Making a plan for escape, changes, and getting home

March 16

We woke up and had breakfast. Ron took off for a haircut a few blocks away. I read the NY Times briefing regarding the falling stock market. YIKES! The landlord and her helper came over and brought a five-gallon bottle of water for the dispenser. After Ron returned, we walked across town to Fabrica Aurora, a former textile mill that was converted into a high-end shopping area with multiple art galleries and wonderful shops. We drooled at the artwork and products being sold but didn’t buy.

 Ron took some photos, then we sat down in an outdoor eatery for lunch. We have been to this market many times in previous visits and the crowds were thinner than usual. Two couples near our table were chatting and I heard them say they were leaving early. The state of Guanajuato where we are has no reported cases of the virus. That doesn’t mean there are no cases.

We stopped in a plaza and took more photos on the way home and we stopped at the bakery and again bought a treat. Thank goodness there are no bakeries near our home in Vancouver. 

Next, we searched for a house near where we stayed last year.  Ron really likes the façade of the house. We are saddened that our dream of living here will not come to realization but we are relieved that we were able to reach a decision that we are comfortable with so we can move on. I think our plans for what we will do next will be put on hold until the planet settles down post-virus.

We came home, ate our treats and called our realtor to ask her to reduce the price of the condo in Portland. It has been on the market since mid-November and it is no longer getting any traffic. If it doesn’t sell soon, we will rent it.

Tonight, we dined at our favorite restaurant, La Parada, a Peruvian restaurant. We discovered this place last year and it is consistently delicious. Tonight was no exception. I had a rice dish filled with seafood in a spicy tomato base. Ron had tacu-tacu with tequila shrimp in a creamed sauce. We discovered tacu-tacu when we visited Chile and ate at Gaston and Astrid’s restaurant. They met in Paris at a culinary school and now have a chain of restaurants that are considered one of the top 50 in Latin America. It is a tasty bean patty that is fried to get a crispy crust.

It has rained the past four nights. The first night was a torrential storm complete with lots of lightning. Each night the rain has started earlier so we took a taxi to La Parada but were able to walk home afterward. The rain had abated and it was just drippy from water falling off trees and rooftops. We ended the night with the News Hour and watching ‘Bombshell’. We liked it, a movie about the fall of Roger Ailes of the Fox empire.

March 17

I have failed to mention that in Mexico you must bring your own bags to store, no paper or plastic bags are provided and you can’t pay for one at the counter. If you don’t bring your bag, you are out of luck. I find it inspiring that Mexico has moved ahead of the US in this regard.

Today we are getting ready to leave. On Sunday we shopped for groceries so we could hunker down in case we couldn’t get tickets to leave early. Late Sunday night Ron got us tickets on Delta after they sent me an email saying they were standing by their customers. We are able to get tickets using our miles. It is going to be a very long day. We are one hour from the nearest airport and our flight is at 8:30 a.m. We will wake at 4:30 a.m. for a 5:00 pick up. We get into Portland around 11:30 p.m. from Detroit where we have a six-hour layover. We are fortunate in that we called Nicholas whom we used last year when we were here. He shuttled us and two sets of guests back and forth to the two nearby airports that are 60-90 minutes away. He was available and we prefer to use someone we know.

One task we have today is to empty the refrigerator and give the food away. At the recommendation of our friend Steve who lives here, we will give the food to one of the elderly women asking for money we see when we are out walking in the neighborhood.

We have extra time on our hands today. We packed after breakfast and we are all done except last minute items that we will throw in in the morning.  We wandered through the Instituto and a couple of shops but didn’t buy anything. 

'

We stopped in the main square for more photos

We went to one of our favorite restaurants for lunch today at Casa del Diezmo. I like the setting outdoors in the middle of a jungle-like garden. Ron got some photos of birds flitting around the birdbaths.

