Our Mexican Adventure

Yesterday was Easter, the culmination of a week of festivities for Catholic Mexicans. Semana Santa, or Holy Week, is Mexico’s version of Spring Break. All the schools have the week off, government offices close down and many businesses give their employees a vacation. Mexicans flock to the beaches, and Playa del Carmen was no exception.

John and I headed to the beach yesterday to join the hordes.

We had a wonderful time at the beach despite the crowds. The sand was soft, the sun was shining, the sky a brilliant blue, and the water a refreshing aquamarine. Aaaah!

To top off our Easter day, we feasted on tacos al pastor and chicken alambre. What a great day!

Today is a historic day, not only because an African-American man was elected president last night, but also because 3 years ago today, John and I arrived in Playa del Carmen to start a new life. We intended to stay for only 6 months. Our goals were to learn Spanish, discover a new culture and gain some clarity to hopefully figure out what we wanted to do with the rest of our lives.

Three years later, and we’re still inching our way towards reaching our goals. Our Spanish is meager, allowing us to order food delivery over the phone, but often foiling our attempts to speak with our Chiapan cleaning lady. We now understand how so many Latinos in the U.S. can get by without speaking much English. We rely on our network of expat friends and English-speaking Mexican professionals more than we’d like to admit.

Culture? As any Mexican would say ‘Playa has no culture!’. Well, that’s partially true. We have no museums, no theatre, no art galleries. But that’s not what we came here for. We still struggle to understand the whys and hows of life in Mexico. But we’ve already learned so much. Like that Mayan women are not unfriendly but extremely shy and intimidated by foreigners. And that in a business transaction (anything from buying a mango to getting internet service to purchasing real estate), one should never EVER expect it to go smoothly or fairly or timely. And that living in the here and now is a good thing. Cuz when aggravation over a mango purchase hangs in your future, it’s just not worth thinking about!

We never did figure out what we want to do with the rest of our lives. But that’s okay because we’re living in the here and now. John is doing software development for U.S. clients. I’m doing website development and search engine optimization (a new skill I acquired in Mexico). And we both have invested much of our time into our labor of love, a Playa del Carmen website called In The Roo. Roo is short for Quintana Roo, the name of our state, in case you were wondering. I hope to spend even more time on In The Roo in the future, combining my two loves — travel and technology.

We’ve had our share of ups and downs in Playa del Carmen. We miss Chicago terribly. Living in a Mexican beach town isn’t all about drinking tequila and lazing on the beach. But for now, life is good in Playa. We don’t know how long we’ll be here. We’re just living one day at a time.

Last night, John and I went to see Dark Knight, the Batman movie. I’m usually bored by action movies, but this was not your typical action movie. The acting was great, and Heath Ledger’s portrayal of the Joker — WOW! I was blown away!

We have two modern movie theaters in Playa del Carmen, MMCinemas and Cinepolis. Both are located in shopping malls and have all the conveniences we are used to — concessions stand, stadium seating, and outrageously cold air-conditioning. Most of the movies are from the U.S. although they often have one or two films from Mexico, Spain, Italy or France. Generally, movies are shown in the original language and subtitled in Spanish. But animated movies are always dubbed so that children can easily follow along.

We went to MMCinemas last night with our friend Antonio. Wednesday nights are discount nights at both theaters and we paid a mere $29 pesos ($2.90 USD) each for the movie. Even regular nights at $47 pesos are cheap compared to the obscene movies prices in the U.S.! Next, we went to the concessions stand and purchased a big box of popcorn, nachos with cheese and jalapenos, two 32 oz. sodas and one 32 oz. cherry Icee for $118 pesos ($11 USD). So our night at the movies cost us less than $7 USD each. How much are movies going for in the states again?!

As we left the theater, we noticed that they were building a Planet Bowl bowling alley next door. YESSSS!! Life just keeps getting better here in Playa.

John and I had the opportunity to volunteer on Sunday at the VIDAS Animal Spay & Neuter Clinic in Playa del Carmen. As always, it was an amazing experience!

This clinic is completely free to pet owners who would not otherwise be able to afford sterilization for their pets. It is said that just one female dog and her offspring can produce 67,000 puppies in 6 years!! So, this annual clinic definitely makes an impact on the pet overpopulation problem here.

We started off our day by transporting three pups from the Peanut Pet Shelter to the clinic. Say adios to your huevos, boys!

Andy from the Peanut Pet Shelter and John wait to register some of the dogs.

Here are some of the dogs I found waiting for their surgeries.

The operating room was set up in a classroom. The volunteer vets from VIDAS bring down all the equipment and medications! They had 6 surgeons plus vet technicians/assistants.

Over 80 sterilizations were performed the day we were there! That’s a huge jump from last year, when about 50 were done each day. The clinic is really growing from word of mouth. Participants from past years encourage their friends and neighbors to attend, and some even round up dogs and bring them in themselves.

In addition to the sterilizations, all the dogs receive an examination and are treated for any conditions when possible. One dog I know of even had a tumor removed! Many dogs are sent home with much needed medications.

