Our Mexican Adventure: A Trip to the Yucatan

"I think that was the most interesting vacation I've ever taken," exclaimed my husband.

Well, yes. We didn't sit on our butts around a pool or on the beach ordering margaritas in an all-exclusive. We didn't even visit museums or tourist attractions.  We didn't ride buses to where tour guides wanted us to go.

Years ago, we'd been told that it was dangerous to get out on our own in the Yucatan.  Hogwash. We rented a car and took off through villages and to beaches we'd always wanted to see. We drove down country roads. We ate in tiny Mexican cafes. We roamed the streets of Merida. We met the people who live there and we saw a little bit of Mexico. And we are in love.

One of our missions was to visit all the places we've read about. The city of Merida in the center of it all and I will talk about this fantastic colonial city in another post. The rest of the places that interest us are beach towns.

Progeso is the largest beach town. It's where the cruise ships dock. It has the longest pier in the world, I think. It's two miles long because of the shelf off the Yucatan. They had to go out that far to get deep enough for the ships to dock. It's about 30 miles from Progreso. That's where we stayed for four nights while we explored east and west.

West of Progreso are the small fishing villages of Chelem and Churburna. Many expats live there. Then much farther out is Sisal. Ah, Sisal....

East of Progreso is the fishing village of Chexalub, then much farther out is Telchac.

So that was our range, this trip. We visited all of those places. We don't think Progreso or the "3 C's" are for us. They were a bit shabby and dirty, but beach towns everywhere are. The ocean and the elements take a toll on the buildings. But they just didn't feel right to us. Unfortunately, they probably have the best internet and the best medical facilities.  We need the internet to work and we aren't getting any younger. Progreso also has good grocery stores and some decent restaurants. The Malecon is pretty cool.

The towns we liked best were the ones way out to the east and the west: Telchac and Sisal. But they have very few if any medical facilities and we are extremely uncertain about the quality and reliability of the internet connectivity.  We get mixed reports. 

Telchac:

Telchac is a clean, cute little town and the beaches are much better than the villages nearer the pier. It has a lot of beach houses. That is one of its biggest advantages. It seems to have more houses than Sisal, and may be a little less expensive. Also, it has pretty good roads to Merida.  But the trip between both Sisal and Telchac and Merida is a little over an hour. 

And then there is Sisal. We love Sisal. It was the prettiest place we visited in our whole trip.  Its as cute as a bug and the beach just takes your breath away. The day we were there, the wind was high and I would NOT have gone out into that ocean, but I'm sure it's very nice on less windy days.  The palm trees are very tall and beautiful, indicating that it doesn't get many hurricanes.

We also loved Merida, and were privileged to visit several home there. It has very modern stores and malls, but also totally charming colonial squares and cathedrals and homes and barios. We were charmed. We stayed in some very nice hotels there. We won't discuss where we stayed in Progreso in this post. But we will in another. Not so great. 

So, what we learned from this trip is that we might end up in Telchac or Sisal, but we are going to start out in Merida. We plan to move down next spring, and rent for about six months and explore further while we are there. At this point, we'll get serious about making decisions.  

In the meantime, we need to get our house in Tulsa ready to sell. We have lots and lots to do. We hope to make another trip later this year, and we need to really work on our Spanish!

So our Mexican Adventure continues.  

Follow us here and on 

Facebook  https://www.facebook.com/MexicanAdventure/ 

and on 

Youtube https://www.youtube.com/c/SusanVineyardwrites

And soon we'll also have a website to pull it all together.

So....I have a lot to do!

Mexico here we come!

We can't just pack up and take off permanently to Mexico quite yet.  We hope to make that big move next spring.  

BUT WE ARE GOING DOWN TO EXPLORE NEXT WEEK!  

We leave Friday morning and fly to Merida, where we are going to meet new friends and explore the city and all of the beach towns. We don't know exactly where we want to live yet, the beach or the city.

The Beach:

We've always wanted to live at the beach. I want to watch the moods of the ocean every day. I NEED to look out on the ocean.  The cons, however are the fact that the ocean takes its tolls on your home and everything in it. Rebar rusts, foundations crumble, books mold, art flakes away. Wild dogs roam the beach and anyone can party or camp our in front on your house. No one owns the beach...a good and bad thing.  We could also roam the beach on foot on in the ATM we hope to buy.  Whee!

