departing from a wrong port with a wrong ship!" ~ Mehmet Murat Ildan

Markets

So I Finally Had a Shrimp Burger at Tony’s…

Visiting Mazatlán’s Tianguis de la Juárez (Flea Market)

Going to the Dentist in Canada vs. Going to the Dentist in Mexico

Getting My Bearings in Durango

Revisiting Mazatlán’s Museo Arqueológico