Retire Early in Mexico

Bienvenido loyal reader. Please join Bruce and Mary as they party with their good friends Kevin and Rosie on their record setting 5th visit to the Yucatan. As usual for those of you who prefer to view these posts from the original blog-site please click here.

We have the drinks and botanas  all ready to go so now we are camped out on our stoop waiting for Kevin and Rosie with their friends Tom and JoyGenea to make the scene.

Of course, with any of our first time guests, we immediately introduce them to Catrina. JoyGenea and Tom seem to like her.

Mary started us off most mornings with a hearty breakfast. Pic courtesy Rosie.

After exploring downtown a little we  find ourselves at Kevin and Rosie’s overall favorite Merida restaurante, Plaza Serenata, for a late lunch. And of course we have to treat the gang to some canciones (plus we had promised these guys we would buy some songs when our friends came).

Friday evening we dine at La Gran Cafe which always presents a nice view of Paseo Montejo.

After dinner downtown Saturday night (you guessed it, Plaza Serenata) we encourage our friends to try the marquesitas that a vendor was selling in front of Peon Contreras as we were walking La Noche Mexicana back home.  They were a hit.

Sunday morning we’re out the door, heading to the beach. Mary says we’re moving too quickly so this is our stop action pose.

This is one of the many kid-friendly arts booths that dot Paseo every Merida in Domingo, that we encounter on our march to the sea.

On the way we stop at Las Farolas, Hotel Montejo Palacio’s sidewalk cafe,  for breakfast.

We’re waiting for the Progreso bus at the Cupeles Pemex station.

After getting squared away at our hotel, Real Palma, we walk the two blocks to la playa and quickly set up with the proper amounts of botanas and beers.

After happy hour at our good friends Chuck and Joanne’s beautiful property, Oasis del Mar, we walk a block to the relatively new Casa Malecon for an excellent dinner.

After a Monday morning breakfast at Cafe Habana we meet up with our close friend Jaromey, a beach property manager who was good enough to find Real Palma for us. The least we could do is treat her to some shrimp.

I think newlyweds Tom and JoyGenea enjoy the beach.

Adding to the excitement in Progreso is the cruise ship at port. Pic ctsy Rosie.

Monday we leave the gang for an extra day on the beach while we head back home to get organized and restocked. We happened across this “Ham Cake” at Walmarts and I just had to include a pic as it is so Mexican. Enjoy!

And of course nobody visits us without a dose of El Lucero del Alba, our neighborhood bar where everybody knows our names.

Wednesday morning Kevin, Rosie and Tom attend the Merida English Library’s Home and Garden tour. Being they’re all active in the trades it is pretty fascinating for them.

Tom and JoyGenea’s getaway night finds us at Peon Contreras sidewalk cafe.

As always, there is a constant stream of street vendors downtown. But here Kevin and Rosie score some bracelets for the grand-kids.

Everyone is pretty happy with their meals at Peon, but Rosie pronounces this cheeseburger the best ever!

Back home from Peon, Mary treats everyone to her homemade Key Lime Cheesecake. Yumm…..

Of course we spend plenty of time around the pool, relaxing.

I’m showing Kevin a tip or two in running his dashboard for his wedding music website Dyer Soundworks. He is just starting to get into social media promotion. Once he gets the hang of it for this business, he’ll be applying his new found skills to his construction website, Dyco.

It’s Thursday night so of course we’re at Las Vigas.

Las Vigas owner Bob and Kevin share notes on Pittsburgh, Bob’s home in a prior life.

Friday morning Rosie picks up her brand new glasses at Buena Vista. This is Juan Carlos, her optometrist and brother to our guy, Jorge. Ledi, the receptionist says all the brothers are muy guapo.

Kevin and Rosie with their new lentes, glasses. Tom got a new pair as well. Kevin figures he saved around $250 on his glasses alone.

After picking up the glasses Rosie and Mary head to their favorite yarn shop while Kevin and I keep the chairs nice and warm here at Gran Hotel’s sidewalk cafe.

Friday night, on Chuck and Joanne’s recommendation we check out Bryans, the newest member of the Trotters restaurant group. Here we are in the bar. They have great happy hour specials with beers 50% off and vino discounted 20%. However you must close out the check before you move into the dining room.

Here we are in the dining room of Bryans.

The garden area of Bryans.

