Here are some new pictures of our house. It still takes a lot of imagination to see what is coming. Hard to believe but there is even more dust and debris than before. Most of the work is still being done on the new upstairs, there is some demolition happening in the garage but they haven't started digging there yet for the cistern.

This is looking from the back open room, or sala fresca, to the yard. Still no pool or pond but the septic tank is in and connected and covered up.



Looking up at the new arch over the master bedroom terrace. It's kind of deceiving here as the master bedroom is a half level above the guest bedroom or the front concrete terrace you see here.



Another view, a window in the guest bedroom is at the right.



This was taken while standing in the master bedroom, it is the view to the back yard. From this level I am looking through the scaffolding in the previous pictures.



This is the private terrace off the side of the master bedroom, it is surrounded by walls and opens only into the bedroom.




Looking down into the guest bedroom. Take note Country, this is your room!



This is the beginning of the stairs from the sala fresca up to first the guest bedroom terrace and then the master bedroom terrace. The 2 small rooms are the half bathroom and my pantry.



Looking towards the street from the sala fresca into the kitchen and the main part of the house.

Come on and join us for breakfast in Mérida!

Todd from the blog Life in El Corazon, asked some other bloggers in México to take their readers out to breakfast. I was going to do one from Akumal but we were leaving. We gave our friend Kelly a ride over to Mérida. She works in reservations on the Riviera Maya and they represent a house in Mérida and she wanted to see it.

We arrived at the RV park a little before 11pm, unhooked the jeep and plugged in the RV and started out to take Kelly to her house in the Centro. They had locked the gate during the 15 or so minutes we were inside so I couldn't get out with the jeep! No one would answer the door at the manager's house and we couldn't find a cab at that hour. I was furious but... what can you do? The next morning I got a key for the gate so it won't happen again. So, Kelly spent her first night on our couch in the RV!

In the morning we took off for breakfast but first, we had to stop at the house she was staying in, meet the property manager and get the key.

That's Kelly and the property manager Sam.

Mimi stayed in the jeep because of her bad foot and by the time Kelly and I came back she was getting impatient, or hungry or both.



I like the breakfasts at Café La Habana but we eat there a lot.



Kelly had heard that the cafe in front of the restaurant Pórtico del Peregrino was good so we decided to try it.



A table in the window is always good for people watching.





Oops! I almost forgot to take a picture of the food. We had already started in on it when I remembered. We each got a special, which included a glass of fresh orange juice and coffee with your entre. I had Huevos Rancheros as did Kelly and Mimi had eggs over easy. Our total bill was $120 pesos so about $40 pesos for each meal.



Oh, I also had the jeep washed while it was at the parking lot around the corner. The charge was $50 pesos, so Todd's $30 peso car wash was cheaper up in Patzcuaro.

The Yucatan makes the finest hammocks in México and Kelly wanted a hammock chair to take back to her house in Florida. So, off we went to Hamaca de Aguacate, a hammock factory.



There are many choices of style, quality, colors, material, etc. Luckily, Kelly knew pretty much what she wanted so the selection was fast.



Just a matter of test driving a couple and a little bargaining and she had a good quality hammock chair with a tight weave and small nylon thread for outdoors - for only $200 pesos.

We went over to see our house after that, I'm going to put those pics up separately. Hope you enjoyed breakfast in Mérida.

I had something else entirely in mind to blog about but what happened tonight was too funny to pass up.

Mimi was watching TV and realized that Chica was just sitting and staring at her... and drooling. When she looked closer she saw that she'd managed to get her lower jaw inside a round bone and it was stuck.

It was really stuck. It was completely circling her jaw and there was no way to get it off.

It was behind her canines and tight enough that you couldn't bend it over her lower jaw. How she managed to do this we have no idea. She wasn't even upset, she was just sitting and drooling with this bone stuck on her mouth. She seemed kind of perplexed like she didn't know how it happened either.

When we stopped laughing and really examined it and tried to get it off, we realized it was really on there and maybe wasn't all that funny.

