Break- downs and break-ins.

Break - down first, or should it really be sink downs? I had been to a fund raiser with a friend and had just dropped her off at home. It would be around 7.30p.m. and the evening was  already turning  to dusk.


My first thought when heading back was to get back to the main road as it is much easier than taking the beach road, which is  just a sand road with lots of bumps and dips made even worse at this time of year because we have had no rain and the sand is very soft and deep in parts which leads me nicely on to where I am going with this story. There is hardly a day goes by at the moment when we don't hear that lovely sound of spinning wheels stuck in sand and the accelerator going full throttle which of course helps no end ?



Back to the plot. After dropping Sheri off at home I took an entrada ( entrance road ) back to the main road, or so I thought. Most entradas  lead directly out to the main road, however as I drove up this sandy side road  I soon realised it wasn't a well used thoroughfare at all which made me a little nervous, but I had started so what could I do ? The road soon did a dog-leg right and in the dusky evening light I could see what looked like a water pipe sticking out of the ground right in front of me. Water here is supplied to houses via an inch round pipe,  barely covered under the sand, so they are always being run over and broken. It is not uncommon to see them stuck willy nilly a couple of feet up in the air and mostly you just drive over them. They are rubber after all so they can't damage your car, can they?

This isn't the actual water pipe but it gives you an idea of what they look like.For those not living in Mexico this is how our 'city' water is supplied to us and why most of us have our own wells.

The decision I had to make at that moment was. Is this what I think it is and do I carry on course and go over it or is this the one time when it could be a metal pipe and if I run over it I could do serious damage? So, in that instant I decided not to risk it and steered around it. Not a good idea. The sand on the corner was very deep and my little car quite literally just sank into the sand right up to it's underside.


Now I knew enough not to keep trying to get out by flooring the accelerator so after a couple of maneuvers I gave up. Here I was, darkness quickly taking hold, no phone and no one around . My only choice was to get help. I locked up the car and the plan was to trek back to Sheri and Mike's house. Not far... true, but it was dark and  I had no flash light also there are no street lights...street lights?  you must be joking. Even using the word street is a hell of a stretch of the imagination.


 As I began my trudge back  I happen  to come across a woman who by some fluke was sat in her car, don't know why she was just sat there but at  this point I didn't really care.Quickly though I realised that either I trudge on or use my best Spanish to ask her for a lift back to Sheri and Mikes house. My Spanish is virtually non existent so I found my self digging deep for the few Spanish words that I knew and of course using the universal communication skills that language illiterates like myself often revert to... sign language and sometimes speaking louder as  I find  this always helps. Sometimes using the few words you do know is not always relevant to the situation but she got the gist and we headed off.


I will not bore you with what then incurred but it involved rope, digging and towing..No matter how I explain this I'm never going to live it down am I ?......


Which leads me  on to Break ins which strangely involves Sheri again......


Karen and Tony are a couple of fellow Brits. In fact they lived in Devon not a spit from where we had our first hotel.They have a small apartment complex just the other side of Chelem. (Villa Casa Rosa) Karen has been here a few months  and Tony was left back in dear old Blighty to tie up all the loose ends but last week he arrived for good  together with Dill their 11 year old border collie. 


Karen decided to have a  little celebration party last week at Casa Rosa to welcome them both home. There were a few cars outside the place when we arrived so we just parked behind everyone else and as we passed Sheri and Mike's vehicle on the roadside we noticed that the lights were on and we thought the engine was still running which seemed a little strange, so we mentioned it to Sheri as  we sat down.  She didn't seem too worried but said she had locked the keys in the car and would I run her back to the house to get the spare set, which is what we did. 


As we approached their house and saw the large automatic gates I wondered if Sheri had remembered to bring the remote , which to my relief she did. We affectionately call Sheri and Mike's house the Taj Mahal . It has been  a project  and a challenge of Mikes for the past few months and they only moved in a few weeks ago. Mike is , now how can I say this... lets just say very pedantic. Not a word that sits easily alongside the two words , Mexican and construction . None the less he got mostly what he wanted and it is indeed one of the nicest houses around. Sadly they wont be able to enjoy it too much this year as they only come here for  the winter. They leave for Up State New York ( I think that's how you say it ) Thousand Islands for the summer.


So,here we are at the house with, guess what? no house keys. I think they were with the car keys which are now inside the house? We already knew we would have to break in, it was just a case of how really. There was  a small bathroom window on the ground floor which looked tempting and as we soon discovered breaking in was just a little too easy....Scary actually.
I managed to get the window open and I popped off the insect guard  but it had one of those latches that prop the window open and it was hooked in place so we couldn't unhook it and there was no way we were going to get through the window with it still in place. Well I say 'we', I meant Sheri. I was only technical support and as technical support I suggested getting a screw driver and removing the latch altogether which is precisely what we did.


 Getting through the window was the next step but this was proving to be a little trickier than we first thought. I think it was at this point I remembered that I had my camera with me so not being one to miss a photo opportunity I told Sheri to ' hold her position'. Hence the photo below.

This woman is used to break ins but on the other side of the law.....she's an ex cop.

There she goes.

I thought about getting more photos but quickly came to the conclusion that I may be pushing my luck. Sheri eventually got most of her body inside the window by sliding feet first. This she did but by sliding in on her back, not the best position to land on the bathroom floor. Realising this  she then needed to twist her body around .Straight forward , right? Wrong! Unfortunately she managed to get her knickers...... I was going to say in a twist but no she got them hooked up on the latch and couldn't move either way which caused some hilarity from both of us but anyhow we managed to unhook her and off she went to get the  spare  car keys.


