So what's all that noise coming down the neighborhood street during the day and well into the evening? It's enterprising vendors doing home delivery for small amounts of pesos. From the bread man/pastry guy with his ding, ding bell, to the milk guy with his mooing, to the ice cream man or the furniture person with his stack of chairs and tables to the older couple with the tenor voiced women yelling "Tamales!" They are all there and you can be their customer! When you hear them coming down the street, hustle out to the front of your house and wait for them! You can see many of your neighbors doing the same. Once you are a customer they will make your house a stop or at least a hesitation!
One of my favorites is Harley Francisco, the knife sharpener. Several times a month we can hear his pan whistle in a distance and I hustle and get all my dull scissors, knives and yard clippers ready for him. Now he stops at our house once a month and plays his tune outside until we come to the door. Today was one of those days! And here his is with his pipes!
He's unloaded his tricycle and is getting set up.
He comes to the door, sets up and he's waiting for me to plug him in.
He has a well used grinder but takes really good care of it.
He inspects all that I have given him and fine tunes the clippers and tightens the screws.
I had him sharpen two pairs of scissors, 2 kitchen knifes and a pair of clippers. He worked for about 15 minutes, made sure the results satisfied us and waiting patiently for his payment. Total cost? All of 150 pesos.. or about 8 dollars US. Oh yea, since it was well over 95 degrees F, I threw in a ice cold bottle of water!
One of my many enjoyable moments when we are in Merida, is sitting at a table outside of Myer's Deli and listening to the many sounds of the passing venders. My only problem is trying to tell what they are offering by their many different bells or horns or sounds.
ReplyDeleteI have not mastered all the sounds yet either! I've run outside thinking I was going to get ice cream and came back with pastries!
DeleteSo happy to see you posting regularly again-we’ve been “following” since your earliest posts! We’re now in Mérida (9/12 months of the year) too. Ah yes, the sounds of Mérida - how about the “Zeta! Zeta! Zeta gas!” truck? :) We get that one here in Garcia Ginerés...
ReplyDeleteDid I see a reference once to the ADK’s? We used to have a camp in Schroon Lake! Small world. Keep up the posts, and stay cool in this heat!
Thanks for reading. Yes, I decided that I missed blogging and since I've made so many friends through this I thought I'd go back to it. I grew up in upstate NY (north of Albany) and actually my husband and I met in Troy at an anti-war sit in back in the day. Thanks for your comments, it's nice to know someone is reading!
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