Christmas day trip

On christmas day we followed the coastal road out of Progresso for about an hour passing through smaller and smaller towns we finally turned around and headed back to Progresso. We had seen this little restaurant on our way out and on the way back we stopped and had lunch.

And it was a very nice lunch and it turns out the restaurant is large inside it could hold a very large group of people.

How I spent christmas

We went to Progresso for a planned dinner with a large group of expats from the U.S., Canada and a few other countries. We had turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, greenbeans and for dessert we had a choice of pies pumkin or pecan. Very nice dinner met some new people and got more information about living in that area from Linda she is on the right.

That night we spent at the hotel Izadora. In the morning we got up before dawn and went to take the dogs on a walk at the beach and the gate was locked so we had to wait till the man came to unlock the gate and let us out of the hotel. Gee one time we are kicked out of hotel and another we are locked in, T.I.M. this is Mexico to funny some times. We just waited with the dogs on the patio and when the man (Tony) came and let us out we went to the beach and let the dogs off leash so they could feel like real dogs for a change.

Yea, we can run !!!

Later we went to breakfast at another hotel and what a nice breakfast it was very nice, very peaceful.

This and that

The weather has turned cool and cloudy for a few days with some rain showers. Between the dampness, gloom and cold it has not been comfortable. I am sure the weather will turn for the better soon. Sleeping with an electric blanket is to much like being in Texas for me.

Having never visited Merida before I am not familiar with a lot of things about the city and the Yucatan and most of what I do know is from the web and what I have read in books. The reality is that a city like this with over 700 thousand people can be overwhelming with its traffic and thousands of people on the streets. Compared to other cities it is very peaceful. Still it is a city with confusing street patterns and pollution.

One of the disapointing things so far has been the food. We have eaten the local Yucatacan food in restuarants claiming to be authentic and bought food in the market prepared for the locals and to me it is rather bland, no distinct flavor, no sparkle. I find it hard to remember what it does taste like. I have seen other people dig right in with gusto and wonder what they are finding so enjoyable. All the prepared meats done in the local style so far have been dry and tastless. The local version of tamales steamed mesa in banana leaves has two varieties one is bitter and the other is bland. I prefer the northen style of tamales, I don't think the corn husk makes that much difference, it is what is inside that makes the difference.

Speaking of restuarants most here are chain restuarants both Mexican and North American and the main ingrediant in the Mexican dishes here is cheese. There is hardly a dish with out cheese. If you are lactose intolerant your in trouble as cheese is used in everything even sushi, yes sushi ! Thay have sushi in Walmart and you can clearly see cheese in it. I think that the local cooks feel cheese gives the dish a little more flavor, but cream cheese in sushi is not improving anything.

I guess I got spoiled while in San Miguel Allende, the variety of restuarants is outstanding and the local dishes are full of flavor.

Seems we are having trouble with our wireless server so I am going to take it back to the internet/cable provider and try and get another one. Maybe it just needs a little adjustment.

We got thrown out

Of a hotel. Here is the story we decided to go to Playa del Carmen for a couple of days and see the beach etc. Samantha got a reservation over the internet with an inexpensive hotel in the central part of town. It was a long drive there on some very good toll roads. We knew going in that they didn't accept pets, but we had come across this before with Holiday Inn and we had kept the dogs in our van over night going out to check on them several times during the night to make sure there were no problems, so we didn't think this would be a problem with this place doing the same thing. When we got there to the hotel there was this guy there and he was kind of odd but we got checked in and went to check on the room. The room was much, much smaller than it looked on the internet and the bed was not very big at all. We thought we could make do with the situation for one night and decided to stay. When we came back with our bags the same guy was upset that we would leave the dogs in the van overnight he thought that was in humane. Crap, I felt like staying in the van after seeing the room myself I would have had more room to sleep sharing with two dogs!!! So he told us we couldn't have the room after our signing in and using a credit card. Samantha was upset and I was too. We did get two possible addresses of other hotels who might help us, but one wouldn't accept pets the other was to creepy looking to ask. So we went back to Merida, a long drive in the dark going through military check points and police check points then trying to find our house in the dark coming from another direction.
When we got home we found that the electricity was off, so there was a scramble to find the curcuit breakers I got half the house lights on but the upper half and kitchen wasn't working. So back outside I go looking for more breakers. I found breakers on the patio wall and flipped them on and off several times, suddenly there was lights in the upstairs rooms an kitchen. However more trouble loomed as Samantha's bedroom door had slammed shut and locked its self. The key in the door did not unlock it. Turns out that key fits another lock and there is no key for this door. In desperation Samanatha broke the door in to get into her room.
Then we tried to us the internet, no connection, thinking that it might be the internet service provider's problem we left it for morning. In the morning we tried several ways to connect to the service and couldn't do it. We have our own wireless router so we replace the one from the service provider and it worked! So we have another chore to do and that is to get the router replace at the service provider's office this week. Enough all ready with the problems.

Houses in the neighborhood

A store in a home a few streets over from ours.

Walls lots of walls

Newer house

More walls

This is a mixed neighborhood there are no zoning laws as far as i can tell. Next to a mansion is a huble home with chickens and maybe a horse, none of this seems to cause problems. Newer planned communities have rules and don't have the differences then again they look sterile and well....planed.

Nice day

The dog groomer's store where we took our shit-zu for a hair
cut and bath.


Next door is the laundry place where we dropped our clothes
off to be washed and folded.

We had several tasks today one was to find the FEDEX office and the DHL office they are located out on the road going by the airport. Figured that somehow we would get lost again, but to our surprise we found both offices and managed to get the information we needed. I was trying to ship medication from Texas but both places said they didn't do that.

