Busy in Cancun 3/11/13 - 3/15/13

Margarita picked me up at 12:30 p.m. to go with her for girls day. Two of her friends from Canada, Beverly and Jodie were joining us. They live a bit across town in a little community.  Jodie's house is huge, 3 stories and a neat deck. They just bought it in September and have done lots of work on it.

We started the day with some good Italian food. Margarita and I shared a shrimp pizza (first time I'd had that) and we shared a pitcher of sangria. Very nice restaurant, good food. In front of the restaurant was a big chess set that was so cute.

 

 

We then went to a crazy store, a huge building three stories tall filled with everything imaginable -- statutes, patio furniture, dishes, jewelry, hats and pirates. It was fun to look at all the cool stuff they had.  If you wanted to look at something that was in the corner it could take someone a half an hour to dig back to make a path.  The bottom floor is particularly crazy.  I did buy a pair of pretty extreme green earrings that I'm going to wear on St. Patrick's Day for our party.  St. Patrick's Day is our anniversary of meeting in 1972, and in addition the day I quit smoking 3 (yes 3) years ago.  What a struggle, but so far so good.  Hardest thing I've ever done. 

Like I said, they had a

little bit of everything

Next door to store is the bakery section of Casa de los Abuelos (where John and I want to eat) and Margarita got a few cookies.  Nice bakery. Next stop the beach, a little bar right before you cross the bridge into tourist zone.  You can spend time there for the price of a meal or drinks. They have a swimming pool and small beach area and marina.   I think we will check that out later when Cathy and Robert come. We visited, had a beer. 

Last stop was Supermara (a grocery only division of Walmart) small, but a place I was able to buy some butter from Denmark, yeah. Picked up a few rolls so I can have some bread and butter tonight when I get home. Long, but fun day and John was happy to see me. Cooked his dinner and to bed early. 

I neglected to take pictures along the way today, so I'm sort of mad at myself.  I guess we were just having too much fun.  I've got to remember to document, document.  When I'm with Margarita it is go, go and I get distracted.  Maybe I need to hang my camera around my neck!!

Tuesday morning John was getting coffee and looked out the window. He called me over saying, “Is that a cat?” I went over to look – right in our tree at eye level (4^th floor) and about 3 feet away from our window was an opossum. Amazing, just amazing.

Our little critter

 

Took bus to Walmart to get TV sound and monitor/computer connection cord.  We subscribed to Net Flicks.  There are only 3 1/2 channels with English.  Robert has an account, but it does not work in Mexico.  But for $10 a month, no contract and with first month free, we can watch movies.  Got what we needed after much looking and walked two blocks to Casa de los Abuelos and had a nice dinner.  Had been wanting to eat here after reading reviews.  Lovely restaurant.

 

Casa de los Abuelos

 

One of our goals was to take the bus back to our house.  We waited over 20 minutes in a light sprinkle and one came by, but it was overly packed at rush hour so driver just drove by.  We decided we didn't want to wait longer so caught a cab.

 

At home we hooked up TV/computer and watched several movies.  Seems like there was speed in our dinner as we were both up until around 4:00 a.m.  Finally got tired and just crashed.

  

On Wednesday we hit the road about 1:00 p.m.  We just do not motivate well in the mornings anymore.  We wanted to ride the bus all the way, as far as it went so we could figure out how to pick up Cherry who is far down in hotel zone.  We came to the end, which is right as El Rey, (Mayan archaeological site where we have been before) and the bus driver said we had to get off.  We asked if we could pay and just go around but he said no, we had to cross the street and get bus going back.

 

Stopped by the Surfing Burrito and John had a burrito and we had two beers.  We were here when they first opened.  Fun place with fair prices.  Glad to see they are doing good business.

 

Tiny place created from an alley space

Only in Mexico

 

  Walked toward place I wanted to get Tacos and took some silly pictures on the way.

 

Crazy Taxi

 

Hot Stuff

 

In front of CoCo Bongo

 

My place wasn't open so we went to a little Mayan restaurant and I ordered paella, first time I've had it.  It even had octopus (first time) that I expected to be like rubber bands, but it was very tender.  Had two margaritas each and they were really tasty.  After eating hopped on bus, back to Walmart, picked up a few things and grabbed a cab home.  Exhausting, but fun day.

 

Thursday decided John has procrastinated long enough in getting blood coagulation time done.  We both studied maps and decided which hospital to go.  Took two buses to get to our destination, and one cab. We stopped for lunch along the way by Plaza los Americas, a huge mall that even has a Sears.  Shopped at Chedraui to get some wooden BBQ skewers.  I'm making satay chicken for Henry's birthday party on Saturday.  Yesterday I tried to explain "skewers" in Spanish (there are several different ways to say it) in Walmart and the nice lady took me over the tongs.  For today, I rewrote the Spanish phrase and smart John put pictures on his phone.  We got our skewers.

Spanish & pictures

We got our skewers

 

We ate lunch at Sanborn's and each had cochinita pibil burritos that were quite good.  Arrived at Americano Hospital, spoke to English speaking doctor and he took us to the lab next door and they took John right in, drew his blood and said come back for results in one and one-half hour.  We went up to La Quinta Hotel (where I have been going to church service) and we sat in lobby awhile, looked around and went back for results.  We were so happy to see that his blood was 2.4 - which is just where it needed to be.  Yeah.  The total for lab work was around $41.00 US.  We will have to go back at least two more times to get it checked, but now we know where it is so that is a good feeling.

 

Friday, time is flying by.  Seems impossible we've been here for two weeks.  Up pretty early and John left at 10:30 a.m. to catch the bus to pick up Cherry.  She is pretty far down in the hotel zone.  They will cab back.  Cherry arrived and we had a nice visit.  I made guacamole with tostados for a snack. 

 



 

Margarita came late afternoon to take me shopping for chicken.  Cherry came along too and enjoyed the places we went.  Margarita took us by Dublin's Irish Pub so we could be sure it was there since we're having a party there Sunday.  She had driven by last week to locate it and not seen it.  Hard to see and it was on the second floor.

 

Home, got chicken marinating and cooked chicken for dinner.  We watched a movie.  So funny with Cherry being here because it just seems so natural and usual. She's a special gal and we love her.  She and her two friends (who returned to Indiana in the morning) were on the total go for about 5 days. Exhausted she fell asleep in the chair during the movie.  Poor little gal.  I can't believe what she was able to fit into a few days here - amazing.  She will be with us until Tuesday morning to go to airport - up at 3:00 a.m.  Yikes.

 

Agenda shows two parties in the next two days, so we should be having fun.  I'll try to remember to take pictures.