A Car or Kisses?

There is no better way to see the city than to walk it. That is what you do when you have no car. 

Terry and I are quite sure we have walked every street within a large part of the centro area, and also a large part of points north and northwest of centro. We've walked miles and miles of the Gulf beaches in Progreso, Chixulub, Telchac Puerto, Rio Largartos, over to Yucaltepen and Chelem. 

We did the 6-7K bici-ruta route yesterday that takes you through the main plaza and up Paseo de Montejo and back down to our neighborhood again. We stopped off in the Plaza long enough to share a bag of fresh plaintain chips.  We watched them get cooked and then taken out of the hot oil. They're one of our favorite treats.

No matter how many times we walk the same streets or different streets, it doesn't matter, we always see something new.


Later on in the day I took another walk down south of our hood. It was late in the afternoon on a Sunday which meant a lot of families were visiting, eating and drinking together.

 Many were gathered on their front patios or sitting in chairs on the side of the streets. Loud music streamed from many of the houses. I could smell food cooking and without even taking a glance, I could tell which had been drinking the longest. 

When I walk without Terry, things are different. When he is with me I get ignored just a tad more than walking alone. Although walking alone, I am always treated with the greatest of respect by men, women and children. Yesterday, I passed a boy on the sidewalk that looked to be about fourteen. He had the biggest grin for me. Shortly after he walked by me, he (in Spanish) said, "Excuse me. What time is it?" I had to explain that although I had a watch, it did not work and I was sorry but didn't know what time it was. He grinned and told me thank you  then kissed me on each cheek very gently. It may have been so he could go tell his friends he did it. But I found it sincere and very endearing.  If we had a car in Mexico, I never would have gotten those passing kisses.

Eating Like Belizeans in Mexico

I discovered I can get Terry to go to the big mercado with me if we go early in the morning before it is crowded. We dressed and went yesterday morning, early. In fact, most of the mercado was not open yet, but the seafood stands were all open. Good thing because that's what we went to buy. 
We ended up with four fillets of grouper, and a half kilo of shrimp. We purchased the grouper from one vendor and the shrimp from the vendor across the aisle. We didn't have a plan on how we were going to prepare it, but we knew one would develop. 
At the grocery store, the plan started coming together - coconut rice, curry sauce made with ingredients including curry powder, coco de crema (very rich indeed), crema, sauteed jalapeno pepper, onion, garlic in butter. And of course, the seared seafood and some broccoli on the side. I can't give you the recipe because there is no recipe. We just called it Seafood Curry a la Kahanek. 

Next time it will be ceviche and fish cooked with tomate and peppers. After all, we're in Mexico and not Belize. 
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We have spotted four woodpeckers that hang out in the gardens across the street in the evenings. They resemble our ladder-backed woodpeckers but appear to be larger. If anybody can help me out with the exact name of them, I would appreciate it. 

Photo from surfbirds.com

  At first I thought they had a nest in a tree hollow because we always spot them in the same tree and circling around a hollow. Yesterday, I walked over to the gardens with my binoculars and camera to get a closer look. Now I think they are eating insects that are inside the hole. No nest. About three minutes into my observation, a kind gentleman came to speak with me in the garden. He spoke very little Spanish and I know no Mayan so it was an interesting conversation. But, being a high-tech gardener he pulled out his cell phone and we looked at his gardening projects on his phone. We could both understand pictures. He had quite the resume - his specialty is working with the shrub/plant that can be shaped into animals and one can use to spell out words and names if you're a really awesome gardener. He was an awesome gardener. His gardening tools were few - he carried a hook-type tool used to dig that resembled a hay hook. He must have had shears or something back home.

Finding What We Weren't Looking For

Yesterday we headed out to run a few errands. We especially wanted to pay the taxes and then we were going to go downtown, up the stairs, down the hallway, through the closed door into the secluded room, and pay the woman our annual fee for garbage collection. Even though we don't use it on a regular basis, we just pay for the year and then don't have to worry about stopping/resuming pick-up. And the lady always has snacks on her desk and offers them up freely. 
 
