09 Monday Dec 2013
Posted in Accommodations, Travel
Everyone who knows Louise knows that she’s a varsity-level shopper. Leaving the theater last night, she lingered at numerous shop windows even though the shops were closed. Closed! When the shops are closed, she plans strategy. When they’re open, she manipulates prices, selections, and even vendors with the precision of an NBA star on a charge to the basket. The woman is shopping’s Kobe Bryant.
05 Thursday Dec 2013
Posted in Accommodations, Travel
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That may be a poor choice for a title. Tim Taylor worshiped power tools. (“More power!”) At Los Tules, repairing palapas is done without a power tool in sight. Just three guys and a machete. Sorry, Tim.
27 Wednesday Nov 2013
Posted in Accommodations, Travel
If you’ve ever traveled to Mexico, you’re familiar with the FMM — the Forma Migratoria Múltiple that, for most of us, is acquired on a plane. You fill in the blanks while you’re still in the air and surrender half of the FMM when you pass through Mexican customs. Don’t lose the other half! Trying to return without your half of the FMM guarantees an eternal encounter with Mexican bureaucracy. You say you’ve never met anyone who has had that experience? I rest my case.
21 Thursday Nov 2013
Posted in Accommodations, Short
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We’re all savvy now. We know the answer to that question: no one! Unless you live in Los Tules. It’s a different story here.
03 Sunday Nov 2013
Posted in Accommodations, Travel
“They were out of white.” Louise had just returned from the makeup store bearing brushes, remover, and a large tube of silver makeup. “They said silver will look just as good.” Silver? Who’s ever heard of a silver skull? I was destined to look like a piece of jewelry, not the sugar skull I anticipated.
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30 Wednesday Oct 2013
Posted in Accommodations, Travel
I’ve been eating in Mexican restaurants for a zillion years, but I didn’t know how ignorant I was about Mexican cuisine until faced with multitude of unidentifiable foodstuffs in the Mexican supermarket. Dried beef? Tripe? Hominy? Pozole? Menudo?
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28 Monday Oct 2013
Posted in Accommodations, Gallery, Travel
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We live right on the beach, so when we go downtown or uptown, we take the blue bus. For 45 American cents, we can go just about anywhere we need to.
18 Friday Oct 2013
Posted in Accommodations, Travel
I’ve written earlier about Los Tules, our home for six months — a former coconut-palm plantation, complete with fear of coconut missiles falling from sixty feet. Amazingly, there’s no concussion wing at the local hospital.
How do they avert danger (and certain litigation)? They harvest the coconuts by climbing up trees with machetes between their teeth.
13 Sunday Oct 2013
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The street that fronts our apartment at Los Tules is named Boulevard Francisco Medina Ascencio. It’s a long name for a long street. Walmart is on this street. So is Costco. You can buy a Ford or a Chevy on this street, or souvenirs at Señor Frog’s.
With all that industry, it’s no surprise that Ascencio is not only long, but wide — eight lanes wide. Eight lanes of rattly buses, death-wish motorcycles, and cars — lots of cars, all traveling at homicidal Mexican speed. We cross this road almost every day. Our nearest grocery is on the other side of Ascencio and crossing it is like playing the game of Frogger — for keeps.
11 Friday Oct 2013
Posted in Accommodations, Travel
Just arrived in her private room, Louise smiles with anticipation.
October 10, 2013, 6:30 AM
I awaken to our warm bedroom. The bedroom is upstairs and heat rises. We don’t use the air conditioner up there because it makes noise and we prefer to hear the surf at night through the open window. In the kitchen I fix one cup of coffee — for myself. There will be none for Louise as today is the day she is scheduled for surgery.
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