Saturday, 2 November 2019: Celestún

Dinner at Los Pampanos with Roger and Chris, Danielle and Ian, and Robbie and, partner/flavor of the month, David.  The first year we met Winn, last year we met Dennis and this year we get to meet David.  Ok.  Justin and I shared our favorite avocado stuffed with crab and then a huge broiled fish.  Later, walking around the square, ice cream called.  We shared a banana split made with strawberries and cream, nuez and pina colada flavors.  Back at home, we tried to watch Terminator in getting ready for the new release but our internet was too, too slow.  Maybe tomorrow when we are in Merida.  

Friday, 1 November 2019: Casa Colibri

We have our first real guests lined up.  Quite a few people have been here to visit, some even twice.  Frank was here last winter, but “real guests” Rick and Brenda from Ontario will be here for four days in February.  Wow!!!  We aren't sure how they found out about us but will we will have ask...advertising and all...

A year or so ago when visiting Dellene in Austin, Justin concluded that “Everything is on Burnet”. And now we learned that even Beto’s campaign headquarters was on Burnet. He threw in the towel today; I do hope he will run for senate.

Reina made a snack for after Pilates.  The special pubil is pork cooked in banana leaves.  Traditionally cooked in an pit, Reina cooked this one in the oven.  I've eaten this three or four times and while each has been totally different, they've all been delicious.

Thursday, 31 October 2019: Casa Colibri

It is all over for the Astros.  They gave it their all, but no cigar.  

On the phone with HSBC — my, oh, my.

Pilates had started and Justin was already gone to the beach with the dogs before my phone call concluded.  Nothing was resolved, but we’d been on the phone for well over an hour.  Later, as I was walking the last Pilates participant to the gate, Antonio arrived. He was here to look at our kitchen and give us an estimate on cabinets.  I talked with him for about 15 minutes before Aholi arrived.  Justin and I did a handoff so I could jump in the shower and have a massage.  An hour and a half later, another hand off — Justin drove Aholi home while I finished with Antonio.  

It was now 1pm.  Justin had promised to drive Tom and Meche to the bus station.  They have sold their house and this was the last time leaving Celestun.  Sure, they will come back to visit, but for now, we needed to send them on their way.  Instead of taking them to the station, we drove them to Merida since we needed to go pay for the solar water heaters.  We’ve learned that one can’t pay for anything over then phone with credit card in Mexico.  Instead, you need to transfer money from your bank to theirs.  Since I’m still hitting the wall with HSBC, we can’t move the money and we have to go to the store.  The sale is significant and the price goes back up tomorrow ... hence the trip to Merida.  We got back into Celestun about 6:30.  It was after dark and thankfully our trip was uneventful.

Of particular note is that Tom and Meche's house is also called Casa Colibri.  You can see the tile motif in the background... that is the Mayan glyph for colibri.  Meche gave me the template she used.  I can see this in fabric... pillows for the beds in each of the rooms... wall hanging... 

Tuesday, 29 October 2019: Merida

Sunday into Merida for the game and then errands on Monday. 

Aaron Jones was just on fire!  Within multiple screens, I popped back and forth between the Astros and the Packers.  And the Texans won Sunday too.  Charlsy said “all three of my teams won today.”

Don Ivan came to meet us to go shopping together on Monday.  He and Justin shopped at a few stores and then settled on solar hot water heaters from Fernandez and his hammer drill from Home Depot.  We are buying his hammer drill and then he will work off payment.

Last year Justin and I made a goal of “making Merida our own.”  Thankfully, I’d used my expert orienting skills and found the plant store so we were able to stop by there and make a bunch of choices — indoor plants, outdoor plants including hibiscus, Royal palms, stag horn fern, and all sorts were of pots, large and even larger and small.  We stopped by later this afternoon to pay and it was way dark by the time we were driving home.  I hate that road in the dark.

Our treasures that will be delivered from the plant tore.  

We arrived home to no power.  We’d passed by the trucks working on our road and Don Ivan said “there is no power in the village”. We stopped by to drop off Peter’s goods; he said it had been off for several hours.  It came back on but only partially just as we were unloading the car.  On, in this case, "partially" meant a very low wattage.  Some of our lights worked, we could charge our phones, the fans turned but at a very slow speed.  Certainly no washing machine or air conditioners would have been operable.  

We learned that the governor was visiting Celestun on Tuesday morning.  This meant that the village wouldn’t take any action until after the visit was complete.  Since they had to replace two poles, they were going to need to turn the electricity off completely for several hours.  So that work started early afternoon on Tuesday and was back on right at 5:00 pm just as Tom and Meche were walking in the door for dinner. 

