Manicure and pedicure - desperately needed

I can't believe it's been 5.5 months that we've been here and I finally got a manicure!!

 

 

Yes, I needed it desperately!

 

Abigail at Isabelle's store - great mani pedi person!

 

Neat shop

 

A little pampering and I'm on my way

Mani-pedi for $180 (pesos) in an hour and a half. Nice :)

 

Hard to find, but it was there - Bindi and Barb joined me after to go home!

Our new Italian Friends

Paola and Pascuale invited Vic and I and Judy (Keith's still out of commission in the hospital recovering from his hip surgery) for a fabulous lunch and cards

 

 

We had an amazing lasagna and salad and garlic bread, followed by friend bananas with ice cream - yum!

 

And Paola and I indulged in a few margaritas

and those were fabulous too! Her famous recipe?

 

2 oz. tequila

1/2 L of mango juice

half bottle of margarita mix

fruit of one fresh mango

Blend in blender with lots of ice and enjoy! Very refreshing :)

 

Wonderful hosts!

And I've decided to attempt to learn Italian next!  One must keep the brain working you know!

Maybe once we're back in Canada and have time.

The funny thing is, Paola and Pascuale live at Lester Beach in the summers, a beach area about 20 minutes away from where we spend our summers! yeah!

Time to say good-bye to many as us expats start heading home for the summer!

 

At a Barlovento (great bar/restaurant downtown just off the Malecon) farewell party for many of us expats, we got to say good-bye to some wonderful winter friends!

 

And tried to encourage Bill, Vic's Dad, to join us down here next year to share in the fun!

 

Some wives got surprised by their husbands (that's an inside one)!

 

Brook and Dawn

 

And Elvis was even here to wish us a buen viaje and great summer

 

Our crazy friends - gotta love em

 

good-bye kisses

 

A congo line!

 

Okay, maybe a beer or two down the hatch - ha!

 

Having fun!

 

And a wrap up of my winter running partners as both Jim and Sabrina head home, perhaps not to be back to Progreso in the future. We will see where life leads them next!  Thanks guys for an awesome winter of running!  It's been a pleasure.

 

 

And for this breakfast we chose one of our favourite restaurants for its wonderful food - Sol y Mar on calle 78 downtown!

 

 

And so start the good-byes

A day in the Life

Some days are just so relaxing - especially for a dog!

Huh - love my new chair - Goldie too!

 

These caballos (horses) go by our street quite often and it's one of Goldie's favourite things to chase after them barking. Not sure how she thinks she might win with those big guys?!

 

She now loves to go for car rides!

 

Driving around you never know what you'll see next - a mini circus coming to town!

 

Our lovely city hall

 

The grand opening for a new animal clinic - with various intentions - including prospective mini sterilization clinics and pet training classes

 

We got a demo of some of the street dogs after training - pretty impressive

 

And some are so ugly they're cute!

 

And they love their treats!

 

Some just are cute!

 

And life continues :)

March 16th sort of victory run

So, Vic chose to sleep in so I found another fellow to accompany me - ha!

Jim, Tim and I headed to La Carrerra de los Amigos (the race of friends) in Merida, bright and early on a Sunday morning

 

A little shopping at the wonderful prerace expo is always essential

 

 

Check out the awesome colours! I must admit these amazingly coloured photos aren't mine, but sent to me from my new friend and running buddy this year, Jim, and taken by our photographer for the day, Jim's brother-in-law, Tim.

 

 

Picking up our race packages

 

 

Getting psyched up for the run

 

 

Quite the crowd on this toasty Sunday morning!

 

 

 

And Tim captured us about to take off

And even caught me on the run!

 

 

And for the $150 pesos we each paid for our race entry, we were given the brilliant orange running shirts you see in so many of the photos, a cute green backpack and an awesome finisher's medal! 

 

 

The draw prizes at this race were amazing and included such things as washers, dryers, fridges, stoves, a dozen bicycles, big screen tvs, microwave ovens, toaster ovens, $500 (pesos) cash, and the big prize, a motorcycle!

 

 

While I didn't get a trophy, because the race had accidentally placed me in the 20 - 29 year old age category, my time was actually second place in the old girl (50 - 59) category, so I did super well, and had a great time. It's an amazingly organized and put on race, with 1000's of runners, and many walkers in the 5km category as well!

 

 

And with all those draw prizes available, we waited around until we knew for sure we hadn't won anything :(

 

 

Here I am with my new t-shirt and finisher's medal, all done for the day!

 

 Okay, maybe I was more all done for the day later in the afternoon, in the half hour we had to rest!

Me and my dog!

Oh, we haven't heard from her adoptive parents this weekend, so we think she's still ours after all, if anyone knows of someone who'd like to babysit her for us this winter!  Cindy????!!!