horrific stench and coconut flan

No pictures today...i was thinking that I have never actually shown you any pictures of Santa Clara itself so my goal is to do that Thursday when I post the new blog. Since I didnt post one last Thur., that makes this the new old blog i guess....yes, i'm in a weird space today. Yesterday was dark, dreary, very windy and rainy. Today has been more of the same minus the wind. It was actually cool enough for me to put on socks around the house.
Last week we paid some guys to come cut down all the coconuts. There were huge clusters of them in some of the trees that turned watering and yardwork into some kind of adrenaline junkie extreme sport....(commentator comes on speaking in hushed tone)..."she's going for the philadendron under the tall palm....OH! Thats gotta hurt..oh..is she Ok? Is she moving? There's a dog licking her face ..the paramedics have arrived but they are evidently having a hard time moving the dog. He seems to think it's some sort of game...". Anyway, we had them cut down. When there was a threat of Rina arriving in our neighborhood, we patted ourselves on the back for the foresight to remove potential missiles from our parimeter but for lack of hurricane force winds, they remain laying in the front yard in a heap...or pile...mound? stack? we thought we had a guy coming to buy them but he never showed up. I even pulled some out into the drive with a sign "se vende coco's"on Sunday for the weekenders...no luck.
Late this morning after breakfast and fiddling about, we called our friend Merritt who lives down the road in Dzilam de Bravo ( FYI- the pirate Jean LaFitte is actually buried there). He has been ill- Merritt, not Jean- and was finally up for visitors. I wont go into his afflictions but i will tell you is he was recently hospitalized for 10 days, had a major operation that took 6 hours, ICU for two days and the bill was $25,000.00 What do you think that would have run in the states!! He has international ins. so most of it will be covered. Dzilam de Bravo is about 10 miles down the coast. it is literally the end of the road. Beyond it is a wildlife refuge (one of the places the flamingos go for the winter...not much of a migration!)As we approached Dzilam the stench was overpowering." What is that?!" we both scrinched up our faces and rolled up the windows as fast as we could. It smelled like everyones sewage was in some large open community pool. I think what it actually was is a lot of rotting seaweed. the wind has been blowing in hard from the north which means everything in the gulf has been 'flushed' south to this town. While we were there, we also visited a friend named Linda whose house is awash with the beautiful things she has painted all over her walls and the fabulous tile mosaics she has created outside. She is originally from canada and has lived here for over 15 years. She has no car and lives on $250.00 a month. She takes in lots of stray cats and dogs so its a real menagerie. I brought her some books and she made tea and broke out a treasured box of cookies from Wal-Mart. She asked us if we had remembered to turn our clocks back (daylight savings comes early here). " oh! thats right! Folks at the meeting Thur. told us but we forgot." we promptly switched our timepieces... After we drank, ate and caught up on all the latest, we headed for home, thankful to leave the smell of Dzilam behind us. On the way we passed flocks of egrets hanging out with flamingos. A heron or two, drove passed 'mino de oro' an abandoned salt hacienda. as we approached the edge of santa Clara, we saw the "cocos' man. He drives a beat up white VW van with a load speaker mounted to the top. He drives up and down blaring things about his various coco treats. We stopped and talked to him about our pile-o-cocos in the yard and a couple hours later, there he was. He gave us a complimentary slice of DELICIOUS coconut flan...omg to die for! His wife makes it. Mmmmm...if I knew how to make that i'd weigh 300 lbs...after he and john loaded up all the nuts and he paid us (about $18.00) john came in and we played a hand of gin..an afternoon ritual. when we finished, we looked outside-'its dark! Its a quarter to 6 and its dark!"..'the time change....." so that explains my weird space. it's gloomy, drizzly and dark at 5:30..it feels like portland! Makes me a bit melancholy ( Lynda, you will be happy to know I used the dictionary to look that up...)so, there you have it. Just split a piece of flan with john and we'll watch an episode of Mad Men we checked out at the library in merida. Pretty good day even if it did stink and get dark by 6......

