Day of Walking in Taxco

I've got 6 days to go before school starts up in earnest. I am excited for it to start – but also, pretty content to take this time to decompress from moving out of my apartment back in Edmonton, all of the packing, sorting, giving-away, organizing – fitting my life back into one suitcase again.

The two days of travel to get here, the transition to speaking Spanish again – the acclimatization to a new culture.

Yesterday was a care-free day of walking – it was glorious. Here are a few photos from my wanderings:

Today was also the (massive) farmer's market right outside my door step...  How did I forget to take pictures again?  I couldn't really partake in the market per se anyway - as I only had the 80 pesos in my pocket - due to the continual banking dramas occurring here…  (Yesterday $100 was taken out of my account - and no cash was dispensed from the ATM!)

In any case, I only had 80 pesos ($6) - so I bought two pieces of fish with it…  I felt like it was the best investment for my money - as I "can" buy veggies from the supermarket here this week.  Not ideal, but is really what needs to happen.  Next week farmers market - I will be more than prepared!

The market did look glorious - shopping at the supermarket will not need to occur while I am here, as long as I stay prepared with pesos in my pocket.  There were at least a hundred stalls - and all kinds of vegetables.  Next week - pictures!  These were no doubt real "farmers" (granjeros) - as I went back out for a second walk of the day around 4 pm, and the market was just closing up shop....  You should have seen all of the farm trucks loaded up with their supplies, headed back up into the mountains and countryside.  Amazing!

So - I have encountered my first disillusionment with my "perfect" life here in Taxco:  the pollution.  It is, I have to admit, pretty bad. After about a week here now, my throat is a little sore – and I can see why people start to wear the hospital masks. I might take that up myself – but first, I am going to start exploring how I can get to my destinations without using the main street. I think that is really my problem: the main highway runs right through the city, and I keep on walking to it by default to get to where I need to go.  

There has got to be ways to get to where I need to go using the side streets.  As my confidence builds, and I start to worry less about getting lost, this will be what I start working on - when I am off that main street, pollution is maybe a quarter the problem.

I woke up at 5am this morning, perfectly, without an alarm. This is what I am working towards - 5am meditations (Joe Dispenza) - walking up naturally, without feeling tired or groggy when I arise.  I felt great this morning!

I did my 50-minute meditation, and made breakfast.  I actually bought a piece of salmon from the market yesterday…  I mean, clearly not local, clearly not wild - clearly farmed ???  But, wow, it did taste quite good.  I don't think I will do it again, maybe as a treat every so often - there are two types of local river fish that I can purchase here, which makes way more sense.  Will take pictures next week!