Parque Zoologico El Centenario

Zoos are a tough subject for me.

Philosophically I am opposed to them.  I see the advantage to placing injured or those animals no longer able to care for themselves in controlled/protected environments; and offering people the opportunity to see and understand more about them... but I don't like zoos as a general rule.

Paradoxically I do see the benefit of zoos in that they offer a tremendous opportunity to educate people on the other inhabitants of our region and of other places.  To understand that we are not alone here and that perhaps we should treat our environment and its other inhabitants with a bit more care and respect. Perhaps also to spark an interest in a kid to become something he or she hadn't considered before.

But I just hate the cages.  But then again I have a dog, 2 cats, a fish and 2 cages with birds...what does that tell you?

Now being from the USofA I have seen some incredible zoo habitats; large spaces closely resembling an animals natural environment.  However, a gilded cage is still a cage.

Tom and I took the opportunity to visit the zoo here in Merida recently.     No gilded cages here!

Parque Zoologico El Centenario is located on Avenida Itzáes at the corner with calle 59, here in Mérida, Centro, Yucatán.

El parque del centenario was inaugurated  18 September 1910, which coincided with the celebration of the first century of Mexicos independence, under the Governorship of Don Enrique Muñoz Aristegui.

The Zoo is under Municipal Administration and entry is free. The objectives of the Zoo are to create and maintain ecological equilibrium, and to allow the citizens and visitors to better understand the creatures that exist in our region.

The zoo is fairly well-maintained, the walkways are clean, although quite rough and uneven.  The animals seem well fed, although in some enclosures I couldn't always see a water source.  The habitats, to me, are, well, sub-par.

Inside the parque, in addition to the zoo, are playgrounds,  horse rides, aquarium display,  go-kart circuits, a boating lake, a miniature train that circles the park & more.

You will infrequently see tourists visiting, but you will see  Mexicans enjoying quality time with their families, especially on the weekends.

There are a number of  places to eat local food, but hygiene is not to US/European standards, so bear that in mind.  If travelling with kids you'll find  this well shaded park is a great option.

Yucatan Living as usual has done a much better job reporting about the zoo,  you can find their story here

I did take some photos, unfortunately my battery was dying.

Just after you enter the park/zoo grounds you will see this mosaic which I quite like!

This is where you enter the animal enclosure areas

 

The hippo enclosure was getting a thorough cleaning, all the dirty water was being drained out so we were able to get a good visit with Mom, seen below, Dad, and baby.

Here is one of the large caged cats kept in a very small enclosure

This guy was just out and about and was receiving just as much attention as the caged animals.

In the bird area were a number of peacocks, this one was very busy showing just how beautiful he is

The giraffe / ostrich area - man those ostriches are HUGE!

So, that was our visit to the Zoo,  I've heard rumors that there are plans to build a new zoo.   I hope so!  I also hope they maintain this area as a nature park, keep the birds and a few things in better designed enclosures.  This place is so well visited and enjoyed it would be a shame to lose it!

What are you doing for Earth Hour, Earth Day?

Earth Hour 2010: Saturday March 27, 8:30 PM

In September 2008 I posted Apagon Mundial - There were a few nay sayers, but apparently it is now a part of Earth Day celebrations arond the world.

Blogs.com  has a pretty good post about today's Earth Day event of outing your lights, and other electronics as well.  It also includes links to some pretty cool other sites.





From the Blogs.com site - On March 27, 2010, millions of people will turn off their lights for an hour, at 8:30 PM local time, to celebrate Earth Hour. "Since its inception three years ago, Earth Hour's non-partisan approach has captured the world's imagination and became a global phenomenon," says Earth Hour's official U.S. site. "Nearly one billion people turned out for Earth Hour 2009--involving 4,100 cities in 87 countries on seven continents. Last year, 80 million Americans and 318 U.S. cities officially voted for action with their light switch, joining iconic landmarks from around the world that went dark for Earth Hour"--like the Empire State Building, Brooklyn Bridge, Las Vegas Strip, Big Ben, and Sydney's Opera House. Check out Earth Hour social media tools here and also at the Earth Hour Blog; bloggers are encouraged to blog about Earth Hour, and many are already doing so.


Go to blogs.com 's post on the EVENT - check it out



What are you doing for Earth Hour?

Debi in Merida on Wordpress

I've been playing around with Wordpress again.  For some unknown reason I find myself drawn to Wordpress, it just seems to be a 'slicker' looking format.   I definitly like the photo upload process better, and some of the behind the scenes features are pretty cool as well.

In addition two friends who are writers have started blogs and to further their platform have asked for my help.  Not that I'm any kind of blog wizard, but just because we all know each other and they asked and I said yes.

We decided Wordpress was the best choice for one of them so I needed to refresh myself and increase my knowledge to be of service.

