Yucatan Gringos

Greetings all!!. . . We made it back home from our two week stay (mostly in our little house on the beach) in the Yucatan - Tuesday evening. . . Needless to say, I had several days of ‘catch-up’ to do around here (mostly laundry from the trip!!) before I could get to writing this post. .

Again, we flew Mexicana, but this time I got ready for the ‘baggage inspection’ to insure my personal possessions from the ’sticky’ fingers of theft that happened last trip. . (by the way, I am still waiting to see if I will get reimbursed for the items stolen). . I stashed perfumes, toiletries, etc. in large plastic bags, but ’sealed them with duct tape’!!. . .hah!. . Any (so called) inspectors could take a good close gander at what was inside, but taking off the duct tape not only takes patience and time, but rips the bags as well!!. . The luggage appeared to not have been inspected on the trip down, but the return trip had the ‘little’ notices of inspection on the bags - the contents appeared to have been ’shuffled’ through, but everything was still secure within the ’sealed plastic bags’. . hmm, this may be the answer to anyone wishing to thwart ‘theft in the baggae department’!!. .

But. .as for the trip itself. . .It was a very busy two weeks but we crammed all we could again into the time there. . . The first day we stayed in a hotel in Merida, as the main object of this trip was to obtain our FM3’s. . . We waited to meet with our lawyer for this. . The initial ’start’ in obtaining them was done, and we would have to wait to hear back from him. . . So - off to the little house on the beach. . . First to unload all our baggage - which filled the back seat and trunk of the little car we rented - then back to Merida to purchase ‘necessities’ for our stay. . . a new water pump (last trip we had hand ‘bucketed’ the water from the underground cistern to the cistern on the roof), air mattresses, a small table and folding chairs, groceries and other items . . . the litte car was again loaded as we headed back to our little home in Chelem - it was dark by then, but Bill got the new water pump (my bomba!!) installed. . .

Friday some hurried cleanup and putting order to the home (plus making sure my ‘bomba’ was working every hour or so!!). . then off to the airport to pick up our son Scott. . he had four full days with us there. . . again it was dark when we got back to our house. .

Saturday we researched places to see (within driving distance) and got a late start for the Mayan ruins at Dzibilchaltun located just a little north of the city of Merida. . . We hurried through seeing what we could, but they were closing the gates shortly and we did not have the time to view all the ruins as we would have liked. . .The place was much bigger than I had imagined it would be and definitely is on my list of ‘go backs’ with more time to walk through and gaze in awe at the wonders of the Mayans. . .

Sunday we started out earlier, headed for the Cuzama Cenotes which are located not too far southeast of Merida. . . It was an adventure finding the place, as there were no signs posted along the roads for the ‘tourist’ . . maps in hand and a few stops to ask directions of locals, and we managed . . . festivites seemed to be going on in every little town we drove through. . we were hungry so stopped in one. . friendly people were everywhere, the food was good, and we were surprised to discover than a Mayan pyramid was ’smack-dab’ right there in the middle of the town. . .

Continuing on, I wondered at the ‘tiny’ tracks alongside the road. . . until we found ourselves seated in small carts (similar to mine carts) pulled by horse-power that cruised these tracks back into the woods towards the cenotes  - an adventure - the first cenote was large, a staircase that I managed lead down into it. . . the other two were narrow and I did not venture down the steep stairs and ladder into those. . . Scott swam in them all. . . as did many other tourists who had managed to find this place. . .

Monday and Tuesday we had some meetings with lawyer and agent to keep, but managed some sight seeing and shopping in between. . . Scott tried his hand (and feet!) at wind surfing. . . and we just savored the life on the beach and ‘home cooking’ on our new grill. .

Scott headed back to Colorado early Wednesay, and we got ready for the painters we had hired . . . a hurried day painting one room ourselves to move all our things into. .then hectic days of moving things back and forth for the work crew. . . We chose white and red to trim the house with. . .

The painters finished up Friday, so Saturday and Sunday we ‘relaxed’ - cruised the beach, picked up shells, met people - (one lady down some houses from us from Nevada, who sold all she had, packed up her life in the back of her pickup, and headed to her new home on the beach). . Monday morning early we headed back to Texas. . .