Mexican Odyssey

  Le Brunch   The beautiful home of Marie France & Cristophe Entertaining the Expats 10/03/24 – 16/03/24   Sunday 10 March 2024 I had been invited to a brunch at the home of Marie France and Cristophe Hubert, a lovely expat couple from France. It was to be a pot luck, so everyone was going to bring a dish. Since cooking for normal people is not one of my strengths, I mentioned that I could bring my guitar and entertain “the troops,” and Marie France enthusiastically agreed. Martha, my facilitator/Spanish coach volunteered to drive me from the mall if I could meet her there, and I accepted. I took a couple of combi buses to the mall on Sunday morning, and we drove to Campo de Golf El Cristo, the gated community where Marie France and Cristophe live. When we arrived and got through the heavily guarded gates, I was glad I had a ride there, because it would have been a half hour walk from the gate to their beautiful house. Their home is huge, airy and open, with ...

From the morning of 29 Feb. I think that's the worst it can get. 150224-090324 The air quality was bad for most of last week, so I stayed inside until evening when it cleared up a bit and I was able to get some walking in then. I probably should have realized that poor air quality was due to the volcano, Popocatépetl , but I didn’t think it was anything to worry about. I was sweeping up more ash than usual outside, but I reckoned that it had to do with changing winds. Then, I was watching Colbert’s “Meanwhile” segment on YouTube on Tuesday and found out that old Don Popo had erupted 13 times on February 28 th , and he had gifted us with a f**k-ton of ash in the air and all over the place. And that ash is heavy as hell and it gets in everywhere! The air is much better now; I even walked to the top of the Cerro de San Miguel again on Thursday. That is the 3 rd time I’ve done that. I think I may try to climb that bastard of a hill once a week from now on. It takes me about 2 h...

  From my roof, Popocatépetl, on a clear morning I can’t believe that it has been 3 weeks since I last wrote in my blog. I will try to be brief and inclusive. ( About the photo: To give you an idea of how big the volcano is, the peak is about 2 miles higher than where I am standing. ) 080224 Thursday – 130224 Tuesday My vacation to Florida It started out well, with my favorite Uber driver, Anastasio, picking me up right on time to take me to Puebla, where I had tickets on a 9:00 bus going to México City Airport (MCO), Terminal 2. Not wanting to be late, I made sure I got there almost an hour early. The bus took off on time, but it soon developed engine trouble and broke down. We waited a half hour for a replacement bus to pick us up. I should mention that I have a neurotic fear of being late for travel and because of it, I rarely sleep well the night before a trip. Now, I was a half hour behind schedule, but I should still be on time for my 2:00 flight if nothing else goes ...

  27/01/24-03/02/24 Tochimilco & Metepec   Tochimilco Aqueduct Repairing the Monastery Tochimilco On Sunday morning, Tony and Shirley went to Tochimilco and I tagged along. They have a mercado (market) there on Sunday that Shirley wanted to go to. We took the bus there, about a 25 minute trip and arrived there shortly after 10:00 AM. We went to the zocalo where the mercado was set up. About half of it was a farmers market and the other half were food vendors selling a lot of different Poblano (from Pueblo) dishes, including memelitas, quesadillas, tacos, etc., many served with various mole sauces. I don’t tend to eat at mercados because I am suspicious of the meat, which is often pork or goat, neither of which I care for. Unlike a lot of the mercados here, there is a nice shaded porch where people can eat, as well as public restrooms and a sink where one can wash one’s hands. I have found that it is important for gringos like me to make sure we wash our hands be...

  Spending a few pleasant hours at La Cascada  14/01/24 – 27 /01/24 - Two Weeks Changes at Work There have been some changes at work. Our crew has been shrinking due to the closing of some buildings and the underpopulation of others, both of which are due to fewer people coming to the office daily, which, in turn, means that we need fewer people to clean the buildings. We also had one of our managers get a well-deserved promotion to his own account. Because of this, my start time has been changed to 9:00 AM. I asked for permission to take every Thursday off and maintain my 10 hour week by working longer days during the week; permission was granted. This should work out for my benefit in the future, as I will explain below. La Cascada My friends, Tony and Shirley suggested that I might enjoy a day trip to see La Cascada, the waterfall, which is a little feature about 20 minutes away from Atlixco by Uber. I tried to go see it on Friday, the 19 th , but I may have been wa...

Mirador de Cristal - 2 Volcanoes: Popo & Izta Looking through the glass floor Sunday – Saturday 24/12/23 – 13/01/24 (3 Weeks)   Sick in bed It has been a long while since I updated the blog. Shortly after an uneventful Christmas, I got sick with the flu and it has taken 2½ weeks for me to feel well again. For the first few days of the new year, I was pretty much feverish, weak and unable to eat much. I stayed in bed or sat wrapped up on the couch for those days. Martha, the facilitator, offered to go to the store and get me some medicine, and I asked her to get some Tylenol, Dayquil and Nyquil . She wasn’t able to get the Dayquil and Nyquil , so she got me some daytime and some nighttime TheraFlu , and some Paracetemol , which is México’s answer to Tylenol and restricted. After a few days of that, I was able to start eating again, but I lost 8 pounds in a little over a week (I’ve gained it back, since.).   I was starting to feel a little better last weekend, though ...