Yesterday was a nice day. We had arranged with Bob, Denice and Amy to go to some of the local antique shops in Merida.

But first they had arranged for us to visit the casa of one of our new neighbors - Roger and Phyliss from Cape Cod. They've been 6/6 residents here for about four years and they live virtually across the street from where are new home will be. This was another WOW home. It's really so unsuspecting, there's this faded blue facade with an old door and a window with bars on it - you ring the bell, you enter the casa and POW. I can't describe it. This home was 7,700 square feet under roof and terraces. When you enter the home, the first room is/must be kept in an original Colonial state, ceilings, walls, pasta flooring all has to remain in tact. But it's what you do after this first street front room. Phyliss lead us into the adjoining courtyard and BANG, it's designed as a traditional Mexican street for about 50' - with fake balconies, old doors, old electrical meters, a used Coke bottle behind one of the grates and even a fake church. Over the top ! We hadn't even hit the house yet and I was already shell-shocked

Then it was into the main area. I can't describe this place, you'll have to let the attached pictures help you to envision what was next. A mirror on the wall, probably one of the largest mirrors in the world I suspect - it must have been 25' x 20', and framed to boot. The overhead canopy into the living room looked like velvet with tassels, but no - it was all made out of concrete.

This Massachusetts couple was heading back north the next day, so they'd pretty much closed things up for the next 6 months, but they wanted to us in to have a look before they headed out. Already we've been introduced to two neighbors on our street or Calle, so we're pretty much to go, as long as we get added to their party lists.

Both Bob & Denice had told us of the possibility to find just the perfect piece in these antique shops, so Deborah was anxious to get going. One of the shops known as the Doctor's House was more of the typical antique store - but with everything from soup to nuts and a large outdoor area was used to house all the stone work, pots and metal grates. So much of the the stock was old, antique armoires, after all the mexican homes rarely have closets because of the thick walls, so they used these as free standing closets. So much stone work, iron work, grates, it was hard to focus on any one thing there was so much.

From there we headed over to the "junkyard" as they referred to it. While it was still in a house, the majority of their stock was in the home's massive courtyard. We wanted piece after piece after piece - "Cuanto Cuesta" was heard as we walked over tons of stonework, tiles and old pieces of sculpture. We'll definitely be back once we've got somewhere to store the stuff.

Then it was back to Casa Oasis for a spectacular lunch of burgers and potato salad. For a couple that we've known for just eighteen days, we can't believe how blessed we are to have such great new friends and neighbors in our new city of Merida. And to top it off, out comes a Strawberry cake for Deb's birthday. I've just made a dentist appointment with Dr. Eduardo (he comes highly recommended from Denice) for a cleaning. I just want to see what the service is like here and at what cost as compared to my dentist back home in Vancouver. This will of course be updated in my blogs very shortly as I have to wait, just two days for my appointment. I just need to figure out where they are because the receptionist's English was about as bad as my Spanish.

Stay tuned until next time, and again - thanks for reading this stuff.
Bob