Last but not least in our restaurant run is La Poza on Saturday evening, Kevin and Rosie’s getaway night.

Kevin and I split a mixer plate for two, consisting of a couple different styles of shrimp and arrachera with the usual sides. You can tell it is a fierce competition as far as I am concerned.

Dessert at La Poza, missing in the pic is a sundae glass of creamy vanilla ice cream.

Kevin with our server Mario. Not only was the service excellent but Kevin, when the check is presented, thought the value was outstanding.

4:20AM comes pretty early this morning. And as usual Roberto, our one-armed Taxista was here 5 minutes early for his cup of coffee and then it is, “Vamonos” and they are out the door on their way to the airport and we are on our way back to bed. Hasta la vista mis amigos!

Thanks for visiting gentle reader. As usual Bruce loves comentarios, so please feel free. Hasta proximo Domingo!

Bienvenido, loyal reader! Please join Bruce and Mary as they visit their puros tienda, cigar store. As usual for those of you who prefer to view these posts from the original blog-site, please click here.

We have to admit that we have this cigar habit. We don’t smoke every day leaving our cigar passion strictly to the weekend, but boy do we look forward to that TGIF puro. Now in this big city there are lots of cigar shops, some catering to some pretty high end cigar smokers, but cheap sucker that I am, and not being any kind of an afficionado we have found a tienda downtown that caters to our needs just fine. Decent to good cigars for about 40P on average. So here we are at El Satelite

 Mary is in front of El Satelite. It is right next to the pizza place just east of the corner of 61 and 60, just off La Plaza Grande.

 Some offerings.

 The owner Lisa and her right-hand man Miguel.

Doing the deed, buying cajas, boxes of Santa Claras, hecho in Veracruz and the old standby Cohibas, hecho in Cuba.

 Mary is enjoying our Friday cigar on the balcony of our favorite restaraunte Plaza Serenata.

 My turn!

 Cheers!

Thanks for visiting gentle reader. Yes, Bruce realizes that this was kind of a throwaway post, but his excuse is that they are hosting the Dyers (for the 5th time!) and the Furnstahls so he and Mary are pretty busy having fun. Hasta proxima Domingo!

Bienvenido, loyal reader. Please join Bruce and Mary as they head over to Parque Centenario to check out the zoo. As usual for those of you who prefer to view these posts from the original blog-site (and see videos that will not embed here), please click here.

It’s hard to believe that it’s been three years since we last visited the zoo. But we have a Saturday afternoon with a hole in it, why not fill it with some animales? So we head out the door and find it is not taxi day. First we try to catch one on Calle 47 and 58. No luck. Then we try 60, still no luck. We walk up to 62 and finally after waiting probably about 45 minutes in total we successfully hail a taxi. And for 40P we are whisked to Parque del Centenario.

This is half of the view of the entrance to Parque del Centenario. I need a fish eye lens.

This is the other half. Parque Centenario is situated at the junction of Calle 59 and Av. Itzaes.

The first thing we do is hop the tren. For a peso apiece you ride this train around the perimeter of the park.

Rounding the bend near the park entrance.

Centenario is super kid-friendly.

For your boating pleasure.

Near the water’s edge we found graffiti, Mexican style.

For an aerial view, try the lift.

The popular playground area.

I’m at the zoo entrance. BTW: No food allowed in, so finish up your corn-dogs and dulce de algodon, cotton candy first.

Sorry, can’t get any closer than this. It seems the flamingos here are more of an orange hue than the ones we saw at the Ria Celestun Biosphere.

You forget how big ostriches are. I’d hate to have one mad at me.

A Bengal Tiger cub messing with his mom.

The majestic African Lion.

Baby hippo is sunning while ma is relaxing in the drink. We notice that there is a number of animal offspring here.

A Capuchin Monkey is giving his opinion of us.

A Spider Monkey takes a breather while swinging from branch to branch.

This River Croc never moved a muscle while we stared at it.

A “bale” of White Lipped Mud Turtles.

We’re at my favorite part of the zoo, the snake pit and it is barred! We had also noticed that many cages were empty. A cabbie told us yesterday that many animals had been moved to the new zoo, Animaya del Bicentenario.

The zoo is dotted with interesting architecture. I have no idea what this building is. Readers?

We screwed up! We thought the zoo was open until 6, well we find that the park is open until then but the zoo closes as 5 and as we are ushered out all we can do is snap a pic of the entrance to the aviary.

