Chili Cook off this afternoon at the Consul's house.

Went today to the Chili Cook Off, this year held at the home of the Consul. He was very nice to let us all in to his yard to visit and have the cook off. There were about 150 Americans, and Candians there, with a few Mexicans too. English was the language of the day.  There were over 20 people who had made Chili and were in the contest to see which Chili was voted best. I liked the Peruvian Chili (no beans, but flavorful), some of the American Chili cookers had theirs VERY hot, and I don't prefer the Hottest kind, so I chose the one from Mexico! :) Her's was my favorite by far.  I also tried some new foods! Cactus and Fried Octopus. :) The Cactus was cut in strips that looked like green beans and was stir fried, tasty. The Octopus was fried in a batter, and I could still see the 'sucker' feet, but ate it anyway. It was actually good. I didn't like it raw in Ceviche the last time we were here, but the fried was good. :) There are a lot of Octopus here. (A man in the parking lot of the WalMart tried to sell me some. ha)
It was a fun day, met lots of new people, mostly from Canada! Seems the Canadians have 'found' the paradise we have. There are far more Canadians here than Americans. There were also people selling crafts- jewelry, candles, wood masks, and antiques. Wow, the antiques here are REALLY antique! They go back HUNDREDS of years. very interesting.
Over all, it was an enjoyable day and very interesting.
I was invited to the International Women's Club, we will see what that is all about. :)

photos around town- zoo entrance

This is the entrance to the Zoo- Parque Del Centenario. It is in the middle of town, in a traffic circle- taken as we zoomed past! :)
Now that I know where it is, we will have to stop in and see it.

It's nice to have Husband drive around while I take the pics!! I still haven't driven here yet. Too scary. People come at you from all directions. It's hard enough to figure out where the road is, when you come to the intersection and there are 5 different roads on the circle! (going straight is not an option)

House Hunters International house I saw today

The pool for the house I saw today. It was very long and skinny.

More pictures posted below...

House Hunters International house I saw today- house tour!



The house is long and skinny, one bedroom. Sold for $200,000.



Notice the 20 foot ceiling in the house. Original beams.

Alta Brisa Mall in Merida

This is Alta Brisa Mall in Merida, very big mall on the North side of town. There is a two story Sears here and many other stores. Also the VIP you see in the left corner is the movie theater. Movies in English I have heard, haven't gone yet.

Government Palace

Broken English Spoken Perfectly Here...

Saw this funny sign in a doorway downtown- Check out the statue holding the sign below...

We saw this sign on a store in Merida today. HA

Interesting names of towns

A lot of the names here are Mayan names, this is the road sign that is on the road to the beach at Progreso, Paraiso (Paradise) and Yucalpeten are also out there.
I missed the sign for Dzibilchaltun!
Will have to go by that one again so I can get the picture. lol

Good Roads here...

This is the road out to the beach- a four lane interstate, with NO potholes, NO speed bumps, and much better than the interstate in the US. (are you surprised?)

Good News and Bad News....

The good news is that we went to the Vivero (Garden Shop) and I bought my first Bouganvilla! I always wanted to have one and let it grow tall over the wall. I bought a hanging plant too to put in the front patio.

The bad news- M. was repotting one of the other plants and found a scorpion under the pot! yikes. I knew there were some in Mexico, but had not seen any or heard of any around. The plant he picked up was NOT from the garden center, it had been on the front patio since we arrived. So..... now I am leary of setting my shoes on the ground. We had to deal with Scorpions in Bolivia, and I was really hoping we wouldn't have to here.

So, the score now is: us: 1, Scorpions: 0

Beach in Chelem

We were out back at our new friends' house in Chelem, they live on the beach. Very pretty area. Too bad they only live here 6 months of the year, they are getting ready to leave for Canada soon. Seems like there are a lot of folks here that do that, here for the Winter months and back to US or Canada for the summer. Guess in a few months we will see who the long term folks are. :)

Oldest Cathedral in North America

House and Garden Tour of Merida

We went on a tour of 3 houses in downtown- within walking distance of the Merida English Library. It is a tour sponsored by the Library and done every Wed. from October to March. There is another next week, I guess that will be the last one this season.

It was very nice, we met the owners, who shared lots of details about their houses. Some were bought 'as is' with all renovations done and all furniture inside. Some were just walls with nothing and now they have been turned into showplaces. I totally understand why the owners are so proud of them!

Will try to post a couple of the pictures I took.

Nice backyard pool- nope it's not mine!

there are some very nice backyards here, once you get past the 10 foot walls around each house! Gardens, pools, big trees too. Very nice!!

