the adventures of dos tortas

Even My Teeth Are Getting Old

I have made my life’s work studying health with a Master’s Degree in Health Education. Even before college, my bedside table was stacked with books on nutrition and exercise. I know to get enough sleep (however much that is), move my body and eat my veggies. This week I was blindsided by a health challenge that I wasn’t expecting, TEETH!

My mother had beautiful teeth. Unfortunately I didn’t inherit that trait.

I recall as a child walking solo to dentist appointments. Yikes. As an adult, I’ve probably spent a fortune on cleanings, fillings, extractions, root canals, and two bridges. I also had impacted wisdom teeth removed in college. Sadly I am not a candidate for implants.

I use the best electric toothbrush and floss twice daily. So the X-ray that revealed a broken root came as a shock and unexpected expense.

Our fancy new toothbrushes. I love them.

There’s so much no one has told us about aging. Many people are having knees and hips replaced. I’m having teeth. Call me naive but I never considered that fillings, caps, bridges etc. had a shelf life! Consider yourself forewarned. Take care of your teeth.

DOS TORTAS

Tags: aging, gratitude, Inspiration, Laguna Bacalar, retire mexico

Comments 8 Comments
Categories Uncategorized

Howlers And Mayan Pyramids

19 May

We are off for the day to explore the extraordinary Mayan pyramids of Kohunlich. My niece is visiting and seeing these masks is required.

Giant masks are unique to this particular site.

Here’s a blog from 2017 when we visited with my dear friend Harper.

https://theadventuresofdostortas.com/?s=Relax+and+hug+a+tree&submit=Search

Howler monkeys at the entrance to Kohunlich.

We have lost count how many times we’ve taken visitors to experience this amazing place among the howler monkeys and towering palms.

Getting up early is necessary to beat the heat and dodge the mosquitoes and tourists. Lisa is a great tour guide. So kick back and enjoy your Sunday. We will return with our regularly scheduled program next week.

DOS TORTAS

Tags: Inspiration, Kohnunlich, Laguna Bacalar, living in mexico, Mayan pyramids, mexican adventure, retire mexico

Comments 6 Comments
Categories Uncategorized

How To Stay Cool 101

11 May

My lovely niece is visiting from Austin, Texas. Amidst the ungodly heat, rolling blackouts and flickering electricity we have done our best to not be cranky.

There’s no better way to cool off in Bacalar than to get out on the Laguna.

Thanks to our friend Steve with his sweet ride we pulled together a motley crew of friends to enjoy a day of cold drinks and wind in our hair.

Nothing better than staying cool with friends.

Wishing everyone a happy Mother’s Day no matter however and wherever you celebrate. It’s good to be grateful for something every day.

DOS TORTAS

Tags: celebrate, Inspiration, Laguna Bacalar, retire mexico, staying cool

Comments 4 Comments
Categories Uncategorized

Mexican Drivers License

5 May

We had our bags pilfered on the bus ride home from our recent vacation. The loss included my Texas driver’s license. It can’t be replaced until I return to the US, thus the need for a Mexican license.

It took me three trips to the Office of Transportation in downtown Bacalar. The first time I was informed that May first was a holiday and I needed to come back on Thursday. I got the list of documents that I needed. One was certification of my health, obtained from a ten minute visit to a local clinic and costing $4.00.

I gathered up the required copies and returned on Thursday. Oops testing starts at ten. After a coffee to take up some time, I returned for a third time to find a full house. The testing space was small and bursting with men all getting a driver’s license for the first time, mostly to drive a motorcycle, and me.

A friend had told me that the process was quite easy and the questions were bordering on the ridiculous. But when the woman handed me three pages in Spanish I became nervous.

As I read through the questions, breathe relax, I trusted my skill, finished fairly quickly and looked up. It was then that I realized that I probably read more Spanish than anyone else in the room. There is not a high literacy rate in Bacalar. No problemo, everyone was relaxed with heads together helping each other! I almost laughed out loud. One young man sitting across from me looking very nervous leaned forward to ask me the answer to the question, “who has the right of way, the driver or the pedestrian?” He had the correct answer. I told him that I had put the same answer. Mind you I was the only woman and a white haired foreigner to boot. He must have been desperate.

