New Year’s Eve ; Sunny, chilly in the morning but warming throughout the day.
We went for a morning walk to OXXO to buy a few items ; milk, lechera/con leche, (I think the translation to English would be “sweetened condensed milk”), tortillas harina. In the afternoon I completed a Winnipeg Humane Society training module that was not applicable/of no interest to Joanne. It had to do with the Humane Society’s computer program/application for volunteers and fosters. And I did quite a bit of year end financial/investment data gathering and analysis.
At 6:15 we went for a long walk to nowhere, returning back home at 6:50, and … it was still daylight ! While Joanne prepared our special New Year’s Eve dinner I searched online for a New Year’s Eve TV show to watch. Well … couldn’t find anything on CBC, CTV, or Global in Canada. Was able to stream the Times Square New Year’s Eve Show, so settled for that. But not for four hours ! That would be cruel. HA HA HA ! Bookmarked it, and will return at 11:30 PM or so.
In the evening we completed another three Winnipeg Humane Society training modules.
I streamed / we watched the New York Times Square New Year’s Eve Show. What a crappy show ! It’s now a few minutes after midnight. HAPPY NEW YEAR ! I just stuck my head out the door to see where all the noise is coming from. About a half a block down our street is a rip snortin’ bonfire. I’m not sure if it’s in someone’s yard or on the curb. Partiers are tossing all manner of fireworks onto the bonfire. <shrug>
2023 was a good year for us ! We look forward to 2024 with optimism. Let’s hope it’s not misplaced.
New Year’s Day ; HAPPY NEW YEAR
Mix of sun and clouds, very warm.
I was awakened at 5:22 AM by noise outside. Our neighbours across the street were saying a long, loud farewell to their New Year’s Eve party guests who were leaving. AND … <sputter> … their five children were playing happily and loudly in the street ! I’ve always admired the Mexican culture’s inclusivity of children and elders, but … children partying in the street at 5:22 AM after New Year’s Eve seems … well, rather unusual, n’est-ce pas ?
In her efforts to “manage” our foodstuffs as we approach departure from Chetumal, Joanne decided I should make crepes for New Year’s brunch, to use up half a small jar of jam in our fridge. Okay … I made crepes. Not bad … for a first time effort.
Before having a late lunch we went for an exercise walk to nowhere. I spent the afternoon working on year end financial/investment data updates and analysis. WHEW … almost finished, I think. The stock market had a good year. And consequently … so did our investments ! And last year I took a lot of profits (remember … “buy low, sell high” !) and locked them in to very good interest rate guaranteed investments for the long term. A lot of it into topping up our tax free savings accounts to the cumulative maximums ! Thank you very much, Government of Canada !
At 6:30 PM we went for another exercise walk to nowhere. After supper we did more Winnipeg Humane Society new volunteer training modules online.
Tuesday ; Sunny and very warm.
This morning we went for our regular exercise walk, carrying our bag of dirty laundry to the lavanderia. Not open ! No explanation ! <sigh> We trudged back home with the bag which seemed to be getting heavier by the minute. I used the i-Phone’s GPS map to find another nearby lavanderia. I trudged there … without the heavy bag of laundry, fortunately … while Joanne went to a nearby take-out restaurant to buy something for herself that she wanted to try for lunch. When I got to the second lavanderia … closed ! Not just closed … gone ! Forever ! <sigh> Trudged back home again !
Joanne was very pleased with her salbute (salbootay) for lunch. We both searched online, me on the laptop, Joanne on the phone, for another lavanderia nearby. We found one, phoned, verified they were open, then after lunch trudged there, again carrying the bag of dirty laundry. Well … our laundry will get laundered before we leave here in a couple of days, but … we had to walk about triple the distance as the first lavanderia, AND … <sputter> … pay double the price ! ! ! <sigh>
Our developing plans to spend next winter in Victoria, BC are making more sense to me each day ! ! !
In the afternoon we watched a couple more Winnipeg Humane Society new volunteer training videos. They certainly have a well developed new volunteer training system. Afterwards we watched a somewhat silly reality TV show that we haven’t seen before, based on the antics and exploits of a bunch of hillbilly backwoods tow truck drivers in the hinterlands of British Columbia. I wonder who creates/how these reality TV shows come into being ? And why do so many of them feature one or more “little people” ?
Wednesday ; Sunny and hot.
First thing this morning I opened my e-mail to discover a message from Home Trust Visa Security regarding a potential fraudulent use of my credit card (number). My Visa card was used to pay for a meal in a restaurant. In Manila, Phillipines ! In the amount of … <sputter> … CA$1318.24 ! ! ! Yeah ... NO ! ! !
I was required to do some “jumping through hoops”, first online, then by phone. At the end of it all, Visa Security cancelled my credit card number. Fair enough ! And both my Visa card and Joanne’s Visa card have the same number. SO … now we’re going to have to pay for (almost) everything with cash. Which will mean more trips to ATM’s. And more risk of losses should my wallet or Joanne’s purse be lost or stolen.
