Another Visit to the Centennial Zoo

For my morning walk, I decided to go to the zoo again.  The other day when I went, they had some of the area blocked off - employee said the veterinarian was visiting.  I am guessing that would be stressful for the animals and so they didn't want an audience.  So this day I was able to see a few more critters.

The monkeys are the most interesting to watch as they are mostly pretty active running around and swinging on their various apparatuses. The cappuccinos were the most fun.  But this time I also got to see another type of monkey that had no sign so I don't know the species.  They had furry white undersides and exceptionally long tails with which they would grab onto something and happily swing,  Most were apparently young-ish because of their size in comparison to one who was sitting on a platform apparently watching over the youngsters.  And when she came down and walked around a bit, I was able to take a photo of her (see below) sitting near the fence and she looked like she could be pregnant.  Also saw one baboon in the next enclosure.  They are not cute.

Farther down the aisle there was an enclosure marked chimpanzees.  I could only see one and he/she was sitting with his/her back to the spectators.  I watched for a while and he/she never moved.  I felt sad because chimps are highly intelligent and who knows what was going through their mind - probably not good thoughts - especially if he/she really was alone.  The enclosure was not particularly large either.  Pretty depressing.

Then I moved on to the beautiful cats which I watched the other day but could view more now from the section that was closed before. There was a leopard, a puma, a jaguar and more tigers.  The puma was interesting - she came to the front of the enclosure (all enclosures are made of chain link fencing) and sat down right in front of me and growled and carried on but was not looking at me - just kind of off to the side.  I wondered what was bothering her - maybe she was in pain as she could have been the one that the vet was visiting the other day,  I felt sorry for her. 

The tigers were pacing which is sad.  They just really don't belong in cages even though well fed and cared for.  Interesting that one large enclosure seemed to have only one tiger and she/he had a nice large soaking water hole that she was luxuriating in as I walked up.  Certainly nice to have in this climate.

There was a reptile/amphibian section and you will see a photo below of what I believe was a boa constrictor (no sign).  Then there was a very nice enclosure with a water attraction for turtles - I did not feel sorry for them - I think they are enjoying the reptilian good life.

Finally, I visited quite a few different types of tropical birds like macaws, parrots, etc,  They were gorgeous, colorful and had nice large enclosures.  I couldn't get good photos of them because of the type of mesh fencing, 

I said hello again to the zebras, giraffe and ostriches and then made my way out of the park and home.  It was getting hot. 

 

Colors of Merida

Saturday, January 25

I took a long walk to the Plaza Grande today and a little beyond,  Along the way I took some pictures of house facades.  Actually, I mostly shot the nice ones.  We are in the centro historic district which is full of old homes.  There are no spaces between the homes - they are one after another - sharing walls.  So, you have no idea what is behind those facades, except that you can kind of guess or imagine based on the front.  There are far more in disrepair than what you will see with my photos.  I have not researched it but I'll bet you can buy an old ruin for not a lot of money.  The expense comes with rehab.  However, no matter, many, including us, would not want to live here year around because of the climate.  Yes, it is a great place to escape colder climates in January and maybe December and February, but the rest of the year, it is hot and humid.  Maybe kind of like Florida or maybe even hotter.  That being said, I think it is a lot cheaper to live here as compared to San Miguel.

I enjoy walking here because it is flat - no hills or even inclines.  Sidewalks are not in great shape but no cobblestones, unlike San Miguel.  Best to walk in the morning and watch your step.  Also have to be careful crossing streets as I mentioned in a previous post, pedestrians do not seem to have the right of way and they go pretty fast even on the side streets.

So, the colors - they are great - quite the palate.  Some, I think, might decide on a color based on what is on sale.  So - here is a link to my photos;

https://photos.app.goo.gl/j2YF8JjRJ6nW1kAaA

Food - Yucatecan and other

Typical Yucatecan food is quite different from other Mexican dishes.  The most common dishes you see on local menus here are;  cochinita pibil, salbutes, panuchos, tamales colados, poc chuc, queso relleno and a few others.  I have tried all of them since we've been here.  Our favorite local place is outdoors and opens at 5 pm.  We heard about it from San Miguel friends when we visited Merida for the first time many years ago - it's called Loncheria Poderosa and it is still here in the San Sebastian neighborhood - not too far from where we are.  We had our first salbutes, panuchos and tamales colados there.  This trip it was one of our first nights out when Carol and Diane were here.  The tamales are very different from the usual Mexican tamales in SMA and other places.  The masa is smoother and juicier and they are steamed in banana leaves.  They are usually filled with chicken or turkey (pavo) and are quite delicious and topped with a tomato sauce after unwrapping. 


