A Visit to Cancun

Sr B's sister and her friend have come to visit for a couple of weeks. This is their first time to Mexico. On Tuesday we took the ADO to Cancun and met them at the airport. They wanted to do a few touristy things so we booked 3 nights at the Real Inn.

The Real is a fairly new hotel. Sr B thought it was a year or two old. It's not an all inclusive and it's on the lagoon side but, still, it was quite nice and at $80 a night, very affordable. No beach access but it had a very nice pool as well as a gym for those who want to keep up their fitness routine while on holidays. Since none of us are gym rats, we didn't take the time to check it out so I can't offer up an opinion on it. For breakfast, you have your choice of buffet or ordering from the menu. I believe the buffet is 230 pesos. Ordering off the menu makes breakfast much more affordable. Breakfast service was incredibly slow...over an hour from the time we sat down to when we left, so if you're in a hurry to start your day, you might want to consider the buffet. Supper had much better service and since we didn't eat lunch there, I can't comment on it. Overall, the food was adequate...not spectacular but certainly edible. Unfortunately, I didn't get pictures of anything.

We decided to spend the first day at Isla Mujeres. Tootled around on the golf cart and showed the girls the sights. We stopped at the turtle research place, which they just loved. You could purchase a small bag of food and, as you can see in the pic below, the seagulls like the food as much as the turtles do.

There was an aquarium building with various stages of turtles, from babies to adolescents. No pics of them but I did get a few of some of the cool creatures in various tanks.

Lobster looking critter.

Seahorse wrapped around...I forget, but I don't believe it's another critter. I think it's a plant of some sort.

Check out the really ugly fish on the sand.

This is the southern tip of Isla. There is a walking path with cool architectural structures in it. There is also a little al fresco restaurant that we always stop at for a drink and sometimes a light meal.

After we got back, we did the Captain Hook pirate ship adventure. As always, the entertainment was great and the meal superb. The girls had a blast.

The next day, yesterday, the girls had booked a swim with the dolphins activity. It was a rainy day so Sr B and I hung out at the hotel. The girls joined us after they got back and we all just relaxed.

Today we made the trek back to Progreso via the ADO. They use some sort of air freshener that smells really awful. It makes me nauseous and all I can think about for the whole 4 hours is, "Don't throw up. Don't throw up." It makes for a very long trip. I might have to consider taking Gravol in the future.

So there you have it. With pictures to boot. Now I just have to figure out how to upload more than one picture at a time into my Picasa Web Album.

Quick Catch Up

Holy moley, it's been hot! Sr B and I have been hibernating inside. But since it's not snowy, would it be called reverse hibernating? Hmmm...

I'm not a water person so it has to be pretty hot before I'll go in the pool. I've been in the pool every day.

Of our 3 air conditioners, only one is working. Fortunately, it's the one in our room so we're able to cool the room down before we go to bed. We have a floor fan in the living room that's working well enough. It certainly keeps the mosquitoes off the upper body. The legs? Not so much. I've easily got a dozen bites on my legs. I've been spraying down with OFF but it's doesn't seem to be working very well. I might have to pull out the toxic big guns again and buy some Autan. *cough choke*

Today we had to venture out to get a few groceries and after we got uptown I realized I'd forgotten my camera! Doh! I think I finally have my photo posting issues figured out so hopefully I can post pics this trip.

The neighbours across the back alley are having a party. They're a couple houses down but it sounds like they're right outside our window. I'm enjoying their taste in music but it's going to make it hard to sleep tonight.  Hopefully it doesn't go too late.

We were the first of the snowbird group to arrive this year, for a change. It was kind of weird being here with no one else around. Another couple arrived Thursday and the rest are coming within the next week or so.

Sr B's sister and her friend are coming next week and staying with us for a couple of weeks. They've never been to Mexico. I'm excited to show them our little corner of paradise.

And that's it. We haven't been up to anything of note but I figured I'd better touch base for my readers at home.

