There have been lots of changes here at Countdown to Mexico lately, this post should introduce you to a few new features.

The Blogroll For years my blogroll ran down the left side of the page.  It has gotten so long that I have made a separate page for it, you’ll see the link at the top of the page in the menu bar.  You can also click on the badge (sample above) in the left sidebar.  All the same great blogs are listed there, I hope you’ll check them out!

Netvibes I’ve always really liked those blogrolls where it is easy to see who has updated recently.  I’ve used Netvibes in the past as a feed aggregator and I decided to take some time to update it with all the Mexico blogs I read, my Mexico Today amigos, Cooking blogs, and other Mexico news channels.  I’ve made the page public so I hope you’ll check it out.  The badge is in the left sidebar, too… and a sample is above.

Google Ads One of the reasons I decided to move the blogroll is so I could place a couple of ads in the sidebar. I’m compensated based on the number of visitors and number of clicks on the ads – I haven’t got it all figured out yet but it seems an unlikely way to pay for my web hosting.  So far in the last week Google reports I’ve made 29 cents!

Amazon Ad This is an ad that I think all of you Mexico lovers will appreciate.  It’s a link to Amazon products that I recommend.  For example, there is a link to my favorite Michel Thomas learning Spanish CD’s, to music I like, and to books that I have read and think you will, too.  I’ll be adding to it as I remember more.  If you buy something after following my link I will get credit for it.  And actually, If you like Countdown to Mexico you could come here and click the link before buying anything on Amazon and I’ll get credit for your click.

Social Media If you look over at the top left sidebar you’ll see a bunch of little buttons like above.  The F is for Facebook, click it and you can Like Countdown to Mexico. The little bird is Twitter, click it if you want to follow me on Twitter. The + is Google+, click it to add me to your circles.  The in is Linked In, click it to see my profile. But the thing I thought you might want to know is if you click the envelope you can enter your email address and receive an email of each new post.

The Mazatlán Exchange Forum Things are going very well over at the new forum.  We have more than 2,000 registered users and every day more and more people are participating.  I hope you’ll visit the forum and participate, too. There is a badge at the top left side of the blogroll you can click to find it. The badge sample is above, and the two posts I wrote explaining how to register for the forum and some tips for use are linked here. (I have changed things since I wrote this post… look directly above the post and you’ll see a banner that invites you to the forum….click it to check it out!)

The Mexico Today program You might remember my trip in June to Oaxaca to become a part of the Mexico Today program.  It is being reported that all of our blog posts and tweets are having an impact and that the perception of Mexico by Americans and Canadians is improving, and so is tourism.  I thought you might be interested in reading what we consider “the best of the best.”  Laura at Go Mexico Guide put together a fantastic blog post consolidating each of our favorite Mexico Today posts.

The Truth About Mexico Back a few years this website was conceived by friends of ours in the Yucatán.  At the time Mexico was getting a lot of bad press due to the swine flu outbreak, and those of us living here were pretty upset about it. They solicited contributors from the Mexico bloggers world and included news and information that would help people make their own decisions about Mexico by listening to people who live here and know first hand. My friends lives changed and they were able to spend less time on the website, so I offered to take up the reins. This project is truly one of the heart, and I hope you’ll visit the site and pass the word. The badge sample is above, you’ll find it also in the left sidebar.

The thing about both these projects that I think is so powerful is that people listen best to people like themselves. So blog posts, personal experiences, social media interactions, etc. are more likely to be heard if they’re spoken by people like you. That makes each of us the best ambassadors for Mexico there can be.

M! Magazine I am excited to be a part of the M! Magazine team!  Starting in November, I’ll have a column in the magazine, which is a monthly English language magazine.  I think it’s going to be a lot of fun.

Wow, that was more news than I thought I had… I had better get back to work!  Hasta pronto!

This post, about Mazatlán’s Pino Suárez Mercado (market) is the third in the tour of Mazatlán’s Centro Historico. Of course the market would be included on my tour of Centro Historico… but there are several special reasons why I decided to do this post today.

• Today is Blog Action Day! What is Blog Action Day?  Since 2007, it has focused bloggers around the world to blog about one important global topic on the same day. Past topics have included water, climate change and poverty. This year, Blog Action Day is October 16, which coincides with World Food Day, so naturally the 2011 theme is food.
  
• October is also Vegetarian Awareness Month.  As a vegetarian for nearly 30 years I seldom miss a chance to encourage people to reduce or eliminate meat from their diets.  I did a blog post not long ago on the topic that was called Vegetarian Resource Round Up if you’re interested in more of my views on the topic.

But now, let’s go to the market!

