Final Day :(
We put as much time into this day as humanly possible. We started at 5:30AM since we had to catch a taxi to the bus station. I didn’t think it would be too safe to be walking through the streets that early in the morning. We were out the door at 6AM and on our way to Chichen Itza by 6:30. The bus ride was a very pleasant one, I think we had the new bus, it had the “new” smell, and great air conditioning.
The bus let us out around 8:15 at Chichen Itza and our tour of the Mayan ruins began. All the pictures will be on face book sometime next week when Katelyn gets a chance to load them all. She has a full week ahead. The ruins and history are amazing. The carvings in the walls are still viewable after all these years. We toured around 4 hours or so. It was an extremely hot day. I think I was dripping wet by the end of the day; One of the things that caught us by surprise was all the individuals who were selling their goods. I honestly thought we’d go there and other than a T-shirt there wouldn’t be anything to purchase….that couldn’t have been further from the truth.
While waited for the last bit of time to go by until the bus arrived we saw a guy and girl doing Mexican dancing with bottles on their heads and then trays of glasses. Hard to believe someone could balance all that and dance at the same time. We were to meet the bus at 2:20 and we were out there waiting at 2:10. We started to worry at 2:33 when we hadn’t seen the bus. So we started walking up towards the entrance gate and a guy came running out from behind the buses yelling “Merida, going to Merida” We were relieved that we hadn’t missed it some how. The ride back was wonderfully cool and relaxing.
Upon arriving back at the bus station we caught a cab back to the hotel, we were exhausted from the hot day and the thought of 20 more hot blocks wasn’t in the least appealing.. Katelyn had us take a taxi out front of the bus station instead of the taxi service connected to the bus station and it saved us ½ of what we spent in the morning. (20 pesos) Isn’t she a smart girl She’s really learning the ins and outs of Mexico. We quickly showered and headed to out last dinner together. We went back to the out door restaurant we spent our first evening together and from there we headed back to Plaza Grande for one final hurrah! The Plaza was still a buzz being the last and final day of Carnaval. I’ll always remember this beautiful center with hand carved bushes in circles and squares and the birds that make squealing noises.
Back to the hotel to put the finishing touches on packing, squeezing things in and hoping my bag isn’t over the weight limit. I made a mistake by not bringing a bigger purse. Bob you’ll be proud of me though, I had the opportunity to buy a nice big bag today, and I was so tempted knowing it would make packing easier but I resisted.
So my last night in Merida, Mexico. This has been a most amazing week. Katelyn and I have had one great day together after another. One laugh after another and one adventure after another. Adios Merida, te quiero!!
Besos y Abrazos,
Kate & Sunny <3
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
February 24, 2009
So we woke up late this morning due to our excellent night last night. And thanks to Mom’s ingenious idea for putting the “don’t-come-knock-at-9-AM-to-see-if-we-have-laundry” sign on our door, we got up at 10. We moseyed on downstairs for breakfast and then back upstairs for showers and to get changed before the parade.
As it was though, we were rather out of luck when, at 12 o’clock, we were looking for a spot to watch the final Carnaval parade. This was rather unfortunate. Oddly enough, though there were a lot of still empty seats, they were all taken: paid for in advance where the people had tickets.
For a little while, we managed to squeeze behind a fence, but this seemed somehow particularly striking as a separation. This left us without really being able to “experience” the parade or really interact at all, even though we had a few left over beads from last night. That being the case, we decided to walk down to Paseo Montejo and see what was going on down there. Maybe we could get a better spot, or at least something would be happening. We ended up in a shady spot, sitting on some steps but really not able to see the parade, however enjoying the little children all dressed up for the day.
The way the city was recycling all the beer cans from the 5 day Carnaval was by allowing you to turn them in for shirts, ball caps and other hats all with the special Caranaval Logo. Katelyn had seen this the first night we were there, but the trick was you had to turn in 5 empty beer cans to get it, so we passed on that. Now today we realized that one mans trash is another mans treasure. There was a man standing near the tent where you turned in your cans. He had 2 trash bags of beer cans. So I said to Katelyn “go over there and ask him if we can buy some of those cans” So she asked and we actually bought empty beer cans from this man, 40 pesos for 20 beer cans so we could get shirts and ball caps. I never thought I’d see the day where I’d buy empty beer cans but I guess now I can say I’ll buy just about anything. Hey Bob…..I’m really trying to keep the spending in check, you can blame Katelyn for the trash purchase, she “had to have” those shirts. You know how Katelyn is, she can’t throw away anything and I told her before she left not to bring home any trash, (candy wrappers in Spanish etc.) so I guess she putting her behavior in reverse.
