ECOLOGY FRIENDLY JUNGLE GARDEN SANCTUARY, Stories March 2023

Stories March 2023

ECOLOGY FRIENDLY JUNGLE GARDEN SANCTUARY, updated 2023

First the contrast: Some people are color blind, no amount of explaining will ever get them to see red.

Still others are garbage blind and likewise no amount of explaining will ever get them to see trash.

The ecologically blind are a hopeless lot that are entirely incapable of living in harmony with nature. These are the PPP or ecology enemies that pave it, pollute it and poison it.

As George Bernard Shaw so aptly put it; “An art gallery is a dull place for a blind man.”

Being ecology friendly is not for everybody, but for those who embrace this kind of unpolluted untainted world the reward is incalculable.

ECOLOGICAL CONCEPT HOUSE:

Our requirements for an ecological house and its location.

We needed a home in a semi arid tropical location with fresh natural air flow because of my wife Jane’s asthma.

The year round climate had to be salubrious with no extremes.

We wanted a quiet nature friendly environment.

Privacy in a sanctuary setting.

Location, close to shopping, abundant restaurants and on quiet bicycle friendly streets.

International airport in town.

Excellent public transport by bus and taxi.

World class medical facilities; Mérida is renowned as a prime leader.

Bicycle friendly: Yucatán is a bicycle touring paradise we have not fully explored even after 34 years.

Almost all neighborhoods still have owner operated grocery stores.

Our ecological concept house didn’t just fall out of the sky.

We thought long and hard about our dream home because we had certain requirements that were absolute imperatives. Number one being my wife Jane has asthma, and we were not going to live someplace where she would be required to take medications just to survive. Jane’s doctors in Florida had told us that she could live there, she just wouldn’t live long.

In our many years of travel we fortunately discovered Yucatán with its tropical semi-arid climate and set about locating a north-south facing lot to take full advantage of the prevailing sea breezes. We would want high land that didn’t flood in a heavy rain, away from busy thoroughfares but close enough so we would have good public transport. After four years of poking around and investigating nearly two hundred places we finally found our “special spot” that suited all our requirements.

When our search ended our work began and after two months of hard effort the first person finally came by that told us they thought the place might have possibilities.

Hardly anybody could envision the dream that Jane and I shared.

The property we ultimately purchased resembled a garbage dump in the desert, but we both immediately recognized its hidden potentials.

Two years after we had begun our ecological home project that would use thermo-siphon air exchange without fans or motors to heat in winter, cool in summer, and maintain humidity at low levels, we achieved our goal.

Finally when Jane and I finished we were told how very lucky we were to have such a lovely home and jungle garden. The harder we worked the luckier we were.

The garden was another case;

We started with a desolate rock strewn terrain devoid of foliage. Using no chemicals we began by composted everything in sight included shredded paper and even sawdust from a local furniture factory, in order to build all organic top soil. This process took us fifteen years before our jungle garden ultimately became self perpetuating.

Now thirty three years later in 2023, having started from seed, we have a real canopy tropical jungle filled with towering fruit trees that also provide heavenly cooling shade.

Our secluded jungle garden provides many of our produce requirements including fruits, spices, herbs, medicinal plants, hot chili peppers. Everything here is biodegradable. Our gray water is recycled to the garden.

We are synchronized and coexist with nature creating a positive impact upon the planet...and it just feels good.

Amazingly this has all been achieved using absolutely no chemical insecticides or poisons in our thirty three years here.

We live peacefully, in parallel with nature.

Tropical birds and butterflies abound freely in our private jungle sanctuary wide-open and unrestricted to the sky.

Our screened in spacious covered patios command stunning views of our garden.

This ecological home and jungle garden is in three parts enclosed behind a tall privacy wall inconspicuously tucked away. Each separate dwelling is equipped with bathrooms and their own separate kitchens.

We fill our indoor Jacuzzi in summer. In less than two hours it naturally cools the water. Cooler outside air is taken in through a low window then sucked up and out a roof top chimney that naturally draws up and out. Just like cooling hot soup by blowing on it.

It is amazingly fresh. The discharged water goes to the garden. The naturally cooled Jacuzzi water is a great place to linger in the warmer times of the year while we even drink our coffee and listen to audio books or music. Even when the outdoor temperature exceeds 40 degrees centigrade or 100 degrees F. we have a simple efficient and very economical way to stay perfectly cool and comfortable.

We have city water piped in and bottled drinking water delivered weekly. 

However, we have a solar hot water heater system, which I designed and built from locally obtainable materials that use no electric, gas, pumps or valves for the few cool months of winter.

