Shopping

I have been wondering what souvenirs to bring back from our trip. As Xalapa is a normal Mexico town and not on the tourist trail (thank god), there aren’t any souvenir shops. This is a good thing as Playa del Carmen has nothing BUT souvenir shops. Some things are quite nice – I bought some little hand painted ceramic bowls and some Frida & Diego kitsch items. I also got a lovely embroidered handbag. I have no idea who comes to Mexico and buys the Mexican hats, but they are everywhere. The prices are horribly inflated too. I needed some flipflops, but refused to pay 300 pesos for them when I know they only cost about 30 pesos in Veracruz. I can also get the chili sauce in our local supermarket for a normal price (and without the Mexican hat perched on it…)

Pharmacy Wars

Sol beer which comes in a can with with salt and lime and spicy chili crisps.

There’s a bit of a pharmacy war going on. At "Farmacia Familiares" you can get dependable drugs and see a doctor. At "Farmacia Similares" the slogan, a direct dig at Farmacia Familiares, is “The same, but cheaper” It seems like a total rip off too, same font, similar character (someone outside dancing round in a kindly old man-doctor suit), similar name etc. My theory is that both pharmacy chains are owned by the same company as surely they couldn’t get away with such a blatant rip off. We stay away from both these chains, but visit the pharmacy regularly. No, fortunately, we haven’t been sick, they sell everything! As David posted as he status on Facebook one day, where else in the world but Mexico can you buy beer in a pharmacy? We love Farmacia Rex where you can get Branflakes, but we are card carrying members of Farmacia Ahorra where we often stop on the way home for supplies (see picture).