Tag Archives: yucatan travel

You’re Safe in the Yucatan – A Real Life Example

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Let’s see the North American newspapers print something about THIS.

Yesterday, when returning along the Cancun highway from Izamal after a hard day of eating tacos at Wayan’e, visiting antique shops and visiting the yellow city of Izamal, I passed a car parked on the side of the highway just in front of a state police truck, lights a-flashing as usual.

Glancing back in my rear-view mirror I noticed two white people and a pile of suitcases next to the car and thought to myself “these folks could probably use a little assistance” and upon returning to the scene, found a mother and daughter pair of Canadians who were stuck there and had been for the last 3 hours.

SPV heroes taking care of our visitors thank you very much. Publish this, CBC!

Turns out their rental vehicle – a crappy little Nissan Tsuru – had caught fire (literally, there were flames coming out of the motor) and they had to abandon the vehicle before a good Samaritan in a BMW stopped with an extinguisher and put it out. Also, villagers and passers by offered water for the now red-faced (from the sun) Canadians. Things were friendly enough but the state police folks wouldn’t let them go until the federal police showed up to take over the situation (the Cancun-Merida highway is a federal highway) and make sure everything was hunky dory. The state police had already contacted the feds, but three patrol cars had already driven by and none had stopped; meanwhile the rental folks back in Cancun had told CanadaMom and daughter that someone was coming, but of course as they had no office in Merida, this might be a while. Needless to say, Mom was a little tense but they were good sports about it and had been talking about food and recipes with the policemen who were reluctant to leave the scene or the ladies.

After talking to the rental agent in Cancun and telling him where his rental car was and where his customers would be to get them another vehicle, and then the police assuring them that everything would be fine and the ladies were coming with me, I loaded them all into the car and away we went.

They assured me that they at no point felt unsafe or threatened in any way; just frustrated with the pace of the resolution of their situation. Let’s see the North American newspapers print this story!

Lessons learned:

1) Rent your car from an agency that is established and has offices in both Merida and Cancun in case something like this ever happens to you. It’s an unlikely scenario, but it can happen.

2) If your rental car catches fire in Mexico, make sure you are in the Yucatan, the safest state in the country.

The Casual Restaurant Critic in Muna – Lol-Pich Restaurant

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If you are in the Puuc region and are not as far out as Uxmal or Kabah and can’t visit the Pickled Onion in Santa Elena, you are probably wondering if there is another option for decent food someplace in between Uxmal and Merda that is not the San Pedro Ochil hacienda. The Casual Restaurant Critic wondered this as well and after visiting with Pedro in Muna, decided that a new restaurant had to be found to expand the database so to speak.

Two restaurants were recommended to him; the new La Finca restaurant just outside of Muna on the way back to Merida and Lol Pich, described as a more local, family oriented option just a little closer to town. The Critic and his guests settled on the latter for lunch.

Lol Pich (lol=flower, Pich=the giant Swiss Family Robinson tree just out front) does indeed appear to be a family run restaurant and as it was Fathers Day, was full of families celebrating except for one table which was where the Critic and guests sat. A young man, friendly enough, in an Alice in Wonderland tshirt acted as the waiter and several ladies could be seen in the kitchen working diligently. The menu is a one page affair that is not big on Yucatecan food and seems to be more of a general option for locals and visitors alike.

The table finally settled on Poc Chuc, beef fajitas and Yucatecan chicken. When the dishes arrived the chicken had been converted into beef but our Alice in Wonderland man noticed right away, muttered “era pollo verdad” and took the plate back to the kitchen. As this dish belonged to the only lady at the table, the Critic and guest politely waited. And waited some more. Finally, the Critic asked how much longer it would be for the chicken. “Ya casi” was the answer, which means a lot of things and usually is not particularly hopeful, so the Critic asked that the two dishes, now getting cold, be taken back to the kitchen to be kept warm while the chicken was being finished.

After what seemed like a long time during which the guests were able to enjoy the rather loud, heavy on the tuba music coming from some impressively large speakers, the Poc Chuc and beef fajitas again appeared in front of the diners. The chicken was still not forthcoming and it seemed that this was becoming a Groundhog Day moment. Eventually the chicken did arrive and all was well in the world.

The food was fine, but nothing to rave about or even consider writing home about. Total bill with a Michelada, a coke and two cervezas came to $280 pesos before tip.

The Critic will try La Finca next time; while not bad, the Lol Pich is not particularly great and for those looking for something more Yucatecan, not the best option. The restaurant at San Pedro Ochil is still much better for that.

Here’s a Weird Fruit You Won’t Find in Publix or Safeway

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In an ongoing conversation I am having with someone online one of the things he mentions is that he wants to buy some vanilla-flavored tequila on his upcoming visit. Not being familiar with flavored tequilas, I stop at COVI, our local specialty liquor store to see what they have available. There is no vanilla-flavored tequila, but there is tequila almendrado which means it has been flavored with almonds and tequila with membrillo.

What the hell is a membrillo anyway?

A stop at Walmart to check on prices for some Microdyn that another online acquaintance is asking for, I pass the newly refreshed fruit and vegetable aisle and what jumps out at me (figuratively, not literally) but a whole bin full of membrillo. So I buy one.

It’s a hard fruit, like an unripe pear and cutting it open is difficult and yields a hard flesh and stony seeds. I have seen dulce de membrillo here and there so I suppose that this is what it is best suited to; cooking the bejeezuz out of it with lots of sugar. It’s flavor is slightly applish but takes so long to chew that I don’t have a second chunk.

If anyone knows the story behind the membrillo, don’t be afraid to share!