When I pull the large ball valve to the rooftop water tank it cascades down like Niagara Falls and fills the Jacuzzi in just two minutes.

We clean and then fill the Jacuzzi with fresh water every day recycling the old water to our jungle garden.

Our sanctuary is equipped with places to hang twenty-five hammocks. Even on our rooftop patio covered with flowering vines we can accommodate hammocks in the shade and fanned by nature’s salubrious sea breezes.

Though we have no motorized vehicles we have off-street covered parking that can accommodate vehicles with plenty of space for bicycles.

Outwardly our ecology concept house is relatively unassuming. It is an original design and not copied in any way.

Viewed from the street side our super solar dehydrator, the domed ventilating chimneys and vaulted roof capitalize on heat differentials and have little meaning to those unaware of the functionality of our environmentally friendly home.

Here is a link to a narrated YouTube tour explaining the functioning of our ecologically friendly home. Watching time 2 minutes.  Video home tour.

Link to the story of our home with captioned photos where you can venture inside. Photo tour.

Another link: This one is to a YouTube video Jane made of a collage of the seasonal flowers of our garden. Flowers video.

One more YouTube: Street musician at the municipal market food court. Street music video.

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LUPERIOS...OR FLYING WITH ARMANDO -DOING OF DUDLEY DOOLITTLE 9TH IN SERIES

Doings of Dudley Doolittle: This is the name I use in the sometimes hilarious, outrageous, or cynical short stories posted monthly on https://bingsbuzz.blogspot.com/

A fictitious name will be used in most of the stories. It is there to protect the identity of the guilty.

These true stories are over half a century old or more. 

LUPERIOS…OR FLYING WITH ARMANDO - 

In 1925 in Mérida, Yucatán, México. Armando Troyo Canton G. was born into a very special place in time.

In those years the Yucatán Peninsula was an island within an island, cut off from the rest of the world except for ship travel. It wasn’t until 1961 that the first paved road to the Yucatán was built, and even today the peninsula can be cut off from the rest of the world in the fall when the hurricanes take out the incoming road.

The Yucatán today is still different from the rest of México in many ways, the climate, the food, the dress, and for sure the way of life…slower, kinder and gentler.

Back in the 1920’s the mix of cultures was very distinct, the Mayan Indians lived in their palapas or palm thatched roof homes as they had thousands of years earlier and their distinct costume was uniquely their own. The colonial settlers had been in the area for more than four hundred years, the Spanish first, then followed by the French and Lebanese and many others. Each brought with them a distinct culture and home style, and all were business people.

The family of Armando was well to do and had a large “Quinta” or country place hacienda named Petcanche within a walled compound not far from the city center. In those days Mérida was known throughout México as “Cuidad Blanca”, or the “white city”. All of the people of class in those days had lots of servants and an elegant standard of living.

When Armando was a teenager his parents moved to México City, but each summer they would make the two-day boat trip from Veracruz to the Yucatán for summer vacations.

I had a chance to glimpse some of the wonders of that place that held so many fascinating curiosities of centuries gone by when I first arrived on their shores in the early nineteen seventies.

So vividly I can picture the very early morning sun casting its first rays of light on the shore of the Yucatán as hundreds of small fishing boats slipped into the water and caught the offshore breezes to fill their sails and carry them out to sea.

In days gone by, the coast of the Yucatán was in its tropical splendor with endless miles of towering coconut palms forever swaying in the breezes, and that gave the place a magical feeling of an isolated tropical island, which it was.

In the 1920’s when Armando and his family made the trip to Mérida from the coastal port town of Progreso, it was a twenty five-mile ride on a narrow gauge steam train. That train was finally out of service by the 1970’s.

In Mérida the train depot bustled with commerce, the streets surrounding the large white colonial style structure were filled with venders hawking their produce, beggars both blind and lame filled the exits with outstretched hands and pathetic pleading expressions. Lined up and waiting were the “calesas”, horse drawn carriages that were the taxis of the day…at present in some of the out lying towns calesas are still in use as taxis.

I fell in love with the strange charm of this place that gave a glimpse of a time gone by, a kinder, gentler place that Armando had the good fortune to spend his younger years in.

The world was not going to stand still for Armando, an eager reader, and a good student…he excelled. While still a teenager he was enrolled in the Mexican Air Force as a pilot trainee.

