I love a good rooster crow. But it must be just the right amount. I don’t want it to be so loud as to hear it at night while I sleep. I can hear enough dogs barking, I don’t want to add a rooster to that. I don’t want to hear it too early. I don’t want to wake up to a rooster. And I don’t want to hear it any time before mid morning. And I’d like him to stop after about 5 minutes. I don’t want hours of cock a doodle doing.
This apartment has the right amount of rooster. He starts at about 9:15 and finishes by 9:30. But every morning I’m sure he’s been eaten. I worry until I hear him.
And then I’m happy and Jeff sings the Alice in Chains song:
“Here they come to snuff the rooster, yeah you know he ain’t gonna die.”
On Sunday we went grocery shopping and confirmed that Dragon fruit season has ended. We can’t find them anywhere.
But the goods news is that mango season is in full swing. I’m not sort if mangos have all the health benefits of dragon fruit, but they are quite delicious.
On Saturday night we went out to a restaurant that specializes in local food.
It was in a restored mansion.
We sat outside in the garden, which was fine until the end when the heat caught up with us and we were sweating.
There was a group of musicians the sounded great but even better didn’t move around from table to table. The food wasn’t very photographic but it was really good.
This was cheese stuffed with ground pork in a pumpkin seed sauce. I got marinated pork with homade tortillas.
After dinner we stumbled on a marichi concert. After enjoying the music we continued on to a bar we wanted to try. We couldn’t find it so stopped in here to ask for directions.
Turns out it was a “speakeasy.” A very nice woman called someone I guess see if we could go in? We laughed imagining her saying “yeah I’ve got two old, sweaty gringos. Should we let them in?”
After a few minutes we were led behind a curtain and down a hall to a very swanky and luckily air conditioned bar.
As cool and “secret” as it was, if it had been un air-conditioned we would have turned and walked out.
But it was both cool and cool. So we stayed but only for an hour. We weren’t sweaty anymore and we pretended to not be gringos but we were still old.
On Friday night we went out for Thai food. We were sort of amazed that they had this huge Buddha. In such a Catholic city it was surprising.
Next door to the restaurant was a Thai massage place. We got Thai massages years ago when we were in Thailand. It felt like they were trying to pull our arms and legs off. We opted to just have dinner. No massage.
Dinner was good but it wasn’t exactly what we get in the US. But then I’m guessing tacos in Thailand would be a bit different than what we get here.
Every night we sit on our rooftop deck and every night at 8:07pm a firework goes off. Its always off in the distance towards the street. Then at 8:09 aonther one goes off. Every single night. Why?
We asked the maintenance guy in our building and he said that in the summer there are parties. I reiterated that it was at exactly 8:07. And he knew exactly what I was talking about. But again said it was parties. But, there is no way a party starts every night at 8:07.
On Wednesday I got my Avastin treatment. The treatment itself is fine. The ordeal of being admitted to the hospital each time is getting old. It was much easier and faster in Panama.
I got there early so I hung out with a duck in the parking lot. The hospital isn’t near water so it was strange to see him there.
The usual assortment was in the room. I always take the granola bars and an apple when I leave. Next time I may bring a bigger purse for the cookies.
There were only 2 cokes vs the usual five. I don’t drink coke anymore so not a problem.
If I could bring a cooler next time I could bring the yogurt home.
The fruit plate is always good. I usually eat this before anyone even comes in.
They start by putting saline through my port. In Panama this is a five minute procedure. I sit in a chair, in my normal clothes. Here they have me in the hospital gown, lying in the hospital bed with this paper over my head. You would think the were doing surgery with the care that take in doing something that is similar to putting in an IV.
In the US you get those socks with traction on the bottom. In Panama you don’t get any foot ware. In Mexico you get these slippers which are a tripping hazard for me. I have 2 different socks on because one is a compression sock.
Breakfast was really good. There wasn’t lunch this time which was fine with me. Its never good.
After waiting 90 minutes after treatment to be released and get my invoice, they had screwed it up. I have to go back next week to get it sorted out.
And then the best part of treatment day. I came back to the apartment and Jeff had made me chocolate covered strawberries.
On Tuesday we were making a recipe that called for eggplant and a lemon among other things. We had ordered them online with a bunch of other things a few days prior but were shorted the eggplant and lemon.
Jeff placed a quick door dash type order for one eggplant, 5 limes and a lemon.
Since it wasn’t much I went to get the order. It felt heavy for so few items. Turns out it was 5 bags of limes and a lemon.
We are still finding dragonfruit but there is les and less of it in the stores. We are becoming dragonfruit horders when we do find it.
Besides obsessing about fruit it was also laundry day. We have a system down. Clothes, sheets and towels the can go in the dryer we bring to a place to have them done. Clothes that we want to lune dry which is most our clothes we do at the laundramat.
We usually try to go to local coffeeshops, but on Sunday we were in the mood for the familiarity and strong air conditioning of Starbucks.
Everything in Mexican Starbucks is almost exactly the same as in the US. The food is a little different. We each got the poblano, potato and cheese wrap which I don’t think they have in the US. We also got the lemon loaf which I’m happy to report tasted the same as in the US.
The merchandise was the same. It felt so refreshing to have no knowledge of any of it. I had no idea how any of it was produced, shipped or forecasted.
One thing that was different was when they washed the floor while we were sitting in the table on the right. Nothing had spilled it was just their floor washing time. We kept moving to get away from the wet mop and they kept washing right up to each of our tables.
But even with that it was a nice bit of air conditioned Americana.
