Christmas eve went ballistic around midnight, fireworks and rockets and M80's went off most of the night. I didn't get to try the rum and hot milk on Hombre because Mimi got to him first with a valium. After that, he was pretty stoned but he still wouldn't go outside. We finally had to put him on a leash and make him go for his nightly potty trip to the tree. He was all business, no sniffing and reading p-mail, just hike the leg and hop back to the door.

Christmas day, on the other hand, it was like a ghost town. We were heading over to Theresa's house in the afternoon, but another new friend stopped by and then we were late to Theresa's, although that turned out all right as we got to just sit and talk to her and Husband. There is one Mexican cultural trait that I have no problem adjusting to, being late for social events. It's the first time in my life that people don't tell me different times than they tell everyone else. I guess, in this case, perhaps she should have.

Anyway, there were no cars on the streets! Amazing! I've never seen Merida streets so empty. No one on the sidewalks, no one driving, nobody around at all!

For the next several days Mimi and I were in our recluse mode, we slept late, stayed up late, and didn't do much more that peer over the wall at the kids trying out their new toys in the Liverpool parking lot.

Then, this morning, we woke up to the sound of pounding and discovered 3 huge tents going up right in front of our idyllic spot.

This is not a good sign, three days before New Years Eve. I asked and it turns out that the owner of this place is having a party for his family on New Years Day, he even invited us. We still thought it would be smart to move back in the park, we were about 10' from the tents and this is Mexico, there will be music and it will be loud.

How hard could it be? We only moved about 100 yards, no need to change the settings on the satellites. We'll just set them up and dial them in and we'll have TV and internet right away. Heh! We had TV right away. Which was good since that New England vs New York game was sooo good. My god! Brody is awesome!

Anyway, no internet. The Hughes gods would not let us pass the final test to get online. We tried all the tricks we've picked up over the years and no. Mimi finally took the whole setup apart since maybe something got geeked while she was driving it over in the truck. She checked all the cables, she cleaned all the connections. I tried all the different transponders over and over. Finally, about 10pm, I went through all the different transponders again and it worked on one of them. We rebooted the modem and we were online. We had planned to move back to our regular spot after the party but now we think we'll stay right here.

Because we live in the tropics, in an RV, I had to make banana bread.

Fruit ripens as you watch it down here. Most of it, I keep in the refrigerator but not the bananas. I don't know why but I don't like bananas in the frig and I like shopping for bananas since there are so many kinds and colors and flavors. Anyway, once they get too ripe for my cereal, I peel them and put them in a bag in the freezer. Usually this bag gets shoved in the back behind all the dog food and ice cubes and flavored vodka.

RV refrigerators are not frost free - nor do they defrost themselves. Plus, here where it is humid, the ice builds up really fast. I ignore it for weeks after most people would be frantic that the fins in the back of the refrigerator are now a solid block of ice. Doesn't bother me as long as it stays cold and what could be better at keeping a refrigerator cold than a solid block of ice at the back of it. Well, that works until the solid block of ice in the freezer keeps the air from flowing to the refrigerator and I can no longer chip the bags of dog food free from the ice block.

So, I had to defrost the refrigerator the other night and that's when I found all the frozen overripe bananas and then I had to make banana bread. I have a really good recipe for banana bread*, usually I put walnuts in it but - to my amazement - the walnuts I thought were frozen in the back of the freezer were gone. The ice monster ate them, or maybe I fed them to the dogs one night. So, I used dried cranberries instead. It came out really well, moist and heavy on the banana taste with the occasional tart cranberry.

*Banana Bread recipe

2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground cardamom
1/2 tsp cinnamon
(1/2 cup of walnut pieces or cranberry pieces)

1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/3 to 2 1/2 cups of thawed, mushy, overripe bananas

Preheat oven to 350°F or 175°C. Lightly grease a 9 x 5 loaf pan.

In a large bowl combine all the dry ingredients: flour, baking soda, salt, cardamom and cinnamon. If you are using walnuts or cranberries, add them to the dry ingredients and mix them around to separate them.

In another bowl, cream the brown sugar and the butter. Stir in the eggs, bananas and vanilla.

Add the wet stuff to the dry stuff and only stir it until barely blended.

Pour into loaf pan and bake for 1 hour or until a toothpick comes out clean from the middle. I put a tent of tin foil over it for the last half hour as I don't like a heavy crust.

