Countdown to México

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2008-09-13T06:48:00.004-06:00

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Nancy & Paul

It's a family thing...

2008-09-07T09:00:00.004-06:00

Paul and I are excited about our son Adam and his wife Martha making us grandparents of a little girl this coming January!

We have known for a while about their wonderful news, but I hesitated to share it with you until I had asked them if it would be all right. I'm glad I waited, because just yesterday they called with the news that their latest test changed the boy they had been expecting...to a girl.

It's funny. They liked lots of girl names, but had only a couple boy names. And we had always felt that if they ever had a child, it would be a girl. So it had felt a little strange when we thought that it was a boy, the girl-thing felt so strong.

Throws me for a loop, though, since I bought yarn when I went to the US in July to make a blanket for him....in blue and white! Yarn is hard to find around here so I need to put my thinking cap to get something appropriate that isn't blue. (Does anyone know of a nice yarn store in Mexico???)

Since we're so far away from our grandkids up North right now, it will be great to have them just an hour away by air in Mexico City. I'll try hard not to be a nuisance, guys!

Adam and Martha are smart, hardworking, funny, love to read, love art, love to get dirty in the garden. They have a ton of varied interests and are always having people over, traveling somewhere, or have a new project going on. I believe that their child will be challenged daily with new ideas and that is what a child needs to develop to her full potential.

I think she already looks smart and beautiful.

Drip, drip, drip

2008-09-04T21:12:00.003-06:00

It's going to seem strange to say this, but I can kind of get into being dripping wet a lot of the time.

I had read a post Jonna made a long time ago where she said she kind of got into the heat. I really couldn't understand it at the time, but now I can.

This morning I vacuumed the entire house. I came back from walking the dogs already pretty wet. Then the activity of vacuuming turned me into a faucet. I was dripping everywhere, and I mean everywhere! I was dripping on the floor and my clothes were soaked. The only thing I disliked was when it dripped into my eyes. My glasses had big drops on them.

Afterwards I took a shower and (of course) changed my clothes. A nice loose dress and long undies. For the rest of the day, depending on my activity level I was either dry or dripping. Or something in between.

We have air conditioning in the bedrooms and office and for an hour this afternoon I turned it on. But then it was time for a dog walk (they don't have a backyard anymore, after all!) and the dripping started again.

Later, I got sidetracked on the computer and forgot about shutting the blinds, and started dripping again! (Do you see I now have a menu bar underneath the header graphic at the top of the page?)

Then it was dinner time, and another walk, and I am still dripping even though we just turned on the air. Give me five minutes and I'll be nice and cool. Later, a nice cold shower, and bed.

Ordinary Life

2008-09-03T11:33:00.003-06:00

It's just ordinary life here in Mexico these days. The humidity hasn't been too bad this summer so far, until yesterday. It just felt wet most of the day. I didn't eat or drink enough and had kind of a bad moment in the late afternoon but after a bunch of water, a smoothie, and a shower I was back to normal. You really need to pay attention to your body in the heat. I won't make that mistake again.

The men who have been working in our backyard worked throughout the whole day in the heat and humidity, breaking up concrete, mixing concrete and hauling sand and gravel in. I am amazed at how they can work. Truly, I was dripping all down my face, and neck, and back just sweeping the patio this morning!

Paul and I realized that even though we are by no means fluent in Spanish in our ordinary life we do just fine.

He went to the doctor yesterday about his hip and came back saying how much he loves the health care system here! He went to the doctor's office to make an appointment and was told the doctor could see him in a few minutes. The doctor wanted him to get an X-ray, and sent him to a clinic a block away, saying he should come back with the X-ray. He was in and out with his X-ray in just a few minutes. How often would that happen to you up North? The doctor thinks it's inflammation, so I went and got the injection for him and he'll run up to the clinic so they can give him the shot sometime today. Easy as pie. Hopefully he will be back to his old self soon.

Today I had to go to the farmacia for Paul's shot, and also the super medicine for Lucy. Over to the Mercado for Neem capsules for Lucy, too. Then to the eyeglass place because my glasses had a problem. Back to the farmacia.

So the thing that is kind of giving me a thrill is that I don't get apprehensive before I venture out anymore, and I don't rehearse what I am going to need to say. I just go and do my thing, my ordinary things, in Spanish.

Grab Bag

2008-09-02T08:13:00.021-06:00

A little of this and a little of that, today.

Do you like to read news about Mexico? The News is an excellent daily paper in English. Most of the paper is on line, and if you wait until after 3 pm Mexico City time you can download a pdf of the entire edition.

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I said I'd give an update on the peace walk in Mazatlan....well, it's kind of a funny story. People were supposed to gather at the Fisherman's Monument at 5 pm, with the walk starting from there at 6 pm and heading towards the Plaza Republica.

So, Paul and I headed down to the Fisherman's Monument (maybe a mile) but no one was there at 6:05. We walked along Najera up to Serdan and walked along to Zaragoza (another mile I guess.) We didn't see anyone who looked like a marcher, so we were thinking it had been called off. No police, or leftover candle stubs or anything.

By now we were about to expire from the walking in pretty much the hottest part of the day so we stopped at a tienda and bought cokes. Sat in the park on Zaragoza and drank our cokes. Paul's hip has been bothering him lately and he decided he wasn't up to continuing over to the Plaza Republica to see what was up.

I regret we didn't go over there because as it turned out there were 2,500 people and they left EARLY, go figure. The local paper, the Noroeste, has a video of the march here. Live and learn.

As an aside, (two days after the peace march) this morning's paper reports that a young couple and their 5 year old son were shot in their car in Mazatlan yesterday. The child has survived so far. We assume it is drug related, with the story of white pickup trucks, black pickup trucks and a Hummer, but it is pretty unsettling.

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You can see from the picture above that the ginger is growing! I got inspired by LaGringa's post, and am looking forward to my very own ginger farm!

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While we are waiting for the permit from INAH, the historic preservation department, for permission to build the roof in the backyard, the guys are preparing to pour footings. They've cut out the cement where they need them and are putting all kinds of rebar, etc. there. They are going to pour the new slab over the existing, which will be the tiled area under the new roof. The rest of the concrete in the yard will be removed, but not right now. They can use the surface for mixing concrete, and since it is still rainy season keeping the slab until the last minute will prevent a muddy mess.

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I wish I had started my blog using my own software or wordpress or something, but after two years I don't want to give up my URL and start over. But Blogger makes me so mad sometimes! Maybe some of you have some answers for my fustrating issues?

Why does blogger put the picture every time at the top of the post?

If you switch from Compose Mode to Edit HTML Mode it adds weird div tags all over the place?

Why is it when I comment on some Blogger blogs you have a check box for receiving follow up comments by email and sometimes it doesn't?
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Paul and I read the Noroeste every morning without fail, our trusty dictionary by our side. Here's something we read in the paper and have been chuckling about. Maybe it is our "new word of the day?"

Two kids, aged ten and twelve, stole a car here in Mazatlan. Somehow they started it with a spoon, the paper says. Here's the funny part: "Los muchachitos iban zigzagueando por las calles, no sabían manejar bien, por eso los policías los vieron y es cuando les marcan el alto." So now our favorite word is zigzagueando!

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It's the First Latin American Blogger Awards!

2008-08-30T20:40:00.000-06:00

I have decided that it is high time for THE LATIN AMERICAN BLOGGER AWARDS! The winners below are only the first set of awards...no telling when the second Latin American Blogger Awards will be announced.

So, without further ado, here we go - in no particular order:

MOST BEAUTIFUL - I have read Heather in Paradise's post on beauty at least a dozen times, and every time I read it I want to thank her for it. Absolutely beautiful.

MOST AWFUL AND HEARTWARMING - Jennifer and Chuck in Mazatlán were robbed a while back, and her first post about what happened is wonderful. But the saga continued, and I marveled at their ability to stay sane throughout and how the whole thing ended up. There are five follow up posts that I recommend you read in this order - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. I think you'll agree about the awful and heartwarming award once you read them.

MOST FRIENDLY - Wayne in Isla Mujeres comments frequently and is a good friend to so many bloggers! He knocked himself out putting together the Blogger Meetup last April. I count him as a friend even though we haven't met - yet.

BEST DISCONTINUED BLOG - The Road to Merida is a wonderful blog (written by mom Andrea) of two months with her family living in Merida. She is funny, irreverent, and shares so much in a very intimate and disarming way.

MOST PERSONAL & VARIED - Jonna at Blah Blah Blah Ginger! writes about a multitude of interesting topics. From dogs & cats, to remodeling a house in Merida, to their condo on the beach in Akumal, to traveling, and RVs, painful dentistry, and much more. I couldn't figure out how to link to individual posts on her blog so you'll just have to go there and browse around!

MOST HILARIOUS - You need to read Elliott in Ajijic's post on her old life vs. her new life, especially if you used to work in an office. She is always hilarious!

MOST GUTSY - Cynthia and Mike moved from the Pacific Northwest to Mexico City to teach English. Along the way they had a multitude of challenges and setbacks - medical issues when they visited Mexico City, to disillusionment with the teaching arrangements once they got there. Not people to cave in when the going got tough, they regrouped, and with help of blogger Brenda and others, ended up in Guyamas, in a great living situation and with a teaching gig. You guys are gutsy and strong!

MOST INTERESTING - John lives in San Miguel de Allende. He gets around, though. Wherever he travels he posts wonderful in-depth accounting of the most interesting bits. His travels in Europe, Argentina, and around México are always - and I mean always - wonderful. I tried to pick out one post as a favorite, but I couldn't as they are always interesting, and accompanied by exquisite pictures as well.

MOST INTELLECTUAL, HIP & EDGY - Malcolm and Jillian of Dropped In have dropped out from blogging a little bit lately, but I am hoping they'll be back soon. They live at the beach in the Yucatan and look at the world from a fresh perspective. Unafraid and witty, they always make me think. And laugh. And wish I was in my 30's again. Read this post for sure, and check out the rest.

BEST PHOTOGRAPHY - Award goes to Billie in San Miguel de Allende. Her photographs are thought provoking and challenging without being sentimental or trite. I've loved being introduced to the Holga and have learned quite a lot about photography from her. Oh, as well as about Mexico, cooking, friendship, growing older, and much much more.

MOST RELIABLE - The Working Gringos at Yucatan Living have been one of my favorites for a long time. They have basically created a portal for information on Merida and the Yucatan - which sounds dry and businesslike - but oh, no, it isn't. From interviews with people living and working in the area, to excursions into the countryside, to restaurant reviews, and the details of building a house or getting your car licensed - there is something for everyone. Even if you don't live in the Yucatan.

So there you have it! The winners of the FIRST LATIN AMERICAN BLOGGERS AWARDS!

Iluminemos Mazatlán

2008-08-30T09:20:00.005-06:00

Mazatlán will be joining with 67 other cities around the country in a silent march this evening to show solidarity against rising crime levels.

Everyone will gather at 5 pm at the Fisherman's Monument to sing the national anthem. We will all be wearing white and carrying candles. The march will be silent, and will end at the Plazuela Republica.

It is the hope that this simultaneous march will send a message that the people of México are united in their desire for the end to violence and uncertainty.

If you're in Mazatlán or any of the other cities participating, we encourage you to participate. If your city doesn't have an organized walk, perhaps a candle in your front window at 6 pm Mexico City time would be a good alternative.

The Dog Days of Summer

2008-08-29T09:34:00.010-06:00

Last night's sunset was so beautiful! The rainy season really brings out a whole different look to the sky at night, and I like it.

Life has been quiet lately, both of us have felt a bit out of sorts. We're just so used to bopping around town alot and it is just too hot and steamy to do much walking during the day. Paul has been working a fair bit, too.

On top of that, the dogs got a touch of something and Lucy's ears got goopy again. More medicine and worries. If her ears aren't better this afternoon I will call the vet and get the stronger medicine for her. Floppy ear dogs have problems in the humidity here!

We've also had to cancel our planned week driving trip to Guadalajara, Morelia, and Patzcuaro. Our dogsitter had to cancel at the last minute and we just weren't able to fix things up with a substitute...especially with Lucy not being 100% well. We hope to reschedule it soon.

But the good news is that Monday they are going to start on the remodeling of the back yard. We have gone back and forth on what we want to do to the back yard - for a while we were thinking about a pool - but then we got a bid and had to rethink the plan. We are going to have a long roof put over the house side wall - constructed with salvaged ebony posts and salvaged vigas. We're going to use cement tile on the floor. The balance of the backyard will be grass and plants - our seriously pruned hibiscus and bouganvillia are thriving, and they, along with the palm and bamboo should provide a nice foundation for the rest of the plants. I know the dogs will welcome the grass and the cover from the roof will keep the house cool and give us a nice place to sit and rock in the shade.

Another great bit of news is that it seems pretty likely that we'll see our son and his family from Washington in November. I miss them all a lot so hearing that they're coming really made my day! Here's a picture of them taken at their other grandma's house this summer.

Some more blogs to check out...

2008-08-25T09:29:00.005-06:00

I've been on a roll lately (hmmm...a blogroll) finding people blogging about their lives in Mexico. Check them out:

Family moves to Merida - their ¡Vamanos! blog is about their life in Mérida. The whole family moved for Dad's work, and they expect to stay in Mexico until 2010.

Larry & Indra in Progreso write Yucatan Rebirth. They are almost done building their house, and their most recent post gives a nice tour of Progreso.

David Lida in Mexico City - Very interesting writer (of several books) His posts are always relevant and I have added one of his books to my Amazon wish list.

Mexico Bob lives and works in Irapuato. He seems like a very nice, genuine, intelligent person - and his posts are well written and interesting.

Our final link is to a page on Mexico Guru with a quiz that will help you decide where to retire in Mexico. Fun and harmless.

Creative solutions?

2008-08-24T15:18:00.009-06:00

I told you all in a previous post that my career was in property management. One of the main things property managers do is to make sure the structure stays sound....protect the roof, keep water out, etc. But my work life was in the Pacific Northwest where wood is used for everything! It will rot if it gets wet! My new life with cement and tile is taking a bit of getting used to.

I get aggravated by bad planning. They do this a lot around here...the patio needed to have a lip at the doorway so the water will flow towards the drain - I get that part. But why not install the door so all the water that hits the door doesn't flow down and into the house?

I'm not satisfied piling towels where there are problems, so I had to figure out a work around. I took two of the metal seed guards from our bird cage and they keep 95% of the water outside where it belongs.

Our kitchen window is another case of bad planning somewhere in the last century. See the scupper (downspout thing) that dumps its water right on top of the window? Grrrr. So I took one of the plexiglass inserts to the seed guards and taped up the bottom of the window. As part of our backyard renovation we are going to have a long roof for this side of the house that will keep all three windows on this side nice and dry.

Here's another funny solution. Above our office, upstairs, there is a long wide window that I just love because it turns the stairwell into a chimney and evacuates the hot air nicely. But if it gets to raining hard the water will bounce up and in. I needed a way to be able to close them - fast - without running to the garage for the ladder. So, if you look carefully you'll see that each window has a piece of cord tied around the handle which are hanging down in the center of the doorway right now, since the windows are closed. Kind of dumb looking but it works! (It kind of reminds me of a contraption I built as a kid so I could turn the light switch off from my bed when I heard my mom coming...)

It has been raining a lot the last few days. We're ready for it to stop and give us a couple days to dry out, but really, we're not complaining. Everything is green, the streets are clean, and the dams are filling up. That's good.

Shopping trip

2008-08-20T16:39:00.012-06:00

Magnetized ramp at Mega

We went shopping today at Mega and thought that the cost of our purchases might be interesting, especially to those of you planning a budget for when you move. Grocery prices have been rising everywhere, though, and there is an article in the paper at least every week about inflation and its impact on the poor.

PRODUCE

I am going to make gazpacho and garlic soup in the next couple of days, as well as a pasta salad. Most of these ingredients are for those dishes. All prices are in pesos. For a rough dollar equivalent, divide by 10. A kilogram is 2.2 lbs.

