It has been a strange week. Looking back I can’t exactly point my finger at why, but I think it has something to do with everyone being pretty sick and tired of hot weather.  I mean enough, already!

A couple of people we know have had dengue.  If you are lucky it is a week full of painful bones and flu like symptoms, if you’re not lucky you are probably hospitalized and bleeding.  Both people we know got over it pretty quickly (about two weeks I think) and are doing fine now.  Blogger Jennifer wrote about her experience here.

I know I’ve written how the city trucks go around spraying everywhere with some kind of mosquito killer and they come door to door inspecting fountains.  But the elephant in the room here in Centro is that some of the ruins you see and might have next door to you have caved in roofs and are breeding grounds for mosquitoes.  It’s a tricky business here to get access to private property in order to spray but according to the newspaper the city is working on it.  I hope so, around here everyone keeps their property free of standing water in an effort to stay healthy but if absentee owners don’t take care of their property we could get sick anyway.

Paul got to test out the healthcare system here and we were very pleased.  He had a lump appear suddenly on his shoulder, and after about a week he noticed some bruising nearby.  We headed to Clinica del Mar on a Sunday afternoon.  The clinic was clean and organized and the people were friendly and efficient.  After a two minute wait he was examined by the doctor.  He spent about 15 minutes with us, and explained what he thought it was but asking us to come back Monday for an ultrasound.  We waited about 5 minutes for the ultrasound, and another five for the films to be done.  We then returned to speak to the doctor for another 15 minutes and to find out that he must have injured himself somehow and caused a hematoma.  A little blood is leaking out and causing the bruising.

The doctor wrote our number down on a post it note and said he’d call in 5 days to see how he is doing and asked us to come back in a week for a check.  We feel very comfortable with the level of care and diagnosis.

Oh, and what did it cost?  Two hundred pesos for the doctor visits. (no charge for the second visit) Three hundred fifty pesos for the ultrasound.  So, $550 MP or $40.75 USD.  Pretty amazing for a Sunday emergency room visit and an ultrasound.  I do so hope that Mexico and the US begin allowing US citizens to use their Medicare and Medicaid benefits in Mexico.  Read about what’s going on here.

What else has been going on?  Not too much.  I’ve done some cooking and baking.  We actually did one more project here even though after the sala fresca project I had sworn we were done.  We had a shelf that our contractor had salvaged from another Mazatlán property installed in our kitchen. (picture below)  They used the same installation technique like they did with the vigas – chipped out holes in the concrete for monitos that support the shelf.  We think it looks great, and it has inspired me to cook and bake more so that is good, right?

What else?  Oh, this is JUST A RUMOR but I heard that this house (below) is sold and going to be restored!  I am SO happy about that!  Isn’t it a beauty?