Calderitas (day 4)

Wednesday January 14…10:30pm

Our taxi showed up here for 9:15am, as we had arranged. He took us about 10 km’s to the dentist office, and the fare was 70 pesos ($6.37 CAN, $5.15 US).

Our appointment was for 10am for the four of us. Steve and Glen went in first, so it was close to 11am by the time Ruth and I went in. It turned out the dentist did speak a little English, so we could communicate okay using a few words between the two languages. He had a quick look at Ruth’s teeth, and declared that she needed no work at all. With me, as soon as I showed him that I had a partial plate for two missing teeth, he said he could fix that with a bridge, and would correct a couple of crooked teeth at the same time. I had wanted to get this done eventually anyhow, but the pricing I had been quoted in Canada was about $2,500 CAN. He said he could do it for 6,000 pesos ($546 CAN, $450 US). I would have part of the procedure done right away, and would have to come back in 8 days for the final fitting. At that price, it didn’t take us long to decide to go for it.

Ruth in the waiting room at the dentist's office

After that, we wandered downtown and tried to get S&G’s tourist cards paid for, because they are leaving to backpack Belize and Guatemala tomorrow. When you cross into Mexico by land, they give you a tourist card at the border. You are supposed to go to any bank to pay something like 210 pesos fee before you leave the country, and then hand in your tourist card when you leave the country. But, this is Mexico, and the left hand doesn’t always know what the right hand is doing. All of the banks we went to said that they were missing part of the form, however that was all we had been given. We were told we had to go to an immigration office, but that it closed at 1pm, so S&G will go do that tomorrow before they leave.

We had lunch at a taco stand that did very nice empenadas (pastry filled with cheese or chicken) for an unbelievably cheap 3 pesos (27 cents CAN) each. Ruth and I had six of them between us, so we were nicely filled up for 21 pesos ($1.91) including a little tip.

We stopped in at a tourist office and picked up a map of Chetumal, since Ruth and I will be staying here for at least the next eight days. There’s not a whole lot to do here, but apparently they do have one of the best Mayan museums in the area, so we’ll take that in some day.

Went to S&G’s for supper again, and she had made a Shepherds Pie. Kathe joined us, so it was interesting to get her perspective on things to do in the area.

Total nights sleeping in a motorhome…448

January Fuel $ 45.50 CAN

January Grocery $ 92.01 CAN

January Overnight costs $ 87.36 CAN