Aug 13, 2024 – Has the summer been hot where you are? It’s been plenty hot in Virginia. So why would two old people fly south to a place that’s even hotter? In August?

Jim was asked to speak at a conference in Mérida, and you know our motto: once you’ve paid the airfare, you may as well hang out a while and see what there is to see. So here we go!

Although Jim booked our flight with only one stop in Atlanta, the airline canceled and shuffled us into an additional stop in Mexico City, Although we’d been to this airport before, it was a real challenge to get through Customs and find the gate for our connecting flight to Mérida. When we finally found the gate, passengers were already boarding. Whew!

We reached our destination in the early evening (Mexico is two hours behind eastern time), Knowing that there are no restaurants near our room, we stayed at the airport and had a lovely supper of Yucatán cuisine favorites.

Fortified, we hit the ATM for some pesos (approximately 20 pesos to the US dollar), and arranged a taxi for the 20 minute drive to Hotelito Yum Kaax. We knew that it had rained earlier in the evening, but were surprised by the deep flooding on many of the roads. When we reached our address, the street was totally dark and we had to use my phone’s flashlight to manage the digital entrance code. We got into our room and had our fear confirmed- the electricity in the area was out and it was absolutely dark. And hot.

We brushed our teeth by phone-light and got into bed – what else could we do?

After about half an hour of lying absolutely still and trying not to sweat, the power came back on – hallelujah! So here we are in our air conditioned room with great wifi, and a little kitchen with a fridge containing two cans of welcome Mexican beer. Life is good!