Cat in the Gulf

A beautiful day with a brisk wind in the sails. The emerald water of the Gulf of Mexico. Santana. Need I say more?

The saga of Mike and Judy continues

Today is the day that Mike escapes certain doom as dinner and goes to a glorious life at Pedro's hacienda as the head rooster. Since he has no idea what fate has in store for him ( his brain is the size of a walnut AND he's a chicken for cryin' out loud) he runs away. Here he is perched on the fence at Paul and Carol's house. That cat looks like a tasty treat, hmm?







Suddenly he makes a break for the street with Paul and Maya in hot pursuit.




There is Paul with the broom and Maya, who seems like she's cornered Mike.



Here is Pedro with Mike in the bag and the dogs begging for treats (like a chance at Mike)

OK, I'll take Mike out so you crazy gringo women can take our picture. Again. And finally,

Mike addressing his wives in the new coop.

In the following video Mike finally makes his first crow since he's been at Pedro's.
This video shows how little it takes to entertain us. Pedro and his son, Pedro Jr. were totally convinced we were insane by the time we left. Carol and I managed to sound like two chickens sitting on our perches or laying eggs. Mexicans have a different outlook on everything and I'm sure that we northerners are an endless source of amusement and speculation. In short, we are all muy loco in la cabeza.

Behind Bars

No, this little amigo is not in jail. His Dad works at the beer store, or Servefrio. He's pretty cute.Chief regretted not having him pose with a bottle of tequila, but this was probably better.

A day trip to Ticul

Since we have to have a mission to do anything, we decided that it would be a good idea to go to Ticul to get some pottery that the town is famous for, along with leather shoe factories. Since I didn't need any new shoes, darn it, we went for the pots. One of our big palms is outgrowing the pretty large pot that it currently lives in.
Ticul is south of Merida, which is pretty much south of us. It took about an hour plus a few minutes to get there. We went through some very picturesque little towns, Uman and Muna before we got to Ticul. They all had big imposing churches and nice town squares with trees and benches. Ticul and Uman had bustling marketplaces, Muna probably had one too, but we didn't see it. On the way back we passed an area of cenotes, which are bodies of water fed by underground rivers. The one that we saw frm the road looked pretty inviting but the gate was closed. By that time, we were ready to get back to the seabreezes that make life so wonderful at the beach. It was fun and I would go back now that we have the lay of the land.

Scenes from Ticul

This man is a maestro at relief carving of intricate ancient Mayan scenes. I'd love to have a table or headboard of one of his carvings. Tal vez proximo tiempo. ( Maybe next time)

Toting your furniture around on a handcart to sell it is standard procedure in this part of Mexico. This side-by-side wardrobe was 3500 pesos...about $240 USD. It was made from cedar and beautifully finished. If I hadn't just gotten done sanding and staining a chest of drawers from Home Depot I would have been all over this! The other object is a little kids chair in a Little Mermaid print. Too much.

How would you like to come out of any of these doors on a dark night?

This is a kiln at one of the pottery workshops.

Here is a cool sculpture in the town square, or zocalo, of Ticul. Since one of the main industries is making beautiful pottery, I think it's apropos.

Here are some larger-than-life staues of Mayan gods that are all over Ticul.

One of the thatched houses that are very common in Ticul.

What we bought in Ticul

This the nice lady who sold me the aqua sun a few pictures down. You can just barely see the thatched house she lives in with her family. Ticul is a lot different from the beach where we live. For one thing, it's hilly! We were gobsmacked to see a hill in the state of Yucatan. It was really hot inland, about 104. Yowza. It was very green in town and thatched cottages were everywhere.

We got 3 pots, one of which is giant...about 2 feet high, to plant a big palm in. The other two are smaller, but still pretty big, for me to plant some flower seeds in them. These pots were really cheap; we paid 330 pesos for all three which worked out to about $25. A deal.

Ticul is known for ceramics and leather shoes. There were workshops for both all over the city. No, I did NOT buy any shoes.