And what’s a trip to the zoo without some helado, ice cream?!

Thanks for visiting gentle reader. After doing the minimal research Bruce does for these posts, he finds that the new zoo looks pretty interesting, as well. He promises to tell you all about it as soon as he works up the motivation to get there. Sometimes just sitting around the pool with a brewski is enough to occupy his Saturday afternoons. Hasta proximo Domingo!

Bienvenido, loyal reader. For those of you good people who need a little respite from holiday cheer, rest assured you will find it here as Bruce continues where he left off with his California Gym post -  just getting done with a righteous workout and needing a protein and carb infusion. As usual for those of you who prefer to view these posts from the original blog-site, please click here.

My favorite part of our workout routine is the important meal following the lifting and we are fortunate enough to have Lulu’s right around the corner from California gym.

 Mary in front of Lulu’s, a couple doors south of the corner of Calles 60 and 37, Centro.

Mary secures our usual table in the corner which has a good view of the street.

We place our orders and the food comes quickly. Today our meals start with this tasty noodle soup. They also offer a muy sabroso, very tasty black bean soup.

Lulu offers three choices daily. This day Mary has Papa Relleno de Queso, cheese stuffed potato patty and I have the Pollo Frito, pan fried chicken. We always order the media, half orders as that is all we can eat.

Lulu also serves desayuno, breakfast. One day last summer on our way to the beach we stopped in for this hearty fare. Mary has Huevos Mexicano, spicy scrambled eggs and I stick to my usual Pollo Frito. Like most Comidas Economicas, Lulu serves breakfast and lunch but no cenas, dinners. Horarios: 8-4, with desayuno until 11. BTW, to dispel a myth – we have eaten at Comidas Economicas literally hundreds of times and never, not even once have we gotten sick. Well there was that one time but it was my own fault. I accidentally ordered Mondongo. I should have known better when the pink mass jiggled at the touch of my fork but I forged ahead and took a big bite, forced it down and then sprinted home to gargle the taste out of my mouth. I am not cut out for tripe.

Lulu happily at work in the kitchen.

Here’s a pair of Lulus. Daughter Lulu (Lulu Junior?) our mesera, server, completes this wonderful team.

Oh… the damages? Our lunches cost (no bebidas, drinks – cheap sucker that I am we brought our own water) 50P total, about $3.60USD. Have I told you recently how much we love Mexico?

Thanks for visiting gentle reader. Please feel free to comment or just say “Hola” if you like. Bruce, like all bloggers, loves feedback. Hasta proximo Domingo!

Bienvenido, loyal reader! Please join Bruce and Mary on their annual holiday sojourn. As usual, for those of you  who prefer to view these posts from the original blog-site, please click here.

As many of you know, one of the conditions of our house sitting gig is that when the owners, Harley and Myrna, come down to actually use their Casa Mexicana we are required to vacate, but even then, only when they need the room. In fact when they came down for the long labor day weekend this fall, it was only the two of them and they invited us to stay. We appreciated their generosity but we told them that with their hectic jet set life, they deserved some privacy so we headed over to Casa Chalia. This exile we are headed to La  Luna Nueva.

Hostel Luna Nueva at El Remate de Paseo Montejo, right across the street from the classy boutique hotel Casa San Angel. We checked in Christmas Eve afternoon.

We spent Christmas Eve making new friends. For more go to last week’s post, here.

After the Christmas weekend we found ourselves setting up our work stations in the common area of Luna Nueva.

This is Jose, an employee, and Greg. One of the cool things about staying at hostels is the interesting people you meet. Greg is a very affable Englishman who grew up in northern Wales and left home at the tender age of 16. Among his travels was a ten year stint in Brazil.

Luna Nueva owner, Leti, flanked by her loyal employees, brothers Jose and Victor.

This is the mini-courtyard off the lobby and the stair leading to the upstairs units. The sound of the fountain is very relaxing.

This is our private unit with bathroom ensuite, one of three on the main level. It is small but comfortable, with A/C. It is just off the front desk and common area which it makes it very handy but if we’d been smart we’d have booked one of the three upstairs privates as the sound from the common area comes right into our unit, and as our bedtime is closer to 9 than 11, if someone is watching a movie on the big screen it can be annoying. Oh, the dormitory is upstairs as well.

