Merida, oh, Merida

The hubby and I just got back from a week in Merida, Mexico.  Merida, which is in Yucatan, is a beautiful place.  Flying into Cancun, we took a four hour bus trip across Quintana Roo into Yucatan.  The bus was very comfortable -- air conditioned with two movies to watch (although both were in Spanish).  Flying into Cancun was about $300 per person less than flying directly into Merida.  So the $40 per person bus tickets were much more economical and gave us a chance to see a bit of the countryside along the toll road.

In Merida, we stayed at the beautiful Luz En Yucatan hotel on Calle 55 (between Calle 58 and Calle 60, right beside Santa Lucia church).  I have never stayed in a more lovely, laid back hotel.  It was within walking distance of nearly everything we wanted to do in the historic district.  The staff (Donard, Augustine and Lupita) were so great!  Since we did not have a phone in the room, they took care of everything we needed, including calling to get us tour tickets for Chichen Itza, ordering out pizza for us, and even arranging for our bus tickets and taxi back to the airport in Cancun for our return trip.  They made sure we had everything we needed...from ice cold beer in the fridge to changing currency for me one night after the currency exchange down the street was closed.  I doubt we will ever stay anywhere else in Merida, as there was nothing about our stay at Luz we would change.   Here are a few quick pics of the place...




The patio outside our room.  We had breakfast there each morning, as well as dinner a couple of times.

The lovely pool at Luz.  We spent both days and nights here to escape the Yucatan heat and humidity.  I will always remember the sky above as the hubby and I swam late on Thursday night.  There was a fiesta in the park and we could hear the music playing while we swam under the stars.

The rooftop terrace.  We enjoyed sitting up there often.  It had a lovely view of the top of Santa Lucia church's bell.

The "lobby" at Luz.  It was a great place to sit and people-watch through the huge front window. 

Our first night in town, we ate at La Chaya Maya for our first taste of Mayan food.  I think the hubby was a bit hesitant to try the chaya, a nuclear green drink, but I think it grew on him by the time we'd finished our large platter of pok chuk.



Chaya - refreshingly sweet!





Pok Chuk





On our second day in Merida, we took the air-conditioned bus (about $1.50 USD) to Progreso, a beach town to the north.  Our afternoon was spent playing in the waves and wandering around the town.  We ate some good seafood and live music at Eladio's on the beach and, oddly enough, I met a vendor who was from my own home town in Florida.  Small world.



The beach at Progreso

Our third and fourth days were spent touring old colonial houses in dire need of renovation.  We have been seriously considering Merida as a place to buy and renovate one of these lovely high-ceilinged ruins.  Anyone who has ever seen an episode of "House Hunters International" can understand, I'm sure.  For less than the price of an SUV, you can get 3,000+ square feet of original tile, 10' ornate doors, and stone walls just begging to be restored to its original splendor.  We took so many pictures, it will likely take us weeks to get them all uploaded and organized.  Whether or not we'll "take the leap" with this type of adventure remains to be seen over the next year.  But what an experience those two days!

Our fifth day (a Saturday) was spent simply wandering around on foot -- a long way.  We saw the Cathedral and the main market (picture a whole city block of chaotic tiny stalls piled high with exotic fruits, live/dead meat, spices, etc.), got some fabulous ice cream, and just generally goofing off. 

Our sixth day was spent at Chichen Itza, which was an amazing experience.  I got way too hot in the "jungle humidity", but it was all good by the time we got to the hacienda where we had a great lunch and watched some Yucatecan dancers.  My husband said the fish he had there was maybe the best fish he's ever had.  I had cochinita pibil, a flavorful red-colored pork dish that had been cooked in banana leaves in a pit underground for a full day. 

 

The Great Pyramid at Chichen Itza



Our last day in town, we did nothing.  Seriously, we did nothing.  We slept late, had breakfast out on the patio, splashed around in the pool, sat in the hotel's comfy common areas and chatted with other guests.  We toyed around with various "nice" dinner options for our last night there but instead chose to get take out from Cafeinosense, a little bistro around the corner.  (Believe me, they knew us by that time.  When I came by to order, the guy asked if I wanted my usual!)

