Where the cats are

More Crocheted Ropes

I love making these necklaces. The beads are CHEAP and the results are fascinating. The spiral is the most compelling natural form, I think. (For better detail, click on the picture)

A visitor to our beach

This bird always scares the doody out of the cats. He's really big-probably about 4 feet high! When he takes off, his feet are clenched and held up next to his body. And the wingspan is about 6 feet. Yikes!

Birdwoman of Chuburna

Church in Conkal

This is a very old church in Conkal. Up close it's pretty intimidating and dominates the square of this little town. The front goes straight up and it's a little eerie looking thru the open windows and the bell holders.

New Friends in the neighborhood

This is Candace and Nancy, who are neighbors down the beach road a bit. Candace is from Canada and Nancy from Indiana.

Candace's husband, Phil and his friend

Kurt just got their Harleys down here, shipped by air and have been roaring up and down the street. Picture soon!

Resident pyromaniac

Everybody has burn piles out by the street, including us, of course. Ours gets torched off pretty regularly, but some of them are just waiting for a passerby with a lighter! The fire doesn't go anywhere and eventually puts itself out. The Mexicans burn the fields and use fire as a landscaping tool. So we do, too!

They kind of look like chickens...

Cat Report

A Christmas gift from the Marines

The Marines invaded the beach on Friday. They probably were looking for more cocaine or Cubans. This group seemed really young, like about 12. However, they do carry AK-47s and are all dressed up with all the gear you could ever want. They took a break on the porch next door and then two of them came up to Chief and gave him two baby birds. Of course, he came right to me with them. They now live in the big cat carrier and since neither of the cats wants anything to do with it because it was a prison for a week, the birds are unmolested. They aren't too young and are trying to fly, about a foot at a time. I hope that they will make the transition to being outside full time when they are bigger. If not, there is a guy in Chuburna that keeps birds that can't adapt back to the wild. Anyway, they are pretty cute and we think that they are healthy enough to make it. They love ground up dry cat food and will peck away at it all day. Then they poop out (literally) and sleep for a bit, then more of the same. So far they aren't screeching too much. We had them out on the beach today to get themselves acclimated. I originally said no birds, but then I thought, what else am I doing?

Some Mexican Cuties

Flan delivery

A few times a week the Flan family comes by. You know they are coming because they announce their presence with a very loud PA system mounted on the top of their ancient Datsun wagon, a 510, I think. Flan is a delicious vanilla custard that in this case comes with a carmelized sugar syrup over the top of it. It comes in plastic cups that are inverted onto a plate and served with Baskin Robbins tester spoons. By far the best flan I ever had and I've had a few. It's 3 pesos and the best deal on the beach road.

The Flan Family

Runs good, needs a bit of bodywork.

This is one of our favorite sights! This truck looks like it either fell off a cliff or was dropped from a plane. The door is held shut with a rope, but several weeks ago it didn't have a door, so I guess that's an improvement! Since this picture was taken, a headlight has been added for those night deliveries. He carries a huge block of ice around town and anybody who wants ice just hollers "Hielo!" and he chops a chunk off. This is one of the things that are so cool about Mexico. No one in the US would be caught dead driving this but it's a living for this guy. And he sure stays cool in the summer while we are sweating buckets at the beach! So who's smarter....

You can never have too many purses

Bullions and Beyond

A day in the life of Thelma

She loves to hunt geckos and I think she's probably had a few as snacks. I did save this one and hopefully it's starting to grow its tail back.

Mexican backyard security

This is a rather scary concoction that Chief thought up after the norte blew his carefully balanced rock sculptures over. Frankly, I'm not going anywhere near it as I already have a bad owie on my big toe from dropping a board on it in Texas. I think if a bird landed on it and took off with enough of a spring it would definitely collapse. It has not been wind tested yet!

It's not summer anymore

In my Nov 13 posting I was raving about a fabulous day that we were having, warm, low, low tide, soft breeze, etc. Well, after about 5 hours of this, we were parked on the porch gazing at our newly cleaned beach when the wind started coming up. Pretty soon it had come up to about 40 mph and the waves were crashing halfway up the beach, sand blowing everywhere and the furniture getting blown off the porch, not to mention Chief's rock piles all getting blown over! We were having a "norte", and it lasted for 4 days. Today was the first day that was normal, warm and sunny. Of course, all the efforts that we made during the beach cleanup came to naught, but it was a good way to get together and enjoy a beautiful day. The amount of trash and seaweed that came up on the beach was staggering, though. The strangest thing that I saw was a toilet seat covered in barnacles! I have to go back tomorrow and see if it's still there and get a picture. The funny thing about finding a toilet seat is the universal lack of them in any kind of public restroom. We are not sure why this is, but in Mexico one must be prepared and nobody goes anywhere without toilet paper in the purse!

Happy Camper

This is our older cat, Foggy. She's 15 and thinks she runs the show. She has been affectionately known in the past as "6 pounds of razor blades". I'm thrilled to report that she is closer to 8 pounds. The warm weather has done her a world of good, not to mention no competition from any other cat except for Thelma. I think she likes it here, as we do.

