One of the very charming qualities of Mexico is the ingenuity and industriousness of the people. Not too far back herein I mentioned the retail sales force here in Mexico lacks certain polish that is standard procedure in the U.S. and Canada. But, when it comes to street sales and immediacy Mexico has the others beat.
Mid-morning today (Saturday) we scooted into Xico and beyond. We were hoping ultimately to go as far as Coatepec to buy bread and cheese. But alas this was not to be.
Shortly out of Xico on the road between there and Coatepec we encountered a lot of traffic. It seems in some municipal manager’s infinite wisdom that Saturday would be a good day to repair the one-lane in each direction highway. My less educated sense for things relating to road construction would have thought a less busy day of the week might be better time to virtually totally disrupt the flow of traffic – I mean rather than when everyone off work that wants to go out to the store and whatever was on the roadway.
In any case the road was packed, backed up and pretty much rendered immovable. We scooted to the front of the line but were not allowed to go beyond. Then the rain started and continued. We limped into the Pemex gas station near the entrance to Coatepec to wait out the rain.
During the wait I noticed several fellows arrived on the scene with carpet bagger type satchels. Each was full of windshield wipers. Obviously these hombres woke up this morning or were already packed up for just such an event. When the rain comes out there will be many in need of windshield wipers.
Of course this makes perfect business sense. Top peso can be obtained when you can provide for a need like wipers during a persistent rain. If these hombres were selling rain ponchos we would have been in the market right then as well.
We thought it was very industrious and typical of the framework of marketing Mexican style. Providing basic needs on the spot makes terrific marketing sense.
Then we got to thinking, how would this work in the U.S.? If you attempted to sell in the street you would certainly need a permit. You would likely be run off competing with the more established businesses. If you were under 18 in states like California you would be forbidden from working at all without possessing a high school diploma – something I am pretty sure these hombres lacked.
To obtain a license and subsequent permission to sell you would most likely be required to carry some liability and casualty insurance. Hypothetically if a wiper you installed failed in some manner you would be sued – perhaps even your entire family.
If you offered any warranty you would have to post a bond and back it up in writing. Here in Mexico – they will tell you if there is any problem I am here on this corner often.
The U.S. is a complex quagmire in many ways. This direct Mexican marketing has not only charm but good sense attached to it. Stay Tuned!
We have birds a plenty here in Xico, Veracruz. You can imagine how wonderful the mornings are with the birds singing a variety of songs – all the different melodies seeming to be in total harmony. It is humbling coming from a music background – none of these little bird brains went to Julliard; and yet they are never out of tune or off key. The simple complexity of Mother Nature.
The bad news is these marvelous creatures relieve themselves approximately every 20 minutes. We are in a mostly country setting here at the Calypso rental. Much of the bird droppings go unnoticed other than the occasional splattering on our burgundy VW or the blue Cruise Azul Chinese scooter. The BIG white truck seldom shows any of these problems. With the vast amount of rain these problems very often cure themselves. (Note: Sunday we didn’t have rain at all – first day since our early July return from the U.S.).
The birds lead a charmed life here. It never gets to freezing; there are plenty of water, flowers, lots of bugs and blossoming berries. I mean to have a birds life here is nearly idyllic.
The aforementioned droppings are a small price to pay for the joy we receive from our shared space with the song birds. But, there is an additional situation or rather there was. The Calypso Casa presents a very safe area for the birds. We have no cats or dogs or any other predators to them. So they hangout.
The fly space includes right over our clothes lines where we sun-dry our washed clothes. You probably have already guessed what that problem is. We were re-washing a lot of clothes. A catch-22 situation wherein we do not want to discourage natures concert entertainment and yet….
We found a solution. We gathered up some spent compact disks; old obsolete software, errant recording attempts, scratched or otherwise unplayable media and remember all those free AOL disks? We then hung them on the line so they were free to spin catching sunlight, producing mirrored reflections that splattered about a yard.
Miracle of miracles we have had no more problems; the music remains. Nature’s musical pleasure no longer has an unhappy coda attached.
