 Not much new happening here in Merida, Mexico, where the temperature today was 105 fahrenheit (40.6 celsius), about where it's been every afternoon this week. It's expected to be like that for at least the rest of this week, and there's not been a drop of rain since I arrived more than a month ago. Whooeee!!! No extra charge for the sauna.
I've got a new ceiling fan and a Yucatan hammock in my room where I nap beneath the fan during the hottest part of the day. I cook my own meals in the house kitchen and venture out with my mask once a week for the supplies. That's pretty much it for travel excitement around here lately, so I plan to post some photos from recent experiences, and repost some past stories from my travels that maybe you didn't see the first time around. So stay tuned. Next I'll post some photos from my Hawaii visit in February.
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 Look for your rainbows, there's always one somewhere. I never contemplated a life of travel until I retired in Hawaii from a long career in journalism. I looked forward to retirement thinking I’d have it made. After all, Hawaii is paradise, right? What could be better?
But soon I knew I needed more than what retirement life was offering. I wanted -- I needed -- something else in my life, although I wasn’t sure at the time what that was. It suddenly dawned on me that I had the opportunity to travel. I started planning, went all in, rid myself of nearly everything I owned and set out on a new course in life. That was four years ago. I was 64.  El Monumento a la Patria, a majestic sculpture in Merida by Colombian sculptor Romulo Rozo, who adopted Mexico as his own. The marvelous work of art is a short walk from where I'm staying these days. It is the last journey of interest I've made here. Ruzo's remains lie buried at the base of the sculpture. For a senior solo traveler whose mantra is “staying alive by not staying still,” what's happening now seems like a prison sentence.
I’m normally a slow traveler, but I’m used to knowing that I can move on at any time, forever seeking some other place with a fresh landscape and new people to meet. Now in these days of the coronavirus, I’m not going anywhere anytime soon, rarely even leaving the room of my guest house, and it’s beginning to wear on my psyche. Every sense of reality is evaporating. I'm now down to making just one masked run per week to the local Superama for groceries. Otherwise, I cook, eat, exercise and sleep at home, that being the house where I rent a room in Mèrida, Mexico, a lovely, warm, sunny, Spanish colonial city in the Yucatan peninsula. It’s a fine place to spend a sentence of isolation. But even the nicest jail confines you.  One of the more unusual designs among the 25,000 or so burial sites in the Cementerio General of Merida, Mexico, on the Yucatan peninsula. I've developed a fascination with cemeteries and have visited many in my travels over the past few years, but I've never seen one like this.
Cementerio General in Merida, Mexico, is a historic and colorful array of vaults, ossuaries and mausoleums, and unique for a number of reasons among the dozens of cemeteries I’ve seen.  The 16th century Cathedral of Merida, viewed from across Merida's grand central plaza, is said to be the oldest cathedral in the Americas.  Inside the Cathedral of Merida It’s been quite a travel slog these past six weeks since I left the seductive White Mountain foothills of the island of Crete, Greece, where vineyards and olive trees grow and shepherds tend sheep and goats as their ancestors have done for ages.
I was house-sitting a lovely villa, caring for a friendly, mischievous young dog and his little kitten friend, during alternating periods of warm, Mediterranean sunshine and wintry cold rainstorms. Now I write from another side of the world in the city of Merida, located in the perennially sunny, warm and dry Mexican state of Yucatan, where I’ve found welcome respite from the travails of travel in this nerve-jarring age of coronavirus.  A sculpture fronting the Atlas restaurant at Parkview Square, Singapore, an art deco-styled office building with an extensive collection of contemporary art. It’s good to be back in Mexico, where Corona is a beer, not a virus.
The Coronavirus, now officially renamed COVID-19 (I suppose so not to be confused with the beverage), has made a mess of my travel plans these last few weeks -- costing me some money -- while trying to make an orderly change in plans for a speedy exit from Southeast Asia.  Mid-afternoon Thursday in the historic district of Mexico City as pedestrians cross the street en masse in front of the impressive Palace of Fine Arts. I spent only two nights in Mexico City, mostly resting except for a brief bus ride into the Historic Center of the city, following several long flights in the jet-lag direction over the past eight days from Crete, Greece, to Mexico.  Who was that masked man on Arab Street in Singapore last week? I've become very conscious of the air quality in my choice of destinations lately, and I was concerned about the air quality in Mexico City after I'd made my flight reservations. So I cut this leg of the trip to two nights, then realized I misread the reports and it was not as bad as I thought. I did see a faint brown layer under a bright blue sky Thursday and Friday but overall the Mexico City air was not too bad. Nevertheless, I wore a mask though not many people that I saw did, and then I took a 16-hour overnight bus trip north to Culiacan, Mexico, where I am currently, visiting good friends I'd made there early in my travels in 2017.
