Saturday, January 15, 2011

No longer Tourists

We have not blogged for over a month. Life has changed in Mazatlan and we have both noticed that no longer are we visitors, but have changed to members of the Mazatlan community.

The first and least subtle is that I now have my FM-3 card. This changes your status from tourist to legal resident of Mexico. This allows the holder to stay in Mexico longer than the six months the tourist visa allows. The holder is able to keep a vehicle for an unlimited time in Mexico and can import furniture and other needed items without paying duty as long as it is for personal use. It also qualifies you for the Mexican medical plan, which is similar to Canada's and cost around $300 a year for full coverage. It also qualifies you for the "senior card" that give you 50% discounts on many items such as bus travel, etc for those over 60.

Janice, the wine lady of Mazatlan, is well known on the streets and is often stopped by friends and acquaintances. She was with someone last week who commented, you must know half the gringos in Mazatlan. Next week she will be helping at an event to help someone recovering from cancer surgery and is helping arrange the benefit for the library on January 30th. Not only do many gringos know her, but many Mexican people also count her as an acquaintance. Her welcoming smile is well known on the streets of our adopted city.

Joel, also known as jus-ducky, is also becoming a fixture. By letting his beard grow full and wearing his Greek fisherman's cap several have labeled him "The Old Man and the Sea". Our son-in-law in Lake Stevens first mentioned it, but it has been repeated independently by Mazatlan friends. I knew I was part of the local color when last Friday some tourists asked to take my picture. Often while riding local busses both of us offer advice to tourists and others new in town. We tell them of neat places to see, good places to eat, good grocery stores, etc. Yesterday I was waiting for a bus and heard someone shout, hey there is Mr. Potato! Two people in their 50's and their daughter came up to me. They said they nicknamed me Mr. Potato as I had shown them where to get "papas locos", crazy potatoes which they loved. I also had advised them to eat at "Fat Fish" where you get two full racks of barbecued ribs and the trimmings for around $12-$13 total. They had been there twice and were going back once more before they had to return to winter.

We have been living in the northern part of Mazatlan, but our hearts and most of our activities are in the Centro Historico, so eventually I suspect we will end up living there in the heart of the action.

We have been saddened by the negative reports on Mexico travel. The slowdown in tourist trade is noticeable and unnecessary. Friends, come to Mazatlan and we will show you how to have a safe, fun, and extremely memorable experience.

Janice continues to play Canasta with friends every Tuesday, work on her art, organize monthly wine tasting gatherings, walk every morning with friends, have girlfriend lunches and is enjoying good health and spirits. I continue to play bridge a couple times a week, work the library once a week, meet friends for lunch, go to brotherhood of beans and beer on Wednesdays. We manage to have date nights and enjoy being a couple as well as our individual activities.

My brother Steve continues to flourish here and I enjoy seeing him often. Both he and I agree on the editor of "M" Magazines latest comment in the magazine. She quoted W. Somerset Maugham and we agreed the quote pertained to both of us.
"I have an idea that some men are born out of their due place. Accident has cast them amid strangers in their birthplace, and the leafy lanes they have known in childhood or the populous streets in which they have played remain but a place of passage. They may spend their whole lives alien among their kindred and aloof among the only scenes they have ever known. Perhaps it is this sense of strangeness that sends men far and wide in the search for something permanent to which they may attach themselves...................Sometimes a man hits upon a place to which he mysteriously feels he belongs. Here is the home he sought, and he will settle among scenes that he has never seen before, among men he has never known, as though they were familiar to him from his birth. Here at last he finds rest."

Until next time we repeat our mantra, "la vida es buena", life is good.