Vent Below (1 Viewer)

[dtc]

The quote is in Mexican pesos
I'm renovating a house in my hometown of Mérida. I want to build a pool that looks as if the Chichen-Itza castle was cut three levels from the ground and made into a pool. Two reasons why: it'd look awesome , and it'd actually be cheaper to do that way, since there would be minimal digging into the ground. The ground back home is basically solid rock, and because the location (historic downtown) the builders cannot use dynamite to break the rock; has to be done with jackhammers. Originally, I was given an estimate of "around $100,000 pesos", but when the detailed estimate came in, it was for $154,000. If I do the pool leveled with the ground, it jumps to $190,000.

Which really isn't bad for a 22' x 8' swimming pool. About $7,700 cash American.

I knew I wanted to hear that story. My 3rd grade project was Chichen-Itza so I believe I can perfectly visualize.

Can I come visit? I've always wanted to visit the Yucatan. Is there a good place to visit nearby?

 

[Saint_Ward]

The quote is in Mexican pesos
I'm renovating a house in my hometown of Mérida. I want to build a pool that looks as if the Chichen-Itza castle was cut three levels from the ground and made into a pool. Two reasons why: it'd look awesome , and it'd actually be cheaper to do that way, since there would be minimal digging into the ground. The ground back home is basically solid rock, and because the location (historic downtown) the builders cannot use dynamite to break the rock; has to be done with jackhammers. Originally, I was given an estimate of "around $100,000 pesos", but when the detailed estimate came in, it was for $154,000. If I do the pool leveled with the ground, it jumps to $190,000.

Which really isn't bad for a 22' x 8' swimming pool. About $7,700 cash American.

I've been to Merida. I was 16 and we were only there a couple days. We also got to visit Chichen-Itza. It was a cool trip.

 

[dtc]

I've been to Merida. I was 16 and we were only there a couple days. We also got to visit Chichen-Itza. It was a cool trip.

Spent the last 20 minutes looking at flights and hotels.

 

[RetroMcBananaFace]

And why do they call it Ovaltine? The can is round!

they should call it round-tine

 

[SystemShock]

I knew I wanted to hear that story. My 3rd grade project was Chichen-Itza so I believe I can perfectly visualize.

Can I come visit? I've always wanted to visit the Yucatan. Is there a good place to visit nearby?

Once Sala de Fiestas SystemShock is open (shooting for Dec 2019), everyone is welcome! Plenty of stuff to do in the Peninsula...
Links are mostly in Spanish, but they have plenty of pictures. The ones to Yucatantoday.com, that's an Expat site ('Muricans living in Merida), if you look on the upper right, you can switch to English. They have really good articles about visiting and living there.

The State is littered with Mayan cities. Obviously you'd want to do Chichen and Uxmal (and their light shows), but the smaller locations, while not as majestic, aren't as crowded, cost less, and have no annoying vendors. There is the Puuc Route, (Uxmal is actually part of it) which is like a Route 66 of Mayan cities and cenotes, some of them you can swim in. There are wild life reserves like El Corchito or Rio Lagartos. There are caverns, both lit up ( like Loltún) and unmolested (like Calcehtok), if you want to go spelunking.

There are also plenty of colonial places to visit: plenty of churches and nunneries from 300-400+ years ago, not only in Merida but in the smaller towns like Izamal or Valladolid; old haciendas, some of them now hotels/retreats, a couple where you can see how henequen was processed during the Green Gold Days like Sotuta de Peon (owned by a gringa, BTW )

The local government has free shows every night downtown. The best - to me anyway - are the vaquería, which is a re-enactment of a traditional Mestizo festival (and yes, I used to be able to dance that), and the Pok Ta Pok , the re-enactment of the Mayan ball game.

The City has an old European feel to it. In the 1800's and early 1900's, the rich would send their kids to France and Italy to study, and when they came back, they would build homes like the ones they saw there.

The beach is 28 kilometers from the city. There is fishing, jet skiing, seafood that was swimming in the ocean an hour ago.

Then there is the Yucatec food, which is nothing like the Mexican food you know: papatzules, salbutes, tikin xic, mucbil pollo, poc chuc, xnipec, cochinita pibil, and some you can only really taste there, like lime soup or anything in escabeche because the limes and oranges used to make them you can't really find anywhere else.

All of that and more, within anywhere from a short walk to a 2 hour drive. If you want to drive 3-4 hrs, you can make it to Tulum or Xcaret in Quintana Roo, or go East to Campeche. Campeche is like Yucatan, but Yucatecos see Campeche as a Yucatan-wannabe

The State of Yucatan is very safe. There are thousands of Americans, Canadians, Italians, Germans living there part time or year round. We even have a large Korean population. A bad year in the murder rate in Mérida is a slow week in Chicago. In a city of 2,000,000 +, last year there were 47 murders in the city, most of them crimes of passion.

The things I'll tell you that I don't like: downtown, outside the obvious tourist areas, gets dirty. The city is also very noisy. The streets are very narrow, and the walls of the old buildings are foot thick, made of rock, so the noise is amplified. It doesn't help that, for some reason, a significant number of businesses put out loud speakers outside their businesses playing loud music, I really hate that... so bring earplugs. And driving there, ugh...

I could go on and on, but, I think that was enough of a hijack.

 

[T.P.]

I was at home today and there was a knock on the door. It was a worker telling me that they were doing work on the water line on my street. He said the water would be shut off from noon to 4. Around 2 the water was still on but I forgot about the pending shut off. I started to take a shower and was completely covered in soap when the water was cut off. I didn't know what to do. I remembered I had a pitcher of clean water for my aquarium that I used to rinse off...somewhat. I can laugh now but I was mad with myself at the time....too much going on.