Not bad air here in Culiacan, either, and not even a discussion of the Coronavirus. I did see lots of masked faces in Singapore during the four days I was there earlier in the week, before spending almost 20 hours airborne with layovers in San Francisco and Los Angeles while getting from Singapore to Mexico City. I was concerned more with the Coronavirus than bad air in Singapore, however, and since I left reports from there are getting worse. Although I'm glad to be out of Southeast Asia now, I have many photos to post from that short but memorable trip to Singapore, and I'll get to them soon now that I have a little time to relax in Culiacan. My travel schedule has picked up considerably after spending 11 weeks on the lovely isle of Crete, Greece, and the pace won't be slowing down much as this year rolls along. Later this month I'm planning to return to Hawaii, then head back to the Americas, South and Central, for a few months exploring places I didn't get to on my first go-round. Then in June I'm going to New Jersey for the 50-year celebration of my high school's graduating class in June. I've got a lot to look forward to.  The Lighthouse of Chania, one of the world’s oldest lighthouses, was built during the Venetian era in the 16th century at the mouth of the Old Venetian Harbor in Chania, in the western part of Crete, the largest island in Greece. The lighthouse was modified during the Egyptian period in 1839, and again during the Turkish occupation of Crete in 1864. The 21-meter landmark (69 feet) is no longer operational and not open to visitors. Below are a couple more examples of Crete's rich history, both also located in the Apokoronas region of the island where I've been housesitting a villa since November.  One of 24 Venetian wells dating to the 11th century located about a kilometer above the village of Gavalochori. Peasant villagers traditionally watered their animals and socialized in the bucolic setting during the Venetian period of Crete occupation (13th to 17th century). More recently, some of the operating wells were closed to provide water for the village and are still in use.  This bridge over the Vrissianos River, near the rural village of Vrises, dates from the Roman era of Crete (approx. 300 BC to 300 AD) and is one of the island's oldest. Originally its arch was constructed precisely without mortar, and it is still a functional foot bridge while motor traffic moves along a modern highway bridge that is elevated and located just behind this one.  St. George's Monastery at Karydi, Crete, Greece, was an important olive oil producer in the region dating back to the 17th century. Now that I have my laptop back from the repair shop I can post again on my web site.
I’d planned for the interim to use my Weebly phone app to post but after several rounds with the Weebly support personnel, about why I couldn’t get a “new post” button which they kept insisting was there, I learned that I am in a “country or region” in which the Weebly app doesn’t work -- that is, Greece, a democratic nation and member of the European Union. Weebly didn’t tell me they had this limited level of service when I signed up.  Look! The Parthenon -- no, wait, the Parthenon's in Athens. This is a somewhat non-descript old building decaying in the village of Vamos, Island of Crete. On the advice of my Greek language instructor -- yes, I am studying Greek -- I visited the village of Vamos, about 6 kilometers from my villa in Vryses, and noted how one is still a rural village much as it has been for centuries, while neighboring Vamos has begun promoting its picturesque and historic features for visitors.
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Quotes For A Good Life On The Road
“A foolish faith in authority is the worst enemy of truth.”
-- Albert Einstein See my complete collection of "Quotes For The Road" by clicking "More" in the dropdown menu above.
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Who Am I?
I'm a retired journalist from Hawaii who tired quickly of retirement and hit the road as a slow, solo world traveler in August 2016. I've spent time in 20 countries on four continents. Currently I'm in sunny Merida, Mexico, waiting out developments in the coronavirus crisis before moving on. Meanwhile, learn more about me and my travels at Nomadic Matt, and Expat Focus, and in a great story by veteran Borneo newsman and prolific author James Ritchie, about our memorable meeting in Malaysia, A Confluence of Adventure Writers . Also online ...
GARIFUNA SETTLEMENT DAY CELEBRATION Still the most authentic, lively and colorful local cultural festival I've seen on the road. SELVAMONOS I found this Alternative Arts and Music Festival in the Amazon highlands of Peru. What a find! Solas "Best Travel Writing" Awards
Bronze Winner
Elder Division Saysha: What Happened? 13th Annual Solas Awards for Best Travel Writing (Read it here) *** |
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