Month: March 2024

Rosalie, my favourite cooking maniac. 

She has been cooking up some fabulous food lately. I sometimes think she overdoes it. She should just toss whatever it is in the frying pan sear it on both sides slap it on a plate and serve it to me. I’m sure it would be delicious. Instead, I get a gourmet meal that I have to rate. 

I hate it when she gives me something that other people find delicious but I just don’t like. How do I tell her when she has put so much love and effort into it? Luckily that doesn’t happen very often.

Being English I like a lot of my food plain. I was raised in a culture where everything is fried and served with fries. On menus in some cafés in England, you see just about everything…and chips. Together with tea that has been stewing for a few hours if not days. Add two heaping spoons of sugar and some milk and you have a perfect cup of English tea. Yuck!

I do miss my English fish and chips though. I’ve been served some good fish meals here but there is nothing like coming out of the theatre late at night, finding a fish and chip shop, placing an order and eating it out of newspaper as you walk home. You would have smothered it in salt and malt vinegar first though. You would have to be walking because you just missed the last bus. Not that it mattered as you spent the last of your money on the fish and chips anyway.

I love being Canadian and part Mexican but there will always be that pull toward some English-style foods. I was married to a Scot for 27 years and still can’t face blood pudding. Haggis though, that’s a different story: That, I like.

Okay, so we have some funny-sounding foods in England. For example:

Bubble and squeak: is a fried British dish made with potatoes and cabbage. It’s quite similar to the Irish colcannon. It often contains meat such as ham or bacon and is traditionally made on Monday with the leftovers from Sunday’s dinner or on Boxing Day with leftovers from the Christmas feast. It is sometimes topped with a fried egg.

Toad in the hole: is a traditional British dish made of sausages baked into a large Yorkshire pudding, typically served with onion gravy.

Pease pudding and faggots: This one takes some time to explain so here is a link:  Pease pudding

Mushy peas: fresh garden peas are harvested when young. Marrowfat peas are mature garden peas that have been allowed to dry naturally in the field before harvesting. It’s what gives them their starchy texture—and ability to get mushy. And I still can’t understand why you guys don’t like them.

Jellied eels: Again this needs a link as there is some history. Jellied eels. I haven’t tried them because they don’t appeal to me.

After reading about some of the gourmet foods we eat in England surely Rosalie has to understand why I can’t like everything she serves up. But I do like bananas.

There are many reasons for going to the beach in the afternoon, mostly it’s just to get out of the house for a while. We go to cool off, although it’s been a little chilly lately, and have a quiet drink. Then Easter happens.

The Mexicans start celebration days before the actual event. This was the day before Good Friday. There were hundreds of Mexican tourists on the beach and the signs and sounds made it a lot of fun. It’s nice to watch dads playing in the surf with their kids; young girls in their bikinis; competing bands playing; radios blaring; the banana boat taking people for a ride, and beach vendors trying to make a living, all adding up to a couple of hours of entertainment for us. There was even a police boat cruising up and down to keep law and order. (I typed that with a smile on my face.)

One couple was throwing a ball to one another. At first, the young lady couldn’t catch it to save her life, but eventually, she started to do better.

Los Cocos is our restaurant of choice lately, next door to Las Hamacas. Usually, when a band is playing at Las Hamacas it can be heard in Los Cocos, but not this day though: it was all, just too noisy.

One vendor, our amigo Bolivar, always stops and talks to us. When a young girl in a bikini walked right in front of him, the appreciative look he gave me when he saw her was priceless.

An older Mexican came into the restaurant with his guitar and pan flute and sang a couple of songs. It was so noisy we couldn’t even hear him, but we gave him a tip anyway.

On one of the days, the noise was so bad so we decided to go to Terasa Cortez. The place was almost empty, however, they were serving sixteen tables on the beach that they charged 300 pesos for. They have to do this as the Mexicans mostly bring all their own food and booze.

A young kid selling ‘tuba’ (a coconut drink) came to our table and said something very fast to Rosalie in Spanish. When she said she didn’t understand him he gave her a most exasperated look: absolutely hilarious! We found out his name was Alfonso and he became friends with me for a brief moment.

It seems that almost all the bars have a gay waiter. Being gay doesn’t seem to matter here as none of them try to cover it up. It’s quite refreshing that way.