Adios, My Friend

We arrived to our condo safe and sound despite the awful turbulence near Houston, thanks to the winds from Hurricane Patricia. The up and down roller coaster ride was bad enough but the worst was when the wind caught the underneath of the wing and lifted the plane sideways. I thought the plane was going to flip over. I've never been so scared in all my life.

Today was Liz's funeral. It's still hard to believe she's gone. I keep expecting her to show up at the front door with her cheery "Hola!" and a dish of food. She was an amazing cook and often stopped by with some delicious creation.

Liz was like the big sister I never had. I will miss her humour, her wisdom, her knowledge and her devil-may-care attitude. Liz treated everyone with love and respect. She was very giving, never expecting anything in return. I learned much from her about life in Mexico and life in general.

RIP dear, sweet Liz. I will miss you forever.

Sad Homecoming

Yesterday we learned that Liz, our neighbour and dear friend in Mexico, passed away suddenly. We're heartbroken and it's taken away much of the joy of returning to Progreso.

But our sadness can't be anything like what her husband must be feeling. He has lost the love of his life. It was obvious, in many ways, that he adored her. For reasons I won't go into here, I'm truly concerned for him.

Please keep Marty in your thoughts (and prayers, if you're so inclined).

Seven More Sleeps...

...And we'll be back in Progreso! Oct 25th. One more week! For the full winter! omgosh, I'm so excited I can hardly stand it!! Looking forward to reconnecting with everyone. Hopefully we have a decent internet connection this time.

Snoopy pinched from Google

Nope. I Haven't Fallen off the Planet

So we did make it down this past March but our internet was still a bit spotty. We brought down new devices this trip and some extensive pruning of trees that was blocking the routers (or something related to the signal) made for a better connection but, you know, I was so fed up and disheartened from November's fiasco that I just didn't have the fortitude to try to post anything. Too often, I'd have a post typed up and then it wouldn't post.

So I guess I'll do a bit of a catch up. I'll try not to make it a novel.

I was reading through the last few posts to see what I'd written and I realized that I never updated on the baby status from March last year. We made it home about a week before Baby was born. We received another g'daughter who is now almost 14 months old. This is g'child #5. The girls are the bookends, one on each end, with the 3 boys in the middle. It's sure been nice to be able to buy pink, frilly things again. The eldest g'daughter is almost 15. Pink and frilly just doesn't cut it with her anymore...lol.

The first 2 weeks in December saw my mom, sister and brother-in-law come for a visit. Mom came down with my sister and hubby who stayed for a week. Two weeks later, she flew back with us. It was her first time out of Canada, never mind going to somewhere tropical! Mom has always been a real roadrunner, zooming along wherever she went. But she's been having some leg problems and so she wasn't able to walk very far. I knew she wasn't as spry as she once was but I was surprised to see how far she'd declined. (I live almost 6 hours from my home town so I don't see Mom often). She was very frustrated but we did the best we could. Some of the plans we'd made had to be nixed which was unfortunate.

We all went to Uxmal but she could hardly make it up the walkway that opens up into the grounds. We'd had the foresight to bring a fold up chair with us so she and I hung out in the shade while the others toured the site. Even though she couldn't walk around, she enjoyed seeing the little bit that she could. She was amazed at the size of the Pyramid of the Magician.

We spent a lot of time down at the beach, which she really enjoyed. She grew up in the Maritimes so it reminded her of that.

Her birthday is in December so I arranged a little pot luck party for her. She was so thrilled to be able to celebrate her birthday without snow.

Sr B retired the end of Feb. We're now officially retired old f*rts. Woo Hoo!!!! The team that he worked with hired a limo to pick me up at our house and drive me out to the worksite. After a small farewell party, the limo took us home. They had even supplied some adult beverages for the ride home as well as a fabulous food basket. What a great group!

