No Passage

I think a lot of us here on the Island are getting sick of the street remodeling/repair project going on downtown. It has been going on since last December 15.

Some streets are totally impassable by car. Some are difficult even by foot. It seems every street right now has something going on with it and is torn up in some capacity. Parking downtown is getting nye on to impossible.

Even the streets that were finished, like the northern most block of Hidalgo, have had to be torn up and repaved. They laid the paver stones to all drain to the middle of the street instead of to the edges!

So here are a couple of pictures of what is going on with Avenue Hidalgo right now. Watch your step!






Notice how well I kept my opinions to myself!

Drama Update

We have spent almost the entire day sitting on our front porch, picking up bits and pieces of the story from various friends who have seen us and stopped by. A few clarifications:

* shots were fired in front of the palacio by the police. As well as tear gas to disperse the crowds. At no time did the police fire directly into the crowd.

* the crowd dispersed, running away from the tear gas. Most sought shelter in the neighboring Catholic church, located on the square. The Police followed them in and arrested them. This is an illegal action by the Police.

* this did not happen at the current "invasion" that many of you know about. That is a perfectly legal, peaceful protest village set up on federal land.

* all of these events took place at the newer, second invasion that is located on private property, which is an illegal action.

* the owner and Cancun police arrived with a legal order for the squatters to vacate the property 10 days ago. When it wasn't complied with, the Cancun police were sent over to enforce it.

* it appears (from witness reports and our local paper, Por Esto, that a prominent family on the island and even relatives of the Mayor are the instigators of all of this.

* wednesday morning, at approximately 2:30 AM, is when the police arrived to get the people off the land. They were met by about 300 families wielding rocks, pieces of wood and machetes.

* about 60 people were arrested. The rest fled into the night. The people who were arrested are required to post a 15,000 peso bail to be released.

* at some point, the time frame is unclear to me, the squatters also tried to set up residences on the Hacienda Mundaca park property in the center of the island. Everybody on the island knows that that is not federal land and certainly not someplace that just a few people can take over and claim as their own.

* as far as I know, none of the current problems and demonstrations/protests has anything to do with people being unhappy about tourism being down because of the H1N1 virus.

* when they found out that the police were on their way to vacate them, the leaders of the second squat tried to enlist the help and support of the neighboring first squat. These people, who are doing a legal action, refused to help, get involved or support an illegal action. As a result, their lives and homes were threatened by the new group. Most of the homes built there are made of wood. The new group went so far as to threaten to start a fire there, which, with the ocean breezes, would rapidly spread and potentially wipe out the entire encampment. That was a very serious threat and not to be taken lightly.

That's about all I know for now. Or at least all I am willing to publicly print.

Drama, Drama, Drama!

Tuesday night we heard an awful lot of sirens going by our house. I learned long ago that it does me no good to jump up and look out the door at them. By the time I haul myself over to the door, they are long gone.

One of the first bits of news I heard upon returning to the island was that there was a new "invasion" just down the road from us. Mexicans use the term invasion to refer to a group of squatters taking over a piece of land. This new one pushed it a little far. They camped on private property, already owned by a private individual, not the government.

Various attempts by the owner to roust them off his property failed. As a result, the police were brought in. Not the local ones. They refused to get involved. Instead we received truckloads of SWAT like State Police from Cancun. I believe the sirens were the trucks of enforcers arriving to forcibly remove the squatters.

Yesterday morning we were awakened by a group of very angry people marching by. Yelling, honking horns and just generally clogging up the road. Two hours later they all came rushing back by, in the direction of downtown. We decided to take a drive past this new squat. We didn't get very far before we saw this.






This was actually taken from my rear view mirror after they made us turn around. There was similar road block at the other end of the property line. Nobody was being let in or our and they were still there at dark last night.

We knew something was up because before we even got there, we had to maneuver around this.




These are boulders normally set up along side the road to stop wave damage during a hurricane surge.

We thought the excitement was over so we headed downtown to grab some breakfast. Pedro, the owner of Chicago Deli, filled us in on what we had missed.