Mimi went and got her hacksaw and starting sawing. In the beginning Chica was pretty cooperative but it took so long that she started getting freaked.

Her tongue was up under the bone and she coudln't swallow very well so couldn't hold her head back for long. We had to let her take a lot of breaks and after awhile she was digging at it and getting more frantic.

It took a very long 45 minutes or so to saw through the bone. Once it was cut, Chica jumped up and pawed it off. No one mentioned this as a problem with the raw meat and bones diet for dogs!

I feel like I should submit this to LolCats with a 'I can haz bone fo evah' subtitle.

***OK, I couldn't resist. I did submit this pic and caption to LolCats.

Message from Mimi:

Oh Hai internets.

Thank you all for your kind thoughts and well wishes. Jonna did a good job explaining my fall, It really was that simple. I stepped back off the running board of an SUV and didn't have my left foot on level ground and my foot just kind of slipped in my shoe and down I went, not far not hard. My right elbow hit the ground but it felt like I'd broken my arm. Takes a special talent to mess up both sides of your body at once and I guess I've got it.

Today was beautiful, no wind for the first time in 2 weeks and that really got my goat. I'm trying really hard to be good and I promise not to scratch my head with a certain finger anymore when Jonna takes my picture :)

She's is doing a great job of keeping me in line and getting me stuff when I need it. I still can't wait to get up and out off this couch!

Thank you all again!


Only thing, she apparently used her bad hand to type it and email it to me (from across the room!) and now it hurts. Hmph!

I got our friend Sandi to come over today and stay with Mimi so I could go to Playa for some food and some nicorette. It's not that she needs a babysitter, I keep telling her, it's that I'm afraid she will fall using that one crutch on our slick tile floors and I'll be too far away to get to her right away.

Anyway, the crowds were unbelievable. I've never seen this many people here. I've also never been here during Easter so now I know. I snapped this pic with my cell phone, it's the most common sight this week - a Mexico City license plate. The place is rocking tonight, we can hear the bands from the party across the street and the bar down the beach. This is the most like the rest of Mexico I've ever seen this little tourist town.

Thanks everyone for your good wishes. Mimi is reading them all, she can't type though so she can't answer now. I offered to let her post by telling me what she wanted to say and I'd type it. She had the same grimace for that idea that she has when I ask someone to come and stay with her when I have to go to town. She just said to say "Thanks. I'm not happy". That does about sum it up. She also said I can't sneak up and take anymore pictures of her in her misery. Darn! That was the fun part.

So, thanks again and all is well. She's just bored. The dogs are loving it though. My idea of walking the older 2 is to let them out one at a time by themselves. The rest of the time they are really happy to have someone to lay around in bed or on the couch with, dogs are so easy to please.

So, guess what happened today while I was happily contemplating not having to go out until after all the Easter crowds were gone?

Mimi fell while doing some work downstairs at the RV, she badly sprained her ankle and badly bruised the tendons on her right arm.

In fact, we both thought the arm was broken. I have my ancient 1st responder training and on seeing the swelling in the middle of her forearm and seeing her almost screaming with pain, I figured it was broken. I was just glad it hadn't broken the skin and hoping that she wouldn't need surgery.

I got her into the truck and off we went through the crowds to the hospital in Playa. They gave her a 'happy shot' right away - all of these pictures were taken AFTER the happy shot, she was not in the mood before it.

They took 6 xrays, and the great news was that no bones are broken. She's in a lot of pain though and not very happy, in spite of the shot and the happy pills. It is her right arm (and she is right handed) and her left ankle. I have no idea how she managed that one. They put a temp cast on her arm to immobilize her hand, wrist and arm. They wrapped her ankle and told her not to put any weight on it for at least 3 days.

With the help of our friend Rodrigo, she got up the stairs and onto the couch. Another friend loaned her one crutch so she can get to the bathroom. She can't use 2 crutches because of her arm.

Did I mention that she's not very happy?

