Saturday, July 29, 2017

Is this the real life?

Is it just fantasy?

So far we are just hanging around; in "wait"-mode for our closing date, which has been postponed indefinitely.

To keep busy, we exercise a few days a week, I study to get my TESOL certification, we do our Rosetta Stone and our QROO-Paul Spanish lessons, once a week we walk to the Lucas de Galvez market, we go grocery shopping and visit the local market around the corner twice a week. For our new house, I've sketched a garden layout and Herman is designing the additions to our property in SketchUp. We cook dinner every night, drink some wine, read or chat. It's not a hard life though, just slow, lazy and sometimes boring. For the first time since we were 16, we are not working for someone else. It is liberating. We are also contemplating what the name of our house will be... Most of all we are saving money for when we move.

Herman finally had his eyes tested and got some awesome new frames. The optometrist spoke excellent English and after three days Herman had his new progressives.

Xena has become a true Iguana hunter after she had one by the neck earlier this week and it took some coaxing from me for her to let it go. She now stalks them and tries to dig them out of the block wall. She event tries to climb the wall and managed to get onto the 5 foot ledge at the back of the property. Herman and I think that she may think that these Mexican "dogs" are super cool the way they can climb up the side of a walls... She had her third birthday on July 24th and loves her prickly rubber ball. Our four legged BFF is entertaining in a quiet life kind of way.

As you may or may not know you are not truly Canadian until you get some ink, and because I really don't like wearing jewellery, I decided a few years ago to get my wedding ring tattoo. Since then I've been fascinated with jewellery tattoos. I've wanted a Mexican-themed bracelet for a few years now, but felt that I had to get it done in Mexico, despite nervous comments from friends. One brave Mexican tattoo artist who speaks excellent English (Andrea Espadas from Makech studios) advertised on an Expat Facebook page and I decided to take the plunge. I have to admit I was a little nervous myself, but as in Canada, you have to check out the joint first. And this time, I had my secret weapon: Herman (who hates tattoos with a passion by the way). He was impressed with the cleanliness and large windows letting in light (hee-hee) and it was a go. After several attempts at getting the design just right, we set a date. Then we spent at least 30 minutes getting the positioning right and dropped about 4 glyphs to make it fit better.  The final product after a week is featured in the video below.

Why I picked the images you  may ask? Well here goes:

The centre and main area is the rose with lace, which represents (to me) Mexico, the Day of the Dead and the celebration of life. My grandparents also had a rose garden when I grew up, which was always something I associated with them. The two panels on either side have some of the glyphs from the Mayan farming calendar. The Mayan Haab calendar comprises of 365 days but with 18 months of 20 days plus the 5 unnamed days. Each glyph represents the activity that was traditional for that month.

The eight glyphs in my tattoo represent:
Uayeb: the 5 unnamed days which were the days where you didn't do anything because the belief was that these were bad luck days and if you went outside bad things could happen (rest is always good).
Kankin: No festivals were recorded for this month, but it is believed it celebrated the canine (go Xena).
Keh: It is believed that they honoured deer during this month (who doesn't like Bambi).
Mol: Wooden edifices were made for the gods (artwork is awesome).
Xul: Feast for Kulkulkan the feathered serpent, which featured comedians and burning of incense (major god of the Mayans and everyone needs a laugh now and then).
Yax: Temples were renovated during this month (spring cleaning yeah).
Zip: The month to honour the god of hunting (for the meatatarian in me yum)
Uo: Shamans and physicians gave offerings to the god of magic (what's life without a little magic).

So, not much happening around here right now, but we are going to visit a few craft markets and some festivals over the next few days and hope to take pictures and videos of those to share.

Sunday, July 16, 2017

Pok Ta Pok

We decided it would be fun to do some target shooting like we used to as kids, so earlier this week Herman bought a slingshot at the market. It is not as easy to shoot with as we remember, but Herman seems to be getting the hang of it really well (see video). I am a little more challenged, even though I used to be able to shoot really well as a kid...really. Luckily my lack of skill was not caught on camera.😏

An ancient Mayan game called Pok ta Pok, was a ball game played to thank the gods for a bountiful harvest. A re-enactment of the game is hosted in Mérida every Friday evening at 8pm and we finally made it to one of these exhibits.

In the re-enactment there are four players on a side and the aim is to score by passing the ball through a circle about 8 feet above the ground. The players can only touch it with their hips or thighs. The ball weighing anywhere from 3 to 4 kilograms is not easy to hit with a hip or thigh and after only a few minutes of this game the players were sweating and tired. No substitutes for these players, and you played until one team scored.

