“I just received this message, they asked that their names not be revealed but would like the story to be reported.   [Another] also gave me permission to tell you about their experience [a few months ago] returning NOB [north of the border] via Tampico. They transport personal items along with kitchen knives back and forth and this time the Tampico [transito police] went through the entire car, found the Henckles [ZWILLING J.A. Henckels kitchen knives], demanded $5000 pesos or [the male party] was going to jail, talked for a long time and ended up paying 1200p. No incidences on their return in July but did notice that there was a permanent structure being built, I believe South of the bridge.” [I am assuming here the “permanent structure” is some kind of a check point?]

“We did not get our paperwork stamped at the border and the transitos were going to put [the male party] in jail, quarantine the dog and charge him a $20,000 peso fine.

It came down to all the pesos we had $4500 or they would kill the dog and put [the male party]  in jail.  They took him into the police station and into a room with 5 cops and slammed all the doors shut.  He said it was very intimidating, which was the point!

We also got stopped due to a cracked windshield and [supposedly] speeding!  It was a very expensive trip through Tampico.  We are going to try to find an alternative route.”

These are two different stories from different foreigners that traveled through Tampico. We have heard many more.

If you have been reading here long you have read about the problems we have encountered driving through Tampico. In the last three years we have never stopped for transito police even though they were motioning for us to pull over. We simply decided to ignore them. Were we stopped (run down) we had a story prepared that we simply did not see them because we were nervously watching the busy traffic. But, in actuality we were never pursued after ignoring them. We have seen the ignored transito officer  jumping up and down and waving frantically in the street in our rear view mirror however.

We took this approach after being stopped at least three times; every time we had driven through Tampico to that point. Each time there were totally trumped-up charges asserted; several times when we out reasoned them on a first accusation a new violation was thought up.

The bottom line is these people are corrupt public officials apparently sanctioned by the Tampico government. There is no way that just that town could have such a horrible, consistently bad, reputation without the powers that be knowing what is going on. If they actually came forward claiming that they just did not know then I would suggest they were stupid, as well as corrupt.

We thought this Utube video was quite telling >>>> CLICK HERE

And this one as well >>>>> CLICK HERE

You can see from those videos it is not just gringos being targeted. Amazing the duo that shook down the eggman and garnered  themselves a flat of eggs each and a carton of cookies. I guess this is how they do their grocery shopping.

It should be written that we have seen reports on Azteca News out of Mexico City about the problem with corrupt transito police in Tampico. Additionally the last two trips (4 passages through Tampico) we were traveling in our Mexican plated car. But our plates indicate a different Mexican State. So these bandits are not just preying on foreigners from out of the country, but even Mexican travelers from different States.

We have written on numerous occasions that we believe there is nothing to fear relating to the drug wars and the terrible violence accredited to that. Truly I would be a fool to write that there are not risks. We tend to avoid the border towns and when we do have to drive through the border town of Matamoras we roll up the windows, lock the doors and drive straight through not breathing particularly easy until we are at least 100 miles south of the border. So we do exercise caution. It isn’t like we are stopping in border towns to knock back a couple tequilas before we move on.

There has been some ongoing dialog on the Viva Veracruz Forum on how to avoid driving through Tampico by the many of us that enter the more easterly area of Mexico. If Tampico were not such a bastion of crime against foreigners it would be a convenient and good place to stop. I wonder how the officials of that town cannot see how much the terrible reputation Tampico has affects the income and success of the honest businesses and people that live in Tampico.

FORUM TOPIC _ MORDIDA IN TAMPICO CLICK HERE and another CLICK HERE

How can they not see the harm that is being caused by allowing these criminals in police uniforms to shake down most people foreign to their city?

Somehow foreigners to Tampico, people from other countries and Mexicans, need to call upon the Federal Mexican Government to stop this travesty of justice; to call a halt to these street thugs frightening, intimidating and robbing travelers.