We headed back to Progreso the beginning of March, planning on staying for 5 weeks. Sr B's mom had been failing since the fall and we hemmed and hawed about whether or not to come down. We decided we couldn't put our lives on hold so we made the trip, knowing there was chance we might have to come home early. We did. His mom passed away 2 weeks before our scheduled return.

United Airlines charged us $200 per person, per leg, to change our flight time! Cancun to Houston and then Houston to our home airport. Eight hundred dollars it cost us!! It's bleeping obscene! We're not sure if we can get any of that back due to bereavement. We're still waiting for a copy of the death certificate.

Sr B had arthroscopic surgery on his knees 3 weeks ago to remove some arthritic debris. His surgeon, the same one who did his shoulder a year and a half ago, said he would need new knees eventually. Good grief! He's still in some pain but he's back golfing so he's a happy man...lol.

Oh, hey! We finally got ourselves a Mexican cell phone! We hadn't really needed one before but, after a few inconveniences in November/December, we decided to spring for one. I haven't completely figured it out but the writing on it is in English so it'll just take some time.
Ok. I promised not to write a novel so this is...

THE END

We're Here!!

Mercy! We thought we had a bad internet connection in March. It's almost non-existent now. We've been here since the 30th of Oct and this is the first time I've been able to get online. I brought my iPhone with me, mainly because we live hours away from our home airport and I feel safer with it in case of an accident. (How did we manage before cell phones?) It has been the only way we've been able to stay in touch with our kids. On the plus side, I`ve been forced to learn how to do things with it that I didn`t know how before. Dinosaur that I am, I pretty much just use it for texting and sending pictures. A few apps would make it much more useful down here. Oh well. It`s sufficient for now.

Great news! For us anyways. Not so much for our neighbour across the back. He had a couple of trees that had grown so large they blocked our view of the Gulf. Apparently, he had a break-in this summer and decided to install an alarm system along the top of his fence. It looks like an electric fence and has 5 strands of wire. In order to do this, he had to cut down both of those trees. I tried to post before and after pics, but they won't download.

The mosquitoes have been more present than usual. I've given up trying to kill them before going to bed and in the middle of the night when the sneaky little bleepers decide to have midnight lunch. Now I simply hose myself down with OFF and call it a night. I often use it during the day, as well, and I've used a ridiculous amount since we've been here but the other option is to lose sleep and/or get chewed alive and risk dengue. I don't like using so much of it, but the few bites I've received have swollen and been really itchy. Not to the epic proportions that they did when we first started coming down, but more than they did on our last trip. Sometimes a chemical intervention is necessary.

If any of my readers know of any Remembrance Day services in either Progreso or Chixulub, could you please drop me an email? thebts2000 AT yahoo DOT ca. If you reply here, I may not see it but I can access email with my phone, so that's the best place. The gentleman who normally arranges it isn't here at this time. Thanks bunches.

And that's about it. Hopefully I can post sooner than in another week. Maybe even add some photos.

Here We Come

Arriving to Progreso Oct 30th for 6 glorious sun-filled weeks.

Snoopy pinched from Google

Finances and Food

This morning we went and paid our property taxes. All 237 pesos (20.00 CDN) worth. The low cost never ceases to amaze us! After we paid, the cashier gave us a small form to fill out but we had no idea what we were supposed to do with it. So I handed it back to her and said, "Por favor?" She filled it in and handed it back to us, telling us to go put it in a box at the back of the room. We only figured that out because she was pointing to it...lol. So we went to put the form in the box but there was no opening. An elderly gentleman showed us how to slide the small cover back. Ah ha! As far as we can tell, the form seems to be for some sort of draw, though we haven't a clue for what. The cashier probably told us but my Spanish still isn't strong enough to understand a lot. We don't have a phone so we couldn't fill in our phone number and the form didn't ask for an email address so, even if we win, I'm not expecting to hear about it.


