Note: We are dependent on free internet from the parks, mostly Parque La Ermita, and there is a major overhaul of the internet service gratis going on in Merida. A lot has gone on in the past 2 weeks+ since our last update so I will break down the blog accordingly. The following 4 parts includes all of our lastest updates. Enjoy and thanks for reading!

Part 3 of 4-part update

Chicken Talk and Cenotes

On Saturday night Tisha and Lisa flew in on United from IAH. They landed on time, but Tisha was one of the unlucky "red lighters" going through going through customs and got her bag searched. No biggie. I had taken a taxi out to meet them and we all three rode a taxi straight back into town to the house. It was after 11pm. We had drinks and started talking - lots of catching up to do. It was around 3 in the morning before we called it a night.

On Sunday we all slept in, ate a leisurely breakfast, and decided to take the bici-ruta stroll since it is such a great time to take in downtown sites sans traffic. We did a lot of browsing the Mayan coopertivos in downtown, and Lisa and Tisha were able to find some treasures to take back home....jewelry and Mayan textiles. We never quite made it as far as Paseo de Montejo. In fact, we stopped off at La Parilla and started drinking margaritas - that was as far as we made it. It was a great place to people watch, catch up, and take a few pictures.

 

I love my friends. They are up for anything or doing nothing at all. They really didn't want to do the "touristy" Chichen Itza thing but Lisa had said David mentioned that going to see a cenote was pretty cool. We were in. As many places as Terry and I have gone to in and around Merida, we had never been to a cenote either so it would be a new adventure for all 3 of us - Tisha, Lisa and me. We looked in the latest "Yucatan Today" and found Cenote San Ignacio - after asking around at San Juan park we found out a combi leaves from the nearby San Juan area to Chochola. We were going on Monday. We spent Sunday evening lounging around. Lisa took a siesta and Tisha, Terry and I spent the evening up on the roof having cocktails and talking about the future mirador. When Lisa woke up, we drank pina coladas on the patio, and a mention of Charlie, Key West and Charlie watching chickens coming in and out of his house while sitting in his underwear lead Lisa to tell us more than we ever wanted to know about chicken encounters. All four of us laughed so hard....I start laughing today when I think back on the conversation. We went inside and ate "chicken" with tortillas, rice, and beans before we all went to bed exhausted from laughing so hard.

Monday morning we got up and had a small diversion. Tisha came out of the bathroom and announced she couldn't get the toilet to flush. Hmmmmm. We should have a plunger handy, but we just never had bought one. After using Google Translate for this one, Tisha, Lisa and I headed out looking for a toilet plunger.  First stop was Boxito and after using the Spanish words for toilet plunger and pantomiming the hand motions for plunging a toilet, the cashier looked at all three of us quizzacally. Another customer repeated the exact words I had used, and also pantomimed to the cashier and he understood instantly. No, they didn't have what we needed to go to El Poblano on the next corner and they should have one. We aren sure but we think Boxito must have called down to El Poblano because we walked in the door and said once again what we needed along with the same hand motions, and the guy waiting on us turned to the female inventory-taking/paperwork lady sitting at a small desk a few feet away and she never looked up at us, but reached directly behind her and with one sweeping motion brought out a plunger. Catorce pesos later we were on our way back home. When we got to the house, Tisha took it upon herself to do the "dirty job", but came out of the bathroom laughing to tell us all she had to do was flush....no plunging needed. Oh Well! We needed a plunger to have around anyway. Ha!

Sr. P. stopped by and Tisha and Lisa got to meet him. He offered to drive us to a cenote but we declined since our adventure was already going in a different direction. Although we would have been just fine riding with Sr. P. in the back of his truck to see a cenote...maybe next time. We put on our swimsuits and cover-ups, gathered up some towels, bags, and we were off to find the combi station, Chochola and the cenote. All worked out like clockwork and we only had about a 5-minute wait before we loaded up in the combi and headed to Uman and then to Chochola. In Chochola we got on a one-seated motocicleta combi for the short and crowded ride to the cenote. What an experience!

 

 

The cenote was completely underground with a set of maybe 25 steep stair steps down to it. It was well-lit with beautiful clear water. We swam then headed up to the restaurant for cervezas, salbutes, and empanadas cazon. After the leisurely break, we caught a waiting motocicleta combi back to the combi stop, again had about a 5 minute wait then made our way back to Merida.

I insisted on taking Tisha and Lisa to the big mercado....oh, my! it seemed extra crowded. Tisha, having a problem with claustrophobia did really well on the combi rides, and did really well in the cenote, but she couldn't quite handle the closeness of all things mercado. We grabbed some nice-looking avocadoes and were out of there. We ended up at the Plaza Grande having sidewalk cold beers. It was decison time - pizza and beer at the house or going home/getting dressed and going out to eat. We elected for beer and pizza at the house - La Ermita pizza with weiners, chorizo, ham, pineapple, lots of onions, and I can't remember what else. Yes, I said weiners as in "salchichas". It wasn't bad.  Visited and laughed about chickens some more.

 

Tisha and Lisa's flight left out at 6am - Yes, I said 6am!!! We had a little confusion since Texas had gone on Central DST on Sunday, but Merida doens't do that until April. Luckily, it meant we all got up an hour too early rather than an hour too late. It resulted from Lisa's phone time being set to that of her home base, ie, Texas time. It was cool outside and too early for taxis hanging out in Parque La Ermita so we called and a taxi was dispatched in no time. "Adios, Mis Amigas!". Terry and I really enjoyed our visit from Tisha and Lisa and they are more than welcome to come back anytime....seriously! But, it's going to be hard to top the cenote adventure and Lisa is going to have a hard time beating chicken talk!