VACATION – Second trip to Mexico and NO arrests!

(this post is about Tuesday and Wednesday, March 15 and 16th)

On Tuesday, we had a lay-low-not-do-much kind of day.  It was Mike’s birthday so I did the memorial blog post for him, but that was about it.  We did some grocery shopping and then hung out at the fire for a while.  But that was about it.  It was a hard day for both of us.

On Wednesday, we got up early and headed  back to Mexico!  It was our second round of appointments for the dentist and we needed to doublecheck some prescription prices for some folks and make some purchases.  We drove the 90 miles, crossed into Mexico and were early for our appointment.  So we did some shopping.   Wandering around this little town, it was so colorful, yet so peaceful.  It was early so the streets were almost bare.  I cannot even begin to describe the feeling of being in such a cute little village.

There are a few street beggars, but they offer small trinkets or packs of chiclets gum as a trade, but are trying to make a buck too I guess.  We looked around at a few items, and then went to do our pharmaceutical shopping.  
Steve’s Caritin D was only $3.70 a box, compared to $21 in the US
My Climera HRT patches were $40 for 4 months, compared to our $140 copay insurance in the US for the same amount, and they are about $135 a month without insurance!  So that would be $540 value for $40.
Fellow slabber Jan’s Nexium was $40 for 120 pills compared to $140 in the US
Brotherinlaw Fuzz’s Previcid was $8 for 60 pills compared to $100+ in the US so we got him 6 months worth!
and we grabbed an extra amoxicillin for $4.60 for 100 pills just to keep on hand
the only thing we couldn’t get a better deal on was Chilibob’s Lipitor… sigh
We also picked up some more cartons of cigarettes for Mary, and then some bags of Mexican coffee for ourselves.  (Each year Erin and Mark bring us back coffee from Mexico and we love it)  


We found this wonderful stand of stained glass panels for RV door windows.  We know some other RVers have gotten panels in the $70-80 range.  So we knew her first price of $130 was negotiable.  We walked away, promising to come back after the dentist was done.  She REALLY wanted to make her first sale of the day she said, and dropped it to $90.  But we left.  We told her we had a dentist to pay for first.  LOL

She had some lovely patterns and we mostly liked the blue oblong design over her shoulder

 

It was time for our appointment with Dr. Roberto!

I was first, and took my place.  I might mention one thing I noticed about Dr. Roberto.  At one point on Monday, he began to sneeze inside of his mask.  He immediately got up from where he was working on me, went to the back room, removed his mask, washed his hands, put on a fresh mask and new gloves and came back to resume his work.  And APOLOGIZING for the sneeze!   What a guy!  

He dry-fitted the intricate long 5 tooth bridge into place with a click and it was perfect!  It felt great!  No need for any grinding or tweaking or fine turning.   So he then did the procedure to glue it into place, which that stinky foul tasting glue the same as my other dentist had used too on the other bridge.  Perfect!  

Next was Steve’s turn, so while I was waiting for him, I went BACK to the stained window gal.  I said I would come back, right?  She now dropped the price to $70 because I came back when I said I would.  But…. I told her I still had to pay the dentist, and would not know how much money I could spend.  I walked away again.   I wandered a bit and explored one more block around on my own. 

I found a courtyard of a small hotel with a tinkling fountain.  It was open to the sky above and the birds were dipping down into the fountain for a drink .  I could hear faint mexican music in the background.   I could have sat here for a couple hours and drank it all in.  I felt so at peace and comfortable in this small village.

 

On the way back to the dentist, I again saw the stained window gal.  This time I said yes, I would buy the window we had looked at.  Now she dropped the price to $60.  She looked closely at it and saw a crack in the corner!   OH MY!   I am so glad she saw it and was honest enough to tell me.   So now I had to decide on another window…   and she dropped the price to only $55 because of my dismay.  She was so worried to lose a sale, and knew I could go to one of 10 other vendors and might find that blue one I had my heart set on.   We settled on another, and $55 exchanged between us, after starting at $130.   She carefully wrapped it up in sturdy cardboard and thanked me twice for coming back.

By the time I got back to Dr. Roberto’s office, Steve was almost finishing up.  We chatted with Dr. Roberto about places he had been, where he had gone on his honeymoon last year etc.  He is going to email us some photos of places they have gone if we ever want to return to Mexico!   Steve’s teeth were a great fit too on his porcelain inlays.  Soon we settled up the bill, shook hands and offered to pass on his name!

Dr. Roberto Arce at 

http://www.smileshoppedental.com/  

tel:01152-658-517-3283   

smileshop@hotmail.com

We left the dentist, all smiles, of course.  Threaded our way back through some vendors and bought a T-shirt.  LOL   Then we went to the lines.   My camera was safely tucked away INSIDE of my fanny pack and not to see the light of day until we were well on the US side of the border!   Again, we took the pedicab rickshaw ride and avoided the lines.   All went well and we went through with flying colors. 

On the way home, we planned a stop at Holtville Springs along I-8 and took a look around.

http://www.telusplanet.net/public/waters/hotsprings.htm

http://royalpalms.blogspot.com/2008/02/holtville-hot-springs.html

There was a quiet lagoon surrounded by palm trees.  A true oasis in the desert!

We felt like we were peeking into some secret underworld!

 

There were tiny fish swimming in the shallows, and who knows what was lurking in the depths!

 

The water temperature was very hot.  Although we brought along our swimsuits for a dip, we decided with the air temps of 96 degrees, that a soak in a hot spring just didn’t seem too refreshing.  Perhaps if it had been about 70 degrees out, we might have taken a dip.  Some folks camping nearby offered to take our photo by the springs, and we did the same for them.   A bit further over, the source of the spring water is routed into some cement hot tubs and a shower spraying device.  Again, it was way too hot for us!

 

We drove on back to The Slabs, and distributed our wares to those who needed things.  Chilibob had been watching our doggers for us, so we invited him over for a dinner on my new Mexican table cloth!

 

While I was cooking up some chicken stir-fry and veggies…  darling Steveio went to work putting in our stained glass window!   (he still needs some caulk and a sheet of polycarbonate clear plastic to reinforce it) but for now it’s dry-fitted into place and screwed the framing back on to hold it.

   

   

We had a delightful evening around the campfire.   Kenny keeps getting upset with me because I refer to our motorhome as a *Camper”  He said only the things that slide into a pickup truck are “Campers”  and I have a “Motorhome” or an “RV”!   He said Steve has to get me trained before we can become full-timers, so I stop calling our rig a “Camper”    hahahahhaha  And so ends another fine day at The Slabs. 

(and I didn’t even get arrested, either!)

I leave you now, with “KarenInTheOasis”

.