• About Us
  • Expat basics
  • Info list

Imagine Mérida

Becoming Expats in the Yucatán

Two words that sound so lovely: “your keys”

January 16, 2012 by Lee

We don’t have a finished property to visit and enjoy, but we do have keys, which is something. We have keys that open something of ours in Mérida! Those two little words: “your keys,” “Estas son sus claves.” Ahhhh. Tell me more about my keys. I cling to those keys, even though I can’t touch them because they’re actually in someone’s drawer in Mérida.

The word loses its beauty power when they’re your keys, their keys or the other person’s keys. Sometimes, the word can be ugly and brutal. When we were house-hunting, the real estate agent very often didn’t possess the keys to places he was showing, and there are no lock boxes like you’d see in the States. (Something about attitudes regarding keys and ownership, we were told.) Often, a team was sent just ahead of us to get the keys, and when someone failed to connect, we’d be left waiting on the curb. “No tenemos las llaves.” Grrrrrr. Not a pretty phrase at all. (Is llaves and claves interchangeable, or is Google Translate messing with my head? No matter.)

I actually have a bad history with keys in Mérida. We stayed at one place that gave us two keys, [Read more…]

Filed Under: All Posts, Musings Tagged With: gringo gulch, Merida historic homes

The unphotographable rooms of Mérida’s Centro

December 31, 2011 by Lee

Beams overhead in a Centro home in MéridaHere we are, our first chunk of free time since we closed on the property, and we don’t fly south. We drive north. If I had known in the summer that I would have closed on a property shortly before New Year’s, our plans would have been very different this weekend.

So here we are at an inn on Cape Cod, waiting to celebrate New Year’s, and marking Paul’s birthday. It’s drizzly and cold outside, but we brought our books on haciendas and casas to stimulate our imaginations. Sitting by the fireplace, we need to think through our plans for Casa Nana.

As I’m poring though these very professional and beautiful photos, it strikes me that they’re of limited use.

“Your looks are laughable, unphotographable,” goes the old song lyric, but when I say Mérida’s grand-scale homes in the Centro can’t be photographed, I mean it as a compliment.

My last trip down, I visited the home of a favorite blogger whose renovation tales I had been following closely. I saw (studied, really) every photo taken before, during and after her fantastic Henry Ponce project. I saw it as a good way to train my eyes to look at a “ruin” and see its potential. But when I arrived [Read more…]

Filed Under: All Posts, Musings Tagged With: house hunting, Merida historic homes, New Year's Day, Real estate agents

Imagine the Archives

  • July 2017 (1)
  • January 2017 (1)
  • July 2016 (2)
  • June 2016 (1)
  • January 2016 (4)
  • December 2015 (3)
  • November 2015 (1)
  • October 2015 (2)
  • July 2015 (2)
  • June 2015 (1)
  • May 2015 (1)
  • April 2015 (1)
  • February 2015 (2)
  • January 2015 (5)
  • December 2014 (2)
  • November 2014 (1)
  • October 2014 (4)
  • September 2014 (2)
  • August 2014 (4)
  • July 2014 (1)
  • June 2014 (7)
  • May 2014 (5)
  • April 2014 (4)
  • March 2014 (3)
  • February 2014 (5)
  • January 2014 (5)
  • December 2013 (5)
  • November 2013 (8)
  • October 2013 (5)
  • September 2013 (7)
  • August 2013 (9)
  • July 2013 (9)
  • June 2013 (7)
  • May 2013 (15)
  • April 2013 (5)
  • March 2013 (5)
  • February 2013 (9)
  • January 2013 (7)
  • December 2012 (6)
  • November 2012 (5)
  • October 2012 (3)
  • September 2012 (8)
  • August 2012 (4)
  • July 2012 (8)
  • June 2012 (10)
  • May 2012 (6)
  • April 2012 (7)
  • March 2012 (2)
  • February 2012 (6)
  • January 2012 (11)
  • December 2011 (10)
  • November 2011 (12)
  • October 2011 (23)
  • September 2011 (26)
  • August 2011 (20)
  • July 2011 (31)
  • June 2011 (32)
  • May 2011 (21)
  • April 2011 (22)
  • March 2011 (2)
  • January 2011 (1)
  • November 2010 (1)
  • July 2010 (1)

Copyright © 2018 · Metro Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in