The End of a difficult year!

As we come to the end of a difficult year we hope this next one will not be too difficult to deal with considering who is entering the White House in a few weeks! We can only hope it will not be as bad as some are predicting.

Our friend Lorraine had been celebrating Hanukkah and so I decided it would be nice to have a dinner together on one of the 8 nights and make latkes. They brought their homemade menorah over and we celebrated with them but I didn't get a photo of the actual latkes. They turned out delicious if i may say so myself!

I walked along the beach to Linda's place and discovered that she is only 2.5km away! I must do this walk more often. I turned out to have walked 9.3 km in the end! I just don't do this everyday! I love walking around in Progreso and Merida as i am constantly finding new things. You'd think it would get boring but it never does!

Walking around Progreso and on calle 23 towards the end of this road (that i have never been to the end) we discover this lovely mosaic) Linda knew it was there from her daily walks and was keen to show it to me.
A new Oxxo opened and it is quite nice and big. there is an interesting story about this building. They bought this and started to take it down only to be fined as it was a historical building and they were ordered to return it to its original design and so now it is quite spectacular.

this is the story!

Normally, when a historic property is illegally torn down, the historic protection agency INAH files a complaint and at most, fines are paid. But when the convenience store chain Oxxo tore down this 117-year-old Casa Escalante to build a corner store, a federal judge issued a landmark ruling. Oxxo will be forced to rebuild a replica of this house.
The house, at Calle 76 and 27, was one of the first properties built in this port town. Oxxo leveled it in 2014, which INAH declared a criminal act.
The lawsuit was batted around in federal court for a little over a year.
The judge’s order to rebuild the home as it previously appeared was until yesterday unheard of in Yucatán, the local newspapers report.
Casa Escalante was the port city’s first shipping and customs agency, José Gabriel Escalante y Sucres, and remained in the hands that family’s heirs until 2014 when they sold the property to Oxxo.

My Huevos Motuleno
Arriving in Progreso after having a lovely breakfast at Davids it had been raining here but not where I was. It was a surprise to see so much water on the streets

After our weekly game of Euchre I said to Dara we should go for fish and chips and just as we are waiting for it to be time to go our caretaker shows up with a lovely plate of fried fish!

I sit here typing and suddenly there are runners coming along the beach and keep going back and forth. Oh wait this is an actual race as they all have numbers on them!

The funny thing is Facebook informs me that this is an annual race and I was just as surprised December 31st 2015! Told you I can't remember things!

Happy New Year in the Yucatan!
We celebrated at Austin and Lorraine's along with several other people. Don't ask me to remember everyone's names! I know Linda, Brooke and Don's name. I am sure there was a Mary as there are so many of you and let's see if I can put them all together. Well all I needed to do was to look up the fun game we played. It was a list of things each one of us did in our past and you had to go around and guess who did what by asking each other. This forced you to mingle and I love games that do that. So here are the names of the people on the piece of paper. I did manage to get them all in the time allotted. There was a Bud who kept a clean driving record by talking his way out of traffic tickets! Keith managed to drive a stock car at the age of 16. One that I didn't know and this is probably one of the only photos taken of Linda; she appeared on the cover of a magazine wearing a bikini! Yes our Linda! Maybe that is why she doesn't like her photo taken anymore! Another interesting one was Don hitch-hicked for months through Europe and North Africa but turned down going to India, instead returned to Canada to do him MBA! Did he make the right choice? Mine was the year on the 'hippie skip' (ship misspelled but of course understood) sailing on Sofia across the high seas! And last but not least was Dara's Shikoku Pilgrimage that he is about to repeat this year.

After dinner we did a fun 5 pin sand-bottles with coconuts bowling! After a few turns one of the coconuts started to leak and spew out milk all over the place . We had a blast!

The evening ended with the burning of the old man but not before we whacked it for our candy.

Another tradition that continues is the burning of the “old year.” The figure is normally a life-size image of an old man with used clothing, stuffed with cotton and firecrackers. It is placed outside of houses for several days before December 31st, to be burned at midnight as a symbol of leaving behind the past and everything that happened in the previous year. The families and neighbors usually get together to see him “go off” on the old night.
Some prefer having a piñata in the form of the old man, or maybe representing a political figure or famous character. it’s also burned at midnight on December 31st. (But we did it at 10pm)
The origin of this tradition is not known, but it is widely accepted and has a lot of symbolism, because the fire is a transition ritual burns and purifies and regenerates energy.
For those who don’t like firecrackers, the piñata can be without them and filled with candies to share instead. (As we did) In recent years we have also seen paper balloons rising to the sky during the night as a symbol of good luck and petitions for the year that is about to start.

A fun tradition that is easy to do here as we are able to be outside! Not something easily done back home! LOL

We will start off the year with a film Merida at the VIP theatre with Austin Lorraine and the lovely Linda I met at the Toronto Airport who is here for the first time! This is the way to watch a movie: leather reclining seats with a menu to choose from and get served at your seat! All this is only 6$ with our seniors discount! The choice was 'Snowden' or Rogue and since I am not a Star Wars fan nor are the others (except for Dara) you can see who rules in choices! I really enjoyed how they told this story especially since we knew what it was about. It made the whole thing quite clear! Too bad Obama hasn't pardoned him. He continues to live, happily with his girlfriend in Moscow!

A walk along the beach is in order today and then I'll meet up with Brin at Silcer beach club. The walk didn't happen due to lack of time and Silcer was closed! It will have to be for another time. I love the faces they have decorating their beach!

We wandered down to La Antigua for a beer. They have a lovely selection of artisan beer and for the season there is one nice bock beer that is flavoured with real chocolate from the region. My friend had the stout but said there is another one she prefers. Sheena and Adam will be delighted with these new beers!
http://yucatantoday.com/cerveza-ceiba-authentic-yucatecan-beer/?lang=en

After three hours of chatting and getting caught up with one another as it had been two years since we saw each other or even heard from one another! Hearing about her adventures of a year in Cuba and her trek around South America , over that time, made me want to do more than just coming here! I decided to walk home along the beach. It was 5pm so it had to be a faster walk as the sun would be setting soon. It was also challenging as it was high tide and so there was lots of walking in the water where the beach had disappeared but with the sand bags in the water it made for comfortable stepping stones. I did make it home before dark. It is about 50min from the start of the Malecon.