I happened to check the date today (it's already late August?!) and realized that today marks 3 months since arriving in La Cruz. Strangely though, it feels like we've been here so much longer than that.
My favorite part of living in Mexico so far is the affordability and simplicity of daily life here. We are living very comfortably on very little... We walk to the market for produce, the marina for fresh fish, the carniceria (butcher shop) for local beef, the tortilleria for daily-made tortillas... We also walk to lots of local, "plastic chair" taco stands and torta shops. And everywhere we go we're so shocked at how cheap it is compared to what we're used to. The reverse sticker shock hasn't worn off yet...
We've made lots of Mexican friends thanks to our new buddy Ernesto (Baku's full-time maintenance Hefe) who has kinda taken us under his wing and shown us "how the locals do it"... He's taken us to new towns and whole-in-the-wall restaurants and little villages and a bunch of places we probably wouldn't have found on our own.
Last month he took us to a first communion ceremony for his niece which is a very big deal here (the girls all looked like tiny brides!), followed by his uncle's house for celebratory Birria (a super yummy goat stew typically eaten on Sundays), where we were treated like special guests...
He makes regular, random stops by our house and asks if we wanna have some "divertido" (fun) with he and his friends or his lovely wife. Whether it's riding in the back of a pick-up truck to get "mom and pop" tacos, or sitting under a ramada (palm frond awning) talking and laughing for hours...or taking us on a private tour of the north shore, we always have a lot of fun and we always come away with something new. He's patient of our "gringo Spanish" and is always willing to teach us new words or phrases or customs or answer any of our newbie questions. I think he really enjoys having us here (if only for his own entertainment. Ha!) We've been very fortunate to have him around everyday to help us navigate our new home. Everywhere we go, people are friendly and welcoming and patient...and despite blips of homesickness now and then, all is well in Mexico.
My least favorite part of living in Mexico is the freaking bugs!!! Thankfully we haven't had any more "nope" experiences since that toddler-sized spider came racing outta my bathrobe a couple months ago...as I was putting it on. Hmm...I don't think I've actually mentioned that mortifying event on here since it was after I had written my creepy crawly post. It was after I had just gotten out of the shower and I reached for my robe hanging on a hook on the wall... Just as I flung it around me and stuck my arms in the sleeves, I felt something big and fuzzy shimmy down my leg and then I watched a rat with 8 legs sprint across the bathroom floor as I screamed for Ty to save me. Because, duh.
Here's Ty's Facebook post moments after he rescued my naked butt from imminent danger... In case you can't tell, that sucker was about FIVE inches in diameter. FIVE. I was traumatized for at least two weeks -- tip-toeing around the house like I was gonna find a friggen grenade in my sock drawer.
Anyway, after dousing our house in Orson Home Defense spray after one too many "nopes", we've seen zero spiders and maybe one or two cockroaches, so that hasn't been a problem at all anymore (I still have to shake out my bathrobe before I put it on, but)... Our biggest frustration/annoyance are the damn mosquitoes!!!
Mosquitoes are a problem here in the summer because of the rain and humidity, but even worse for us, is that we live on a dirt road with deep ruts and zero drainage...so every time there's a torrential downpour (which is often) our road looks like a muddy river for days and days...and it's just a disgusting breeding ground for a bazillion little blood-suckers. Much of our days are spent applying creams and sprays and lighting citronella candles and slapping our skin and iiiiiiittttttccccchhhhhing. I'm convinced they actually like DEET and it's making them like immortal or something, because there is just no relief. It's hell. I'm covered in bites and scabs and scars and I'm about to lose my mind. One of the cons about living in a semi-tropical climate, for sure... I'm ready for it to be winter.
It's POURED the last 3 nights in a row... This is the worst we've seen the road so far. It's no wonder Baku closes during the summer!
