Doctora, Doctora - Give Me the News

Terry and I got back earlier in the week from a glorious two and a half week beach trek. More on those five beautiful beaches in another blog. But, we were traveling, eating unusual foods, drinking more than usual amounts of alcohol, and spending all of our daytime at beaches in the sun. We try to stay hydrated and healthy, but it always seems more important in retrospect. Dang it was fun! 

We rolled back into Merida on Tuesday via an ADO bus, and this morning Terry decided he needed to see a doctor. We usually just take Treda for stomach woes and it all goes away. In fact, I had done this one day on our trek. But, this time it was a little different. It would get better, then come back. So off we went with a two-fold mission this morning - see the doctor and go buy some fresh fish at the big Mercado Galvez. Terry had done some research and had found a doctor. He got good reviews, spoke some English, and was within walking distance. I don't remember his name, but we had a plan. 

Plans never plan out. We found the consultorio medico next to a Farmacia Similar down on Calle 56 between 57 and 59. He wasn't in his office yet but we were told he would arrive at 10. So, we headed to the Mercado for fresh fish, a bottle of fresh coconut water for coconut rice, and we couldn't resist a nice, fresh chunk of Oaxaca cheese for 27 pesos. (think $8 worth in Kroger's) No matter how many times we go to the Mercado, I still get excited and my senses are on overload...so many smells, sounds, and sights all at once. I imagine it's kinda like what a newborn feels the minute they pop out of that birth canal and BAM! Like us looking at this huge pile of gigantic, juicy pineapples with huge eyes and mouths open as we see stall after stall of huge pineapples - 

We headed back to the doctor's office. It was down a long hallway, adjacent to the farmacia. I had the fish on ice in our small collapsible ice chest so we were good there. No big deal taking fish into the doctor's office here. I'm sure it happens all the time.

We were in a waiting room - an open area about the size of a small bathroom with 8-10 chairs lining the wall cooled by the hallway opening and a fan. I looked down the hallway and here came a tall, really pretty girl with a big smile, wearing jeans.

And in walked a tall, really pretty girl with a big smile, wearing jeans...you have to imagine it! 

Oh! She was he and she was the doctora! Of course, I should have known. She called Terry into the room beside the waiting area and left the door half-open. I could hear the conversation and there was no English spoken here. Terry said once he explained what was going on, she probed and rubbed around on his stomach for quite some time. (I think this was his favorite part) She asked him many questions of which he answered in his better-than-he-ever-thinks-it-is Spanish and then they sat at a desk where she took about 15-20 minutes to explain in detail what all was going on and then wrote out a set of lengthy instructions with the prescriptions - an antibiotic, a second medication for stomach irritation, an anti-diarrhea med, and a probiotic for later. She explained to him what to eat/drink vs. what not to eat/drink and finished by telling him to take a probiotic after the antibiotic treatment since it would take away the good bacteria as well as the bad bacteria. He said she was very thorough in explaining every thing. And she was beautiful! Bottom line - he has gastrointestinal something or other. His temp was 36.4 Celsius but I have no idea what it is in Fahrenheit. I think it is normal or close to normal. Note to self: study this/need to know how to calculate. 

He walked out of there smiling. And the cost to consult with the doctor - $40 pesos. Yes, a tad over $2 USD. 

We went to two different farmacias to get all the medications. Dra. Esbeidy Alondra Madrigal Garcia had already explained the farmacia next door wouldn't have one of them. The medications included the antibiotic, an anti-inflammatory, a diarrhea preventative in case the antibiotics cause it, and the probiotic. The cost of the medicatons was an additional $430 pesos. So, for slightly less than $25USD total cost, Terry is smiling big and on the mend!



The downside - he cannot eat grasas, condimientos pimientos, nor drink bedidas alcoholica!

He's going to be playing Bad Case of Loving You on his guitar later today but he'll be sober and hungry! 

Additional pics from the Mercado - 

Sistas in Mexico - Part VII - Me Being Terry Traveling with the Deaf Mute

As Joanne and I traveled around and wandered around town, we've fallen into our traveling roles. Usually when Terry and I travel, he takes care of the pesos, knows when to hit the ATM, and does the bargaining for the best deals. I'm happy playing the role of the dramatic wife that gets sorely disappointed when something costs too much, then happily throws out kisses when a final deal is struck. But, since Joanne and I traveled alone I took on that role. I was the "money guy"; she was more like the deaf mute. She doesn't speak Spanish at all and the most she would do is say "Howdy" when I would be throwing out Buenas Diases to the people we met. I tried to get her to just try to say something in Spanish, but she wouldn't. Oftentimes, I would speak to somebody and after the conversation was over I would turn to her and explain the exchange in English. This didn't change even after a few Dos Equis or tequila shots.

