Personal

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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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Sad

I’ve been ambivalent about whether or not to share this, but I wanted to make a comment on a wonderful new invention I dreamed of as a child and never expected to come to fruition in my lifetime: video chat.

After being unwell since Christmas, my grandmother was admitted to hospital several weeks ago and it did not take long to get a bleak prognosis of a few weeks. I considered driving to Quebec, but the weather being what it has been in the northeast coupled with her rapid decline meant that I could very well not make it. I did not feel comfortable flying out of Mexico and leaving my things and truck here so near to when I would have to leave.

Finally, it was decided that I had visited in September, that my grandmother was very happy about seeing me so recently, and that she would be very satisfied with a few Skype calls that would confirm that I was healthy and happy. The first Skype call was just after she got in from hospital and we were able to catch up a little. The other calls were just smiles and blown kisses. But at least we saw each other and spoke in real time. How extraordinary to have this technology when she was born in a time where planes were only still getting off the ground.

She died peacefully last night, March 22nd, in my mother’s home. She was an extraordinary woman I loved very much and who accepted me just as I was. Grandmaman traveled as long as she could and was forever marked by her trip to China. She understood and indulged my wanderlust and never faulted me for needing to be somewhere else. She followed my blog (even commented on it!), emailed, and used Facebook and Skype to keep in touch. Technology allowed me to stay close even when I was far away. I am very grateful to have had those last few video chats with her.

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Shrimp Shortage

Contessa and I went to Miguel’s for dinner tonight. I ordered first, a shrimp burrito and a chorreada. Then, Contessa ordered two shrimp burritos. We were informed that they only had enough shrimp left for two burritos, not three! WHAT?! The guy who brings shrimp has apparently not been answering his phone.

Since the only meat Contessa eats is fish and seafood, I obviously let her have her two burritos and I ordered two chorreadas instead. Dang those are tasty! For some reason, I thought they were made with pork, but no. They’re made with beef and I’m pretty sure she said sheep, too! It just goes to show that with enough seasoning, anything can be tasty. 🙂 I like them dripping with their very thin guacamole. They have cheese, too, and come on thick corn tortillas.

Contessa brought most of a bottle of wine for us to share and we gabbed for ages. It was nice to have a girls night out while her husband is out of town.

Two shrimp and cheese burritos=70 pesos. Two chorreadas=50 pesos. I don’t think I’ll bother cooking at all next year. 😀

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First Time in an Auriga

This morning, I accompanied my friends L&D to Office Depot to help them purchase a printer for the Isla school, where they teach English. This was a sponsored trip, so I was not uncomfortable that all transportation costs and tips were covered for me. What a treat this trip was since I barely had to carry anything and it took minutes to get across town, not an hour!

We took a pulmonía to Office Depot and were out very quickly because I had done research prior. We’d met at the Isla panga at 9:00 and left Office Depot at 9:50! We wanted to go to Soriana next door, so I asked if we could leave the purchases behind the till (not so eloquently) and the cashier understood and said not a problem.

Next, L&D headed to Soriana while I hit the bank. Now, this was one heck of an uncomfortable situation because the bank guard insisted on helping with my transaction. I wasn’t able to withdraw 7,000 from that bank (Scotia). The guard explained that I needed to do increments of 2,000 or 5,000. I can’t take 8,000 pesos out at once (daily limit), so that meant I would need to pay two withdrawal fees in both Canada and MX.

I thought of trying the bank across the street to avoid that, but the guard didn’t understand and was adamant about helping me do the two transactions. Frankly, crossing a very busy highway with no guarantee I’d have any luck at the other bank, that could have even higher fees for all I knew, wasn’t appealing, so I let him have his way, but I did not tip him! I don’t know if he was expecting it or not, but that an expensive enough withdrawal as it was. But the experience was worthwhile just to understand why I had issues at ScotiaBank in the past.

I then went to Soriana and spent almost 600 pesos! Unfortunately, they no longer carry hummus (I asked), but I did find a falafel kit with tahini sauce for 123! Wow! I did not buy it, though! My only real food splurge was some Spanish salami that I occasionally find in Canada. I also found the sweet relish! It’s not with the mustard and ketchup, but rather with the hot sauces. Heinz brand squeeze bottle for 30 pesos, very reasonable!

I loaded up on paper goods and laundry detergent, taking advantage of transportation! My only non-splurge was a 37-peso magazine at the checkout because the headline ‘A world without chocolate, the cocoa tree illness’ caught my eye.

The lady ahead of me in line noticed that I’d put the magazine on the belt and asked if I could do some translating for her as her Spanish isn’t good. She wanted me to tell the baggers to put her cold stuff in her insulated bag and distribute the rest into a lot of bags as she has had back surgery and can’t lift anything heavy. I managed it!

L&D had been just ahead of me in line, so they were waiting at the entrance. We took our carts to Office Depot to get the printer, then headed across the parking lot to flag down an auriga, a pick up truck taxi, since we had too much stuff to fit in a pulmonía. Home Depot is across the road, so there are always aurigas there to help people lug home materials. L has a good whistle and was able to catch the attention of a driver who swung around in traffic to come pick us up.

The aurigas have benches along the length of the truck bed, a canopy,  a gate because people have actually fallen out of them, and a healthy sound system! The trip to the panga took no time at all.

There, a guy was quick to grab our big stuff and bring it down to the dock for us. Funny how in Canada and the US I’d be worried about getting robbed, but this is perfectly normal here!

The water was really rough today, so we had to be very careful getting out of the panga. Someone brought our things up to an auriga on this side. I told the driver that L&D were going to their hotel, but first we had to go to my place. I gave my street name and said the white house with the orange door (I really need to learn the word for gate). He understood perfectly, took the exact route I would have taken, and even backed up to the gate before helping me unload.

The internet wasn’t back when I got home. I put together the rent money and went to see my landlady. I’d stopped first thing this morning to ask her to call TelMex and she told me that I should have internet by 1PM, which I do!

I’ve had a full couple of days, so I don’t think I’ll be working this afternoon. I’ll clean the house, go for a walk, and I’m meeting Contessa for dinner.

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Monday Ride

Mondays are usually my quiet day, so I was happy when riding day changed to it. However, I am having an INSANE Monday! I’m working on a standby project for which I need to be chained to my desk in order to start files immediately when I receive them in order to send them back as fast as humanly possible.

Thankfully, a time zone difference meant that the riding block could still be accommodated, so I got some much needed social time and exercising.

At one point, Janet commented that my English was a bit strained and that I was searching for words. I’ve been doing a lot of transcripts lately from non-English speakers and was working with Hebrew this morning, so I’m finding English to be rather muddled today! My Spanish was in fine form, though, and I chatted at length with our guide about my work and home back in Canada. The informal language lessons are a real bonus!

Unfortunately, the ride wasn’t so great. I rode Diamante again and he was just not there today. He would occasionally stumble, try to trip the other horses, buck, and just stop randomly. I cantered a few times, but he wasn’t in the mood and the rides were not smooth to the point where I was worried about falling off. I requested a different horse for next week and will get one.

It was still a pleasant couple of hours, though! The beach was gorgeous and we did a brief spell through a coconut grove. What a life!