Sunday ; Very sunny, very hot, extremely humid.
Late this morning we went for a slow (due to heat and humidity) walk to refill our five litre water jug. Upon return to our apartment building Joanne decided she wanted an onion in order to make some pico do gallo as part of lunch. While she went to an unnamed frutas y verduras aborrote a few buildings down from us I sat on the curb outside our apartment building gate and gave attention to some of the cats that live here. The two calicos are the friendliest, and one of them is my favourite. She gets a bigger belly every day, so … kittens soon, I suspect. We initially named her “Cally” then changed it to “Calle” (Kiyay), Spanish for street. Because of facial colouration we have named one of the tabbies Señor Bigote / Mr. Moustache.
While I was sitting on the curb a man walked by, pushing a dolly with two large empty tubs on it. He was loudly and repeatedly chanting “labadero, labadero, labaderooooo”. I whipped out our phone, and punched “labadero” into the translator. HMPH ! Smart phone ! Not only did it give me the translation, it corrected my spelling error. I frequently forget that in Spanish the letter “V” is pronounced the same as the letter “B”. The spelling is “lavadero”, not “labadero”. He was chanting “laundry, laundry, laundryyyyy”. Good luck with drumming up business, mi amigo. You’re on the block of a street that has two lavanderias on the corner. The locals don’t seem inclined to run out to a “laundry hustler” on the street when they have two laundry services within a half block.
As opposed to the 6 PM “pizza hustler” who comes by every day slowly pushing his bicycle with the large insulated “tote basket” on the front filled with pizzas, hot and ready, for sale by slice or entire pizza. “PIZZA, PIZZA, PIZZAAAA” He gets plenty of business ! Must be sort of the Mexican version of Domino’s. HA HA HA !
After lunch and a siesta, we headed out at 3 PM for a long walk on the beach, then to buy supper before the restaurant closed at 5 PM. We walked down Avenida Diez (10) to Calle Ochenta y Ocho (88) then on the public beach access trail to Playa Ochenta y Ocho (Beach 88). Once on the beach, instead of turning north and walking to Playa Punta Esmeralda as we did before, this time we turned south and wandered down to the public beach access trail at Playa Setenta y Dos (Beach 72).
The beaches were very busy today, Sunday being “family day” in Mexico. There was a cooling breeze on the beaches making it pleasant to walk, even on such a hot day. When we left Playa 72 and headed up the access trail we expected to reach Avenida 10 at Calle 72. NOT ! The Playa 72 beach access trail ended at Avenida Luis Donaldo Colosio. HMPH … go figure. HA HA HA ! We headed north back towards home, walking along Calle 10 until we reached the restaurant Los Molcajetes at Calle 88 / Playa 88 access.
BARBACOA REZ … TODOS LOS DOMINGOS ! Barbecued, shredded beef (cheek ?) … every Sunday ! We ordered “medio kilogramo de barbacoa, con todos, por favor” / half a kilogram of barbacoa, with all (the fixin’s), please. That included a lot of meat, a large styrofoam container of some kind of red “sauce / gravy” with diced carrot in it, maybe diced potato, little grainy pieces that might have been coarsely gound frijoles (freeholays … refried beans), ten (count ‘em … TEN) corn tortillas, freshly made, still hot, a baggie of diced onions, a baggie of sliced limes, a baggie of shredded cilantro, a baggie of salsa verde. <blink> $290 pesos / CA$23.20. We ate less than half tonight for supper. Guess we’ll be having barbacoa again for supper sooner than expected. HA HA HA !
HOLY MACKEREL … that was superb ! We’ve just finished supper. First time we’ve had barbacoa. Certainly not the last ! That was even better than quesabirria. Now I’m eager for the restaurant near our next apartment, in the city of Chetumal, that advertises “todos los Sábados … barbacoa borrego” / every Saturday ... barbecued, shredded lamb.
You know, when we owned pet food stores in Ottawa, when we saw pet food labels that listed “meat by-products”, we used to euphemistically call that “lips and assholes”. I wonder if that’s how barbacoa is made ? HA HA HA <SNORT> HA HA !
Monday ; Mix of sun and clouds, hot, humid, light rain late in the afternoon.