Let it cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then turn it out onto a wire rack or - if you don't have a wire rack, like maybe because you live in a teeny tiny RV - turn it out and set it on its side and turn it from side to side until it cools.

Be prepared to fight anyone around off during the last 10 minutes of baking and until it cools enough to cut. The smell is intoxicating.

¡Feliz Navidad!

Happy holidays to everyone, no matter what you celebrate, it is an important time of the year.

Well, for most anyway.

Us, not so much.

I do love getting all those wonderful pictures of snow and ice and frozen trees. So, I thought I'd post some pics of the flora around us.

Ahhhh! The colors of Christmas!

It's a wonderful 82°F right now, the sun is shining, there is a small breeze, football is on TV.

We are alternating between sitting outside and coming in to watch football.

We returned to Mérida on Thursday night. We were happy to return, the beach is wonderful but the crowds are beginning to arrive. It is much nicer to be in a city with lots of people than in a small town with a lot of people, especially when they are all celebrating something or spending their one week of vacation getting as drunk as possible.

Not that Mérida has escaped the party fervor, in one ride downtown last night we saw 3 accidents with an ambulance at all of them. We also saw quite a few weavers and wanderers that couldn't quite figure out where their lane ended.

It was a relief to get back to our island of peace and tranquility on the edge of the city.

We went down to the main square to see the artesania fair that closed yesterday. We walked through all the booths but didn't buy much. Mimi got some new ropes for our hammock and we got a couple of small paintings of birds, a Mot-Mot and Flamingos, on hand made paper. Most of the things on sale were things we've seen often. I was tempted by a bird feeder made from a coconut shell in the shape of a hummingbird. I think it might just have been because I'd not seen one before.

All of the flags in and around the Plaza Grande were at half-mast in commemoration of the massacre at Acteal 10 years ago in Chiapas. A horrible event, the reality of what and who and how are lost in the rhetoric of politics. What is fact is that 45 Tzotzil Maya, most of the population of the village of Acteal including pregnant women and children, were slaughtered on December 22, 1997. I don't know if this event was commemorated in all of México or just here in the south, in the land of the Maya.

We drove up and down the main avenues Friday night, looking at the incredible lights and decorations. Paseo Montejo, the big glorietas along it and the Prolongación are ablaze with huge water and light shows. I love the exuberance of all the decorations for Christmas, especially all the lights. Fireworks are a big part of celebrating here so they are going off all night as well. Poor Hombre! The vet said to give him a little rum in milk when he got really nervous from the fireworks. Haven't tried that yet, I think it will be his New Year's toast.

I hardly cook when we are in the condo, partly because I don't carry all my tools and spices and odds and ends up those 3 flights when we move in and partly it is because most of our social life there involves having dinner out with friends.

People food that is. All I seem to do is cook dog food anymore. I've been meaning to do a post on how this real food for the dogs thing is going.

Last spring, after the poison from China in dog food scandal, I did some reading on dog nutrition and decided to stop feeding our dogs packaged food.

I agree with a lot of the BARF (Bones And Raw Food) diet tenets but not all of them. So, I put our dogs on a modified BARF diet. I don't trust ground beef or eggs raw so I didn't want to feed that uncooked. I do think they need some carbohydrates and I wanted to feed them a better quality and stuff they can digest better.

Thus began the Prison Loaf! You probably don't want to know why I call it that, but that is what it's called around here.

Ground beef (that's 3 kilos at the top, cooking), brown rice or oats or barley, ground flax seed, a couple heads of garlic, a little salt, pureed vegetables (always carrots + yams or spinach or squash), and half a dozen eggs pureed with the shells (good source of calcium).

Mix it all together and weigh it and bag it and freeze it. That's Prison loaf!

I try to feed it to them 2 to 3 times a week. The other nights they get raw beef with beef bones, and sometimes raw chicken and bones.

Chicken is harder because to avoid bacterial problems, it has to be frozen for a couple days and then defrosted in the refrigerator before they get it. I do sometimes get a big bag of chicken wings and cut them up into parts, weigh them and freeze them.

Oh, every night they also get a food supplement called Missing Link sprinkled on their food and a dollop or two of live yogurt.

...and doggie vitamins and Chica gets a doggie Glucosamine & Chondroitin every night.

Just writing all this down is starting to make me feel like dressing them up in pink tutus would be easier and just as sane. I wonder what Paris Hilton's dogs eat?

