PHOTO GALLERY ONE (Arrival, Progreso, Family)

PHOTO GALLERY TWO (Family Reunion)

PHOTO GALLERY THREE (Mayan Ruins, Museum)

PHOTO GALLERY FOUR (Merida, Anthropology Museum, Dances)

PHOTO GALLERY FIVE (Progreso Malecon)

Day Four

It's here. Traveler's Disease. I knew that I might regret those tapas. Maybe it wasn't them, but I picked it up somewhere. Of course, I knew I would eventually.

So there I was, at 4 AM, in the banyo. I glanced into the shower and came face to face with a cockroach that should have been extinct back in the Mesozoic era. If the only thing left after a nuclear war will be cockroaches, this dude would have been King Cockroach. I was afraid to try and step on it, because it was nearly as big as my foot. Fortunately, as a hold-over from our plumbing adventure the day before, there was some muriatic acid under the sink. A little splash on Roachzilla made quick work of him.

Much of the morning was spent in bed or bathroom, and I have to give credit to Imodium, it works. Though I was still feeling a bit down, I got dressed and went with my wife to the family reunion. I shook more hands than a politician on election day. Aside from being the token gringo, I wandered around taking pictures of the event, candids and some posed stuff.


One point of interest is how many of the young folks told me they had a web site. Seems the Internet has made serious inroads even in this part of the world. If I can get some of the URLs I'll post links.

Well, we're four days into a twelve-day stay, and now that the party is out of the way I have no idea what we'll do now. We haven't really planned anything. I'd like to see some museums and at least a couple of the Mayan ruins sites that are close-by. And I'd like to work in a couple days by the pool where I do nothing at all.

Day Five

This morning we went to an artisan's market at the community center in Progreso. There's a cruise ship that docks every Tuesday, and the locals put together a little flea market with arts and crafts to
A Conversation Chair, Public Square in Progreso
sell to the tourists. Everything is negotiable. I picked up some hand painted leather pieces of the Mayan and Aztec calendars, very colorful little things that I think will look great framed on the wall of my office. We also got Julie a hammock swing – I guess that's what it would be called. It's made like a hammock, but hangs from the ceiling rather than from hooks. We're going to put it on the back porch once we get the arbor finished. I think it will look great and I know Julie will like it. We also picked up gifts for friends and family back home.

In the afternoon we decided to take a run into Merida and do some shopping for my wife's family. Not gifts or anything, just normal stuff like groceries and household items. It's not much, but we at least want them to have some good supplies for a little while after we're gone.

And where else to go for economy-size packages than Sam's Club. And for the stuff they may not have, there's always Wal-Mart. So here I am, in the Yucatan in Mexico, standing in a Wal-Mart. Surreal. And they tell me that Wal-Mart is the largest private employer in Mexico. The only one bigger is the government. And we've just learned that they're putting a Wal-Mart in Progreso. I feel like I'm living a William Gibson novel, where corporations are taking over the world. I found some very cool little mini-DVD's, which should be perfect for building a little show from the photos and video I put together from the party last night. I've not seen anything like this in the States, so am going to try to swing by and pick up a couple more packages before we leave. We also found Campbell's Soup – a great purchase as it's perfect for Julie. Anyway, we mostly filled up the car that brought us to Merida. To the point where we were done shopping whether we were done or not, because the car wasn't going to hold another thing. Trunk was full, back seat was full (on top of Rocio and her Mom).
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Text and Photographs Copyright ©2006 by Michael Hanson, All Rights Reserved.