Baseball adventure

The history of baseball in Mexico runs deep. From the origins of the game in the 1800's to the Mexican League that began in 1925, and all the way up until the 1957 Little League World Series Champions, the passion and enthusiasm for baseball in Mexico still exists today including right here in Celestun.

Kenn records the out at first

Our friend Kenn has been lucky enough to have been invited a few years ago to play on one of the local teams.  Originally, he suspects it was at least in part due to the fact that his van could seat most of the team to travel to their away games.  But he quickly become a good friend and valuable member of the team and is obviously well like, respected and a welcome addition to their games.

Kenn gets a hit, and later scores a run

Kenn's son Cody, Wanda's daughter Cassandra, and I headed over to the ball-park today to watch Kenn play a game.  Scheduled for 1:30, they were still several players short and had no opposing team there by 2:30.  So Cody and Cassandra quickly drove back to the house to get running shoes to help fill the roster to get a game going.  But by the time they returned, enough regular players had finally arrived to get the game underway.

Cody and Cassandra with Osvaldo and Kenn at the ball park

Our team quickly jumped ahead with about a 7-2 lead within a couple of innings.  By about the 7th inning, with the game pretty much in the bag for us, Cassandra asked to just have a chance to bat without playing in the field.  So in she went and on the second pitch hit a strong grounder towards the short stop.  She got a great jump towards first base but a good play and accurate throw beat her there for the final out of the game. Realizing she was thrown out, Cassandra slowed her run just before the bag and stepped down awkwardly on her left foot then collapsed onto the sand.


My first thought was that she was just goofing around although her knees had obviously gotten scraped up pretty bad in the fall.
But the look on her face and plea for help got my heart pounding and running to her to support her and help her off

Cassandra gets a hit!

the field.  Her ankle was already badly swollen and discolouring so it was obvious that a trip to the hospital was in order.

While I ran for the car, Kenn helped her back to the road to meet me then got us some ice for the trip.  After a quick stop to pick up her mom Wanda, I got our little Honda Fit to reach near take-off speeds on the 100km trip across town, through the jungle, other towns and villages and around the large city of Merida and then finally into emergency at the Star Medica Hospital in record time.

Cassandra's X-ray and some cash to pay for it

After an examination, x-rays, and a consultation with the fantastic (and apparently very good-looking I'm told) orthopedic specialist Dr. Carlos E. Reyes De Caceres, her diagnosis of a bad sprain and fracture was confirmed.

After Dr. De Caceres applied a fiberglass cast, supplied some crutches, and Wanda picked up medication, we were back on the road, for a slower, more leisurely return home to Celestun.

Dr. De Caceres applies a fiberglass cast to Cassandra's ankle

Do I hear "pre-boarding" in my travel plans?

So a really fun and exciting time at the ball park was unfortunately followed by a traumatic event. But in time, our Winter Solstice day of 2014 will eventually give Cassandra a good story to tell.

Life in Celestun

Well, other than having no internet most days over the past three weeks, life has been going on pretty much the same every day since my last post...warm, sunny, lazy and basically, spectacular!

When the internet is working, I've been VERY happy with it.  The speed is sufficient to watch streaming movies on Netflix with excellent sound and picture and no problems with buffering.  But, like so many things in Mexico, not everything works all the time.  And then getting something repaired can be a little challenging.  In large part, the challenge is due to my own lack of fluent Spanish but every kind of infrastructure or service around here is generally lacking in maintenance for a variety of reasons.  I guess there are bound to be some trade-offs for living in paradise!  :)

We've been busy so far doing a few improvements around the yard, pruning, planting, cutting down. Kenn and Karen's son Cody helped me out with our new chain saw, taking down some large branches and cutting some stumps down lower.  My shoulders haven't recovered enough from surgery yet for me to even HOLD the chainsaw never mind actually cut down a tree with it.

Cody cutting down some stumps in our yard

I'm hoping to get Cody back one more time to take down a couple of trees; one in the way of our clothes line and another just creating more mess than enjoyment for us.

My friend Kenn mentioned to me the other day that he was interested in learning Salsa dancing and I told him that Chris and I would like to as well.  In years past, we had often considered various dance lessons but life always seemed too busy to go ahead with anything.  Some friends of ours up the beach, Peter and Sandra, are getting married in January and as Sandra is Cuban, there will definitely be some Salsa music at the wedding. Sandra teaches Pilates as well as dance so we have started classes with her along with Kenn and Karen, and another friend here, Marie-Francoise.