What's up with us

It's been a while since I last posted, partly due to the whimsical nature of our internet connection and partly sheer laziness!
Things are "muy tranqilo" here. The weather is really beautiful; warmth withut stifling humidity and a gentle breeze to keep away the skeeters.
Today we woke up to fog! I actually had to put my glasses on to confirm what I thought I saw. It's about 8:00 AM and there is still a little fog bank out there. Kind of reminds me of Pacific Grove, except 30 degrees warmer.
The tide is a minus one today, due to the full moon last night. It's really low- you can see all the rocks that we normally stumble over when we go swimming. It will probably be a good beachcombing day.
Here's something that you don't see in the states: the vet comes to your house! We needed some flea and tick protection for the cats and she delivered. The cost for Frontline, which lasts 3 months was 100 pesos, about $7.00 US. The Spanish word for tick is Garrapata- just like the beach on the way to Big Sur! How about that!
Our group of beach pals has a fun custom. Every Friday is Beer Friday and we all get together at a different home every week. If you miss one you run the risk of being chosen for the next get-together. That's how we got chosen...At least we found out about it a few hours beforehand! They were all going to just show up, so we lucked out. I think it's a hospitality test. Everyone brings a sixpack of beer or whatever to drink and something to snack on so there's no big expense for the host. We had a bonfire put on by the resident pyromaniac (guess who) and it was a perfect evening with NO MOSQUITOS. Around here everyone travels with a tube of Autan, the favorite insect repellent. We have at least 4 tubes of it in convenient locations around the house and car.
Our normally deserted neighborhood is starting to fill up a bit. A lot of Canadians come down here to escape the cold. This place is pretty busy during the winter with all the snowbirds so we'll see how we like it. It took a bit to get used to how empty the beach is and how few houses are occupied full time, but we like it. There are a few neighbors, and they are mostly walking distance. It's really nice!
We found a flight from Merida to San Francisco for $532 round trip, with one stop. It's way more convenient than going to Cancun on the bus which is 4 hours and then staying overnight in the hotel by the airport. So, as you can see, there's no excuse for not comin' down! We are planning a little trip, probably separately, in late February-early March to catch up on things in the US.
Chief has his own project when he's not outside piling rocks our building a sacred teepee. He found a 1500 piece puzzle of a beautiful scene from Bora Bora that is threatening to take over our gigantic dining room table. He's talking about a staging table now. I remember a puzzle of a Jackson Pollock painting that claimed about half of a ping-pong table back in New Jersey when I was in my formative years.
Life is good, friends, and we have no end of things to do or places to go. Since the weather has gotten so nice we will be exploring the Yucatan Peninsula a good deal more. it's just no fun when it's over 100 degrees with about that much humidity. And don't forget the skeeters.
I promise more posts soon along with a picture of our favorite vehicle in the area.

More projects

I've been experimenting with different beadweaving stitches. Seed beads are CHEAP down here, so it's easy to have a zillion of them. Today, however, we are about to take a trip to Merida to the Municipal Mercado for some other bead thrills. Apparently there are about 40 bead vendors. Yeehaw!
The necklaces on the bottom are for the girls at the little bead shop in Progreso that also has yarn, ribbon, flowers, fabric paints, etc. There are 3 of them, and they are the cutest, most helpful people around. They saw a necklace I had made years ago and went crazy over that so I told them I would make them each one. Time to deliver!
The crocheted necklaces have a slinky feel and are very soft and flexible. All the neighboorhood gang wants them so I have my work cut out for me! And they want to learn how, so I guess I'll have a class....

A surprise military presence on our beach

Chief was sitting on our porch gazing at the Gulf when 2 Marines came marching down each side of our house down to the beach. This got his attention! They didn't even acknowledge his presence in any way.
He ran inside to get the camera, snapped off a few pictures and then went online to the local expat forum called Yolisto to see if anybody else had seen the Marines. Of course, people up and down the beach were posting like mad! We found out later that a local fisherman had found 42 kilos of cocaine wrapped in waterproof coverings and attached to some floats. He found it about 4 houses down from us. Yowza. I don't think anything like that had ever happened around here.
Apparently the cocaine had been in the water for some months as there were barnacles on it. We had just had a very windy storm, called a norte, and a lot of stuff washed up, including the drugs.So, it could have come from anywhere. So, the question is: do we feel really safe with all this military? guess it would depend on how corrupt they are... At least common housebreakers would be scared off.

Mosaic in Merida

This mosaic is one of my favorite sights in Merida. It's very dimensional and the use of the mirrored tiles makes it very glittery. It's located next to a store on the Prolongaucion (one of the main avenues in Merida) I don't know of any paricular purpose for it or if it's just there as part of the building. Whatever the story is, I always get a big kick out of it.

Beach Art

Weather

Dia de Muertos

Dia de Muertos, or Day of the Dead is a huge holiday in Mexico. It's celebrated on Nov. 1st and 2nd and focuses on family gatherings to pray for and remember friends and relatives who have died. Traditions include building altars, using sugar skulls, marigolds and the deceased's favorite foods and beverages. Sugar skulls are given to the kids and there's a festive atmosphere that includes parades and parties. We found some really neat material to make a tablecloth at Parasina (one of the really cool fabric stores in Merida and the rest of Mexico). All over town you see sculptures and banners and lots of places have big public parties. As one might expect, there is a ton of religious symbolism and it's all mixed up with ancient tradition going back way before Catholicism made its way to Mexico.

Cat Report