criplomats

On Tuesday, my boss and I traveled to Merida, Mexico, for a conference. It was my first time in the Yucatan Peninsula, and it was lovely – but hot, hot, hot! The newspapers said they were having record heat; each day was triple digits. John flew in on Thursday afternoon as my conference was wrapping up, and we spent Friday and Saturday sightseeing.

Friday we hired a driver/guide to take us to the Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza. It was pretty amazing. Aside from the main pyramid, there were several outlying ruins on the compound that were interesting. My favorite had bas reliefs of skulls.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Afterward, we drove to a cenote, basically a big fresh water pool of water (per Wikipedia: a natural pit, or sinkhole, resulting from the collapse of limestone bedrock that exposes groundwater underneath). The first one we saw was really beautiful, and the water was about 30 or 40 feet underground. The vegetation around the opening was lush, with hanging vines with mot-mot birds flying about (they are a beautiful iridescent blue). You can swim in them – a very popular thing to do.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday the driver took us to the coast where we saw salt ponds and pink flamingos in the wild – lovely! I had never seen them except in zoos; too bad I didn’t take a zoom lens with me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had lunch overlooking the Gulf of Mexico, then drove through several small towns to see their cenotes – none anywhere near as impressive as the first one we saw. The drive through the towns was very interesting, though, just to see how people live.

The Yucatan food was delicious! We had dinner at Chaya Maya Friday night (chaya is like spinach) and the food was amazing. We went to the original one, which is quite small and mostly locals eating there. They have ladies making corn tortillas by hand and cooking them over a small flame on the floor (several places we ate do this).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday morning before we left, I walked around the city a bit. The architecture is beautiful, old Colonial style. Many old houses have been refurbished and repurposed, but there are still many in desperate need of repair. A really fun trip!

Last Sunday I got a little adventurous and drove downtown to the historic district to find an arts and crafts fair. After a couple of false starts and 10 blocks of walking later, I found the exhibit. The trek paid off – I found a lovely older woman who hand weaves napkins, place mats, and table runners. It was worth the rather hot walk until I found the fair!

Monday night we hosted book club on the balcony – a small but lively group!

The rest of the week was pretty non-eventful. I have to admit that Monday, pretty much everyone and everything irritated me at the office, but it soon dissipated. Friday was our friend Nati’s last day, so we bid her and her hubby farewell at Bocas de Cielo for lunch, and a going-away ceremony in the afternoon. They will be missed.

Saturday I worked in the morning, then went to a fabulous spa for a mani-pedi. I loved the Indonesian music – it reminded me of our wonderful vacation in Lomboc.

This morning we got up super-early and walked to the American School where we were volunteers for the Green Race – lots of fun, and I brought home a new palm to plant. Afterward we had a yummy breakfast with Linda and Kerry at Cafeto – I had a delicious omelette with cheese and rajas, strips of delish peppers.

Later in the day, I worked on Mom’s bookkeeping. In the afternoon John and I were able to Skype with her. She looks great!

The highlight of the week was yesterday’s trip to the country house of two of our co-workers, Nati and Ricardo. Unfortunately, they are moving from Guadalajara, so this was a despidido (good-bye) for them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We met at the church in the town square of Zapotlanejo. The town is small but is known for clothing, so there are thousands of clothing stores. People come from all over to shop. Many of the stores have live models:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After a few hours of admiring the church and shopping, we headed to their farm, a lovely place not far from town with an incredibly large tree as its focal point. We had lunch in their large outdoor patio, made to host large family events. They served the local specialty – large tortillas (about a foot long) covered with pork, cheese, slaw, and beans. Delish! And, of course, cold beer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The highlight of the trip for me was the tour of the farm. There were several dogs running around: Jack Russells and Australian shepherds – and tiny furry baby puppies. And sheep! And goats! They raise milking goats – we watched them get milked about a dozen at a time. And the babies! There were lots of little kids – we even saw one being born, and several others that were born less then an hour before we were there. And I got to hold one that was about a week old – I tried to get John to let me bring it home, but no dice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We came home pooped, but slept like logs after all the walking and great fresh air.

The rest of the week was pretty good. Somehow, I won the office basketball pool for the NCAA college tournament – yay! And on Friday after work, I went to a co-worker’s downtown apartment for an office happy hour.

I’ve talked to Mom a few times this week. The hospice nurse says she is doing “fair” – about the same. One of the caregivers took her in her wheelchair to visit Aunt Bonnie, and she’s been able to sit outside on the back porch some, too. Cousin Alison cleaned and filled up the hummingbird feeders, so she’s been enjoying them. And Bonnie’s granddaughter Debbi came to visit from Maryland and was able to visit with Mom, too. She enjoys the visitors.

It’s Semana Santa (Easter), so we have a four-day weekend, Thursday – Easter Sunday. It’s really nice, but the downside is that everything in town is closed, so there’s not a lot to do. But I’ve enjoyed staying home and relaxing.

We did venture out to the fancy mall on Thursday while it was still open. It’s pretty high-end, plus it has stores like Kiehl’s and Sephora that you would see in America.

Friday we used some elbow grease and moved furniture around, so now one guest room is pretty much ready for company (as long as you don’t open any drawers).

The rest of the weekend we’ve been pretty lazy – or at least I have. John went to work yesterday for a while, and he’s gone to the gym every day this weekend. For some reason, I just can’t get motivated to go. I’m not beating myself up about it for the time being but know that I need to get going again soon.

We’ve had a bit of a movie-fest. I watched “Salmon Fishing in the Yemen” while John was gone Saturday. Then together we watched “The Imitation Game” and “Whiplash” – all really good movies.

This past week, we also got caught up on “The Americans,” and we watched a fun, short series called “The Assets,” about how the CIA caught Aldrich Ames, one of the most damaging spies in U.S. history.

Wednesday night we joined a group of co-workers to celebrate a birthday – we had dinner at the new Brazilian restaurant across the street from us. Very good – they have a nice salad bar then they bring a lot of meat on skewers.

I talked to Mom several times this week. While I can’t understand a lot of what she says, she sounds good overall.