Some of the ceramic items were just beautiful and some looked like a 5 year old painted them. You pick and choose, and everyone likes something different!

I had to have this turquoise sun face surrounded by wrought iron for 80 pesos...about $6.02 USD. The top picture is of the nice lady who let me beat her down from 95 pesos to 80. We were both happy.

Here it is on my aqua wall in the living room. Kinda neat, eh?

Going home

Styling with traditional dress

The traditional dress worn by many women in the Yucatan is an intricately embroidered or cross-stitched (usually by hand) tunic of pur white cotton over a pure white lacy skirt with eyelet and tucks. You never see any of these outfits in anything but spanking white condition. I don't know how they do it! The cross stitch especially is very fine gauge and done in a myriad of colors. Just beautiful. A lot of women in the Yucatan wear them, not just ladies of a certain age! It's kind of cool to see a very made up lady with beauty shop hair and high heels in these dresses.

In the Ticul market

What can I say? I love these municipal mercados and every town no matter how small, has one. It's very social and there are plenty of dogs and kids. And old men and ladies in traditional dress.

This is the street outside the market in Ticul. It is literally clogged with pediabs, scooters, bikes, food carts, pedal taxis, you name it except for cars. Just try to cross the street! It's almost like a NASCAR start with everybody jockeying for position. Come to think of it, that's how all driving is in Mexico. It's a contact sport and a macho thing as well.

Churches

These are really old churches in the finest intimidating Spanish Inquisition style. They are all very imposing structures and are located in the center of town. The facades go straight up with no break and I can just imagine how people in the past few centuries felt when they walked through those doors. These churches are located in Uman, Muna, and Ticul. I can't remember which one is where. All the big churches in the Yucatan Peninsula towns are very much alike, designed I'm sure to keep the native Mayans and Mexicans in line, just by their imposing and kind of scary architecture.

Iguana report

Never enough beautiful sunsets

This sunset didn't look like much when it started. In fact, we didn't see the sun for very much of it. It was what happened after it went down that was so awesome. This is the time of the day when we pinch ourselves because we can't believe we're here.

Me like cocos

Coconuts are like artichokes; they have way more mass after they've been eaten. The way Tuli acts when she's dismembering a coconut, they must have an intoxicant, maybe like catnip. She chews and flings and chews some more. It looks there was a coconut explosion. What a mess, but it makes a good firestarting material. And that's all that counts around here.

Mike's new life and no, it's not as dinner!

Here's Mike! He has hit the lottery. Instead of being dinner (because he's been very aggresive and even the dogs are terrified of him) he is going to go into stud service at Pedro's hacienda near our house. However, Mike ran off this morning; I'm sure he knew something was up! He was finally found on the beach by Paul and Carol's house and they managed to get him into the chicken pen. I would have paid money to watch a grown man and two dogs chasing a rooster on the beach!

Pedro just went in the cage and grabbed Mike by the wings, effectively immobilizing him.

Pedro is not a bit afraid of Mike, unlike us gringos.

The dogs are all bold now that Mike can't fight back..

Mike is giving Maya a dirty look after she sniffed his butt.
Those feet are wicked!

Mike's in the bag! The dogs are in heaven and want Pedro to drop the bag. He got Mike in there in a second and Mike was just sitting there very quietly! He is quite a vocal rooster and I'm sure it will be a lot quieter at Paul and Carol's house now that he's gone. I wonder if Judy will miss Mike? Maybe now she'll sit on some eggs. At least it will be easier to collect them without getting a vicious peck in the rear on the way out. Carol is keeping her distance, even though Mike is in the bag. Usually she has a broom when Mike is out!

I had to include this video clip. The dogs were going for Mike since he couldn't chase them and it was pretty chaotic! Pedro, of course, remained as cool as a pepino. (cucumber) He said he would give Carol a couple of chickens after Mike had his way with them. At the very end of the clip you can see Maya nipping at Mike's feet and hear him give a squawk and try to get away! Payback...