I couldn't believe the crowds down in the main part of Akumal. Those of you who know it, the huge parking lot outside the arches was full and there were cars parked all up and down the road. Hordes of people walking in the road. This was at about 1pm so we were lucky that we didn't have so much traffic on the highway going to the hospital. Coming back though, it was starting to get crowded on the road as everyone left the beach.

At times like this I really love our little corner of the bay. This is a picture I took from our deck about a half hour before Mimi fell. I was gloating a bit, yes the karma gods no doubt immediately arranged for me to go and join the crowds. It's not a bad spot to hole up and get better, Mimi has TV and internet and friends coming by to see her. She'll be fine... me, on the other hand, I get to be the bad cop and keep telling her to stay off her foot, put the ice back on your arm, keep the foot elevated....

Another picture of the mystery butterfly, for Steve.

So, the only info I had from Mimi of the beach bar in Playa was that the man's name was Sr. Conrado and he lived in Residencia Campestre. That's a private residential community off the road south of Cancun.

After dropping our friends off at the airport and spending a couple hours in the mall looking at washers and dryers, we started south and turned into Residencia Campestre. I told the guard at the gate who I wanted to see and he asked me for some ID to keep and gave me a pass to enter and directions to his house. It's a very upscale residential community, if I ever want to impress someone enough to lie I'll tell them I live there.

All the houses are huge and most seem fairly new but when we got to #1 Avenida Sur it was an old house with a huge, ornate iron fence and a rope to pull a bell. After awhile a very tiny older woman came out and said she would see if Sr. Conrado would see us. I saw a young girl head towards the back shortly afterwards and the woman returned and said it would take a few minutes to get him, he was in the park.

We waited and waited, I think Mimi was starting to think I was nuts and to tell the truth it was kind of a spooky house and I was having second thoughts myself although what I said to her was "it will be an adventure". I'm so brave when I'm scared.

After a very long 5 to 10 minutes, he came walking towards us. A tall thin man, smoking a cigarette and dressed in khakis. He listened to my Spanish explanation of why we were there and opened the gate and said to follow him. We walked back behind the house and, I kid you not, it was a park. It was a huge animal park. There were minature horses, flamingos, emus, llamas, and hundreds of pairs of macaws. It took us about an hour to walk around, he was very nice, let us go into all the macaw areas and explained whatever I could figure out how to ask him in Spanish. He apologized for some damaged cages saying they were a result of Wilma and hadn't been repaired yet. He had huge flight enclosures, a concrete flight building, a building to house all the birds during hurricanes. The birds looked for the most part to be in really good shape, there were a couple that looked to be rescues perhaps, one with a deformed foot, others that had plucked some feathers. By and large though all of the birds looked healthy and well cared for. There were nest boxes in most of the pairs cages and the cages were quite large. He had mainly Blue & Gold and Scarlet macaws but he also had several pairs of Military, Severe, a couple of Cockatoo's, Amazons, I'm forgetting the rest.

I had told him that I was hoping to import my 2 macaws and at the end of our tour he invited us into the house and told us to have a seat in the sala. When he returned he gave me the name and phone number of a man from the govt agency that controls bird imports in Quintana Roo and said to use his name as a recommendation. I really wanted to ask him if I could hire him to handle the import for me but unfortunately, the verb 'to hire' was not part of my Spanish vocabulary and I didn't want to sound crass and just say I wanted to pay him. I did tell him that I would have our vet call this man and he laughed and said yes, they will talk vet to vet and that will be good. I'm still many months away from being ready to do this so I will have time to investigate it more and perhaps learn the polite way to see if he will represent us.

I'm encouraged because he said that it was definitely possible to import them, and he had already asked me which type of macaw they are. One of our birds is half Military which is an endangered species from Mexico, this complicated our previous attempt to import him. He said it will be a hassle and a lot of paperwork but we can do it. He also agreed that the safest way was to fly them into Cancun even though they are going to live in the neighboring state of Yucatan. He said the papers to take them to Yucatan would be available along with the papers to import them into Mexico.

