Guest House or No Guest House?

We meet with Roger the other day and he gave us the plans for the pool and guest house. The guest house would be two additional bedrooms each with their own bath. The bedrooms would have a connecting door area that could be left open if it was a family group (like Carlos' sister and family) or closed for non-related people. We have mentioned this to several of the people we have meet in Merida and their response has been, "You may want to rethink that guest house!" They say that in the 6 or 7 years that they have spent in Merida, no one has visited them... Now we did run into that this trip as several people were going to join us and all cancelled. So what do you think? Will we have visitors or are we building this for the stray cats?

Here are Roger's renditions...

I am taking a poll, would you come to visit us? Or if you have a house in Merida, how many guests have you had?

It's the end of the world and all I can think of is yummy carrots!

Tomorrow is the end of the Mayan Calendar and thousands of people from all over the world have gathered here in Merida. The listing of activities is long and range from lectures by archeologists and historians to dancing in the streets, and even gatherings to meditate at some of the larger Maya ruins.

We will be attending the end of the world party at the Merida English Library tomorrow, but really I am just loving the carrots! Today we went to the main mercado and for less than .75 US I purchased 2.2 kilos of yummy delish carrots. Sliced, steamed and with butter and pepper they are the best carrots I have ever eaten!

Aquisitions!

We rented a car two days ago to go out and about to stores to far to walk to or to taxi too. Plus we wanted to visit some ruins, go to the beach and visit a cenote or two. The first day we went to Dzbilchaltun. It was really hot. After we spent time in the museum and visiting the ruins we went to the above ground cenote and dived in.... it was awesome! It cooled us off in moments. As it was cruise ship day in Progresso there were a few buses at the ruins. One young couple we struck up conversation with had just gotten engaged ontop of the pyramid. Nice.... they were from Kansas City.

We than went into Progresso and had lunch at our favorite fish place!

Remains of my sea bass....

We have purchased a few items for the house... and we are getting much more comfortable!

A hammock

A guitar

  

Some stools for the kitchen counter

A couch

Sometimes the world is weird....

So now that I feel better I have been shopping all around Merida to get all the things to make my life easier. We were in one of the big department stores that is so like Macy's you'd think you were there. In the housewares section I found this wonderful (or not) display..... Does anyone else think this would be weird to own?

What would you name this product? Voodoo Knives?, and the appetizer one is even weirder! I will not be making this purchase anytime soon!

Here for seven days, sick for five...

 So as I was saying this will be mostly photos that I took 7 days ago when I was feeling well.. and all the plans we had? Well, CQ went to the symphony by himself and I was jealous! He went to the pharmacy and they fixed me up with some sulpher drugs that took 24 hours to kick in and it was all for 3.00 US!

The facade is complete

Kitchen is mostly complete. It's very functional.

View from the front door

And last the view from my bed as I lay there for the last few days....

Scheduling December in Merida!

We will be arriving in Merida on December 1 and will stay until January 4th... That's 35 days to fill with things to do. So I am trying.... Here's the schedule so far and if anyone has any other suggestions I am open to them!
We do not arrive in Merida until late on Saturday. On Sunday it's the last day of the AANY Craft show at CANACO, Avenida Itzaeres X 31. It's all handmade three-dimensional items and I do have a empty house that needs things! This will be our first activity.
The next activity scheduled is two performances at the symphony... Today I bought tickets on line for Dec 7th and the final performance on December 14th. It was easy to buy the tickets on their web site and they hold the tickets at the desk on the day of the performance. I do need to remember to pack something a little dressier than I would normally take!
I have the information that Barb (From the Snow to Mexico) sent me about her wonderful Sachi! CQ and I are looking forward to several massages!
We have several informal meetings planned, not sure when they will happen, but hope they do! Sarah and Helmut just moved from St Louis to Chelem and we hope they will come into Merida to see our house and drink some wine with us! Another couple David and Leo, just bought a home in Santiago and we are hoping to connect with them too... I would love to meet up with other blogger friends if anyone has time available! Cathy, I still have your coffee I brought you in August....
Where do people have their Christmas dinner? Is it at home or do some meet at the Hyatt or another place? We may like to join you!

I need MORE furniture!

I can cool down the wine..

I will need to do some shopping. I just can't imagine a whole 35 days with two plastic chairs and table and a mattress on the floor! However I do have a wine cooler and wine glasses....
As you can see I have so much time to fill... so we are open to any suggestions! And would love to meet up and make some new friends.

I haven't been to Merida (since August) BUT I have been other places!

Sometimes I get restless. Carlos gets even more restless. I am already retired and for the most part take care of my wonderful grand daughter Maia while her parents work. In August my son and girlfriend had another baby, a beautiful little boy they named Carlos Xander Q. So while the maternity leave was happening I took advantage to spend some time travelling!

We first went for a week to Cocoa Beach, Florida. The weather was beautiful and we got a chance to spend time with my sister and her family! What fun! We also spent a day with good friends who have chosen Celebration, Florida as their retirement haven. Loved it! After 7 days there it was time to go home as Carlos had to return to work..

We had not been home even a week when I found out that my only remaining uncle, who I think the world of was seriously ill in New York. His sister, my Aunt B lives in Iowa about 5 hours away so we decided to go to our hometown in upstate NY for a week. The fall colors were just beautiful.  We spent much time at the hospital but I still managed to visit with my sisters and some high school friends. (and Uncle A is much recovered!)

Now Carlos still had several vacation days unscheduled and thousands of Southwest Air miles, not to mention Hertz Miles and Marriott points... so I looked around for a long weekend and we are now in Reno, Nevada! We have been here since Thursday and will return to St Louis tomorrow. What a good time we have been having! Yesterday we drove over the mountains to South Lake Tahoe and went to see rocker Leon Russell in concert at one of the casinos. For 70 years old he STILL has it!

The weather in Reno has been wonderful and it has been great to see some mountains as well as some snow!

Our next scheduled trip is for Merida on December 1! We are staying until January 4th! I'm so excited... and we may have friends and family joining us!

Not much is happening right now...

I am packing suitcases for our month long trip in December. I have a suitcase sitting on the bedroom floor and as I think of things or buy things I throw them in the suitcase. Tonight I weighted it and this first one is about 45 lbs. I have packed a French press coffee pot, some bath and body works soaps, measuring cups, a couple of non-stick frying pans, towels, a couple of yummy smelling candles. Also some spices to cook Puerto Rican food, a rice washer bowl, and 4 individual surge protectors designed to use with appliances. Now it's time to bring out a second suitcase! Since we are traveling via Air Tran in business class we can check 4 bags and carry on two. I plan to take full advantage of that!

We have had a skype conference call with Roger to discuss some appliance details as well as a little about the pool and guest house in the back. (casa de huespedes) We have an estimate but are waiting for the design details. And I am working on some of the landscaping details, mainly deciding what kinds of plants I would like.

And here are a few updated photos of what has changed since I last blogged!

A few more windows have been installed including this one with frosted windows!

Kitchen cabinets and wine cooler ready to go.. though no counter tops yet!

Night Views

Arturo sent me some new photos and he seemed fascinated with the night views. I must admit that I love them too! The lighting looks fantastic....