Chicharrón for the albañiles, just a week late

May 15, 2013 By 3 Comments

gootafternoo

tttkitchen

Jorge pitches in, adding sour orange and salt to the chicharrón mixture.

Undertaking a big project like Casa Nana in a foreign country can leave one with feelings of uncertainty, whether you’re choosing materials for your floors, or just trying to do right by the workers. The albañiles on our site have proven to be considerate, hard-working and good-natured. They have been so patient and polite as we’ve paraded guests through the property last week. (In the above photo, we found evidence that they were working on pleasantries, as well.) They were hired by the civil engineer who was hired by our architect, so we naturally have no real connection to them. But we feel a responsibility to do right by them, and not take them for granted.

Then our friend Jorge, who is a Mérida native, told us that we had just missed Labor Day, Día del Trabajo, but it wasn’t too late to offer the routine gesture of providing lunch to the workers. Paul and I immediately agreed, but [Read more...]

Filed Under: All Posts Tagged With: ,

Mérida’s corner plaques: Spot the fake

May 11, 2013 By 10 Comments

meridapictogramsCan you guess which of these corner plaques, los quadros de Mérida, so brilliant integrated into Mérida’s streetscapes, is a fake? Look closely now. You just get one guess.

The fake one is on the right. It marks the men’s room at the SoHo Galleries. I won’t even show you [Read more...]

Filed Under: All Posts

Taking a second look at Mérida’s merchandise

May 11, 2013 By 1 Comment

guayaberaOur last couple of days have been shopping days, and I am coming to appreciate the merchandise better now that I’m looking at it more closely. I’m usually hurrying part the stores to escape the narrow sidewalks and passing buses. And the merch is often so crammed together, it’s easy to overlook the more distinctive items for sale. I have to learn to slow down sometimes to see that, oh wait, that bedspread really is exquisite; that votive is really amazing. I’m inclined to think of all shops in the clatter of the “tourist zone” as junk shops, but really, there’s some good stuff to be had! And some of the stores display their things beautifully, as well.

When we decided that my Dad should have a guayabera, and Mom should have some embroidered blouses, we were forced to slow our gaze at the store windows of the Centro. First, we came across what looked like a guayabera outlet that had cotton ones for $300 pesos. I hadn’t really looked at prices before, although I remembered shirts at the Fiesta Americana for much more, so I figured we had a bargain. We snatched up a beige one with [Read more...]

Filed Under: All Posts Tagged With:

And now the vendors want you to by a Panama hat and they really mean it

May 10, 2013 By 10 Comments

hatfinalSelling Panama hats to tourists in Mérida is tough work, and sometimes requires adopting a slightly tough attitude.

Soon after we arrived this week, Paul realized he needed a simple brimmed hat for protection from the sun, and when we were in the Zocalo, a small, elderly vendor had stacks of attractive little hats, something between a trilby and a fedora, made of palmas de guano, which is not made of bat dung, but from palm fronds found locally. The material was quite attractive, with slight color variations, and didn’t smell too bad if you didn’t put it right up to your nose and inhale. He rocks that hat!

Our next trip to the zocalo, the vendors shouting “Panama hat! Panama hat!” to passersby were there, and the fact [Read more...]

Filed Under: All Posts Tagged With: ,

Underfoot at the Casa Nana construction site

May 9, 2013 By 2 Comments

stairsToday we barged in to our construction site to show two new friends our work-in-progress. I say “barged” because we overlooked a sign the workers put up on the front door. “Se prohíben los visitantes!” … or words to that effect. We didn’t see the sign until we were on our way out.

It did seem that we were annoying the albañiles this time. We got some scowls, I thought. We are, after all, underfoot whenever we give a 10-cent tour, and they are moving swiftly to complete the job. But then the mood lightened when we inadvertently gave them a sideshow. They saw us clumsily [Read more...]

Filed Under: All Posts Tagged With:

A walk in the dark to ‘real’ Mérida

May 9, 2013 By 10 Comments

waitforbusI woke up just before sunrise this morning and decided to go out for a stretch. Leaving behind the sanctuary that is Villa Verde‘s terrace, I left the birds and lush garden foliage behind and followed the distant sound of buses squealing and trucks rumbling. Usually, we walk north, to our house-in-progress, or west to Santa Lucia’s charming food stalls and artists’ stands. But if you go south, you find the Mérida that serves Meridanos. In just two blocks I was in the shopping district, just before the mercado, where a jumble of privately owned buses — gas stations are owned by the government, but bus companies are private — compete for commuters. Workers (of whose ranks I re-join on Monday) waited mutely for their rides, overtaking the narrow, uneven sidewalks, in the darkness of the early morning.

summerlandTo me, this was a better way to see the shopping area. Just as sun is coming up. The shoppers aren’t out yet, the sun isn’t beating down, and you can actually see the buildings around you. A fairly attractive hotel (at least in this light) that I’d never noticed before. I’d forgotten that there was a Sears, and also a Chapur department store, advertising “SUMMER LAND 2013″ in the display windows.

The smells of a busy, clogged city street remained, however, and I’ve eaten enough bus fumes this [Read more...]

Filed Under: All Posts Tagged With:
«Older Posts