It seems that angry crowd that had passed by our house next made a move on the Palacio downtown. They were denied entrance to the building so, like a typical mob, they gathered up what they could to do battle. In this case, mostly coconuts. They proceeded to then smash out the new floor to ceiling windows on the front of the building. I wish I had been there to see it yet glad I wasn't!




We strolled down to the Palacio so yours truly could try to get pictures of the damage for this post. I got pointed at by the police when they saw my camera so I left well enough alone.

As we were talking to people about what was going on on our peaceful, crime free little island, two men appeared out of nowhere and stormed the press conference that was going on in front. They were quickly subdued.

And taken away. Amongst many flashing cameras. And witnesses. Always a good thing to have lots of witnesses here when being subdued by the police.

I ran around to the other side of the park, knowing that they would pass by with the prisoners properly subdued in the back of the truck. The police were smart enough to not hand out their own form of justice in the back of the truck while there were so many cameras around.

I would not have wanted to be those two guys when they got a few blocks away though.

As this drama continues to unfold, I will keep you updated.

Reader Shots

Today's picture was sent to me by reader Susan. It was taken from the top of the Posada del Mar and shows the lighthouse against a beautiful sunset.




If you have a picture you would like me to share with my readers, go ahead and send it to me at islagringo@yahoo.com. I reserve the right to pass judgement on it's blogworthiness though!

Desperation Ignored

We happened to be sitting at an outside table at a restaurant in downtown Cancun Sunday morning. Having a nice conversation with a friend and noticing that hardly any people were passing by on the street.

Our conversation and meal was interrupted by a young man. Perhaps in his early twenties. He was clean, pleasant and dressed in the clothing so popular today; cargo shorts and a button up shirt. He extended an opened bag of wrapped candies towards us. In very good English, he offered to sell us one for a peso.

We politely told him no thank you. I noticed the look of disappointment on his face but he quietly walked away.

I was so concentrating on my own good time that I never gave a thought as to why a personable, reasonably good looking and polite young man would be trying to sell candy by the piece. Desperate times call for desperate measures to survive. What would it have hurt us to each buy a piece of candy from him? For that matter, why didn't we just buy the whole bag from him? It would not have broken our bank but would have helped him. Thoughtless and selfish on our part.

I feel so guilty and ashamed of myself. I vow to pay more attention to trying to help out in smaller ways, instead of thinking that only big gestures will help.

Except I am still not going to buy any bracelets from the Chiapas women or invite minstrels to sing next to my table. I think tomorrow (today?) we will go to Cancun and stock up on some stable food items to hand out to our friends under some guise or another in order to not make them feel like they are receiving charity.

Flight Attendent Nazi

I arrived home safely last Saturday afternoon. Thank you all very much for your well wishes.

I was amazed on my flight out of here May 14. On the leg from Cancun to Memphis there were 17, count 'em, 17 passengers on the plane. It was weird and depressing and really drove home to me what a drastic effect the H1N1 scare had had on tourism here.

The flight back from Memphis to Cancun was an entirely different matter. The plane was packed. Not an empty seat to be found! I was so happy to see that. Most of them, from pieces of overheard conversations I picked up, were headed for the Mayan Riveria.

But the leg from Grand Rapids, Mi, to Memphis was like no other that I ever had. Thanks to the solitary female flight attendant we had. It was a small plane, two seats on each side of the row, maybe 25 rows. The fun started even before we took off.

Ms. FA got on the loudspeaker at the front of the plane and started her message to the passengers. We've all heard it a hundred times before, put up your tray, how to fasten your seat belt speech. I was jolted out of my thoughts when I heard this:

PEOPLE! You need to stop what you are doing and direct your attention to ME! This information could save your lives and I am not going to stand up here and waste my breath on you if you don't care! Once again, direct you attention to ME!

