blah... blah... blah... GINGER!

Sunday, January 04, 2009

Leaving Oxkutzcab, it's a short distance (less than 20 km) to Ticul. I'm going to try something new here, this is a link to a Google Map of the area. You should be able to see my bookmarks from this trip and zoom in and out.

Ticul is a county seat, the capital of the Municipalidad, so a little larger town. It is known for 2 things, women's shoes and low-fired clay pots. Odd combo, huh?

First off, we stopped on the 'street of shoes' so Paula could look around. The prices are really good and the street was full of parked cars with men sitting in them alone. The stores were full of women shopping for shoes.

Poor Paula, I swear she broke out in a sweat. She couldn't decide, there were too many and too little time. She decided she wanted to come back - probably alone - when she could spend more time looking.

Then we found the 'street of pots' and started looking around. I liked the pots in one place and the woman there said we could go to the factory if we followed her. Off we went behind her scooter to the place they were made. It was a large factory, with 2 kilns and a half dozen people working.

These are wood fired kilns, low temperature means the pot is not as sturdy as high-fired ones - at least, that's what I've been told. These are good, basic garden pots though. They do paint them which seals them a bit. They also recommend that you paint the inside with the same sealer that is commonly used on roofs here.

One of the kilns was cooling, they don't move the stacked pots until they are cool to avoid cracking. Mimi got down in the opening and got a picture of how they are stacked. Amazing.

We filled our little Toyota truck with 6 large pots. As we were driving away, I realized I forgot to bargain! I really meant to do some bargaining on the prices since we bought so many but I completely forgot. I'll be back for more so I'll try and get a better price next time. I was happy with the price but since I have no basis for what they cost I might have been making the fatal mistake of using NOB prices as a comparison.

The largest were 60cm x 60cm (2' x 2') and cost $380 pesos ($28us) and $280p ($20us), the medium sized were $150 to $230 ($11 to $17us). My total for all 6 was $1590 pesos ($115.50us). Today or tomorrow I need to buy some impermeable and paint the inside before we plant our little tree.

Ticul is a very Mayan town, there are several small pyramids and many artifacts along the roads. This one was really nice.

I really enjoy searching out things I need that are made locally. It satisfies the hunter/gatherer in me and is a lot more fun than just going to Target.

We went off on an excursion today. I wanted a citrus tree, 2 types grafted on one root. I'd heard they were available at a nursery outside Oxkutzcab, a town in the center of the orange growing area of southern Yucatan state. I also wanted some large clay pots for the tree and other plants at the house, those are made in the nearby town of Tikul.

It was a nice drive an hour or so south of Mérida. First stop was lunch in Oxkutzcab, pronounced osh-kootz-kahb. We started looking for a restaurant we used to go to years ago, the town has changed a lot and no one seemed to know where it was. The cop I asked at the square sent us to another place, TuTul. It seems new but very nice and the food was excellent and very traditional Yucatecan. I had Queso Relleno, edam cheese stuffed with ground meat and spices, steamed and covered in a brown gravy. Stephen and Mimi had Poc Chuc, grilled pork seasoned with anchiote and sour orange. I tried it and it was some of the best I've had. Paula had the Relleno Blanco, turkey cooked with a ground pork loaf. It's similar to the more famous Relleno Negro but without the burnt chilis, the sauce is very mild. I forgot to take a picture of the food and instead took one of the intricate palapa roof.

I had neither directions or the name of the nursery so I started my search with the waiters. One of them knew the nursery and off we went. It wasn't quite where he said but asking some construction workers got us there. No sign, no name that I saw but rows and rows of small citrus trees. A supplier of trees for the commercial growers, he had all kinds of citrus and some mamey and mango. You can see the mamey fruit on the large tree at the top right of the picture. It's one of my favorites but the trees are much too large for my house.

These are some kind of citrus being grafted onto the root stock. My new Spanish word for the day was injertar, to graft.

I asked about a dual graft, I wanted the traditional sour orange with a sweet lime. He walked around the rows for a bit and then picked up one small sapling and showed me the 2 grafts and said this was it. I asked how much and it was 8 pesos! That's about 60 cents US.

It's small but I'm thrilled with it. He told me it would be producing in about 18 months and that it would do fine in a large pot in full sun.

With my little tree safely tucked in a box in the back of our truck, we were off to buy a pot for it in Ticul.

That will be tomorrow's post, it's late and I'm tired. We sat up and ate pizza and played dominoes when we got back tonight. It's a tough life.

Saturday, January 03, 2009

Before Christmas, some bloggers were posting pictures of Nativity scenes where they live. I kept meaning to take a picture of one but never spotted one I really liked. Today I saw one that was perfect.

Since it is after Christmas, the baby Jesus is present. Notice though, that he is several times larger than any of the other figures. In fact, he kind of gives me the creeps. Also, he's laying in a hammock... very Mayan. The flamingos also add a local touch, this was in Ticul a town in the interior of the Yucatan.

Friday, January 02, 2009

Last June I did a post about the different ways men touch themselves in public. It was funny, got lots of comments, and the subject does always amuse me.

Yesterday while we were walking through a department store, Chapur, I noticed this mannequin.

I think it is so endemic here that they put the mannequin's hand there to make him look natural. Cracked me up.

Wednesday, December 31, 2008

¡Feliz y Prospero Año Nuevo a todos! - It's been an interesting year, I hope the new year includes the chance for us to meet more of you.

Clearly the thing that has most occupied us in 2008 has been the renovation of our house. I thought I'd put up some pictures of the house from the beginning and the end of this year.

The front of the house in January 2008