A Day at the Beach

Welcome loyal reader. Join Bruce and Mary as they negotiate one of their fun and frequent rituals, a day at the beach. As usual, for those of you  who prefer to read these posts from the original blog-site please click here.

Bruce wading into the Gulf with the longest pier in the world (6.5 Km) in the background. Note the abundance of Sargasso washed up on the shore. The currents have not been friendly.

My, how things have changed for us in the nearly three years since we escaped to this paradise. In the beginning we had no income and no idea how to stick down here. We (make that I) had this crazy notion, fueled by the fact that I just didn’t want to reinsert myself back into the matrix, that we could live cheaply enough that we could actually survive on the spend down of our meager savings account until the blessed day of retirement and social security. We tried this for awhile and I thought it was great. Of course my expectations were set so low, that to meet them all I had to do was…. not work. It was great. But we didn’t do anything, didn’t go anywhere, never went out to eat, you get the idea. Well, while I was enjoying the life of Maynard G. Krebs, Mary was, well…. miserable. We wouldn’t have lasted down here for long for sure if things had remained the same. Well, luckily they didn’t. As loyal readers know, we got involved with the book project, then I did personal training while Mary taught English and then, our lives changed down here when we scored the jobs of on-line moderators. Back in the beginning I was never really certain what day it was, now with our regular Mon.-Fri. jobs we get TGIF fever big time. And one of our favorite things to do on our Saturdays is going to the beach. And as we have settled in, here in our Mexican home, we have routines throughout the week and we have a well established routine for our beach Saturdays, as well. So we invite you to follow along as we do our beach thing.

Our beach adventures always start with a walk up Paseo Montejo, the Champ…..ok, I won’t do it this time, to La Reina Restaurante where we have breakfast. Our server, Norma, loves Mary, hates me. I think it is because she judges me to be a real pig by the mess I always leave. Que sera.

Our breakfast at La Reina. I have my usual chicken with rice and Mary has the scrambled eggs with frijoles. This spread sets us back 56P, about $4.60.

After breakfast we walk to the bus stop here on Av Tecnologia. In the background are the signature hotels of Merida, the Fiesta Americana and the Hyatt. When the 2007 Summit meeting that produced the Merida Initiative was conducted Pres Calderon stayed at the Fiesta Americana, “W” at the Hyatt.

And the Progreso bus finally arrives. Actually we seldom wait more than 10-15 minutes for a bus, as there is a fleet of buses bustling people to and fro from the beach all day long.

The Progreso bus station in El Centro.

Bruce, laden with beach gear is exiting the main mercado of Progreso on the way to the gym.

Mary is trying to hitch a ride into the gym, evidently. We really like Shapes, our beach gym. It is very well equipped with free weights and modern cardio equipment.

Mary is signing us in. The drop-in fee for the both of us is 60P, about $4.90.

After our righteous workouts we walk to the end of the block to La Esquina, the nicest comida economica we have discovered.

The lovely Adriana is always our server at La Esquina. She is quite the futbol fan.

Mary on the Malecon, a few blocks from La Esquina. You can see that the road is torn up. Many improvements designed to enhance the tourist trade are part of the plan but it is mired in controversy and we understand the work has been temporarily halted. The lack of auto traffic on this normally busy thoroughfare has all the restaurants really hawking the walk-by traffic which is the only business they are getting now.

While  I am strategically setting up our gear on the beach (a direct line to this cervefrio) Mary is filling up our little soft-sider cooler with Cervezas Superior.

Half the fun of going to the beach is the people watching. Here a couple of sibs are enjoying the pure fun of the beach as only small children can do. The Sargasso doesn’t bother them a bit.

Jaromey and Mary with the Malecon in the background. We always give Jaromey a call when we are heading to the beach and if she is not too busy she joins us. Ironically Jaromey, one of our best friends down here, well, in life for that matter, was the first person we met in our escape to Mexico. Jaromey, property manager extraordinaire secured our first residence, our condo on the beach.

And that my friends is the typical day at the beach for us. And we have to admit, as much as we love living in Merida, if we could duplicate this most favorable house-sitting situation on the beach, we’d be there in a heartbeat. Some day we will live with the sound of the surf in the background.

Thanks for visiting gentle reader. If you have any beach stories or would like to share your thoughts on anything Mexico, please feel free, Bruce loves comments. Hasta la vista, baby!