Later we went to breakfast at another hotel and what a nice breakfast it was very nice, very peaceful.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
Having a chat
Boats up on the beach waiting for the fisherman
The beach at sunrise
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.
Julia's Life In Mexico 
