Day 4......The Long and Winding Roads.....

 Looks like all the buses are going to come at once again.......


So today went quite well. We got off to a good start from Cordoba. We were apprehensive as we remember all too well the mountain road from Puebla from three years ago. The mountain is steep and winding and on our way down last time I remember having to stop three quarters of the way down for two hours to let the brakes cool down. They quite literally smoking' hot. This time we decided to do it a little differently and disengage the car and drive over the top separately.This worked like a dream...... not too much pressure on the  'old girl' .... no , not me the old motor home of course .


The mountainous drive that we expected in fact turned out to be a bit of a damp squib it went so smoothly. The big regret was that I didn't take my camera with me when I got in the car. I did think about flashing ( with my lights !!) Stephen to pull over so I could get it but I thought that might be pushing my luck.


The scenery was stunning not a bit how I recall it. There were so many missed photo opportunities. Caballeros on horseback. Old weather beaten farmers in their straw hats and baggy cotton clothes tending goats and donkeys. Little Mexican houses built into the hillside the list goes on and on. Quite breathtaking.


So we had done the hard bit ?..... ........done the hard bit? yeah right.


It was now freezing............ no you might laugh but honestly the temperature really had dropped dramatically........ no honestly it had. Mmmm mountain air! Essentially driving in the motorhome without sweat dripping down every orifice of your body and then some was a quite the most gratifying  experience. The temperature rose as we moved further down the mountain side and stayed pretty pleasant all day with almost NO HUMIDITY..... Halleluya.


Before I move on I have to tell you an amusing little story. Well it was amusing to me at the time lets see if it translates. We had just done 'the big' mountain and guess what happened to be at the bottom? Yes, a Pemex and The Italian Coffee Company so of course we always need coffee.


We were sat having coffee and I think Stephen was looking at the map. At any rate I was in a little world of my own, something was spinning around in my mind I don't know quite what ( nothing worthwhile I suspect). Anyhow. I kept hearing this far away little  voice punctuating my thoughts . I kept throwing out the usual little retorts like 'Mmm?' and 'really' you know the kind of interesting little response you do when you actually  aren't the least bit interested but want to appear interested. 
This went on for a couple of minutes then some of the words started  weaseling their way into my thoughts. I was hearing words like diuretic, concentration, wards of types of cancer............... I looked around and Stephen was reading a Coffee Company napkin...........have you ever seen a Coffee Company napkin? It has all the benefits of coffee written all over  it ( you may not believe what it says but it does ) and Stephen was reading the list.


Now had the mountain befuddled his brain me thinks? I just turned and with that 'I don't believe what  I'm hearing look ' and said ' You're reading a napkin? you are actually reading a napkin?' I could actually see his brain ticking over with an excuse for doing such a banal stupid activity, fortunately even his brain rejected  the idea and we both started laughing..............Doh!!!

I made him pose for this but
you can still see the silly smirk.

So on with the expedition........
We navigated our way around Puebla which looks like it could be worth a visit. Another time maybe ? Another life time maybe, certainly not in my life time anyway.But for those of you in Mexico  I have heard it is worth a visit. The surrounding countryside looks wonderful.

You can see the patches on the road
 and there's potholes too.

Our next major road was the new Arco Norte which is the new by pass around the by pass around Mexico City. It is an amazing piece of construction and quite the road. It is important for us to have a smooth road. Some parts of todays roads were not smooth and when this is the case believe me you've heard of a' bone shaker' ? Well we're actually driving one when the roads get bad. Things rattle and vibrate with gusto. The microwave spits it's rubber wedges out constantly and we are always re positioning stuff in the cupboards so they don't clatter around






 Anyway the arc Norte isn't one of these roads in fact it is a really great road . The scenery again is spectacular. So varied , shifting from lush greenery to dry barren fields. It's like stepping back in time to as you can see wagons being pulled by donkeys and workers tilling the fields by hand. Quite mind boggling.

This is my favourite picture I think
I may have to enlarge this and frame it.

As the day progressed we got really fed up of........


Looking at this......

 and seeing  these... 




 










     

 I have never seen so many humongous truck on the roads in my life it's all we seem to see

on the roads since we left.......

It was quite a day, the Arco Norte is quite a steep climb. If you are in a car of course it's a doddle, but if you are in our 'old girl' them it is something else.

 We chug chug chug our way up and pray on the way down that the brakes hold up. I have a feeling that tomorrow has not seen the end of the by now infamous climbs through the mountains.

We arrived in Querataro in great time about 5.30. Wonderful an early night! This of course was not to be.

We travelled the outer ring road to try and find a hotel . One thing we don't want to do is get caught up in traffic and end up in centro .

