After the scary episode with the cheese filled corn tortilla thingy I bought off the street and ate on the bus from Matamoros to Palenque I have avoided a lot of the authentic food. I’m even having a hard time with the corn tortillas that the women in the church deliver to us DAILY.
Our food budget is a whopping $2.75 per person per day. That actually goes pretty far here and will go even further in some of the other countries we will visit. Of course the money we save when someone treats us or when we go under budget can be used elsewhere.
We have eaten a lot of cold cereal, or hot oatmeal or scrambled eggs for breakfast. Lunch is egg or tuna sandwiches, maybe yogurt from one of the local stores or leftovers. We’ve eaten spaghetti a couple times for dinner (we can get fresh tomatoes locally). We also eat a lot of rice and beans. We quarter and fry the corn tortillas almost daily to make homemade tortilla chips (yummy).
We can buy chickens locally- live or plucked and ready to go. On Saturday morning there was a big street market here in town. We bought an already grilled chicken that just absolutely hit the spot. Brienna and Joy made mashed potatoes to go with it. That was a pretty fine lunch. Saturday night we had American Night. Team Yeti made hotdogs and French fries with salsa and sautéed onions and we made spaghetti and green beans. Yes, I am aware that American night included French fries, Italian spaghetti and Mexican salsa!
There was a Burger King back in Palenque. The meal deal was only US $3.20. We will be back in Palenque on Monday (Jan. 22) and I imagine the BK Doble Whopper will be a part of the days’ activities. I’m also craving Pizza, a really good salad and an awesome steak. Rumor has it Argentina has the best and least expensive steaks in the world…so we are looking forward to the last week in April!
There are several very small stores in the community. We can buy Coca Cola and other snacks as well as staples such as rice and beans and eggs. We are trying to spread our spending out among the different stores. We are also trying to avoid the appearance of being rich Americans.
