Month: November 2017

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Days For Dreaming About the Taco Faery

I didn’t do much yesterday since I was in work mode, including having a long client meeting via Skype at 3:30.

At about 5:00, I went out to my neighbourhood’s “downtown” to see what was open around that time — very little! I did see that our central market is under construction/renovation so it should be a much more pleasant place to shop than the one in Centro. It looks quite large too.

I popped into the Super Aki to see if anything would look good for dinner. I picked up a couple of potatoes, onions, and carrots, then went to the meat counter. The butcher was putting out pork “milanesa” (very thin filets very popular in Yucatecan cuisine) that looked very fresh so I asked for two, which came to 17 pesos. Add in my veggies and dinner and lunch for today cost me about 2CAD total! I forgot how much cheaper it can be to shop at the little neighbourhood stores!

I came in, made dinner, scrubbed the kitchen down (something that needs to be done at least once daily due to bugs and mould from the humid climate — living here is making me a much better housekeeper!), and then crashed hard. I actually hadn’t sleep too badly the night before, definitely my best night since I got here, but the lack of sleep has been catching up with me!

Today is more of the same since I have a really big project due in the morning. Early afternoon, a lady came by to pick up those curtains I wasn’t able to return. I only lost 60 pesos, or 4CAD. I can live with that!

I then did some chores to help digest my lunch, including washing some washcloths and unmentionables. My laundry room is amazing… Sure, it’s not pretty, but…

…I have a built-in scrub board!

I don’t know how I lived all those years of washing laundry by hand without having such a thing!

I washed the clothes in my big blue plastic tub, scrubbed on the board, rinsed under the tap, wrung out, and then placed on my clothes drying rack outside.

Before I bring in a washing machine, I want to do a big scrub of that room as it’s only been surface cleaned and then it will be a room I will be happy to spend time in. It’s incredible how few houses I’ve been in in the last few years have space to really work on your laundry, especially scrub out stains. I can’t wait to get myself a few bars of Zote soap (a great stain remover) and to finally be able again to do laundry properly!

Before I got back to work, I had my first tea break since I moved in! Use the good stuff daily, okay? Don’t let it just gather dust waiting for “some day.”

By 6:00, I knew I was in over my head with my current hearing transcription and it was going to be a LATE night. I took a deep breath and called the nearby taco joint to order for delivery an “order” of al pastor meat, which they claimed is enough for about five tacos. I had no trouble placing the order (I’m starting to sense a theme — will the wonder that I’m comfortable using the phone now ever wear off?!)  and hung up feeling hopeful that the taco faery would find me.

Thirty minutes later she (actually he…) did! I had to laugh at the squinty look the delivery guy gave me when he handed me $20 of the $30 owed for change from my $100 note. I had fully intended to give him $10 and was glad for the confirmation that that was a fair tip. My total with tip and delivery (actually not sure if there’s a surcharge for that) was $80, which is just over 5CAD!

They had heeded my request for all the toppings, even including fresh pineapple, but there were none of the salsas and limes I’d asked for. I was bummed for a second before remembering that I have tons of limes and my two favourite salsas (green and avocado) on hand at all times! I am having such a hard time adapting to the local culture… 😀

I had this left over after I’d eaten four tacos (six tortillas between them)!

That will be an amazing breakfast and possibly lunch tomorrow. 🙂

Now, back to that hearing. Why, why, why do these folks not think to rustle their paper away from the microphone?!

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Cultural Norms

My first Monday wasn’t productive work-wise, but I got some other things done. I really need a solid night of sleep. 🙁

The propane delivery folks came by in the early afternoon and were super efficient! I bought $700 worth — about 60L. I doubt that even made a dent in the capacity of the tank, but I didn’t have a few thousand pesos to drop on this today! I’m always amazed by how not scared of heights Mexicans are and how much they trust their ladders! I’m sad that I was so surprised that half of the two-person team was female.

I may have walked backwards into a ginormous cactus to take this picture and still be picking spines out of my arms and shoulders.

