el crispito

June 08, 2008

The Photograph That Helped al-Qaeda

MBTA Advisory, Riverside Station

I was snapping this very photo of a sign at a train station for a collage I'm going to make once we return to Mexico of signs telling of all the things Americans are not permitted to do when I heard a voice asking, "May I help you?"

"Oh!" I exclaimed, having not seen him walking over. "I'm just taking a picture of the sign."

"You're not supposed to take any pictures of the equipment," he told me.

"No photos of any equipment?" I asked, not exactly sure how a sign was equipment.

"No," he replied with a sigh, indicating a mild annoyance.

I suspected I knew the reason for this, despite its being utterly ridiculous. Recently, I have been stopped from taking any number of seemingly innoccuous photographs like the one above.

The first time we ever ran into the phenomenon, we were in Minneapolis, Minnesota and Shawn was going around to see the locations used in the opening credits of one of his favorite shows of all time, The Mary Tyler Moore Show - the house where she supposedly lived, the park where she walked, the street where she tossed her hat in the air. When attempting to take a photograph of the escalator she rode in the Nicollet Mall, he was stopped by a private guard that wouldn't allow him to take a picture "for security reasons." At that time, it actually took us a while to figure out how a photograph of an escalator could be a threat to anyone's security, but by now, we've heard it as often as we've heard the one about putting your liquids in three-ounce bottles in a clear Ziploc® bag in your carry-on luggage.

All the same, I like to hear them say it. I put the camera down and asked him.

"Why is that?"

He looked at me for a moment with a corner of his mouth raised and issued a brief snort, and replied simply, "9-11." He stopped just short of following that with, "...smart-ass."

I thought I'd try to lighten the mood a little, so I asked him about what caused us to notice the sign in the first place: to reach the exit of the station, one has no choice to cross the tracks (visible at the lower left) about five feet from the location of the sign telling riders it is FORBIDDEN. I asked him how one was to get out of the station if they adhere to the mandate of the sign.

He was not amused.

"You exit down there, in the yellow zone," he said, pointing to a strip painted on the ground.

It was late. He didn't need some joker taunting him about the rules; people probably hassle him about the contradictory signage on a daily basis, each one thinking they're the genius that was the first to notice it. I abandoned my hopeless mission to turn his frown upside down and exited the station as he had indicated.

In my defense though, I wouldn't have joked with him about it if I could have just taken a photo of the sign. In his defense, he seemed, by his manner and tone of voice, to realize that it was ridiculous that I couldn't take a picture of signage at the station.

It made me wonder exactly how long people will continue to actually enforce such ridiculous knee-jerk prohibitions in the United States that were pushed on them in the wake of the September 11th terrorist attacks. I mean, honestly. Even if I took a photograph of the entire station, it's a train stop in a suburban town in Massachusetts. It's unlikely to be a high-priority target on even the most unambitious terrorist's list. I would be open to consideration of the idea that high-resolution photographs of more serious targets (Grand Central Station, airport terminals, Fort Knox) might be of aid to those wishing to do harm to the United States and its citizens, but one would be an idiot to think that a tourist's snapshot taken in a train station, especially one that simply shows what a sign says, is helping terrorists.

I know, it's easier to just write a blanket law that uses language like "transportation facility" and "equipment" than to exhaustively list which manifestations of those things are subject to a law and which are excused from it. I understand that such vague terminology has certain advantages to legislators writing the laws and those who enforce it. Yet when will the old chestnut of selective enforcement of such laws start to kick in and give people a little relief from the martial law effect in the United States?

Even the guy that told me to stop taking photographs seemed to find it ridiculous, but he had to do his job. Will life in the United States be like this for the rest of my life?

Posted by crispy at 10:59 PM | Comments (8)

June 01, 2008

Toronto: What I Liked

CN Tower, Toronto

Two and a half days in Toronto is not much time. It is not enough time to experience a decent sample of what the city has to offer, let alone to get a good feeling of what the city is really like.

Given that our stay at the Sheraton Centre Toronto was the worst part of our trip (I won't go into that here; let's just say that the $18 veggie burger was not the only rip off there), I wanted to talk about some of the great things I liked about Toronto.

View from the CN Tower, Toronto

Toronto is a huge city. It is big not only in population and area, but in vertical space as well. Unlike Shawn, I am not a huge fan of high views, so I let him go on his own to the CN Tower to get his fix. The pictures he took there show how massive the city is, in terms of big, tall buildings. I have yet to reach New York City, but Toronto is in many ways how I picture it: skyscrapers cluttered together perilously close and teeming with surging masses of people betweent them.

View from the CN Tower, Toronto

I also liked that the people here are of all different types. Half of the population here is foreign-born. We had a cab driver from Kenya that told us about being thrown into jail in the United States at a border crossing and being held for six hours in a crowded cell just because the country where he was born (but hasn't lived for more than 20 years) is on "the list." We heard all kinds of different languages on the radio here, many that I couldn't identify, and of course, the ubiquitous French.

Multilingual Signage, Royal Ontario Museum

I love Mexican food. I have found a number of places in Guadalajara that have tasty delights that I miss already, having been on the road for a couple of weeks. Yet the ethnic diversity results in a great diversity of ethnic restaurants, the likes of which I'm not even sure they have in Mexico City. We didn't eat there, but yesterday we passed an Eritrian restaurant. We were so taken with Full Moon Vegetarian Restaurant (638 Dundas Street West, 416/203-1210), a place that serves a huge selection of all-vegetarian Chinese dishes, that we ate there twice. We also had great Indian and Thai food too.

Full Moon Vegetarian Restaurant

This was a sauteed eggplant with vegetarian ham, which had a beautiful palette of rich colors.

Eggplant with Vegetarian Ham, Full Moon restuarnat

Big cities always have the best graffiti, and Toronto has some of the best I've seen in a while. Moreover, one doesn't tend to see all that many boring, crappy tags, but when there is graffiti, it's almost always the elaborate kind that demands real artistic talent.

Graffiti, Toronto

I don't like to see Shawn in pain, but this was one of the funniest unexpected things I saw on the trip. I looked up from taking that last shot and saw him bent over and rubbing his back next to this sign. I quickly snapped another shot just because the symmetry was so funny.

Shawn In jured, Toronto

Posted by crispy at 11:45 PM | Comments (3)

April 30, 2008

Querétaro: Part Three

Paper Head Guy, Querétaro

I wanted to see the place where Emperor Maximilian was executed, El Cerro de las Campanas, or "The Hill of the Bells." We set out on foot this morning before noon to check it out.

It was already hot, and I was in semi-dressy clothes. At first, it wasn't so bad. Walking down Avenida Hidalgo, I saw a bunch of stuff that struck me as funny or cool, and I was able to snap some photos of them.

Lavandería/Tintorería Veronica, Querétaro

I don't understand the one below. It's a sign for a place that sells medical implants and prosthetics, and I'm sure their products help their clients to live fuller, more satisfying lives. Yet I suspect most of them do not go on to be communications directors on the crew of an open-wheel, off-road racing team.

Adventures in Prosthetics, Querétaro

I mean, where did they get this photo? Did they make it themselves? It looks like a poster for a Hollywood summer blockbuster about a racer that loses an arm in a terrible accident but whose courage allows him to take his former teammate to the championships as the tough but caring crew chief that inspires everyone that gets to know him.

A reward is being offered for this lost dog.

Perrito Perdido, Querétaro

Why, I'm not exactly sure. It looks like Darth Poodle to me, but then again, I'm not a big dog fan.

Is it just me, or does this...

I AM A MONEDA!, Querétaro

...remind anyone else of Don Hertzfeldt's "Rejected"?

Soon enough though, we started having to go uphill to get to the summit, and site of the historic stuff I wanted to see. This was annoying because I was a little dressed up, and I was sweating like a pig the whole way. As we got nearer and nearer to the top of the hill, Shawn noticed that all the gates to the park were closed. He started to worry that one had to go in through one specific gate to get in the park, but there were no signs whatsoever anywhere to direct one to the proper entrance. The gates that were closed didn't even have a sign telling one which gate to go to.

This isn't entirely unusual in Mexico, but one would think that, at one of the biggest tourist attractions in the city, they'd have signs telling you where to go to buy your ticket to get in. Of course, our friends Larry and Joseph would argue that this is where you make your first mistake, presuming that people think about such things here.

We finally got to the top, and found that we were in a big empty parking lot, unable to get in through the fence that encircles the whole park. Luckily, Shawn spotted a gate that was ajar, although it said (in Spanish), "EMPLOYEE ENTRANCE ONLY!" They can't afford the time or expense to put a sign up telling you where to get in, but they can somehow manage one to tell you to keep out. I was annoyed, hot and sweaty by this point, so I squeezed in through the gate after Shawn. I wasn't about to go back down the hill just so that I could go back up to get to the proper gate.

View from El Cerro de las Campanas, Querétaro

While climbing the hill, I was quickly losing interest in the park, cursing our even thinking of going there. Yet once inside, I was glad to have made the effort, because it was quite verdant and beautiful.

Shawn at El Cerro de las Campanas, Querétaro

There is a great, enormous statue of Benito Juárez in the park, which is kind of funny because he was a pretty short man.

Monument to Benito Juárez, Querétaro

Shawn commented that it looked so severe as to seem Russian.

Monument to Benito Juárez, Querétaro

You can't really tell in the above photo as resized for the blog, but Shawn's giving old Juárez the Lynndie England.

The Lynndie England, Querétaro

Emperor Maximilian was Austrian, and had been appointed as Emperor of Mexico by Napoleon during a period when France had conquered Mexico. His reign was brief though, as Juárez and the resistance movement overthrew the monarchy and had Maximilian executed. The family of Maximilian sponsored the building of a chapel to commemorate the re-establishing of diplomatic relations between Austria-Hungary and Mexico in 1900.

Chapel at El Cerro de las Campanas, Querétaro

It is a nice little chapel, but it does not seem like people are allowed to enter, but they do have the doors open so you can see inside. When we arrived, a bunch of school kids on a field trip were all bunched up at the entrance checking it out.

Chapel at El Cerro de las Campanas, Querétaro

There's also a fountain that is dedicated to children, their learning, and being the future. Yada, yada, yada.