Our room cleaning schedule is every Monday at noon, so at 11:45 AM we left to run some errands and do some exploring on Avenida Trente heading south. Joanne finds meandering and exploring on Avenida 30 to be interesting. Our priority was to top-up our cell phone service which was to expire today. I tried to top-up (known as “recarga”/recharge here in Mexico) online, but once again my Canadian (foreign) credit cards were rejected for online purchases. As we wandered I tried to “recarga” at a couple of cell phone stores, but apparently Movistar can only be recharged at certain stores, most prominently the OXXO chain of convenience stores.
Just before reaching an OXXO store we reached what seemed to be a small mercado municipal / municipal market. We LOOOOVE mercados municipal. Joanne was already tired from walking in the heat so I told her to go wander inside the mercado and I would go to OXXO, top-up the cell phone, then join her in the market.
I recharged the cell phone at OXXO, but created a bit of a line-up behind me because I didn’t understand the process and the clerk spoke no English. Sorry, folks ! I returned to the mercado building, stepped inside, and realized … HOLY SMOKE … the place was a huge warren of interconnected alleyways, like a maze, filled with many small stores / vendors. I wondered how I was going to find Joanne in this maze when she suddenly appeared behind me.
The market was about three quarters clothing related vendors, small clothing stores, tailors, seamstresses, etc., and about one quarter food related vendors, butchers, produce vendors, etc.. It was surprising to see some of the specialty tailors and seamstresses. Some produced mostly Playa del Carmen taxi driver Guayabera shirts. Some produced mostly school uniforms. Mexican children wear uniforms to school. Most schools have their own colours and logos. We wandered around this maze of alleyways, occasionally reaching the end of an alleyway and ending up outdoors, who knows where relative to Avenida 30. No problema … we would just go back inside and wander around more until we would end up outdoors again. Eventually … we were back on Avenida 30. OK … enough mercado for today ! HA HA HA !
Coming out of one of those alleyways onto some side street, I watched what I thought was a fascinating process of Mexican street pothole repair. There was a huge truck, looked similar to a sewer / septic pump out truck, but the hose at the back of the truck didn’t suck up sewage from a septic tank, it dispensed hot tar and fine gravel. An operator swung the hose around, filling a pothole with hot tar, then flicked a switch and the hose changed from dispensing hot tar to dispensing fine gravel. WOW … in a minute or two a huge pothole could be filled / repaired. The truck would move slowly to the next pothole, and the process would be repeated. WOW … why don’t we have those trucks in Canada ? ? ?
Next stop was lunch at Tortas Goyo, a restaurant Joanne had found online. Tortas are huge sandwiches, somewhat similar to a Subway sandwich. Joanne selected a torta de milanesa de pollo con queso Oaxaca / torta sandwich made with a thin breaded chicken cutlet and cheese from Oaxaca (both a city and a state, our destination for January to April), with aqua fresca de sandia (literally “fresh water of watermelon” … aqua fresca is a type of “home made” soft drink, made on site by restaurants). In addition to tortas, they have a variety of shrimp specialties. I had ceviche de camarón ( ceviche is a type of Mexican seafood salad, camarón is shrimp), with a liquado de platano / banana milkshake to drink. Half of Joanne’s sandwich and half of my freshly made (corn) tortilla chips came home with us for lunch tomorrow.
After lunch we stopped at a new to us panaderia near the restaurant to replenish bolillos y pan dulce / sandwich buns and pastries. Joanne had also found this panaderia online. Their specialty is Veracruz baking, again … both a city and a state in Mexico.
We arrived back home at 3 PM. Joanne immediately fell asleep for two hours.
Tuesday ; Overcast, hot, very humid. Occasional rain squalls, lasting only a few minutes.
This morning we left our apartment at 11:45 AM, heading out to drop off our dirty laundry at the lavanderia, and buy milk at Willy’s. I was going to take the laundry in, while Joanne went across the street to buy milk. But … we decided at the last minute to drop off the laundry, then go for a long exercise walk, and buy milk just before returning home.