On the day prior to her leaving, we did finally get to ride the Turibus, go to the huge, gigantic Mercado, and do some bargaining/shopping. There were quite a few "It must be a fruit stand" moments in the Mercado for sure - real, authentic fruit stands. We finished the last day by dashing into the oven-fired pizza place when it started to pour down. We sat and had a couple of beers each and decided to order a pizza to take home for dinner. The rain never stopped so we hailed a taxi and went to the casa. 


We had bought her bus ticket previously, and we got up and she packed, and we headed to the Fiesta Americana so she could catch the bus to then fly out on Southwest from Cancun. I waited around until she made it on the bus then I took a long, leisurely walk home. As the bus driver looked at her and took her ticket, he asked her: "Hablas Espanol or Ingles?" She acted like she never heard him. Remember what I said about the deaf mute? I told him Ingles solo and asked him to please get her to the correct terminal - even asking which terminal he dropped off at first. 

Then I said Adios! and I don't even think she said anything! 

It was the best sista time we've had in a long time! Te quiero, Joanne!!!

Sistas in Mexico - Part VI - OOPS...Oh Crap!

It's now a Monday morning and there are still a couple of things on Joanne's bucket list to see. One of them was to swim in a cenote. We got up and I was a little nervous because her supply of Dramamine was running low. We had already looked around for some, but couldn't find exactly what she thought she needed. We searched around looking for the farmacia in the neighborhood but it seems it had relocated that way/around the block/close to the old location, etc., etc. While searching for it and asking where it was, we ran into our amigo, Roberto. I had to introduce him to mi hermana. He immediately said he could tell we were hermanas porque tenemos la misma sonrisa. 

We had to give up on our quest to find Dramamine for now if we wanted to make a day of going to Cenote San Ignacio out in Chochola. We went home and gathered our swimsuits and off we went to find a combi. I knew they were somewhere around San Juan Parque. When I found the entrance I went inside and asked a couple of guys standing by a van. This wasn't the combi stop for Chochola and they didn't know where it was...they told me to look around the corner. I knew unless it had moved, it was closer than that. Well, it seems it was two doors down. But, I really don't think they knew that. We found it, paid a few pesos for our ride and in less than 15 minutes we were on our way. There were a couple of people in the back. One was wearing a nice Boston Red Sox cap. I had to show him a picture of Harbor who plays t-ball on the Red Sox team in his identical cap. And I took a picture of him to send to Harbor. 

We had a very careful combi driver. It took us about 45 minutes to get there. We made a few stops, with a major pick-up/drop-off in Uman. We picked up a lady that lived in Chochola and had a nice conversation with her. She was easy for me to understand and had a super nice smile. 
Once we got to Chochola - what do you think we did? We walked around the square and through the market and over to a nice, small farmacia. We inquired about Dramamine and sure enough, we struck gold. The lady was able to explain what it was good for - mareada - seasickness. We bought a large package of it for $30 pesos.

There were moto-taxis around the square waiting to take us to the cenote. They're so cute! 

It's a short 3-4 blocks to the cenote but it's much more fun to ride.

At the cenote, you pay an entrance fee and once through the building you have access to restrooms, showers, lockers and a great restaurant/bar. It's a great place to spend the day and that's what we did. It would have been greater if when Joanne was climbing out of the water in the cenote she wouldn't have grabbed the towel that had the handsome Mexican tourist's I-phone sitting on top of it. It went PLINK! right in the cenote. Luckily another gentleman was able to fish it out rather quickly. We apologized profusely, me in Spanish and Joanne in English. It was still working and the man that owned it didn't seem to be upset at all. And frankly, it looked brand-new and expensive. But, the man that owned it appeared to have the means to buy many more I-phones if he wanted. But, he was very much the gentleman about it all! 

We swam in the cenote then went and sat at the restaurant and had cold beer and appetizers just letting the day slip by. The grounds around the cenote are quite nice - lounge chairs, palapas, a pool. Just about the time we were ready to leave it started raining. Oh well! We were able to hail down a moto-taxi back into town fairly easily. 