Coleman Outfitter 500 - 500cc 4WD Utility Vehicle

The City (Merida):

The cultural capital of the Yucatán peninsula, Mérida is a compact city rich in colonial history, with a cosmopolitan flair. It has the region’s broadest span of dining options, from market stalls and mobile kiosks to glamorous dining in lavish haciendas.  

• Centro is full of colonial patio homes with tall ceilings and pasta tile floors.  
• The North has modern homes. 

We plan to check out both locations next week. NEXT WEEK. I can't wait!!

Well, I have a new camera, ready for photos and video on my trip.  I am trying to learn to use all its many accessories and thousands of features!!  So much fun. The ultimate VLOG camera.

Canon EOS 80D DSLR Camera Bundle with Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM Lens + Tamron Zoom Telephoto AF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 Macro Autofocus Lens + 2 PC 16 GB Memory Card + Camera Case

So to follow our adventures, either check here or our FB page:  

https://www.facebook.com/MexicanAdventure/

Actually, the FB page will be updated more quickly than the blog. It's just so easy..... But if you want to follow our adventures in exploring, preparing to move to and actually moving to and living in Mexico, this is your place.

Oh yes....and we will be learning Spanish.....

hasta más tarde......

Buying out British Used Book Stores in Search of Victorian Scotland

I am writing a book set in Victorian Scotland while I am stuck in the middle of the U.S. So I find interesting, relevant books on Amazon. Some I buy on Kindle, some used. I buy very few new. Many of the books I pursue are not available on Kindle because they are so old. Some are not available new. I even bought one that came with dried flowers in it, I guess from a British meadow. I find references to more books and authors.  My husband recently commented that he never thought he'd be an expert on Victorian history, but he's becoming one.

I am working on my second fiction book and, since it is historical, I'm trying to do my research (and loving it!).  But researching Victorian Scotland isn't easy from the middle of the U.S. I am thrilled that the non-fiction writers in Britain have shared their information gleaned from the royal archives and interviewing the families of people who know Queen Victoria and John Brown, two major characters in my story.  

I also watch a lot of YouTube. I love authors' talks about their non-fiction books. I watch videos of the landscape around the part of Scotland where my story is set. 

But the books!  I am collecting an interesting library about Victorian times, and many of the books are quite old. I buy hardbacks when I can. I have a really old copy of an Edwin Landseer biography that needs repaired. I am hoping my son (who did this kind of work at Wesleyan University as a student) can help me with it while he is home before he leaves for the Republic of Georgia in the Peace Corps. He can teach me the rough basics of book repair.  The old books are much more fun (and in-expensive) than new books! 

Remember, when you look up an interesting book on Amazon, to check out the used books.  For example, this is a good book about Victoria and Albert. I think I read this while I was in Australia, so I probably read it on Kindle, but we'll just use it as an example.

Here's the link to it on Amazon: http://amzn.to/2kOG2dY

It costs 9.99 on Kindle, $13.88 in paperback, and is no longer available new in hardback, new. But, you can get a good used hardback for $3.59 + $3.99 shipping + $0.00 estimated tax.  Not a bad deal!

So you can research to your heart's content, even from Tulsa, Oklahoma. The English used book stores love to ship to you!

Maybe I'll do Keto

I've lost some weight. About 10 lbs since I quit drinking completely.

Why did I do that? 

Because we are planning to move to Mexico within the next year and our last move almost killed me. I am on a healthy living kick to get strong enough for a BIG move. Now that I am healing from hip replacement, I should soon be able to exercise more and more. Unless I decide on knee surgery too. I might. And I might not.

But my small weight loss has whetted my appetite....for more.  No, I don't really look like Melisandre as an old woman (for Game of Throne fans), but when I look at my 64 year old body in the mirror (my birthday was Saturday), I almost feel like I do.  Actually, I'm pretty hot for 64. A girl at Sprouts this week thought I looked like Stevie Nicks. Well, I am younger than she is, but I'll bet she's spent a lot more money on her face than I have on mine (no plastic surgery here, although if I were rich....)

So...a friend of mine recently showed me photos of her daughter-in-law who has been on the Keto diet and has lost loads of weight. Then another friend joined a Keto group on Facebook, so I decided to jump in too and see what it was about. And people on that group are always posting pictures to show how much weight they've lost and I am impressed.  Plus I have high blood sugar, which I control with diet, and so this is right down my ally. 

So the Keto ( or ketogenic) diet is another low-carb diet. We've all done those at some point, right? It's supposed to cause your body to produce ketones in your liver and use them as energy. Why is that good?

