Tuesday , 8 January 2019: Merida

As we left the house I handed Abraham a handful of cash and instructions for taking care of Gemma for two nights.  Ivan should come back to install the outside light, ceiling fans in two of our rooms, lights in the bathrooms and above the beds, a couple of outlets and a list of other items.  Don Carlos should come back to switch out the stove and start to install the faucets and showers in the bedrooms.  Soms and his team should come back to finish making the shelves in the guest kitchen and, Eloisa, our new housekeeper was at Casa Colibri on Tuesday and she should come back on Thursday.  Our house is an absolute wreck and we do need to prepare for Mimi as much as we can.  So we left Abraham with a wad of cash to pay all the workers, kissed Gemma on her head and headed out of town.

Our first foray was to Hunucma to try to find Mack, the furniture guy Jose and Richard from Hacienda San Jose Pachul told us about.  Indeed we did find Mack!  Not only were we blown away by his workmanship (and his prices) but also, he introduced us to the aluminum and window guy, Evaristo.  Both of these gentlemen will come to our house on Friday.  What a find.  It was 11:30 when we were back on the road to Merida and we’d certainly done a full days work.

First stop in Mérida: Ceramat to return the two kitchen sink fixtures.  That was a huge hurdle.  We were able to return both for full refund and then buy two new ones at 25% discount.  We’d bought the other ones during Buen Fin for 40% off so they were still too expensive, but we are moving on.  This time we were certain to check the box to make sure the exact fixture we wanted was inside.  We found a sink for the guest kitchen and a shower fixture we like for our bath at the place next door to Ceramat, Gersa, but they didn’t have either in stock so we headed across town to another location.  Sink loaded and shower ordered, we stopped at a roadside dive for lunch and it was fabulous.  Justin told me to write down the name and address but I didn’t.  We were pretty concerned about the bottled water but we opened it, said a quick prayer, and drank.  (We didn’t wake up dead so I guess we were ok.)  Home Depot was next.  We saw a sink for the main kitchen somewhere but neither of us can remember where.  As in all of our trips in to Merida, we go to ten places to get three things.  There is simply no way we can replace our steps.  

Checked in at Hotel Maria Del Carmen (recommended by Peter).  It was ok but we won’t need to come back here.