We decided to call it day from Carnaval and headed back to the hotel where we rested at the pool and then headed up to the room to check into the cost of going to Chichen Itza. We ended up having to walk all the way over to the bus station which is a good 20 blocks away in order to buy the tickets but it all worked out. On the way back, we took a slightly different route and ended up right in the middle of an actual carnival where they were selling food full force with rides and games. In the end, we were swayed by very compelling aromas of churros and marquesitas for a “little” snack followed by some yucatecan ice cream which we had yet to buy while we’ve been here.
So actually making it back to the room, we thought one of the things we had bought while we’d been here had gone missing. We found it after tearing the room apart though …twice. So we were all set. Mom actually organized her luggage a little so hopefully that won’t be too much of a chore tomorrow evening and we can just enjoy ourselves. I’m really hoping that she isn’t too far over the weight limit (oops…)
And that’s where we are for the night. Writing up the blog, possibly going to watch a movie, possibly going to go have dinner and Ta-Da. That’ll be a wrap for Tuesday.
We did actually decide to get a little bit of dinner before settling in for the night. Because it's rather cold tonight, we went to the restaurant downstairs and ate there. It's always very nice when we eat there. They really make an effort to make sure everything is wonderful and open the door when you leave. It's a really great hotel in case anyone is planning on staying in Merida. =)
Love & Cheers,
Kate and Sunny
February 23, 2009
Today started off as usual with breakfast then we headed to El Banko para Dinerio.(to the bank for money). The rest of the day was spent walking around Plaza Grande shopping. Because of Carnaval there are many vendors.
The big event for today was Carnaval. Yesterday when we were in Progress we talked with this guy (Tomas) who pegged us right away as tourists. He was telling us that Carnaval in Merida was the 3rd largest celebration for Carnaval and how he and his family get a table at La Paranda restaurant for the evening and bring beads for bargaining for what is being thrown from the floats. He said he had a couple of open spots if we wanted to join them. So about 5pm Katelyn and I went over to La Paranda and sure enough he and his family and some friends were there. Sure enough they were all wearing massive beads. Now the whole reason we are there is to see how the beads work for bargaining so we had to figure out how to get the beads. Tomas informed us that his mom brings the over from the states and we’d have to ask his mom for them. We were willing to purchase them from her if needed to join in the experience but when Katelyn asked her about them she gave her two packages. Now we were in the game .
Before the parade started, clowns came out to entertain the crowd with their antics. They were jumping over each other, and generally just…well…clowning around. Luis and Tomas weren’t about to be left out of the game, however, and they started interacting with the crowd, too. They threw beads into the bleachers, and then started a contest based on where you were sitting for which side could be the loudest before throwing another set into the stands.
With all those antics, the parade seemed to get underway pretty quickly. Soon there were traditional garbed flocks of people marching down the street. Little girls and boys mixed in with the grandmothers. Beads were doled out readily to cute faces.
And then came the Corona/Sol girls. Beads were thrown. There were attempts at bargaining for t-shirts. We did actually manage to get one which was fantastic, though there was some serious reluctance to part with the t-shirts on the side of some of the float-riders. Something almost equally as spectacular is I did get to give beads to the Joker.
At the end of the evening, everyone meandered down to Pasejo Montejo for some band-action. Luis was leading us to the stage where his band was supposed to play, but instead there were two fat guys “singing” which generally involved more talking than singing. We waited for a while to see if things were going to get changed up, and eventually some choreographed dancers came on the scene but there still wasn’t any real music for dancing and stuff. But it was around one when we got to the hotel, anyway.
I’d like to point out that I did manage to stay up past Mom. She conked out pretty quickly when we got back. I needed to digest a little more caffeine before I could hit the hay.
It was pretty much fantastic the whole thing: definitely well worth the change in plans that we kept making throughout the day for what we were going to do. =)
I also have a link for you all for pictures on facebook. I apologize if some of them are a little dark, but hey, what can you do? it's night time, hehe:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2027664&id=47802150&l=6ae0f
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2027671&id=47802150&l=d589a
Cheers & Love ~ Kate and Sunny
The big event for today was Carnaval. Yesterday when we were in Progress we talked with this guy (Tomas) who pegged us right away as tourists. He was telling us that Carnaval in Merida was the 3rd largest celebration for Carnaval and how he and his family get a table at La Paranda restaurant for the evening and bring beads for bargaining for what is being thrown from the floats. He said he had a couple of open spots if we wanted to join them. So about 5pm Katelyn and I went over to La Paranda and sure enough he and his family and some friends were there. Sure enough they were all wearing massive beads. Now the whole reason we are there is to see how the beads work for bargaining so we had to figure out how to get the beads. Tomas informed us that his mom brings the over from the states and we’d have to ask his mom for them. We were willing to purchase them from her if needed to join in the experience but when Katelyn asked her about them she gave her two packages. Now we were in the game .
