Shopping Adventure in Hermosillo

Today, Tuesday, was designated in advance as the day Betsy and I would make a trip to the city of Hermosillo to purchase a number of items that can’t be found either here in the small town of San Carlos, or in the neighbor town of Guaymas.

Betsy continues to catch up on home repairs and improvements. Two years ago the microwave oven quit working. Last year the TV gave up the ghost, and this year the original dishwasher died with a huge rusty hole in the back. Hurricane Jimena last September trashed the ceiling fan/light fixture in the kitchen. So, those items, as well as a vaccuum cleaner, a crockpot, a bathroom sink faucet, and a partridge in a pear tree were on our list for today. I needed some double AA batteries.

You think I jest about the partridge in a pear tree? Well read on McDuff!

Several days before our drive to Hermosillo I offered to follow behind Betsy in my own car. I was concerned about getting all of those items in the back of her SUV, plus I know that Betsy is inclined to pick up a few extra items en route. I reiterated my offer this morning, but it was gratefully declined.

Hermosillo is about 80 miles away, due East. We drove through it on our way down from Arizona. It has a major airport and a population of around 700,000. It is the capitol of the State of Senora. It is inland, and the primary industry there is auto manufacturing, especially since Ford built a plant there in the 1980s.

It’s a 90 minute drive. For Betsy and I, that’s no big deal as we are used to making the drive to Sacramento from Camino and Pollock Pines, which is almost as far. For the most part it’s an easy four lane highway, although the speed limits are lower than in the U.S. The Federales were out in force today so we tended to adhere to the posted limits. In fact we had to slow down and go through two checkpoints as we approached Hermosillo, one with the Federales Policia, the other with armed soldiers carrying automatic weapons. We were waved through both checkpoints without having to stop. We don’t know what that was about. Betsy wondered if perhaps an important official was coming through. Hours later on the way home, the soldiers were still stopping traffic going into Hermosillo, but not coming out. We passed an entire truckload of soldiers on their way back to wherever they are stationed.

For our shopping, we did not have to go to the old Downtown section of Hermosillo. Rather, we drove down a long avenue that was interspersed with lots of mechanic shops, tiny tacquerias and minimarts mixed with every American superstore chain and fast food joint there is. Two Walmarts, Home Depot, Office Depot, Office Max, Sams Club, Costco, Burger King, Carls Jr, McDonalds… I think the best comparison I can come up with is either a more rundown version of Rancho Cordova or Auburn Blvd in Sacramento, with one major difference. There was not a business or billboard anywhere on these miles of road that was not covered in graffiti. No establishment was spared.

Our first stop was WalMart. This was one of the Superstores, but it seemed even bigger than the ones I’ve been in. They did sell a few things I’ve not seen in others, like refrigerators, stoves and washer/dryers. I’m not a big Walmart fan. I can best describe it by saying imagine any Walmart, put in Mexico, and you’ve bascially got it. We didn’t find much there on our list, over even not on our list. We only picked up two items, and as I had feared, neither were on our list. My concerns about how we were going to get everything in the car began to take form. Betsy found a small counter top oven. The house - by design - does not have an oven. She also picked up a small round resin patio table. Much of the patio furniture was mangled in hurricane Jimena.

We stood in the checkout line where the usual candy and chips were on display. We laughed at the scary sounding candy. There was something squishy called “Bubi Lubi.” And then there were some lollipops with a giant clown logo. Perhaps we’ll swing through on our way home to California and buy some for gifts!


Would you let your child accept candy from this clown? Well, the toddler in the shopping cart behind us informed us excitedly that the suckers were “bueno.”

We had lunch at Applebees, right next door to Costco. Betsy left her Costco card at home but they were quickly able to look up her membership and give her a one day pass. We found almost everything on our list in short order. We loaded up not only a regular shopping cart, but one of those long ones that can carry appliances. We got a 37 inch LCD TV, a dishwasher, a shop vac, and a microwave, all priced very reasonably. Here and there, a few items would be way out of line compared to back home. For instance we were not about to pay $139 for a crock pot or over $100 for kingsize sheets. Odd. I tossed in a large packet of AA batteries.

