Here is a wonderful email I received from Dave who is living in Mazatlan…

Hola Barbie,

I have been living in Mazatlan for about 8 months now and I am  living in Playa Sur in el centro. The city is very beautiful and has much to offer an American retiree.

The delicious fresh fruit and vegetables at very  inexpensive prices are a bonus. I often shop at Fruiteria Emma in the Juarez colonia for amazing prices.

Difficult for me are the lack of some common American foods (grits). As many different ways as they have here for elota (corn) they do not have grits. A giant Sams club and a new Costco across the street from Sams will have many gourmet products and some American foods.

I use satellite radio (Sirius) for stock market, news, sports and NPR. The signal is excellent here. They will merge with XM radio in the next few months for even more options. I brought with me nearly 300 DVDS of US movies as the Mexico DVDS are area 4 (not compatable with US area 1 DVD players).

The local newspaper “Noroeste” is excellent at 8 pesos a copy, but you need to be able to read Mexican. I say Mexican because it is not Spanish. It uses Aztec words like cacahuate (peanut) guajalote (turkey) elote (corn) ejote (green beans) Guadalupe (lupita) achote (savory sauce) guajillo, molcalete, etc. Also the level of slang words is huge and only the locals understand the slang.

Voy a casarme con Angelica en Noviembre en Club Nautica, cerca del Faro (Translated: I will be marrying Angelica in November at Club Nautica by the lighthouse).

Buena suerte amiga!

Sincerely,
Dave

It doesn’t matter where you live. If you have an Internet connection, you are at risk. Let me explain…

I recently received two emails.  They are known as “phishing” emails:  The people who sent them are “Phishing” (fishing) for personal info. We have all worked too long and too hard to be taken advantage of by these crooks!   

One rather easy way to tell a scam – check all the misspelled words – funny! They are not only crooks, they are ignorant crooks.

HERE’S AN EXAMPLE:

“CAUTION: On October 1, we will be moving to a new Internet Banking system.

You will need to print any previous records (statements, cancelled checks, Bill Pay information, etc.) you wish to retain since they will not move to the new service. Your Internet Banking access will resume on Monday, October 1. Payments with a scheduled payment date of October 1 or before will be processed and should not be resubmitted. Any payment scheduled for payment after October 1 will not be processed and other payment arrangements should be made. If you previously had e-bills or payees setup with Bill Pay, Wire, Ach, etc., you will need to re-apply for the service, and re-enter the bill payment information on the new system starting October 1. If you have any questions about your Internet Banking service or our merger, please feel free to call us at 1-xxxxxxxxxxxx. All information you provide to us on our web site is encrypted to ensure your privacy and security.”

AND ANOTHER:

“You have received this E-mail because you or someone else had used your Account from different locations.  For security purposes, we required to open an investigation on this matter.  In order to safeguard your Account , we require you to change your xxxx Password and confirm you Banking Details. To help speeding up this process , please access the fallowing link so we can complete verification form Online.  To get started, please click the link below: (and they list a URL)  xxxxxxxxxxx.xx Please note:  If we do not receive the appropriate Account Verification within 48 hours, we will assume this xxxxxx Credit Card Account is fraudulent and it will be suspended. The purpose of this Verification is to ensure that your xxxxxx has not been fraudulently used and to combat fraud from our Community.”  

THESE ARE BOTH SCAMS!!!!!!!    Do not even answer emails like these.  Somehow, they will ask for some personal information, etc.  Then, look out – you too may lose your financial identity!

And there are many, many more emails out there, being delivered to unsuspecting folks everyday – be on your toes – DO NOT BE TAKEN ADVANTAGE OF BY THESE CROOKS!

My husband, Dick, and I flew into Mazatlan and landed at 9 p.m.  I had arranged over the phone, to rent a car at Advantage Rent-A-Car.  We were to pick the car up on Tuesday morning, the morning after arriving Monday night.  We had, I thought, also arranged for a friend to pick us up at the airport upon arrival, take us to our quarters that night,  and then drive us back to Advantage Rent-A-Car to pick up the car Tuesday morn, after breakfast.  Sounds easy enough!

So, we arrived in Mazatlan at 9 PMS pretty tired after a 12-hour flight — yes, we could have just about driven in that time — well, almost.  It was quite dark when we landed, of course, and after going through customs (easy and quick), started looking for our friends who had said they would be there to pick us up, so we wouldn’t have to make the almost half hour drive to Mazatlan by ourselves and tired to boot.

We are VERY careful of driving at night in Mexico — yes — we heed our own advice!

Anyway, while we were standing there, in the Mazatlan airport, luggage in tow, fully expecting friend to show up eventually, one of the men who work at the airport came up to us and in his meager English, asked “Parks?  Advantage Rental?”    I was sort of taken aback, and thought maybe he was looking for another Parks for a moment –  and then realized — no, he was looking for us, and they had brought a car for us — tonight — a day  early??

Dick and I discussed the situation briefly and then told him — in our best Spanish — that, yes, we had rented a car, but had contracted for it to be picked up tomorrow, Tuesday, and could he please explain the situation to the young man who was apparently waiting for us.  And that we intended to wait on our friend, so…Thanks, anyway.Then…well, we waited and waited — no friend in sight, so finally after over 30 minutes of standing around waiting, decided we needed to take action.  We found the original worker, tried to explain to him, that if he could contact the Advantage Rental guy, we needed a ride. No problem — the Advantage fellow was still there — patiently waiting.  We secured our luggage in the trunk and once in the car, explained to the driver, Manuel, where we needed to go.

Now, Manuel basically spoke no English.  But, he recognized the name of the place we needed to go and with a smile, started off down the dark road toward Mazatlan.  I know you’re thinking by now — give your friends a call!  But, I knew something very important must have happened, or they would be here to pick us up.

After just a few minutes of our ride toward Mazatlan, Dick and I realized we could save some time Tuesday if we just took possession of the car tonight.

Well, I finally got our idea over to Manuel, who confidently said ,“Manager … office”.  So, we felt we were now headed to the Advantage Office to acquire the car and everything would be smooth.  How about that!  And we were not wrong.  Manuel drove us straight to the office, where, this late at night, the manager was waiting.

Get this — see if you have ever heard of anything like this even coming close in the States: They, the manager at Advantage, had checked our itinerary I given him, when first arranging for the car rental.  He knew we were coming in Monday night, and knew the car rental was not supposed to start until Tuesday morning.  But, just in case we had made a mistake or something, he had decided to send Manuel and the car when our plane arrived.He wanted to make sure we could get from the airport to town with no trouble– bless the Mexican intuition! …and kindness.

Now, for the price breakdown for a 4-door, airconditioned, automatic, Compact Car @ $96/week (no extra charge for us for the extra night we had the car, by the way)  Unlimited mileage.  We got car insurance through them, of course, $11/day.  And, after returning the car at the end of our trip, they drove us back to the airport — no charge.P.S.  Our friends thought we were coming in two days later than we actually did — oh well.  We made it safely home, just in time to get laundry done and repacked for the next trip to Mexico in about 10 days.