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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