Blog followers, you may recall my last visit to Dr. Gerardo Peón, my most excellent vascular surgeon, just prior to our  March MN visit. The problematic Saphenous vein in my left left is not working so well, the valves are going to pot, which in and of itself is not that big a deal. But and a big but it is, this particular vein “communicates” (I love medical language) with the Femoral vein, a deep vein. So any problems with the Saphenous, like another blood clot, could easily travel to the Femoral and then, there you have it, DVT, which rhymes with R.I.P. and you got trouble, right here in Merida city. So here I am again at Clinica de Merida to get this bad boy taken care of by way of a Laser Ablation procedure, a minor surgery in which a laser is used to burn up the offending vein. So this is my story:

The very modern Clinica de Merida on lovely Avenida Itzaes.

I am getting checked in. I probably could  handle this Spanish immersion experience, but I am awfully  glad to have Mary at my side.

I’m relaxing in the waiting room waiting to be taken to pre-op.

I’m in pre-op getting my IV drip put in.

Mary spots Dr. Gerardo Peón, my guy, wheeling equipment down the hallway and tells him, “It’s the left leg, the left leg.” He laughs.

Dr. Peón draws a road map.

They got me all strapped in, ready for take-off. For anesthesia they are using sedatives and an epidural. And I find they use a lot more sedatives down here than the last surgery I had, in the States, which is fine by me. Years ago I had a hip scope (torn labrum – karate injury) and I was wide awake and remember well the administration of the epidural. But this time, I could not even tell you when I got it. Warning! For those of you bothered by a spot or two of blood, stop right here.

Dr. Peón is inserting the catheter/introducer.

The catheter is in and the fiber optic is ready to rock and roll.

Here is a cool vid of the Laser Ablation of the lower two thirds of my Saphenous vein. The upper section is lasered via an inch long incision in the groin area and I doubt Dr. Peón could video that and still keep the PG13 rating. BTW, the imaging devise is a doppler ultrasound.

Here we are in recovery, me and the good Dr. Gerardo Peón.

And before I can be released the damages must be settled. Here is la caja where Mary uses our Capital One card (one of the few and maybe the only CC that does not charge a 3% international transaction fee). Mary was momentarily confused when they asked for an additional 670P in cash until it was explained that it was to cover the CC vendor fee. I have no problem with this as in my previous life as a car salesperson (used and new, thank you), we also would add the additional vender fee charge. The total cost for this procedure including surgeon, asst. to surgeon, anesthesiologist, ER room and every last thing down to Kleenexes is only $2502USD. Que Bueno!

And here I am, being wheeled to the door. And I must say I am glad to have this behind me. As my virtual Doc (and sis-in-law) Lynn says, no more DVT worries!

Thanks for visiting, gentle reader. Once again Bruce has had a very positive experience with Mexican health care and so far being self-insured (meaning no insurance) has worked out. Bruce welcomes health care comentario from other expats and of course he always welcomes stories from all readers on darn near any subject. Comment away! Hasta proxima Domingo!

Mary and I are downtown early this Saturday morning as it is that time of year for our annual self-directed physicals and we are at Clinicos de Merida‘s downtown location for some fasting lab work. We are the only ones here this morning so we are in and out quickly and on we march to El Trapiche for breakfast. Mary has the Huevos Mexicana and I have my favorite Mexican breakfast, Motuleños. Our food is excellent and my portion is much larger than I remembered from past breakfasts here, que bueno! We settle up and decide to head over to Super Naturista to stock up on flaxseed and fish oil. We walk down Calle 62 to La Plaza Grande and then we decide to cut through the Pasaje Revolucion walkway of the world class Macay Art Museum to see what they might have on display and we are rewarded with a Leonardo Nierman exposition, Escultura Tercer Milenio, a collection of surreal stainless steel sculptures. And we’d like to share:

Leonardo Nierman Mendelejis is a world renowned Mexican artist whose work is held in many public collections including the Tel Aviv Museum of Art and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

This one is titled “Humanismo”, Humanism.

