Maggie's Beach Games

We’ve been going to the beach with Maggie every morning since we got here and she’s developed quite a repertoire of games. Each day before we head off Maggie chooses her toy for the day from her collection. There’s a different game for each toy. The yellow kong with the tails is for throwing in the water, the Frisbee is for chasing along the sand, and for each of the balls there’s a specific activity. Here she is playing with the small soccer ball that Santa brought. The game with this one is volleyball—a great crowd pleaser at the beach. She’s unerring in returning the ball with her nose but doesn’t seem to have too much control over the direction it takes. Sometimes it goes straight up in the air and then she hits it again, and occasionally even a third time. You can see from the photos that Harry’s getting his exercise catching it and sending it back.


This morning we took a little rubber ball along and she developed a new game best played on a sloping beach when the tide’s gone out. She lies down at the top of the hill and lets the ball roll down into the waves. Then she runs into the water, grabs it and then heads back to the top to start again. We’re particularly fond of this game because it doesn’t involve us at all; she plays it all by herself.


Aside from the ball games, Maggie likes to make friends on the beach. She’ll play fetch with anyone who looks at her. Sometimes she’ll just go up and drop the ball in front of a child and get into her play bow pose. Very few can resist. And the tourists whose dogs are left at home really enjoy a visit with her too. We’ve met a lot of nice people this way.

Gringos in Mazatlan

After being here a month it’s become obvious that there are a lot of people from north of the border living in Mazatlan on a full-time basis. We just keep running into them—in the Mega store, in little eateries, on the beach, and while we’re searching out apartments. I’ve been told there are 8 to 10 thousand Gringos living here. There are at least three different website groups for English speaking residents here and other supports like English libraries, organizations and lots of opportunities to get involved in the life of the city.

We met a couple yesterday from Oregon who just retired here to an apartment they bought a couple years ago while here on holiday. They’ve been here since November and are already volunteering in English classes at a local school. Then there’s a woman who’s creating a life here after a divorce and is developing a business selling dog treats. We also met a couple that’s lived here the past four years with their son who goes to a Mexican high school and spends his spare time surfing. The mom has a business here designing courtyards. Here’s their own courtyard that they’ve built on a small piece of property.


Some people buy property here but others rent and it can be very reasonable to do so. Bob and his wife rent a three bedroom, two bathroom house just down the road from us for around $450 a month. He’s here because he can retire on a limited income and he loves it. He says he occasionally misses ice fishing in the winter but does a lot of bass fishing now and explores the lakes and beaches and little towns with his truck and boat. His wife and adult daughter live here too.

The other interesting thing is the number of people from Canada. I’d say the majority of people who are here for the winter are from Canada, and lots of Canadians are here for longer than that. We met a fellow from Parksville the other day who rents a lovely house in Playa Sur, a very nice residential area for under $400 US. He and his wife have been here for several years. And a couple from Surrey has a little place near Sabalo Beach that they live in ten months of the year. Some people leave for a couple months in the summer when it gets hot and muggy. They head north for their summer holiday and return in September.

There’s even a restaurant here called Canucks that’s a meeting place for expats. We’re thinking we might go there tonight and find out a bit more about the people who’ve made a permanent move here and how they like it.

Housekeeping Mazatlan Style

Taking care of things in the house is a little different here in Mexico than it is at home. There are a few things that don’t have to be done (like vacuuming and shoveling snow) and a few additional chores that we don’t do in Victoria. Probably the most important are the ones that relate to the water and its impurity. Of course we have one of those stands for the five-gallon water bottle and we use this source for all drinking and cooking water as well as water for Maggie. We go through a couple of these a week and there’s never a problem getting them refilled as the water guy comes in his truck every day but Sunday. We just put the empty container out with 150 pesos tucked underneath and he exchanges it.

Then there’s the sterilization of the fruits and veggies. As soon as we return from the market we set out a big tub of water with bleach in it to soak the produce. Some people use special drops but the bleach works just as well and is a lot cheaper. After a five-minute soak in the bleach solution we pat the moisture off with paper towels and then let it air dry. We also use the bleach solution for rinsing dishes after we’ve washed them. With these precautions we have managed to avoid tummy rumbles to date.
Sweeping and washing floors is a big deal here—as there’s a lot of dust and we track in sand from the beach (especially with Maggie's beach exhertions). It’s amazing how much dust and sand accumulates on the floors and even the counters. So we’re wiping down and sweeping a couple times a day. Then there’s the patio, which fills up daily with a lot of bougainvillea petals. Oh rats—what a mess! Actually they look quite nice until they start to turn brown. So every couple of days we sweep the patio and the car park area.