Some of the waiter’s names seem quite odd such as Africa, Pollo and Chava, (means Girl). These are all guys and only one is gay, that we know of.

Can’t wait to go again.

We met some nice folks down here, Bill and Judy, and bonded with them easily.

Just before they went home Rosalie offered to take them to the airport. The weird thing about this is that Rosalie didn’t remember doing it. On the day they were leaving, we got an e-mail asking where we were. This was strange as neither of us remembered saying we would take them. Rosalie checked her e-mail and sure enough, she had made the offer but didn’t tell me as a backup.

If that wasn’t bizarre enough it gets worse! When it was obvious that we weren’t coming, Bill and Judy ordered a taxi. As they were checking out, they were told by their Hotel ‘Casa Leon’, that they owed 43,000 pesos for their stay. They denied this as they had paid half as a deposit last season, with the rest at the beginning of their stay this season along with the receipts. Then they got in the taxi. In the meantime, the hotel called the police who followed the taxi for a while and then pulled them over.

They were handcuffed and after emptying their wallets they were made to draw 16,000 from their bank accounts to give to the police. They then spent 3 hours in jail. Because of this, they missed their flights and instead of flying from Manzanillo, they had to take the bus to Puerto Vallarta a couple of days later.

I hope this was a case of miscommunication but with Mexican record-keeping who knows?

Rosalie’s sister Giselle had a similar problem earlier on. She and Gordon had put down a deposit last year on their room at Hotel ‘Vista Hermosa’, for this year. When they contacted the hotel last September to advise arrival dates etc. they found that the price had doubled. Giselle cancelled the room and booked another one elsewhere, planning to get her deposit back when they returned.

When they did arrive, Rosalie went with her to the hotel but was told the only person who could refund their deposit was the owner, who wasn’t there at the time. Giselle was told to come back. A week later, the owner still wasn’t there with the office staff very resistant in refunding her deposit. However, Giselle had kept all the paperwork: receipts and emails and showed them. Finally, she had had enough and told them that she was going to contact the Consumer Protection people. Well, that changed things rapidly: she got her money back right away.

I don’t know if this is becoming a trend here as we keep hearing stories about prices being raised after deposits are given. If this is so, they are doing a huge disservice to both themselves and the community. There will be a reputation that Melaque is ripping people off and tourists will stop coming.

There are also some disturbing things happening in that some restaurants have started using smaller wine and margarita glasses but have increased prices. We’re lucky because we know which restaurants are fair. The problem is that the tourists don’t know the local prices so they pay up, making things worse.

Anyway, Bill and Judy got home safely and contacted their travel agent who will be looking into it. We sent them the info about the Mexican consumer protection agency that Giselle had threatened and hope they can get their money back from somebody.

If anyone reading this comes down here and has trouble, this is the Consumer Protection website. http://www.profeco.gob.mx/

It’s come to that time of year again, with people starting to go back home.

There are far fewer tourists here now; our friends and family are going also. This last weekend four more groups went home. There are only four weeks left for us that will go by in no time. Nearly time to think about starting to put stuff away. I got the 3D printer packed a few days ago as Gerry and Denise are being good enough to take it back to Nanaimo for us. Our arrival time in Comox is midnight on the 18/19th of April.

The temperature has been as low as 12 C in the morning so the chiminea gets used a lot. The daytime temperature still gets up in the high 20s, hot enough to drive us to the beach most days.

When friends and family leave they clear out their fridges and leave their leftovers with us. So far Rosalie has collected 3 jars of mustard, 3 balsamic vinegars, 2 ketchups etc. Also inherited were part bottles of booze as well as a pack of 18 beers, most of which we shared. We have fun in the evening trying to empty some of the part bottles. There still is another bag of cans and bottles that we haven’t sorted out yet.

Some of the booze is left in the laundry room for further processing. There was an iguana in there the other day and I don’t like the idea of it getting drunk and causing havoc. I’ll have to watch that.

When people leave there is usually a going-away dinner. We’ve already been to a few and expect to go to more. We hosted one ourselves on the weekend.

It’s the time of year for the folks of San Patricio to celebrate St. Patrick’s day. Being Mexican, they don’t just celebrate the day, but start ten days ahead.