Child Reading Sculpture at El Cerro de las Campanas, Querétaro

We didn't notice until posting the picture, but it looks like the kid in the above sculpture is missing a foot. Maybe he needs to visit the prosthetics store and make something of himself, instead of just moping around reading all the time!

We exited the park, buying the entrance tickets as we left. I suspect they thought we were crazy, but I didn't want to explain our whole gate-crashing earlier. We hailed a cab and went to Harry's, a New Orleans-style restaurant and oyster bar in the Plaza Constitución.

Shawn at Harry's

Harry's was a pretty nice place, and they had a handful of things on the menu that we could eat as ovo-lacto vegetarians. Meat-eating fans of Cajun and Creole food would probably enjoy it even more.

I was delighted to discover that they had pecan pie listed as a dessert on the menu, but I was disappointed to find that it was more like a Mexican pay de nuez than a southern US style pecan pie. Instead of having a layer of glazed pecans over that delicious sugary, gooey filling, it was more or less all crushed up nuts in a crust. Not awful, but not at all what I was expecting (and craving).

Harry's of Querétaro

It's in the same building as the Gran Hotel, and seems to be the most happening night spot in the Centro Histórico. We went back later at night, around midnight, to have a nightcap and celebrate our last night in town, but there wasn't a free table in the whole place.

Yet before all that, still in the afternoon, we walked over to try and hang out for a while in the Alameda Hidalgo, a huge park with lots of trees and grassy areas. We had driven by it last night, and it looked beautiful. Yet when we got there, we found it closed. There were maintenance people inside, but all the gates were locked up tight.

Alameda Hidalgo, Querétaro

Again, there were no signs anywhere telling visitors why the park was closed, or when it would be open.

Alameda Hidalgo, Querétaro

We suspected that, since they had maintenance crews inside doing things like watering areas of the grass and sweeping the walkways, they do open it up at some point.

Alameda Hidalgo, Querétaro

Yet since we had limited time in town, we didn't stick around to find out. We took photos through the fence and then decided to get our shoes shined. We asked the shoeshine guy what the deal was with the Alameda being closed and he explained something about how it actually is open at certain times, but he was old and a bit mumbly, so we didn't fully understand his answer. We think it's open on most days but only after a certain time. If visiting Querétaro, and if you want to visit the Alameda, be sure to inquire as to when it is open, or you may be very disappointed when you show up and can't get in.

Alameda Hidalgo, Querétaro

We hoofed it back to the center and walked up Anador Libertad, a very pretty street that is now a pedestrian walkway, to reach the Plaza de Armas.

Anador Libertad, Querétaro

Shawn went about taking photos of the plaza while I got off my feet in a seat off to the side of the plaza.

Plaza de Armas, Querétaro

We had coffee at Gloria Jean's Coffees, where the staff was exceptionally friendly.

Plaza de Armas, Querétaro

As we were leaving, Shawn spotted a restaurant next to the coffee place that said, 'COCINA HINDÚ' - an Indian restaurant! That's our favorite national/regional food, so we were thrilled to find such a place. They were obviously not open, as they had all their tables and chairs stacked outside, and were doing some remodeling inside. Shawn went in and asked if they would be open for dinner, and a man told him, yes, at 8 pm.

Plaza de Armas, Querétaro

We were excited and immediately decided to return for an Indian feast that night for our final dinner in Querétaro.

Plaza de Armas, Querétaro

As we left the plaza, we were surrounded by a bunch of school kids who wanted to interview us in English for a school project. They had some 20 questions about genetically-modified foods. It was incredibly hard stuff for non-native speakers, but they did a pretty good job.

We walked back to our hotel and relaxed for a while in the air conditioning. Eventually we showered (again), shaved (again), ironed our clothes and went out for our Indian delights. Unfortunately, when we arrived at the restaurant, the furniture that had been piled up outside was piled up inside. We entered and a bunch of people were all sitting around talking. We asked if they were open, and they said that they were opening on Friday. I was a bit miffed. I said that someone there had earlier told Shawn that they would be open at 8 pm for dinner, and the woman that seemed to be an owner apologized to us. We were really bummed because we were really looking forward to Indian food. It's very hard to find it here in Mexico.

It was nice however, to actually get an apology for being misinformed by someone on their staff. That usually doesn't happen. Normally you get a shrug and a laugh, and nothing more. Because people think it's better to tell you what you want to hear rather than to tell you something that will disappoint you, people lie to you all the time here, and nobody thinks there is anything wrong with that.

While we didn't get the chance to eat at the place because we're leaving Thursday afternoon to return to Guadalajara, I submit to you the information on the place in case you are going to Querétaro and would like to try it out. The place is called "bhaji" and is located at Pasteur Sur #8, in the Plaza de Armas. Their phone number is (442) 224-2814.

We ended up taking a chance on an Italian place called Trastevere (16 de Septiembre #28; 212-1472) and were positively surprised. Instead of the exact same boring three or four vegetarian dishes that they offer at seemingly all the Italian restaurants in Mexico, this place had interesting dishes that we have never seen anywhere else in the country. We had a cheese fondue with artichokes and grilled tomatoes that was out of this world, followed by a spinach and cheese ravioli in pecan white sauce for Shawn and a spinach lasagne for me. The service was excellent and the atmosphere quite nice: an open courtyard adorned with several interesting paintings. After our Indian disappointment, it was an absolutely delightful end to the evening.

Tomorrow we head back to Guadalajara, but we have had a great time here in Querétaro. I would recommend it highly to anyone interested in a good mixture of the historic charm and modern 'conveniences.'

I just wish they would get a little better about their signage telling visitors details like where the entrances are and when places are open so one doesn't end up wasting a lot of time.

Posted by crispy at 11:31 PM | Comments (2)

March 27, 2008

Apartment Hunting

Our friend Aaron returned to teach English in Guadalajara, so we have been helping him find an apartment.

After looking through listings online and in El Informador, he generated a list of 5-10 places and Charles took us around to look at them. Some were apartments and some were rooms in family homes, and the prices and amenities varied greatly. One apartment had no gas line whatsoever, but it did come with ceiling fans. One of the rooms he was shown had its own private bathroom, a 36" TV, and an instant surrogate family provided by many framed photos arranged on the walls and the dresser, but it turned out the guy that took him upstairs was showing him the wrong room.

He decided to take an apartment that is across the street from our local grocery store, only about six blocks from us. It is an interior-view, two-bedroom apartment on the second floor. He will be paying MXN $2800 (about USD $260) per month, plus gas and electricity. Now he has the fun of going about and shopping for all the things he needs to fill an apartment here: mattress, refrigerator, stove, table, chairs, pots, pans, towels, sheets, lights, etc.

I thought it might be helpful to anyone looking for housing in Guadalajara if I provided links to the online resources we used to look for Aaron's place. These generally require a fair knowledge of Spanish (or at least a dictionary), but if you are looking for a place to live in Guadalajara, you probably have that already.

• El Informador - This is the online classified section for the local paper with the most complete listings for houses, apartments and rooms.
• MexPlaza - Part of the University of Guadalajara network, this lists houses and apartments.
• Arkredi - Until recently, this worked fairly well. Now it gives only a photo and a blank listing for each property. Maybe it's under repair and will return to being a helpful resource again soon.

Posted by crispy at 03:49 PM | Comments (3)

March 03, 2008

Know Your Rights! Part Two

Back and Forth

Arbitration is used a lot in Mexico because the courts are overburdened with too many cases, so a resolution to a labor case takes around four to seven months at the present time. Because a lot of employees have labor issues with their employers, but many lack the time and/or expertise necessary for a court case, they will go to arbitration to reach a settlement with their employer.

Officially, it is called the Junta Federal de Conciliación y Arbitraje or JFCA. This name makes it sound like some specially conviened panel that is drawn together from the four corners of the earth to resolve problems with the swiftness of Mercury and the wisdom of Solomon. In reality, it is a crowded, hot bureaucratic office building with people nearly piled on top of each other in the halls as they await their turn to be low-balled or even blown-off by their employers, without much more assistance from the arbitration lawyers than being told they can go through another four worthless, yet time-consuming steps that may still not result in any resolution of the complaint.

Let me be more concrete. A worker who feels they have been dealt with unjustly by their employer can file a complaint with conciliation and arbitration, which in turn schedules an appointment for a meeting between the employee and the employer, mediated by an arbitration lawyer. A document is generated by the conciliation and arbitration office, and that document is presented to the employer by the employee, or by someone else they send to deliver the document. The employer's presence at the meeting is entirely voluntary. That is, if the employer decides to simply not show up, there is no penalty for ignoring the arbitration notice.

If the employer decides to attend the meeting, she will be in the room with the employee and an arbitration lawyer. The employee presents his argument and the employer might answer with her own argument, all in front of the arbitration lawyer, who takes notes on what both parties say. The arbitration lawyer does not seem to perform any advocacy function for either side during the meeting, instead taking notes and basically facilitating the meeting of the two sides. If a second meeting is called for, the arbitration lawyer will help schedule that meeting. The employee can take his lawyer along to arbitration meetings; the employer take a lawyer or she can send a lawyer or other representative along in her stead.

If a monetary amount is in dispute (as it usually is), the employee will ask for an amount up to the maximum permitted by law. If the employer or her representative shows up for the meeting, they will usually offer the employee only a fraction of the reward he is due by law. They might be prepared to make this offer at the first hearing, or they can request time to consider the demands before responding to the offer. If a second meeting is requested, there is again no penalty for failure to appear on either side. It is, of course, a disadvantage for the employee to miss the arbitration meetings, but it really has no negative impact for the employer to skip out on them.

Whom Does Arbitration Benefit?

If the offers made to the employee in arbitration are so low and if the employer does not even have to show up, why do people go to arbitration?

First off, it takes a long time to get a case resolved through the courts. A lot of people do not have the resources available to them to wait for a resolution that way and need some kind of immediate financial solution for paying the next month's rent, buying food or keeping the lights burning. For this reason, arbitration, which gets the employee a meeting date in three or four days compared to the six to eight weeks it will take before the first date in a court case can be scheduled, is much more attractive to people that need cash fast.

People here see the court system as corrupt, bloated and just plain worthless. The courts as a system for allocating justice historically have not been that effective in doing anything meaningful for the average José, and in fact, they usually sacrifice him in exchange for bribes from those who are more rich or powerful. Arbitration has been promoted as some force of change for the common man, and people here seem to think it will be more effective than the court system that way.

