The Mexican Experience

The other night, we decided to go to the Bucerias Mexico town square to find a red cowboy hat for Breanna, as she had to dress up for an International Expo at Colegio Bucerias. Of course, we met many tourists while eating a fresh Churro (a Mexican version of the Beaver Tail but costs only $0.30) and spoke to a few of the local shop owners. All the while, my dad was standing on the corner watching a bunch of Mariachis playing just outside a house. They had a big table on the street and guests...looked like a party. Next time I look back, my dad is sitting down with the locals right in front of the show. A few people came and talked to him. Now I'm thinking they are saying: "Hey gringo, this is a private party!" Turns out, my dad was standing on the corner and the Grandfather got his son to invite my dad to sit down since he looked interested in the music. A few introduced themselves, and next thing you know, it was announced that the next song was going to be dedicated and picked by my dad. My dad was not sure what to pick so they dedicated the song Pancho Villa to him, because of course my dad looks like a Mexican Revolutionary! He was offered but declined drinks and to have supper with the family. We all left the town square, but he returned there with my mom to catch the last few songs of the night. This is the culture of the Mexicans. I had a similar experience here on our street. Ryan went to take care of the puppies down the street, at the founders of P.E.A.C.E. (Protection, Education, Animals, Culture and Environment) and when I went down to check up on him, I passed a little pickup with some of the friends of the organization. They were taking a much needed day off. Wendy was off with Molly horseback ridding. I was invited by the boys to try a cracker with a spoonfull of a mix of shrimp, green chili and cucumber. Wow...that tasted yummy...but a little hot. So they offered me a Cerveza (Pacifico). I ended up spending a good part of the afternoon hanging around, having a few Cervezas, shrimp, and talking. The neighbor showed us this weird fruit which I am pretty sure is the Durian, and I was able to taste it. It smells pretty overpowering, but it tastes like a mixture of banana, mango and melon. There is this weird liquid that is very sticky, so preparing the fruit is not very pleasant...but I froze it and use it in smoothies. So, we have a lot to learn about hospitality from complete strangers.

The TelMex experience. I requested a phone line on November 22, 2007. It was installed last week (around the 6th of March 2008). So, the first time I went, I signed up, got my order paper and was told that within a week or two, I would have my phone line and Internet. Of course...friends told me more like 8 weeks, unless you find a TelMex guy in your neighborhood and flash a 100 pesos in front of his windshield. But...I don't like encouraging bribery to get something done. A few weeks later...I returned and they could not find me in the computer! Did they spell my name wrong? A few days later, I returned and progress...I had an order number! This was sometime in January. February goes by...no news. March comes around...and it was time to make another visit to TelMex. They type my order number and (drum roll please!)...my order has been cancelled. Apparently someone went to my place and no one was there (the owners are here 24/7) so they cancelled the order. Nice. Thanks for telling me. This happenned to my neighbor also...so don't believe everything they tell you. They asked me if I still wanted it...h*ll yeah! This time...I got a number...a phone number to go with my order! Progess. Two days later...they installed my phone line. The installer told me to call TelMex to order the Internet, which I did. After being passed around till I got someone who spoke English, I was told that I had to wait till I got my first phone bill before ordering the high speed...so at least 30 days. Never believe what they say. I went back to TelMex, got my modem and was told that it would be active in 48 hours. 48 hours VS 30 days. What did I learn? With TelMex, you have to ask for something at least 3 times and if you speak to 3 different people...you will get three different answers.

But, today I went to lunch with Wendy on the beach and had the Ultimate Biffer (it's a burger) with the best french fries in Bucerias (Biff's Beach Restaurant and Surf Shop) and a cerveza looking at the waves. Kind of puts all this TelMex stuff in perspective.

So when you get frustrated, or disapointed with something in Mexico...go to the beach, have some comfort food and beer...and it all goes away!

This week we also went for our FM3 form...which will allow us to keep the truck in the country for more than 6 months...so I'm 1/2 mexican!

January in Mexico

Last time we left off...we were shopping for furniture, and we were still wet behind the ears (not sweat!).

It is now mid January and Ryan lost his first tooth today. We were able to find some more furniture, so our place isn't so bare anymore. Believe it or not, we went to IQEA in La Cruz de Huanacaxtle and it was the size of a large room with about 10 Ikea pieces. Sure enough...you can read Ikea right on the boxes. We got this Expedit which sells for $250 in Canada, but $330 here...so not too big a rip-off. Can you believe it that I come all the way down here, and buy Ikea, which by the way is Swedish for "crap". We found a nice lime green hide-a-bed at Sam's Club that looks modern enough for the living room...so we have room for 2 visitors now. We also got bar height table and chairs off a truck in the street. Gotta love Mexico for guys driving around with stuff to sell.

