Mérida escape trip; Tekax and a jungle get-away to an undisclosed location

Our first stop on our get-away excursion trip was to visit friends in colonial Tekax, Yucatan.
Long time friends, Carmen and Carlos are being presented a 2013 edition of our Yucatán’s Magic: Mérida Side Trips travel book where they and Tekax are featured. Carmen is now the mayor of Tekax and her husband Carlos, a life-time resident is a hotel and restaurant owner.
Our books, Yucatán’s Magic: Mérida Side Trips and Yucatan for Travelers: Valladolid to Tulum are now in the top five of Mexico travel books. 

May and June are normally the hottest times of the year here in northwestern Yucatan with daily temperatures of a scorching 40ºC, more then 100ºF.
But, this year all bets on the weather are off.
Some say the fact that the Gulf Stream has slowed by 30% trapping the earth’s heat in the tropics is the reason we had no winter or spring.
One night last winter, our coldest, it got down to 14ºC or 58ºF and every day it was over 20ºC or 70ºF.
Our gain was surely someone else’s loss. Northern latitudes like Europe saw a cool winter and spring.
Mérida in northwestern Yucatan has been generally tinder dry with no rain from November through May…not this year.
Rain driven by tropical waves normally begin the first week of June and coincide with hurricane season…not this year.
In second week of May Yucatan magically was transformed, as leafy green vegetation ablaze with flowers seemingly appeared over night with unseasonable rain.
Leaving Mérida in May and June when daily temperatures reach 40ºC or 104ºF makes me feel better, but, for Jane it is imperative because of heat-stress and her
asthma.
 
Cool, quiet country roads and fresh air made our Mérida get-away perfect.

As I write this back here in Mérida this lovely July day the fickle weather is treating us right.  We are enjoying low early morning temperatures of 21ºC or 71ºF and our daily highs have been in the low 30ºC range  punctuated by refreshing afternoon thunder showers. If it stayed like this we would never leave.
Summertime in Mérida is positively delightful in our self-ventilating eco-house. We haven’t needed to use a fan in our eco-house since our return because the thermal-siphon air flow keeps us comfortable without using any electric.
We invite y’all to tour it by clicking HERE.

Number “Uno” in Corpulence

Mexico has beat out the U. S. A. and is the undisputed world leader.

Number one Mexico strained to achieve their record place.

Morbid obesity didn’t just happen; this takes a lifetime of dedicated devotion.

The ultimate epicenter leading the entire country in this corpulent distinction is the State of Yucatán where recent bodily profiles resemble a short stack of tortillas.

Related link and video: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/09/mexico-obesity_n_3567772.html

U.S. Postal Service?

Jane and I were given a very nice and thoughtful gift.

Jane’s sister Judy and husband Dick, out of the goodness of their hearts, sent us a book, The Brule River of Wisconsin.

The Brule River is of special interest to us. We have canoed it extensively, even in winter when we had to push our canoe through snow to reach the river, and we have enjoyed fishing for its trout and camping along its banks. Jane published a book in 1961 covering the pioneering, commercial fishing, and lumbering on the Brule.

Jane was also instrumental in bringing Leigh P. Jerrard, publisher of a 1956 book about the Brule together with Jane’s father, Ed Pearson, a noted historian and civic leader together. They, “Leigh and Ed” became friends, shared their historical interests and did explorations along the Brule River.

Leigh presented Ed with a copy of his Brule River book.  The book sent to us by Judy and Dick is a republication of Leigh P. Jerrard’s book with more maps and with additional stories by his grandson Richard Jerrard.

Here is the rest of the story:

July 21^, 2013, the book was sent from St. Paul, Minnesota, registered with a tracking number. It weighed 13 ounces and the postage was $28.00. The book was three days in St. Paul and then was sent to New York, where it remained five days before going to Los Angeles, California…another five days detainment.

It arrived in Mexico City on July 2^, 2013, cleared customs and was shipped to Mérida, Yucatan on July 2. It arrived on July 4. 

I picked it up at our post office on July 5.

Two weeks first class international registered mail.

I used to joke that if Mexico went to war I would bet on the opposition winning.

After this episode I have had to reconsider: Mexico delivered in two days, the

U. S. took two weeks.

Thus the question mark after service in the title of this story.