You might not be able to get away with such tom foolery as hanging spinning disks in your yard state side – but then you might not even be allowed to hang your wet clothing in the sun. Here it is no problemo.
This solution did come with one small problem. Our neighbors were keeping a watchful eye and opening our casa to allow some air to flow through while we were in the U.S. for 5 weeks. One night during a full moon our neighbor was alarmed when he noticed some lights flashing at our place. He came charging over only to find the moonlight was spinning off our laundry line solutions.
Last night which brought me to write about all this, there was another situation. I was out at the cars and noticed something running in the field. It stopped me in my tracks. I stood still and silent. The figure continued to dart back and forth amongst the tall grass.
I was almost decided to go and get a flashlight. Then I noticed the darting ‘animal’ was syncopated with a spinning CD hanging from the clothes line. It wasn’t a full moon so the reflected light was quite subdued – fooled by my own doing
So a good tip is to let your neighbors know what you are up to; and to not forget yourself. But the better tip is to not only recycle those otherwise useless little silver platters by using their energy to keep from having to re-wash your clothes. Win-win I would say. Another energy tip for you from those environmental crazies the Calypsos. Stay Tuned!
Mordita or little bite in Spanish is the process of Mexican traffic police (transito policía) trumping up a traffic violation to extort funds from foreigners or even their own. It is direct deposit; money changes hands from innocent extranjeros (foreigners) to corrupt police.
The frightened ‘violator’ will not receive a ticket. Only a paid-for-warning. Often the process is performed very surreptitiously. The reason for the stealthy process is to avoid the blind eye of Mexican justice which claims this ongoing holdup is illegal.
Saturday during the brief sunny part we were returning from a scooter ride to Coatepec where we bought some custom made bread, designer cheese and some home-made vegetable tamales. Just past the police station that is about mid distance between Coatepec and Xico we came up behind a small black and white transito vehicle. (Not the one shown below)
A Traffic Police Vehicle (more typical than the beater we encountered)
A transito officer, be he/they on foot, riding a motorcycle or in car, is the most likely person(s) to stop foreigners of any kind to give traffic citations; more often looking to have the frightened foreigner buy him/them lunch or maybe a new dress for the wife.
When we came upon the transito vehicle I decided to stay behind him avoiding visibility. We were in no hurry enjoying the bit of sun and verdant roadway. This was quite a concession, the dilapidated police vehicle was smoking quite badly.
Not far along the route the transito clunker slowed; from the driver’s side window the uniformed officer motioned for us to go around – which we did.
Soon he caught back up with us driving close to our rear. The road essentially runs out at the entrance to Xico. It is necessary to take a right turn onto a different road going into town. At this point he turned on his P.A. system announcing that we should pull over. Considering the smoke and dilapidated condition of the little policia car, I was surprised he had public address system technology. We pulled to the side and stopped.
Since we were traveling to and from Xico we had helmets on (it’s a law, occasionally); I often do not wear headgear when just scooting around Xico. We were going the speed limit and otherwise obeying all the rules – so it was pretty much a given these boys were ready for lunch. We were going to buy it for them, so they thought.
Being residents and knowing full well the routine we were not about to fork over pesos for these two characters. The sooner we made this clear the sooner we would be moving along.
If you are riding a vehicle with less 150 cc’s of engine displacement you are not required to have that vehicle registered and plated (con placa) – that is the law. Unfortunately for the officers we knew this. They were not going to be eating any time soon on our pesos – the Calypso couple was confident about that.
Anita walked up to the officer now standing street side. She stood a head taller than the officer. His partner scurried into a package store on the corner – presumably already selecting food items that he thought we were buying – guess again hombre.
The officer pointed to our scooters rear asking where our license plate was.
Anita’s first thought was to redress this fellow for driving a car smoking like it was burning coal as a fuel source. She thought better and went right into explaining that we live here in Xico and we know there are many scooters and the like sans license plates.
Now the hungry officer was not sure we were going to buck his misguided authority. He went right into a spiel about how this was true in Xico but not in Coatepec.
Still mounted on the scooter I chimed in saying we have been driving this scooter in Coatepec for two years. Anita added that we see many, many non-plated scooters and four-wheelers in Coatepec; furthermore she cited the 150 cc rule to him.