Salsa dance class

In the first class we were all stumbling over each other but we had a glimpse of what we might be able to do one day.  So with two classes each week until the wedding on January 24, we just might manage to avoid looking like complete fools by then.

Inspired by Black Friday shopping in the U.S., in 2011 Mexico introduced "Buen Fin" on the third weekend of November each year.  Huge sales take place like Black Friday and it's probably the best time of the year for furniture and large appliance shopping.

Our favourite furniture manufacturer and retail outlet in Merida, Marbol, was taking part in Buen Fin so we paid them a visit ahead of the sales weekend to see if we could find a loveseat for our sun room. Luckily we found the perfect match for our other chairs so we returned on Saturday, Nov. 22 to buy it.  As we live over an hour from Merida we had to wait a couple of weeks for them to coordinate delivery along with other customers.  But it's here now and fits great in the room, in front of the new 40 inch LED TV, that I bought just BEFORE learning about savings available on Buen Fin!

Our sun room, with the new furniture and TV

The past few days have been busy with three birthday parties!  Chris had a birthday on the 13th and Sandra's son Robert turned 5 on the 12th.  So we got a HUGE cake for them that we served for dessert at our Friday night expat dinner party.  Peter the chef cooked a meat lasagna and a great mushroom and spinach vegetarian one too, and put them out self-serve as the night's special.  The next day Robert had a huge birthday party at his house with close to 50 kids plus parents and friends. We left that one just in time to get to Kenn and Karen's for dinner and another birthday party for Chris!  Karen cooked a great meal and we ate in the outdoor kitchen.  Jorge and Fabi and Jorge's parents showed up later, then it was tequila, tequila, tequila for a few hours after that!

Friday night ex-pat birthday dinner party

Robert and Chris birthday party

Robert's 5th birthday party

Another birthday cake!

  

Jorge left before we all got too crazy with the tequila as he was having his grand opening the next morning of his new furniture store in Celestun.  It is a smaller branch of Comercial Zozaya, their larger store in Merida.

Inside the new Comercial Zozaya store in Celestun

Fabiola and Jorge in front of his new Celestun store

Wanda, Kenn, Karen, Chris and I all showed up for the 11:00AM grand opening.  It's a great little store with access to the full inventory of Comercial Zozaya and the prices look to be very competitive!

We were REALLY looking forward to the free Pastor Tacos they were cooking out front!  But they weren't quite ready yet so we headed over to La Boya, a little beach restaurant nearby, for a few cervezas.  They kept bringing us free botanas so we stayed for another drink and kept eating. When we finally made it back to Comercial Zozaya, all the tacos were gone!

But free tacos or not, it looks like a great little store and a very welcome addition to our town!  

Rodeo in Celestun

Steer chasing a Celestun cowboy after his lasso missed the mark

Celestun cowboy readying his lasso

A new event began in Celestun earlier this year that I was finally able to attend yesterday.  It is a "rodeo" of sorts with about a dozen local "cowboys" and a couple hundred spectators.  It was a very festive, family event with food vendors, and of course muchas cervezas being sold out of coolers.

In a field 1 km north of town, across the road from Casa de Celeste Vida, a large ring was built with a low, rough wooden fence.  Red, plastic chairs surrounded the fence with their backs against the boards so that the kids can stand up on them to see over.  People started gathering around 5pm and they were almost ready to get started when we arrived after dark around 6:30. Motorcycles and cars were parked all along the road so we joined them, parking our Honda Fit on the roadside and then walking into the field, carefully finding our way in the dark through the dozens of parked motorbikes, taxis, horses, etc.

The grounds were lit with just one spotlight, tied onto the top of an extension ladder, which was tied up against the railings, and a wire was strung from the roadside electric lines that someone had bravely climbed up and pirated for the event.

Everyone crowded close to the railing as a bunch of guys climbed up onto a wooden structure at one end.  It was apparently a sort of chute and after a lot of struggle, a small steer eventually was forced to walk out and then it just stood there.  Each cowboy rode around on a horse and tried to lasso the lazy steer, taking turns throwing their ropes at it.  Eventually a couple of cowboys were successful and then there was just as long a struggle to get the steer to leave as there had been to get it into the ring in the first place.

