Sunday ; Sunny and hot.
Around noon we left for our previously deferred (due to my illness) brunch date at Oscuro Brebaje (Dark Brew), the local upscale restaurant where I recently ordered a custom birthday cake for Joanne. Their specialty is “brunch”, and Joanne has been wanting to have brunch there almost since we arrived here in Oaxaca more than a month ago. Today was the day !
Brunch was excellent. Very nice courtyard ambience, good service, no rushing the customers out the door after their meals, great food and beverages, reasonable prices. Joanne wanted to have brunch there specifically to try chiliquiles, a renowned Oaxacan breakfast specialty. It was … hold on to your hats now … a large bowl of totopos / tortilla chips, slathered with frijoles negro / refried black beans, with a generous layer of queso fresco crumbled over that, topped with lots of … crema / cream. For breakfast ! ! ! <smh> Her beverage was hot chocolate, another Oaxacan specialty, made with milk and fresh chocolate Oaxaqueña. I had pan Francés / French toast and a frappé cajeta to drink. That was a large glass half filled with iced espresso coffee, half a glass of fresh whipped cream, generous layer of cajeta (caHETta) / goats milk caramel on top.
Monday ; Sunny and hot.
This morning we took our empty water jug to be refilled (and delivered), then walked to Mercado de La Noria to replenish vegetables. The traffic in our neighbourhood was surprisingly congested. And there were police cars (and police officers standing around eating ice cream cones from the mercado) blocking intersections to reroute the congested traffic. <shrug> Didn’t know what that was about.
At 6 PM we went for our usual late afternoon walk. A couple of blocks from home we came across an intersection closed by … nylon twine strung diagonally across the intersection. There were hand written signs attached to the nylon twine that we had difficulty translating. A couple of blocks later, more police cars blocking intersections. HUH ? Finally we came to the nearby main arterial road that Chedraui is located on, a large street with four lanes in each direction separated by a median. And in one direction … there were transport trucks parked as far as the eye could see, blocking the road, with many people / demonstrators milling about. HUH ? A freedummy convoy ? In Oaxaca, Mexico ? ! ?
We walked home and Joanne set out to use the Internet to find out what was going on.
HOLY SHIT ! We’re the problem ! We’re what’s being protested ! ! !
Locals are protesting the proliferation of previously affordable housing becoming unaffordable to them by being converted to AirBnB type accommodations for rich tourists ! This same problem exists in British Columbia, Canada, even going back to when we lived there (until 2021). The BC government has new regulations, about to be implemented this spring, that disallows “housing” to be rented for less than a four month period, to prevent the evolution of affordable housing becoming unaffordable because it’s being rented at outrageous pricing to tourists for short term rentals.
Maybe that explains why we occasionally encounter what seems to be prejudice against gringos. I thought it was because we are mistaken for Merkins. No, no … it’s not just Merkins that are disliked here, it’s people like us who come in and rent furnished apartments for short periods of time at rental rates that locals cannot afford.
For example, today at the mercado we were served by a male vendor who is always rude and sullen to us, despite his wife being very friendly. When she’s around, we avoid him. But sometimes, he’s there alone, and we have to deal with him.
HMPH ! It’s kind of disconcerting to find that we are exactly what’s being protested !
Tuesday ; Sunny and hot.
We cancelled our plan to go downtown today. I have generously <sarcasm> given my cold (or whatever this is) to Joanne and she was very ill today. Consequently … a rather slow, lazy day.
Holy mackerel … the only thing worse than being sick is being sick and having to take care of someone sicker than yourself !
From 11 PM to 1 AM (2 hours !) I was in online chat with three different levels of agent in Amazon’s Customer Service (located in India obviously, based on the three agents’ names) trying to get a warranty replacement for the water flosser Santa brought me less than two months ago. One of the two function buttons has ceased functioning, the other button (on/off) functions intermittently. It has a one year guarantee. Before this experience I didn’t think it was Amazon’s style to try so hard to avoid replacing a relatively inexpensive product that has a guarantee/warranty. I have a vague recollection of previously making a warranty claim on a product purchased through Amazon.ca (Canada) without much difficulty. This experience was with Amazon.com (USA).
Wednesday ; Sunny and hot. Joanne is still too ill to go downtown.
