Is it hot? How does 36deg and 99% humidity sound?

We have arrived in Mérida in the rainy season or as they like to call it here – the green season. Even the locals are sweating and carrying about cloth implements to wipe the brow – and other places you didn’t know you could sweat from.

The good news (for us) is that our Airbnb casa has a pool, and hammocks and it has air-conditioning in the bedrooms. The bad news is that I’m in the reception lounge which only has a fan. Don’t even start me on the upstairs lounge – it is even hotter and I don’t go there except to transit to my bedroom which is across a deck and little bridge. Cute and pink.

It rains most afternoons and can be torrential, but is almost always over quickly – except today it rained twice and we were 12km away. Thank god for uber.

So what does Merida look like? it is flat and quaint and colonial and painted in nice colours with wrought iron window are so you can have air and security – a bit like Cartagena in Columbia.

On Sunday morning one goes cycling in Merida – and they close off some streets to accommodate this and it is a great family outing. And so braving the already wilting heat at 9.30am Lola and Ms Pacifica set off on the trusty one-speed bikes with no attachments – no mirrors, no bell, no gears, no handbrakes, no basket, no water bottle holder – nada.  But it was fun, and leisurely as there were many tots learning to cycle and  many rickshaws and quad bikes and a few roller-scaters and skate-borders.

Afterwards we stopped at a cafe or a cold drink and her was a great chilled out band playing on the footpath and kids and parents dancing and having fun and learning rhythm early!

And we have friends here – the first night we went to a book club event and then found one expat american women who lives over the road from us and so we invited her and her author friend for dinner, and they returned the favour and yesterday we  had the afternoon in Progresso at a beach house on the coast which is only about 25-30 km away on the Mexican gulf. It was a ‘bring a plate’ do and our neighbour has a car and so we all piled in. This is what it looked like. Not too bad!

And what do we do in the evening?… well we have got a bit slack (due to the heat!) and go back to the same place repeatedly. Admittedly it does have a lot of small restaurants in one location, so you can try all sorts of cuisines and it is basically an open air food court, but stylish and with music and drinks and it is cheap and fast and cool. We even went again last night with a couple of new people from the beach outing – an Argentinean and a Brazilian women. Some dancing was done…. but not by Lola or Ms Pacifica (too hot!)

Finally because Ms Pacifica likes a few buildings with faded grandeur and Lola is always on the lookout for an investment opportunity… the buildings with potential!