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.
However you measure it. It’s toasty!
There’s no better way to cool off in Bacalar than to get out on the Laguna.
Blake and Aunt Alex
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.
Lisa and her mom.Arco the swimming dog loves the boat.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.
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.”
It’s official.
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.
I took my journal to Europe but didn’t have much time for sketching.
Press on picture.
Here are drawings from our travels and from our couch.
Sitting in the train station waiting to leave for Paris.Neuschwanstein Castle Bavaria
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.
As I sit on the Eurostar train between London and Amsterdam I contemplate this astounding trip so far. It’s been almost 15 years since Lisa and my last overseas adventure. A lot has changed. I am 72, she is 60. After Lisa’s multiple back surgeries, neither one of us can walk for hours nor stand gazing at antiquities. We return to the hotel in the late afternoon and collapse for the evening.
Stock image.
When I was pick pocketed in Athens in 2005 and had my passport stolen, we got to experience the darker and inconvenient side of travel. Any trip might include loss, loss of cell phone, hat, or scarf. I once left expensive headphones on the plane home to Mexico.
Amsterdam Canals
In an attempt at prevention I try to turn around from any stop and make sure nothing is left behind. To prevent pick pocketing, I carry a shoulder bag designed for travel with zippered pockets to protect phone, money and identification. And still it happened.
I lost my credit card.
In London everything is paid by tapping your bank card on a terminal. Some restaurants don’t accept cash at all. In order to hop the underground (subway) I had placed my card in a side pocket with my phone. Apparently I pulled out my phone and dropped the card. After searching everywhere I contacted my US bank.
Saturday Market
Fortunately we have other plastic but it could be so easy to get stranded with no money. The worst part was the sleepless night and self flagellation.
Thank God I’m over it. There’s nothing more I can do until I return home.
Dutch apple pie.
The trip continues and we’re having a great time. Weather has been unprecedented with sunshine in both London and Amsterdam. Crowds are small compared to high season. For an unscripted holiday, we’re doing very well.
Having moved to Mexico in 2013, there were so many things that we didn’t consider. An important event that never crossed our minds was the Super Bowl. Of course we’d be able to watch the Super Bowl! Well, technology hasn’t always been our friend living out of the country. Or perhaps our cultural bias is showing. It’s a bit like the World Cup. No one watches the WC in the US. For many people not being able to watch the Super Bowl is no big deal, but not to us, at least it wasn’t in 2013. Living in Austin, Texas, Lisa was a huge football fan. Every Sunday she turned on the game, stretched out on the couch and slept through most of it. Her team? the Dallas Cowboys of course. (Dallas hasn’t played in the SB since 1996).
In Mexico, without satellite, it is nearly impossible to get American football’s biggest over the top magic show on your TV. We have tried going out to local bars but the game volume can make your ears bleed, the commentary is in Spanish and everyone is sloppy drunk. Not our favorite environment.
Mexicans love American football.
This past weekend we invited some new friends over for our version of a Super Bowl party and made another attempt to get the game from the comfort of our living room. We made Texas chili and started over an hour early to tune in. Between two couples, we had access to three different streaming services and a VPN. A VPN encrypts your internet traffic and hides your physical location. Why the NFL doesn’t want people to be able to watch the game from overseas is beyond me, especially if they’re willing to pay!
Our new friends who are building a home in Bacalar.
NOTHING WORKED! With fiddling and rebooting every ten minutes, we got a grainy view of the field and game play leading up to the halftime show. Then the whole thing failed. Our guests had long since left. We went to bed.
Truthfully our poor reception could have been caused by inadequate capacity for all of Bacalar. New internet towers have been going up everywhere but the increase in tourists and the fact that it’s Super Bowl Sunday might have put the system over the top.
This week was also my mother-in-laws 80th birthday.
We woke the next day to discover the Chiefs had won. That’s why the Superbowl is like life. You just never know the outcome. There are so many contributing factors, injuries, who Taylor Swift is rooting for, and social sentiment. Sometimes the game may go into overtime but when the clock runs out, you’re toast. These days our clock is ticking along a bit louder. But never fear, we’re in it until the final whistle blows.
We’ve had a rough month. First my mother-in-law fell and dislocated her wrist, then Lisa and I got Covid and last week my dear niece died after battling brain cancer.
Blooming
I’m mostly recovered from Covid but still experiencing body aches. I’ve been working in the yard and exercising a bit. Getting outside is good for the soul.
We all have ways to cope. One of mine is making art. I’m loving these mandalas.
We are heading to the U.S. for my niece’s memorial the end of the month. There are lots of loose ends to tie up before we travel, warm clothes not withstanding. I’m not sure why we’ve been heading north in cold weather. These tropical girls do not adjust easily.
Silly me, I thought I had some magical powers and when Covid was floating around for the last four years, somehow it would go around me! But fate caught up with me this week and I’m down for the count.
I remember the first time I heard the C word. I was in Oaxaca painting with a group of women. It was February 2020 and I was feeling a bit under the weather after a month of traveling. While talking on the phone to my daughter in California, she asked if I was sure I didn’t have Covid? Mmmm. What’s that? I clearly was out of touch.
My artwork from 2020. Guadalupe, Frida, Catrina
Lisa knew this week before I did that I was positive, having dealt with her own and her mom’s multiple infections. I woke her up two nights in a row with a raging headache and body aches. Something I’ve never done in thirty years. She’s a saint and knew just what to do.