At this point I think we all knew there was not going to be any pesos exchanging manos. Now the officer needed to figure out how to get out of this gracefully – and with his manhood intact. He looked up into Anita’s eyes and then over to me still sitting on the scooter. He asked for my driver’s license. This totally beside the point now; but it provided him time to think this out.
We have written before that we do not carry our actual driver’s license, rather a reasonable facsimile copy, laminated and semi-authentic looking. The transito officer looked over my license. I handed Anita my business card to give to him. The card indicates I am a writer for Global Post .com. I wanted him to know we could write about this experience letting others know about his effort to extort money from us. He looked at this card more carefully than the license. It has the word “escritor” (writer) on it, and the Global Post insignia.
We were done. He returned my license and business card. I told him to keep the card so he would remember us – might even want to log-in and visit the Blog
With one quiet glance and a slow-spreading smile exchanged between Anita and me, we shared recognition and understanding, and the power of that brief meeting was more satisfying than I can effectively describe. It was a perfect sunny moment. We rode on.
We arrived home just ahead of the afternoon rain. It has rained every day since we have returned from the United States three weeks ago – every day. Rain does not impede life what so ever in the tropics.
If you choose Mexico you can be sure that soon enough you will find comfort even with the tiresome process of mordida. There are not many that can look upon their lives and realize they have everything they could ever wish for, and then some extra for the dipping. Each morning when I wake, I whisper a silent prayer of gratitude that I am one of them. Gracias, gracias, gracias….
Life is good! Life is about attitude, stay positive and Stay Tuned!
Dateline: Monday night. Around 5 AM Monday morning the alfombra was started on Calle Hildalgo, Xico’s main street heading west into town. The Alfombras or dyed sawdust carpets can be traced back to the Mayans. They made these carpets with flowers for the kings to walk on in Mayan ceremonies. In the 16th Century, the Catholic church changed the tradition of the alfombra by using colorful sawdust to create the carpets.
The Calypso couple didn’t make it at 5 AM; we did get there while the designs were still being laid out. It is kind of a paint-by-numbers activity, very choreographed as you will see in the photos. Entering into Xico you can look up the straight main-drag, Calle Hildalgo, all the way to where it ends at the entrance to Saint Maria Magdalena Church. The alfombra covers nearly the entire route. During construction the roadway is dotted with people placing the designs. The colorful patterns are a thing of beauty.
Later in the day around 3 in the afternoon it started raining. We were out documenting the Donacion de Toritos. This is more than 60 flame throwing, fire breathing, framed firework laden structures marched around town; finally they assemble at the big church at the west end of Hildalgo. All the toritos are blessed.
Each frame has a molded bull head and body center piece, a headdress if you will. This torito is draped over the head and shoulders of hombres that have the honor of running them up and down the streets – ultimately a well thought-out continuous fuse systematically ignites the hundreds of rockets assembled on the frames.
These ‘bulls’ can cost several thousand pesos running upwards to $1,000 U.S. dollars. If you have been reading along you saw some photos from last week’s Saint Carmen celebration. There were a total of six toritos at that celebration. We counted more than 60 for this celebration.
We have been taken hundreds of photos. Trying to pick a very few to show you readers is difficult. I wish we could show them all. Looking at the original photos full size, seeing the faces and the action of these events is great fun.
Here is a series of photos taken Monday morning of the alfombra project and later in the afternoon of the torito gathering.
Pictures:
As mentioned at 3 PM it started raining. It rained heavily off and on until about 8 PM. Most of the alfombra was washed away, now nothing more than recorded history. After 10 PM there were workers restoring some of the carpet. It rained more near midnight but it was clear at 20 minutes to 1 AM at which point the plaster divine Saint Magdalena was marched along the carpet trail while a spectacular colorful fireworks display covered nearly the entire sky above. The town was near capacity with people pushing and shoving their way to the steps of the church.
Later today the arch will be set in front of the church. Stay Tuned!
If you thought this was going to be about golf’s long shot – it is not. This is about the long drive from Xico, Veracruz to Las Vegas Nevada and back. Round trip is four thousand miles through four states and two countries. We did it in five weeks.