Cement Couch?

We saw this house on the Merida house tour. Sunken couch made from Cement. They also had a bed platfrom made of cement. Interesting!

Pasta tile floors

This is what the floors look like here on most houses. They are 'pasta tiles'. Brought over on ships in the 1500's-1600's as Ballast, thrown on the beach when they arrived here to get the gold to return to Spain.

Merida Mercado downtown

OK, we went where no tourists have gone before (just kidding, I'm sure tourists get lost and go here!)
We went to the Mercado downtown.  that is the downtown market- with 156,000 Sq ft of shopping, and over 1500 vendors. Does it sound big and crazy? Yes, it is!!

Only problem we could find is how to find things. Seems there are 'sections' for everything there. One area is fruits and vegetables, one is only shoes, one is clothes, one is tools, one is meat (stinks!), one is flowers, one is spices, etc. SO- who knows where in the world those things are???
We found the shoe section, but didn't need shoes, went to the end of the rows, ended up outside the whole building! too hot to go back in, so we left by another street.

I will have to check with some of the other gringos here to see if anyone can give me the guide to the mercado. :) I'm sure someone knows the way through!!

I saw online that Martha Stewart came to Merida and went through the mercado with a local gringo chef. Interesting. I guess he knew his way around. lol

Merida- City of Peace

There are signs all over town that say 'Merida- Ciudad de Paz' Merida City of Peace.
We have seen lots of people and everyone has been very nice. We have seen no trouble at all here.

I read that Merida is the safest city in Mexico, and Yucatan is the safest state.

If Merida was part of the US it would be the 8th safest state, next to Hawaii. :)
I have no idea what the other states are, the article did not list them. I did think it was interesting.

Is this Mexico? US stores here

Well, we have seen the influence of the US here- there are several WalMarts, and Burger Kings around town. Also several Starbucks, one even has a drive through. This morning when we went out the Starbucks parking lot looked full too.  There is also a Lowe's Hardware store, and Office Depot, Office Max, KFC, and Sears. The other day on the Periferico road I also saw a Peninsula Harley Davidson MotorCycle shop!

I don't think we will be shopping in these stores much though, the prices are crazy. We have been to WalMart near our house and priced several items, then went to Bodega and bought them.
There is food at WalMart- if you want to pay their prices. Interesting that the Wal Mart has SailCloth covering the parking lot. It helps keep the cars cool during the hot days here.

Driving in Merida....

Ha! Ok, let me say first that I am NOT driving in Merida- YET!! My husband is doing the driving around town for us. I may drive later- not yet. :) Seems like the nice Meridanos change when they get behind the wheel. They beep as the light immediately changes to green for you to GO NOW! They make four lanes out of two on the road when you come to an intersection. Then race to see who will get to be first in line to GO.
Go seems to be the key word. They don't like the waiting much. BUT I do have to say, they obey (mostly) the stoplights. :) There are Circles in town, where there is no stoplight, just  people coming through the intersection and passing around to the other side. These are very interesting. (our lawyer explained this one to us! lol) The ones in the middle of the circle have the right of way, whichever way they are going. You must wait on the outskirts till you see an opening into the circle to get in, then YOU have the right of way. woo

Our GPS does NOT know about one way streets. This has caused considerable concern (note: that is ME yelling! lol). We have been more lost WITH the GPS than without it. Once we got a map of the city and looked at it, it is laid out like a circle with two main roads around it. One on the outskirts of town- the Periferico- interstate, and one circle a little into the city- the Circuito Colonias. Interesting note though: the Colonias is NOT a perfect circle, as it winds a bit through the city at times.
so, We know the way home from certain parts of the Colonias. We go into town, then head back to those parts of the Colonias we know. Later I'm sure we'll find a shortcut. But for now, just finding our way home is a plus. :)

Meeting with Lawyers for house....

We met with our RE Agent and he led us by car to the attorney's office. We were impressed by his office and the people working there. They all spoke English very well.

It was the most complicated 'lease signing' we had ever seen! Seemed like we were BUYING a house instead of just renting for 6 months. wow. Formal documents had to be signed by all parties with copies of passports too. The 'formal book' he had was stamped all over the pages after we signed.
Since we speak spanish fluently, we told him he could proceed in Spanish, since the translating was taking some time. Then he started speaking three times as fast! lol, I think we were both thinking ' hope we can keep up!' but we were able to keep up with everything he was telling us. (good thing I used to sell Real Estate and knew most of the words though!!)