We are carrying secondary / backup credit cards, but now I’m afraid to use them a lot. I don’t want to risk having our secondary / backup credit cards compromised and cancelled. It annoys and saddens me that having used credit cards all over the world, for more than fifty years, I have only had my credit card data captured and sold / used fraudulently twice. And both times were in Mexico !
Home Trust Visa will re-issue our Visa cards, with new numbers. But they will only send them to our home address in Dugald, not to here in Mexico. They will send an “emergency use” card here, buy it would only be valid for 30 days. So … not worth it.
Having my card and Joanne’s with the same number is a bit of a weakness on the part of Home Trust Visa. The last time I had a card cancelled, a BMO MasterCard, here in Mexico about 17 years ago, at least Joanne’s card remained valid because it had a different number.
Around 5 PM we went for a walk to the lavanderia to pick up our laundered clothing, and to buy take-out (known in Mexico as “para llevar” / for carrying) at Cabeza Negra barbecue restaurant. <sigh> They had no beef left, only pork. We returned home with our laundry, then went out in search of take-out food.
Well ! It’s a quirk of Mexican culture that it is difficult to buy take-out food around 6 PM or shortly thereafter. The “daytime” restaurants usually close at 5 PM or 6 PM. The “nighttime” restaurants usually open at 7 PM. We wandered far and wide for an hour and a half before finally making a “para llevar” purchase at the restaurant where we suspect my credit card data may have been fraudulently captured for sale a few weeks ago. Our suspicions were reinforced when we saw how much anxiety our presence in the restaurant seemed to cause the waiter who had served us previously.
Unfortunately, our age and skin colour make us “targets” for such crime as credit card fraud / identity theft. It’s a reasonable assumption for a dishonest waiter to assume that a gringo viejo / old, white, foreigner would have a credit card with a reasonably high credit limit, and name, number, and security code data captured could be sold in the “underworld / black market” as likely able to be used for a US$1000 transaction without a problem. I wonder how many underworld “middle men” bought, marked up, and resold my credit card data before it finally ended up in the hands of the fraudulent “user” of the data in the Phillipines ? ! ?
After supper we completed more Winnipeg Humane Society training videos. There are a lot of them for new volunteers ! And that’s a good thing ! Following that we watched tonight’s The National news show on CBC.
Thursday ; Sunny and hot.
This morning we began packing and preparing for departure tomorrow. At noon we went for our regular morning exercise walk, ending with refilling our one gallon water jug at the aqua purificado machine for the final time here.
As we passed a business that we have been curious about since our arrival a month ago, that has been closed every day for the last month, and we assumed was closed permanently … it was open for business today. It appeared to be a baguette & coffee/tea shop. My curiosity got the better of me. We entered their door and ascended a flight of stairs to their upstairs location. The stairway was adorned with a variety of interesting displays that seemed incongruent and too expensive for a neighbourhood “coffee shop”.
When we arrived at their second floor location … it was much too large and way too expensively furnished for a “coffee shop”, and devoid of any customers. There were no baguettes anywhere. They had muffins in a display case. Exactly the same number of muffins as staff on duty ; three ! The apparent “manager” was a middle aged woman, and she had two teenage assistants, perhaps her daughters ? Joanne proposed that we buy one (of three !) muffins for breakfast tomorrow. OK ! The young woman who served us … preparing a muffin “para llevar”(yehVAR) … was a total dimwit ! The middle aged woman/manager/maybe her mother had to stop her from heating up our muffin in a microwave … in preparation for it “para llevar”/to go.
Could this kind of business be how Mexican drug cartels “launder” their money. Create a “fictional” business to employ mom and the kids, and funnel large amounts of money through it as “purchases”, thereby “laundering” it ? Lord knows this joint ain’t paying their rent by selling one to three muffins per day ! Or per month !
Remember … Chetumal is a port city on the Caribbean Sea, and on the border with Belize. HMMM !
As we arrived back at our apartment building Carlos the landlord was just leaving. He offered to drive us to the airport tomorrow. How nice… gracias !
At 5 PM we went for another walk, this time to Cabeza Negra (Black Head) barbecue restaurant, hoping that today we would arrive before they sell out of beef. YIPPEE ! We bought two molletes, translates as “muffins”, but that was their name for open face baguette sandwiches. Ironically … what we bought at the bogus coffee shop was also a mollete. A mollete chocolate (moYETay shockoLAtay).
As we were walking to the barbecue restaurant … <blink blink> … there was an old man standing in his yard, his shorts down to his knees, his pecker in his hand, and … <sputter> … he was peeing through his yard gate, onto the sidewalk. That seemed … well … a bit odd, n’est-ce pas ? We simply stepped off the sidewalk into the roadway, gave him a wide berth, and carried on.
When travelling internationally, it’s necessary to be a bit … adaptable. HA HA HA !
Friday ; Chetumal to Mexico City to Oaxaca
Sunny and hot. Well … it was sunny and hot when we left our apartment this morning. The rest of the day we spent in airports and airplanes, so … who knows ?
