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Published: February 28th 2009
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Tuesday, March 17th, any year is St. Patrick's Day, though sometimes celebrated on another day if it occurs on Sunday. This is due to the fact that it falls almost always during the Lent season.
It just so happens that two friends and I will visit the wonderful Yucatan of Mexico this St. Patrick's Day in Merida, Mexico this year for that celebration.
Celebrations of the Green are not new to Mexico. St. Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland and is acknowledged by Irish and others alike. It is an official Christian festival and of some other denominations. Because it almost always falls within the Lent season, some of the religious faithful are pardoned from certain Lent restrictions, such as eating meat on Friday should it fall on that day of the week.
The San Patricios, aka St. Patrick's battalion, were a unit in the US - Mexican war that assisted the Mexican country in the years 1846 - 1848; at least that is what I've researched without going to a library's real history section. (Don't believe everything you read on the Internet, Friends, but I read many articles there.) The history of these men is really
interesting; I encourage your further investigation.
So, yes, it is not an unknown celebration in Mexico.
Friends Nancy and George will accompany me to Merida, Yucatan, Mexico on a little vacation in March. TGI Friday's already has our reservation and knows our theme, friends know of the invitation and plan to attend and it will be a great green, Irish occasion. It will be great to see all my friends at TGI Friday's and from work and the neighborhoods.
I want to show my visiting friends all of the Merida I know, Progeso and all that I haven't seen myself! We're going to one busy little group. Friend, Susie, lives there already, having relocated from Houston, Texas permanently in 2007 while I lived there. It will be a reunion for the two of us as well.
If you get time and want to investigate on your own some of the sites on our wish list of an agenda, first read the online magazines of www.YucatanLiving.com and www.YucatanToday.com, then search on the web and see / read other articles relating to the items listed below.
flamingos in Celestun
downtown weekends in Merida
Merida English Library
ruins
Dancing Downtown
Every weekend and for free! in the Yucatan
bus or surrey tour around the Yucatan
Art Museums - Merida
bullfighting in Merida
Leons game (baseball) in Merida and the Yucatan
Pancho's Restaurant (Merida)
Sopa de lime (recipe for wonderful Lime Soup - like Taco soup with a big twist of Mexican lime (unlike those in the US), but it has to be a recipe from the Yucatan!)
I also plan to buy disposable cameras there as I may not take my digital camera (just a little extra weight and we're going 'Lite'). Besides, there's a Sam's Club where I use to get all my disposables developed and ready for my blogs and the gentleman in the photo (aka foto) department and I got along really grand. Me with no Spanish to speak of and he with no English. I'd really like to go say Hello to him. I'd hug his neck too, but locals are so proper and modest there, I don't think that would be or appear to be appropriate.
I also need to renew my Sam's and Costco cards although the Costco I only visited one time while there. We don't have a Costco in my US area, so I'll have
Downtown
Weekend party from a balcony to think the renewal there through before I pay my money.
I want my friends to see Walmart in Merida. It is about the same as ours in the US but with all the varied sample foods that we don't seem to have here. Friend Susie's daughter, when visiting, voted it the best place to eat (for the quantity, quality, price (free) and availability!).
The grocery stores in and around Merida are a little different than ours here. They are more like a super KMart or Target. You can buy a motor scooter right there from the store floor showcase!
There's a naval base in Chelem that I passed many times but never investigated to see if I could tour, even though I had met some Marines while at the beach in Progreso. I'd like to see if they will let me in. The marines were cute!
Although I spent many hours at the beaches there, I don't 'do' water but want to show us all (because I never visited) a cenote, which is an underground pool that are plentiful in the Yucatan, some quite close to Merida and are very popular with the locals and tourists.
We will visit the beaches as well. They are beautiful (as opposed to those here in southeast Texas) and I am literally drawn to them.
I hope to have many photos of our journey to share with you when we return. Again, due to traveling 'Lite', I will not be taking my computer. There is wireless Internet all over the city of Merida, Yucatan now, a much larger area than when I shared their space in 2007, but I had my computer to use in my apartment and never checked the Internet cafes, if there are any, to see if they had shared computers to compute on. Wireless, I know, can be had just sitting outside in the parks and wherever. Isn't that grand?
I will leave you with some pictures I took in Merida during my off work activities and of the beaches of the coast. For my friends that subscribe to this post these pictures will be repeats for you to see.
Enjoy and check back in April for pictures for our Great Green St. Patrick's Day Vacation in the Yucatan!
And thank you for reading my ramblings.
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Khaki
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Meet you THERE!!!
Woo HOO!!! :)