He also gave us his card and the address of his web sites. He said that he will be opening his park behind the house in a few months to the public. There was a lot of work going on with the pond and pools and enclosures while we were there. From reading his web sites it appears he is very dedicated to preserving and breeding birds and supports his park by taking some of his birds to the hotels and resorts in Cancun for shows and pictures with the tourists as well as the sale of young birds. I wish now I had asked him if I could leave a donation.

His old web site, La Casa de las Guacamayas and his new web site Parque Moo' Cancún.

I was right, it was an adventure.

I'm sitting here writing this on my laptop by candlelight. Yes, the lights are out. The wind is blowing and has been for several days, perhaps that is why, perhaps not. I can see the whole bay and it is all dark except for the small flicker of candles and the torches at the beach bar. The placement of candles becomes rather crucial. If you close the deck doors and cut off the wind, they stay lit. But, it becomes hot and humid in here very quickly. So, I've just spent some time finding the perfect, feng shui spot for them so that I can have breeze and light.

We took our friends to the airport in Cancun today, it's been an exciting 2 weeks. I think all 4 of us are exhausted, but we had fun.

Yesterday we spent the whole afternoon in Playa del Carmen. The friends wanted to buy souvenirs and so we walked the length of 5th Ave. I surely hope it will be at least another year before I do that again. Holy Mother of Trinkets! I try to just enjoy the wit and expertise of the hawkers as they call out and try and entice you into their store. I try to ignore the insults in Spanish when you walk on by. I also try to look interested in one more turtle with a bobbing head or wooden mask of a Mayan god. I help with the bargaining, I compliment the purchase. I advise on the quality. My feet hurt. I have the urge to tell everyone that I live here, I'm not on vacation, but I resist.

Sneaky me, I suggested we walk down and look at the beach. It's beautiful I said, it's sand all the way out and there are waves and other wonders that we don't have on our bay in Akumal. Of course, I knew that the lure of a seat in the shade on the beach and a cold beer would overwhelm the shopping urge. I'm so clever.

While sitting at Mimi's Bar (yes, I'd love to get one of their signs) I discovered that Mimi (not my Mimi the bar owner Mimi) was sitting next to us with her bird in a cage on the sand. A beautiful bird, a yellow naped Amazon, who talked and sang and clearly loved Mimi over all others. I started talking to her about birds and importing birds and she gave me the name of a guy in Cancun and the area in which he lived. She said everyone knows him, just ask at the gate, he lives in a gated community. She said he knows everyone at the govt agency that controls bird imports and that he had tons of macaws.

Wait!! The electricity just came back on for more than a minute.

One must use these moments quickly, it sometimes is a fake and will go out again in a minute or two. What did I do? I ran in the kitchen and put the mamey and mango I'd cut up by candlelight into the blender, added some rum and quickly used the electric juicer on 4 oranges. Hit Liquify and pray the power lasts.

OK, I'm back and have my Tropical Hoo Ha and don't care if the lights go out again or not.

So, tomorrow I'll regale you with our journey to visit this wondrous bird man. Tonight I have to take advantage of the power that is still on and upload this.

Happy Birthday to our 3 wonderful dogs! No, we didn't have a party or cake or silly hats. They did each get a couple of good bones after dinner.

Of course, their birthday is a guess. When we rescued the first 2, Chica is on the left and Hombre in the middle, the vet estimated their age at about 9 months from their teeth. Counting back that put their birthday sometime in mid March. Well, St Patrick's day was an obvious choice! When we found Cuba this fall, the vet estimated her age at about 6 months and that put her birthday somewhere in March as well. So, we've assigned them all St. Paddy's day and a fine day it is for a birthday. Chica and Hombre (who are brother and sister by the way) are 5 years old today. Cuba is 1 year old. They also share their birthday with one of Mexico's great presidents, Benito Juarez. So, their birthday is always a holiday.

You know how when you live somewhere you never get around to going to all the places that it is famous for? Like, if I hadn't had to drive across the Golden Gate Bridge every day for 20+ years I probably wouldn't have seen it very often. When guests come it is a great time to show off your best places and to get yourself to them as well.