Well ! ! ! Here we sit, at 6 PM, in the Mexico City Airport, waiting yet again for another delayed flight ! ! ! These travel days are taking a toll on this old man. And a nearby old woman ! <whispering> I don’t think I want to do this anymore !
We were up at 8 AM to be ready for an 11 AM departure from our apartment. Our landlord Carlos drove us to the airport. Muchas gracias, Señor Carlos. Chetumal Airport was smaller than we expected. We departed on time at 1:30 PM. We arrived in Mexico City a little late, at 4 PM. Except it was actually 3 PM. We had changed time zones.
The Mexico City Airport was as complicated and frustrating as Pearson Airport in Toronto. Except … it was made even more complicated by signage and announcements only in Spanish. It’s now 6 PM, our flight is delayed, we’re tired and cranky ! And we’ve just finished having an early supper. A sandwich with a tiny salad, some avocado slices, a few potato chips, for each of us, and a shared aqua fresca (like a soft drink).
<BLINK BLINK > … MXN$846 ! CA$67.68 ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! **** ! That “meal” would have been about twelve bucks at a Subway in Canada ! Even at a ****ing airport ! ! !
Joanne and I are travelling separately on each of today’s two flights. I’m in economy seating on both flights, she’s in first class seating on both flights. It was cheaper to buy one economy ticket with no luggage allowance, and one first class ticket that allows two pieces of luggage, than to buy two economy tickets, then pay a separate luggage fee for each of our two large, heavy suitcases.
We boarded the aircraft an hour late, then sat in a dark airplane at the boarding gate for another hour before pushing back from the gate, taxiing half way to Oaxaca (joke !), then lining up behind many other aircraft waiting for take-off. Left Mexico City more than 2 ½ hours behind schedule. Landed at Oaxaca about 9:15 PM, retrieved (damaged !) luggage, figured out taxi and collectivo options and process, took collectivo to apartment, arrived shortly after 11 PM.
Apartment okay, not as nice as Chetumal apartment, much nicer than Playa del Carmen apartment, a bit small/cramped kitchen area.
Saturday ; Dia de Los Tres Reyes ; Oaxaca (city), Oaxaca (state)
Sunny, cool in the morning, warm in the afternoon.
HMPH ! Moved a bag this morning and a cockroach scurried out from underneath. HMPH ! Now it’s squished under my shoe. Oh, well … problem solved !
This morning we walked a block to a nearby panaderia to buy a muffin or something similar for breakfast only to discover that it’s a panaderia not for public, it just bakes for commercial clients, stores, restaurants, etc. So … walked a couple more blocks to Mercado La Noria, a small neighbourhood mercado with fruit and vegetable vendors, butchers, a few small restaurants, and a couple of small bakeries. Bought a muffin for breakfast. The bakeries have beautiful Rosca de Reyes / King Cakes today. Today is Dia de Los Tres Reyes / Three Kings (Wise Men) Day. Neighbourhood is quiet, clean, mostly residential.
At 1 PM set off to walk to the reasonably close, large Chedraui supermarket. Before going into Chedruai we wandered around the shops outside the Chedraui store. We stopped in to Chocolate Mayordomo and bought a chocolate milkshake. The production of chocolate is one of the culinary specialties of Oaxaca. This store produces and sells, amongst other forms of chocolate, a chocolate powder paste that can be used in milkshakes or … <the sound of Joanne gasping> … chocolate milk bedtime drink. Which she has had … every night of her life since she’s been a child ! <the look of Daniel rolling his eyes>
With chocolate milkshake in hand we crossed the street to a children’s playground park surrounded by food vendor stands. We wandered around and selected one for lunch. Joanne had a tostada, I had a torta, both excellent. Forty-five pesos / three dollars and sixty cents. And twenty-five pesos / two bucks for the milkshake. We ate lunch sitting on a park bench. After lunch we returned to the Chedraui store.
In the front entrance of the Chedraui store were five different bank ATM’s. I initiated a withdrawal transaction at each one to find out what the charge would be to withdraw funds using a Canadian bank card. After initiating then cancelling the transaction at each ATM, I made my choice, and withdrew five thousand pesos / four hundred dollars, which seemed to be my daily limit. We are now paying cash for everything, so … will need to keep a substantial inventory of cash on hand. I intend to withdraw MXN$5000 every time we go to Chedraui, which will likely be at least weekly.
We had already decided, since we knew we would be walking home with our purchases, that today we would only purchase food items, then return in a day or two for toiletries and other non-food supplies needed, to ease the burden of walking home with our purchases. WELL ! Today’s “food only” purchases filled four large cloth grocery bags, and cost over 1600 pesos / over 130 dollars.
By the time we arrived back at our apartment we were tired. Mostly from the stress of yesterday’s travel ordeal, I think. Joanne put groceries away, I napped for half an hour, we did our daily exercises, Joanne made a simple but wonderful supper, complaining a lot about the difficulties of adapting to a new kitchen … again !
I know what she means. It’s SOOOOO hard to nap on a different bed each month ! HA HA HA HA HA !
DSK
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