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.