We had a delightful evening with our guests.  I had planned to make steak salad but changed the menu to chicken sandwiches given the electricity dilemma.  Justin made guacamole and I made caponata to accompany our chicken sandwiches.  Prompted by a seemingly innocent question from Justin, “who do you like for 2020?”, Tom launched into a brief history of American history since the end of WWI, the connections, good and bad with the countries in central and South America and the role of the Mafia in all of the above.  He has no love for the any of the Bush’s and especially not for Dulles.  He suggested a few books to read, but, well, maybe not just yet.  I think I am a bit more likely to read about Ruth Bader Ginsberg right now.  Or maybe I’ll go back to Candy Crush.  

Thursday, 24 October 2019: Casa Colibri

Happy Birthday Dellene!!!  The birthday girl leaves for Europe today.  She and Lorayne will have an adventure.  She was in Germany with us five years ago when she turned 60 and if she can’t be with me, there’s no one better for her to be with than Lorayne.  I know they will have a great time.  I sent her a portable charger for her trip and , as she said, thankfully, Chris was at her house to show her how to use it.  When I am there next I’ll be able to see all her pics.

At the Burgschanke Hotel outside Kaiserslautern, 2014

Tuesday, 22 October 2019: Casa Colibri

Today is the type of day I think of when I hear people who worry what they will do in retirement.  Today was an all too typical day for me and Justin in Celestun.  Abraham returned from Tetiz about 7:40.  That doesn’t require anything from either Justin or me. He lets himself in and goes to work.  Chari arrived for the first time today about 8am.  I do hope she works out as a new cleaner for us.  “Aunt Chari” is Tony’s aunt; Tony is Aholi’s baby daddy.  Although Abraham takes the lead with telling Chari what to do, I still need to be rather present.  Pilates started at 9:00am.  Janet and Angela came for the first time today.  Justin took the dogs to the beach and for a swim.  Ivan and Jonathan showed up soon after Pilates.  We have a leak under the kitchen sink and another leak in our bathroom sink.  Ivan will also install the solar water heaters we want on the roof.  Justin just got into his conversation with Ivan and I’d just thrown a load of laundry into the washer when Mac and two of his guys showed up to install our bodegas (closets) in our bedroom.  We ordered these last year and here they are!  Ok, our house was hopping.  

 About noon, I went to buy flat chicken, rice, beans and tortillas for lunch for nine.  We learned last year that it is better to provide our workers with lunch than leave them to their own devices.  This way they eat and go back to work.  More importantly, it is good will and we are building with our people.  At about 2pm, I sat down for the first time today (other than when I sat down in the car to drive).    Did I mention that it is stinking hot?  I really wanted to take a shower, but with Mac and his guys working in our bedroom, I thought it best to wait.  

I had a great chat with Mary.  She is such a dear!  It is always fun to chat and to catch up.  She and John just returned from a birthday trip to the Texas hill country.  Thankfully they were pleased with my recommendations.  Now they are planning a spring Italy trip.  How cool that will be for them.  

Thankfully Justin’s was watching Mac and his team build our closets.  He had seen a piece or two on the back of the truck that he just couldn’t identify.  Then he figured it out.  According to Mac my closet was only half the size of Justin’s!  What?  Wait a second!  Justin said he’d switch with me and take the small one, but that’s not what we really wanted.  We told Mac this wasn’t acceptable.  He told us it would cost 3,000 more pesos and would take two more weeks.  We were happy to agree to wait to get what we wanted.

I need to book our hotel for Cuba but our internet is sketchy at best.  Maybe tomorrow...

Monday, 21 October 2019: Casa Carmita Merida

We spent the last two nights in Merida at our favorite hotel Casa Carmita. We didn’t see Patricia, the owner,  but we did see Daniella, the housekeeper. She is also the cook; she remembered me and brought me milk for my coffee. 

Admittedly one of our main reasons for spending two nights was so we could go to Boston’s and watch the game. We also ran errands and explored. 

