Our Mexican Adventure

Growing up, everyone in my family picked on me for my unwillingness to try new foods. There are numerous stories my family can probably tell to embarrass me. Therefore, I’ll beat them to the punch and get the most obvious one out of the way.

One evening, long ago, my aunt Marianne was watching my two older sisters, my two younger brothers, and me. It must have been a Friday during Lent, because we were not allowed to eat meat. Knowing that I was a picky eater, my aunt was nice enough to cook me some noodles so I would not have to eat fish (yuck!) with peas (gag!). To my utter horror, I watched her as she proceeded to butter my noodles with the same knife she used to butter a bowl of peas. Being the stubborn brat I was, I refused to eat the noodles that had been ruined by indirect contact with those slimy, disgusting peas.

25 years later, my family still asks me at holiday parties if I want peas with my dinner. I still refuse.

In addition to being picky, I also was very stubborn when it came to trying new foods. My parents were big fans of the “you’ll sit here until you’ve eaten everything on your plate” tactic to get me to try new foods. Unfortunately for them, I quickly mastered this game. I figured out that my parents would never make me stay at the table past my bedtime. Yes, that’s right, I would rather sit at our dinner table for 3 or 4 hours, staring at a gooey blob of lasagna, than to actually try it.

If I kept a diary of when I tried new foods, you’d really get a kick out of my bizarre eating habits. It would probably read something like this:

Age 18: First time eating chop suey. Not just the tiny pieces of chicken that I could salvage from the mess, but the weird transparent worm-like things and those weird crunchy white circles. Not too bad.
Age 20: Friends were buying a pizza like thing called a calzone. They said it was just like a pizza folded on top of itself. They said I’d be stupid to get it without pepperoni. Holy crap, this pepperoni stuff is amazing. Yum.
Age 22: My sister finally convinced me that rice did not taste like maggots. She said it didn’t have much taste. “Why do people bother eating it then?”, I asked. (Sorry, I don’t recall the answer.)

Fast forward a decade, and I can’t say that I’m much better. However, when we decided to make the move to Mexico, I realized that I’d be eating plenty of new and interesting types of foods. In addition, I knew my lack of Spanish was going to prevent me from ordering food to my exacting standards. I wouldn’t even be able to properly complain about it after it arrived. I needed to broaden my gastronomic horizons or I would go crazy trying to cope. I knew it was all part of the adventure.

I quickly realized that Mexicans love their mayonnaise. Not only that, it’s so typical on food here, that menus with listed ingredients omit it from the description. It seriously sucks, to finally gather the courage to order my very first fish tacos, only to have them delivered, smothered in mayo. Back in the States, I probably would have sent them back, stating that I didn’t know it came with mayo. However, here in PDC, I painstakingly wiped as much of it off, and I’m pleased to announce that fish tacos aren’t all that bad. As for the mayonnaise… “sin mayonesa” (no mayo) now follows my order for any new food order.

On the subject of fish, I can honestly say that I still don’t particularly like it. However, it’s hard to ignore the health benefits of eating it. In addition, eating fish is a way I can justify my enjoyment of the wonderful sport fishing that Playa has to offer. After my last trip, I was looking forward to trying some of my friend Joe’s catch, a 30 pound black grouper. However, the chef only prepared us a monster bowl of fresh ceviche - cold, raw fish, “cooked” in lime juice. Not exactly what I was expecting, but I managed to survive 2 plates of it.

Recently, my friend Antonio decided to treat me to some tacos, fresh off a taco cart. My Spanish isn’t great, but good enough to hear Antonio tell the guy to go easy on me. Hmm … what had I got myself into? I then heard him order lengua (cow tongue) and tripa (cow intestines) tacos. Holy crap! My own personal Fear Factor! Not wanting to embarrass myself in front of my friend, I forged ahead. The tripa had the consistency of wet sand and a taste to match. I was only able to choke down one bite before handing it off. I fared better with the lengua, which tasted a lot like liver. (At least what I imagine liver would taste like if I had ever tried it.) Not too bad. I even asked for seconds. “Parts is parts“, and parts like lengua is really no different than eating a rib eye or prime rib.

I’m sure there are many other culinary adventures awaiting me here. Who knows what the next few years will bring… Octopus tacos, cabrito, or chicharrones… who knows?

So, the other day I needed to return some items I had bought at Walmart. It would be my first time making a return in Mexico, as I’ve been quite careful not to buy anything I thought might not work out. Stories of other expats trying to make returns had not been particularly encouraging.

But John had rejected the power strip I had bought at his request as soon as he saw it, and I wasn’t putting up with a $6 bum lightbulb, so I strolled confidently up to the returns counter. As I waited my turn, I read over the returns policy, and determined that nothing would stand in my way.

I gave the customer service clerk my reasons for returning the items. She took the lightbulb out of the box, and spent a good 2-3 minutes examining it, turning it around, upside down, holding it up against the light. Finally, she got on the phone and asked someone else to come take a look. Great!

So, the return nazi marched up to us, and asked my reason for returning the lightbulb. She mimiced the actions of the first girl, but dissatisfied with this, she went as far as to completely disassemble the light bulb in order to inspect the internals. I don’t know what she found, but she eventually gave up on it.

Next, she asked why I was returning the power strip. ‘Ah, the cord is too short’, I responded. To which I was shot an incredulous look that said ‘Yeah, right. First a bad lightbulb, now a short cord. You’re just messing with me! I’m throwing you out of here on your %*@!’ Well, not exactly, but that was a pretty cold, hard glare she gave me!

