Dave: Just some rambling!

It has been very warm and humid the last couple days. We stayed at the apartment yesterday under the air conditioning and rested.  The last three afternoons it has rained just enough to make things good and damp, then the sun has come back out. Talk about making for one heck of a humid afternoon and evening. What's worse, is all this shower stuff is making the evening breezes just die! Nothing at night so, we just rest under the AC and catch up on our reading and sleeping!

I finished one of the two books I brought along on my Kindle and started the second. Sitting here again today reading and I think it will be done in the very near future. This is the first bit of time we have taken to just sit and relax. We, especially Gene, have been on the move near and far, just enjoying ourselves.

I made a comment a few days about having had an eye exam and getting new glasses, well, went and picked them up. So far, having only the normal issues of getting accustomed to a new script. They fit well and look good.

 As I said, they cost about $53 USD. I went back the next day and ordered a set of sun glasses since the pair I am currently using is two scripts old. Time to get up to date. The frames and lenses were only $54 USD. So for just over a  hundred dollars I have two new sets of glasses. Not bad at all. Gene will talk about his new glasses shortly. I had some dental work done five years ago here. I had broken a tooth at home and it had to be removed. I had planned on having an implant installed, but they wanted $8000 USD for the process in the USA. I knew we were coming to Mexico so I contacted one of our ExPat friends and asked who she used. She gave a glowing recommendation for a dentist and his email. I dropped him an email and to my surprise, he replied in about an hour. I explained my situation and he made an appointment via email.  When I visited his state of the art office, he did digital x rays and was concerned that there was not enough bone without getting too close to the nerve canal. So he had is assistant take me about a block over to a special x ray clinic where they did an extensive round of x rays on my jaw. I figured I was in for a huge bill, but all that came to about $20 USD. I took the x rays back to the office and had to wait for a few minutes. He called me back, took the x rays and looked them over good, and did some measurements. He shook his head and told me I did not have enough bone about the nerve canal for the implant to safely attach. So I asked what might be my options. He said his suggestion was a cantilevered bridge. He explained how it worked and the fact I already had a crown that was very aged, made it a good fit for my need. His price, $750 USD! That is less than my co-pay for a crown! To make a long story short, it took two visits and the bridge was installed perfectly and is still comfortable and functional today. It is all porcelain, not metal. I could get accustomed to these medical prices.

We leave Merida one week from tomorrow. WOW... has it been that long already? Neither of us are ready to go back, but unfortunately both of us have obligations with family and other, plus the holidays are upon us. So, back we shall go under protest!

In our dashing about, we saw the crossing sign above. I thought it was pretty neat so I am sharing with you!


Gene signing in here.  As Dave said, I have been doing lots of exploring in Merida.  I mentioned earlier that I bought zippers, but I have also gotten a few other small sewing supplies. I needed to do some mending, so I bought a pack of hand needles and a spool of thread. I also bought some buttons to take home, a new seam ripper (because if you sew, you can never have too many good sharp seam rippers!) and a tape measure since one of my retractable ones bit the dust the week before we left.  I have found stores selling sewing machines by Brother and Janome and Singer. (Janome is my choice of brands.) So if when we decide to move here, I will sell my sewing machines and buy one here.
I have also had fun exploring appliances and motor scooters.

This blue Italika is the perfect size for me. It is small and automatic. I think this will be my choice for scooting around town instead of driving a car.
Dave talked about water and how everyone uses bottled water (usually in 20 liter jugs) for drinking.  So when I saw a refrigerator with water in the door I had to open it up and see.

So, what was inside?

The water is poured into this tank where the refrigerator cools it and it dispenses through the door.  Pure genius!

Of course, I also saw this for sale---and it may be an option  for me, if we find a place in the area where we are currently renting.

I could haul several big jugs of water and groceries in the front.  These are the type vehicles that the young guys selling bread drive down our street.

I almost forgot, Dave mentioned that I would talk about my glasses later.  I have a really strong prescription. So my glasses are always more expensive.  Remember that Dave said his were $53 US for one pair and $54 for the sunglasses?  My first pair are polycarbonate  for $96 -(thinner and lighter - and less like coke bottle bottoms) but for a second pair, I got acrylic frames and standard plastic lenses. I can tell the difference in light transmission - but they were cheaper at $61 US. When Dave was back getting sunglasses, I saw the new frames the optician had gotten in. They had magnetic clip on sunglasses with them. I asked for a price with polycarb lenses.  It came to $109 US. So I ordered a third pair!  But I have spent less on the three pair than on the one pair I bought at home a year or so ago.  It was an easy decision to make.
Here is a photo of me trying on the acrylic frames.

