Groceries and exploring town

Wendy stayed home this morning to make sure all her internet connections worked ok. I headed early to go to the market to get groceries as the fridge is empty. The market is about a 15 minutes walk at the end of the street from where we are staying. What a great market especially for fruit and vegetables but you can get almost anything. I explored the market, walking around at first before filling my groceries bags. The food is not expensive at all. I spent about 90 minutes before heading home with 2 full bags. I am sure I will be returning here often and Jacinthe will want to spend some time here as well. Will take more pictures in the future.

A Haircut at the barber and fresh squeezed juices.

One of 2 regular grocery store in the center of old town.  It is 500 meters from our house.

Not a good spot to have a hamburger stand under a tree full of birds

He gave me a piece of fish to try

Lots of habanero peppers for sale

Lots of restaurants at the far end of the market. The bigger ones have char broiled pork or chicken that you can buy by the Kilo.

After filling our bellies, we went out for a short walk to Santa Lucia Park and then continued to a regular grocery to complete the initial shopping spree.

Tourist Police, here to help you

Santa Lucia Park

In the regular size chairs. I need a selfie stick.

The houses are all painted in alternating colours. No same colour for 2 houses in a row. Not my fault that she walked right into my picture

A party somewhere.

Cigarette & gum sellers busy on their cell phone

Just because the walk sign is on, does not mean you can walk.  Traffic cops are overriding the lights to keep traffic moving during busy time.

Many level of police

We understand that the baggers are working for tips, no pay, mostly it is seniors that are helping bag groceries

We spend the rest of the afternoon around the pool which may become a ritual as the weather gets very hot in the middle of the day.

We went out to explore this afternoon. Mostly around the main square called Plaza Grande. Our first stop was the Government Palace. We were told by Neil that there would be guards at the entrance and just to walk by them. Beautiful courtyard with the interior painted in green. The second floor has large painting on the walls and beautiful views of the square and the Cathedral.

Of course we needed to stop for an ice cream break. For those who know me, that is no surprise. A few of the buildings around the main square have porticoes which reminds us of Bologna Italy.

Lots of vendors set up in the Plaza Grande

Our next stop is Casa Montego Museum on the main square. It is an old mansion restored to the 16^th century with a couple of photo galleries. My camera lens is acting up, not sure if it is the heat that is causing it or not but I could only take a few pictures from our visit to the museum. Will most likely return with Jacinthe and Lisa for another visit.

We ended up our walk at Majorada Park where the have a flower exhibit. My camera let me take 1 picture of it. We will be returning again here.

Merida, here we come

Friday, March 30^th

Our trip to Merida Mexico starts in Toronto. We spent the last 10 days in Roatan Honduras with Joey and Liam and return from there to Toronto last night. Wish we could have flown directly from Roatan to Merida which is about 800 KM. But there is no such thing and other options than returning to Toronto were either just as long in time or more expensive. We used Air Transat to fly back and forth to Roatan and it was reasonable price. The good news in all this is that we got to spend an extra day with Joey and Liam. Joey and Liam had an early flight back to Calgary. We said our goodbyes knowing that we would see Joey this Summer. We went back to bed hoping to catch a couple more hours of sleep.

We took the 9AM shuttle to the airport as our flight was at 12:40. We should have taken the 10AM one as we were there too early. Our route to Merida is via Houston Texas. We had a 90 minutes layover which was as good as you want. No big rush at the airport running to gates. We grabbed something to eat at a nice restaurant. Did not have time to explore the airport but it looked nice.

Quick flight to Merida, only 2 hours from Houston. Arrive in Mexico and went thru immigration without any problems. For Taxis you go to an outside booth where you tell the cashier where you want to go. She then tells you how much. Downtown is only about 6 KM from the airport. $200 Pesos which is about $15.00 Canadian, includes a bottle of water and some cookies!

We get to the house, Casa Canton, around 7PM where Neil the property manager is waiting for us and gives us the tour of the house and a rundown on a few things. Will take pictures of the house later when I have more time but here is a picture of the dinning room.