As we walked home from Playa 72 a couple of days ago we passed an interesting panaderia that was closed. Joanne wanted to walk by today and see if it was open. Well, it wasn’t really open but the husband and wife bakers were inside and invited us in. They were in the early part of their baking day, since most of their production is destined for late afternoon delivery to local upscale restaurants. They both spoke excellent English, having been university educated in Colorado, USA, and Ottawa, Canada.
Their baking was French style ; many types of sourdough loaves, bagels, brioche buns, baguettes, etc.. From their surname we surmise that they are from India. Or of Indian descent, at least. We bought a loaf of (expensive) sourdough bread, and he set up his WhatsApp QR code on my cell phone so we can phone or text future orders.
Walking back to Willy’s to buy milk, I suggested to Joanne that if we also bought eggs and syrup I could make French toast for breakfast. Excellent idea, she thought. Our apartment lacks a toaster, and we miss having toast in the mornings. Of course, once at Willy’s we got distracted and bought syrup but forgot the eggs. <rolling eyes>
When I decided Friday evening that it was time to sell Fidelity Insights, and sent a message to that effect to our Okanagan financial broker, I worried (ever so little) that the stock price might decline on Monday, and my stock would sell at Monday’s closing price lower than my “sell high” target, reached Friday. Yesterday I realized our broker’s office was closed, in lieu of Remembrance Day on Saturday. Now I was even more worried, because my stock wouldn’t be sold until Tuesday’s / today’s market closing price.
Well … yesterday’s closing price was a teensy bit higher than Friday’s. So far so good. I have just checked (at 1 PM) today’s stock market indicators. HOLY SHIT … massive gains so far today ! ! ! Better to be lucky than good, je suppose ! Wish me luck over the next few hours until markets close.
At 5:30 PM, shortly before dusk, and moments before a vicious and lengthy thunderstorm started we walked back to Willy’s to buy the eggs we forgot earlier. Upon returning to our apartment we watched last Wednesday’s episode of Amazing Race before having supper of leftover barbacoa rez. WHEW … we’ve had two full suppers of barbacoa rez, with all the fixin’s, and there’s still enough left for another full meal !
Just before sitting down to have supper (at 8 PM) I checked today’s closing price (and my selling price) on my Fidelity Insights investment. WOO-HOO ! The slight delay in selling resulted in $875 MORE than my “sell high” target.
I have just started reading the last of the four books I brought from home. And this one I bought as a Christmas gift for Joanne. Sure hope she doesn’t mind the barbacoa grease I got on some of the pages while I read it while eating dinner. HA HA HA ! Last year, on our trip to Portugal, I read books I had downloaded onto the i-Phone. I didn’t really like reading books on the phone. So today I downloaded five books onto my laptop. Hopefully I will enjoy reading books on the laptop. Plus that leaves the i-Phone available for Joanne’s use. She never wants to use the computer, but has developed quite an addiction to doomscrolling on Twitter on the i-Phone. HA HA HA !
Wednesday ; Sunny, hot, humid, a few brief periods of rain.
We did a lot of “wheel spinning” today. Much of the day was taken up with ;
discussing / dreaming / planning next winter’s travels, and
“second guessing” our January to March accommodations in Oaxaca.
Joanne has realized that she is uncomfortable and suffering here due to high temperatures and humidity, and … we’re staying in a dump. Well … not really, but … it ain’t the Hyatt Ziva Riviera Maya (where our Dugald Estates neighbours Jim and Linda will be arriving tomorrow). HA HA HA ! Based on previous guests’ reviews of our chosen accommodation in Oaxaca she is concerned that she will be equally uncomfortable there in the hot month of March. So … we’re trying to find a suitable alternative. Easier to find accommodations a year before one needs them than a month and a half before one needs them !
I went to pick up our laundry just before lunch. It wasn’t ready. I keep forgetting to make allowances for the difference between when a Mexican service provider says something will be ready, versus when it actually will be ready ! HA HA HA … “Mexico time” ! We went back to pick up our laundry at 6 PM but by then it was difficult for them to find because it was already buried under the piles of other customers’ batches of laundry ready to pick up. HA HA HA … vive Mexico !
