Day at the Beach

This weekend we decided to take time off and smell the roses so to speak. Took off to explore beaches, thought we would start off in Progreso again and see what else was around. Welll as things turn out as far as beaches go not much else once you get out of town. After driving around looking more at the houses for rent and sale, we turned back and went to Buddy,s for dinner.

Found out about a Saturday night get together that was held in town at 7pm and decided why not stay and go check it out? So we checked into the Hotel Isadora for the night.

Took the dogs for a walk along the beach, and went and checked out the get together.

Made for an interesting day, not to mention staying at a hotel without planning is always fun...

Went back to Buddy's and purchased tickets for Dec 25th dinner... This time we will plan better for an overnight stay...

Next day ( Sunday ) get up and had to use same clothes d/t lack of planning... Then drove around taking photos of what ever bird would stay still long enough for my small camera. Results below of the best... So ends the weekend...

Adventure of The Find

Things are coming along, now have a refrigerator, living room furniture, our hammocks, a deck and chair in my room, and a stove that needs to get hooked up.

Above shows the refrigerator to the left and stove on the upper right.

What the heck this is the rest of the kitchen, not very big but it will work for us.

List of things to try and do today....

Spencer to a groomer, poor guy needs a hair cut, too long for this weather.

Shot of the groomers we took Spencer to for a bath and cut.

Laundry needs to get done, so have to find a place to do it, have not gotten a washer or dryer yet.

Above Kay making the transaction at the laundry place for our cloths to get done..

Get the stove hooked up so we can cook.

Plumber came and checked the stove, needs an additional fitting to make it work.

30 min later he was back with the fitting, stove is now ready to go.

So far we have not run into any worker that does not show up and do the job as well if not better then any up North.

Find a place for bottled water, I prefer it for drinking and cooking.

We have water, with a pump....

So will have to call this day a success..

progress Slowly

Today was a look for furniture day. drove into Centro on advice of a friend, was given several locations to look. After driving from one to the other without any luck, we stopped at a Cuban Restaurant for lunch. I love Cuban food so I will not tell you the name or location of this place because in my opinion it was the worst excuse I have ever come across, calling it cuban???? That is like calling Hot dogs French Cuisine. Anyway we then drove around some more and around 2 called it quits for the day, and went to Mega for some lunch meats and drinks.

Of all places to find anything this is not what I would have expected. Found a Television table, and two small sofas, also found desk and chair for my room. Also got our drinks and lunch meats. So what looked like another day spent touring the city the hard way turned out okay. The furniture fits the house we are renting and did not cost an arm and a leg... All in all a very good day..

Next we need Curtains, if anyone reads this blog and knows a place that has a decent choice in curtains.... HELP!!!!!!!!! Please..

Looks like Pia approves of the new furniture...

Progress report last three days

Sunday

Today we checked out of the hotel, hope to be ready to sleep at the house tonight. First we are off to find hammocks, told of a place on 73 and 58 calle. Found the place with very little difficulties, but it was closed ( today is Sunday ) so drove around looking for breakfast. Pulled over someplace around 54 and 75 I think... Maybe.... Walked around in a market place that was busy!!!!!!! First thing we came across was some home made enchilada, just had to get a few.. Then were told of a place we could find breakfast ( eggs ) and off we go again... On the way to breakfast we run into a man telling about a place to get hammocks, so we de-tore again and take a look..

Not the greatest I have seen but price was okay... Purchased one each, ( I believe we will find better later and replace this. ) Then off to find hardware for so we can hang them or we will not be able to sleep in them... NOW we can go eat breakfast, found a place on the roof of the market place that served scrambled eggs Mexacana..... Excellent.. best breakfast since hitting Merida..

Good food to be found on the roof...

So now we thought we would try to find the Plaza Las Americana ... DId good.. found it with little problems.. Went in and found the TelMax store and purchased two phones, one each.... Still have to go back tomorrow to the Center and finish having them activated. Doing good so far and it is not even noon.... Break time for coffee, and to discuss what else we need to get today... We are both tied ( not sleeping well ) so do not want to push to much... Decided to find two prong plugs that will allow us to use our electronic hardware from home, and some more hangers... DONE... easy....