PANUCHO AND SALBUTE                                           TAMALE COLADO

We also have had cochinita pibil several times in different restaurants. It is shredded pork marinated and cooked in a sauce made of achiote paste or powder and orange juice and more.  The pork is wonderfully tender and delicious.  It is mostly served with refried beans . avocado, and pickled onions.


COCHONITA PIBIL

The salbutes and panuchos are a little bit like tostados - they are similar except that one of them has refried beans and the other does not.  Shredded turkey is usually put on them along with other salad goodies.  The tortillas are very thin and one of them is crispy fried and the other is not.  I can never seem to remember which is which but doesn't matter because they are equally delicious. 

The poc chuc consists of thin slices of marinated pork which has been then grilled over charcoal.  i've only had that once - at the restaurant in Izamal.  It was tasty but a bit chewy. 


POC CHUC

Yesterday, we walked to the Parque Santa Ana about a mile from home, where there were 6 or 7 little stands serving mostly Yucatecan food.  The tables and chairs were all out in front and a waiter from each stall was out front trying to entice customers to sit in their section.  We chose one at random and sat down at the red Coca Cola plastic tables.  They had chiliquiles with pavo on the menu and John chose those. I was a bit more adventurous and chose the queso relleno which I was not really sure what it was going to be other than it involved cheese.  It turned out to be like a cheese pie - cheese on the outside (Edam) with a filling of seasoned ground beef.  It was swimming in some kind of sauce.  The dish was way too salty so I really didn't care for it.  John said the chiliquiles were just o,.k.  So, we won't be back there.,  However, the beverages were the best part - I had fresh mango/orange juice and it was very good.  John had lemonade - all freshly made and cold.  All of the restaurants like these are very cheap. 


QUESO RELLENO                                                         COCA COLA TABLES


CHILIQUILES

Today we went back to the Lebanese restaurant - La Terraza.  Unlike when we went on a Sunday, today there were only a few people eating.  We had the lamb skewers - chunks of marinated lamb and sweet onions - grilled over a charcoal fire.  We also shared a stuffed eggplant, some labne and pita bread.  We went home stuffed. 


LAMB ON A SKEWER & ONIONS               LABNE - YOGHURT, LIME, GARLIC, OLIVE OIL
 
I am also cooking our main meal many days at home since we bought some pork chops and ground beef at Costco,  Had the pork chops the other night and they were delicious in spite of this woefully inadequate kitchen. 

A Rainy Day and the Zoo

Tuesday, Jan 21, it was much cooler and we had rain on and off throughout the day so we basically stayed home and vegged out.  Beth Ann and Mike gave us an Amazon Echo for Christmas and we are using it here - fun and nice music whenever we wish to have some.  There is no TV in our rental which I like.  John gets his news fix on his laptop and I watch a Netflix now and then on my laptop.  Finished watching The Irishman - about Jimmy Hoffa and the Mafia - interesting.  And, I am still doing the church newsletter so got that out of the way for the week. 

We made a run to Costco since I wanted some decent meat to cook easily and simply at home.  Traffic was pretty heavy and they were doing street renovations near Costco do that was not fun.  But we got out stuff and headed back home with pork chops, ground beef and a pork tenderloin.  I divvied it all up in plastic wrap and froze everything - we're set probably until we leave - filling in with occasional eating out.  The mini kitchen here isn't much fun to cook in but it's temporary and I'm getting by.  I do not intend to use the oven - generally too hot here and it is not automatic - I hate to light gas stoves with a striker.  My cooking will be done on top.  The pork chops we had tonight were very tasty and with a big salad, it's all we needed after indulging in pizza at Costco.

Wednesday, Jan 22.  The rain is gone and the sun is out with overall cooler temps.  It is a perfect day for a walk to the zoo.  It was about a 20 minutes flat walk (all walks are flat in Merida) to the Centennial Parque where the zoo is located.  The entrance leads ito an area of playgrounds, vendor stands selling all kinds of snacks including cotton candy, tacky toys for the little ones, other types of junk food, etc.  There are picnic areas, kiddie rides and a train that goes around the perimeter of the park for 1 peso per person (about 5 cents). 

The second half of the park opens into the zoo.  It is better than some foreign zoos I've seen but nothing even remotely close to Brookfield or Lincoln Park Zoos in Chicago.  However, they had some nice looking tigers - including a couple of white ones, some decent looking lions, hippos - large and small, zebras and one lovely giraffe who was living with ostriches.  The zebras also had ostriches with them,  Strange bed fellows, I'd say.  There was a huge enclosure for capucchino monkeys that i spent a while watching as they were quite active swinging on ropes and climbing up to the top of the chain link enclosure.  Two of them were at the very top and it looked to me like they were looking for a possible way to escape - i certainly don't blame them.