We went for a walk before having lunch, and another walk in late afternoon, refilling our water jug near the end of our afternoon walk. We had our third and final meal of barabacoa from Sunday. Joanne made a barbacoa stew concoction using a can of mixed vegetables. It was pretty good.
Fidelity Insights share price fell today. HA ! I hit the peak ! HE SHOOTS … HE SCORES ! ! !
Thursday ; Sunny, very hot, humid early in the day.
Our plan for today was to go downtown and catch a ferry to Cozumel Island, explore Cozumel for the afternoon, and return by ferry to Playa Del Carmen around dusk. That’s now tomorrow’s plan.
Once again our day’s plans were derailed by our distraction of finding alternate accommodations for our three month stay in Oaxaca. Joanne decided a few days ago that she had concerns about the apartment we had selected and made reservations for in Oaxaca, and she wanted to “second guess” our choice before we lost the ability to cancel the reservation, that coming up soon.
We spent most of today reviewing available apartments, eventually making a selection, reserving it, and paying a deposit. Maybe. Hopefully. Still not certain whether BMO’s Interac e-transfer process will get our money to where it needs to be in Mexico.
We went for a long exercise walk around noon. We went for a long exercise walk including running errands at 6 PM. MUCH cooler at 6 PM than at noon ! Bought some fruits at a produce store, and pan dulce at the panaderia.
Every time we have been to Panaderia Los Tres Reyes we have seen a nicely restored Volkswagen van being loaded with mucho pan dulce. We thought it was the bakery’s truck making deliveries to stores and restaurants. NO ! Yesterday we saw it driving slowly around our neighbourhood, blaring some catchy jingle about “el panadero” / the baker, being chased by locals on foot and on moto-scooters, eager to buy very fresh pan dulce. HMPH ! Didn’t know we don’t have to walk three blocks to replenish pan dulce.
GET OUT OF THE WAY … GRINGO VIEJO COMING THROUGH !
As I’m typing this (at 9:20 PM) another loudspeaker equipped vehicle is slowly driving by our apartment blaring some jingle pitching empanadas of various sorts (pineapple, coconut … ). HA HA HA … Vive Mexico. These loudspeaker blaring street vendors slowly drive by starting around 7 AM and continue throughout the day until about 10 PM.
PIZZA PIZZA PIZZAAAAA
Friday ; Sunny and hot early in the day, some clouds in the afternoon.
DARN ! Our Cozumel day trip plans thwarted again ! Overnight Joanne became ill. We spent a lazy, sick day at home.
At noon I went out for a short walk and refilled our water jug. At 6 PM, as the sun set, and the air cooled, and Joanne was improving / recuperating we went out for a long but slow walk to Playa 88 and back. It was nice to be on the beach at dusk, and I would like to do it again. On the way home we stopped at Willy’s to buy milk and luncheon meat.
On our walk we passed a woman struggling to hold up the hatch of her SUV with one hand and lift a heavy bag out with the other hand. She asked in very good English if we could help her by holding up her car’s hatch. Joanne did that, and I helped her lift the heavy bags … two of them, filled with sand to do “repairs” … out of the car and we carried them into her yard. I complimented her on her excellent English and we chatted for awhile, discussing winter in Canada, our travel plans, and her tourism job in Cancun. Her excellent English would explain her employment in tourism.
After supper (which I cooked) we watched last Wednesday’s episode of Survivor.
As we were eating supper a couple walked by our open door, checking into the apartment next door. A few minutes later the man left, returning fifteen minutes or so later, carrying take-out food. A few seconds after we heard his apartment door shut behind him, a pitiful meowing came hustling up the stairs (we’re on the third floor), and one of the scrawny little tabby cats walked into our room crying pitifully. He was starving to death, he seemed to be telling us.
HA HA HA … dupe that I am, I believed him. He continued to cry pitifully as I went to our fridge and poured a small amount of milk into a bowl for him and placed it on the floor. He walked over, looked at it, then looked at me with contempt … “WTF is this ? Where’s that good smelling take out food ? Asshole !”
HA HA HA … he walked into the bathroom looking for the take-out food. By the time Joanne walked over to the bathroom door and commanded him to leave, I had gotten a slice of turkey ham out of the fridge for him. He sniffed it and looked at me. “Asshole !”
