Alas, the bags are (mostly) packed and sooner than we like the sun will set on our final day here. We’ve just returned from our extravagant finale’…lunch at El Colera and John is zonked out and I can’t paint (all packed up, no time to dry) so I’m typing. Wow. We ate in, for the most part (John is Chef excellente’, so why bother except to give him a break!) but we saved for today and went out for lunch.

I can’t quite wipe the smile off my face.

I started with a crab tostada, John with a glass of oysters. On most days, the tostada would have been enough for me, but afterall, this is our last day. John had pescado veracruz and I had pescado al ajo. (Fish filets (Dorado, I think)..his veracruz, and mine with garlic). And we washed it down with our final margaritas. Incredibly tasty. Total bill…390 Pesos including tip. About $30. I also picked up my laundry. 35 pesos, washed, dryed and folded. ($2.80) (Deep happy sigh here)

I’ve been keeping track of our expenses (we’re on a budget) and the sum total per day for the past 28 days, including laundry, wine/drinks and taxis, one night out per week for dinner, and day trips to El Tuito and the Botanical Gardens, and having friends over for dinner……… is $29 per day. Honestly, it’s a third of what we spend at home and we seldom go out for dinner, seldom have friends over for dinner, I do the laundry and we don’t take day trips (unless you call my daily jaunt to the gallery a day trip!) If I take out everything but friends over for dinner and it drops to $22 per day. I’m not sure I can do two loads of laundry for $2.80. Can you? It does give me pause…..

So, tomorrow we fly away. Back into the chaos that awaits us from the moment we land at DFW. I’ll stop typing now so I can savour the final hours.