Large green onions (bunch) - 6.90

Plum Tomatoes (7.90/kg) - 10.15

Cucumbers (8.80/kg) - 8.45

Chile Cristal (24.00/kg) - 3.72

Leek (19.50/kg) - 9.95

Red Peppers (20.60/kg) - 6.90

Serrano Chiles (16.50/kg) - .91

Star Fruit (29.80/kg) 1.49

Limes (4.90/kg) - 1.84

Italian Squash (10.90/kg) 4.03 (some were already used)

Hass Avocado (32.90/kg) - 28.46

White Potatoes (9.90/kg) - 9.06

Carrots (5.90/kg) - 7.26

Total pictured: 99.12 pesos (about $9.91US)

GROCERIES

Milk (per box) - 2 @ 11.00 - 22.00

Pasta - 29.20

Chips Ahoy - 26.79

Baguette - 7.00

Wheat Bread - 18.75

Sardines - 8.67

Raisins - 20.20

Almonds - 18.82

Canned Soup - 19.50

Canned Chipotles - 10.90

Total pictured 181.83 pesos (approx 18.18 US)

TOILETRIES

Toothbrush 1 - 32.35

Toothbrush 2 - 34.07

Deodorant - 31.86

Talcum powder - 74.50 (I really wanted the powder puff applicator! Splurge!)

Toilette water - 26.50

Q-tips - 19.90

Total pictured 219.18 (approx 21.92 US)

COLD CASE

Sour cream - 5.95

Tortillas - 4.96

Total pictured 10.91 pesos (approx 1.09 US)

BEVERAGES

I get migranes if I have Nutrasweet, so the Naturel diet soda is a lifesaver! I love it. I have two white wines I like that are in my price range for everyday - the Gallo (don't gasp) above, and a Mexican white by Monte Xanic. Sometimes they have it, sometimes not.

Naturel diet soda with Splenda - 15.80

Naturel diet soda with Splenda - 15.80

Gallo Chardonnay - 78.80

Total pictured - 110.40 pesos (approx 11.04 US)

In summary, all the food shown above amounted to $62.15 US. If we hadn't needed toiletries this time, it would have been a lot cheaper.

Rainy Monday

2008-08-18T09:01:00.013-06:00

Rainy season is in full swing here in Mazatlán. We've been trying to learn to read the sky to have some idea if rain will come, or not. It's a new vocabulary of clouds and air feel and what the birds are doing that we are trying to learn.

I'd been ready for the rainstorm Saturday night. All the windows were shut, a few things were moved out of the way that would get wet, and a couple of problem windows had towels at their base. When we got up Sunday it was still a bit drizzly, but it cleared up as the day went on, and turned into a beautiful evening.

This morning we had already let the dogs know we were heading out for a walk when all of a sudden it started raining. It's been raining for more than an hour now and I have no idea if it will stop shortly or not. Ni modo!

Below is a video from this morning of our cinnamon hummingbird having a bath in the rain. It is almost like having a pet bird - he is in our patio about 80% of the time, and he really does seem to chirp more when he sees us.

What happened here?

2008-08-16T07:43:00.010-06:00

Paul and I have a thing for black dogs. Back in the US we even named our property Black Dog Farm. Lucy the lab mix was our first black dog. Here's Lucy with our second black dog, a Scottish Terrier, Angus. Angus died about a year before we moved, of cancer.

Angus did have a chance to meet Henry, though. Henry joined our pack when my boss and his family (after careful research and $750) decided (after 1 week) that they couldn't actually have a puppy.

Henry is a Schnauzer-Poodle mix. It is a designer breed called a Schnoodle. For most of his life, we have kept him trimmed like a schnauzer, (see previous post) but we decided to see if he wanted to try being a poodle for a while. It is hot here and he had some mats under his chin.

I think after the summer he'll go back to being a schnauzer again!

We love presents!

2008-08-13T13:58:00.009-06:00

It is quite a thrill to hear a whistle at the front door and find the postman waiting with an unexpected box! Some of our family members sent us the most wonderful package, full of dog toys and gourmet jams and preserves.

We were also amazed that it got here in one week, but they did send it priority mail.

This was a real treat, and made us very happy. Now we had better go tell them how thrilled we are! You can tell Henry and Lucy are happy, can't you?

A Few New Blogs

2008-08-12T09:53:00.007-06:00

I am always on the lookout for interesting people blogging from Mexico. Here are a few I am adding to my blogroll:

Joy in Mexico City - Joy and her dog Charlie live in the Condesa neighborhood of Mexico City. I love her energy and writing style.

Paul in Merida - Paul writes Hammock Musings from Merida. He writes about everything from poetry to finances.

Allan and Matt in Playa del Carmen - These guys and their two dogs are enroute to Playa right now, moving from Boston. They are having fun so far - it should be interesting to follow along!

Toni in Walamo - Toni is a young Michigan woman who came to Walamo, a very small town outside Mazatlán, to teach English for the summer. She lived with a family and I really enjoyed her stories of small town life. She has headed home now so I won't add her to the blog roll but thought you might enjoy reading her blog.

Odd Food Day

2008-08-10T21:11:00.002-06:00

Hot days change the way you think about food.

It started out kind of normally for me with an espresso and a piece of toast with peanut butter.

We went to Mega for groceries mid-morning. So, for lunch I had a croissant a la Mega and a bit of Watermelon-Jicama-Mint salad that I made with our newly purchased produce. And a bag of gomitas, courtesy of Grocery Shopping Day.

Dinner was a half of a cucumber and about 20 almonds. Ben & Jerry's Chunky Monkey ice cream for dessert...don't even ask what that cost, or how far it had to travel to get here!

Around nine this evening I made palomitas (popcorn) popped on the stove, in oil, with red pepper flakes added to the oil. And a glass of wine.

A weird food day, but a good day!

A little of this, a little of that.

2008-08-09T07:03:00.011-06:00

Here's a picture of my new friend. I believe it is a Cinnamon hummingbird (Amazilla rutila). He has decided that he owns our feeder, us, and our patio. If another bird comes while he is here, he chases them off and then immediately returns, making a little beeping sound that I have decided means "I'm back."

I don't understand why my wrists are the first place on my body to perspire when I start getting hot. Seems strange to me. (You can see a bit of my tattoo)

We've been watching the transformation of the building across from Shrimp Bucket on the malecon and now it seems the remodel of the new tourist office is complete. I'm not sure if it's open yet, but if not it is very close. One of the reasons they wanted this location is because there is parking nearby - we wonder what that will do to the group of about 8 men who run a car wash business using the parking there?

I bought a few new dog toys when I was up in the US last month. Henry likes the blue one best!

It's a beach day today...Paul needs a break - he worked about 40 hours this week, which is remarkably like actually working. The only difference is he doesn't have to go to meetings and he is usually sitting at his computer without a shirt on!

Tourism in the City

2008-08-06T06:48:00.009-06:00

Confetti at night

One of the things I am discovering that I love about Mazatlán is the way it changes throughout the year. As the visitors change, so does the feel of the city. Here's a snapshot:

November is when the snowbirds arrive from the US and Canada. US and Canadian tourists, too. The malecon is loaded with white skinned people wearing funny hats and fanny packs worn backwards. The cruise ships start arriving more regularly, usually three on Wednesday and two on Thursday. The end of November is the Mazatlan Marathon.

December and January are the same as November, above. The Maz social season is in full swing, with lots of concerts in the plazas, art exhibits, performances at the Angela Peralta theater, benefits , and home tours. Commerce slows down a lot during the Christmas holidays - government offices close in particular but people would rather party than work. (and why not?) Impromptu parades are common.

February - The dates for Carnaval change every year but the party-like atmosphere starts several weeks before. Banners go up on the malecon, things get repainted, large public art pieces are erected with the Carnaval theme, etc. Carnaval itself is a week long party. Mexican tourists come to town, lots of people from the countryside, and plenty of gringos. I wrote about 2008 Carnaval here. Next year Carnaval is from February 19-24.

March - March is more US and Canadian tourists and a general exhale once Carnaval is over. Spring break up North brings lots of college students with the intention of blowing off steam. Which usually involves alcohol. We aren't as aware of spring breakers here in Centro, thank goodness.

April - 40 days after Carnaval is Easter. And Easter in Mexico means Semana Santa. This is a big occasion for Mexicans to get away for vacation, and traditionally they love to go to the beach. The beaches are packed and there is a lively, fun atmosphere in Centro. Up in the golden zone it gets a little crazier, with some streets having to be closed due to the crushes of people. It's a party! After Semana Santa comes Moto Week, and not long after that, the Mazatlán Triatholon and Aerofest.

May - Social season starts to wind down. People talk about "going home." This is the month with the best weather of the year. The city feels kind of quiet. There are fewer cruise ships.

June - A pretty quiet month. Hardly any expats to be seen. One or two cruise ships per week.

July & August - These months are hot and humid, but that doesn't stop the Mexican people from wanting to come to the beach! Hotels are at about 85% occupancy and the malecon and beaches are jammed. It's a peaceful and fun time, with happy families and big tour busses parked here and there. Probably only one cruise ship per week.

September & October - The kids are back in school, and it's still hot here. The weather usually breaks the first week in November. So September and October are somewhat quiet months. People are indoors more when the sun is blazing, and come out for a stroll in the evening. The month winds up with the Day of the Dead, last year we walked (with thousands of others) from altar to altar downtown following the donkey-pulled beer carts. Very fun.

So there you have it! The cycle of life in Mazatlán.

This I Believe

2008-08-04T10:27:00.008-06:00

It is important to vote. If you're an American citizen living abroad, you need to take steps now to obtain an absentee ballot from your home state. (If you haven't already!) It really is easy. Just go to www.votefromabroad.org and follow the instructions.

I hope all of the American bloggers living outside the US will take the time to follow the link above to make sure their voice is heard.

Below is a short video (with Gwyneth Paltrow) encouraging voting from abroad created by Democrats Abroad.

Light sleeper

2008-08-04T06:32:00.002-06:00

Rainy season is thunder and lightning storm season here in Mazatlán. With most of the rain coming at night, that means most thunder and lightning comes at night.

I've been up this morning since 5 am. Lightning started flashing and I had forgotten to put the little folded cardboard shim in our bedroom window, so it was rattling. Then Henry got worried and jumped on the bed. I was awake so I decided to shut down our computers (we leave them on to combat the humidity) and let the dogs out before it started raining.

Of course we had been up late last night playing old Tom Waits music (New Coat of Paint, The Heart of Saturday Night, Ol' 55, The Ghost of Saturday Night), and talking while drinking wine (me) and tequila (Paul.) Way too late to be up at 5 am.

Then I made a cup of espresso, grabbed my knitting and went to sit on the couch in the office, which is the only furniture the dogs are allowed on. Henry trembled next to me, flinching at each flash of lightning. He is way worse when there is a lot of thunder, but there wasn't much this morning.

So, it's now 6:30 and I am tired. I know I can't go back to sleep, so I guess today will be a siesta day for me. How can I learn to sleep through these little storms? I just wish I wasn't such a light sleeper.

Life of Luxury

2008-08-02T15:16:00.000-06:00

Dictionary.com defines luxury as:

A material object, service, etc., conducive to sumptuous living, usually a delicacy, elegance, or refinement of living rather than a necessity.

Given that definition, retirement and our way of life is the life of luxury to me.

I worked hard all my life in a career that chose me, not of my own choosing. I mean who would choose to be a property manager? I had some good times, but for the most part managing staff and sometimes crazy apartment and office tenants was managing problems every single day. I know I am lucky now to be retired, in a wonderful place, with Paul, and I don't take it for granted.

So here are some of my luxuries:

I can read any time I want. Not just ten minutes before bed. Not just the newspaper. I read a lot, at least a couple of books a week. Sunny days. Rainy days. Anytime. I never feel lazy, I just read. Quite a luxury.

I can eat when I'm hungry. No rushing a piece of toast on my way out the door. No business lunches with people I don't really care for. No "lunch hour." I can eat when I want!

I can knit when I feel like it. Getting a theme going here, I think. Knitting was a winter pursuit, and I had so little time to do it I'd put it down and then stitches would get pulled out or I would lose the pattern or something so it would be ruined. Once I left a couple of wool arms to a sweater in my knitting basket for so long that there was a moth hole in one! Right now I'm working on a tank sweater for myself and I am planning a curtain for the little window in the bathroom and a baby blanket.

Guadalupe mops the floors. This is a real luxury. Twice a week Guadalupe comes and mops the floors, dusts, and cleans the bathrooms. What a treat. I still vacuum intermittently, do laundry, wash the ceiling fans and windows, and keep things picked up. But having the floors and bathrooms taken care of on a regular basis is wonderful.

I have a number of writing projects that I am just starting to think about that I will be working on once I get my thoughts more arranged. I've learned how to nap. I stay up late. I think I'm going to buy a sewing machine and make some clothes and things for the house. Luxuries, all.

While I feel luxuriously commitment free, Paul has been working for the last few days for his former employer in the US. The person they had hired to replace him has quit, so he is filling in (up to the Social Security allowed amount) for the next month or so. So while he is cranking away at the computer I fix him snacks in between spurts of knitting or reading or dog walking or whatever. I'm a tiny bit envious of the work he has but not enough to scare something up for myself.

I'm grateful for this great life and I know how lucky I am to have it.

Some of us love our new life in Mexico

2008-07-28T14:00:00.000-06:00

"Pick up after your dog" sign in Mazatlán

"Pick up after your dog" sign in Bellingham, WA (with bags provided)

I've heard stories of a number of people who moved to Mexico and decided to move back to the US before their first year was up. Some are firsthand stories of people known to our friends and family. The stories were told to us in a loving but cautionary way by people who were worried the same thing would happen to us. They didn't want to see us disillusioned or hurt, either emotionally or financially.

We've been here almost a year now, and I can truly say that we are both very happy with our decision to move. We love the community, the house, the neighborhood, and the weather. I could go on and on - and I have, actually, as this blog is witness.

Without going into details, I have heard lately of a number of people who have moved back or are planning on moving back to the US. It's made me think about why we were successful and try to figure out what we might have done differently than they did.

We had traveled in Mexico extensively
My son and his wife live in Mexico and were a great source of information and ideas
We made a really solid "must have" list for our new community
We worked through our control issues with regard to litter, barking dogs, etc
We have taken it slow, not joining every organization just to fill time
We really like spending time with each other
We are committed to learning the language
We had thought about the challenges facing us ahead of time (vegetarian food/the language)
We helped each other get through bad patches instead of escalating frustration

That's a few of the things I think we did right. Here are some observations about some things unsatisfied folks maybe could have done better:

Think ahead about how you will deal with aggravations like barking dogs, litter and no-show repairmen. Have strategies ready. You need to be honest with yourself to do this.
Settle in a home that fits your lifestyle. If you like to walk, make it easy on yourself, don't buy on the top of a hill.
Surround yourself with people who bring out the good in you, and who make you feel positive.
Think about whether your move is all about one thing (i.e. you can live here for less money)
Think about whether you are you open minded? Accepting? Positive? Flexible?
Think about whether you want to adapt to the culture. Will you be unhappy if you can't find a store open during siesta or your favorite food item?
Do you like to settle disputes with a lawsuit? Probably Mexico isn't a good fit for you.

We're here for the long haul. Are you? Or no? I'd love to hear why.

Eating Close to Home

2008-07-27T06:40:00.000-06:00

Gas costs a lot. Refrigeration costs a lot. Loading and unloading do, too. So it makes a lot of sense - even in just financial terms - to eat food that is grown locally. A lot of people are beginning to question our desire for out of season foods - why eat strawberries in January in Seattle when they'll be fresh in May? Especially if they'll have to be shipped from South America? How good can they taste after travelling for weeks?

I just finished reading Barbara Kingsolver's book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. She and her family set out to prove to themselves that they could eat from within 100 miles of home - with only a few exceptions. (Olive oil and flour for example) They grew a huge garden, raised chickens and turkeys, and bought the rest of their meat from local farmers. No more asparagus in winter for them!

I love buying produce here. But I am struggling to figure out what the seasons are for produce. Mangos and avocados I know - I see the trees around here and can watch the fruit ripening.

Being in a new climate has raised hell with my preconceptions of seasons. When are Mexican strawberries locally available? How can I do my part in buying locally grown produce without the basic schedule in my new environment? I haven't had any luck Googling, so I will need to talk to the fruteria owners and read whatever labels I can find. Even in our mercado you will see apples with stickers from Washington State!

I know Mexico values the US market for their produce, but the whole transporation issue means that it won't be the last time tomatoes or jalapenos or cilantro are suspected when illness strikes.