We waited for about 15 minutes for the next event and were rewarded with a little more excitement.  A much larger and aggressive steer ran out of the chute this time and immediately started chasing the cowboys and running full-speed around the ring, with large, pointed horns nearly scraping along the top railing causing everyone, including us, to jump back quickly before we were gored or the animal crashed through the rickety boards.  Luckily, nobody was injured, the cowboys managed to rope the steer and then they got it to leave again much more easily than the first one.

Apparently they just repeat this all evening until enough guys are drunk enough that they start climbing into the arena and let the steers charge them.  To the best of my knowledge, nobody has been killed or even seriously injured, yet.  But we had seen enough after 30 minutes so called it a night and headed home.

150th Birthday of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

This morning, sitting here in Celestun with my coffee, Google alerted me to the fact that today would be Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s 150th birthday, had the bohemian artist not died in his 30s.  The French artist, who is best known for his painted scenes of wild, bohemian Parisian nightlife, including his posters for the opening of the Moulin Rouge.  I shot this photo of the famous Moulin Rouge while in Paris last year.

The Moulin Rouge nightclub in Paris

Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa (24 November 1864 – 9 September 1901) was a French painter, printmaker, draughtsman and illustrator whose immersion in the colourful and theatrical life of Paris in the late 1800s yielded a collection of exciting, elegant and provocative images of the modern and sometimes decadent life of those times. Toulouse-Lautrec – along with Cézanne, Van Gogh and Gauguin – is among the most well-known painters of the Post-Impressionist period.

At age twelve Toulouse-Lautrec broke his left leg and at fourteen his right leg. The bones did not heal properly, and his legs ceased to grow. He reached maturity with a body trunk of normal size but with abnormally short legs. He was only 4 1/2 feet (1.5 meters) tall.

Toulouse-Lautrec was drawn to Montmartre, the area of Paris famous for its bohemian lifestyle and the haunt of artists, writers, and philosophers.  When the Moulin Rouge cabaret opened, Toulouse-Lautrec was commissioned to produce a series of posters. Other artists looked down on the work, but Henri was so aristocratic he did not care. The cabaret reserved a seat for him and displayed his paintings.

Toulouse-Lautrec was very much an active part of this community. He would sit at a crowded nightclub table, laughing and drinking, meanwhile making swift sketches. The next morning in his studio he would expand the sketches into brightly colored paintings. In order to join in the Montmartre life - as well as to fortify himself against the crowd's ridicule of his appearance - Toulouse-Lautrec began to drink heavily.

Throughout his career, which spanned less than 20 years, Toulouse-Lautrec created 737 canvases, 275 watercolours, 363 prints and posters, 5,084 drawings, some ceramic and stained glass work, and an unknown number of lost works.

 

An alcoholic for most of his adult life, Toulouse-Lautrec was placed in a sanatorium shortly before his death. He died from complications due to alcoholism and syphilis at the family estate in Malromé at the age of 36.

Paintings by Henri Mahe decorate the entrance to the Moulin Rouge in Paris

Paintings by Henri Mahe decorate the entrance to the Moulin Rouge in Paris

Paintings by Henri Mahe decorate the entrance to the Moulin Rouge in Paris

Sunny Days

In between the occasional short Norte with its accompanying cooler, windy and sometimes wet weather, we're having fabulous days, close to 30 c, calm and sunny.  The fishermen stay ashore during the Nortes but yesterday was a beautiful day for them and we enjoyed it too, ending our day with a walk along the beach up to Casa de Celeste Vida to have supper with Kenn, Karen, and Wanda.  Jorge and Fabiola (who have a vacation home next door to Celeste Vida) joined us too and we had a great meal followed by one or two drinks and hours of dominoes.  We all learned several Spanish words for "cheater!" and Fabi's new favourite English phrase is to describe herself as a "tough cookie!".

Fishing boats and sunset in Celestun

Earlier in the day my reading/snoozing in our TV Sunroom was disturbed by a flock of parrots in the trees outside our windows.  These green, yellow and blue birds (parakeets actually) are really chatty and a flock of them can be pretty noisy.