And now my anxiety level began to rise. Into the cart went another patio table – this one wrought iron – a couple of garden hoses, and last but not least, a three foot Boxwood Treeshrub. This was placed on the cart so that it was completely in front of my face. Betsy asked if I thought it would all fit in the car. My guess was “no.”

While a couple of male Costco employees helped Betsy bring her merchandise to the counter, I announced that I was headed to the food stand for a Churro to carbo-load for the impending car loading. For some reason the food stand required me to show a Costco card. It was in Betsy’s possesion so I was denied my churro. I returned to the checkout stand where there seemed to be a problem. All three of Betsy’s credit cards were being denied. A lengthy phone call to Credit Card #1 revealed that this particular Visa company blocked any purchases from the Hermosillo Costco due to a high level of fraud from that store. But they assured her it would work in any other store. There was no way they were going to approve her card for Costco.

Betsy told me I could go sit in the food area and wait, so I grabbed her Costco card and got my 86 cent churro. I was sitting quite a distance from the checkstand but I could see the boxwood tree in the shopping cart. If and when the tree moved, I’d know things were rolling.

A call to credit card #2 revealed that it had been blocked because as sometimes happens, it appeared as a suspicious purchase, being out of the country. That was cleared up and finally after about half an hour, I saw the boxwood tree had moved to the other end of checkstand. The purchases were made! We headed to the store exit and as is usual at Costco, a clerk asked to see our receipt to compare the items in our basket with what we had purchased. It seems that amidst the chaos and all of the large items, we had not been charged for the AA batteries. Neither Betsy nor I were in the mood to get back in line so we relinquished the AAs.

Two gentlemen employees escorted us to the car to assist with the loading. When they saw the size vehicle they were going to load all this stuff into, they both burst out in a guffaw. But they were good natured and went about the task of trying to fit everything in.


They began with the dishwasher, and it was only two or three minutes before they had everything – including the tree – successfully inside the car.


Betsy tipped them each $20. They assisted us in getting out of the parking lot as we now had zero visibility out of the back window.

All of the stores we went to today – including Applebees – had security in the parking lot, police whistles and all. They kept an eye on the parking lot, assisted with traffic, and anyone that needed help with any little thing. In some of the smaller establishments like Applebees, it is actually volunteer work by a group called “Vigilante Volunteers.” They were usually older gentlemen, probably retired. I guess it must be kind of like the Star volunteer sheriff program at home, where retired individuals volunteer their time in patrol cars to assist with simple civil matters.

The car was stuffed but Betsy still wanted to stop at Home Depot for a ceiling fan and a plumbing fixture. The same hassles with the credit cards occurred and were resolved, and she managed to squeeze the last two items into the car by opening the box the fan was in and disassembling it. I sat with the globe in my lap for the ride home. She also bought a small package of AA batteries. It was all they had, and it was under lock and key in the store. Kind of like Sudafed is in California I guess.

We had an uneventful drive home, even stopping at the grocery store for a few items. We arrived home to all five happy dogs looking out over the second story porch balcony.


The car sits in the garage awaiting unloading in the morning with some assistance from Ramon, the gardner.

OK – so it wasn’t a partridge in a pear tree it was a boxwood tree.

Catching up from the past couple of days… hm… well Sunday I didn’t feel well until about 3pm when the motion sickness "remedy" finally wore off. Betsy and I went to dinner at an Italian Restaurant called Piccolos. It was pretty good. Monday morning I went to Yoga and then tried to find the Trailhead to NacaPule Canyon to hike at a later date.




I walked Frances out to the end of a little peninsula across from us where there was a rainbow across the water, and a compass and sundial at the edge of the peninsula.


I have found that there are only two motion sickness remedies that nondrowsy and are Okayed by the FAA for pilots. One is called Emetrol, which is composed of soda pop syrup and phosphoric acid. The other is… bagels! If I can find any bagels down here, I’m up for it!