When a surgery is completed, the animals are brought to the recovery room. They’re still pretty drugged up, so it’s the perfect time to clean their ears, check for ticks and trim their claws/nails.

Some pictures from around the recovery room. Click any of the images on this blog entry for a larger image.

John’s made a new friend!

Over the four days of the Playa del Carmen clinic, more than 350 dogs and cats were sterilized! What an incredible success! A big thanks to all the people who made this possible!

Sherry Stevens, the Organizer, makes this whole thing come together. She arranges the vets’ transportation to and from the airport, their accommodations and the clinic. She solicits free accommodations for the vets. She coordinates meals and drinks for the vets during clinic hours. And many other things. She has donated countless hours of time and her own funds to make this work.

VIDAS (Spanish for lives) is a Boulder, CO non-profit organization made up of veterinarians dedictaed to improving the lives of animals. Each year, they organize clinics in Quintana Roo, not only in Playa. Later this week, they will be in Puerto Morelos.

The Vets volunteer their vacation time to work! How many of us would be willing to do that?! They work hard in hot and humid weather, less than ideal conditions for 10-12 hours a day, and I’ve never heard them complain! Many of them keep coming back for more year after year!

Sandra Valdez, Director of Animal Control for Solidarid, for coming in and performing sterilizations along with the vets from VIDAS.

Recovery Room Volunteers – Quite a few locals make time out of their busy schedules to help in any ways they can. Amazingly, volunteers from abroad also come during their vacations to help! Marilyn and Bruce have been doing this for several years!

Mexico Vacation Villas for donating accommodations for the vet volunteers.

Blue Parrot for providing lunches to all the volunteers.

Contributors- Vet clinics in the states and animal lovers have donated equipment, medications and cash to make this clinic possible!

So, it had been almost three years since my last dental checkup. When I lived in the states, I religiously saw my dentist every 6 months. So, how did I let it come to this in Mexico? It wasn’t due to an ignorant fear of ancient equipment or less than hygienic conditions. I knew better than that. It was sheer laziness.

You see, the biggest hurdle in seeing a doctor or dentist in Playa del Carmen (at least for this gringa) is making the appointment. Many of the doctors and dentists here use their cell phone numbers as their business numbers and don’t have a receptionist. And voice mail? Forgetta ’bout it! I had to call my gynecologist several times a day for two weeks before I finally got a hold of her!

I actually tried to make a dentist appointment, about a year ago or so. It was quite the comedy. I’d call the dentist. He didn’t answer. I’d call the dentist again. He didn’t answer. I’d call the dentist again. He answered but said he would call me when he was in the office. I waited a few days. He never called back. I’d call the dentist. He didn’t answer. … And so it went, until I gave up in sheer frustration!

I put it off and put it off, until I thought I felt a dull aching in a couple of teeth with old cavities just a few days ago. This time, I decided, I would not give up! I will persevere! I decided to try the Coral Dental Center, a modern dental office I had heard about that I guessed would have a receptionist.

When I first called the office, I got a busy signal. Called back 30 seconds later, and got through! Yes! The receptionist spoke clearly and at a “normal” pace, so that I was able to understand her Spanish perfectly. Yes! I made an appointment for the next morning.

When I arrived for the appointment, I found the office to be bright, white and gleeming. It looked just like dental offices back in the states. I filled out a new patient form in Spanish. They may have an English version, but the receptionist said my Spanish was very good , so that may be why I got the Spanish one. I did notice that the receptionist spoke English with another patient.

As soon as I finished the form, I was led into the back and met Dra. Mariana Gutierrez. We also spoke in Spanish. I kind of thought maybe she didn’t speak English, until after my cleaning when I couldn’t quite grasp something she was trying to explain to me so she switched to English. Her English is definitely better than my Spanish! Even if you don’t know a bit of Spanish, you’d have no problem communicating with her.

The cleaning went smoothly, just like any other cleaning I’ve ever had. (Well, except for that crazy Chinese dentist in the Chicago burbs who held me hostage until I lied and told him I could see the gazillion cavities he insisted were perfectly obvious on my X-ray!) John has been to another dentist here in Playa who used sandpaper to floss his teeth!

The only not so good surprise I had was when it came time for payment. When I had called, I asked for the price of a cleaning and was told it was $440 pesos. That’s a little more expensive than mosts dentists around here, but I was fine with that. Their office and equipment are very modern (no sandpaper), and I love the convenience of making an appointment with a receptionist. But when it came time to pay, I was told I owed $700 pesos — 440 for the cleaning and 260 for a consultation. I was disappointed that this wasn’t disclosed to me ahead of time. I mean, how do you get a cleaning without a consultation?! I paid up of course.

At first, I thought I wouldn’t be back because 700 pesos is about twice the going rate around here. But then I thought about the time and stress involved with making an appointment with another dentist, and realized it was totally worth it!

I think $70 USD is still pretty competitive compared to U.S. rates, but from what I hear, the real savings for Americans comes with the more advanced dental work, like root canals, replacing fillings/crowns, implants, etc. This is why dental tourism is so popular these days. Imagine getting a root canal on your vacation!