A Day in the Life October 27, 2007
Posted by yucatanlife in Where we live..trackback
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
Keep ‘em coming Larry. I love these “day in the life” ones. They shed so much light on what it is like. BTW Itzi is still adorable!
Hi! The scenery is quite different from around here–no evergreens or tall glass buildings. And good to hear that people still make-do, repair or recycle stuff. How is your workday–do you slave away the straight 8 plus lunch or do you break for a few hours during the hot mid-day and the resume in late afternoon? Although $8 per day doesn’t seem bad–last time I had to be downtown Seattle that was for one hour
Thank you for sharing the slices of your days. It sounds like a healthy and relaxed lifestyle.