When food is being transported a long way, varieties are selected based on how well the produce travels and how uniform its shape is. This isn't a new concept. I remember that my father (a food consultant) was interviewed in 1974 lamenting the loss of taste in tomatoes which were being bred for their square shape and thick skins.

In the US, the Slow Food movement, the Locavore movement, and the proliferation of farmer's markets and organic produce create a support network for people who would like to eat good, tasty food that grew nearby. Heirloom varieties are sought after for their taste and their seeds that grow true to the parent.

Here in Mexico, we can buy from our local fruteria or mercado whenever possible. I occasionally see organic produce in the supermarket, but unfortunately it usually looks pretty unappetizing. Until I figure out the harvest schedule in our area Paul and I plan on driving into the countryside occasionally where you'll see heaps of watermelons or other produce being sold from a stand or back of a truck.

How else can we buy the best produce? How can we understand the use of pesticides in an individual crop? Is there a movement here brewing that will reduce the use of pesticides and even maybe embrace organic growing? Do any readers have sources they can share with information that would help me sort this out?

Rejas or Bars or Protections, whatever you call them

2008-07-26T15:45:00.000-06:00

In most of Mexico, bars on the windows are a fact of life. I love them! What a sense of freedom there is to be able to have any and all windows in your house open whenever you want!

In the summertime here in Mazatlán, it is hot and muggy. The thing that saves us is air movement. We get some from the ceiling fans but we really count on the breeze we get through our open windows and doors, too.

Before we got the iron door made for our master bath we had to always prop the door open with a brick and remember to close it when we left the house. And there was no opportunity to catch a through-breeze during most of the year when we sleep with our windows open. Here's a picture of it, below....it has obscure glass that can open separately from the door. (The picture is taken from the patio outside)

Some protections are plain, and some are fancy. I love this one, don't you?

Here's a close-up of the bit at the top. The house is about a half block from the ocean - you can see the salt air has done a number on it!

Some are classic, like the one below. See the shutter behind the bars? Those of us with houses right on the sidewalk in Centro really appreciate the privacy. Paul and I will get them for our house someday.

Some are kind of plain-Jane but nice:

Some don't protect anything anymore!

And some are more beautiful and elegant than you can imagine. I love the curl at the top so much!

I love being able to be upstairs, or taking a nap, or able to leave the house and have our house stay fresh and cool. (okay, not exactly cool, but...) They are perfectly suited to the climate and lifestyle here.

And we can't forget how nice it is for a dog to sit and be able to say hello to everyone who walks by!

Happy Dogs

2008-07-24T11:37:00.000-06:00

What dog doesn't look happy when they are face down in their food dish? It hasn't always been that way for us - both our dogs were off and on picky eaters most of their lives. Henry had been known to not eat for more than a day for no reason that we could discern.

When we moved here the dogs had been eating a fancy designer expensive dog food. I liked that it was more real nutrition and that they produced smaller stools. I figured that their bodies were actually absorbing more of the food due to less filler.

Lucy - like many floppy eared dogs - has had problems for most of her almost nine years with fungal infections in her ears, especially when the seasons change. She also had bad dandruff and chewed her feet almost compulsively.

A few months ago she was really in a bad way so we took her to the vet. After examining her, he recommended an elimination diet - just rice and tuna or salmon to start with. He also sold us her usual ear medicine and some shampoo.

So, we changed the dogs over to this new diet, which now consists of tuna, rice, frozen peas and chicken all mixed together. Being a vegetarian I don't like to mess around with cooking chicken so I bought chicken breasts (quite inexpensively) at Sam's Club to add to the food.

Both dogs are now enthusiastic eaters. They eat it up and then check each other's dish, just in case. They lick the little pieces of rice off the floor. Lucy's skin has cleared up beautifully, she only licks her feet once in a while, and I can keep her ears under control with cleaning every week.

I like the fact that they are eating without a lot of fillers and unknown additives. It is a bit expensive but no more so than the fancy food...and I am happier knowing that I am taking good care of our best friends!

Oh, and the treats that we give them now in place of store-bought dog cookies? Carrots!

Yin and Yang

2008-07-22T06:41:00.000-06:00

Erica and Owen on Lake Whatcom

I knew that ten months separation from the US meant there would be some culture shock for me during my trip North. A few observations:

Driving was almost boring. I clicked away at the XM Radio in my rental and waited and waited for people to wake up and drive! Merging is a little practiced art in Washington. People don't just GO when it's their turn. Turn signals were blinking everywhere I looked.

The car culture was a bit of a shock, too. I am used to walking a lot...just to live my normal life. In the US people seem to go for walks, not just walk. Big parking lots, ample parking, and SO MANY new cars seem unusual to me now. I'd sort of forgotten about how much drive through fast food there is.

I was in my element shopping, though. I have struggled here in Mazatlán to find the kind of clothes I want, and have had a hard time figuring out my size. Clothes are expensive here, too. So I had fun going to stores like Macy's where I knew my size and knew the sale racks would be behind the other merchandise. The end of season sales really helped me out and I got lots of loose shirts and dresses - among other things.

Pay phones are hard to find anymore. The only place I saw them was at the rest area or a convenience store.

Comics...the newspapers have comics! And the Sunday paper has ads for everything you could possibly want (but probably don't need.)

People speak English. Obvious, I know. But I am so used to translating menus and thinking ahead about what I will say I felt kind of lazy.

Headphones are on nearly every head. Not just kids. Not just little white earbuds...but every kind of large and small headphone you can imagine. The spectrum of what they are listening to is probably as varied as the types of headphones. NPR? Music? Books? Podcasts? Is it just the fad or are they saying "don't bother me?"

Credit, everywhere. Pretty much every store I went to offered me a discount if I would apply for their credit card. And when I said I lived out of the country, they thought I meant Canada!

Some things cost a lot. Restaurant food. A glass of wine. Parking downtown. Gas (around $4.40/gal) A cup of coffee.

Some things are less expensive. Clothing. English books. Hair clips. A set of outdoor furniture at Fred Meyer with 6 chairs, a table, cushions, and an umbrella for under $250. In Mazatlan it would be at least $1,200 dollars!

What did I bring back? Different things than I thought I would. Books, Clothing, Seeds, Tea, Casement window hardware, French door hardware, Yarn, Aloe Vera, Vitamins, Last season's Dog Whisperer on DVD, Dog toys, and Dog tags with our Maz information.

What didn't I buy? Peanut butter. (too heavy) Frontline Plus for the dogs (no time to go to a different pet store) A WII Fit (decided it was too frivolous)

What had I forgotten? That it is stunningly beautiful there in the summer. There were lovely sunsets, sunny days in the 70's, and nice cool nights perfect for sleeping.

It was a great week, but I am glad to be home!

Washington Week In Review

2008-07-21T10:28:00.001-06:00

I just got back last night from my week in Washington State. I had a wonderful time and am really glad I went....but also am glad to be back! Here's a little summary of the fun I had:

Sunday evening upon arrival in Seattle I picked up my rental car and headed to my sister's house. We drank wine and duty-free tequila and caught up on everything.

Monday we took a wonderful walk on Ruston Way in Tacoma - along the Commencement Bay waterfront and through Old Town and back home. After that, lunch with our aunt and uncle as they passed through town in their RV on their way to visit friends for a week. Here they are with my sister at the restaurant:

My aunt became our surrogate mom after our mother died when we were kids, and as she is now 86 I was so happy we were able to see each other on this trip.

My sister had to go in to the office Tuesday morning so I went to Target, PetSmart, and Rejuvenation Hardware on my way to Seattle to join up with her.

I'll leave out the part about going to her office but it was fun to be a fly on the wall as breaking news publication decisions were made.

We booked a room with a city view at the Sheraton and had a sister's night in Seattle. We shopped and roamed around - took care of banking, etc. For dinner we ate at Lola, Tom Douglas's newest Greek-inspired restaurant. We ordered based on the most interesting combinations: Appetizer of Pita with Kalamata and greek fig spread...Salad of watermelon, feta, arugula and basil...Smashed garlic fried potatoes...wild mushroom kabobs. It was wonderful.

The next day my sister had a presentation to give to the Board so she got dressed and practiced it on me. Excellent, of course.

After she went to work I drove to Bellingham to visit with our oldest son and his family. I miss my son and his wife but it's the grandkids that change so fast! I really miss them. As an aside I spent a ton of time trying to get their webcam to work but I believe it's not compatible with Vista. What a nightmare.

We went for a long walk in the sunshine along the water in Bellingham. People were crabbing from the piers and teenagers were jumping into the water and screaming because it was so cold! We hit the tail end of the farmer's market and strolled through an independent bookstore.

They took me out for a really special dinner at Anthony's Home Port, a Washington chain famous for its seafood and northwest flavor. Erica took the picture below after dinner.

Erica did her hair for dinner with the chopsticks I bought her. She had been doing her hair up with a pencil after learning how in her Daring Book for Girls.

We took their boat out one afternoon on Lake Whatcom. We cruised up and down, and stopped and let the kids swim here and there. They'd decided not to take the big inner tube thing because it was a little chilly. Here they are swimming off the boat:

Both kids are excellent students and also excellent athletes. Owen received the Defensive MVP award at his baseball camp this summer.

Erica has been taking swimming lessons and participated in a swim meet on Saturday. It was the first time I've seen her seriously swim, and she won two firsts and a fifth! The video below is the 50 meter backstroke, in which she won first place. There were three heats.

In between all this family time were various outings for shopping and eating that you are probably grateful I didn't photograph! Now, I had better go see what all my blogger friends have been up to!

Heading North for a week...

2008-07-12T11:29:00.000-06:00

For the first time in ten months, I am leaving Mexico tomorrow...but just for a week. It's time for a visit with family in Washington State - I'm going by myself, leaving Paul here to take care of the house and dogs.

I have lots of lists of things to do and buy when I'm there, but the main thing is to reconnect, especially with the grandkids.

Our son Adam (who lives in Mexico City) has warned me that in his experience it is really strange to go back to a place that you know so well but where you don't have a home. I know that will be odd for me, too.

I'll be renting a car and I am expecting a bit of a shock in that department, too. Wide highways and more restrained driving habits and all! Here in Mexico driving is more of a sport - kind of like skiing - you swoop and slide here and there and it would be impossible to not pay attention every second.

I'll miss all the cups of fresh fruit and vegetable snacks. Chip bags slit on the side and seasoned with salsa and lime. Gomitas! But I look forward to some Boca bratwurst and Gardenburgers and other vegie options I don't get here.

The sidewalks will seem so wide and flat. I wonder what I'll notice about being back among Americans? I'll have to write about my impressions when I get back.

Since 80 degrees now seems cool to me, I wonder how I'll fare in the cooler temperatures?

I plan on helping my son and his family get their web cam set up so we can have video calls using Windows Messenger. It will be so nice to be able to finally see them in between visits!

I'm not sure if I'll be posting during my time away - I may just be having too much fun! Hasta luego!

It's time for a vacation at the beach!

2008-07-10T08:40:00.001-06:00

July and August are vacation months for the Mexican people. And where do they like to go? The beach, of course!

Mazatlán has been filling up with Mexican tourists, and the it feels very festive and fun. And different than in the winter, when it is full of American and Canadian tourists. For one thing, there are more cars, since many of them drive here. For another, they do at least some of their own cooking. You should have been at Mega yesterday morning, it was a zoo!

Paul and I read the paper every day and today had a couple of interesting bits that I thought you might be interested in:

The Secretary of Tourism listed the most popular destinations for Mexican tourists in the summer - the figures below are estimates for 2008.

Acapulco 934,861

Veracruz 422,269

Mazatlán 311,552

Puerto Vallarta 210,942

Cancún 199,913

Makes sense to me since Acapulco and Veracruz are pretty easy driving destinations from Mexico City.

Then, there was an article on the cleanliness of the beaches. The water was tested at a number of beaches and the cleanliness is measured by something called "enterococos." I tried to look it up and can tell it is some kind of bacteria but don't know much more than that. Here are a few statistics:

Olas Altas,Mazatlan - 10 enterococos/100 ml

Cerritos, Mazatlan - 96 enterococos/100 ml

Mismaloya, Vallarta - 1201 enterococos/100 ml

La Boquita, Manzanillo - 450 enterococos/100 ml

Los Arcos, Veracruz - 480 enterococos/100 ml

Boca del Cielo, Chiapas - 644 enterococos/100 ml

Payucan II, Campeche - 615 enterococos/100 ml

The beach testing information was provided by Greenpeace. Recommended enterococos level should be less than 100 enterococos/100 ml.

The article didn't say the cause of the bacteria - summertime waters are warmer and I am sure bacteria occurs naturally as well as due to human causes. I would like to know more about this, unfortunately the article in the paper didn't explore it in depth.

We are happy that Mazatlán's beaches seem to be extremely clean. And the 311,552 tourists expected this summer are probably happy about that, too.

Trying to learn some new tricks

2008-07-08T18:45:00.001-06:00

I read Theresa's blog post about missing her reference books, and it made me think about how many adjustments I've needed to make in my cooking since moving to Mexico.

I guess I should clarify. I am a vegetarian, and I brought my favorite five or six cookbooks with me when we moved. But it is challenging to make anything out of them without substitutions since so many things are hard to find or unavailable.

I was looking through my cookbooks for inspiration the other day and here are a few examples:

Green onions - I have never seen them here - there are some kind of larger type green onions but the greens are always ratty and not too appealing. They grill them and put them on the side of the plate in restaurants here.

Cheese - Some cheeses substitute for the ones called for in my recipes, sometimes they don't. I can find Gruyere and Feta cheese here and once in a while nice Cheddar and Parmesan.

Herbs - Cilantro and parsley are easy to find. Last week I found nice mint. I want to make some dilled cucumbers, hopefully I can find dried dill. I've never seen chives. Last Thanksgiving I offered to bring stuffing to a potluck and I chased all over everywhere trying to find sage! I finally found a dried "Hierbas finas" blend that had enough sage to do the job.

Milk/Cream - I haven't figured these out yet. I found media crema which I believe is like half and half but the rest is a puzzle. For the explanation I should go to the Mercado and talk to the Cremeria ladies.

Vegetable Broth - WalMart was the only place in town that had boxed vegetable broth. I bought it there for months, but today I made a special trip there and now there's only chicken broth, darn it. I did buy some boullion cubes but I will need to make my own vegetable broth and freeze it I guess.

Basmati rice - I saw it somewhere once, but didn't buy it and haven't seen it in ages now.

Yeast - I have looked all over for it, and finally asked a friend where to find it. She had bought a big container and is going to share some with me so I should be fine soon for that.
Vanilla Yoghurt - Yoghurt is big business here in Mexico, every flavor and style - twenty feet of cold case in some stores....but no vanilla.

I wish I could buy Mexican cookbooks but I'm just more comfortable using English ones at least for now. So I need to learn some new tricks. I think the trick may be to only look at cookbooks for inspiration and ideas. Then, go to the Mercado and the grocery store and see what looks good. Make the menu on the fly! I can do it, I know I can!

One rotten apple...

2008-07-06T10:02:00.000-06:00

Internet groups, forums, and bulletin boards have been around for ages, and they have a special importance for people considering moving to another country or who want to communicate with like-minded people about their new home. But there can be a down side to them - which will come as no surprise, I'm sure.

I've read about various expat forums in Mexico (not to be named) that are really terrible for gossip and flaming. If you don't know what flaming is it is when some poor chump posts a comment and gets burned to smithereens, sometimes without even knowing what hit him.

For several years anyway, Mazatlan has had two forums. One is a Yahoo group and the other is a kind of portal for Mazatlan information that also has a forum. Over the last nine months or so I have seen both of these groups pretty much lose their collective minds and degenerate into name calling and unpleasantness. I am amazed at the kind of petty stuff people will write in public.

I think one of the problems with these forums is that if you want to, you can be anonymous. Make up a silly online name, use a yahoo, hotmail, or gmail account and no one will know where that venomous post came from! Isn't this fun?

John over at Viva Veracruz forum had a bit of a challenge with one user when his forum was new but by managing the negative attitude properly he managed to keep his forum from going sour.

