Author: bbpeck

Our last day in Mexico City was pretty much focused on Frida Kahlo.  We both really wanted to get to her museum, locally known as La Casa Azul or the Blue House.  We decided to walk there and then bus or metro it back to our hotel.  It was about a two-hour walk to the museum which allowed us to see a lot of neighborhoods that we hadn’t seen before.The walk was pretty much a straight shot, with a little excitement along the way. 

Once at the museum, we waited for about an hour in line to enter the museum and then had a good hour to 90 minutes inside the house and very lovely grounds.  The museum provided a good overview of Frida’s life, including her childhood bout with polio that caused one leg to be shorter than the other, the traffic accident at age 18 that would create health issues for the rest of her life, her relationship/marriage to Diego Rivera, their relationship with Leon Trotsky, as well as her career.  We loved it!

NOTE:  In a related aside — If you have not yet seen the movie Frida with Salma Hayek and Alfred Molina, we highly recommend a viewing.

We ended up taking the metro back to our hotel.  That was a very warm, crowded experience.  Of course, when you are paying $.50 each, you don’t really complain too much.  Once at the hotel, we got an Uber to take us to a hotel closer to the airport as we had a very early flight to the States on Wednesday.



Our second day in Mexico City was Monday — as in ALL museums are closed Monday.  Not to be stymied in our efforts to see and learn more about Mexico City (or so we thought), we headed to Chapultepec Park.  This is a top rated thing to do in the city as the vast park holds not only a number of museums but also has man-made lakes, walking trails, fountains, and statues.  We thought it would make for a lovely half-day of walking and would also allow us to see the broad and beautiful Paseo de la Reforma, one of the main streets in the city, as we would need to walk that to get to the park.

We aren’t as smart as we thought.  Unbeknownst to us, Mexico City closes the entire park to visitors on Mondays.  It is twice the size of Central Park — closed!  There is an iron fence surrounding the park, and on Mondays all gates are locked.  We spoke with the nice security people who told us that “yes, the whole park is closed on Mondays” as if the closing of vast stretches of public park space is an obvious thing to do. 

We decided that Plan B would be to pay to be driven around in a tourist bus to learn some facts about the sites we were seeing as well as to see additional sites.  After about a 90 minute walk to the Zocalo Square from the park, we paid the equivalent of $8 for a 3 hour tour.  The bus drivers, who are able to successfully negotiate the madness that is Mexico City traffic (including 2-way traffic around round-about some), ought perhaps to be given some gubernatorial authority as well cuz they are good.

Some photos of our day —

After leaving the Yucatan via Volaris Airlines from Merida, we arrived to beautiful weather in Mexico City.  Instead of dealing with the aggressive taxi drivers, we took the Metro Bus (Line 4) into the historic center of the city — very easy, cheap, and not crowded.  We were in early (still in the am) but were able to check-in to our hotel where we ended up having a great stay with beautiful views from the top two floors and free breakfast buffets.

We had a fun 3 days in this bustling, cultural metropolis, but I’ll let the photos do most of the talking.

It was also free museum Sunday so along with lots of other people we went into the Palace of Belles Arts to see the Diego Rivera murals that are there but got to take in the Picasso & Rivera exhibition that was there as well. Very, very cool!

A Diego Rivera mural in the National Palace. It is a replica of the one that he had created for Rockefeller Center in New York but which was destroyed after being determined by the Rockefellers to be too anti-capitalist

We are wrapping up our Chelem house sit today.  We will spend a night in Merida before heading to Mexico City for a couple of days before heading back to the States for some house sits there.  (More on that later as our plans have changed, but we will hit both coasts and the southwest before heading to our nephew’s wedding in Illinois in early September.)

Today we will have to say good-bye to two of the cutest cats ever.  Purrcy, the male, is gregarious, curious and loving.  He is with us in the house wherever we are either to watch, cuddle, lick our water bottles or glasses (he likes cold!), or take our seats when we get up.  He has also slept with us every night.  

Squeak is a bit more selective with her affections.  She kept mostly to the 2nd bedroom, “her” room, but occasionally comes out to see what’s up, maybe let us pet her a bit, before heading back.  However, the last few days, she has come out more — even getting up on the bed with us for a few minutes while Purrcy was there.  I have also been granted some cuddle time with her which is awesome cuz she does this cute reach thing with her paw for your attention.  However, she always heard Bob when he would try to get a photo so no evidence this go round.