As Armando has later related, those were the days of real pilots. He first trained in a DC-3, and on one of his first training missions while carrying some dignitaries and military brass and flying through the Mexican mountains, Armando lost his way. In those days navigation was with a compass and chart that marked significant landmarks. In trying to get back on course to their destination, the fuel supply was exhausted. The option of going on was lost. Armando had been trained that if a crash landing was eminent it was better to go down with power than to just glide in. The plane was put down in a cornfield without personal injuries. In a nearby village the priest was able to find a guide and round up some mules. The expedition set out headed to the nearest road some two days away. Armando said that each night he had to be lifted from his burro because his legs had become so crippled into that unnatural position, and his posterior so red and raw that he just didn’t have the resolve or strength to dismount by himself. One thing good came out of all of this and that was: Armando never again in his long flying career had any accidents.

Just to add insult to injury Armando was put under house arrest for destroying government property, and he was restricted to the base for two weeks. The airplane had to be totally dismantled and taken out in pieces

Years later, when Armando had gained the position of a commercial pilot, he enjoyed greeting the oncoming passengers. One day as Captain Armando stood at the entry door, who should appear but the old general from the ill-fated trip down in the cornfield. The general looked Armando straight in the eye and told Armando that he was going to México City and that he didn’t want to go on a burro!

Armando was assigned to fly with the United States Air Force towards the end of World War II. He was stationed at Napier Air Field in Dothan, Alabama. There he met a “gringa”, American girl, and had his first romance. Neither could speak the other ones language at that time. Armando had to learn English later in life when his flying took him to many corners of the world.

While stationed at Dothan, Alabama, an idea took shape to have a real Mexican fiesta complete with all of the authentic Mexican food and drink…well Armando to the rescue!

A special flight was made to the place to buy the real stuff…México!

I was told that the “fiesta” was a huge success, but this time, as a reprimand for his unauthorized flight he was restricted to base for two weeks over Christmas

In 1947 Armando married in México City when the city had one and a half million people…one of the most fantastic cities in the world at the time. Today the population has risen to in excess of 24 million.

Armando took a flying job with Mexicana Airlines and over the years had an accident free record while he flew every type of aircraft that the airline had to offer, up to and including the DC-10. Flying to Puerto Rico, LA, Chicago and New York to name a few, he especially liked those two-day layovers.

A couple of stories that he especially liked to tell were, for example, of his time as co-pilot flying into LA International when the pilot got on the radio and informed the control tower that he didn’t speak much English and that he was coming down…you can rest assured that radio message got lots of prompt attention. Flying with the same pilot Armando often would mention that they were not flying at the prescribed altitude and the captain’s response was always, nobody ever pays any attention to the control tower!

Coming or going from the Yucatán, Armando loved to catch a glimpse of his favorite beach getaway spot in Chabihau on the Gulf of Mexico. There can be no mistake that Armando had a fondness for the place and also loved his beer as well, he fondly referred to the place as “Chevas House”, a real English-Spanish corruption of the language, but it could only mean, beer drinking house…and later in life it was just that!

When headed to México City form Yucatán in the late afternoons he used to joke that when altitude, speed, and direction were attained, it was customary to put the newspaper over the windshield to keep out the offensive afternoon sun…a true Yucatecan, the afternoons were meant for shade.

I can’t help but think of a story that Armando told that was a real classic. On a two day layover and after lots of party making and celebrations and as Armando was sleeping off his excesses in the nude in a very fancy hotel in Puerto Rico, he had the urge to urinate. He got up, half awake, and staggered to the bathroom to relieve himself. Then when he turned on the light there was in the same bathroom with him a naked stranger…terrified he took flight and found himself out in the hallway. Only after the door had slammed shut behind him did he realize what had happened. As he stood stark naked in the hallway of this plush hotel, the whole thing came into focus. It had been himself that he had seen in the ceiling to floor mirrors…that terrifying, naked stranger, and he was locked out of his room!

I must admit that in all of my life and in all of my travels I have never met a person that truly loved the out of the way cantinas and could savor cool beer quite as much as my good friend Armando. A whole book could be dedicated to the cantina experiences that I have shared with this man.

Armando loved to read and discuss the books and authors, to travel and discuss the culture, and when we got around to it to practice his English. Drink, drank, drunk, sink, sank, sunk and with his last gasps he would grab the tall necked beer bottle and blow across the top to make the toot, toot, toot of a ships horn and announce that “this ship is sinking”.

In México, one of the most popular beers of all is “Superior”. On the label at that time the name was written in a very fancy scroll type and upon close scrutiny it is easy to see that the “S” is written like a capitol “L” and at the end of the word as the scroll trails off the final “S” is there…and that is how LUPERIOS is formed and in the cantinas across all of México if you asked for LUPERIOS you are sure to get a Superior beer and perhaps even my old friend Armando as his nickname is Luperios!