We also got our washer/dryer from Home Depot in PV. It's still very new, and the staff are all over the place (as in disorganized) and nowhere to be found at the same time. On one visit, they billed me about $6 for a nut. It took about 45 minutes for me to get a refund!

For a country where things are very relaxed, I do find one thing ironic. They are never in a hurry...except when they get into a car...and now they are in a rush to go somewhere!

I ordered my High Speed Internet with TelMex. Now TelMex is kind of a monopoly, so you can just imagine...add 1 part of "we don't care...you can't get it anywhere else", 2 parts "come back tomorrow", with a cup of "for sure they will install your line tomorrow!" I ordered Nov. 22th...and we are now January 16th! They at first told me it was going to be about a week. But...it's Mexico and you can't really get mad, you just wait, have a Cerveza and eventually it will get done.

Part of the challenge of living here is accepting Mexico for its faults. You just can't get angry when these types of things happen...you just smile. Here we are in these little towns that just grow at an incredible rate and you can't expect the people to have "big city" smarts or know-how.

When you are tempted to blow your top...stop...go to the beach...have a nice lunch and a Cerveza and everything is forgotten. We really enjoy Karen's Place for breakfast or lunch when you just want to get away. Listen to the waves crash on the shore and eat some good food. For the best tacos hands down is a little place in La Cruz called Tacos on the Street. Not sure the exact address, but it's in my GPS. It's pretty much of a given that every Sunday night we are there. We have tried elsewhere...but none compare! Of course The Shamrock Irish Pub is a great place for a burger (about $7) and a Pint, especially during happy hour. They even have a kids menu! They also have free Wi-Fi...so technically, I could work from there! We found a good little Pizza place with a wood burning oven the next town closer to PV. Some of these little places don't have liquor licenses, so you can bring your own beer, which makes it even cheaper!

They just built a Mega in our town, which is kind of like a department store that is half for groceries. The Mexican Loblaws! Now, we don't have to venture into Puerto Vallarta for supplies.

The kids are in a Mexican private school which is half Spanish, half English. It is called Colegio Bucerias. I am very impressed by how nice they are there. The prices are very fair. More than I was expecting to pay, but it's important that the kids have good schooling, so well worth it and reasonable.

We love our little town. It's just big enough to allow us many new things to explore, but not as busy as PV. Of course, being close to PV, we pretty much have it all.

I was back in Montreal for the end of the year...and that was depressing! Cold...damp...dark...I missed the sun. Although it was great to see the friends, roll around in the snow and jump back into the hot tub on New Year's, and do a few favorite restaurants...I was actually happy to be back! Wow.

So I will sign off for now...and report back soon.

5000 km Mexico Trip Report

We left at around 3h30 AM on Friday, after spending the day loading up the truck and trailer. As we were waiting at the US border and seeing all cars in front of us being searched, we were hoping that we would not have to open up the trailer for inspection. You know that closet that you fill up with all the junk lying around your home, which when opened, produces of mound of stuff up to your ears? That's what we felt would happen to the poor fellow who opened up the trailer... I have to say, it was the funniest border crossing I ever experienced. When we told him we were on our way to Mexico via Florida/Disney, we started talking about taking time off for a trip like this, talking about learning Spanish...basically no questions about your typical border crossing trek. I guess we looked pretty harmless with 2 cute kids cuddled in the back. I always found it funny that when you cross the Canadian border, they ask if you have booze and guns. When you cross the US border, they ask if you have fruit...no wonder they have more crime in US!

We drove all day till about 11h00 PM to close to Fayetteville. The next day, we of coursed stopped at the cheesiest place on earth...South of the Border.

From there, we drove all the way down to Sarasota (got there pretty late), where we stayed at Wendy's cousin's place. It was a great place to relax with a huge pool and hot tub in the back yard. Great food, wine and especially company. On Monday morning, we left for Disney and did MGM Studios which was a lot of fun, although it was raining off and on all day. At least we did not have to wait in line-ups. My favorite ride was the Rock and Rollercoaster where you start off going from 0 to 95 km in 2.8 seconds. Breanna & Ryan loved the Star Wars ride and the Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show.

On Tuesday, we did Disney's Animal Kingdom. We started off with a safari, which was fun. The Finding Nemo and Lion King show was great and the kids loved it . Here is my favorite picture that I captured during our little safari of a sleeping lion. We ended the day with the Everest Roller Coaster which was pretty fun. Two days of Disney with kids is pretty exhausting to say the least. We went back to Sarasota and took a day off.