We never did venture too far afield, but we had a great meal out in Progreso and returned to Merida for a hair appointment for me.  Mostly we’ve hit doc appointments in Progreso, wandered into Chelem, or hung by the pool.

For our night out in Progreso, we tried an Uber ride which worked well.  We had a patch of wet weather last week, as you’ll see from the window of our restaurant.

We got to see a little different area of Merida for my hair appointment — mostly along Calle 60 which took us from the bus station to the Avenida Paseo Montejo where the salon was located.  The Paseo Montejo is a lovely, broad avenue which is lined with lovely home so/buildings as well as monuments at either end and along the meridian.

While it has been a less active than usual house sit, we have enjoyed our stay.  The house and pool made it feel like we were suppose to be on vacation, and all of the locals we met were very nice.

In the last installment of Beth’s Dog Bite saga, I had my stitches removed on Wednesday.  While the wound doesn’t look pretty yet, it looks much better.  I have been impressed with the kindness and attention to a foreigner.  Everything has been easy to access and stress-free.  I don’t know that this would have been the case for me in the US, and I’m sure that it would not be the case for a foreign visitor.  I hope I’m wrong.

In terms of our usual activity level, Bob and I have been pretty “chill” here in Mexico.  We have gotten out a few times in Chelem and have continued to visit Progreso regularly, usually in association with doc appointments related to my dog bite.  More on all of that a bit later.

Our big trip to date was back into Merida to visit the Gran Museo del Mundo Maya.  To get to Merida, we walked out of the house, down the driveway, and across the street to hail a colectivo to Progreso.  Once there, we walked around the corner from the final stop in Progreso to catch a large bus into Merida.  We were able to get off the bus right next to the museum which is on the outer edges of Merida.  The entire trip (one-way) took a little over an hour and cost about $1.45.  Not a bad deal!

The Mayan Museum is beautiful and interesting.  Most of the posted information is in both English and Spanish, with some in Mayan as well.  There are films that are shown throughout the day but those are only in Spanish.  The museum actually covers prehistoric times in general before focusing on the Mayan history and culture.  I am fairly ignorant regarding ancient history, so a lot of the information was new to me including the news that a huge meteor/asteroid had crashed into Mexico, in the Yucatan, significantly changing the world, and its inhabitants, at that time.



 

We are headed back to Merida on Saturday for a hair appointment for me.  Bob will be doing some exploring while I’m getting worked on.

In Chelem, we have often been lazing the afternoons away either inside with the cats or outside by the pool.  Bob has become proficient in pool care in terms of filtering, checking the chlorine, etc.  He is also in the pool more often, as I have been focused on keeping my wound dry.  He enjoys watching the birds dive for fish as well as the various boats go across the water.  One day when there seemed to be an inordinate level of boat activity, we learned on the local website that it was likely due to the start of sea cucumber season.

We venture into town, about a 30 minute walk, to visit one of the produce stands, hit the pharmacy, or pop into one of the local restaurants.  We have been to El Bullpen twice for their weekly art and wine flight event.  Last night along with our $3.50 flights of white wine, we had dinner and I traded in my used English language books for some of theirs (with the approval of the owner).  It was awesome!  I scored 2 unused, New York Times crossword puzzle books (my favorites) plus a Nathianel Hawthorne novel and a Norman Mailor book.  Give me some books and running shoes, and I’m a happy girl (okay middle-aged woman –but the point is I’m happy).

Last Sunday, we had tried to stop into a bar/restaurant called Lizard Joes.  Our homeowner had told us about it.  It is known for its live music, and is co-owned by Joe King Carrasco, who we have heard of from Austin.  Lizard Joes is only open from Thursday through Monday.  Unfortunately, they had a sign out on Sunday that they were closed, so we stopped at another restaurant that had been recommended by the homeowners –La Terracita. 

The grilled pineapple with tamarind was pretty good.  Tamarind is spicy.  It seems to be on everything here — savory or sweet.

As I said, we continue to get into Progreo, mostly in conjunction with doctor visits.  the doctor who has treated my injury is Dr. Herrera at the Clinico Medico on the square in Progreso.  He speaks English and has treated the wound, wrote the prescriptions for anti-biotics, and stitched up the hole when it wasn’t closing on its own.  He sent me to the health center for the rabies shots.  The health center is just across the bridge from Chelem (45-50 minutes by foot), so we generally walk to those appointments.  We are charged for services at the clinic, but not for those at the health center.

