Snowmaggeddon

I moved to the west to get away from the snow.  I just couldn’t handle it anymore, fifty-two years was enough.  It seems it’s on a 11-year cycle here on the coast.  When we arrived here in 2006 we had the storm of the century, since then no snow.  For the most part I wear shorts every day – not so much lately.

According to the news cycle, this is the worst storm here in Vancouver since 1950.  I’ve attached a few pictures just to make sure that we all remember this historic event.

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To all my friends in eastern Canada, please take back your snow – I’ve had just about enough !

3 Weeks Until Departure

It seems that every night I crawl into bed and start thinking about things that I have to do to make our Mexican adventure a success.  It seems I always start at the long-term parking lot at YVR and start working through the trip down.

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The planning actually started about six months ago when we booked Casa Musa in Merida through VRBO.  For a few years now we’ve spent some time in Ajijic, Mexico but because we we’re trying for March we couldn’t seem to get any suitable accommodations so we had to look somewhere new.  For a few years, I’ve been hearing good things about Merida, “the white city” so we thought this might be a suitable spot to spend the month of March.

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Casa Musa is located on Calle 57 between 34 and 36, about 12 blocks or so from the central city park which I’m hoping will be walkable.  From what I understand there is a new market, Chen Beck so I’m eager to check out the fresh vegetables and meats – hopefully the owners have positioned that “new” barbeque on the rear deck so that we can have some special outdoor dinners.

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The Casa is a two-bedroom in the old section of town.  A unit that has been totally renovated and should fit the bill, particularly with the small but wet pool that’s situated in the courtyard.

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Because of the total flying time associated with our flight from Vancouver to Merida, we’ve decided to forgo the 24-hour flight in favour of a direct flight to Cancun of 5-hours.  We’re going to spend a couple of days at Krystal Cancun and then take the “Platino” bus for the 3.5 hour drive into Merida.  Terry thinks that this might be kin to the “chicken bus” that you see in movies, but I’m told that it’s VIP treatment so we’ll see.

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There’s much more to see in the Merida area including Chichen Itza, one of the old Mayan temples just about an hour outside of town and the Cenotes, amazing swimming holes spread throughout the Yucatan.  img_1608

As I say, we’ve got a 2-bedroom casa with air and best of all king-sized beds.  We’ll have to figure out who gets the Master suite, without any curtains.  It will either come down to who looks better physically or who wins in the poker draw.  img_1604

With Mother Nature just dropping about 14″ of snow (at this time, because it’s still snowing) this will serve the great timing to get out-of-town and enjoy some of the crystal blue waters in Cancun and Progreso (a small city on the Gulf just 30 minutes east of Merida).  I have a friend of a friend who has a very large Casa in Merida that he purchased about 3 or 4 years ago and it’s amazing from the pictures I’ve seen.  I’m looking forward to hooking up with him and hopefully he can give me some tips on local restaurants and must-see sites.