Steve - Thanks for the clarification. I'm sure the US is as highly
regulated as Canada, but Mexico is another story entirely. It's pretty
safe to say that if it's illegal up North you can get it here over the
counter. The only real rule I've seen is that if someone is carrying an
automatic weapon one should say 'Yes Sir, Whatever You Say Sir." No
building codes, no electrical codes. If you want to be an Optician you
just hang a sign that says 'Optica' and you're in business. (I've
bought five pairs of glasses in Baja and can see out of one of them, and
had an interesting discussion with an optician who didn't understand why
I didn't want to pay for contact lenses with the wrong prescription.
Hey, I wanted contact lenses, these are lentes contactos, what's the
problem? No wonder everybody runs the stop signs... <VBG>)
And you can get all refrigerants, including the banned ones, at most
auto parts or hardware stores. Speaking of which, though, I understand
that marine refrigeration compressors *must* use refrigerant that
doesn't contain any additives like lubricants or sealers. Reading the
can is very important. Of course if it's in Spanish, you must buy it
and then use Google Translate to figure out if you guessed right.
The upside is that if you figure it out, you can save a bunch of money.
Last year I had a serious infection that I felt might go septic on me,
and after some internet research walked downtown and bought an entire
course of the correct antibiotics for $10 US. I know a great dentist
here in La Paz. Two weeks ago I shattered a 20 year old crown (a rock
in my taco) and the replacement only cost $350, and fits my mouth better
than the one I paid $800 for up north.
And of course one must accept personal responsibility. People are very
polite, because no one wants to get into trouble. If you're in a car or
boat accident, everyone goes to jail until the authorities figure out
who's right and who's wrong. I was once walking down the street from
the bank to the grocery store at 10 a.m., and ended up in jail.
Really. It turns out that there was a manhunt for a child molester from
Texas, last seen wearing a Hawaiian shirt and cargo shorts (the Gringo
uniform.) I was just walking down the sidewalk and suddenly there were
guns pointed at me and some guy saying 'Show Me Your Papers' which made
me laugh because I've seen too many WWII movies. Talk about a
politically incorrect thing to do... It turned out the bad guy's name
was 'Willy' and when I said my name was 'Wally' it was pretty much game
over. But everything worked out okay in the end.
Umm, anyway, things are different here.
Wal
Steve Thomas wrote:
I don't know what the regulations are like in Mexico or the United States.
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