I am suspicious of that. It seems to me that a lot of people here have fallen for some propaganda put forward, either by the government, business interests or both, which tells people that arbitration is a faster, less complicated way to get what they due when their rights have been violated. In reality, it seems to be a way to give jilted employees less while making them feel like they got more.

As we discussed last time, 90% of the court cases brought by employees against their employers (or former employers) are won, eventually, by the employee. Because the cases can take a long time to be resolved, and because the employer found guilty in court has to pay full daily wages to the employee for the entire period of time the case is in court, this puts the employer at a great disadvantage if cases go to court.

If a company fires an employee without cause, the law says that they are bound to provide her with severance as described in the previous entry. This amount is due on the day they let the employee go. However, the company can easily break the law and refuse to pay the employee severance upon letting them go, betting on the idea that they will pay less if the employee has to go through the legal channels to get their due. If the employer simply refuses to pay, the employee has two options for getting the money owed to them. They can (1) take the employer to court, or (2) to try and reach a settlement through Conciliación y Arbitraje.

If the employee has no savings nor a new job that can support her while the court case is being settled, she will most likely opt for arbitration because it can provide her with some money, sooner. Because arbitration does not involve any determination of the legal validity of the arguments on either side, neither employee nor employer is found guilty or not guilty. A compromise is made to which both sides agree, and it will be neither a full vindication for a victor nor a complete punishment for the vanquished. In short, nobody leaves entirely happy. On the other hand, as compared to settling the matter in court, which is an all-or-nothing proposition, both sides get a little of what they want.

Well, maybe. Like I said, the employer could choose to just not show up for the arbitration hearings. Then the employee has no further recourse but to go ahead and take the matter to court, if he wants to get the money he is due.

After Arbitration

To file through the court, the employee has to hire a lawyer, prepare and make copies of various documents, and wait for several months for the first official hearing. Before the case is taken before a judge, a meeting is scheduled between the employer and the employee (and in which the employee's lawyer is not permitted), where the employer can make an offer to the employee to resolve the matter, like a pre-trial settlement. If the offer made is the full amount allowed by law in the three different components - the indemnización, the prima vacacional and the prima antigüedad (see previous entry) - the court case is immediately dismissed and the employee paid off. This is the amount the employee should have been paid on the day she was fired, but instead it is being paid out several months later, with no interest or other compensation for the delay paid to the employee and no fine or penalty given to the employer.

Usually, the delay in receiving the three components of the severance payment to be rewarded is compensated to the employee by the payment of the salarios caídos, a full day's pay for every day between the date of the firing and the date the decision is handed down (if it is in favor of the employee). Yet if the employer offers the full amount of the three components in the pre-trial meeting, the employee does not get any salarios caídos, despite having to wait months to get the severance package.

Betting Odds

If the offer is less than the full amount legally outlined for the three items listed above, the employee can refuse the settlement and the case goes before a judge. From then on, if the case is decided for the employee, she gets the three items listed above as well as the salarios caídos. If it is decided for the employer, she gets nothing.

If the employee can pursue the matter through the court, she is more likely to get a better settlement. As we mentioned before, 90% of the cases taken to court are decided in favor of the employee. An offer made through arbitration is faster and can be obtained without having to prove ones case, but it will also be for considerably less money. The offer made to Shawn was only 50% of the indemnización, with no prima vacacional and no prima antigüedad. If the case goes to court, the employee might win nothing, but if statistics are any indication, there is only a 10% likelihood of losing.

Since the salarios caídos is based on the time between the date of firing and the date of the court decision, it can easily be much higher than the package of the indemnización, prima vacacional and prima antigüedad. Usually those amount to about 100 or so days of pay. Yet when two months are allowed to pass before the court case must be filed, and since it can take four months between filing and the first hearing date, that is already closer to 180 days. An average case might actually go on for about 7 months. Some will go on even longer. In many cases, the salarios caídos rewarded ends up being over several times the amount due in the severance package of the basic three components. With a 90% success rate, that makes going to court a pretty good bet for jilted employees who can wait it out.

Posted by crispy at 11:20 PM | Comments (0)

February 24, 2008

Rent

By law, a landlord can raise the rent on a property here each year by up to 10%.

Our landlord is very considerate of the tenants. When we first inquired about the apartment, he asked what we did. I said that I was a student, because at the time, that was the most recent thing that I had been: a student of Spanish at a college in Denver. He was concerned to hear this, he said, because we were asking to live in a building with many families, some with small children, and he didn't want there to be any loud, late night parties. I assured him that he didn't have to worry about that. If a need for a loud all-night party arose, we would have it elsewhere. I really liked the apartment, and would have promised a lot to get it.

The first year we lived here, there was no raise in rent. Our neighbors across the hall, Alberto and Roxana, who moved in a year before we did, had just had their rent raised for the first time. It seems the landlord doesn't raise the rent after the first year, so all tenants have the same rate for their first two years. That is a nice gesture on his part; it is not the typical practice here in Mexico. Yet at the beginning of this, our third year, we were notified that the rent would be raised.

Our rent is due at the first of the month, and the procedure is the same every time. I walk it down to the landlord's house, which is a block away, and I ring the doorbell. The landlord and his wife are an older couple, but they are successful enough to have a very lovely house and two servants. The servants are two women that seem to have been with the family for a considerable time. As far as anyone living here knows, they have always been with them. One of them usually shouts out a window at me - "¡Oye!" - and I answer back, "¡Buenos tardes! Tengo un pago de renta..." They come out, we exchange brief pleasantries, and the cash is traded for the reciept.

This past year, it became relatively frequent that the lady taking the cash and handing over the receipt would inform me of some caveat, such as the fact that the receipt had not been signed, or the printed receipts were not yet ready, so I could either wait to pay or accept a "provisional," hand-written receipt. The reason for this was always that el señor was away being treated for cancer. When he returned home, he would fill out the receipts or sign them; it was our choice as to what we wanted to do.

We always paid right then, accepting either the receipt that had not been signed or the hand-written receipt. We were a bit overly cautious for the first few months we were here, but it soon became obvious that the landlord, his wife and the two servants were not out to swindle us. In fact, in a couple of occasions, they were outright generous in their offers. When we were going to be gone for a month to Buenos Aires and would return two weeks after the regular date on which we turned in the money, I was trying to explain that I wanted to come by the week before we left to drop off the money in advance. I made it only to the point in my brief speech explaining that we were leaving the country and would not be home for a month before the woman I was talking to presumed that I was asking if it was okay to pay after we got back, nearly three weeks late. She said that would be fine. I was shocked and explained that I was actually giving them notice of an intention to pay in advance, knowing that they liked to prepare the receipts ahead of time. She said that would be fine too.

When we took our payment over in January, one of the ladies answered the doorbell and explained that the receipts were not signed, because el señor was in the hospital again, and we said that was not a problem. She told us that there would be a rent increase this year for us, but they did not know how much it would be, because el señor had not yet decided. They said they would come by and notify us when they found out, but the month went by and we had no notice. We took some extra bills over when we went to pay in February, but they still did not know what the increase would be because el señor was still in the hospital and had not been able to decide on the rent.

On Thursday night, one of the servants stopped by and notified us that the rent increase would be 10%, the full amount allowed by law. Shawn commented that he was a bit surprised about that, but I noted that they might well have a lot of hospital bills to pay, since the landlord had been in the hospital a lot. It had been two years with no increase for us, so it woked out to be about 5% a year.

About five minutes Alberto knocked on the door and came in to talk to us. He told us that the servant had come by to tell them that their rent would be 10% higher this year, and apparently it would be 10% higher for everyone in the building. Since inflation this past year was only about 3.5% and wage increases have been 4%, everyone was upset about this and felt it was unfounded. They also received an increase last year too. I commented to Alberto my suspicion about hospital bills and he said that he did not think that was the problem. The general opinion of the residents is, that with el señor in the hospital, his children were advising their mother on all his business dealings, and are very avaricious. Unlike their parents, they are not interested in maintaining good relations with the people who are both their neighbors and tenants.

The rest of our neighbors had already come up with a plan. Each of the tenants would go over to the landlord's house one at a time to protest the raise in the rent. The neighbors right below us would go that night, and then Roxana was going to go talk to her on Saturday. Alberto would let us know if it ended up being necessary that we would have to go over there; being that Spanish is not our first language, it would make sense for us to go last. Maybe she would be reasonable and change her mind before all eight of the apartments sent delegates over.

Last night Alberto came over at around midnight, and he told us that he had some unfortunate news. His wife was going over to have her talk with the landlord's wife, and while she was waiting, they received a phone call. One of the servants answered and then broke down into a fit of crying. Roxana excused herself and returned home. This morning, we have yet to hear anything official, but the general thinking among the neighbors is that our landlord died yesterday.

We are very sad about it. As far as landlords go, he was very fair and understanding, but beyond that, he was a very nice gentleman. We will miss him.

Posted by crispy at 09:48 AM | Comments (4)

February 10, 2008

A Not-So-Quick but Definitely Dirty Guide To Customs

A recent experience with FedEx, wherein packages were being shipped express mail to us from the United States at a cost of several hundred dollars and for which we are still waiting after thirteen days, has inspired me to write about international shipments and customs.

Yes, that office invariably staffed by sunny, cheery and professional folk whose job it is to monitor and control the flow of goods in and out of the country, and to collect taxes on various imported and exported goods called "duties." That is how their job description reads on paper. I suspect that there is a secret book somewhere that details it more like it is:

to do whatever they can to keep people from entering the country with any interesting items whenever possible, and when not possible, to charge the offending party exorbitant taxes for their impertinence, at all times performing this duty with discourtesy, obscurity, uninteligibility and incompetence, so as to provide the maximum amount of inconvenience possible.

Just like finding out the truth about Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and the policeman being your friend, the realization of the real nature of customs can be shocking. The experience of dealing with customs has reduced me to tears even when things go perfectly well, just from the amount of paperwork to be filled out, the time spent waiting, and the fistful of pesos extracted from my wallet without even the courtesy of a quick cuddle afterwards.

In hopes of easing the pain of that first time, I have decided to share the benefit of my experience with the world here on the blog. My experience is by no means expansive; I am no Art Vandelay. Before embarking on any international shipping program, you should always consult your local parcel professional for guidance in your particular case. Yet it is my hope that this article will give you some idea of what to expect when sending things to someone in a foreign country.

