Woops!

Publishers we are not! The following 4 posts on Merida are backwards. In order to make sense out of them, please go to "Our trip to Merida" and go up from there. Woops!

Random Merida pics

This is the Monument to the Motherland on the Paseo de Montejo. The Paseo is a big tree lined boulevard with large 19th century mansions. In the late 1800's and early 1900's, hacienda owners made fortunes on henequen. Henequen is a type of agave plant (tequila comes from another type of agave). Henequen is also the name of the fiber that comes from this plant. The fiber is used in the production of rope and fabrics. The Yucatan supplied virtually all of the henequen used in rope until the introduction of nylon.

Bob and Lynn on the way to the Central Market posed in front of a seller of flowers. What a great aroma from the flowers- not Bob and Lynn!

More of the thousands of flowers!

This is a typical street leading away from the zocalo (main square). Tall buildings with tall doors all built right up to the sidewalk. This street closes to traffic every Sunday and every evening after 9:00 PM. At 9:00, tables from restaurants immediately appear on the street and live music is everywhere. Reminded us of New Orleans without the hurricane slushies!Peggy saw this young man posing for his father in traditional Mexican peasant garba. So, Peggy asked if she could take a photo or two. He was ready for one of the jillions of festivals the city has.

We had such a great time visiting Merida. Next year, we'll be taking more "European" holidays to the small villages and ruins in the Yucatan. So many places to see!

Anything you want

We just loved this man, Eustaquio (73 years old), and his older brother (83 years old). Eustaquio owns Hamacas Canmi - a tiny little store filled with the required inventory in Merida (hammocks, guayabaras, huipils, panama hats and much more). Can you tell that Ed was on a roll?

Slender little women from Chiapas were everywhere in Merida carrying several pounds of embroidered items for sale. Each evening they were set up in the main square - finally laying out their burdens after what we're sure were several miles of walking and looking for customers.They looked quaint, but were ferocious salespeople. They sometimes refused to leave, continually showing their wares in spite of telling them "no gracias". Ed thinks they're a part of some cult, like the Hari Krishnas!

We had been in Merida for several days before we found two central markets. Unbelievable! Thousands of booths selling about anything and everything.- from meat including cow's heads, jewelry,clothing to watch and shoe repair. We purchased a few items- blouses, dresses, a lime squeezer, a concrete trowell, etc. More guayaberas (men's shirts) and hammocks than you could ever count! They are made in the little villages around Merida. We bet millions are sold each year!

When got back in the more crowded corridors, we had no opportunity to take pictures - just had to keep moving! Just when we thought we had seen it all, we came upon the food court of all food courts covering about an acre. We didn't get a picture of this area either because we had a bus to catch!

Merida churches

Merida is filled withCatholic churches. The biggest and oldest is the Catedral de San Ildefonso begun in 1561 and finished in 1598. It is the oldest cathedral in North America. A very impressive building that was constructed on the same spot where we're sure an equally impressive Mayan pyramid once stood.

Just one block down the street is the Church of Jesus built in the late 1600's. We had dinner one night on our own personal balcony overlooking this charming church. As we settled in to yet one more wonderful Yucatecan delight of a dinner, we watched as a beautifully dressed young woman together with her family and friends emerge from a church service obviously dedicated to her 15th birthday or her quinceanera. On subsequent trips past this church, we saw several bridal parties there as well.

The Church of San Juan de Dios was actually completed before the cathedral. This chapel was part of a hospital that has been demolished. It's now the city museum.

We could spent our entire time in Merida doing a church tour. Below is one of the many outstanding features we saw, a delicately painted dome.

Our trip to Merida

We just came back from another short stay in Europe - woops, it just felt that way! Really it was a five day trip to Merida, the capital of the state of Yucatan. We went with our friends Bob and Lynn from Minnesota. After the four hour bus ride, we had a wild taxi ride weaving in and out of countless buses to Hotel Dolores Alba, a converted Spanish colonial mansion. We our stuff quickly into to our large clean $40 a night rooms and headed out to see some sights. After the Spanish took over this Mayan city named T'Ho, they tore down the many temples there and used the foundations and stone to build churches and official buildings. They also built a wall around the city. Three Moorish style gates to the city still remain. One of them, the Arco de Dragones, is two blocks from our hotel.

