Geo: 20.9797, -89.6158 Time for a few words about Merida, where Hostal Zocalo is situated. It is still in Mayan Yucatan, originally a Mayan town but conquered by the Spanish in the mid 1500's. It is busy with a constant movement of people, and traffic, but all runs quite smoothly despite the traffic police on most corners who have whistles and torches (for night use) and although there are traffic lights at each junction anyway, the traffic controller whistles and signals the traffic on at the same time. It certainly keeps it moving.We were able to go downstairs from the Hostal straight into the main square, where we sat down at regular intervals to watch the world go by. Numerous Mayan vendors come into town each day with hammocks, colourful textiles, shawls, jewellery, wooden toys and, ... read more

Geo: 21.1478, -86.835 Cancun, in Mexico (or Egypt, Florida, Australia?)The town of Cancun is divided in two, downtown, where we stayed, and the hotel zone. Our hostel was simple but functional with a good cheap restaurant. Downtown is where the local people, who are predominantly Mayan, live. We enjoyed it as it felt quite homely with a supermarket next door, and very good public transport which was easy to get to grips with and is very cheap. The hotel zone runs along a narrow stretch of land about 20 kilometres long, joined to the mainland at both ends. The hotels are one deep so nearly everyone has a sea view. All hotel chains are represented here and some are beautiful designs, but others are very ugly. Amongst the hotels are restaurants offering every cuisine imaginable but ... read more

Geo: 40.0279, 4.16433 We were due to leave Menorca on Saturday 30th October. Having decided to take the bus to the airport, we arrived early as planned and settled down to read for a few hours. Our flight was due to depart at 9.45pm but by the time we checked in at 7.30 it was running half an hour late. At 9pm they changed departure to 1.20 am. In fact, the plane had engineering problems and could not leave the UK. Passengers due to leave from Gatwick were sent off to hotels by 7pm but it seems to have taken some time for the message to reach Menorca as we were not allocated hotels until 1am. Anyway, back to the airport next morning after a few hours sleep and eventually news filtered through that our plane ... read more

Geo: 40.0279, 4.16433 This is the start of week 2 in Menorca. Have we adjusted to permanent holiday yet? Well, we are trying very hard. Reminding ourselves that we are not on holiday but just living here, and therefore mustn't keep popping into bars or going out for meals. This is made easier by the tight budget we ( I suppose that should be me!) have set of not spending more that £100 per week. Menorca is more expensive than the Canaries or other Balearic Islands. For example, coffee and beer is 5 or 6 euros and a basic restaurant meal of one pizza, one pasta and 2 drinks came to 40 euros. So we eat in most of the time, but I did weaken one evening and have a cocktail. The compensation is table wine ... read more

Geo: 51.0153, 0.132437We moved in here on the 31st August, after 6 days really hard work moving furniture and most of our belongings into Templar Road. Also needed to clean up Trulls Hatch to get our deposit back. I do not want to clean another oven for at least 2 years. Unfortunately Jim had an attack of arthritis just as the action started so lifting boxes was not a good idea for him.So here we are in a very small but well equipped holiday home complete with stables, dogs and 8 peacocks. The reality is sinking in, we no longer have a home. It gives a great sense of freedom but also of balancing on the edge of a cliff and getting ready to jump. We have a belief that we are wearing parachutes but until ... read more