OK, so now you know I'm nuts and that I pay much more attention to my dog's diets than I ever do to my own. It's starting to seem like I also may spend more money on their diet. Probably not, not if you count the restaurant bills.

It really was pretty manageable with just 2 dogs. I could make prison loaf once every 2 weeks, this batch I photographed ended up as 21, 10oz bags to be frozen. I used to only start with 2 kilos of meat though, so I'd make about 15 bags every couple weeks.

Then we got Cuba! The puppy with the hollow legs and the insatiable appetite. She wasn't gaining weight even when I was giving her 2 bags a night. So, I upped it to 2 bags in the morning and 2 bags at night. Or, on raw meat days, she got twice what the other 2 got at night and 2 bags of prison loaf in the morning. She still wasn't gaining weight.

Finally, we bought some french puppy food and I add a cup of that to each of her meals. Now she is putting on a little weight and is not as skinny. Why french dog food? I don't know, the vet carries it and I have delusions that it won't be as tainted as the US brands.

Still, she eats 4 times as much food as each of the other dogs! + the french stuff. It's a lot of raw meat to buy, it's definitely a lot of prison loaf to cook and the whole process is beginning to take over my life.

Mimi had the nerve to mention the other day that maybe I should consider just going back to feeding them dry food. I actually thought about it, which I wouldn't have done a month ago.

I'm still thinking about it. For one thing, Cuba is eating prison loaf more than I like. She's getting it almost every morning. She still gets over a pound of raw meat most nights plus lots of raw bones. But, feeding her a kilo (2.2 lbs) of meat a day is too much to have around and too much for my small freezer.

What could I do with all that time I'm now spending making prison loaf? ...I could have my freezer back, not always full of dog food! ...I could put People Food in it!! Maybe I could even start cooking people food again? ...I could buy them cute little sweaters and outfits instead of making all their food? Nah! That's crazy!

Our friends Bart and Jen own the Turtle Bay Cafe in Akumal.

They have a great staff, most of whom have been there for a long time. I think part of the reason is they are really good to their employees, especially here in an area where that is often not true.

They do all the things you expect of good people, pay them well, treat them with respect and help them and their families to advance.

But, their Christmas Party is another great bonus. Jen really knows how to plan a party! She does a growing number of weddings and other events for tourists too.

We went to the Christmas party the other night, it's one of the reasons we didn't get on the road sooner. The employees and their extended families are the guests that night and regular customers along with Bart and Jen are the bartenders and waitresses.

Bart dug a pit behind the restaurant and cooked the Mayan specialty, Cochinita Pibil. He said the pig was in the pit for 24 hours and it was delicious!

I forgot to take a picture of the food, probably because I couldn't hold a plate and the camera at the same time.

All the tables were decorated, there were appetizers at each table, free drinks for all, the buffet was enormous and the food was excellent and plentiful.

Once the eating was over, Santa appeared.

Bart made a great Santa and we were all happy that the night was cool for him in that suit.

The drinks kept flowing though, somewhere I took a picture of the 'tequila fairy' that was making regular rounds with shots but I can't find it.

There were a mound of presents, Jen had chosen and wrapped them all.

One for all of the children, the employees, their husbands, wives and parents and even ones for all of the regulars who were happily getting sloshed and trying to be good meseros.

The tempo was really picking up now, the beer was flowing and cameras were flashing as everyone tried to get the best shot.

The tequila fairy was still wandering around as well.

Kids were running everywhere, laughing and playing. Everyone was laughing, it was shaping up to be a great party!

It was time for the piñata!!

The rope was already strung and the piñata hidden in the rafters. An experienced rope handler took over and the stick was passed around.

This piñata was so heavily stuffed with candy that it needed an extra loop of the rope around it to keep it from breaking before it was even hit.

Everyone got a few shots at it, the man on the rope was so good that while everyone got at least one hit on it, they didn't get a good enough shot to break it.

He was one of the waitress's father and as my friend said, "it wasn't his first time at the rodeo". He knew his piñata handling.

Finally, it started raining candy.

I think it was his daughter to got in the lethal blow. She has probably had more experience trying to catch a piñata he is controlling.

Then the scramble for candy began.

In the next picture a boy is almost crying to his mother ¡Mami! ¡una bolsa!

He's asking for a bag because the girl in front of him is busy scrapping the candy he has between his legs over into her pile.

It was fun to watch and the kids obviously enjoyed themselves.