Our new friend Pat with us in front of El Lucero del Alba’s Christmas tree (look familiar Chuck?). Tuesday evening we had great fun eating botanas, sipping Toritos, and talking smart. Actually a little too smart for our own good as we discovered when a nearby table took umbrage with us for practicing our Spanish dirty words a little too loudly. Don’t worry about us sullying an already questionable gringo reputation as we made a point of befriending these locals before we left.

On Thursday we saw our new friends Megan and Alec off. Originally from Washington St. and New York, they now hail from Vermont where Megan is a “cheese monger” and Alec is schooling. Ironically Alec is fluent in Espanol and Latina Megan speaks nary a word. They are backpacking around Yucatan over Christmas break and were bound for Tulum from here. After hugs, watching them walk off with their backpacks felt like it was our own kids who were off onto another adventure.

Alec is catching me up on my own “Canada Quiz”. BTW: So far, Alec has been my highest scoring Americano.

Roxana was working the desk when we headed downtown Thursday evening. She is sis to the owner Leti.

As many of you know, Thursday evenings usually find us at Restaurante Las Vigas and the path always takes us across La Plaza Grande, La Plaza Principal de Merida. They have been doing  massive renovations downtown including La Plaza Grande where virtually all the concrete was replaced which must have been thousands of tons. Working around the clock they completed this project in about a month. The worker above is hanging the final lamp.

Friday night found us being hosted at a party in our own “home”. This is owner Harley. It was great fun but we always feel a little funny especially when people ask us, “So where do you live?” “Well, actually…..here!”

Harley’s esposa, the lovely Myrna with her brother Rick.

We were very happy to see our good friend Bette at the party as it had been too long. Bette was the star performer on a Daily Show episode called American Refugees Seek health Care in Mexico.

In addition to some awesome Hors d’oeuvres, they had an incredible taco bar set up by the swimming pool.

This is my plate.

The party breaks up around 10 and I volunteer to help Vania (Vania and Omar are the property mgrs for this casa) wheel her kids out. Their Galia is nearly as happy a baby as our own grand-baby Aria.

Back at Luna Nueva we made another new friend, the thoroughly charming Maxi (her American name, as no one, including us can pronounce her given name) from Shanghai. She speaks English flawlessly and attended HS in Australia finishing up in PA. Now she is a freshman at a high end PA college majoring in International Relations. We are fascinated with Chinese culture so we quizzed her quite a bit. We find that English is mandatory starting in grade one (for you Joanne) and that her father strongly encouraged her passion to study abroad. She is an only child and tells us that the single child policy is mostly overlooked in agrarian areas but  enforced strictly in the city. But those who can afford to, can “buy” the right to have another child, for about $10,000US. She says that there is currently a debate among the upper middle class that if the parents have a high level of education and are productive members of society that they should be allowed more than one child, at no charge that is. We find it strange to hear her say, “I do know a few people who have siblings.” When we ask about human rights, she allows that America is much more free but the Chinese gov’t is not as heavy handed as we think. She says that unless the dissident is high profile, they simply censor the individual and no other action is taken. So essentially she feels pretty “free” back home.

Mary is poolside at Hotel Marioneta, a gorgeous boutique hotel in Centro. Our friend and Dave the Brit’s very good friend, Daniel, an Argentinian is the owner and proprietor and he graciously offered his hotel as the venue for Dave’s NY Eve party. Que Bueno!

Our very good friend Sharon, Daniel and me. We originally met Sharon when we house sat for her the summer of 2008.

Dave y su novia Amalia. Amalia runs an import business in town, Rattan Importa.

Daniel and Dave the crooner. Between Dave and Sharon they have an almost encyclopedic knowledge of golden oldies. Playing dueling cameras is Rene, the bartender.

After we grazed on botanas all the evening the main dish arrived, stewed rabbit with cabbage, mashed potatoes and peas and carrots. Dave said he spared us the heads. When I asked about our good fortune he explained that when he lived in Spain they always served rabbit meat with the heads along side, to prove it was not cat they were serving. Thanks, Dave.

When we heard the fireworks going off at La Plaza Grande, we knew the hour had struck. Happy New Year!!

It’s New Year’s Day and our exile has ended. Que Bueno!

Thanks for visiting gentle reader. Bruce has made one new year’s resolution and that is to get back to fighting weight by his cumpleanos numero 60, next New Year’s Eve. Bruce would love to hear of your resolutions. Hasta proximo Domingo!