Then it was off to the bank to replenish funds. The ATM usually spits out 500 peso bills so it's always been a challenge coming up with small money for shopping, bus fare and tips. I finally got smart this trip. After hitting up the ATM, I go to the teller and exchange some of the big bills for a bunch of smaller ones. I've also started using 20 peso bills to pay for bus fare on occasion, instead of always trying to scrounge up enough coins. These two changes have made life so much easier.


Groceries was next on the agenda. As we were leaving the store, one of the baggers came up to us and wanted to check our bags. I use a couple of large, insulated zippered bags from Sobey's. I had to unzip them so she could look. She wanted to see if we had Coke bottles, which we didn't. And then she checked our bags again after we were outside the store. We have no idea what the issue was but I couldn't help but be glad we didn't have any Coke in the bags. After we got home, I realized I had forgotten to tip the person who bagged our groceries. Jeepers!


El Faro has all-you-can-eat-ribs on Tuesdays so a bunch of us from the complex went tonight. I'm not really big on ribs but these were good. I quite liked the potato salad, too.


I forgot to post that we went to their all-you-can-eat fish and chips on Friday. I never order fish and chips back home because there's always twice as much batter as there is fish but the batter the other night was thin. There was more fish than batter. And their fries are really, really good.


After supper tonight, we stopped for tea and lime pie at the home of one of the couples. As we were getting back to our unit, our neighbours invited us in for a drink, so we enjoyed a lovely evening visiting with several very nice people.

I'm No Longer a Virgin

A Zumba virgin, that is!


Mary, a Canadian who lives just a couple of blocks from the complex, hosts Zumba on Monday and Wednesday mornings from 8:30 to 9:30. She's not the instructor, she simply provides her backyard for the class.


There are several ladies from the complex who attend regularly and I joined them this morning, for my first ever Zumba class.


Oh my gosh. What a hoot! I love to dance but my moves were so uncoordinated and not very Latin looking, at all...lol. About the time I figured out what to do, the instructors would change things up. I spent most of the class about 3 steps behind...lol. But I had a ball!


I can't wait for Wednesday.


And when we get home, I'm going to get our granddaughter, who's been in dance for 7 or 8 years, to show me how to do a couple of those moves that I just couldn't figure out.

A Very Busy Day

This morning I went with friends Bindi and Debi to the Bamboo Beach restaurant in Chicxulub for the Muelle Market that's held once a month. Lots of great things to purchase. Some are made by Mexicans and some by expats. I picked up some homemade lunch meat, pickles and salmon dip. I took my camera but I was so busy looking at all the cool stuff that I forgot to take any pictures!


Afterwards, we stopped at a fruit and vegetable market and picked up a few things. Bindi headed home and I went with Debi to her hair appointment to help her discuss a hair colour service that she'd like to receive next week. Today she just got a cut.


I love watching other hairdressers work...to see how they do things. We all have our own way of doing things and we all learn from each other. She told me about the colouring technique she's going to use on Debi's hair. I had never heard of doing it this way so I can't wait to see the end result.


A group of folks from the condo go down to Barlaventos, a restaurant downtown, quite regularly, usually on cruise ship day. Today was one of those days and Sr. B and Bindi's husband had gone with them while Bindi and I were out. We joined them later.


We were seated at tables on the sidewalk and a young fellow was standing nearby, singing and playing his saxophone. Way too loudly. People were yelling to be heard above his music and above the sounds of everyone else talking so loudly. I was getting a headache, so I headed home.


Later, we went to Owen and Bindi's for supper and then played a board game that's kind of a cross between Chinese checkers, Trouble and Skip-bo. I lost the first round and won the second. I never caught the name of the game but it was a lot of fun.


It was a busy and noise-filled day. Quite overwhelming for my introverted self. I'm enjoying the peace and quiet of now being home.

Knitting Group

There is a lady, several blocks up the street, who hosts a Stitch and B*tch every Wed morning from 10 to noon. I know lots of groups like to call themselves by that name but I can't say I'm a fan of it. It sounds so negative. Luckily, they all seem like nice folks and there wasn't any b*tching. Just a group of like-minded gals spending time together. I really enjoyed myself and I'm sorry that I'll only be able to meet with them once more before we head back north.