Warning:  Nasty photos ahead.  Turn back now if you aren’t a fan of gore!

There is a lot to be said for dogs whose bark is worse than there bite, but it could have been worse.  I could have been hit by an asteroid!

One fun fact that we have learned in our short time in the Yucatan is that the Mayan word for “dog” is “pek” pronounced like our last name.  While we are currently cat-sitting, this information is somewhat relevant to our current stay, as I was bitten by one of the many street dogs in Chelem on my second morning out for a run here.  While I have flesh to spare, I wasn’t really looking to off-load it from my right calf.  I had run on the same road the prior day and had seen two locals running there as well.  Apparently, I smelled worse on Sunday.  Anyway, not to prolong the sad story too much, we are getting to know the local clinics (the staff of which have been very nice and from whom we learned the aforementioned fun fact), and I am getting to try out some antibiotics and rabies shots. During my initial visit to one of the clinics in Progreso, I was one of 4 dog bite cases that day, so there is a bit of an issue.    I find out Monday if they think I need to have stitches. I’ll keep you posted.

As you’ll see below, Bob and I are still getting out and about (otherwise the dog would win!), but it has made it a tad more stressful.  We generally make sure we have an umbrella or stick handy just in case.  

We chose to go to Progreso for the doctor visits so have been there a few times now.  We opted to walk back one day (about 6 miles), but generally we have taken a colectivo– white vans that run between Chelem and Progreso.  You can flag them down from the main road at the end of our driveway, and they will drop you off anywhere in Chelem or Progreso along their route.  It’s not luxurious (see below), but it is very convenient as they run pretty frequently for the better part of the day.  It costs 9 pesos (roughly 50 cents) a person each way.

More photos of Progreso —

 

Later on the day (yesterday) when we walked back to Chelem, we walked to a local restaurant that was having an art show and wine event. Over our $3.50 flights of white wine, we got to talking with the co-owner of the restaurant  (a US native from South Dakota via Colorado).  She noted that had seen us walking into Chelem earlier that day.  

Photos of Chelem —

 

A couple of the local “habitat” —

We have ended our brief US layover after a great stay with Bob’s sister and brother-in-law in Iowa.  While there, we were also able to connect with our mothers on Mother’s Day and spend some time with Bob’s parents.  After a leisurely couple of days (though we did have a bit of time in the basement as a bad storm passed through) in Glidden where we changed out our winter clothes for summer garb and met with the CPA who had helped us with our tax filing, we headed to Des Moines for a night with one of our nephews before catching an early flight to Dallas, then Mexico City, and finally Merida.

Merida is the capital of the Yucaran, the Mexican state in which we will be staying for our current house sit.  It has a population of approximately 980,000.  We arrived at about 6:30 pm, and it was a 104 degrees.  A bit of a change from Iowa and Scotland!  We had the lovely proprietress of our inn pick us up at the airport which made for a relaxing entry into the city.  (Just for a bit of drama, however, after having traveled back and forth between Canada, the US, and the U.K., our bank decided that trying to withdraw money in Mexico was a no-go.  Luckily, we were able to fairly quickly resolve the issue.)

We stayed one night in Merida at the Casa Catrina before our home owners picked us up on Friday.  We only saw a bit of Merida before our noon pick up but hope to get back during our 3-week stay.

Our home owners, whom we last sat for in Calgary, took us to Progreso for some grocery shopping and lunch after dropping our bags off at the house and walking us through the home and pet care instructions.    Progreso is a port city of about 55,000 in the Yucatan.  it is a popular cruise ship stop with cruise ships in port every Tuesday and Thursday during the cruise season.  It has a lovely boulevard along the water (Gulf of Mexico).

Our house sit is actually in the little fishing village of Chelem (population of just over 5,000) about 6 miles from Progreso.  We will be caring for 2 cats –Puurcy and Squeak, as well as looking after a beachfront home with its own pool.  Chelem has a number of restaurants and a couple of small stores as well as some fruit and vegetable stands.  we will be drinking bottled water and disinfecting our fresh produce while we are here and trying to get use to buying things for much, much less than they would cost in the states.

More on all of that and Chelem, etc. later.



The other tourist site outside of Kirkwall that we really wanted to see was the Italian chapel. We took a local bus there (arriving just before a couple of coaches full of other tourists) but then walked the 6 miles back — against the wind. The Italian Chapel and the nearby Churchhill Barriers are just a couple of reminders from Orkney’s involvement in WWII.  During WWII, Italian prisoners of war were brought to Orkney to build naval defense barriers but were given permission to also build a place that they could worship with the scrap materials that were available.  The chapel has led to a continued relationship between Italy and Orkney, especially with the community of Meana (the home of the Italian that designed the chapel).

