Random Merida

Off we went, Steve and I, heading for the conference in Merida. I was really glad it was a nice day when we left the island so we could sit up top on the ferry. It is a totally different experience up there and the spread of color all around is magnificent.

One evening I took a stroll through the main square on 62nd street and was pleased to see Merida awash in the glow of Revolution Day lighting. Merida likes to dress up her streets with lights. Christmas is especially festive.

Whenever I see this, the song by the popular Mexican artist, Luis Miquel, goes through my head. "Mexico, Mexico....." It is sort of the unofficial national anthem.

I was surprised to see the "bandshell" area was now surrounded by vendors. There were two distinct groups offering up their wares.

The first is the transient, live by the seat of their pants dirty hippies. Why do they all make jewelry out of coconuts and metal wire? Some of the stuff is fun and interesting but most of it is along the lines of "seen that everywhere, not interested anymore".

The second group, also as plentiful in these parts as ants, are the Chiapans. Now these people, although poor to the nth degree, are true artists. The stuff they weave and the complicated patterns are truly amazing. The amount of work that goes into one piece astounds the mind.

Meanwhile, back at our hotel and my favorite in Merida, The Reforma, I took a look over the courtyard wall to show you the swimming pool. I've never been in it and probably never will. I like that I have a choice though.

The courtyard gathering place just outside my door. Always quiet. Always shaded. Always inviting to just sit. Many a morning coffee has been consumed at these little tables.

So tomorrow Steve and I say goodbye to Merida and hit the road for our Yucatecan adventure!

Mexico Shots

Somebody likes pink! While strolling the streets of Progresso, Yucatan recently, I came across this pink palace. Notice that they even covered the sidewalk in pink tiles!

Dead Sheep Walking

Aren't these freshly shorn sheep just about the cutest things!




Munching away to their heart's content.





But maybe they could have found a better, safer pasture......





....than my front yard!

Saturday's Venue

In the above picture, Steve stands at the entrance to our venue for the blogger's presentations on Saturday. It is the Technologia Turista Total. This establishment is owned and operated by one of this year's co-chairs, Joanna.

As you can see by the entrance gates, this place has been stunningly restored and turned into a school. Here's a closer look at the entrance, looking into the inviting courtyard beyond.




The place is full of old and interesting artifacts restored to almost pristine condition. Like this fountain, artfully surrounded by ginger flowers and Mayan grinding stones.




The hallways were bright and cheery. I love it when the old, original tiles have been left in a home. Or restaurant. Or hotel.





The back courtyard has a little coffee shop where you can sit under this sticked roof and study for your next class or send text messages to your sweetheart. I did neither.





If you look closely, you can see the water trickling from the old stone pipe into the bowl below. It made a very cheerful sound as it lightly echoed throughout the area.

There was even an old well. I doubt that it is still being used. This used to be a private residence so I am sure it saw plenty of use in it's day. Those blue doors in the background led to the classroom where are presentations took place.

Even the interior windows were framed by these beautiful tiles. Some had pieces of ornate grill work over them.

Some were just placed there for art's sake. I like that a lot.

The coffee shop courtyard also has a tree growing in it. Providing plenty of natural shade and dappled lighting to the area.

As well as fresh oranges!

But, alas, nothing is perfect. I only have two slightly less than enthusiastic comments to make about this splendid place. Look at this entrance walkway to our classroom.

It was a mess of stones set into concrete at dangerous angles and almost impossible to comfortably, or maybe even safely, walk across. For somebody with mobility problems like I am currently having, or somebody on crutches or any other kind of walking disability, this is pure Hell.

I did overhear our hostess telling somebody that these stones were from the original house and that they had wanted to preserve them. I applaud and commend this desire. However, would it have been so bad to put a decent walking path down the center and then to have lined it to the walls with these stones?

My second criticism is one that I encounter a lot in Mexico but certainly was not expecting in this swanky joint. I needed to blow my nose at one point and opened every stall door in the Men's room looking for a piece of toilet paper. This is what greeted me in each and every one of them.

With the staff that I saw on duty that day, and knowing that a large group of people were going to be in attendance, I can think of no earthly reason why this detail was ignored. A big tsk-tsk to an otherwise outstanding venue.

