The Birthday Party

This has a small back-story. Our friend, neighbor and cleaning woman, Debora, always brings her daughter Kimberly with her when she cleans the house. Indra has grown quite fond of Kimberly and last year she was invited to the little girl's birthday party. It was held in a tiny house and it was very crowded. This year, Indra volunteered this house for the festivities.

Thursday night was set as the date, and that day Debra started delivering the party supplies first thing in the morning.

Including Snow White, the pinata...

Later, Kimberly arrived to help decorate and set things up. Indra swung into action.

Let the decorating begin!

We didn't really know how many to expect, but when a pickup truck arrived and dropped off 50 folding chairs and two gigantic steel tables, we had an idea that this fiesta was going to be big.

It's not like in the U.S. where you drop off your child and come back later to pick them up. These children arrived with their moms, dads, siblings, aunts, grandmas, babies, everyone turns out.

We had everything set up in the back, but as it got darker the consensus was to move everything into the front yard where we have better outdoor lighting.

We figured there had to be 40 kids and about as many adults.

Of course there was food. The main dish was a huge pot of spaghetti and a lot of small sandwiches. And a cake!

The last official act of the evening was the Snow White pinata....Here she is posing with the birthday girl, 11 years old.

I was under the impression that the kids would be blindfolded, given a big stick, and start taking whacks at it. Instead, each was given a turn to pummel poor Snow with their fists. This proved to be ineffective and eventually Snow was ripped open and, to the shouts of "Aqui! Aqui!", the candy was thrown to the little ones.

As you can imagine, there was quite a bit of wreckage left over after people headed home. No problem as Debra and her crew took over and picked up everything. And the next day she came over and cleaned the downstairs. A fun and interesting evening.

More later,

Larry

The Morning Walk

Sometimes it's fun to take a camera along on one of our morning walks just to see what pops up.  That's what I did today.  We walked to where the marina opens into the Gulf...

We sat down to watch the fish jumping out of the water, and the fishermen heading out to make a living.  We enjoyed the fact that these boats carried two smaller boats on them...

And all the while we were observing, we were being observed....

These are the dreaded Giant Brain Sucking Lizards of the Yucatan and are quite harmless during the day.  In fact, when approached, they disappear into the rocks.  But at night, if one should find you sleeping, they silently creep up and....o.k., I'm making this part up.  They're harmless.

As are the pelicans.  We found this handsome fellow taking in the sun....

At the end of the road we were offered this nice look at the new Progreso-Chelem bridge which was built to cut the drive time between the two towns by about  30 minutes.

A nice way to spend a Saturday morning.

More later,

Larry

It's The Cops!

"Larry, the police are outside and their guns are drawn."  Thus, Indra ended what was starting to be a pleasant afternoon siesta yesterday.  After performing a mental checklist of my past transgressions, I ruled out the possibility of said guns being aimed at me, and we went out on the upper deck to check it out.
What we found was a common site here, although not on our street:  the drug and guns checkpoint.

These stops can be quite unnerving at first until you get used to them, even when you know you don't have any guns or drugs even though you might want some.

As you can see, even the people on the lowly mopeds are not immune from searches.  I used to be searched when on the bus from Progreso to Merida going or coming home from work.  In fact, I was usually the only person on the bus being searched as I was the only Norte Americano.  I just smiled and went along with it because...

...well, you get the idea.  After 2 1/2 years here, they don't even bother to stop our car anymore as it is well known as the only Subaru in Progreso.

So, we watched the action for about five minutes with Indra cautioning that if the lead started flying, we were to duck for cover.  When we checked about five minutes after that, they had vanished.  We don't know if they set up this roadblock for anyone in particular or what the deal was.  Just part of life south of the border.

More later,

Larry

The Bank Token

This is one of those things that sort of grabs you as another, "this is so different" moment.  When you open a bank account in Mexico, at least at Banorte, and you want internet access to your account, one of the things you are given is a "token".  Take a look:

Cute, huh?  What you are seeing is a personal electronic device that is getting a signal from a satellite.  Every 60 seconds that 6-digit code automatically and randomly changes.  If you look carefully on the left hand side of the display you can see a series of lines that act as a countdown to the numbers changing again.  Each token has a serial number and when you go on line to set-up your internet banking, the system wants that serial number, your user name and your password.  Once activated, this is what you need to log on with the most current "token" number being displayed, so it's different every time.  They say that this will operate for 5 years before the battery runs out and there is no extra charge for it.  Unless you lose it.