Which reminds me of my next random topic! Thanks to the bugs and heat and humidity we were inspired to take a mini vacay inland to Guadalajara this week! It's like the 4th most-populated city in Mexico which means I'm going to be an anxiety-filled, whacked-out stress ball because I don't like crowds or lines or traffic or people in general...but it's about 10 degrees cooler there (a low of 68 at night!?! Yes, please!) and we're excited to explore a new part of Mexico.
We're taking a privately-owned bus there which is basically just an airport on wheels... They have WiFi and TVs and bathrooms and alla the fance things, all for about 50 bucks round-trip per person. It's about a 4 hour drive from here, so we'd easily spend that on gas if we were to drive ourselves. But this way, we don't have to worry about navigating crazy traffic and not knowing where we're going. Blog post next week about our adventure!
Let's see... What else have we been up to? One or two or three weekends ago (I have no awareness of time anymore) we had a major lightening/thunderstorm and our modem/router got zapped basically, and we lost internet. Ty took the router to the telephone company in Bucerias the following morning and explained that it no longer worked and they handed him a new one for free. THE VERY NEXT EVENING the same exact thing happened...big storm, no internet. There were actual sparks in our kitchen and then the modem went dead.
It was late Saturday night and we knew the telephone company would be closed the next day and that we would be without internet until at least Monday. You don't realize how much you rely on WiFi until you're without it... We played some board games on Sunday and actually HAD TO TALK TO EACH OTHER. But we survived, just like the people from the olden days.
That Sunday afternoon, Ty was pouting pretty hard about not being able to watch the golf-tournament-of-the-day so we decided to go to the sports bar in Bucerias for lunch...but for some silly reason we decided to walk there instead of drive. Walking to Bucerias (via the beach) is something we've done every year when we vacation here and it's a lot of fun. Except we learned the hard way, that it's not as much fun when you forget to check the tide tables before you leave the house. We mistakenly made our trek during super high tide and had to do quite a bit of sketchy maneuvering across slippery rocks and shallow waters to make it to our destination. It took us over 2 hours! And along the way we had to step over a half-eaten iguana, trespass private property and just keep hoping that it wasn't gonna start pouring rain before we got there. We, of course, took the bus home after all that.
Something we used to do back home that we recently started up again here is "going to church"... Every Sunday, we would pick a green spot on the map, load Bloo up in the car and take long, scenic drives with no plans or real destinations in mind. We'd sing along to great music, we'd talk and laugh, enjoy the scenery and forget about stress for a couple hours...and then we'd come home and make cozy comfort food. It was easily my favorite part of the week. We aren't religious people, so we always joked it was our version of "going to church" on Sundays.
This weekend, outta nowhere Ty said, "Wanna go to church?" I didn't even have to think about it...we grabbed Bloo and headed out the door with zero plans. We drove around for at least a couple hours. We explored little towns, saw lush, rolling mountains and pineapple farms, we people-watched and took mental notes of restaurants or places we wanted to come back to, we didn't care about getting lost...we talked, we laughed, we sang. It was a perfect day. Side note: Mexico seriously makes me wanna take up photography... Yesterday we saw a girl riding a horse down the road while talking on her cell phone. Where are we?!
Well, I think that's all the "updates" I have for you today... Oh wait!
Thursday was a "big" day for me! For the first time in 3 months I drove all by myself!! (There's something I never thought I would say.) I drove to the supermarket in Bucerias about 15 minutes from here because Ty was busy cleaning pools and we needed some items for guests that stayed here over the weekend. So, I had to put on my big girl pants (errr...shorts) and get over my anxiety of driving in a foreign country with lax traffic laws and handle it like a boss lady, which I did, of course. However, as I was paying for my groceries with the credit card I haven't used in three months (I never bring my wallet anywhere because Ty always has his or we pay in cash) I realized that I had forgotten how to sign my name. Palm to face. I was thiiiiisssss close to adulting.
Alright... I'm outta here. (I never know how to end these pointless ramblings.) Adios!!