Our next task was to find a place that was recomended for curtians for our windows. Seems that packaged curtians are not readily available here in Merida so they have to be made. We found the store and got a lady who spoke some english to help us as I don't know many words that have to do with making curtians. It seems they send a man out to do the measuring and later you pick the fabric and they make the curtians and call you when they are ready.

After ording the curtians we went across the street to Bodega a supermarket and did a little shopping. We felt so good we went for lunch at a restuarant. A lovely day we didn't get lost or frustrated just a good day.

This is the restuarant we went to one night, from what we hear
this place is famous for its Yucatan food.

The two of us at dinner, we went to a restaurant that serves food of the Yucatan. It was good hard to discribe though, not nearly as spicy as nothern Mexico's food.

Another view of the restuarant.

Living room furniture as you can see the Siamese cat of ours

seems to like the new furniture.

Another view of our new living room set

Kitchen sink area small but serviceable

Fridge and stove both small just enough to do the job.

These are just some random photos of our first few weeks in Merida some of the house and a resaurant we went to for dinner.

Progreso Birds

Good shot of a flamingo




As we drove along the roads near Progreso we saw a few


Interesting birds Some I knew of and some I have yet to


identify.




I think these are flamingos having their lunch

More flamingos

Her is a nice picture of flamingos


This is the land of pink flamingos and at times there are large flocks of them here in this part of Mexico. It seemed we had only a few for our enjoyment this time of year. There are other birds; pelicans, cormerants, ibis, and others I don't know the names of, plus shore birds of various types.

A visit to the beach

Having a chat


Boats up on the beach waiting for the fisherman



The beach at sunrise

The hotel we stayed at in Progresso

Not far from Merida is the town of Progreso and near this town are beaches one or more on each side of the town. We decided to visit the beach this weekend and enjoy the beach and the town. It isn't a long drive from Merida where our house is located to Progeso, maybe forty-five minutes or so on a nice four lane highway with little or no traffic coming or going. The town of Progeso is small and still has fishing port atmosphere. There is a long pier that goes way out in the water for cruise ships to dock. The cruise ships come in about two or three times a week filled with tourists which livens things up a bit for the folks involved in the tourist trade. While we were there we didn't see any cruise ships. We went to a local hangout for expats called Buddy's we had lunch there, fish tacos. A lady who was there told us about another place that that evening was going to have live music that night and a happy hour.

We took a little driving tour along the beach road going out of town, we drove for 28 kilometers and turned around and came back to Progreso and Buddy's where we had dinner.

We decided to stay over night and got a hotel room at the Casa Izadora, we got one of the big rooms with its own patio, AC, and TV nice beds. We went shopping at the local super market where we got some pet food for our dogs and a few snack items for us and just looked around to see what they had for sale. I got a garden hose that I was looking for to wash the big dog.

Later that evening we went to the other hotel to listen to music and meet a few people. We got to meet some folks we had talked to on line and got to share lost in Merida stories. The music was oldies I guess they knew we were coming there that night. We got to try some of the snack items they put out for happy hour, but to soon we were tired and left the party vowing to come back again the next day for breakfast.

Sunday morning we got up got dressed and took the dogs for a walk on the beach, early in the morning on the beach was nice the sand was nice by the water line firm enough to make easy walking and soft enough for a pleasant walk. The big dog loved walking into the water and chasing the little shore birds she had a wonderful time our little shit-zu wasn't thrilled with the waves and stayed out of the water.

Progress

This is where we had breakfast at the mercado (market). We had scrambled eggs, black beans, rice, tortellas, fresh orange juice for two for about $9.00 couldn't finnish it all.


In the Yucatan it is common for folks to use hammocks, so we bought two of them at the central market so far the vote is out about comfort, but they are cool and in the summer that is a plus.


We had to buy our own gas tanks for the house and then the gas man cam to trade them out for full tanks. In other cities the truck goes around with a loud speaker calling GAZ, GAZ

We got our internet, telephone and cable TV today so far everything works fine.

We have been looking for a deal on used furniture and appliaces and haven't found what we want yet. We will keep looking and eventually find all the things we need.

New house 2

We started moving in today got an appointment for cable, internet and phone all of which is supposed to be put in tuesday... we shall see. Did a little shopping at Walmart for a few neccessities the house needed. We tried to follow our own of the house but lost him in traffic so we didn't get to find the store he was talking about that has good deals on furniture and appliances. I guess we will find out next week.

Here are some daylite photos of the house. All the running about and having a head cold has left me tired

We may have found a house

Looking up at the house


Me waving

front of the house in the dark

The restaurabt we had dinner at

This morning as we were getting ready to take the dogs on their morning walk the phone rang and a man on the other end asked me if I was Julia Arnold the one interest in his 2 bedroom house ? Of course I was :) It turns out he speeksperfect english and has a two bedroom house for rent with ample parking and a small but nice yard that is inclosed for the dogs. We talked about all sorts of things; it needs a stove and fridge and furniture of course but has fans and is cable ready and he will show us were to get furniture and appliances for less.

We meet this evening to sign the contract and make the payments. More to follow.

We did meet with the owner and when the lawyer arrived, a fashionable half hour late we signed the papers and handed over our money. We were shown which keys unlock which doors and door guards, what light switches work what and so forth. It sure has been a long day. We stopped at a local restaurant and had dinner at 7pm the place was almost empty by 8pm it was starting to fill up and we were ready to go back to the hotel room. The only problem was it was dark and we didn't remember all the turns back to the land marks we were used to, so we had to fumble around until we did find the right way. When we got back to the hotel there was a bit of manuvering to get the car parked now I have a cracked rear bumper ... oh well.

Progresso trip

We took a trip to the town of progresso and had lunch and walked the dogs on the beach, got lost getting out of town the usual stuff. We are going back there and get to know the place much better.