Know Your Enemy

Bureaucrats do not like to do their jobs. They will do anything they can to keep from doing their jobs, and any mistake on your part gives them the excuse to not do their jobs.

If the rule is that you need to have three copies of a form and you only have two when you arrive at their window, they'll shut you down right there because you did not follow instructions. Because you need their help and they don't need you, you are entirely at their mercy and must do things exactly as they dictate, even if their requirements are ridiculous and completely non-sensical.

It's a lot like dealing with the Soup Nazi. You must know the rules before your number comes up and you must follow them exactly, or no soup for you! If there is an exception or a problem with how you have completed your paperwork, or if you have included any forbidden, restricted or even questionable items, customs and shipping companies dealing with your international shipment can hold your package for days, or they might even send it back undelivered.

When sending an international package, make sure:

• everything you are sending is allowed into the destination country (not 'forbidden')
• you have all the proper certificates from the relevant agency in the destination country documenting clearance of any items on the 'restricted' list for that country
• the values declared for the items are realistic
• all the proper paperwork is filled out neatly and in full
• all the information (names, addresses, phone numbers, etc.) are 100% correct
• your documentation lists every item in the package individually, and when possible, include the Harmonized System Code numbers (see below)

Failure to do any of these things can cause huge delays and possible rejection of your package. Allow me to give you a personal example of the chain of errors that have kept our current package in a near two-week limbo.

First, the FedEx employee serving my mother when she went to send the package instructed her to write simply "Christmas and birthday presents" on the list of the box's contents. As I mentioned before, this is a big no-no. You must always list everything as well as a stated value for it. Yes, one would think that a FedEx employee would know this, but apparently she did not.

Still, it made it from southern Illinois to Guadalajara in one day, where it was turned over to an in-house customs broker. A customs broker is an expert in customs processing that prepares a shipment and all its paperwork before the package goes to customs. Large shipping companies with international service tend to have their own in-house people that do this, but you can hire independent customs brokers. Our customs broker immediately saw that the list was not acceptable for customs, so the package was held for days until a full, itemized list, complete with prices and country of origin for each item was provided to him. If the full list had been sent in the paperwork with the package, this delay would have been avoided.

Unfortunately, the recipient's phone number (my phone number) listed in the paperwork was incorrect. It was not incorrect like it had wrong numbers in it; it was wrong because it was written as it would be dialed from the United States, not written as someone would dial it within Mexico. Because of this, FedEx did nothing with my package for two days, claiming that they could not get in touch with me to request necessary paperwork, because the number on the form was incorrect.

It is simple for anyone living in Mexico (unless they've never dialed phone numbers before) to look at a number written to be dialed from the US and determine how it should be dialed from within Mexico, but having it not exactly as it should have been on the form gave them the excuse to not do their jobs and delay the package for days while they got the 'right' number.

Once customs got the package, they found that there were ceramics from Asia in the box. These are restricted items and only allowed into Mexico with the proper clearance from the Mexican Department of Health. Because getting the proper clearance through that other bureaucratic nightmare would take a month, and because the deadline had already passed for the package to be submitted to customs after arriving via FedEx in the country, the only two options were to surrender the items to customs to have them sent back at my mother's own expense or 'destroyed' (customs claims they destroy such restricted items, but the rumor is that customs agents just take them home themselves because no documentation that they actually have been destroyed is ever provided).

Federal Express has a book, called the "Fedex Global SRG" that details what items are forbidden and restricted in the different countries to which they ship packages. Every international shipping company should have something similar, and confirming that that everything you want to ship is actually allowed into the country with such a book will let you avoid unnecessary delays and the destruction or return of any forbidden or restricted items in your shipment. If you print out your own shipping labels at home, generated through a shipping company's web site, they will usually present you with the necessary information in the process.

The lady at the FedEx office should have gone over each item with my mother to make sure that it is allowed into the Mexico, but since she thought it was okay to ship an international shipment with only "Christmas and birthday presents" written on the packing list, it doesn't surprise me that she didn't think to look in the SRG to see if any of the items in the shipment were forbidden or restricted.

Duty Now for the Future

Customs offices charge indirect taxes called "duties" on things brought into the country. If you send something to someone in a foreign country, chances are high that either you or the recipient will have to pay duties on it. It does not matter that you paid taxes on the item when you bought it. You did not pay those taxes to the government of the country into which you want to send the item, and they want their taste. Customs agents are the goons they send to collect.

I have yet to see any place that does this easily, like charging a set percentage of the value on everything, or a flat-rate for everything. Instead, different items are charged differently, with some things being charged by assessable value and others by volume, and the rate and form of duty varies from country to country.

To make it easier for someone in one country to fill out the paperwork for the entry of goods into another country, a universal set of numbers for different product classes has been developed, called the Harmonized Systems Code (or H.S. Code). It divides everything shipped between countries into around 5 thousand different classes of commodities, identifying each by a six-digit code. With these uniform descriptors, the need to translate "watch" to "reloj" or "montre" is eliminated, as it is "910211," no matter what country it comes from or goes into. These are also used for comparison of trade statistics, so that analysists can be sure they're comparing apples to oranges.

If you look up the Harmonized Systems Code number for each of your products before taking the list to the shipping company, they should be able to provide you with a book showing the duty rates for each item, so you know how much duty must be paid on your shipment.

It is probably a good idea to look up how much duty will have to be paid before sending something to another country, or ordering something from a foreign country. I made the mistake of ordering some stuff to be delivered from the United States before checking with the duty rates for those items once, and I'll never make the mistake again.

Because I'm much bigger along every axis than your average Mexican, it is very difficult for me to find clothes in stores here. For a long time, I didn't know where to buy any fat-person clothes in Guadalajara, and my clothes were getting ripped and stained at a rate that I figured I'd soon look like a bum if I didn't get some new ample duds. I was delighted to learn that a company I'd used in the United States, one which specialized in clothes for the huge and enormous, delivered worldwide. I understood that the shipping would be considerably more expensive than I was used to from ordering from them online, but I was ignorant about the fact that duty rates can be obscene.

When the shipment arrived, the FedEx guy told me that I owed something like MXN $550 (around USD $50) for the two t-shirts that I'd ordered, which only cost USD $25 each. I could not believe my ears. Since Spanish is not my lengua materna, I asked him to repeat the amount. Sure enough I heard him right. I asked him what that was for. Did I somehow mistakenly have it shipped C.O.D. or something? I thought I had already paid for the shipping on my credit card when I placed the order. He explained that it was for import duties, but could not tell me why the duties were 100% of the cost of what I'd ordered. Usually, import duties are not that high, but your average Mexican doesn't have the need to order clothes through the mail from the United States, and being an average Mexican, the FedEx delivery guy didn't have any idea why the rate would be that high.

I found out later that the clothing union in Mexico City is incredibly powerful, and therefore, they have been able to get a ridiculous duty rate enacted for the import of any new clothing to the country. Therefore, people only get clothes from America when they go there and can bring them back in a suitcase. That is the only way people in Mexico get clothes from America. Thanks to the import duties, clothes sent in the mail cost double, and on top of that, the shipping rates are ridiculous.

A side note: The only shipping 'speed' available for private shipping companies like UPS and FedEx between Mexico and the United States and within Mexico are only express for some reason. This seems funny to me, since they have slower service available in the United States and in Canada, and having been in both those places, Mexico seems far more laid back and slower in general pace of life than either of those two countries. No representatives of the shipping services know why their companies do not provide regular, standard 'ground' service here either. I've asked, and I always get the same blank stare and shrug of the shoulders. I even wrote to UPS and asked why they don't provide their 'Standard' (ground) Service in Mexico like they do within and between Canada and the United States. I was told that such information is "not in the system."

Your Wallet or Mine?

If you are sending someone in a foreign country a gift, it is considerate to pay any duties yourself. Otherwise, you are putting the recipient in a position where they have to pay to get the gift. At a minimum, you should warn them that they should have cash on hand to pay the delivery person when the package arrives.

Most shipping services allow you to indicate whether or not the duties are to be paid by the sender or the recipient. For example, on a FedEx International Waybill form, there is a checkbox (line 7-B) that can be checked so that the sender, not the recipient, gets billed for import duties. If one uses Federal Express and does not check this package, when the delivery person shows up at the recipient's door, they will insist on cash for the payment of duties before handing over the shipment. If you don't have the cash, you won't get your package.

Do Used

While the process of paying ridiculous duties to customs is unpleasant for everyone, it is worse for some than others. If you are a commercial importer, bringing products into the country to be resold, you usually have to pay higher duty rates than someone having stuff shipped to them for personal use. Customs agents are especially suspcious of anything that is brand-spanking new and still in the original wrapper, because they think it is going to be resold. Sure, it is completely understandable that Aunt Tillie from Cleveland might go out and buy you a Nintendo Wii for Christmas because you cannot get one in Peru, shipping it to you in the sealed, pristine box it came in from the store. Why wouldn't she? After all, it's a present. However, this would raise all kinds of red flags to customs agents, and it might cause her shipment to be rejected by customs or to be charged higher duty rates.

When sending things to someone in a foreign country that are intended for their personal use, it is best to take all the items out of new wrapping and have them in a condition that would make it difficult to command full price if sold. This does not mean that you have to tie things you are going to send to a foreign country to the back of your truck and drive around the block several times. It just means that you should take things out of their boxes and original packaging, and remove any non-essential stickers or twist ties as well. This will also cut down on the space and weight demands of the package, so it is a good idea for making the shipment more economical anyway.

Sending used things is also helpful. Many countries charge less for the importation of used items than they do for their brand new counterparts. Mexico used to charge a lower rate of duty for used books than they did for new books, although I think that has now changed. This varies from country to country and from item to item, so be sure to check with your shipping professional if you are not sure.

Live globally. Buy locally.

I hope this entry has given those of you who have never had the delight of dealing with international shipping and customs some idea of what they do and how they work (not very well). It can be a real treat when living abroad to get a care package from back home, but it truly does exact a high toll, both from your wallet and from your mental well-being.

