Muchacho Polaco

I went to the sand dunes again last Saturday with some friends from here in Hermosillo. This was my second opportunity to go and I enjoyed it even more than the first. It’s really hard to appreciate the size of the hills from the photos. They are steep climbs and crazy drops. The dunes are next to the beach which goes on for hours. Perfect, untouched beaches as far as you can see. The challenge is in getting there. You cannot get there easy and it would require 4×4. The next best way to go, especially if you wanted to appreciate the private beaches, would be by boat. Unfortunately, my boat has been out of commission since forever.

I am very much wanting to buy a Cherokee so as to have my own vehicle to take and also so that I can take the dogs. This would be a perfect place for them to run for hours on end. Also, having a 4×4 to endure the horrible driving conditions in town would be nice too. Yun is not so sold on the idea, but perhaps with time.

Here are some more photos and a short video I put together of the day.

Yun stuck me in the rear with this little miracle cure tonight. My shoulders have been brutal. Went back to the orthopedist today for an ultrasound and some follow up.

So good. We found a Thrifty in Hermosillo tonight, so we stopped for dessert.

Yun made something new for breakfast this morning. A Spanish tortilla. She says it is very common in Spain.

My first bite: surprisingly good. Of course,  I love anything with potatoes. But it had a great flavor and was really filling. I would definitely want this again.

Here’s why I like Mexican healthcare:

I have had bad shoulders for about 15 years now. Some days I am unable to lift my arms due to the pain. Others, they’re mostly normal. This week I have had the worse pain that I’ve had in those 15 years, so I reluctantly went to the doctor. I scheduled the appointment yesterday and had no wait when I arrived tonight. The doctor spent an hour with me, obtaining my history and conducting an examination. He then ordered xrays of both shoulders which I obtained in under 15 minutes and then he spent another 20 minutes reviewing the results, discussing next steps, and prescribing a list of medications. This has been my experience with every doctor that I’ve seen here. And the best part was that it cost me a measly 600 pesos (or roughly $48 dollars). This was the third orthopedist (and only one outside the US) I’ve seen in those 15 years and by far the best experience of all three.

Matt and Dana made the trip down from Tucson last Saturday to stay with a couple of days. They brought with them all sorts of treasure, to include many many bottles of spectacular wine. We ate a lot of really good food (in excessive quantities), played some spades (we are still undefeated), smoked some great cigars, and drank some tasty wine. We hope they will return soon!

We met them at the toll booth as you enter Hermosillo which is about 25-30 minutes from our house. We got there about an hour early, but finally we saw them and I took this photo:

One of our favorite places to hang out is at the Game for dinner and drinks. The owner is a really nice guy and always takes care of us. I love that this place is only a couple blocks from our house. I never get tired of it!

We also had some good burros at a place near the house on Sunday. I cannot remember the name of the place, but it too was close to the house and had the best burros that I’ve had in a long time.

My absolute favorite place to eat in Hermosillo is Steaks del Herradero. The restaurant itself is nothing fancy, but I love their meat more than other place in the world. It’s a shame that Matt’s steak had too much salt because mine was perfect. Since Dana couldn’t finish her steak, I got much more than I had planned on! I could barely move by the time we got home. But nothing a fat cigar couldn’t fix.

Before they left, we went downtown to check out the main square and church. I had never actually been inside the church, so that was fun (for about 30 seconds). Here’s a quick video:

We then drove up a hill in the center of the city which provides a nice panoramic view. I hadn’t been up here in years. It was fun to be able to see everything now that I have a pretty good familiarity with things.

Next time Matt will really need to bring more cigars. This 1-2 per day nonsense was not working for me!   :p

It’s been ages since we’ve had a Christmas tree. I think we’ve probably done this maybe once or twice before. In fact, my very first blogging efforts were of our very first Christmas tree 8 years ago. This years tree was much more expensive because for some reason, they are twice the price here. But with the price, came a tree about 8 or 9 feet tall, which is bigger than anything else we’ve had. It barely fits into the living room due to its height, but it looks great.

We don’t have a truck anymore. So we used our little Mazda to go pick it up and found it fit quite nicely on the roof. We didn’t have to go far, so we made it home with no problems.

We had a nice thanksgiving day this year with 16 guests visiting for dinner. Yun and I had prepared well days in advance, so it really wasn’t too bad to get everything together for Thursday. Miraculously, we were able to find a turkey and all of the essentials here in town. Costco has proven to be invaluable. We had turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberries, green beans, green bean casserole, asparagus, corn, mac and cheese, rolls, pumpkin pie, apple pie, brownies, and a spectacular fruit salad! The food was great and we had nearly no left overs.

I brined the turkey for a couple days prior to the day of consumption. Here is the evolution of our bird:

I love this time of year!

Our friend Billy frequents the State of Chihuahua and on his last visit he brought us a kilo of cheese from the Mennonites there. That’s a lot of cheese. And it is very good. Perfect for quesadillas!