One of the things I like about Viva Veracruz is that the forum itself is organized by interest. Food, Around the House, Mexico resources, Speaking Spanish, etc. So if you are interested in a couple of things but not the rest, just go where you like. It also isn't an email format - you go to the web address when you want to see what's up and you post from that interface. It is nice because there aren't a bunch of redundant posts - you can see right away if someone has answered the question.

But there is an option in Mazatlán, and that's where you'll find me. Our friend Jennifer has a forum at MeXscape, and it is a good one. The forum is similar to Viva Veracruz (described above) and it is a friendly, helpful place. In the event someone were to write an inflammatory or mean spirited post, I'm sure she would deal with the perpetrator right away. No need to worry about flaming.

I'd love to see people at the two other older forums clean up their acts and play nice. They do manage to do that for a week here and there, but then back it goes to negativity and crankiness. So instead of subjecting myself to reading that kind of thing on a daily basis, I am going to participate in MeXscape and Viva Veracruz, where people are nice to each other!

The South of the Border Perspective

2008-07-05T09:59:00.000-06:00

O P I N I Ó N
R O B E R T - I T O
Juan Diego de McCain

A local political cartoonist, Robert-Ito, had this to say about Senator McCain's visit to Mexico this week. Pretty funny.

Newspaper Noroeste
Robert-Ito blog

Meltdown, an update

2008-07-03T22:31:00.000-06:00

My Spanish class meltdown was back on June 18 - so I thought I would give an update now that a couple of weeks have passed.

First, I am really glad it happened. I talked to so many people, thought about it a lot, and had wonderful feedback from many blog friends. But the bottom line is that sometimes the really bad day is what you need to get you to analyze the situation, and from that, make progress.

I know I hadn't been working as hard as I had been at first. When I was just getting started I studied a ton and constructed sentences all the time. I don't know why I had let up on myself, but I do accept responsibility for that.

Everyone learns in a different way, and Paul and I are polar opposites. He can retain information without even writing a note for himself. I need to write things down and review a lot. As long as he knows what he wants to say in English, he can get there in Spanish. His accent is excellent. I keep measuring myself against him, and I shouldn't. I should also give myself credit where I deserve it.

So, I spent the meltdown week really working hard, creating cheat sheets for myself, and working on the irregular verbs in each tense. It worked. I feel like I know how to approach the next phase of my education. I'm also working hard at not getting rattled if I don't know something.

We are going to take a little break from class for about a month starting in the middle of July. I'm going to the US for a week, and after that we plan on a trip somewhere in Mexico for probably a week. When we come back from the break the next phase of our learning will incorporate all the work we've done so far - so I am going to make a determined effort to have a solid base to move forward from.

Don't laugh at my cheat sheets, above.....they work for me!

Bloggish stuff

2008-07-02T13:17:00.000-06:00

If you hadn't noticed, I've redone my Latin American Bloggers list using Blogger's new page element blog list tool. I really liked the option to organize by date published when I'd noticed it on a few other blogs, and it didn't take me very long change mine over.

Some of the owners of blogs on my list may notice a decrease in their blog stats, though, since I no longer just "go check" to see if there is new content. Sorry!

There's a new blog included in the list, too. Moving Kids to Mexico is a family who are moving to Mexico with their two school age children for a year. They are currently in the process of driving down, and the blog hasn't divulged yet where they're headed. I think it should be a fun one to watch.

Say Cheese

2008-07-01T15:27:00.000-06:00

I'm probably not the only blogger who keeps a pad on my desk where I jot down blog ideas. Sometimes the idea is complete in my mind and I just need to take a few pictures and sometimes I need to chew on it for a bit to decide how I want to present my ideas.

One idea that I've been chewing on for quite a while has to do with taking pictures.

Whenever I see a picture of a beautiful person in traditional costume or engaged in a religious rite or the riding a donkey like the boy in the picture above I often think about how they feel about having their picture taken. To all the "real" photographers out there - do you ask? If you do, does it spoil the moment? What about if you aren't fluent in Spanish?

The picture below is the original picture (with permission from Lee in Mazatlan) and I love seeing that her late husband was talking to the young boy on the donkey. Makes me feel a lot different than the first photo did.

Back at Christmas-time there was a small procession from one of the smaller churches to the cathedral. A priest, a couple of altar boys with banners and about a dozen parishoners were walking along a side street and we happened to see them while we were out walking the dogs. I actually felt like I shouldn't even look since it was a private thing for them.....and then I saw a tourist clicking his camera - and for some reason it made me mad.

When I was composing my post about our car wash friend Cuauhtémoc - I really wanted a picture of him not posing for a picture but I just couldn't bring myself to go into stealth mode. And of course once I asked him if I could take his picture he had to put down his rags and wave at me.

And then came my post on the visible underwear. I honestly saw so many women with horrible underwear that would have been fun to go along with that post, but I just couldn't grab the camera and click.

Today I read Jillian's post at Dropped In about the Handsome Senora - and at the end she says she is still too shy to ask to take her picture. I can totally understand. But Jillian painted a picture for me so I truly can see her in my mind.

I would love to hear how you feel about taking pictures, especially of people wearing traditional dress or participating in religious ceremonies.

You know you live in a hot and humid place when...

2008-06-28T14:22:00.000-06:00

After shower baby powder is a must
The only seats that get much use are those under
ceiling fans
Sometimes you go grocery shopping to cool off
The dogs will lie down only within fur ruffling
distance of the fan
You give up vacuuming in between maid visits
You know why all cookies and crackers are packaged
in single serving bags
Wearing a dress makes you want to snitch your
husband's cotton mid-thigh undies
Taking the dogs for a walk early in the morning is
the only way
Waistbands get wet first
Dripping and mopping is considered polite
The middle of the day is inside time
You remember to put down the shades on the
west side in the afternoon
You use zip lock bags for everything
Maybe you actually would wear a mu-mu
Basil in a pot can actually get too much sun
You actually would rather have a glass of cold
water than anything
You will keep on writing your blog post even when
perspiration runs down your back

Normal life

2008-06-27T10:26:00.001-06:00

I haven't written much lately because it has just become normal to live here now so it seems like there isn't much to say! We work on our Spanish, shop, cook,visit with friends, walk the dogs, read, eat out and the rest. More or less the same things anyone does anywhere. But living here makes all the ordinary things so much better.

For example, yesterday we wanted to take a walk in the afternoon. It's much too hot to just walk around town in the afternoon so what did we do? Walk on the beach!

Speaking of hot, it has started to heat up here for the summer. A couple of days ago it was as though a switch had been flipped - both the heat and the humidity ratcheted up a notch. We have been turning on the air conditioning (using "dehumidify") in the evening if we watch television and then when we go to bed. When we open the bedroom door in the morning, the humidity hits you hard - but in 5 minutes you have forgotten about it.

We now try to walk the dogs in the morning as early as possible so we aren't out in the blazing sun. Our bandanas are always with us for mopping the perspiration. We use up a 5 gallon water bottle every couple of days. We eat salad for dinner. I'm loving it. If it wasn't for the condensation that drips all over when you try to sip from your glass it would be perfect! (I probably should make a bunch of La Gringa's Inventions since we sure don't need to wear socks ourselves...)

I've been snapping pictures of Henry whenever he cuddles up with his toys. He almost always has a toy nearby, or if he's sleeping he uses one as a pillow. The pictures above were taken over the last week.

A few new bloggers on our blog roll

2008-06-24T16:42:00.000-06:00

I've added a few new blogs to our blog roll recently and I thought I'd bring them to your attention.

Chantel is moving to Manzanillo - she lives in Western Canada and just sold her house. Follow along as she and her beagle make the move to her favorite vacation destination of ten years.

Erika in Mexico City - Erika moved to Mexico City from Toronto in 2006. She has had several jobs and tells about her life in Mexico City in a voice that I find interesting and appealing.

Gary in Mexico City - Gary moved to Mexico City from Britain in 2005 and teaches Business English. His photos are great and his insights into life here are fun to read.

Linda and Bill in Alamos - Linda and Bill are currently on their way to Alamos from the Pacific Northwest. They've bought a house and are eager to get to work on it!

I hope you'll check their blogs out when you have a minute.

Judge not.....

2008-06-20T06:21:00.000-06:00

I'm not a kid anymore. And sometimes it is never more obvious than when I see little gaffes that I can just imagine my mother sighing over. And then I need to slap myself and remember that pretty much anything that someone decides to wear should be fine with me if it's fine with them.

I most recently heard my mother sigh (in my head) when I saw this:

and then this:

Coincidentally, I needed some new underwear. And also coincidentally, I own some racer back shirts. So, I was looking for a racer back bra. Unless you want a thick and heavy sports bra, you are out of luck around here. The only thing they had at Fabricas de Francia, our biggest department store, was a regular bra with a little hook thing that might work for ladies who always have assistance available when getting dressed.

I asked my daughter in law if they had them in Mexico City and she hadn't seen them there. So, possibly the reason all these women wear visible straps is because they haven't seen the perfect thing in the stores? Here's what I mean:

By the way, I know the top photo needs a different undergarment entirely. I haven't done any research on what to wear with a top with a hole in the back. Ladies?

Oldies but goodies

2008-06-19T07:11:00.000-06:00

The historic center of Mazatlán has many beautiful homes. Some have been restored to modern standards with new plumbing and updated electrical and some have been maintained by their original families.

There is a historic commission that oversees the district and there has been a pretty successful effort to make Centro an appealing place with a program for placing utilities underground and installing curb cuts for wheelchairs and lighting in the sidewalks. I love living here.

There are a lot of buildings here in Centro that would be wonderful homes if people with energy and money were to take on the challenge. The vigas (roof beams) on many have fallen in - but these old concrete and brick buildings will stand for a long time even without any protection from the weather.

Many people lament that (I have read this about other cities with historic cores, too) too many gringos move in to take on challenges like this and "force out" the locals. I don't believe that this is exactly true, since all of the ruins I am talking about are unoccupied or barely occupied.

Real estate prices are being driven up, but taxes are still low so there isn't the same effect like there is when gentrification happens up North.

Here in Centro in Mazatlán, I feel that gringos have upset the balance a bit...or maybe we do at first. For example, it took Paul and me a while to figure out that our block has kind of a pet crazy guy. He taps a coin on our gate and grins vacantly at us. We figured out to give him a peso or two. But it did take us a while and I imagine people wondered if we would ever "get it." I know it's a little frustrating for our neighbors to try to communicate with us. But overall I don't think there are bad feelings towards gringos here.

I just thought for a minute and in our immediate vicinity there aren't more than two gringo households on any block, and many blocks none.

Many of these houses will probably never be brought back to life since they are probably owned by families where a whole bunch of siblings owned a piece many years ago and through deaths, etc. the project of even tracking the heirs all down to see if they did want to sell would be a daunting one. So they sit, old and beautiful, but they sit.

I have been collecting pictures of ruins on my Flickr page, here.

Meltdown

2008-06-18T07:05:00.000-06:00

I was a mess in Spanish class yesterday. It has really gotten hard.

Something happened as if a blender went on in my brain and all the separate tenses, their conjugations and irregulars all were mixed up into a Spanish smoothie. I can't even tell you how upset I was.

We are in a difficult place as far as learning goes, and our teacher tells us that he's pushing us, which is usually good for me. But sheesh, I have to figure out a way to move forward - and without further meltdowns, too.

The sentences we use in class are answers to questions in our homework. We take the sentences and each student in turn changes it based on our teacher's prompting - for example, he will say "Paul hopes that....and then you have to change the verbs in the remainder of the sentence into the subjunctive. And then if the first part of the sentence is in the present and the second part is in the past then you need a different subjunctive that uses the haya construction. As you can tell my head is just spinning.

The future and future conditional are floating around there too, just lying in wait so they can trip me up, I think.

So, before class on Friday I am going to review our homework from the last month or two and try to make myself better "cheat-sheets" for all the tenses. I haven't even felt like I've got the preterite and the imperfect all that solid yet.

So, anyone have any tricks for how to overcome brain freeze at this point in my Spanish lessons? I am determined to learn and get through this tough patch but I would like to do it without tears in the future.

I love gomitas

2008-06-17T15:03:00.000-06:00

In the US my favorite candies were Hot Tamales, Red Vines, and Spice Drops. I seem to like things kind of chewy and sometimes with sugar sprinkles.

When we moved here it took me a while to find a new addiction....above, you see my favorite pre-packaged treat and below, the ones I buy at the mercado. I like them both equally, but the packaged ones are more gooey. Yum.

Around town

2008-06-14T15:33:00.001-06:00

Our next door neighbor feeds the hummingbirds, and we benefit as they come and hang around our yard and have their territory wars for our enjoyment. Above is a picture of one resting on the palm. We see right into the top of this tree from our office.

This is a picture I couldn't resist emailing to people up North. We are sitting in our favorite palapa restaurant enjoying a Pacifico. Mmmm, pretty good!

The picture above is a ruin that we walk by pretty frequently. This morning though I really looked into it and loved the way the light streams in way in the back. You will probably have to enlarge this one to be able to see what I mean.

In this picture we had seen a mass of jumping fish and all of a sudden a lot of pelicans noticed the same thing.

I love this picture of the courtyard. Everything is so lush and tropical!

This one just makes me laugh! I think the tree just may have outgrown the bucket - what do you think?

A Slice of Life

2008-06-11T13:40:00.002-06:00

It rained the other night and we just couldn't stop watching it.

During the first ten days or so of the month we start receiving our utility bills. They don't come through the mail - they are just dropped through our front gate - usually delivered by someone walking along with a huge stack of bills.

We thought it might be interesting to reveal what a few things cost here in Mazatlán. All amounts are in pesos - about 10 pesos to the dollar.

Water & Sewer - less than 45 pesos per month. We allow Cuauhtémoc to use our water so our bill may be a bit higher than most. We have a dishwasher and laundry equipment.

Cable - We have cable with HBO and the rest for 475 pesos per month.

Phone & Internet - Between 475 and 500 pesos per month.

Electricity - Our electricity use is lower than it had been up North. During the non-air conditioned periods it has been running around 250 pesos per month. The hottest month we have bills for was less than 2,000 pesos. There is a government subsidy on electricity here from May through November.

Propane - We use propane for cooking, heating our hot water, and our clothes drying. We spend about 1,000 pesos every two months having our tank filled.

Food - I don't keep track of our grocery store and mercado expenses very well, but I think we spend about the same as we did up North. It really depends how much we eat at home and how often we go to Sam's Club! I think we spend about 3,000 pesos per month. This is everything at the grocery store and mercado, including cleaning supplies, alcohol, dog food, and my gomita habit! (Gomitas will probably be another blog post someday...)

Eating out - This varies a lot. We eat lunch out frequently at a cocina economica for 35 pesos each, but some of the more touristy places the prices are similar to up North. Beer - 15 pesos, Glass of wine 25-40 pesos, Entrees from 50 to 80 pesos. Wood fired pizza for 100 pesos. Quesadillas 35 pesos.

Clothing - It seems to be pretty expensive here but we haven't bought that much.

Annual House taxes - 1,456 pesos per year.

House Insurance - Of course insurance can vary depending on value, deductable, and coverage but between 2,500 to 10,000 pesos per year.

Gasoline - After converting liters to gallons and pesos to dollars it comes to around $2.65 US per gallon.

Health Insurance - I have a policy with good coverage in Mexico only for 13,000 pesos per year. Paul isn't covered yet since he has some pre-existing conditions that complicate things.

Doctor - Doctor visits are 200 pesos. Drugs are cheaper here than our co-pays were up North.

Vet - Booster shots were 200 pesos, bordetella 160 pesos. Office visit/consulation 200 pesos.

Dog grooming - Henry's schnauzer haircut & bath 140 pesos.

Mazatlán is not the least expensive place to live in México, but we are very happy with our decision to move here. We are happy and healthy and loving every minute, and yes, that even includes the rain!

If you'd like to read more about the cost of living in Mazatlán, check out our friend Jennifer's post on the topic here.

Introducing Waltemo

2008-06-08T11:14:00.001-06:00

Meet Waltemo, above. He is a small businessman who works on our block in Centro. His business is washing cars.

Waltemo is always friendly and happy. He has a good business keeping the cars of everyone in the neighborhood nice and clean. There are also plenty of people who park to go to the local doctors and businesses and he'll wash their cars, too.

Waltemo works hard, mostly seven days a week. He has a wife and a young daughter who occasionally come and visit with him, his daughter in a sparkling clean school uniform.

