MeXscape

This Sunday morning saw Jennifer and I having a lazy morning. The weather was beautiful and clear. We had been out rather late last night so it was nice to take things easy. Sundays are very quiet days here, with most shops closed and few people on the street. All of a sudden the tranquility was rudely interrupted by a sound that is very unusual here, but somewhat familiar. Even though it had been a while since we've heard it, it only took a second to place it because it was a regular, daily sound in Fort Worth. Sirens! Lots of them and very nearby.

Sunsets are pretty sacred for Chuck and me. We drop everything we are doing, grab a cold Pacifico, and go onto the upstairs terrace and enjoy a cool ocean breeze and the show. And the show is usually quite spectacular. Sometimes the sky is a riot of blues, greens, purples, oranges, yellows, reds and pinks, with the sun a fiery magenta disk in the middle. Other times, the sky is tranquil, and the yellow sun simply drops behind the sea.

Summer has descended on Mazatlan like a fat, sweaty wrestler smothering his opponent with the sheer audacity of his presence. The heat and humidity seem to be in constant competition for the high number of the day and it’s still only June. The resorts are almost empty and the cruise ships are rare, even the time share and condo sales people have only themselves to converse with. Soon the spectacular tropical thunderstorms will light up the night sky with their piercing bright tendrils of lightning randomly stabbing the landscape. We have already had our first rain that flooded a few streets and flushed scattered pieces of trash and debris to who knows where. The deciduous jungle is starting to leaf out in anticipation of the coming monsoon, the vines are adding inches per day and the mangos are ripening nicely. The flowering shrubs and trees are starting to put out colorful displays that will never be seen by the seasonal residents. The perspiring Pulmonia drivers are vainly searching the streets for small herds of souvenir laden tourists and some restaurants are closed for the summer.

One of the things you have to deal with in moving to Mexico is money. On the surface this is not too difficult. Mexico uses Pesos; the US uses Dollars. A fraction of a peso is a centavo. One hundred centavos make a peso. That's pretty simple. It gets even easier. The current exchange rate very roughly works out to 10 pesos make a dollar. Right now it is probably somewhere between 11 and 12 pesos to a dollar, but 10 is very easy and I'm not hurting myself. About now you are thinking about skipping to the next post. I would be. I mean this is easy stuff why bother writing about this anyway? I'm going to ask that you keep reading, but at the same time, I'm going to tell you it gets even easier.

We just moved in. We are the only foreigners on our street. Our neighbors keep their distance and watch us a lot. We know we are living in a fish bowl. We would like to introduce ourselves, but when we walk down the street, people go inside and watch out the windows. What are we to do?