So, she takes the power strip out of the box. It’s encased in a plastic bag, which she holds up to the light, and very carefully checks for any rips or holes. I was lucky. The bag was pristine. She still seemed unsure, so the customer service girl helped me out by telling her that I was making an exchange, not a pure return. Okay, fine, I could go get my items for exchange and bring them back to the counter.

But I had to press my luck. ‘I’d like to purchase other items from your fine store as well. How can this be accomplished?’ Oh boy, the return nazi was in a tizzy now. Customer service girl came to my defense again. Their Spanish got too fast for me to comprehend, but I’m pretty sure customer service girl said something like ‘Oh, she’s just a silly gringa. Give her a break!’ Return nazi walked off in a huff, and customer service girl processed my return. Thanks customer service girl!

When I got to the lightbulb aisle, I found return nazi waiting for me. She very graciously helped me find the lightbulb I was looking for. She then asked if I would like to test it out. ‘Umm, sure, how can I do that?’ So, she took the lightbulb out, walked me over to the lightbulb tester, and screwed it in. This one was not a dud. Silly gringa!

By the way, as far as I know the word ‘retorno’, although a real Spanish word, in not used in this sense. Generally, a retorno means return from some sort of journey. On highways, you will see signs for a ‘Retorno’ where you are allowed to make U-turns. When I made my return, I said ‘Quisiera hacer una devolucion’. Not sure if that’s completely correct, but it worked.

This blog was in serious need of a new look. Ever since John changed the site to the Shaded Grey (sure sounds exciting, don’t it?) Wordpress theme, I’ve hated it! Maybe that’s why I’ve barely written anything for this blog since then. The conversation that ensued after his redesign was something like this.

Libby: “That’s really boring!”

John: “Well, if you don’t like, YOU can change it!”

Libby: “Fine, I will!”

And that I did … it only took me about a year.

The photo in the banner was taken by me in Playa del Carmen just south of Coco Bay. I spent an entire evening searching through endless photos of beaches, palm trees, people, cats, parties, food pics, family events, etc to find one I liked well enough for the banner. We have a tons of photos, all organized only by date. How do you find a picture of a Playa del Carmen beach when you need one? So, I finally downloaded some much needed photo organization software, Adobe Photoshop Album Starter Edition. It’s free! If you’re looking for a full-featured photo organizer and editor, you should go with Adobe Photoshop Elements.

You might notice that we’re now shamelessly plugging our In the Roo website all over this blog. It’s our baby, and although we still have a lot more work to do, we’re quite proud of it. In the Roo is a searchable and taggable directory of Playa del Carmen hotels, condos, restaurants, bars, stores, websites, you name it! Make sure you check out our interactive Google map. Street overlays are not yet available for this area, so John painstakingly built all the streets on our map. And all the cool features you see are the result of his brilliant programming skills!

As if all this self-promotion weren’t enough, now we’re promoting other companies and products as well with the new ads on this site. Yes, we’re sell-outs. But hey, everyone else is getting rich off the internet, why not us! Well, we can dream can’t we.

And finally, for you bookmarking fiends, I’ve also added icons for bookmarking our posts at several popular bookmarking sites.

I promise that the next post will have something to do with Mexico!

Here in Playa del Carmen and the Riviera Maya, we are in serious need of a Best Buy, a MicroCenter, or a Circuit City for computer supplies. However, many little computer shops are popping up with random collections of supplies to feed the needs of the growing computer user population here.

USB thumb drives, web cameras, and wireless accessories are pretty standard gear at these shops. However, looking for specialty equipment is sometimes a challenge. Cat 5 cable and connectors are at one store, but the crimp tool I need is in a store across town (and they might need to have it shipped from their store in Cancun or Merida). It can be quite frustrating at times.

I had an interesting experience yesterday. I had a client with a fried video card in her business computer. She needed a new one ASAP. I went on a mission to find her a replacement. After visiting 4 different stores, I was only able to locate 1 compatible card. All the new AGP cards had prices marked, but the PCI card I needed did not. I asked how much, but the employee was not sure - he guessed it was around $90. Unfortunately, he had no way of verifying the price until the owner came in the next day. Say what?!

Great! I have a client who cannot do her job because her video card is dead and the only replacement card in town can’t be purchased because there was no price tag.

I spent a few minutes speaking horrendous Spanish, trying to explain that my client needed it right now. After I got that point across, he asked if I lived here. I assured him that I did and gave him my business card. He said I could come back tomorrow to pay for it. Wow!! Although I’m honest, and he was obviously very trusting, I felt much better convincing him to let me pay the $90 now and promising to return the next day to settle any differences.

Experiences like this are priceless. I can’t imagine something like this ever happening to me in a place like Chicago.

And, for the curious, there appears to be a markup between 20-30% on most computer equipment compared to U.S. prices. I’d imagine bigger chain stores with more inventory would be able to cut that down a bit and still make a nice profit. Hint, hint - Best Buy!

We’ve been meaning to capture some of the unique sights and sounds of our neighborhood here in Playa del Carmen for our blog readers. Some we love, some we tolerate (sights and sounds, not blog readers).

There’s the gas truck with its catchy jingle, the occasional barking dogs, the tomcat calling for a mate, the birds singing in the morning. And then there’s the agua guy. We love our agua guy. He’s one of the many reasons we love living in Mexico. We’d tell you all about him, but our friend and neighbor, Sherry, already has in her own blog.

So, please read Drinking the Water in Mexico and enjoy. And we promise … we’ll get back to blogging our own stories again real soon.