Day: June 2, 2017

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A Lovely Evening Out for Dinner

I’d more than earned a nice dinner out, so I made a reservation for one at 6PM at the nearby Italian Bistro “Maasai Maya.” I’d been there with V and F and it had been really good, with great portions and prices and a wonderful ambiance, so that made more sense than trying to hunt down something in Chelem or even as far afield as Progreso. Talk about convenient for living in the middle of nowhere! 🙂

I headed out a little earlier than needed so I could test Moya. Just getting out to the main road, I saw a difference and when I made her do a bunch of turns in Chuburna, she was once again purring. Ah… peace of mind is a lovely thing. 🙂

The entrance to the bistro is right off of Calle 21, the principal highway, then you wind and wend through deep brush a very short distance to get to the restaurant. This is the inviting entrance and that’s their poor pizza oven wrapped in a tarp because of the weather we’ve been having.

It’s an open-air restaurant decorated in bright colours. The owners are expats (American, I believe) and the name of the bistro is in honour of a family member who was Maasai.

They don’t have a liquor license and make a wonderful bottomless limonada for just $25 so that’a a nice treat instead of just having water. Their menu is really lovely and reasonably priced. It includes salads, pizzas, pastas, panini, and more, but the best bang for your buck are their calzones, which are basically like a folded over pizza. I had their meat one last time and so ordered their Alfredo today, which has bacon, chicken, and broccoli in a cream sauce

It comes with a garden salad. You have a choice of a few dressings. I had ranch last time, so I went with vinaigrette this time.

Here’s my limonada, which had the perfect balance of sweet and tart:

You really feel like you’re in the middle of the jungle at Maasai Maya!

I love this M*A*S*H or Watson Lake inspired sign post. One of the slats has the info for Richmond, VA, practically where my best friend lives.

Here is half of my calzone, complete with marina dipping sauce. I asked to have the other half boxed up straight away to ensure that I’d have room for dessert. This was to be a very special meal, after all. 🙂

Here are the yummy contents. There’s pretty much all my favourite food groups. 🙂 I can’t believe I have another half to enjoy tomorrow or Sunday!

Dessert is double chocolate cake with your choice of ice cream. I went for cappuccino. 🙂 This was way too much for me, but I soldiered through. 🙂

My bill came to $180 — $90 for the calzone, $25 for the limonada, and $65 for the dessert. So $200 with the tip and I have leftovers for a substantial lunch another day. What amazing value! I think everything on the menu is reasonably priced, but the calzone is definitely a real deal if you take half home

Service at Maasai Maya is warm, like being invited into someone’s home. I’m glad they are so close by for when I need to get out of the house and try someone else’s cooking! They do takeaway and I have a menu, so I may order a pizza to go next time!

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So Grateful

The mechanic was supposed to text me regarding the truck this morning so I was a bit distressed that he phoned because I’m still really not good on the phone (although I’m forcing myself to use it more!). Anyway, I was really confused when he said that not only was my truck ready, but he was parked outside of my (gated) house. I went out and, sure enough, he was there! Wow! I thought I’d have to lose an hour to go pick up the truck. Talk about service! I’m glad I included the directions to the house on the paper with my phone number!

I never did catch the name of the problem, but these are the parts that he replaced:

Oh, someone on Facebook just told me they are a brake spring and adjuster cable. If I was one kilometre away from disaster, please don’t tell me. 🙂

Cost? 300 pesos. About 15USD or 25CAD.

I knew that by Canadian standards, I wasn’t look at a big repair bill. That was a given. But even a few hundred dollars (like the brake job cost) would be a burden right now. I am just so bloody relieved and grateful that it was such a minor thing and am kicking myself for having put it off this long. It was a good reminder that when it comes to truck troubles in Mexico, I should just have them looked over and be done with it.

Now, this issue hasn’t been the reason I haven’t been going out much — I really haven’t had time. But now that I know I can go into Mérida this weekend if I want, or preferably Monday (stores will be less busy) and I won’t get stranded, I’m more motivated to make time. Heck, I haven’t eaten out in recent memory (!) and I might go up the road a bit to get dinner tonight to celebrate! 🙂