A Day in the Lives ...

We’ve been in Merida for a little more than a month, and so far, we really have been enjoying our time here. One of the questions we get a lot is “what exactly do you do in Merida?” So while some days are more mundane than other, we’ve decide to clue you in on what the four of us (John, Nicolle, CeCe and Fidel) do, on an hourly basis in a typical day.

6 AM: The birds in the courtyard start chirping; the air is warm as the sun comes up. John’s alarm goes off and he is up making coffee: whole bean Mexican Organic, purchased at Costco in Merida. From there he migrates to the tiny office John and Nicolle share, powers up his computer, and starts his day.

8 AM: More birds are singing and CeCe stirs; John gets her up and they both make the barefoot trek across the courtyard to wake Mommy. (You all know by now that Mommy likes her sleep ...)

8:30 AM: CeCe’s breakfast is prepared and our wonderful nanny Margarita arrives. Margarita and CeCe eat a scrumptious breakfast while John continues, and Nicolle starts, the work day.

9 AM: John takes Fidel on his morning walk. Curiously, Fidel has morphed from overwhelmingly Beta dog in the United States (very passive) to complete Alpha dog (growly and kind of aggressive) since arriving in Mexico. When he's not chasing a street dog away, or peeing on someone's front door, he'll latch on to an appetizing scent which leads to a chicken bone or bit of edible garbage on the street. He's thrilled.

During Fidel’s morning walk, Nicolle tries to do her morning calls to family/friends. (In a shared office of about 100 square feet, its important to be as polite as possible.)

9:45 AM: Someone on a bicycle, scooter, or horse carriage comes past our house selling something: “carbon!” means charcoal, a ringing bell means bread, a long whistle means eggs, then there are also sounds for brooms, topsoil, tamales -- countless items, really. We always check to see what is passing by because you never know what it could be, and, you actually might need it!

By this time, Fidel has drank an entire bowl of water and has just stopped panting from his walk. He's thinking about settling into a prolonged nap on the cool tile floors.

10 AM: CeCe is dressed and sun screened and off to either Parque Centenario or the adjacent Merida Zoo with Margarita. Parque Centenario is a big wooded park with lots of fun playground equipment that you just don’t see in the parks in the US anymore. Metal seesaws, anyone? The park also has a train that you can ride for 1 peso. (A little less than a nickel.) And the Merida zoo has monkeys, giraffes, hippopotamuses and ducks ... pretty much everything. Do you know how to say hippopotamus in Spanish? CeCe does!

Noon: Nicolle and John break for lunch, right as CeCe and Margarita are returning home. We have very few barriers to getting our work done here as compared to home, simply because it is a much simpler life -- no commute, no meetings, very few weekly errands, no laundry or cleaning. So we indulge ourselves with a 90-minutes of walking and lunching, exploring the city and eating together every day. This is also a good opportunity to check out all the various houses for sale and run any errands.

Fidel? By noon he’s sound asleep on the cool tile floors, typically right in the stream of the cold air from one of the air conditioners.

12:30 PM: John and Nicolle are pounding the hot pavement of Merida, seeing what they can see, or doing an errand on the way to lunch. To give you some examples of what we do during lunch, one day we had to find a notary service. Another day, we went to look at a house that was on the market (always fun to peek behind the grand, austere exteriors of Merida’s colonial houses to see what style and/or whimsy lies within). Yet another day, we went to the market to pick up some fresh vegetables for the week. Lunchtime is always our favorite time of the day, and not just because of the delicious Mexican or Yucatecan food we enjoy ... no matter how mundane our lunchtime errand is, it’s always an adventure!

At home, Ce and Margarita have just finished a cooling bath, and are sitting down to eat something for lunch. Most of the time, it’s leftovers from the night before.

1:30: John and Nicolle run back to the office (we are always in a hurry as things seem to take a bit longer here than they would in the States) and Margarita leaves. CeCe is typically just down for her nap.

Fidel? Still sleeping, dreaming of his evening walk and the chance that he will find more chicken bones on the street ... or perhaps even a half-eaten tamale.

1:30 to 4 PM: More work for John and Nicolle. More vendors pass by our windows, which are always open. Sometimes if we are on business calls we have to explain the loud bicycle horn, the odd honking noise, or the annoying whistle as it passes by our house.

4 PM: CeCe awakes from her nap, ready to do some swimming. John is typically her swimming buddy. By now, it is at least 90 degrees outside and John is ready for a dip. And like most kids, CeCe is always ready for a dip! After about 15 minutes in the pool, John is back at his desk and CeCe is dry, eating an afternoon snack and playing with Mommy. Nicolle’s work day is finished when Ce wakes up from her nap.

5:30 PM: The family sets out for a walk in Merida, Ce in the stroller. Sometimes we go to the Main Plaza, where young couples walk, hands entwined, pigeons stroll in flocks waiting for handouts, and multitudes of hammock vendors try to sell their wares. Sometimes we go to our local park, Santiago, to see friends with a toddler who also live in the neighborhood. And sometimes we just walk.

6:45: We return home. Fidel leaves for his second long walk of the day. Typically it is on this walk that he almost gets run over by a local bus -- even with his leash on. (Fidel wouldn’t last more than five minutes in this city without a leash!)

7 PM: We eat dinner as a family. We’ve found that recently, if we go out to dinner, CeCe finds herself much too immersed in the goings-ons of other tables to concentrate on eating her own food.

8 PM: Bedtime for CeCe, and either blog time, more work, reading books, or chilling in the courtyard with a couple of cervezas for John and Nicolle.

11 PM: Bedtime for Nic+John.

Our day-to-day life here in Merida is nothing spectacular. In fact, Monday through Friday it is downright routine. However, even our routine days brings sights, sounds (and yes, smells) that we’ve never experienced before in our lives. It can be as unbelievable as a man riding down the road on a motorcycle with a 3-foot-by-4-foot piece of plywood balancing on his head holding up a pyramid of bread. Or it can be as dangerous as a man on a motorbike riding with his toddler in front of him and wife in back of him, all three sans helmets. Or as silly as the scooter selling cold milk that “moos” when the horn is activated. Or as annoying as the multitudes of dogs on roofs that look down at you and bark like mad as you pass. Or as resounding as the chirping of thousands of ka’u birds in the trees in the Plaza Mayor at dusk.

The truth of the matter is that regardless of how routine our day-to-day life actually is here, just by being here it is anything but. And we love that.