Author: The Average Nomad

Compare the high temperatures in these two cities. I think I’m in the right one.

Today I had the most amazing meal. It was fabulous! Thank you for the recommendation, Tere Sandoval, manager of https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/21669851.

The restaurant is “Mestizo” in Guanajuato. https://web.facebook.com/MESTIZO-175719989168712/

The food was obviously created by a professional chef, not a cook. I had three courses, 1. a vegetable/fruit salad “Mezcla de lechugas con fresas, arándano, pera y nuez” ($5.00 USD), 2. a cream of black bean soup “Crema de frijol negro ” ($3.00 USD) and 3. a seared tuna dish for the main course with a pico de gallo sauce “Atún a la parilla con pico de gallo”($11.00 USD). It was the best meal I’ve ever had in Mexico in all my years traveling there.

Keep in mind, this is a fairly expensive meal for Mexico. In the U.S. a meal like that would have cost me 75-80 bucks. On a normal day in Guanajuato I spend five bucks at Starbucks, maybe 7-8 bucks for lunch and then maybe $2.00 on a yogurt at home in the evening. That’s about $15.00 USD for food a day. Other than that, I really have nothing to spend money on. Happy days.

While I was waiting for the restaurant to open for lunch, I popped into a nearby salon and got a haircut. It was only 70 pesos; $3.50. I gave the girl a 100 peso bill and called it good, but I wasn’t thinking correctly. 100 pesos is only five dollars. That means my tip was only $1.50. Damn it!!! I hate to give poor tips. I need to go back tomorrow and give her a proper tip 🙁

I hit the tunnels again today. That was fun. I gotta tell ya, getting 10,000 steps a day in Mexico is easy.

The tunnels under Guanajuato are awesome. I spent some time in them today. I need to do that more ’cause I still have trouble figuring out where the hell I am when I resurface. Navigation down there is tricky.

The city above is packed with people, but for some reason the tunnels are deserted. I wonder why the locals seem to use them so rarely.

Diverting most auto traffic to the underworld of Guanajuato makes the city above ground much nicer.

I hate to admit it, but every morning I go to Starbucks. I’m not a big fan of them normally, but here in Mexico, they really are the only game in town.

I get a high-quality white chocolate mocha. I get more power sockets than I could ever use. I get a large comfy chair. I get free wifi – truly free; I don’t have to hand over my email. Plus, nobody bats an eye if I stay for hours and hours. Sorry Mexico, you need to up your game if you’re gonna pull me outta there.

Do you see the roofdog here?

In case you’ve never heard of Montezuma’s Revenge, I’ll explain it for ya. Montezuma was king of the Aztec Empire when Hernán Cortéz showed up, murdered him and destroyed the empire. Montezuma gets his revenge by giving modern-day invaders stomach cramps and diarrhea. I really struggled with it today for about six hours; sharp stomach pains, sitting on the toilet for long periods and in order to combat it, lots of fluids and naps.

A half-day bout is not at all bad. Normally, it takes a few days to get over it. All in all, I’m lucky it was a mild case.

To set the record straight, his name was Motecuzoma, not Montezuma. He ruled the Mexica Empire (meh-shee-ka), there never were any people named the Aztecs and Motecuzoma wasn’t the last emperor; Cuautémoc was. I’m pedantic that way.

The next time you hear someone mention the “Aztecs”, tell ’em the Aztecs never existed. Truth.

Afterward, while on my walk, a bird did an excellent job of targeting my left pant leg. Great! What else is going to happen!?? I went into a shop, bought some paper napkins and a bottle of water and got to work cleaning up the green and yellow mess. That’ll be part of my laundry list for tomorrow.

I found this painted on a store-front wall. Yep, this is the place to fill all your avian razor blade leg attachment needs.

Sticking with our animal theme, this guy was standing right outside my front door yesterday. Do those look like vintage aluminum milk cans? I spoke to him (her?), but he was very shy. Poor thing 🙁

On a happier note, the weather is so freaking amazing here! It’s sunny with fluffy clouds, and about 75F (24C) every day.

Yesterday I moved into my casa rental. I love having more privacy and a roof-top terrace all to myself. Below are some pics…

 

Today I had lunch and was offered some enchiladas that were so hot, they were named, “enchiladas endiabladas”. Yes, please, I’ll have the food that’s been touched by the devil. Honestly, they weren’t that hot.

I wear bottle openers across my chest; just because.

I almost never use taxis because I prefer to walk. Today I needed to be somewhere fast, so I signaled a taxi to stop, but then noticed he already had two passengers. He stopped anyway, “A dónde vas?” (where are you going?)

I replied, “Tepetapas noventa y siete, frente la vieja estación de ferrocarril.” (Tepetapas 97, in front of the old train station).

“Sube!” (get in!)

I’m not used to getting into taxis that already have passengers, but what the hell. Like I said, I was in a hurry. Turns out the passengers were his wife and teenage daughter. Funny.

Something that surprises me is the high-quality internet speed here in Mexico. So far, every restaurant and coffee shop has free wifi. So sweet.

Today I did a lot of walking; over 16,000 steps according to my iPhone. By chance I came across a neighborhood I want to live in for a while. So, I canceled my reservation where I’m staying now. I canceled my reservation where I was going to move to next week, and I rented a four-storey house. It even has a terrace on the roof with an amazing view of the city. I move in tomorrow 🙂

My next residence is about a block away from the city’s baseball stadium (estadio de béisbol). A taquilla is a ticket office, box office or a ticket window. Here you can line up to buy tickets for seats in the sun or seats in the shade. One is pricier than the other 😉

“Mala onda” is pure street slang. Technically, an “onda” is a wave, like an ocean wave or an electromagnetic wave. In street slang you might say to a buddy, “what’s up”? or, “Qué onda?”

An “onda” can be good or bad – buena onda/mala onda. Here, the author was probably trying to say, “this is messed up”, “this is totally uncool”, or “I’m getting some bad vibes because there are too many old gringos in my neighborhood”.

Another fine day in Mexico. Time for a little lunch y un cafecito con leche 🙂

I’m running a bit low on two prescription drugs I take. So, I figure this is going to be a minor pain-in-the-ass. I’ll need to make a doctor’s appointment, pay for that, get a written prescription and then go buy my drugs, right?

Nah.

I did some reading on the internet web machine and it tells me you can get almost anything you want by simply asking a pharmacist. Really? I tried it. It works! No prescription needed. Wow! What a country! Great!

I’m also running out of cologne. My favorite is Allure by Chanel. So, I hoofed it all over town looking for a perfume shop. The one I found was fairly large, but it looked odd. All the bottles lining the walls were the same color; blue. I asked if they had Allure. The young girl said yes, how much would I like? I said about 150 ml. Okay.

She pulls out some chemicals and starts mixing them. No need for measurements, we can just eye-ball this. I’m thinking I should just walk out, but I’m intrigued. I’ve never seen anything like this before. I let her do her thing. Apparently, in this shop you can order any cologne or perfume you like. They can satisfy any request. They even mix it in front of you – kind of like fancy restaurants where they cook your food at your table. She finishes up by shaking it well and putting it in a nice-looking blue bottle with a spray-top attachment. Price? 10-times cheaper than the real thing. What a deal!  I sprayed some on me back at the B&B.

Meh.

I’ll keep looking for the real thing