There is no special garbage day in Mazatlan. It seems that people just put their garbage out on the sidewalk in plastic bags and somehow it gets taken away. This applies to all debris since there doesn’t appear to be any kind of recycling or compost. So we have quite a lot of garbage to deal with (including all the fruit peelings). And to add to the garbage there’s all the toilet paper since it can’t be flushed since the sewers can’t handle it. At the Fiesta Apartments there are a couple of big oil barrels where we dump our garbage every day. Miraculously they’ve never been over filled so I think there must be a truck that comes by early in the morning to pick it up.
Here in Mazatlan, we do our shopping almost every day as the fridge is not that big and doesn’t keep things all that cold. Besides it’s filled up with beer and Margarita mix, which is of course a staple for these warm days.

So there you have it—a Mexican housekeeping primer. The only other requirement is to keep the screen door closed at all times to keep the flying and crawling bugs out. We’re still enjoying our time here but we’re realizing that there’s only a little over a week left before we have to head home. Before we do we’re hoping to do a little more research on available places for next winter. But that’s another blog entry.

The Shakedown

We’ve heard of it happening but we never experienced it until yesterday—the traffic police stopped us for an infraction and we got the shakedown. We were going the wrong way down a one-way street. Never mind that there was no indication at the turn that the street was one way. Sometimes the streets are marked by an arrow on the wall and sometimes by an arrow painted on the road but this one didn’t seem to have any marking. Our first clue came when we got to the end of the street there was a stop sign on the other side of the cross street but not one where we were driving. So we quickly turned off that street—but not before the traffic cops saw us.

Next thing we knew the police car was flashing its lights and honking at us so we pulled over to the curb. A uniformed man got out and came to the driver’s side window and greeted Harry, then shook his hand and began to speak in incomprehensible Spanish. He asked us if we spoke Spanish and we replied “un pocito” so he slowed down a bit. We understood that we were to get a traffic ticket but not too much else. He asked to see Harry’s licence and the registration papers and he didn’t give them back to us. It seemed like we were to go to the police office in the centre of town to pay the fine but there was a lot of talk that we didn’t really get. He took out his ticket book and showed us some printing on it but he didn’t actually write anything down.

Finally his compadre got out of the car and came to talk to us. He spoke enough English to explain that the ticket charge was $600 pesos but if we paid “ahorita” (right away) it would only be $300 pesos (about $30 Cdn.). This sounded a bit like the Canadian system where you get a discount for paying within a week. We were willing to pay it right away and indicated that we would follow them to the station and pay the fine.

So with Harry’s licence in their car they drove ahead of us slowly for about a block and a half. Then then they pulled over to the side of the road, with us following. The first guy came up to us again and asked “Where were you going?” We replied that we were going to Walmart. Then he explained very slowly that if we paid the 300 pesos right away there would be no ticket and no need to go to the police station and we could continue to Walmart.

Duh! Finally we understood. We were to pay the bribe and then we would be free to go. Fortunately we had that amount of cash with us and we gave it to the fellow, who then returned with Harry’s licence and papers, and a warning to be more careful next time. We’re guessing this was the classic shakedown—only it took us a while to figure it out. What we don’t know is whether we paid more or less than what the ticket cost would have been if we’d gone with them to the station. We know that it would have taken hours and a lot of paperwork. It might have ended up costing the same or even more—so in the interests of time and convenience (especially since Maggie was in the car with us) we think this was the best result. One thing for sure, we’ll be looking for those arrows on the side of the buildings before we head down any side streets!

Post Script: Since writing this Harry has talked to Linda, the Mexican woman who runs the Fiesta Apartments. She says that the police are not allowed to do this and are supposed to help tourists not shake them down. There are lots of ads on TV telling people not to bribe the police as it only encourages them. She says we should insist in following them to the police station to pay the fine. Often if you do this they will let you go. She says if it looks like they are insisting on being paid off you should offer the $100 pesos and tell them that's all the money you've got. Mexico is trying hard to stop the corruption of its officials--and I guess idiot tourists like us who willingly pay up aren't helping the effort much. Next time we'll know what to do.

Beach Daze

We’ve spent the last few days just hanging out at the beach. We head down there in the morning with Maggie for a long walk along the tide’s edge. Maggie loves to play with her new soccer ball. She actually can play catch with it by bouncing it off her nose back to you. She’s a big hit with everyone there. Jamie likes to head down later in the day when the tide’s out further with his skim-board. And if it gets really warm in the afternoon Harry and I will go down and play in the waves. Often we end up walking the beach again at sunset.