Bienvenido, loyal reader. Please join Bruce and Mary on a virtual tour of their favorite Meridano gym. As usual, for those of you who prefer to view these posts from the original blog-site (and see a couple of vids I was not able to embed on this site), please click here.

As most of you know, fitness has always been a big part of our lives. Back in the States we actually belonged to two Golds gyms, one where we lived in St. Cloud, MN and one where I worked, in the twin cities. Back then we were mucho mas joven, much, much younger than we are now and we lifted and did cardio nearly every day. Well now I do, do (always love to get a do do in) cardio M-F but we only lift one day a week, these days. So forgoing the five day split of our former lives, we cram everything into one full body workout, every Saturday. And here at California, a bodybuilders’ gym, is where we do it.

Gimnacio California is located at Calle 37, 60 y 62, Centro.

This is the view from the street, you can see the entrance in the far background.

Renan is our man. The drop in fee is 50P, the monthly membership is 300P each and this gym as with all gyms we have dealt with here, does not believe in discounted family memberships. So drop in, is the way to go for us.

Mary is executing the leg raise/hip thrust, a very effective ab exercise.

Here she is doing DB flyes, a nice chest isolation exercise.

Mary always bemoans the amount of weight she can rep on the bench press and I always remind her that back in my training days, I had very few female clients who could hoist just the Olympic bar.

Now it’s my turn to bench. I love this gym, it has everything that we need, machines, free weights, but it strangely has only one flat bench press station. But evidently this exercise is not a high priority down here as I am almost never aced out of my bench press.

I always like to do at least two movements for chest. Here I am on a very nice cable crossover machine.

Mary is doing squats on a modern Smith machine.

Here’s baldy doing pull-ups, still the gold standard in lat movements.

Mary is doing RDLs, Romanian Dead Lifts, one of the best hamstring exercises out there and a prime lower body movement for football players.

Mary on the leg extension machine, she is just hammering her legs today. There is a reason why she has the legs of a teenager.

This gym even has a Butt Blaster machine. This is a great tool for isolating the upper hamstrings and glutes. There is a reason Mary has the…. oops not going there.

I’m doing T-Bar rows, a great mid-back exercise.

I’m on the seated hamstring curl machine. I have finally admitted to myself that I can never do squats or RDLs again, in fact anything that involves hip flexion is out. I had hip surgery (torn labrum) about 10 years ago and I tried once again to get back to squats/RDLs a couple months ago and after a few weeks I thought I was in the clear but then, sure enough, after that last session, my hip flared to the point of making walking difficult. I quit those movements and now everything is fine, I must just simply live my life sin squats and RDLs.

I’m doing shrugs (for traps) at the squat rack station.

We leave the smaller muscles for the end of the workout when our energy is ebbing. Mary is doing biceps cable curls.

Mary is doing triceps press-downs.

They work fine, but the weight stack adjustment system on these machines is just plain odd.

Like all women her age, Mary is concerned about sagging upper arms. So she always really gets after triceps. She is doing bench dips here, one of the best triceps exercises around.

Jorge, the owner of Gimnacio California, speaks excellent English having lived for many years in, you guessed it, California.

On the back wall of the gym is the Wall of Fame, a photo gallery of bodybuilding greats.

Jorge and Arnold and other greats in their younger days on Muscle Beach.

We assembled some of our California gym buds for this congratulatory pic for Joe and Meryah for their wedding. This is Luis, Alex, Daniel (working the desk that day), and Antonio. As you can see, this gym is popular with some pretty serious lifters.

Thanks for visiting gentle reader. Now it is no secret to any serious lifter that it is important to get some protein and carbs into your system in that 60 minute window right after a training session. For that Bruce and Mary always head to to Lulus, their favorite Comida Economica, right around the corner. More on that next week. Hasta luego, amigos!

Bienvenido loyal reader! Please join Bruce and Mary as they stumble into the martial arts world down in Merida. As usual for those of you email subscribers, like Jaromey, who prefer to view these posts from the original blog-site, please click here.

We had just bused back from Gran Plaza, an ultra modern shopping mall on the north end of Merida, which has everything, well everything except what I was looking for, but that’s another story, and we had just gotten off the bus on Calle 62 and 47 to walk home when we saw some activity accompanied by chanting/singing/percussion in Parque Santa Ana. We crossed the street and got up close and personal and this is what we saw.