Before the parade started, clowns came out to entertain the crowd with their antics. They were jumping over each other, and generally just…well…clowning around. Luis and Tomas weren’t about to be left out of the game, however, and they started interacting with the crowd, too. They threw beads into the bleachers, and then started a contest based on where you were sitting for which side could be the loudest before throwing another set into the stands.
With all those antics, the parade seemed to get underway pretty quickly. Soon there were traditional garbed flocks of people marching down the street. Little girls and boys mixed in with the grandmothers. Beads were doled out readily to cute faces.
And then came the Corona/Sol girls. Beads were thrown. There were attempts at bargaining for t-shirts. We did actually manage to get one which was fantastic, though there was some serious reluctance to part with the t-shirts on the side of some of the float-riders. Something almost equally as spectacular is I did get to give beads to the Joker.
At the end of the evening, everyone meandered down to Pasejo Montejo for some band-action. Luis was leading us to the stage where his band was supposed to play, but instead there were two fat guys “singing” which generally involved more talking than singing. We waited for a while to see if things were going to get changed up, and eventually some choreographed dancers came on the scene but there still wasn’t any real music for dancing and stuff. But it was around one when we got to the hotel, anyway.
I’d like to point out that I did manage to stay up past Mom. She conked out pretty quickly when we got back. I needed to digest a little more caffeine before I could hit the hay.
It was pretty much fantastic the whole thing: definitely well worth the change in plans that we kept making throughout the day for what we were going to do. =)
I also have a link for you all for pictures on facebook. I apologize if some of them are a little dark, but hey, what can you do? it's night time, hehe:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2027664&id=47802150&l=6ae0f
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2027671&id=47802150&l=d589a
Cheers & Love ~ Kate and Sunny
Monday, February 23, 2009
February 22, 2009
Breakfast down stairs in the restaurant, where we are now recognized, (for wanting to pay twice hehehee) started our day. I’m hoping to get pictures tomorrow of the fruit carvings that done each day as decorations for the buffet. There was a chicken made from pineapple and tribal face from a watermelon. Can’t wait to see what tomorrows will be. You can really tell here that the chef takes a lot of pride in his food preparation.
Upon finishing breakfast we changed into our beach clothes and headed out for a walk to catch the bus to Progresso Beach. Normally the bus station is fairly close about 5 blocks but because of Carnaval the road was shut down for the parade this morning so we had to walk another 5 blocks to where the bus was leaving. The bus to Progresso is very nice, like a Greyhound bus and the ride was about 45 minutes. Progresso is similar to San Diego but here they have grass umbrellas out on the beach with tables and chairs where you can order a meal; we had dinner after taking in some sun and shopping.
Today there was a parade in Progresso for Carnaval. It was much smaller than the ones we had seen the last two evenings but fun all the same. The second time the parade came through we were like “wow here are the floats again” and then about 45 minutes later, they came through again and this went on the entire day. The people riding the floats and throwing candy and gum were just as enthusiastic the last time as the first and the crowd was just as excited to receive the treats. We lucked into a piece of bubble gum today. Our day was very low key, just resting, taking in the sun and watching the people care for the seagulls. Interesting enough they love feeding them. The gulls hover and the people throw stuff up to them and they catch it mid air. It really seems the people enjoy feeding them which is so the opposite in the US. If I remember correctly we don’t like to feed the seagulls because they won’t leave you alone. The vendors were out strong today at the beach selling food, dresses, belts and lots of jewelry.
We headed back to El Centro around sixish and stopped by Plaza Grande for the ever elusive churro before calling it a day. We lucked out to find a lady fixing them so we got them hot out of the pan…yummy. That's what's going on in the picture above.
Another blessed day. Beautiful, fun and exciting.
When we made it back to the hotel room, we discovered that Mom has much more stamina for the day than I do. The past couple nights have generally involved me conking out while she’s writing the blog just exhausted. Before we hit the hay though, we did paint out fingernails so now we have pretty fingers and toes =D
Cheers! <3 Kate and Sunny
Sunday, February 22, 2009
February 21, 2009
This morning started out not too early: about 9 o’clock. Mom and I went down to breakfast at the restaurant here in the hotel. We have vouchers so we get to eat for free, which is great, but yesterday there was apparently a little confusion with when exactly Mom was supposed to give the voucher to the waiter. At the very beginning, the guy went ahead and took it from her, but when she was trying to leave someone asked her if she’d paid, so there was a little confusion over the word voucher (ticket is a better known word) and it wasn’t a problem.
