Sunday ; Sunny and hot, 91° F / 33° C at 4:30 PM.
This morning we walked to Mercado de La Noria to once again look for Oyster mushrooms needed as an ingredient in tonight’s meal plan. Again … no Oyster mushrooms today. Supper will be “plan B” again. One last attempt to buy Oyster mushrooms tomorrow.
Using Google Translate and WhatsApp I made appointments for a haircut for me and a haircut and pedicure for Joanne tomorrow. This afternoon I trimmed my beard myself. I didn’t really like the beard razor trim Conchita gave me a couple of months ago.
This afternoon I made totopos integral (whole wheat tortilla chips), an essential ingredient for tonight’s “plan B” supper. This winter in Mexico has resulted in me developing the skill to make excellent, home made, whole wheat tortilla chips. Essential for me, since I can’t digest “regular” (corn) tortilla chips.
Monday ; Sunny and hot, 91° F / 33° C at 3:30 PM.
This morning we walked to Mercado de La Noria looking … again … for Oyster mushrooms. Third time’s the charm ! We replenished other vegetables as well. Mi amigo perro Lucho was in fine form today, wandering around the market with us, wagging his tail, tapping our toes with his paw every time we stopped to look at something, to tell us he needed more attention and affection. HA HA HA … bueno perro, Lucho !
At 4 PM we walked to Estetica Osmos across the street from Mercado de La Noria to each get haircuts and a pedicure for Joanne. Joanne’s haircut was first. Partially because of language barriers, and partially because of the high heat, I think, Conchita seems to be giving everyone fairly short haircuts. Comfortable here now that’s it’s hot, maybe, but I’m not so sure about back home in Dugald next week. It’s still winter there ! ! ! Oh, well … I’ve often had too short haircuts while in Mexico. Hair grows back soon enough !
Cost of haircuts ; 100 pesos / $8.20 each. Cost of pedicure ; 200 pesos / $16.40.
After my haircut I left to return home, while Joanne stayed for a pedicure. As I came out of the esthetician’s Lucho was across the street, sniffing around in the mercado’s flower beds looking for a suitable place to relieve himself. He was surprised and very happy to see me as I crossed the street calling his name. Oh, Lucho, it’s only been four hours since we last visited. HA HA HA !
During and after having supper we watched last week’s episode of Survivor.
Tuesday ; Sunny and hot, 91° F / 33° C at 2:30 PM.
Around 12:30 we left to walk about a kilometre (about 2/3 of a mile) to a restaurant where Joanne wanted to have lunch ; Emperatriz Comedor. Turned out to be an excellent choice. Small restaurant, excellent service, menu del dia, cost 70 pesos / $5.74 per meal. Choice of three appetizers, five main courses, aqua fresca melon to drink.
Joanne chose a pasta salad to start, pozole pollo (spicy Mexican soup/stew with shredded chicken). I started with tomato pasta soup, followed by res en salsa verde con nopales (beef in green salsa/sauce made with tomatillos, along with Prickly Pear cactus paddles, sauteed I think). I was very pleased. I have long wanted to try nopales (noPALees), properly prepared ! When we tried to prepare, then cook them ourselves, a few times many (fifteen to twenty) years ago, they were … horrible ! We have always referred to nopales as being like green beans covered in snot. Properly prepared, they are tender on the outside, firm on the inside.
On our walk home we stopped at a panaderia and bought a chocolate cookie (for bedtime), a telera (to toast for breakfast), and two bolillos (to make sandwiches at lunch). Then we came across a frutas y verduras vendor truck at a busy street corner. We bought a small bag of (containing twenty-three) fresh, ripe, local strawberries. Cost ten pesos / eighty-two cents !
During and following supper we watched last Sunday’s episode of CBS 60 Minutes featuring interviews with (moron) Jim Jordan regarding “truth”, and Mexico’s president Andrés Manuel López Obrador aka AMLO.
This morning we walked to Mercado de La Noria to replenish milk and eggs and vegetables. Mi amigo perro Lucho was once again in fine form. Maybe he likes spring / summer / hot weather ? In addition to visiting with us he was interested in visiting with some children that were in the mercado. He was wagging his tail, and doing “downward dog” stretches. Seemed pretty perky for an old guy.
Late this afternoon we went for a late afternoon long but slow walk around our neighbourhood. I did some income tax preparation work. I verified our flights home next week. I’m a bit paranoid, since our flights last year from Canada to Portugal and back were botched in both directions. I processed photos from the phone to the laptop. I did some review of training information for new volunteers / fosters with the Winnipeg Humane Society.
I watched another episode of Air Crash Investigations on TV. As a (former) private pilot (with no crash history !) I’ve always been fascinated by aircraft accident investigations. It was particularly interesting to me to review the accident investigation report of Cessna 172 C-GHBM’s accident upon take-off from the airport in Princeton, BC, after I had flown Hotel Bravo Mike for many years as a rental aircraft based in Penticton. Including flights from Penticton over Apex Mountain to Princeton and back to Penticton following the Similkameen River, passing right over our home in Riverside RV Park Resort near Keremeos, a flight Joanne particularly enjoyed.
Thursday ; Sunny and very warm, 82° F / 28° C at 3 PM, quite a bit cooler than the last few days.
This morning we walked to Lavanderia Cancer and dropped off our bag of dirty laundry. I was surprised … and balked … when the young man serving us told that it wouldn’t be ready until Tuesday evening. About thirteen hours before we’re leaving to return home to Canada. The owner … his mother, I think … intervened and revised our “ready” day and time to Monday evening. HMPH ! Guess we’re both going to be doing some hand washing of underwear this weekend !
