Breakfast Ranchero style

J&R have become addicts for some of the Mexican style foods, including breakfast: put all into little corn meal patties - egg&cheese, refried beans, avocado, salsa - and then try to fit it into your mouth without dropping it or slobbering:

I like it, too - but usually do without the patty and use my fork - to avoid getting it dripping over my fingers and slobbering. R usually eats 3-4 of these, J takes 2, and I, having superior self control, limit myself to 1..

Juarez Street Market

On Sundays, the Juarez Street Market in the SE of the city is in full swing - that is where you can find almost everything new and, mostly, old.

It covers 2-3 blocks in a local neighborhood. One of the bus lines from the Trailer Park takes you directly there.


I bought myself a nice pair of sunglasses for $1:30; an item not to be found in Canada, namely, a "Tauchsieder", and immersion heater for 2:20; some fresh strawberries (they are smaller than in most markets but directly from the field and full of flavor)...

I could have bought some colored chicks for Easter as well - see the video below. There are some entertainers, like the guitarrist singer right in the middle of the crowd (also in the video) and another one who hops the bus and tells some stories to the assembled passengers and then hopes for some panhandling pesos.

Here some shots...

 Fresh shrimp in different sizes (camerones, about 6-10 CAD/kg, depending on size):

Church at edge of market area:

Randy buying fruit:

Carefree Living? Where would that be?

Maybe it is here:

https://internationalliving.com/2017/01/carefree-laidback-lifestyle-mexican-beach-city/

Just go this link from Joan, so i am forwarding it....

(View from Ice Box Hill to the South - Lighthouse Hill and harbor entrance in back)

And how about this article: where  could you/should you retire these days?

Of course, this is also a matter of where you get your money - and it so happens that the US Dollar these days is worth more, in Mexico, then anywhere else...but I think that no matter where you get your money, the considerations in this following article will apply:

https://internationalliving.com/articles/mexico-worlds-number-one-retirement-destination-2017-part-one-mag-2017-1/ 

Nice Beach Day

Well, now in middle of January, the night time temperatures are a bit cooler - down to 14-18 or so, daytime between 23-28. As soon as the sun goes I have to put on long pants and a sweater or jacket because with a steady wind it does feel cold.

The seaside of course is the most breezy, but during most of the day it is very enjoyable. Like at this spot, just about a km or so Sotuh from our park, where the beach is hardly used and where a small palapa restaurant offers drinks ($1.25 a coke), and "marisco" (seafood) meals ($8.-).

The Park is at the foot of the cerrito (hill) in the background, with RIU hotel complex at the right.

Tick, tick

Would you believe I got attacked by a tick? At the back of my leg, where I could not see but feel it while showering. Must have picked it up when I biked a mountain biking trail through the bush and took a spill, landing on my belly.

Indeed, ticks live in Mexico, including those that transmit rickettsial infections like Rocky Mountain Spotted fever.

Randy performed the surgery to remove the tick from my leg, earning himself 1 credit towards his medical/surgical degree. The house remedy of heating up a tick's bum to remove it is discouraged by the CDC. Instead, remove it by gentle pulling, and of the head breaks off, dig out everything with fine tweezers. The watch: within days a targetoid lesion may develop and after 5-10 days you may start getting a fever and other symptoms - in which case, and only then, you start therapy with doxycycline. If you don't you may end up dead. Nothing like this has shown in my case, so I may live.

Fish at last

On our third fishing trip - bottom fishing - we finally were lucky and landed some 40 or so fish ranging in size from 1/2 pound to about 3. For that we went out on the ocean some 12 or so miles...anchored and baited our lines with shrimp:

Here the hired hands clean the fish (red snappers, striped snappers, sea bass...):

Stone Island

Isla de las Piedras - is the island lining the harbor channel, reachable via a short ferry ride. There is a long and wide beach with safe waters and a dozen or more palapa restaurants where locals and tourists hang out. You can rent canoes and other stuff - and local tour guides drive you around on flat bed trailers pulled by large tractors.

Coming from one of the ferry docks:

Looking back towards the lighthouse hill: I am sure high tides will cause some flooding of these palapa places, not to speak of a hurricane - when they probably disappear into the sea!