That being the case, when we went down there this morning, the waiter asked for the “ticket” and I asked in return about when we were actually supposed to give it because of what had happened yesterday. He assured me that there wasn’t actually a problem and I could go ahead and give it to him now. Of course, he also said, if she wanted to pay twice then that was perfectly fine as well; he’d let her. When we went to leave however, the waiter stopped my mom and the door and said,
“Excuse me, did you pay?”
My mom looked at him and began to explain but the waiter and I just began to giggle: it was a joke; he was the one that we had explained to about the ticket and was just giving her a hard time.
After breakfast we headed up to get ready to have lunch with Katelyn’s host family. We wanted to take flowers as a hostess gift so we walked about 8 blocks to the florist. Now the side walks here are very narrow and I forgot to mention yesterday I seriously escaped getting hit by a car by about an inch when I stepped into the street to give space for someone coming from the opposite direction to pass, so today instead of walking next to Katelyn she led the way and I followed. We did find the flower shop where we bought the flowers and then caught a taxi to the house. Now during the taxi ride Katelyn is getting very upset because the meter is going “muy rapido” as she tells the driver. More so than other taxi’s she’s taken. She really begins to get concerned when he takes a turn she isn’t familiar with. She’s telling me she doesn’t know where we are and that this is going to cost us a lot more than normal. So I’m thinking okay well…..we’ve made an error, mistakes happen,. As it turns out he lets us off at a Carl’s Jr. Now the meter showed we owed 230 pesos for a ride Katelyn said should have been about 50 pesos. Then he tells us that the cost is 50pesos so we were relieved but totally confused. From there we walked about 2 blocks to the host family house. Their home is very nice and we were greeted with hugs. They served us a wonderful lunch with poc chuc which was pork and then we had empeanadas filled with beans or chicken that you put this wonderful sauce and onion over. I thanked them for having Katelyn and they stated she was a wonderful guest and they enjoyed having her. I believe they do as they seek things for her they know she enjoys like today they bought her guanabana ice cream, they bought coconut for me.
After lunch Leticia, the host mom, gave us a ride to the Altabrisa, which was wonderful mall, much like Towson and nothing like the Frederick mall. Then we caught the bus to Plaza Fiesta which is a smaller mall, had a treat from the bakery and the caught another bus to El Centro. Now here’s the thing, you can catch a bus to El Centro but you never really know where it’s going to let you off, so we got off at the bus station which seemed to be the end of the route and was about 15 blocks from our hotel.
During our walk back to the hotel the excitement for El Carnaval parade had begun, people were already taking their seats and as we passed a restaurant, the maître Dee offered us a table for 30pesos, meaning you had to order that much food and drink to sit there. So we hurried back to the hotel, dropped off some of our stuff and headed back to the restaurant. Now these seats were wonderful, right on the parade route and dinner was part of the plan so ate, drank and enjoyed the parade. We did good tonight…we caught beads, a Carnaval T-shirt and a couple snacks and a cup.
After the parade we headed over to plaza grande about 2 blocks away for churros which don’t seem to travel like the other foods available on the street. Then back to the hotel for a good nights rest for tomorrow holds a day at La Playa (the beach).
A note to Clare and Bob … our magic jack connection here is very low in the room so calling is probably not going to be a possibility. We are thinking of you two and wishing you were both here to enjoy all the fun. We love you! Xoxo
Oh one quick note, here during Carnaval, the children dress up in costume and the adults where fun head pieces. That‘s what Katelyn and I have on in the pic posted.
We are having a BLAST!!
Cheers! <3 Kate & Sunny
Saturday, February 21, 2009
February 20, 2009
Happy Birthday MOM! =D For me the morning started before six, and I was off to school with a quick “I’ll be back in a couple hours.” Went to school (didn’t actually present…go figure) and then on the way back I picked up a tres leches cake I had ordered last week for Mom’s birthday. Well…this was supposed to be a special tres leches cake because I had asked for them to make me one with coconut on it since coconut cake is Mom’s special birthday cake. When I got to the Pasteleria though, the girl didn’t seem to know what I was talking about even though I showed her the receipt. Then she just gave me a cake which I tried to ask her how she knew it had coconut on it, but she just said “oh they told me this one had coconut” …after asking if I was sure that this was the place I had ordered it from. Oh well, the cake was still good, and while Mom and I were walking around later we went in and the lady I had actually ordered it from was there and she already knew about the mistake and apologized profusely, saying that she hadn’t been there and that she was sorry the girl had treated me poorly and gave me the difference in change for the coconut. That’s just a few more pesos we can spend elsewhere ^.^
As Katelyn left for school I got my day started by putting together her ½ way bag. Amazingly enough everything fit into the one bag I had originally bought. Then I proceeded to unpack, thinking “I’m going to be here a whole week I might as well put stuff away and not live out of the suitcase. When I looked out the window this morning I noticed how different everything looks in the morning. The buildings are very colorful something you don’t notice at night. Then I headed down for breakfast where I had some of the best coffee I’ve ever had and tried some new breakfast items. The buffet was full of fruit and other what we consider non breakfast foods in the states.