As they all found a place to sit and pick through their loot, the sound of a horn and a guitar could be heard.

Around the corner came a 4 piece mariachi band playing Feliz Navidad!

Now the grownup part of the party began!

Did I mention that drinks were free, beer was flowing and yes, the tequila fairy was still wandering around with his tray of shots and lime?

The music was infectious and everyone started dancing and calling out requests.

It was a great party! We all thought it was the best one of the season.

Thanks Bart and Jen!

They finally decided to remove the dead palm tree in front of our condo. Luis and Eddie did most of it with just one ax and a machete.

Luis is not young but he seems to do all the work that requires real muscle. He carries the 5gal bottles of water up 3 flights and he carried the marble tiles I bought up and then back down when I decided not to use them. Here he is laying into the trunk with the ax.

We were watching for it to fall but had come back inside, a big whoomp! and it was down.

This is Eddie beginning to cut it up.

It really didn't take very long for all of this, it's always amazing to me how much work they do manually and how quickly they get it done.

Almost done and the big guys take a break and let the young guy do the clean up.

Less than an hour from starting, the debris was gone, the sand was raked and only the roots remained. It's a lot of roots so we're wondering if they will leave them to decompose a bit or hack them out.

One of the things we love about our place is that we can spot turtles and rays in the clear water of the bay below us. Often we can see them when the snorkelers right next to them don't.

Getting a picture though is tough. Mimi got these this afternoon.

The first one is a ray, it's a little hard to see but you can make out the shape pretty well and with movement we could tell it was a ray.

This is a fair sized turtle coming up for air. There were two out there, one smaller and this one.

Pretty cool!

Blogging has opened up a whole world of people that I might not have met and it has been a great experience this far. I started reading Wayne's blog when he commented on another blog I was reading, soon I was hooked on his life on Isla Mujeres with B. and L. We commented on each other's blogs and sent a few emails and when they decided to come over to the mainland and try out the sky cycle I hoped we would get a chance to meet.

As it turned out, Sky and Country wanted to do the Sky Cycle too and so they made a reservation on the same morning. Mimi went as well but I had to stay home and babysit the masons who were raising the banco and tiling it. Afterwards though I met them all for lunch and it was as if Wayne and I had known each other for much longer. B. and L. were great too and we all came back here and had a great afternoon. I promised not to post any pictures of B. or L. but here's one of Wayne cycling in the jungle.

The last 2 days that Country and Sky were here went by too fast. They spent the morning they left on the beach and when they came up to shower and get ready for the airport, no water. Turns out that the maintenance guys here had picked that moment to replace our rusted out water heater. But, the skies opened up with one of those heavy tropical downpours and Sky went out on the deck for his shower. It worked quite well and the rainwater had to be better than our high mineral and salt water that comes from the pipes.

It's been quiet since they left, Mimi and I slept and laid around the first day and then started finishing the work on the condo so we could leave. On the day before we thought we had to be out as there was a rental coming in, we found out that there wasn't a rental after all. At least, not until the 22nd. Communication around here is not optimal, and that's in one language. It's given us a few more days to relax but we are anxious to get to Merida and find out what is going on with the house. Plus, my knee went out and I was pretty much stuck up here on the 3rd floor.

This time of year the local kids come around with their decorated altar boxes and sing a song for a donation. They sing really, really fast but it is cute. It's called La Rama, the branch, and they also usually have a branch of some type, in our case it is a palm frond. If you put some money in their decorated donation can they sing you a thank you song, they also have another song if you don't but we've never heard it.

Our dearest friend, Country, had a birthday on the 3rd and we took her to dinner in Puerto Aventuras. It's a planned community, very nicely done with a central lagoon and canals leading to the ocean. Lots of yachts moored inside and both condos and homes spread along the lagoons and the ocean. Around the main lagoon there is a nice walk lined with restaurants with outdoor seating. We picked Richard's as he has excellent steaks. There are dolphin in the lagoon, they are the trained ones that work in the tourist ride. It is nice to sit and have dinner while they are jumping and swimming right next to you.

Uh oh! I'm off on a tangent... I've always hated the 'swim with a dolphin' rides, to me it is horrible to keep them penned when the open ocean is so close. The more popular these rides become, the more dolphin will spend their lives in captivity. My greatest wish a couple years ago when hurricane Wilma was bearing down on us was that the pens would break open and the dolphin would escape. I got my wish, the pens broke and the dolphin were freed into the ocean.

