criplomats

With Monday being a holiday, it was a short week. I took advantage of the day to hit the gym, then went to try a new spa and had a good massage and pedicure – very relaxing. Our sweet housekeeper fell en route to our house; luckily John was here to take her to the ER. She injured her leg, so the doctor put her on bed rest for a while until she feels better.

We’re in the tail-end of rainy season here, and I sure will miss the nice cool days and (some) stormy nights – it’s been such a lovely summer.

John is in the throes of year-end procurement, so his Saturdays will be spent working this month, but yesterday I went to a poolside picnic to welcome a new Consulate family.

Otherwise, it’s been a low-key week. We watched “Narcos,” a series about Pablo Escobar – really good. I split and re-planted the chile pepper plant that I bought last week and put it by the hummingbird feeder – I think the birds like the additional splashes of red.

John left Tuesday morning for a conference in Mexico City, so I was on my own this week until he returned Friday night. The “mice” didn’t really play while the cat was away – I just worked and came home to hang out with Flavia everyday. I did go to the gym each day – sometimes twice a day! I love watching the birds who come to drink at the pool. We get some pretty birds – and the pigeons. The pigeons remind me of little old men…they gather together and sip water and dunk their heads in, then all waddle away. Really funny.

Wednesday I went with two co-workers to Lake Chapala where we do outreach to the American citizen community. They are mostly senior citizens and appreciate us coming to them to take care of their notaries and passport applications so they don’t have to come to the big city. It’s a charming place and was good to get out of the office.

Today we took the newcomers Chris and Monica to Tlaquepaque for lunch at Casa Luna and some shopping/sightseeing. Fun!

We’re looking forward to a long weekend!

Two new folks arrived at post this week and John and I are their social sponsors – it’s always fun to meet new people and help them settle in. John picked them up at the airport on Thursday and got them settled in their house. We picked them up for work on Friday, and some of the consular managers and I took them to lunch.

Saturday I took them on a Costco run, then I hit the grocery store and the kitchen. Sunday we pulled out the china and mimosa glasses and hosted a welcome brunch for them – it was a fun morning, and John and I enjoyed being back in entertaining mode again. Everyone seemed to have a good time. After everyone left, John and I played a couple of games of Scrabble, then put our feet up!

We got excited this week when John was on the balcony after dark and saw a bat. We thought it was pretty cool, and saw him swooping around the next night, too. By Saturday night, word had spread around the bat world, and we had a huge swarm of them. It was amazing and a lot of fun to watch – turns out they love the hummingbird feeder – um, a little too much. We had wondered why the feeders were empty when we got up Saturday morning – it was the same story Sunday morning. Since we think they’re fun to watch, we thought that we could just cover the feeders at night and put out a pan of sugar water for them instead – until we went out on the balcony for Sunday coffee and found bat poop everywhere! It wasn’t super-bad, but it was enough for us to know that we don’t need to encourage them to come around. It’s a shame they can’t be better behaved guests!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is John’s first latte art – I’m definitely a lucky woman to wake up to this on a Saturday morning! Well done!

Saturday we drove out to Tlaquepaque for a large arts and crafts fair. We had a lot of fun looking at the different kinds of crafts from different parts of the country. I bought a cookie jar from a guy from Hidalgo with a Katrina motif:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Afterward, we walked to Mariscos Progreso on the advice of one of the local staff from work and we’re glad we did. We had the dish they are most famous for: pescado zarandeado (flipped fish). It’s cooked over mesquite wood in a wire basket and flipped back and forth, and it was delish. Here’s the before and after:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As we were walking back to our car, we saw these three dogs on a balcony, watching the comings and goings on the street below.

John and I loaded up the car and drove to Leon, Guanajuato, Saturday morning. It’s about a three-hour drive from Guadalajara; it was a pretty drive since it’s rainy season and everything was green. Leon is known for leather, so I set off to find it.

John set us up in the swanky Hotsson, a very nice hotel within walking distance of the leather district. Shoes, boots, jackets, and ladies’ handbags abound. After checking into the hotel, we walked down to the zona de piel – it was a crazy neighborhood chock-full of leather and knock-offs. We walked until we about dropped, then went back again the next morning for a last look. I ended up with two nice handbags and a killer red leather jacket – score!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After several hours of shopping, we fought the urge to order room service, and freshened up for dinner out (according to Fitbit, we’d walked almost 15,000 steps already). Our friend and co-worker Jesus had told John that Panteon Taurino was the place to go, and he was right. It was the go-to place for Mexicans to have a big time for birthday parties or just a fun night out. Set in a simulated bull ring, it was decorated floor to ceiling with photos of bullfighters or posters. The entertainment was non-stop: either Mariachis singing and playing, a costumed bull dancing with the ladies, or ladies dancing and bull-fighting a cardboard bull on the bar – it just didn’t stop. We laughed and laughed and loved every bite of our dinner.