Tiny bit

So this will be the shortest blog ever....sorry, I know I've been remiss...I have been without internet for a while now. I used up my allotted megabytes early sending and receiving photos. Oops..won't do that again...
So lets see...we successfully renewed our FM 2's ( resident status certification) and it was a very simple, painfree process (once we got new bank cards. I did tell you about John leaving the bank card at the ATM right?). Luckily, our friend Lynda came to visit and brought all of our mail, tea, picture frames, books...yes, those who come to visit know they have to lug not only their things but a list of wants and needs for us...our friends love us ( good thing...). John had a wonderful visit with his family in Minnesota. A good time was had by all and Lucky kept me company while he was away and before Lyndas arrival ( dont tell him but hes getting fixed tomorrow,... Lucky that is, not John!)....so, Im very sorry to cut this off all ready but I have to run. I need to go set up my meeting (where there will be 3 in attendance,=...) pack up, stop at walmart for milk then get home. The guys came and cut down the coconuts the other day so a storm wouldnt blow one through a window, now they are in a pile in front of the house. A guy is supposed to come buy them at one so...gotta run!

keep the doors wide open

I find I am in a reflective time- the period between Sept 25th, when we left portland , the two weeks we spent on the road and our arrival here in southern Mexico on Oct 10th. It was so much more then a trip. It was the culmination of a five year plan, much preparation and psychic re-arranging. After lots of purging of possessions, many, many goodbyes and enormous financial changes we were ready both physically and mentally. There was a brief moment as we hit the freeway on ramp my head screamed " what are you doing?!!" but it blew out the window and i settled in for an adventure.
I keep picturing the seemingly endless miles of nothing. Days of scenery that never changed. I was pondering that today while i was in my back yard hacking palm fronds with a machete. It struck me how life is like that sometimes. I clearly remember being so sad that my life seemed like a bad movie being played over and over, endlessly looping back on itself. Not only did the scenery never change, i had no hope that it ever would until it ended. The most horrifying thought was that it wouldn't end for a long time.
Luckily, i experienced some major life changes including the epiphony that i had some say in how my life went. Not only could i make choices, i didn't have to be a victim of the outcome. I also learned if i made a choice that wasnt good...i could change my mind! I acquired two vitally important tools- self esteem and perspective. I also developed a point of view that was bigger than myself. I realized i truly am a part of a much larger picture and i can add to it in a positive way or big a bug on the worlds windshield.
The freedom that i have in my life today, the freedom to enjoy my life today, is amazing. That trip down with it's endlessly empty vistas was just part of the journey to get here. Eventually the view changed. We emerged from a vast nothingness to endless variety- acres and acres of sunflowers as far as the eye could see , vast jungles and rainforests where we expected gorillas to come crashing out. We saw roadside communities reminiscent of Mad Max where burning barrels spewed black smoke and greasy men weilded enormous tools trying to fix trucks that were new in the 50's . We passed over country that had been hit by a hurricane and slowly navigated washed out bridges, roads half erased by mudslides and relatively new freeways that were so full of axle breaking pot holes we thought they had been bombed.
Had we, at some point, just stopped, thinking 'its too ugly, I can't go on. I can't look at this anymore" we would have missed it and we never would have gotten to our destination. Sometimes, you end up on a road where there is nothing for as far as the eye can see, but thats OUR eye. Sometimes there is something a little further on, something we just can't see yet. We consult our map, ask directions and head on to our destination. Sometimes detours happen and what seemed like a big waste of time and gas, turns out to be one of your favorite parts of the trip. I don't think we are meant to know our entire path or why we go one way instead of another, our job is be present on the journey. Our journey brought us to a magical place with warm winds, tropical birds a new language. I have people that help me when i need it, i have keys to a couple of buildings in the city and two of my neighbors homes. I am trusted and cared about. I am here with a man I've been with for 32 years and we still like each other most of the time. Who knows where the path leads from here. It's my job, and my pleasure, to keep the doors open to possibilities and proceed with grace. Jackson Brown says " sometime between the time you arrive and the time you go, there may be a reason you were here but you'll never know". I don't need to know.