Justin has misplaced his drivers’ license so I’ve been doing most (all) of the driving. I need to call the consulate because we are way too early in our trip for him to go without. When the ATM machine ate his debit card I just had to cuss!  I thought the hurdle was getting cash— little did I realize having the card to even think about being able to get cash would be a deal breaker. As it turned out, this morning when we drove up to the ATM, the security team was there to reload money. After checking Justin’s passport our card was returned and we were in our way.  Success#1

Next stop: HSBC. I’ve been kicked out on online banking for our Mexican bank account for months. I’d tried to call with no luck too many times to mention. Press 2 for English just doesn’t work. Now back in Mexico, we stopped at a local branch where we were first told we needed to go back to the branch where we opened the account. Justin and I both raised our eyebrows at that and we were then told we could call them. I said great and pointed to the phone on the deck and asked that associate to make the call. A good 40 minutes later we had not only online access but also cash. Success #2 and #3.

We were on a roll. On to Allison’s key shop. Last week I had extra keys for the gate made at Home Depot. One for each of us and one to go with the key to each guest room. They didn’t work so I asked Allison for insight. Now, we are the proud owners of 8 new keys to the front gates... and they were a lot cheaper than Home Depot (200 pesos vs 375 pesos). Success #4

I thought our luck might have ended when we couldn’t find the store where we wanted to buy flower pots and a concrete fountain.  We drove all over yesterday looking for it without success.  I had the address as Av. Merida 2000 at Calle 47 (or Calle 67) — two numbers because there were two street signs.  Well, Mérida is divided into sections or “colonies” and each area has its own numbering.  We basically drove down the entire Av. Merida 2000 yesterday; we must have missed it because it was Sunday and closed.  Today, I found it on the internet while Justin was in Sam’s (I’d stayed in the car with Gemma because it is so dang hot).  We drove there and found exactly what we were looking for.  Success #5. Now we just have to decide if we really want to have the fountain.  I really, really want a pool but it is just not prudent.  But a fountain, now that’s a maybe.

And that was the end of successes.  We didn’t find the plant store again.  You’d think we’d learn our lesson to drop a pin or identify significant land marks.  One can only hope.

Saturday, 19 October 2019: Casa Carmita in Merida

I saw Janet yesterday.  She called and asked if I wanted to go with her to get Chinese food.  Yes, we have a new Chinese food restaurant in town.  The drive gave Janet and me time to chat.  I bought some vegetables to go with our rotisserie chicken I’d gotten at Sam’s.  The Chinese vegetables were good enough that we will go back for more.  That’s a relief.  

This morning we went for a quick swim before loading up the car.  This was my first swim really and I didn’t want to get my hair wet since we were heading to Merida but it sure did feel good.

We drove into town with the intent of finding a key shop.  Initially we didn’t have much success but we were quite content to go to La Negrita for dinner, drinks and musica.

 

I booked our flight to Cuba last night before I went to bed.  We will go with Sandra and Peter in February.  Last year I had a root canal on Valentine’s Day,  this year, we will do better.

Thursday, 17 October 2019: Celestún

I’ll need to get used to the sounds of Mexico again.  

We are still waking up too early.  Yesterday when Justin said he had wanted to sleep forever I echoed the sentiment. We've made a few minor attempts to settle in but we also packed to go to Merida over the weekend.  Thankfully, this trip was only for one night.  Gemma was convinced she was out of the car for a while, but no.  

In Merida we ran errands including Home Depot, Sams, Costco, plant store, our lawyer but the main reason we went there was to go to Boston’s to watch the Packer vs Lions football game.  We went to Boston's several times last year and at our first visit this year, we learned that the restaurant/sports bar has been dubbed a Packer Fan Zone.  Justin has all sorts of new friends.  He's working hard to teach them the cadence of "Go Pack Go!"  I can only imagine if Jordan and Erich were here too.  We were successful in supporting another Packer win.  Yes, 5 and 1 feels good.

Somewhere Justin has misplaced his drivers license so I drove most of the day.  We got home a bit after 6pm.  Our car was a clown car again in that it was filled to the brim  with dog and cat food, groceries, TP and PT and plants.  We got home and got the car unloaded in time to watch the debates.

Pilates was in full swing this morning; that will be the plan of the day for the winter on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.  Justin takes the dogs for a walk and a swim while I pilat.

Another activity we will pursue is Aholi coming for massages.  She came today.  It was great to see her and to visit but it was even better to get a massage.  I got to meet Bethania when I drove Aholi home.  She looks just like Tony.  Two little teeth are pushing their way up and goodness knows she has a bunch of hair.

Naps are a big part of the new plan too.  I totally understand siestas.  It is just too hot to move out from the direct path of the fan.  

Wonder what this young lady 
wants for Christmas?

We found a new little restaurant for breakfast not 

too far from Alanso's office.  We will want to go back there. 

The Astros are doing quite well again.  Might we make it to the World Series for the second time in three years?