Reviewed December 2005

Please pardon my Spanglish... I'm finding it more and more difficult to describe our Mazatlan experience without using some of the Spanish we've learned along the way. Our Calle (pronounced 'cah-yea' and meaning street) is named Calle Francisco Sarabia, after San Francisco Sarabia, who flew the first non-stop (10 hour) flight between Mexico City and New York City on May 24th, 1939. So, mis amigos, this seems an appropriate mes, er month, to tell you a bit about life on our calle... la vida de mi calle. In this nuevo fraccionamiento (oops, new neighborhood) Calle Francisco Sarabia is only one block long, and there are 30 homes, mostly occupied now, but some still in the process of being finished. Our vecinos, neighbors, are very gracious and friendly folks, and we are made to feel welcome here by one & all. We're very comfortable with our friends and neighbors. We are, and probably always will be, the only 'gringos' on our calle, and at this time, in our fraccionamiento. We like it that way! The whole idea of coming to Mazatlan was to live the life. To learn more about the culture and language, and how to live like a native. So far, so good! Let's go through a typical day of life on our calle. First of all, I hope you got to bed at a decent hour last night... because you're not going to sleep in around here, unless you call 7:00 or 7:30 sleeping in. Good thing we've always been early birds.

But, just in case the old ojos (eyes) are still closed at 7:00am, the orejas (ears) can't miss the sounds of our street coming to life in the morning. Often the first sound is the gas truck's horn blowing as it wends its way up one calle and down the next, slowing down for nothing and only stopping to trade tanks of propane with anyone limber enough to hail them that early in the day. Just try catching them when you actually need a new tank, though, and you'll wonder if it's only a ghost you hear every other morning. Easier to just call the Gaspasa dispatcher and ask for delivery to your house. After putting up with my Spanglish for the last four years, she flattered me this year with, "?Su espanol es muy bueno este ano

About the same time each morning, one of the several newspaper delivery bike-carts will come within your hearing range, bullhorns blaring the day's headlines. After a few weeks, you'll get so used to the sounds that you'll be able to pick the one you prefer from the myriad of sounds, and hopefully, you won't be in the shower on his first pass along your street. Once your favorite gets to know you, there's no worry, though... he'll just come by after he finishes another calle or two, and catch you with your shirt on this time. You don't need a subscription to the daily news and there will never be anyone coming to your door to collect for the month when you're short of change. Reason? You pay (seven pesos) for it each morning, or you can pay in advance and the paper will show up on your doorstep whether you're there or not. Our favorite is the Noroeste delivered by Fernando seven days a week. If and when he takes a day off, he lets us know ahead so we can get our copy from one of the others. Fair enough! Gas and newspapers are only a tip of the iceberg when it comes to what is delivered to your door in Mazatlan though.

There are the water trucks ... many of them. Our favorite is Juan Carlos, a very pleasant young man who owns his truck and delivers the 19 litre garafon (bottles) to our casa about 9:00 in the morning, or if we miss him then, again about 2:00pm. Juan Carlos knows about when we will need agua, too, and will stop long enough to give us time to get to the door or wave to him to stop. His smile is worth a million, but the agua is only 10 pesos, a fair price to have fresh drinking water at all times. Ah, but there are still times we've missed Juan Carlos entirely and were near running out of water. Though we prefer to have our water delivered, it's also possible to take your garafon to the purification plant two blocks away, on a corner. In the original plan for our fraccionamiento, one lot at each corner was dedicated to commercial use rather than being used for another home, so there are many conveniences like this water plant.

