Murals

Strolling and driving around Puerto Morelos, both La Colonia and Beach-side, there are murals that need to be shared!

They come for a variety of reasons. They are for advertising, political purposes, art for art, embedded with functional hardware, ocean messaging, etc... a lively and quiet distraction to just stop, look, think, absorb.

Water spout within the wall and mural.

"Once a species goes extinct no law can bring her back."

Visitor

At exactly 3am, I was spiritually shaken to WAKE UP. 

When this happens, I roll over, grab my phone, turn on the flash, close my eyes and take photos around my bed. Nine times out of ten, I'm able to capture beautiful images.  This is what I got that night.  Never such a beautiful color, so large and defined. You can see how it traveled with my camera, always to my right.

What do you think?

What do you see?

What would you do if you had a visitor like this?!

I'm working with a beautiful guru from whom I'm learning a whole new lesson.  I showed her this and she got so excited and told me 'who' it is.  Even though there really is no name, it makes 'us' feel more comfortable giving it one. 

:)

DETAIL

I think my meditations are moving along! :)

Puerto Morelos

Quincy has been the BEST travel mate!  But, he's a bit exhausted and, honestly, so am I.  It is a bit of work and a lot of effort to figure out where to go, how to get there, where to stay, and then to get going!

Plus, in Merida, he went to get a bath and passed out on the table.  They used heavy duty tick/flea shampoo which is toxic and routinely killed dogs! WTF???  The vet there had to take blood to make sure he didn't have anything major going on.  The couldn't find a vein in his leg so went for the jugular! WHAT??

Poor Quincy!

So, I got him back to PM and to the awesome vet here, Planned Pet Hood, and they diagnosed him with acute dermatitis.  Sooooooooo, every 3 days, a 10 minute shampoo/massage for one month.  At first Q was a bit annoyed with the whole idea, but then realized it's not so bad! lol

Staying on the pet theme, PPP had a weekend of CNR (catch neuter release) for strays and domestic cats and dogs. They needed volunteers, I'd never done something like that so, now's the time.

I arrived at 10am for the domestic day.  They assigned me to dog recovery. My duty was to clean the incision, cut the nails and clean the ears.  Being mindful of the tube down their throat... when they'd start to cough or breath heavy, it's time to remove the tube.  

Eeeeeeeekkkkkkkkkkk.

First couple of dogs were ok, I managed them. As soon as one had the tube removed and placed on the floor with its owner, another dog showed up, or two or three or four.

One pit bull little girl came and she was very pretty.  Gorgeous coat and the color of caramel. I trimmed her front nails only, as the back ones were really worn down. Cleaned the incision area. Went for the ears.  I didn't know what I was looking at. I asked the vet what it was and she said, oh, ticks.  One was so huge it was white then, deeper in the ear a whole family or colony.  I. Thought. I. Was. Going. To. Vomit!  Seriously, the feeling was so powerful that it was all I could do to pretend manage that.  They said just put vaseline in the ear and pull them out. OH god.  I got out as many as I could and waited a few minutes saying my time was up and had to leave. I managed 2.5 hours there but this one just freaked me out!

When I left there were still bringing dog after dog to the recovery area. This is a wonderful thing to do and I certainly found a profound level of respect for doctors and volunteers who can do this type of work.  I then thought of C-19 and all those nurses and doctors and the unending stream of unimaginable need and care. 

It shook me for several days.

I learned one dog, after being spayed, started to go into distress.  They had to open her up to see what was going on and her belly was full of PLASTIC. They rushed her to the vet hospital and she passed.  The owners were accusing the team of killing her.  That argument didn't get one bit of conversation. 

I tell ya, this is for real and watch your friggin' plastic! Don't buy it and if you do, recycle in the best way possible.

All the guys here were so happy when they woke up!

 

Trying to stand and just flopping around like little perros borrachos.

Merida

Merida, the capitol of the state of Yucatan, its largest, boasting a population of nearly 900,000.

Three popular conquistadores founded the city in 1542 and named it Merida after a city in Extremadura, Spain.

Situated in the Northern part of the Yucatan, it has Quintana Roo to its East, Campeche to its West and the Gulf to its North. Being that it is located in the lowlands and inland it tends to get very HOT and stays that way for extended periods of time. Did I mention mosquitoes???

Having a multitude of cenotes and Mayan pyramids close by brings tourists and Ex-pats in by the droves. 

The spectacular Colonial architecture is well maintained and standing beautifully in the side streets and surrounding neighborhoods. 

At the turn of the 20th century, Italian and French-style architecture was popular.  Driving along Paseo Montejo, the main avenue in Merida, one would see this style  of architecture. It was reflected in many single-family dwellings which boasted family status, wealth and intended to pave this wide route, emulating the Champs d'Elysses.  Today these gorgeous buildings have lost their home status and are now office buildings.  If I didn't know I was in Mexico, looking at these buildings, I could well believe I was in Havana, Cuba.

Museums, theatre, symphony, ballet are all found in Merida which gives it this rich cultural, architectural and historic beauty.

It was a beautiful day but Quincy wasn't feeling good, at all... So, I became a real 'tourist' and jumped on a double decker tour bus and took a 1.5 hour tour.  I'd never done this and must say, I got a real bird's eye view.  The commentary was in Spanish and for the most part, kept up with where we were and what we were seeing. 

A street closer to Paseo Montejo:

Further into the neighborhoods: 

Out door theatre a short distance from where I was staying.

Round about in downtown area...

Bull fighting on the way home?

Itzmal Kauil, Izamal

After leaving Las Coloradas we headed towards Merida via Izamal.

A short jaunt off the main highway we came upon an abandoned ruin of a church.  Somehow it seemed so beautiful with its cracked wall, grassy roof and the door leading to a door leading to a window...  Just, standing there with the elements of time adorning it like the lines on the face of a well lived woman.

Izamal is an important archaeological site of the Pre-Columbian Maya civilization. 

The city was founded during the Late Formative Period (750–200 BC) and was continuously occupied until the Spanish Conquest. The most important constructive activity stage spans between Protoclassic (200 BC – 200 AD) and Late Classic (600–800 AD). It was partially abandoned with the rise of Chichen Itza in the Terminal Classic (800–1000 A.D.) until the end of the Precolumbian era, After the Spanish Conquest of the Yucatan in the 16th century a Spanish colonial city was founded atop the existing Maya one; however it was decided that it would take a prohibitively large amount of work to level these two huge structures and so the Spanish contented themselves with placing a small Christian temple atop the great pyramid and building a large Franciscan Monastery atop the acropolis. Completed in 1561, the open atrium of the Monastery is still today second in size only to that at the Vatican. Most of the cut stone from the Pre-Columbian city was reused to build the Spanish churches, monastery, and surrounding buildings.

Pope John Paul II visited Izamal in August 1993. ~ Excerpts from Wikipedia

Izamal's nickname is The Yellow City... It remains a pilgrimage site and is the home of a distillery which produces an eponymous mezcal from the hearts of the locally grown agave plants.