Carol and I walked to the zoo a number of times when visiting Merida in the past and while the place is a bit shabby, it appears that the animals and cared for pretty well and the enclosures seem to be fairly spacious and pretty clean - better than I remember from the past.  Sure, I would rather there were no zoos but they do have their place in that most folks would never see a wild animal in person so it is somewhat educational and inspiring.  The animals seemed to be quite calm so I expect they were mostly born in a zoo. 

Symphony Orchestra of Yucatan

This weekend was the season opening of the Symphony Orchestra of Yucatan - Friday night, Saturday night and Sunday at noon.  They now have performances about every weekend at the Jose Peon Contreras Theater in downtown Merida through June.  The best seats are only 350 pesos - sometime performances are only 300 pesos.  We bought tickets for this Sunday and the two following Sundays that we will still be here. Next Sunday there will be a pianist with the orchestra. The concert was relatively short - about an hour and 45 minutes including a short intermission but it was very well done.  The pieces performed were well know classics including Smetena and Strauss Waltzes.  The encore was, of course, Strauss' Radetzky March which is always fun for the audience. There are quite a few Russian names among the orchestra members. 

After the concert we walked a block or two and had dinner at Casa Maya which was o.k. but not great - pretty much for tourists.  We kind of like the places the locals go to.  After all, we are locals - for a month anyway. 

On Monday, we had rain on and off most of the day so we spent a quiet day at home.  The air is deliciously cool and fresh now.  10 day forecast looks great - high only in the mid 80's - lows in upper 60's. 

Our Home Away from Home

The house we rented here in Merida is located in centro.  It is within walking distance to several parks including the Plaza Grande - the main park in the historic district.  The neighborhood is very Mexican and non-commercial.  There isn't a lot of noise or traffic.  There is an occasional barking dog and kids playing on the street but not unpleasant or annoying.  Well, maybe the yappy dog is occasionally annoying but he/she sounds more sad than anything - maybe being left alone a lot.

The house is narrow and deep like many houses here in the old part of Merida.  Many are ancient and have been restored/refurbished - as is the one we rented.  The owners, two sisters, apparently remodeled it a year or so ago for the express purpose of renting it out.  It turned out to be pretty much just as represented in the VRBO listing.  You enter from the street into an entry way with a small comfortable living room to the left.  After that you go into the dining room with table seating 8 and a very small kitchen with counter between it and the dining room.  Of all the features of the house, the kitchen was my least favorite.  I am used to a BIG kitchen.  Oh well - easier to go out and there are so many places to eat and many that are really cheap with tasty Yucatecan food and more.  I am, however, doing some simple cooking but certainly not going to turn on the oven. 

From the dining room you walk through a large arched opening with French, sort of, doors that can be closed, to the pool, and the 3 bedrooms.  Each bedroom has en-suite bathroom with shower and all bedrooms go in and out to the pool area.  The master has a king size bed with huge dressing room/lavatory plus shower/toilet area.  The ceilings are very high.  The bedrooms all had individual air conditioners but we have only used ours one night for a short time.  It cools off nicely at night and the ceiling fans do the rest.  The main part of the house does not have a/c - just ceiling fans.  This has not been a problem for us but I wouldn't want to be sitting around in here during the hot humid summer months. 

So far I haven't tried the pool - it's not heated - but it feels warm enough to maybe do some laps. I am going to give it a try some afternoon or evening.  If it was my house, I would keep a bubble wrap cover on it.  That would keep the heat of the day in as well as keeping leaves and dust out. 

All in all, the house is quite comfortable and great for visiting friends - Carol and Diane each had their own rooms.  There is a cleaning man who comes all day every Thursday to clean the pool and the house.  We do our own laundry - nice big washer and dryer. 

This year's January escape, from often chilly weather in San Miguel, is to Merida, Yucatan.  We rented a 3 BR 3 ba home in Centro for Jan 6 to Feb 6, using VRBO.  We invited Carol and Diane to join us for part of the time and they accepted.  They flew to Merida from the 7th to spend 10 days with us.  We, on the other hand, drove down so as to have a car to get around while here.

We found house/dog sitters on Trusted House Sitters and it turned out that one of the applicants was a couple we already knew - Debbie and Will, who have visited San Miguel more than once and attended the Community Church a number of times.  Turns out they have had a lot of house/dog sitting experience.  They arrived on Jan 3 late morning.  We showed them around the house and introduced them to Ella and hit the road to Puebla for the first night at a Staybridge Inn & Suites.

