Good Friday at Hacienda Contreras

Good Friday 3/29/13

Jerry, Paula, Ana, John, Peter and Madeleine all left early this morning for points North.  And George left later for his domicile outside of Tequisquiapan, Querétaro.  Renate was sick again today from the food poisoning, or whatever it is, so Barb (also a nurse) and I drove to Valle de Juarez to consult with a doctor for her.  It was about 1 in the afternoon and the whole town was so quiet - Good Friday 12 - 3; everybody's in church for the passion of Christ.  There was a procession this morning with the same 'Jesu' from Palm Sunday and also a star attraction at the children's parade.

The doctor, alone in his little clinic, prescribed Lomotil and Kao-Pectate, insisting that she wouldn’t need antibiotics unless she had a fever (which she’s not had at all) or unless the meds didn’t improve her condition within 2 hours or so.  Well, she immediately improved  and  is almost feeling back to normal.  I also bought her 4 bottles of electrolyte fluids – coconut flavored – and I’m sure that’s had a good effect on her recovery.

I talked with her [Renate] several times today; we’ve tentatively planned to head to San Miguel de Allende Tuesday or Wednesday.  George had invited me to visit him at his ‘home base’ but I’m thinking it’s a little out of the way for this year.

Tonight I watched “Under the Tuscan Sun” for the third or fourth time – still really enjoyed it.  Wonder if my Panasonic TV could be hung from the ceiling of the RV someplace??  Hmmm!  Food for thought.

During our dinner party George, Ruth and Kevin were instructing me on the usefulness of solar panels for generating electricity in my RV.  They think I should look into two 80- watt (I believe) solar panels, or better still two 135-watt panels – that’s what Renate has.  I’d also need at least 2 6-volt batteries [I have a 12-volt battery but they say it needs to be two 6-volt batteries] that would be charged to service equipment inside the RV when it’s parked and there's no electricity available. They estimate that the purchases and installation would run somewhere around $2K.