Normally, I guess, your body gets its energy from glucose, which the body produces when you eat carbs (and mine produces WAY TOO MUCH of). It ignores the fat stored in your body and gobbles up that glucose. "Yum!" says your body. But it doesn't like the fat as well, and so it stays in all those wrong places, and your clothes show your bumps and budges. 

When you really, really cut back on carbs, though, your body goes into a state of ketosis. That's what your body does when it thinks you are starving. It starts to produce ketones from breaking down fat in your liver. And since you aren't producing much glucose, your body, goes, "OK. I'm hungry. I'll eat these." And the fat goes away.

Starvation? Ugh. 

NO! You are not starving yourself of yummy calories or of fat, just of carbs. Getting rid of those carbs puts you in keto and you start to lose all that ugly fat.

So that's my plan. I don't think it will be that hard for me. I already <somewhat> eat like that. I don't eat processed food or sugar or very much bread/wheat. That's a good start.  And I cook from scratch. This week, I've made eggplant Parmesan and hobo stew that would have fit into the plan. Tonight is a roasted chicken and cauliflower.  But I'm going to get serious about this thing. And start adapting and sharing recipes that I cook. Maybe even make some YouTube videos. 

Interested? Follow me down the yellow brick path of Keto.

(Also more about getting ready to move to Mexico, writing a book about a time traveler to Queen Victoria's Scotland and my art!) So much too do. So hard to work my 40 hr. job and find time for everything else too. 

BTW. this is the picture on my art gallery that's been getting the most comments lately. I think people are ready for springtime!  See the little ladybug on the cherry blossoms? 

Hip surgery over Christmas break

Well, my hip surgery is over. It happened a month and four days ago. The Tuesday before Christmas. I am getting around great now, but it still hurts and I am impatient. I want to be well now. I am tired of hurting.

But I must be positive. I am getting better. It hurt before the surgery and was getting worse. Now it IS GETTING BETTER. I am not going to post my x-rays. They show too much of the private parts of my body, but here I am, getting ready to go into surgery.

Last time I showed you the sewing machine I bought to make curtains. Actually, I have not made curtains at all. We looked for fabric and didn't find any we liked within our budget.

So we moved in without curtains and we kind of like it. We plan to sell our house in about six months. Our walls are freshly painted, so maybe we'll just let the next owners put up curtains.

We drove around our neighborhood at Christmas and most houses here are wide open. We could see the people walking around and everything going on in their houses. This is a historic, beautiful upscale neighborhood. We, at least, have nothing to hide behind curtains.  We don't mind if people drive by and see us eating dinner. Cheers

I did use my sewing machine to recover this chair (See before and after photos above). It's not too bad to buy $30.00 fabric when you only need one or two yards. What do you think of the outcome? Here's a shot of the chair in my living room:

Note the lights above the aimore. This living room has traditionally been very dark, and we want it to look larger for when we sell. Here's what we did:

• We painted the walls a lighter, more neutral color. 
• We bought a smaller rug (tribal-on sale at Pottery Barn--LOVE IT!) and left more bare wood floor showing. 
• We used modern, bright art and simpler furniture. And we lit our art.
• We also added lights over our aimore and the bookcase of the same size on the other size of the door to the sunroom.

To create the lights over the furniture, I simply bought two strip LED lights (meant to go under cabinets) and laid them up there. I did weigh them down so they would not move, and I strung the cords behind the furniture. It looks great and cost less than $50.00, with extension cords. 

So, here we are. Christmas is over. My surgery is over. Now, I have to prepare to sell my house and move to Mexico.

My Christmas tree is crazy. I haven't counted them, but I probably have a thousand ornaments. I was watching a YouTube show on Victorian Christmases last night, and my tree looks a lot like the trees they featured. I hang ornaments inside the tree, layering them and giving it dimensions. It looks like a piece of jewelry, but it takes days to put up and weeks to take down.  

And I am packing all of those ornaments to move to Mexico. I am packing them in small boxes (we received many of those before Christmas and while moving in, mostly from Amazon.)

I am packing the small boxes into larger boxes, the boxes we used to move from Australia. They are international shipping boxes, sturdy and sized to fit into a container. Hopefully, all of my beautiful ornaments will survive the trip.

Well, so much for my news this time. What will be coming up?