When I handed in the test, the clerk scanned the pages quickly then rolled her eyes. I didn’t know the color of various street signs so I just guessed. Oops. To my surprise, she pulled out a bottle of white-out and proceeded to CORRECT MY MISTAKES! Her comment to the other clerk, “She’s a foreigner.”

I am now the proud owner of a shiny new driver’s license and another story to tell that tickles me about living in Mexico.

DOS TORTAS

Tags: Inspiration, Laguna Bacalar, living in mexico, Mexican drivers license, retire mexico

Comments 11 Comments
Categories Uncategorized

A Peek Into My Art Journal

28 Apr

I took my journal to Europe but didn’t have much time for sketching.

Here are drawings from our travels and from our couch.

Sitting in the train station waiting to leave for Paris.

I also like to draw sitting on the couch in the evening watching TV.

Faces are some of my favorite things to play with.

I’m using mostly permanent and water color pens. I’ve liked to doodle since childhood. I find it relaxing and creative. I have numerous books of my drawings. it’s fun to see my life journey in art. Enjoy.

DOS TORTAS

Tags: art, Art journal, Inspiration, Laguna Bacalar, retire mexico

Comments 6 Comments
Categories Uncategorized

Chasing the Yellow Envelope

21 Apr

Returning from vacation requires hustling just to be in place, at least the place you were supposed to be in if you hadn’t left. This week was filled with getting the cars serviced, refilling the larder and chasing a yellow DHL shipping envelope all over Mexico.

We had submitted my MILs passport for renewal via DHL before taking off in February for the US and later Europe. The US Consulate in Guadalajara had already returned it once due to the wrong sized photos. But pictures were retaken and the passport and application were quickly off again. Fingers crossed.

When we returned home and looked to see why the passport hadn’t arrived, we found it was hung up in Cancun, four hours away? Solving the mystery was time consuming, a long and winding story requiring numerous phone calls, a trip to DHL (45 minutes away) and promises of a speedy delivery. There was also much waiting on hold and standing in line.

When the promised arrival time came and went, we returned to the trusty web tracking site to find the package was marked DELIVERED. Another phone call discovered that the envelope had been left at the hotel across the street! Now addresses in Mexico are long and complicated, especially when you live in the jungle. DHL had been given very specific directions which they chose to ignore. They’d already delivered a package once using our exact same address!!!

Sigh, we have the passport. Breathe, relax.

DOS TORTAS

Tags: expat living in Mexico, Laguna Bacalar, living in paradise, retire mexico

Comments 8 Comments
Categories Uncategorized

Experiencing Life In Awe

13 Apr

This week millions looked to the sky to watch the solar eclipse and gasp in amazement at the cosmic event. Last October Bacalar was in the totality of a solar eclipse. We watched through a crystalline sky in awe from our own roof! I cried.

During the last five weeks, Lisa and I were blessed to travel across Europe to London, Amsterdam, Paris, Munich and Salzburg. Talk about awe!

Westminster Abbey, Bath Cathedral, Van Gogh’s Sunflowers,Venus

When we returned to Mexico, I realized that my eyes needed a rest. For weeks I had lived and traveled in awe, staring at art, domed ceilings, gold leaf paintings, castles and towering mountains. There were so many flowers, sculptures, vistas and even caves. My eyes were perpetually wide open trying to take it all in.

Salzburg pedestrian walkway, castle Linderhof, Pantheon, Madonna

We have returned home to our very beautiful Bacalar, Mexico. I think that the daily awe and wonder of living anywhere, starts to wear off eventually and becomes the usual and ordinary. Perhaps that’s why we travel, to see the world with eyes wide open and appreciate home when we return.

Home sweet home.

