The Readjustment Blues

January 18, 2024

I liked this title just because of the 1972 song by John Denver about returning from Vietnam, but in truth although there is some readjustment needed on returning from Yucatan, and not cycling for a bit, it is not really about the blues. Things here are different, but not worse.

This was our day to bust through the snow and make it to the grocery store. Since the last grocery store we had been in was an Abbarotes in Playa, the differences here would be very apparent. And yes, everything was different. For example, a Playa grocery does not have an entire long aisle of sugary breakfast cereals. But some thing are similar, just with vast price differences. Cadbury chocolate bars, that cost $Can 16 in Playa are $Can 3-4 here, but then again a container of cut up fruit that is $2 down there, is $12 here. You can sort of get the same things in both places, as long as money is no object.

The most obvious difference, one that money can not fix, is of course in the weather. There is no way to go skiiing in Playa, ever, and no way to go swimming here, at least not now. That, of course, is not news or information, but it is a fact that requires some readjustment. But not readjustment blues, because swimming and skiing are both fun.

This anyway was what I was telling myself, as I shoveled the way out, so we could go buy those costly oranges.

At the store, the newspapers tell the story, but we have only to look out in the street!

It's not as if they don't have toronja here, you just have to pay 35 pesos, each!

But you can drown your sorrows in milk chocolate for 1/4 the Yucatan price.

In the end we bought a pile of stuff, for $262, which is over 3,300 pesos or about 20 restaurant meals.

There is of course no point and no future in comparing Yucatan to BC. Each place is its own thing, and we can enjoy each while we are there.

Along these lines, Dodie was looking out the window, and trying to record the unique birds that we do have here. It was difficult, because light levels are so low. Even so, here is some of what she saw:

24065 Red Breasted Nuthatch. These guys will pick through seeds at a feeder, discarding up to a dozen. Then when they get one they like, they do not linger, but take off with it into the forest.

And things will not be dull here for long. We already have the Primula on sale at the grocery, the first flowers of Spring.

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