We've been in Merida for three days now and there's been lots of action. We've settled into Casa Musa and it's become like home. The real unfortunate thing that happened was on Thursday, Terry was swimming in our pool and tried to get out for some sun, but in stepping off the surrounding ledge onto the Mexican tiles he came down hard, real *********** the tile floor. He was in real pain for a while but seemed to recover ok and as a matter course we went off to dinner with little or no complaint from Terry with respect to his injury.

I guess at some point during the night on Thursday, Terry's pain must have been horrible to the point where they felt they should return to Cancun immediately for medical evaluation. I now find out through text messages from Angie that Terry has in fact broken his hip but has arranged a Doctor's appointment for today (Saturday) to get the full extent of his injuries. We wish him a speedy recovery, but as a result of all this we have a huge Casa Musa all to ourself for the next 25-days.

Yesterday was our first exploration of downtown Merida. We grabbed the local Hop-On / Hop-Off bus that we normally do. It gives us a good feel for different areas of any city that we visit. For 120P ($6US) it was certainly a good way to spend 1 1/2 hours taking shots around this city of over 1,000,000 people. Our contact at Remixto, Johnathan has introduced me to the UBER Car Service here in Merida and what a service it is. We can go about anywhere in the city here for about 50P or $2.50US in a new, clean car with a driver(s) that have all appeared to be very professional. Why do we not approve this in Vancouver - third world I guess.

I want to send a special thank you to my friend Mike Nicholls back in Toronto for hooking us up with Bob Phippard from Toronto but who lives here in Merida for 7-months of the year. We went over to meet with Bob and his wife Denise and my god, you should have seen their Casa Oasis. Simply, positively, unequivocally an amazing place - it probably ranks as one of the loveliest homes I've ever been in - EVER. Then, he took the time to take us down the street and around the corner to a friends house from Switzerland that has an even bigger Casa, a much more contemporary Casa but again WOW. We've scheduled dinner with them on Tuesday night to pick their brain about options - he is certainly a very informed, interesting individual - Thanks Mike.

He recommended an Italian restaurant about a 10 minute walk from their Casa. Olivia is a superb Italian restaurant and dinner with the whole deal came to $700P or $35US. Such a good choice.

Today is Saturday and we've decided to hang around the pool and get caught up, get some sun and cook a couple of steaks on our new BBQ. I've attached a few photos from our downtown Merida tour - hopefully you enjoy what a vibrant, beautiful city Merida really is.
Hasta Pronto