Okay it is noon and time to go home maybe take a nap before doing anything else... Ahhhh..... what is with this city!!!!! Ever time we try to go a certain direction the roads change, or get shut down , or just stop when the map shows it goes through... Not going into detail but it took 1.5 hours to get home and should not have taken more then 25-30 min tops.... Lost track how many times we had to go the wrong way because of one way streets... THIS is driving me nuts!!!!!!!! I do not mind the way business is done, the way people drive, or anything else.... But I hate being lost.... and that is what it feels like to me when the map shows an open road that dead ends..... If I give up on living down here that will be my main #1 without question reason way....

Made it back to the house only photos today taken at breakfast, only progress on the house was the hammocks so ends the datno.. No internet today either, so have to wait to post this when I can.. For now it is just a word Doc....

Monday

Monday, Dec 7th 2009..... Today we went back to activate the TelMex phones... Done with little problems, Except for finding our way to the plaza from the house. Streets are driving me mad, mad I tell you. Does not help that I have not been able to sleep for more then 2 to 3 hours at a time for over a week.

After phones were activated we spent several hours walking around looking for other things needed.. Found very little... Back to the house, found way back with only one U-Turn to get on right road ( not allowed to turn left were needed ) .... Still sitting on camp chairs, no Tables,, ....

Just to top off the day, we have no real food in the house, and I do not feel good.maybe coming down with something.

Kay went out with the owner getting gas tanks, for hot water heater and stove, got back sometime around 1800. Guess the things are hooked up, to be honest at this point to quote a line from a movie “ I don’t give a dame “. We still do not have a stove so it really does not matter..

Tomorrow we sit around the house waiting for the internet to get hooked up.

Tuesday

Tuesday Dec 8th, looks like this post will have multiple days. Another night of messed up sleep.. Tried to sleep in the hammock again, adjusted it several times in hope of finding a comfortable position, no luck.. Laid a blanket on the floor and slept on the floor for several hours. Up at 02:00, back hurts having problems moving, has since loosened up, but do not feel safe laying back down. Need to find a real bed, that is first on my list when the internet is up and running..

Wait for internet service to be installed, we took turns walking around the block checking things out. Nothing today, but did find places to buy things.

Next excitement came when the gas man showed up. Had to trade in the new gas tanks we got yesterday for full tanks, that are old. We now have gas for water heater that is old, and our stove that we do not yet have..

Hoping this is the gas man sent by our landlord...

Notice the old tank is going in and the new one just purchased last night is being taken out...

So it was out with the new and in with the old. Back to waiting...

Took another walk at 1100 found a few small markets in the area, when I cam back the cable men followed shortly after. Just over an hour later we had television, internet and a phone line working...

Moving in

Today we did get a few small items completed. We arranged to get cable ( television, phone, and internet ) hook up sometime Tuesday. ( good deal!!! ) Went driving around looking at places that we might be able to get some used furniture. ( total confusion ) Picked up several must have items from Wal Mart ( because we know WM ) like seats for el Toilet, a microwave, shower curtain, TP, coffee mugs, dog food, cat food, ETC...

Then we tried to find the Plaza De American..... Think we came close a couple of times but kept running into one way roads going the wrong way... Will try again in the morning when fewer people are on the road....

Looking up places to purchase a hammock so that we can check out of the hotel and start staying at the house.

Todays photos show what the place looks like at the end of the day today... Oh!!!!!! so much difference...

Texas truck in front of our new Mexican Home.

No change to the yard, just Kay trying to hide.

Vast improvement, Maybe not so much if you are male, but believe me a seat is a big deal..

A Television and two chairs, we will improve on them in the near future. But for now it is better then nothing.

Kitchen almost looks like one, but still lots to do...

Living-room is still mostly empty, so are both bedrooms.....