At the top of this post is a picture of the exterior of Mazatlán’s Pino Suárez Mercado.  This 1899 structure was built of iron and steel in the art nouveau style of the Eiffel Tower, which had been constructed just a few years earlier.  The photo shows a city bus in the foreground, not an ideal addition to the picture – but I would have to come out in the middle of the night to take a photo not showing busses, cars, taxis, and hordes of people.  It’s a busy place!

Where is the mercado?  It’s about five blocks from the Plazuela Machado, and it occupies a city block between Aquilles Serdan and Benito Juarez and Melchor Ocampo and Leandro Valle.

There are lots of vendors outside the mercado - pictured here is a cart that gets pushed home every evening. On this end are delicious coconut treats called cocadas..

Here's another cart outside the mercado. More coconut treats, lovely dates, gumdrops, and in the foreground cucumber and watermelon. Makes my mouth water. People buy a lot from this guy as they wait at the bus stop a few steps away.

There are small "comida economica" stands both outside the mercado (like this one) and throughout the entire upper floor. The main bus routes through Centro pass by both sides of the mercado, so people will catch a meal while they wait.

With our warm year-round climate fruit drinks are very popular. Don't they look refreshing?

The mercado is not just for fresh food and meat. It truly has pretty much anything you will need to run your home. Here is a Café El Marino stand. This large coffee company was founded in 1950 in Mazatlán and is of course a city favorite.

I always buy my beans here, today I bought small white beans. Look at those garlics! Since I am Armenian I love my lentils, and the mercado is the only place I've found that has the large brown lentils. The grocery stores only have tiny ones in bags.

This fruteria is one of my favorites, but there are probably at least 40 different vendors of fruits and vegetables in the mercado. This photo shows the interior steel structure pretty well.

There are a number of small grocery stores in the market. They look small, but truly, they have it all. Need a broom? A can of something? Cleaning supplies? Toilet paper? A candle for your shrine?

I took this photo to show the structure. I am facing North, towards the meat area.

This is a cremeria - they have cheese, yogurt, milk, and other dairy products. Packaged tortillas, too. There is no tortilleria in the mercado.

When I asked the woman at the panaderia if I could take a picture of her wares she said yes and then turned around - so I cropped her out of the picture to be nice. Paul bought a delicious looking piece of carrot cake from her competitor across the way.

This smiling fellow would rather be somewhere else, I'm sure. If he could he would probably ask you to reduce the amount of meat you eat... maybe just try to eat meatless one day a week?

I hope you enjoyed the tour of Mazatlán’s Pino Suárez Mercado!

Disclosure:   I am being compensated for my work in creating content as a Contributor for the México Today Program.    All stories, opinions and passion for all things México shared in my blog are completely my own.

I’ve got bad hands.  Well, actually, I have sensitive skin.  But I like my peppers – serrano and jalapeño being my favorites.  I don’t like to wear gloves, so my strategy is to cut peppers quickly and without having to have my hands on them for very long. I thought I’d show you how I handle peppers to get most of the meat and save my hands, too.

1.  This is the way I use most often. (See below)  Slice the pepper (in this case, a jalapeño) from stem end to tip end, just outside of the seed core.  Rotate a quarter turn, and slice again. Rotate again, slice again.  And one more time.  You’ll have four slices and a separate core with the seeds in no time.

2.  This is my alternate method. Cut off the stem and the tip.  Slice from top to bottom on one side, then take your knife and slice where the seed core is attached to the meat.  Easy, squeezy.

If you go to a bar or restaurant here and order a beer, they’ll usually bring you a dish of limes and sea salt at the same time. Por supuesto! (But if they don’t be sure to ask!) We dip the lime in the salt and scrunch it onto the top of the bottle, getting the limey goodness on the bottle and into the beer, too.

If you’ve enjoyed those lovely limey beers, you probably never even thought of how to cut a lime to make best use of it and have few seeds, have you?  Here you go… Sinaloa style lime slicing!

3.  Take a lime, and slice a round off one side, not touching the seeds in the center.  Do the same off the other side.  You have two nice rounds… see picture below.

4.  Then cut two partial bits off the remaining part.  See how the seeds all remain in the core, not squeezed into your drink?  Toss the core, and you have four nice pieces and no seeds.  Repeat until you have a nice plateful!

Make sure you wash the lime juice off your hands before you expose them to the sun – I have heard stories of people with strange burn/rashes from the combination of sun and lime juice.  But don’t let my warning scare you off from squeezing lime into your beer while relaxing on the beach… just rubbing the lime off with some sand or rinsing your hands in the ocean will do!  And now, a toast!

¡Arriba, abajo, al centro, adentro! (Visit the link if you need an explanation…)