Patrick: Week 3: The Adventuras

I should say first that I totally underestimated Merida.  I expected a little town.  Instead I found a bustling city that is twice the population of Portland (proper) and about half the pop. of the Portland metro area.  Most of the streets around where our hotel's located are one way with two narrow lanes, and somone is always temporarily parked in one of the lanes.  I'm forever asking the kids to walk on the other side of the sidewalk because the city busses roar past inches away with little warning.  :-)

What an adventure.  We've been trying out a bunch of restaurants because we've heard that Merida is one of Mexico's premier food destinations.  We tried several Mexican restaurants (Los Trompos and El Chile Habenero), a Mayan restaurant (La Chaya), an Irish (Henneseys), a Mediterranean (Rescoldos) and Burger King.  Ha.  Not kidding about that last one.  The kids needed a brief respite.  I must say though that the food at Rescoldos was some of the best we've had in a while.

In terms of things we did here: Liz went chocolate shopping and found some dark bars that had "red pepper & fine spices" which were my favorite.  Very unique.  Took a horse drawn carriage ride up and down a very beautiful boulivard.  Sofia wants to do that one again.  Visited he public zoo (for free) and totally loved watching the big tiger play like a little kitty and the baby hippo frolic with his parents.  We rented a car and I tried to follow the examples around me.  People don't use their blinkers to change lanes and lane markings don't seem to mean much.  :-)  We drove to some ruins, Progreso, and Celestun to see the mangroves and flamingos.  Got pulled over once.  On the way to Celestun, we got to drive through a few small towns.

In retrospecitve, in our skype lessons with Erin and Ulisses, we should have covered "What to say when the cops pull you over because your rental car permits are invalid for this area."  I was keenly feeling the gap in my spanish vocabulary at that moment.

We've had to flex a bit from our original schedule since we were all kinda sick at the beginning of the week.  Since we were 'out' for a few days we decided to stay a few more near here instead of heading back to Cancun.  As I'm writing this here at the hotel I can hear the live music at the park across the street.  Have I mentioned that I love live music?  We'll drive ourselves down to a new hotel near Uxmal (pronounced oosh-mall) stay there for a few nights checking out ruins and cenotes.

After that we're heading to Cozumel for a little more beach time.  Might try to get a little diving or snorkeling in.  Maybe shake fins with a dolphin?  Stay tuned.

Pictured below: The king-sized iguana and Otis sunning themselves at the zoo.