Villas Wayak and the Telchac Jazz Festival

$250 (Mexican) got us into this amazing Jazz Festival, all in support of the schooling of the students of Telchac, a small rural town about 40 kms east of Progreso

 

 

The developers of this gorgeous complex shared their property with the coordinators of the fundraising at no cost, to help the students.

 

Vic loved the drink and food tickets!

 

And we met a fun couple, Rene and Yolanta, from France who were here to help Rene's brother-in-law with the food from one of the several kiosks that were made available for our dining delight.

 

 

And we got to meet some of the students that have benefited and are still benefiting (some of the students have already gone through their full schooling and are now being provided assistance through this wonderful group as they carry on to University!)

 

Beautiful people,

 

a beautiful venue

 

 

 

 Fabulous Music

 

a wonderful cause

 

and excellent weather, all made for an amazing evening!

 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Vic and I went out for brunch to one of our favourite restaurants in Progreso!

 

Fresh squeezed orange juice,

bananas with yogurt and granola,

 

A fantastic omelet

 

 

And oops, I ate almost all the giant pancake before I remembered to take the picture - it was delicious!!

 

At the Sol y Mar restaurant, which is excellent for breakfast, lunch or supper.

It is located on calle 78 (that's 78th Street), just north of calle 25.

 

 

Oh, the total bill was 105 pesos (about $8.50 Cdn)! :)

 

Dining out in Progreso and area! Soma Restaurant, Jim and Elke's Faces, Elios al Mar, Remo, El Faro, and the market

While I don't have any pictures of all the culinary delights we have partaken in in the past few weeks, I thought I really should say something about why I'm getting chubby again - ha!

There are so many great places to go for a reasonably priced meal, and people to go with here in the Progreso area.

For pasta we went to two awesome spots last week!  In Progreso on the beach on calle 21 around 38, Elio's al Mar had a wonderful Tuesday special where for $150 (pesos that is), we had The Triology, consisting of a sample platter of fetucini, chicken parmesan and spaghetti marinara, and a lemonade. To top it off we shared a delightful chocolate lava cake with coconut ice cream! It was an extra $50 pesos, and sooo worth it! We shared all this with our good friends Judy and Keith after getting the pants beat off us at cards - ha!

Then in Chelem, with our special friends Dan and Luce, at a lovely restaurant which unfortunately is now only serving supper one night/month!, we had a "choose your parts yourself" pasta feast. I had the tube noodles with creamy garlic sauce, broccoli, spinach, caramelized onions, and feta cheese. Yummy!  And the special that night was 2 x 1, so for $140 for both of us, we each tried our own creation. $50 corking fee to be aware of though - seems to be the charge in a few places now where you bring your own wine.

At El Faro, where we went for lunch with our fun friends Bindi and Owen, I had a wonderful shrimp ceviche, Bindi and Owen enjoyed their fish and chips and Vic had chicken quesadillas. This was sandwiched between 2 meetings we attended in Chicxulub, one regarding dying in Mexico, the other what turned into a bitch session about the imperfections of living at the Beach. Funny, it's not the same as living in Canada or the States. No kidding! Anyways, lunch was great!

Another day last week we went to Faces, where the music was hopping and the food pretty good. A little too warm most evenings, but worth the ambience. Just try to sit near the doors :). A super place to catch up with many of our expat friends here in Progreso, and we even found our Cranbrook friends, Chris and Iris, who have just arrived for their month of fun in the sun.

And for a wind down after the music at Faces, especially on a Saturday night, it's wonderful to go next door to the Quinta Progreso and listen to their fabulous Jazz music. A fabulous father daughter duo sing and play guitar beautifully, and provide a mellow way to finish off the evening.

And tonight, after beating Judy and Keith at cards (it was our turn), we checked out the Remo restaurant at the entrance to Progreso.  Not sure how they stay afloat as we were the only guests in the restaurant, but my shrimp mignon, Vic's fish and chips, Judy's chicken kebob and Keith's poc-chuc were all excellent! Lovely ambience as well as it's right beside the rio that runs along the highway just south of our town.

Oh, and while we haven't been there in a couple of weeks, one of my favourites still remains San Thelmo's in the downtown Progreso market - where for less than 100 pesos Vic and I can both enjoy some delicios flautas (flutes of chicken, lettuce, media crema, and salsa verde), panuchos and salbutes, with a soft drink each!  And to watch the hustle and bustle of all the locals as they go about their daily shopping is always a treat!

Great dining out all, but definitely hard on the wasteline!  Time for salads at home for a while. :)

More fun times

A little relaxation in the backyard includes a couple of lap doggies!

 

They really both believe they were meant to be lap dogs. Quite funny really, and very competitive.

 

Bugs figures that if Goldie's in Vic's lap, she should be too!

And he says they're my dogs!  Ha!

 

Mind you, once Vic heads for the pool, they're in my lap next!

