Yucatan
In 2012, we did an outing to Yaxachen, Yucatan to see a family we'd read about in the newspaper whose house had burned down while they were out on a posada. It was one of the most memorable weekends we had during our stay in the Yucatan.Related Posts:Robbed and Violated by Chu Chi Loco and the Have Nots -- By Jennifer ShippMy Birthday Inundation and Subsequent Salvation -- By Jennifer ...
Related Posts:Robbed and Violated by Chu Chi Loco and the Have Nots ...
I would have never thought when Lydi took this bellydance class that she'd fall in love with it and continue practicing it for years. This teacher (who was only 15 years old at the time) was an excellent instructor as well as an amazing dancer in Progreso, Yucatan. ...
At the Centro de Idiomas Spanish language school in Progreso, Yucatan, there was a special Christmas feast and performance that Lydi participated in in 2013. She played "the devil" in a play for the students who were learning English. John and I helped with a turkey dinner. A lot of the expats in Progreso get really addicted to the Centro de Idiomas events that happen every year because they're a lot of ...
My birthday was roughly three days after our computers, passports, credit cards, and luggage were stolen. I don’t cling to high birthday expectations, but birthdays can add insult to injury when injuries are in the forecast. This January 14th though, I felt confident that we had lived through the worst of it having survived a robbery, a highway encounter with Mexico’s police, and losing the brakes on our ...
After having been despoiled of our computers, passports, credit cards, and some of our luggage last week, I’ve been forced to sit in a tiny hotel room to contemplate the situation in greater depth. I have limited access to the Internet, a few books, and my thoughts to keep me company. Once again, on this trip, I’ve been cast into Technology Time-Out. In the silent moments, I’ve spent some time thinking ...
John is allergic to beef, so we were vegetarians for two or three years before John came down with a sinus infection that wouldn’t go away and our acupuncturist recommended that we at least include chicken broth in our diet. After years of not eating flesh, the idea of it was repulsive, but over time, we became vegetarian-chicken-eaters instead of just vegetarians. Vegetarianism is like a religion. If I ...
Several times on our way traveling south out of Merida, we had passed the police, stationed under an overpass stopping cars traveling back and forth. Often, we too, had been stopped, questioned briefly and then told to pasa or continua.In the Yucatan, the police do practically nothing. They drive around with their lights on all the time instead of turning them on when they’re chasing someone. Four or ...
On Wednesday we were robbed. We had to rent a car to cart around our things while we were getting new passports and of course the car we ended up with was the same P.O.S. Chevy that we had stuffed ourselves into over the weekend to go visit the family that had lost everything in a fire in Yaxachen. As we sat in a traffic jam in downtown Merida, stuffed into that tiny car again while trying in vain to find ...
I learned a lot of new Spanish words out of necessity over the past three days while talking with the Mexican police, neighbors, and the people at the U.S. consulate. I haven’t told very many people at home about the robbery yet because, once again I am without an Internet connection, or rather, this time, a computer. Thus, my thoughts about the whole ordeal have been suspended. They are in purgatory. ...
We had driven for three hours to try to find the Cauich family whose house had burned down while they were out on a posada in Yaxachen, Yucatan. We had decided to give them some money, roughly the amount we would spend on a fun weekend “out” in the United States since our trip to the destination was both entertaining as well as educational. The newspaper article that inspired the trip didn’t show “before” ...
We’ve seen Chichen Itza and Uxmal. We’ve even been to Palenque. We saw so many ruins in the Yucatan last year that it’s hard to remember which one was which. Every morning we go jogging along the beach in Progreso. We’ve had plenty of sun and sand. We were going to go get SCUBA certified until Lydian caught an awful cold on this trip. So last weekend we had to be creative to come up ...
I bought an air mattress before we left on this trip to Mexico, thinking that we were actually going to Guatemala. With the memory of Costa Rica’s various discomforts still fresh in my mind, I decided to scour the Denver REI for air furniture, hoping to find something that would cushion our delicate first-world bodies for the upcoming month in yet another third world country.I ended up in the camping ...
Enrique left Cuba because of communism. He came here for better opportunities. He is not remotely strange. He didn’t shake any rattling objects at Lydian or blow smoke on her. Sadly, there was no chanting. But according to some residents of Progreso, Enrique is a curandero. A witch. Maybe I missed a crucial piece of evidence that he dabbles in the dark arts, but the portly fellow we spoke to who wore a polo ...
So, we could still go see Tikal. Reading the Lonely Planet guide on how to get from Belize to Tikal and back, it sounds like no sweat. The problem is, though. I’ve also read that you shouldn’t wander away from crowds at Tikal. People will rob you and rape you even as you climb the steps of ancient temples.There are different types of violence in the world. We considered going to Israel, for example this ...
I’ve been reading a book called Women of Yucatan by George Ann Huck and Jann E. Freed. Last year, upon returning from Mexico, I ordered some books by Oscar Lewis (The Children of Sanchez and Five Families) an anthropologist who studied Mexican families. The books have made me glad to be an American. In Mexico, rape isn’t considered a crime if a woman agrees to marry her rapist.According to some of this ...
The fireworks went on until the wee hours of the morning. When John left the house at 5:45 this morning, people were still partying. Last year, in 2011, we were in Palenque on New Year’s Eve, trying to escape from the obnoxious evangelist whose fire-and-brimstone voice echoed throughout Progreso from 7:00 PM to midnight. This year was much quieter, but since we essentially sleep in the open air with windows ...
Everyone seems very hung over and distant today. The streets are covered with trash. People are still wasted from their Dionysian escapades. I feel tired just congregating with them, probably in part because I didn’t get any sleep on account of them.Now that the New Year has hit, the on-season is starting here. Tourists are getting thicker along the malecon. More vendors have set up their wares along ...
- 1
- 2