This group collects caps for the cancer kids in Merida. I had brought some down in November but wasn't able to get in contact with anyone to drop them off to. I made a few more to bring down this trip, hoping to get in touch with someone. And that someone is the above mentioned lady. Yay!!

Here is the first batch I made.

And here's the second batch that I brought down this trip.

I've been knitting up a storm while we've been here. I thought I had brought enough yarn but I'm going to run out. I might have to go shopping. Gosh darn...lol.

We Have Internet...Sorta

Sr. B figured out if we move the laptop into the bedroom, we get a better internet connection than in the dining room. Not fantastic, but quite a bit better. I'm hoping to make daily posts now.


We haven't been up to too much exciting. A group of us went for supper at a cool little restaurant called La Casa del Faro in Chicxulub. On Tuesdays, they offer all you can eat ribs and on Fridays, all you can eat fish and chips. We went on Saturday so missed out on both offers but we're planning on checking this out at some point.


This morning we had a couple of errands to run. We were standing at a corner, waiting to cross the street, when a little girl who looked to be about a year and half to two years old stumbled and fell, landing at my feet. I tried to catch her but she fell faster than my old joints could react. She looked up at me with a wounded look on her face. That look that says, "Why did you do that to me?" That look that says she blamed me. Oh dear. Poor baby didn't know it wasn't my fault. I just happened to be the first person she saw when she looked up. Luckily, she wasn't hurt. Good thing those little folks come rubberized.


Last night, before I went to bed, I noticed 4 !!! mosquitoes in our bedroom. Waaaaaay up on the 9 foot ceiling where we couldn't reach them. Rotters! So we both sprayed down with bugspray so we wouldn't get chewed during the night. I felt like I was camping. That Autan is fantastic at repelling mosquitoes but, egads! The stuff is practically toxic. You definitely don't want to breathe it in while you're spraying.


This afternoon was spent at the pool and the evening with neighbours Bindi and Owen.

We Made It!

Once again we have a really crappy internet connection so daily posts may not happen. We're considering getting our own cable once we're down here for the whole winter. But for now, we'll make do.


Our flight was mostly uneventful. We were supposed to leave our home airport at 6am but, once we were all loaded, a fuel discrepancy was noticed. Apparently the computer didn't match up with something else so they had to do a manual check. So we had to wait for that. Because of that, we lost our place in line for take off. And then we had to de-ice. So our 6am flight didn't leave until 8am. There were quite a few folks who had a tight connection in Houston. Not everyone made them.


Lucky for us, our flight to Merida doesn't leave until later in the day, so we were fine. Our flight out of Houston is normally at 7:30pm but this time it was at 5:30 which meant we were at the condo by 9:30 instead of 11:30. Can't complain about that!


Gustavo, the taxi driver who gets a lot of business from the complex, always asks us if we want to stop and pick up a few things. So we hit up an OXXO to get bread and eggs for breakfast. And while we were there, we met up with the local gentleman we had met on the plane. We saw each other at the same time and did that, "Heeeyyy!!!!" and chatted a bit more.


The weather is just soooooo fantastic! It's been a long, cold winter and we're glad to be out of that.

Some Quickie Catch-up News

Well, here I am, after a long absence. Shame on me!


Last trip down our internet was so spotty it made it hard to post so I had planned on doing that when we got back, but I haven't even kept up on reading my blog list for the past month or more.


We'll be arriving in Progreso on March 6th and staying until the 24th. Just a quick trip this time because our daughter is expecting her second child on April 2nd. Hopefully Baby waits until we get back so we don't miss the show.


Sr B's rotator cuff surgery has left him with limited mobility. Not because of the rotator cuff issue itself but because he has so much arthritis in the joint. The surgeon did a debridement and Sr B thinks that by clearing out the junk, it caused his joint to shift. He can raise his hand to head level but no higher. The surgeon said he would eventually need a shoulder replacement. He's already had both hips done. When we got married, I had no idea I was marrying the future bionic man! He says when they dig up his bones, 1000 years from now, they're going to wonder about the robots we had way back then...lol.