It didn't turn out as I thought though. Most of them returned on their own after the storm. The trainers went out in boats and called and the others came to them. I don't think they lost any. It seems that these are captive bred dolphin who have no idea how to feed themselves and who are not accepted by the wild dolphin pods. They were lost and hungry and just wanted to go home. I'd still like to see these rides go broke and out of business so that no more dolphin would be bred as entertainers. I still tell anyone who asks me about the rides that I recommend they not support them. But, I realize now that it is too late, it was always too late, for these dolphin.

//returning from tangent//

Three houses on a street in Mérida, I like the colors.

The next day we left on a whirlwind trip to Mérida to show Country and Sky our house and the city. We were packed into the RV, 4 humans and 3 dogs, but it actually worked very well. We were up and gone early and out late plus the weather was perfect so we could sit around outside under our awning when we were at the RV.

Wednesday morning we took a tour of renovated colonial houses in the centro. We saw some gorgeous renovations, some innovative ideas for using unusual spaces and we thoroughly enjoyed the tour. It's given every Wed morning from the Mérida English Libarary.

A Kitchen in one of the homes.

I loved the walls in this B&B, they sanded them down but left traces of all the layers of colors. Really beautiful.

We walked and walked, spent some time in our house and then walked through the main mercado and the main square. We also did a lot of eating, panuchos and tamales and caldos. We even managed to spend one afternoon out at the beach east of Progreso.

We had breakfast at Café Habana, where the coffee is excellent and my café con leche was served in a thick glass - the espresso is poured in first and then hot milk is added - it's a coffee lovers dream.

We also had a really nice dinner at Pancho's in the centro. The food is very good there and the courtyard seating in the center of the block is very nice. They make really good mojitos as well.

December 12th is the day of the Virgin de Guadalupe, the mother of México. Plus, it is advent and the celebrations are starting that lead up to Christmas.

For one or another of these reasons, the sound of fireworks is becoming more common. Our poor Akumal beach dog, Hombre, has apparently spent too much time north of the border because he has become very afraid when he hears fireworks. Chica and Cuba ignore them and he used to ignore them. I feel bad for him because fireworks are a part of life here and he is going to have to get used to it again or just be miserable. One night when the fireworks were going off, he climbed on top of Cuba while she was sleeping. It seemed to comfort him and she just looked up and then went back to sleep. Eventually he went to sleep too and they stayed like that for a long time.

The good news once we were back in Akumal, I picked up the covers for the banco cushions and they are great. She did a really good job and I am very happy with them.

I gave up on the marble tiles, I just didn't like them. We covered the top of the banco with the floor tiles and I'm happy with it.

Mimi has some paint to touch up and I have the kitchen curtain people to harass until I get them. I'm going to take the marble tiles back and see if I can exchange them for these really beautiful quartz lamps that he has. I know I'd never get a cash refund but I might be able to negotiate a lamp.

We may really have this place ready for renters by December 15th!

Detoxing from the world of stress!

Our friends are here and it took about a day for the Caribbean magic to work on them.

We haven't done much, because that's what they wanted.

Of course, the fish tacos had to be sampled and there was one walk on 5th Ave in Playa.

Yesterday we went to Tulum and took a walk with the dogs on the beach just south of the ruins.

The sand there is particularly fine and soft, in fact it sticks to you like talcom powder.

More fish tacos, and they too agree that the winner of the fish taco contest is definitely Urge outside Tulum.

I'm still working trying to get this condo ready for the rental on Dec 15th. Our upholsterer is gone. The place where his shop was - just last April - is now an upscale restaurant and no one there knows where he went. So, today I met our maid in her home town of Cheymuyil and she took me to a friend's house who has a sewing machine. I handed over my sunbrella fabric, thread, the old cushion covers, 4 meters of zipper and some zipper pulls and I am hoping for the best. Actually, I'm just hoping for something that will work.

I also went back to the marble place and bought 4 boxes of marble tiles for the top of the banco. I got them home and opened them up and I'm not jumping for joy. They are pretty unmatched and have more grey than I wanted. I've decided to have them cut them diagonally and mix them up so the different shades are not like a checkerboard.

I suppose this is a only a preview of the remodel in Merida and I'm only a teeny bit stressed. If I didn't have this deadline of a rental and if I really thought that half the stuff would be finished I'd feel a lot better.

This is a picture of the new floor tile. I really like it, that's the biggest plus.