Mexico, Day 5

An electric fence tops the walls surrounding my neighborhood. Presumably this is to keep bad people out, but I can't leave unless the man at the gate allows it. Then again, he is unarmed, and short, and friendly.

This is my fourth full day here, and I'm happy to report that I've so far done nothing much. Yesterday we went over to Grace's parents' place for a dinner of sopa de tortilla, and listened to some records in her father's studio man cave. We sipped fancy tequila. Otherwise I've been hanging out at my sunny three bedroom house inside the castle walls, occasionally venturing out to a restaurant or cafe. There's a big screen TV and a 1000-piece puzzle. I'm becoming fond of my morning ritual of coffee and computer in the backyard.

Bottled water is the way to go, but for making coffee you can get away with boiling the tap for a while. Once the water cools, there's a slick of precipitated minerals on top, and it smells slightly of sulfur. No wonder the coffee tasted bland; this morning I used bottled water and it was much improved.

I didn't realize until yesterday that Aguascalientes sits at an elevation of over 6000 feet (1888 meters). I've been to Aspen before, where altitude sickness is unavoidable, whereas here I just felt a little winded and thirsty.

It's a veritable desert, but February is "Winter," so it's not too hot during the day nor cold at night. Don't forget to drink lots of water (but don't drink the water).

My growing list of Mexican foodstuffs:

I also had a chili hamburger that was the fucking bomb. Oh, and an "Italian" restaurant. And Grace's sun-dried tomato chicken with potatoes. I've been eating food, basically. Welcome to Mexico.

This afternoon we'll head to the supermarket again so I can attempt my salmon recipe. Then later we'll take a walk downtown. Originally I planned to stay for a week or two, but now I'm staying for a month. For $40 per day, where else would I be? Hasta luego...