We also encourage anyone that faces the task of driving through Tampico to join with us to establish a good alternative route where all law abiding folks can travel in safety and without being robbed. Stay Tuned!

Of course bull fights are very controversial even when the bulls remain in the ring. This incident will add to the controversy. When 1,100 pounds of mean muscle could possibly end up in your lap, the cheap seats start to look mighty attractive. Better yet futbol becomes a more appealing spectator sport.

Soccer may be a bit slow at times – however I can live with the risk of a player spilling into the stands.

Go Cruz Azul! Stay Tuned!

We will be posting some post celebrations photos over the next few days but we had to interrupt that reality for this bizarre tale.

In today’s Los Angeles times it is reported that an organic health food club was raided by four officers who with guns drawn “….fanned out across Rawesome Foods in Venice [California]” looking for unmarked jugs of raw milk. The officers “ordered the hemp-clad workers to put down their buckets of mashed coconut cream and to step away from the nuts.” (L.A. Times article here)

Apparently this private food club was skirting some necessary licensing. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration bans interstate sales of raw milk advising that both milk and honey should be pasteurized.

Our first thought was how this law would be accepted here in Mexico where every day we see hombres hauling metal milk vessels, dispensing their product with a liter container into the container of shoppers at their door steps. (Read More about our local milkman HERE.

Our local Milkman (ENLARGE)

Not wanting to argue the safety factors regarding raw milk, honey or cheese, I know there are issues.  The thing that really fries my veggie bacon is the attached video to the article that was taken by an in store camera – four guys with guns walking through food isles. This just seems over the top for a food licensing issue.

For the last five hundred years or so Mexican people have been drinking raw goats and cow’s milk. I am sure there have been problems – of this there is no doubt. However in today’s market here in Mexico you can go buy a liter of highly pasteurized milk displayed in non-cooled stacks on grocery shelves. Eleven pesos per liter is the going rate (about 82 cents U.S. a quart) or buy from the hombre with the raw milk container and liter serving cup for 6 pesos a liter (about 45 cents U.S. a quart).

In Venice, California the illegal raw milk, a vegetarian’s delight, goes for $8.59 per half-gallon. I am pretty sure if our milk men here in Xico knew they could get that instead of the 90 cents per quarts volume they get here; those hombres would be riding their cows and herding their goats to the frontera.

But really what is up with the guns? Does the FDA truly think those health food people might be protecting their raw milk stores with armed security or what?

The average U.S. citizen is scared to death to cross over their southern border to Mexico in fear of being caught in the cross fire of the drug cartels.

Your author is now afraid to head north to visit a health food store for fear that some officer with a two-fisted gun set to fire in the single action mode (gun cocked) might have an accidental discharge or worse yet just feeling the need to drop me in my tracks because of the danger I exhibit having a half-gallon of raw milk in my shopping cart.

We choose to remain here in dangerous Mexico where we can choose or not to spend 6 pesos on a liter of raw milk from the friendly hombre on horseback at our door.

Stay Tuned if you dare – we are south of the border.

The celebration has been pretty much non-stop since last weekend. Tomorrow is the first day of the next fiestas for our patron saint Maria Magdalena.

Thursday night was no slouch on the celebration front. Early in the day folks were gathered around Capilla Carmen. One of the several firework laden “toritos”   was being marched around the hood. Little children and big were teased with the expectation of the cataclysmic  celebration to come at nightfall. The torito would be fired up and unleashed to play havoc on our otherwise tranquil streets.

The  torito is a Latin America tradition. North of the border no one could afford the insurance that would be required if you could even get clearance to open the shoot for one of these bulls.

There is nothing quite like the excitement of one of these bad boy bulls thrusting and parrying side to side and up and down the street. Pictures simply do not tell the whole story of the energy and thrill. The sparkler and smoke ‘bull’ moves up and down the street when suddenly rockets launch unpredictably in any direction exploding with an impact you will feel in your chest and hear at ear drum shattering level;  an intense blast!