If you have to send a gift to someone outside your home country, you might want to consider buying gifts that can be purchased, delivered and redeemed over the Internet. iTunes credit has become a very popular gift in our household, and with it, we can even get a taste of the home country, buying a season or two of American television shows.

Alternatively, if your loved ones live in more economically developed countries, you can probably find online stores for businesses in their country that can ship domestically, thereby cutting down on shipping costs and completely eliminating the need to put anything through customs.

Posted by crispy at 09:56 AM | Comments (2)

January 28, 2008

You've got scam!

Today we got a one-ring phone call, and ten minutes later, a text message from the same number. It read:

    TELCEL URGENTE
    ESTIMADO USARIO EL DIA 
    DE HOY SE REALIZO EL 
    PRIMER SORTEO EN APOYO 
    FUNDACION VAMOS 
    M E X I C O DONDE SU 
    LINEATEL SALIO GANADORA
    DE UN AUTOMOVIL JETTA 
    2008 100 MIL PESOS M. N Y 
    UN TEL. CELULAR PERMISO 
    DCDSRT. 2241.2008 
    COMUNIQUESE A 
    BOLETAZO Al TEL 
    0456621122563

Basically, for those of you that don't read Spanish, it says that we've won a 2008 Jetta, MXN $100,000.00 and a cell phone. We are instructed to call a number about it; it is a different number than the one making the call.

I always get suspicious when we are told we have won contests, lotteries and raffles that we have not entered. I looked online to see if I could find anything reporting such messages as a scam. I found a blog article that confirmed that it was a estafa. In English, a scam.

Using a web-based form to look up phone numbers, I found that the call originated from number in Hermosillo, as had the one in the scam discussed in the other blog article. I didn't call the number back to find out what I had to do in order to claim those prizes, but I suspect that they would have directed me to phone a certain number that charges per-minute fees (like a 900 number for those of you in the United States), pay out money for "processing" our awards, or require us to buy cards for cellphone airtime and give them the codes listed on the cards (thereby giving them the airtime).

The original blog entry was written in 2004, and a follow up entry indicated that such scams were still going on two years later. I can verify that they are still going on here in Mexico, and without much change in the modus operandi.

The original site gives some tips on avoiding being ripped off by these scams. For our readers who do not speak Spanish, I will give a quick and dirty translation.

• It's unlikely that you are going to win a prize in a contest you did not enter or know about.
• If you are called about a prize, get the name of the company awarding the prize. Look up the number independently (don't take the number from the person offering you the prize on the phone) and call them directly to confirm your being awarded a prize.
• Reject the offer immediately if you have to spend any money to claim the prize.
• Be suspicious if they tell you that you have to call another number to claim your prize. It's probably a number where you are charged per-minute, and the per-minute charge can be ridiculously high.
• Report such calls or text messages. The second article says one can contact La Dirección General Adjunta de Juegos y Sorteos de la Secretaría de Gobernación to report them at this toll-free number: 01 800 005 8346 or this email address: denunciajys@segob.gob.mx.
• Do not be intimidated. These are crooks who will lie and tell you that they are important people in big companies in order to impress you. Be suspicious!
• Warn your friends and family members about these scams. Tell minors to never give out personal information to people they do not know over the phone or the Internet.
• Don't forget that you can get scammed in other ways too, not just by telephone. You can be scammed by email, visits to your home or postal mail too.
• Use common sense. Nobody gives things away for free.

It's too bad though. I wouldn't mind having a Jetta.

Posted by crispy at 09:29 PM | Comments (0)

January 26, 2008

Turndown Service

Results of Turndown Service, Sheraton María Ísabel

Not all hotels do it, and among those that do, there is no consistent set of things that comprise it. Often it involves leaving a chocolate or some other little token on the turned-down linens. Also common is changing out towels that the guest might have used during the day. On occasion, I've had a hotel staff member just ask if everything is working properly, if we need anything restocked in the minibar, or if there is anything else we might want before bed.

If you have never heard of turndown service before, it's not a big surprise. Not all hotels do it. In fact, not very many seem to nowadays. Shawn had never heard of it until he went to Thailand seven years ago. Nowadays we only tend to get it when we stay at Starwood properties, and even then, it's ridiculously inconsistent.

For example, in our recent stay in Mexico City, at the Sheraton María Ísabel, we got turndown service on our second night there, but not the first. Even then, it wasn't much of a service. They didn't even turn down the linens. They moved the remote control for the tv and the guide listing which channels were which to the bed, and left us a solitary foil-wrapped chocolate. This is what confuses me: they know that there are two of us in the room, so why leave us just one chocolate? Starwood hotels are not exactly what one would call economy lodging. Can't they afford one chocolate per guest, not just one per room?

Solitary Chocolate, Sheraton María Ísabel

To me, it seems like if you are going to bother with turndown service, you ought to do it right. Why go through the trouble just to do something lame like leave a chocolate that people have to fight over. At least leave a knife so the two guests can cut it into halves. If I were running a hotel, I'd offer much more interesting turndown service. Maybe like the carts they have in prisons and hospitals, I'd go around with DVDs or books people could enjoy before turning in for the night. Heck, since it's my fantasy, I'll even throw in the option to have a story read to you if you want. You could also provide a short massage for those that were so inclined. Of course, if it was a big hotel, you'd have to have a fleet of massage therapists, and even then, you'd probably want to schedule each person's at a specific time.

I have also read that some places leave an aperetif on the nightstand in their turndown service. I don't tend to like apertifs, so I'd probably offer a fifth of bourbon and, since I'd have to be living and working where folks were not so uptight about drugs, a couple of valium or vicodin, delivered by a geisha that would also give you a good-night haiku.

So if you could design your own ideal turndown service, what would it include?

Posted by crispy at 09:45 PM | Comments (1)

January 20, 2008

Panama: Parting Thoughts

Now that we are back safe and sound in Guadalajara, I have time to post a few random thoughts about Panama that are too small or not funny enough to merit individual entries.

It should be noted that we did not venture beyond Panama City except when we went to Colón, the port city on the Atlantic side that is the destination of the Panama City Railway. I might post an entry about Colón, because it is probably the most dangerous city that I've ever been in, and it might prove helpful for those planning to take the train to know about it. We highly recommend the train trip, but the several hours that one must pass in Colón if one takes it (unless it's part of a tour package) might be enough to recommend against it. Note that it takes a lot for me to recommend not taking a train whenever possible. Colón is that bad.

Yet that experience aside, our time in Panama was limited to the captial, and there is a lot of beautiful country to visit outside the city. We prefer the amenities that cities provide, so we tend to stick to urban centers when we travel. Panama City did not disappoint. It is vibrant and exciting, rich with history and a very promising future. Shawn and I both expect it to become one of the world's premier destination cities within the next decade, and it is impossible to ignore the growing pains they are currently having along the way. They have gone from a city whose main reason to exist was to support the canal and the people servicing the canal to a city where people flock to enjoy the gambling, food, beaches, nightlife, retirement opportunities. They have not been able to grow fast enough to meet the demand, but it is not for a lack of trying.

According to our driver Roger, the Ministry of Tourism in Panama has been trying to educate service personnel on how to deal properly with foreign tourists. Unfortunately, employers do not want to allow the employees the time off to attend such training, nor do they want to pay for it, even though the Ministry of Tourism pays for half. Unfortunately, it shows in the level of service one receives at the restaurants and hotels there. Most of our complaints are about a phenomenon that we started to refer to as: This is what you want. This is what you get. You ask for one thing and you get what the service provider decides to give you.

Among our complaints about Panama are some of the following. The majority are about restaurant service.

Restaurants are often out of or do not really offer items they have on their menus, and servers do not seem to know about it.

Shawn and I had several experiences in restaurants in Panama where we would order something on menu only to be told a considerable while later that they did not have it. I believe that sometimes they had run out, but at other times, I think they just never stocked those items. As vegetarians, we order things that people never order otherwise in these meat-centric countries. It is amazing how frequently the things kitchens happen to have "just run out of" are the vegetarian items.

In one case, Shawn ordered a falafel sandwich from the menu. When it arrived, some 25 minutes later, it was a chicken sandwich. He called the waitress over to tell her, and she confirmed that he had ordered falafel. He opened it up to show her that it was chicken, and she just stared at him. We told her that we were vegetarians and could not eat pollo, and she silently picked it up and took it back to the kitchen. She returned a couple of minutes later explaining that there was no falafel; she offered no apology and no offer of anything else.

Servers that suck.

On another occasion, Shawn and I ordered the ravioli at a restaurant. The waiter came out after a while and told us that they did not have ravioli. At least he told us this before bringing us whatever the cook decided to serve us instead. He asked us if we would prefer to get spaghetti or fettucini in the sauce we had selected. Shawn asked for spaghetti and I asked for fettucini. When the food arrived, we both had spaghetti.

I would like to say here that we did have notable exceptions to this complaint, with excellent servers at Manolo's Cafe, the Four Points hotel restaurant and S'cena. However, Panama has a reputation for really bad service, and our experience generally supported that finding.

In general, Panamanians are not very friendly.

This was inconsistent, and we met a few people that were exceptionally friendly, nice and helpful. Yet on the whole, the people there do not seem very friendly. They are not mean nor rude. They just are not very friendly. It is hard to win a smile from Panamanians.

Almost any time that we would say thanks (or in most cases, "gracias"), people would not acknowledge it. Often when they did, it was with an "Okay." It seems the more educado of the people there would say the equivalent of "it is nothing," or "it is my pleasure," so I do not think that it is a cultural thing where the concept of "you're welcome" doesn't exist.

It's not cheap.

Again, there are some things that you can get pretty cheaply in Panama, but on the whole, it's not a bargain. Well, compared to traveling in Europe, it's a steal, but there are a lot of things that are as expensive in Panama as they are in the United States.

Our hotels that we stayed in ranged from USD $90 to $155 (including taxes) per night, and none of them were five-star establishments. Cushier places like the Bristol Hotel run about $300 per night. The Marriott is USD $280. Dinner out at Habibi's cost us USD $60 for two.

Shawn, as he is wont to do, looked into real estate listings to see how much propery costs in Panama. He saw many condos listed for USD $500,000, and he saw homes ranging from USD $250,000 to $750,000. Another source claims that new housing costs have doubled in the past two years, but apparently if you buy a used place, it is cheaper.

It is really hot, humid and rainy.