Unfortunately this sculpture and the next five do not have title placards on the base. But feel free to come up with your own!

This is titled, “Angel”.

“Ave de Paraiso” Bird of Paradise

“Flama de la Sabiduria”, Flame of Knowledge

“Flama del Milenio”, Flame of the Millennium

“Flama Eterna”, Eternal Flame

“Flama Olimpica”, Olympic Flame

“Gaviota”, Seagull

And this is our view of the Macay Pasaje Revolucion as we exit onto Calle 58 and continue our trek to Super Naturista.

Thanks for visiting, gentle reader. It is with great pleasure Bruce and Mary share their experiences of this wonderful city where every step outside their door is the start of another adventure. Hasta proximo Domingo!

This is the banner that inspired this post’s title. As it is Thursday we are on our way to Las Vigas. And this Thursday we will be meeting up with our good friend Sharon. Well, as we cut across La Plaza Grande we come upon this celebration of reading, the third annual La Jornada Estatal de Lectura, State Reading Day.

This booth is offering free books!

“Want to grow? Read!”

It’s a family affair, running this booth.

There is a lot of activity today.

“You can see that I am manly, if I can stand up to intensive reading.”

Mary is perusing offerings and eventually buys English/Spanish flashcards for our favorite kids in town, Josue, Eric, and Leslie. Interestingly, the color white is spelled, phonetically, “guait”.

Several speakers are on hand today.

Having had our fill of culture for the day, here we are at Las Vigas with our good friend Sharon. Que Bueno!

Thanks for visiting, gentle reader. As you all know, Bruce loves comentarios, so feel free. Hasta proximo Domingo!

Read! It Won’t Make You Fat, and It’s Free!

Our annual pilgrimage back to Minnesota for MDD is approaching and there is some gift purchasing that needs to be done so we head out for la corazon, the heart, of downtown Merida.

One thing we love about walking the streets of Merida is that you find art everywhere. Here is a new banner hung in front of Galeria Manolo Rivera: Traveling Without a Map.

When we cut across Parque Santa Lucia we encounter this dance troupe practicing a routine.

Feeling a little peckish we stop in at El Trapiche, on Calle 62, 59 y 61, for a bite and a brew.

The joint is hopping, luckily there is a table for two in the corner.

A pretty good start, eh?

Mary’s Charros.

And my Enchiladas Rojas. Our food is excellent and do you want to know what the total damage is? 123P, about ten bucks. We love Mexico!

Everyone is welcome at El Trapiche.

We cross the street to our old scarf store to find that they don’t have any scarves and never have, so….

We backtrack a little bit and discover our new scarf store.

The art of tying a scarf.

The finished result.

We ask the name of this tienda only to hear that it is too nueva, new, to have a name but we do find that all these beautiful wares are crafted in San Juan de Chamula, Chiapas. BTW the scarves are 70P each.

It’s a family affair at this crafts shop.

If you’re interested in visiting this store, it is the first door from the corner of Calles 59 and 62.

We continue onto the state sponsored Casa de Las Artensanias on Calle 63, 64 y 66. Be wary of hawkers trying to direct you to their Casas de las Artensanias.

Mary is standing at the entrance.

They have an awesome selection of condiments and salsas.

Here is the basket section.

Here is the ropa, clothing, section. These few pix are a small sampling of the arts and crafts offered here. For the gift buying gringo this place is a must stop. BTW, they also have a small branch on Paseo de Montejo.

Mary is settling up with Rosy and her ayudante, assistant.

Here’s Mary at Cafe Via Olimpo in the city hall complex. We decided to stop for a cool one on our trek back home. And yours truly. If you’re like me, you’ll want to know the cost of beers here, they’re 26P each.

For fun, here is Mary, over four years ago, at this same cafe.