Olive-throated, or Aztec Parakeets

I was able to just open our windows wide and wait for some good photo ops as the birds hopped from branch to branch, snacking on seeds and berries in our trees.

Today is a little warmer, 30c+, and we had some new bougainvillea, spiny palm-like plants, and a new coco tree delivered by our local gardener friend, Wilbur Ruiz.  We decided to redo our roadside plantings to make them a little more attractive and colourful as well as adding some colour along our beach-side fence.  The new coco was to replace a bug-infested one that snapped off last month.  Poor Wilbur had to dig a HUGE hole and chop through a very heavy tangle of roots to remove the old stump before finally planting our new tree.

Bougainvillea thrives here, needing very little
water and producing beautiful, dramatic colour

Wilbur digging out the coco stump to plant a new one

  





I had to skip my afternoon nap today in order to watch our nephew Greg play hockey.  His BCMML team from Kamloops, BC, the Thompson Blazers, was playing in Kelowna, BC.  Luckily we can watch most of his games streamed online through www.playfullscreen.com and with texting back and forth with Chris' brother Murray and her Mom who were at the game, it was almost like we were there!

Greg firing one at the net (in a previous game)

Well the hockey game is over and my blog is done, so I think I can just fit in a short nap before supper.  Then I guess I'll have to repeat this hectic schedule all over again tomorrow!  :)

Settling back into Celestun

Our pool and pool house at Casa Piedra

We arrived back in Celestun a couple weeks ago, on October 28, and it already feels like home.  And like any home you own, there are always things to buy and things to fix and this one is definitely no exception!  But after a few repairs to my driveway gate motor, roof patching, etc., etc., I'm almost ready to start having those afternoon siestas on a regular basis!

This is the first year that we are here in time for Dia De Los Muertos (Day of the Dead) November 1 and 2 coinciding with the Catholic All Saints Day.  We didn't actually get out and see anything though as I was still a little under the weather from my recent shoulder surgery.  But we certainly heard celebrations around town. Dia de los Muertos is a holiday for remembering and honoring those who have passed. It is a festive, joyous time of celebration.

Day of the Dead is Mexico's most important holiday, which means they invest a lot of time and money into celebrating Dia de los Muertos, more so than any other holiday.  In homes, people create altars to honor their deceased loved ones. In graveyards, families clean the graves of their loved ones, which they then decorate with flowers, photos, candles, foods and drinks. People stay up all night in the graveyards, socializing and telling funny stories about their dead ancestors. Musicians are hired to stroll through the graveyard, playing the favorite songs of the dead.

This will be the first year that we are staying the whole winter here so we haven't done much in the way of decorating before now or even buying some "basic" creature comforts....like a new large-screen TV!  A necessity of course.  We also bought a few other items to make life a little more comfortable here, new ceiling fans for our bathroom and the outdoor kitchen, Chris got a new mixer, and we did a little furniture shopping at Marbol on Buen Fin.

El Buen Fin (Literally the "The Good End" but implying "The Good Weekend") is an annual nationwide shopping event in Mexico, in existence since 2011 and taking place on the third weekend of November in Mexico, and the beginning of the Christmas shopping season.

Jose and Richard holding their bananas

The Marbol furniture factory and showroom is our favourite spot for furniture and with everything 20% off we didn't miss that opportunity.  And after a long day in Merida, it was a great relief to be able to take a break half way back to Celestun at Hacienda San Jose Pachul in Kinchil to have a great meal and a visit with our friends Jose and Richard.  I shot this photo when they were giving us some of the bananas that they grow there on their own trees. They also have some smaller ones that taste like a cross between a banana and an apple; a "banapple" I guess.

We've had a little time to visit with other friends already too, Karen, Kenn and Wanda at Casa de Celeste Vida of course, as well as stopping in to see Jacque and Vincente one day and of course our Friday night expat dinners at Peter's restaurant at El Hotel Gutierrez at the foot of Calle 15 on the beach.  

Friday night expat dinner at El Hotel Gutierrez

We also have had our maids in a couple of times scrubbing down every inch of our home from top to bottom (why did we buy such a big house????????).  And our new caretaker has worked many hours already pulling and burning weeds, dead plants, tree prunings, leaves, etc., (why did we landscape such a huge yard????) and he even managed to repair my leaf blower that has been dead for a year!