So in the coming days (as we get more photos uploaded), I will post additional reviews of various restaurants, details about places we went, etc.  I just wanted to give a quick "day-by-day" of our trip.

Stay tuned for more!











Six months of changes

Gentle Readers:

My last blog post was in January.  It seems like decades ago, even though it was just earlier this same year.  A lot has happened in the past six months, and I have finally found time to sit down and chronicle some of them.  I'll briefly touch on a few of those new events, just to "catch you up" on where I am now in my journey.

In the past six months, we've had a lot of financial changes.  A real roller coaster of "we're doing well...oh, wait, no we're not".  My husband's job has had a lot of changes and uncertainties as his division is being bought out by a much smaller company and he will no longer be working for a Fortune 500 company in a few months.  We believe the new, smaller company may end up being a good thing, but will not know for sure if that is the case until some later point.  My own earning capacity has ranged from very good to zilch in terms of home-based work.   I hope that over the next few months that will change, but again, it remains to be seen just how that will shake out.  At this point in time, we're in a holding pattern with no idea what the future holds, so we're just going to go with the flow in that regard.

We have pulled our son (7 years old) from expensive private school and I will be homeschooling him for second grade.  It was a combination of economic factors and educational priorities that led to the move.  We realized that we were paying $800+ a month for an education that was "adequate" at best.  We realized that I could teach him better, at his own pace, since I am at home all day anyway.  The homeschooling thing is a work in progress.  I attended a couple of homeschool conferences/shows this summer and was a bit chagrined to learn that secular homeschooling is practically non-existent in our area (West Tennessee).  Or perhaps the other secular homeschoolers are simply in hiding, as it appears that we would all probably be brought before some sort of witch trial tribunal should our "godlessness" be discovered. 

But I digress.

I have recently been in touch with a niece who I had not spoken to since about 1990.  I don't even really member why she and I "got into it" -- or if we even did or simply stopped speaking.  The funny thing is that, as different as we were as children, we are very similar as adults.  We both pursued higher education (no one else in our family did), became writers, taught at the college level, are pro choice, pro gay marriage, and are unshamedly flaming liberals.  As children, we both struggled with similar difficulties -- probably brought about by the same people -- so perhaps those struggles helped shape us into the cynical, literary adults we have become.  Who knows.  In any event, I am glad to be back in touch with her.  It's nice to have someone who I share DNA with who understands a lot of my weirdness. 

I have all but given up on the sourdough bread baking, the organic gardening and pretty much every other thing that I was joyfully excited about six months ago.  I don't know if the newness has worn off or if I just got burned out on "doing it all".  I have learned in the past month that I would be much better off as a member of the "Least Possible" Club.  Membership in this club appears to be for those who are committed to doing the least possible to get by.  Those of us in the "Max Out" Club have always looked down upon those who did the least amount possible as being slackers, lazy, etc.  We have condescendingly noted their ability to skate through life while we take up their slack.  But about a month ago, I gave up and joined them.  It was a Saturday - I remember it well.  Something just clicked and I switched sides.  I adopted a "who gives a fuck" manta and sat on my butt and watched TV for an entire day.  Housework went undone, dinner went uncooked.  Everyone thought I was ill -- or mad -- or just nuts.  But that was the day I just stopped caring about doing it all and being the one to "make it happen".

That being said...

I am now doing the "Least Possible" housework and cooking the "Least Possible" complicated recipes.  I have the "Least Possible" social interaction.  I keep my eyes on the "Least Possible" future goals and planning.  I'm just taking it a day at a time.  What will be, will be.

As we have begun to "let go" of the ambition and drive, we have also begun to let go of materiality.  We had a big yard sale a couple of months ago and sold a lot of things.  Probably not enough, but it was a start.  I see several more yard sales in the near future, each one divesting us of more of our useless shit that we've spent too much time and money accumulating. 

And that leads us to my new post.... Merida, Yucatan, Mexico.