It was all done quickly and efficiently. We got instructions from the owner on the water, gas and electricity things we needed to know. Then she said we could use her parents internet (since they live next door). Bonus!
So far so good....

Renting a house in Merida...

We rented a house online through a Real Estate Agent and it is exactly what we thought it would be. It's good that there are no surprises! We had been using another RE agent and were ready to put money down on renting another house, which was perfect- 3 BR, 2 Baths, a pool, furnished, for only $600US. BUT the agent neglected to tell us about the Plastics factory next door! We were looking at the house on Google maps and noticed a sign on the gate nextdoor, so checked on it and found out it was the plastic factory. They make plastic piping, by mixing two toxic chemicals, and there was a HUGE fan that was over the house we were thinking of renting, which would blow the toxic air over the house.
So- my first word of warning to anyone thinking of doing this is: Do your own homework! Don't rely on others to tell you. They may know, they may not, but thank goodness we checked that or we wouldn't have lasted till the lease ran out!!
So, after the trouble with the first RE agent, we struck out on our own for a while, but eventually went to another RE firm. We found exactly what we wanted- a cute 2 BR house with AC and furnished.

Travelling to Merida...

Well, we finally did it! We quit our jobs in Virginia and sold/gave away all that we had that wouldn't fit in the car and started the drive to Merida Yucatan. It was quite a drive from Virginia, since the roads were icy and it was freezing cold.  It took a little longer than we thought. My sister Julie gave us a SPOT (GPS individual Locator) for our trip, so we could push it every day once we got into Mexico.  Our trip took us through Florence SC the first night, then Montgomery AL the next night. Our third night, we stayed in New Orleans with our son and daughter in law. We decided to stay two nights there and rest up. The weather was nice when we arrived- 72! But the day we left was back down to 35! What a change!! We headed for Texas and made it to Corpus Christi only to find out that we were at a hotel in the industrial district, changed hotels to South Padre Island Texas. There was such a terrible Ice storm they closed all the bridges and Interstates. We were stuck there for two days waiting for the weather to improve some. The third day, Husband decides he's had enough cold weather and wants to get on the road to Mexico. :) So, we went on the feeder roads (interstates still closed!) all the way to Brownsville on the Border. It took us all day to go these few miles. We stayed the night in Brownsville since the Border Bridge was ALSO closed. wow.
The next morning, the interstate was still closed, but the side feeder roads were open, so once again we drove the feeder roads to the Border. Once we crossed, it seemed like the Immigration folks were hoping for another snow day, they were all late to open. We waited there two hours for someone to show up so we could process through. But, the long wait was worth it, we got through no problems.
We were warned by two different people NOT to drive in Mexico at night. So, we drove on through 500 miles the first day to Tampico. (breaking the first rule we were told- we drove at night till we found a hotel)
We stayed at the Grand Royal and I would NOT recommend it to anyone. We had seen it recommended on two different sites of travellers, and we have a small Chihuahua we are travelling with, so we decided to stay there.( Dark, filthy carpets, sheets that don't fit the bed, towels you could see through.)
Next day we drove to Costa Esmeralda (the Emerald Coast)- on the Gulf of Mexico. Very beautiful place! Lots of Mexicans vacation here. We drove by a place that looked great so we stopped. Misiones Del Mar. I think we pretty much had the whole resort to ourselves since the Mexicans thought it was freezing (75). We sat out by the pool enjoying the warm sun. Then we went across the street to a great Seafood Restaurant  I wanted my camera when the waiter brought a tray of raw seafood out for us to choose our dinner! The shrimp were about 10 inches long each. I don't think I've ever seen shrimp that big before. The meal was 6 of those!!
Next morning we left on the big drive to VillaHermosa. We stayed in the Hilton VillaHermosa and I would recommend it to Everyone! It was beautiful and clean and very nice. Petey the Chihuahua was allowed to stay there too. (I guess the Hilton owners have small dogs too, right?)
We are close to Yucatan, but not close enough to make it in one day. Day 11 of driving.... getting tired of being in the car all day long..... whew
Made it to the State of Campeche and the City of Campeche! What a beautiful town. It is right on the Gulf and has a boardwalk. We stayed at the Holiday Inn across the street from the Gulf. We woke to birds singing and warm weather! ahhhh  If you go there, please check out the Breakfast Restaurant across the street, right on the Boardwalk. We had a wonderful breakfast there, under the palapa roof (straw roof) watching the fishermen leave to go out for the day.
Wednesday we finally made it to Merida Yucatan!!! YEAH!! The end of our long trip.
We met our Real Estate agent in Burger King and he took us to the house we rented.
Our new adventure has begun.....