We have a few other little improvements planned around here and this winter we'll be looking forward to some Canadian friends visiting as well as seeing more and more of our new Mexican and expat friends here.

PCH Roadtrip Aug. 29 - Sept. 12

We're finally on a new adventure!  We sold our beautiful little lake house at Clearwater Lake Regional Park, SK and are now on the road in our Mazda Miata.  First stop last night was Calgary, AB then we'll make our way towards Seattle over the next couple of days.  After that we'll wander south along the Pacific Coast Highway all the way to San Diego.

I'll be posting regularly on my travelblog page for anybody that wants to follow the adventure and see a few photos.

UPDATE:  Well we didn't quite make it all the way to San Diego.  Here's the link to each day of our trip:
PCH roadtrip travel blog

Shoulder Surgery

A few years ago I hurt my shoulder playing golf.  A few days in a sling and taking Aleve got me back to a somewhat workable condition.  But every year my shoulder pain gradually returned, a little worse each time and lasting longer and longer until my range of motion without pain became severely restricted.   

Dr. Mark Ernst at the Saskatoon Orthopedic & Sports Medicine Center (104-311 Ludlow St E Saskatoon, SK S7S 0A10, 306-651-0800) using ultrasound and xrays diagnosed calcium deposits in my shoulder and the need for some decompression and rotator cuff repair.  I agreed to surgery and a date was quickly booked at the Prairieview Surgical Centre in Saskatoon.    

Dr. Mark Ernst graduated from the University of Saskatchewan College of Medicine in 1992. He completed his orthopedic residency at the University of Saskatchewan in 1997. In addition, he completed a Sports Medicine, Shoulder & Knee Fellowship at the University of Calgary Sports Medicine Center in 1998. He also completed a Diploma in Sports Medicine in 1999, and is an active member of the Canadian Academy of Sports Medicine. Dr. Ernst works as the orthopedic consultant for the Saskatoon Blades (WHL), Saskatoon Hilltops (CJFL) and the University of Saskatchewan Huskies. Dr. Ernst is currently a clinical assistant professor in the University of Saskatchewan College of Medicine. His clinical interest and expertise includes arthroscopic surgery of the knee and shoulder, ligament reconstruction, and athletic related injuries.

Prairieview Surgical Centre, Saskatoon

Prairie View Surgical Centre is set up to take over 7,000 surgery referrals a year from Saskatoon hospitals. The centre is owned by an Alberta-based private healthcare company called Surgical Centres Inc. which already runs four clinics in Alberta and B.C.  The Saskatoon centre has 7 operating rooms for certain types of procedures which helps to free up hospitals for more complicated surgeries.

CLICK THE LINK BELOW FOR A YOUTUBE VIDEO 

INSIDE MY SHOULDER DURING SURGERY

http://youtu.be/8W0W6HN3s7o

Sling and Cryotherapy five hours after surgery.

The surgery took an hour or so under a general anesthetic.  Other than nausea for a few hours after waking up, all went well.  Now I'm in this specially fitted sling for a couple of weeks and tied down for 2 out of every 3 hours with a cryotherapy cold treatment unit strapped to my shoulder,

The sling was custom fitted the day before surgery by specialists in the same office as Dr. Ernst and the cryptherapy unit can be purchased or rented from them, which I did, for two weeks.  

Bandages following arthroscopic surgery

Bulky bandages removed two days after surgery.

Healthcare Holiday in Hamburg

We have the top floor suite in Sternhauser Service Apartments

One of thousands of trails in north Hamburg

Our trip to Hamburg began Friday, April 25 flying Air Canada from Regina, SK.  We're here in Hamburg for our 5th, and hopefully last, time to see Professor Seegenschmiedt at the Strahlenzentrum Hamburg Nord radiation clinic.
Although not too serious a health problem, the professor is the world authority and also the least expensive place to treat Dupuytren's Contracture.  Easily treated and usually cured at this clinic but no treatment available in Canada.  So I have come here for four separate weeks of treatment on each of my hands, and now Chris is here for her second, and last treatment for the same problem in her right hand, triggered from her Canadian carpal tunnel surgery.

