It is almost the new year, 2017, but I am more focused on heading back home to Vancouver, Canada, for my daughter’s wedding.
New Years Eve
To usher in the new year I planned on going to a Mezcal bar called In Situ.
Mezcal is all the rage here in Oaxaca. There are Mezcal stores, tours and bars everywhere. Tequila seems to have taken a back seat. Unlike Tequila, which is only made with blue agave, the Mezcal varieties are achieved with a mixture of different agave families.
I started my New Years Eve with a walk around town to see what was going on. The Zacalo was buzzing with people setting off fireworks. Unlike Canada, there seems to be no regulations. They were being set off everywhere. Some just missing people watching.
It was getting close to midnight so I headed off to In Situ. To my surprise it was closed! I guess it is more of a lounge than a party spot.
There are lots of bars and clubs in town so I walked around a bit to see if there was anything that would interest me. Most of them were pretty quiet and I didn’t feel like going in by myself. So I went back home.
As midnight struck there were lots of fireworks being set off. Interestingly though, there were more fireworks on Christmas Eve. It appears that the biggest celebrations are reserved for religious events.
Like the old guy I am, I went to bed 🙁
Going Home
More important than New Years was that I was going home on January 4 to attend my daughter’s wedding on January 14. The plan was to return back to Oaxaca on January 18 and stay there until the 31st.
The flight home was uneventful. I picked up a rental car and went to my youngest son’s place in Langely where I would be staying while I was here.
The next day we met up with Carllee and her fiance Ian at where else ….. a Mexican restaurant in Vancouver for dinner.
Hospital
After I got back to Nick’s place (my youngest’s son) I started to feel ill. I thought it may be just travel fatique and perhaps something I ate. As the night wore on it got worse and worse. I was vomiting and had diarrhea. Later rather than sooner I realized this was not an ordinary illness. I was in lots of pain. Nick drove me to Langley Memorial Hospital.
The hospital energency room was packed. There was no place to sit. But I had to sit somewhere. I took a chair that was obviously reserved for someone but there weren’t there now. I didn’t remain seated for long. In pain I went to the floor and vomited. That is one way to by-pass emergency room line-ups! It wasn’t long and I was in a hospital bed hooked up to morphine.
Once the pain had subsided I went for numerous tests. The results? I had a hiatal hernia. Complicating matters was that my stomach had slipped through it and was now twisted in my chest! Apparently this is rare for adults. This would require surgery.
The surgeon at Langley Hospital told me the specialist in this procedure were at the Surrey Hospital. A transfer ambulance later I was there.
Decision Time
For the next three days I had nothing but jello and juice 🙁 And for the last day nothing! The Doctor came into my room and said I could have the surgery right now if I wanted.
After some discussion, he said there would be a 20% chance I would miss Carllee’s wedding. But if I didn’t take the surgery now who knows when I would get in again. That meant my trip could be in jeopardy if it took months. Compounding the problem was that my motorcycle permit in Mexico expired on March 28 which meant I needed to get the bike out of the country by then. In the end though it really wasn’t much of a decision. The 20% chance of not walking my only daughter down the asile were odds I was not willing to take. I said no to the surgery.
With the decision made, and my twisted stomach settled down, I was released from the hospital to attend Carllee’s wedding.
My Location for December 26 to January 3, 2017
My Flight on January 4, 2017
I did make a stopover in Mexico City though.
My Location from January 4 to January 12, 2017