This is our view of La Plaza Grande. The magic of this park is just one of many things we will miss about Merida.

On the way home we stop in at one of our favorite tiendas in Merida, Ki’Xocolatl on Calle 55, 60 y 62.

What gift basket would be complete without some exotic chocolates?

Ki’Xocolatl is also a very cool wifi cafe.

The lovely Marisol and Patricia process our purchases.

And that completes our shopping for this day. We have only one more item to get and we have over a month before we head out. So I think we’re doing pretty well, eh?

Thanks for visiting gentle reader. If any locals reading this have some gift stores to tell about, please do so,  Bruce, Mary and other readers would love to hear about them. And of course all other commentary is very welcome. Hasta proxima Domingo!

In our jobs, moderating commentary on a Canadian news site, we deal with stereotypes everyday. And when something negative about Mexico makes the news the nasty posters employ very negative stereotypes of Mexican people. But it got me to thinking. Some people have positive stereotypes of Mexicans as well, viewing them as hard working, fun loving people. But, what do Mexicans think of themselves? Now Mexico is a pretty big country with over 100 million people. There must be cultural differences throughout the nation that are stereotyped, just like we, speaking stereotypically, do with our fellow Americans. You know, like we think that NYers believe they’re at the center of the universe. And in the deep south they marry their cousins and live on dirt floors. The west coast is a bunch of pot smoking hippies and the midwest is filled with boring but hard working people. Well we thought it would be interesting to get our friend Julio to give us his take on Mexican stereotypes. So here goes:

Julio, due to his years in the States, is the only mesero at El Lucero del Alba, our local bar, who speaks English and he speaks it well.  Here are his views of people from different regions of Mexico: As we suspected, DFers (Distrito Federal – Mexico City) are regarded pretty much the same as the stereotype of NYers -  pretty arrogant. But he also characterizes DF as being lawless, anything goes on the streets.  Now, Julio is a native Yucateco (Yucatan has its own history, separate from Mexico, as it was a nation in its own right before being brought into the union. Many people refer to Yucatan as the Texas of Mexico) and he says this about his countrymen: As opposed to his wife’s native state of Sinaloa on the west coast, where everyone cleans their street before the street cleaners do and everyone’s yard is tidy, Yucatecos are hoarders and definitely not tidy. Plus he adds Yucatecos are very concerned with status and money. This is contrasted to the northern border states which are peopled by folk who are humble and will give you the shirt off their back.  When we quizzed him about the neighboring states of Campeche, Oaxaca, and Quintana Roo he told us the stereotype of these people is simply that they are two-faced. And to end on a positive note, Julio says his favorite city in Mexico is Tijuana, in the state of Baja California Norte (BTW there are 31 states in Mexico). From his experiences living there he describes it as a fun and vibrant city.

So there you have it, one man’s stereotypical view of his own paisanos. But please understand that Julio, being a very nice person like almost all Meridanos we know, was not comfortable in giving the negative stereotypes and only did so to satisfy our desires to hear of  held stereotypes and to prove our premise that Mexicanos are a vast and varied people who are  just as susceptible to casting their fellow citizens in a negative light as Americans or Canadians. It gives one pause doesn’t it.

Thanks for visiting gentle reader. Bruce welcome comentarios on this subject. A spirited debate would be fun. Hasta proxima Domingo!

A KarateKickMaster prototype.

