2021 Visit to the Yucatán

Francine worked all day and...well...I did stuff.  Mostly read and I worked on an excel spreadsheet a little bit.  I had every intention of taking a walk to the post office, knowing full well that it closes at 3pm and remembered too late to make it on time.  I also intended to stop someplace else on my way to the post office, but now I've totally forgotten what all else I wanted to get done on that trip.  I did go out this morning to get a coffee from the Oxxo. It rained a bit, but it seems nice now.  It is much nicer outside than it is in our apartment, despite having every possible ventilation opportunity deployed. We're finding that we have a rather narrow window of time in which we can go places or do things.  As the work day generally ends around 2pm for Francine, that means it ends when its pretty damn hot out side - and not much is open.  Things seem to close after lunch.  Restaurants seem to get going around 7 or 8 pm but by that time, mos...

Today was a work day for Francine, and I continue to be on study/vacation.  I'm having a little trouble organizing myself, so I've stuck to mostly reading so far.  I may have bitten off more than I might actually be able to chew, but that's another story. Campeche letters (& Francine with her new hat) on its Malecón We started the day in Campeche and took the bus back to Mérida.  The trip from the hotel to the bus station was too far to walk, so we grabbed a cab.  This was only the second time we'd been in car since arriving in México; the first was a few days before on Sunday when we took a cab for the same trip, only in reverse.  Whereas the first cab was very calm and in reasonably good repair, this one was neither.  To make matters even more noteworthy, there was a broken down bus that was making a mess of things.  Even with all that, the horns were at a minimum and people were for the most part, patient. Church of the black Christ (San Román)...

Francine had a half day of work today so we worked in the morning and then headed out on a small trek. We walked down to the beautiful malecón.  Malecones are a pretty uniquely Latin American thing from my perspective.  The only American word we have - and the one often used - is "boardwalk", but that's not accurate.  A malecón is a pier or a sidwalk on a sea wall that runs along a seashore.  This one had pedestrian paths and bike paths.  I've never seen that before.  It was Bayshore Boulevard in Tampa, with all the glitz stripped away. Unlike the one in Guayaquíl, this one did not have a retail presence. Malecón, Campeche From the malecón we walked to the market, which turned out to be closed.  Then, we got a salad lunch back in town.  Later in the day it was off for a trolley tour of the city.  It is quite a nice city in almost all respects.  Its certainly nicer than the historic center of Mérida.  Its about 1/8 the population of ...

Today, we took the 2½ hours long bus ride from Mérida to Campeche.  For not quite the whole time, they played an American, Spike Lee movie called Blackkklansman.  I knew of the movie and it was on my list of movies I wanted to watch, but aside from knowing that it was a Spike Lee movie and probably dealt with racism, I really didn't know much about the movie or its story at all. The timing of this movie was interesting as it came immediately after a week of my faith's General Assembly, which focused on anti-racism, multiculturalism and anti-oppression. I decided while watching the movie that I wanted to watch it in English one day soon.  I didn't feel like I had the bandwidth for Spike Lee in a second language.  (Instead, I read my biography of Warren Zevon, which isn't exactly light reading, but it was at least in English.)  I did follow the movie lightly from behind my book.  Toward its end, the movie featured quotes and from the disaster that occurred in...

Today was my last normal work day.  The rest of my time until August 1 will be either straight-up, do nothing vacation or study.  This may sound dorky, but I am looking forward to the study time.  Francine has about ten days off between now and August 1, so she'll be working most days. We went to the mercado San Sebastian near the apartment for some sopa de lima (Lime soup) which is touted as a thing to eat here, but was pretty much a better, home-made version of what's called Tortilla Soup in your average USA Mexican Restaurant.  It was quite good and remarkably filling with all those tortillas floating around.  We also went for coffee and flan afterwards, but we won't mention that. New total map, adding in Campeche Today, when work ended around 4, we hit the road.  At the suggestion of our AirBNB host, we took the bus to Campeche, about 2 1/2 hours away from Mérida.  We arrived here just around dinner time and our hotel desk person suggested a place ...