RED LETTER DAY One year from today, Sr B will be retired. He can't wait. He's been with the same company for 34 years and, while the pay has provided us a decent lifestyle and he'll have a great pension, he's getting tired of the bureaucracy of a big corporation.


If March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb, then I'm expecting, no...demanding...that the end of March be downright tropical. Old Man Winter has been especially cruel to Canada this year. The past few nights, and for a couple more upcoming, night time temps are in the -38C/-36F range with windchills of -47C/-53F. The whole winter has been colder than usual and has made us even more enthusiastic about being snowbirds.


I guess that's all. Looking forward to leaving the cold behind and seeing everyone in Mexico again.

More Shopping

Yesterday we went in to Merida with upstairs neighbours I and N. We went to Costco and Sr. B and I finally!! got ourselves a membership.

Back in Canada, we live about 3 hours from the nearest Costco so we've never bothered to get a membership. Although plenty of folks from our town will make the drive, we can't be bothered. But the Costco in Merida has some things we like and, since the store is very accessible and a membership costs less here, we decided to go ahead and get one. It's funny how having this small card that says Mexico on it makes us feel more like part of the local community.

Today, neighbour Kris and I went uptown to the tourist market. I picked up a cute little summer dress for our g'daughter. She likes those ones with the shirred elastic top. I just hope she likes the colour I chose. She's 13 and a bit fussier than she was when she was younger...lol.

In March, I bought a beautiful salad sized bowl and a matching botana sized one. There was only the one small bowl at the time but today I found another one, so I picked it up.

I noticed something interesting at the market. As soon as Kris and I told the various vendors we dealt with that we lived in Progreso, their demeanor changed just a wee bit. They became warmer, friendlier. Not that they weren`t friendly in the first place, but there was a slight shift in how they interacted with us.

I also bought myself a couple of knit dresses that are styled like a tank top at the shoulders. Washed them up and put one on. Oh my goodness! They`re the next best thing to being naked. These are going to be great when it`s beastly hot.

Speaking of which, a norte is apparently in the forecast. The breeze picked up a bit late this afternoon, its chill portending the upcoming storm. The cooler temps and rain will be a nice respite from the heat of the past few days.

Last night we had a mosquito in the bedroom that we couldn`t find and murder. I awoke to a half dozen bites on my arms. The good news is that Ì seem to have finally developed a degree of tolerance to their bites. I don`t swell and itch anywhere near as badly as I did when we first started coming down. Tonight`s breeze will help keep them at bay. Fingers crossed that one didn`t sneak into our room during the day.

I've tried to post some photos but our internet connection is too slow and the page to load pics onto won`t come up.

An Evening in Merida

Well, I didn't succeed in posting before 3 days had passed but that's ok. Not too much has happened.

Tonight we went into Merida with neighbour Bindi and W and S, who also own a unit on our floor. They've recently purchased a new-to-them house in Merida so we went to see it. Lots has been done in the courtyard and it's gorgeous. The kitchen is being worked on and it's going to be fabulous. The house is built in a U shape with 4 bedrooms on one side.  Each bedroom has a door leading into the next bedroom, as well as a door to the outside. I found this flow-through odd but I suspect it's actually fairly common in older homes such as theirs which was built in the 1920's.

We stopped for a drink just outside Teatro Peon Contreras. I mentioned having gone to the symphony there in March. S and Bindi have never been but would like to so S, who is a native Spanish speaker, is going to find out if there's a symphony in the next few days. If so, we're going to go get ourselves cultured.

