Life is Good Today

Life is Good Today!
We left out of HOU on a beautiful, sunny, warm morning last Wednesday and arrived at CUN to an even more beautiful sunny, warm noon. Headed to Playa del Carmen to unwind for three nights before coming here to Mérida on Saturday. Not sure now which day the cold weather struck up north but we managed to escape it! When we arrived the house was as clean as a whistle. Always welcome!

We've done our usual except I was unpacked before Terry. Usually, I lag and unpacking is the first thing he usually does. 

We walked the bici-ruta on Sunday and walked back down Paseo de Montejo on Monday for cigars. He scored! We also stopped at SoHo and had a nice visit with the lovely couple A&Y. I'm dying to go see the Camino de Flores at Parque de Mejorado, but I'm saving that for when Gary and Sandra get here on Friday. Sunday is the last day for it so we will be cutting that one close. I will definitely post pictures of it.

Botanas on the Beach

Yesterday was cruise ship day in Progreso so we took the bus down for a leisurely day on the beach and to re-connect with some of our beach amigos. We talked with Hamaca Francisco...he recognized us before we recognized him. There was a nice hot breeze the entire day and we were grateful for the few hours here and there we had spent in the sun to acclimate. We have our favorite beach bar and our favorite waiter. Nothing tastes better than a Sol or two or three in the shade after spending a few hours drinking a Sol or two or three that we brought with us from the casa. We waited for our amigo to seat us and each ordered a Sol. As he brought our beers to us, he also had help to serve us a large tray of botanas. When I say large tray I mean there were at least 15 different items placed in front of us, each on a small saucer. We had taquitos, chips, more than one salsa, kibis and slaw, potatoes, fresh bread, salchichas, beans, and several other items that we ate but didn't know what they were...bite-size, delicious little surprises. We were told: Poco a poco despacio...Little by little slowly. And that's what we did.

In fact, maybe we stayed a little too long and took a little too much time enjoying the beer and botanas because who should appear from nowhere? No other than Ernesto. Well, I can't really say "no other" because he told us he is now Kevin...just call him Kevin...or Ernest.

Kevin or Ernesto or Ernest

So it's like there were two others. Not sure what exactly he was doing in Progreso for the day. When we questioned him he said he was selling on the beach, but he had no wares and he couldn't give us an answer about exactly 'what' he was selling. Don't get me wrong - I'm not insinuating he was selling anything illegal. That's not his style at all. His style is more - I am just trying to find a friend that will buy me a beer. We talked and I showed him pictures of family and we asked how he had been doing. And, then he ordered a round and told our waiter to put it on our tab. Even though he said he was buying. We didn't fall for it and neither did our waiter. He asked if we wanted to serve him and us each another beer and Terry declined. Ernesto/Kevin/Ernest got a little embarrassed and then said his good byes. We just thought it best to not support that habit. As he walked away the older lady in the picture grabbed him by the butt. That was good for a laugh by all and a nice gesture to send him on his way.

The Black tourists in the background were from the cruise ship. On a non-cruise day you don't normally see Blacks in Progreso. They were having a great time and kept us laughing!

Paid our tab and Terry made sure our waiter knew my sister and I would be on the loose the following week. He put him in charge of keeping an eye on us if we showed up in Progreso!

But, that's another story :) Yep, Life is Good Today!