Blogs from Yucatán, Mexico, North America - page 65

Monday, August 20, 2007, 3:45 p.m Meriday, Yucatan, Mexico time The National Hurricane Center has issued Hurricane Dean advisory #31, http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/text/refresh/MIATCPAT4+shtml/202032.shtml. This was at 5 p.m. EDT. Hurricane Dean is still predicted to come in on a more southern course than thought two days ago. Belize appears to be in the main path. According to the advisory, the storm is currently 270 miles from land, moving on a western path at 20 mph. It is expected to take a more west by northwest path in 24 hours. That would be after landfall I am assuming as 270 miles divided by 20 mph (should he not get in a bigger hurry) would put landfall at approximately 1 a.m. in the coming morning. This huge storm is expected, they say, to dump 5 to 20 inches in areas. ... read more

Preparations around the area include the trimming of vegetation that could cause unneeded damage during an intense storm. My apartment manager is constantly trimming in the complex and he was steady trimming and dragging limbs to the street all yesterday. The garbage truck made it’s second visit to this neighbor in three days. This is sound preparation in my thinking. At 6:15 p.m. last evening I received a text message on my Telcel (Mexico cell) phone. It advised that the state of Yucatan’s alert level had been raised to yellow (still orange then red to go - my words, not theirs). This message was sent on behalf of the Civil Protection department and Telcel, Mexico’s largest cell phone provider. I was impressed. Afterward, I walked several blocks to the ATM and traffic and population milling around ... read more

Saturday, August 18, 2007 I have now gone shopping and stocked up on things I feel I might need if we have to go for a week with no power in Merida, Yucatan, Mexico. There is an abundance of canned and fresh food choices as well as those in cartons that do not need refrigeration until opened. There is no panic in stores for that last package of batteries or gallon of water. Dean, the hurricane, has strengthened. I am anxious for myself, Yucatecos, and all who may end up in his path. Being a newcomer and visitor to the area, a friend pointed out to me that the relative sense of calm I am observing in the wake of a massive hurricane threat is not simply a way of life and culture to these kind ... read more

We said goodbye to San Christobal at some ungodly hour of the morning, and set off for Palenque, the first of our Mayan ruins. The road was hilly, windy and full of speed bumps on the strangest stretches of road. Beside each was a group of children that would jump up and try to sell us coconuts, fruit, chewing gum etc. We stopped off for a swim at Agua Azul, and admired the waterfall at Misol-ha before arriving at the ruins at about 2pm. We decided to get a guide in order to understand the place a bit better. I´m not sure what we received was the standard speel or not, but it was interesting nonetheless. Our guide had a theory that the Mayans were really a mix of lots of different cultures - Chinese, Phoenecians, ... read more

and quit sending things to your email. But at least it's not cute (or not) jokes or chain type things..... Well, I've worked past my bedtime to download pictures from some emails sent to me and try to resize them. I don't really think it's the Spanish that inhibited the process this time, just complications. And after exhausting myself on that, I turned to see what YucatanLiving had going on. Read it please. Thank you, Khaki, for all the great info! http://yucatanliving.com/ is the website. In re-reading some articles, this one brought a smile to my face about driving around here. The Working Gringos write articles for the publication and this is one of theirs http:// www.yucatanliving.com/ yucatan-survivor/driving-in-yucatan.htm And in working on this little $%$^##^ computer to resize the pictures from my friend's new store (pictures ... read more