Sargasso on the beach

I was drinking coffee on the porch and saw 9 Mexican ladies walking along the beach collecting some seaweed and putting it in large burlap bags. They were being picky about which seaweed they picked, which made me very curious. I went down on the beach to ask them and find out.

First, I guess they were surprised that a gringa spoke Spanish, so after their initial shock, they answered my questions.  :)  They were only collecting the sargasso seaweed that washed up last night. The sargasso is a special seaweed that has small round seed looking pieces that act like bladders to keep the seaweed afloat. I had heard of the Sargasso Sea, in the Bermuda Triange, but had not really seen any.
The biggest answer I got to why they were picking it up was that several were going to eat it, like a salad, some were going to cook it, like a soup, and some were going to give to their fishermen husbands to put in the packing with the octopus they are catching to send to Japan. Sargasso is a delicacy in Japan, along with the octopus. I read that Mexico is supplying all the octopus for Japan now because the fishing in Africa was off. There are record prices for a kilo of Octopus now- $108 pesos a kilo. (around $10 a kilo US)
I guess there will be happy people in Mexico, AND Japan now. Bon Appetit Japan!

Thanksgiving in Mexico

We awoke to a very different tradition for Thanksgiving this year- a walk on the beach, since it was 85 degrees. Then I worked in the kitchen, while streaming the Macy's Parade on my laptop, making 10 pounds of honey glazed carrots to take to a friends house for Thanksgiving dinner. The honey glazed was smelling so good, the honey bees started to gather on the kitchen window screen to try to get inside! I guess they thought they found the mother-lode. There were 43 of us Americans and Canadians for dinner to celebrate the holiday. The Canadians said they loved being a part of our tradition.
We missed our family back in the US, but were glad to have some friends here in Mexico to celebrate with.

Mexican Revolution Day!

These boys dressed in native Mayan costumes are looking a bit bored in the parade...

love the twirly skirts!



these kids have practiced their dancing a lot to be in the parade today




happy ladies in native dress



Progreso town hall with everyone watching the parade from the balconies

Today is Mexican Revolution Day and there were parades in all the towns across Mexico to celebrate! This is the parade that was in Progreso today, there was also one in Chelem, and Merida. All the school children practice their steps, and dances for weeks for this parade. We saw the high schoolers practicing in the Chelem square this morning as we went into Progreso. It is a happy festival time for the families. There was food and a carnaval set up in the Progreso town square today too.

Web Publishing your manuscript class....

Today Hubby taught a class about Web Publishing to 22 folks that came out to the English Library. He did a great job with it, he has two books published now. There was a lot of interest in the topic, and he may do a follow up class on Marketing your book.
Google his books if you want to find one:
Holiday in Havana
The Lost Ark of the Incas

Yoga at the Beach..

Friday, I went to my first Yoga class. It was given by a friend I met here at the beach. There were 11 of us on her patio stretching and trying to get into the pretzel twists that she was talking about. It was an interesting and fun time with friends, I think I will go again. Not sure yoga is my friend though, my body was protesting that I was trying to knot it up :)
Next week I am taking my camera to get a picture of what I was looking up at while I was on the mat- beautiful blue sky, white puffy clouds and a palm branch over my head. :)

Norte at the Beach...

Nov. 10th we had a huge storm here in Yucatan. They are called Nortes. They come to us from the North, hence the name. I saw this one coming across the water from New Orleans (today is first son's birthday and he lives in New Orleans- must have been partying too much there! Caused quite a storm).
The clouds were very dark and rolling across the Gulf fast. We had time to put things away and close the windows just before the storm hit us. The gale force winds hit and the palm trees started swaying, some broke off in town here. The rain was coming straight at us from the Gulf, and came under the door towards the beach, windows on the beach side and side of the house were leaking water and flooding the rooms. We got cloths and put under every window, got a bucket and wrung out cloths for an hour and a half. Lucky for us it didn't rain that hard all night, or we might have had a flood here. The beach was underwater as the tide rose high. We did not have waves hitting the house, but our neighbor did. There is a sand bar just off the front of the house, which saved us, the waves broke further out.
In the morning, we cleaned up palm branches and flowers out of the pool and off the patio area. Everything else was fine. whew, made it through our FIRST norte, only 48 to go..... wow!

Latin America Bloggers Conference

Nov. 5th I will be going to the Latin America Bloggers Conference, based this year in Merida. I have been following several other Merida and Mexico blogs and will finally get to meet some of the folks I have read stories about. Should be a fact filled, fun filled day. Will post more about it later....

Later: The bloggers Conference was a hit! Great to meet folks from the US and all over Mexico that blog about things. The panel of experts told us how to get better photos on our blogs, how to keep rants calmer, and how to get more folks interested in the things we blog about. I will be posting along the side of my blog their blog sites- if I can figure out how to connect them all....
The Conference was held in the TTT University in Merida, a beautiful location. Next year there is talk of the Bloggers Conference being held in Cancun at an All Inclusive Resort. sounds interesting...

Day of the Dead- Hanal Pixan

Day of the Dead is a little different here than in some parts of Latin America. There are altars set up in each village, and the best one is selected to go to Merida to be set up on Oct 29 in the main square. On the altars to those that have died in the family, will be food they liked, momentoes for them (toys for children that passed away, and beer and cigarettes for the adults) there will be pictures of the deceased and flowers.
Nov. 1 is the day they celebrate the children that died. Nov. 2 is All Saints day, then the altars have offering and flowers for the saints the family worships. In Mayan this ceremony is called Hanal Pixan.

Hubby decorated for an adult Halloween party in Chelem, he made this Catrina skeleton out of palm branches.

They do not practice Halloween as we do in the US, and there are no 'trick or treaters' coming to the door to ask for candy.