It is a different look for me, but I think I like them.

Yucatan Museum of Popular Art

I love going to interesting art museums.  This one was a great little museum.

About halfway down the sign changes to English. That made life easier. ;-)

I took this picture and the lady who was showing me how the museum is laid out insisted that I should be in the photo.

She took about 6 photos -she kept motioning me to get closer to the female doll.  But I like this one best.

There were a number of hand woven works, but this one with the working sticks still in it says "weaving" best.

Here are a few more woven pieces:

The hand work is meticulous and fascinating to me as a weaver.

Some of the pieces are quite imaginative.

I really like this nativity.  I was hoping for a replica in the gift store, but I was out of luck.

This would be perfect by the front door, wouldn't it?

In other news, we went to pick up laundry today.  Here are photos of the package of neatly folded clean clothing.

I had untied one of the knots before I took the photo, but the socks are always in the top of the bag.  The underwear has been folded and hidden from view in the center of the pile each time.
We just hang up the clothes or put them in drawers as we choose.  It is all delightfully clean and fresh.  I think this load was about $3.50 or less. It was 7.1 kilograms and he charges ten pesos a kilo. So it was 71 pesos for this load.
Would I consider doing it myself while on vacation?  Not at those prices!

Dave: Some differences between the average Mexican household and our US lifestyle!

I have debated about doing this video for the last two weeks and finally late day before yesterday, I just up and did it. I am NEVER happy being on the "other-side" of the camera so I have thought about it and as my own worst critic, I have cut it to pieces. However, Gene feels it is a good video worthy of posting. Okay, I trust his assessment and going against my own critical self, I am posting this... reluctantly! So, enjoy as best you can with my southern mutilation of the English language, laugh if you wish, it is okay! Hopefully, you will see how life is the same... but different!

You will see our studio apartment. As I said in the video, it has a king bed. Most Mexican homes have only a matrimony bed, that is a large twin or possibly even a full, no larger. Some only have hammocks. They take them down during the day and use the space for whatever need they might have.  That idea has merit in my book! So we are fortunate to be blessed with such a large bed. While some will feel the apartment is small, it is a very good size for us, plus we have all that back patio area as well. And that back patio is a wonderful place to sit in the evenings, in the cool breeze gazing out at the stars. Yes, there is not much light pollution here and we can easily see the stars after sundown. It is also a great place to have dinner.

I was talking about the walls of the houses being so close they touch, in some of them they are actually one wall between homes. In ages gone by, homes had multi generational families living in them and they were fairly large. As time went on, the parents passed on, and as usual, some of the siblings argued about their share. That lead to actual concrete walls being built inside the homes to physically divide them and have remained that way even today. There are a couple of positive things to be said about walls being so close, your walls are shaded during the day which prevent the penetration of heat of direct sun exposure during the hottest part of the day. Where walls are built touching each other, you get a very strong wall. You need to remember this is hurricane country and strong walls are a good thing.

We have all the modern amenities. We have cable tv, take your pick of at least three providers off the one cable. We have internet service that loads these pictures and videos like nothing! We have cell phone service... man do we have cell phones. EVERYBODY has at least one. I saw several older adults (that would be older than me) working their cell phone as good as any high schooler! I suppose I am challenged when it comes to electronics as I have issues learning and remembering how to do things.

Okay, enough rattling, it is time to post this video and let the laughter begin!

Dave: A day of kicking about... like a local!

After a lazy start, I was meeting Gene downtown for some shopping. (He was already out dashing about!) I also had an eye appointment. So I got up after putting the computer down, showered and out the door. Stood on the corner for about 5 minutes waiting on transport downtown. One of the big buses came into view so I flagged him and he stopped. I hopped onboard gave the driver my 10 peso coin, got three 1 peso coins back, and off we went. After about 10 minutes of bumpy riding ( the buses are much rougher than the combi's!) we arrived at the end of the line.

I got off and walked up the street to meet Gene at the eye doctor's place of business. I got there seconds ahead of Gene and we went inside. Gene was picking up his new set of glasses so the doctor was waiting. I went right in and got a thorough eye exam. A minor change in script with a shift in astigmatism, inner eyes look very good. He told me I was taking good care of my eyes by properly maintaining my blood pressure. Nice to know that! Went into the area where the frames were, and after looking at several pair picked a frame. The doctor took the necessary measurements for placement of the bi-focals and the center of the eyes. Gene says the frames look good on me. After running the calculations, I am handed the bill for the exam, frames and lenses... $990 pesos ($53.20 USD). I think my first set of glasses long ago was about $65 USD, and the last set of glasses I got 4 years ago was over $400. And... they will be ready for pick up Friday around noon. We will see how all this works out.
Gene's note: My glasses were more expensive because I have a much stronger prescription.  The charge to my credit card was $95.25.  Let me tell you that the last time I got glasses at the optician in Alabama, I paid almost $500 for similar glasses -although this pair doesn't have a crizal coating.