We went for the coolest time of year, and even so, it was constantly above 80° F (26° C) with 70% humidity. We were also there for the driest time of year, yet it rained 7 out of the 9 days we were there. I was not as bummed out about the heat as Shawn, although I was not crazy about the humidity, and the rainy aspect was a little inconvenient when we wanted to get out and about.

Despite all that, we loved our time in Panama, and hope to go back again sometime soon. Hopefully after they get a decent service ethic, but even if not, we would go back for the following.

The city is beautiful.

Panama City skyline, from Casco Viejo

It has some places that are less beautiful than others, but the skyline is magnificent and getting better all the time. Everywhere you go it's nice and verdant, with lots of beautiful, old, spreading trees and lush grass. It's right on the ocean and nestled up against mountains. Certain parts of it have architecture that looks like the Vieux Carre in New Orleans. There is no shortage of scenic beauty in Panama City, and we hear it's even better if you venture outside the city.

It is hopping.

After being in the relative snoozearium that is the second-largest city in Mexico for two years, it was THRILLING to be in a city that parties all night long. Sure, Guadalajara has clubs where you can dance to dreadfully repetitive techno or the same moldy Reggaetón hits you've been hearing everywhere for the past three years until 5 in the morning, but in Panama City, you have that plus bars and British pubs that are open late, late, late, clubs that play rock music, several chains of 24-hour restaurants and a handful of completely independent ones and casinos that never close.

It's racially diverse and the various ethnic groups are well-integrated.

Mexico seems really tolerant to us after coming from the United States, but a lot of times, I have to wonder if that is because they do not have a lot of racial diversity. That isn't to say that there has not been a lot of mixing in Mexico's past, because there has been. It's just that you do not see a lot of ethnic diversity here nowadays, at least not in Guadalajara.

In Panama City, you do. According to recent estimates, some 70% of the inhabitants are mixed Amerindian and white or mixed white and black while 14% are West Indian. Some 10% are white ('European'), and 6% are Amerindian. There is also a Chinese community of about 100,000. That might not be a big plus to a lot of people, but it is to me because I find diversity (ethnic or otherwise) to make a place more interesting.

The food is diverse.

This has a lot to do with the previous item, but the culinary side of travel is such a big thing for me that I think it deserves its own specific item. We had Italian, Chinese, Indian, Lebanese and Mexican food while we were there, and had we more time, we could have enjoyed several other national cuisines.

Of note, Panamanian food is very heavy on meat. For this reason, we didn't have anything that was specifically Panamanian, but those that eat meat would probaby dig it.

Everything is within walking distance.

Given that it is awfully hot and humid, one can get really sweaty walking around. Yet it does seem that one can walk easily from any one place to any other in town. That's not really true, but compared to the scale of some cities we've been to, it is a walkable city. One night we dined out at a great Italian place (Napoli), walked over to El Pavo Real for a few drinks, then meandered back to our hotel, stopping in a casino to lose ten bucks in a slot machine along the way. Traffic can be very bad in Panama City, and the buses are crazy. Therefore, being able to walk around to a lot of different things for an evening's entertainment is quite handy.

They have a great selection of booze.

Living in Mexico and being involved in NAFTA, you'd think that we'd be able to get the vast array of alcohol that people can access in the United States, but unfortunately, that just is not true. I have only seen Bushmill's Irish Whiskey once in this country, and that was in a hotel bar in Mexico City. In Panama, the selection is very good. It is a little slanted towards European bottles; they do not, for example, have a great variety of bourbon, but you can get some very decent gin or Scotch.

We had a very good time in Panama. I would recommend a visit there to nearly everyone I know, but I might add the caveat that it would be better to wait a few years first. They have a ways to go before they have refined their service ethic to properly deal with tourists. Even so, if you were to go tomorrow, you would be sure to find a lot to love about Panama.

Posted by crispy at 04:20 AM | Comments (2)

January 18, 2008

Shawn Gets Fired

Because he had the impertinence to ask a supervisor that promised him three extra days of vacation per year to sign off on his taking two of them over my birthday, Shawn got fired from his workplace. Maybe he should have seen it coming. He had earlier been branded as a troublemaker for suggesting to the owner of the school that the weekly essays in English that she wanted all the children to write - including the first grade and kindergarten students - were possibly too much work for them along with their current, already full, schedule.

In Mexico, legal foreign workers are granted all the same rights as workers that are citizens. Having been fired from his job, Shawn is due a severance package of three months pay as well as one day for each month that he worked there. The boss that let him go refused to give him this severance package, although he was legally entitled to have it immediately upon being let go. The boss guy said, "You'll have to take me to court!"

Silly boy! We're Americans. Like we would think twice about suing someone.

Just when things were getting tedious, I get some new and dramatic material for this blog. I never thought I would get the chance to write about exciting courtroom drama, especially the type that is likely to have big cash payoffs. In Mexico, the vast majority of labor cases are won by the employee, because labor laws definitely favor the worker. We won't be able to retire when we get the money Shawn is owed, but it will give him some greater flexibility in being able to find a decent job.

If any of you readers en este lado know of any possible prospects, let us know.

Posted by crispy at 09:22 AM | Comments (3)

December 20, 2007

Panama: On the Ground

View from the Torres de Alba, Panama City

We arrived in Panama last night, after a relatively pleasant flight on Copa Airlines.

Our one observation about Copa, having now flown on them three times, is that one should arrive at the airport about three hours before the departure of the flight, because checking in to a Copa flight seems to take a little over an hour. Their check-in desks are always understaffed, the employees tend to waste a lot of chatting amongst themselves, and when they are servicing clients, they're very slow.

The flight was pleasant enough though, and they did remember to serve us a vegetarian meal, consisting of a little dish of honeydew melon and an alfalfa sprout and tomato sandwich. Because, you know, vegetarian = rabbit.

We took a cab from the airport to our hotel, the Torres de Alba for USD $28.00. The cab driver told us that this would be the price without tip, and he knows that Americans always tip. The listing of the price in United States dollars in this and subsequent Panama entries is not for reader convenience; they not only have a currency pegged to the dollar, like many other countries. They actually use United States dollars as their national currency. As for values below a dollar, they seem to have their own coins, but they also use U.S. coins too.

View from the Torres de Alba, Panama City

The Torres de Alba thankfully has industrial-strength air conditioning, because it's hot, hot, hot here in Panama. It's not even 10 am yet, and it "feels like" 30.5°C (87°F) outside. It is located right next to the enormous Veneto Hotel and Casino, and about a block down the street from a 24-hour restaurant, and even the restaurants that close do so no earlier than 11 pm.

The Torres de Alba also has kitchens in all the rooms. The one in ours is easily four times the size of my kitchen in Guadalajara. Unfortunately, we will probably not be making many meals here in the hotel before we check-out tomorrow.

Kitchen, Torres de Alba

This city is exhillarating. It is hot, crowded, bustling and falling over itself with new growth. Whereas Buenos Aires seems much more like an older, European metropolis, Panama seems fresh and positively Pan-American. Shawn says it reminds him a lot of Miami. The joke here goes that Panama City is like Miami, except people here speak English.

Yeah, a lot of people here do speak some English, but don't be fooled. They prefer to speak Spanish, but it is surprisingly a very Caribbean form of Spanish, where the letter "S" before a consonant apparently costs extra. Our cab driver told us that there are a lot of English speakers here because they have a large number of immigrants from the English-speaking Caribbean islands. Given the sound of their Spanish, I'd guess they hae a large number of Cubans and Dominicans here too.

I've been here about twelve hours and I already love Panama. It even has one of my favorite things about Colombia...

Colombiana soda

...Colombiana soda.

Posted by crispy at 07:30 AM | Comments (1)

December 09, 2007

Björk, Live at the Dust Bowl!

We went to the Sonofilia Festival this past Saturday night.

Charles drove us in his cab, and it took 90 minutes to get there. It was out in the middle of nowhere, and the last third of the travel time was spent on rough dirt roads.

We were lucky to have made arrangements with Charles. The buses that the organizers arranged to take people from our local shopping mall, Plaza del Sol, for MXN $110 each, which were supposed to depart every half hour or so, never showed up, leaving those who had already paid for their bus (and show) tickets stranded. Earlier in the day, several such people had hired cabs to take them out there for MXN $500 one way, but after those drivers made the trek and dealt with the road conditions, they hiked their prices to MXN $700, and then started refusing to go for any price.

On our way, we saw several cars from Mexico City, but there were representatives from many other Mexican states as well. We even saw plates from Nuevo León, which is up north, bordering Texas.

The roads were sprayed with water at some points, but it was not enough to dampen the dust on the roads. At times there was hardly any visibility, and it was bumper to bumper traffic. Once we reached the festival, Charles had to drop us off some 200 meters from the entrance gate. That was after he had passed a couple of other points beyond which vehicles were not being permitted, by telling the guards that he had Americans he had to escort or that he had a passenger who had trouble walking. I am usually not one to go for that kind of thing, but since the drop-off point for everyone else was a kilometer from the gate, and it allowed us to stay in the car and out of the dust for a little longer, I wasn't going to complain.

We soon discovered that one could not just walk straight up to the gate to get in. There was a 400 meter long line snaking around to get into the gate. It moved fairly quickly, but we were stuck the whole time in a windy dust storm, and no way to keep from breathing in heaping lungfuls of powdered dirt. That was just great for Shawn, who had just recovered from a sinus infection, and I was equally thrilled, having come down with chest congestion and a sore throat the night before.

We finally made it in the gates, and were able to get up to where we could see the stage. Björk started 30 minutes earlier than scheduled, but thanks to Charles, we arrived in time to see the start of her set. She was about as tall as a dime from where we were, but the performance was spectacular. Her set list is available online, but it isn't entirely accurate. I wish she had done "Oceanea" in her encore, as it is one of my favorites. She only did "Declare Independence," which was still pretty fantastic. The set lasted an hour and twenty minutes, and featured a brass ensemble.

After she finished, we decided to take off. Our sinuses were packed with dust and we had Charles waiting for us. We had arranged to give Charles a call on our cell phone to let him know we were leaving, but we were not able to get any service at all for our Telcel phone. I am really surprised that they didn't have the foresight to put a temporary mobile cell out at the festival site to have coverage there, but we didn't get any signal until we were headed out on the road again.