Hamburg harbour

Anyway, we love Hamburg.  It is a beautiful city with more trees per square mile and more bridges than any other city in Europe.  Huge green spaces with parks and forested trails are throughout the city, often so much that it feels like you are in a giant park with occasional homes and apartment blocks appearing here and there.  Although mostly known as a port city, with more extensive waterfront warehousing than anywhere else in Europe, I now know it as the most park-like, green city in all of Europe.  I would highly recommend a visit.

Hamburg port warehousing, "Speicherstadt"

As we were in Hamburg over May 1, we had a lot of free time.  May Day is a huge national holiday so the clinic was closed on the Thursday and Friday. Treatments are normally Mon-Fri but this time they were Sun-Wed in a compressed schedule.  We already had a furnished executive stay apartment rented for a full week as well as having booked a return flight on the Saturday, before learning of the holiday schedule.  So besides wandering around Hamburg on treatment days, we were able to take a train for about a 45 minute ride to the Hanseatic city of Lubeck, Germany, a UNESCO world heritage site.

The Holsten Gate, Lubeck, Germany

Founded in 1143 on the Baltic coast of northern Germany, Lübeck was from 1230 to 1535 one of the principal cities of the Hanseatic League, a league of merchant cities which came to hold a monopoly over the trade of the Baltic Sea and the North Sea. The old part of Lubeck is surrounded by water and is a beautiful medieval town. All of the sights can easily be seen in a leisurely 2 to 3 hour walk. We found a great little bakery restaurant for lunch then caught the train back to Hamburg.

For Friday, our last day in Hamburg we decided to take the train towards downtown but get off a few stops early at Kellinghusenstrasse station. Every time we go by that stop we notice what a beautiful neighbourhood it is in that area so we decided to do a little exploring.


It turned out to be a very upscale yuppy sort of area with a beautiful old-world style spa in a HUGE old brick and glass building right by the train stop. We walked along the streets checking out all the small shops then happened upon a great produce market several blocks long underneath the overhead train tracks. It must have taken us at least an hour to walk through the whole thing. We found a nice German restaurant at the end of it and warmed up with a meal and coffee then walked back to catch our train back to our apartment. Saturday morning we caught the train to the airport and headed back to Regina to finally return to Canada after roaming the world a little bit most of the time since last July.






Tourist boat in Hamburg harbour




Busy Hamburg Waterfront on a warm Spring day

Hamburg harbour

Downtown Hamburg; short man or high chair?

Hamburg central train station

Cactus in the tropical greenhouse in Alter Botanischer Garten Hamburg

Little boy checking out nude statue near botanical gardens

Alter Botanischer Garten Hamburg

Rhododendrons in Alter Botanischer Garten Hamburg

Tulips in Alter Botanischer Garten Hamburg

Latte stop in downtown Hamburg, Germany

Lunch in Hamburg 

Spicy's Gewurzmuseum, a spice museum in Hamburg, Germany

Tourist boat in Hamburg harbour

Kayakers in Hamburg harbour

Pedestrian shopping street in Hamburg

Roof over sidewalk along shops in Hamburg

Our new favourite beer

Chris at Evento restaurant near our apartment in Hamburg

VW van fire truck in a museum in Hamburg

Lubeck, Germany

Lubeck, Germany

Mayday parade in Lubeck, Germany

May Day celebrations in Lubeck, Germany, viewed from top of St. Peter's Church tower

Mayday parade, Lubeck, Germany

May Day parade, Lubeck, Germany

May Day parade in Lubeck, Germany

May Day parade in Lubeck, Germany

View of Lubeck, Germany from top of St. Peter's Church tower

Lubeck, Germany

Lubeck, Germany

Lubeck, Germany

Lubeck, Germany

Lubeck, Germany

View of Holsten Gate,  Lubeck, Germany from top of St. Peter's Church tower

View of Lubeck, Germany from top of St. Peter's Church tower

View of Lubeck, Germany from top of St. Peter's Church tower

Lubeck, Germany

Enjoying a sunny Spring day on their balcony in Lubeck, Germany

View of Lubeck, Germany from top of St. Peter's Church tower

Lubeck, Germany

Marzipan factory and store in Lubeck, Germany

Flower vendor in the Isemarkt in Hamburg, Germany

Canal in Hamburg, Germany near the Hoheluftbrucke train station

Produce vendor in the Isemarkt in Hamburg, Germany

Produce vendor in the Isemarkt in Hamburg, Germany