I’m not surprised if the pic above is a little confusing as this post requires a little splaining: Some years ago I teamed up with Deb, an architect and karate student,  to invent a brand new karate leg stretcher, the KarateKickMaster. Now we thought we had a terrific idea, a stretching machine for martial artists that actually stretched you in position, as opposed to the many machines out there that T-boned you while sitting on the floor. Well we did our patent app, and started manufacturing in our own small way with various parts commissioned from all over our home town, Alexandria, MN. Then we put up a website and started taking orders. Well the next thing we knew, Greg, owner of PowerBlock, and a martial artist himself, put in an order for a couple units and started a conversation about manufacturing our stretcher. Well with his facilities, he could do it much cheaper so it was a no-brainer.  Then, some time later, Deb and I went our separate ways (we were still friends and partners but Mary and I had initiated our escape to Mexico at this point) so we approached Greg about taking over KarateKickMaster and he agreed to do so with Deb and I getting royalties out of the deal. But the sorry truth of the matter is the idea did not pay out, and KKM was discontinued. Now fast-forward to a few months ago. My friend Greg, inspired by my Gymnacio California blog, emailed me and asked if I would like a set of PowerBlocks. I replied, in light speed time, You Bet! And here is the story of that.

 After picking out my particular home gym, Greg shipped it to my permanent address which is my mom’s place in Foley, MN. Good son that I am, I exchange emails every day, but this day I did not warn her of this equipment coming, not dreaming that Greg would overnight it. Surprised to find a bunch of boxes on her stoop when she came home from her exercise class she thought no big deal, I’ll just move them to the garage… until she discovered that these little boxes weighed 50#. Long story short, neighbor Tom moved them into the garage and when we were back for David and Heidi’s wedding we had the opportunity to haul them to Mary’s family cabin on Captive Lake. And here I am getting the PowerBlocks out of the trunk of Mary’s mom’s Park Avenue.

 These are the expansion kits that give my PowerBlocks a 90# capacity.

 Here I am wrestling the adjustable bench out. I was able to fit my entire home gym into the trunk of this car!

Some assembly required: But not much, all I had to do was bolt the wheels onto the adjustable bench.

 These PowerBlock dumbbells are adjustable from 15# to 90#.

 And here’s how you adjust.

Ta da, 50# DBs!

 After getting things set up, I thought I’d get a workout in. Here I am doing incline DB chest presses.

And now the flat bench DB chest press.

My home gym Minnesota.

And of course the first thing you do after any righteous workout is…. have a beer, Cheers!

Thanks for visiting, gentle reader. At this time Bruce would like to give Greg and PowerBlock a big shout out! The inventor of the selectorized dumbbell still does it best. And Bruce is thrilled to know that whenever he and Mary have the chance to relax at the family cabin there will be no missed work-outs. Right, Mary? Hasta proxima Domingo!

 You know we were a little apprehensive about this March wedding as usually there is about 4 feet of snow on the ground and everyone is traveling by snowmobile or snow tractor but this year, holy mackerel, in the space of 7 days, Minneapolis broke 5 all time highs and the weather is still holding when David and Heidi tie the knot. David and Heidi are exchanging vows in their church just outside Sauk Rapids.

 Little 15 month old Alaina does a heck of a job as flower girl, her mom, David’s sis Laura, is behind her.

 As the newlyweds exit the church they are cheered on with sparklers.

 We’re at the reception hall, Coyote Moon and the newlyweds, David and Heidi head up the wedding party table.

 The parents of the groom, brother Mark and Connie.

 The three remaining brothers, Paul, me, and Mark. Wish you were here, Neil and Scotty!

 Our close friend Kevin, with his trainee is in charge of the music and the announcements. He’s really getting that DJ voice thing down!

 Everyone is up and dancing now.

Featuring the lovebirds from my last post, Anja and my nephew Eli.

 Mary and our lovely daughter Helen, cutting the rug.

With their trainee taking over, even the music makers, Kevin and Rosie get a chance to strut their stuff.

 This is a pic that my sis Cheryl tagged.

 I’m telling a tall one to my favorite aunt and uncle, Carol and Gene.

 Gene and Carol again, with Carol’s sis, my mom, Margaret.

 It’s getting late in the evening and I am not sure what David is doing here, but…..

 But I think David may need some Uncle-y advice right now.

 My sis Cheryl, Helen and Caleb. Thank God Cheryl had the sense to be our sober cab.

And that’s a wrap folks. And now, between the three brothers we have almost everyone married off, so I guess we’ve done our jobs, eh?