Our next stop was Destin, Florida Thursday. We were given the use of a time-share for the night by some friends of ours and we stayed at the Intrawest Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort. Wow...what a room, what a resort. This was one of the best beaches we have ever been to! The sand was close to flour, and the water was aqua blue. The kids found enough crab parts to make one good one :). We rented bikes and the kids loved the free arcade.

Saturday and Sunday we spent in New Orleans. We stayed at Le Pavillion within walking distance to the French Quarter. Talk about service! They have a real doorman! On Saturday, we walked the French Quarter and loved the architecture of the balconies. The food and music was exactly what I was hoping for. Music on the streets, great food and wonderful balconies.

We left the French Quarter around 5h00 PM, when happy hour starts (3 for 1). It did not take long for it to get raunchy, so we left with the kids. A local told us that when she leaves work around 11h00 PM, she regularly has to step over passed out teens on the street, puke, and other enjoyable obstacles, sort of like the drunk Olympics.

From New Orleans, we went to Texas in a little town called Brenham to visit my friend's parents. It also served the dual purpose to have a power supply shipped to me. OK. You all know me, and what I do. Imagine now that I left Canada forgetting my laptop power cord and the power cord for our movie player (I bought the Creative Labs Zen W which I love) which was supposed to keep the kids occupied during the trip! I was only able to recharge the movie player in Sarasota and Texas...sorry kids. The Zen is great to watch movies, in fact I regularly watch TV shows or movies in bed with it. It might also come in handy if I ever get the "runs" down here :).

From Brenham, we went to Laredo Texas, where we stayed the night. We got up early the next day, and crossed the border. I was kind of nervous, since my Spanish is really bad, so of course, I choose the wrong lane, and went into the "To Declare" lane, which is where you pay taxes for all the stuff you have. Of course, I had a trailer full of stuff! The officer told me I had to go inside to pay tax, although I told him that I think I went in the wrong lane and I was really looking for the place to get a permit for my truck & trailer. He made me go in, and I again played dumb, and told the guy at the counter that I think I at the wrong place and I'm looking for the place to get a car permit. He took me outside and gave me directions to the place, and I just headed for it. Phew! After getting my permit, I still wasn't sure I was passed the border! It was a little weird. We started driving towards PV, and at the 12 mile point, there is a checkpoint where you stop in front of a light, and luckily, it was green, so we just went on through. At that point, we knew we were in.

We had the choice of taking the toll roads (which I find quite expensive), or the free roads. Although expensive, I feel that the toll roads is the way to go. The free roads go through small towns where you have to slow down, you are only a two lane highway so you have to pass big trucks, and most of the time, there is no shoulder. The toll road on the other hand is smooth, has emergency phones at regular intervals, gas stations at regular intervals (never let your gas go below 1/2 a tank...you never know how far the next one is and you can waste lots of gas in the mountains!). The scenery was breathtaking, seeing the mountains, valleys and many varieties of plants (Tequila!). We drove all day in well into the night, when Wendy and the kids had their full. We were in Aguascalientes by then, and we had a hard time finding a hotel with vacancy. We found one, which was fairly expensive for a stop-over hotel ($120 USD), but wow what a room. We were on the ground floor facing a huge pool. We were tempted to stay an extra day! We left after breakfast and headed for our new home for the next little while. The last stretch from the main toll road to the road that follows the ocean (Highway 200) was pretty twisty and again, we were behind slow trucks. We finally made it around 9h00 PM, at which time it was pretty dark, but I found our place just fine. We unpacked the trailer, and passed out on the mattress (did not even take the time to rebuild our bed!). We awoke and of course the kids headed straight to the pool while we unpacked.

7000 KM was our total trip, and with the stops, it was quite enjoyable. We love our place, and having a pool in the back yard is great and better than going in an elevator for 20 floors like when we were at 2021 Atwater (which we really enjoyed also). Yesterday, I found the little Irish Pub in town and the owners were quite helpful giving us tips about where to find stuff in Bucerias. We had a chance to see our friends down here, and the kids today are having a little beach party in LaCruz. We just got a fridge, and still need some furniture, so we have to shop some more. Groceries are really reasonable and I can see how it can eventually cost us around 1/2 what we are used to, once you get to know the good places to shop. We have relied on Walmart so far, and although you do find good stuff at a good price, I believe you can get good fruits and vegetables from local sources.

Anyways, that is the short version of our trip so far. Stay tuned for more updates and tips on how to survive in Mexico!

The slow death of St-Catherine Street

I was stopped coming back from Blockbusters today by a reporter from the Gazette named Jan Ravensbergen started asking my son & I questions about the moving of the last open storefront on the St-Catherine's strip between Lambert-Closse and Chomedey. Bombay Palace is moving out.