Tank partially filled, I was given a proper electronic bill printed from the back of the truck and which I paid in cash. Then, I had no trouble lighting the water heater (it really does help to have propane…). After letting the water run a bit, I had hot water in the bathrooms, but not in the kitchen. My landlady says she never used hot water in the kitchen and checked with her husband, only to confirm that the kitchen is not plumbed for hot water.

This isn’t shocking because I learned in Maz that it’s the cultural norm here to wash dishes in cold water and that it is just as hygienic. I did that in Maz, but never really got used to it. I’ll keep using my kettle for the time being, but, who knows, maybe in a few months I’ll be in a mood to following the plumbing and see if I can determine the complexity of getting hot water to the kitchen…

The rooster situation has reached a crisis point as there are more and it sounds like several neighbours now have them. I was woken for a solid hour last night listening to headache-inducing concerto and am at my breaking point.

I can just see some lurkers going, “Oh, look at the stupid expat not able to adapt to life in Mexico.” Well, roosters on rural Isla were one thing. Roosters in the city are another. My landlady completely agrees with me that they are unacceptable and has assured me that I am not being an intolerant expat. Proof? Mérida has bylaws against roosters in the city. If the roosters aren’t gone in a few days, she’s going to town hall!

The city noises, especially the constant music playing, don’t bother me at all. The neighbours had a party Friday night and their music just became white noise that lulled me to sleep. Soon as the roosters are dealt with, I’ll be able to sleep well here. Right now, it’s about on par with the zeds I was getting in Chelem, which are just enough to function, but not enough to perform at peak efficiency. Hopefully, this will get sorted because work is picking up again!

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Sunday Evening In Centro

I thought I had three easy jobs to do today, but they took forever. I couldn’t believe it was 3:00 by the time I could go do something fun! Much as I am keen to start exploring my neighbourhood, there was a craft and book fair at Plaza Grande downtown that I wanted to check out and which I knew was going on until late so it didn’t matter if I was heading out as many things were closing. I decided to take the bus to Walmart to return my useless curtains and then walk from there.

A bus was slow to come since it’s Sunday, but I finally headed south. The Walmart associate was very friendly and kind, but informed me that I couldn’t return the curtains since they were on the liquidation rack — something that was not marked! 🙁 I figured I could probably sell them on the garage sale site, but now I had to lug them around. Dang!

Off I went down Paseo de Montejo, the part of Mérida I discovered when I was here last February and which made me fall in love with this city. I love strolling down this boulevard!

This ad made me think of me:

My house: Haven. My home: the world.

Need to check out this Korean place at some point since it’s a cuisine I’m not familiar with. There is enough of a Korean population here that this is likely decent.

There was a really lovely exhibit showing off Canada as a remarkable travel destination (although I had to laugh that most of the photos showed off cold Canada!).

This is what they used to represent SK?! LOL

CN Tower in Toronto!

Palais des congrès, Montreal:

Ottawa Tulip Festival:

Every province and territory was represented, showing the diversity of the immense country that Canada is. Nicely done campaign!

I had the northern streets of Centro all to myself. What a lovely evening for a stroll — so cool and quiet.

Things got busier as I went further south on Calle 56. I stopped at an ice cream shop that I will never go to again for three reasons. 1) They have “pastel” ice cream, which is vanilla full of chunks of super chocolately cake that is even better than cookies and cream; 2) Their “chico” (small) is my idea of “extra grande;” 3) It was only $20. 😀 Yes, it was wonderful. 🙂

I made it as far south as the Lucas de Galvez Mercado. Oh, that area of Mérida — the market and the streets around it — is nasty. It still reeks of urine and is absolutely filthy. The mercado was closing, but enough was open to remind me that I really have little interest in shopping there for pleasure and that I can’t wait to see what our little market here in Chuburná de Hidalgo is like. Add the Maz mercado as another thing I miss from that city.

I cut across to Calle 60 and came up to Plaza Grande, where the party was in full swing, super “bassy” music and all.