We walked to Calle 62 across from the Gran Plaza to pay the taxes at a little booth they have set up for that purpose. While Terry was paying taxes I looked up and saw limpia somthing above a second kiosk. I asked "Puedo pagar para coleccion de busura aqui" and the answer was Si. 
I looked at Terry and Terry looked at me. We were able to not only pay both fees at the same location, but pay them both to the same person in the same kiosk. This is all getting too easy and too convenient. So cool when you find what you're not looking for. Paying for trash collection used to take us half a day and paying taxes would take the remainder of the day. 

Located next door is the tourist center so I ran in and got a Yucatan Travel Guide to give to Gary and Sandra for Gary's international agriculture conference to be held in Merida. Later on I realized he was texting me about where they would be staying in Merida at about the same time I was picking up the guide. 

We walked on down Calle 62 past the Bierhaus. We always pop our heads in to see what's happening. I always think of Corona, Tecate, Sol and Montejo when I think of Mexican beer. With a name like the Bierhaus, you can throw in Heineken and all the other German beers I'm not familiar with, but I don't think of Bud Light and Mexico together. Well, the monthly special at the Bierhaus is Bud Light. We immediately thought of Kate and Richy. So, here's to Richy - the Best and Brightest Bud Light Beer Salesman I know. I am secretly hoping he becomes an International accounts guy and gets to come check on his accounts in Merida and all of Mexico soon! 

We were actually headed to find a Bancomer branch bank location. Terry needed to get a new debit card. I thought his card had quit working, but he told me it was only that all the writing on it had rubbed off, and the letters and numbers aren't embossed on the card.  If anybody ever looked at it/checked it they might be concerned at its blankness. We were wandering aimlessly along after we realized that the bank we had in mind wasn't a Bancomer at all, but a Banamex location. Then we looked up and saw a Bancomer location. That was pure luck. We went inside but after talking with one of the reps, Terry decided he didn't need a new card after all. The one he has will expire in 2017 anyway and he will be given a new one then. Now, they would mark his card as 'lost' or 'stolen' and issue and new card all together. He didn't really like that idea after all. So we walked on. 

Next stop was to locate a market we had seen before in the vicinity. We needed to get some light bulbs and trash bags. There was an AKI market right in front of us. We went in and found the trash bags but not the light bulbs so we decided to just leave. Directly to the left, we discovered a Soriana market so we went in there. It was larger than expected. As we wandered around, we spotted salsas and found the El Yucateco Chipotle salsa we fell in love with only to never be able to find it after the one bottle found. Love it when you find what you're not looking for! We grabbed two bottles along with the trash bags sans the light bulbs and headed home.

“The Biggest Challenge After Success..."

“The biggest challenge after success is shutting up about it.”
-Unknown

Back in January or February while sitting in El Campo on a rainy Sunday afternoon, Terry went on line to look up the amount and pay our Mexican property taxes. He found the website, struggled through some of the Spanish he hadn't learned yet, and paid the taxes online using pesos in the bank. He boasted about his deftness in working through the online instructions in Spanish, and also bragged about the small price we paid for property taxes, relatively speaking. He also boasted about getting descuenta (discount). He had a lot to be proud of, and, well, he's a man. He brags!
I actually was pretty proud of his accomplishment as well. That was, until our arrival in Merida. Yesterday I checked our mailbox. Amongst the pizza coupons and JW.org pamphlets, there was a bill in the mailbox. It was for property taxes owed to be paid the first part of 2016. Our first thought was that we had paid the bill but the bill in the mailbox was produced prior to that. Just to be sure, Terry went online to check it. He realized that he had paid for one month so instead of 8 pesos, the bill is 91 pesos for the entire year. I'll let you do the math and the conversion. Regardless, we are walking down to the city offices today to pay the eleven months of taxes we owe plus the pesos back in the form of a discount we had taken earlier.
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Yesterday, A. came and brought his copy of the back door key for us. We had cocktails on the mirador last night! We went to the grocery store and bought ingredients for pollo y arroz, including lots of carrots. I decided to make some pico  de gallo - funny thing is, it is the very first time ever I have made it myself while down here. Was it good, you ask? Yes. We bought beer and visited with Gaspar at Cerve Frio. In the middle of the day, we decided to walk into town so I could get some art canvasses at the art store. As we walked down Calle 60 heading north, we heard somebody call out Terry's name. There was Ernesto! We can always count on seeing Ernesto sometime during our time here. The big question is 'when'. On our last visit we didn't see him until our last night in town. This time we saw him on the first day. We chatted for a moment then headed to the art store. When we came out of the art store, there was Ernesto waiting for us. He wanted to "borrow" some money. Terry can't tell him no, so he gave him a small amount and Ernesto gave me his shark tooth necklace as collateral. I took it and it is now around my neck. Such is the way! 