While waiting for Katelyn to return I had time to enjoy the beautiful aviary outside our room while reading the new book Clare had tucked into my suitcase for my birthday. While reading I saw a young man who looked to be with maintance, I thought I should mention our air conditioner was leaking water and the towels I had put down were overly soaked. So he told another man who came and I thought fixed it. (more on that to come) . Around 11;30 Katelyn came in with a wonderful birthday cake, we shared a piece and then headed out to get some lunch. We ate in the beautiful outdoor restaurant that was built around this huge tree. I had a picture taken of us there but we are having trouble downloading the pics so hopefully we will be able to put them up later. Katelyn dropped her purse and it had a soda in it that got all over her camera so we aren’t sure if the problem is not being able to transfer the card from one camera to the other or if it’s the soda did in the camera. Anyway after having a great lunch we headed over to Plaza Grande which is really like park but full of vendors. I picked up a few items there and then we walked through buildings full of vendors selling everything from fresh fruits and vegetables to shoes. We wanted to get some churros but Katelyn informed me “The churros only come out at night” hehehee so they were nowhere to be found. Returning to the hotel Colonial to drop stuff off we were told our airconditioner wasn’t working and they moved us to another room. Of course that meant packing everything up again and we laughed because it seemed like we already had more than what we could fit in the bags we had brought. But the gentleman helped us move our stuff and we are currently in room much the same but with a better airconditioner.
Now our plan was to find this little shop Katelyn had been told of to purchase a birthday gift for her host sister and then head to Carnaval- the big party in the street. Well we got on the first bus, and I was thinking I hadn’t ridden a bus for transportation since Disney World and this bus sounded like it was going to fall apart, but we arrived safely to where the store we were looking for no longer was. So now the plan was to figure out how to get to Carnaval….The ladies at the bus stop told us that this bus would take us there “just tell the driver to tell you where to get off” so we boarded a bus already full so we stood holding on for dear life and then we stopped picked up more people, and then stopped again more people got on, stopped again more people on all the while we are now standing in the very back of the bus unable to hear the bus driving tell us where to get off so we ask the men in the back of the bus “Donde es Carnaval?” Get off a little further down so we road a little longer, looking at each other like “ok when do we get off” but then we crossed an intersection where we could see Carnaval but the bus kept going. Eventually it did stop a couple blocks down so we hopped off made our way there. For Carnaval they block off miles of street and there are food vendors and beer vendors every 3ft. We decided our dinner would be a little of everything they had to offer so we started off with a marquesitos, which was a thin pancake with cheese rolled up, next hot dogs and fries but they were like octopus hot dogs that had been fried, quibies (pronounced “kibis”) which was like a big hush puppy that left us wanting something else, which led us to churros (that were out in full force everywhere you looked) made fresh right there and wonderfully good, Tamales and tacos al pastor which were very very good. Now keep in mind we were sharing everything so hopefully we didn’t eat as much as you think we did.
Amazingly enough here the city sets up 1000’s of seat for people to view the parade. So we found great seats in front of a stage. Of course, we were there rather early…the parade started at 7 PM Mexico time (which, as I forgot to remember and inform Mom, means it probably started around 7:30 or so) and we were there at 5 o’clock. That being the case though, we did have front row seats—front row seats we didn’t have to pay for:
Not long after we sat down, a lady came and sat next to us and several of her family members sat around us. We asked if they wanted to all sit together but she said no, that this was fine. Around 6:30, with more people arriving, she started charging people 30 pesos a seat. 30 pesos to sit in chairs that the city had already set up…hah!
I’m pretty sure that’s just part of the culture here. Wherever you can make a buck (read: peso) you do it. If that means charging people for seats that aren’t yours, then hey, go for it. Who’s going to tell you otherwise? That’s the basic premise anyway.
The parade finally got to us about 8 o’clock. Of course, in the mean time, Mom, who had almost talked me out of changing into jeans before we left, was cold. =P She did manage to persuade me away from my sweater, though, so I was cold too. I need to learn to stick to my guns: “no, Mom, while it’s warm out now, it gets cold when the sun goes down and the wind blows around,” haha. Oddly enough, no one was selling jackets or anything like that, so we were stuck with the chill.