Third Annual Blogger's Conference

Above, from l to r, Joanna, Terese and Debi, the co-chairs for this year's event. Despite what some people were led to believe, they are NOT the founders of this event. That dubious distinction belongs to me as I conceived of and held the first meeting here on Isla Mujeres.

These events just keep getting better. Thanks in no small part to the hard work of the three ladies pictured above. They did a fine job of mixing formal with informal, educational with just plain fun. The venues for the event were magnificently fitting for the function scheduled. I will do a separate post tomorrow on the venue for the conference presenters.

My only exception to the above statement was the choice of lunch and breakfast. Bear in mind that this is only MY opinion, which I am entitled to express here. I would rather have gone to a more Mexican oriented restaurant for lunch, perhaps something like last year which was a botanas bar. This year's choice was far too Gringo based and the way the "banquet" table was set up left some of us feeling like we had been delegated to the children's table and thus cut off from the main group.

Breakfast was just plain horrible. We were all able to get around and along one table, but the food on the buffet was miserable, to say the least. Cluttered, unorganized warming trays which were slow to be refilled. Only about eight different things to choose from and the only choice for eggs were at the "cooked to order" grill. This led to a tremendous backup resulting in what food you were able to find to put on your plate getting cold. For the money, not a good deal.

Friday night's feature was the Meet And Greet. This year in was held at the Merida English language library. A great venue for such an event. Great use was made of the garden space which is attached to but behind the main library. Many old friends were hugged and even some new ones got hugs by the end of the night!

The spreak of snacks was diverse and tasty. Some people had gone to great lengths to bring homemade dishes. Not just your standard guacamole and chips type affair!



One of my new friends...Nancy from Barry and Nancy's Blog. I love the mural behind her. I was told that if you make a donation to the library, you can choose the title of any book to have put on the spine. Or your name, blog name, whatever. Cute fund raising idea.




A bartender had been hired for the occassion. All drinks were sold via purchasing a drink ticket upon arrival. I think they may have made a bit more money had the ticket seller been closer to the bar. Even so, I saw plenty of people with a drink in their hand!

My friend Lin, getting her first Coca-Cola of the evening.




Lots of mingling, lots of introductions, lots of stories. A great evening of getting to know new people and catching up with old friends.



Saturday's presentations and group discussions were held at the Techologica Turista Total school. This place is owned by one of the co-chairs, Joanna. A beautiful place but we'll get into that later.

Starting us off was Theresa with the topic Blog Focus. She had all of the participant's briefly describe their blog, what it was about and whether they thought it was a general interest blog or a specific interest blog. Some interesting stuff and more blogs to read now!





The second presentation raised a lot of interest and questions. It was Steve's discussion of Copyright Law and Internet Ethics. The basic rule he left us with was the same one we learned in Kindergarten: if it ain't yours, don't take it. Of course there was a lot more to it than that, but that was the basic idea.



The picture I took of our next presenter turned out blurry so I won't post it. It seems kind of ironic since it was Marc Olsen teaching us about photography and how to place it on your blog!

Some of the participants setting up laptops and getting ready to listen to three very good presentations that morning.




There was an afternoon session which I did not attend. It was how to use Blogger and WordPress for publishing your blog. It's not that I think that I am an expert on the subject, but I had other, non-blogging friends living in Merida that I wanted to visit.

Blogger SNAFU

For some reason, Blogger has seen fit to post two days worth of blogs out of order. Scroll down to see what should have been today's post.

Where To Start?

I suppose at the beginning is the first place. But the beginning takes us back in time two years or more. That was when I was first introduced to Steve by our mutual blogger friend, Andee. She thought I would enjoy his blog...and him. She was absolutely right on both counts.

Ok, fast forward to today's time. Steve and I had been wanting to meet in person for quite some time now but just have never had the opportunity. Then came the announcement for the Third Annual Blogger's Conference to be held again in Merida. And Steve was going to attend and be one of the featured speakers! Of course I extended a warm welcome for him to come visit us here on the island before we took off for Merida. He graciously accepted.

Being the person that I am, I mixed up his arrival dates and thought he was coming in on Thursday. Turns out it was Wednesday! No problem. With just a little bit of hectic scrambling, the guest room was completed and readied for him and plans made to meet him on the Cancun side of the ferry.