We had a fairly, long wait in the combi for it to fill up and leave. We talked with a woman in the combi we discovered was the wife of the combi driver. We should have gotten out and waited for another driver if we had known. Coming back into town was the scariest ride I have ever taken with anybody. Our driver was nuts! And there were big holes of water from the rain everywhere we just barreled through. When we went back through Uman, we came close to rear-ending several cars that happened to be in front of us. Seriously, the guy was crazy but at some point you just decide you have two choices - ride or get out. We rode. 

Sistas in Mexico Part V - Dressing up for Dinner

Getting back to the travels of Joanne and me in Mexico - we woke up in Celestun and I, being the nice sister that I am, went and bought coffee for us and brought it back to the room. It was at that point we knew we didn't want to leave Celestun on this Saturday. So we decided to stay another night. When I told the innkeeper of our plans, she said she had no vacancy for Saturday night. I was quite surprised but it is a beautiful, quaint seaside village and I blamed nobody for wanting to stay there. We were traveling light enough. A move to another hotelito would be quite painless. Once we got dressed, we walked along the street and the beach to check out a few places down the way. We stopped and inquired at one place, but it was going to be 600 pesos and I replied we would look around. I actually thought they would call us back and strike a deal, but they didn't and my pride got in the way and I wouldn't go back and say we would take it. So we walked to Gutierrez's, which is really where I would recommend going in the first place, and they had one room left for $550. Deal!

The Balcony outside our second floor room

  It was on the second floor and big, with two double beds. They have a nice second-floor mirador and a killer breakfast with pressed coffee to die for. We ate breakfast here, put on our swimsuits and walked to the beach. We walked and shelled, then pulled lounge chairs beachfront for a few hours of soaking up sun and watching the boats and people around us. 
There were a few more times of demonstrating the retching and motion sickness. 
We ended up having appetizers and drinks at another little palapa bar/restaurant down the beach. The one we had gone to yesterday was actually full of people with no more beach-side chairs available. 
Celestun is definitely a place to come to if you want to be beachside and relaxed. It you want to dress up and go out to dinner, well, I'm about to tell you - 

Out on the town square in her nightgown

We decided to go into town and see what was happening around the park and see what kind of light eats we could drum up. What to wear? I had on the one clean set of clothes I had brought and Joanne decided to wear her nightgown with a pareo slung over her shoulder. It looked quite cute!

There was a midway/carnival of such set up along one side of the park. The downtown was hopping with motorcycles, families, kids and vendors. I should say families on motorcycles because that's how they travel - Mom, Dad and one, two or three kids on the motorcycle. We both enjoyed sitting and people-watching while we decided what to eat. Joanne wanted a marquesita so we ordered and then the guy said he would be back en un momento. We saw when he came back that he needed the cheese - edam cheese goes into the middle of the marquesitas...along with..you guessed it...cajeta (or Nutella or whatever you want that the vendor has). He made it so perfect with the thin, waffle cone crust rolled up nicely around gooey filling oozing out faster than she could eat it. 

Watching moms and dads enjoy the time with their children really touched our hearts. We were equally touched by the small boy that cleaned the tables when I ordered tacos from the lady at one of the food stalls beside the park. She and I had the sweetest conversation which was born out of necessity with me speaking Spanish and she trying to understand my Spanish and letting me know she knew no English. But, I didn't expect her to. After our exchange, paying, eating and enjoying, we embraced prior to moving on. The embrace really meant we don't have to understand each other's language, we both understand smiles, mutual respect, kindness and enjoyment she saw me receiving from eating the food she  prepared. Those are the moments that touch your heart. 

I had to order a marquesita now. We ended the night sitting on a park bench just watching the goings on and getting great enjoyment from the nothingness of it all. My sister in her nightgown and me in my one set of clean clothes. I'll say it again - Celestun is one of my favorite places in the world and it had now touched Joanne in the same way. She fell in love with Celestun too. 

We spent an unhurried Sunday morning eating breakfast at Gutierrez's and then boarded our bus back to Merida. It was nice because our bus came into Merida from Hunucma, a different route into town, so we got to see new scenery. Rather than ride the bus all the way to the Noreste station we got off as close to downtown as we could get and went and watched the performers in the Plaza Grande, walked around browsing at the stalls set up and ate cheap eats. We are still miffed by the popularity of the elotes served in cups. It's corn cooked and spooned into a cup where it is mixed with mayonnaise and whatever spicey condiments you want to add, then eaten with a spoon. It's very popular.

