Month: March 2015

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Ringing In the Last Ride

Today was my group’s last riding session till November. 🙁 I had a new, wonderful horse, but a really bad saddle I had a couple of weeks ago whose stirrups twist my bad leg. So it was a rather 50/50 ride, half great fun on a good horse and half agony no matter how much our guide tried to adjust to adjust the stirrups. It was a gorgeous walk on the beach with the super high rough waves beside us and almost no one out since swimming is prohibited.

We only rode one hour, but made it count with a lot of cantering. Even though my stirrups sucked, I felt safe on the horse and went at it, hanging onto the pommel for dear life since my stirrups weren’t worth anything! 🙂

My guide didn’t like my dismounting technique and tried to show me how to do it. I cobbled together enough Spanish to tell him that I have a bad knee, he has a bad saddle, and I couldn’t dismount properly because my leg had seized up. I hope I didn’t make him feel too badly and I emphasized that I still had a great time!

We all gave him an extra 100 pesos as a thank you gift and he was quite touched. He refused to give me a goodbye hug, saying that we are going to see each other on Isla in the next month. He’s such a good guy.

After riding, my friend S and I went to Carmelita’s to meet ‘her’ jewellery guy. I had mentioned to her on Saturday that I’ve been looking for a snake ring for years. I stopped biting my nails in December 2011 and after the one-year mark, I wanted to buy myself a ring to celebrate. But I don’t like to just go out and looking for something like that; it has to find me.

So whenever I ran into silver jewellery vendors, most notably in Nuevo Progreso and Pensacola Beach, I shopped hard, to no avail.

The problem is I know what I want and I won’t spend money until I find it. I was looking for a snake and had a very particular idea of what I wanted said snake to look like.

So S told her jewellery guy that her friend with big fingers was looking for a snake ring and he said that he would bring a selection with him for me to look at today. That would give him an idea of what I’m looking for and he could search in greater depth if I didn’t like what he had.

Well, he had one that not only fit, but that I liked! It’s a bit bigger than I had in mind and it is not real silver, so it’ll only last so long. But I got it for just 100 pesos (down from 150), which is a very fair price.

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This one will do just fine until a real silver one finds me. And who knows, I might have slightly smaller fingers when it does. I have dropped a whole ring size (from nine to eight) since I started looking!

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Hot!

It’s been really warm for the last week or so, even through the night, and the house hasn’t been cooling off at all. Except for the few days when I first arrived, house has always been a cool oasis, so it’s been pretty shocking to come in the last few days and have the house feel like a furnace.

Last night, I woke up gasping around 11:30 and had to not only turn on the overhead fan, but also the very large boxed floor fan that I have thus far not felt a need for. Unfortunately, noise and light here made opening a window not an option. But with the fans on, I was afterwards able to sleep well.

I’ve always done well in cold weather, but since my weight loss, I’m not handling cold at all and much more tolerant of heat.

So all that to say BEST EARLY SPRING EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Pozole

My friend S introduced me to pozole today, a traditional Mexican pork stew made with hominy. She said she gets it from a lady here on Isla who makes it every Wednesday. I’ve been curious about it, but the last two Wednesdays since I heard about it didn’t work out schedule-wise for going on a pozole exploration expedition.

Here’s the stew as I received it:

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I don’t know what I was expecting, but what I got really wasn’t it. I think I was expecting something really spicy. Instead, you get a really savoury and meaty broth, with tender pork and the chewy bits of corn that is really a blank canvas for toppings. I’d never had hominy before (other than as grits) and I have to say that it was really satisfying and more filling than regular corn.

S said that when she buys it, she gets a bag of lettuce and onions and another of hot sauce to mix in. You can add in lots of other things like cilantro, cabbage, crema, and/or avocado. I was too famished after my walk to mess with it, so I just cubed up a whole avocado and added it over the hot stew, then squeezed in the juice of a lime. I think a little onion was missing, but otherwise this was incredibly satisfying and nourishing. The flavours were subtle and the pork very tender. The avocado broke down into the sauce and made it very creamy while the lime added a note of brightness.

I have enough for one more meal and I’m pretty sure I am going to hunt down the pozole lady on Wednesday. S says it’s 50 peso for a container of the stew and she usually gets four meals out of it!

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A Long Beach Walk

S, one of my riding buddies, suggested we do a long beach walk today. We were originally going to make a full day of it by going to the Estrella del mar golf course (about 20 miles/32KM round trip), but she’s leaving this week and didn’t have time. Instead, she suggested we do the four hour round trip walk to ‘the washrooms.’ I’d heard about them as being the turnoff point for people driving the beach to get to town, but hadn’t seen them so I figured that was a good destination. Yes, walking to the bathrooms in the middle of nowhere. Do I know how to have fun or what?!

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These helicopters are scouting for tuna!

Very low in the sky.

Very low in the sky.

Very, very low!

Very, very low!

We took off barefoot at 10:30, with the tide starting to come in and just walked and gabbed and walked and gabbed till we got to the washrooms. They were open and I really needed to pee, so I decided to check them out. To my immense surprise, they were clean (albeit grungy), with paper, soap, water, and brand new seats! 😀

The waves were carving out the beach.

The waves were carving out the beach.

Bathroom oasis in the distance.

Bathroom oasis in the distance.

The walk back seemed quicker and the waves were really coming in fast and furious, nearly knocking us off our feet a few times. On the way in we had met a Mexican friend of S who explained that the waves get like this every year around this time and that it has something to do with the rotation of the earth. It happens between the end of March and the beginning of June and announces the start of the rainy season, although there’s always a few weeks reprieve before that happens. Fascinating! I love meeting people who have lived in a place all their lives and know the climate so well. So if what he said is true, I might have rain before I leave…

I love this grove of short and plump coconut palms.