Waltemo washes a car using only one bucket of water. I've watched him and I still can't figure out how he does it so well with so little water. He washes our car every week in exchange for using our water for his business. He keeps an eye on the street and has been known to keep people from parking in front of our garage.

Every time we go by he says "Hola, Amigo, Amiga! Our neighborhood is very friendly - everyone waves and smiles and greets each other - but Waltemo is the friendliest of all. And, I guarantee that if there is anything going on in the vicinity Waltemo will know about it!

PS - Son Adam emailed me and asked if I was sure his name was Waltemo or if it could be Cuauhtémoc....and I should have explained that we only know his name spoken...and have never seen it written out....

Why we blog

2008-06-06T09:10:00.000-06:00

There's been a lot of flap lately among the Latin American blogger community about comments. I don't want to rehash what's been said - but the more I thought about it the more I knew I needed to get something out.

The crux of the matter for me is that it's MY BLOG and I can set the rules. My blog is a fun place for me to talk about our experiences here in Mexico. I really enjoy it. I think other people appreciate the effort I put into it. I love it when people comment, too.

BUT....I want it to stay fun. I don't want to put a bunch of rules on how I blog. Regular readers will note that sometimes I write three or four posts a week and sometimes more than a week will go by. It just depends on what I am thinking about, how busy I am, etc.

I don't want it to be like WORK. I want it to be FUN. Sometimes it's all I can do to write a post, and I have no more time to give to it. That means comments may go unanswered sometimes. I have a "email us" link at the right so you can email me if you need a response. And actually, questions that really require a response should be sent in an email anyway. In my book comments are just that - comments.

So, please help me keep on having fun.

PS - The lizard above - I found him in our office yesterday and think he had been there a while because he was really lethargic. We released him in the backyard, sprinkled him with the hose, and an hour later he was gone. He was about 8 inches long.

First rain of the year

2008-06-04T09:39:00.000-06:00

We woke up this morning because the bedroom was stuffy and it turned out the power was off so the ceiling fan wasn't running. Unusual but not that noteworthy.

But when Paul got up to open the window we saw it was wet outside. Misting. No, raining! Sort of. More a drizzle than anything.

But with the power off there was no chance for coffee so we leashed up the dogs and headed out. The air was smooth and warm with an undercurrent of cool. It felt wonderful.

We moved to Mazatlán in late September last year. Since then it has rained only four times - until today. Now things are rinsed off and once the sun comes out it should feel nice and clean.

The picture at the top was taken at Olas Altas - and the ship in the background is a Baja ferry.

How to beat the heat

2008-06-02T09:47:00.000-06:00

It's starting to heat up here in Mazatlán...it's supposed to be 33 C (91 F)today and 59% humidity. We are still sleeping with the windows open and fans on - we aren't in a hurry to get into air conditioning at night. It still cools off pretty nicely at night, thank goodness.

We have great ventilation in our house but most of the time for the last few days the thermometer has been around 84 F inside. We're fine with that temperature as long as we can have a breeze - either natural or from a ceiling fan. We do drink a lot of water and iced tea to stay hydrated, and don't walk too far if we can help it in the middle of the day.

People have lots of strategies to beat the heat. The woman at the top of this post is walking with an umbrella - a popular choice here. People carry cloths to blot perspiration. The woman below had an unusual choice - a box on her head!

Me? I like to have a tall glass of Campari and tonic or Campari and orange juice. Very refreshing!

Mexico Resources

2008-06-01T15:22:00.002-06:00

English Books in Mexico:
Amate Books
Sandi Books

Media:
Inside Mexico Magazine
The News
International Herald Tribune
Sign on San Diego - Mexico News
Lost and Found in Mexico film

Cooking:
Mexico Cooks
Theresa's Cooking Blog
What's Cooking?

Mexico Resources:
Sparks page of Mexico links
Rolly's Mexico Info site
Pet friendly lodging in Mexico
People's Guide to Mexico
Mexico Maps
Mexico in English
Mexican Mercados
MexFiles
National Hurricane Center

Expat Resources:
Expat Blog
Earth Class Mail

Contact Us

2008-06-01T06:07:00.000-06:00

Nancy's email address: ndardarian (at) gmail (dot) com

Paul's email address: ppattee (at) gmail (dot) com

About Us

2008-06-01T05:51:00.002-06:00

We are Nancy and Paul. We moved to Mazatlán in September of 2007 from the Pacific Northwest.

Our blog starts out (go to the blog archives) when we were still working and hadn't yet decided where in México we would be moving. We traveled quite a bit and hopefully our decision process can help you, too.

We worked hard getting ready to move - had to work on our property to prepare it for sale, get it on the market, and sell it. We discussed all the issues related to making such a big move - from telling friends and family to selling everything and everything in between.

We bought an old home in Mazatlán's Centro Historico. It had been partially remodeled/restored, but we still have done a lot of work to it. Kitchen cabinets, painting, a mural, courtyard remodeling, and much more has been documented in these pages. If you want to read about a specific topic, check out the Labels at the bottom right of the main page.

We're been here almost a year now, so our blog is mostly about just living our lives in México.

Thanks for coming by, and don't forget to leave a comment if a post interests you!

Pictures

2008-06-01T05:26:00.001-06:00

Mazatlán ruins
Mazatlán pictures
Our Casa - 8 month pictures
Our Casa - 1 month pictures
Mexico City & Zihuatanejo (2006)
Mazatlan & Queretaro (2007)

Henry! Henry!

2008-05-31T06:45:00.000-06:00

Does it look to you like Henry tired himself out hogging all the toys? And does Lucy look a bit irritated about it?

Sunset

2008-05-30T15:19:00.000-06:00

Sunsets in Mazatlán are almost always spectacular. I don't know how that can be, but it is true. We love to walk over to the malecon in the evening to watch...it is a communal experience with lots and lots of people doing the same thing.

Right now in Washington State (where we came from) the sun rises at 5:19 am and sets at 9 pm...and in Mazatlán the sun rises at 6:19 and sets at 7:48. Being this far south means that there is less of a swing in number of daylight hours. I've also noticed that the sun is setting further North every day.

Living so close to the water is wonderful - I feel way more connected to the earth - as in Planet Earth - than I ever have before. Swimming, watching sunsets, seeing fish jump, and the salty wet air really make me feel alive.

Crazy plants around here....

2008-05-27T07:04:00.000-06:00

Our bamboo is growing really well...and has actually sent off a shoot. I first noticed the new shoot on May 16. Here is a what it measured each day:

May 16.......4 inches
May 17.......8 inches
May 19.......11 inches
May 20.......13 1/2 inches
May 21.......17 1/2 inches
May 23.......25 inches
May 24.......29 1/2 inches
May 25.......33 inches
May 26.......39 inches

So, you can see from the above that it has been growing from 3" to 7" per day! And we haven't had any rain yet this year! I wonder what it will do when it starts raining?

The picture above is a vine called the Mexican Flag - of course it is - red, white, & green.

México's War on Drugs

2008-05-26T08:08:00.000-06:00

México's war on drugs is in the news today - top of the fold in the New York Times.

Mazatlán is in Sinaloa State, the home of the Sinaloa Cartel. Culiacán seems to be a center of violence as pressure by the police has incited the cartel to retaliate. Every day we read the newspaper and the drug deaths reported are an almost daily occurrence. Culiacán is about 90 miles from Mázatlan.

During Semana Santa we did see more large black Hummers and Suburbans with tinted windows. These are driven by drug cartel people and their families. As a counterpoint you also see the Federal Police and the Army also driving around. We are lucky here in that the drug people who come here are vacationing and so the tendency to violence is less.

México's President Calderon is saying that he won't back down. The US Congress has scaled back President Bush's drug plan. The US demand for drugs is what drives the cartels here in México, so it only seems logical to me that the US should participate fully in helping get the trade under control.

I wanted to bring the NY Times article to your attention - our heads are not in the sand here in México but here in Mazatlán the violence feels pretty removed.

What we miss

2008-05-25T07:04:00.000-06:00

Paul and I have been asked what we miss from up North by several people who are considering moving to Mexico. At first we said "nothing" and then realized that there are a few things that we miss - in varying amounts...

Natural Peanut Butter....you can get small jars of sweetened peanut butter in most grocery stores, and occasionally I'll see a decent sized jar of Skippy, but that's it. I should buy some peanuts and grind them in my Vita-Mix next time I have a craving, I guess.

Stash Tea - I love Stash Tea, especially Red and Green. Paul is partial to their Chai tea. In order to make iced green tea for myself here I need three teabags per glass- and it is still weak! I believe tea isn't a big seller here so it is probably pretty old.

Boca products - especially their Bratwurst. I used to take an onion, some cabbage, red pepper flakes, and one of these - cut on the diagonal - and make an amazing, hearty dinner. I used their smoked ones with red beans and rice or in place of a hot dog on the barbeque. Man I miss these a lot.

Memory Foam Mattress topper - We had these on our beds up North but they were too heavy to bring with us. And our mattress here is way harder than we like. I have tried to find these here and they just aren't around - and the funny thing is they are made in Mexico, just must be made only for export.

Genuine High Quality Parmesan Cheese - There are plenty of pale substitutes. I just want parmesan sometimes, is that so bad of me?

My Dyson - We didn't have any room in the van and I have missed it ever since. I even tried to buy one from Amazon prepared to pay a ton of duty and they won't ship it here. So I plod along vacuuming up dog hair, dust on the windowsills, and everything in between with my *&@#*! shop vac.

Vitamins & Ibuprofen in big bottles....I take a couple of vitamins a day and like to buy aspirin or ibuprofen in a larger bottle...hard to find here and they are pretty expensive. I have had a hard time finding aspirin or B-complex in anything but blister-packs of 20. Sheesh! When our son came down in March he was nice to bring me a stash that should last me quite a while.

So, folks, that's it for me. I miss these things a bit but not that much...but next person coming to Mazatlán could bring me a nice hunk of Parm and some Bocas and I wouldn't complain! (Just kidding, really!)

Let's go for a walk.

2008-05-24T13:47:00.000-06:00

Paul and I enjoy walking the dogs every day - and of course we walk all over Centro all the time, too. Every day as I step over or around obstacles I think about taking pictures of them for the blog...and maybe it is a way to feel better about our frequently stubbed toes!

The picture at the top is one of our favorite obstacles - bougainvillea. Too thorny to move out of the way so I just step around it. (By the way, if you enlarge the photo you'll see two red pickup trucks with bench seats in the back. They are called aurigas and I think along with the pulmonia, they are distinctly Mazatlecan. If you have a bunch of people they are great to jump into instead of a taxi, and when you have something to haul they are a godsend. They are comparable in price to a taxi or a pulmonia.)

The picture below is a frequent obstacle - the ironwork remaining from an air conditioner that was removed. These are more frequently at forehead height.

Below is a favorite - trees that are trimmed so that it's impossible to get by without ducking. Can you see Paul just beyond?

The next one is a two-fer. Skinny, bad sidewalk and crazy trees. The house here is being renovated so I imagine they'll improve the sidewalk and I have my fingers crossed that they'll leave the trees.

The next one is on our route daily. I get really tired of going around three windows of these crazy vines. The sidewalk is a mess here, too. Every once in a while someone takes a machete to the vines - I wonder if it's the homeowner or someone who walks by frequently? (Not me, I promise!)

I didn't take a picture of the sunshades on Serdan that get rolled down in the afternoon...they have a metal pole to weight the bottom and we know people who have been hit in the forehead as the shades move while you are walking forward. Cuidado!

Mazatlán or Teatlán?

2008-05-18T10:53:00.000-06:00

Paul and I recently read the book Kissing the Virgin's Mouth by Donna Gershten. The book is a novel about Mazatlán...which you will recognize easily, even though the author calls the city Teatlán.

The main character, Magda, grows up in a poor family in one of the barrios of Mazatlán. Her father sells tejuino (a corn drink) from a cart. Magda is determined to get a better life for herself - but of course there were many bumps along the way. She spends more than a decade in the US.

The book won the Bellwether Prize (for socially or politically engaged fiction) and gives great insight into Mexico's poor but also into the conflicts Mexicans must feel when they live in the US.
A really good book. We borrowed it from the Mazatlán English Library on Michael's recommendation, but it is available from Amazon.

Gracias, Maestro

2008-05-15T12:54:00.000-06:00

Today is the Dia del Maestro here in México and I would sincerely like to thank Hector for his excellent instruction, eternal patience, and ever-present good humor.

We are still only beginners but we have come a long way in a few short months.

Thank you!

The Great Outdoors

2008-05-14T17:49:00.000-06:00

I thought I would show a few pictures about the way the plants in our central courtyard have taken off since everything was planted on February 25. Two and a half months!

The new plantings back in February:

And here is a similar shot now:

The elephant ears are going crazy. The leaves are around 20 inches across!

The backyard has started its transformation, too. Here's a picture from before we moved in - overgrown hibiscus and bougainvilla. The yard seemed narrow because the hibiscus and bougainvilla jutted out half way across and you had to stoop to get under them to sweep up their mess!

So we had the landscaping cleaned up, new plants in a few places, and the walls painted. Now we can see what we have! Sorry about the pasted together photo, the yard is long and thin. The picture enlarges if you click it.

Bamboo is now planted against the left wall. The hibiscus is now stumps, but they have lots of new growth. The bougainvilla is doing great and we're happy with how it is more architectural with the swooping trunks. The palm has been cleaned up beautifully.

We knew we wanted to live with it for a while once the plants were cleaned up so we could really get a feel for the space and how we might use it. The dogs need a place to "do their business" occasionally and we will use a barbeque once in a while. Do we want a pool? Hot (or cold) tub? We are trying to figure it out. We are thinking about gravel for part of it, anyway.

I cut this page out of a magazine a long time ago - but it might be a great way to get some shade out there. The cloth runs on wire so you can slide it up or down depending on your mood.

We are having fun thinking about all the potential here - and are hoping that some of our readers have ideas for us, too.

When it's hot...

2008-05-14T12:16:00.000-06:00

...here's what we do.....

drink an iced café americano!

Fan Time

2008-05-11T17:35:00.000-06:00

The weather is heating up a little here in Mazatlán, and we have started turning on the ceiling fans. I just love how much cooler you can feel with just a little air movement.

Our house has great flow-through ventilation, and there always seems to be a breeze that will whip from the front gate through the house.

Last September and October - our first here in Maz - we did pretty well in the heat and humidity. We found that if we stayed out of air conditioning we felt the heat less than if we went back and forth. Although some days we would go into the bedroom and turn on the air conditioning for a half hour and would feel refreshed.

Anyway, this year we are going to see how we do only heading into the bedrooms (our only rooms with air conditioners) to sleep. Most of the city does it, so why can't we? We'll let you know how it went come November.

Learning Spanish Más

2008-05-09T18:17:00.000-06:00

Paul and I have been working on our Spanish for a long time now. We've written about the various strategies we've used before, just click on the label Language to the right to see our previous entries.

Currently we are taking Spanish lessons twice a week and doing a lot of homework. We watch TV in Spanish. Most transactions are in Spanish. Workers who come to the house speak Spanish. We really are working as hard as we know how on our Spanish. But our one frustration was that we need more conversation practice without making our neighbors run the other way when they see us!

Our Spanish teacher suggested buying comic books....because they are basically all conversation. I bought three and we have browsed through them but I haven't worked too hard at them yet. (Hmmm, work hard at a comic book? I am ashamed!)

But I thought I would turn you all on to a web Spanish tool that we signed up for today. LoMásTV. Above is a print screen of their home page.

There are tons of videos that are really amazing. Below is a print screen of their video page. The video is written out as the person speaks in Spanish and English. You can click on any word for a definition. You can make it play slower. All the videos are rated by difficulty. They also indicate where the speaker's accent is from.

They also have lessons and accompanying video. Below is a screen of the first page of their lessons.

Paul and I have only used it for an hour this afternoon, but I think it is going to be a great addition to what we are already doing. Six months use cost $55.00 us.

I am not receiving anything from LoMásTv in exchange for this post. Just thought you would like to know about another cool tool out there. Check out their demos and see for yourself.

More on the D.F. trip

2008-05-06T12:12:00.000-06:00

I just had to put a picture (above) of the retablo we bought in the Mercado San Juan.