The parade was amazing though. You’re never going to see anything like it in the Bel Air parade, and I’m pretty sure all the guys who were there were probably drooling like St. Bernards. There were lots of sexy women on those floats, shaking their stuff dressed in as little as possible. Actually I’m pretty sure Star Wars and Batman paraphernalia never looked so sexy.
The theme for this year’s Carnaval is the Cinema. So we saw the Merida Star Wars Fan Club, Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader on stilts, a magnificent Lion King float, Batman, Spider man, a dancing Alka Setzer (not really sure where that fits in), and, of course, a bunch of Corona Dancers. All the floats were really decked out, as Mom said, like Disney World: lights, music, dancers. One actually had fireworks going off from the top of it and the little sparks were falling down into the street! There was a ton of confetti that would be shot out and then swirled around in the air. They threw little cositas out into the crowd; we actually managed to catch a little cloth cooler type bag, an empty coke cup like you’d get at the movies if you ordered a large drink with your popcorn, two packs of globos (which are little cracker type things I’ve eaten in soup here) and something that I think has to do with either opening or holding your beer/soda can.
The whole thing was really amazing and went on for an hour. …and then when we tried to get back to our hotel room it was still going. And then when we tried to go another way it was still going. And then another way it was still going. We’ve decided it’d be better if we just wait til it gets up closer to here instead of walking all the way down to Paseo Montejo (although all the food and stuff is down there so who knows. This time we’ll bring sweaters ^.~).
By the time we did make it back, I was *exhausted.* We went and sat out by the pool for a little bit but then went up and went to bed.
Needless to say I had an amazing birthday…all day.
Cheers! Sunny & Kate <3
As Katelyn left for school I got my day started by putting together her ½ way bag. Amazingly enough everything fit into the one bag I had originally bought. Then I proceeded to unpack, thinking “I’m going to be here a whole week I might as well put stuff away and not live out of the suitcase. When I looked out the window this morning I noticed how different everything looks in the morning. The buildings are very colorful something you don’t notice at night. Then I headed down for breakfast where I had some of the best coffee I’ve ever had and tried some new breakfast items. The buffet was full of fruit and other what we consider non breakfast foods in the states.
While waiting for Katelyn to return I had time to enjoy the beautiful aviary outside our room while reading the new book Clare had tucked into my suitcase for my birthday. While reading I saw a young man who looked to be with maintance, I thought I should mention our air conditioner was leaking water and the towels I had put down were overly soaked. So he told another man who came and I thought fixed it. (more on that to come) . Around 11;30 Katelyn came in with a wonderful birthday cake, we shared a piece and then headed out to get some lunch. We ate in the beautiful outdoor restaurant that was built around this huge tree. I had a picture taken of us there but we are having trouble downloading the pics so hopefully we will be able to put them up later. Katelyn dropped her purse and it had a soda in it that got all over her camera so we aren’t sure if the problem is not being able to transfer the card from one camera to the other or if it’s the soda did in the camera. Anyway after having a great lunch we headed over to Plaza Grande which is really like park but full of vendors. I picked up a few items there and then we walked through buildings full of vendors selling everything from fresh fruits and vegetables to shoes. We wanted to get some churros but Katelyn informed me “The churros only come out at night” hehehee so they were nowhere to be found. Returning to the hotel Colonial to drop stuff off we were told our airconditioner wasn’t working and they moved us to another room. Of course that meant packing everything up again and we laughed because it seemed like we already had more than what we could fit in the bags we had brought. But the gentleman helped us move our stuff and we are currently in room much the same but with a better airconditioner.
Now our plan was to find this little shop Katelyn had been told of to purchase a birthday gift for her host sister and then head to Carnaval- the big party in the street. Well we got on the first bus, and I was thinking I hadn’t ridden a bus for transportation since Disney World and this bus sounded like it was going to fall apart, but we arrived safely to where the store we were looking for no longer was. So now the plan was to figure out how to get to Carnaval….The ladies at the bus stop told us that this bus would take us there “just tell the driver to tell you where to get off” so we boarded a bus already full so we stood holding on for dear life and then we stopped picked up more people, and then stopped again more people got on, stopped again more people on all the while we are now standing in the very back of the bus unable to hear the bus driving tell us where to get off so we ask the men in the back of the bus “Donde es Carnaval?” Get off a little further down so we road a little longer, looking at each other like “ok when do we get off” but then we crossed an intersection where we could see Carnaval but the bus kept going. Eventually it did stop a couple blocks down so we hopped off made our way there. For Carnaval they block off miles of street and there are food vendors and beer vendors every 3ft. We decided our dinner would be a little of everything they had to offer so we started off with a marquesitos, which was a thin pancake with cheese rolled up, next hot dogs and fries but they were like octopus hot dogs that had been fried, quibies (pronounced “kibis”) which was like a big hush puppy that left us wanting something else, which led us to churros (that were out in full force everywhere you looked) made fresh right there and wonderfully good, Tamales and tacos al pastor which were very very good. Now keep in mind we were sharing everything so hopefully we didn’t eat as much as you think we did.
