We had not given a lot of thought to physical fitness, although living in a water park with half a dozen bath water temperature giant pools swimming flow right into the mix immediately, but that didn’t help Catherine or as we’ve learned at her Spanish name is Catalina.
So every two or three days I strap on a fairly deep backpack, and she grabs a covered grocery cart and we make the truck to the center of town.
The only ATM within miles is at the northeast corner of town, Central, connected to HSBC Bank.
Our first visit there that’s how it was kind enough to walk us through the procedure to get pesos from the ATM.
Has a side note in another rabbit hole that we will dive into later we both have our own wise debit cards which handle something like 40 or 50 currencies that can be used in close to 200 countries.
After failures and research, we learn that we needed to convert US Dollars into pesos within the wise app in order to help the ATM produce what looks like Monopoly money to us, but it’s what’s spendable here in Mexico.
Anyway the the round trip based upon a recently downloaded pedometer app has told us that it’s roughly 5 km or two and a half miles.
The hardest part is walking on cobblestone, so we’ve learned certain streets that are actually paved at the very least with flagstone, and some actually have asphalt, which is much easier on the feet.
Some streets have clearly been converted into one-way streets, and completely walking on sidewalks is not practical because of crossing driveways, construction debris, and other obstructions, so we learn to walk with eyes in the back of our head, making room for especially larger vehicles.
About a third of the traffic is on two wheels, with anywhere from 1 to 4 people per motorbike, mostly small-displacement Chinese two-wheelers with some Hondas in the mix.
We used to jump out of the way, but now we simply move over between parked cars or just turn sideways so we can face the sheet metal bearing down upon us, albeit not too quickly.
Besides the small displacement motorcycles, cars from tiny Chinese Uber taxis to Giant Coca-Cola and Pepsi trucks navigate the streets along with garbage trucks, which are nothing more than big open bins where men on the ground toss up bags that are set on the sidewalk on Tuesdays to the men inside the bin and the garbage truck.
I often wonder if they draw straws each day to determine who walks along on the sidewalk and who has to stand in the smelly garbage truck. Perhaps that secret will divulge itself one day.
The journeys are always productive, buying everything from a simple kitchen utensil to produce to visiting Willie the butcher, who cuts find me and grinds his ground beef in front of us, which is probably 95% lean.
Tuesdays are market Day where all the vendors line up on one particular Street for several blocks selling everything from fresh fish to laundry detergent, cowboy hats to used clothing in anything that’ll make someone a dollar.
I must say it’s quite a practical way to shop because I’m always finding a reason to shell out a few pesos here and there. My recent favorite acquisition is my first non-Fedora hat, which is a Panama-style hat in green. Panama hearts are typically white, but I was advised against that by Catalina.
I don’t think a cowboy hat is a good look for me, which is why I went with the wide-brim Panama style.
I’m learning the best places to buy tequila and beer as well as simple things like pastries and fresh tortillas.
The Mexican people love their ice cream but I got to tell you they do not do a very good job, especially with things like vanilla. It’s more of a frozen ice than a creamy ice cream.
This week on market day, Tuesday ,we found a vendor who sold basically a slushie that he kept in giant steel containers that were then iced in larger wood barrels we got a raspberry cup to share, and it was really tasty and I’m looking forward to next week to try a new flavor it certainly wasn’t expensive, just a few pesos.
I keep mentioning pesos without getting into the exchange rate I can tell you that today a peso was worth roughly an American nickel, so you can do the math.
We carry 100, 200, and 500 peso paper bills along with twenties and fifties, which sounds like a lot of money, but a 500 peso bill is only $2,5 and a 200 peso bill is only about $10, so you get the picture.
About half the vendors accept our debit card, except on market Day that’s all the cash transactions so we make sure that we have more than enough but we keep it all in separate pockets so we’re not flashing a lot of money at any given time.
Soon, we will walk west on the main road that borders the RV Park, which is the opposite way from town, to see what it is we can explore.
We have learned that by getting to Town Central, we can then find our favorite stores from there without getting too lost because none of the streets are really well marked and yes, we have both ways and Google maps, but when you’re in a town that hasn’t changed and probably more than 100 years, technology is not necessarily your friend.
Written by Mitch Rezman
Approved by Catherine Tobsing
