La Opera, Cafe Tacuba, and Sickness

Despite the title, the cantina, the cafe and James' sickness have nothing to do with each other. Yesterday we had a great time with Gabriel, James' friend and colleague from Stony Brook. It turns out that he is here too for research until the end of November. Gabriel and James ran into each other in the archive on Tuesday, what a nice surprise! It looks like we have one more friend here...

So yesterday I joined them in one of the most famous cantinas downtown, La Opera Bar, which is from the beginning of the century and it's most well known for a gunshot on the ceiling allegedly from Pancho Villa himself...(if you look carefully at the picture you can see it on the top right corner) The place looks really nice, old-times flavor, elegant but welcoming, and very much used to tourists...James hasn't even started asking the waiter, and he already pointed to the mark on the ceiling...

So the first impression was great, not cheap, not too pricey, nice waiters, nice atmosphere. James and Gabriel were drinking beer as usual, but since we arrived I have been drinking a lot of cocktails here, so I ordered a sangria...it was one of the worst I have ever had (lemonade and bad red wine mixed). To give the benefit of the doubt, next I ordered a Margarita, which is a real Mexican cocktail, so I thought if anything they must know how to do this right...I was wrong, it didn't taste anything like a Margarita except for the salt on the glass...it turns out Gabriel had a bad experience with another mixed drink, too. So even through the place has the vibe you'd like I don't think we'll be going back there a lot.

However, Cafe Tacuba, just one street over, is a real treat!! We have been there last Sunday already, but I wanted to go back because I really liked it. It has plenty of tourists as well, but it still has more of a genuine feeling to it, with its colonial architecture, tiled, colorful walls, many small tables, uniformed waiters, etc. And more importantly, it has great food and good drinks (haven't had a cocktail there yet), good wine and ... absolutely fantastic cakes!!!! Finally I had my first tres leches cake there and it wasn't a disappointment, to say the least. We spent a couple of hours there, too, and I think this is a place to visit regularly downtown. We also had huge, delicious tamales...for less than 3 dollars each!

And now onto the last thing: James hasn't been feeling well since Tuesday, he still went to the archive yesterday, but by the evening he could barely walk. It's the second time in three weeks he has this stomach virus. We have no idea where he gets it from (I haven't been ill with my stomach yet). Last night was a nightmare, and all day today he couldn't get out of bed. Luckily we brought antibiotics from the US, and they have stuff for it here in the pharmacy as well. But it's a 5 day treatment every time. We were told that this is common, but I thought it was only exaggeration...well, it's not - at least not for James. And we don't even eat from the streets and only go to good restaurants. I sanatize all vegetables, peel fruits and we never drink tap water. I have no idea what this could be, but I really do hope his stomach will adjust soon...