Living in Mexico

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The Sounds of Mexico

Life in Mexico is never quiet. Punctuating our day are the various trucks that announce themselves to be nearby, just in case you need their service. The first sounds most people are aware of are the various gas trucks. Below are recordings of Zeta Gas and Gas Milenium. They are carrying the four foot tall cylinders to exchange full for empty. The knife sharpener walks through the neighborhood every week or so blowing his whistle. It’s the same whistle throughout...

Finding Your Best Life

  • September 29, 2019
  • /
  • Expat

  Most people want a good life – a happy life – but inertia keeps them frozen in place.  Some struggle to put their finger on exactly what they need and others jump into change without knowing where they’ll land.  Certainly we are all different but there are more similarities between us than you would think.   Connection and community.  People who make time for each other.  New challenges.  Supportive friends.  These are some of the reasons people yearn for change....

Salitre and the tropical household

Salitre is a fact of life in the tropics.  When we moved here we had very little idea what it takes to deal with salitre in a climate like ours. What is it?  It is the powdery stain that leaches through the paint – basically salts moving out of the mortar and concrete through moisture.  Sometimes the moisture is coming from a leak – and sometimes it is from the humidity, rain, or groundwater seeping up.   This patch isn’t...

In México, workers make good use of old buckets

Nothing goes to waste in México. Plastic pop bottles turn into small paint containers, musical instruments or a soapy water squirt bottle for a windshield washing business. Discarded cardboard is used for a door mat when it’s rainy.  I believe that the 5 gallon paint bucket is the most coveted item of all. At the top of this post you’ll see how the car wash man on our street locks up his buckets when he goes home for mid-day comida. They...

Too much choice sometimes…

Friends who aren’t retired or who haven’t been to México will ask “what do you do all day?” I think it’s a funny question because boredom has never ever been a problem for me.  I usually have way too many things going on, and some days I even have trouble deciding what to do because of it! Some days I just like to play in my office-workroom.  Above is a picture of my main work table.  I have bins below...

It’s a puzzle to me…

We live a few blocks from the main Cathedral here in Mazatlán, and we sleep with a window open.  I love the sound of the bells and I’ve gotten so I rely on them to tell me the time since I no longer wear a watch!  Here’s what I hear pretty much every day (and night): 2 AM:  A light wind-chime sound and then two gongs 3 AM:  A light wind-chime sound and then three gongs 4 AM:  A light...

The Boys

One street over from us is an apartment building.  For about a year a group of young men has been living in one of the second floor apartments, and I admit that they have provided us with a fair bit of entertainment. We guess that they came here for work, leaving their families at home.  We never see them with women or children, and they do seem to create most of their own entertainment. Their favorite pastime is hanging around...

Being spoiled isn’t easy.

I love a clean house.  And I know how to clean a house.  I challenge anyone to a house cleaning competition, and I would suggest you put your money on ME! I can’t say I love to clean, but I love it clean, so somehow the two come together, anyway. Now that we live in Mexico I have help in the house.  Help everywhere, really.  Our car is washed once or twice a week.  Our groceries get loaded into the...

The Truth about Mexico

Maybe you’ve noticed the new graphic in my sidebar. It links you to a new website The Truth About Mexico. Anyone reading this blog is interested in Mexico or already lives here, so visiting The Truth About Mexico will give you a perspective on the topic of safety in Mexico written by people who live here and are telling the truth. So when a friend or relative tells you an alarmist story when you’re discussing your home here in Mexico...

Everyone is on the defensive

I was ticked off this morning when the front page of the online New York Times had a very unflattering article about Mazatlán and the drug cartels. Supposedly pulmonía drivers (our golf-cart style taxis) take people for “narco-tours” in town.  Maybe this is true, who knows.  I’m sure taxi drivers in any city could take someone on a drug tour.  I am just tired of the sensational press having to do with the drug war in México. What I wish...

Sparkling clean

The picture above is some produce that I just cleaned with mycrodyne, an iodine based cleaner. Here in Mexico most people soak fruits and vegetables for around 15 minutes, and then rinse them with purified water before putting them in the fridge.  It’s important to do everything, even produce that will be peeled, since the peeling or cutting would drag dirt/germs from the outside of the produce into the meat. Back in the US I would cram all the produce...

It’s for the kids.

Back in October , Blogger Wayne in Isla Mujeres came up with the idea to help the kids in Ursula Galvan in Veracruz State.  This is the community that Blogger John and his wife Anita live.  The plan was to knit hats for the kids there, where it gets cold in the winter.  I jumped on board, as I enjoy knitting and wanted to give something to these kids, too. But my son and his wife are expecting a baby...

Transitions.

Transitions.  We used to be all about planning our move.  Then making the move.  Then I wrote about everything foreign and strange.  That was then…now I blog about our ordinary life, but our ordinary life in Mexico.  And it’s a good life. Life has been all about the little things, lately. We’re back in Spanish class.  Another couple we know is pretty well matched with us skills-wise, so we now have a four person class twice a week.  It is...

Iluminemos Mazatlán

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...