We’ve moved to our new hotel. I don’t think I’ll miss the
guy with the street cart crying out something like, “Ricos, Tamales
Oaxacaneros!” for a couple of hours every night. Our new place is set at the
back of the hotel on the third floor. The entire wall facing the sunrise is
glass doors. Thankfully they have black-out blinds. A couple of mornings we had
to keep those closed to prevent the room from heating up (no AC), but today we
have the blinds up and the doors open because it’s nice and cool. The last
couple of days have been pretty warm.
The best part about this place is the patio… it’s huge. Every
night we sit out here sipping wine and guzzling beer (sorry Joe) and watch the moon rise.. In the morning
we watch the sun rise while we sip coffee. Joe’s been able to get his work-outs
in on the patio. He misses the last place only because he could hang from the
stair well and do pull-ups. In my opinion that’s a sign of mental illness.
The
only down sides are the pretty shower with no place to set your shampoo and
stuff, (so I dragged a bar stool into the bathroom and set it next to the door),
and one of the sliding doors doesn’t latch… we can’t lock it. It has a screen
door, which is locked in place, but all they’d need is a little knife and they’re
in. Also, no safe for our valuables. Fortunately, this is a closed and guarded
hotel. You have to have a key to get in and a guard sits by the front door.
Anyway, it is what it is.
For those of you planning to come to Santiago de Queretaro
(Qro), our favorite restaurants are Blue Fish (fish and shrimp tacos), Fiume 37
(serrano ham and arugula pizza), Hanks (Bourbon chicken), and Balkan (Mediterranean
food).
We’ve found lots of cheap street food carts too. Remember, we take a
Pepto tablet every morning. We love the hot dogs next to Our Lady of Guadeloupe
Church.
Our other favorite is up in the plaza in front of the giant Convent
and Temple of Santa Cruz. They have a street cart with huaraches (basically
like a large tostada with your choice of toppings) named Chio.
The most beautiful park, by far, is the Alameda Hidalgo. It
is giant and full of huge trees. Unfortunately, it’s mostly closed right now
for Covid. The only have the center walkway open, so we can all be close
together as we walk through… instead of spread out. I don’t think the right
hand knows what the left hand is doing here. For example; the giant indoor
market called La Cruz is packed full of people—packed like sardines! But the grocery
store wouldn’t let us enter together. Only one person per family can enter.
Most of the restaurants take your name, temperature, and make you use their
hand sanitizer before you can enter.
I feel a little bad for commenting on this, but a lot of people beg here. Most have something for sale, but there's plenty who don't. Unfortunately, even the ones who have something to sell, act like they want a hand-out. Anyway, when I saw this giant statue, I started laughing.
Our current dilemma is we must get a Covid test in less than
3 days prior to our re-entry to the United States. We knew that before coming.
What we didn’t know was it’s really expensive here. They have two types of
tests; an antigen or a PCR. The prices vary, but the antigen is much cheaper.
The least expensive place we found was Bimodi (3,000 pesos for PCR, 900 for the
antigen). The problem is that the website says if you get the antigen test and
it’s negative, you have to take the PCR to prove it’s negative! 3,900 pesos! I
checked the CDC website and they say the antigen is good enough, but I called
United Airlines just to be double sure. After ten minutes, the airline rep
hunted down the flight requirements and confirmed that the antigen test is good
enough. In current dollars to pesos, that puts us at 90 bucks. So in about two
hours we’ll hop in an uber and go to get our nostrils destroyed by a Q-tip… can’t
wait.
IF we test positive, which can easily happen (I know of
several people who’ve gotten two tests in one day with two different results),
we won’t be permitted to return to our country. We will be forced to wait two
weeks and get another test. I’m trying really hard to not stress-out, but not
succeeding so far. Joe thinks we should just go to Puerto Escondido and hang
out at the beach.
On a better note, I’ve been inspired to write while here. I’ve
finished Clay Boyce’s biography (now it’s in the editing mode), I’ve taken one
of my favorite screenplays I’ve already written and split it into two. Now I’m
writing number three and four. They are adapted from a 10 book series (written
in 1902-08), which will make 20 hour-long shows for cable TV. This series will
be similar in genre to Little Women.
I forgot to tell you that while I was sitting having a cup of coffee a couple of ladies walked by carrying wedding flowers. I apparently was obvious in admiration for said flowers. A couple of minutes later a lady brought me a bouquet... wasn't that sweet. Well, hopefully this is my last blog for this trip :) If we
test positive, we’ll be on a very different adventure for at least two more
weeks :/
