We're in Mérida, arrived Saturday night, and I have an appointment tomorrow with my doctor. Don't worry, I intend to stick with this until I get some resolution.

Saturday morning before we left, I went into Playa and with Mimi's not very precise directions I found the place she took the picture of the blue vine, Petrea volubilis. It is a beautiful restaurant called Cueva del Chango on 38th near the beach around 5th in Playa. I didn't go into the restaurant but it seems to be set in a garden with streams and flowers and shade.

As I was standing at the entrance looking at the vine growing up and over an arbor, the waiter asked me if I was there to eat. I said no, I was interested in this vine and he motioned an older guy over and said he had it in the nursery attached to the restaurant. So, I took a tour of the nursery and it was incredible. It wound back into the middle of the block and had lots of ponds and water plants and orchids and all sorts of stuff I crave. I bought the vine and then started just looking and asking about all the other plants.

There's a water plant I really want, called a Water Banana or Giant Arum, Typhonodorum lindleyanum. This is a picture of it taken at the Singapore Botanical Gardens by Wilson Wong.

It's no relation to a banana, it's actually an Aroid and related to Philodendrums. It grows with its roots in water, I think it would be perfect in my new outside pond, see the latest picture of the pond above - isn't it gorgeous?

Anyway, I asked the old guy if he knew them and he said he has them out at the rancho. Considering how things are going with my Spanish we could be truly communicating or something else. I went on about how it grows bare root in water and he kept saying yes, that's it... so maybe.

First thing Sunday, we went by Theresa's house with a cutting from the new vine. If anyone can grow it, I'm sure she can. She came with us and we went to take a look at the house.

The pond looks great, the pool has its waterfall installed and I loved it and the big surprise was the outside shower that appears to come out of rocks on the wall. That's it to the left.

We sat on the steps in the shade with a nice breeze and talked and hung out for awhile. It was the first time we've spent so long there, no workers, just enjoying the coolness of the breeze and the space.

We met up with Kathy, Jaime and the kids Sunday night and had a great time. Went to the plaza grande and walked around, had a few drinks, watched the break dancers. What I thought was the coolest part, I used my iPhone and the free wireless in all the parks of Mérida to send a picture of the family (minus the boys who stayed at the hotel) to their grandparents in California!