Here’s a photo of Jamie about to jump onto his skimboard.



New Years Day at the beach was pretty crowded once it got to be past noon. Up to then it seemed that everyone was sleeping off the night before. The parties started early in the evening with everyone really dressed up—and continued until the morning hours. The fiesta on our block included a live Mariachi band complete with tuba and they were still playing at 8:00 the next morning. So the beach activities didn’t get started until later in the day. There were lots of people zooming around in jet boats, parasailing, and riding on the banana boat; lots of vendors selling sunglasses, hats, dresses, fruit in cups, sea shells etc.; and lots of Mariachi bands playing for big groups sitting in chairs under umbrellas and drinking beer.
Yesterday was Jamie’s last full day here and he went up parasailing from the beach. He said it felt like flying slowly over the harbour and the city. He had so much fun that Harry and I are almost ready to try it ourselves.



This afternoon we’ll be taking Jamie out to the airport to catch his plane back to Canada. His flight lands in Edmonton at 9:00 p.m. and he doesn't fly back to Vancouver until the following morning. What a contrast—from skim-boarding on the beach to spending the night at the Edmonton airport!

Driving to Stone Island

You can take little boats over to Stone Island from downtown but we decided to drive so we could bring Maggie with us. Now this isn’t as crazy as it sounds—because it’s actually a peninsula and not an island. The peninsula curves around past the airport and ends up in a long sandy, palm-fringed beach directly across from the Old Town. The little pangas go back and forth dropping people at the beginning of the beach and from there you walk along deciding which little palapa restaurant you’ll sit at. Each restaurant has a covered area where they cook and serve buckets of beer, and then in front some palm leaf shelters and often hammocks, tabled and chairs and chaises. By ordering a drink or a little lunch you can stake out a place and stay there all day.

Anyway, we decided to drive. I had seen the turnoff on the way to the airport and it was well marked and easy to find. There was a little part of the road that didn’t show on the map but it looked like it wasn’t too far. Here’s the map showing the location. That’s Stone Island in the middle just across from downtown Mazatlan. And at the bottom right at the edge of the map you can see the road leading across the peninsula to the little town and the beach area.



So off we went. A few miles past the turnoff the pavement ended and we found ourselves driving on a dusty gravel road through coconut plantations and scrub brush. I kept expecting the village to appear on our right or the beach on our left--but the road continued for mile after mile. What I didn’t know was that the body of water called Estero Sirena that narrows in at the edge of the map in fact widens out again and continues for quite a distance. It was Jamie who pointed out the other side of the map that showed the big picture. So we spent more time that we’d planned (like over an hour each way) getting to the beach, but once we got there we had a lovely time. Next time for sure we’ll take the panga.

We left Stone Island in time to swing by the Mega store and pick up a few ingredients for our New Year’s Eve dinner. We invited our friend Steve, who is living here at the Fiesta Apartments, to join us for barbequed big shrimp and pineapple seasoned with achiote paste. Then we walked around the neighbourhood looking at all the parties taking place in homes nearby. Everyone we saw was dressed up and in a festive mood to welcome in el ano Nuevo.

Further Explorations in the Centro Historico

It seems Mazatlan has clouds from time to time. The weather's quite cool and grey compared to what we’ve experienced up to now. During the day we wear a sweater or long-sleeved shirt and at night we use a blanket. It’s good weather for walking around and that’s what we’ve been doing. Yesterday we went into the Historic Centre again to take a look at the area around the casita on Segunda Penuelas that we’re thinking of renting next year. It’s an interesting area of mostly small houses and narrow streets going up and up a landmark hill called Cerro de Nieve (or Icebox Hill). It a very steep knoll topped by some TV towers. The views are incredible. We walked around the other side then to the top and here's what we saw.




This morning we went again to look at the inside of the little house and we think we can be very comfortable there. So if we decide to spend longer here next winter we will secure that as our accommodation. It’s one of the few dog-friendly places we’ve been able to locate. Parking can be a problem though. The street the little house is on asita is on actually narrows down directly in front of the house and turns into an alley and then a dirt path up the hill. Cars that go up there have to back down to the intersection to get out.

The historic area has such a different feel from the Golden Zone (read tourist) where we’re staying now. Narrow, car and pedestrian clogged streets, colourful houses and walls, little shops of all kinds, and not much English except in the Plazuela Machado. Just behind the casita is a High School of Performing Arts where we can see teenagers learning some amazingly active dance routines to very lively music. There also seems to be a tradition of making political art on vacant walls and some of it is quite amazing. Here are a few that I’ve found.