Gene and I did some shopping and had fun just browsing all the shops in the area, primarily electronics stuff. Tons of cell phones, cell phone cases and accessories, computers and everything and then some to go with all that. Several places to eat and several other businesses. And since this area is the main combi and bus terminal, TONS of people! We came back to the bus area to catch our ride back home. The bus to our area was sitting there waiting. A further look showed that there was coolant pouring out of the engine of the bus, so this one was going nowhere! So we walked on down and around the corner to the combi terminal. We had to wait about 10 minutes for the one going to our neighborhood. Seems there was some kind of traffic jam back up the road as all of the combi's arrived right behind each other. Our combi loaded right up and in just a couple minutes we were on our way home. About another 10 minutes and a much smoother ride, we were home.

We rested for a bit and since it was almost 1:30pm, we decided to have lunch. When we were here three years ago, we found a small place to eat across the street from our local market. It was run by two fellows, one cooked, the other served and whatever else needed done. Food was excellent and inexpensive. On our return, we found that the place where they had been was now a place selling eggs.

Gene said he had found where the eatery had moved to... it was only a block further down. So we decided to go there for lunch and see if they were still doing as well as before.

We went in, looked at the the day's menu and decided what we wanted. We were warmly welcomed.

The first item is beans and pork. We have had that a little while back. The next is chicken and peas, most all know what the next one is, the next one is chicken breast or pork chop, battered and fried, or on the grill, next is pork chop in red sauce, the next is another cut of pork, loin I think in red sauce, then finally, fish, breaded and fried or on the grill. For our lunch, both of us elected to have the breaded and fried fish.

It was served with soup. Unfortunately, it is just to hot for me to consider soup, although I did taste it and it was excellent. The fish was fresh, succulent and wonderfully seasoned. The breading was crisp, not soggy!

Of course there was fresh tortillas and ice cold Coca Cola!

While there were not many who came in and sat down for lunch, there was a fast paced takeout. I am pleased to see these two hard workers doing well and still here doing business from our last trip. Below is a picture of the two taking a well deserved break!

Luis on the left, the chef, and Jorge on the right, server and whatever else is needed! Wishing you guys continued good luck in your business! We will certainly be back!

Gene: Museo de Ferrocarriles

We had been planning to visit the Museo de Ferrocarriles for several days.  Tuesday, November 8th, was the day it happened.  If you don't know what a Ferrocarrile is - well it is the word for "railway." Although this is really  a "museum" of trains.  Basically it is not a great museum, but there are some fascinating old railcars and engines that you can climb on and see. We started at the car that has a sign on it explaining what is in the "museum."   I had to get in the photo just because that was the mood I was in. (Dave told me after the third photo that I decided to pose in "This isn't the Gene Show."  Ha ha. )

It says that three are machines from different places: England, the USA, Switzerland and Japan.  The oldest is #270 built in the USA in 1903. 

So I had to get in that one too.  It is an old steam locomotive.  I decided to pretend to be the engineer. 

Another thing that I found interesting was this old Pullman car, probably the club car since there as a bar at the back of it. 

 If you look on the left side at the back you can see the counter for the bar.

The above photo was taken from the back of the car. 

Do I even need to explain this?  The men's room. 

 This one had caution tape around it - and it looks to be in very bad shape, but it is a wooden train car.

You can see that the siding is in very poor repair. The sign states that there is a fund for repair.

The next three photos are of the car that was set up as an actual museum. 

You may notice that there are air conditioner units along the top of the car, but only the one above the entrance door was working.  (It was very hot inside here.) 

On leaving the train museum, we decided to go exploring. Dave started up Paseo de Montejo (a major street that is on the route to Progresso.)  I mentioned that while we were in this part of town I would like to visit Liverpool.  So we went to Liverpool!

Liverpool is the anchor store in a very swanky mall.  We did eat lunch in the food court, but we didn't buy anything in this overpriced venue. 

The fascinating part was the ice skating rink in the center of the mall. 

 And certain of my friends will appreciate that I just had to take this photo on the top of a certain venue.

And yes we did find his store, but we didn't see him!

Where's Waldo?

All in all, it was a great day.