Amazingly enough here the city sets up 1000’s of seat for people to view the parade. So we found great seats in front of a stage. Of course, we were there rather early…the parade started at 7 PM Mexico time (which, as I forgot to remember and inform Mom, means it probably started around 7:30 or so) and we were there at 5 o’clock. That being the case though, we did have front row seats—front row seats we didn’t have to pay for:
Not long after we sat down, a lady came and sat next to us and several of her family members sat around us. We asked if they wanted to all sit together but she said no, that this was fine. Around 6:30, with more people arriving, she started charging people 30 pesos a seat. 30 pesos to sit in chairs that the city had already set up…hah!
I’m pretty sure that’s just part of the culture here. Wherever you can make a buck (read: peso) you do it. If that means charging people for seats that aren’t yours, then hey, go for it. Who’s going to tell you otherwise? That’s the basic premise anyway.
The parade finally got to us about 8 o’clock. Of course, in the mean time, Mom, who had almost talked me out of changing into jeans before we left, was cold. =P She did manage to persuade me away from my sweater, though, so I was cold too. I need to learn to stick to my guns: “no, Mom, while it’s warm out now, it gets cold when the sun goes down and the wind blows around,” haha. Oddly enough, no one was selling jackets or anything like that, so we were stuck with the chill.
The parade was amazing though. You’re never going to see anything like it in the Bel Air parade, and I’m pretty sure all the guys who were there were probably drooling like St. Bernards. There were lots of sexy women on those floats, shaking their stuff dressed in as little as possible. Actually I’m pretty sure Star Wars and Batman paraphernalia never looked so sexy.
The theme for this year’s Carnaval is the Cinema. So we saw the Merida Star Wars Fan Club, Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader on stilts, a magnificent Lion King float, Batman, Spider man, a dancing Alka Setzer (not really sure where that fits in), and, of course, a bunch of Corona Dancers. All the floats were really decked out, as Mom said, like Disney World: lights, music, dancers. One actually had fireworks going off from the top of it and the little sparks were falling down into the street! There was a ton of confetti that would be shot out and then swirled around in the air. They threw little cositas out into the crowd; we actually managed to catch a little cloth cooler type bag, an empty coke cup like you’d get at the movies if you ordered a large drink with your popcorn, two packs of globos (which are little cracker type things I’ve eaten in soup here) and something that I think has to do with either opening or holding your beer/soda can.
The whole thing was really amazing and went on for an hour. …and then when we tried to get back to our hotel room it was still going. And then when we tried to go another way it was still going. And then another way it was still going. We’ve decided it’d be better if we just wait til it gets up closer to here instead of walking all the way down to Paseo Montejo (although all the food and stuff is down there so who knows. This time we’ll bring sweaters ^.~).
By the time we did make it back, I was *exhausted.* We went and sat out by the pool for a little bit but then went up and went to bed.
Needless to say I had an amazing birthday…all day.
Cheers! Sunny & Kate <3
Friday, February 20, 2009
February 19, 2009
Mom arrives in Merida Mexico
There are times when you do what you have to do to see those you love. For me that is flying.
My flight out of Baltimore was a rough one. For the first 15minutes of the flight we hit a lot of turbulence due to high winds, as the captain had warned us just before take off. Our plane was up, down, left , right. I thought for sure I was not going recover but thanks to the patch for motion sickness I did just fine. It was completely booked flight, not a seat available. The same was true for the flight into Merida. I guess everyone was coming for the huge Carnaval event which started today but really kicks off this weekend.
Upon arriving in Merida we all had to go through customs which was very time consuming due to the fact a lot of us did not have our forms filled out completely after exiting the plane. But once past the initial stamping of papers we entered into the long line of having bags checked. Now the way they do that here is you push a red button…if the buttons shows green you go through but as it was in my case the RED light came on so I was the lucky one that got to have their bags checked. I’m not sure what they thought they were looking for, but they didn’t really go through much, more liked observed what I had in my bags. After that I walked through the glass doors and saw Katelyn waiting for me. With all girly squeals we greeted each other with hugs and proceeded to find the shuttle guy holding a sign with my name on it. He took us back to our hotel which is basic and nice.