Anyway,  I'm posting some stuff on Wordpress at the moment

Debi in Merida on Wordpress

Los Leones

Just in case you hadn't yet heard,   

Tomorrow night, Thursday March 18 is the Inauguraion of the 2010 Baseball Season.

This Inaugual game will be played here in Merida at the Kukulkan Stadium.

Los Leones will take on Los Tigres de Quintana Roo.

The first game of the season!  Cold beer, kibi, dancing girls,  oh  and baseball too!

Click here and BookMark this link for all the season info and calendar for Los Leones

horario estacional

In the past, Mexico synchronized its daylight saving time (dst) with the United States mainly for business and economic reasons. However, daylight saving time has been a contentious issue and is not likely to be extended to reflect the daylight saving changes in the United States enacted as a result of the Energy Policy Act of 2005.

In 2007, the United States and Canada decided to start Daylight Saving Time (DST) on the second Sunday of March and end on the first Sunday of November.  Which means for those of you NOB (North of the Border),  don't forget you should have changed your clocks this morning at 2am, or last night before you went to bed.  And remember,  the extra hour time difference for the next 3 weeks with your SOB (South of the Border) friends!

Daylight saving time is referred to in Spanish as "horario estacional" or "horario de verano".

So here are the dates of Daylight Savings Times for Mexico from 1996 through to 2015

(future dates are tentative, because after all, things change)

Year - Start date - End date - Daylight duration

1996 Apr 7 Oct 27 29 weeks

1997 Apr 6 Oct 26 29 weeks

1998 Apr 5 Oct 25 29 weeks

1999 Apr 4 Oct 31 30 weeks

2000 Apr 2 Oct 29 30 weeks

2001 May 6 Sep 30 21 weeks

2002 Apr 7 Oct 27 29 weeks

2003 Apr 6 Oct 26 29 weeks

2004 Apr 4 Oct 31 30 weeks

2005 Apr 3 Oct 30 30 weeks

2006 Apr 2 Oct 29 30 weeks

2007 Apr 1 Oct 28 30 weeks

2008 Apr 6 Oct 26 29 weeks

2009 Apr 5 Oct 25 29 weeks

2010 Apr 4 Oct 31 30 weeks

2011 Apr 3 Oct 30 30 weeks

2012 Apr 1 Oct 28 30 weeks

2013 Apr 7 Oct 27 29 weeks

2014 Apr 6 Oct 26 29 weeks

2015 Apr 5 Oct 25 29 weeks

Remember it is Spring Forward, and Fall Back

 
 
Just FYI, most of this info is taken from this site
 http://www.timeanddate.com/news/time/mexico-daylight-saving.html
so if you want to read more about just click and go!

Pasaje Revolucion - Macay Museum Sculpture Garden

Between the Macay Museum and the Cathedral of San Ildefonso is a passageway (Pasaje de la Revolución) that the Macay Museum uses as a sculpture garden.  There are other things in the buildings there; an artesania shop, a furniture store, the Macay itself... The pasaje also cuts a bit of distance off a walk from calles 60 to 58.

Well the reason for this post is to show some of the current sculpture exhibition.  I was through the area the orther day and was really taken with these fabulous sculptures

from http://www.latinoamerica-online.info/cult05/arti05.19.molaa_cuevas.html

José Luis Cuevas (b. 1943, Mexico) is one of the most renowned and influential living artists in Mexico. Controversial and nonconformist in character, Cuevas made his views known in The Cactus Curtain (La Cortina del Nopal) published in 1957, in which he fervently opposed Muralism and any other form of institutionalized art that emerged from the Mexican School, arguing instead for greater freedom for Mexican art. His leadership of the Generación de Ruptura (the Rupture Generation), in the late 1950s, marked a split from the Mexican School and the beginning of a new stage in Mexican contemporary art.


José Luis Cuevas works mainly in drawing and engraving. He is a master draftsman. Paper was present in Cuevas’ life from the time he was a child, having grown up on the second floor of a building that housed a paper and pencil factory. Since 1991, he has also worked as a sculptor.

In his artwork, Cuevas represents the most obscure aspects of humans. During his youth, he visited brothels, hospitals and mental institutions throughout the city of Mexico in search of models for his drawings. Cuevas deforms the human figure, creating grotesque characters through disproportion. His expressionist style resembles the satiric portraits of José Clemente Orozco (Mexico, 1883-1949) and the engravings of Francisco de Goya y Lucientes (Spain, 1746-1828). In presenting the desolation of humanity, Cuevas captures the most vulnerable moments of the human being. The universality of Cuevas’ themes is reflected in the anonymity of his characters.

At the age of 21, Cuevas presented his work in an individual exhibition at the Pan American Union in Washington D.C. The success of this exhibit resulted in early international recognition.