I wandered around in a bit of a spiral, hoping to find a few skirts (the ones I came across were too flimsy), and then focused on books.

I picked up these three books of Yucatecan, Sinaloan, and Mayan legends for only $50!

And these beauties for $120:

I have a very similar pair in blue that are round with a daisy and which I picked up in Mazatlán. I adore them, but they don’t go with many of my clothes. I’ll wear these more often. Bonus, they’ll remind me of three cities I love — Mérida where I bought them, and Amsterdam and Ottawa for their tulips!

I was pretty tired by that point and the music was getting to me, so I headed behind the cathedral, where a bus that I could take was picking up passengers. After a brief wait, we were on our way. It was a terrifying ride and I was sure that we were going to get in an accident. The woman sitting next to me repeatedly making the sign of the cross and muttering Psalm 23 did not inspire confidence. I finally asked to be let off quite a bit earlier than I needed to be, but decided I had sufficiently tested fate!

(Oh, look at that, I just very likely sold the curtains for a tiny bit less than I paid for them — yay!)

Tomorrow, it’s back to the grind, although I don’t have tons of work to do. I’m expecting a gas delivery, so it will be a home day unless they are here early. I still have work to do in the kitchen before I can call stage one of setting up the house done and that will be a priority so that I can start easing into a routine.

The house is feeling really comfortable. Parts are still quite a bit echoey, but it really doesn’t feel as huge as I expected it to. The bit that startles me the most for some odd reason is the upstairs landing, which is really another room. But I’m not anywhere near ready to set up my painting studio yet since I have other financial priorities. When I’m ready, though, it will be an amazing place to create.

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Just About Home

It’s been another huge day, but I made so many breakthroughs!

It was yet another not so great night of sleep, but I managed to not open my eyes until just shy of seven, an hour later than all week. I read a bit and then I took it super easy. By eight, I was already in my Poang chair with my feet up sipping on my second cup of coffee while reading the magazine about beer that I got the other day. The guy for the water heater was coming at 10 and I wasn’t doing anything until then!

He showed up on schedule and determined that my gas tank was empty. That would explain my problem lighting the water heater… His visit wasn’t for nothing since he looked at my buzzing bedroom fan control and was able to determine that it was not an electrical issue. He tightened a nut, which greatly improved the noise and I think I’ll be able to tolerate it now…

Once he left, I looked up the gas companies he told me about, took a deep breath, and called the first one on the list. I got off the phone absolutely vibrating, it went so well. I asked to order gas, gave my address, and determined that my landlord is in their system. We changed the account name and phone number to mine, established that I have a fixed roof tank, that I want delivery on Monday (did not want to have to sit around waiting for them today), and that I will be paying cash. I only had to ask the lady to repeat herself once and she understood everything I said. I really am starting to believe that I’m trilingual. It’s such an incredible feeling to be able to do this stuff on my own and not be overwhelmed by it because of a language barrier!

That done, I took some measurements and headed to Parisina! I took more time to look around on this visit and was awed and almost overwhelmed by how much crafting material they have, even ModgePodge, which I doubted I could get here. The store was busy, but running smoothly and I didn’t have too long of a wait. I was also able to find suitable glue. My purchases came in at just under $400 — about 25CAD, very reasonable.

As I was about a block from my house, my phone rang, but my hands were too full to answer. When I saw a yellow car come around the corner, I knew the caller was my landlady! She pulled over to say she had dropped off my rent receipt for November (she’s been out of town) and to ask if I wanted her to order gas. She was suitably impressed that I’d taken care of that. She asked how I’m settling in and I said that I’d be in heaven if it wasn’t for the rooster.

“What rooster?!” she asked. “You need to talk to the owners!” Then, “No! My husband needs to do it. It will mean more coming from the owner. He’ll tell them that he just rented for two years to someone who was promised a quiet neighbourhood and regardless, this is unacceptable in the city!” Hope he follows through and that it brings results because I am about to lose my mind! 🙁

I had lunch and then got to work. Several hours later, my desk had a new covering and was in place. WHEW.

