November 4, 2014
Friendly Faces
So many! Now that we’ve got our feet under us and are immersing ourselves in the community we are meeting more people. Our new Spanish teacher Dolores Monterrubio Alvarez is wonderful. I love her sense of humour and teaching approach. I hope to learn much from her. We met our neighbours Esperanza and Alberto who are very welcoming and eager to speak Spanish and English with us. Then there is Vince our kite boarding instructor and local bike shop guy. The list will grow, but in just one week we’ve met so many people. Oh ya; Tanna and her husband from Texas who were so friendly and helped Andrew out after getting a flat tire. And more and more; Elizabeth and Greg, Edith and anyone else I’ve forgotten. Our list of friends is growing and we are looking forward to spending time with them.
Week’s Highlights
Amanda writes: Getting bicycles and starting Spanish lessons is huge. Both will give me a sense of independence and control. I’m enjoying learning Spanish so much. And the icing on the cake was the hookup of a kayak. Our friend Manuel came through and I’m so grateful.
Week’s Lowlights
Amanda writes: Kite boarding gave me a pretty big scare having swallowed a good portion of the Pacific Ocean and I’m not very eager to get back on the board.
What Going On…
Amanda writes: Now that we’ve been here for a couple of weeks we are starting to get into a routine. I do well with routines. Having a sense of accomplishment is important and even if that accomplishment is relaxing, somehow if I’m doing it regularly; I feel good. So after a week we’ve started riding our bicycles around town to get an idea of our surroundings. We’ve been riding them to the beach most days and getting more familiar with the best routes. We’ve also found what we think is the best beach. That is until we find a better one. Andrew has played pickle ball once with some guys and I’ve been practicing yoga which centres me.
We’re starting to get a better sense of the community and the people in it. It’s remarkable to me how run down some of the areas are and unkept. You can ride down a street and see completely crumbled homes and then in the next block see a big house with a fence around it. It’s bizarre how the up keep is so different and the areas are in such contrast. The town of San Carlos is far more expensive that I thought it would be. However now seeing the majority of its residents I can see why. Most of the people are snow birds; here for six months as they are retired. Apparently Mexico feels like as they’re retired and from North America, they can afford it. That makes it a bit challenging because we don’t fall into that category. When we meet people and tell them we’re retired, they somehow assume we’re on the same retirement plan as them and have loads of cash. We’ll figure out the balance I’m sure.
Going to the beach each day has been delightful. The sand in my toes and warm water are glorious. Combine that with the wonderful 30-35 degree celsius temperature and a little wind and it is very comfortable. There are downsides however. I am completely covered in bites and as I type this I’m on the verge of taking an oral antihistamine. I’m fighting the urge because I’m sure this is nothing compared to what I’ll face as we continue through Central and South America. My bites are from sea lice – I know it sounds gross. Apparently they are like jelly fish from the perspective that they get caught in your bathing suit and then if you don’t take it off after swimming, they feast on your body. And so I have these extremely unattractive bites where my bathing suit sits. The second time it happened was worse than the first as I had board shorts on while kite surfing so they are down my legs a bit too. Add to that a couple of sand fly bites and now I look like I have chicken pox. To add insult to injury, when I get home the few mosquitos in the house have taken a liking to me and only suck my blood instead of the other two occupants. Because of this when I get home I put on a long sleeve shirt, pants and socks to cover as much skin as possible. Alas, still somehow they get me. I now spray myself with insect repellent before sleeping. So not only do I look bizarre with my red dots that have turned into welts and blisters; I smell like insect repellent. It’s shocking Andrew is still sharing a bed with me.
I’m also really enjoying our home we’re renting. It is large enough for three people to comfortably enjoy the space. It’s in a great central location and it has air conditioning. It also has some other tenants that I’m getting used to but I guess that is just part of being in a hot climate. So far we’ve killed one cockroach and we have some incredible what we thought were ants in the washroom. I say incredible because even when we take apart their house they built, they rebuild in just one day. We called the landlord and turns out they are termites. We also have a resident gecko. At first we didn’t know what the gecko was and we looked on the internet to see what it may be. We thought it may be a gecko and pulled up noises that a gecko makes. Andrew of course clicked on the gecko mating sound. This resulted in the gecko joining us in bed and freaking me out and now I’m sure it’s here to stay. We’ll have to name him.
So with a couple of weeks under our belt I’d say we’re doing okay. I’d lie if I said I didn’t miss they cycling and the close bond Andrew and I had with just the two of us; but life is an adventure. I’m happy to still be sharing my time with him and being in a warm climate. We did a local hike today with a friend we met named Edith and had a really great time. Edith was so nice to take us up there and she’ easy to talk to as her English is wonderful. I’m also looking forward to spending some time kite surfing with Elizabeth and her husband Greg. Somehow it’s always easier to try a male dominated sport when there is at least one woman doing it.