a typical day

Every Thursday we head into Merida. It's about an hour and a half drive. We leave Santa Clara, go through our little sister town of Dzidzantun, then through the next village which is Cansahcab and from there we connect with a highway that takes us into the city. We do the same in reverse the next day when we come home. As we were passing through Cansahcab , we noticed they were getting set up for some sort of hootenanny. On the right side of the picture, you can see the "arena". This is made entirely of sticks with grass woven in for shade. This is a two story structure that will not only support the weight of a full capacity crowd , but keep a bull corralled while they have a lariet competition. this goes on for hours...long into the night. It's a major event lasting for days. This is a good thing considering it takes 3-4 days to build. Vendors will set up all around (this always happens near the square and often in the front yard of a church). You can also see one of the vendors in this photo. There was also a corn on the cob vendor and a "hot kakes" vendor. After dark, young people will be strolling around flirtatiously, old people will be seated, chatting it up with their neighbors. There will be the "burachos" hanging out on the dark fringes hoisting cervesas, recognizable in any language or skin color by their glassy eyes, red noses and generally dissheveled look. Early in the day you'll see vacarros riding healthy, beautiful horses in circles, practicing. It's all quite spectacular doings for whatever village happens to be hosting it. We leave the festivities behind and wind our way to Dzidzantun. Here we make a couple of stops. First at the vegetable market, a tienda about 10 ft. square, we buy a papaya, some bananas, potatoes, pepper, carrot, onion and some garlic powder ( i also get bouillion and beans here ), next stop, the bakery where we pick up a couple of cinnamon rolls and a small loaf similar to a french bread. Next stop- super Willy's where we pick up yogurt, corn flakes and oatmeal ( I recently learned that mildewed oats can make you very sick...these will not be kept in the cardboard again....).One more stop...a little tienda that makes tortillas fresh daily. the ladies- 3 of them- are all very sweet.
We stop for a handfull of warm, fresh tortillas and she gives us two very strange looking things and a half dozen or so freshly picked limes. She instructs us how to cut the fruit and adds that we should squeeze on some lime ( you put lime on EVERYTHING here...maybe if i'd have put some on the moldy oats i wouldn't have gotten sick...)Oh, I also got some cookies. they are sort of like a short bread but with a bit of ...lime! flavor....She gave us the fruit and limes as a gift because she wanted us to try it. So all of the things i have mentioned and that you see in the photo cost us about $12.00. It'll last us most of the week with the "integral" (wheat) bread , milk and meat we buy at Wal-Mart (sorry, it's true...) in Merida.

Little shop of horrors called and they want their fruit back! How weird is this? It is muy deliciouso! mmmmm......my friend Carol tells me it's called dragon fruit. who knew something that looked so odd would taste so good? And speaking of hidden surprises.....i pulled my bathing suit off the clothes line on the back porch later that day, and threw it into the chair to get undressed. As i did so, i thought..'what was that i just touched?"

Oh nothing, just a FROG! Yes indeedy do..in my bathing suit! Now how did that thing get into that while it was hangin' on the line? And why?! Thank god i didnt put it on.....One day theres a frog in the sink while i'm doing the dishes. on the airmattress in the pool and now in my bathing suit bottoms! I had better start checking under my pillow before i go to sleep....

So after all the driving, shopping, swimming, cooking, eating, frog catching,etc.,etc., it's finally time to play

with Lucky!!!!! oh yes, isn't he excited?! he's running around the front yard playing keep away with his smashed milk jug because, you know, i REALLY want it.....

After we're done, i'll go inside and either have a cup of tea or some Coca-lite and john and I will play a hand of gin, maybe read for a while, watch a DVD then go to bed. In the morning we'll wake up to another sunny day and see where it goes from there.....In 3 days it will be one year since we pulled out of our driveway and started this adventure. Do we have any regrets? Look at that last picture and tell me what you think......

just touching base....

O.K., ok..."no more flamingo pictures please!!!" Is that what I'm hearing? well, i've been sick for a week and am trying to keep things simple....they just make me happy all right? Sorry to be behind, but as i mentioned, i've been ill...i at first suspected bad oatmeal. We both became ill on a sunday...both woke up with fevers and were wishing we had a revolving door installed in the bano...Mon., tues, hmmmmm... i thought.."what could it be?" I started mentally going through what we'd eaten, where we'd been and the only thing i could come up with was oatmeal. i had cooked up a vat of it and while it was simmering i thought the color looked a little...off. 'Oh it's probably just the way the light is shining...it tastes fine..." In recalling this i pondered...could it be...? Mold on cheese is ok..and who hasnt eaten moldy bread? Besides various prisoners, lots of folks- myself included- have eaten moldy bread. How many times have you heard people say "a little penicillin is good for you right?" Everyones an MD..I just had someone tell me yesterday (after explaining I'd been in and out of the bathroom for the last week) "you need to give yourself diarhea. Drink salt water with sugar in it. It'll flush you right out". This suggestion came after her enema suggestion...How many people have i heard suggest you EAT Vicks when you have a cold?! (shudder....) I've also been told garlic and yogurt were both cures for a yeast infection but never got clarity on which method of ...introduction into the body..if ya know what i mean...should be used .And none of this addresses how or why they thought an ice bath would help people with mental health issues, but i digress....oatmeal- So, i went on line...google search- "can mildewed oatmeal make you sick?" ( love the internet! ) lo and behold-yes! as a matter of fact, mildew on oats can make you very ill...fever, diarhea (for a week or more..) .Oh my god- Ive tried to poison my husband...( he's the one I gave most of the vat 'o gruel to). So, our neighbor had mentioned that there was a bug going around. She said she'd been at church and had to run to the bathroom and violently throw up..( I could make several comments here but i will with hold them...) She and her husband had been sick all of the following week. So, i'm not sure about the poisoning, but thought i'd pass along the info about the oats just so you all know.
The second piece of info is- expired antibiotics still work. We dug up some old Amoxycillin out of the medicine "trunk" (a.k.a. our coffee table). I was so tired of this bug, oat mildew poison, whatever was causing my dilema that i finally broke down and took some. It had expired in Dec. 2010- so it wasn't really old....anyway, here I am!! I have not laid down or napped for 2 days . It's a miracle i tell you! Today is John's birthday and I was able to get up, pick some flowers out of the backyard and put them in a vase for him, then i made his favorite- pancakes. The batter looked a little funny but it tasted O.K.........just kidding!!

