I had a lunch date with Dale today, so I worked a few hours this morning and left around 11:30.

I realised this week that if I were to take the expensive beach panga, I could get picked up right at that embarcadero by the bus that goes both to the Mercado and into the Golden Zone. I have no idea what sort of time saving that would be, though, since the bus meanders. But it’s a good thing to keep in mind if my leg ever starts acting up too badly to walk far or if I have something particularly heavy to carry.

Since I need the exercise, I decided not to explore that option today and just do my usual route of village panga and walking down Gutierrez Najera, stopping for a grapefruit juice along the way, to get to a bus stop on Avenida del Mar.

For the first time, I arrived at the bus stop just as the bus was pulling in. In fact, I was a second behind it and if another passenger hadn’t bodily placed himself with one foot in the door and one foot out to force the driver to wait that second, I would have missed the bus! They really just pause rather than stop for passengers!

The bus was packed, but I found a seat and rode all the way to about a block shy of Rico’s Café. I walked there and got a pound of coffee. It was nice to get some before I got to a ‘need to count how many scoops I have left’ quantity at home. 🙂

It was then a short walk to the RV park, where Dale and her boys were waiting for me. Dale has been in the Golden Zone a full month now and loves it so much that she is going to renew for another month. The location is really convenient, I’ll give it that!

I was craving a hamburger, so we went back to the same place we ate last time I visited. Service was as good as last time. We ordered a giant ‘chocomilk’ again (*smiles*). Dale got the chicken quesadillas, a good value for her as she gets three meals out of them. I got the hamburger and opted for chips and salsa to share rather than fries.

Their salsa was phenomenal! It was definitely Gringoified as it wasn’t spicy. There was chile in it, I could taste it and feel just a little heat, but nothing major. It was just perfect for me and I got to the bottom of the bowl!

My hamburger today was nowhere near as juicy and oniony as the last one I got, but it was still fantastic and I would definitely go back all the way out there for a burger even without Dale.

We then walked a bit further north so Dale could show me a stretch of beach she discovered.

We had fun watching the parasailers (people pulled behind a boat while wearing a parachute) and I am going to research that as it’s something I’d really like to try.

Then, something quite unexpected happened: a beach vendor actually managed to sell me something I hadn’t planned on buying! I really don’t buy a lot of jewellery, but I saw these pretty sun and moon earrings and just had to treat myself! They are very likely not real silver and I surely paid way too much money and I really don’t care. They are just gorgeous!

The afternoon was moving on, so we headed back to the RV park to walk the dogs quickly.

Then, Dale drove me to Soriana. She had already done all her big shopping, so I told her that I was very happy for the lift and could get home on my own. We made tentative plans to meet for lunch at the Mercado on Monday.

Before going to Soriana, I stopped in at Office Depot next door to do a little research for the English school here on Isla as I am helping them make the decision for the purchase of a printer.

I’ve also been looking for an agenda since the end of December and hadn’t found one, to my immense surprise. Dale also had trouble finding a calendar. So I thought an office supply store would have agendas and all Office Depot had were quite pretty hard bound perpetual agendas for a mere 82.50 pesos. I really like those because I can start them at any date, but they are super hard to find and expensive in Canada and the US. So I came out of there quite pleased!

Soriana was next. I started by wandering around the store looking for non-food things on my list and got help finding “the white cotton things to clean your ears” since Soriana staff don’t know what Q-tips are (whatever works!).

Food-wise, I didn’t want to lug home things I can find at Ley or the City Deli, but I did find some treasures. I bought all the hummus they had (two containers *g*) and spent a full 15 minutes in the ginormous cheese section drooling.

They had everything from local Mexican cheese to cheeses imported from Quebec, France, Italy, Spain, and more! I bought some ‘Manchego’ and another one that looked hard and aged that claims to be Mexican Parmesan. I look forward to trying it out!

I thought I’d come out of there with bags and bags of stuff and spend a fortune, but I spent less than 500 pesos and my four bags weren’t even all that heavy. If I wasn’t absolutely beat, I would have taken the bus to Gutierrez Najera and walked to the panga from there, but I’d done my exercise for the day and really wanted a pulmonía.

Thankfully, there was one right outside. I couldn’t get him any lower than 70 pesos, so off I went. I’ve noticed that rides from the embarcadero tend to be cheaper than rides to it, probably because it’s harder to get rides there. I really enjoyed my trip!

I’ve lugged much heavier and cumbersome bags home, so I didn’t get a pulmonía on this side. A short distance from home, I came across a guy selling giant corn on the cobs from his truck for 1.5 pesos each and bought two.

I’m now unwinding with a glass of white wine (partial payment on some work I did recently) and I’ll have to do a small job tonight. Work is sluggish, but steady!