Ongoing stay in Chicxulub

Paul and Jadzia left after a wonderful week here with us in paradise. I think they had a great time but what do I know! It is always nice to have family and friends visit from home!

Dia del Candelaria in Mexico: it is customary that the person who got ‘el niño’ in the ‘Rosca de Reyes’ has to make tamales and atole, both corn-based dishes. This tradition also carries Pre-Hispanic roots, as many villagers use to bring their corn to church in order to get their crops blessed after planting their seeds for the new agricultural cycle that was starting. They did this on February 2, which was the eleventh day of the first month on the Aztec calendar. They also In this part of Mexico, people dress up a baby Jesus figurine and take it to mass before placing him in a niche where he will “live” for the remainder of that year. This can be in someone’s house or in a church and it is considered a high honor to be chosen as the baby Jesus guardian. The hosts for baby Jesus usually have to be open for visitors most of the time and have to share their food with those who come see him.

We arrived in the Chicxulub square where we're meeting friends for dinner of Tamales. I love the "colada" tamales a lot and not very fond of the others drier more dense tamales. Last year I made them in a local woman's home. I hope to still be able to do this again this year.

What a difference a day makes or even an hour. We woke up to an incredible calm day with a bit of fog across the water. It was heating up nicely as the hours passed at the Muelle Market. By 9:30 the place was packed and I started to feel like everything was caving in on me.

I headed off to meet Dara to go into Merida where we met friends to go for a meal. It was a surprise and off we went towards Motul. We turned off to go north and take the parallel highway that also takes you to Tisimin. We found ourselves in a lovely serene location with very peaceful environment for cancer patients to come and recover. A place to relax and find ones inner health to heal oneself. They have a lovely Thai restautant. There was only one other table occupied by people from Progreso and at closer look we found it was Richard and Jenny. What is the chance of running into them here. The food was delightful and I would recommend this to anyone!

February 4th is Maggie's birthday and had to wait a day to go and celebrate. We decided to go back to our favourite place in Merida: La RUEDA. We booked a van with Manuel as we were 11 going. To our surprise he sent his eldest son Manuel. Off we go once we have picked up everyone and all is going fine until suddenly he turns off on to the Pereferico. We ask him why he is going this way and he says it is faster. We can't quite figure that to be the case. He insists it is. Once we end up in an area that we clearly know it is nowhere near where we want to be. We ask him to stop and find where we need to go. He keeps insisting we are in the right area despite our insistence. We finally convince him to call the restaurant and get the correct directions. When we finally get onto Calle Colon we know our way. Finally after 1:30 min tour of Merida we finally get to our destination. (It is only 40min from our home to the correct place).

The food was as good as always. I think this is the best restaurant in Merida and not too expensive.

Returned to Merida as the Norte persisted and since the Korean Restaurant is only open on Saturday why not go with Andy, Alexis and Linda for lunch. I went in early with Linda to spend some quiet time on Paseo Montejo shopping and chillin at Pistache knitting, reading and having coffee along with a millfeuille.

That last millfeuille is mine!

The Norte continues for fourth day it is supposed to end sometime soon!

A venture into Merida again to show some ladies the big fabric store. Jody started a ladies coop in November and started teaching the women to make all sorts of lovely items using batik material. We managed to find some in Merida at Assis; where I discussed with the manager a need for a discount for these lovely ladies. Jody will return with them to let them select. We also found some nice cotton for them to make some tops to sell as well.