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Imagine ~ Intend ~ Create

Exploring Abroad: El Palacito Secreto

You never know what’s behind the pastel walls of Mérida’s historic neighborhoods.

When we entered the front door of El Palacito Secreto Luxury Boutique Hotel it felt like we’d discovered a hidden treasure. The stunning architecture, mosaic images, and use of hand-made pasta tiles throughout the property reflect an attention to detail that’s rare.

All of the bedrooms are luxurious and uniquely decorated. We stayed in the magnificent Marie Antoinette Suite.

The antique furnishings, gorgeous fabrics, and artwork were tastefully opulent.

The suite’s large, private terrace overlooked the manicured pool courtyard.

A relaxing afternoon at the beautifully designed pool felt like being transported to a private, exclusive manor in the French countryside.

We joked that it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Leonardo DiCaprio stroll by.

The lovely spa offered a wide range of treatments that were tempting. Instead we decided to enjoy our terrace and...

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Exploring Abroad: Day Trip to Progreso, Mexico

Progreso is a port town on the Yucatán Peninsula less than an hour’s drive from Mérida.

It’s claim to fame is boasting the world’s longest pier, stretching 4 miles into the Gulf of Mexico!

Since many locals own second homes in the area or visit the beaches there, we decided to take a day trip to check it out.

We hopped on an early morning bus from downtown. Our round-trip fare was so cheap (about US$2 each) we thought we misunderstood the lady who took our money!

Our excursion was on a Mexico election day, and the beach was almost deserted when we arrived.

The government wants voters to have a clear head so no alcohol was being served that day. No problema. We plopped down under a big thatched umbrella with lemonades to enjoy the scenery.

It was kind of sad to see vendors with so much merchandise and so few customers.

We ate scrumptious seafood at a restaurant a block away from the beach. (Insider tip: same food, cheaper prices) Ever seen a...

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Exploring Abroad: What our first month traveling has REALLY been like

Edd:  We’ve been posting on social media like crazy and blogging our brains out since leaving the States about a month ago.

Cynthia:  What a change, right? During the pandemic we pretty much sat at our computers in Cuenca for over a year. Not a lot of photo-worthy moments.

E:  Now we’ve flung ourselves out there visiting places we’ve never been. Seeing new things and meeting new people.

C:  And doing things we’ve never done. Like traveling to one location after another and living out of what feels like very tiny suitcases. It’s been a huge adjustment from our simple life in Ecuador.

E:  I’ll say. The pics we post show the sunny side of our global adventure, but we’ve hit our share of speed bumps over these first weeks.

C:  Sure have, but keeping it real, we’re making this up day by day and knew that we would have to be flexible.

E:  Ha! Flexible? That’s an understatement. Like the first place...

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Exploring Abroad: Food in the Yucatán Peninsula

Mérida, the capital and largest city of the state of Yucatán, is also the cultural and culinary center of the peninsula.

With over a million residents from a broad cross section of countries beyond Mexico, Mérida offers a dazzling variety of food options.

Yes, burritos, enchiladas, and tacos are everywhere. American chains like Starbucks, Chili’s, and Texas Roadhouse are around too.

We’ve had our share of wonderfully prepared Mexican meals.

Inventive, artistic dishes almost too beautiful to eat. Almost…

And one of the best pizzas ever at a small neighborhood restaurant.

Yet the traditional cuisine of the area is still very much present and quite unique.

Relative isolation from the rest of Mexico, the traditions of its Mayan ancestry, and exposure to the ingredients of European traders visiting its ports combined to create an amalgam of fascinating flavors.

Many dishes include the holy trinity of Yucatecan food—sour orange, achiote...

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Exploring Abroad: The Diplomat Boutique Hotel

We were thrilled to be invited to spend a night at The Diplomat Boutique Hotel, Tripadvisor’s #1 rated hotel in Mérida, Mexico.

Our stay confirmed why owners Sara and Neil have earned that lofty designation through flawless attention to detail in everything from design to service.

      

We were welcomed as old friends by Sara and escorted to our spacious poolside suite, The Paramount. With its tasteful furnishings, 20-foot ceilings and elegant bathroom, we immediately knew this was going to be an exceptional experience.

The Diplomat has an honor system bar with a variety of craft beers and wines, plus a complimentary tequila station. Wow, right?

  

After a relaxing afternoon at the pool and a lovely dinner out,

a tequila nightcap was the perfect ending to a wonderful day in this beautiful oasis.