We head out to find somewhere to get something to eat. 2 priorities, Mexican food and Margaritas. We checked out a few restaurants around a square, Santa Lucia Park, that is 2 block from the house but these were too fancy for us tonight. Perhaps some other night. 1/2 a block away we found a place that was perfect for us tonight. Wendy had enchiladas with green salsa and I choose mole sauce for mine. 2 rounds of margaritas, because you just can't have one on your first night in Mexico, unwritten rule. We sat in the restaurant courtyard. Nothing fancy here, plastic chairs and table. The waiter who may also been the owner was quick. A table of 12 arrived and he had no problems dealing with a few tables plus the large table. Wish we knew what they were ordering as it looked very good. Mostly appetizers style food. The restaurant had a very nice mural. Supper came to $25 which we were happy to pay.

In Santa Lucia Park.

This looks like what we are looking for

Our first night supper

Mural at the restaurant

After supper we went for a short walk before heading home to bed.

No 45 minutes wait, lots of Marquesitas makers in town.

Departure day

Departure day

No paddle boarding.  It is a little windy so they decide to pass. 

A last visit to our living room for the last 10 days. The palapa at the end of the pier. Very hard to leave it behind us as we headed for breakfast.

Last blue door picture...an absolutely amazing vacation!

Our final breakfast at Puerta Azul.  I am very sick of eggs, every day since we have been here some type of scrambled eggs.  They are good, but 10 days is just too much. 

We are picked up and head off to the airport.  I am given a lot of grief by airport security about my medication.  I have 3 bottles of liquid left because we are traveling for another month.  They tell me I am only allowed to bring 1 on board.  Makes no sense at all.  I end up getting Air Transat to come and help me with the translation just as they are boarding.  Air Transat tells me I should have checked it, I though we weren’t supposed to check medication?  Anyway turns out they take 2 bottles from me and let me check another piece of carry on luggage I have, not sure will survive the trip.

We luck out again and there are only 2 of us in each row that we are seated in.  Lots of room to spread out. 

Into Toronto, through customs in a breeze.  Waited about 45 minutes for our shuttle, I had picked a stupid hotel that will only send their shuttles once an hour, we are in more of a business section that the airport row of hotels.  No restaurants near by so we end up ordering out Chinese which is very yummy.  Off to bed, Joey and Liam have an early wake up, we are only out at noon tomorrow. This has been an amazing trip.  One of our favourite beach holidays.  Love that there is no TV, lots of fun family time, and lots and lots of fantastic memories.  Can’t wait for the next time….Liam is treating his Mom and us.

Beach Day

Woke up to another windy day, which was in the forecast again.  We are so glad we took such advantage of the calm days earlier in the week.

Our walk this AM

Eggs for breakfast, again

Another snorkel this morning, not quite as nice as yesterday morning, but still amazing.  We have been incredibly spoiled with the snorkeling this week.  Joey got stung by something first thing on the way out, we’re not sure what, hopefully it doesn’t turn into anything itchy.

Beautiful conch shell

Saw this snake swimming back to shore, not my favourite snorkel memory...

Today we hang out at the beach until it is time to check in for our flights tomorrow.  We are hoping for an empty flight again so we have lots of let room J

Andre and I went for one last snorkel this afternoon.  His camera batteries were all used up this morning, so no camera this afternoon.  Of course we see a spotted eagle ray again not far from the shore, the only times we have seen them he hasn’t had his camera with him!  No turtles, no sea horse, we will save those for another visit I guess.  They are out there, we have heard from others that they have seen them.

Lunch at Jolly Octopus again, same waiter again, so mango margaritas again.  No need for supper tonight.  Yesterday we had asked the waiter if he had any change as we wanted to bring a couple of coins home for a souvenir.  He didn’t have any but told us to come back today and the cook would bring us some in.  when we got there she had forgotten them.  We are having lunch and this man arrives with some coins for us, how nice she must have called and got her husband to bring us some for a souvenir.   

No need for supper again tonight, our lunches are so big when we go out.  Tonight we play one game of everything we have played for the last 10 days, except left right center which Liam refuses to play, poor loser.

We have started packing up a bit, it is so much easier to pack to go home.  Our shuttle is after breakfast so we will have lots of time in the morning to finish up.  Plans are for Andre and Liam to go paddle boarding at sunup, we’ll see what comes of that.