Hola! Well, nothing really exciting and or interesting to report to you this week, which is not necessarily a bad thing....I got two new ceiling fans, had them put in, so I have a lovely breeze/wind blowing even when its calm outside. now, this may sound like a simple enough thing, but it took several steps. First, my friend who fixes up houses sent one of her workers to get the fans- he knows the cheap place...then I had to pick them up from her during one of my weekly merida junkets. Next step, go over to marcies ( where Marsial works ) and ask him to call his brother in law Lucio to see if he can come install them. Lucio shows up on a Saturday to look at the job and Monday he returned and installed them...Two weeks later......Then there is the crack in the front of the house that needed to be fixed. This happens ALL THE TIME at the beach. That simple repair took about a month. My concrete guy didnt have minutes on his phone, then the phone wasnt working so he couldnt read the texts...finally he brought the family over for a visit, their little boy Didier swam in the pool and the next day the crack was fixed. Of course, all of this work involves concrete and concrete involves POLVO!! Anyone who has ever spent anytime here and had work done knows what an incredible mess polve ( concrete dust) makes. it gets into every nook and cranny and takes at least 3 days to clean up. So, thats what I've been up to.

My grinning co-pilot on one of our hot trips into Merida. They say people look like their dogs and i am beginning to notice a smiling resemblance......

Here is the tree at the hotel ( I see I have inadvertantly shown it to you twice) There was a mini hurricane a week or so ago and unfortunately, this very old tree lost its life. The little mayan man who's probably in his 50's who works here, has been slowly hacking away at it with a machete! Talk about job security....It changes the whole look of the place. The back courtyard used to be a shady oasis. Speaking of hurricanes, its supposed to be a big hurricane season here because it got so hot so early. Evidently the gulf heating up contributes to hurricane formation. i must confess, Im not much of a meteorologist, so i'll take their word for it. With that in mind i set out yesterday after i checked into the hotel, to renew our hurricane insurance. I found the bank that we went through ( this is common with insurance here) , went in , figured out the system ( you get a number from a somewhat secret location-by the front door! Maybe if they didn't hide it in an obvious spot...) and wait your turn. Now, with the help of Irma at the hotel, I found out that the insurance is automatically renewed- yes! That makes it easier-BUT- that means i need to find out how much money i have in there and make a deposit. Of course the teller , all the tellers, spoke only spanish. there was one young lady at the door who spoke a bit of english and we finally got it all figured out. With her assisstance, I used the ATM card they had given us last year when we opened the account ( which has been tucked away in my files since then) to check the balance. the teller couldn't do this as , evidently, the account is in my husbands name. They couldnt give me any info so had to use the card...Long story short, all is well. We are covered, the fans are in, the crack is fixed. So it took a little doing to accomplish these tasks...What else have i got to do right? It's these challenges that drive some people nuts and they get crazy or they leave.You just need to ask for help, start doing it long before it needs to get done,and remain open to learning how to do things a different way. And aren't those great lessons to learn and be reminded of? I've been working on letting go of control for years and I ended up in the perfect place to work on that.

I do occasionally have to exert my will though. The other night as I was walking out the back door, Lucky darted out ahead of me and latched onto something. Not knowing what it was, i didnt say anything to him. It could have been a very large spider or a humongous cockroach. What it was though, was a sweet little gecko. " No Lucky!!" I shouted in my stearnest dog command voice. He looked at me like really? "Give Lucky"...again the 'do i have to?' as the squirming back half of the little creature tried to break free. He must have been holding it carefully because when he dropped it, it scampered away with all legs and tail intact. So, there's your weekly update. Nothing big, just enough to keep me out of trouble...Oh, I'll leave you with this mystery item.

The other night I was at Carols house ( she lives on the beach). She was telling me about how the night before she got up to go to the bathroom and saw a string of lights out on the water stretching all across the horizon. at first in her sleepy delirium, she thought maybe she was somehow seeing the pier in Progresso ( its the worlds longest pier but we are an hour away...come on...) Then she thought a cruise ship but again, even the Titanic or the QE2 wouldn't stretch that far. She said all of the lights were evenly spaced and it kind of freaked her out because she thought maybe it was some sort of invasion. We pondered possibilities and came up with nothing. as I got up to leave, what did i see out on the water?...lights. The longer we stood there, the more the little open spaces filled in until almost the entire horizon was filled with evenly spaced lights....

Road trip to Cuzaman

OK, so this is going to be a bit annoying..im afraid I cant figure out why the underlining is happening so we are just going to forge ahead...Lucky and i are sitting in the now wide open( due to the recent loss of the bougainvilla) eating area at the hotel and I want to get rolling before it gets blasting hot.

