I've got to be CRAZY!

Carlos arrived home last night after 2 weeks in Hartford, CT. He should have arrived at 8:30 and I would have picked him up at the airport. Southwest cancelled his flight out of Hartford and by the time he was rebooked and arrived in St Louis it was after 1:15 AM. Needless to say he took a taxi home. (only the second time ever)  Today we will do his laundry, pick up his dry cleaning and get him ready to repack to leave again tomorrow. Tonight he will have a meal of rice and beans and avocados… all his favorite Puerto Rican foods.

Yummmy, rice and beans and tostone

This next trip he is going to Daytona Beach, FL. For three weeks! This time he will have some company as Maia and I booked a flight on August 10^th and we will stay until August 14^th. This will be the first time Maia has flown, stayed in a hotel, and been away from her parents. I hope I’m not crazy taking a almost two year old on a trip. Luckily Carlos is staying in a residence type hotel so we will have a kitchen. I checked and they have a big pool. Maia will get to try out the beach and maybe learn to like sand! (she won’t go near her sand box) Her cousins Sebastian and Ana (the noisy kids who just spent 2 months with us) will drive up from Ft Lauderdale to go to the beach with us on Saturday.

If only it was this easy!

The sheer amount of paraphernalia you need to travel with a toddler has me making list and adding stuff every day. I need to take her blankie, toys, coloring stuff, clothes, bottles, diapers, carriage, car seat, floatie, bathing suit, beach towel, DVD’s, wipes, sunhat, sunscreen, etc. Yea, I got to be crazy!

Doldrums of Summer

It’s really hard to think up topics for my blog. I seem to be in the doldrums of summer. It is way hotter here in St Louis than in Merida, and it’s really humid too.

I don’t have a pool to cool off in. The public pools are not really close and are expensive at $8.00 for adults. Many of them are water parks and difficult to take a toddler to. ( I am with my almost 2 yr old grand daughter, Maia every day) So we have made do with free spray parks. In case you are not in the know, spray parks are concrete pads with different kinds of water sprays that come out of them. Many public parks have them and they are usually free. Just our style!

However that still leaves me hot as prancing around a spray park is not something I would do! Our other option is Maia's little blow up pool I put on the deck. She loves to pretend she's swimming and it seems to keep her busy for an hour or so while I sit under the umbrella and suck down an ice coffee.

I do have some plans however! Today we are going to visit a friend who's townhouse complex has a pool! She says that hardly anyone ever uses it so hopefully today will be the same. I'm looking forward to immersing myself in some cooling water and when Maia wakes up from her nap we will go!

Construction Update!

Here are some of the new photos I received today from Arturo. I am just starting to get a little feel for the build. Photos really help!

Looking from the terrace, outside of kitchen

Looking from the rear of property

Working With A great Guy

When we first planned a trip to Merida in 2007 we scoured the blogs and the real estate web sites for lots of information. At that time there was also a wonderful forum called Merida Insider which was full of great information. CQ and I contacted several of the real estate agents that we felt were both highly recommended and worked for reputable real estate companies. Several answered us, some did not. One who answered us, offered to show us whatever we were interested in and really followed up was Arturo Novelo of Mexico International. We decided to work with him.

Arturo 

When we went to Merida, Arturo picked us up at the B & B, Las Arecas and really spent several quality days both showing us properties but also showing us the different areas of town. We felt comfortable in his presence immediately. We were in awe of his knowledge of Merida and liked that he really listened to what we wanted. When we found the property we liked, he brought in several architects for us to talk to about what they felt we could make the property into. He was with us at closing and the rest is history!

This is when we knew it was our house!

We loved the lot size.. this is Arturo showing it to us!

So now it is 2011 and Arturo is still there for us. He and his wife have a small personalized property management firm and yes they take great care of our property. Now that construction has started he sends us photo updates and we have discussions via Skype. I highly recommend Arturo for both real estate needs as well as property management. (He can be contacted at turix4 at yahoo dot com)

Update on Construction!

I finally received some new photos of the house but they were in a power point presentation, which I do not have the software. So I uploaded to goggle and here is a link that I hope will work!
https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0BwcZZTG4AwqCZDI2NmJlZjktNzFiNC00ZmNmLWIyZGEtYjQ0ZGFlY2VmOGI2&hl=en_US

I find as technology changes it now takes me longer to get with the program. I guess that comes with being retired and out of the workplace!

So here is the second link where you can finally see all the walls and rooms on the first floor. It is still difficult for me to imagine the size of the rooms! I am hoping that they will be airy and light filled!

https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0BwcZZTG4AwqCNzc2YmFiOGEtNDFlOC00OWZiLWJlMDEtYzgyY2Y0OTM5NjU1&hl=en_US

Discovering the History of the Yucatan

Noisy Sebastian with Persimmon

It’s been more than a week since I posted last. My guests are now gone after their 7 week visit. Now it’s only the immediate extended multi-generational family, i.e. me, Carlos when he’s home for the weekends, my son, Carlos Daniel, his girlfriend and mother of his daughter Kylie and finally my granddaughter Maia Danielle. I guess I need to mention my three cats, Bleu-Berri, Kiwi and Persimmon. The quiet is fabulous! I love my sister’s kids, but they are really noisy! The cats love the quiet too, except for Persimmon who really loves the kids.

CQ and Maia enjoying a quiet moment in the park.

So this morning I decided to peruse the bookshelves to see what titles we have that mention the Yucatan. Back in the early 90’s Carlos decided that he needed a diversion and returned to school to work on a PhD. He had become interested in Latin American History and was accepted into the doctoral program at Washington University here in St Louis. The best part was that they gave him a full scholarship! He became very interested in Mexico and we made several trips to the Jalisco area to visit libraries for his research. He did this all while starting his own business in computer installation and repair. Anyway to make a long story short, he completed everything but his dissertation.(AbD)When we retire he may finally get this done.

So here are the books that are currently on our bookshelves about the Yucatan. If anyone has a title and author we do not own, let us know so we can source it.

Title	Author
Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatan	John L. Stephens
The Caste Wars of the Yucatan	Nelson A. Reed
Yucatan’s Gilded Age. Haciendas, Henequen and International Harvester 1860-1915	Allen Wells
Memory, Myth and Time in Mexico	Enrique Florescano
Revolution from Without, Yucatan, Mexico and the United States 1880-1924	Gilbert M. Joseph
Guide to Ancient Mayan Ruins	C Bruce Hunter
The Yucatan, A guide to the land of  Maya Mysteries	Antoinette May
Yucatan, Before and After the Conquest	Friar Diego de Landa
Mexico since Independence	Edited by Leslie Bethell