The next morning we headed for our second stop - Minatitlan,  it was toll road all the way and should only have been 4 or 5 hours. Unfortunately, we hit a stand still early in the day on the toll road and were stuck there due to an accident for 3 hours.  When we did get moving again, we hit dense fog - not fun and very slow and somewhat scary.  That put us pretty far behind our plan and so it was already dark when we arrived at our hotel in Minatitlan - City Express.  The hotel was comfortable, not fancy but the included breakfast buffet was mediocre and service terrible but we managed to get enough to carry on.

The next day went much much better.  We drove to Ciudad del Carmen on the gulf and it was a pretty easy drive of 4 or 5 hours.  We stayed at the Hampton Inn which was very comfortable and breakfast was good.  The hotels have all been $70us or less. 

The final drive was a longer day but we still arrived by 3:00 pm or so at our rental. The owner, Karla, met us there to let us in and show us around.  The place was pleasant and pretty much as advertised in the photos on VRBO.  The inside car parking was very tight and a little awkward to use but we got in and unloaded the car. After that, we parked pretty much in front of the house on the quiet street.

Carol and Diane arrived the next afternoon as scheduled, taking a taxi from the airport.  After settling in we all went shopping at Costco.  And our first dinner out was at Hennessey's Irish Pub - where they have good fish and chips and very cold beer.

We ate out most days at local Yucatecan restaurants enjoying cochinita pibil, panuchos, salbuaurres and tamal colados.  Diane particularly liked the salbutes and panuchos.

We visited the Archeology Museum again and it is always interesting.  They had a different exhibit on the second floor of aerial photography of the Yucatan.

On Sunday we went to the Lebanese restaurant - we remembered it from last time - it is only open on weekends - very plain, like eating in the kitchen and noisy - but, oh the food!  We had lamb shish kabobs, stuffed eggplant and more.  We all rolled out the door feeling stuffed by happy.

We tried to do some walking every day before it got too hot.  (90's at times).  We walked through the Casa de Montejo on the Grand Plaza and we enjoyed strolling through the huge native market,.  First time we were looking for the fresh fish - finally found it and purchased a bunch of red snapper (huachinango) - perfectly filleted by our favorite fish monger,  I sautéed them in lots of garlic and butter and they were outstanding.  On their last day we visited the market again and bought red snapper again and repeated out meal for the farewell dinner,  Carol and I also enjoyed our margaritas made with excellent fresh limes.  And, John found his favorite bakery from last time.  He and Diane enjoyed picking out goodies to bring home from there.  Everyone's favorites were the Napoleans - yummy and perfectly decadent.

One day we drove to the town of Progresso on the beach - walked in the sand and found a delightful fish/seafood restaurant for comida.  We all enjoyed our meals.

Another day we drove a little over an hour to the yellow town of Izamal.  We visited the huge yellow Franciscan monastery and then helped Carol find a pair of flip flops to buy in the market.  We strolled through town on the way to a popular Mayan Restaurant - Kinich.  Inside it has a jungle feeling to it - cool and peaceful.  And the food was good and the cerveza cold.  Some said I got lost finding the restaurant but in reality, i was just making sure that we got enough exercise before we ate.

Friday - January 17 - Time for Carol and Diane to return to San Miguel

We had a big breakfast, around 10 AM,  of scrambled eggs with cheese and fresh fruit salad plus bakery goodies.  Uber took them to the airport for their 2 pm flight. We miss them.

Saturday - January 18 - A Quiet Day in Merida.

Nothing special planned for today.  I washed all the sheets and towels and remade the beds.  Before it got too hot, I headed out on foot for a walk to Parque Santa Ana where I found some fresh fruits and veggies in the little market there.  I bought a white cucumber from a little old toothless vendor who I remembered from last time I was in Merida.  I asked about the white cucumber - he said it had a different flavor from the green ones and it is good mixed up with orange juice.  I may have to try that.  And, a new addition to the tiny market area was the altar to Our Lady of Guadalupe. Interesting that they had a grill in front of the altar which was locked  There was one little bench and a kneeler in front of it.  

I enjoyed the walk to and from the market - it was 0.7 miles each way so i only walked 1.4 miles total - better than nothing.  One does have to be careful crossing the streets because pedestrians do not seem to have the right of way in Merida. Most streets are one-way so at least you only have to watch the traffic coming from one direction.  

I made turkey and cheese sandwiches on the seed bread that Carol left - pretty darn good lunch.

The warm climate does a pretty good job of suppressing appetites, i think.  Neither of us was very hungry for dinner so I made a simple Cesar salad with chicken.