(post 176 of 263 — I have been back dating posts, so scroll down to make sure you didn’t miss any!)

This past weekend, my friend D came down from Ottawa with her husband. D and I had worked together at the Patent Office many lifetimes ago and had not seen each other since 2008! But since we speak nearly daily through Facebook, it was like no time had gone by at all. I’m still very close with many colleagues dating back to my first “real” job post-college, but the Patent Office group was particularly tight.

This was a super fast visit. They arrived in time for lunch on Friday and were off after breakfast on Sunday. They were staying at a hotel on the Mayan Riviera and rented a car to come visit me for the weekend, exactly like my mothers did when they visited in 2019.

First thing we did was head into centro for lunch at the Chaya Maya so they could try local food. I’ll never understand why this restaurant is so maligned by expats as being too touristy. It’s always full of Mexicans and the food is delicious and of the highest standard. I ordered an assortment of local delicacies including turkey salbutes to start and then four dishes that we forgot to photograph before we started! From top left going clockwise, we had turkey in pumpkin seed sauce (not a hit all around), relleno negro (my favourite but not a hit), cochinita pibil (a hit), and queso relleno (a hit), along with plenty of handmade tortillas to make tacos. D and A are not a fan of the local food so that’s all of it that we had over the weekend.

After lunch, we walked to Plaza Grande and had an ice cream, then headed to the Mercado Lucas de Galvez. I looked forward to seeing it all cleaned up, but D and A hit their limit with the heat and asked to go home so I just got a peek (and was not impressed).

Saturday, we drove up to Progreso, my first time at the beach post-pandemic! There’s lots of construction going on on the Malecón. It was a shame that they were working on a Saturday, but the beach wasn’t super busy anyway.

We had lunch at Crabster. Since I was technically vacation and I wasn’t driving, I treated myself to a Paloma (tequila with grapefruit juice, Mexico’s national cocktail). I’m not really supposed to have grapefruit juice now that I’m on thyroid meds, but my doctor said having some later in the day on a rare occasion wouldn’t do any harm.

D and I both had the coconut shrimp and didn’t find it coconutty enough, but I found the pineapple habanero salsa and the plantain purée wonderful, and I don’t normally like plantains! Barely pictured are the dregs of our starter, guacamole with shrimp.

D introduced me to coffee with Bailey’s.

We headed home midafternoon and got caught up. I ordered a pizza for dinner.

Sunday, we went out for breakfast on the Paseo de Montejo as you haven’t been to Mérida if you have not visited this avenue lined with beautiful historic mansions! Café Impala had choices D and A liked. and I had chilaquiles. I have yet to encounter a reasonable portion of chilaquiles that I can finish!

That was it for our visit! They dropped me off at home and headed out. It rather sounds crazy that I did all that work on the guest room for two nights, but it was worth it — I got my new AC upstairs and now I have a proper guest room at the ready for future guests.

I spent the rest of Sunday attempting to assemble the new cabinet for my upstairs bathroom, a rather frustrating endeavour. But it was worth it, and you’ll see it in a few posts. 🙂