Random stuff pt 1

The time for our departure has come and gone. We're home now loving our pets but hating the cold and a few aspects of being home. For now, here's some looking back on Merida, some day trips/overnights, friends and other random things that may or may not interest you. I'll do this in a couple installments to make it seem like it's not as cumbersome as it really is. Our life in Mx;

Outdoor cooking with Amber - she's making a killer Strudel with my help, of course. Amber and John do all their cooking outside using special ovens, grills and other special cooking devices that they've invented. The food was superb and the company was great.

Plenty of extra hands and Margaritas. All this between pool dipping.

Slow roasted pork made for John's Ukrainian Stroganoff. This takes hours to prepare. It's melt in your mouth good.

Swimming with the fishes. Some of these guys were a good 24+" long.  They got transported about 4 miles from the sea during a hurricane. As said earlier, Merida and the Yucatan are on a plate of land with water underneath. This Cenote is about 30 mins from downtown Merida.http://yucatantoday.com/en/topics/san-crisanto-mangroves

New friends and accomplices swimming in the Cenote. Maria & Gary

We got poled (a cute guy used a pole aka Venus style through the mangroves) to the swimming Cenote. Saw some flatdogs (gators) in the mangrove waters on the way. Little flatdogs but still.  No gators where we swam, though. We asked.

We stopped at playa telchac after going to the above mangroves.

Dos Equis, cerviche and grilled fish at one of the many roadside fish joints. This one's in Telchac

Yet one more sunset. This one's in Chelum. 20 mins from the house.

We got upgraded from the back pool view room an ocean front bigger room at http://www.sandcastleinnmexico.com/

The pool area. The owner took us to the art show we were in and brought us shopping.
* Downside, the owner is a bit hard of hearing and likes to blast Fox news ALL day. She loves to loudly quote Rush Limbaugh :( ........sometimes while your peacefully floating in the pool. Oy!

Mike's new dog. He (not Mike) and his family lived on our courtyard walls

Celestun

Last Mon - Thurs. we decided to check out a wonderful village called Celestun (pronounced Celest -tune). It's about a 1 1/2 by car or as we did, 2 1/2 hr. trip by bus. It cost us about 7.50 pp by bus. Once we got into town we hit Victor's (owned by a nice Lebanese couple) market. We then took one of the above shown 3 wheeler motorcycle cabs about 1 1 1/2K away to our guest house.

Our new home for 3 nights.

 And, oh, what a wonderful guest house it was. It's right on the water and called
www.hotelcelestevida.com  This was the view out our back slider

Our room - Casita Brisa before we trashed it too much. There's a little kitchenette in the back of the room.75. per night.

This is the main kitchen area with a built in grill for those who wanted to have fresh fish delivered or for those enterprising enough to catch their own. We did neither. We did, however, get freshly made Margaritas from one of the owners. Karen makes a mean Rita.

Once settled - A view in the hammock, rita in hand and under the Palapa. I'm home!

No comment necessary except to say that the beaches here are a shell seekers paradise. We also got some good kayaking in using the guest house's kayaks.

Everyone seems to help bring the fish in at the end of the day.

Others seem to do their thing solo. This man is filleting his catch.

I had the best fish sopa (soup) here. A light tomato fish broth loaded with blue crab, shrimp and fish. So good I could cry. Very perfect with a cool Corona. This and most of the restaurants border the street and the beach. We Always ate our meals with our feet in the sand while the sun was going down.

We borrowed these ancient no speed rusty boys and rode to the end of the peninsula. probably 40 miles or so total. Did I say that there was zero shade and in the high 90s. Mucho hard work.

The reward. We had packed ham/cheese sandwiches and ended up at this very chi chi hotel beach. Lounge chairs and waiters included. http://www.ecoparaiso.com/hotel/mastersuite_en.phphttp://www.ecoparaiso.com/hotel/mastersuite_en.php 

 They also said that we could have used their pool. Guess they felt badly for us. We really did look wrung out. Anyhow we used the beach, took showers, had our picnic, some drinks and left with our dignity.

Back up to town for more fish and a walk around.

The whole village is seeing a renaissance. New roads, revived park, lots of repairs etc. they say that the gov. is putting lots of $$$ into the place to promote tourism. Get there before it gets ruined.

You'll still find a few Mayan villages within the village.

And sunsets to die for

Dora, The Explorer in our bed. What a cute dog - day 1 - she broke into our completely zipped cool pack and squeezed the guts out of the the gel pack.... apparently there was an essence of food on it.
 Day 2 - Sneaked back into the room and opened the special bolt on the fridge that was made specially by the owners for Dora proofing. Her reward this time was a half  lb. of newly purchased ham and some very tasty cheese. Day 3 - midnight... her and Scooter, her accomplice, opened the slider and snuck into our room again and scared to spit out of us while we were sleeping.

Ain't he cute. Scooter.

Alas, one of the big draws to Celestun are the Flamingos - millions of them migrate here during the winter.

Beautiful creatures

So many different kinds of birds.

A nice fresh water spring in the mangroves for a good cool off

Sadly, we left our new French, Canadian and furry friends behind and headed back to Merida. To make the departure easier we picked up some much coveted BBQ chicken from the elusive chicken lady to bring home with us. Cooked over a wood fire and amazingly good. Celestun is a lovely place and one that we'll go back to.

Campeche Yucatan City by the Sea

Welcome to Campeche, land of Mayans, Spaniards and Pirates. This statue gives the impression that the Spaniard got the blessing while the Mayan got to row the boat.

Campeche is also a huge fishing city.

The city is walled and has many forts to keep pirates and other bad people away.

The Malecon (boardwalk) is 5k long and is outside of the city walls

                                     There's also a massive market that seems to go on forever

Acres of fresh flowers

Every vegetable that's ever been invented

Fruit too die for

                        I'll get mine at the market, thank you. I mean the other kind of market.

Everything is grass fed and organic, but still...

                                                          Fresh off the boats

Whatever you want, you can get here.

 One of the prettiest cities I've ever seen. Clean, colorful and polite drivers who actually stop to let you cross the street.

                                              Nice hotel with a little cafe on the 2nd floor overlooking one of the many  squares that came alive at night.

                                                    Too many beautiful churches to count

                               Campeche has a tremendous amount of Colonial residential areas. Real estate is quite costly. the inside of these houses and courtyards are massive.

                                              Had the coconut shrimp at a cool outdoor cafe. So good.

 Furthermore, Campeche gets a very high rating for a romantic and beautiful city to visit from Mike and I. It's about a two hour bus ride from Merida with the R/T busfare costing about 14. pp. Next time we'll stay overnight.