We talked about whether or not it was worth it, as it cost us about USD $230 for the tickets and unexpectedly nearly that much again for the transportation. We decided that it was worth it to have seen Björk perform live. I cannot stress enough how incredible she was. Yet if there is a Sonofilia Festival next year, we're not going back.

In fact, if there is ever a concert that we want to see, held at that location ("El Aguacate") again, we are not going. In the day following, it has become pretty clear that we have both developed sinus infections from breathing in all that dust, and my lungs hurt more than if I'd sat down and chain-smoked two packs of Lucky Strike straights. It's ironic since Björk supposedly wanted to perform in a place that was more 'natural' than a concert hall, but maybe it is just a reminder that nature can kick your ass.

The bottom line: Björk gets top marks for a wonderful show, and the way she can make such a big sound come out of such a little body. The organizers of the Sonofilia Festival did a really crappy job at picking their location and making sure that people had reliable transportation to get there. Furthermore, they really should have taken some proactive measures to control the dust issue.

We didn't take any photos, but you can check out this other person's photostream on Flickr if you want. They were closer than we were able to get anyway.

Other reaction en español @ cierra la puerta al salir, Defiéndete, L.C. Boxset, Robotania8a, Bitácora de una drama queen, pastelazo

Posted by crispy at 11:10 PM | Comments (2)

December 05, 2007

Mandú

Exterior of Mandú Restaurant, Plaza Galerías

Mandu
Plaza Galerías 360
33/3673-2319

As vegetarians in the United States, Shawn and I usually found Asian restaurants to be a pretty safe bet when dining out. At best, they were among our favorite places (Taki's and Tra Ling's) and at worst, they offered the same four or five ubiquitous, boring, yet meat-free, dishes. I can't tell you how many chefs seem to think that vegetarians not only avoid meat, but also variety.

When we moved to Guadalajara and tried out a couple of Asian restaurants, we were shocked to find that they usually did not offer any vegetarian dishes at all. I do not mean that they didn't have tofu dishes. I mean they didn't even have any dishes that consisted of just vegetables. When we finally did find our little slice of heaven, they understood our plight. They said that their tapatio customers would order something like beef with broccoli and pick out all the strips of beef, leaving anything green behind to be dumped into the trash. When that restaurant closed, we felt like we'd lost the only restaurateurs in town that understood us. It was a dark day indeed.

That left us with the sushi restaurants that serve kappa maki, avocado rolls, vegetable tempura, stir-fried vegetables and vegetable fried rice, but it seems like almost all the sushi restaurants offer these five dishes and only these five dishes, with very few exceptions. We like sushi, so we do go out for it often. Yet it seems that Japanese food, and particularly the sushi side of Japanese food, is one of the few socially-acceptable ethnic foods that the people of Guadalajara will dare to eat. It is by far the Asian cuisine most represented here, with Chinese being a distant second. Then all the other contenders - Korean, Mongolian, Vietnamese, Thai, Malaysian - simply do not exist here. At least, that's what we thought.

The discovery of Mandú, through a friend of Joseph and Larry, did not drastically change the situation for us, but it did offer us a couple of new dishes that we liked and can enjoy now and again when we want vegetarian Asian food that isn't sushi. (Actually, their sushi is pretty good too, and they have a chamoy roll that emulates the pickled plum roll, ume maki.)

Sushi at Mandú

Shawn likes their bibimbap, a Korean dish that they will make for him with tofu instead of meat. Unfortunately, the tofu they use is always the salad kind that comes in vacuum-packed aseptic boxes, so the best they can do with it is to put uncooked slices on top of the dish. Still, it's rare to find tofu of any kind in a restaurant here, so he is happy to get it. Personally, I don't like fried eggs, unless they're scrambled first. On my first trip to Mandú, I ordered the bibimbap and asked for my egg scrambled, and it arrived with a fried egg diced up and sprinkled around the bowl. Not exactly what I asked for, but even if it had been, I wasn't all that crazy about it. Not that it wasn't well-prepared. It should be noted that their execution is quite good with everything I've had there. I just didn't like bibimbap all that much.

The next time I went there, I got the Thai noodles, and asked them to hold the meat. They did, and the noodles were very good. When we went last week with Joseph and Larry, I got the udon with vegetables and tofu, and it was the best thing I've had at Mandú yet. I think next time I'll get that again, but I'll not get it with the bland tofu. It would be better if it were just noodles and vegetables. They also have a dish that is breaded fried cheese on skewers, served with a chipotle sauce.

Interior of Mandú

The first time we went there, we went with Charles, and he asked to see the chef. The chef came out and Charles explained that we didn't eat beef, pork or chicken, nor even seafood. He asked if the chef could make something vegetarian, perhaps something that wasn't even on the menu, for us. He said that he would be sure to prepare our food vegetarian, and he suggested the bibimbap to us. That's when we tried that. He then said that he had a cookbook at home with many vegetarian Asian dishes, and that he'd work with it to come up with some other dishes for our next visit.

The next time I went, I went with Charles again, and he asked to see the chef. He asked if the chef remembered us, and he did. Charles went through the routine again about all the things I don't eat, and asked what the chef might be able to make for me. The chef asked if I'd had the bibimbap. I had. As I mentioned, they didn't really make it like I'd asked. I didn't really want that again. He suggested the Thai noodles that were on the menu, but he could make them with vegetables instead of meat. I figured anything Thai with noodles has to be good, so I decided to try it. It was good. Yet I was getting the feeling that if I didn't get that, we were going to start running out of options. I did not get the impression that he had been looking into cookbooks to come up with anything new.

Of course, I don't hold that against him so much. He is a chef at a restaurant in a mall. I'm sure he has more interesting things to do with his free time than find recipes for two freaks that don't eat meat. I just wish he had not told me a story about cookbooks and being into discovering some new dishes, because I really got excited about it. If he wasn't really planning to do it, I would have preferred that he answer like the owner/chef at the Italian restaurant we went to with Charles, who upon getting the story about how we do not eat beef, chicken, pork, nor even seafood, and being asked if he would make something vegetarian for us, perhaps something that wasn't even on the menu, replied quite simply:

"No."

Larry, Shawn, Joseph and Chris at Mandú

Posted by crispy at 08:27 PM | Comments (2)

November 15, 2007

Beirut

Beirut at Night

Restaurante Beirut
Avenida López Mateos 1308
esquina Lázaro Cárdenas

Shawn and I walked by this place many times while we were on our way to Tai Spice, and we would always say, "We should check that place out sometime." Since we were on our way to have Robert and Kay's delicious Asian dishes, we were never tempted enough to stop. A recent disappointment with one of our regular Lebanese cuisine outlets lead us to finally try Beirut, and we were pleasantly surprised.

It is a small restaurant with about 12 tables and a bar, but the bar is not one where you can actually sit at the bar. A few of the tables are outside, where they also have drive-up service for tacos arabes, which is what Mexicans call any of the various things that come stuffed in pitas like gyros. They also have hookah service, which they call shishas, with flavored tobacco that lasts 30-40 minutes per order.

The food there is relatively standard Lebanese food for around here, although their drink list has several items I've never seen on a Lebanese restaurant's menu before, like agua de flores and yogurt drinks. It seems a little expensive. For example, an order of four falafel with a little salad is MXN $67, although they are larger than average. The quality of everything we have had there has been top notch. They have a vegetarian plate with five items for MXN $99, and everything on it is quite tasty. The service is also very attentive, and they seem pretty quick in the kitchen.

Interior, Restaurante Beirut

They play funky belly dancing videos on the TV and they have a couple of odd fountains with colored lights. On the way out the door, you can stop and check out the items they have for sale, like music CDs and incense. They are open most nights until 11 (I believe on Sunday it is considerably earlier), but they are closed on Mondays.

Posted by crispy at 08:58 PM | Comments (0)

November 14, 2007

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bus

Local Area Bus, Guadalajara

Today, almost two years after moving to Guadalajara, I took the bus by myself for the first time.

Before, I usually took taxis or walked to my destination. On a couple of other occasions, I took the bus with Shawn. It was not that I thought I was above taking the bus, nor that I was afraid of the bus being dangerous. The drivers do tend to gun it then slam on the brakes, so it is not necessarily the smoothest ride one will ever experience. Still, I can handle that.

The main reason that I previously avoided taking the bus here is that the one time I took the regular bus with Shawn, it violently and completely disillusioned me of the notion that Mexicans are always sweet and polite. Before taking the bus, I found most Mexicans (apart from the one "Gringo Go Home!" driveby shouting we managed to survive) to be unfailingly friendly, kind and welcoming. In almost all other situations, Mexicans seem very polite and nice. On the bus though, they have some socially acceptable licence to be complete jerks and they revel in it. That is not to say that they are in your face, what-are-you-gonna-do-about-it jerks. It is a lame passive-aggressive rudeness that has a particularly Mexican (or is it tapatio?) flavor.

When I went on the bus with Shawn before, we had to stand because all the seats were already taken. No big deal there; I don't mind that much at all. I did not expect any of the people on there to give up their seats for us. Yet when old people boarded that were barely able to remain standing on terra firma and not a single able-bodied person offered them their seats, I was aghast. Mothers with infants and bags of groceries got on, and nobody offered up a seat. When someone got up from an aisle seat to exit the bus, the person sitting in the window seat would quickly slide over to block access to the empty seat. Riders are instructed to board through the front door and exit from the rear, but even when politely asked, people would not budge to let others move from the front or middle of the bus to the rear exit door. I suspect a frail, blind abuelita who was missing an arm could board carrying a hacking Tiny Tim on her back and nobody would surrender his seat to her.

No, because of the dog-eat-dog atmosphere of the regular bus, I was not all that keen to use it. Yet with Charles out of town, the need to start trimming the budget, and my desire to get out and about more, I decided it was high time for me to start using the bus in Guadalajara.

There are two primary types of inner-city buses, the TUR/Turquesa line and regular lines. They differentiated by their service class, with TUR and Turquesa being more upscale. That just means they have cloth-covered seats, air conditioning that usually works, and best of all, they are rarely full. I am not sure if that is because their price being double the cost of the regular lines keeps their ridership down, or if that is because they have a policy of not stopping for new passengers if all the seats on the bus are taken. We have heard that the latter is the case, but I've seen Turquesa buses go by with people standing now and again. The problem is, there are a very small number of routes (like 2-4) served by TUR/Turquesa, and the remaining hundred or so are served by the regular buses.

