The Truth About Mexico!

Living in Mexico

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Ramblings

When Mexico is adorable it is wonderfully so. Children chasing chickens in the yard, festivals of colors and lights and saints, spontaneous parades, palm trees, colonial architecture and cheap delicious street food are all undeniably very good things. But when Mexico is awful*, it is terribly so. We’ve discussed how there is not really anything [...]

1Mar2010 | Jillian | 0 comments | Continued
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Reviewed: Hotel Ibis in Merida

Having stayed in our share of small Mexican hotels that are trying to copy the larger chains, usually with limited success, we had been regarding the newly-opened Ibis Hotel with a bit of a raised eyebrow. An overnight in “the big city” is not uncommon for us; we book a hotel room at the drop [...]

26Feb2010 | Malcolm | 2 comments | Continued
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Norte #33 was a Doozy

I am typing this from the one room in the house that has power, after getting socked for the last 24 hours with one of the most powerful nortes I have ever seen. The waves were breaking on people’s houses, and our neighbor’s house was covered in foam that was being spit up from the [...]

25Feb2010 | Malcolm | 0 comments | Continued
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The News Not The Weather

I remember a tempestuous August storm. It was nothing more than a strong summer rain. But sheets of water were falling from the sky and collecting in quick inches on our street and I was scared. My parents flung open the doors and stood outside to marvel at the intensity and I thought, not for [...]

25Feb2010 | Jillian | 0 comments | Continued
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Things to do in Yucatan Before I Leave aka My Yucket List

Dance all night at The Mambo Cafe
We had our wedding reception at this live music venue/dance club at the Plaza Las Americas mall and it was amazing, shiny, loud, and vibrating. But I was a little distracted/overwhelmed/intoxicated and would love to go back to shake my money maker without worrying about our forty friends and [...]

23Feb2010 | Jillian | 4 comments | Continued
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Part-Time Paradise is a Full-Time Hell

Believe me I flagellate every time I even think about complaining, so don’t get upset and decide that I’m awful. But every holiday must end and even the beach gets boring, especially in a town such as this. Chelem, like the mysterious city Brigadoon, is not meant to exist all the time. It only comes to life [...]

18Feb2010 | Jillian | 0 comments | Continued
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Waiting For My Man

We’ve had one norte after the next blowing through our port, the skies are opaque gray and all the Yucatecans and casi Yucatecans are bundled up and battened down. We drove into Progreso to run errands while the help leveled rubble and planted and washed our pots and pans. I picked up our laundry and was waiting for [...]

17Feb2010 | Jillian | 0 comments | Continued
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Mexico Micro and Macro

I would say we keep our distance. I prefer that my hands are clean. I want to want to look more closely at life, to face certain facts about the world, but when I do it’s with shock and sad horror. Perhaps I’m too empathetic. Or is it selfish? Or just squeamish. Maybe I would [...]

16Feb2010 | Jillian | 2 comments | Continued
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Life in a Small Fishing Village

It’s not that pictureque, actually. Oh, but it can be. I was naive to think it would look like a painting, with colorful masts studding the ocean’s swells, happy moppet children playing with their untoys, and beautific faces in church on every Sunday. Those idyllic images do occur. There have been afternoons when fishermens’ families are meeting boats onshore at sunset, a dynamic tangle [...]

11Feb2010 | Jillian | 2 comments | Continued
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Wednesday at the Mercado with Chickens

caption this if you can.

10Feb2010 | Jillian | 0 comments | Continued
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The Reckoning: Verbal Skills and Communication

Language Lab
Most of the Spanish that I speak, I learned my first six weeks in Mexico. I bounded into the English library like a puppy, and in the eyes of the cranky ancients, smoking and mouldering amid the stacks, must have seemed like one about to piddle on the carpet. I signed up for a [...]

8Feb2010 | Jillian | 0 comments | Continued
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Renovating Our Beach House, Volume 7

If you have been following along, you know it has been a long road to take our squat, one-level “beach box,” a structure whose only intended purpose was to have a shady place for a wealthy Meridano to hang a hammock and drink a Sol in the summer, and turn it into a modern, year-round [...]

5Feb2010 | Malcolm | 0 comments | Continued
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