I love this grove of short and plump coconut palms.

A few more high tides and this one will be done.

A few more high tides and this one will be done.

When S and I got back to the populated part of the beach, we ran into our horse guide, who greeted us with a big hug. We told him about our adventure and he laughed and called us his crazy Canadian gals for walking to a bathroom of all places for no reason but exercise. A lot of the Mexicans I’ve met don’t seem to get the idea of walking for the sake of walking and I wonder if that’s a cultural thing or if I just met a cluster of people who get enough exercise in their daily life to not need to seek it out.

It was a great walk, but the bit from the beach to home on the HOT sand was very ouchy! I could have put my flip flops in a backpack, but I really didn’t feel like carrying them. My feet are much tougher than they were when I got here, though.

I came in and took a shower to wash the salt and sand from between my toes, then made lunch. Which will be the subject of my next post later today since S brought me a Mexican delicacy!

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Hitting the Bank

I posted on Facebook today that I might go to town to ‘hit the bank’ and my friend L replied that I should perhaps rethink my choice of words. I’m still giggling about that. It’s rather like the time I told my boss I was gone such a long time making the daily deposit ‘because there was a hold up at the bank.’ The English language never ceases to amuse me!

I wound up giving my landlady my last 500 peso bill to get gas for my last month here and do an advance payment on the final light bill. I have a pretty light work queue for the next few days, so I decided to run to town today for cash rather than wait. I was due for a break anyway. What with emotions running high in the first part of the week, I didn’t get much work done and really paid for it Wednesday and Thursday. It was really nice to have a slow morning, start on a project, then break for a long while in Maz.

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A common sight at home, but not here on Isla! Rabbits are conejos, not cojones. You only make that mistake once.

The exchange rate is bad/good, depending on how you look at it and I was FINALLY able to make an 8,000 peso withdrawal! That’s always been just above 700CAD since I’ve been here, my daily withdrawal limit. Today, it was just $687 with the fees!

After months of saying I would do this and not doing it, I finally went into the bank to change my 500s for smaller bills. I had lots of time in a very long line to work out what I would say. This is how I handle new situations, by anticipating potential questions and answers, so that I don’t get to a teller and go ‘Uh…’ The teller was friendly and I told her, “The machine gave me a lot of 500s and my landlady doesn’t like them. Can I change them for smaller? 200s and 100s would be good.”

She understood and said that she could do that. I handed her nine 500s, she counted them, and then asked me to confirm that it was 4,500 pesos. She then counted the money out in 200s and 100s and handed me a big wad without counting it out for me the way a Canadian and US teller does. I wasn’t worried, so I stepped out of line and found a quiet corner in the bank to confirm that I had 15 of each.

Then, I went to Beach Burger for lunch and splurged on not only a limonada mineral (I find it hilarious that beer is cheaper), but also the ‘Wipe Out’ burger with BBQ sauce and avocado. It also had cheese, mustard, ketchup, onions, and pickles, in addition to Montreal steak spice, and was probably the most amazing burger I have ever had. OMG! And I forgot to say no mayo but the server remembered and told the cook for me! That’s amazing considering the fact that the hot dog lady I see every week doesn’t remember that! For some reason, I also got chips and pico de gallo with this meal, so I came out of there stuffed!

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Nowhere near sick of pico de gallo yet and a meal without it is lacking! I can even handle a little heat now without crying!

The server always insists on speaking English to me and I always insist on speaking Spanish, this way we both practice! We chatted a bit and it came out that I’m renting a house here on Isla. He told me what he pays in Centro histórico for a one-bedroom with a bathroom, a mere 2,000 pesos! I was thinking of looking for a deal like that to be in town next year, but am not feeling that adventurous even if I know I am paying a Gringo premium on my place.

I headed to the Mercado next and look what I noticed kitty corner from the cathedral?

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Main Maz post office!

Am I blind???!!! How could I have gone by there so many times and only now noticed the post office?!

I then passed Panamá’s and resisted the call of the pastries, but I happened to notice this:

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What the heck is Canadian cream?!

Before getting veggies at the Mercado, I wanted to price a final (?) dress. I’ve seen it for months, since just after Christmas. It’s of a similar style to my Christmas dresses, but has a bit more embroidery, and it’s that gorgeous orangey pink I have on my dressing room walls at home that made me fall in love with some shades of pink.

The clerk pulled it down for me and I was rather disappointed to find that it looked a little small. Then the clerk said something to me (in English) I have never in my life heard, “I think it might be a bit big on you. Maybe you try it on over your dress and see?”

Um, okay. I tried it on and the fit was good! Woohoo! She wanted 350 or 360 and I got it for 330, which I knew was a very good deal. I wouldn’t have paid more than 350, though, as I’m really starting to stretch my clothes budget! I had planned to come home with a closet full of Mexican dresses, though, so these really are planned purchases. I just think it’s time to say I’ve hit the limit. But they’re so inexpensive and high quality it’s hard to stop!

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This picture doesn’t do justice to the colour or exquisite details of this dress.

Then, veggies and a quick Ley stop for yoghurt and ham. I was hoping they’d have some of that granola I found at Mega, but nope. The only ‘no sugar’ granola was three times the cost and sweetened with agave. Sugar is sugar, people. Read the labels!

I then took the shortcut I’ve discovered to reach the panga, where there was just one other passenger besides me. It was a quick ride since we didn’t have to go to the Colonia dock.

Now, I should probably try to get a little work done…