Today, I visited what is probably Mérida’s best-kept secret, and which I’ve known about for a long time but just couldn’t get to, the Parque Eco Arqueológico de Xoclán del Poniente, a huge nature preserve with ruins located in the heart of the southwest quadrant of the city.
I’ll skip ahead for a minute and mention that I met a really nice guy near the end of my visit who confirmed something I’ve long suspected — it’s not part of the culture here to go seeking nature so it’s not my imagination that even long-time residents of the city have no idea where the green pockets are. Here’s a case in point. He showed me photos and video of the giant lake behind Walmart Pensiones. Wait, what? There’s a giant lake behind Walmart Pensiones? You’d never know by looking at a map!
We had such a lovely chat. His Spanish was perfect for my ear and it was like conversing with someone in English and French, it was that fluent. He showed me videos of the park at different times of the years and also of some animals he’s spotted, including a huge snake!
So the Parque Xoclán (what I’ll call it for short) is not next-door to me at all. It was a full 30-minute Uber ride in pretty heavy traffic. My Pilates teacher is away for a week so I fit my adventuring in the slot for class this morning, figuring even just a one-hour hike in nature would be better than no workout at all.
I would have loved to have brought Bonita as dogs are allowed on leashes, but taking her in an Uber is such a crapshoot and I was afraid we’d get stranded.
The outer edges of the park have flat well-groomed trails, but the deeper in you get, the more you get proper hiking trails that even have challenging bits. I was so happy!
The heart of the park is the lake. The water was very low right now as we are technically in a drought. The levels will be much higher by the autumn.
See, proper hiking trails!
I met the guy at the northern tip of the park. After our chat, I walked a couple of blocks over to the Paseo Verde, a nearly 10KM stretch of walking and bike bike paths that are mostly tree-lined.
It was as I expected not very “naturey,” but boy do I wish I had something like this much, much closer to me! The park has both these concrete walkways as well as asphalt bike paths.
The city has been adding bike paths all over and is starting to slowly create a connected network that is making me think that I might start biking again now that Pilates has worked miracles on my bad leg. There’s no way I’d be using a bike as a way to actually get around — the roads, traffic, and lack of bike parking make that a very bad idea unless you have absolutely no way to afford a better option — but if getting to pleasant areas to bike, like the Paseo Verde or the Biciruta on the Paseo de Montejo Sunday mornings, becomes easier and safer, then taking up biking for fun and exercise again would be such a joy. I’ve biked so much in my life and it was sometimes my only means of transportation. I’m not quite ready to give it up!
What a lovely morning this was. I’ll definitely be back to explore the other side of Parque Xoclán!
(post 179 of 263 — I back dated posts, so scroll down to make sure you didn’t miss any!)
I’ve been wanting a video doorbell for ages. I don’t hear the wired doorbell in my office with the headphones on and I’d like not to run all that distance to the door when I do hear it to find someone selling something I’m not interested in. I also liked the security monitoring features of capturing whenever someone is near the door.
Unfortunately, the only Apple-approved video doorbell, by Logitech, is not available in Mexico so my choices were Nest (Google product? No thanks!) or Ring (Amazon product, lesser of two evils even with the hacking scandal). Well, Amazon Mexico was practically giving away their 2020 Ring 2 doorbells a couple of weeks ago, so I picked one up. Ha, little did I know I’d bought the proverbial mouse a cookie.
I woke up on a Sunday morning raring to go to install the Ring myself. The instructions made it seem like a DIY thing. First off, I checked the Wi-Fi strength at the front gate and, finding it low, I moved the signal booster closer until I got nearly my full 125Mbps download speeds at the door.
I’ll skip ahead here to warn Ring users to read all the fine print because the device has a number of nasty secrets that are buried in the fine print. One of them is that the basic models of Rings will not connect to modern 5Ghz Wi-Fi, only the older 2.4Ghz protocol. That Wi-Fi isn’t as strong and I barely had a signal at the gate on that network despite the booster. But I didn’t know any of that yet.
It was ominous that setting up a Ring user account took over two hours, over 50 attempts, and a very long DM conversation on Twitter before I was able to do it. As an Apple user, I just don’t have the mental energy for any BS when it comes to setting things up. That just setting up an account was so broken was mind-boggling. It took all that time for the service rep to say, oh, wait, the app might be buggy. Let’s try to set up you account through the website. Which worked immediately. Auuuuuuuugh.
So I was pretty cranky already as I began to take apart the old doorbell to see what I was working with and how I would install the Ring. So there’s the other little fine print thing that the Ring just glosses over. The instructions give the impression that if you hardwire the Ring to any wired doorbell, that it can ring the chime for that doorbell. FALSE. It will only work with a small number of doorbell models. Had I known this, I doubt I would have bothered hardwiring the doorbell because it wouldn’t be as simple as the instructions made it out to be.