Internet image

We finished off the day with ice creams and sat and watched people come by as we sat outside along the plaza grande. We walked home in the late afternoon to plan our next adventure!

Sister Together in Mexico - Cradle Cap - Part IV

I don't even know where to begin with this post so I will begin in the beginning. The year was 1952. That was the year my sister was born. And she developed something Nanny referred to as Cradle Cap. The best I remember Nanny and Mama talking about it in later years, it was a scaly head that babies got when they were allergic to milk. Us kids liked to tease her about her Cradle C-r-a-p later on. That's fitting since my dad was a dairy farmer at the time. A dairy farmer with cows - not goats, and a kid, as in child/not goat, allergic to milk. It seems my sister couldn't drink cow's milk, but she could tolerate goat's milk. Apparently, she liked it a whole, whole lot. When she got older and after I came along, the affinity for plain old goat's milk turned into an obsession for cajeta. Cajeta is a Mexican product of thick, sweet carmel syrup made from - you guessed it - goat's milk. Of course, my mom wouldn't have even known about cajeta, much less bought it. But, Nanny's roots growing up in Mexico she had a supplier from somewhere and she would have jars of the stuff in her frig. My sister and I, and I presume my brothers too, would grab spoons and run to Nanny's refrigerator and scoop out a big spoonful of cajeta. And just to set the record straight "Nanny" was our grandmother on Dad's side/no pun intended to a nanny goat! We didn't have to worry about getting caught by Nanny because she seldom set foot into the kitchen. The kitchen meant work and she was kind of a princess when it came to work. She had Papa and a housekeeper to do that. I guess she did set foot in there every now and then to get a spoonful of cajeta for herself. Altough we all loved it because it was sweet and syrupy, nobody loved it more than Joanne. It was goat's milk at it's finest. 

She can tell the story better than I but I remember her getting sick from eating a whole can of evaporated milk when she was pregnant. It was the closest thing she could find to cajeta.

While visiting here in Merida, she told me she had spent close to $20 on a jar of the stuff she found online in the US. Well, remember I said in the last post we went to the grocery store? I forgot about the quest to find cajeta. Cajeta is around in these parts and you can buy it for a few pesos...less than 20 (about $1 Usd). At first when I had mentioned walking to the store, I was going to go alone and let her relax in the house. But, she decided she wanted to make the walk after all. Boy, was she glad she did! We came home with Cajeta. 

Guess what I'll be taking as a souvenir for Sis? Hint: it isn't a bottle of tequila! 

Sistas Together in Mexico...When All Else Fails Revert to Sign Language - Part 3

If you're reading this, you probably realize I am writing this all after the fact and I don't have a very good memory but this is the way I remember it.

Joanne and I arrived in Merida on a Tuesday afternoon. Wednesday morning we got up and decided later on to head to the grocery store. Yes, we actually cooked for the two of us. On Thursday, we ended up at the Bierhaus when we missed the turibus. It was nice to have a couple of cold beers and plan our adventure. We flirted with our waiter young enough to be our son for awhile. We had some browsing/shopping out of the way. Joanne bought an awesome beaded collar necklace for Zach's wedding. Sorry, no pictures to share! We received a call from Gary and Sandra and they were headed back to the casa after the end of their international conference at the Hyatt. So we paid our tab and hot-footed to the casa. When we arrived back at the house, Gary and Sandra had beat us home. We had happy hour and ate around the dining table. They would be leaving early the next morning for the airport so we scheduled a taxi. When Friday morning arrived, the taxi driver showed up all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed a few minutes early. We said our good-byes and they were off for a day of flying to Mexico City then to DFW and finally into Easterwood. They would have a long day.

Joanne and I decided to catch a bus to Celestun for a night or so of relaxing and eating by the beach. 

Hotel Maria del Carmen, Celestun - $500 pesos/night

We headed to the second-class station and bought our tickets but we had time to spare so we walked downtown and decided to catch the turibus. But, we missed it again by a nanosecond so we just hung around the plaza for awhile. 