In the darkness that becomes blinding daylight for milliseconds people run every which way trying to locate themselves where the detonation is not. As the smoke clears you check to make sure your clothing is not smoldering or the clothes of those around you. I saw smoke rising off the hair of one curly headed hombre. This fun is not for the faint of heart I guarantee you.

Here are some photos from yesterday and last night’s action. The nighttime photographs were shot at 3200 ASA. Some will understand what that means; for the rest of you the photos will be a bit grainy. But, I think you can get a sense of the action:

The ‘Bull’ is loose! Thursday Morning ready to be paraded around the Hood. (ENLARGE)

Closeup: Each tube is a rocket ready to be launched! (ENLARGE)

The Artwork Says It All!  (ENLARGE)

Around 9:30 The Crowd Grows and Waits in Anticipation.

The Churros and Chips Sales are Brisk!  (ENLARGE)

About Ready to Begin the Bull Run! (ENLARGE)

The Crowd Disperses as the Bull Begins its Frenetic CHARGE! (ENLARGE)

OK We are Safe! This is Happening at the Other End of the Street.  (ENLARGE)

But Then the Bull Runs Our Way. (ENLARGE)

FLASH! (ENLARGE)

The Deafening Blast Defines Silence.   (ENLARGE)

The Final Act – The Slow Rising Star. (ENLARGE)

The crowd returned to the vending stands while waiting for the next Bull to be released.

Tonight two more Bulls will run the street for the finale.

In a day parade last July we counted more than 64 Toritos that were set-off during the celebration that starts tomorrow- whew!  We will be here on the scene to report – so Stay Tuned!

I would expect such diplomacy from the Mexican Consulate. However it is apparent that diplomacy is not Arizona Governor Jan Brewer’s strong suit.

If there is any question as to Mexico’s take on SB 1070 I include here a political cartoon found in the Opinion Section of Friday’s Xalapa Diario, our areas daily newspaper.

Political Cartoon – Xalapa Diario – Friday May 14th, 2010

I will translate for those not speaking Spanish:

The Heading: All Against the Witch Jan Brewer

Boicot = Boycott Repudio = Repudiate

Ms. Brewer comments in the balloon, “Bring more fuel — all (those) with ‘Mecsican’ and Latino faces!”

And we see Obama’s hand trying to pull witch Jan back.

They are a little less diplomatic here at home.

…All together now,

All you need is love, everybody

All you need is love, love

Love is all you need.

The Beatles – Songwriters: Lennon & Mccartney

Stay Tuned!

You might imagine that in a public setting this can be rather disgusting. Even in public restrooms where everything is flushed away often the environment is left in despicable condition.  Inconsideration for one’s fellow men behind closed (stall) doors runs rampant regardless of the country.

Add to this an open container with spent toilet tissues in a public setting and well you get the idea – not pretty.

We have stopped at public restrooms in Mexico where there is a bucket of water to fill the back toilet tank after use; and of course the occasional soil pit outhouse. But, even in some very nice public places you will leave your soiled tissues in a waste container.

The other day we were viewing a partially completed casa for sale. In the bathroom there was a fine dark green toilet. But the base of the toilet was covered more than half way up with smeared cement.

Here in Mexico many times you will find instead of using a wax seal to affix the toilet to the drain pipe the toilet either rocks on the pipe or it has been cemented to the floor.

If the seal between the pipe and the toilet effluent exit is leaky – then merely cement around the bowl so the fluid doesn’t leak out on the floor area – you might imagine what collects beyond the pipe connection within the toilet base.

I have read of Mexico travelers that travel with their own toilet seat. The hinged seats are not common around these parts. Our rental for example which was brand new when we moved in was without  toilet seats.

You might consider bringing your own, although don’t plan on bolting one down anywhere – the toilet seat bolt pattern is different in Mexico. You will have to buy one south of the border to get a fit.