Upon checking in Katelyn did all the talking (thank goodness, I didn’t understand a word) and we were given our meal tickets for breakfast and room key. There are beautiful atriums here. I can’t wait to view them in the sun. The gentleman brought up our bags and explained how everything in the room worked. I assumed it was customary to tip the bus boy so we did.
Once our bags arrived, Katelyn and I went out for a small snack and something to drink. We came across this beautiful out door restaurant that had live entertainment. It was so nice to be outside. At midnight we decided to call it a night, since Katelyn has an 8AM class tomorrow.
It’s been a rather long day with travel so I’m really ready for some sleep myself.
This is going to be a wonderful week.
Love to you all who are following!!
Buenos Amigos~
Sorry for not writing sooner: My week has been crazy busy. I haven’t even had the time to read the poem that Will sent me on…what was it…Monday? Yeah. I’ve had four expositions one of which I was supposed to have today but the teacher ended up talking through the whole thing so that didn’t end up actually happening.
Spanish class has actually been cancelled both times this week, and unfortunately, due to my state of affairs, I was happy. All day yesterday (quick update) I was sick. By the time I got home from school which was thankfully two hours early thanks the cancelation, I fell into bed and didn’t get out of it (for the most part) til 6AM at which point I felt better. At the time though I was really worried that I was going to be sick all through this week! Luckily I’m better though.
Anyway, the extra time today gave me a little more time to prepare for my final presentation tomorrow. If I can get through that then we’ll be golden (for the most part…til I have to do this 8 page test she assigned us (grrr)). But for now, yay for mom being here and yay for carnaval and yay for 3 days off of school. And since it’s getting to be pretty late and I’ll be up at quarter of six I’m going to get going.
Buenas noches~ <3 Kate
There are times when you do what you have to do to see those you love. For me that is flying.
My flight out of Baltimore was a rough one. For the first 15minutes of the flight we hit a lot of turbulence due to high winds, as the captain had warned us just before take off. Our plane was up, down, left , right. I thought for sure I was not going recover but thanks to the patch for motion sickness I did just fine. It was completely booked flight, not a seat available. The same was true for the flight into Merida. I guess everyone was coming for the huge Carnaval event which started today but really kicks off this weekend.
Upon arriving in Merida we all had to go through customs which was very time consuming due to the fact a lot of us did not have our forms filled out completely after exiting the plane. But once past the initial stamping of papers we entered into the long line of having bags checked. Now the way they do that here is you push a red button…if the buttons shows green you go through but as it was in my case the RED light came on so I was the lucky one that got to have their bags checked. I’m not sure what they thought they were looking for, but they didn’t really go through much, more liked observed what I had in my bags. After that I walked through the glass doors and saw Katelyn waiting for me. With all girly squeals we greeted each other with hugs and proceeded to find the shuttle guy holding a sign with my name on it. He took us back to our hotel which is basic and nice.
Upon checking in Katelyn did all the talking (thank goodness, I didn’t understand a word) and we were given our meal tickets for breakfast and room key. There are beautiful atriums here. I can’t wait to view them in the sun. The gentleman brought up our bags and explained how everything in the room worked. I assumed it was customary to tip the bus boy so we did.
Once our bags arrived, Katelyn and I went out for a small snack and something to drink. We came across this beautiful out door restaurant that had live entertainment. It was so nice to be outside. At midnight we decided to call it a night, since Katelyn has an 8AM class tomorrow.
It’s been a rather long day with travel so I’m really ready for some sleep myself.
This is going to be a wonderful week.
Love to you all who are following!!
Buenos Amigos~
Sorry for not writing sooner: My week has been crazy busy. I haven’t even had the time to read the poem that Will sent me on…what was it…Monday? Yeah. I’ve had four expositions one of which I was supposed to have today but the teacher ended up talking through the whole thing so that didn’t end up actually happening.
Spanish class has actually been cancelled both times this week, and unfortunately, due to my state of affairs, I was happy. All day yesterday (quick update) I was sick. By the time I got home from school which was thankfully two hours early thanks the cancelation, I fell into bed and didn’t get out of it (for the most part) til 6AM at which point I felt better. At the time though I was really worried that I was going to be sick all through this week! Luckily I’m better though.
Anyway, the extra time today gave me a little more time to prepare for my final presentation tomorrow. If I can get through that then we’ll be golden (for the most part…til I have to do this 8 page test she assigned us (grrr)). But for now, yay for mom being here and yay for carnaval and yay for 3 days off of school. And since it’s getting to be pretty late and I’ll be up at quarter of six I’m going to get going.
Buenas noches~ <3 Kate
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