Rento la casa en Merida

Okay today has been an adventure all day. Had no sooner got dressed to take the dogs out for the morning obstacle course ( sometimes called a walk ) when the phone rang. It was one of the agents we contacted asking to be shown rental homes. An appointment was setup for 09:30am to meet and go look a small house in North Merida. The drive itself was a challenge because we had to follow, after a few turns and

being cut off by a bus or two we made it to the house.

I love the street it is on, it is peaceful and will be very easy to walk the dogs without having to duck traffic or worry about people being afraid of them. The house is unfurnished, two stories, two bedrooms, 1. 5 bathrooms, a small living room, small kitchen, and an area for a table. Oh yes and the price is right for a first time home rental... Less then $600USD a month... I think it is a good deal...

Outside of the front of the house.

Back yard of the house..

Kitchen... Not much to look at at the moment..

It is a good start, to first get us out of the hotel, second allow us time to look around to decide were we want to live, and when we know purchase a place. Kay will go for her FM3 first, then I will see about getting one. I may have a problem because I am not yet retired and work outside Mexico. We will cross that bridge when we get to it...

Bedroom....

One of the two upstairs bedrooms.

Hoping to finish the paperwork today and start moving in tomorrow... Will update later...

It is now later, we have signed the papers and received the keys, will start the move in process tomorrow. Signing papers was a trip, it was just about as bad as any contract that I have ever had to sign in the States... But it is done... Been a long day and ready for it to be over..

Above having dinner after the papers were signed and we got the keys.

Above is Pia our 13 year old cat, as you can see she does as she pleases.

Above is Shelby our 13 or 14 year old Lab, she is a sweet heart, very easy going and loves being the center..

Meet Spencer the last member of the Tres Amigos fur traveling group.

Chichen Itza

Well we made it to Chichen Itza today. Not going to try and tell the story about the place, but if interested you can look it up on the internet. But here are the photos..

To be honest, this is something I am glad I did, but would not go again. It is a one time thing as far as I am concerned. It is way to commercialized for my taste. I'm not sure what I expected but this was not it. To me it felt like the selling of a peoples history for a fast buck.. I think it could have been done with more respect..

Today we do Chichen Itza

Yesterday we spoke to a real estate agent that set up an appointment with us for Thursday, so we scheduled a sight seeing trip to Chichen Itza for today... Well when we got going this morning we check our emails and found a message from the agent asking if we could meet today at 3pm instead. Okay we went and managed to get our trip changed to Thursday instead of today.. Oh did I mention it is paid for in advance??? So now we have to find things to do until three.

Took the dogs out of the room so housekeeping could clean, drove to Wal Mart.. Just because.. Then drove to Progreso, had lunch, walked the dogs, and drove back to the hotel. It is now around 1:30pm. We figure drop the dogs off and go meet the agent right??? WRONG!!!!! We have a message waiting for us, meeting has been cancelled.... This is now the second time in less then a week We reschedule a day for an agent and get blown off... We are spending money staying in a hotel, and not making any progress to get out... It this does not change then maybe we need to look at a different city, could be the gods telling us Merida is not the city for us..

Guess I well read for the rest of the night... Today is the last time I reschedule my plans for anyone when it comes to business down here.

I think I like Progreso better anyway. See photos below..

Working boats up on the beach.

Not sure what type of boat this is.

Nice walk along the beach.

Slow day

Not much going on today. Stayed in all day. Kay spent time on the internet looking for rentals, I read a book. So ends day three in Merida. I would like to take some tours, but know it will not happen until a rental is found, just hoping we find one soon, already sick of suitcase living.. Do enough of it on the boat, do not need to do it now

Well the day did not end as I thought it would, we went to a restaurant called Los Almendros, for dinner. Food is excellent, first time I have eaten Mayan but enjoyed ever bite. We then took a walk to the Zocato, did a little walk about, sat on a bench and watched all the people walk by. Then to end the day went the wrong way back to our hotel, and had to pull out the mapa and find our way back... Just when we thought we were finding our way we get lost yet again...