From the lavanderia we walked … and walked and walked … about a mile to the Venezuelan restaurant Joanne wanted to have lunch at. There’s something about the structure of that sentence that probably has my grade three teacher rolling over in her grave. HA HA HA ! It was closed. <sigh> Using our i-Phone map function we found and walked to about another half dozen nearby restaurants. All closed ! ! !
Seems as if most restaurants are closed on the day before Good Friday, so that they can be open on Good Friday. And … <sputter> … apparently everyone other than us gringo tourists seems to know that ! We gave up “restaurant hunting” and headed to Chedraui for our final grocery shopping trip.
When we arrived at Chedraui, from a different direction than usual, we could see that food vendors were set up in the park across the street. And the only other time we saw food vendors set up in that park was on our first visit to Chedraui after arriving here in Oaxaca three months ago. And that first visit to Chedraui was also on a long weekend.
So … we had a wonderful “long weekend street food” lunch on our first visit to Chedraui three months ago, and … had a wonderful “long weekend street food” lunch today, on our final visit to Chedraui before leaving Oaxaca next Wednesday morning.
We did our final grocery shopping trip at Chedraui. Including indulging ourselves a bit at their panaderia. Quite a bit ! Before stocking up on pan dulce and tres leches cake I used the i-Phone to (facetiously) check today’s stock market status. YUP … still climbing ! (As it has been all winter !) Can afford all that baking. HA HA HA !
Good Friday ; Sunny and hot, 91° F / 33° C at 3:30 PM.
Joanne was ill today. Consequently our plans for the day were thwarted. We went for a walk around noon, but by the time we had walked around the neighbourhood for twenty minutes or so in the hot sun Joanne was feeling worse than when we began. We returned home and had a lazy rest of the day.
We had planned to go downtown to the Zocola late in the afternoon to view the Good Friday somber and silent Procesion del Silencio “parade” honouring the crucifixion and death of Jesus Christ that winds its way around downtown and the Zocolo, ending at the cathedral. It would have been an interesting perspective of local culture and religion.
Joanne becoming ill as we prepare to return home in just a few days is a terrifying “déjà vu” for me !
Saturday ; Sunny and hot, 93° F / 34 ° C at 5:30 PM.
Joanne continues to be ill. We are throwing everything in our drug arsenal at her ; Pepto-Bismal, Ciprofloxacin, Dicetel, Amoxicillin. We both desperately want for her to NOT be ill for the trip home … like she was last year coming home from Portugal ! At least she did not deteriorate further today, so maybe that’s a good sign, maybe we’re on the right track. And to ensure that she has every possible opportunity to recuperate, she did nothing today except rest. <sigh>
In five months in Mexico, Joanne has had four serious gastro-intestinal bacterial infections. I’ve had one serious, and one mild. <sigh> Mexican food handling protocol is extremely different than Canadian (and American). Mexico is still a third world country. Reliable electricity and refrigeration are certainties in Canada (and USA), they are NOT certainties in Mexico. Copious amounts of bacteria exist on foods here that our gastro-intestinal systems are not used to, and have little resistance to. Mexicans have exposure to these bacteriae from birth, and develop bacterial resistance that we gringos simply don’t have. <sigh>
And there are cultural differences that are a bit difficult to understand and accept. I remember (with horror) a few weeks ago in Chedraui. In the aisle of the meat department. A large display stand topped with a huge amount of crushed ice. And a lot of thin cuts of beef steak sitting on top of the ice. Meat “on sale” / special advertised price. Undersides of meat kept cool by crushed ice. Top sides of meat sitting exposed to very warm room temperature. A set of tongs, that haven’t been cleaned since before the store opened many hours ago, and has possibly been dropped on the floor numerous times, with which to pick up your chosen cuts of meat, and a stack of plastic trays on which to put your meat and take it to the meat counter to be wrapped and priced.
AND … <sputter> … a young boy, perhaps five or six years of age, poking his grubby little fingers into the cuts of meat, enjoying the squishy feeling of it. HA HA HA … oh, sure, little boy, that’s a lot of fun … until it results in a GI bacterial infection so severe that some poor old gringo almost dies sitting on the toilet !
I did some further work on planning next winter’s travels. I found a most intriguing accommodations opportunity / destination that inspires me to modify / enhance our plans made to date.
This morning I took our empty water jug to be refilled. To my surprise, Aqua Purificado La Noria was closed. <blink blink> It seems that only we gringo tourists lack awareness of what is closed, and when, during Semana Santa / Holy Week. Previously the operator of the water purification business showed me where the doorbell is to summon him if he is not at his storefront’s window. Good thing for me ! I rang the doorbell, and momentarily he showed up and opened the barricaded door. I asked if he was open today (DUH … obviously he wasn’t !) and held up my empty water jug. He sighed, looked at my empty water jug, thought for a moment, then told me to give him the jug and he would disinfect it, refill it, and deliver it back to me later, as usual. He obviously realized that if he didn’t do that we would have no drinkable water for the next two days. Muchas gracias, señor. He delivered the refilled water jug a couple of hours later.
Joanne sent me to Mercado de La Noria with a shopping list of items to buy ; frutas, verduras, queso Oaxaqueño, tortillas harina. I visited with Lucho, probably for the last time. Again … maybe dogs have intuition ? He seemed sullen and pouting at me today. Well … adios, mi amigo. You’ve helped me overcome my “pet deprivation”.
During and after supper we watched Amazing Race.
DSK
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