On the return trip the first part within the United States can lull a driver into a confidence that is better not acquired for the second part – the drive through Mexico.
Leaving Las Vegas is like visiting a casino on Saturday night – crowded and exciting with lots of cars and people, and bright lights.
Arizona is a land of many textures. Flagstaff has to have the longest ongoing road work project in history unless it is beat by the new bridge at Boulder dam. We were startled at 12% sales tax rate in Winslow, Arizona. In spite of the bad press Arizona is a lovely state to drive through especially if you have time to stop at the Grand Canyon.
New Mexico is more of the same but includes the humongous Very Large Array satellite dishes. These grande platos listen in on deep space (radio astronomyobservatory). They are a sight to see even from the highway – better still close up with a visit to the visitor’s center. Remember the Jody Foster film “Contact”?
VLA dishes shot taken near our car on the highway. (ENLARGE)
Many of the mountain tops are peppered with giant electric windmills slowly turning in gentle winds. In the little town of Carrizozo, New Nexico just 20 miles from our casita in Capitan we were delayed in traffic while two propellers were trying to make a turn that required some maneuvers.
You had to be there to get a feel for how BIG this is. (ENLARGE)
There is no better place to doze while driving than meandering through Texas (this is not an endorsement of such behavior). I mean Texas is a snooze with little more than miles and miles of flat unappealing land and a few giant grasshoppers that are in fact oil well pumpers.
There is danger from driving 875 miles though Texas. It can dull your senses for driving the next 600 miles through Mexico – yikes! The Mexico drive is 100 miles longer than the Indy 500 and no less daring at a sluggard average speed, slightly more than a quarter of the average speed of this year’s 500 mile race.
Driving the highways of eastern Mexico is a dangerous challenge likened to going to war. Only the stout of heart should attempt this.
Trucks will pass you at 80 mph like you are standing still. There is almost always a road warrior that challenges reasonable survival practice by passing on blind curves or beginning a pass climbing a hill. Apparently solid yellow highway lines are meaningless to many Mexican drivers.
We encountered an older woman driving a small car packed with people – head on. On a main highway with a posted 110 kilometers speed limit we both had to come to complete stops; ending nearly front bumper to bumper as she came to a screeching rest on our side of the highway.
Now when these insane drivers get close enough to see the whites of their eyes you will never achieve eye contact. They seem to assume that by diverting their stare they become invisible – no eye contact no foul, no matter how heinous the traffic violation or how close to death you all may have just come.
We saw huge trucks lying on the side of the road turned over like belly up dinosaurs. Ambulances stalk the roadways rushing the injured for repair – sadly some are totaled. It is dangerous territory. Slow moving tractors and the occasional tiny moto (scooter) or burro can clog a lane – often when there is only one to be had.
Want to get from there to here? Do not count on the signs or most maps. Truly we have seen three steel plated signs pointing in three directions mounted on the same pole, with the exact same name imprinted on all. In Xalapa for example there are signs leading you to Coatepec. You follow wide-eyed looking for confirmation and further instructions.
At an intersection there suddenly is no indication of direction? Assuming nothing must mean continue straight; then out of the corner of your eye you spy a Coatepec this way sign off to the right. It is obvious some road engineer (warrior) forgot to provide instructions for that turn. It is easy to get lost for an hour or more wandering aimlessly around Xalapa. We have done it, and we live in the area!
We are more confident now after nearly six years and having seen just about all of it – but to gain sure confidence is a path to disaster because just when you think you have seen and know it all a new anomaly will erase that notion.
The horn always works – the tail lights probably do not – Mexico has no such thing as equipment violations. If it can move it is ‘legal’. Those seldom if ever used emergency blinkers you have in your car – here they are used often as a license to park anywhere or to do some insane maneuver like doing a 180 in a busy intersection with no more regard for sensible behavior than “You must have seen my warning lights?”
Many of the roads are in disrepair. Carrying a spare set of shock absorbers and perhaps even springs and ball-joints is a good idea. Do not plan on averaging distances covered anywhere near that of which may be covered in America – figure at best half the distance for the same time frame.