Today is a work day for me, but a day off for Francine, so we mixed things up a bit and went out for breakfast.  I finally got my chilaquiles, for which I've been looking but unable to find in Florida.  We went to a place referred to us by Tangerine Travels*.  Francine even had what the woman from Tangerine had when she visited.  Everything was delicious.  The coffee was especially delicious. The weather turned today as well, with an expected high of 90F, rather than the 98F we've been having, so good day to schlep out early.  It was only 82F when we left around 9am this morning!  I presumed that meant rain cometh.  We walked around to complete a couple errands/missions, we discussed many things, but two stick out.  First, the general body shape of the people here, and second the general disposition of the traffic.   Regarding the body size:  these are some small people.  I mean small in every sense;  elevation and ma...

Today was another work day for both of us, so we didn't have a lot of activity.   I splurged on a cup of coffee from the Oxxo convenience store and a pastry from the local pastry shop.  we welcomed the surpise that one of the pastries was not sweet:  filled with ham, bacon and jalapeño despite looking very much like a fig square from the old country (Manchester, NH). Francine found our dinner location, which was spectacular.  It was outside...key lime trees providing the shade.  Limes fell right on the table.  Kinda funny.  The mean was spectacular:  lamb and potatoes.  Francine had guacamole, which isn't my favorite, but I tried a bit. Its still not my favorite, but compared to the normal American sort of green plaster of paris stuff, it was quite good.  Here's what I'll say about the lamb dinner:  For me, American restaurant food (even the good stuff) is too salty and what flavor there is is so upfront and in-your-face, that ...

Today was another normal work day for both of us.  I overslept again.  Francine is incapable of oversleeping.  I'm not used to not having any light in the bedroom.  We also had issues from home crop up which may or may not be working themselves out.  Work was especially good today, despite it being comprised mostly of sitting and watching things on the computer - but they were interesting things, or at least there were occasional glimpses of interesting things. We are working around the schedule of General Assembly, so we went for a walk around noon.  I'm not sure whether the weather is more pleasant today than it had been in the past couple days, but it didn't seem as hot to me.  Francine disagreed.  We went for a walk to the big market, but it was only about half-open.  We found one of the two household items we needed and bought the other one at an  Akí. We ran late, and chose to get a loaf of bread and finish the "manchego" cheese w...

Today was a regular work day for both of us, so not a lot to talk about.   We did learn that there is no natural light in the bedroom as its in the middle of the building.  With all the doors closed for air conditioning purposes, I overslept a bit (8:30), which barely gave me time to catch my morning meeting. When we figured out that the intersection of free flight and Corona-acceptance was leading us to the  Yucatán, we did consider that it might be hot, but we figured: "How much hotter can it be than South Florida?" We were correct in that its really not that much hotter than South Florida, although believe it or not, the sun is even hotter than South Florida, making the disparity between the sun and the shade even more noticeable . What we failed to consider is how much hotter it would be indoors, due to the lack of air conditioning. Really, very few public places are air conditioned, which we really didn't consider. And the non-air conditioned parts of our a...

Early morning flight from Tampa to Cancún.  Thanks to Mom for the early morning ride.  Thanks also to Mom for watching our little doggie, Kirby.  This is our first post-Corona flight.  Honestly, it was quite normal, mostly.  Everyone was wearing masks.  This is Florida, so a good many of them were wearing them correctly.  Check-in was a little more colorful, with one guy being ejected for being an ass.  Security was an uneventful joy.  Plane went up and came back down on time and in the right place, so we’ll call it a success. Next step was to get to the bus station, which was a half hour away in downtown Cancún.  Also uneventful.  We both had trouble connecting to the wifi, and my phone is not working, so we had to turn on Francine’s data.  We had a four hour or so wait for our bus to Mérida.  We each got a sandwich, fries and a drink (not quite $8) and then because we had booked a first class bus, we got to wait in the a...

This year, we are spending thirty-eight days in México.  To be exact, the Yucatán peninsula, México.   My new calling (minister) provides me with ample vacation time, which I totally mismanaged, leaving nearly half of it untaken.  My contract year ends on July 31, so nothing like waiting till the last minute.  I also have two weeks per year which I am to dedicate to learning and becoming a better minister.  Then, I have one week of General Assembly/Ministers’ Meetings.  Normally, General Assembly means travel to a convention hall somewhere, but this being Corona Year Deux, General Assembly is virtual again, meaning as long as I have internet, I’m there!   Yucatan Trip Itinerary So, we took off the Tuesday before GA, which is the second of three days of Ministers meetings, which like General Assembly is also virtual.  There is a gap of a few days which I’ll get some work done as well.  Add it all up, and you’ve got thirty-nine days....