Cooler weather and canned beans

On Monday night the heat wave finally broke. I was actually chilly on our balcony and had to unpack my hoodie. The temps will go back up next week, but for now it’s wonderful.

A trip to Walmart on Monday was also super exciting. Jeff and I are eating a lot of beans since they are so healthy. I’ve been looking for the last month for canned garbonzos. Since I couldn’t find them, I was buying them dry and soaking and cooking them. Without a pressure cooker it took hours and made our entire AirBnB smell. But now I have found them.

I told Jeff that if I’m ever in a bad mood or depressed after reading the news he should hand me a can of beans to cheer me up. I know it’s a first world problem but it’s so exciting to have ready cooked beans.

Beach Day

On Sunday we went to a beach in the town of Chelem which is 35 minutes by Uber from North Merida where our Air BnB is.

I tried for a photo without my sun glasses. It was way too bright.

The town is small and so mellow. We loved it. Although it was over 100 degrees. So instead of walking down this street, we called an Uber.

At lunch we ordered beers and they asked if we wanted them with michelada. Once they explained that it was a mixture of Worcestershire sauce, lime juice and spices we were sure we didn’t want it. But the waiter convinced us to try it.

The waiter explained we should pour our beer into the glass and stir.

This how much Jeff liked it. And he liked it more than I did.

After a few hours we we’re completely dehydrated even though were in the shade and drinking water, so we caught an Uber and headed back.

Shopping in 100 degree weather

On Saturday we went to the Slow Foods market. Even at 10am it was 100 degrees.

As you can see, Jeff handles the heat a lot better than I do. But we got what we set out for, free range, natural meat. Without a Whole Foods, Sprouts or PCC here we are leary if the meat in the supermarkets. But not only did we find natural meats, we found one place that will deliver.

After going to our indoor air conditioned gym we went to the supermarket. I saw this red thing the size of a carrot. After Googling it turns out it’s a kind of radish.

In the spice aisle we looked for bay leaves. We couldn’t find them but then in the veggie aisle, after some googling we realized the above was bay leaves.

We got back to the Air BnB with all the ingredients to make dinner, and ordered in instead.

Meat Coma

On Friday night we took an Uber to this really well rated Mexican restsurant. Our plan was to eat a quick dinner than go to an expat meetup.

Not only was the outside seating nice, it was right next to this really pretty building. We tried to get it in the background of this photo.

We ordered some Yucatan specialties that were basically piles of meat. Here’s a secret. The food here is sort of bland. It all is in need of salt.

We were so full and tired after dinner we decided to skip the event. It’s every week so we’ll go next Friday.

Treatment day

On Wednesday I went in for my every 3 week maitenance drug refill.

We had prepaid to speed up the checkin, but Jeff still had to sign 15 documents and get fingerprinted.

Sven is wondering why there are no leaves on this plate.

The actual infusion was quick. It was shorter than checkin. Afterwards we stayed inside due to a heat wave.

It finally cooled down around 7pm so we took a nice walk.

Goldilocks of Air BnB

On Monday we moved to our 4th apartment in a month. This one I think is a keeper. At least I hope so because we are here for a month. I didn’t take photos of each of them.

1. Tulum. This one was perfect and amazing. I could have lived here forever. But, it was far from everything and the taxi mafia charged a miniminimum of $25 per ride.

2. North Merida. This one was a little small but good. The only problem was it was in what felt like the suburbs. The AC also sounded like someone was inside it trying to escape.

3. Cento. This one was good except there were no real windows. They were all frosted. Also it was a loft so the bed was up stairs and the hand railing was an industrial cable. I felt like I was mountain climbing.

Street Corn

One of my main complaints about Panama, was the lack of corn on the cob. On Sunday we were able to find street corn which was good.

We started the day checking out another church. This one looked more European inside.

We finally sat in one of these iconic chairs. Although it was in the sun, so we only sat here for one minute.

Then we went to check out this historic hotel. We read you could go in and look around. But, the staff must not have gotten the memo because they kicked us out.

We also toured a museum that was the original house of the main conquistador. It was a beautiful house but the story behind it was harsh.

Two Arches and a Church

On Saturday we went to see the three arches in Merida. There used to be eight, but there are three still standing after five hundred years.

The second arch had mini arches top walk through. People must have been much shorter back then.

On our way to the third arch we were distracted by a church.

I love the statue above the door. I think he’s supposed to be blessing all that enter, but he loojs to me like he is saying, “Go Away.”

On our way to the third arch we also got distracted by churros. We decided to save tge last arch for another day.