Learning In La Paz

11/14/11 – 11/19/11 In La Paz: This week has been very much a learning experience. It’s a simple fact that everything you want to do is more complicated in Mexico, but it’s vastly more so when you are in a new place in Mexico and trying to do things you haven’t done in Mexico yet. Case in point – getting Mexican cell phones up and running. After we bought sim cards for our phones, we needed to recharge them with money/minutes because the cards don’t come with much value. I went online and opened an account at Telcel, our Mexican cell service provider. That was easy enough. Then I recharged my sim card online using my ING debit card, again, not too difficult. I noticed however, that my phone didn’t immediately recharge with minutes, but thought, well this is Mexico. The charge on my ING account, however, went through immediately. A couple of hours later my cell phone rings and I notice the area code is 503 – Oregon. I answer and someone named Leslie starts asking me info in order to ‘verify my online Telcel purchase’. She says she’s from a company named Vesta and wants to know my SS# and some info about my ING account. I refused to give her any info because I didn’t know her from Adam. Then she says she will get an ING rep on the phone, and after a couple of moments someone calling himself Mohamed comes on and says he’s from the LA offices of ING (our bank). He then asks me the same questions and I again refused to answer, so my online Telcel transaction was cancelled. I wasn’t about to give sensitive bank info to someone I couldn’t positively identify. I emailed ING with the story and they said I had done the right thing. I did a little research and found out there is a company called Vesta that does verify online purchases for cell providers, and the Oregon # that called me pointed to Vesta when I googled it, so the whole thing was probably legit. Anyway, instead of doing it online, we found a local Telcel place, went in, paid in pesos and got more minutes, and it took about 5 minutes,so now all is good.

Then Gina and I want to a bank (a long hike) to change dollars to pesos, but didn’t bring our passports, so we couldn’t do it. I don’t remember having to have your passport to change money in Spain? Anyway, we got the job done eventually—the next day. After no joy at the bank, Gina and I went to the grocery store, Aramburo, which went well, except we wanted to pay in dollars since we hadn’t been able to get pesos. They would accept dollars, but not a hundred dollar bill, which was all I had, so I had to use my debit card, which they had to verify was not fraudulent, so that took a bit of effort, but we left the store with good groceries, and took a cab home. We had some trouble interpreting the meat labels, but I got a lot of produce and meat, including some chorizos which turned out to be very good! On a side note, they had a whole bin/case of frozen turkeys at that store—just like you would expect to see at a Safeway around Thanksgiving! This cute little Mexican woman stopped me to ask me about what size turkey she should buy.
She had her foil roasting pan and other holiday prep stuff in her cart. She was a crackup, and it was nice for me to be able to help a local here in La Paz for once.

We’ve had a couple of boat issues to deal with this week. After the storm last Sunday, we realized our battery charger had fried – probably a power surge, as we are hooked up to power at the dock. It’s a $300 – $400 item. Our friend Brian Wade is coming to Mexico on Nov 29th, so he’s bringing us another one. We have some gremlins in some of our lights – sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t. Then today (the 19th) Terry spent most of the morning changing the joker valves in both heads (toilets) and unplugging the vent line. It was not fun, as you might guess! They had needed it for some time, so we can check that off the list.

We’ve enjoyed walking around La Paz a lot. I really like this place. The weather is beautiful, the nights cool down a bit, which is nice, and it’s not nearly as touristy as Cabo. There are a lot of other cruisers who are always willing to give you the scoop on what you need to know. We’ve found some good places to eat, some interesting neighborhoods. The local people have been unfailingly kind and helpful. Gina and Sydney and I are taking long morning walks along the Malecon for exercise too. Life really is very very pleasant.

Gina and I are going shopping for Thanksgiving tomorrow after mass. I’m having trouble finding a ham, so we’re going to taxi to a Wal-Mart and see what they have. I have always hated Wal-Mart, so I’m hoping the Mexican ones are better? The Phillips family have spent many Thanksgivings with us, so it’s a bit of a tradition that I bring ham and fried pineapple and a pie, and Gina does a small turkey and pie too. We’re not sure exactly where we will be on Thanksgiving. Both boats need to get to Puerto Vallarta soon to meet various people who are flying in. The weather is always a bit iffy this time of year, and we have to cross the Sea of Cortez, which is a 200 mile passage. So the weather will dictate where we’ll be on turkey day! I will miss all my family then, and will be thinking of you ALL DAY. Have a good one!!!!