On the east side of Mexico you will have no problem obtaining gas. “Pemex filling stations” abound. Buy no less than a compass for your dash and better still a GPS. Get pesos at the border; dollars are rarely accepted below 200 miles down in Mexico. DO NOT come here without Mexican auto insurance. We have written plenty about “mordida” (being stopped for a contrived traffic violation), as well as preparations for meeting immigration and transportation inspection events.
Like the last three or four round trips to the United States from our home in Mexico, we had an easy time of it with officialdom. In fact this time other than showing our passports to enter into the United States and my obtaining a tourists visa re-entering Mexico we had no inspections or delays from any authority. Everything went smoothly.
Even at Hoover dam where we have been harangued in the past, we were greeted cordially in Spanish; assuming from our cars Mexican license plates we hailed from there – no one wanted to bother with why we were in a Mexican plated car. The United States should be credited with the fact virtually all border people and in this case personnel at Boulder dam are bi-lingual. A feature you will not find typically in Mexico.
We have mentioned that our Mexican insurance covers us in Canada and the United States as well as all of Mexico for about a third the cost of just U.S. auto insurance.
Do not drive in Mexico at night – good advice – not always taken by us. However this time we adhered to that and were thankful as we had several risky to downright dangerous encounters.
We are home and ready to get back to writing about living in Mexico – right after I do something about the jungle that has become our yard. So Stay Tuned!
The Calypso family is at the 36th parallel north, well above the troublesome borderline and a long way from our 19th parallel north home in Xico, Veracruz.
We arrived in Las Vegas on a record heat day – 110 degrees Fahrenheit. We often have good timing on being somewhere where a record weather event is occurring.
There is NOTHING ‘RAPID’ or ‘EXPRESS’ about this border crossing.
It has pretty much been HOT every since we departed Xico on the last day of May.
One of our goals in retirement life has been to be somewhere where the weather is neutral most of the year. By this we mean not needing cooling or heat as much as possible. Xico has been an excellent example – one never needs cooling since it rarely gets past the mid eighties. Heat is necessary perhaps 65 days a year. It never gets below the low 40’s and seldom below 50.
Las Vegas lays claim to 133 days a year over 90 F and 28 days below freezing; and a fraction over 4 inches of rain annually. It is no wonder they have no state income tax; providing impetus to live in a state with extreme weather conditions.
On the other hand, and I have nothing to back this up, Las Vegas seems to be one of the cleanest cities in the U.S. The contrast between our area of Mexico and LV is dramatic.
In Texas we read signs warning of a $2000.00 fine for littering where as Las Vegas threatens $500.00. I can not recall seeing a fine warning in Mexico. They do have signs requesting not littering.
The first most obvious difference when you cross into the U.S. is the roads. In Las Vegas even the residential streets are wider than most highways in eastern Mexico. Then it is so clean – main street Disneyland comes to mind.
The travelers tip is to bring your own water along. I had mentioned this some time back about bus travel in Mexico. Water is incredibly expensive here in the U.S. $1.89 plus tax for a liter of water in the U.S. seem to be the norm. Of course these are the travelers roadside places NOT Walmart with their 27 cent Culligan machines (bring your own container).
The real estate market here is as depressed as I have seen real estate in my lifetime. Even the State of Nevada has reduced value for the tax rolls to 40% or less of the value a couple years ago. Makes for an interesting, albeit complicated (too long to explain), housing market.
I am working on buying Senora Calypso a computer of her very own and attempting to sort out papers to file our taxes – staying cool all the while at my sister-in-law’s casa – she is soooo sweet to put us up.
We are having fun catching up. I always hear some great ‘when we were kids’ stories from my sister-in-law. She treated me to a photo I have been needing for all those that have asked for proof that Anita played the accordion. Sort of looks like a little girl with a piano laying on her chest (lol).
We have been complaining about the weather forecasts and current conditions reports we read on the Internet and television for some time. This subject usually draws a lot of interest here.
We love to get comments and feedback from our readers. We encourage the reading of comments. They often are more entertaining than our musings. Many comments are illuminating; occasionally offered by experts.
