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!