And while making breakfast for her I burned my finger on this ****ing sandwich grill thingy that is the only “toaster” we have in this apartment. The landlord refused my request to provide a regular bread toaster, citing concerns about bugs being attracted to the crumbs that fall out of the bottom of toasters.
Around noon we walked slowly to Mercado de La Noria to buy some buns and eggs for tonight’s supper. I made an Eggs Benedict type concoction. We rested and napped a lot today. I am improving, albeit at an agonizingly slow pace. Joanne is still very ill.
Thursday ; Sunny and hot, 86° F / 30° C at 5:45 PM when we returned home from grocery shopping.
This morning Joanne felt healthy enough to attempt a city bus trip to a large mall with a large supermarket, to explore a bit, and do our weekly grocery shopping. We left our apartment around noon, walked almost to Chedraui (nearby supermarket), and caught a city bus to Plaza Oaxaca. Joanne had researched the correct bus stops and routes, and we simply asked each bus as it arrived if it was going to Plaza Oaxaca. The third bus driver said “Si”.
Most of the bus journey was along Avenida Universidad. <blink blink>. WOW … what a large university campus. It stretched on and on and on along “University Avenue”. Finally we arrived at Plaza Oaxaca and got off the bus. We walked to the nearby restaurant Joanne had chosen for lunch ; Chili Guajili (gwaHEElee). EXCELLENT ! A somewhat different “fast food” restaurant than we are used to in Canada and USA. A hostess led us to a table, seated us, and left us with menus. After we made our selections, I walked to a counter, placed our orders, paid for them, and returned to our table with a wooden numbered order tag, and placed the tag on a hook on our table.
In a few minutes our drinks were brought to us. A few minutes later our food was brought to us. My sopa de champiñones (mushroom soup) was “muy caliente” (very hot) as I had specified. The food was excellent, the portions were large, the prices were reasonable, the décor was somewhere between a McDonald’s and a Cracker Barrel, spacious, lots of sunlight, soft classic rock music playing at low volume, staff in the background unobtrusively watching for tables that need empty dishes removed, or customers who seem as if they need something, like salt for their meal or sugar for their iced tea, etc. It seemed somewhat like an “upscale” fast food restaurant and I wonder why something like this Mexican fast food concept hasn’t made it to Canada or the USA yet ?
After lunch we crossed the street to Plaza Oaxaca, and into the Hiper Soriana, an extremely large grocery store and one of the large mall’s anchors. We were concerned about stamina / “running out of steam” so we did not explore much of the mall, mostly just did grocery shopping at Soriana. YIKES ! Our grocery shopping bill was MXN$2180 / CA$176.52 ! Four large bags of groceries. And we had to return home by bus ! Well … or by taxi, but we wanted to try it by bus and see how tough it would be.
We kept our grocery bags in the store’s shopping cart until we were all the way across the mall’s parking lot, then just had to carry the bags across the street to our bus stop. First bus that came along was going to our barrio / neighbourhood. Bus ride was easy, I followed along using our i-Phone map app so that I would know where we were and when to get off, the walk home from our stop was about three blocks or so, not too bad !
We weren’t exhausted, the day was interesting … call this one a success !
Friday ; Sunny and very warm, 81° F / 27° C.
I am deeply saddened, and politically worried by news of the death of Alexei Navalny in Russia. On the other hand, I am encouraged by the new Manitoba government’s announcement in Anola (next town over from our home in Dugald) this morning that Sio Silica’s application for a license to extract silica sand from beneath the aquifiers of our Springfield neighbourhood has been denied.
This morning I took our bag of dirty laundry to Lavanderia Cancer then met Joanne at Mercado de La Noria for some fruits and vegetables replenishment. And frutas seca / candied dried fruit. And leche fresca / fresh milk which Joanne used this afternoon to make chocolate rice pudding. And beautiful, fresh Oyster mushrooms, which one of the local vendors has available weekly or so. I made an Oyster mushroom frittata for supper tonight.
This week I received more income tax information slips so this evening I continued working on our 2023 income tax returns.
Saturday ; Cloudy and warm, 75° F / 24° C at 2 PM. Light rain starting late in the afternoon.
We had another lazy day, partially because it was a “chilly” day by local standards, partially because of our health. We’re both improving, but both still have some distance to go to reach good health.
When we went for our late morning exercise walk we found a playground in our neighbourhood that, I think, illustrates how “third world” Mexico still is. Pics are below.
DSK
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