A good introduction

Our trip from Raleigh to Merida was blissfully uneventful. Customs officials were scarce when we arrived, and the normal quick trip through the stamping process was slow. By the time we arrived at our apartment, it was close to midnight. Bettye and her husband, the owners, were there to greet us, and we had a nice, late night visit with them before yawning ourselves to sleep.

The apartment is great! It's upstairs, bright and cheery, with a big, nicely equipped kitchen, and screen door to the portico that slams with just the right noise. The buses travel the streets north and south, on either side of our east/west street. So, convenient, and the noise is not under our bedroom window. The problem: there is only ONE hammock on the patio. We will remedy that pretty quickly.

Today, we spent the day shopping for groceries and just poking around our neighborhood. Walmart is about 10 blocks north, well-camouflaged by trees and sculptures. We bought a few necessities there. The Isstey market is one block away, with most essentials. Two blocks away is a produce/meat market, where I bought a pretty papaya, some onions, carrots, limes, tomatoes, garlic, those tiny bananas that are so tasty, and some yucatecan cucumbers for less than $4 US. The huge chicken, with extra parts and trimmed so nicely by the butcher, was about $2 US.

This house was built, probably, in the late 1800's. Sometime in the early 1900's, maybe 1920's, it was made into a two story house. Now, that doesn't mean they raised the roof. The one story house was most likely built with veerrrry high ceiliings. Our floor is patterned tiles in all three rooms, and Bettye (our landlady) tells us the second floor was inserted in the very tall house. The temperatures can get easily to 100 degrees F in the summer, and the very high ceilings helped cool the houses. Of course, they are all built from stone, and windows on two sides, which creates good air flow. The bathroom is tiny, but, I don't plan to spend lots of time in there!

Our first meal was perfect! We had a late breakfast at the produce/meat market. I had a panucho conchita pibil...a small tortilla, with pork and onion. Sounds ordinary, but it was ohsogood! Fresh juice for both us, the perfect way to ease back into Mexican life.