So, yesterday, we put the dogs in the truck and our friends in the jeep and headed south on the Boca Paila road from Tulum looking for a deserted beach. It was an early birthday present for the dogs, Yay! We get to ride in the back of a hot truck and smell new stuff and go to a different beach and eat dead stuff!

We were pretty optimistic since it was a Sunday, the only day off most Mexicans have in the week, and it was Palm Sunday and the beginning of Semana Santa. Easter week is when everyone in Mexico City leaves and goes somewhere, preferably a beach. Since Mexico has a lot of beaches it isn't as bad as it could be but it is pretty darn crowded. Oh, I forgot to add that the whole rest of the country does the same thing.

Also! For me, the highlight of the day was that I talked us through the checkpoint for the Biosphere Preserve, completely in Spanish!

Usually when we've driven down there, like last October maybe, there isn't anyone at the checkpoint and I just ignore the big signs that say No Perros! But, this time an official came out, he even had a clipboard, and when I told him my friend and my dogs were in the truck behind me he pointed to the No Dogs! sign. I was smooth, internet, suave!!

He went back and looked at the 3 slobbering faces and came back and told me they looked aggressive and he didn't want anyone getting bit. I assured him we would not go anywhere there were people and I may have even agreed that we wouldn't stop at any beaches but go straight to Punta Allen and return. He let us go through. I was soooo proud!

The first few beaches where there was room to pull over were full of families, Mexican families who spoke Spanish and could rat me out to my new best friend at the checkpoint. I didn't care so much about gringo tourists as I figure they couldn't complain and probably wouldn't know dogs were not allowed. Of course, the Mexicans by nature would be unlikely to complain, it's not their business, but I didn't want to worry about the dogs scaring their kids. So, we kept driving.

If you've ever been down the Boca Paila road to Punta Allen, it is the Neverending Road. You think that around every corner will be ... something. Instead, around every corner is another stretch of road and another corner. We were on a search for good beachcombing and shells so when we found a point with lots of waves and debris thrown up and, most important, no one around, we stopped.

It was perfect, we found lots of stuff to look at and some shells and some of these seeds we call Hamburgers. They float up everywhere, I have no idea what they are or where they come from - they do look like little 1" hamburgers. We went swimming, the dogs ran themselves into exhaustion and then laid around and ate dead crabs. I took lots of pictures of waves breaking and tidepools.

Eventually, we started thinking about cold beer. Since we'd driven forever on the Neverending Road, I thought we must be close to Punta Allen. No, not really but after a dozen more identical corners we were there.

On the way back, which always seems shorter... why is that?, it started to rain a little and the skies were moody.

We spotted a pair of Osprey on their nest. If you click the picture (or any of them for that matter) it gets bigger and you can see a tiny white spot around the middle of the one on the nest, that's junior!

We kept stopping at the now deserted beaches and it was dark when we finally got to Tulum and a wonderful dinner at Don Cafetos.

It was a long but great day. Did I mention that I was so smooth in Spanish that I got us into Sian Kian with our dogs? Heh! I rule!

Today I walked over to take Diane and Betsy to Yal Ku lagoon a few blocks away and the locals entrance has been closed off with barbed wire. I had heard that the pay entrance would let locals in free so I went there but I need some kind of card from the Akumal Council. We decided to get in the jeep instead and go swim in a cenote. I did stop and see about the card but the right person wasn't there, I suppose I should be happy they haven't locked us out completely but it does seem like a lot of BS.

Instead we took them to Cenote Azul. It's nice, it's cheap ($50p) and it is used mainly by locals and a few tourists. There may be tours that go there but on this Saturday there weren't any.

It was hot today, somewhere in the 90's, and the water in cenotes is always around 72°. That feels really cold when you first get in and I couldn't stay in very long because I was getting chilled. It was nice sitting in the shade with the breeze off the water. The white things in the water are limestone rocks just under the surface.

There were some orchids blooming and interesting birds. We spent a couple hours there swimming and just hanging out.