Let me tell you, heads popped up and focused on her right smart quick! She finished the standard safety instructions and then started in on stowing overhead and under your seat storage. She even told us that anything under the seats HAD to be under our seats, even if the one next to us what empty. She added that we chose to bring that onto the plane and it should be under our care and control. She did not want to see any backpacks or anything else on the floor unless it was directly in front of us. I saw a lot of people bending over to retrieve their stuff at that point! Her final point, and she was quite serious about it, was that nothing was to be stored in the back pocket in front of you during take off or landing. Nothing!

As she was making her final check before take off, waling down the aisle and checking everybody, it was her lucky day! She found two offenders to berate!

"SIR," she wailed at one poor guy, "I distinctly told you to shut off all electronic devices at this time. Were you not listening while I was speaking? Were you just not paying attention? Now I have to repeat it all over again just for you? No Sir, I am not going to do that. By not listening to me you have now put your life, my life and all of these passengers lives in potential danger. Now shut that off and put it away before it becomes the property of this airline." He shut it off.

The second person was in violation of the seat pocket rule. Again with the

"SIR!, you have an unauthorized item in your seat pocket. Please remove it at once and stow it in your luggage during take off." He removed his offending paperback book from the seat pocket and she moved on. I'm sure she was quite disappointed that the rest of us had quickly removed our books from that pocket!

Her final piece of efficiency came during the flight. She was doing her drinks and peanut run and had reached some point around row 20. Some poor woman in row 17 decided to get up, since the seat belt light was off, and move to the front of the plane. Ms. FA, with eagle eyes in the back of her head, spotted her. She whipped around from her cart and we heard

"Miss!, where do you think you are going?"

Our offending passenger turned and looked like a deer caught in headlights. She meekly, barely audibly responded in a harsh whisper

"Bathroom?"

"If you had also been paying attention as I asked to my on board instructions, you would know that there is no bathroom for passengers in the front of the plane. The only bathroom on this aircraft is located in the rear."

"Now please take your seat and wait until I have finished my service run and you will be able to get past me to use the bathroom. You're an adult. You can do that."

Where upon the highly embarrassed passenger returned to her seat.

I think Ms. FA overstepped her authority and certainly did not exhibit very good people skills. What do you think?

Heading Home

Things are pretty much under control here in Michigan. It has been a horrible yet fun week. We have been spending most days and every night here at my Mom's apartment, going through her things. There have been many "I remember that!" and many stories to go along with most things we touch. Sweet, sort of.

I drew a lot of comfort this week from one of my Commenters who said that I should think of getting rid of her things as spreading little pieces of her to the world. Thank you Debi for that.

The rest of what needs to be done can and will be handled by my siblings. My time here is quickly drawing to a close. I will be heading back to my island on Saturday, with a much greater appreciation for my life there.

I hope to be back here on Monday and pick up where we left off.

Holding Up

First, I want to thank each and every one of you who have sent me their prayers and good wishes during this trying time in my life. It has meant so very much to me.

We buried my mother on Saturday, after one of the most beautiful sermons I have ever heard.

As you can imagine, these past few days have been an emotional whirlwind for me...and my siblings. The next few days will be spent on the inevitable sorting and cleaning out of my mother's stuff. It is very difficult. It is like erasing her. Add to that the fact that I am staying in her apartment where she spent the last 25 years of her life. Everywhere I turn, there she is.

I will probably be returning to the island this coming weekend.

Again, thank you all for your more than kind support.

Difficult Times

I am heading back to Michigan, my home state, tomorrow morning. That is the earliest flight I can get out of Cancun.

My mother, whom I was scheduled to visit on May 27 anyway, went into the hospital last Thursday for some minor surgery. While there, she contracted an infection which, bluntly, is killing her. They do not expect her to recover and the family has been told to gather quickly to say goodbye. She is on a morphine drip to allow her to die peacefully and with no pain.

She just turned 81 last Sunday. I just hope I get there in time.

I will return to Cancun on June 10.

UPDATE: My Mom passed away today at 12:10 PM, Mexican time.

A Special Photo

This is one of my favorite sunset pictures taken from Playa Sol. Jennifer K from Texas requested that I post another picture. Since she is a contributor to Project Warm Hearts, how can I say no?