It was  incredible how busy it was. Trucks up your jacksey, Mexican drivers being.... well... Mexican drivers. After two laps of the busy road we decided to un hook and I would follow Stephen as it was just too hairy towing the car in such heavy traffic whilst trying to look for a hotel. Four hotels we tried and all  were full.... full? maybe Queratero is the weekend party city? Who knows?

Following in the car as far as I'm concerned is not less stressful. I have to try and not get separated as we have no means of comunication and darting in an out of traffic is like waiting for a accident to happen. Plus, by this time Stephen is a 'little' stressed. So I know exactly what's going on in the vehicle in front of me.

Two hours later and don't ask how many hotels later we found one that happened to be just the ticket. It even had a secure enclosed area for the r.v ( and Hannah and Barney).

We were knackered so that is why the blog didn't get done last night. I started but just couldn't finish.

I am finishing last nights  blog tonight ( Sunday ) and it looks like this isn't going to get published tonight either as I can get on the internet but can't down load my photos. 

Day 3..Short and sweet ( ish)

As  is getting to be a habit we were up at the crack of dark thirty  and raring to go. Well perhaps not raring exactly. The hotel offered breakfast so we were fed and watered by 7.30 and raring to go, well raring to go might be a slight exageration but we were pretty darned close.


The car park was a little on the tight side and off a very busy main road so we drove the motor home and car into the car park separately and parked so as we could get out with as little fuss as possible in the morning. Finding hotels with car parks that we can get into is nigh on impossible. Most have an arched entrance which we cant get under or they are so narrow that we just find it impossible. We don't like leaving the motor home unsecured if we can help it for obvious reasons and also it makes for a bad nights sleep for me especially if we have to leave Barney and Hanna inside overnight.


So this morning we went out to leave and this is the sight that we came across...................

Yes, some idiot towing a car had parked "willy nilly" a couple of slots next to us and blocking our way. The motor home doesn't have a large turning circle so we need as much space as we can get. This moron ( no Star this moron was really a moron.... in joke Star will get it ) just had absolutely no consideration for us what so ever.


Consequently we went back into the hotel and in our ( well Stephen's) best Spanglish explained the situation. Nothing became of this so being the good patient Brits we are we thought we would wait awhile. Now what is the definition of wait awhile...... half an hour? o.k. The trouble is hanging around is not conducive to a pleasant exchange when this guy does turn up.


O.k half an hour's up................ we decided to try again with the hotel staff. This time I think they could understand our frustrations......... I think my face said it all.


Eventually , eventually ?  they track him down and while we are hovering outside by the motor home he arrives. A young guy........ never says a dickie bird to us. Not a by your leave, no embarrassed apology, nada. He did never the less get the message . It was quite funny because he had quite a bit of difficulty getting his vehicles out and I certainly wasn't in the mood to play the good samaritan and help with directing his efforts. I just glared and added to the pressure..... oh well tough.


We decided to take the motor home and car separately again and hook up further up the road. It makes life easier than trying to get across three lanes of traffic towing a car. I saw Stephen out then it was my turn.


The traffic was heavy with huge trucks most of which are semis with double trailers. Great huge things they are. It seems that the large trucks stick to the Cuota roads as we have seen a lot over the past few days ( Cuota roads are toll roads and generally good roads although sometimes they can be in need of repair  ) Anyway, just before Stephen set off across the traffic a massive double coca cola truck had just done the same manoeuvre and you don't want to mess with those big beasts let me tell you. I think seeing this made Stephen feel less nervous about heading across 4 lanes of traffic. I was traffic  cop  so I launched myself into the  oncoming traffic and held my hand up for them to stop ( it's a very Mexican thing  and I'm getting rather good at it ) and of course you really don't want to mess with me, then Stephen takes the big jalopy across no problem at all.


Now it was my turn with the little yellow banana ( the car) and it was quite some  tricky manoeuvre as I didn't have anyone to stop traffic for me. I edged forward and a taxi stopped for me and he's waving out in front of him and  traffic is careering around him . I have my nose just in front of his bonnet ( hood!) and  I begin inching my way forward.


The taxi driver is gesticulating for me to get on with it ( in a pleasant sort of way) but all I do is gesticulate back miming ' how when the traffic is still coming' At this point he puts his head out of the taxi and shouts to me ' THIS IS MEXICO" and the penny dropped YES IT IS. It was like a revelation of course , anything goes in Mexico. Filled with new vigour I edge forward.


I put my hand out of my window in the international' stop or else' signal and made a run for it. It was quite an awakening experience and more strangely they all stopped for me. 


If there is one thing that I will take away from Mexico it is that Mexican people are really 'nice' people. They are helpful beyond a fault and will go out of their way to be cooperative  as has been proved time and time again over the last few years. They can be frustrating too but I'll not spoil the accolade by going into all that just yet.




 We headed out at about 9.30 a little later than planned because of that prat this morning but on our way we were.