I told you , when last we spoke, that my friend maggi was arriving. Well, the airport pickup went off without a hitch. Im such a local now.( Oh! There goes the line....) The day after her arrival we went, in air conditioned comfort courtesy of Marcies air conditioned land yacht, to Yoxcopuil, (and im probably not spelling that right..guess Im not totally a local yet), on the way to Uxmal. Yoxcopuil is a hacienda that is somewhat intact. It is still owned by the same family and some of the original pictures and furnishings remain. there was a great little guy there that showed us around then let us wander on our own. you can see how glorious it all was at one time but knowing some of the hacienda history ( the mayans were basically indentured servants..one step up from slaves) I couldnt help but ask the guy if the people were nice or "malo"-bad. ' malo" came the reply. We left there and went to another refurbished hacienda for a lovely lunch and finally made it to Uxmal for a brief visit as the temperatures were soaring by then. We returned to merida where we lazed about for a couple of days before heading out to casa de Kahnerts. The difference between merida and Santa Clara is like night and day but it took maggi no time to adjust to a very slow pace...like a crawl really...like a snails crawl...Reading, napping, hammock time, Yahtzee, gin...when we really got fired up we went to the beach. Pretty busy schedule. After a few days at that non stop pace, we hooked up with my friend peggy and took a road trip to the cenotes of Cuzama. Peggy drove since she has air conditioning, Maggi was navigator and i relaxed in the back. There was no direct route to this place and getting there involved passing through very small towns and villages with no real idea of where we were going other then a southern heading. The map we were using gave no description of the quality of the roads and at one point we found ourselves creeping over pavement that looked like a war had been fought in the area and it involved a lot of road bombing. Potholes like caverns awaited a false turn. peggys little car would have been sucked in head first. we seemed to leave civilization behind from time to time and i wondered about the gas situation but pushed it out of my mind.

As we rounded a bend, in the distance we saw some sort of wall or building. ' Whats that?" we all leaned forward ( as if that would help) and as we got closer we realized it was the remnants of a hacienda. here we were in the middle of nowhere....( sidenote- Im told there were over 900 hacindas here in the henequen heyday. It was sort of like the french revolution when the mayans revolted and overthrew the rich. many of the haciendas were damaged, others abandoned)

This particular building was the machine house. The huge wheels and cogs were still in place. I realized this as I looked up and saw that I was standing under some rotting timbers that were supporting..oh, a few tons of metal. Needless to say i moved. There was another building across the street and around the bend 4 or 5 more. There was also a tiny ramshackle structure where the caretakers currently live. In the end, the Mayans ended up the overseers of this hacienda...too bad they didnt get to live in grand style.

Wow, I must apologize....this posting is very problematic today....I selected several other photos that are somehow gone...i will have to post them seperately.....

From here we passed through several little villages, took a picture of a lovely little lady with gold earrings and a beautifully embroidered huipil (sp?-traditional dress)...

At last we reached Cuzaman. We stopped in a restaraunt with the tallest palapas roof Ive ever seen, had some wonderful fresh coconut and mango ice cream, then headed out to find our ride. They have taken the old rail cars that were used to transport the henequin and converted them to people movers. A little horse pulls you along the rails as you sway and bump along, you realize how huge the hacienda was. our time is running out so we tell our guy we can only visit one cenote. The cart stops, they detach our pony for a little break and we approach the mouth on the centote. Its an opening in the ground. A hole the size of a 57 chevy. God forbid you were drunk and staggering around in the dark because youd fall to your death. We clung to the handrail as we made our descent straight down concrete stairs. The temperature dropped dramatically as we headed into the darkness and once our eyes adjusted we saw a beautiful, blue, crystaline pool. The ceiling was adorned with stalagtites and swallows darted about.I was wishing id have brought my swimming suit as I watched a family diving in and swimming around.

I later found out that all three of the cenotes at Cuzama are underground and that the one we stopped at was , in fact, the least spectacular of the three. well, i know where im going back one day.....

So, things are heating up....gonna wrap this up for now. I hope i dont end up with doubles of the pics but if thats what happens so be it...till next time!