HA HA HA … I’m a dupe ! Joanne kicked him out of our apartment and shut the door behind him after he left. Ten minutes later I opened the door again to improve airflow. Fifteen minutes later he walked in again. HA HA HA … he was convinced we were hiding the take-out food from him. This time he wouldn’t leave on command. I had to pick him up and put him outside our door.
HMPH ! Awfully heavy for such a scrawny little cat !
Saturday ; Sunny and very hot.
Joanne was feeling much better today. We “road tested” her health by going for a slow, short walk before lunch, during the hottest part of the day. As a result of that “test” we decided we would go out for a shopping adventure to Plaza Las Americas, but not until fairly late in the afternoon.
After lunch and a siesta we left at 3:45 PM, walked to Avenida 30, and tried to figure out how to get to Plaza Las Americas by bus or collectivo. We eventually figured out that either one, bus or collectivo, would require two fares, and a transfer from a southbound vehicle to a westbound vehicle. HMPH … more complicated than we had thought it would be. Well … vamos !
Plaza Las Americas is a HUGE shopping mall on the west side of the city, far off the tourist beaten path, and rarely visited by gringo tourists. It’s where the locals shop, and prices are more reasonable than “downtown” in the tourist area. However … it took us an hour, by two busses, to get there. By design, we got off the bus across the street from the mall, in front of the Movistar phone company store. I went into the Movistar store to get some information on my phone service that I was unable to ascertain online. HMPH ! My cell phone service will expire sooner than I had expected, and I have less GB of data service than I had expected. HMPH ! Looks like I will be switching to Telcel when my Movistar service expires in eleven days !
Plaza Las Americas was much larger than we had expected. We spent a long time wandering around, shopping unsuccessfully for a new i-Phone case with (second) battery. The battery in the charging case that came with our phone seems to be nearing the end of its life. And shopping unsuccessfully for a new travel size Waterpik. And (still) shopping unsuccessfully for a medication I want to buy. As Joanne faded, we did successfully find an ice cream store, and bought two small cups of extremely overpriced ice cream. <shrug>
Eventually, after wandering around most of the mall, we went into Chedraui, the anchor tenant. <blink blink> GEEEEEZ … how can a grocery store be that big ? ! ? And that crowded ? ! ? We wandered around, replenishing groceries, but not too much perishables because we were an hour from home, and it was hot outside.
When we finally got out of the store, HOLY SHIT ! There was a line-up of hundreds of people at the taxi stand. There was a line-up of dozens of people at each of the dozen or so different collectivo stands. We asked the collectivo “marshall” which collectivo line we needed to be in to get to our apartment. He took us to a line that had probably a hundred people waiting and left us there. It was already dark outside, and we had no idea where the bus stops were, and thought that taking a collectivo would be much quicker than two busses. After about five minutes the collectivo marshall came back to us and showed us, using the translator on his phone, that we actually had to transfer collectivos at Colosio Park to get to our neighbourhood.
Well … **** ! We don’t know where Colosio Park is, we don’t know how long we will be in line, Joanne was fading, with some trepidation and anxiety we headed back to the taxi stand line. We happened to get into the taxi line behind a gringa vieja, probably the only other white person in the entire mall. She turned around and said to us … in Quebecois French … “you look like the sort of people who probably speak French.” HA HA HA HA HA … are you kidding me ? She thinks all white people / gringos speak French ? ! ? Ironically … we (Joanne and I) do ! ! ! HA HA HA <SNORT> HA HA !
The taxi line moved incredibly fast. There was a steady stream of incoming taxis to the mall. Each taxi took just a few seconds to load passengers and groceries, then speed off. AND … <sputter> … after spending a total of (7+7+10+10=) 34 pesos / $2.72 on bus fares for both of us on two busses, and taking an hour to get to the mall, AFTER walking 3 ½ blocks to Avenida 30 to catch a bus in the first place, the air conditioned taxi ride home took about fifteen minutes, we got dropped off at our apartment gate, and it cost 70 pesos / $5.60 !
WHEW … home at 8:15 PM, tired and hungry.
DSK
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