Carnaval

A couple of days ago, I went for a run along the malecón, which is Spanish for, essentially, seawall or jetty. It runs at least 6 miles along the sea in the city limits. It is quite nice, with a lane for bikers, another for runners, and a third for walkers. Anyway, I was running and I saw a large congregation, in the middle of which a man was running with a torch. He was flanked on both sides by motorcycle cops, I guess for fear that someone might try to blow the thing out. Anyway, the torch was either to celebrate the upcoming carnaval or the upcoming olympics in Canada. I'm not sure which, but I'm going with the latter, at least when I tell my grandchildren about this adventure.

On the Spanish speaking side of things, in my first couple of weeks here, the only Mexicans I could understand were those that were transplanted here from larger cities such as Puebla or De Efe (short for Distrita Federal, another name for Ciudad de Mexico, others refer to it simpy as "Mexico"). The other night however, I could actually carry on a conversation with Téodoro, the guy who works nights here at the hotel. When I first got here, he might as well have been speaking Greek (In fact I think he was, just to mess with me).


The therapy end of things is going well, it is refreshing to treat only patients that really need my services, there is no litigation or worker's comp here. Folks don't come here because they have a little pain in thier low back (don't all of us?), they come in because they have foot drop, amputations, multiple trauma, etc., and most of them are still working, they have no choice. They are also incredibly generous. Hardly a day goes by where I don't get some sort of gift from a patient, cookies, soft drinks, whatever. They have practically nothing to give, but they want to show their appreciation in some way. In fact, tonight I am going to dinner at one of my patient's houses, she and her husband have asked me and Alejandro, another terapeuta fisico here to join them. I went out with some of the docs last night, we drank tequila and karaokied (is this even a word?) until 1:30 (actually they were still going strong, but I bailed, that is way past my bedtime). Imagine me trying to sing Mi Manera (My Way) in Spanish. Tomorrow, Superbowl Sunday (most locals couldn't care less). I'm going to Aldo's house for a Superbowl party.



Amidst all of the social scheduling, I managed to squeeze in a long walk today to El Barrio de San Francisco, where sits the oldest Catholic Church in North America, Iglesia de San Francisco (built in 1546), and the coolest building, the Teatro Renacimiento (revival theatre, it burned to the ground in the 1910 and was completely rebuilt). I have enclosed a picture of each. Next weekend, if the weather is good, I am going to go north to Merida and the beaches of northern Yucatan, or south to Palenque, Chiapas if the forcast calls for rain. More then!!