My doorbell wiring was set into a standard electrical junction box. The Ring mounting bracket just covered the hole, but that left nowhere in which to screw the bracket. I had a think about it and then headed out to the closest hardware store open on a Sunday, the Ace Hardware on Calle 60. Had a chat with one of their clerks and he agreed that my plan was a good one — I would install a metal outlet cover with a hole in it for the wires and drill four holes into it in which I could screw the Ring bracket. I made sure to pick up an appropriately sized drill bit and some caulking as well. Looking back, the only thing I would have changed, if I could, would have been the colour of the outlet cover, which I’ll explain in a bit.
I put duct tape around the edges of the hole to prevent possible wear on the wiring. I then centred the Ring bracket on the plate and marked the four screw holes.
Drilling the holes was easy and they came out neatly.
I had no trouble mounting the cover and then screwing over it the Ring bracket. But I was not able to then complete the installation of the Ring because it involved wrapping the two doorbell wires around two teeny tiny screws on the Ring. I simply do not have the dexterity to do such fine work. I had dropped one of the screws about three times when I heard a timid “Can I help you?” I turned around to see my neighbour from across the street. Turns out that she and her boyfriend work with electronics and do this kind of thing all day long. When I saw that they were genuinely happy to help me out, I was happy to hand over the tools! They got the Ring connected in minutes, something I know I would never have been able to do with my fingers being the way they are, and I learned some new tricks!
So this is what it looks like, and why I wish the cover had been another colour. Rings are silver, aren’t they? I’d never seen them any other colour. So imagine my surprise when I pulled this out of the box! It’s a beautiful burnished bronze colour, what I would have selected had I known it existed. So that was a good surprise, the only one to come out of this mess!
I will have to unmount the Ring in about a year to power it (despite it being hardwired). At that time, I may decide to spray the plate to make the colour match the Ring better. But even like this, I think the installation looks pretty good!
I could then not get the Ring to work well, and that’s when I discovered the Wi-Fi nonsense. I tried to get some help on the Ring forum and through Ring support, but no one was listening to what I was asking and instead talking over me, repeating over and over that I could not connect the ring to the 5Ghz network when what I was asking was how I could create 2.4Ghz Wi-Fi from the wired connection at my TV. I knew that had to be possible, but I was drowning in technobabble.
The next day, Monday, I went to my friend Tim’s house to see how his renovations were progressing (WOW). I realised that he knows about networks and such, so I asked for help and he had an answer for me! I got home and bought on Amazon a TP-Link Deco mesh Wi-Fi system. I was not happy to have to buy another pricey device to make the Ring work, but the price on the mesh system was just right and promised that I’d have strong internet in every corner of my property, so it seemed to be worth it.
Amazon delivered the mesh system the next day and it was pretty easy to set up and delivered what it promised. That was all surprising since I’ve been using TP-Link Wi-Fi boosters for years and they’ve always been a nightmare to set up and underwhelmed at performance.
The Ring, though, was still not satisfied. I still had the booster, so I set that up between the front door and the gate (thank goodness I have an outlet on my covered porch!) and that still wasn’t enough. I was livid by this point because it was clear that the problem was that it had a shoddy Wi-Fi receptor and that Amazon thinks that everyone lives in cardboard houses with their modem literally behind the doorbell.
I got into another DM Twitter chat with a Ring person who had the patience of a saint. How’s this for another surprise, my new mesh system wasn’t compatible with a Ring because a mesh system, by definition, combines the 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz frequencies. So while the Ring was connecting to the new network, it was not effectively connected to the 2.4Ghz frequency. Ring was pretty useless after this point, so I thanked the person for their help and moved to TP-Link to see if there was a way to isolate the 2.4Ghz frequency. No, because that goes against the idea of what a mesh network is, but there was a workaround!
I had to create a guest network on the mesh system that only had the 2.4Ghz frequency active. I did that and connected the Ring to the guest network. Still wasn’t good enough and I realised that I hadn’t “boosted” the guest network, so I went through all the steps to create the new boosted guest network on the booster. I then had to connect the Ring to the new boosted network. By the way, every time you want to change the network the Ring connects to, you have to remove the two security screws, pry the Ring off the bracket (careful you don’t disconnect the wires!), and hit the orange reset button on the back of the device. Are you exhausted yet? I sure was.
But it worked! The resulting connection was just the minimum for a stable Ring connection. Here’s all of that summarized in a video:
The device has worked great since. I’m happy with the camera quality. Here’s night mode:
I like that it’s essentially an intercom, so I can answer from my desk and let someone know I’m coming. There’s lots of steps to answering the Ring, but turns out there’s a separate app to do that (Rapid Ring). So much fine print!
One of the feedbacks I’ve been getting is that people can tell there is no doorbell ringing in the house, so if I don’t answer through the intercom, they do the usual yell to get attention. I didn’t want to throw any more money at this thing, but a couple of days ago refurbished Ring-brand Chime devices popped up on Amazon for $750, so I picked one up.