I tell ya, these third world countries...!

More later,

Larry

Mice and Mousetraps

We've had a mouse in the house.  This is our second one (that we know of) and the  first time we had to go hunting for mousetraps.  Here, they do not have the spring-loaded, killer version of my youth instead opting for a more humane (think PETA), small  plastic pad coated in a sticky substance that I suppose the  little rodents find attractive.  And for our first mouse visitor it worked.
This new guy is apparently smarter than that and we see him occasionally darting about out of the corners of our eyes.  The dogs have tried to sniff him out, but to no avail.  We can't use a cat because the dogs don't want to share the space in the house
So it was back to the sticky traps.  Unfortunately, they trap indiscriminately.

 

Sure hope this wasn't Lenny... 

More later,

Larry

El Pulpo

Progreso for all it's efforts to be a tourist destination for cruise ships, is a fishing town.  And the main harvest here is pulpo or octopus.  When we first arrived we were told the harvest was robust and the pulpo was a major export to Spain and Japan.  When we would walk our beach we passed scores of pulpo boats that had had arrived from fishing and lined the beach.  Last year, they disappeared.  Over fishing and poor management pretty much wiped out last year's harvest and this year, while supposedly improved, it still expected to be light.  Here are some shots of the boats that have come back this year.

 

Only about a half dozen could be found.  I asked one of the fishermen if they were catching much and he replied "very little".

These small skiffs are rigged with long bamboo poles fore and aft.  From these hang fishing lines and the fishermen use crab as bait to lure the octopus onto the line.

  

  

Word on the street has it that there are many poachers fishing the pulpo illegally this season and they are being hunted by the authorities.  We hope they get nailed because this town is poor enough without these hard-working souls being robbed of their livelihood.

More later,

Larry

Let's Talk About Hammocks

If you are thinking about moving here, or are moving here, you are going to want a hammock.  And there will be plenty of places willing to take your money.  The places that are most obvious and accessible are in the tourist areas such at the main plaza in Merida or the malecon in Progreso.  We got our first hammock on the drive down here from the States at a toll booth waiting in line.  At $200 pesos (less than $20.00) it seemed like a great bargain and it did the job for a while.  Then, we became more educated on the ins-and-outs of hammocks made in the Yucatan.
These are sold at more out of the way stores specializing on the locally made product.  My hammock came from Hamacas WMS (With Mexican Style), a socially responsible, local industry promoting Yucatan goods.  Visit their website here.  And forget the $200 peso price tag.  Yucatan hammocks go from $650 pesos on up.

My hammock is strung between the back porch and a very large and strong tree.  Most people have hammock hangers in the house but we haven't done that yet.  Yucatan hammocks come in cotton or nylon, but the cotton are the most comfortable.  This one is cotton with nylon end threads.  They are hand woven locally.

It's all very delicate work, but don't let that fool you.  Indra and I have gotten into this hammock together and it held us with no problems.  We've seen hammocks that will hold a family of four!
This is how they attach to the tree.  The rope (provided) is fitted with a steel "S" hook.  Simple.

 

Now, let's look at a store.  We found this place quite by accident while we were lost in Merida looking for Hamacas WMS.  No matter, we went on in because we were getting ready to head north to the States and Indra wanted to get one for her son for his birthday.

Note that they advertise sales, repairs and cleaning.  Full service.
There is no end of sizes and colors......

 

And you can get hammock chairs.....

The saleswoman was very helpful, unwrapping and showing the sizes and colors.

 

 

So, if you're approached by someone selling hammocks on the street, think twice.  Spend a little more money and get the real deal.  They are comfortable and, with the proper care, will last a very long time.

Now, for a very detailed look at the Yucatan hammock, I'm going to steer you to a site called Hammocks of Yucatan.   This guy makes my effort look puny, but I figure why plagiarize or reinvent the wheel.

Happy relaxing.

More later,

Larry