Last Day with our Little Red Car

Joe and Ian are going to turn in our cute red car today at the airport. JetBlue is bringing us 2 more friends, Jess and Keenan, at noon. The plan is to pick them up, get the birding car Ian arranged with Blueway Car Rental and then they take off tomorrow on their 18 day road trip in search of the birds of Mexico. Ian's doing so much better today, looking good. Now one of the birders just has to volunteer to give him his antibiotic shot in the butt while they are on the road.

So yesterday Joe, Luke and I did some errands in Playa Del Carmen before we are carless.

First stop was Chedraui, a 183 store supermarket chain the likes of which we don't see at home. Stacks of product as high as 2 stories, selling everything from stoves to pastries. 

This part of Mexico loves their pastries, and they are excellent! I made a big mistake yesterday, the woman bagging our selected pastures ran some bread up at 500 pesos/ 39 dollars, instead of 50 pesos/4 dollars, and I missed it! Not sure if I'll be able to go back and resolve the issue... no car and a long taxi ride.

The Telcel store that offers a sim card that works in our iPhones. The small tiendas around here can't do that, they sell the extra minutes to add to your card, but not the card and installation. Plaza de Américas on the north side of Playa Del Carmen, by the Sears store. Very upscale store!

We were able to arrange for a card, 149 pesos.  600 mb of data, no voice no texts, for 15 days for Ian's phone, 200 pesos. Total $27. It took an hour or so to do this and it was all in Spanish. They take credit cards.

Christmas special.

Doctor Drama in Puerto Morelos

A follow up about Ian's sore throat from a previous post.....Turns out the antibiotic Ian was on was the wrong one. At 1am last night Ian came in to wake us up, when was the last time that happened!?? His tonsillitis was much worse, his throat was so closed he couldn't sleep, and breathing was becoming a problem, Yikes!!

We found the best doctor ever in our sleepy little mexican town, in the middle of the night and he fixed Ian right up. Dr. Victor Ballesteros. After looking in Ian's throat he pronounced it "muy feo", very ugly. He gave him a shot in the butt, antibiotics with some steroids, had him inhale something soothing that took the swelling and inflamation down, dealt with a minor panic attack on Ian's part, and did all this competently with a smile and a great attitude.

Thankfully good medical care at any time of the day or night in Mexico is available, excellent and affordable!

 We went back this afternoon for a follow up visit, and another shot.

Ian revisiting the scene of the fixing of tonsillitis gone awry.

 Getting ready for his shot... Turns out that Joe is going to have to administer the next 3 shots! The infection is still very much active. Our doctor showed us what to do, and Joe is agreeable to doing it, he's not squeamish about doctor things at all, not like me.

Ian's very grateful for the good medical care he received!! We'd recommend Dr. Victor H. Ballesteros Q. to anyone!
If you need to find him, ask the taxi drivers at the main plaza for the Medico, even in the middle of the night they can direct you there.

It helps a lot if you speak Spanish, his English is limited, and we had to discuss a lot of ideas and treatment options together, I'm really happy I was able to understand him.

His diagnosis in Spanish is Faringoamigdalitis or in English: Pharyngotonsillitis.