Greetings from Cancun! Arrived in Mexico 3 days ago and have been chilling – and eating – since I got here! I’m actually here for a Reboot Fitness boot camp that’s starting tomorrow in Isla Meujeures (sp?) but I thought I’d arrive a couple of days early to relax and gird my loins for the social onslaught!!
I’m staying in a charming place that’s outside of the main hotel drag called Casa Tortugas (Turtle House). I picked it as it promised to be a peaceful retreat from the hustle and bustle (just exiting the airport alone is enough to make you want to sit in a quiet room for a few hours to recover) and its been just that. The property borders the lagoon and my apartment faces out over both the lagoon and the lovely infinity swimming pool that takes up most of the back garden. It also has a gorgeous roof terrace and bar where you can relax and enjoy the spectacular sunsets with a completely uninterrupted view. The only downside is that it doesn’t have a restaurant – but as I’m in an apartment with a fully functional kitchen, a quick trip to the local OXXO store to buy the basics (coffee, milk, yogurt, cereal) solved that problem.
So yesterday and today, I spent my mornings in the company of Cancun Food Tours. Yesterday, it was to take part in a cooking class whereas today was a street food/market/street art tour. Both were fun days – the guides for both were great – Naseem was our guide (and chef) for the cooking class and Nav (with the single best name badge I’ve ever seen) was our cordial host for today’s adventure. On both days the groups were fairly small – about 12 of us for the cooking class and only 6 of us for the street food tour, so it felt nice not to be part of a giant herd of tourists being shepherded on and off a massive fume-belching bus. I mean, obviously we are all still tourists, but you can kid yourself that you are slightly more intrepid than your average joe by doing something as racy and daring as a street food tour! I mean, just imagine all those potential gastric horrors!! Actually, all kidding aside, I did get a teeny bit squeamish at our second street food stop of the day where we had pork carnitas. They were tasty but my word, the guy serving them up was raking through the meat in his huge vat with his bare hands like he was digging for gold – and I have to confess I did wonder just how clean his hands really were. I guess I’ll find out in private later on tonight…..
Given food was a common theme for both excursions, there was actually a little bit of overlap as both tours took us to the local market, a part of town called Market 23. It was very local and authentic and not many tourists – but obviously still enough to support the proliferation of shops selling tourist tat that fringed its borders. Similar to other local markets I’ve been to in the past, it had your requisite number of dodgy looking meat stalls with freshly killed and skinned chickens – feet and head still attached- as well as fragrant fish stalls, with depressed looking chunks of ice knowing they were fighting a losing battle against the heat. (btw – random food fact here: if you are looking for a fresher than fresher only just had its head-chopped-off-chicken, then you want to pick one that is yellow in color. The ones that are whiter in color are the chickens that were killed more than a day ago). The fruit and veg stands were very colorful and mostly decipherable – I particularly appreciated the large selection of dried chilis. Another fun factoid: fresh and dried chilis have different names (I’m sure, dear readers, you probably already knew this) Thus the jalapeno pepper becomes a chipotle pepper once its dried and the poblano pepper becomes the gloriously smoky ancho chile. Nas also told us, as we were picking out tomatoes for our guacamole, to discard any fruit that have tiny little white specks around the top part. This indicates that they have been exposed to too many chemicals during the growing process. Definitely good to know – and hopefully our food standards back in the US should preclude that happening – but you know I’ll be checking the next time I look at plum tomatoes! (yes, Mum – I can hear you say that’s why you always buy organic – and rightly so!)
I also learned a couple of other nuggets during the cooking class – one, don’t discard the pit after you scoop out your avocado. Once you’ve made your guacamole, add the pit back in to the mixture and it will help stop it going brown so quickly. Definitely good to know! Also – leave a little bit of the avocado flesh near where the stem is – apparently, this area is prone to harboring bacteria, so you want to leave that in the skin. I also learned a new technique for how to finely dice onion – although the knives were as blunt AF so frankly it was a miracle we were able to chop anything at all! So the class was fun enough – probably not the best I’ve ever been too, as we spent a bit too long at the market IMHO with the obligatory visit to the local “arts and craft” store, so we didn’t actually get down to doing any cooking for a good hour and a half. In the end, we made guacamole (yummy), enchiladas with a very tasty red sauce, sopa (kinda like a thick corn pancake), quesadilla and arroz con leche. It all tasted quite delicious – and was fairly substantial, so a looooong nap was in order when I got back to the hotel!!
