Month: April 2024

It’s been an eventful couple of days.

We were at Terraza Cortes for a quiet afternoon drink and visited Lorena. She speaks some English and helps us with our Spanish. She and her three brothers: Arturo, Jorge, and Israel along with her sister Rosario own the restaurant and have all become friends, despite us having been thrown out seven years ago.

Lorena Y Rosalia

While we were there an arrest went down across the street. Apparently, a guy had broken into an apartment and the cops were there to arrest him. He was a solid-looking guy and strong. He put up quite a fight and punched the cops a few times. It took two of them to finally get him into handcuffs. They didn’t look like local town cops: these guys were wearing flack jackets and looked very professional. Good entertainment for us.

The following day we went to Cowpuchino’s for the last time this season. John was there and told us there had been an accident on the highway on his way over. It looked as though a guy had tried to cross the highway, was hit by a vehicle and was lying on the road. A Mexican at Cowpuccino’s told us the same story, but he thought the guy was a Canadian and still alive. The ambulance had arrived so hopefully good news.

Later after our second drink, another fight broke out, this time between a chihuahua and a chicken trying to protect one of her nuggets. There were several scuffles and the chicken won them all. It didn’t put the chihuahua off one bit, she kept coming back for more. The chihuahua must have wanted that nugget really badly. She was a feisty little thing and I was worried about my ankles as she hung around us quite a bit.

I think the chicken was brave because she had taken a drink from the pink cup on the seat. It was false bravery though as she didn’t know there was no Booze in it; a kid’s drink.

There was a little kid there trying to lasso anything that moved, he saw a goat go by and charged off forgetting that the one thing he had caught was a tree stump and that it didn’t move. Quite funny and all part of the free entertainment.

And so, back to the casa for more packing before heading to the beach for more Spanish lessons from Lorena.

We took our usual trip to the beach after half an hour of furious packing and ordered a couple of piña coladas; not my usual drink but good all the same.

As usual, our amigo Mark Antony showed up selling pistachios and today we decided to buy some. He was so overcome that he had to sit at our table and order a beer. We told the mesero to put it on our tab.

The next hour was awesome. I had assumed that Mark Antony could speak English but it turned out that he only knew enough to sell his products. So Rosalie stepped in and helped to bridge the gap. I added my little Spanish whenever I could. However, I still have a problem understanding it when it’s spoken to me, but I keep trying and it’s starting to pay off little by little.

He didn’t stop at one beer but had three, two of which were on our bill. He is very inquisitive and wanted to see photos of Canada, the Rockies, our site and anything else we mentioned. He is an awesome guy, always friendly, he has to fist-bump everybody he meets and I think that helps with his sales.

It was mentioned that the Bandidos were coming back to Canada this year and it would be fun for him to come to Canada too, to sell his pistachios at their gigs. It was said in jest but you could just see the wheels turning in his brain. That is until I mentioned all the bureaucracy he would need to go through.

We’ve been trying to visit our favourite spots one more time, before we leave. As most of the kitchen stuff is packed we are having to eat out for the next few days.

Also for the last few days, it’s going to be careful planning and coordinating with Castulo who takes care of the car. We leave on Thursday so have to have the car garaged by Wednesday afternoon. We can walk into town after that. It’s starting to get hot here, it was 35 C yesterday so we don’t want to do too much walking in the heat.

We also have to pack our StarLink but I will leave that until Thursday morning so we have WiFi until the last minute.

We were sitting on the patio when an iguana wandered in. He/she didn’t seem in the least concerned that we were there. Rosalie likes him but at a distance so I grabbed the broom and gently persuaded him to leave. He left mmediately and ran into the laundry room. I had seen him/her there before and think it’s his/her home under the old washing machine. Anyway, we decided to call him Larry The Laundry Lizard. I think it suits him/her.

I momentarily forgot about the eclipse. (An age thing, you know.) So when the light dimmed I thought for a moment that Mexico had forgotten to pay the electricity bill.

It didn’t get very dark here just a bit dimmer. I was a bit disappointed and if I had paid I would have asked for my money back. But it was dim enough to shut the dogs, roosters and songbirds up for a while. We noticed that it didn’t stop the Mexican music though.

I would have liked to have watched it with Eclipse glasses but was too late to get some online. I sure wasn’t going to buy them from a local store, not that we saw any. They would probably be made from old X-rays and I didn’t fancy trying to look at the sun through someone’s belly button.

See, no glasses, they were afraid of the belly button too.

Rosalie noticed that the temperature also dropped-another reason to ask for a refund.

The next total eclipse here is on 11 May 2078 so I guess I’ll just have to wait around for that one.

Tourists in Mazatlan have been complaining about the bands on the beach being too noisy. They tried to get them banned or quietened down. They tried to get designated areas and times. Fortunately, the bands themselves held a protest and were supported by the Governor of Sinaloa. The whole thing was thrown out and the bands played on. So tourists said they would never come back because of the noise, Good!

The bands seem to play mostly to Mexicans. We have paid a street singer occasionally but wouldn’t hire a band.

It’s amazing how people complain here: the dogs bark too much, the fireworks are too noisy, the bands are annoying, the restaurant service is too slow and my two favourites: there are too many Mexicans on the beach and why don’t the waiters speak English.

The beach vendors can be annoying too but if you politely say “No Gracias” they go away. Some are a bit pushy but that’s part of their job. Some bring nice treats like cakes and donuts, peanuts, and pistachios, and if you’re up for it, roasted crickets.

These are all the things we enjoy about Mexico. If the tourists don’t like it, they should stay up north and not come to this beautiful place.

Some things do annoy us but it’s all part of the culture here and we sure wouldn’t complain about it. Like this guy, for instance, I made it short as he can be annoying. I noticed that he only has eleven strings on his twelve-string guitar.

https://youtu.be/_2XpIFJmIpg

The thing is, we are a captive audience and as soon as he finishes playing he comes around looking for a tip. We always pay up. Then there is the guy who plays a xylophone. He looks as though he’s about ninety years old and knows about two vaguely recognizable tunes. He also goes looking for tips. These people are only trying to make a living and we applaud them for at least trying.

The nice part about this is that most of the complaints are posted on Facebook and often get blasted by people who live here and Mexicans alike.

My advice to people who want a nice quiet holiday is don’t come to Mexico because Mexicans love lots of noise.

We weren’t going to go to the beach the other day, but after sitting and looking at each other for a few minutes we decided to go after all. I wanted to go to see the bikinis anyway.

At Terraza Cortez we settled in at our usual table (actually any table). Three norteño guys were sitting next to us and at first, they were annoying until we started to listen to what they were talking about.

We couldn’t hear much but the snatches of conversation we heard were entertaining. The youngest guy was the most verbal and spouting the most nonsense. And of course, the language was quite colourful. Apparently, they were already four tequilas and several beers in, so it was somewhat entertaining.

I got the impression that they were related and were just a few wrong words away from a punch-up. The young guy was complaining about his wife. It seems that she constantly made his life miserable. We were both wondering why she stayed with the fool.

Several times they looked as though they were going to pay the bill and leave, only to order more beer. By this time the older guy was almost falling out of his chair. He didn’t say much but when he did he got angry with the young guy. Altogether a very entertaining afternoon.

The breeze has been making it very chilly at the beach these days. Today we only stayed for one drink. Rosalie forgot her shawl and I didn’t have a warm shirt on so we went home for happy hour.