Only one police stop and one military stop today, wow things are looking up.

The terrain is so different than the Yucatan.The Yucatan has no rivers so seeing huge wide rivers again is different. As we headed out to the Vera Cruz region we saw more and more roadside venders selling coffee beans and honey. A little different to the venders in Merida selling their gadgets and fruit. Although there is lots of fruit here too, mainly pineapples.

Fire roadside

We decided that we would have a shorter day today and stop in Cordoba. Tomorrow will be interesting as we have to tackle the mountains  ( and an extinct volcano to boot ) up to Puebla. We remember the mountains all too well from our trip down.Smoking brakes on the way down I recall where we had to stop to let them cool down for 2 hours. The brakes should be alright this time one would hope.


We found a lovely place to stay ( a bit pricey but we thought we deserved it ) called Villas Layfer. They are individual little bungalows really posh. Unfortunately they don't allow dogs or cats so they have to stay in the motor home again. I'm beginning to get used to it. They are fine and I am worrying less.

Villas Layfer

Bedroom 1

Bedroom 

No we are certainly going to make the most of these luxurious surrounding, so a shower it is then a beer is in order I think.




Tomorrow we head for them there mountains!

Just one of many Pemex stops.

And now the end is near..........

This is going to be like waiting for a bus ? When you eventually get one half a dozen will come along at once. I had meant to finish a blog before we left Chelem but time just disappeared on me as usual. So here we are in day 2 of our trip and  this evening was the first time we have been able to find internet for any length of time. As a result, here are several buses at once. Including the one I should have caught  before I left. Phew, glad I said that succinctly?




And now the end is near....and so I face the final curtain (My Way,Frank Sinatra )




What can I say  we are on he move once again be on the road to pastures new.


Regrets I've had a few......but then again too few to mention.




Regrets that we came to the Yucatan ?  Too few to mention yes of course but I am sure that I will be regaling you with more than a few amusing stories in the days to come. But first I need to say we will be leaving the Yucatan with an overflowing bucket full of wonderful memories. Some good, some not so good.  Not that we Dodwells are prone to elaborating on the truth but  you can rest assured that we will do are best to keep the stories  interesting.




Yes, there were times I'm sure you knew that we bit off more than we could chew.




On reflection I guess that's exactly what we did do. We drove an R.V towing a car all the way from Canada to the Yucatan.... never having ever set foot inside an r.v let alone towing a car to boot.


Had we ever been to the Yucatan before ?....... no, But then again when we emigrated to Canada 11 years ago and we hadn't been there either.


And nothing changes. We are heading back to New Brunswick.... and guess what. We haven't ever been there either.


Now some would see this as folly on our part. A lack of understanding, sense or foolishness in some way and............. they might possibly be right but we will do it our way.... anyway.


However, the one thing I do wish is that our follies would have started earlier in our lives. Look at how much more we could have experienced and how many more memories we could have gained.


I've loved I've laughed and cried.
To think I did all that and I say not in a shy way,
Oh no not me. I did it my way.




I certainly have laughed and cried. We have had a lot of fun with a lot of wonderful people that I am proud to call my friends and I am not shy to say that we really will miss you all.

So on to the journey..................







Day 1 ........ What a day!

Its started off rather well . We were up at the crack and on the road by 7 o ‘ clock. We haven't actually been in  the motor home since our journey down three years ago ( apart from taking it into the mechanic for a post travelling service that is ) and I think at the  end of that journey I said  that I didn’t ever want to set foot in it again. I think I used much stronger words than in reality but you get the point. Anyway I'm rambling, read on...

 We hit the periferico around Merida and things were going just dandy. Well kind off! The air conditioner doesn’t work but that’s fine we’re good  ‘ copers ‘….. we’ll cope? The fridge doesn’t work ( we did try to get it fixed but !! ) So no cold drinks for us. No problem we’re ‘copers ’? Oh and the fuel gauge doesn’t work. Mmm ? , a little frustrating to say the least but yeah  you’ve guessed  it ….we’ll cope. So there we were all jolly hockey sticks and plodding along . Things are noisier than I remember but that’s fine. Barney the cat is just loving his motor home again and Hannah the beach dog is doing admirable considering it’s her all new to her.

A new image of the saying "Cool Cat"

He is just so laid back. Barney not the driver!

Hannah just taking it all in her stride

So  everything is just hunky dorey . But you know this is going to change right? Right!

As we approached the turning to Campeche we discovered that our brakes had failed! We actually had no brakes. Litterally , we had no brakes.!  As luck would have it we were right outside a large Pemex ( gas/petrol station ) so were able to pull in and park next to all the early morning trucks. Now as you can imagine all is not as calm at this point as  I would lead you to believe but rather than sharing some of the , shall we say  ' interesting conversation' that ensued I will leave you to fill in the missing dialogue for  yourselves.

