A Few Observations
Bagging Your Groceries
Tip the older gentlemen and women that bag your groceries. Who knew?! We were here a couple of weeks before we found out about this one. They are volunteers and they are there to earn a few pesos. (25 t0 50 cents)
Trash pickup
In Merida, it happens daily. When your trash is full, simply bag it up and put it outside your door. The garbage guys come by daily, anywhere from 5-10pm and will pick it up.
Professional Waiters
They may gently accost you in the street to invite you in, open the door, pull out your chair for you and find a menu in English if they have one. They will then serve you and watch over you and make sure everything is okay. They take their job seriously, smile a lot and honestly want you as their customer.
Buenos Dias/Buenas Tardes/Buenas Noches
It is very typical that the friendly people of Merida will smile and greet you on the street.
You say “Buenos Dias” in the morning and it means “good morning” or “good day”, but it only works until you have lunch. Lunch, however, doesn’t usually happen until between 1 and 2 pm and sometimes later. After lunch, you say “Buenas Tardes” which means “good afternoon” or “good evening” and you can use that until supper which may be quite late like 10pm. After supper you can say “Buenas Noches” which can mean either “good night” as a greeting or more commonly the “goodnight” before you go to bed.
ps. We have noted that breakfast and lunch cafes are often open until 6pm because of this relaxed schedule.
Flashing Green Light
If the traffic light is green, it will go to flashing green a few seconds before it turns yellow. Along with this observation, like much of the world, traffic rules are much closer to suggestions here than they are in the U.S., so everyone drives and walks and rides bikes alertly here. We have only seen one minor accident in our time here so far.
No Dishwashers
What are they for? We have sinks and people to do dishes.
Turn on Hot Water
We don’t know if this is common, but at the house we are renting, we turn the hot water on about 15 minutes before we shower and turn it off after we shower. Mid day the water is often warm enough for a shower without the water heater.
Comments
The Grocery Baggers sound like the equivalent to the people who park themselves on street corners, cleaning the windshield of all who stop … only socially accepted.