This is cloth backed vinyl, similar to what I have in Miranda, except I went with a lower quality because I know I’m not going to have this desk for many more years (it really is falling apart!). The only material that works in this climate is cloth so if I find myself sticking to parts of the desk, I’ll add cloth placemats. But this is so much more resistant to scratches and water and adds a nicer surface to write on. This is the exact colour I originally wanted to paint the desk! I like the contrast of the fake wood (chipped as it is) with the rich purple and with so many of my accessories being bright, the darker tone looks good.

No, I’m not done, but I was unable to locate a big stapler. The top is well glued and soon as I get a stapler, I’ll finish the job by pulling the material taut around the edges and securing it. In the meantime, it might not look great, but it functions as needed.

Once the vinyl was in place and secure-ish (ie. the glue had just about dried), it was time to decide where the desk was going to go. With my feeling nervous about how secure the top part is, the obvious answer was against a wall and for that, there was only one option. I very carefully, an inch at a time, moved each piece over against the far wall, but not quite against the wall where the window is since I had to get in there with a screwdriver. Then, I wrestled all the pieces together and even more slowly, a hair at a time, coaxed the whole thing into the corner.

Setting it up was similar to what I did in Chelem, so that went quickly, and then I quickly sorted through the rest of my boxes!

I rather just shoved things into drawers and cupboards, so I’m nowhere near done-done, but at least the room is usable now! I am now keeping my eye out for rugs, something that I’m surprised by, but the echo in the house is terrible. Thick rugs would help a lot and also dampen some of the outside noise.

Now, I’d like to take you through a bit of a nostalgic tour of the house and show off some of the treasures I’ve accumulated over the years. I’ll never be someone who goes to IKEA or Pier One and buys something that hundreds of other people have. I like for just about everything in my home to be beautiful, unique, and have meaning.

First off are my brass candle holders. I picked up the larger ones while antiquing my way across Wisconsin in the fall of 2005 on my trip around the Great Lakes (plan B after Hurricane Katrina hit and I couldn’t go to New Orleans!). The smaller ones come a shop in Ogunquit, Maine, where I went for a long weekend getaway with a friend of mine (only time I’ve ever done such a thing — it was a blast!).

Below is an Egyptian papyrus that I bought at the Luxor casino in Las Vegas in 2007. This was the trip I took right after my dad died. I flew in and out of San Francisco, staying with my ex-boyfriend, and road tripped to Las Vegas, LA, and even crossed over into Mexico for the first time, visiting Tijuana!

My former best friend (FBF) and our social group used to do a wishlist thing at the holiday season. I forget exactly how it worked, but you could ask for 10 anythings, however unrealistic or impossible, and someone might come along and get you something from the list. I asked for a picture of a raven (my spirit animal) and my FBF bought me this gorgeous print, that I later had framed.

Here’s the only painting of mine that has survived. I think you can see some of Van Gogh’s influence!

This is my dad, circa 1959 when he would have been about 10:

Here’s a little bottle (missing a cork) that I won while on my walking tour of Belgrade, Serbia.

This little soapstone mule comes from my friend Donna. I can’t remember if she gave it after or before CBSA decided that I must be running drugs between Mexico and Canada, but it delights me to think it might have been after.

Next to it is a paperweight, which I’m holding here to show you all the detail:

Can you see how it is meant to be coral under water? This was a gift from a colleague at my first government job that I never particularly liked, so I was suitably shocked by such a thoughtful and beautiful gift. Looking at it reminds me that people can always surprise you and to be kinder to folks with even worse social skills that I have.

On my desk is this simple wooden box. I bought it at a craft fair when I lived in Lindsay, Ontario, between 2000 and 2002. This was probably my only discretionary purchase in all that time because my budget was so tight. But I recognised an heirloom-quality purchase!

The guest bathroom had two screws above the toilet, which were the perfect place to hang my print of a pastel landscape of Alcatraz. This was purchased on my first day in San Francisco. It reflects the island as I was to discover it — foreboding, but also very beautiful.