 

Look at her - surely you must know someone who'd love to love her! Bugs is just waiting for her full-time parents!

 

Vic chills in our lovely pool!

My thrice weekly running partners - Jim from Halifax and Sabrina from California!

Enjoying the winter running weather Progreso has to offer!

 

 

Our helpful friends from Neek Kaan

 

One day this week, some of the girls decided they needed to ditch their husbands for a while!

 

Ha! Just kidding. Actually, the guys were looking for something different to do for a while, so they decided to come over and help Vic to finish the sealing of our cement walls.

By using the sealer (sellador in Spanish) it protects the walls from the rains, etc.,

and makes any paint we do put on someday stay on substantially longer.

The same product was applied to all the other walls and ceilings inside and outside of the house.

 

Des above,

and Owen below,

hard at work! 

Luckily, the sealer is clear once it dries, so we had no worries about messes, although I'm sure if they'd had to, the guys would have been careful!

 

Vic made sure their trays were loaded - want to keep them all moving you know!

 

One advantage to having a pool in the backyard is it's really easy to take a dip and cool off!

Which Mich did! It was a real scorcher and some of the sealing was done in the direct hot sun!

 

Des, like me, stayed in the shade most of the time - smart man!

 

You can just see the edge of my project above on the right - I've been painting the old gates from the property to mount on the walls for accent. They're really very pretty, but it's amazing how many people have asked us what we were doing with them!

 

A little compensation for a hard couple of hours of work!

Thanks so much for your help gentlemen! It made the job much quicker,

and much more fun of course!!

A few final (hopefully) updates on our house construction

Navajo Red is the colour of our new home now, with white accents, and I love it!! 

 

The bodega still needs paint, but we're getting to it. Con despacio you know (take it easy!)

 

It looks so neat with the palm fronds in the picture

 

And our toldo (or sun shade) to protect me from the wonderfully warm sun, without eliminating all the heat!

 

Awesome shadows from the palms too!

 

Or new kitchen cupboard doors

 

and drawers!

 

Bar stools which Meubleria Dixie was able to make to match our dining room set exactly, as they did with the kitchen cabinet doors as well :)

 

And the bathroom cabinet doors and medicine cabinet!

 

And we're done for this year! Time to relax and enjoy life!

See you soon!

 

Hugs, Deb & Vic :)

The Progreso to Merida National Triathlon!

An amazing and wonderful event took place this weekend in our small town.  The Mexican National Triathlon took place here, and started right on the Malecon (boardwalk) in Progreso,

 

 

Greatly organization was seen everywhere, and with 1500 athletes, from over 15 different countries, things had to run like a top!

 

The morning started with the Elites being introduced and then sent off into the ocean

 

Then with the heats of the sprint triathlon, by age groups - making it much safer and less intimidating in the water I would think! This way the largest heat seemed to be about 200 at a time.

 

Very neat start with the muelle (6.5km pier of Progreso) right there

 

This was the senior men's sprint triathlon heat (group).

The sprint race here, because the cycle portion is between Progreso and Merida, was longer than the usual.

In a standard Sprint distance triathlon, the distances are 750m swim, followed by a 20 km bike ride, then a 5km run.

As they were travelling the highway between cities, the cycle portion of the sprint was a full (long and hot I imagine) 35 kms.

 

Here we saw the runners as they exited the swim into the cycle transition zone.

Some beautiful, very high quality bikes were everywhere!

 

Lots of port-a-potties available for the athletes if they needed them

 

 

And helicopter supervision and radio announcing was taking place throughout the race

 

Here we see a cyclist getting dressed to take off on his bike

 

And heading to his bike after the swim. The bikes were placed in the racks according to the athletes' number, so very fair. Athletes had anywhere up to about 1/2 km to run either with or without their bikes.

 

Getting organized

 

And off on the ride they head

 

Lots of terrific spectators too!

 

And Vic as we waited for the next heats to go, the Olympic distance

 

Another shot of our pier

 

One of the Olympic athletes exiting their 1500 meter swim, to head out for the 40 km bike ride, which was then followed by a 10km run in Merida along the Pasejo Monteo (the major street in Merida)

 

A 23 year old young lady, Andrea, that we met at the beginning of the race.

 

A future olympian?

 

 Looking pretty happy at this point!

 

About 3 k into the cycling portion the 1st major intersection, lots of trafic control provided jointly by the military and both state and local police

 

After a 90 degree left turn south it is off to Merida with a slight tail wind as the wind has now picked up.

 

Not sure of the finishing times but we were hearing over the local radio station 97.7 KISS from Merida times in the 1:40's. For those who use internet for their radio it is a decent station.

 

The two lane hwy is down to one lane.  Further towards Merida we heard the 4 lane section was reduced to two lanes to accomodate the racers.

 

Speaking to people about travel into Merida during the race the normal 25 minute trip was increased to 2 hours.  We didn't go into the City but hope you enjoyed a glimpse of the race.