• I have another chair to re-cover. 
• I have to get busy landscaping as soon as the weather allows. Two years of renters while we were abroad wrecked our yard. They did not care.
• I am getting serious about writing my next book. I'll tell you about it soon! 
• And I am making YouTube videos about Victorian life. So much fun!
• Oh, and yes, it's time to get serious about my diet. I have to start testing my blood for sugar levels again. But soon I'll be able to exercise much more. I am about to get into shape!  Recipes coming soon!

My hip or my house?

What do I write about first? My hip or my house?

I guess I'll get my hip out of the way. If you've read earlier posts of mine, you know I broke my hip on the beach in Australia. At least I was carried off the beach by Australian lifeguards, but the rest of the story hasn't been so pleasant.

I had surgery on the Sunshine Coast of Australia. My hip kept bothering me, and when I first came back to the USA, the first doctor I complained to just seemed to think I wanted him to prescribe me medication. (Actually, I never take anything stronger than Tylenol.) He sent me to physical therapy, but that was hard to keep up when I went to work full-time and didn't seem to be helping much.

Now I have a new, much better doctor and he sent me to see a doctor who x-rayed me and discovered that the ball of my hip is crumbling. Ick. No wonder it hurts. So I have to have a hip replacement. But first, the doctor wants to take out the screws to let the bone fill in the holes a little and give me an injection that will help me feel better until the actual surgery.

They scheduled me to take out the screws, but then realized that I have a stint in my heart, and now I have to see a cardiologist before the first procedure. That's in the morning. If you've ever taken a stress test, you know it's no fun.

I can't have caffeine today, and I can't eat after midnight. You know that drill, I'm sure.  And I MIGHT have my first procedure on Thursday. What a week!

Meanwhile, we're moving!! I worked in the yard this weekend, and the painters started today. I can't WAIT to run over after work and see how it looks so far.  Or house was built in 1928. It has beautiful designer colors, but some of them are kind of dark and make the rooms look small. We are leaving most of it, but we are painting the living room a lighter, cooler color and the study will be painted that color and hunter green.

Here's what our study and living room look like right now:





I'll post pictures when the painting is done and again when we have moved into these rooms. When I was in Australia, I was really impressed at the real estate photos that everyone did. Wide angle and HDR Photograhy. In the pictures above, I was just playing around right after I got some new lenses in the mail. I'll do a much better job on the finished project. You'll see!

I took these photos with my cell phone, by the way. I ordered a some clip-on lenses that are supposed to be for iPhone 6s/6s Plus, iPhone 6/6 Plus,iPhone 5 5S 4 4S Samsung HTC Android, but they work great on my Galaxy S6 Edge+.

The lenses are Luxsure® Universal 3 in 1 Camera Lens Kit Clip-On 180 Degree Supreme Fisheye + 0.65X Wide Angle+ 10X Macro Lens

You can see them here: http://amzn.to/2e2LdFc. I'm very impressed, so far!

Wow! I've come a long way!!

Guess what? I'm home in the USA. I have moved from Australia back home to Oklahoma. I've been back just almost a year now, and have been working so hard that I have not had time to write on my blog or on my book.

We moved home last October and our wonderful house was rented out, so we had to lease a house for a year. That year has been a blur. First, I worked remotely to my company in Australia, then I was hired by a Tulsa company owned by Dell. I still work there, but Dell has sold us to a Silicon Valley equity firm. The sale should/might be complete this month. Then no telling what will happen.

We just had a software release, so I've been working weekends and nights, but now things have slacked off temporarily, which is a very good thing for two reasons.

1. We are moving back into our wonderful house in time for the holidays.
2. I have to have surgery. Remember that I broke my hip in Australia and they pinned it? Well, the ball of my hip joint is crumbling.and I have to have an artificial joint. I'm becoming a cyborg!!

So I am all excited about living in my house again. I am making draperies. I want to move the hardware in my living and dining room windows up to right below the trim to make the windows look more elegant, and I need to buy a new sewing machine.  I don't want to spend a LOT of money, and I've read that Brother is a good brand if you're not going high-end.

I'm seriously thinking of buying this one:

It's a Brother Project Runway CE7070PRW 70-Stitch Computerized Sewing Machine with a wide table for $144.00.  It does more than any other sewing machine I've ever had. I like the wide table for sewing my drapes and I may have some other similar projects to work on.

Here are a few pictures of my beautiful home to enjoy.  I have many interesting projects planned and I'll try to do much better at keeping up this blog and showing you what I'm up to!!    P.S. You may hear some ranting and raving about the renters who have been living in my house for almost three years, but the holidays will be glorious!!!