While toting your own bowl seat cover might seem extreme – do not travel without your own toilet tissue. It is often not found in public restrooms.

Hot Wheels Plunged into bathroom humor with its “Hot Seat” toilet bowl car.

Like third wire grounded electrical receptacles and drain pipe vents; wax seals, proper drainage systems and toilet seats are not standard building practices in Mexico.

Have you noticed how prevalent bathroom humor is in movies these days? I detest bathroom humor. Compost toilets anyone?  Stay Tuned!

We received a one paragraph email from a gringo we know here in Xico; we will call this person one of the Smiths.

Smith wrote that s/he just started receiving collection calls for the first time (yesterday). Smith had read about our bogus collection calls on this Blog. Also we have discussed our frustration with these numerous nuisance calls with both the Smiths socially on several occasions.

Because the language of the one paragraph is in part a bit off color, I will explain rather than print it here verbatim.

First Smith wrote with great ironic literary technique that s/he could appreciate from my Blog entry and the subsequent responses how aggravating unwanted persistent phone calls can be. The Smiths first collection call was early enough in the morning to get one of them out of bed. The second call came from a different person within the same collection agency some four hours later.

The agency was looking for a certain Mexicano we will call Ms. Lopez; a name well known to us relating to our collection call nightmare. Smith explained that they seemed determined to find her.  Smith was told that someone gave the collection agency their number; further that it was reported as Ms. Lopez’s new number.

In the paragraph Smith wrote that their number is not new. In fact the number “is as old as the hills”.  We knew this having known this couple prior to their moving into their rental casa that included an existing telephone line and number. A rental we had actually hunted down for the Smiths before they arrived in Mexico.

Now totally bothered by the second call, Smith asked the collection agent what Ms. Lopez’s old number was.

S/he went on to suggest that we might imagine how surprised and unbelieving s/he was when the collection agency person gave them our new number;  and how Smith just knew we would not do such a thing as give them their number (more irony).

Being a good sleuth Smith went on to state that s/he looked up Ms. Lopez in the phone book. There was Ms. Lopez’s number in the Xico section of the phone book; it was of course our new number “…with the same odor”. Here I was a bit confused as to the point as of course we all knew Ms. Lopez had our telephone number prior to us – no revelation there. But that fact in Smith’s mind seemed to sew up any loose ends about who the perpetrators might be.

Obviously the Smith’s are incensed assuming that we gave the collection agency their phone number.

The truth is different.

Our first take was how totally bizarre!  You can count the number of gringo families living in Xico on one hand. How could this terrible situation get transferred to the Smiths? What’s more how could the Smiths assume we had done such a thing? Believe me when I tell you this is so far from our characters – however apparently not to the Smiths.

I left the email and thoughts of the situation until the end of the day. I went back and re-read Smith’s bitter little diatribe. Then it quickly dawned on me.

You read about our trouble getting phone service back in early January. During that tedious process we had given the Smith’s phone number to Telmex as a contact point here in Xico. In fact as I recall, Telmex had actually called the Smith’s regarding our service twice – once for a reference and once when they were trying to contact us about the service.

Obviously some not so bright individual at Telmex had mistakenly given the Smith’s number as a reference relating to Ms. Lopez. Of course this move would be totally libelous in the United States. Can you imagine AT&T mistakenly giving out a referral telephone number to a collection agency? It would be like winning the lottery – the financial liability would be enormous for such an action.

We made some accusations and suggestions about Telmex service last January. Our problems were mostly assuaged by some quick responses from them, in an effort to stop the bad press as much as anything. This error in judgment however goes even beyond that.

It should be noted that we have been told by the collection agents on a number of occasions including during some Sunday calls that the collection person calling was a representative of Santander Bank. Here we might assume that Telmex may very well be in cahoots with a bank to assist in their collection process by providing private information.

I intend to get in contact with Telmex to hear what they have to say about all this.

The reality is there are no other possibilities. Telmex provided the Smith’s telephone number to the bank’s collection representatives.