Here are some photos of this strange and decidedly exotic fruit:

New PhotoBook on Meridas Fabulous Doors Now Available!

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My good pal and associate Ralf has published a new photobook of a very small selection of Merida’s beautiful doors, taken in downtown Merida one sunny afternoon! If you like reading this blog and have found some use for the information contained herein, you can support the effort and get an attractive Merida souvenir at the same time! Enjoy!

Rafaellos Pizza

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One word: Go!

Well, that (above) was the original post. Pizza, the Casual Restaurant Critic has found, is like wine or your favorite sexual position; everyone has an opinion and they are convinced that their choice is the best. If you like your pizzas with an ultra thin crust, baked to perfection in a wood fired oven to the point where they have little pockets of black charring in some places on the crust, covered with ingredients of the finest quality including delicious meats like Italian sausage, salamis and prosciutto and fine cheeses from Gorgonzola to Parmigiano, then Rafaellos Pizzeria will be your pizzeria of choice from now on.

The Critic has often said that Bostons Pizza makes what is probably Meridas best pizza, and theirs is still a very satisfying option; so much better than the drab, flavorless ultra-hyped pizze mass-produced by Dominos and Pizza Hut, but now this Rafaellos is firmly tied for top spot in the Merida’s Best Pizza category.

The restaurant is tiny and open in the evenings only; there is a small air conditioner that struggles to keep the place cool and the tables are wooden and it just feels like an Italian neighborhood pizza joint, complete with the Italian pizza chef in the kitchen.

The photo below is of the 4 cheese pizza with anchovies. Yum!

Calle 60 at 49.

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Fruteria La Jarochita

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There’re probably a million fruterias in Merida now; this is one of them, called La Jarochita which means “little woman from Veracruz” but rather than little, the ita (or ito) at the end of the word Jarocho a term of endearment.

I stopped by for some fresh squeezed carrot & orange juice and the afternoon light was again, like the “doors and facades” moment before, fantastic. Each fruit displayed looked like fat colorful jewelry. Alas, I did not have my camera with me, only the ubiquitous iPhone.

Here are some of those shots:

Chillin’ at Starbucks

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For most people it’s no big deal to be sitting with ones laptop in Starbucks, checking emails, surfing, tweeting, or updating a blog. It’s just that this is the first time I am doing it. And I must say that it’s really not such a great experience, except of course for the coffee which is pretty darn good good and the air conditioning, which is blessedly divine.

First of all the internet connection with a laptop running Windows is less than intuitive but after banging the laptop against the wall a couple of times, the Infinitum Starbucks log-in screen appeared and I was able to ‘register’ to use internet in any Starbucks in Mexico.Cool. The Infinitum part never worked; 7 attempts with the cashier-provided username and password yielded no result other than an incorrect username message en español.

Once that was working, and I began to check my myriad accounts of this and that and the other, it immediately became obvious that the seats are of the old-fashioned wooden variety and the apparent lack of tone in my muscles means that every pelvic bone I own is in direct contact with the maple or so it seems. I shift from side to side, sliding to the front and then to the back, trying to find the sweet spot to no avail. The fact that the wood is so smooth doesn’t help either, as any position I adopt changes in seconds as I literally slide in another direction. The chairs back rest seems too far away to offer any support to my spine and so I alternate between slouching and then self consciously straightening my back like a 1950’s Mad Men secretary banging away primly at her Olympia.

Other than that, things are just fine here in Starbucks. The background music is classical guitar and although very nice, although it seems to me, as I slide around on my chair, that the ambiance is reminiscent of Monty Pythons cheese shop and the increasingly irritating background music therein, as Cleese orders cheese.

To make matters more interesting, just now a less than-youngish man has sat down at the next table, set up his laptop and is doing his business correspondence here at Starbucks because, as I just overheard him yelling into his cell phone, his internet is down at home and that’s why he came here. I am also privy to potentially boring information about his upcoming sales promotions and the fact that he has only two months left on something or other and he needs to get things moving. Before and after the high-volume business chatter is of course the social chatter, again on extra high enthusiastic volume, which involves a lot of friendly banter and macho bullshit back and forth. Did I mention that his cell phone is actually a NexTel phone and emits that irritating electronic fart every two minutes?

Ah yes. Perhaps it’s a sign of age and my increasingly diminishing levels of tolerance for loud, annoying individuals and uncomfortable furniture, but for me, the laptop at Starbucks thing isn’t working out tonight.

Although I did hammer out this post as a result. In Starbucks.

Customer Service – iStore vs Starbucks

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This morning found me in Altabrisa, doing some banking at a Canadian bank that has found a nice market with their credit cards because in Mexico they can charge whatever the hell they want (see previous post) and no one complains, like maybe they would back in Canada.

Again, I digress.

I stopped by the iStore or mini-Apple store or whatever Mixup calls their Mac store these days to ask about an Apogee device that would allow me to connect my electric guitar to my iPad and thereby enable me to jam out in GarageBand which I am currently infatuated with.

So I ask the lady cleaning some packaging and without looking up or expressing any interest whatsoever, she simply tells me that they don’t handle those kind of products (there is a $300 dollar microphone for iPads on the shelf behind her) and that I should go to Radio Shack or Steren. Um, no?

I was so disgusted with her complete lack of interest that I vowed never to buy anything at their stupid, pretentious wannabe store.

A little while later, I was in Starbucks getting an espresso from a very nice young man and after paying and walking the length of the mall, I heard him come running up behind me – I had left my debit card there.

I was just struck by the difference in service in a space of 30 minutes of mall time.