I strive everyday to be grateful and pay attention to the beauty that surrounds me. This week it was hard to get out of my hammock. Still feeling jet lagged, I made big salads, hugged my dogs and gave my eyes a rest.

DOS TORTAS

Comments 7 Comments
Categories Uncategorized

The Hills Are Alive In Salzburg

7 Apr

On our last day of the Dos Tortas unscripted, magical, mystery European tour, we joined forty or so Sound of Music enthusiasts to sing our way around Salzburg, Austria.

People from all over the world come to this corner of Austria just to walk in the footsteps of Maria and the Captain and their cadre of musically talented children.

The dramatic production was based on the lives of the Von Trapp family who escaped Nazi occupied Austria in 1938. Hollywood recreated the story using castles, lakes, gardens and the Alps as the backdrop for the academy award winning movie. Producers took liberties with the storyline. The Von Trapps did not climb over the Alps to Switzerland (See map). It would have been a long walk. They boarded a train for Italy and later migrated to the US.

My favorite stop on the tour was the Basilica St Michael. I always thought the wedding scene in the movie was magical. Visiting the cathedral didn’t disappoint.

https://youtu.be/THKgiaGLAOs?si=lmoV0Smgn-ACF4K7

The following day we caught the train to Frankfurt and left the next day for Mexico. It was a long flight but uneventful. We are struggling with jet lag but that’s a good problem to have right?

DOS TORTAS

Comments 3 Comments
Categories Uncategorized

How On Earth Are We Doing It?

30 Mar

If you’ve been following our unscripted, spontaneous European adventure, you’ll know it’s been a whirlwind. One of our followers asked a bunch of questions. How did we do it? I’ll do my best to answer.

Breakfast extraordinaire Munich

First off, my wife is the queen of travel planning. She enjoys it and we’ve traveled enough together to know each other well. We are adventurous by nature. She does her best planning and then we are happy with however things turn out.

1) We are not extravagant. Hotels are a place to sleep. They were however much more expensive in Europe than we expected. We booked budget hotels close to the city center to use public transportation and/or walked to various sights.

Clean, safe and basic is our motto. We’ve averaged about $200 US or so a night which is more than we’ve ever spent sleeping. We have had to modify our travels due to aging bodies and disabilities. We walk when we can, take hop-on-hop-off buses to get the lay of the land and boat rides when they’re available. We also take tours which mostly work well and are not expensive.

Hop-on bus ride in Paris to the Arc de Triumph and Eiffel Tower

2) We tried to eat one meal a day, usually lunch, at a nice restaurant. (Our Paris and Munich hotels included a great breakfast.

We looked for little grocery stores and purchased pre-made meals for dinner and fruit and granola for breakfast and snacking.

There were great grocery stores everywhere.

We hardly drank alcohol so that’s a big savings. Also there’s no suitcase room for souvenirs. No Olympics t-shirts were bought in Paris.

A “Free” church in Paris

3) As to whether we just “put it all on plastic,” the answer is yes and no. We had money budgeted for a water softening system for our house. I guess soft water will have to wait. The credit card will get paid when we get home.

Next week’s blog will be from home in Bacalar. We are currently in Salzburg Austria. There are no words for how much fun we’ve had. Until next week,

DOS TORTAS

Tags: Adventure, Around the world, big life, castle, dreams, Fearlessness, Get outside, gratitude

Comments 10 Comments
Categories Travel, Uncategorized

If It’s Tuesday This Must Be Paris

22 Mar

Some of my favorite things about London in no particular order:

Westminster Abby- a mish mash of statues, burial sites, alters, choirs and a royal throne. Lots of history, burials, weddings and a coronation or two. I loved walking around its many nooks and crannies but after awhile it all blurred together. The US has nothing to compare and I was awed on our first day in London. Or maybe it was jetlag.

The London Eye – a really cool big ferris wheel. So fun.

The hop-on hop-off bus which kept us dry the one day it rained. We hopped off and walked around Harrods department store. Too much glitz for our budget.

The day trip to Bath and Stonehenge was certainly worth it.