muerto, etc

Hola,
Well, the computer really did bite the dust this time. It even gave me a message that essentially told me to forget trying to use it. So, with mama, friends and a dead computer, I´ve been neglectful with communication. I´m hauling the computer home, though, in hopes that Richard M. can save the photos, and a few stray documents. It has served Stuart, jr, and now me, well for seven years.

Our last day with mama was really fun. Salli and Doug arrived Saturday night late, and we all enjoyed a local day, at the Domingo in Merida. Salli and mama seemed to enjoy each other. Monday was too fun! We rented a car...yes, all five of us squeezed into a tiny car, with Doug driving. Mind you, Doug has never been to Mexico before, and had little introduction to Mexican driving habits. A stop sign is merely a suggestion, and lanes on a multi-lane road mean nothing. And, the car was on MY credit card! But, he´s a tall man, and it made physical sense for him to drive. So, we made our way, with a terrible map, to the puebla of Sotuta, about 45 minutes south of town. We arrived at Hacienda Sotuta de Peon in a timely fashion for the 10am tour. Yipppee, we were the only ones. Alex, an exuberant man with very good, but strongly accented English, gave us a great time, showing us the hacienda and ´splaining about the terribly uncomfortable looking furniture. I´m in love with the recliners, which are apparently French inspired. Pictures later, these are NOT inspired by Lazyboy. Perhaps Stuart will build one for me... We watched two men spin the sisal fiber, and then make a simple cord (much like spinning wool or cotton); watched the men in the machine house creating the fiber; helped the man in the bale house create a bale, and saw an antique working collection of equipment comb/card/spin/cord the sisal. Sr. Antonio, 80 years old, made all the machines work for us, and he has been at the hacienda since he was a boy. His love of the equipment has kept them running, and it was our honor to meet him. After the tour of equipment, we walked through the new orchard, picked some tangerines and hoppped on a ´truck´ on a narrow railroad track, pulled by a mule, and rode through the hennequin fields to a Mayan house, where we met another local older man, who spoke Mayan and a little Spanish. He showed us the tiny house, his hammock and the tortilla hearth. He was a flirt, and obviously loved his role for the tourists! The mule took us to the private cenote, an underground type, for a swim. The hacienda owner has built a little bath house for changing, with a shower, and a palapa for those who aren´t swimming. We climbed down the steps in the rocks, to ground level, and gasped at the beauty of the cenote. There, hidden in the dry jungle, was a hole in the ground, and the most beautiful cenote. At some point, steps had been built below ground, down to the water level, even a rope handrail was installed, low lights, and a hole drilled through the rock ceiling for a sky light. We swam in the clearest water outside of your bathtub, with good minerals and a hunk of sisal to scrub our feet with. It was so dramatically beautiful, I got one of the young men to help me get mama down the steps(she was napping at the palapa, worn out from the 2 hour tour) so she could see. We all hated to climb out of the water, and then up the steps to the daylight. It was magical.

The mule pulled us back through the fields to the hacienda, where we were the sole diners for lunch at the pretty palapa style restaurant. Full tummies, and soft skin made us want a nap, but we resisted and crowded back in our tiny car for the drive back to Merida.

Of course, since we had a car, we decided to make a grocery stop (for beer and other heavy items) at Walmart, and ended the day at the apartment on the patio for drinks and dinner. It was a perfect ending for mama´s trip.