Of course with my martial arts background (Shotokan) I was really intrigued by this style. I had no awareness whatsoever of this martial art, so I did a little research and found that it originated with African slaves in Brazil. Of course the landowners had no interest in their slaves becoming lethal, so they banned all martial arts which caused the early practitioners of Capoeira to disguise their craft as dance. For those of you who wonder about the origin of this martial art’s name, please go here. And for you local readers who are interested in our Merida Capoeira club, please go here.

Thanks for visiting gentle reader. As you all know Bruce and Mary love commentary so please feel free. Hasta proximo Domingo!

Bienvenido, loyal reader! Please join Mary and Bruce as they visit Mary’s beauty salon. As usual, for those of you who prefer to view these posts from the blog-site, please click here.

A challenging part of our Mexican adventure has been finding the replacements for the everyday ordinary needs of our old lives, in this foreign land. We now have a dentist, several specialist docs, tailor, cobbler, farmacia, and so on. But Mary had never found a beauty salon that she was comfortable with, until now. And with this tropical climate, the health of her hair had suffered. So this day, a couple weeks after a very pleasant experience getting a simple corte, cut, Mary is forgoing her usual do-it-yourself Walmart hair coloring, which involved some pretty nasty smelling stuff, and is allowing the professionals to do their thing. So, here we go!

Mary’s beauty salon, Montserrat, which is situated at Calle 43, No. 448, por 48 y 50 Centro. Tel. 999-928-3564 Cels. 999-199-1058, 999-901-5946

This is the “before” Mary, flanked by assistant Diana and owner Elsy.

Mary is in the chair and ready to go!

Diana is applying the color with a brush, working from the roots out.

While waiting for the coloring to do its magic, we all relax with Sofo, the pet cat.

Los precios, the prices.

Elsy and Diana on the double-team shampoo.

First the towel drying….

Then the blow drying.

The “after” Mary.

Presenting the Goddess of the Golden Tresses!

The total cost for this? Before tip 180P, about $12.50. And the process took about one and a half hours but don’t worry about me, I don’t believe in hair and kept myself quite entertained with my Game of Thrones tome. Cheers!

Thanks for visiting, gentle reader. Bruce encourages all to comment and he would be particularly interested in other gringo stories along these lines – local services. Hasta proximo Domingo!

Bienvenido loyal reader. Please join Bruce and Mary as they visit the restaurante scene once again. As usual for those of you who prefer to view these posts from the original blog-site, please click here.

Funny how you get into routines and then out of them. When Cafe Chocolate opened three years ago, we checked them out. We were impressed, so just beating  the deadline, we got them listed in the Living in Merida book, a fund raising project that Mary and I participated in. We went there a lot, particularly enjoying their breakfast buffets, which started off incredibly cheap,at  49P. And even now they are only 63P and the dishes are very Yucatecan, it’s the real deal when it comes to the local breakfast cuisine. But then we just kind of forgot about the place until a couple of months ago when we had some time to kill, waiting for Geronides to finish up fixing my computer, and we remembered that Cafe Chocolate was only a block away so we stopped in and happily discovered it was happy hour and the 29P beers were two for one. Well those sorts of things have a way of lodging in my memory so we put Cafe Chocolate back on the menu, stopping in for dinner on a Saturday evening.

Cafe Chocolate, a la esquina de, at the corner of Calles 60 and 49, Centro.

This is the front room. You can see the original artwork on the walls, all of it for sale. Most of the furniture in the front room consists of antiques which are also for sale.

The breakfast buffet steamers are set up right in front of this large aquarium in the back room.

The bar crew. The bar area is directly across the back room from the aquarium.

Mary forges ahead to secure a garden table while I fool with the camera.

Mary is relaxing in the garden area.

The view from our garden table.

The lovely and shy Lizz takes our order.

Oops, it was bad timing for a garden table, the rain came and we needed to relocate to the back room, straight ahead.

Our food arrives. On the left is my Pasta Bolognesa. Strangely it was not on the menu but readily available when we asked for it and it is the best I have ever had. Mary very much enjoyed her Pasta Alfredo, as well. The little bowl above Mary’s dish is Chile de Arbol, be sure to ask for this incredible condiment.

Cafe Chocolate isn’t just for beer and grub. On a prior visit, our friend Nancy enjoyed this awesome whipped chocolate/coffee delight.