For the street food tour today, we started off with these DELICIOUS savory pork sandwich things called tecolote. As this was our first stop and we’d been warned there was a LOT of food to come, I managed to restrain myself and not eat the whole thing but only just! It reminded me of a banh mi sandwich with the tasty meat filling wrapped in an outstanding bread roll that was flaky and crusty and light, just like a French baguette. SO GOOD. The next stop was back to the same tamale stand I’d been to the day before – this time, I opted for the version that was wrapped in banana leaves (vs the more traditional one wrapped in corn husks). I’m pretty ambivalent about tamales (I’m not keen on their mushy texture) but I gave ’em a try both days – and still don’t really care for them. Next up were the aforementioned carnitas taco – tasty enough, but I couldn’t quite forget what I’d seen enough to truly relax and enjoy the experience! Lastly, it was back to the restaurant La Parilla where I’d done the cooking class the day before for the final savory dish – I can’t quite remember what it was called – but it was jolly tasty, especially accompanied with a meaty gravy dipping sauce (the Mexican version of an Italian beef and au jus, I guess!). As we sat and ate our food in La Parilla, Nas also gave us a tequila tasting and passed on this tip for all you tipplers out there. If you want to drink more tequila without getting horribly wasted – there is (apparently) a technique that will help you not consume as much of the alcohol – but while you do enjoy the flavor. Here it is: 1) you sip your tequila (or whiskey or whatever spirit you are drinking); 2) you inhale through your nose; 3) you swallow your tequila; 4) immediately after you exhale through your mouth. In this way you are exhaling some of the alcohol, rather than consuming it. I don’t know if this is total BS or not (I didn’t try it) but thought I’d pass it on as a PSA for you all!
So that’s been my time in Mexico so far. Tomorrow, I check out of Casa Tortugas and head for the ferry terminal for the short hop over to Isla Meujeures and my super luxey fancy-pants hotel. I hope they have some shampoo and conditioner as I didn’t bring any with me as I assumed the hotel would have some in the bathroom. Alas no – and this time i already know NOT to try and use body lotion as a substitute – so my ‘do is looking very ‘fro like at the moment. Its all frizz and nonsense so I am in real need of some industrial strength conditioner! I’m not sure what to expect over the next few days (there are 30 ladies and its a fitness/yoga/bootcamp retreat) but a couple of good friends will be there, so it should be a fun time! I’m a bit nervous about the fitness aspect – but I guess I’ll do what I can (or want) and that will do. I’m actually looking forward to the meditation sessions – it was actually at another bootcamp in Mexico (the original “bikini bootcamp” in Tulum) about 18yrs ago that I first got into meditation and I used to practice daily. It really helped me find balance and perspective at the time – kinda one of those things that you look back and wonder why you stopped doing it. So I’m hoping this might kick start me back into a regular meditation practice – as I continue to figure out where my passions lie post-retirement, having an additional way to bring clarity to my thinking can only be helpful, I think.
I’m also hoping to do some reflection on what I’ve learned so far – given its now been just over 3 months since I stopped working. I have to say that it feels MUCH longer – presumably cos I’ve crammed quite a lot of stuff into a fairly short amount of time! Here’s what I do know already – I do NOT miss the corporate life one bit. I am loving the freedom to go and do what I want, when I want (within reason, of course) and it feels so liberating. This usually manifests itself in not having to go to the grocery store on a Sunday afternoon and fight my way through the hordes of other shoppers – but instead luxuriate in the privilege of being able to go on a Monday afternoon (gasp!) when the store is practically deserted and the checkout lines are blissfully empty. That’s when I feel incredibly lucky to have been able to quit the day job and instead dedicate myself to serving Rod. As I reflect back on the tasks he’s given me so far, it has been a bit of a mixed bag to be honest. Remember, the objective of the Great Rod Experiment is to help me figure out what I feel passionate about and where I’d best like to spend my time. With that in mind, here’s my Rod ranking to date, from best to worst (no prizes for guessing what occupies that spot!)
