Mid-January Update

My dreams of the “Everyday” blog dwindled quickly. Actually, it is no doubt a good thing as I can’t imagine anyone wanting to read them very often. Since my last notes, we have settled into a regular schedule. I am walking about 4 ½ miles every morning. I notice that when I did it at home, I plugged in the ipod and went on my merry way (mostly listening to Spanish lessons!). Here, my hour+ walk has no musical accompaniment. I love the take in the sights and sounds of the city. Some are provocative and intriguing, others are over-weight Americans and Canadians getting there first shots of coffee in the morning. There is a lot of “walking the dog!” And like me, a good number of walkers and joggers out in the fresh morning air. It really is delightful.

Saturday, I made my first foray into the Mexican open-air market to buy the ingredients for salsa and guacamole. Actually, after putting one too many Serrano chilies in the salsa, I quickly added the avocado to make it tolerable. The market is in the very Mexican part of town and very few gringos venture that far off the beaten path. I love it. My Spanish, while certainly very basic is getting to advanced basic. I booked our tickets for a week-long trip to Guadalajara and San Miguel de Allende and did it all in Spanish. Of course, later I’ll report where we actually went and how many miles we were off target!

We have actually eaten in a couple of nights. I must confess to missing the football playoffs, so we stayed in and I watched some very good games. Actually, it worked out great because, surprise, surprise, Polley got involved in an emergency sewing project. As I understand it, and believe me, I tried to distance myself as much as possible (partly because the games were on, of course!), our landlord’s wife, January (yes, that is when her birthday is as well) was in a store where a Canadian woman, who had come down here to get married discovered that the dress that was made for her, was a disaster. So, January volunteered to make the girl a new dress. While January sews a good deal, she mostly does pillows and curtains and some of her own clothes to a pattern. This girl did not fit the pattern and there was serious work to be done. The next thing you know, Polley and January, for two straight days are drafting a pattern, fitting the muslin, cutting the dress and putting it together. It does have a happy ending: we are attending a sunset wedding tonight, Tuesday, January 15th.

As I say, most eating has been simple and in our house. We have sampled some very bad wine, however. Just when you think it can’t get any worse, another restaurant surprises you. Sunday evening we did try a place that Eric had recommended: Esperesso Pizza and Pub. Decent Italian wines and we had a very nice arugula salad and an intriguing-sounding paninni with shrimp and corn, lettuce and tomato and something called “special rose sauce.” Never quite sure what that was, but while we might avoid that particular paninni next time, we certainly will doubtless go back.

Today, was the first truly overcast day. It was muggy this morning and Polley and I stayed in and read until about noon, then went for a glass of even worse wine on the Malecon. We are due for rain on Thursday. We were out last night for just a glass of bad wine and met two fascinating Australian girls who had set out to travel around the world. The had been to South America and the States. They got as far as Vancouver B.C. and decided to stop and work for a while. One works for a Landscape Gardner who loves PV and brought them down with him. Sat and talked with them about two places we are considering for next January, Buenos Aires and Australia. We ran into them again today and hope to have an extended discussion of the two places in the next day or two.

I guess that catches you up with the most significant activities in the last few days. We are kind of working at making our lives interesting, but we are so enjoying the boredom of routine, that it is difficult.

Stay well and more soon.