Day 7

In the morning, Catriona and I have fruit and coffee at a boutique hotel (café San Lucia?) not far from the hotel. All of their coffee starts out as espresso here, any the add water to make a Café Americano. Fewer places actually brew it w/ a drip machine like home. I think that's why Mexican coffee just tastes better...

We walked around a little admiring the architecture of buildings, there seems to be strong French influence here. She finds a restaurant she had been to, which is closed, but the door is open. We sneak in for a look, there was no one around; the courtyard is simply beautiful. The owner appears to be a collector of religious art and artefacts, displayed throughout. The door latched on our way in and it took us a while to figure out how to open it in the dark.

Back to the hotel, a ran to get a load of laundry done again; I wanted a clean pair of jeans for later tonight. Took a short doze, tengo una poca resaca.

Catriona and her friend meet up to check out a Mayan artesian shop on the corner. Her friend doesn't do well in the heat and long distances to the central market; she's actually here from the USA for surgery. Mérida apparently has a premier hospital. The three of us had a light lunch at the place I had dinner last night.

We dropped off her friend and made our way down to the market in search of stuff. We shopped around for a sewing machine light bulb. Catriona is working on opening The Little Mexican Cooking School back in Puerto Morelos for tourists in December, and intends on giving away aprons to the students of the classes. One of her friends who's making them needed a new light for her machine.

I decided it would be fun to give out Mexican candy for trick-or-treat, we found a Dulcería (sweets shop) and picked up a 2.2kg bag of candy for $59.

We wander for a bit, but at this point it's early afternoon and we're both feeling the heat. Grabbed a cab back to the hotel. Took an hour or so nap, picked up my clothes.

She recommended a nice place for dinner, and made reservations earlier. Put on my best pair of jeans, as I had nothing nicer. Ausgustine secured a taxi to pick us up at the hotel at 6:30. The ride was about 25 minutes to the northern end of town which was very contemporary; large department stores like Liverpool, Sears, etc.

We wound through some smaller residential areas and came to La Hacienda Xcanatun. Most of the original hacienda had been abandon, and destroyed by hurricane Wilma and the property sold off. A portion, the machine building, was renovated into a very classy restaurant, and a tiny speciality hotel built along side. We're seated on the rear patio, primarily lit with candles. It overlooks a beautiful garden with palm trees, under-lit with spot lights.

Order a bottle of white wine made here in México. The service is fantastic, our glasses are never empty. We ordered seafood ceviche and tuna sashimi for appetisers, the ceviche with octopus, shrimp and fish. The entrées chosen were duck and tuna. Portions were excellent. All of the food was phenomenal, as was my company. I would equate the quality, service and atmosphere of this place to that of our Bartolotta's restaurants back home, specifically the Lake Park Bistro, only the cost about 65%.

Our taxi is out front waiting for us after dinner. We make our way back into the historical district. Our intent it to catch an a cappella performance but it's a little late for that now. Catriona is talking with our driver in Spanish, but both are a little slower and I´m catching about three quarters of the conversation now. I ask about a few words I don't recognise.

Our driver recommended a small park downtown where they have salsa dancing to live music on Tuesday nights. We stop, where he again waits for us.

Picture a smaller, 1/2 block square park where around 100 local couples, young and old, come on Tuesdays to do nothing but hold each other and dance. For no other reason.

We walk around the crowd, and make our way in. I really have no idea how to salsa, and neither does Catriona, which is refreshing. After a minute or two of shuffling around, we smile at each other and make our way back to the cab which drops us off at our hotel again. The ride was $300, but he got $500.

We had a couple tequilas around the pool and made our way off the main square to see what was going on. Most of the vendors were packing up by now. There were several mariachi's standing in the street on the square, as if they were waiting for someone to pick them up for hire.

A romantic evening; one that I couldn't forget.