Flowers in Merida

Gene

While out roaming the city,  I was strolling through a plaza of a group of local merchants/small businesses.  In one booth, there was a lady diligently working on some needlework.  I stood slightly behind her and watched.  Her husband saw me and politely asked if I was in need of something.  (I seriously have no idea what they were selling - I was too interested in her work.)  I said "No gracias, solo mirar" (no thanks, I was just looking.)  Then I pointed at her hand work.  She smiled broadly and started showing it to me.  I walked into the booth for a better look. The work was stunningly beautiful - and it looked as good on the back as on the front.

I did ask permission to take photos.  She graciously posed so I took this one showing her also.   She told me that she is making this for her house.  There were several panels, but I only took photos of this one.  Yes, I should have taken more, but the flowers were my favorite.

To the right you can see the edge of another one, with Watermelon or "sandia" on it.
A few words of Spanish and a big smile will get you far with many of these people.

We also met the American ex-pat neighbors across the street.  They are in their late 70s and are a true delight.  They are remodeling the house and have a great deal of it done already.  I have not asked to take photos of the house, but I did take one of a plant that was on the deck in a pot.

I understand that this grows into a small tree. I just loved the colors. 

Happy hour is calling.  Hopefully I will get to post more later.   It is quite hot here this time of year so we are taking it easy and getting some good relaxing time in.

As the saying goes - it's five o'clock somewhere!

Dave

Good afternoon on another hot one in Merida. It has been nice to stay pretty close to the AC today, but I think we are slowly getting accustomed to the heat. 

If you followed us last time we were here, you know that Uber treated us rather badly and has since gotten in trouble with the local government and the taxi companies. We found a new ride service called Cabify and it has the blessings of the government and the taxi companies. So Gene signed up and found out that it would not take an international credit card but would take PayPal. Using PayPal the account was approved and we decided to give it a try. We needed to go over to Plaza Sendaro (the large shopping plaza 3 miles away) to the big grocery store as a few things are not available through the market or the small local stores. Gene used the App and within about five minutes we were on our way. The cost was slightly less than the cost of a taxi, but since we don't speak Spanish we don't dare call a taxi direct!

So we got our stuff, had some lunch and goofed around some then Gene used the app again on his cell phone to get a Cabify. Within five minutes, the ride was in front of us and we loaded our purchases up and went home. Good clean trip, courteous driver and good overall service. We will continue to see how this works as we don't plan on renting a car this trip due to the new insurance regulations and the costs that brings to renting a car. Okay, so I'm off to Happy Hour, then dinner!