Prior to starting the game, incense is burnt for purification and then a priest performs a purification ritual. The players then start in earnest. It didn't take long for the crowd to get into the game and with numerous near misses, there were lots of oohs and aahs! I really enjoyed myself and it seemed that everyone else did too. A video compilation is posted below.

If you ever visit Mérida, make sure to attend the game which is re-enacted every Friday evening at 8pm in front of the Mérida cathedral next to Plaza Grande.

When we visited the ruins in 2015, the guide showed us the arenas where these games were actually played. They were large and the walls were tapered towards the players. The goal scoring holes were about 20 feet above the ground. I added some pictures from that visit below. Rumour was that the losing team's leader would die or the entire team would be killed. Other reports said that the winners would be sacrificed.

The game is still played today and I will be looking out for a modern day version of this.

At Uxmal ruins the actual Pok Ta Pok arena.

Sloped floor to the base of the arena to prevent the game from stopping.

The goal circle from the base of the arena.

The goal circle from the sloped wall of the playing area.


Tuesday, July 11, 2017

Dancing in the Street

Whenever we have a large rainstorm, which is about twice a week since this is the rainy season, the house we are renting leaks and the living room is flooded. We have a squeegee to sweep the water out the front door and Xena enjoys the activity quite a lot. She loves water. So we just take turns sweeping out the water and it works really well. Also cleans the floor. Bonus!

One thing everyone always asks about is the safety in Mexico. The media obviously focuses on the negative as they always do, but we do not proclaim that is is the safest place on earth. However, the Yucatán province is supposed to be the safest area in Mexico. The main reason for this is the lack of drug cartel activity in this area, because it is not on a drug route.

Of course there are break-ins and domestic violence and car accidents. There are crazy people everywhere. We hope violence won't touch our lives, so we live our life and try to enjoy it one day at a time. Children, parents and grandparents spend their time together as much as they can here. Everyone goes about their daily lives and try to make the best of it. So far, it seems that the people here are caring, helpful and humble. What's not to like?

We love going to the parks and walking in the streets with the other families around us. Last Sunday evening we decided to head on down to Plaza Grande in downtown Mérida to see what's going on outside the palace. In the summer, every night of the week around 8pm there is some cultural event at the plaza. Sunday evenings there is street dancing where for two hours there is live music and Latin dancing. We were amazed at how many people were there and by 8:30 pm we joined in. There was hardly a spot on the street where you could move. People from all ages were dancing and some couples were extremely good. One  little Mayan lady must have been close to 80 and she and her partner were putting on moves that you won't believe!

We walked around the stalls and because this is summer holidays there were lots of tourists from Mexico and Latin America around. It is not the time of year when "gringos" visit, so it was nice not to be accosted by the many vendor runners focused on the rich American tourist types. I had some candy floss while we sat on a bench doing some people watching. We then had the good luck of being right in front of a group of young men doing some break dancing/street gymnastics just before we headed on home. All I can say is: Fabulous!

Here is a short video:

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Monday, July 3, 2017

Temple of San Sebastián

This past weekend was Canada Day and a very difficult time for me to be away from Canada. I missed my family and our friends and just about everything else that is Canadian. We had our own barbecue Saturday night, but it just wasn't the same without friends, family, fireworks and red and white outfits everywhere. So I ventured out to the local park to take some pictures of the cathedral and keep me from feeling sorry for myself.

We are staying in the Colonia of San Sebastian. It is a nice neighbourhood and around the corner is the centre of this borough. The focal point of the square is the Temple of San Sebastián.

Original building and newer additions are visible on this historic building. (When the Spanish arrived in the Yucatan, they destroyed most of the Mayan temples and built their churches on top of the ruins to prove their dominance. I'm not sure if this site is the same. The old stone construction is beautiful.)

Parque de San Sebastián

Temple of San Sebastián

Front entrance to Temple of San Sebastián.

Clock tower

Temple of San Sebastián


The view from the back of  he Temple of San Sebastián.

One of the most popular trees of the Yucatan (delonix regia) has these bright orange flowers. I love the colour and they are everywhere in the city. The trees have large unsightly plumes up to a foot long that makes them quite messy part of the year.
The Mayor of Mérida promised the residents that exercise equipment will be installed in all parks in the City. This is one of the examples of the equipment. The machines work with your own body weight.

Typical of parks in Mérida are the basketball court and baseball diamond. The parks are extremely busy between 6 and 9pm every evening of the week, but especially Sunday evenings. When we go for our morning exercises around 7-8am, the park is a hive of activity.

Baseball diamond.
 
Herman walking along the church wall.