Speaking of yelling to get attention, the Ring is useful for folks who skip straight to that as I get a notification that someone is standing in the doorway.
The Ring comes with a one-month subscription to the service where you can review past events. That would have been useful after the burglary as I would have had footage of the thief leaving the house. I heard a lot of complaints about the cost of this service, but it’s only $3USD per month! There are other Ring security devices that I may consider if they show up on Amazon Mexico that would bump up the cost to $10USD, still a bargain, as long as the device continues to work well (who knows how much longer the version 2 is going to be supported?).
So my feelings about the Ring are pretty well mixed. Setting up an account shouldn’t be a nightmare. 2020 wasn’t so long ago that it’s acceptable for a device to not work with 5Ghz Wi-Fi. I absolutely don’t hold the installation issues against them. Customer service was very good. Actual function is excellent. So I’d say 3.5 stars out of 5 overall?
(post 178 of 263 — I have been back dating posts, so scroll down to make sure you didn’t miss any! There are four new posts as of May 19th.)
I’m so happy with how the refresh of my upstairs bathroom turned out! Of the three bathrooms, that one was in the best shape in that the wall tiles still looked good and it just needed updated flooring and fixtures since I don’t mind that the shower doesn’t work well, having the new one downstairs.
In this picture, you’ll note a very tired mirror (the frame is just paper!), the old outlet, and the pedestal sink with no storage and very gunked up taps. You can also see a corner of the old vanity that I used for storage that was impossible to keep tidy. It has a new home in my cleaning fairy’s dining room!
Here’s the nasty old toilet in all its faded glory. The base was cracked, it was way too short for me, and the shutoff valve was seized shut.
And here’s a sample of the really gross floor that you could see from the bedroom when the bathroom door was shut.
Now, you walk into a much warmer space. I’m still working on the floor as I caulked the joints and the caulking keeps appearing as it cures, but I’m not bothered with by the look as it rather blends into the pattern. I am starting to scrape it and tidy it up as my knees allow.
I love how the dark wood carries through from downstairs and warms up the space. A new custom vanity purchased on Mercado Libre opens up to shelving that gives me a ton of space for little items I use daily that used to be on the turquoise vanity. I also had the outlet and light switch changed.
I found a cabinet with the perfect dimensions for the space. It was natural wood and white, so I used contact paper to make it match the new vanity. I have one drawer and several adjustable shelves.
I bought the same toilet as I did for the downstairs bathroom and it has a new shutof. A new rug warms up the space. Behind the shower partition are ugly things like the dirty clothes hamper and the toilet brush!
(post 177 of 263 — I have been back dating posts, so scroll down to make sure you didn’t miss any!)
Before the pandemic, I had started to take the cinema for granted despite having a luxury one within walking distance. Now that it’s closed, probably for good, I realised that the adage is true that you don’t appreciate something until it’s gone. I’m pretty sure I’ve been to the cinema more since December than I had in total my three years here pre-pandemic. My first post-pandemic film was “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” which I timed perfectly to see in a nearly empty theatre. I so regretted seeing “Black Widow” on a small screen, so I was thrilled to see Spider-Man at a theatre!
The next movie I saw was an impulse, the first time in ages that I thought, gosh, I’ve been cooped up at home for ages, wonder if there’s a good movie on! So I checked the listings and realised I had just enough time to take a walk (about 40 minutes) to Plaza Las Americas to catch a showing of “Marry Me.” It was a week night, so the cinema was pretty empty as well.
Then, I saw “The Batman,” and despite going during the week, the theatre was packed, which made it difficult to relax and enjoy the show, but I’m still happy I saw it on the big screen.
Finally, today I went to see “Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” but of course! There were a few more people than when I went to see Spider-Man, but nowhere near as many as for Batman.
I like to pair my planned cinema outings with a good meal. For all but “Marry Me” I ended up at Galerías, which only has two good restaurants, Sushi Roll or Chili’s. The last two outings, I did ribs with the margarita of the month at Chili’s, and I’d like to make that a monthly thing! I’m not a fan of regular margaritas, but their monthly offerings are so creative! The one I had before Batman had tamarind in it, the one after Dr. Strange had Granny Smith apple.
Yucatán is now fully reopen, with only an indoor mask mandate to remind us that we are coming out of a pandemic. This feels very right as we were locked down so tightly that our current numbers are super low and we haven’t had any COVID deaths in weeks. I thought I’d have a hard time reengaging with the world, but it’s happened so gradually that the transition has been easy. It feels amazing to go out for meals, shop in person without entering a store being a huge procedure, and, of course, to freeze for a few hours (why do I always forget to bring a blanket to the cinema!) while watching an entertaining tale on the big screen. But you know what I appreciate most about going to the movies? Cinema mode, so a blissful two to three hours free of notifications. I need to start implementing that kind of break in my daily life!
(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. 🙂