I remembered reading “Tipping Point” (kind of a link to the thought behind it here http://www.gladwell.com/1996/1996_06_03_a_tipping.htm and http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070326/OPINION/703260308/-1/opinion04) and how small things can lead to a clean-up of a locality.

Having pretty much the whole street boarded up, with posters for upcoming (and sometimes long gone shows), graffiti…gives the impression that nobody cares for that block.

St-Catherine IS Montreal. It’s what ties everything together. To come visit Montreal and not spend some time on St-Catherine is impossible. What would a visitor say about Montreal, when he passes Lambert-Closse? It obviously detracts from our fine city.

It started with the Seville Cinema which closed in 1994, followed by the closing of the Montreal Forum in 1996. Since then, the block has slowly died.

Following the thoughts of the Tipping Point, could not the city decided to clean up that block? Why not give a subsidy to build a theatre (we all know that movies are dead) for local shows, and plays and concerts. Once you have that started, just wait and that block will be filled with restaurants, maybe a art dealer, Starbucks... If the city would take in initiative to start something, such as a my proposed cultural block, then local students from Concordia and Dawson could put on plays, we could have local artists hang their art in a gallery, we could have trendy restaurants and coffee shops to accommodate the show going crowds.

The same thing happenned at the corner of Charlevoix and Notre-Dame. They opened up a theatre, and the next thing you know, you have Joe Beef and other trendy hot-spots cropping up!

Come on Montreal...let's re-open the Seville and give some life back this dead zone!

Can't get this song out of my head...kill me please!

Screaming girlfight caused by Energy Drink?

This last Saturday Night, a fight broke out around 3 am (Tonic club closing) at the corner of DeMaisonneuve and Atwater. The loudest female scream I had ever heard was gently thrust upon me for the duration of about 15 minutes. This was very reminiscent of the Nancy Spungen whining in Sid & Nancy. When my ears started to bleed, I finally went to the balcony to find my wife looking at the live "Cops" show below. Three squad cars where there separating some hysteric group from this small group of about 3 very loud and whinny ladies. What surprised me was that when these peace disturbing ladies finally got into their car, in whatever state of inebriation they were in, calm came back to Atwater street.

Unfortunately, I mistakenly thought they got into a Honda Ridgeline that was plastered with Base Energy Drink logos. It seems that Base had nothing to do with this drama, except trying to market their drink to club goers.

In the good old days, people would drink...get plastered and fall asleep. Now, they drink, and are wide awake, being fueled by caffeine, ginseng, ginkgo biloba and who knows what else. I actually like a Guru & Vodka every now and then, but you have to be careful with that combination...moderation is the key.

I haven't tried Base Energy drinks yet but their marketing is targeting the right crowd. As I drive to Mexico, I might just stock up on some of these drinks (minus the Vodka).

They should put a warning on those things: "Warning: Mixed with Alcohol, may cause female club goers to yell and get involved in fights at 3h00 AM. Possibility of incontinence or puking (as seen by the opposing side on our side of the street)."

The baby on Nirvana's album is now 17!

Am I that old??

Comments about the picture can be found here.

Trinity Restaurant Review (Montreal)

On Wednesday, May 23rd, we were invited to the opening of Trinity Restaurant on Drummond Street. Intrigued that it is from one of the owners of Queue de Cheval, Peter Morenzos (Pete as we called him), we were anxious to have a night away from the kids and celebrate that we sold our house.

The decor was inspired by monasteries, making us believe we are in the Mediterranean, tasting Greek delicacies and wine. Like Queue de Cheval, the kitchen was open and amazingly huge!

Since Trinity specializes in fish, we became adventurous with the menu. We started off with Calamari (I would have preferred it a little more tender), Octopus (Amazing), and they suggested a third entrée - Greek salad. Now the Greek salad had the biggest piece of Feta I have ever seen for a single serving. Much like the quantity you would buy for a week! It was interesting that every plate was inspected by Pete, and generously adorned with olive oil. Pete seemed like an owner totally invested in his creation. At one point, my wife felt the need to give Pete a hug, in a motherly way, calming him down, as he was obviously passionate about the preparation of the dishes, and being opening night...stressed. Pete was very inviting, and passionate about the food he serves, he told us. My wife choose the Sea Bass (to die for), and I opted for the 1/2 lobster (not usually a big fan of lobsters, but it was good). The side dishes were great as well.

As for the service, it was on par with Queue, but it was obvious that the staff was new, and understandably a little disorganized as it was their first night. I'm sure that given a few days, they will be at their best.

I have no clue what the prices are, but if I compare with Queue, I'm sure they will be up there, but worth it. We had a great time, the food was amazing, and the staff were terrific. Treat yourself to a trip to Greece, without needing a passport.