The label from a Superior beer bottle with its distinctive scrolled letters.

Note; 1992 was the last year that Superior beer used this scroll type lettering.  

Captain Armando Troyo’s business card with his México City phone number.

Mexicana Airlines was joking known as “Aero Lata” or tin-can airlines. and had the distinction of unlimited drinks included in the fare…we got our share.

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MAYAN TRADITIONAL FOODS SOLD IN THE MARKETS AND STREETS OF YUCATAN

For those of us who cherish the food from bygone days before bar-coded chemically embalmed ersatz convenience cuisine:

This Mayan lady brings the produce of her home garden plus traditional baked goods, native honey, chaya and whatever else is in season to her spot in Colonial Alemán. This location is about three kilometers northeast of Mérida’s center. You are sure to see Mayan ladies at various market places and in the villages of Yucatan selling their goods.

All is top quality, ecologically friendly, and reasonably priced.  

The flat crackers to the left in the photo are known as ish waaj.  They are made from new corn. There are two varieties: salted or sweet.  The midget bananas are exceptionally sweet.

The white shucked beans in the front of this photo are known as ibes and the black ones are xpelón. A delicicous food favorite in Yucatan are vaporcitos (tamales) made with xpelón. The brown bags contain ground roasted squash seeds (pepita molida).  Pepita molida is the main ingredient in Si-Kil Pac, a tasty dip made with the ground squash seeds, tomatoes, sour orange, cilantro, and Yucatan’s hot chile habanero.

A treasure trove of fun to sample foods not found in the super stores can be found in the markets and along the streets of Yucatan..

So, what are you waiting for?

Sample some of the real Yucatan that tourists miss most.

Quiet Yucatan

I have often been asked where to find quiet places in Yucatan.

I always find this question amusing: “You have got to be kidding. Have you ever been to Yucatan before?”

I love Yucatan, but after forty plus years here quiet is something that has nearly eluded us. The locals love their lifestyle, and if you have a good positive attitude you will too.

At times it seems to me that the Yucatecan mentality holds two things sacred above all else: smoke and noise. Their ultimate success in life is an ear-splitting motorcycle emitting a cloud of impenetrable smoke. Do they possess a genetic predisposition to racket and an aversion to silence?

Vehicles rattle, clatter, squeak, and incessantly honk their horns while mufflers seem to be a superfluous annoyance.

Petite vehicles marauding city streets sporting enormous megaphones powered by mammoth amplifiers relentlessly blast deafening clatter that will vibrate the fillings out of your teeth.

Ear-splitting fireworks are incessantly detonated for festivals or business promotions, day and night. Dogs desperately try to cover their ears and escape.

In most places in the world this sonic trash would be prohibited…not so here; the government happens to be the major delinquent.

If ultra high decibel racket drives you to distraction beware of the salon de fiestas, also known as party palaces. I swear these all night establishments are capable of shaking you out of bed even from several blocks away.  Many times they magically materialize in hotel lobbies around midnight.

You may locate an upscale restaurant to enjoy a special occasion in tranquility. The waiters are sure to turn on a giant screen TV even if you are the only clients. A Mariachi band is liable to trumpet their way through and an industrial strength blender will be revved up that cannot be screamed above. Coffee grinders are sure to pick up when noise generating is slack. 

One day I went to the neighborhood grocery “tienda” and had to scream in the owner’s ear. A large bank of mighty speakers left from a previous night’s fiesta was terrorizing the neighborhood. I asked if they had requested the volume to be turned down. The owner replied yes and was told he was too nervous and if he listened to the music he would like it. The next retort was “if you don’t like it, you don’t have to listen.”

Looking for tranquility we have stayed in a typical Mayan hut down a dirt road located far out in the jungle and with no electrical service. Before the first glimmer of dawn crowing rosters broke the relative silence. They were joined by squealing pigs, barking dogs, trucks honking and screaming with bullhorns selling bottled gas and coconuts. We didn’t know if we should laugh or scream.

If you can hear dogs barking it is considered quiet.

We travel with 33 db foam ear plugs. Dampen them, roll tightly, and press into your ears. Allow them to expand slowly and their effectiveness is increased.

We happen to live in a relatively quiet neighborhood with a canopy jungle ecologically friendly home where we can actually hear birds singing in our fruit filled trees and crickets chirping.

This is the real Yucatan. Arm yourself with a positive attitude, be happy and if you don’t like the noise, don’t listen!

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Mayapan

Mayan temple ruins near Mérida - seldom visited - quiet Yucatan.