Thanks for visiting gentle reader. As always Bruce loves comentarios and promises to respond to each and every one. Hasta proximo Domingo!

The owners are coming down this week and we are heading back to MN and the stress of getting this monster house is increased by the fact that the property mgrs, good people that they are, tend to always do projects that have been on the “punch list” for months or even years are always done at literally the last hour. On top of this my left leg has been nagging me, the one that I had trouble with a year ago. I thought it was a matter of a combination of my warranty getting close to running out and hitting the cardio a little too hard but when I laid off the cardio the problem persisted, so I emailed my virtual doc, sis-in-law Lynn about the problem. I was wondering if this thing would turn into what happened last year what the repercussions would be state-side. Well she quickly got back to me in a strongly worded email telling me that a $500 drug test with a positive reading would leave to a $1500 Doppler ultrasound (for one leg, only) and don’t travel that way, get in! Well it is Thursday and we fly out tomorrow! So I hop on the phone and call my guy, vascular surgeon, Dr. Gerardo Peon and of course he picks right on his cell and says, “Can you come here at 4:00?” “I’ll be there!”

This is Clinica de Merida, a very modern facility on beautiful Avenida Itzaes.

Dr. Peon’s office is pretty easy to find.

Dr. Peon is checking for clots on my left saphenous vein, the culprit in my last medical misadventure.

Going up! Dr. Peon is getting me in position for the Doppler Ultrasound, the gold standard for detecting vascular problems.

Dr. Peon is explaining to us that my problem is that my saphenous vein is shot, the valves don’t work from the groin to my knee. The condition isn’t urgent and not uncommon (at this point I say, “So I’m not that special” to which he responds, “Oh, you are special but your veins are not”)  but something needs to be done soon. He goes on to explain that If I ignore it I am very likely inviting DVT, a real killer. Now, I’m really not afraid of dying but the possible cost of it scares the crap out of me, so cheap sucker that I am I ask, “How much?” He tells me it should run, in total, about 40,000P, about $3200. Ok, we’ll get that done when we get back.

Dr. Peon is writing a script for me for an anti-inflammatory for the phlebitis and he gives me free sample for an anti-coagulant for our upcoming flights.

The very impressive Dr. Gerardo Peon. I love this guy!

Cheers to the wonderful Mexican Medical System!

Thanks for visiting, gentle reader. Once again Bruce and Mary are reminded that they are medical refugees, at least until Medicare age. But it’s pretty hard to complain about living in paradise! Hasta proximo Domingo.

We were thrilled when our nephew Eli asked us a few months ago if he and su novia Anja could come to visit. “Of course!” we said instantly and finally the day has come.

 Eli and Anja had flown into Cancun and caught the 6:00pm ADO bus into Merida. We were camping out on our stoop, sipping beers awaiting their arrival and of course a little worried if things had worked out ok, but no problema as suddenly their taxi pulls up.

 Eli and Anja had not really had a decent meal all day, but Mary is prepared with chicken achiote and pastor fajitas with the usual sides. It’s not easy filling up an all-conference offensive lineman from a national champion team.

 Tuesday, as it turns out, is Eli and Anja’s five month anniversary. Here at La Pigua, regarded by many as the finest seafood restaurant in Merida, Anja is treated to Crab Legs.

 Eli checks out the Langosta, Lobster.

 Coincidentally, Tuesday is also Mary Fran’s (Anja’s mother and current world champion hugger) BD so of course, good daughter that she is, she rings her up on Skype. That’s Anja’s dad Ike, too. We have been close friends with these guys for 30 years now. Whoa, we are old!

 When Eli visited three years ago with his buddy Eric, we took them to Progreso and Eli discovered that he loves the beach. So this time, at his request, we booked a nice budget hotel, Real Palma, just a block from the beach, so they could spend Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, doing what lovebirds do on the beach.

 Here’s a fun pic.

