Pemeces* Past and Present

Old Pemex Gasolinera, C/ Federico Tena at C/ Navarrete

You could get your hair permed, your skin tattooed and your car greased. That was when we arrived here in October, 2005. Gas was no longer available.

Today, a new Pemex is arising. The final construction touches are underway. We don't know what it will offer, apart from gas, oil and air. I'm betting that no tattoos will be available, except accidentally. Maybe there will be an OXXO, or a Happy Go store. You can buy a lot of handy things in those stores. Look for the hotdog specials! You can get a premixed alcoholic beverage in a can!

We miss the old Pemex, a classic of Mission style Mexican Architecture. It occasionally provided us with cheap or free parking. The lube rack pits were totally unguarded by any safety rails. No risk to me, as I never went inside.

New Pemex plaza

Shade for your vehicle

*Pemeces: plural form of Pemex

Three Guys and a Ladder

Today, Doña Cuevas is our Guest Blogger. Editing and composition by Don Cuevas.


(This really happened. We are not making it up.)

Doña Cuevas writes:
"Last week I went up the road to visit and lunch with 2 amigas Norteamericanas coming from Morelia for shopping. I met them at a roadside restaurant we lovingly call Larry's Fish House (because our ex-neighbor Larry liked to eat there when he lived here.)"
(Don Cuevas says: "Mediocre food, great view. They often seem to go together. However, the hand made tortillas are good and the salsa de molcajete can be tasty.")


Doña Cuevas continues:
"I looked out the window, as we sat eating our shrimp dishes, and there
were 3 guys.They were attempting to repair a light fixture high above the ground. Two of them were steadying a 12-16 ft. wooden ladder, with no support, for the 3rd man, who was about 12 ft. up the ladder. He realized he couldn't reach the outside light, and came down." 


"I looked out later and there was a Pepsi truck backed up, with the
same third guy climbing up the ladder (which now had its top resting on
the back of the truck) with a plastic chair in his hands. He climbed
up on the chair, which sat upon the roof of the Pepsi truck, but it was still not high enough."

A Pepsi truck something like this one.

"One of the other guys brought a sturdy plastic bucket (like a pickle bucket) and pitched it up to the guy on the roof of the truck.
He placed upside down on the chair seat. He climbed up but it was still not high enough, but by standing on his toes he could reach the top of the light fixture and start unscrewing the top part."


"We left at that point, but I'd bet that the fixture was unscrewed,
the man came down off the Pepsi truck with the fixture, the necessary
parts were not available to fix the light, and the Pepsi truck drove
off with driver at the wheel. The Pepsi truck, or a similar truck,
would return another day and the light would be reinstalled, to work
until someone shot out the bulb and the bulb covering."


"It never gets boring around here, at least for me."


"Saludos cariñosos,
 Doña Cuevas"