We went down to the park that's at the end of Paseo Montejo. S told me the name of it but I've forgotten. The big Christmas tree was being lit and we made it with just a few minutes to spare. They did a 1 2 3 countdown and then played a trick on the crowd by pretending the lights weren't working. They did this a couple of times. Well, karma and all that...it turned out the lights really didn't work. After fiddling with them for a few minutes, the lights came on. The tree is gigantic! This is probably only about a third of it.

 

Then we went to the Cafeteria Impala, which is also located at the end of Paseo Montejo, for a bite to eat.

 

 

 

Good food at a great price. I couldn't eat it all so I brought home leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

 

It's been very hot out here at the beach so I was expecting it to be even hotter in Merida but I found it to be quite pleasant although Sr B, who happens to be half polar bear, said it was too hot.

 

It would have been nice to stay longer but the last bus to Progreso is at 10 so we had no choice but to leave.

 

 

 

 

Quick Catch-up

Whew! I've finally got a good enough connection to get on here so I figured I'd give you all a quick update.

Sunday was a pretty quiet day. We had planned on going down to the main square in the evening for the tree lighting but we just didn't feel like going out. So we didn't.

Monday afternoon I went with neighbour Kris to go wrap Christmas presents for the food hampers, at Sharon Helgason's place. This year's toys were much nicer, and more plentiful, than last year's. I think there will be some very happy kiddies at Christmas. There's another wrapping session tomorrow afternoon that Kris and I will attend.

Tuesday morning I went to a monthly meeting of The Beach Gals Club. They're involved in all sorts of good things in the community. I decided to pay my dues so I can receive the newsletter to know what's going on so I can be more involved. Neighbour Bindi, along with her dachshund Queenie, spent the afternoon visiting.

This morning we went uptown for groceries, bright and early. Well, bright and early for this non-morning person. We left about 9:00 so we could get back home before it got too hot. It's about 2pm and, according to our thermometer, it's 30C. A far cry from back home where those poor folks are suffering through -30C.

And that's it. Hopefully I don't have to wait another 3 days before I can post again.

We're Here!

We flew down on Thursday, American Thanksgiving, and you know what? It wasn't nearly as hairy as we had expected. Apparently the day before was the hairy day. Due to a fortuitous twist, Sr. B and I ended up with 3 seats to ourselves. Other than being an hour late leaving from our home airport, the entire trip was uneventful, just the way we like. We arrived at the condo about 11. Maybe it was 11:30. I was too tired to make a note of the exact time.

Yesterday, Friday, was spent getting settled in. Neighbour Liz was going into Merida and asked if we wanted to join her. She had to stop at Scotiabank...was that ok? Heck yeah! We also had to go to Scotiabank, to pay our fideicomiso. How lucky for us that we were able to take care of that our first day here! We set it up to be automatically charged to our credit card so now we don't have to worry about getting to the bank every year.

Liz took us to a grocery store where we stocked up on a few days worth of grub. The first grocery run of our stays always makes me cringe a bit. It's costly re-stocking from zero.

The evening was spent at Liz's, visiting and catching up over a few drinks.

Today, I went to the state fair with several neighbours. I see the name Xmatkuil but I haven't figured out, yet, if that's the name of the town/city or of the fair itself. Sr. B partied a bit too much last night and wasn't feeling up to coming along.

One of our party was also husband-less so the two of us decided to do some shopping instead of going to any shows. It was a lot of fun being able to do some girl shopping without having to worry about a bored spouse.

I have some photos of the fair but I'll save those for another post.

Our internet is pretty patchy, so, for my readers at home, don't be alarmed if I don't post daily. I promise the bad guys haven't gotten hold of me...lol.

Save the Date(s)

Nov 28th to Dec 16th.

Our next trip down has been booked. Unfortunately, this is a quick trip, just under 3 weeks instead of the usual 4-5.

Sr. B had rotator cuff surgery the middle of Sept and the lengthy recovery time threw a bit of a wrench into our vacation plans. The upside is that he's rolling some of this year's earned vacation days into next year so next November we plan on being there for 6 weeks.

Looking forward to seeing our friends in Mexico again!