A reasonably intelligent Telmex person should have figured out that this collection related to the previous owner of the number – Ms. Lopez – not to the Calypso’s or any referral numbers relating to them. Of course there is no way a referral number given by us could be connected to the previous owner of our phone number.

But then the Smiths couldn’t figure it out and they were our friends. They could only assume that for some inane reason we would give their phone number to a collection agency that has been driving us nuts for the last three months. How they reasoned this out is beyond me. It is easier to understand the insipid Telmex personnel doing such a stupid thing.

We are currently still receiving 3-10 collection calls a day. We are trying Carlos’ suggestion of leaving them holding on line.We haven’t heard from the Smiths; and probably won’t. Updates will follow.

Here in Mexico compared to the U.S. people and organizations  are  more free to do wrong as much as they are more free to do right. More freedom here in Mexico is a two edged sword as you can see from this story. Freedom does not come without costs. You can imagine how far we might get accusing Telmex of supplying that phone number. We shall see. Stay Tuned!

I may be too old to remember but, I think in the U.S. you can request an easy group of numbers to recall if you are old or mentally challenged. In any case we received a wonderfully easy-to-remember telephone number regardless of our age or mental capacity.

But alas luck often does not come without a price.

Moments after our service was established we started receiving collection calls for three different people. We began politely explaining this was a new number. Those people no longer have this number. They do not live here – honestly.

You can imagine how often these collection vermin hear that story. After a couple weeks we started a new tactic – pleading with them. PAHLEEZE we are NOT that person. This is a new phone number. You are molesting us. Molesting is the word for bothering here in Mexico – and in this it just seems so much more fitting than bothering.

We have caller ID. We can almost always predict that the call is a collector. They call from quite a few numbers and a few that are reported as  BLOCKED. But the incessant ringing needs to be stopped by answering; if not they just keep calling. They continue to call regardless of our pleading and tactics to get them to cease and desist.

We had considered calling Telmex to ask to be issued a number that was not tied to a house full of debtors. But, we would lose our “lucky” easy to remember phone number. Anita and I agreed to endure more taunting.

We assume the laws restricting making these calls, or to be placed on a no call list simply does not exist here. So the collection scoundrels persist without the possibility of punishment for torturing us with phone calls from 6:30 AM until 10 PM at night.

Our next strategy was to simply pick the phone up and replace it – but of course this caused them to call right back or at least not remove our number from their handy list of those bankrupt of the value of paying their bills.

Scrooge asked, “Are there no prisons?

“Plenty of prisons.” said the gentlemen.

“And the Union Workhouses – are they still in operation?” Ebenezer further asked?

“They are. I wish they were not.” was the reply.

“Oh from what you said at first I was afraid that something had happened to stop them in their useful course. I am very glad to hear it…. I help support the establishments I have named; those who are badly off must go there.”

I suppose if it were nearer to the Christmas season I might be able to gin up some forgiveness for these three debtors and the host of collectors that bother us day and night. But it is not the Christmas season. It is April Fool’s Day and this is no joke. The situation is starting to really test my newly found south of the border patience.

It has been three months now. I have a pat reply in Spanish written on a note pad placed near the phone. I am not above groveling to get these people to stop their incessant calling – but even that seems to fall on deaf ears.

I haven’t yet asked how much this trio owes – that could start another volley of callers. But, we have considered paying the debt just to get them to stop calling – crazy as that may sound – what price peace?

We are back to thinking about complaining to Telmex for help – but most assuredly they will suggest giving us a different number – grrr.

Maybe you have some ideas? I have to run – the phone is ringing! Stay Tuned!

Sunset Puerto Escondido (ENLARGE HERE)

Carnival Girls

“Girls” on Float

Lots of photos and more information on Puerto Escondido to follow – so Stay Tuned!

Go here or you may end up across the street!

Conveniently Located to serve.

Stay Tuned!