A regular bus costs MXN $4.50 (about USD $0.40), and there are no transfers. If you need to take only one bus to get where you are going, the trip costs you MXN $4.50. If you have to take two buses, the trip costs you MXN $9. If you have to take three, it is MXN $13.50. You get the idea. There are so many different routes though, it is unusual to have to take more than two different buses to get to your destination. Of note is the fact that here, bus drivers make change for you. You don't have to have exact change or forfeit any extra.

Local Area Bus, Guadalajara

The TUR/Turquesa buses are turquoise in color, and the regular buses are white or tan, for the most part. Each bus is numbered for its route, although some numbered routes are split into "A" and "B" or "Via 1" and "Via 2" because they have slight differences somewhere along the route. The routes are all loops, although it is often the case that the loop is just turning around at the end and tracing the first half backwards. I'm not sure if a passenger could pay once and just ride around indefinitely, or if they charge you each time you pass the start or end point of the route. Most routes start in the early morning (between 5 and 6 am) and stop between 11 and 12 pm. Much to my annoyance, there are no late night or 24-hour bus routes.

To catch the bus, one must go to a designated bus stop, and when the desired bus comes along, put out her hand to flag it down. Most stops are used by multiple routes, so the driver does not know that a person wants to get on his bus unless they signal in this way. From inside the bus, a request to stop is made by pushing one of the little buttons on one of the handrails that run along the aisle.

Shawn has had buses fail to stop at a designated stop even though he has his hand stuck out to signal the driver. Did they not see his hand? Did they not stop because he is a gringo? Were the bus drivers just being jerks? Any one of those is possible. Sometimes if the bus is in the left lane and there is other traffic in the right lane, the driver will just skip the stop, just like our water delivery guy will sometimes skip bringing us water if there is no good parking spot right in front of our building.

Bus Stop, Guadalajara

There is a book for sale at newspaper and magazine stands called the Guía de rutas del transporte público, which details the bus and light rail routes. It is about 5" x 7" and costs about 15 pesos. In the front of the guide, it has an indices of colonias (neighborhoods), major streets and sites of interest. Each entry in the index lists the route numbers that run by that neighborhood, street or attraction, so to go from point A to point B, one must find a route number that is common to both. If both places do not share a common route, the map of the route must be used to determine where two routes, one for each point, intersect. The hard part about doing that is that the route map shows the route on a map of the entire Guadalajara metro area that is like 2" x 2". It is nearly impossible to really determine what streets the buses run on by looking at the map, so they just give you a general idea. Then one has to verify that the routes actually do cross (or to which they come close) by reading the list of streets the each route takes, also listed for each route in the guide. They do not make it easy.

Macro Shot of Route Map, Guía de rutas del transporte público

At times, people get on the bus with guitars and sing for tips. The guy on my bus today was not too bad. Shawn, on the other hand, tends to score people that bang on guitars not set to any recognizeable tuning with no recognizeable rhythm while they yell along. It would be really cool if they had a 15-piece mariachi ensemble strolling up and down the aisle playing music like on the Tequila Express, but I do not think that is likely to happen any time soon. Nor are they likely to have go-go dancers or geishas serving tea.

It would probably take something like that to make me sincerely love taking the bus in Guadalajara, and as it is, I am not sure that I will ever be able to stomach how inconsiderate people are on it here. Maybe I will just try the old chestnut that is so good for dealing with crazy people that yell at you on the bus in the United States: plug in the headphones, crank up the iPod and just pretend they are not even there.

Posted by crispy at 01:48 PM | Comments (4)

October 30, 2007

Score!

Ticket for the Sonofilia Festival, December 2007

In typical Mexican fashion, we lucked out and noticed the announcement in the Ocio this past Friday, which finally explained what was up with Bjork's announced, yet mysteriously vague, appearance in Mexico. She will be the headlining act at the Sonofilia Festival, to be held in Huentitán on 8 December 2007. As far as I can tell, this is the first Sonofilia Festival ever.

The tickets are rather outrageous: MXN $1200 for general admission (the only ticket available), and the sales outlet (Super Boletos) charges a 5% commission on top of that. That's better than the 10% commission and additional per-order fee charged by TicketBastard, and I suppose by international standards, that's about right for a festival with five bands (Claude Von Stroke, MSTRKRFT, Ratatat , Jay Jay Johanson and Björk).

According to a map of the event on the Super Boletos web site (unable to be linked here because for some reason they've done it as a stupid Flash file linked to with Javascript), the grounds will have restaurants and bars scattered about, which will be nice since the event runs from 6 pm to 3:30 am. I was annoyed to read that we will have to bring our passports to the event in order to gain entry. It's so smart to take such important documentation, especially if it is difficult and expensive to replace, to crowded events where everyone is whacked-out, including you. Yet I was impressed by the fact that their Frequently Asked Questions explicitly (and rather shockingly) state that they will have vegetarian food available.

I guess if I lose my USD $67 passport while in a drunken stupor from a couple of MXN $100 shots of tequila and have to forfeit my USD $600 air ticket for our Christmas vacation in Panama, I can console myself with a MXN $150 veggie burger. Cool!

Posted by crispy at 01:42 PM | Comments (0)

October 20, 2007

I went on a date with a real clown last night.

I was looking through a newspaper while in San Luis Potosí, San Luis Hoy. I turned the page and couldn't believe my eyes when I saw what I thought were personal ads for something like Clown Seeking Clown:

Clown Classifieds, San Luis Hoy [larger image]

It was one of the most surreal things I'd ever seen. But, I figured, clowns need love too.

On closer investigation, I saw that they were just clowns for hire, advertising their services...

...as clowns.

I hope.

Posted by crispy at 12:18 PM | Comments (3)

October 18, 2007

FM3:3

Cover, Non-Immigrant Visa

In the last entry on this topic, I had a list of other things I had to turn in to get my FM3, the non-immigrant visa for living in Mexico. I turned those in last week, and this past Tuesday I was able to go pick up the little book shown above. This makes me an official, legal, non-immigrant visitor to Mexico, who can be in the country without restriction on coming or going, for a full year. It is renewable (without the whole long application process I went through to get it) for up to five years.

Inside Page, Non-Immigrant Visa

The whole thing is pretty simple. On the first page inside, on the left, there is a list of rules and limitations for the visa, and on the right is the date of issue, government seal and the signature of the head of our local immigration office.

Inside Page, Non-Immigrant Visa

Then on the next page there is all the information specific to me, such as various dates (the date I entered the country, the date I applied, the date the visa was issued, my birthdate, etc.), the number of the visa, my birthplace, my gender, my marital status (in Mexico), my signature, a photo and even my fingerprint.

Note how in the photo, I have the "wet look" that is ever so popular down here.

There's another official seal and once again, the signature of the local immigration chief. I don't know why they have to sign and stamp it twice, but if you've been in or around bureacracy in Mexico, you'll know they're really big on that. I suspect that's pretty common worldwide.

But that's it. Now I'm legal for a year. A year from now, I have to go back and renew it, but I don't have to go through the whole process again. I'm glad for that. It involved so many trips: 4 to the immigration office in the federal building, 2 to the bank, 2 to the photographer's studio, and 3 to a copy shop.

Posted by crispy at 01:22 PM | Comments (4)

October 12, 2007

San Luis Potosí: Part One

360° Panorama of the Plaza de Armas, San Luis Potosí [larger image]

Shawn had a four-day weekend, so we decided to visit another Mexican city that we had not yet seen: San Luis Potosí, the capital of the state of San Luis Potosí.

In 2005, it had a population of just over 685,000, making it only the 15th largest city in Mexico. It is known as la ciudad de los parques because there are so many parks here. We had to ride five hours in a bus, heading northeast from Guadalajara. If you have Google Earth, you can call it up.

It is not high on the list of tourist destinations within Mexico, and to be honest, we did not decide on it as our next domestic destination because of any particular attraction. We selected it simply because we could get to it in a relatively short time (less than a full day) and we had never been there. It is outside what is considered Mexico's colonial circle, but then again, some say that about Zacatecas. Like Zacatecas, it has its own particular charm, no small part of which is the fact that it is not a big tourist destination. We were not expecting much, yet we have been very pleasantly surprised.

First off, it lives up to its reputation as a city of parks. It seems that the slogan is taken as a guiding philosophy, for one sees many spaces of only a few square meters about town where a mass of plants or cacti have been squeezed in to spruce them up a bit. The more formal parks offer a diversity of trees, plenty of benches, well-maintained sidewalks, verdant lawns, and fountains that are operational.

The city is a pedestrian paradise. Large sections of the historic center have been closed to vehicles, providing safe, wide venues for foot traffic.

In other places, they have nice shaded walkways set apart from the streets, like this one (pictured below) that stretched so far we could not see the end of it.

Walking is not the only thing to do in the city, however, and just because they are not known as one of the colonial gems of Mexico, it does not mean that they do not have their fair share of historic attractions. Along this walkway is a famous historic and architectural icon of San Luis Potosí, el caja del agua.

Because I learned caja to mean''box' or 'cage' in English, I hear this in my head as "box of water" or "cage of water." Both seem funny to me. It is actually a colonial-era water tank, which is notable for its size and ornamentation. A sign, printed in Spanish and English, located next to the caja del agua, tells that there are others about the city, but they are all smaller and not ornate.

There are things like clock towers...

...non-traditional (for Mexico) architecture...

...gargoyles...

...theaters...

...gazebos...

...and temples...

...in San Luis Potosí that we passed while walking around the centro histórico. We passed by this ice cream shop, and I had to go in to try their coconut ice cream.

Stepping inside was like stepping into the 50s.

It was part of this larger building, which is the Mercado Tangamanga, a typical market where they sell all kinds of stuff from religious candles to seafood. The design was so reminiscent of the Pan Pacific Auditorium from the golden days of Los Angeles that I stood there a while looking at it, thinking of what all it would take to find an old musician who would help me turn it into a hip nightclub/roller-rink.

The old metal furniture inside the Fonda Doña María looks like its as old as the building itself (and it probably is), but it's in great condition.

La Cubana is a tienda de abarrotes, the Mexican version of a corner convenience store, and is just up the street a block or so from the Mercado Tangamanga.