On the Shopping Bus to Guadalajara

The Chapala Red Cross provides a useful service and makes some money by arranging for a bus to go once a month to the Plaza Mexico mall in Guadalajara. Tickets are sold in advance at the Lake Chapala Society, and we foreigners go in for Walmart, a bit of mall shopping, and doctors' appointments in the neighborhood, as the Del Carmen hospital is nearby, and many doctors have their offices nearby. This happens on the 3rd Thursday of the month generally. We leave Ajijic at 9 and get back somewhere around 4. I've mentioned this before in this blog.

Well, now the Red Cross has added a second bus each month on the first Thursdays, and I recently went on its maiden voyage with a friend. (Definitely not the maiden voyage of the actual bus, but hey, its air conditioning worked and that was most welcome. Guadalajara is hotter than our area, as Lake Chapala has a distinct effect of moderating the temperatures.)

By the way, the Red Cross here is not like it is back home. It provides essential services that local governments cannot afford. It helps in disasters but its clinic in Chapala, staffed 24/7 with medical personnel including doctors, provides basic health care. Its ambulances are the only first response in its area. Find out more, in English or Spanish, at http://www.cruzrojalakeside.com/ Tax-deductible donations (in Mexico, the US, and Canada) can be made via Paypal too.

We went to Galerias, a three-story upscale mall in Guadalajara, anchored by Liverpool and Sears... in Mexico, Sears is much fancier than in the US. I was on a hunt for all-cotton queen sheets, not an easy task here since queen bed are rare and so are all-cotton sheets. But I found some at Sears. they had a nice Laura Ashley set for about $120 US, but the ones I found were about half that and made in Mexico. The young man who helped us was dressed to the nines in a nice suit, and I told him he looked ready to go to a wedding. He laughed and said it was about the presentation.

The sheets were my big splurge of the day. My friend found some darling outfits for her young daughters, on sale in one of the numerous chic little shops. Some Irish friends of hers live nearby and they came over for lunch with us.

"Is this really Mexico?" someone asked. Oh yes. It's easy to forget that there are many wealthy people in this country, but a quick stroll through Galerias proves that consumerism and designer name goods are alive and well here. Want to see for yourself? Here is the website of Galerias.

It doesn't take much of that to bore me silly. My eco-husband would have hated it. I said as much to a vivacious Canadian lady I met on the bus, and she said her husband would have taken a taxi home rather than spend much time there.

The mall was not the only attraction. Walmart and Sam's Club were in its parking lot, and right across the street was Costco and another general groceries-plus type of store called Mega. I got into Costco with someone who had a membership. Had I wanted to buy anything, I could have gotten a day pass, but I just looked around while my friend had a longer visit with her Irish friends. One nice thing about having a small house is that there isn't room for a lot of stuff.

It's good to get to know the resources here in Mexico, but I won't be in a hurry to go back. Coming and going, it was almost ten hours. I'd rather be blogging. Yeah, I blogged about this, but believe me I don't need an all-day shopping trip to find things to write about!

Sandi Books, Suburbia, and Other Shopping in Guadalajara

Yesterday morning Kelly and I drove back into Guadalajara, as I had a doctor's appointment. We went in early enough to go to Sandi Bookstore, the largest English-language bookstore in Guadalajara. Being the book fanatic that I am, I had long been curious to check it out.

It's a very attractive store in a pleasant neighborhood, easily accessed when coming in from Jocotepec and thus arriving in the city on Avenida Lopez Mateos... there is a map on the bookstore website. There was a tiny bunch of parking places right in front of the store, and we got one.

The first thing I noticed on entering the store was the extensive collection of travel guides (Lonely Planet) for every corner of the globe. Wandering around, we saw a good collection of books for expats to learn Spanish and a selection for Mexicans to learn English. There were children's books. Much of the entire collection consists of textbooks in English, with the upstairs balcony full of medical texts in English. While I had a momentary vision of aging expats self-diagnosing in the aisles (something that wouldn't be beyond me), the main customers are no doubt Mexican medical students.

Back downstairs, I was surprised to see a book about Things Fall Apart, an important novel by Chinua Achebe about the destructive effects of Europe on West African culture which I had written a term paper on in grad school in the 1960s. Kelly, an archaeology buff, found a book but I actually walked out of there barehanded.

Ordering US Books from Sandi for Delivery in Mexico

The best news to me about Sandi Books is that they offer a way to order books in English for delivery here in Mexico. We chatted, mostly in English, with a very helpful woman who explained the process if you don't go to the store to do it: we email or otherwise contact them with a list of what we want ordered. They prepare a cost estimate and we go to a bank in our community -- in our case, it would be in Chapala -- where there is a procedure for paying that estimate. The prices are either identical to US prices or a small percentage above them,

Then the books are ordered by Sandi from the publishers, and normally they get them in 4 to 6 weeks. They then ship them to you, using a courier service I hadn't heard of and the name of which I have forgotten, but she said it was like Fedex or DHL. I asked, with some doubt, if they delivered to obscure little back streets and she said yes, no problem. The shipping charge was about 75 pesos plus perhaps something more for each book, and you would have paid for it in that estimate.