Upstairs in my bathroom, I have two carved wooden boxes with ivory inlay. These were purchased either in Wisconsin or Maine. I’m going to store my jewelry in them.

In my bedroom is a painting my sister made for me, decided she didn’t like, and which I rescued from the trash!


My bedroom has several places to hang a hammock, which I’m using for now to hang decorative objects. Here’s the pretty bag I bought in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina (looking a lot worse for wear, but how many miles did we cover?!):

On the opposite wall is the fouta (Turkish bath towel) I received from my parents for my birthday this year. It is almost too pretty to use and I’m saving it to use as a wrap for those chilly nights that I know are coming!

The kitchen is where I have the most treasures. I won’t share everything, but here are some highlights.

This is the food processor and tortilla press my friend and neighbour from Haven, Carolina, gifted me with. I use the food processor almost daily and have made hundreds of tortillas with the press!

These canisters came from a girl friend of my dad’s. He had even more girl friends than he had girlfriends, if you can catch the difference. I’ve had these forever and they hold different things depending on what my containerising needs are.

Here’s the very expensive mug I really wanted in Las Vegas and won at Circus, Circus!

The blue and white Pyrex bowl comes for my dad and probably from my grandma before that. I’ve been using that bowl for 30-plus years now and best remember it holding mashed potatoes or turnips.

These little Pyrex dishes were in my hope chest when I moved out and are one of the most useful and versatile items in my kitchen. Can you see that they have a handle? They are great for baking a piece of fish or meat and browning cheesy pasta, plus they are microwavable so I can reheat leftovers in them.

The mortar and pestle have too long of a story to share here. What’s of interest is the glass citrus juicer, one of the very first things I bought for my own home. I left with a very complete hope chest, but was missing little things like that.

Ah, my pots and pans — the three in the front row and the big one at the back right, received as my Christmas present in ’97 before I moved out the following August. I started cooking tofu in these and finally graduated to meat! They are Meyer brand and evidence that if you take good care of your cookware, it will last a lifetime. Meyer doesn’t have a lifetime warranty, but when the handle on the medium-size pot (front centre) got really loose a few years ago and tightening the screw wasn’t doing anything anymore, I contacted Meyer since, to my surprise, I was only a couple of years out of warranty. They sent me a new handle, free of charge.

Back left is what I call my stepmother’s soup pot. She has no recollection of how many Sunday lunches she served out of that thing. It’s funny the things that are insignificant to one person and so memorable to another. I rescued it from a garage sale box and currently have pasta sauce simmering away in it! There isn’t much story yet to my cast iron Dutch oven, purchased as a holiday present to myself my last winter in Maz. It’s gotten quite a bit of use considering how long I was away!

The same Christmas I got my pots and pans, my dad bought me a toaster and this metal mixing bowl (which I picked out myself). He was rather distraught that these were the sorts of gifts his baby now wanted. It’s a great bowl — I use it for everything from mixing dough to creating giant salads.

Even my utensil crock (from my dad, of course — it used to have a cork top and hold cookies!) contents have a story. I’ve been serving meals for 30 years with this spoon and am so glad I rescued it. They just don’t make ’em like they used to.

The china cabinet holds my Japanese teapot, which I bought at the same time as the juicer. Next to it are two Lipton collectible teacups that were always a feature of my kitchen at my dad’s (it was always my kitchen!).

Here’s dad’s serving platter. The last time I remember seeing it come out was for one of my dad’s famous pork roasts.

Moving to the living room, where I now have an IKEA Lack table next to my Poang chair (no idea how such a thing ended up in a house in Mexico!), is a hot pad thing my sister made for me eons ago. Now that I have countertops where I can just rest a pot, I move it around as needed as a place to put a cup or glass to keep the surface from getting wet or damaged. I really love the colours and it’s held up beautifully over the years. My sister is very creative.