Morning coffee and tea service was available in the lovely dining space next to the pool before our included breakfast. We were impressed they...

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Exploring Abroad: Must Do Sunday Event in Mérida, Mexico

After being sidelined for over a year by COVID-19, a beloved Mérida event called Biciruta was recently reactivated.

From 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. each Sunday the east lane of the city’s most famous boulevard, Paseo de Montejo, is open for bicycles only.

Thousands of riders and pedestrians enjoy the beautiful views along this shady avenue patterned after the world-renowned Champs-Élysées in Paris.

At the end of the 19th century the outbreak of the Spanish-American War created a shortage of hemp, the fiber used in nautical ropes, from the Philippines.

This caused the price of henequén, a similar fiber produced in the Yucatán, to skyrocket. And for massive wealth to be created almost overnight. At that time there were more millionaires in this small Mexican state than anywhere else on the planet!

Paris was THE most envied city at the time, so newly-monied Yucatecans developed their own version of Champs-Élysées lined with massive...

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Exploring Abroad: First Impressions of Mérida, Mexico

After months of preparation our global adventure finally began last week when we departed for our first stop—Mérida, Mexico.

Why Mérida? Capital of the state of Yucatán, it’s a vibrant city of about one million residents with a rich Mayan and colonial heritage.

Several factors have made Mérida an increasingly popular expat destination:

  • Easy access to and from the States 
  • Proximity to the beach (less than an hour’s drive)
  • Boatloads of culture 
  • Central location for exploring lots of surrounding UNESCO-designated archaeological sites, including Chichén Itzá, one of the New Seven Wonders of the World

And the low cost of living that we’ll report on at every location we visit.

In the Mérida airport we got Mexican pesos from an ATM to pay for the taxi ride to our Airbnb rental.

After using the US dollar in Ecuador all these years it felt weird to be handling foreign currency. Fortunately, the conversion...

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Expat Life: Living the Dream

Edd:  Can’t even begin talking about Living the Dream, the title of the last book in our trilogy, without referencing the Thoreau quote that has guided us all these years.

Cynthia:  “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you’ve imagined.” That refrigerator magnet message has followed us everywhere.

E:  Last time I mentioned a Dan Fogelberg lyric: “Where do you go when you get to the end of your dreams?” In our case the answer is simple—create some new ones!

C:  Ever since I can remember our dream was to chase perfect weather around the globe. As we related in a previous blog, we found that special climate, or at least our version of it, in Cuenca. Now we’re embarking on the second part of our original vision.

E:  The Great Recession of 2008 unexpectedly knocked our life way off course. Consequently, those dreams got put on the shelf for a while. But we never, ever, forgot...

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Expat Life: Letting Go

Cynthia:  Last time we started talking about how our new adventure is repeating the stages described in the titles of our trilogy of books. Specifically that we’re once again taking a Leap of Faith.

Edd:  The second volume, Letting Go,” is my personal favorite. We could have called it “Cutting Loose.” My Gosh, it seems like we partied for two straight years!

C:  We arrived in Cuenca so broken from the financial strain we’d been under. The sheer joy of being released from that burden translated into a nonstop celebration of freedom.

E:  Totally unsustainable but what a blast while it lasted! We truly were leaving behind so much. Not only the money hardships. We were also saying goodbye to the stress and pressures of everyday life in American culture. The multitasking and over-scheduling. Traffic. Never feeling relaxed.

C:  What do you think we’re “letting go” of now?

E:  Well, our...

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Expat Life: Leap of Faith

Edd:  On the plane from Cuenca to Quito it dawned on me that with our new travel adventure we’re once again going through the same stages as the titles of our trilogy of books.

Cynthia:  H-m-m-m. Well, I certainly agree that abandoning what many people would consider an ideal life to roam the planet with no agenda is a "Leap of Faith!"

E:  But to be fair the circumstances now are completely different from 11 years ago. Initially we moved abroad because we had to. We metaphorically hurled ourselves off a cliff and hoped the parachute opened.

C:  That’s a little dramatic but I get your point. This time we’re making a proactive decision to do something very different because we want to.

E:  And if everything goes sideways, we can always return to our residence in Cuenca. Still, I don’t want to minimize the fact that choosing to basically live out of carry-on luggage for months at a time in unfamiliar places is a pretty edgy choice.

...

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