On Tuesday we walked around and tiny bit outside and then caught the bus. I love the sign above. Is Jesus saying no to litter?
The two sign on the left is in Spanish but the middle one on the right is in the Mayan language.
It’s hard to tell because the sign is sagging, but this is a, sign for a hamburger and hot dog shop.
KFC has Col Sanders, this place has Jesus.
On Monday night we went to a language exchange.
It was held at the Merida English Library. This library is brillant. It was started and is run by expats and has all English books.
I get all my books online from the Seattle Public library. But, the idea of an actual book on English sounds very nice.
They also have puzzles. If only our Airbnb had an extra table.
The language exchange was really nice. Everyone we were sitting with were learning English. We spent half the time talking English and half the time in Spanish. I was all set to make this a weekly thing when I found out they close until September.
I had a theory that if there is a fruit not common in the US it’s probably because it doesn’t fit our American tastebuds it’s either too sour or too many seeds. But Dragon fruit has proven me wrong. It’s in season now so the stores are full of them.
They look really crazy on the outside, but inside taste like kiwis. And they are supposed to be a super food for anti inflammation.
Here are some other things from the grocery store.
The Mexican wine section. We have had some good Mexican wines.
Frozen poblano strips. This sounds gross not who knows, if you are going to cook them anyway.
No idea what this is. Some kind of fruit pastel maybe?
This is some kind of diet food. There were a lot of d of different flavors. This one is mango and chili.
And of course the baggers, all older gentlemen. They all work for tips only and take turns. They always seems happy when we tip. I don’t think all gringos know you are supposed to tip. So they are never expecting much from us.
Here’s a,weird thing, growing up neither of us were into the Blues. When we moved to Chicago after college we lived in walking distance to Blues clubs, but never went. Now we love the Blues but there aren’t many places to hear it live in Latin América.
There is a place in Merida with live music. On Saturday night they had a Blues band.
The band went on at 7:30. By 8:00 when we got there the place was full and we had to go to overflow seating at the rooftop bar where we ordered fancy drinks. At 9:00pm a table opened up. The top photo is us all excited to be sitting in the area to see the band
The band was great. It was weird hearing a Muddy Waters song and voice come out of this lead singer.
It was also weird hearing the song “Sweet Home Chicago” then the band talking in Spanish.
By 10:00 we were tired and the bar closed. We didn’t even feel like party poopers, since the band was done playing and the bar was closing.
On Friday we walked around and I saw some interesting doors. Wealso spent the entire day trying to get abig big of water
Since you can’t drink or wash veggies que tap water, we have been going through the big 5 liter bottle of water really fast. In Panama abd some of our other Mexican Airbnbs the building has a water delivery service. Since our building does, not, we spent most of the day trying to get water.
Maybe this guy behind the fence is,a,mascot for a,water company?
Too bad I couldn’t yell down to this house to find out how they get their water?
Finally after hours,or research I looked on Facebook in an expat board. Turns out big supermarkets will deliver the big twenty liter jugs.
Thursday was another day of setting up our time here. Since everything takes longer to do here every little thing takes forever.
We joined a gym, we didn’t actually work out, but joining was a big acomplishment.
We also found a laundramat and washed clothes. The Airbnb we are in is great, except no washer/dryer. There are a lot of places where you drop off your dirty clothes and they return them clean. But for at least this first time we wanted to do it ourselves.
While I sat with the clothes, Jeff got our stuff out of our storage locker. So we are back to only 2 storage lockers, Panama and Seattle.
On Wednesday I had my treatment. I’ve done it enough times in Merida to know the drill and fully embrace it. 10:00am selfie on my way in.
At 10:15 I finished signing all the forms including my thumbprint.
By 10:30 I was in my room and checking out the cookies.
I alway know the black container in the fridge has a sad looking ham sandwich.
I ate the fruit abd left the sandwich and jello.
I always resist putting on a hospital gown. So not needed for this treatment. But I put it in got in the hospital bed and ordered breakfast.
Eggs and more fruit. I skipped the apple juice and additional jello.
11:00 they took my vitals and started the treatment. It’s an IV which only takes 30 minutes.
11:30 was my doctor’s appt which was a check up and mini Spanish lesson. She speaks perfect English but likes to practice with me.
12:00 is the hostage time. This is the worst part for me. I’m all done, have already paid and have to wait, in the room until they agree that I’m all paid up and release me. This usually takes two hours. I settled with my book but it only took 30 minutes.
So I’m good for another three weeks.
We had a great day on Tuesday don’t nothing. We’ll Jeff worked. But we didn’t do errands or anything stressful. This is the view from our balcony. Even though it’s really hot the mornings and evenings are still nice for sitting outside.
On Monday we went grocery shopping. Because we are going to stay put for awhile we were able to stick up on groceries. For the last few months we were moving around so much we never had much in the fridge or cupboards. This wasn’t even everything. We had another cart with us as well.
One thing we didn’t buy was Skwinkles. I think it’s red licorice with spicy seasoning on it. Or as the package says salsagheti
Our flight on Sunday was at 8:15am so we got to the airport really early. Thank God for coffee. We were so out if it we bought our drinks, some food and a pound of coffee to take back with us. We paid then wandered out without any of it. They had to call after us to actually take our purchase.
The flight from Colombia to Mexico was fine. When we landed they made an announcement. “The government of Mexico requires all flights to be disinfected. But don’t worry this spray is safe.
The flight attendant didn’t seem thrilled to disinfect us.
After a few hours at the Cancun airport we took a bus to Merida. This bus was Platino which was a higher level than first class. Besides extra legroom and WIFI we got water and apple juice.
We arrived back in Merida, checked into our Airbnb and immediately went out for tacos. It’s nice to be back.
