The weather seems to be falling into a little bit of a pattern these past couple days which means rain in the afternoon. Rain is putting it mildly - on one or two occasions, it was more of like a temporary monsoon. This has edited our daily routine in a way because the onset of the rain has been coincident with when Francine and I cut off work, so we've needed to get a little more creative. As a result, today became a two-mission day (three if you count the daily dinner search).
First mission: laundry. We haven't had access to laundry facilities since we left Mérida Centro, and we didn't want to spend our time in Progreso at the laundry, so the laundry situation was beginning to become a little urgent. I did extensive research on both Google and YouTube. First I looked for self-service laundromats. I discovered that in this city of nearly one million people, I could only find two on Google Maps; both a cab ride away which seemed a little excessive. On YouTube, I discovered just how normal drop-off, wash-dry-fold services are. Sounded good to me, but Francine is very particular about her laundry methods. In the end, with our only option being a cab ride halfway across the city, we elected to go with a drop-off service.
I schlepped the eight kilos of laundry the five or six blocks to meet Sra Patrícia. La Señora seemed to think it a little odd to have eight kilos of laundry and she kept questioning whether I knew it was going to cost $20 (roughly $11 in wash-dry-fold and $9 in dry cleaning). My concern was less about the money and more about the decision to go with a drop-off rather than a self-service. With this decision looming over me, my primary concern was that none of the clothes got ruined. It took a minute for her to get that, but once we did, we were allied.
Second mission: Wal-Mart. In the afternoon - after work, but before the rains, we headed out to walk he seven or so blocks to the Wal-Mart. From the inside, this looked more or less like a Wal-Mart - different stuff, but for the most part, about what you'd expect.
 |
| Saint Wally, the patron Saint of Stuff. |
The outside, however was a different story.
 |
| Exterior of Wal-Mart Merida Pasejo Montejo. |
Turns out, there are eight Wal-Marts in Mérida; all of them north of the center line of the city in the more affluent northern neighborhoods....but that's another story. Most of them look like the giant cinder block boxes people from the USA would expect. This one - the one right at the epicenter of the Pasejo Montejo area did not. Ah ha!. Proof that Wal-Mart is actually capable of making attractive stores. I want to imagine that this design and appearance was as a result of the City of Mérida saying "If you want a store on the central plaza of the Pasejo Montejo area, you're going to have to dress it up." I wonder if some towns in the United States have exerted their will over Wal-Mart. (Not to pick on Wal-Mart....any Wall Street invader.)
From Wal-Mart we walked to get a snack and got caught out in the rain, so dinner got a little extravagant- mostly due to the pernicious wine/snack codependency.
And so ends day twenty-three.
Comments
Post a Comment