Gotta' go pay those darn taxes. We didn't realize our water was turned off, therefore not filling the tinaca as we have used up the water in it since being here. We drained the tinaca. The water is back on, but it generally won't get filled until night when there is less demand on the water supply to fill it. We just won't smell very good for the tax collector. 
 

Drinks on the Mirador

Back door and stairs leading up to the mirador

No matter how hard you try to not have expectations, you just do. 


Take yesterday, for instance. Terry and I had already discussed it and we weren't going to have any expectations regarding the day. We wouldn't expect to get to the car rental return at any certain time, what time we would be drinking our bloody mary at the airport, what time we would board the plane, arrival in Cancun, catching the bus to the bus station, the next bus to Merida, arrival in Merida, nor walking to the house, nor walking through that glorious front door. 

Nope. None. Nada. No expectations. Well, I really did expect to get to the airport bar, sit down, and have a bloody mary. But, we got there at 6:46 am. I know that because it was 14 minutes before it was time to start serving alcohol. I wasn't expecting that. 

Have I mentioned I love Southwest?! We left exactly on time and arrived in Cancun at exactly on time. The sun was shining beautifully when we left HOU and we arrived at CUN with extremely cloudy skies just following heavy rain. We think it was the same front that came through TX last week. It made for rain and clouds but a very pleasant temperature.

The bus station was packed. Not sure if it was Semana Santa leftovers or just because we were at the Cancun bus station, but there were quite a few travelers in the waiting area and Terry had to stand in line for 14-23 minutes to get dos boletos. We actually chose to leave on a later bus just to have seats in what we consider a good location, ie, far enough from the head to not be able to smell when somebody opens the door. 

No rain when we arrived in Merida. It was cool and perfect. This is when we developed that expectation. Get to the house and look things over. Marvel at how clean the house is. Throw down our backpacks, kick off our shoes and have a nice, cold and relaxing drink. The refrigerator had been turned on and there was nothing in there but an ice cold six pak of Sol. And there was vodka for me. No expectations on the cold six-pak - we didn't remember leaving beer. Not in a list of expectations. There was only one thing missing. The key. 

The key to the back door was missing. Gone. Lost. Not to be found. And you need a key to get out the door and take those wonderful stairs up to the mirador. I have to say - we were expecting to have a nice, cold and relaxing drink up on the mirador. We did have the expected cold drinks but on the front porch. Drinks on the mirador manana - but we have no expectations. 