Finally, here’s my literal coffee mug that I bought at the Dawson City thrift store in either 2009 or 2010. I always end up going back to it!

I’ve moved a lot over the last twenty years and having some constants has made it possible to make myself at home where I was. I have other special pieces — clothing, jewelry, books — but those are the more private things. I love that people can walk through my home and get a sense of where I’ve come from.

Well, it’s been another very full day and the kitchen is a spaghetti sauce preparation disaster zone, so I better go clean that up!

Tomorrow, I have a bit of work to do in the morning and then I might go have some fun in Centro. Or collapse — I haven’t been this footsore and exhausted since I spent four jetlagged days walking all over London. 🙂

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A Day of Firsts

I didn’t sleep well again last night, sighs. I’m really hoping that if I can get my room completely dark I’ll at least not getting woken up right at six by daylight creeping in….

First order of business was work, then I put together a shopping list of odd bits I needed. It became evident that hitting up a Walmart might not be a bad idea. I decided to wear my grey and white striped dress that I probably haven’t worn since Mazatlán and which is fabulous in this climate, made from some sort of microfiber that breathes and looks quite “luxe.” I’ve been wearing slummy clothes most of the summer so it’s nice to break out the pretty things. When I was at the house in Chelem, I didn’t want to wear anything Puppy might ruin and as the summer wound down, I was doing grubby work in town so it didn’t make sense to dress up.

Around eleven, I hopped on a bus toward Centro to go to the Walmart at Paseo de Montejo (their “Centro” location).

I wanted to get off no further south than the Convention Centre, but kept passing signs saying buses can’t stop on that stretch of 62. When we passed Avenida Colon, I finally got up and asked the driver to please let me off as soon as he could. It ended up being about a block or two further south, which was fine. I doubled back to the Colon and then shot over to Walmart. Crossing Paseo de Montejo at that corner is something I remember from last year and it’s just as much sport this year!

Walmart had a lot that was on my list, but not everything. I wasn’t desperate for anything so if I didn’t like what they had of something, I held off.

One thing I did find that I am inordinately pleased with is a rack for my shower so I don’t have to store everything on the floor. I found some wire racks to hang from the shower head that were just about useless — only enough room for one bottle. This one had room for at least two bottles and the picture showed a loofah and razor hanging from the bottom section, two things I needed storage for as well (as evidenced by this picture!). There’s also room for my pumice. Best part? This rack was the cheapest option at only $75, $50 less than the wire racks!

Another thing I was looking for was another cutting board so I can have one for meat and one for veg. I got all of these for only about $70 and the label even showed examples of how the colours can be associated to a specific food. They are also non-skid and will work great on my tile counters.

I found a stopper for my kitchen sink and am pleased that it fit. I guess those things are universal. Now, I can wash dishes in the sink and use the basin for rinsing, or vice-versa.

I also picked up blackout curtains in a brand I have in Miranda, but, spoiler, they are NOT blackout curtains. 🙁 I’m so disappointed and will return them.

The grocery section was quite nice and I picked up a few things there as well. I was amused that one block of Philadelphia cream cheese was $29, but I could get two and a very nice container for $50… I also picked up this loaf of bread, curious as to whether the spots were olive, chocolate, or raisins:

I paid for my purchases with my debit card and asked if I could make a withdrawal. I didn’t even know if such a thing is possible in Mexico the way it is in Canada, but what the heck. The man asked how much I wanted to withdraw and I said $500. So far, so good as the max was $2,000. He then held up the card and said, “This is a Mexican debit card. Right? Not a foreign credit card?” I confirmed that it was a Mexican debit card. “Okay! No problem!” So far, there are only perks to having a Mexican bank account!

I came out with my mound of shopping and decided to treat myself to an Oreo McFlurry at the McDonald’s desserts-only counter. They only had one size (ginormous) and they put fudge in it. So good, but definitely lunch!

