June 8, 2007

Nordstroms? Macys? Ann Taylor? Time to move over

LA MANZANILLA, Jalisco, Mexico - The Admiral and I were on our way back from a forced march around the high ridges of town looking at house designs when we happened upon a clothing market going on in the town square.

Move over Nordstroms, these guys are serious.

After looking through a few racks of clothes, the Admiral found a bathing suit she liked - a one-piece affair she declined to model for this entry. I found numerous bikinis that I thought were perfect for her, too, but she went with her choice. Que lastima.

She is now the proud owner of an Anne Klein bathing suit - for about $7.30 U.S. (80 pesos).

Yup, $7.30 - and had we wanted to haggle, I bet we could have gotten the suit for 70 pesos.

Move over Nordstrom's
Clothing on the square

The truck arrives every Friday morning early and stays until mid-afternoon. As they loaded up at the end of the day, it looked like they had sold about half their wares. The same bathing suit, I understand, would cost at least $35 - maybe $50 - at a standard U.S. shop.

Earlier in the morning I had to buy 4 AA batteries for my camera and went into a tienda clutching my wallet and hoping to get out for $5-$6 U.S.

The four Eveready Long-Lifes cost me a total of 20 pesos - about $1.80 U.S.

I'm beginning to actually believe that retiring down here is a good deal - and not just because of the sun and surf.

Coconut milk - cold
Getting a cold coconut milk to go

In our travels about town during the afternoon, we stopped at a roadside stand and had a coconut milk, basically just what you get when you open up a coconut. It was another one of those bargains - a half liter for 5 pesos (45 cents U.S.). We were nervous at first. (Ok, I was nervous at first) in case the coconut had been added to unfiltered (read: unpotable) water. But the woman selling said it was natural complete... So, cheers...

In poking about an empty house, we did come upon one of those critters that reside in tropical Mexico, critters you really don't want to run into. This one was definitely dead, though we made note not to put our hands anywhere in the house where we couldn't see clearly. These and some other little bad-news insects and crawly things are why people fumigate on a regular schedule.

Things that go sting in the night
Dead scorpion

It's on to neighboring Barra de Navidad tonight for dinner (perhaps at Ramone's, a favorite), a visit to the ATM and a stop at the petrol station to fill up the last Hoover.

Did I mention that regular gasoline sells for about $2.60 a gallon (U.S.) in Mexico?

Didn't think so.
  • Mexico gasoline prices

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