We also stopped at the Saturday market and got some more pineapple, papaya and some mamey. We've really been enjoying the fruit lately. I made some papaya/pineapple/coconut ice cream the other night. First we had to remember who we loaned the ice cream maker to and then retrieve it. The ice cream is really good, perhaps because it's made with thick cream. I guess I should try making some sorbet as well or at least use yogurt instead of cream.

I've also been making fruit drinks every night, we're now calling all of them 'tropical hoo-ha' no matter what is in them. Tonight it was mango and pineapple chunks with fresh orange juice and rum, blend and serve. Last night it was papaya chunks, pineapple chunks, coconut syrup, pineapple juice and rum. The night before it was papaya chunks, pineapple chunks, sour orange and lime juice, a little sweet orange juice and tequila. All I need are some paper parasols.

Anyway, after the cenote and just to show them the other side of life on this coast, we went to Puerto Aventuras for lunch. This is a planned community with hotels, condos, houses, multiple marinas for yachts, a lagoon full of dolphin where stupid tourists pay big money to have a "Dolphin Discovery" and restaurants where you can sit and have lunch and watch the whole show. I had the Fish & Chips and it was actually very good.

I have to admit that this last pic of the Dr Phil lookalike kissing the dolphin is rather charming.

I know, I know. I've been missing again for awhile. I'm fine though, doing a whole lot better in fact and I'm proving it by this first picture of me standing up by a small pyramid at the ruins of Sayil. Yes, I hiked all over the site and climbed the hills and the breathing was easy-peasy.

Thanks for all of your concern, I will keep you updated if things change but right now I'm just thrilled that I am so much better.

Lordy! Lordy! I can even walk up the 3 flights to my condo in Akumal, with arms full of groceries and talk the whole way up! Plus, while I am breathing hard at the top I can still talk and walk and it isn't taking anywhere near as long to breathe normally afterwards.

Our friends Betsy and Diane have been here for a week and we've been going non-stop. It's their first trip here and first trip to Mexico and we want them to see everything and love it all. We spent 4 days in Merida and a day at Uxmal, plus some of the smaller Mayan ruins on the Puuc route, like Sayil above.

We didn't take our internet dish to Merida and while I had my laptop I never took the time to stop at a wireless site and use it. Amazing for me, I rarely go a day without being online. I was having fun though and let me tell you internet, you are a lot easier to kick than cigarettes. I'm still doing that too though, so far my teeth are holding up to the near constant nicorette chewing. Hey, at least I don't spit... gum is a definite improvement over chewing tobacco.

I even climbed the rickety ladders up to the 2nd floor of our house. The above is the view of the Cathedral from my bathroom through the scaffolding and all. We may have to put the roof terrace back in the plans as the view from one more floor up will be a whole lot better. Not to mention a lot less trashy than having people come into your bathroom to see the "view".

The next one is of Betsy and Diane sitting in the entrance to the master bedroom, I'm standing in the private garden off the bedroom taking the picture.

In the pic at left, our wonderful architect, Henry Ponce, is standing at the top of just one of the rickety ladders I climbed to get up there. He's standing on what we are calling "Mimi's Grill Terrace". It will also be the terrace and entry for the guest bedroom, also called 'Country's Room', at the left. On the right, will be the Mimester's barbeque station with even a sink that may or may not have hot water.

My pantry is still present and has not been shrunk or filled with mechanical things. I must stay vigilant but I think they have accepted that this gringa is obsessed with storage. I was thrilled with the laundry room upstairs. It has room for a washer and dryer, lots of counter tops, a sink and a bunch of shelves. It will also be a linen closet... this rings warning bells for Mimi and many of my friends.

In a past life I referred to myself as a 'sheet whore', sounds awful but it really only meant that I was a sucker for 500 thread count egyptian cotton. Only the complete lack of any storage in our small RV has kept me under control. Believe me, the day I had to get rid of all but 2 sets of sheets was traumatic. Some lucky souls in Marin got incredible deals on very expensive sheets at our giant garage sale.

We also attended the antique sale and chili cookoff of the Merida English Library where I got that gorgeous table for a song and where we consumed a dozen or more different types of chili in the interests of supporting the library. It was a lot of fun.