Jennifer, this one's for you. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

I Have An Idea

In light of this H1N1 scare we have had and the resultant deluge of advice on how to stay clean, I have an idea. It goes along with the advice that the government has been giving us. That is to wash your hands with soap for 20 seconds after using the bathroom. Then using the paper towel with which you have dried your hands to open the bathroom door.

Whenever you leave a bathroom in Mexico which has no toilet seat, no toilet paper, no running water, no soap and/or no paper towels, stop and ask the manager of the restaurant, bar or even gas station why these items necessary for good hygiene are missing? You might even mention that the Dept of Health has recommended that these items are necessary in every bathroom in Mexico.

I would like to hear from those of you that follow this advice. What was the response?

Getting Off The Island

I have been vacillating back and forth about taking a trip back to my home state, Michigan. I had almost decided to go when this flu crap reared its' ugly head. So I just put the trip on hold for now. But now, with a seeming reduction in infections and loosening up of the grip it has had on all of us, I decided to go ahead and book a trip.

So I will be heading back to Michigan on May 27 and returning to "paradise" on June 10. The trip will not be without some special events. My mother turns 81 this month and I will also be in my home town for my (gulp) 40th high school reunion. Not sure what I think about the reunion. I still have contact with my old gang so it shouldn't be that shocking.

B will be staying home and maintaining the home front. Would be burglars be advised!

Stir Crazy

I'm starting to get a little stir crazy. I think I need to get off the island again for a bit. But where?

The whole country, nay, the whole world, is going a little crazy now with this virus thing. Things seem to be getting better but we are not out of the woods yet.

Today we went downtown to our favorite loncheria, San Martin, for lunch. We were the only customers but the other three lunch stands had a few customers. Not many though.

Then we took a ride around the island. I wanted to stop at South Point and take a few updated pictures of how the cliffs have fallen in more. What I saw totally bowled me over. I'll be putting that post up later this week. I have some then and now pics to go through and it's getting a bit puzzling. After awhile, cliffs all start looking the same!

We are supposed to go to a birthday party for a friend (Paty, the owner of Adelita's) tomorrow night. I think we are going to just send our regards. Not feeling up to a 4 hour party where only Spanish is spoken. Just more stress than I think I can handle right now.

I think we are going to take a short road trip back to Merida as soon as we think it is safe to travel....and more things are open. That should help alleviate this trapped feeling I am having.

Let's Talk About Food

Since we have been sticking kind of close to home lately, I have no new pictures that I can share with you today. I'm working on some stories so pictures will be back. No fears there!

Not wanting to go to the grocery store anymore than necessary, we have been using up our supplies that we have here on hand.

Last night I made a killer stir fry, even if I do say so myself. This whole cooking thing is a new and strange world for me. But lest you think I am getting really good at it, I'll share a secret with you. As we were eating, B asked me, "Where's the chicken breast you thawed today?" Oops. I forgot to cook and add the chicken! So it really was a vegetarian meal!

I love Szechuan food so I surfed the net looking for an easy Szechuan sauce recipe. And I do mean easy! Take a look at this:

http://hubpages.com/hub/Szechuan_Sauce

It was better than anything I have ever had from the store in a bottle. I substituted red wine for the dry sherry. If you decide to make this and do that same substitution, I would only put in 3 tablespoons of sugar. It was a bit, just a bit, too sweet. Otherwise it was easy and tasty.

Billie, Teresa and Nancy, are you proud of me?!

Mexico Shots

This is one of my favorite shots from our driving trip through Mexico that we did in 2007.

It was taken at the main plaza in Morelia. The same one where the terrorists (or somebody) threw the hand granades into the crowd last year.

I love how I caught the bubble vendor displaying his craft.

Mexico City By Air

With all the problems in Mexico City lately with this Swine Flu, I thought some of you might like to see how big this city is.

I dug around and found some photos I took from the airplane window last January when I had to fly into there to changes planes for Huatulco.

Notice how many houses there are and how tightly packed they are. Then check out the smog these people deal with. It would seem to me no wonder then they are an easy prey for any virus that comes along.