Funny Thing Happended on the Way to the Parque

The population of Mérida is about 970,000 which isn't small fry. Quite a change from El Campo. But to explain, El Campo is where we live when we aren't here. No, it isn't in Mexico. Yes, it is in the Estados Unidos. Confusing, huh? Anyway, in a city the size of Mérida one may think you could easily blend into the hustle and bustle of a large city and essentially get lost among the people. It isn't so. As with any big city, you have your quadrant of tierra that makes up your stomping grounds. Not having an automobile makes this even more so. Each smaller quadrant is marked by a park and a church. We are about nine blocks from the Gran Plaza and we walk by two parks and two churches along the shortest distance to get there. If we make a few turns along the way we will walk by three more churches and an additional church. 
We headed out taking the shortest route in search of the art store. We had been told it was moving and we were given the new location where it was to be relocated on our last trip. It was to be on the next block over. Shouldn't be hard to find at all. On our first attempt to find it we had failed. Somehow we had counted two blocks instead of one. I don't know why that was so hard for us to count. But, the good part was that we ran into Ernesto and had a nice chat right in front of the TEATRO ARMANDO MANZANERO. He was hanging out on the front steps as if he was waiting for the next performance. But, quite sure that wasn't the case. He asked about family and was excited to learn of his new sobrina, a reference to Baby Isla. He is now divorced but stays in frequent contact with his 16 year-old son and 10 year-old daughter that live about an hour out of the city. 
On Saturday, we hiked out again to find the art store. It was late in the day so we should have known better. But we were walking down our street just in front of the arches when we heard a familiar voice holler out: "Terry!...Terry!" We turned to look and there was Ernesto looking all kicked back, with his world traveler sprawl going on, as he sat in a horse-drawn buggy headed to Centro. He motioned for us to join him in the buggy. He was going to the theater in style, I presume. Of course, we see the buggies frequently and knew they came down our street on a regular basis. It's easy to hear them on the worn, brick street.  But we weren't expecting to see Ernesto riding in one and we didn't expect anybody to call us by name. We hopped aboard and enjoyed the ride to downtown. Of course, we paid for the ride. It was our first time to ride in a horse drawn buggy down here. 

As far as finding the art store, we did find it one block over from its original location. It was closed for the afternoon.

Comfort in the Lack of Changes

There always seems to be a process and routine when we arrive. We get off the ADO bus from the trip in from Cancun, and as we head to our hood we look around and comment on what has changed and what has stayed the same. It always stays pretty much the same, and we comment that it makes us immediately feel comfortable. 
We were, however, a little disappointed to walk to the house and see that Carlos and crew still had not received the dinero from our neighbor so that they could paint the dingy red, peelling paint house next door. Painting the house was something he wanted to do almost 2 years ago and of course, we wanted it painted as well. Oh well, there is always
mañana.
We were pleased to see that Casa Kahanek had very few spots of peeling paint caused by the rainy season and humidity. And the bright orange patio was still a bright orange patio. Harbor's tiny little blue handprints on the patio wall is a lasting memory of his early summer visit.
Y. had gotten Mari to clean the house and it was immaculate. I hauled a new set of sheets down here with us since linens are one item that is expensive down here. But, when I pulled back the quilt on our bed, I saw that I had brought sheets last visit. Oh well! Now I have two sets of brand new sheets for a doble bed.  
We made popcorn and drinks, sans ice, and headed to the mirador. That was the best we could do upon our arrival. Lights were out early around here.
This  morning we woke up early and stepped outside on our way to the grocery store. Remember the statement about painting the house mañana?!!! It is now painted a beautiful purplish blue. What the heck? When did they do that. They did it early in la
mañana! Still a little work to do after the albañil's work is dry and it can be painted...
mañana. 

The House Next Door

We have been here less than 24 hours and we know our tienda amigo is still around because he rode by on his bicycle and hollered at us. We have already met up with Carlos and chatted with him. We saw all the same older workers that sack groceries for tips at the grocery store. We've seen the older gentleman inside his door where he always sits and reads his newspaper. We saw the courtesy car guy at San Sebastian Park. We saw Julio's antique shop has been painted and was open this morning. We have seen some, but not all, of the city workers in the office next door, and the hawker at the Cancun airport that said he wasn't even going to try and get us a shuttle to the resort hotels because he said he remembered us and he knew we didn't go there. Hmmmm?! 
I don't know that I am getting that warm, comfortable feeling from that last one! 

Back at Casa Kahanek...Car belongs to city worker/not ours