odds and ends

Ahh! vacation time is over! The village is quiet again, the neighbors are gone leaving in ther wake a pile of refuse in their back yard. They opted to drag their waste into the yard rather then take it to the nearby basurero (dump) MUCH to Lucky's delight...Many a day he came home with a large odorific hunk of old fish ( his fave- he actually turned down a tbone bone recently..)i kept trying to keep hime in the yard so id check the security of my fence line ( the palm fence remember?). On several occasions I noticed a number of palms missing. it took me a while to figure out the neighbors were requisitioning them as incindiary devices to use in burning their trash. I should say, attempting to burn their trash, as most of it was left intact ( his best find was a shoe sized piece of shark skin...mmmm). Needless to say, Lucky was delighted to have easier access to his daily buffet, but now that they've gone until next april, I went out back the other day, machete in hand and sweating like...i don't know what...like someone really sweaty...( and i profess to be a writer..?!) to fix it the fence ( "desperado, you've been out ridin' fences..." remember the Seinfeld episode?). Hordes, DROVES of butterflies and dragonflies, all different types, were passing by right over me. Unfortunately i don't have National Geographic quality equipment so instead of seeing the cloud of flying insects, you get to see one that dropped down to take a break... I posted a little bit last week about the tempest passing through ( this is now almsot a daily occurence) and thought i might include a visual aid. You can't see them, but in the right hand corner of the lagoon, the flamingos are hunkered down waiting for the storm to pass.

I also shared with you recently about the butterflies eating the pears...somehow they lose a little of their allure when the fruit is laying on the ground (borderlining on creepy , actually...) but thought i'd include this as well.

i just paused for a moment to talk to my friend jenifer (from Kuwait) on skype...as we were talking john walked in and informed me there is evidently a tropical storm headed our way. as we were driving in from merida today, we noticed the manglar is so full of water, if it gets much more it will be overflowing the road. if there is in fact a tropical storm bringing heavy rains, we will be heading back to merida....ill keep you informed...

In the meantime, take a lesson from the flamingos- if a tempest is in your midst, hunker down and wait for it to pass. One way or another, it always does....

the calm before the storm.....

Around 10:15 A.M.:

The sky glistened like a polished robins egg and furnace like temperatures radiated from the sand. The air was oppressive with its heat and silence. No car or motorcycle passed by. No bird called out a warning. No distant motor of a fishing boat cruising in the gulf or voice being carried over the lagoon. It wasn't just an absence of noise, it was as if all sound had been erased leaving an eerie stillness. Soon, the air in the front yard filled with butterflies and dragonflies. Hundreds of them. They seemed not to have a destination only a desire to stay aloft.

As if someone hit the 'on" switch, the palms began rustling and cars appeared on the roadway. The sky began to cloud up and blacken and the wind was cued to gust. Within minutes it was raining. The force of the deluge picked up until the sound covered all other noises and you had to shout to be heard. The next addition to this orchestral piece was the sound of thunder, at first a low rumbling like a giants hungry stomache. As the storm neared, it progressed to a base drum and quickly escalated to the sound of two cars careening into each other at high speeds, metal shreiking, electrical systems sizzling. Gashes of lightning snapped through the sky seeming to cleave through the coconut trees. The flash of light followed so quickly by thunder it was impossible to count to even one before the sound erupted.

Just as quickly as it had begun, it began to pass over. It rumbled away like an angry child stomping up the stairs. Once again the sound of thunder became distant and the feeling of surging energy ebbed. As the deluge continued to form small rivers through the yard, i looked at the lagoon to see the flamingos response. They lazily continued to scoop their beaks through the water sifting out the brine shrimp, unaffected by the rise and fall of barometric pressures, sizzling ozone and monsoon like downpours. Five minutes later, the rain stopped, the water soaked into the sandy terrain and the last of the clouds cleared returning the sky to the original robins egg hue. The only proof that anything had happened was a soaking wet, red Mexican blanket thrown over a front porch chair.