We came home and emptied the refrigerator which had more food in it than I realized. I first walked through our neighborhood looking for potential recipients of a food basket as it were but no one was sitting on a step with her hand out. We trekked back up to Centro and on the way, I saw an elderly woman approaching a trash can and digging through it for food. I stopped her and gave her the bag of food that had eggs, cheese, fruits and veggies in it. We continued to walk up to the main plaza as there are always some beggars there. An older woman who was blind was sitting on the sidewalk. Ron approached her in his best Spanish told her he had a bag of groceries for her. The contents were the same as the first bag. We were glad we were able to find two people who looked as though they could use the food and it didn’t go to waste.

We came home and worked on two NY Times crosswords and relaxed. Out to dinner to one of our other favorite places only to discover they were closed on Tuesday. We wandered down the street and happened upon a new place we have never seen before, the sign said Mexican and American comfort food. Why not? The service was polite but it took a very long time to get our meal; Ron had a quesadilla with chicken and I had two shrimp tacos. We shared a Cesar salad. The meal was quite good and I have yet to have any shrimp here that wasn’t delicious.

When we got home, we got a message that our flight had been canceled. We were unable to reach anyone by phone or online. I checked Delta’s schedule and they had multiple flights during the day to get us home. Why worry? We went to bed a 10:00 since the alarm was set for 4:30.

March 18

This part is entitled LIFE IS WHAT HAPPEN’S WHEN MAKING OTHER PLANS.

Neither of us slept well which is typical when we have to get up at 0 Stupid 30. I gave up around 4:15 and got out of bed. Nicholas was on time and it took 90 minutes to get to Leon Airport. No line to get to the counter. Yay!  Originally, we were routed from Leon to Detroit with a six-hour layover then on to Portland. At the counter in Leon, we were rerouted through Mexico City to Salt Lake City to Portland. So off we were to Mexico City.  While having coffee in the Mexico City airport, we got a message that our flight to Salt Lake City was canceled. It turns out Salt Lake closed its airport after a morning earthquake of 5.7. Now we expect to board a direct flight to Seattle at 3:35 with a 90-minute lag before heading on to Portland. That will give us adequate time to go through customs. Ron and I bought a Global Entry passes a few years ago and could have kicked ourselves for not doing it sooner, given how much we to travel internationally. Now it takes weeks to get your application processed for the Global Entry (GE) pass. We tricked the system/wait by driving up to Blaine, WA to get our interview that is required. Customs is a breeze with Global Entry, usually no waiting in lines. Once we land, we go to the area set aside for GE. We place our passports on a screen and get a print out that we hand to a customs official. Sweet. I do not remember ever having to wait for one of the machines because there are always plenty of machines available. Then again, I have no memory anymore.

With our long layover in Mexico City, we are enjoying access to good food not knowing what to expect on the plane. We shared a salmon dinner with good artisan bread and lightly sautéed veggies. Earlier we ate one of their pastries for breakfast with a cup of Starbucks, the first one we have had in a very long time.

Life is good. Every eatery we have been in in the airport offers sanitizer hand gel. Mexico is on the ball with the virus. Nicholas said he also has not heard of any cases in San Miguel. YAY!

9:00 p.m. Seattle

We had an easy flight to Seattle. The plane was about half empty and because we were rerouted twice, some nice agent put us in row 8, a row of three seats on each side of the aisle but only the two of us were in the row. Less to worry about with the virus. And it was the section with extra legroom which we greatly appreciated given the long day we had. We arrived in Seattle at 9:30 p.m. Mexico City time. In Seattle, it is 8:30. Now it is 9:00 and we are eating cookies at our gate for the flight to Portland which unfortunately leaves at 10:45. We will get home in Vancouver around 1:00 a.m. by the time we gather our checked luggage and get a ride to the ‘couve. We will promptly fall into bed. We always unpack our bags as soon as we get home. I may cheat tonight and wait until tomorrow. I will need to do some serious shopping for the pantry, thinking through what will be most useful while we hunker down to limit our exposure to the virus.