This isn't as easy as having friends bring things down, but sometimes it's quite a while between friends. I'll report if I try this.

Readers in the US may be wondering why I don't just buy from Amazon and have things mailed down. After all, we do have a post office box in Ajijic. Not only are the Mexican mails slow (we got a Christmas card one Easter) and unreliable, but you are more likely to be charged duty. I thought the customs fees were around 30% but one woman I know bought an expensive technical book and the duty was over 100%.

Suburbia: Kind of Like Macy's

We left Sandi Books and only got lost twice going a few kilometers to the Plaza Mexico shopping mall. Kelly dropped me off there and went off to retrieve his Canon Powershot camera that was being repaired somewhere else in the city. I went into the well-named Suburbia which is a department store kind of like a Macy's. I didn't think the prices were any cheaper than in the US, but hey, I am here and I needed some things. Topping my list was a new set of cotton sheets, but they had none in the relatively rare bed size we have, queen. Okay, another time maybe, or maybe I'll get some brought down from the US by a friend. I was also looking for some cotton underwear and they did have all-cotton panties for about $6 US each. I didn't need them that much, but the longer we live in Mexico, the more I want to find resources for things I will want so I don't have to get them in the US. I did try on a cute dress, also in my preferred cotton, which interestingly came from India, as did a nice cotton nightgown I didn't need right now.

My next stop was a GNC store, widely found in Mexican malls. I got some vitamin C and vitamin E at okay but not great prices, but struck out on a multi-vitamin/mineral supplement without iron similar to the Twinlab one we take. So that will be a purchase for our next mule from the north. Just as I was leaving the store, my eye fell on a deodorant that is the exact kind I prefer, something I usually get from a health food store in the US. So I bought one of those.

After a visit to my doctor who says my ear is just about totally healed, I found Kelly in the mall. He had picked up his camera just fine, only getting lost once. We headed home, with compassion for those who have to endure big city traffic daily, wherever in the world they may live.

Driving into Guadalajara from Lake Chapala

Recently Kelly and I drove into Guadalajara, and I took some video of the trip in with my little camera. It's pretty mundane but often people up North want to know more about many of the details of life here, if they are thinking of moving here.

This trip was through Jocotepec and then into Guadalajara on a four-lane highway. I'm sure it's far more common for expats to go into the big city via the highway from Chapala, but this at least gives you a taste.

Another Good Mexican Medical Experience

About a month ago, I wrote about going to the Ajijic Clinic with an ear infection and how I was generally pleased with the care I received.

Unfortunately, the infection flared up again later in January. I tried another GP here in the Lake Chapala area, and also liked him. He had me take another round of a different kind of antibiotics.

But that didn't solve things either. So my tender pulsating ear forced me to face my dislike of traffic in Guadalajara and get myself to an Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) specialist. There seem to be none in the Lake Chapala area.

I had enthusiastic recommendations for two different ENTs, and I chose simply on geography. There is a monthly bus excursion from Ajijic to Plaza Mexico, one of quite a few shopping malls in Guadalajara. My understanding is that the Walmart in the mall pays for the bus. The trips are arranged by the Chapala branch of the Red Cross, you buy your tickets in advance at the Lake Chapala Society, and your 50 pesos round trip benefits the Red Cross. Buses leave the lake area around 9 AM and get back around 4 PM, I think.

I chose the ENT whose office is a couple of blocks from Plaza Mexico, just beyond one of Guadalajara's excellent hospitals, the Del Carmen. Since I don't imagine I will ever drive in Guadalajara, that monthly bus would give me a convenient option to forcing my honey to drive me around. I'd heard that quite a few lakeside residents use the bus for medical appointments.

I called yesterday and was able to get an appointment with Dr. Andres Badial for today. Kelly drove me in, and he went with me to the appointment. Dr. Badial was very personable, took plenty of time, really listened, asked lots of questions, checked out my ears and fixed me up... suctioning out a lot of gunk from the ear removed the loud tinnitus that has impaired my hearing for these weeks! I am to go back next week for a follow-up. The cost of the office visit: 500 pesos, or about $45 US. His English was completely fluent. (His office phone in Guadalajara: 3813 4334.)

As Kelly and I walked back to the shopping mall, he commented that this level of care was an example of the high quality of medical work that we are beginning to get used to here in Mexico.