To continue, though. Saturday we jumped in their car along with the dogs and headed to Tepotzlán. Adam and Martha have been looking at property there and we wanted to see the town and the property on this trip. John had done a number of posts on the area recently, and with Adam and Martha's descriptions, we were very intrigued.

The drive was wonderful. Beautiful scenery - very dry and rugged with lots of pine trees. The road was excellent and as you get closer to town the road swings back and forth with great views of the valley and Cuernavaca.

The traffic got a bit congested as we got closer to Tepotzlán because of the long weekend. The town itself is gorgeous - the roads are paved in rock with a pattern of smaller rocks threading through. Many walls have the same kind of pattern. Traffic was slow through town due to several roads being closed, but there were policemen directing traffic.

After an excellent lunch and some Tepoznieves ice cream we browsed through the market. The market had lots of beautiful cutting boards, bowls, spoons, etc.

Then off to see the property. It's very steep, but the former owner had created stairs and terraces in preparation for building. The property has a wonderful feel and we were enamored with it right away!

The dogs loved exploring the property and Maggie did pretty well for only having three legs!

This is a picture of the surrounding area. Isn't it beautiful?

On the way home we took the back road trying to find a nursery and then drove through Cuernavaca before heading back to México City. It was a wonderful day and we look forward to many happy days working and goofing around with them there. Maybe we'll even head out there with a tent if the heat in Mazatlán gets to be too much. Who knows?

A Quick Trip to D.F.

2008-05-05T15:15:00.000-06:00

Paul and I just got back from a quick trip to México City. (Distrito Federal or D.F.) We had a blast.

Our son and his wife live in the Condesa area, a very cool area populated mostly by hip young people. There are two huge parks in the area, Parque México and Parque España. Of course, with these wonderful parks nearby the area attracts people with dogs. It's a wonderful place to walk the dogs or even get them trained by the talented dog trainers that work with 10-15 dogs at once. It's an amazing sight to see all the dogs patiently lying down in a "stay" while the trainers work with a few dogs on other tasks. Adam and Martha's dog Xochitl took lessons for three months and was transformed into a sweetheart on or off leash by these guys. Here are Maggie and Xochitl, below:

The area is kind of like San Francisco in that you have your pick of tons of wonderful restaurants. We ate Cuban food at La Bodeguita del Medio and were entertained by wonderful Cuban musicians. We drank mescal. We ate pizza. We drank many cups of coffee. I wish I could remember all the names of the restaurants and bars, but I will say that walking all over and eating and drinking and of course staying up late made me feel young at times and old at others! Below is a picture of a wonderful French restaurant where Martha, Paul and I ate breakfast while Adam did some business.

Mexico City recently changed the smoking laws so that smoking is only allowed in the outdoor area of restaurants. This has created some funny scenes - I tried unsuccessfully to capture - of huge groups of people hanging about outside restaurants and bars. Really funny.

One day we went downtown to the Museo de Arte Popular and saw their wonderful exhibit of Méxican folk art. That's where the picture at the top of this post came from - a truck full of birds! We had lunch at the Cardinal restaurant and enjoyed a fabulous meal and wonderful music again. Adam had left the car in a parking garage and it was an amazing system they had for retrieving cars...if you enlarge this photo look in the background where the man in the yellow shirt is being lifted by a conveyor type contraption to the upper floors of cars. Hilarious.

We also went to the Mercado San Juan where we bought a wonderful retablo of the devil.

Mexico City has some wonderful stencil graffiti, too. If you look a little closer, though, you'll see that some of the pictures below are what they call "guerilla marketing" by Vans, the shoe company.

México City has a wonderful transportation system. The subway is efficient, and there are local busses and a great looking longer distance bus system too. The Metrobús rides in its own lane on the freeway - passengers pay to get inside the area and then ride without the need for the driver to collect fees. Seems very fast, clean and modern.

Tomorrow, a bit about our trip to Tepotzlán.

Books make the difference

2008-04-29T11:36:00.000-06:00

Paul and I read constantly. Before we moved to México, one of our issues was that we needed to be in a place where we had access to English language books. We were big library users when we lived in Washington State.

Amazon and Amate Books ship to Mexico, so if we want to buy books, we can. We've had fast service from both online booksellers.

One of the things that contributed to our decision to move to Mazatlán, though, was the English Library. It is a membership library, run by volunteers, and has thousands of books.

Our membership allows us to take out five books at a time. Several times a year they have surplus book sales, and we always buy a bagfull.

I've been keeping track of the books I've read for the last couple of years and have my list here. I like to print it out every once in a while so when I'm in the library I can remember to look for books by authors I've enjoyed.

The library has temporary memberships also, so if you are here for a short time you can take advantage of their excellent selection of books.

The picture above is Bliss and the Captain in front of the library.

Household chores

2008-04-28T15:35:00.000-06:00

When you live in a warm climate like Mazatlán, sandals are the order of the day. I think I have worn shoes maybe five times in the last seven months!

The streets are dusty and the dust and dirt gets everywhere, including your sandals!

So, when I get into the shower in the morning, most days I have a sandal scrubbing session before I actually shower myself! I have a scrub brush waiting for that purpose, and shampoo does a good job getting them clean.

It's just one of the many things I had never thought about before we moved here.

Amigos!

2008-04-26T17:38:00.000-06:00

While a lot of bloggers were lucky to attend the Blogger Meetup last week on Isla Mujeres put together by Wayne, we had another Meetup going here in Mazatán.

Bliss and the Captain sailed into Mazatlán and we had several enjoyable visits. They were moored in an area just South of Centro - less than five minutes by car from our house.

We ran over to the marina and picked Bliss up. We came back to our place and after a while she and I had a great romp through the mercado getting them re-provisioned. That night we went out to the Plazuela Machado and had a drink and got to visit with the Captain, too.

They are such wonderful people. Funny. Inventive. Walkers. Dog-lovers. Readers. México lovers. Mazatlán lovers. It was just great to hang out with them. Bliss is a walking fool - one day she walked all over Centro on her own "walking tour." (I'm sure she'll blog about that when she gets back to San Carlos)

Paul and I know very little about sailing, so it was interesting to hear what life is like when you spend months at a time living on the water. So much thought has to be put into everything - in advance. No running out to the store when you have an urge! The Captain is very inventive and capable with all the mechanical things - you can tell that he just loves figuring out a better way! A couple of his ideas sound like they might be very popular and even patent-worthy.

We got to meet Sofia and Chica, too. What sweet little dogs, even when being somewhat intimidated by a roaming pitbull mix that was twice their size.

Today we had a great breakfast together, traded some books, and had one last visit before they get ready to head out on Monday. We had a wonderful time and I am just so happy that we were really able to get to know each other.

Back to normal here

2008-04-22T11:04:00.000-06:00

Life is returning to normal at our house now that the birds are gone. We have food in the fridge, laundry is done, and I am only slightly behind in my Spanish homework. I have all day tomorrow, ha ha!

We decided to head down to the malecon and have a beer while watching the sunset. It was a bit cloudy but the sunset was still beautiful.

Bye-Bye Birdies

2008-04-20T16:02:00.001-06:00

Yesterday we returned the baby parrots to Conrehabit. We'd taken care of them for more than two weeks, and it was time for us to get back to studying our Spanish, which we'd been neglecting during their time with us. Not to mention laundry and other household chores.

When we got back from dropping them off and were unloading the empty laundry basket/cage from the back of the car, guess what! One little scamp had hitchhiked back home with us! So we took little Iggy (Paul called all the bald ones Iggy) inside and he spent another night with us. Below is a picture of him eating out of a dish. He was a perfect little gentleman, never spilling a drop.

The first week we had the birds here it was a lot of work but a lot of fun. I would be sore by the end of the day from standing for so long while we fed them, but after a good night's sleep we'd be anxious to see them for their morning feeding.

As we started into the second week though, we had several birds die. Not just ones that we suspected weren't thriving, either. We were told that after being in captivity a week, some birds will just die. We knew we were doing a good thing for most of them, but it was still hard to deal with. All in all, we lost 10 birds.

This afternoon we went to deliver Iggy back to his flock-mates and had planned on helping with the 1 pm feeding. But we were happy to see a lot of people feeding the birds when we got there and we were told they had enough helpers for the feeding. I really hope this keeps up, as they expect it to be around 3-4 months before they'll be self-sufficient enough to be set free.

We skipped the benefit this afternoon to do some grocery shopping and come home to study. And I will say, the house seems really quiet right now.

Babies are cute

2008-04-06T12:11:00.000-06:00

We are really busy taking care of the baby birds. Here is a short video of them after they ate lunch yesterday. The first video is a couple of them getting fed, and the second is when they are enjoying a little break in the sunshine.

We estimate their age to be approximately four weeks. They are Half Moon Conures, also known as Orange-Fronted Conures.

Parrots, Parrots, Everywhere!

2008-04-04T18:22:00.000-07:00

Parrots have been in the news in the state of Sinaloa over the last two days.

Two men were caught transporting 476 baby parrots - mostly conures that are endangered in this area. They asserted that the birds were from Costa Rica but local experts believe they were wild caught here in the state. You can read today's article in the Noroeste here. (The pictures above and below are really wonderful if you click them to enlarge...)

Mazatlán has a very active and dedicated rescue organization, Conrehabit. We got to know them the first week we were in our house, when a Night Heron crashed into our courtyard and was injured. They picked him up and attempted to save him, unfortunately without success.

The word went out on the local boards yesterday that Mazatlán was getting 276 of the rescued baby parrots. People were asked to help with hand feedings or if not able to do that, donations (PayPal is accepted) were welcomed on the Conrehabit website. (link above)

Paul called and talked to some of the people coordinating the effort, and today we went and picked up 50 baby parrots to foster for a couple of weeks. We have only done one feeding, but it wasn't quite as messy or as difficult as we thought it might be. The feeding took a little over an hour. Their food is a combination of Pedialyte and Gerber Rice & Grain. We mix it up thin and put it into a syringe. They gobble it up.

The birds need feedings three times a day at least. And you should hear the racket they make! When they start eating on their own they will eventually be moved to Conrehabit's ranch, where there is a large aviary. Eventually, once the government says it is ok to do so, they will be set free.

For any of you who are so inclined, I am sure Conrehabit would welcome your PayPal donation. If you live in the area and want to help, we'd love your help with a feeding or maybe you would like to foster some birds yourself. Email us or stop by if you like!

We were told today that the perpetrators of this crime are subject to a 9 year jail sentence. Seems fair to me.

Added Sat. 4/5: If you like parrots, check out the NY Times interactive on some people with 11 parrots!

Moto Parade in Mazatlán

2008-03-30T08:32:00.000-07:00

After the craziness of Semana Santa, Mazatlán moved right into more craziness with Moto Week. We read that 17,000 motorcyles were coming to Mazatlán for the event, and we believe it! Also, anyone and everyone who owns a motorcycle has had them revving all over the city!

Yesterday was the parade, and we headed down to watch it. It was incredible. Lots of Harleys, plus every other kind of bike you could imagine. Riders dressed up. They drove with their babies. They drove with their dogs. They honked and honked. Some did wheelies. All the motorcycle cops joined in.

Here are a few pictures and a short video:

Airplane motorcycle!

Baby in front, child on the back!

The Noroeste (our local paper) flag carried by a pretty woman!

Viking bike!

Tricycle.
This baby is asleep in between his parents!

A Tree Grows in Mazatlán

2008-03-24T14:00:00.000-07:00

I am reading (it is amazing to me that I hadn't read it before) A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. It is a wonderful book, set in Brooklyn in the early 1900's. I am loving it.

The tree referred to in the title is one they called the Tree of Heaven. It grew in the worst possible soil and was the only tree that would even grow out of cement.

I think México has a number of different Trees of Heaven. Here are a few:

They aren't all trees, but it is amazing to me how persistent vegetation can be!

Semana Santa at the Beach

2008-03-22T09:35:00.000-07:00

Semana Santa at the beach is a pretty amazing adventure. People watching is the order of the day. We arrived at our favorite palapa restaurant around 11 and the beach was more busy than usual. But by 2 pm, it was packed.

The beach vendors were out in force...here are mangos on a stick.

...and ice cream...

...and pastries...

The lifeguards were keeping an eye on everything...

...while Paul and Jessica shared a meal of grilled fish...

Some people nearby requested something like 9 songs from some musicians...here is a video of them that also shows how busy the beach was. We only saw one other gringo on the beach the whole time we were there...and really had fun watching happy Mexican families enjoy their vacation in the sun.

Our Fit Fits

2008-03-16T11:05:00.001-07:00

Having a minivan here in Mazatlán was difficult for a couple of reasons - first, most of the streets in Centro are narrow and you often have to fold the mirrors in and be really careful in order to drive anywhere. And forget about parking it! Second, it was too wide to fit into our garage!

So, sending the van home with our son and getting a smaller car became an excellent plan.

Paul did a lot of research online and we identified a few small cars that suited us with regard to style, safety, fuel economy, trunk space, and the all-important width!

The contestants were the VW Crossfox, the VW Sportvan, the Toyota Yaris and the Honda Fit.

It is still pretty tight, and you can see Paul folded the mirrors in to enter the garage. And the opening to the laundry room is adjacent to the passenger door so you have to be careful walking through with a laundry basket. But the good news is: Our Fit Fits!

What a fine week

2008-03-15T14:29:00.000-07:00

We had such a wonderful time with family visiting last week. I am still a bit tired but I was sorting through photos and I thought I'd share a few of them:

Adam and Martha being funny

Paul is happy.

Pig head.

Phil and Jen in Maz!

Owen and Erica with Señor Frog.

Erica boogie-boarding.

Everyone having fun.

The van heads back North to Washington!

So that's a quickie post of some of the fun we had over the last week. We spent most of two days at the beach sitting in a palapa restaurant eating and drinking beer in between swimming and boogie boarding sessions. We walked the dogs on the malecon. We went to the mercado. We went to the plazas. We ate and drank. We talked and talked. We played endless games of dominoes and loteria. I had such a wonderful time...they'll just have to come back soon since there are tons of things that we weren't able to squeeze into the time we had.

Tomorrow, daughter Jess arrives for a week so I have a feeling we'll be heading back to the beach. I think we can handle it.

Huéspedes!

2008-03-06T18:09:00.000-07:00

(That means houseguests)

We are excited to have visitors coming! Son Adam and his wife Martha are coming tomorrow and staying through Tuesday. They are flying over from Mexico City, and were our first visitors back in November. The house was a mess then, with dust and dirt everywhere...so I think they will be amazed by the transformation. We'll have a couple of days with them before...

Son Phil and his wife and our two grandchildren come on Sunday morning! They are going to be staying until Friday. The kids are being taken out of school but they are great students so in exchange we will make sure they learn a lot about Mexico and Spanish to take back with them. Son Phil is going to be driving our trusty minivan North while the rest of his family flies so that they can join the throngs of young families with minivans! How did they resist the lure so long?

It will be great to have all of them here for a nice visit. We plan on spending a fair bit of time at the beach, and I bought a second boogie board in their honor. We also plan on taking them to the plazas here on Sunday night, a visit to the shrimp ladies to buy some shrimp for the barbeque, and of course the mercado. The kids will love dog walking on the malecon and we'll love showing them our favorite places.

When we were up North and son Adam moved to Mexico City somehow we were able to put together a family visit at our place at least once a year. I am so happy we're going to be able to keep this tradition up!

Son Phil will leave on Saturday - his father (my ex) is driving up from Colima to make the drive with him. He'll then fly back to Mazatlán from Phoenix and drive back home. I really appreciate him driving to the US with Phil since it is a long drive to make by yourself.

We are excited for Phil to have the van but also it gives us the opportunity to buy a smaller car that will actually fit in our garage! That's another blog post, though.

Then, Sunday, daughter Jessica arrives from New York City for a week! I can't even believe how excited I am! It's too bad she can't be here at the same time as the boys, but it will still be so wonderful to have her, and it will be nice to have a nice relaxed visit. Although her visit coincides with Semana Santa, where 130,000 people descend on Mazatlán for a week of craziness. From what we hear, though, most of the craziness is up in the "Golden Zone" and the only thing we should notice here in Centro is that the beaches will be more crowded.

Tomorrow I head to the grocery store for a huge shopping trip. I'll get out the dominoes and scrabble. The beds are made. Can you tell I am a happy mom right now?