I don’t know why I think this is so cool, but I always get a charge out of getting la cuenta, the check, in this little treasure chest. Oh, the damages? Well we were lucky to get in on their Dia de la Revolucion (November 20th) weekend promo with everything 15% off, so for a couple beers apiece and the pasta meals it came to 183P, about $13.50USD. Que bueno!

Thanks for visiting, gentle readers. Bruce appreciates all comentarios and local readers, please feel free to share your experiences at Cafe Chocolate or any other restaurante in town. Hasta proximo Domingo!

Bienvenido, loyal reader. Please join Bruce and Mary as they discover, what is in their experience, a very unique store, in the heart of Merida. As usual for those of you who prefer to view these posts from the original blog-site, please click here.

We are walking towards Lucas de Galvez when I happen to spy a tienda, store, across the street that looks to be an organic foods store. Now we have walked into many organic foods stores (there is even a small organic foods section at our Walmart) and walked out pretty disappointed. Now we don’t have a great desire for organic foods so much as vegan foods. You see two of our kids, Sammy and Helen,  are pretty strict vegans (but Joe still loves his burgers) so this makes Mary a vegan wannabee and the party line for me is that if it tastes good, I’ll eat it, vegan or otherwise. Over the years I have chowed down on a number of pretty tasty vegan dishes. And of course I am well aware of the health benefits (and yes, green/political benefits, Helen) of vegan eating. So we are compelled to cross busy Calle 56 and check this place out, fully prepared to be disappointed once more.

Tienda Super Naturista, Calle 56, 61 y 63.

OK, we’ll go right to the game changer, and what we spot first off (Mary practically swooned), is Nutritional Yeast, or Brewer’s Yeast, or in this case, Levadura de Cerveza. This is a key ingredient in so many vegan dishes, as it adds an important nutritional,  taste and texture factor. Our vegan friends have been bringing this back from the States and Canada.

Agave syrup, the vegan sweetener. Funny that here in the land of Tequila, Agave is so hard to find.

Organic cereal and high fiber cookies. Say, General Mills readers, are any of these products yours?

Another home run, soy burgers and more!

We hadn’t seen almond milk since the States.

We are very pleased to see gluten-free foods as gluten intolerance is an issue in our family.

Soy flour for all your gluten-free baking needs.

Organic tea.

Attention body builders! Here is a huge selection of protein powders, MRPs, and other supps.

For your fiber needs.

Finally, reasonably priced, high quality fish oil. I can stop hauling mine from the States.

Organic shampoo.

Organic hair color.

Organic soap.

Organic sandals?

They even have Colloidal Silver! Our friend Jaromey will be thrilled as she has been hauling this anti-bacterial agent from Canada all the years she has been down here. Mary decides to buy some for the next time we are fighting a bug.

A view from the back of the tienda.

And a view from the front.

Bernabe and Rosy are very helpful.

Year long memberships are only 150P and give significant discounts on already low prices for every product in the store. Mary signs up with Diana on the spot.

And here are the ingredients for our first creation utilizing our new found goods: Tahini Spread. And here I will let Mary take over, supplying you with the recipe as these things are way over my head: 1-12 oz. block of Tofu (oddly, Super Naturista does not carry tofu, yet, but you can find it, and Tahini at Pacsadeli) 1/4 cup Nutritional Yeast; 1/4 cup Tahini; 1/2 tsp. Turmeric; Salt and  Pepper to taste; 1 stalk Celery, chopped; 1/4 cup chopped Onion; 1/4 cup Walnuts, or Pecans, chopped; 2 Cloves Garlic, chopped, (or microplaned if you are so fortunate, and for this I thank you Sue!) Here is where you can add what you have on hand, anything goes at this point! We added chopped Wild Caperberries, another Pacsadeli find. Drain the tofu and mix all ingredients together in a small bowl. Store in the refrigerator. This is a delicious, high protein, low fat, very nutritious sandwich spread and we are so thankful that our son Sammy turned us on to this years ago.

Tada! A super healthy and tasty Tahini Spread sandwich. This will be replacing my lunch time Pavo Virginia sandwiches so you  just might have to put up with me a few years longer. Cheers!

Thanks for visiting gentle reader. As you know Bruce loves commentary and acknowledges all, in what he used to call “real time”. Hasta proximo Domingo!