We did a lot of other stuff too but I didn't take the camera. Sometimes it is just a pain to carry around. One spectacular event was a large fair of women's handcrafts* and cooking from the southern states of Mexico. The states of Yucatan, Quintana Roo, Campeche, Chiapas, Oaxaca and Veracruz were represented by many booths full of great hand made items, food, and a wonderful plant sale. It was held at the large convention center and celebrated Women's Day.

We attended a jam-packed opening of Casa Frederick Catherwood including a show of paintings by Malena Peon who is a descendant of the man, Simon Peon, who invited John Stephens to Merida to see the startling cities in the jungle. The permanent exhibit of Catherwoods paintings of Chichen Itza and other Mayan cities in the 1800's is spectacular.

We spent an afternoon in the huge mercado which was a first time experience for Diane and Betsy and a whole lot of walking.

I'm having a lot of fun enjoying the many options in Merida to do interesting things, listen to wonderful music, eat great food. Diane's first statement when she saw our new house was "Jonna is never going to leave the house". I think she knows me pretty well and that would be true except that it is so easy to go to so many other interesting things that I do believe I'll get out more than expected.

*The actual name of the event in Spanish was 1ra Feria Artesanal y Gastronomica de Mujeres del Medio Rural. I'm never happy with translating artesania or artesanal into English as 'crafts' or 'handcrafts', it just doesn't sound right to me but I can't come up with other words.

Enough of all that.

I think Blogger is letting me upload pictures again, we'll see. This is our friend Jaime kite-boarding during a norte here on Half Moon Bay.

He's really good, he catches some incredible air, up to 4 or 5 feet above the water at times.

We got a lot done last week in Merida, once the doctor stuff was over we spent a lot of time at the house. One whole day with the architect's assistant, the electrician and plumber going over every plug, every pump, every drain, all of it on the first floor.


Next Saturday we meet again and go over the 2nd floor. No way can I get up there now, they've promised me a good ladder by next week. Right now there is just some rather loose looking scaffolding.

This is my friend Theresa standing in front of the pantry and downstairs bath on the left and the open room on the right.

Have I explained how hard I've had to fight for my pantry? I have been clear from the beginning that I want a pantry, a bodega, a place to store big packages of paper towels from CostCo, a place for all the things I can't store now in an RV. It sounds silly even to me but hey, it's my house and I want a big kitchen storage room, with shelves and a small chest freezer. Over and over it seemed to disappear from the plans as they evolved. Again and again I had it put back in. Once it shrank to about 3' wide by 5' deep, you can't put shelves on both sides of a 3' room. I even had them remove the shower from the downstairs bathroom so the pantry would have enough space. You'd think that would show my true devotion to this room.

When we got to the house, the first thing I checked was the pantry. There are 2 rooms off the kitchen, one a half bath and the other The Pantry! Except, I could see from the sewer pipe that the bath had switched places with the pantry. But, the pantry was the larger of the two so I thought it was going to be fine. I remarked on the size though, and at first they said no, they are the same size.

It was when they were explaining about the pool pump and filter that I found out they were going to put them, guess where? In my pantry! It's like they just can't stand this empty space and have to move it or fill it or shrink it. The pool equipment is 1 meter high and 3 meters long - please, that takes up pretty much the whole damn pantry. Once again, I explained that no, I wanted an empty room with only some shelves and Nothing Else In It!!

So, we talked about several other places for the pool stuff, including adding a small shed if necessary. When I returned the next day, the pool pump and filter had found a home under the stairs where I thought they were going to be in the first place. That's what gets me, the pool stuff had a home so why did they just move it into my pantry? However, Mimi then noticed that the pantry and bathroom were again switching places. I asked and they said that I had been right and the left room was bigger than the right so they were moving the bath to the bigger room. No! All the bath needs is room for a toilet and a sink, my pantry needs shelves and air and room. So, we insisted and they have now moved the plumbing back. I'm not convinced though that at the last minute something else will appear in my pantry. I think I should just ask for some hammock hooks in it and call it the maid's room.