Learning Spanish in the real world

2008-03-03T16:43:00.000-07:00

Paul and I are really working hard at learning Spanish. We are taking lessons from Hector - and the reason we chose him is that everyone we spoke to said that he was hard but that if you really wanted to learn Spanish, he was the teacher to choose.

The thing we want to learn is to communicate verbally...to really be able to talk to people. In class we basically translate sentences in the various tenses for an hour and a half twice per week. There are four people in our class so our turn comes around almost too quickly! There is no way to slack off if you don't understand something so you really have to work to make sure you keep up.

When I first joined Paul's class in order to catch up I was doing several hours of studying each day. Now I am probably working about four hours between classes.

I am frustrated though because I keep comparing myself to Paul. He is doing so well in everyday conversations and I still struggle to find the correct conjugation or tense.

But all in all I am pleased with my progress. I am having better conversations and people don't recoil with horror at having to have a conversation with me like sometimes happened in the past.

I remember one time at Home Depot the clerk wanted to ask us if we wanted to pay for something over time and we couldn't understand her. She grabbed a piece of paper and started writing it out in English...she had been taking classes but couldn't speak! We don't want that to happen to us, but I can sure understand the feeling.

So, for an update, we feel pretty good in the present tense, the imperfect past (-aba and -ía) and the preterite. We are now starting the present perfect (I have) and the past perfect (I had.) We are learning lots of vocabulary and idiomatic expressions.

We have been watching television - trying to catch CNN en español every day and whatever shows we watch usually have subtitles. We listen to Spanish music a lot and also to the radio.

I think the thing I am happiest about is that we don't get nervous when we know we are heading into a conversation with people with no English at all. We have enough Spanish now that at least most of the time we end up feeling proud of ourselves!

So, poco a poco we are discovering that our older minds can learn new things. It's a good feeling.

Ok now, grow!

2008-02-27T13:04:00.001-07:00

One of the things occupying our time is working with the landscapers (Procare Mazatlán) to get our courtyard landscaped. We really want a lush and tropical feel, and I think they have done a great job.

There are two plants that have placeholders in the bed - one is a dwarf banana that Coco is germinating so it will be a while...and the other is a Traveler Palm (photo below) that they haven't located yet. Mazatlán is a tough city for landscapers as it is difficult to be able to rely on nursery stock.

We are going to have irrigation placed in the bed and over that, landscape fabric and gravel mulch. It should be really easy to take care of and should become lush and tropical before you know it in this weather!

Gripped!

2008-02-26T21:26:00.000-07:00

Seems like I am on a once a week blogging pattern lately, and I'm not happy about it. But there is just so much going on....

Spanish classes and homework, Democrats Abroad, having people for dinner, getting ready for company, etc. etc.

And in the middle of it all last week I got hit with the grippe! Two days of fever and sleep and three days of blahs and coughing and phlem. Horrible.

So now I am back in the world of people who smile and brush their hair and hope to be back to more regular blogging, too. Mazatlan has no shortage of topics!

And one is our local brew, Pacifico. I read an interesting article about them in the NY Times - how to save advertising costs they are turning to the web. Check out some of their videos at http://mexicoviapacifico.com/ if you would like to see some hip young people explore Mexico.

Vegetariana en México

2008-02-19T11:22:00.000-07:00

A picture of some vegies from my garden in 2002!

I'm a vegetarian. México isn't the easiest place for non-meat eaters. Meat makes everything more rich and tasty....but not to me. When we first arrived I ate more than my share of quesadillas and iceberg lettuce salads, but not any more! We usually eat vegetarian at home so when we go out it is also Paul's chance to eat meat. Here's a rundown of the meals I've eaten in restaurants lately:

Wonderful roasted garlic pizza at Pizza Moreno in Centro. The owners, Linda and David, are amazing people and their food is wonderful. David makes their own sausage and has just branched out into baking specialty breads a few days a week. They have a salad and personal size pizza that is my favorite, plus that way Paul can have an italian sausage pizza of his own.
Thai food at Zab Thai in the golden zone. These people came down from Washington State and have really made a wonderful addition to the Maz restaurant scene. Their Pad Thai with tofu is absolutely perfect, especially if you ask for it Thai spicy. Their normal spiciness isn't hot enough for me. Last time Paul had a curry dish and it was awesome, too.
Beautiful vegie stuffed chile rellenos at Topolo in Centro. This restaurant is kind of a special date night place for us, and their wonderful courtyard with dark red walls and palms adds to the special ambiance. Paul always has something excellent there, but I always stick to the rellenos since they are so good. The owners, B.C. and Steve, and the manager Manolo are such nice people and service is excellent, too.
Potato Tacos at El Túnel. This is a very old restaurant in Centro right across from the entrance to the Angela Peralta theater. It is inexpensive and very good! Long tables for sharing with others and a real family atmosphere. I love their potato tacos and a Pacifico beer.
Vegetarian sandwich at La Cueva de la León across from the malecon at Olas Altas. This is a new restaurant and they have nice sandwiches on baguettes. The vegie sandwich has roasted vegetables, avocado, tomato, and garlic mayo. It's a great place to sit in the sun and watch the world go by, too.
The Papas Locas cart on Zaragosa. These folks do a booming business in the evening. Most people get their baked potato mashed with cheese with strips of beef on top, but I have it "sin carne." Then you add all the condiments you could want and chow down at the long table alongside the cart. Not low calorie, but excellent.
Both La Mona (a pizzeria) and Shrimp Bucket in Centro have excellent salads. Several different lettuces and nice vegies and dressing.
La Guamuchilito is a favorite because of its marlin paté and shrimp. They actually don't have anything vegie on the menu! But several times I have asked for a salad and I have been served a wonderful and artistically arranged salad. No dressing, but a few squeezes of lime and some salsa make it wonderful.
Il Mosto at the Plazuela Machado has the most wonderful appetizer in the world. They roast zuchinni and then drizzle balsamic vinegar on it. They also have several excellent pastas.
In the golden zone we like Villa Italia for its pastas. I love their pesto sauce and we share a salad and they have a nice Chianti, too. It's just south of the El Cid entrance.
Also in the golden zone is Gus Gus. I don't know why we like it so much but the food is good and you sit under large ficus trees and it just feels nice. They always remember us and although I always end up with a quesadilla it is a good one - not greasy and they bring three different dishes of salsas which are all delicious.

So that's a rundown of some of the places we've eaten. I'm sure there are some good ones that I'm forgetting but it is possible to be a vegetarian in Mazatlán. There are also a few places we haven't tried yet, such as Natura Besa on Ejército Méxicano, Bolero (a tapas bar) in Centro, and a vegetarian place that is in a neighborhood, but I need to get more complete directions.

All in all, I do ok when we eat out, and now that our house is getting where we want it, we're eating at home more, too!

It's paradise

2008-02-10T10:31:00.001-07:00

The bird of paradise plant that we have on our patio has finally bloomed! It seems like it may have another 2 or 3 more blooms on the way, too.

Carnaval is over...

2008-02-06T08:32:00.000-07:00

Carnaval was loud, crazy, full of beer, hot dogs, kids with neon light sabers and confetti. And it was fun.

We'd heard lots of stories about how wild and noisy it was - and it's true that the later you are out the louder and younger the crowd gets. But we learned that we can choose what we want to do and stay home when we don't feel like it.

The dogs survived, too - although neither of them like fireworks and they head to the cubby under the towel shelves in the bathroom. They are just going to have to learn to live with fireworks since that's just part of celebrating in Mexico.

Last night was the last parade that brings about the end of Carnaval. We found a spot along the parade route where it ends at Olas Altas and I tried to take a few pictures. We have a point-and-shoot camera and of course the floats are moving so accept my apologies. I think they still give you the idea.

I need a nap

2008-02-03T13:27:00.001-07:00

Carnaval festivities continue to dominate Mazatlan. The hotels are at capacity, with most tourists being Mexican nationals. I think most of them arrived yesterday and everyone was ready for a party last night.

At eight there was the ceremonial Burning of Bad Humor. The effigy burned was one of the ruffians from Culiacan who lassoed the Venado monument at Olas Altas last year, pulling it off its pedestal and destroying it. The Venado (deer) is the symbol of Mazatlan and this crime was a real slap in the face to the city. They also crowned the Queen and some other royalty.

We didn't attend the burning because we were getting ready to head to friends to watch the Naval Combat. On our way we headed through the gates in order to check out the festivities and buy some beer to take along.

Friday night had actually been mellow mellow compared to Saturday. The crowds were intense and the music even louder. As we passed through the gates (women on one side, men on the other) everyone was given two condoms!

Streams of people were heading westward and up the hill for possible free viewing or parties at homes with views. You could see the "French" ship in the water by the lights strung up in its rigging.

At 10:30 the fireworks began, and I can truthfully say I have never seen a better display or been closer to them. The French fired and Mazatlan fired back from the beach, better and stronger than the French. It was truly amazing. And I also realized that those green "doors" to the beach stairs were actually put there so the beach could be closed off for the fireworks technicians. At the end of the "battle" they somehow made it look as though the French ship was taking on water by some tricks with lights.

It went on for twenty minutes and was just wonderful. A big Thank You to our friends for the invitation. It was great.

Back home at midnight we were amazed at the total gridlock of cars and people walking still streaming in. It was really hilarious. We headed to bed at two and had a couple of hours of sleep before some sort of convoy of Banda musicians played full blast right outside for an hour. It infiltrated my conciousness a little, but we were able to keep dozing until a more civilized hour.

This afternoon is the first of two parades. This one goes North from the Fisherman's Monument to Valentino's. The one on Tuesday comes South and ends up at Olas Altas. We may walk down and check it out but more likely will just go on Tuesday.

I hope tonight is a little less packed so Paul and I can get a little more dancing in! We need to control ourselves a bit though, because Carnaval or no Carnaval we have Spanish class tomorrow!

Mazatlan knows how to party!

2008-02-02T09:08:00.000-07:00

So far Carnaval is wonderful.

The first night, Thursday, was cold and windy. I know - all of you reading this from the frozen North - it wasn't cold by your standards but it was cold for here. I think that really put a crimp on the celebration.

We were out in the early evening because the King of Joy was going to be crowned at 7:00 al punto which means on the dot. People were milling about but it was not crowded at all. At 7 a band came on the main stage playing really loud rap music and we decided not to hang around since we were cold and getting hungry.

The Plazuela was going to have a food fair but when we walked through it was pretty quiet, too. So we ended up hitting the couch and watching a movie. No noise from the bands reached us since our house is shielded by Ice Box Hill. So that was Thursday.

Last night we got smart and didn't even head down to the malecon until 9. There were five different bands playing and the atmosphere was festive and getting more crowded by the minute. We walked the length of Olas Altas checking it all out.

There were of course lots of beer vendors and people selling light sabers and lighted earrings and carnaval masks. Stands with homemade potato chips, Clamato, hot dogs, silver jewelery, and also people wheeling wheelbarrows full of candies.

The women were out in their tightest jeans and highest heels. Men in white cowboy boots. I haven't seen so many women with their pants tucked into their boots in a long time! Paul and I sat at a table in between two bands where the volume wasn't quite as earsplitting and ordered Pacifico beer and watched the people walk by.

After a while we were joined by a friend and we enjoyed talking (or shouting) with each other. People in the building above the restaurant had a spotlight and spotlighted the pretty women as they walked by. Then some aerial acrobats came down diagonal wires from the building doing a kind of Cirque de Soleil type act in costumes decorated with the Pacifico logo. By now the pulse of the evening was moving faster and the magnetism of the bands pulled us out of our chairs.

We danced and danced, laughing all the while. It was so fun! They never paused from one song to the next so after a while we were practically dripping wet. By this time the crowd was so thick we had to kind of conga-line from one band to the next. The mood was happy and everyone was having a blast.

We gave up at about 1 am and the party was still going strong. I don't think my hearing has returned to normal yet.

Tonight is the Naval Combat reenactment - two boats out in the water off Olas Altas shooting fireworks to commemorates a French ship in the 1850's that came into the port and tried to invade. I can't wait!

We're bracing ourselves for...Carnaval!

2008-01-31T15:04:00.000-07:00

We've heard stories about what a big event Carnaval is ever since we first visited here. Some people choose to leave town for the week and others get into the spirit in a big way. This being our first year we have asked a lot of advice but in general are taking a relaxed perspective on the celebration. If we feel like it, we'll do it - otherwise our fridge is full and we can crank up the tunes at home and enjoy ourselves just fine.

The strings of colored lights went up all over town before Christmas. When they didn't get lit up for the holiday, it dawned on us that they were lights for Carnaval!

The elections of the various Carnaval royalty took about a month. Lots of campaigning, articles in the papers, voting, and parades culminated in the choice of Olga as the Carnaval Queen. There was a bit of crankiness here and there as people complained because she was from Cuba originally. Whatever.

Anyway, the last several weeks have seen a lot of projects around here. Potholes have been filled, the malecon has been cleaned and a lot of the seawall has been painted. The palms have had their dead fronds removed and all the parks have been groomed to within an inch of their lives.

Then came the construction. Centro is where it all happens, or most of it, anyway, and most of the action is at Olas Altas, the beach next to Centro. So it is closed to traffic every afternoon and stays closed until 5 am. Hopefully most people will avoid downtown for the duration but the street closure means we expect our street to turn into a crazy honking parking lot at times. Our car is parked and we won't even try to drive until next Wednesday.

People are going to be charged to get into the main zone down at Olas Altas. So naturally there are barriers everywhere and ticket booths, too. Here is one, below:

There are going to be five bands going pretty much all night long. Banda, Banda, Banda! This music is distinct to Sinaloa and is really fun. People dance in the streets and of course party! Here's one of the stages, but you'll have to enlarge it to really see what's what. On the left is a green wall built (I think) to indicate where the stairs are to the beach. Pacifico, our local beer is planning on dominating the beer stands I think.

There are gates all around Centro, too.

With all this beer, you know what else will be needed, right? Bathrooms! There are several big banks of bathrooms like the green ones in the background of the picture below:

Tonight we are going to the crowning of the King of Joy. Afterwards to the Plazuela Machado for a food fair. There are two huge fireworks displays, two parades, and the Burning of Bad Humor and the crowning of the Queen, Flower Queen, and Child Queen. I am probably getting these titles mixed up, but it should be non-stop Carnaval fun from here through next Tuesday.

A link to the Carnaval site can be found here.

Is it real or....a beautiful mural?

2008-01-30T18:19:00.000-07:00

The mural in the sala fresca is complete, and we are so happy with it! It really brings such a nice feeling to the room, and we are not exaggerating when we say it has made the sala fresca our favorite room in the house!

The artists are very proud of the work, and this picture shows how happy they are. It was a very interesting experience to watch them work and has given me even more appreciation of the finished artwork.

I thought it would be a good time for something kind of funny... When we bought the house we loved that the interior courtyard had a Virgin of Guadalupe tile mural near the roof. It's pretty, right?

But something just didn't seem right. Take a look below and see if you think someone shouldn't have been just a little more careful with the tile orientation!

I'm hard at it.

2008-01-29T18:58:00.001-07:00

When people would ask Paul and me before we moved what we would do all day once we retired and moved to Mexico, the first thing we always responded was that our job would be to learn Spanish.

Every day we work on it every chance we get. At the store. With our neighbors. When answering a misdialed call on the phone. When talking to our painter or our maid. When talking to waiters. When calling for something to be delivered. At the bank. We are frustrated a lot but it only serves to make us more determined to learn Spanish - and learn it as well as we can.

One of the tools we used up North turned out to be a good foundation for actually being able to communicate down here. These were the CD's we listened to by Michel Thomas. The teaching program is similar to the way we are being taught here in Mazatlan, and there is something wonderful about being able to build sentences you will actually use on the first day. Both Paul and I listened to them back and forth to work in the car and whenever we would drive anywhere together.

Our current teacher also uses translation drills as a major teaching tool. Sheet after sheet of English sentences to translate. New words are in small print in the margin so you continually build your vocabulary.

Anyway, I am making a leap this week, and I'm a little nervous and a lot excited about it. I am leaving my beginner class and joining Paul's...but he has been in class for five or six weeks...so I have a lot of work to do to feel okay about my skill level as it compares to his. I probably spent four hours at it this morning and need to spend most of the day tomorrow in order to feel ready for class Thursday. Can you tell I'm nervous?

