Wow! 20 hours of class in 5 days with homework at night. So much for that easy-going lifestyle!

Actually it was great, but it sure was intense! Nidi, our amazing teacher, did a great job giving us just what we needed to start dog-paddling in the pool of Spanish. We think it’s actually an ocean. We can’t wait until we can swim well enough to enjoy diving in to some real conversations at normal conversation speed. We are thrilled to be on our way however.

We anticipate we will have multiple posts about the Yucatecan food. Here is Yucatecan food part 1!

We enjoyed our Friday evening at a local Yucatecan restaurant called La Chaya Maya.

The highlight of the evening was watching local Mayan make handmade tortillas. They had two Mayan ladies making hundreds of tortillas while we enjoyed our meal.

We had the wonderful privilege of taking advantage of the Sunday tradition of closing down one side of the main avenue in Merida so that walkers, bicyclists, skateboarders, joggers and families in all sizes take over Paseo de Montejo.

Families, young and old, some just learning to bike, scooters, and more are all a part of this family-oriented event. Bikes for up to 5+ people, some with canopies, navigate the avenue.

We celebrated our fourth anniversary at Hacienda Xcanatun, just north of Merida a few miles.

After our meal, we were completely surprised with the dessert you see above! Here we were in Mexico, we didn’t know anybody, and they had made us a special dessert for our anniversary!

Here We Go!

Have you ever heard of Merida, Mexico? We hadn’t either, but now we’re just about ready to try it out as our possible new home.

Last fall, while comparing cost of living stats for different areas of the U.S., we noted they also listed international locations.