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June 26, 2021: Day Five

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 mass.  We must really stick out, in both aspects of body size.  We saw one grown man, maybe in his late 20's that could not have possibly weighed 90 pounds.  There is the occasional taller person and there does seem to be a trend that folks get a little - let's say 'stocky' - as they get older, but even that's not universal.  I find myself wondering if that has something to do with indigenous heritage and possibly a commentary on how the Mayans integrated (or didn't integrate) with the Europeans.  According to Wikipedia, the people where we are integrated less than other Mayan groups in other areas, so that may or may not sustain the integration/ non-integration thread.

Mérida centro traffic.

Regarding the general flow of the traffic, we heard some people honking horns and we were surprised! For the most part, there really isn't anything close to "traffic".  There is flow of automobiles, but I woulnd't characterize it as "traffic".  Cuenca was the same way and also was a non-honking town.  Occasional tooting happens, but it was not part of the flow.  In Guayaquíl, the world revolved around the car horn. Taxis honked to let you know they were there; private car drivers did the same; people honked when they were about to do something dumb/dangerous; people honked to communicate (say Hi) with other cars and pedestrians.  Guayaquíl was like a symphony of untuned violins played by novices with the occasional sound of breaking glass and fingers running down a chalkboard.  For one, fleeting moment, we were both back in Guayaquíl, and then we were right back in Mérida again.


Work ran a little long and it was raining at dinner time, so dinner was precipitated (you see what I did there?!?!)  based mostly on proximity to the apartment.  The rain cooled things off quite a bit, but left me wondering - meteorologically speaking - if humidity can exceed 100%.   Our first and second options were closed, so it turned out to be pizza, which was fantastic.  In addition to typical Italian pizzas, they also had pizzas with Mexican ingredients, such as chaya, chorizo, refried beans.  I stuck with the Italian style, which was excellent.  Francine had pasta which had a flavor it it (thyme, maybe) that she didn't care for.  They were out of Mexican wine, so I had two glasses of Italian wine because these are the kinds of sacrifices I am willing to make for the sake of journalistic integrity or something like that.

And so ends the fifth day.

Steps:  7,972



* Tangerine Travels:  https://www.youtube.com/c/TangerineTravels

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