Walking back to the station we stepped into a beautiful colonial hotel along the way. We got to peak into a room and even though I don't remember the name I know it is just across the street from Paque San Juan. Somewhere along the way we ran into a gentleman we talked to yesterday that remembered us. Then, we ran into him again when we exited the hotel. We are quite sure there are several people around town looking out for us!
Back at the bus station, we waited for the bus. And, Joanne had her second dose of Dramamine. After inquiring, I found out the departure time printed on our ticket was the departure time from the Noreste station and we were leaving from TAME. I guess the other people waiting for buses could sense my confusion because by the time we boarded the bus there were a number of people looking out for us and making sure we were boarding the correct bus. Yep, I love Mexico and the Mexicans!
Joanne was ready for this outing away from Merida. We took the route through Uman...I call it the back way. Each little town was hopping, filled with moto-taxis and crowded streets. We had a lot of "it must be a fruit stand" moments. Lots of colorful town squares, street vendors, school children, churches, and Mayan ladies passed by our bus window. Sorry, Joanne took all the pictures. I have none to post. 
We arrived in Celestun around 1pm. We were greeted at the station by Philipe trying to book us on a boat flamingo tour. Obviously, neither he nor the other boat tour operators realized Joanne had a serious motion sickness problem! I told them repeatedly Mi Hermana es inferma..no barco para nosotros. But, what worked best was to do sign language for throwing up and make some retching sounds. I guess they pictured some of that landing in the bottom of their boats because they understood, thanked us and walked on. 
We found a nice little hotel on the beach for $500 pesos/night. Cheap enough, huh? After taking a peak at the room we took it. We put down our stuff and headed to the palapa bar. Remember my sister has motion sickness? It didn't keep us from downing cold beer, eating appetizers and finishing it all off with a few tequila shots! 
We had a nice time being the only white tourists...really!...amongst a sea of brown faces. There were more tourists in Celestun than I expected. Yes, Joanne fell in love with Celestun immediately. It's so easy to do. 

Our balcony view

We went back to the room later on and ended up having an early seafood dinner downtown. Upon arriving back at our room, we had a few A/C issues, but the owner came and got it going again quickly. We went out on our little second-story balcony overlooking the water for a short time, had a few laughs, and our lights were out early. 

Family Visits - Sista Joanne Hits Mexico (part 2)

Sistas Chillaxin' in Playa del Carmen

It was a Monday when Gary and Sandra headed up north of the Plaza Grande for Gary's  international conference and 3 nights at the Hyatt. Terry and I caught an early bus out of Merida for Playa del Carmen then got on a bus to the airport in Cancun to meet up with Joanne. Luckily we were traveling together because we got in an argument (aka a discussion) about the bus drop-off and bus pick-up at the airport. That's because Southwest Airlines now flies out of new terminal 4. Just an FYI - he was right. That's all.

We spotted Joanne several times but eventually the real Joanne came towards us and the reunion began. We usually stop off at the outside tiki bar for a tequila shot but I never saw one of those at the new terminal 4. We missed the first bus that came along by 3 1/2 seconds but caught the next bus after we were reprimanded for not letting them know we had missed the bus and now needed a seat on the next bus. I'm exaggerating about the reprimand! 

Made it to PDC and I had booked a hotel a week or so in advance. Not sure why. I even went into the site to exercise the free cancellation several times as I knew PDC wouldn't be booked up. I was going to cancel for some reason but I don't know exactly why - because I could, I guess. And I like just walking into places and asking for a room. Also, I wanted my sista to see what a $37/night room looked like since she always stays at fancy places. But, they actually charged an additional $12/night for a third person so it really cost almost $50/night. 

Well, I kinda' had directions to the hotel. But, we couldn't find it. After asking several people and wandering around in the area where I thought it was, we finally realized it was on the south side of Calle 1 and headed the 4 or so blocks back the other way to find it. 

We went for cocktails and nachos at our favorite place on Quinta Avenida. I don't know the name of it but we feel like regulars around there. We had dinner/drinks at La Mission on Avenida 10. It was an early night. 

Tuesday morning Terry and I got up and went to buy bus tickets for Joanne and my trip back to Merida. He was going to catch a bus back to the airport and head to Texas when we left for Merida. We took a long, early morning walk and let Joanne rest up. Being the sweet, accommodating sister I brought her bed coffee - with creamer and sugar in it just the way she likes it! 

There was a farewell at the bus station when Terry boarded a bus a little ahead of our schedule. We boarded a fancy ADO red bus for Merida and before we exited the terminal boarding area Joanne got queasy. Uh Oh! It's going to be a long trip to Merida! We had forgotten the Dramamine thirty minutes in advance and she had only taken it when we got on the bus. But, she never threw up and was able to get some rest before the queasiness came over her again. We were glad to get to Merida! The adventure continues...