 The morning dawn in Progreso. If you’re FB friends with Anja, be sure to check her page for lots of cool beach and food pix.

 One of the rewarding things about doing this blog is meeting really fun people like Phil and Di from Seattle. They have been following our blog for awhile now and contacted us about getting together. I told Phil to give us a holler when they got to town. I didn’t think he’d take me literally but as we were walking by the Fiesta Americana one day I heard someone shouting, “Bruce, Bruce!” We turn around to see this friendly looking man approaching us saying, “You don’t know me but I recognize you.” We quickly arranged this Wednesday evening get-together at…. you guessed it, El Lucero del Alba, where everybody knows our name.

 It’s Thursday evening so naturally we’re at Las Vigas and this is Dianne and Wayne from NC. Dianne has the Carolina Shrimp, of course, and Wayne has the Filete de Pescado a la  Plancha, Fish Fillet.  It’s always fun to turn seafood lovers onto the incredibly good and inexpensive meals here. Wayne is absolutely astounded when his check comes for these meals plus three drinks because it is only 130P. Dianne is an RN and comes down here every winter to do volunteer work in the small, very poor pueblos in this area. Be sure to check out her and Wayne’s good work on her blog. BTW, this is how we met, through our blogs.

 It’s Friday and we’re waiting in line at INM, Instituto Nacional Migracion. We had taken a day off work two weeks ago to initiate the FM3 visa renewal process and today we’re off again to hopefully finalize the process. Mary had called on Tuesday and sat on hold for about an hour before she successfully made citas, appointments for us for this day. But when the security guy walks the line with his list of citas we are not on it. We give him our names and he says, oh, your citas were yesterday. As we fly to MN in a week, panic has set in.

 But we do prevail! After waiting for about an hour and a half (our number was 34) before we could even explain our case, we do so to the gate keeper who simply tells us that there was no mistake and that we would have to come back next Thursday. We improvise and say, “Pero tenemos una emergencia!, But we have an emergency!” We proceed to tell her that we are flying out tomorrow! Well, she wasn’t happy about it but she does send the security guy inside to talk to the processors and when he emerges we have an appointment. After hanging around for about another hour the very friendly Angie ushers us in and in about 20 minutes we emerge with our new FM3s. Que Bueno!

 Saturday Eli and Anja return from the beach and after some quality pool time we head over to, well you know… El Luceros for some drinks and botanas as we have to show the kids our local bar. And now we are relaxing with our Cohibas (courtesy Eli) on the promenade and hearing all about their future plans before they hit the street for La Noche Mexicana and then dancing at Cubanchero.

Right now it is Sunday morning and the kids are sleeping in. After Mary feeds them a big breakfast they will be busing back to Cancun to spend the night before flying out early tomorrow. After seeing them off we will be meeting Phil and Di again for the buffet at… El Luceros. Cheers!!

Thanks for visiting gentle reader. As you know Bruce and Mary love comentarios so please feel free. Hasta proximo Domingo! 

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national champion team

It’s Thursday so we are off to Las Vigas for our usual grub and cervezas and to meet some blog followers who are in town. As we approach La Plaza Grande we see tents and booths lining nearly the entire perimeter of the park. We discover that this is the annual La Expo Alternativa. The theme of this year’s expo is Crea tu Futuro, Create Your Future. With our trusty Canon always at the ready, here are some pix of this event.

 Universidad Aliat is on Paseo Montejo, just a few blocks from us.

 We used to go to this gym, until we discovered Gimnasio California.

Military service is required of all Mexican males but the level of involvement can be quite minimal.

 Mary is standing on the southeast corner of La Plaza Grande.

 Our new friends, Indianans Nancy and Dave (ya gotta love Marcelo!)

Thanks for visiting gentle reader. Now you know why Bruce and Mary always have their camera along, you never know what they’ll stumble upon. As usual Bruce loves comentarios so please feel free! Hasta proximo Domingo!