After that, I decided to try Uber again, adding “cash” as an additional payment option when I was once again unable to get a car. That did the trick! After a few minutes, I got a call from the driver. Turns out I didn’t place my map pin exactly right and he thought I was somewhere down Pérez-Ponce, oops! I was able to tell him I was at the corner of Pérez-Ponce and Paseo de Montejo in front of the stairs to Walmart and that was clear.

The driver helped me put my shopping in the trunk and off we went. I’d done some research and knew to sit up front since Uber is not quite legal here and drivers don’t want to make it obvious that they are with Uber. He tried to speak to me in English, but I stuck to Spanish and he was happy to not only converse in Spanish, but also corrected me the whole way home. That sounds terrible, but it was so helpful!!! The trip cost me $40. Taxi service here is notable for being terrible and expensive. I got an estimate from a cab for the same trip and it was almost double!

One thing of note in our conversation that I’ve been meaning to mention is that Mexicans aren’t shy about asking how much rent I pay. To be honest, I’m always embarrassed to answer because my rent is really high for a single person here.

I got in just as I received a text message from TelCel that I needed to top up. I used their new app, which I linked to my Mexican PayPal account (linked to my Mexican bank account!), and was able to top up in just a few steps. It was so much more convenient than going to Oxxo and I got 500MB of free data for trying out the app!

The electrician texted shortly thereafter to say he was incoming. He got in and did the work quickly, but my UPS is still unhappy. I had him reverse the polarity, just in case, but that didn’t help. He didn’t have a working multimetre, outlet testers aren’t a thing here, and I was stupid and left all that stuff back in Canada so we had to leave it at that. I’m going to pick up a multimetre and see if I can get an outlet tester online. We both suspect that it’s a low or high voltage issue. At any rate, my Macbook Air charges fine in the outlet so I’m still way ahead of where I was when I didn’t have a three-prong outlet by my desk. He insisted on charging me $100 less ($600 total including materials) because the job wasn’t a success and wouldn’t take no for an answer. I think he knows I’ll likely have more work for him in the future.

So all that to say, really didn’t do a great job of checking out the wiring in the house before renting. Visually, it looked fine and well finished, but there are issues right to the junction box at the street. Anyway, everything but the UPS seems to work fine and folks who lived in the house previously had no issues. I’m just going to make it a point not to buy myself any super expensive electronics!

It was about five when he left and I was famished. I remembered seeing a taco joint a short ways down Calle 60 and decided to walk there on the off chance that it might be odd and open for business at about 5:30PM.

It was… And while they weren’t fully up and running (they had to cook a portion of al pastor meat on the grill for me), there were Mexicans eating there at that hour. I asked for two al pastor tacos and while I really wanted Nestea, asked for more “Mexican” jamaica (hibiscus) tea, which I’m not fond of. They were out of jamaica so I got my Nestea. 🙂

They were so good! I should have just gone ahead and order a few more. Next time, I will get an “orden” to go or even delivery, which is enough fixings for about five tacos. I asked for my tacos “con todo” after the server came to ask me once if I wanted onion and then came back to ask about cilantro.

I was surprised that there was a creamy sauce option to put on them. It was a bit like tzatziki, which, now that I think about it, makes sense for these tacos modelled on gyros/donair/shawarma. There was also lime, green and red sauces, and guacamole.

I doubt I’m going to find a closer taco joint with better hours so I really want to break the ice on getting delivery since their food is so good and cheap (al pastor tacos are only $11 each!!!). They don’t do Whatsapp and their store is VERY noisy so I’m worried I might have troubling giving them my address. To be determined…

It’s been another long day and I am exhausted and a bit footsore. I have some easy work to do tomorrow, then my priority will be getting my desk set up. I’m now back to thinking about painting, having noticed that the movers did more damage than I realised (they tied it down with rope, which rubbed off some of the finish). But that can wait as long as I deal with the structural issues.

Oh, my landlady just called as I was about to hit publish to see how things are and I complained about the water heater. Her husband is coming in the morning. Here’s to hoping I can take a hot shower tomorrow. It’s chilly here at night! I actually regretted going out without a shawl or something to get my tacos!