Yucatan Gringos

No trip is a trip without a day of seeing the ’sights’. .and taking it easy. . . so on Sunday of our stay in Merida, we took the day off from viewing homes. . and gave Omar a much needed day of rest. .The city is gorgeous, every bit as beautiful, peaceful, and scenic - and much more - as it is described. . . Take a moment to read about this White City. . .

Our hotel was in the heart of the city, so our legs took us strolling around the squares that had been blocked from traffic to allow the ‘festivities’ of the weekend to unroll. . . open air restaurants, handcraft markets, live music. . and more. . . Shops line the streets so one can find most anything you are searching for. . We found it quite entertaining that in most small stores they stock a wide variety of items - crafts and housewares, a few items of clothing, the mini-split air conditioning units popular there, a few washers (no dryers were found), both stoves and refrigerators, and it seemed like every one of the shops had at least a half dozen shiny new motorbikes. . . Hubby fell in love with a black and chrome one and intends to make this one of his first major purchases after our move. .I think I will settle for the smaller red one that I saw. . .It will match my red Ford pickup. . . . Oh, by the way, numerous auto dealers line the highway to the north of Merida. . as do many American restaurants and major stores. .

No day is complete without a horse-drawn carriage ride. . . We did more walking that Sunday than I think we have done at home in a month. . . Of course, we took occasional ‘rest’ breaks at our hotel, then headed back out again. .Towards the end of the day we caught a cab to check out Walmart. . .as it was quite a number of blocks away from our location. . . The store was HUGE, and contained an inventory of appliances and furniture in addition to groceries, clothing, and general merchandise . . . our scope of the store was swift. . a quick stop to look over the TALL 24 inch wide refrigerator (made to accomodate the smaller space allowed in the older homes - we assumed). . another brief look at the mattresses to see which one would work for us. . . and ‘price checks’ at the groceries, clothing and other merchandise. . . Generally the prices ran about the same as in the states, except in the grocery department where we found the produce and many of the meats to be of ‘bargain’ value. . . . . Exiting the store we started out on the (long) walk back to our hotel location. . . Gladly we hopped aboard the first carriage that we came across. . . Back to the hotel where again headed out on foot for the evening meal and a few drinks at an open air restaurant - where we chatted with a Canadian couple at the next table who had made Merida their choice of winter accomodations for many years . . .