On our last weather topic entry (as mentioned there have been several over the years), we received a comment from “br” of The Weather Channel. A bit of sleuthing turned up that “br” is a PHD weather scientist. Actually Principal Weather Scientist and Vice-President of The Weather Channel inAtlanta, Georgia and around the world.
The Problem
“br” explained some things about the Yahoo weather report which is my usual weather information source. Yahoo weather data is provided by The Weather Channel people – weather.com.
“br” comments in part:
“Hi John – earlier comments are correct .. you are seeing the observations for GEN. HERIBERTO JARA, Veracruz [the airport in Veracruz City].. only official surface observations are considered for the current conditions on these web sites .. there is no [official] obs within 60 miles of Xico .. unfortunately, it is difficult to provide current conditions that are relevant to your exact location in areas of the world where observations are sparse..
So your choices are the Veracruz point currently in place.. Puebla (elevation is 2166 meters) or [Poza] Rica (elevation at 62 meters) .. Xico is at 1440 meters..”
“br” confirmed Jonna’s comment stating that she understood “they” collect weather data from the nearest airport, “…probably only big airports.” On a personal note Jonna a respected reader and member of the Viva Veracruz Forum provides a wealth of information and contributes many erudite comments. So the big guns were commenting-in to help us all understand – cool!
“br” stated:
“Yahoo weather says “Nearest weather station is Xico, Mexico” in their heading .. this is a real fine point, but the nearest weather station is the airport near Veracruz .. there is a “forecast” point for Xico .. that is, we prepare a forecast explicitly for Xico .. but there is no official observation station in Xico that we know of …”
We now can assume there is no weather being reported out of Xico or even Xalapa (a city of more than 500,000 people) and 15 miles to the northeast.
“br” also made the following comment:
“So let us know if you think either Puebla or [Poza] Rica are more representative of what you experience in Xico, we would be happy to change this mapping or relationship when you pull up the weather information ..”
Yikes – the idea that I can alter the process of The Weather Channel is mind boggling! You have to love the power to the people provided by the Internet.
OK feet touching ground again let’s consider how we might get more accurate weather predictions and condition reports.
The Solution
It can be said that weather conditions 60 miles away coming from a city on the Gulf of Mexico at an extreme altitude differential will very often have little to no bearing on the actual current or future weather conditions of Xico – Coatepec – Xalapa.
Gathering data from Pueblo or Poza Rica will not make reporting more accurate.
I wonder why in this day and age of the Internet and the opportunity for real or near-real time communication that huge powerful operations like The Weather Channel cannot incorporate information provided by numerous satellite informers or in what I believe are weather science terms “first order reporting stations.”
“br” – this Blog and approximately 300 others from around the globe are incorporated in the news report of Global Post News. You will find bloggers added to news agencies in all corners of the reporting process. Likely thousands of blogs are used daily to enhance the news information process throughout the world.
In Global Posts words, “…With the recent launch of GlobalPost, high-quality bloggers are being given positions of prominence for the first time on a major news media website, starting with promotion on the home page. Hundreds of top-notch bloggers from 41 countries around the world also appear on the region pages….GlobalPost, where [John Wilpers] the Global Blog Coordinator on a consulting basis, recognized that there is a lot of terrific content being created around the world by excellent writers who are experts in their field or who are simply well-informed or passionate about a subject or country. That on-the-ground, grassroots-level reporting adds to the professional work of our correspondents in each country, giving GlobalPost readers a complete picture of life, events, trends, and peculiarities in each of dozens of countries worldwide.”
It would seem that a similar type network of on-the-ground, grassroot-level weather reporters could provide more localized data to The Weather Channel enhancing the accuracy of the reports on both current conditions and weather forecasting.
“br” I suggest you contact John Wilpers to help coordinate the gathering of ideas for a process like that of many news agencies. If you decide to go in that direction – count me in .
Saturday 10 April 2010 – 8:00 A.M. Central Daylight Savings Time: The sun is shining, a few light clouds and the temperature outside is 64 F (17.8 C). Stay Tuned for more news and weather!
