For those of us who live in the ‘real’ Merida and not one of those multi-million dollar restored and icy air conditioned turn of the century colonial charmers, this is the time of year many of us want to run screaming and sweating from Merida in search of someplace dry and cool.
In the closet, leather belts and shoes, along with luggage and camera lenses, come to life with the sudden appearance of a thin growth of fine green hairlike mold that only sunlight will kill, while producing a lovely odor of decomposition that makes one want to throw everything on a bonfire.
Outside, the chimenea where you would make that bonfire is soaked through and through and everything you try to burn sputters for a brief moment and then goes out in a puff of white smoke.
The morning newspaper that the Diario man thoughtfully puts in a plastic bag before tossing it in the general direction of your door, wilts in your hand like a piece of San Jose Costa Rica McDonalds lettuce.
As a snail crawls up your kitchen wall, oblivious to the fact that it is completely and absolutely out of context there, you sample a previously opened box of Zucaritas and find that the sugared flakes have melded together and are now one limpy lump.
Your bedside novel, a paperback by Michael Pollan on the Omnivores Dilemma, is slowly doing a Cirque du Soleil-like contortion act, it´s covers bending impossibly back upon themselves like an overly ambitious Argentinian acrobat.
Your dryer works overtime as the regular method of sun-drying your clothes on the line is not working; the items hanging there remain humid and develop a rather nasty smell that will necessitate a second washing.
Yes, it’s July and we are in the middle of our rainy season. Torrential downpours and black skies in the middle of the afternoon wreak havoc with visitors and locals plans alike, turning a potentially relaxing beach vacation into a mosquito-infested exercise in staving off cabin fever. Those who remain in the city, battle the flooded streets either on foot, wading through knee high muddy water and getting thoroughly doused by passing buses whose drivers take a perverse pleasure in inflicting wet misery on pedestrians, or in their cars, whose electrical systems threaten to short out as they traverse the rivers that once were streets in Merida’s drainage-challenged centro.
With the rains, come angry black clouds of mosquitoes that can cover a bare leg in seconds, causing its owner to leap and slap like a Tirol lederhosen-clad folk dancer. The official solution is to drive a small truck with a pesticide spraying machine in its bed, through towns and streets, to the consternation of environmentally conscious foreigners and the complacent acceptance of most Yucatecans who know that this smelly solution is better than a bout of dengue fever.
This is a good time of year for those planning to move to Merida to actually spend some time in the formerly white city, to get a feel for the more humid side of Yucatan life!
I think you had a typo up there and meant multi-million PESO restored colonials but… I thought all the real mansions and whole house AC and freezing malls were out there in the north? Down here in the flooded streets and reflected heat, we’re doing ok with just high ceilings and rock walls – no AC. It’s tempting though, I will admit that. I think I’d love just one dry room.
William, I felt bad hot & humidity. I grew up with no ac when I was a young now I am too spoiled American I cannot handle it. What about get dehumidifier.It does not that expensive here. I know running ac over their cost lots for elctric bill but you cannot be miserable, also moles, fugus not good for health. So when you don’t run ac , just use run dehumidifier suck all moisture out of air & just runing fan helps. Try & let me know.
Ah the heat and humidity, so good for the skin so bad for everything else. We do fine with our basically sedentary lifestyle, although mowing the other day with my pushmower (meaning no gas or electric engine) really wore me out so that by 9am I was done in.
Oh wait, where was I going, oh yes, fans, lots of fans, sit in a circle of fans, works well except on card night, tough to keep those cards on the table.
We also tend to keep closet doors open this time of year, only closing them up when someone stops in to visit.
I love the little snails, they let me know rain is on the way, the more you see on trees and columns the more rain you’re gonna get.
Debi
It seems like there are more mosquitos right now than I remember from before…maybe we got spoiled during the long dry spell. I even got mosquito bites at Sears yesterday. Everything does look lush and green, but the humidity can be a bit overwhelming…putting on makeup when you have already started to perspire right after the shower is a challenge. I now have a small fan clipped to my bathroom mirror which is aimed directly at my face. I also keep my lipstick in the fridge so it doesn’t melt. (In North American houses, this would mean walking halfway across the house from the bathroom to the kitchen, but not in our case…someone in those colonial days must have had me in mind, our kitchen is right next to the bathroom.) And now I use mosquito repellant cream as my body lotion, how appealing is that. Obviously when they filmed that bicentennial video you published the other day, it was before the rains, I did not notice the lovely woman in the red dress fighting off any clouds of mosquitos!
It IS the humidity! Great for skin, horrible for things made of skin. I take the opportunity to remind you that those of us who live in one of those multi-million peso restored and icy air conditioned turn of the century colonial charmers are indeed part of “The Real Merida” too… it’s all part of Life’s Rich Pageant!
Now when I do the obligatory Tirolean (mosquito) slapping dance I’ll always think of you WilliamLawson. Thank you for that…