- Take a floral design class: I am loving loving loving this so far. I haven’t finished this task quite yet as I have an ikebana arrangement to try, plus my Floral Sampler class at the Chicago School of Flower Design – but I’m really enjoying it. I loved working with the florists for our (ahem) multiple weddings so I can see this is definitely one that I’m going to continue to practice and learn about. Whether it will turn into anything more serious (Bunnies and Blooms flower and gift shop, anyoneVolun?) we’ll have to see – but this one is a no-brainer to continue. SCORE: 10/10!
- Learn how to crochet a bunny: what I enjoyed about this task was the tangible sense of achievement that came at the end of it and that I Actually Made Something! Plus that something also happened to be a cute bunny – bonus! It wasn’t a cakewalk either – I started and re-started the whole project numerous times and had to basically learn a new language, to understand the patterns and various stitches. But I persevered and it finally clicked – which felt very gratifying. I have my next project ready to go (yes – another bunny – this time, a Miffy bunny wearing a cute orange jacket) so check the box for that one! Again, not sure if this will lead to an amazing new career opportunity – but don’t be surprised if some of you end up getting little amigurumi gifts for Christmas and birthdays at some point in the future…. SCORE: 8/10
- Volunteer at a food pantry: I really enjoyed my time spent at the Chicago Food Depository and definitely plan to continue to volunteer. Its uplifting to know that even little contributions of time can add up to support something significant and important. I’m also looking into additional ways to contribute – perhaps ones that use my professional skills more directly. There’s nothing currently listed on their website that aligns with my skill set – but I’ll definitely keep you all posted! SCORE: 8/10 (points deducted for the shitty traffic you have to drive through to get there!)
- Brown sign week! This one was a lot of fun – and I got out there and went to places I’d otherwise never visit. I think my favorite was the Richard Dreihaus museum – it was enriching to the soul to be surrounded by so much beauty and craftsmanship. I am going to make sure to visit at least 1 Brown Sign place each month so I can continue to refresh and expand my cultural appreciation for our local heritage. SCORE: 7/10
- Live for a week like its 1985. Oh man. This one was a challenge and – while I’m glad I did it – I will be crossing my fingers HARD each time a new task is extracted from Rod to hope that “Live for a week like its 1975” doesn’t come up! I have no particular desire to go back to being unconnected and without access to the internet. Life isn’t really designed to work that way anymore! While the food and fashion was fun (except the hair), the rest of it I could probably do without. I did gain some interesting insights as a result of the experiment – but alas nothing earth-shattering that suddenly reveals My Greater Purpose In Retirement. So I’m gonna have to go with a score of 5/10
- Learn to play the Theremin in a week. Ah, theremini. How I loathe thee. So maybe I was setting myself up to fail from the start for giving myself a deadline of only a week – but honestly, I really don’t think it would have made a blind bit of difference. It would have simply prolonged the agony even further which may have ultimately ended up in physical harm to myself, the theremini and everyone around me. Key learning (which is relevant to retirement, I suppose) – its probably highly unlikely that you will be a “natural” at something that usually takes many hours of study and practice and hard work. If you want to get good at something, guess what? You’re likely gonna need to put the work in (10,000 hours, right?). So as I think about potential second careers, unless I really want to go right back to the beginning (which is not out of the realms of possibility) then its likely to be something I already have some degree of skill at doing. All I’ve got to do is figure out what that is – and how to apply it. Anyway, scores on the doors for this task SCORE: 1/10
So that’s where I’m currently at. I’ve had an influx of new ideas into Rod (thank you, Fiona) so there’s enough in there to keep me going for at least another 3 or 4 months! As soon as I get back from Mexico, it will be time for a new task – so stay tuned!!