Before you get too involved in cooking desayuno, breakfast, you'll get a chance to buy fresh tortillas from the man on the bike with the Coleman cooler full of steaming hot tortillas on back. Can't miss him, either, as he goes weaving from side to side along the calle calling out, "Tii... ahs!, tii... ahs!" in his sing-song voice. About the only way you'll get tortillas any fresher is to be there when his wife takes them from the oven! In our fraccionamiento, the tortillaria is in front of a home where you can also go to pay your water and electricity bills. How handy! Now, wait, though, it doesn't stop there. In Mazatlan as in most of Mexico, the majority of the Moms are home with the ninos during the day, and they don't have cars to get around to the stores for what they may need during the day. Instead, the stores come to them, as with the gas, agua, newspaper, and tortillas. Sometime mid-morning, there'll be the 'broom man' in his truck, carrying everything a stay- at-home mom might need in the way of cleaning supplies. The produce man's truck is filled to the tailgate with crates of every kind of fresh fruit and vegetable that the large Fruterias sell. The flower man brings fresh flowers to her door just in case she has a few extra pesos to brighten up the table for the day, and what a delightful man he is! The fisherman's wife will come to offer the morning's catch. If you need it, Fabricas de Francia's (department store) truck filled with mattresses will stop to make your next siesta more comfortable. Occasionally, ladies with catalogs of cabinets and furniture will stop to show you what they have available. My favorite vendor is the Ceviche Man. Oooohhhh, that's a treat! He shows up at one end of our street just about 12:30–1pm every day, announcing his arrival with blasts from his tricycle cart's horn. His wife makes the ceviche de sierra (fish ceviche) fresh early every morning, and it's served icy cold from his Rubbermaid cooler uuuuummm, one of my favorite lunches when I'm home for the day. For ten pesos, he piles a sandwich sized tray heaping full of ceviche and adds a package of tostadas, and I have a feast!

For most things a person might need during the day, there are a dozen small tiendas in any neighborhood, ours included. Most of these are built into small homes or on the dedicated corner business lots. Out of bread? Maybe you need some fresh cheese? Forget to get eggs at the large supermarket? Decide to make a potato salad and find you don't have any celery? Or, just in the mood for your favorite ice cream bar? The tienda will usually have what you need and the prices are so reasonable you'll wonder why you ever went into the big store and waited in line! While I'm thinking of it, the way you buy produce or eggs or meat at any of these little tiendas is amazing and fun for me to tell you about. Take that apio (celery), for instance. You don't need to buy a whole bunch... only the three or four stalks you'll need for the day. Eggs? One or a dozen of them, at the same price per kilogram. Same with meat or other non-packaged things... get only what you need for right now. One of Mazatlan's best-kept secrets is that you can buy frijoles con puerco (beans with pork, smooth as cream and muy delicioso!) by the pint in most of these tiendas if you know to ask for them! Most of the tiendas will let a local vecino charge, too, and pay the bill at the end of the week. Reminds me of when WE were kids and my dad ran a tab at the local market for the kids to use, as long as he didn't see too much junk food on the bill at the end of the week! There are separate carnicerias (for fine meat selections) and creamerias for the best selections of cheeses and dairy products, again often run from the front rooms of already-tiny casas. Our fraccionamiento has two carnecerias (meat markets) where we can buy premium cuts to cook at home, or we can choose a cut of beef to be cooked by the butcher and taken home to serve as carne asada with fresh tortillas and salsas. There are esteticas (beauty shops) galore, and every few blocks, there is at least one papeleria (small gift and paper shop). There are three lavenderias, laundromats, where you can drop off your dirty clothes in the morning and pick them up later in the day. And, if that's not enough, there are Guarderias, professionally-licensed day care centers where the children of working parents spend their days in loving, caring, learning atmospheres. Did I forget any item or service available in our fraccionamiento? Probably!

Between what is delivered to the casa and what she can get at the small tiendas, there's not usually any reason a young mom would have to go out into the big city during the day. If she does need to, though, there are four kinds of transportation at her disposal. The bus system in Mazatlan is so complete and convenient that you can get just about anywhere in town within 45 minutes to an hour. If you need to be there sooner, or have many packages to carry, there are pulmonias (open-air taxis built on VW chassis with canopy covers over the seating area), taxis and aurigas (taxi trucks, usually red with a canopy over the pickup bed which has seats along both sides). Some of them have stereo systems that will knock your socks off. Pulmonias (taken from the name pneumonia in the early years of Mazatlans motored transportation) are a mix between a VW and a golf cart, and are much favored by tourists and locals alike. They'll get you anywhere, at a speed you don't always think is safe and at a price you'll need to negotiate before getting in. They are an integral part of life in Mazatlan part of the total experience, and well worth the scare you might get between point A and point B. The conventional enclosed taxis are plentiful, too, and will get you any where you choose to go. Just not as exciting as the pulmonias, I think. Rather 'ho-hum' as public transportation goes, probably because they're fairly safe on a scale of pulmonia to limosine. Dare Devil to Old Stodge. Lastly, there are the aurigas with canopies over the bed and seats along the sides... they can handle up to, oh, say, about 12 passengers, and will take you home from a major shopping spree or out for a night on the town. We often see whole soccer teams on their way to the game, or to a movie and pizza afterwards, riding in the back of the taxi-trucks.

