criplomats

This week has been a whirlwind and work took a backseat!

To start the week, John and I took our TDY friend Drew to the small town of Ajijic on Lake Chapala, about an hour outside of Guadalajara. We walked by the lake, ate lunch at an excellent Argentinian restaurant, and browsed in some of the shops. I found a neat little place with old looms where they make the ubiquitous placements and napkins, run by a little old couple. Here are a couple of photos; click to see more photos from Chapala.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

During the week, our A-100 classmates Megan and Marcy were in town for a visa conference; we were delighted that they spent an evening with us! We had a nice dinner at Ofelia and got caught up on all the gossip. We haven’t seen each other since 2007 or 2008, so we had a lot of ground to cover!

The next night, our friend and hometown ophthalmologist Dr. Clem was in town, so we had dinner with him, Shari, and their little boy. I bought my groovy red glasses from Dr. Clem and went to high school and college with his brother. It was fun to spend the evening with them while they were visiting Mexico. We enjoyed the old world ambiance of Restaurante Sacromonte and raised a toast to Hot Springs.

My in-laws Pete and Ginger arrived on Friday! John picked them up at the airport and we had a nice dinner at home, before we kicked off the sightseeing tour on Saturday. It’s so fun to have our first houseguests!

Saturday mid-morning we set off for Tlaquepaque, a little shopping town just outside of Guadalajara. We had a good lunch at Luna and wandered around the little shops. We didn’t buy much, but I visited the really cool leather purses and bedspreads that I like. Eventually I’ll find the exact thing I want, but until then, I’m content to “visit.”

Today we went to the town of Tequila. Tequila is sort of like Champagne – only liquor made from the agave plants of Tequila (and four other designated towns in Mexico) can be called “Tequila.” We went on a two-hour tour of the Jose Cuervo distillery – it was really interesting and their gardens with sculpture and beautiful trees and flowers were lovely. Afterward we had a tasty lunch at Cholula’s. John brought home a coveted bottle of Family Reserve that we’ll enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the evenings we’ve been enjoying the cool breezes on the balcony. I think we have about six different bird books out trying to identify the birds on the golf course.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click here to see more photos of Pete and Ginger’s visit.

Mom’s had a rough week this week. Thank goodness, Debbie arrived and recognized immediately that she needed antibiotics. Thanks to her, Mom’s housekeeper Sandy, and the hospice nurse, she got the meds she needed. I spoke to her this morning and could actually understand her and she was very coherent. (When I asked her what the weather was like in Arkansas, she clearly said “Crazy!” and Debbie confirmed that was true!) It was the clearest I’ve heard her speak in weeks, including when I was home. Let’s keep hoping she continues to improve!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve been meaning to buy plants for the balcony, but never found the right nursery – or found a nursery that was open when I wanted to go. I finally found one this weekend, and bought several smaller plants. Then John and I loaded up the 4Runner with three tall plants we bought from a departing family. The birds already seem to like the greenery, and it makes the balcony feel so much cozier. From the nursery, I bought two small bougainvilleas, rosemary, basil, and mint, plus they potted a mum and a palm that I had. Hopefully, they’ll grow and I won’t kill them!

The week was full of drama, hard-to-handle cases, and one high-profile case. Pete and I just feel like we’ve been through the ringer! We went to dinner with John and Drew Friday night at a restaurant near the office, then returned to work mid-way through dinner to do follow up on the high-profile case.

Thanks to the recommendation of a co-worker, we’ve found a good spa not too far from the house. I had a nice massage this week after work, then went back for a manicure later in the week. John had an appointment yesterday and he also liked it. I think he wishes he’d had the massage after I made him move all of these heavy plants around!

This week has been crazy at work. My boss was at a conference all week, so it was just me in the office and boy, were we busy! There were several unfortunate incidents involving American citizens that we had to help take care of, plus our normal busy passport work. But we made it through to the end of the week to my birthday!

My office had a nice lunch brought in for me on Friday, plus my favorite coconut cream pie. Diet be damned! It was delicious.

Pete and Ginger sent me two books about Hot Springs. I’ve started the first one, called “Hot Springs, Past and Present” by Ray Hanley. It’s really neat – he has a photo on the top of the page of an old landmark in its hey-day, then a present day photo below. It makes me want to take it and drive around town. I wish I could have seen Hot Springs back when it was hopping!

John took me out for a nice dinner, again to Sacromonte. Our new friend Drew, a TDYer from Rio, came with us. We had a great time yakking and eating.

Yesterday was fun – we had a supplemental delivery of things that we had had in storage since we joined the Foreign Service. We got our master bedroom suite (welcome back, king-size bed!), plus a lot of odds and ends. It was hard work, but we have most things put away. It was like Christmas unpacking boxes!

This morning we went to the Oaxacan place for breakfast with Drew. It was packed with families celebrating Mother’s Day. Happy Mother’s Day, Mom!

I took advantage of the Mexican holidays to make a quick trip to Hot Springs to see Mom. She seems to be doing well, or at least as best as we can expect. She let me take her in her wheelchair down the street where the neighborhood was having a picnic. I think she enjoyed getting to say hello to people and get out. We also sat on the back porch for a while, and Sandy and Christine stopped by.

I had to get to the airport in an armored vehicle Saturday morning. On Friday, we were on lockdown because the narco-traffickers were burning cars and blocking roads in and out of Guadalajara (they’re called “narco-blockades). Everything was fine on Saturday morning and the trip to the airport was uneventful.

John took me for a really nice meal at Sacromonte Thursday night. It’s sort of an old standard in Guadalajara; some folks had told us it seemed a bit run down, but we really enjoyed it. I had a nice steak with a creamy cilantro sauce – tasty!

Otherwise the week has been fairly uneventful. We started watching a great PBS series, “Wolf Hall,” about the life of Thomas Cromwell in Henry the VIII’s court – very interesting and well done.

On Tuesday, my boss and I traveled to Merida, Mexico, for a conference. It was my first time in the Yucatan Peninsula, and it was lovely – but hot, hot, hot! The newspapers said they were having record heat; each day was triple digits. John flew in on Thursday afternoon as my conference was wrapping up, and we spent Friday and Saturday sightseeing.

Friday we hired a driver/guide to take us to the Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza. It was pretty amazing. Aside from the main pyramid, there were several outlying ruins on the compound that were interesting. My favorite had bas reliefs of skulls.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Afterward, we drove to a cenote, basically a big fresh water pool of water (per Wikipedia: a natural pit, or sinkhole, resulting from the collapse of limestone bedrock that exposes groundwater underneath). The first one we saw was really beautiful, and the water was about 30 or 40 feet underground. The vegetation around the opening was lush, with hanging vines with mot-mot birds flying about (they are a beautiful iridescent blue). You can swim in them – a very popular thing to do.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday the driver took us to the coast where we saw salt ponds and pink flamingos in the wild – lovely! I had never seen them except in zoos; too bad I didn’t take a zoom lens with me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had lunch overlooking the Gulf of Mexico, then drove through several small towns to see their cenotes – none anywhere near as impressive as the first one we saw. The drive through the towns was very interesting, though, just to see how people live.

The Yucatan food was delicious! We had dinner at Chaya Maya Friday night (chaya is like spinach) and the food was amazing. We went to the original one, which is quite small and mostly locals eating there. They have ladies making corn tortillas by hand and cooking them over a small flame on the floor (several places we ate do this).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday morning before we left, I walked around the city a bit. The architecture is beautiful, old Colonial style. Many old houses have been refurbished and repurposed, but there are still many in desperate need of repair. A really fun trip!