México’s war on drugs is in the news today – top of the fold in the New York Times.

Mazatlán is in Sinaloa State, the home of the Sinaloa Cartel. Culiacán seems to be a center of violence as pressure by the police has incited the cartel to retaliate. Every day we read the newspaper and the drug deaths reported are an almost daily occurrence. Culiacán is about 90 miles from Mázatlan.

During Semana Santa we did see more large black Hummers and Suburbans with tinted windows. These are driven by drug cartel people and their families. As a counterpoint you also see the Federal Police and the Army also driving around. We are lucky here in that the drug people who come here are vacationing and so the tendency to violence is less.

México’s President Calderon is saying that he won’t back down. The US Congress has scaled back President Bush’s drug plan. The US demand for drugs is what drives the cartels here in México, so it only seems logical to me that the US should participate fully in helping get the trade under control.

I wanted to bring the NY Times article to your attention – our heads are not in the sand here in México but here in Mazatlán the violence feels pretty removed.

Paul and I have been asked what we miss from up North by several people who are considering moving to Mexico. At first we said “nothing” and then realized that there are a few things that we miss – in varying amounts…

Natural Peanut Butter….you can get small jars of sweetened peanut butter in most grocery stores, and occasionally I’ll see a decent sized jar of Skippy, but that’s it. I should buy some peanuts and grind them in my Vita-Mix next time I have a craving, I guess.

Stash Tea – I love Stash Tea, especially Red and Green. Paul is partial to their Chai tea. In order to make iced green tea for myself here I need three teabags per glass- and it is still weak! I believe tea isn’t a big seller here so it is probably pretty old.

Boca products – especially their Bratwurst. I used to take an onion, some cabbage, red pepper flakes, and one of these – cut on the diagonal – and make an amazing, hearty dinner. I used their smoked ones with red beans and rice or in place of a hot dog on the barbeque. Man I miss these a lot.

Memory Foam Mattress topper – We had these on our beds up North but they were too heavy to bring with us. And our mattress here is way harder than we like. I have tried to find these here and they just aren’t around – and the funny thing is they are made in Mexico, just must be made only for export.

Genuine High Quality Parmesan Cheese – There are plenty of pale substitutes. I just want parmesan sometimes, is that so bad of me?

My Dyson – We didn’t have any room in the van and I have missed it ever since. I even tried to buy one from Amazon prepared to pay a ton of duty and they won’t ship it here. So I plod along vacuuming up dog hair, dust on the windowsills, and everything in between with my *&@#*! shop vac.

Vitamins & Ibuprofen in big bottles….I take a couple of vitamins a day and like to buy aspirin or ibuprofen in a larger bottle…hard to find here and they are pretty expensive. I have had a hard time finding aspirin or B-complex in anything but blister-packs of 20. Sheesh! When our son came down in March he was nice to bring me a stash that should last me quite a while.

So, folks, that’s it for me. I miss these things a bit but not that much…but next person coming to Mazatlán could bring me a nice hunk of Parm and some Bocas and I wouldn’t complain! (Just kidding, really!)

Paul and I enjoy walking the dogs every day – and of course we walk all over Centro all the time, too. Every day as I step over or around obstacles I think about taking pictures of them for the blog…and maybe it is a way to feel better about our frequently stubbed toes!

The picture at the top is one of our favorite obstacles – bougainvillea. Too thorny to move out of the way so I just step around it. (By the way, if you enlarge the photo you’ll see two red pickup trucks with bench seats in the back. They are called aurigas and I think along with the pulmonia, they are distinctly Mazatlecan. If you have a bunch of people they are great to jump into instead of a taxi, and when you have something to haul they are a godsend. They are comparable in price to a taxi or a pulmonia.)

The picture below is a frequent obstacle – the ironwork remaining from an air conditioner that was removed. These are more frequently at forehead height.

Below is a favorite – trees that are trimmed so that it’s impossible to get by without ducking. Can you see Paul just beyond?

The next one is a two-fer. Skinny, bad sidewalk and crazy trees. The house here is being renovated so I imagine they’ll improve the sidewalk and I have my fingers crossed that they’ll leave the trees.

The next one is on our route daily. I get really tired of going around three windows of these crazy vines. The sidewalk is a mess here, too. Every once in a while someone takes a machete to the vines – I wonder if it’s the homeowner or someone who walks by frequently? (Not me, I promise!)

I didn’t take a picture of the sunshades on Serdan that get rolled down in the afternoon…they have a metal pole to weight the bottom and we know people who have been hit in the forehead as the shades move while you are walking forward. Cuidado!