vehicular distress

A couple of weeks ago, the day before my friend Maggi was due to arrive, my friend Peggy and i were hanging out at her place down the road in San Crisanto. We sat around her place for a while then decided to drive into progresso and go to Aurora Bodega soIi could tap the ATM ( i needed to get enough money together to pay cash for the car insurance and you can only get out so much at a time and once a day) and pick up some groceries. On the way back, i hear..what is it?..the fan belt. we are only a few miles out of Progresso so we are on a two lane highway. Where am i going to get this fixed? I'm thinking..oh I know! The place i had the muffler done. OK, no sweat....noise getting louder..please let me make it to San Crisanto I silently ask. We approach a slow moving car and about this time i realize that the temp gauge is showing a bit of warming...nothing hot mind you but headed in that direction. I stay put behind the slow car and see that the truck likes this..the temp gauge lowers. Ohhhhhh....thats all she wrote. The gauges STOP and so does the engine. Game over...on the side of the hiway. Okayyyy..." I think this is the house my friend Kevin is working at" Peggy says so we head up the driveway and introduce ourselves to a lovely couple- both professors somewhere in maine- who have the house for 20 years. the first 6 of which they had no power or water. nice house...well, Kevin isn't there, the husband has the flu and excuses himself to the bed and i call our friend Babakar who dons his cape and heads out to get us. he lives in San Crisanto as well so we know it'll be a good 20 min before he gets there so the lady of the house takes us on a tour, we thank her for her hospitality and walk back up the driveway to await our heroes arrival. As we approach the car there is some discussion of stories involving people who are sitting in their broken down cars when-WHAM!! they are smashed from behind by a speeding car. We opt to stand by the car...We also notice that it will soon be dusk...
Like a ship at full sail heading to a drifting raft, Babakars white farm truck appears on the horizon. Babakar is a tall ,lanky, African man who is as black as this keyboard. he is also one of the most laid back people I've ever met. After exchanging greetings, taking a cursory look under the hood and making a plan to tow the truck to a mechanic he knows in san Crisanto, he tied a thick rope securely from my bumper to his. Peggy and i climb in my truck and belt up...we're in for a bumpy ride I think to myself. Now, I hate being towed. Even under the best of circumstances it is really nerve racking to me and these are NOT the best of circumstances...Babakars truck has boards on the side of the bed so i can NOT see around it at all, his break lights dont work and as we pull out onto the road, i notice there are two plastic gas tanks in the back of his truck..directly in front of me...so as i realize the rope we are using is so short I dont see how I could possibly stop in time, I also realize I dont really need to worry about it because we will probably burst into a red hot fireball before I break any bones...
Here we go! We are cruisin now..." you're doin' great" Peggy assures me as i grip the wheel like the last life vest on the Titanic. I feel like Im all over the road. The truck has power steering so without the engine running both the steering and brakes leave a bit to be desired. Ok..we approach Telchac Puerto- the first town- topes! ( speed bumps)-'he's braking!" Peggy says ( she can evidently see a lite on the back of his truck that I can't)..ohhhhh..just when I think Im gonna test that fireball theory he pulls away and takes the front end of my truck over the bump but..oh..a little lag on the back and SNAP! there goes the rope...babakr stops, gets out, backs up and casually reties the rope " maybe it would be better if you put your arm out when you are going to stop babakra. Jill cant see your brake lites". oh, ok..Now, the rope was short to begin with..with this latest re-tying it is now even shorter..round two ' Im turning my lights on" click..." youre doin great" comes more reassurance..." As we pass parked cars, kids on bikes, pedestrians, on coming cars, I see NONE of it before its there..."theres a curve in the road coming up" my co-pilot informs me..At times I am reminded of going roller skating as a kid and having your friend "whip" you..this is what i picture my truck doing as we round a bend. There is water on both sides of us a we go over a small bridge. i feel like he is going to whip me to the left and as the rope snaps Peggy and i will launch over the guard rail and into the water below. " Doesnt it seem like he's going really fast?!" I ask...' yes, it does" she concurs.."Im going to flash the lights"...nothing " maybe you should honk the horn" she suggests..' hes braking" she tells me." I thought he was going to put his arm out?" Its too dark- his arm is too dark I cant see it. So several topes and three rope brakes later, we are almost there. it is totally dark now and i swear the rope is a foot long and im riding the brake for fear ill never be able to stop. At last we make it to san Crisanto and I pry my fingers off the wheel. " you did a great job' peggy tells me once again. " who needs drugs?!" I giddily yell to no one in particular as i relish once again feeling solid ground beneath my feet.
Now, remember the part about maggi flying into merida tomorrow? That leaves the slight problem of getting into town to get her..Luckily, well, for me, Marcie is having knee surgery and lets me borrow her truck for three days. Perfect! I am able to go to town, get Maggi, we drive in air conditioned luxury to Uxmal and a couple of haciends over the next two days before stopping in dzidzantun for groceries on the way home and returning marcies truck. For the next several days we are without a vehicle but Carol takes us to check on the ruck...it needs a new battwry...off to merida we go. Spent a nice day shopping around and eating at Costco! Ooh! Big day in the big city...at last we return to San Crisanto and the truck which has been partially rebuiltt. One pulley went out causing a chin reaction of problems including water pump, fan, alternator...anyway, $500 dollars later, new battery in place, Im on the road again. Oh, amd that car insurance i needed? babakar told me about a cheaper place when he took me home that fist night so all the money I had taken out to pay for that went to pay for the truck repair. After it was all said and done, i was $40.00 to the good....
So maggi is winding down her visit, it was a good one but all good things must come to an end, or so they say. She will fly out in the morning and Lucky and I will drive home, newly rebuilt and with a fresh new insurance policy....next week?- hurricane insurance...I'm told we are due for one this year due to the warm spring we've had. Looks like another bumpy ride!