We had a great, yet very tiring day today!! What an adventure that all of our legs, back and feet are feeling the effects of tonight!
We started off the day going back to the medical office to have Ershu's TB test read. It looked great and she is cleared, medically, to go home.
This is in the morning wrapped like a little burrito because the air condition was on pretty high to dry the clothes that I tried to wash in the bathtub. (Very, Very thankful for our washing machine at home!) (btw, the clothes are still drying over 24 hours later...I need to get better on my wringing cycle :) and it is still humid enough here to give the clothes a run for their money)
Then as a (most of of our) group we were taken to go shopping in the "pedestrian walk" and taken to a couple of stores to get authentic well priced things...It is very hard to shop as a group, and most of us were waiting around for others most of the time.
Our guide told us the translation for the Chinese name for this coffee is: Cat Poop Coffee. Sounds appetizing doesn't it?
It is hard to see what everything is here...but there is some squid toward the back...that actually didn't look too bad.
These are all pearls...
random picture of a cute crab on the car...we can't figure out if that is the car's really logo, or slightly embellished.
Afterwards the plan was to get back on the bus and be dropped at the hotel and then have the whole afternoon for free time. Josh and I wanted to go to Shamin Island, which is an island that most adoptive parents used to stay at because the medicals used to be on the island. There is a lot of history to this little island (sand bar) but I don't have much energy to go into it at the moment. All of this to say, 2 other families wanted to join us, so the bus just dropped us off there (it was in 20-30 minute walking distance, but we had already been walking so long, that we appreciated the drop off because we were still going to have to walk back to see the interesting things Mateo has been waiting for.) It was beautiful and so quite! The only hubbub was all these couples in rented dresses (some traditional western white dresses, some colorful ball gowns) and tuxes taking wedding photos before the wedding to share at the wedding.
We ate at Lucy's which is a favorite of adoptive parents who stay on the island. This was our first American food in 9 days...and it was nice.
Look what was on the wall...
Another famous statue with adoptive families...so we joined the bandwagon and had our kids take pictures with them.
Mexican Consulate
We also stopped to shop at one or two shops that the other family recommended...had to buy a very cheap bright purple suitcase for all our goods/gifts. Then on to the walk to find the interesting stuff... does this qualify? This was being sold on someone's blanket on the overpass walking bridge.
On to what I think is the road with all the dry "medicinal' things...
Seahorses...
Maybe sea cucumbers?
Mateo by more sea horses...
Dried Frogs...
Sorting thousands of some kind of root that looked like a miniature ginger root.
Dried snakes in a bin...
In the bag in the middle...shark or some large fish fin...dried
Some kind of small deer leg bone and hoof?
And then there is the very tall American male pulling a bright shiny purple suitcase behind him...very unusual indeed!
Biggest cinnamon sticks I have ever seen
Some sort of dried bug...
Turtle under belly shell... (is that what I should call it? )
Then this road transitions from dry medicinal goods, to an outdoor pet store!
Newts?
Orange frogs...
Yeah, he is mine and I am proud of it!!
OK...so someone who has time on their hands, could you look up what kind of turtles this are? They have very long necks (lighter grey head/neck color). Thanks
And the part we all have been waiting for all day...the flying lizard on a stick! I forgot to take the picture of it in the outdoor market, because I was too busy negotiating to buy it. Mateo looked very scared when he saw me buying it! ;) We asked the concierge desk what they use it for (isn't that what a 5 star hotel concierge desk for? Looking inside of a plastic back and pulling out dried lizard on a stick? Pretty sure we made her day :)) and with a little help from some one else they say we could steam it with some rice and eat the meat (what meat) or we could put it in some soup to make it soft again. Interesting...but pretty sure we will be do neither of those things ! But thanks anyways!
After all this fun, we still had to find a taxi back to our hotel...once we found one, it was right in the middle of rush hour (we left the hotel at 9:30am and didn't get back until 5:45pm, needless to say we could barely make it to our room!) so it took us a half hour to get back instead of 15 mins.
Tomorrow is our consulate appt. After that we are good to go...but we will still swing by Beijing to visit the Great Wall with Ershu...that is if any of us can walk tomorrow and the following days!
