La Vida es Mas Sabrosa en La Playa

It was a lovely, if short and chill visit with Lili and crew.  I got to see some areas of Mexico City I’d not been to before. It was nice to see the mercado where they shop and have some delicious carnitas there as well.  She rallied one night so we could go see Erick’s band play (he actually plays in several bands, as well as teaches music to kids). It was a fun night out, reminiscent of old times in Zihua.  I also forced them to go to the Cheesecake Factory with me. I’m not usually a fan of restaurant chains, but the chocolate cake there is one of my all-time favorites. I was imagining we just go for dessert, but then we were all hungry and…food happened.  It was nice to just be hanging out, doing regular family stuff after playing tourist for a couple weeks!

 

I had booked an Airbnb across from the airport in Mexico City.  My flight was at 6am, and it didn’t seem fair to disrupt my friends with a 4am departure, even though their apartment was not that far from the airport. I figured a nice, quiet, early night, walking distance from the airport, would be just perfect. What I did not count on was the fact that the neighborhood my Airbnb was in, was celebrating Carnaval right then!  I couldn’t even get dropped off at the address because the streets were closed down.  Tons of people, parades, music, food, explosions…I had to walk around and see what it was all about. I could barely get back to the door of my place, since the parade was parked right in front when I came back! I almost gave up on the idea of sleep…but I managed to get some!

 

 

At 4am I was running across 4 lanes of road with all my luggage, to get to the airport.  It actually was FINE, except for me walking in the wrong direction for a while.  I was too cheap to pay for a seat selection, so was of course relegated to a center seat.  But then, there was no one on either side of me (proving that they put me there just to be mean).   I landed in Hermosillo at 8am, a whole day ahead of me to get Rita rolling again.

I was happy to see she fared much better than I imagined, everything more or less as I’d left it. It was a bit overwhelming to unpack and get things somewhat sorted out, but it was so nice to see Mariana and her Mom.  Mariana made me breakfast, and later in the day her mom shared a huge pot of pozole she’d made.  I felt so spoiled!  It was really nice not to have to worry about food that day as I was just getting Rita’s solar turned on and the fridge going again, there was NOTHING to eat.  The next day I stocked up on groceries and prepared for the journey to Guaymas.

I had left the batteries disconnected, since there was the mysterious power draw and brake lights turning themselves on issue, just before I left.  I connected everything and she started right up with zero hesitation.  I did notice a bit of a puddle underneath Rita – transmission fluid?!? The oil was fine, but I decided to add some tranny fluid before the drive.   Mariana came with me, as she is back staying in San Carlos. It was fun to have my co-pilot.   I stayed the night on the Malecon in Guaymas, so I could hop over to the mechanic first thing in the morning.  Just my luck, the Malecon was shut down for a street carnival – rides galore! I was laughing, imagining it might be crazy loud, but I stayed a bit farther away and it didn’t go on too late. I actually enjoyed the colorful view.

Fernando, my diesel mechanic, has a new employee, Luis.  Luis very much wanted to practice his English, and he did quite well, but a few times I had to just ask him to please say it in Spanish, since I didn’t understand him!!!   Rita got the full on spa treatment:  Oil/filter change, transmission leak patched up, new LED headlights, brake switch and wire repairs and chasing down other light issues in the rear.  It all took so long that I spend the night and most of the next day at the shop.

It was fine and they didn’t mind me staying at all,  They even let me plug my AC in the next day – since there was an odd heatwave that popped up.   I was happy to just work and settle in Rita while they did their thing.   It was so late the next day, that I spent another night just down from the amusement rides.  Next morning, errands and finally TO THE BEACH!!!

My favorite spot was still open and friends still in place.  I settled in, ready for work to pick up and afternoon walks on the beach.

It was mostly quite lovely, except for the part where I caught the horrible respiratory virus that was going around, and after a week of that, it morphed into a bacterial sinus infection with fever, requiring the magic of antibiotics (which thankfully are so easy to get here). I realized that perhaps I've never actually had a sinus infection before, because I don't ever remember thinking that my eyes were going to projectile bleed out from my skull before this. That killed a couple weeks, and took a lot of time just taking care of myself.  It got quite tedious. I know for sure I did a good job keeping my fluids up, as I had to empty my pee jug more frequently than usual!   I did have a number of days where I was fully down for the count, but work did pick up and I am super grateful for that.

Not long after I started feeling nearly all better, Semana Santa was rolling around.  All my gringo friends were beginning to vacate the beaches, back to their northern lives.  We had a final campfire and said goodbyes.  I hung out another day or so, but then it was time for me to head to Rae and JC’s house – where I would hunker down for Semana Santa, and, well…until October, I guess!  I am hoping once the Semana Santa craziness is gone (in 2 weeks), it will still be cool enough to get back out to the beach for a week or two.  But already, out here in the desert, it’s so hot I had to turn the AC on already.  Grateful to have it and for this place I can call home for a bit.  But as much as I can list all the positives of this arrangement, this area really doesn’t fill my soul.  I’m hoping I am just still tired out from the sickness and soon my energy will return and I will regain a more positive outlook about my situation for the summer.    I am grateful for my friends here and looking forward to charging up my social battery so I can have some fun soon.    There are definite improvements over last year, I did some configuring on the best angle in the driveway for Rita to minimize the sun exposure, and of course I have the air conditioning working for driving, so I can actually imagine going places once the heat kicks in for real.

 

 

Mary's Food Section