Unfortunately she had to come out the way she went in as we didn't have the house keys did we? This proved to be all the same problems in reverse . In spite of all of this we made it back to the party. Now you would think that this story has a happy ending wouldn't you..... which it does.... but just not yet. Sheri had picked up the spare set of car keys after breaking into the house , just not the right set of car keys.............. You  really don't want to know what I was thinking..............




We did eventually get into the car by means of a 'slim jim'. I hadn't a clue what it was but it did the trick. So all's well that ends well.

Carlos and Sheri after a successful break in.

By the way Sheri managed to get stuck in the sand twice, after me and once in her own driveway....... Just saying Sheri!' Well it makes me feel better.


By the way as a foot note to this story... for those of you who  may  think I have told everyone how to break into Mike's house, I think 'real' burglars could have figured it out too. However for potential burglars here is the address......152 Calle 7 Chelem.... but please watch out for....laser beams, motion sensors and new alarm  systems  now in place .......

"Yuck" atecan !

Most mornings I walk either the beach or what we call the beach road ( the road behind the beach front houses) to Chelem for morning coffee. It's a good way to start the day. This means that I get a good half hours exercise in and the reward is coffee and a chat with friends which, passes the day along. Stephen drives to meet me there, he says someone has to bring me back... although I should walk both ways I know, but quite honestly I think I'm doing well walking one way in this heat so don't anyone start.

Taco Maya

Monday to Wednesday coffee is at Ricos. Thursday to Sunday is at Taco Maya          ( affectionately known as Tacky).  It can vary of course and there is a new place just opened by a lovely mexican lady called Graciella 


Now, none of these places are Starbucks? No fancy schmancy surroundings or biscottis to nibble on  here. Remember where we are folks ? This is Chelem...... sleepy little old beach town, barely sees a tourist let alone anything else. But it's where the locals ( Gringos mainly ) hang out for breakfast and lunch and these places have a unique  ambience all  of their own . By the way when I say breakfast I mean a couple of bits of toast .They do a ' proper' breakfast of course but if I started doing that every morning I would be like a house side wouldn't I then I would have to start walking both ways so best stick with the toast and keep my 'girlish' figure...... yeah right.


Breakfast locally is one thing , going out for an evening meal is another. For a start most local eateries close around 8/9pm. Everyone knows Gringo midnight is 9 o'clock don't they? The decision you need to make is do you want to just 'eat and go' or are you looking for the total experience... great food, good service great ambience. If you are looking for the latter then  local is not where you go.


The next question is what kind of food do you want ?


You probably think authentic Mexican ? Well now we know that's not right because as we found out pretty quickly we  live in the Yucatan and also as we now know The Yucatan is definitely different to the rest of Mexico. So if you want great food then you probably shouldn't be in the Yucatan at all..........I jest people! It was my feeble attempt at a joke of course the Yucatan has great food................. well no it hasn't actually and I know that some of my friends will have something to say about this but come on guys.....it's slop on a plate, served with those little taco things that are absolutely tasteless and the only thing they are good for it to try and contain the slop that goes in them . Eeuk! You really have to be two taco's short of a combination platter to like that stuff.

Slop....

Locally you can get the usual Yucatecan fare but as you have gathered  it's not for me and I eat it only when necessary. Be that as it may I am definitely not a ketchup and fries kinda girl either, make no mistake. I like nice food but to get it you really must go into Merida with it's diverse collection of restaurants and where ambience and good food are not hard to find...... as long as you don't want slop on a plate that is.


Now why I got into all this is beyond me. It just seemed to have a mental shower of food thoughts an away I want. I think when I originally started I was going to describe my walk on the beach, ah well another time .......... however, a walk of fact or fantasy you will have to wait and see....... 

"R.I.P."

2 min silence please

 The other day my lap top died on me. I was hoping that it was only in a coma but alas not. Because it's a Mac I had to take it to a certified dealer but apparently its the mechanical bit of the hard drive and to replace it would be expensive. 


Damn it I only needed it to last until we return to Canada. I have been promised a cute little tablet thing, all singing all dancing , not quiet the Mac that I'm used too but then  I'm not exactly computer guru extraordinaire. There will still be one Mac in the family.


My lap top was second hand anyway, it was Mimi's originally , she went up market so I bought her old one. I can't grumble it did me proud but I really loved my Macbook.  Fortunately I didn't think there was anything on it that I would miss but I keep finding things....... like  the last 18 months worth of photos ( luckily all the others are on Stephen's computer) and email addresses , again some are on Stephens computer but it's just the hassle of it all. Ah well, onwards and upwards as they say. Spilt milk and all that .....


I will be using Stephen's lap top for  awhile. However  we realised that to put pictures on my blog I used Photoshop to reduce the size to make it easier for people reading it to open and Stephen's didn't have Photoshop as an programme. Consequently, what to do I considered thoughtfully in the style of Sherlock Holmes and like Sherlock it came to me..... buy a new programme you might think? Humph! way too obvious!? the answer go see my computer guru............... Jonna ........ and without further ado I am good to go again. Nudge, nudge ,wink wink.


I am now full of vim and vigour ,( slight untruth but close) and ready to blog yet again.......