Back on our street, however, away from the hustle and bustle of Mazatlans traffic, all is quiet during the mid-afternoon. That's a good time to catch up on your reading, or to take a siesta, as is the custom in this laid-back country. I should add: it's the custom for those fortunate enough to have a job or retirement that finds them at home in the mid-afternoon, when following tradition means having the main meal of the day, then a short siesta, before returning to work in the late afternoon. In this modern day, customs are changing; often, day-workers don't get enough time to go home for lunch, or are too far from home to make the trip and be back in time for their afternoon shift. Still, whether everyone is gone or taking siesta, it's very quiet on our calle between the hours of 2pm and 4pm. Towards 5:00pm, things come to life again, with the agua trucks making one final pass around the fraccionamiento, just in case someone needs a fresh bottle. The tortilla man swings by again, too, with a fresh batch, still warm from the oven. And, just as night falls, you'll hear another, very distinctive, very shrill whistle sound from the cart of the vendor selling cooked bananas smothered in mayonnaise with chili a popular snack for the kids. With a tinkle-bell sound announcing her arrival, a woman peddles her tricycle-cart slowly up one street and down the next, chanting in a sing-song voice, "Paaaan, bolillos, paaaan" bread, rolls, bread, again fresh from the bakery ovens. Other than that, about the only sound you'll usually hear is that of the ninos playing or music coming from one of the homes on the calle. After dark, many of our vecinos will be out taking care of lawns or visiting around the calle. Some will have music that can be heard throughout the fraccionamiento, others just enjoying the peacefulness and cool breeze of the early evenings.

If you're lucky, as we are, you'll have a choice of things to eat if you don't feel like doing the cooking tonight. Now, I know... we all hear the warnings about not 'eating off the streets'.... well, we don't actually eat OFF the streets, but we've sure found some good taco and pollo (chicken) and hamburguesa stands. These are mobile carts set up in fromt of a person's home or one of the local tiendas where they've made arrangements to connect to electricity, or on lots they've purchased and are in the process of developing into full-blown restaurants. You learn in quick order which of these stands and restaurants is just as safe to eat at as your own kitchen. Didn't take us long, that's for sure! Just seven casas north of us and across the street, Raul & Veronica have a taqueria that is one of our favorites. The food is delicious and we often invite guests from north of the border to join us for tacos at Raul's Taqueria. Another favorite of ours is Betty's, where we sit in her beautifully-finished cochera (carport) to eat `Cenadurian' food, which if you've eaten at El Tunel in Mazatlan you will recognize as the delightfully seasoned dishes with the salad on top! If we've eaten our main meal of the day in the early afternoon, and we're not really hungry for dinner, we may choose to wait until later and walk to one of the many hotdog or hamburger stands around our fraccionamiento. I never liked hotdogs until I got a whiff of bacon-wrapped dogs with grilled onions. I'm a convert!!

The day is drawing to a close, the kids have gone inside, and all is quiet on our calle, but wait, what's that swishing sound? Oh, look! Patty & Lorena and Lupita are sweeping their driveways, sidewalks and the street in front of their casas! Most of the women on our calle do this daily chore early in the morning, but these three work during the daytime, so this is a late-night chore for them, after all the kids have gone to bed and the calle is quiet as the church mouse. So quiet, in fact, that I can hear the swish-swish of a broom three doors away! Good night, sleep tight!

– The following is a comment on the page above I am a mexican living in Boston. A friend asked me about where to retire in Mexico. I decided to do a search in Google, find some links and from one of those I got here. What a delightful description of my country! I am happy the "gringos" are feeling confortable with their lives in Mexico, enjoying retirement in a different country and culture. I smiled and laughed while reading. I wanted to go back. Good night!