We dug out our one and only remaining home test (expired) and sure enough double lines = positive. I’ve been terrified of getting Covid, because of “coexisting conditions”. I have asthma.
So far so good, except Lisa is also infected. This is new territory for me. The body aches are the weirdest. I feel like I’ve been doing pushups. Following the new Center For Disease Control Guidelines, we’re isolating appropriately. Fingers crossed Covid releases me from its grip soon. For now, rest and y’all be careful out there.
Part of the reason for moving to Mexico from the US in 2013 was to live a simple life and shrink our environmental footprint. I wanted to be completely off grid, but Lisa wanted electricity and wouldn’t hear of it. She rarely puts her foot down so we installed electricity.
However we do do our part in many other ways.
We compost. In the US 35 million tons of food waste ends up in landfills annually.
A major contributor to greenhouse gases.
Our little compost pile doesn’t take up much space. It is situated directly outside the side door for easy access. We had to put a cover on it to keep a certain “always starving”pug out but what we didn’t expect was the lizards. Any sunny afternoon there are several sunbathers sitting on the lid. I think the gnats that are attracted to the food waste provide a yummy smorgasbord for our little friends. There’s at least one regular. We call her Lizzy.
When we have dinner leftovers, they go into dogfood. Absolutely nothing goes into the trash.
No food waste at our house. Stela and Luna do their part.
When the house was designed, we included a rain collection system. It made no sense to me to live in the tropics with a large roof and not collect rainwater. The softer water is better for the house and garden. We angled the roof slightly to collect runoff during the rainy season. We just had the pump rebuilt and it works like a champ.
Cisterns help when there’s no rain. We also have a well.
We also are not consumers. We maybe have 2-3 pairs of shoes and a very simple wardrobe. After all, Mexico is the chancla capital of the world.
Few people even wear shoes.
Last Fall we bought a new car. I really thought we could use public transportation and survive with one vehicle. As with most of the world it’s difficult to live without cars. We did however buy a hybrid. In Mexico in the seventies I travelled all over the country by bus and train. Boy have times changed.
We want to vacation around Mexico without flying. Nissan Kicks E-Power
There is little recycling in Bacalar. We all know that recycling is a ruse by the producers of plastic anyway. We shop locally for produce and eat little meat. We carry our cloth shopping bags and tell shop owners, “no queremos plástico” when they try to give us bags. We do the best we can to be aware.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t believe my compost pile will save the planet. That’s the job of government and industry. I will however do my part.
In 2018 my mother-in-law fell coming down our stairs and broke her right wrist. This week she broke her left.
2018 fall required pins and surgery.
Alice lives near us and when she called this week in obvious distress, Lisa was at her door in less than a minute. As near as we can figure, she stood up quickly and blacked out. She hit her arm against the couch and dislocated her wrist and broke a bone.
Alice’s little house on our property.
The hospital is about a forty minute drive. We called our doctor Oscar to give him a heads up and Lisa and Alice left for the emergency room about nine pm. The amazing thing is that they were home and Alice was in her bed by two o’clock! Yes, you heard me right, five hours including the drive.
Oscar notified the emergency room staff and they were waiting. A team wheeled her into x-ray, they then knocked her out, and set the bone. She has a cast and an appointment to return. The nurses, technicians and traumatologist were loving, gentle and efficient. My friend in Texas pays steeply for “concierge” medicine. Here in Mexico it’s business as usual.
Bet you wish he were your doctor? Smart and gorgeous.
Let me make one thing clear, our doctor and care is at a private hospital. Lisa, Alice and I have excellent health insurance in the states that we rarely use. We pay totally out of pocket in Mexico. The bill you ask?
About $1200 US, which includes medication and follow up visits.
A bit drugged but behaving herself.
We feel very blessed. Now if we can just get all three of us well at the same time.
It’s been relatively quiet in the jungles of southern Mexico this week. Lisa and her mom were both sick, cough, sore throat and other symptoms I won’t share. I don’t know if it’s my genes or what, but I seldom get sick. On the whole we do pretty well. We try to take turns with our maladies.
Alice , me and Lisa Costa Rica 2019
While walking the dogs one day this week I discovered an enormous pile of garbage dumped on the highway near the turnoff to our property. I learned that a double tractor trailer flipped in the early morning hours leaving its load behind. What an eyesore! I will talk to our neighbors and see what if anything can be done. The pile is mostly bottles and concrete. Mexico is large enough to hide its trash. How inconsiderate to leave it out in the open! Perhaps they can incorporate it into the Mayan Train somehow.
The sign in the corner belongs to the new hotel across from us. I can’t imagine they’ll allow this mess to stay here.
Next there was water leaking on the floor of our garage. Finding a reliable plumber has been a challenge. The Mayan Train and resulting hotel construction has sucked up skilled laborers. I spent days getting no responses or asking “do you know anyone else?” I’ve found that who you know and who THEY know can sometimes get you the help you need.
Pump from our rain collection system was hauled off for maintenance.
We continue to learn things about living in a tropical environment, even after ten years. For example, any system that we have installed must have regular maintenance duh!, ie electrical, septic, cistern, and basically anything with a pump. Water is hard and calcium clogs the lines. Everything rusts and molds. We plan on installing a water softening system this year which will also require maintenance. Solar is somewhere down the road.
Our house is not airtight. No air conditioning. We wake to birdsong and the rustling of palm trees and the laguna lapping the shore. It’s a trade off but we love our “glamping” lifestyle.
I suppose that’s it for another week in the jungle. Y’all come back now ya hear.
the adventures of dos tortas 
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