Pierless Adventures - March 23 - Shopping in Mexico

Today was a rather slow day.  Climbing the mast left me with sore feet and a couple of bruises.  We did haul down all the items we have pulled out of the boat which are redundant or not needed for our trip.  Most of these items will be offered to other folks here in the marina.  A few will be posted in the marina for sale.  We'll see what happens.

One of yesterday's purchases was a new bag of (presumably) tastier dog treats for the local canines.  Both Simba and Chester expressed a measure of disappointment in our original choice of treats.  Thankfully, the new treats went over quite well - we are officially out of the dog house!  

Needing food and additional storage bins to organize stuff onboard, I headed off to Home Depot and Soriana.  I took two packs and a carry bag to haul my load, caught the bus and was there in no time.

Shopping is a slow business in a foreign country.  Items are not arranged the same as at home, and I often have to look things up in Google Translate to know what I am getting - particularly with food items.  Getting assistance is likewise a challenge.  It is pretty amazing how well the translation software works, though it is not perfect.  For example, I was unable to find wooden matches at the store.  I typed in "Where can I find wooden matches?" and showed it to a woman working there.  She gave me a puzzled look and shrugged.  Looking at the Spanish translation, it appeared to say "Where can I find phosphorus of wood?"...  I asked another person.  After a bit of gesturing, he understood and said "tinder".  Turns out he directed me to lighters.  The store does not stock wooden matches.

Once back at the boat, we did some small repairs and I headed over to take yet another cold shower...  Scott made burritos for dinner and we are both looking forward to a good night's sleep.

Here are some of the birds we have seen locally.  Scott's photos - Thanks Scott!

 

 Snowy Egret

 Black Vulture

Turkey Vulture

White Winged Dove

From Scott:

Plumbing. There are three showers; one is missing the shower head, one is missing the door, and one sprays water in a halo so large that your eyebrows and feet are the only things getting wet. Brian bought a shower head today so we can at least have one comfortable shower.

Often, there is no toilet paper or paper towels or soap so the wise traveler is the prepared traveler. There is also a hairball in one of the shower stalls the size of a kiwi. I have named it Ernesto. Most of the 110 outlets have been partially pulled out from the walls showing exposed wiring so there's always a chance of encountering a little "Edison Medicine" and at the end of the boatyard there is a black chain securing the docks from the rest of the yard. I did a 1 1/2 triple gainer on that one a few days ago.

We haven't fallen down any open manholes yet, of which there are plenty, so we have that going for us. To say that safety here is somewhat laxer here than in the States is to say Ernesto is somewhat unusual.

While Brian was aloft in the mast a yard worker laughingly yelled," hey, you with the Electric Company? What's with the hardhat and gloves?" Had he been just 10 minutes later, he might have been brained by a can of WD-40 that fell from Brian's tool bag. Only two things would have softened that blow; a hardhat or Ernesto. I prefer the hardhat.