Suffice to say that after the initial shock and much venting , practicality does surface and we realised that we were in actual fact not that far away from our mechanic in Merida  And one phone call to Eduardo and he was with us within 20 mins. Apparently our brake caliper pistons had seized up ( which I'm sure means something to someone)  and they would have to take them back to Merida to fix and would be back  soon  and we all know what a Mexican ‘ soon’ is  don’t we ?

Breakdown at the Pemex

 Eight hours later we were on our way again.Yes 8 hours baking in a Pemex parking area doing nothing.

 We got on our way  somewhere around 4 o’clock. Our original plan was to have been to make Villa Hermosa  but instead we ended up in a Passion Pit in Campeche.

Oh and to add insult to injury we were stopped by the police not  5 min after setting off again to be told that we were committing an infraction by towing a car behind our motor home. We have travelled many miles in Mexico towing a car so we know that wasn’t true. He was definitely fishing for a bribe, but by this time we were not in the best of moods and we soon sent him away with a flea in his ear. Three years ago we probably would have succumbed but not these days and definitely not after the day we’d just had.

Bye, Bye Yucatan.

It was a long hot day. I felt like a wrung out dirty dish rag especially remember we have no air con. It doesn’t help that in these old motor homes the engine sits back into the cab so the heat just gets you from inside and out. Even my rubber flip flops were unbearably hot and I spent most of the journey to Campeche with my feet out of the quarter light. Yes that’s how old the motor home is , it has quarter lights.!

But you know what? We are in fine spirits…… this however could all change on day two. Good karma , good karma, good karma!

Day 2.... Cops and stops.....

By the way.....the Passion Pit we stayed in last night? I thought I should explain to the un initiated is what they call a Love Hotel. They are very popular here in Mexico and the room are sold for upwards of an hour. Ours was advertised at a  4 hourly rate (or over night as in our case) They are one room with an attached garage where you can essentially hide your car from prying eyes. Judge who would use them for yourselves if you haven't already guessed.

A lot of North Americans ( and us ) use them as they are cheap and usually will allow you to take your dog and in our case cat as well into the room with you. The room was thought provoking too. Anything that could have been screwed down was screwed down including the ash tray ( beggars can't be choosers I guess) There was a wall T.V. that had maybe 5 channels..... 4 of which were porn ( oh yip de dee) There was also a large mirror and a wall air con unit ( yeah ) which we couldn't find the remote for. We asked the guy at the gate about it and we understood that he controlled it and we couldn't have it on. Mmmm. However at midnight when we were so hot we couldn't stand it any longer ( we were having trouble sleeping before you get any other ideas ) we asked again and he arrived with a remote control and turned it on for us then promptly left with the remote. The mind boggles.

We were on the road again bright and early. Our plans were by now shot so as my favourite G.P S voice says.....Recalculating,Recalculating!? We are now a day behind the original schedule and wont be able to make it up but hey what does it matter were not on a deadline. Just want to be out of this flipping country a.s.a.p.

Some of the country side today has been stunning. Having done this part of the journey before I had forgotten just how striking it was. Some of the beach stretches from Champoton to Cuidad del Carmen are breathtaking.

Champoton

Beach side houses

Across the bridge

It is also very green and lush.We actually went through rain storm. The first 'real' rain for almost six months. It cooled the air wonderfully...... for all of oh let me see now........ maybe half an hour then we were back to that gleeful all inclusive sweaty heat.

I digress...... again. Todays little interesting diversion was the amount of police  and military stops. Under normal circumstances we haven't had much bother and they just wave you on by but today was going to be different I could tell. Probably had something to do with the fact that at every check point they pulled us over. Not once not twice but a total of eight times today and each stop is close to 20 min each time.

The police want to see all the paperwork for both vehicles plus a driving liscense. plus all the usual mundane questions...... where are you from, where are you going are you on vacation and so on . Half the time they don't understand the paperwork  but make quite a song and dance about checking it all anyway.

The military are quite different they are only interested in looking around. They come inside open all the cupboards and drawers.Obviously looking for something quite different than the police as they never ask for the paperwork. They are more interested in the motor home itself.How old is it and how much did it cost.

One long line up.

However at one military stop they created such a backlog of traffic it took us an hour to get through plus the 20 min it took them to check us out. Having said all that both the police and military were very respectful , polite and friendly. I wander if I will still be saying this by the end of the week?

We are now in Hotel Express in Minatitlan, mainly because they have internet and I can finish this ... it is now 1.30 pm and I'm not done yet. But heaven knows when we will get internet again so I need to get done .

By they way the walls are so thin I don't even need to use my imagination to know what the man next door was up to....... oh please he needs to get a room  at a Passion Pit me thinks. Now he's snoring.... strewth!!

Another day tomorrow....Onwards and Upwards!

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.......