Eddie leaves Dzitya for the Big City life of Merida

 few weeks ago we were having a lovely lunch in Dzitya with friends.  Upon our return to Merida we discovered Eddie had managed to stow away.  He was, it seems, tired of life in placid, tranquil Dziya and wanted a taste of City life.

We decided to try and show Eddie a good time while here, 

and then return Eddie to Dzitya where he belongs!

So here is a quick pictography of Eddie's time with us - He went home yesterday.  

It was fun, we enjoyed the visit, but are so relieved he is now home safe and sound!

 One day Tom and Eddie went out drinking.  

You know, just the boys, 

don't be jealous Geo!

 

 Unfortunately Eddie drank a bit too much!  And had to lean on a fence for a bit.

 

 Eddie called for a cab

 But then hailed this trici taxi to take them home

Another day we all went to the park

Eddie enjoyed the carnival rides

 

and the playground

  

Here I am with Eddie on the seesaw.

  

Another day Eddie played softball with some kids on the block. 

Here he is sliding in to home base.

  

We also took a drive out to a Pueblo, but Eddie must have eaten something that disagreed with him,  we had to stop for coke to settle his stomach.

  

  

Eddie liked our cat Tate,  but Tate wasn't quite taken with him.

  

And of course Eddie spent some time laying around the pool.

  

Eddie likes to read in bed

and sleep in late!

 

Overall it was a good visit.

Thanks Sally for letting him visit and not being too worried!

And again, Thanks for lunch it really was lovely!

que horror, a tragedy in my garden

As many of my regular readers know,  I keep orchids; I can't really say I grow them, as they pretty much grow themselves.  I just move them around until I find the place where they seem happy.

I have been gifted many of my orchids, and make it a habit to continue that goodness, by gifting from my orchids.

Orchids seem to do best when some old growth is excised.  From that old growth, given happy conditions, new growth will sprout, and from that new growth will come your flowers.

I have an old tree branch on which are two Schumbergia orchids and a bromeliad.  It has taken 2 years and several moves but I finally found a location where these 2 orchids are happy.  One of the clumps has/had a meter tall (3+ foot) plant spike. 

 It would have been profuse with flowers in about a month,     EXCEPT   the jardinero (gardener) that comes and helps me in the garden once or twice a month was here yesterday!

So here is the orchid with Tom pointing out the plant spike

Here is what the orchid looks like now!

Here is where the gardener, yeah right, cut the plant spike off, and threw it in the compost....

And here sits the retreived plant spike,

which will be used to explain all about orchids to the flower killer when he returns.

I can't even explain how I felt when I noticed the plant spike gone, and then saw that it had been cut, not even an accident but a thoughht out decided action. I am calmer now, and am taking some of the blame, in having expected that as he calls himself a gardener that he would be familiar with orchids.  They are after all not a 'common' kept plant by the locals...BullShit. He's a frickin nitwit!!!!!!

OK, on a pleasant note,  here is a phalenopsis that I have currently bloomimg with 5 huge blossums!

he better not touch this plant or I may sever a few of his fingers!

Ballet Nacional de Cuba performs Don Quijote in Merida

Tom and I had the opportunity to watch the Ballet Nacional de Cuba perform don Quijote last Friday night.

The ballet had been being performed at Teatro Peon Contreras but we had not attended.   The Ayuntamiento/Government organized/allowed  2 nights of performances to be held in front of the Catedral de San Ildefonso free of charge;  So we decided to go.

Friday night was perfect, it was cool, there was a light breeze, the sky was clear...the crowd was immense, over 8000 reported by the newspaper.  There was a large stage, with scenery erected in front of the catherdral, AND there were projection screens placed in a variety of locations around the park, which was truely fabulous as there were way too many people in attendance for the amount of seating that ws available. 

To get seating someone would have had to arrive 2 hours earrly and save seats for your party, although a number of people were permitted through to apparently reserved seating well after the performance had started.   Tom and I got there 15 minutes before curtain and so were standing at the rear of the crowd but in front of the stage.  As we are both tall, comparatively speaking, we were able to see fairly well, and as standing still  is often problematic for my back it was fabulous to be able to walk around a bit but still see the performance thanks to the huge projection screens.    Although the view of the performance seeing the stage was far superior to that of the screens.  One quirk to our viewing was a large tree that bisected the stage, so we had great views of stage left and stage right, however center stage was a problem.

I took some photos, however the quality is really poor.   The photographers from the Diario, with their far better equipment, and freedom to be right at the stage did a much better job, you can see their photos by following this link to ballet photos on Diario  http://www.yucatan.com.mx/multimedia/galerias.asp?cx=17$0$4254073&img=1467003

Here you can see the stage still being prepped, and some of the crowd.

Opening of the ballet, yep, see that tree

Here you can see one of the large projection screens off to the left of the stage.  calle 61 was closed and there were hundreds of people watching this screen.