We saw a couple of unique sites on our walk back.  See what you think.

We  found some sites of interest in Kirkwall as well including the St. Magnus Cathedral, the Highland Park Distillery, lots of great retail shops with artisan crafts, and an interesting local museum. There was also this boat that I first saw on a morning run and made Bob go back and look at with me to make sure I wasn’t seeing things.  We were told it’s an old warship.

The St. Magnus Cathedral is Kirkwall’s most dominant building and an important part of its history.  It was founded in 1137 by the Earl of Rognvald to honor St. Magnus who was ordered by his cousin to be slain over a dispute over the ruling of Orkney.  It was built during the time when Orkney was under the rule of the Norse Earls.

We had a late afternoon tour of the Highland Park Distllery on the day  we were to sail off to Aberdeen.  We lucked out and got in with a group of cruise ship workers, so we got an extra taste.  

While we had arrived into Orkney via ferry from Scrabster to Stromness, we left by ferry from Kirkwall to Aberdeen.  This time it was a night sailing that would take approximately 7 hours (from about midnight to 7 am), so we paid to have a berth on board.  We also learned upon boarding that we wouldn’t’ have to leave the ship until 9:30 am.  This was nice as it allowed us to sleep in a bit and shower in our room once the ship was docked.

After leaving the ship we walked to our inn to check our bags.  We were staying at a pub/hotel owned by one of the large UK beer companies — Belhaven.  The staff were great, and we got breakfast the following morning before heading to Edinburgh.

For our one day in Aberdeen we walked a 6.5 mile route that we had found in one of our Travel Scotland brochures.  It took us out of the city center, past the University of Aberdeen, St. Machar’s Cathedral, through Seaton Park, along the River Don, and then along the Esplanade to the City of Aberdeen Beach before heading back into town.

Later in the day , after officially checking into our hotel, we did another walk about in the city center and spied the following —

Early on Saturday, May 6, Bob and I traveled to Kirkwall, Scotland, the largest town (@ 10,000 residents) in the Orkney Islands via train, taxi, ferry. We traveled by train from Inverness to Thurso on the Scottish mainland where we caught an already scheduled cab to take us to the nearby community of Scrabster. There we boarded a Northlink ferry for an hour and a half trip to the town of Stromness on the Orkney Mainland and then caught a bus right outside the ferry area to go to Kirkwall. We left Inverness at 7:00 am and arrived at our bed and breakfast about 3:30 pm.

We had wanted to see more of Scotland after our housesit.  Orkney was recommended to us by our Thornhill home owners. The Orkney Islands is a set of 70 islands (about 20 of which are occupied) off the northeastern coast of Scotland.  They are renowned for World Heritage Neolithic sites, war history, craftsmanship and wind (maybe not in that order). The people and whisky are pretty great too!  We had a lovely, relaxing (though BRISK) holiday on the mainland island.

For our first full day, we splurged on a tour of some of the major Neolithic sites on the western mainland. It was well worth it.  Clive, our tour guide was great.  He made what could have been just an exceptionally chilly day (see how we are all bundled up below) pondering the meaning of old stone formations really educational. We learned as much about the area as we did about the sites.

NOTE:  There is old and then there is crazy old.  This was a crazy old day.  The Neolithic Age though it means the “New Stone Age,” ended when metal tools were becoming mainstream — somewhere between 4000 and 2500 BC!

Our first stop was the Unstan Chambered Cairn (tomb).

Our second stop was the former community of Skara Brae

Next on the itinerary were a couple of henge (circular or oval-shaped bank with an internal ditch) and standing stone structures.

Appropriately enough, we end with another cairn (tomb).  This one was built around 2800 BC and has some impressive examples of runic inscriptions.  No photos were allowed inside.

Orkney is a cruise destination and unbeknownst to us when we were making our plans two cruise ships were due into port while we would be there. Monday was to be the first ship  (@ 3,500 passengers), so we planned to keep away from the main tourist sites by hiking up a nearby hill and then to a cairn. The ship ended up not being able to dock due to technical issues, but we went ahead with our plans anyway. Later in the afternoon, we met some friends of our home owners who had tea for us and then gave us a tour of the Eastern mainland.