Lynn, though vertically challenged in the US, could have played center easily for any Mayan basketball team. She's standing next to the pedestrian entrance in the gate.

We walked about 4 blocks to the main square. The oldest building is the Casa de Montejo built in 1542. Amazingly, direct descendents of Franisco Montejo occupied it for 435 years. It's now a bank/museum. The furnishings are little bit more high end than our plastic dining table and wooden crate shelving. Bob and Lynn are standing in one of the interior courtyards.

Down the street from the main square is a huge theater, Teatro Peon Contreras. We just wandered in to find that it was closed for some restoration work. As happened so often during our stay, a very friendly man who was working as a guard, took us on an unofficial tour. We felt as if we could have been in New York when we saw this theater with a capacity of 1000 people.

The guard also showed us this wonderful open air ballroom that can also accomodate 1000 people.

Our Sherpa

Our friend, Bob, has been our longest standing visitor. For the 12 years that we've been spending a portion of our winters here, many of them renting little apartments, he has been a "mule" bringing wanted items such as power tools, parts for hurricane awnings , radio antennas and boat parts. Fullfilling orders from us and local friends. Here's a photo of Bob riding a bike off to Eco Divers for a day of diving.

Carnaval 2011 Part 1

When Sherpa Bob arrived we were deeply entrenched in our Carnaval bah-humbug mode. We were pretty much whining at full tilt about the noise, the congestion, the rowdiness, the childishness of the whole thing. Bob, we're sure, was quietly wondering why in the heck he had decided that he wanted to spend a week with us. One of the things we really like about Bob is that he doesn't just say "get over it!" in situations like this. In this case, I don't know what he did say but all of a sudden, it was fun! It was fun looking for the dancers that routinely stop traffic during Carnaval week. These dancers were just going at it in these heavy costumes in the afternoon heat.

These dancers were waiting to dance in front of Jimmy Buffett's Margarataville at about 5:00 PM. They had about 5 or 6 more hours of dancing ahead. We're thinking that maybe we, as spectators with the ability to go to bed early and wear ear plugs, should just quit our bellyaching and enjoy!

Carnaval 2011 Part 2

Here are some of the floats that started lining up mid-afternoon on each of the four days that parades were scheduled. One parade was rained out - good for the garden, for our hearing and, we're sure, for many of older, more tired parade participants.

Carnaval 2011 Part 3

The best part of the Carnaval for us was the little kids and their excitement. The littlest girl in this picture is sitting in a canoe laden with flowers.

It was just amazing how many kids stopped in mid-stride to pose for pictures. As usual the batteries in our camera died after a few pictures. Most of these photos are here because of Sherpa Bob.

We have no clue what the significance of these costumes are. We just liked 'em.

Isn't she beautiful?

Carnaval 2011 Part 4

Can you believe these elaborate costumes?

The next two were so heavy that they had to be put on wheels!

Can you tell who picked out the following picture? The picture that didn't make the cut was the Sol girls on the Sol Beer float.

This year the parade included a lot more guys dressed up like girls. Here's a few showing their feminine side.

Where's The Shuttle?

On Wednesday, space shuttle Discovery returned from the International Space Station for the last time. Discovery's landing path took it very close to Cozumel. We received a telephone call from our friends here advising that we might be able to see it. Wow! Bob and Lynn had witnessed a previous shuttle zooming by just west of the island. We all got busy checking the NASA site and as the countdown kept ticking, we just couldn't figure out a way to get some detail on the flight path map. All we knew was that it would fly by pretty close, skirting Cuba on its way to Florida. So, we went up to the roof with our friend, Laura, our binoculars and our phone. Dick, Gwen, Bob and Lynn also made the climb to their rooftops as well. All to no avail - no stream of condensation, no mirrored fleck in the sky, nada, nada. The shuttle had apparently without our help gone by about 100 miles to the east of the island. So, we again squandered hours with nothing to show for it. A real switch from our normal productivity?