The mornings start with cojetes which are loud rockets set off by the church starting at 5:30 am. Some mornings they start at 5:15 am just for a change. This of course sets the dogs and roosters off so it’s a great alarm clock to get to early mass.

The main square has a fireworks display each night that gets crazier as the days go by culminating on 17th March. One year I almost got nailed by a falling catherine wheel. We didn’t go again this year; I think once was enough.

Rosalie’s youngest sister Marina has been suffering from hip pain for quite a while. She was told in Canada that it wasn’t bad enough for surgery yet but she was put on the list.

While here, the suggestion came up that the surgery could be done here. She didn’t know how to go about it so we made an appointment for her with Doctora Rosa on Thursday.

Dra. Rosa sent her for X-rays and did blood work. We took her back on the following Monday and the good news was that she didn’t need a full hip replacement just the top of the femur. The surgery was scheduled for Wednesday in Guadalajara five days from the initial examination. It was Dra. Rosa’s son, Dr. Victor Hugo Campos Vivas who was going to do the surgery.

Marina had to buy some supplies beforehand so Rosalie and I took her to the same X-ray clinic which sold all manner of medical supplies. One of the things she needed was a lift for the toilet. She caused a lot of hilarity especially when I suggested that we put it in the back of the car for Rosalie to use as a booster seat with Marina suggesting a little wheel.

At this point, Rosalie and I stood back and let some of the other sisters take over. Suzanne, her husband Vic and sister Delorie volunteered to take her on the bus to Guadalajara. They were met at the bus depot by the surgeon and taken to the hospital. That evening Marina was examined by the cardiologist ready for the following day.

At 8 am on Wednesday she had the surgery and later that day we got a text saying that all went well. The weird thing about this is that Rosalie had insisted all along that the surgery would be on that day. We were even sent photos of the procedure as it went along.

Of course, Marina had to pay for the procedure herself. The cost was about $10,500 CDN. That included Dra Rosa’s visits as well as the X-rays and blood work.

I don’t understand our system. In Canada, the same procedure would cost the healthcare system up to $30,000. Why don’t they encourage us to get the surgery done here and then pay for it? Then it would only cost healthcare about $10,000. I suppose that with the system now they don’t get to pay a thing.

After a three-day stay in the hospital, Marina was released and they spent a few days in Guadalajara to recover. The surgeon booked their tickets for the bus and took them to the bus depot.

I picked them up in Barra and took them home. They were pretty tired as it was a six-hour bus ride. The good thing is that the bus has a downstairs area with only four seats that are loungers and it’s quiet and comfortable.

Two weeks from now Dr Victor will come to Melaque and take Marina’s stitches out.

All in all a great family effort. Everyone chipped in to help and all went really well.

Marina and the other sisters rave bout Dr. Victor Hugo Campos Vivas. They say he was helpful courteous and all round a very nice person, a success in every way.

We have done a lot of driving lately and I knew that the car needed some work so I took it to a local garage.

I told the guy that I wanted an oil change and for them to see to the squeak coming from the suspension. I went back a couple of hours later and was presented with a bill for nearly $200 CND which I thought was a bit out of line. I still have no idea what they did but as I drove off the squeak was still there.

A few weeks later I decided to try again. This time the young guy at a different garage spoke some English so it went a bit better.

I told him about the squeak and that the car was hard to start when it was hot. Also, the doors creaked a lot and I wanted them greased. I was told it would be ready in four hours. Before we left they had already greased the doors so things were looking good.

Rosalie and I walked over to the other side of town to get some really good fish and chips. While sitting there we met up with some friends and had a nice lunch together. Meanwhile, I got a phone call from the garage saying that the shocks on the car needed to be replaced, which didn’t surprise me at all. It would now be ready at 6 o’clock. 6 o’clock came and went so we called and they said maybe 7 o’clock. We decided to wait until the next morning.

Rosalie called at about 8:30 am and they said it would be ready by 9. We left home at nine forty-five to walk to the garage. At last, the car was ready.

The young guy Alejandro, told me that as well as the shocks he had changed the spark plugs, the air filter and a few other minor things. The bill came to $399 CDN so not too bad. The car has been a lot better, especially on the rough roads but we still have the squeak!