Of course we recognized each other at first glance. You can't be in constant contact with someone for that long, and see their picture plastered all over their blogs without recognizing each other. We made the trip over with no problem and Steve was suitably impressed with the beauty of our Caribbean water.

That night, with some other friends in tow, we took Steve to our favorite restaurant in town, Olivia's. We all scarfed up on the great Mediterranean fare and enjoyed the quiet, candlelit ambiance of this place.

The next day I took Steve on a whirlwind tour of the island. We visited all of my favorite spots and some of my not so favorite ones. He recognized each place we stopped with no extra explanations needed. It was a strange feeling for me.

So early the next morning we crossed over to Cancun to pick up our rental car for the week and were off to join the other bloggers in Merida.

Road Trip!

I'm starting to get really excited. The upcoming week is going to be full of new adventures and old and new friends.

I'm starting off by travelling to Merida tomorrow with this guy. He is coming to the island tonight, I believe for the first time ever, and we are travelling together to Merida. While there, we will be attending the Third Annual Bloggers Conference. I'm really looking forward to seeing some of my good Merida dwelling friends.

After the conference, Steve and I are setting out on an adventure of exploration. He has never been to the Yucatan so I volunteered to be his guide. We are spending all of next week driving around the Yucatan. We will be going to old haciendas, ruins, cenotes, villages, churches, cathedrals and maybe a few restaurants along the way!

Steve and I have been Internet/blogger buddies for about the past three years. Although a few attempts have been made, we have never been able to meet face to face before this. I am really looking forward to being a private audience for his storytelling and humor. Plus it will be nice to see these things in the Yucatan that have become so familiar to me through somebody else's eyes.

BTW, Bob is not going with us. He is staying home to hold down the fort. Can you say vacation!

So, I will be off the Internet for at least a week but when I come back....oh boy! Will I have some stories to tell and pictures to share. See you on the other side!

In Case You Should Need Him

I know from personal experience that one of the most devasting things that can happen to you while on vacation is to get a tooth ache. Or have a filling fall out. Or chip a tooth. Or any other problem that requires immediate dental care. Therefore, I am very happy to tell you about the dentist here.

He is a dentist for the Navy, stationed here at the Naval Station. In his off hours and part time, he sees civilian clients. His office is located just a few doors down from the Hotel Carmelina and kitty korner from the Francis Arlene. On the right side of this hallway.




Once you step into the hallway, you can't miss it.




He has signs bilingual everywhere. These show his hours of operation. He takes walk-ins or you can call to get an appointment. His English is very limited but his wife, who makes the appointment and quizzes you about your problem, speaks English.

He has a myriad of little signs on his window. Each offering the various services that he can perform for you. If you have trouble communicating with him, I suppose you could go out and just point to the appropriate picture!

I have been to him twice and walked away very satisfied. Many of my friends here on the island use him also. In fact, he is so good that I have friends in Cancun who come over here just to treat with him! His prices are very reasonable too.

So the next time you have a toothache in paradise, don't fret it. Give him a call.

Special Request

Jake in PDX: please send me an email at islagringo@yahoo.com I have a ton of questions about your journey into the Yucatan.

Nets

The fishermen nets here, or anywhere, have always fascinated me. I was particularly pleased to come across this group of them piled up on shore.

I'm sure that what looks like a mess of a pile to me is really organized chaos.

Revisiting The New Palapa

A few weeks back, I was visiting the beaches to see what, if any, damage Hurricane Paula had done to the shorelines. While at North Beach, I took the opportunity to snap a few updated pictures of the progress of the palapa at Maria del Mar.

This thing is huge. I really like that they left some of the original trees growing inside. Not too sure how they will fare with no sunlight, but they certainly add an interest. **





This is the palm tree they left. Very impressive.





They literally picked up and moved one of the front swing bars to the back to creat this new bar area. I was a little puzzled by the smooth wall behind it.






The view from the above bar looking out to the ocean.






From the shore back to the bar and palapa.





As I was leaving, I noticed this new sign. It may explain the smooth wall behind the bar. I'll have to go back later and check and it out. Certainly an interesting concept, whatever it is.




** see the comment I left about the trees in the Comments section.