Yucatan Rebirth

…with an ending. The old house came down today after first clearing the property of the jungle that had overtaken it. Our gardener Angel and his two sons spent one day with machetes and axes taking out the growth that had accumulated. While they were at work a gentleman name Miguel stopped by and told us he had a “Bobcat” and a truck, noticed the work going on and asked if we wanted it hauled away. We negotiated a price and about 30 minutes later he and a worker showed up. It took two days worth of trips because in addition to the plant-life, the far back of the property had also been used by some of the locals as a garbage dump.

Here are some before and after shots:

Here are some of the cleared pictures….

Angel and me…

By beach area standards this is a large lot. Most are 10 X 30 meters, this one is 12X 70. Miguel also informed us that he could demolish and haul away the old house which is beyond saving. Sooooo…more negotiations ensued and that project started today. We thought he’d show up with some piece of heavy equipment, but instead he showed up with 5 other hombres, a sledge hammer, pick-ax and crowbar. It took about 3 1/2 hours. Before they did their thing, Indra had them remove and save the windows for us as they are quite nice and might be used in the new house.

Our architects get back this week from vacation and hopefully they will have the plan ready soon for the new place. There is much left to do, but we are so excited to finally have started the project in earnest.

If you like these post and want to continue getting them, please leave a comment and let me know.

Larry

Dia de los Muertos, Day of the Dead. It sounds ominous, but in Mexico it’s a celebration of life! I walked up to the Grand Plaza yesterday and there were about 90 alters constructed in the Maya tradition of using small sticks and palapa (palm fronds) for the roofs. These were people from villages all over the peninsula honoring their loved ones. The air was filled with the smell of cooking over open fires and festive music. Each of the huts contain what are called “ofrendas” or offerings that, besides containing the four elements of earth, wind, fire and water, also contain the loved ones favorite food and drink. Some even include favorite articles of clothing. This is because it is believed that once a year the departed return to visit and will certainly be thirsty and hungry. Enjoy the pictures!

Of course we know this in the U.S. as Halloween, but the candy here is quite different. It’s made of sugar and I got some examples to show you. The figure carrying the bottle of (booze?) appears to be a nun as it has a rosary painted on it. The familiar jack-o-lantern is represented and there’s my favorite, the decorated skull. One of my co-workers explained that if you take a bite out of the skull you are showing you don’t fear death and that life is sweet. Sounds like a sane proposition to me!

Larry

It’s been 5 weeks since Indra’s beach find, an abandoned puppy. Here are some shots taken today showing how he’s recovered. He’s a member of the family now and as soon as he gets his bladder under control he’ll be pretty neat.

He loves playing with Thelma

At first, Lex is curious..

But he quickly loses interest.

A lap dog, for now…

This time around I thought I’d show a typical day going to work. Not as exciting as some trips around here, but it shows some differences you may find interesting.

First of all, I don’t drive into Merida. Like most big cities parking is at a premium and expensive, about $8.00 US per day. And traffic is a demolition derby waiting to happen. So I take the bus known as Auto Progreso. I can park on the street about a block away from the bus station.

As you can see, the buses are modern and there are NO chicken coups strapped on top. It costs about $2.00 US round-trip, so much better than driving. I get dropped off about two blocks from my office:

We’re surround by beautiful city parks and theaters and I walk every day at lunch to see what’s going on. Yesterday there was a woman playing classical music in the foyer of the large performance theater up the street. Sounded great and gave the pedestrians walking downtown a real treat.

I found this interesting tile work in the back area of our building.

I guess we’re well protected.

On thing one learns quickly here is that few things get thrown away. If it can be repaired, it is. With the minimum wage for Mexicans at $4.80 US per day(!), they haven’t the luxury of just going out and buying a new whatever all the time. This explains this business across the street from us:

The elderly gentleman who runs this shop repairs and restores manual typewriters, manual adding machines, the old time clocks where you insert a card that stamps your in and out times, cash registers, etc. The prices are in pesos, so just move the decimal point to the left one notch. He does a pretty good business.

This is a shot looking up the street from the office. The trees are where Santa Lucia park is. Back in the 1500’s it was a prison where the Spanish kept slaves who had ran afoul of the law. That building doesn’t exist, but the one that replaced it in the 1800’s does.

At the end of the day, it’s a 3 block walk to the bus stop and a 45 minute ride home and back to the cool breezes of the beach.

Not a bad life.

Larry

A couple of weekends ago, Indra and I decided to check out the Merida flea market. A friend had told us it was kind of interesting and she was right.

The first thing you notice when you find the thing is that it is right across the street from a very large and foreboding looking prison. If there was ever an advertisement to do the right things in Mexico, this was it. These pictures aren’t the best as they were taken with the video camera. Our Sony still camera is the on the fritz, but I think I found a place that can fix it.

The next thing you notice is all the food that’s for sale either being cooked, or for sale by the vendors such as fruits and vegetables, meat, chicken, fish, etc. And there are LOTS of stalls selling either new or used items. Much like the affair at the old Starlight drive-in theater on south Tacoma way.

We didn’t buy much this trip…it was sort of a recon run. Once we’re into the new house and know what we want, we’ll go back. Fun nevertheless.