I will probably be spending a lot of my time with my nose in my books, but progress really feels great! Wish me luck!

(by the way, if you want to see a video on learning Spanish that is really funny, visit Rosanna Hart's blog here)

I can't help myself

2008-01-24T10:30:00.000-07:00

I was going to wait until the mural was all done to post a picture, but I can't! I just love it too much!

The artists are a father and son team, although the son is the one who researched and drew the plan for our wall. Every day they just quietly work away, occasionally backing up and looking at things and conversing about their progress. They run up the street to bring back a small comida in the middle of the day, which they eat while up on the scaffolding.

Last night the father said it was nice to work here - that it was muy tranquillo! That was nice to hear, but some days when the doorbell rings a lot and Lucy has to bark at each ring of the bell tranquil is not how I would describe it!

I think they are pushing to get done by the weekend...but I'm not sure. I'll show a picture when it's done, of course!

But now, time to review again before I head to Spanish class!

Lista para estudiar Espanol

2008-01-20T17:32:00.000-07:00

I have my bookbag ready and packed with my pen and notebook. I've been listening to my language cd's. I've been taking every opportunity to talk to neighbors. I am even working out sentences as I fall asleep at night!

So, yes, I am ready to study Spanish!

Tomorrow I start classes, finally. Paul started in December but since we couldn't both be away from home at the same time while so much work was going on at the house, I elected to start in the next session. Paul is doing great - gets extra work every week because he is doing so well.

Our teacher was recommended to us by a number of people. The main thing we heard is "if you are serious about learning Spanish, he is the one for you." And we are most certainly serious.

The classes are small - four or five people - and take place at the teacher's dining room table. You dive right in with necesitar and querer as those verbs can be used to make a multitude of sentences without learning the conjugation for a zillion verbs. Vocabulary is huge. The class is spent going around and around the table, translating sentences. Proper pronunciation is stressed.

I know all of this through conversations with Paul and others who've taken classes from this teacher, of course. But tomorrow I get to find out for myself!

I had a conversation with my neighbor yesterday. I think I did pretty well communicating - but I know my speech wasn't always perfect Spanish, to say the least. We talked on a variety of topics, and I promised him that in one year we were going to be able to have a much better conversation! He laughed and said "Bueno, bueno!"

Friends come in all shapes and sizes

2008-01-19T17:17:00.000-07:00

I have been thinking a lot about friends lately...and also about those people who contribute in an important way in the formation of our own personalities.

When we moved to Mexico last year, we left behind many people who were important to us in various ways. Some knew how much they were valued, and unfortunately there are some who probably don't.

But being away from them has made me think a lot about friendship and how people and even the little things they say and do help shape you along the way. And I'm not just talking about people you knew as a child or important people in your day to day lives. I'm talking about the random conversation on a bus or other chance encounters like that.

People are important, and it's important to tell them that if you get the chance.

I'm making a resolution to make sure that everyone who is important to me is aware of how important they are. At least as much as is possible for me to express.

This has come to the surface for me because of the unexpected death of a blogger "friend." I put "friend" in quotation marks because she might have been surprised to hear me describe her as such. I had never met her, or spoken to her, or had a direct email with her. We'd commented on each others blogs a few times is all. But I respected her, and enjoyed reading her blog, and in many ways truly would like to be more like her. I should have told her that. Andee, I will miss you.

But I do want to tell the rest of our blogger friends how important they are to us. You gave us the courage to follow our dream to move to Mexico, you encouraged us with your comments, and your postings were nourishment as we prepared to move. I can't tell you how important it has been for us to know there were people there who would chime in with advice when we needed it. Thank you all.

People work hard here....

2008-01-18T16:26:00.000-07:00

...and by Sunday I'm tired, too.

As regular readers know, we've been having a lot of work done to our house:

The courtyard remodel
Interior painting
Electrical work upstairs
Exterior painting
Roof coating
Salitre repairs
Kitchen cabinets made/installed
Appliances repaired/installed
Chandeliers hung
Tile work done
Mural design/painting
New glass/iron door made

Sheesh! Just making the list amazed me!

Mexicans work hard. In my experience with all these projects they work harder than most people I know. And they seem happy, too. It really makes a difference to me to have people working in my house who are happy and seem to like each other. Most of them also are open to attempting to communicate with us, which I know is a pain in the neck for them.

Our doorbell starts ringing at 7:30 am. People have been coming when they say they will. They for the most part bring all the tools they need. (except for one guy, but that just turned hilarious) They work long hours. And after work they have long bus rides or bicycle rides.

The quality of work and attention to detail has been excellent. They always ask for a broom to clean up after themselves or they bring their own. And they all work on Saturday morning, too.

I will admit that we didn't find all these great people on our own - we hooked up early with a wonderful design team who already had relationships with these talented people.

I'll be glad when it's over just because of the difficulty we have at times doing things like walking the dogs together or going out to eat for lunch. The dogs have to be stashed here or there as people need access to different parts of the house so that can be a pain, too.

Our house is turning from a somewhat neglected beauty into a gorgeous dame - and we know that it is due to these hardworking, talented people.

It's about time!

2008-01-17T19:41:00.000-07:00

So I am finally getting around to the final pictures of our courtyard remodel. We are really loving the courtyard every day - it is a huge part of our home - and since most of the main floor opens onto it, it makes every room more wonderful - as if that was possible.

Here's the courtyard, before:

Here it is now:

Pretty nice, isn't it? You can see the wonderful seat that they made sort of on the fly. All the concrete supports and vigas are colored concrete molded inside wood so it really does look like wood. The table now has a beautiful talavera top. And the hammock? Wonderful.

Through the ironwork at the far end of the courtyard you can see the scaffold that is being constructed for our next project....see below.

I'll tell more about this project after it starts to take shape in the next week or so - but the artist designed the work to represent a small town nearby and has incorporated the doors to the bathroom and garage into the work. I am really excited to see it come to life right in our sala fresca.

Dos Bolsas

2008-01-10T10:06:00.001-07:00

Our laundry room is adjacent to the garage. And the garage has been construction central for the past two months. With the garage full of sand and gravel as well as roof tiles and other tools, the laundry room became the lunchroom for the guys working here.

They are now gone but the painter is using the garage for his ladders, paint, and tarps. We spent a couple of hours and cleaned it up but it really needs more than just cleaning. New tile on the counter, a new sink, further scrubbing on the floor and paint would make it a place you'd dare to walk through with clean clothes.

So we are still taking our laundry to the lavanderia. I usually take a couple of bags of laundry to the lavanderia on Monday or Tuesday. If I take it early enough in the day I can pick it up the same day in the evening. That is the good part.

The bad part is that someone else is doing your laundry, and not the way you'd do it! Dirty rags and dog bedding is a pain. Sometimes our clothes come back with stains they didn't leave with.

I now pre-treat all stains and shirt collars, etc. with detergent. I also button all shirt buttons and zip and button pants. This has helped with little wrinkled bits that I think are where the cloth gets stuck in the machinery.

I have thought about finding a different place, but this family is the lavanderia for our neighborhood, and I really do like them. It's a hard job, especially when it is hot and humid. So I will take my laundry there until we get our laundry room squared away...and I really do look forward to that day.

It's big news in my world

2008-01-08T17:44:00.000-07:00

You may be scratching your head while you look at the picture above and thinking to yourself "what the heck is this picture of, anyway?"

But since I couldn't show you how great the house smells, or how nice and shiny the floors are, or how there is no dust anywhere that I could find....I figured these four coasters laid in a decorative way on the table would tell you that we now have some help in the housework department!

This house is big, and open to the outside, and we have two dogs and lots of workers in and out. So, it gets dirty! Both Paul and I like to keep things neat but neither of us is very excited about mopping and cleaning showers and toilets. For some reason, though, until we got through the worst of the construction I was reluctant to find household help. Paul pushed a couple of times and I just said that when it was the right time, we'd know it.

So when our very favorite worker here said that his mother in law was looking for cleaning work we were excited. He is such a hard worker, very honest and intelligent, and unafraid of the challenges of working for people with limited Spanish....so we had a meeting (interview?) last week and offered her the job! She seemed a bit nervous but had a ready smile and I think her son in law will tell her about us and put her at ease.

I had a meeting this morning so Paul got her started and she worked at a relaxed pace for four hours. We were very happy with her work and she said she'd be back Friday. Cross your fingers for us!

I should say that we had a cleaning lady for a while in the US but it was when I had a high-power job and more money than time. Now that we're not working we have more time, and could do the cleaning ourselves. I do believe though that locals would think you were at best crazy and at worst cheap and selfish if you didn't get household help in a house this size.

Maybe that's my justification. But I am happy today with the exchange we made and I hope it continues for a long while.

Different strokes

2008-01-06T07:23:00.001-07:00

We have had a lot to learn about our new home, Mazatlan.

When carpenters install hinges here, they make the cut out area double deep and then install the other side of the hinge flat on the wood. Smart because it means they only have to make one cut for the hinge.
I've only bought one pair of pants here, but the zipper and button are oriented the opposite way from the way I am accustomed to.
The rules of cell phone usage are very complicated. The person receiving the call on their cell phone is the one who pays for the call. And it is wise to be sensitive to people lower on the economic ladder. For example, if we were to call our painter we would text message him and then he could call back so that we would be charged for the call.
The rules of land line phones are new, too. If you call a cell phone, you are charged for it. So we take special care to know what kind of phone we're calling and who it belongs to before we call. And we call land line from land line and cell to cell. Sheesh.
Draperies are more popular here than blinds. There are a few dusty mini-blinds at Home Depot and a few roller shades but that's it.
There are so many talented craftspeople here! We need a bracket to hold our heavy chandelier - the iron man. A mural on the end wall of the sala fresca - the mural painter. I am amazed every day at what they can do with concrete, too!
Mazatlan is the shrimp capital of the world but there is a lot of other good food here, too. There's a bakery with no sign that we call "the cookie lady" with extraordinary cookies. Two great pizza places. Thai food. Potatoes. Tacos.
Work pretty much stops from Christmas Eve until the Dia de los Magos (today.) Up north it is sketchy between Christmas and New Year's but here even the government offices shut down. Might as well!
TV is a big disappointment here. Most of the Mexican programming is not our kind of show (like game shows) or are too hard to get into (like soap operas.) We do watch the Venados play baseball and catch the occasional football game. Some of the dubbing is done very strange - like Rachel Ray the other day was speaking English and they had dubbed it in Spanish but not blanked out the English so you couldn't understand anything. Any US TV series you see listed is certain to be last season. CNN is from England. Who needs TV anyway?
Locals love it when you speak Spanish. Even my present-tense Spanish. Sometimes they are all nervous when they realize they have to speak to you but once you start talking they seem to relax.

The picture at the top? Our house being prepped for painting.

Even bloggers take a holiday break!

2007-12-30T20:07:00.000-07:00

It seems like a lot of the blogs I read have been sporadic in their postings for the last week or so. I took a bit of a break myself.

But that doesn't mean that nothing has been going on! So I thought this post could be a random one about odds and ends.

Friends - We are really loving Mazatlan for the new friends we have met. Over the last couple of weeks we have had several dinners out with nice people, we've been to a party, celebrated Christmas dinner with neighbors and friends, and have had many random and wonderful interactions that will probably lead to even more friendships.

Spanish - Paul has been taking Spanish classes for several weeks - two classes per week. He is learning a ton and people are commenting on how well he speaks. I really can't believe the frequency of compliments he receives. I start classes in January with the same teacher. It is true that just living here you can't help but have your Spanish improve but the discipline of classes will be just what I need to finally get out of the present tense.

New Year's traditions - Paul and I always like to spend New Years by ourselves...for me it is the best to start the new year with your spouse - to talk about goals and to toast the new year without a lot of craziness. I don't know if we'll do that tomorrow or not...there will without a doubt be a lot going on in Centro if we want to just walk out the door. But I plan on sweeping the dirt out the front door and wearing maybe both red AND yellow underwear just to go along with tradition. We'll probably skip walking the suitcase out and back in because we are happy to stay right here for now! (red underwear is for love and yellow is for money) I was going to buy grapes today so that we could make our twelve wishes but unfortunately they didn't look very good so I passed.

Weather - I would have never believed that I would comment that I was freezing when it was sixty degrees! But "frente frio No. 18" has been a cold one. It has warmed up most days into the low 70's, but once the sun is down the temperature drops into the 50's-60's. Our houses are concrete and brick, and our house doesn't even have windows in a couple of rooms so the breeze whips through. And no, our house doesn't have a heater! I tried to buy an extra blanket over the last couple of days as I went from store to store and there are just no "regular" blankets to be had. They are all puffy sort of bedspread things - why is that? Locals say it has never been this cold here.

Tourists - The beach is a popular place to spend Christmas/New Years holidays, and we have noticed that most of the tourists in town are Mexican. It gives a different feel to all the tourist spots. There are lots of out of state license plates.

House Projects - The courtyard is still ALMOST done. We got caught in the Christmas/New Years slowdown but the only things left to do are little punch list things. We absolutely love the courtyard, and as soon as we feel ready to take pictures will post the last set. The interior painting is done, and wonderful. We were pretty nervous about some of our color choices, but we should have trusted ourselves because they turned out great. I'll post pictures of those soon, too.

House cleaning - Construction projects mean dust and dirt tracked throughout the house. Mainly by the dust drifting throughout our mostly open house but also by the dogs and us as we move through rooms that were a mess. So with the end of these projects came cleaning! I have vacuumed and mopped a couple of times but we really kicked ass today! I vacuumed the whole house and mopped top to bottom. Paul hosed down the courtyard and back yard, swept the garage and mopped the laundry room. Now we can actually walk around without leaving dusty footprints everywhere.

Small victories - We installed a wireless doorbell at the front gate. I know, it only took ten minutes so why did we wait so long? Now we can close our front doors if we want privacy or to cut down on dust coming off the street. We had to keep the doors open so we could hear people call out when the came over. Sheesh.

Happy surprise - I noticed my pants were a little loose and found I had lost 8 pounds in the three months we've been here. We walk a lot more, and I have basically quit snacking, but still I was surprised. And happy!

What's up next - We expect our dining room table and chairs and a bookcase/desk to arrive next week. We're going to get going (that's the royal WE) repairing some exterior concrete problems and repaint the outside. And we hope to get to the tile store to select some tile for a couple of places in the kitchen.

But the most important thing up next is that it will be a new year! Have a great holiday, everyone, and see you in 2008!

Countdown to México

Please Wait a Few Seconds to be Redirected

It's a family thing...

Drip, drip, drip

Ordinary Life

Grab Bag

It's the First Latin American Blogger Awards!

Iluminemos Mazatlán

The Dog Days of Summer

Some more blogs to check out...

Creative solutions?

Shopping trip

Rainy Monday

What happened here?

We love presents!

A Few New Blogs

Odd Food Day

A little of this, a little of that.

Tourism in the City

This I Believe

Light sleeper

Life of Luxury

Some of us love our new life in Mexico

Eating Close to Home

Rejas or Bars or Protections, whatever you call them

Happy Dogs

Yin and Yang

Washington Week In Review

Heading North for a week...

It's time for a vacation at the beach!

Trying to learn some new tricks

One rotten apple...

The South of the Border Perspective

Meltdown, an update

Bloggish stuff

Say Cheese

You know you live in a hot and humid place when...

Normal life

A few new bloggers on our blog roll

Judge not.....

Oldies but goodies

Meltdown

I love gomitas

Around town

A Slice of Life

Introducing Waltemo

Why we blog

First rain of the year

How to beat the heat

Mexico Resources

Contact Us

About Us

Pictures

Henry! Henry!

Sunset

Crazy plants around here....

México's War on Drugs

What we miss

Let's go for a walk.

Mazatlán or Teatlán?

Gracias, Maestro

The Great Outdoors

When it's hot...

Fan Time

Learning Spanish Más

More on the D.F. trip

A Quick Trip to D.F.

Books make the difference

Household chores

Amigos!

Back to normal here

Bye-Bye Birdies

More Baby Bird stories

Babies are cute

Parrots, Parrots, Everywhere!

Moto Parade in Mazatlán

A Tree Grows in Mazatlán

Semana Santa at the Beach

Our Fit Fits

What a fine week