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

Once Sala de Fiestas SystemShock is open (shooting for Dec 2019), everyone is welcome! Plenty of stuff to do in the Peninsula...
Links are mostly in Spanish, but they have plenty of pictures. The ones to Yucatantoday.com, that's an Expat site ('Muricans living in Merida), if you look on the upper right, you can switch to English. They have really good articles about visiting and living there.

The State is littered with Mayan cities. Obviously you'd want to do Chichen and Uxmal (and their light shows), but the smaller locations, while not as majestic, aren't as crowded, cost less, and have no annoying vendors. There is the Puuc Route, (Uxmal is actually part of it) which is like a Route 66 of Mayan cities and cenotes, some of them you can swim in. There are wild life reserves like El Corchito or Rio Lagartos. There are caverns, both lit up ( like Loltún) and unmolested (like Calcehtok), if you want to go spelunking.

There are also plenty of colonial places to visit: plenty of churches and nunneries from 300-400+ years ago, not only in Merida but in the smaller towns like Izamal or Valladolid; old haciendas, some of them now hotels/retreats, a couple where you can see how henequen was processed during the Green Gold Days like Sotuta de Peon (owned by a gringa, BTW )

The local government has free shows every night downtown. The best - to me anyway - are the vaquería, which is a re-enactment of a traditional Mestizo festival (and yes, I used to be able to dance that), and the Pok Ta Pok , the re-enactment of the Mayan ball game.

The City has an old European feel to it. In the 1800's and early 1900's, the rich would send their kids to France and Italy to study, and when they came back, they would build homes like the ones they saw there.

The beach is 28 kilometers from the city. There is fishing, jet skiing, seafood that was swimming in the ocean an hour ago.

Then there is the Yucatec food, which is nothing like the Mexican food you know: papatzules, salbutes, tikin xic, mucbil pollo, poc chuc, xnipec, cochinita pibil, and some you can only really taste there, like lime soup or anything in escabeche because the limes and oranges used to make them you can't really find anywhere else.

All of that and more, within anywhere from a short walk to a 2 hour drive. If you want to drive 3-4 hrs, you can make it to Tulum or Xcaret in Quintana Roo, or go East to Campeche. Campeche is like Yucatan, but Yucatecos see Campeche as a Yucatan-wannabe

The State of Yucatan is very safe. There are thousands of Americans, Canadians, Italians, Germans living there part time or year round. We even have a large Korean population. A bad year in the murder rate in Mérida is a slow week in Chicago. In a city of 2,000,000 +, last year there were 47 murders in the city, most of them crimes of passion.

The things I'll tell you that I don't like: downtown, outside the obvious tourist areas, gets dirty. The city is also very noisy. The streets are very narrow, and the walls of the old buildings are foot thick, made of rock, so the noise is amplified. It doesn't help that, for some reason, a significant number of businesses put out loud speakers outside their businesses playing loud music, I really hate that... so bring earplugs. And driving there, ugh...

I could go on and on, but, I think that was enough of a hijack.

Maybe ramp up the timeline so you can be done by women’s World Cup - @Oye could start a minivan pool from Canada and pick us up - maybe we won’t come til the knockout round so as not to overstay

 

[zeetes]

i don’t understand why every other high risk cancer (for women) has a dedicated following, but uterine does not. uterine cancers are fast growing and highly likely to spread quickly if not caught in time. boobs and ovaries seem to be the only concern. why not just “women’s cancer”???!?!?!?

why is bipolar 1 the main concern for media and med ads? bipolar 2 people are generally non-violent and more likely to commit suicide, and are prone to have higher depression manic episodes. i guess pharmaceutical companies can’t make anything off of dead people.

 

[CapitalCitySaint]

...why is the Ovaltine can round??

It's technically a cylinder. Cylindertine.

 

[superchuck500]

The peso needs its own symbol

 

[Sun Wukong]

People who ask "When are you going to settle down and have kids?" as if you just go to the store and buy a family. And it's not a situation where I didn't want that to happen. I wanted a family. Probably aged out of it ever happening at this point, but holy sheet it's like thanks for pointing out how much I suck.

 

[soupcan dan]

when you finally clear up a $16000 medical bill because they accidentally coded a lumpectomy as "experimental" only to receive another $16000 bill for the same procedure because an "experimental" drug was used in the procedure but they cant tell me which drug was coded as such.

 

[Saint_Ward]

Spent the last 20 minutes looking at flights and hotels.

We did a lot of tours in Merida. It was a school trip. I remember seeing a lot of art and buildings.

Chichen Itza was cool, but super hot. You used to be able to climb the main pyramid, but I believe they don't allow it anymore. I was too much of a wuss to climb up, I didn't do heights well, and those steps are steep.

We took a bus to Uxmal (long long ride..even though they say an hour, it felt like a lot longer) and stayed at a small resort there for a night. We did the temple night light show tour.

The Uxmal Light and Sound Show: Is It Worth It? | Journey Wonders

The best part of the light show (which isn't impressive, to be honest), is when the lights go out and you can see all the stars. We were lucky that it was a hot and dry day, and not only did we see more stars than in any time of our lives, but we saw the Milky Way going up at an angle across the sky. I wish they kept the lights off for longer. I've never seen anything like that since.

Then, instead of Cancun, we went to Isla Mujeres. We stayed at a resort on the beach, but not the swimming beach (too many rocks). However, the public beach was about a 2 block walk or so. Perfectly clear water, almost no waves. I was up to my neck and could see my toes still.

It looks like there are other hotel options right on the swimable parts of the beach. We took a boat from Cancun to get there.

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

The peso needs its own symbol

?

 

[Saint_Ward]

Back to venting..

The housing market is forking stupid high again.