In 2010, after I wrote my article, I learned that he had ordered, received, and not paid for a large order of medical supplies from a Merida company.

This guy must really turn on the charm to hook so many people.

My old article:

http://gorbman.com/2010/01/26/crime-con-man-on-the-loose/

See his photo in my article.

Note: I would deeply appreciate it if anyone who cares to forward this article or quote from it resist changing any of the original language, EVEN THE TITLES. You know who you are. Please attribute the content appropriately.

More about the Merida English Library

The following information is factual or assumed to be factual by people other than me. None of the statements reflect my opinion about anything. The data comes from interviews with people close to the situation. If anyone disagrees or wants to add or deny information in this article, please write a comment at the end of the article. If you feel strongly about it, I will interview you and post your comments as an article. I will give you the right to review what I write before publishing it, so you can make sure you are fairly represented.

First I will list some facts people have been inquiring about. There is more detail in the later text.

MELL facts:

•  No one who has ever worked for pay for the library has been a legal employee (except for the janitor). No IMSS, no payroll taxes, no records whatsoever. Workers were authorized by the Board to work informally, even though some of them were foreigners without the proper immigration status to work in Mexico. None (including the coordinator, Maria Hernandez) were given IMSS coverage or had payroll taxes deducted, as required by law.
• Yes, MELL is registered with Hacienda (Mexican version of the IRS), but probably not at the level required to legally receive donations or contributions other than membership dues. (This is easy to check at Hacienda.) They are a legal non-profit (Civil Association) but proceeds from events are simply stored as cash and it is this cash pool that has paid “employees.” No checks, no records.
•  Members of the library have absolutely no legal power to remove or change board members. According to Mexican law, the board members are trustees for life, unless they resign, are fired by other board members with cause to be removed, or die.

• Day-to-day powers currently rest with three board members who are officers, according to Mexican law. At present these are Chloe Pacheco, President, Surratt Williams, Secretary, and Carlos Arias, treasurer.

• Ex-President Jose Martinez (who stole a great deal of money from MELL) told the board he offered to resign. He confessed to some volunteers and then he met with some board members and confessed to them. It is unclear whether the board accepted his resignation or terminated him.

• The board has complete control over the library. They can sell the building and the books. The proceeds would probably go to Hacienda.

• There is a strong, but unsubstantiated rumor that the board has hired a new coordinator, perhaps as an interim measure. That person is Reg Deneau.

• MELL did not file an annual report, as required by Hacienda, for a number of years.

• Recently, the board asked the Coordinator (Maria Hernandez) to resign. For unexplained reasons, they did not like her. She refused. They offered her increasing amounts of money to resign, but she still refused so they fired her. Maria’s family has hired an attorney.
•  Some of the board members have been behaving unprofessionally. The board at this point does not seem concerned with the good of the library but rather has become insular and vindictive. They have ended any attendance privileges or participation by members.

Further Detail

Laws regarding non-profits are quite different in Mexico than those in the USA. It is not productive to get indignant about why things are or are not done in certain ways because that’s how they are done in the USA. It is best to educate yourselves on what is and isn’t legal here in Mexico.

The library has been careless in disregarding Mexican law. The social gatherings, Chili event, etc. are clearly fundraisers, which the library is not allowed to hold under their current status with Hacienda.

If detailed investigations are made into MELL it is possible that Hacienda may levy taxes or fines on it. It is the board’s responsibility to keep the operation legal, but a number of members and volunteers knew they were operating below the legal horizon.

Jose Martinez admitted to having stolen about 250,000 pesos, but in truth the amount may be closer to 450,000. He has committed to paying back 250,000 pesos. I don’t know whether the money has actually been returned to MELL yet.

Many of you have asked why Jose Martinez’ theft was not reported to the police. The answer is complex and involves MELL’s having been out of compliance in the first place, and also the enormous costs of prosecution of a case of this kind.

When Jose Martinez became the board president in 2009, he proposed and the board accepted his suggestion that the constitution be changed to allow him to sign checks without a second signatory. Previously, two signatures had been required on checks. Many people wonder why the board did not begin to suspect something was amiss at that point.

Generally, the board was hesitant to confront Jose Martinez about the missing money, and in fact never did. He confessed to several of the volunteers. The theory is that board members were operating in their own self interests because Jose’s family is one of the most influential in the city, and their affiliation with him may have benefitted their personal goals in one form or another.

Reg Deneau may have originally left the library from his job as coordinator because he knew about the thefts but was pressured not to reveal them. This is speculation.

Maria Hernandez was hired to take Reg’s place. She is Mexican-American, has a master’s degree in library science, and is bilingual. She fit well into the community, brought fresh ideas, and was implementing some much-need organization when she was fired. When she was fired, all of the volunteers walked out of MELL in protest.

The board changed all the locks on the building and it is and continues to be locked down. All activities have been suspended.

Here is more detailed information about the Board of Directors of MELL.

A board member in Mexico, a trustee, is not expected to be involved in the day-to-day operation of the non-profit, and it has been noted that indeed most of MELL’s trustees never entered the library at all.

The MELL board was formed about 15 years ago.

As mentioned above, only the president, secretary and treasurer are primarily responsible for the operations of the library. These are the three people likely to be targeted for punitive action by Hacienda, should such a thing take place.

The other board members are associates. As mentioned, a board member serves for life. The board removed Jose Martinez from his office for cause. There is some question as to whether he resigned or was fired by other board members. The reason this is not know is that the meetings are secret.

At one point, the board accepted the presence at their meetings of some representatives from the volunteers and membership, indicating that they would accept one or more of them as board members at some point. This never happened, relationships deteriorated, and the member advisory committee was excluded from the board meetings.

Any time a board member is added, terminated or replaced, the board is required to hold a formal meeting called an asamblea (assembly) which is officially recorded with specific corporation papers, and submitted to Hacienda.

Unless there has been an official assembly, with signed papers submitted to Hacienda, the change of personnel does not legally exist.

In 2008, some new people were brought on as associate board members. Some have since quit, but since the process was not formalized with an assembly and required Hacienda paperwork, some are still officially on the board. These people included Grant Spradling, Roberto Guzman, Malena Peon, George Fisher and Tonia Kimsey and “some other Yucatecans.” Roberto Guzman, George Fisher and Grant Spradling have since resigned, but the resignations were not officially recorded until quite recently. Two other board members, Anibal Gomez and Monica Hernandez, (probably the “some other Yucatecans”) were brought onto the board, but there was no formal assembly or filing of required paperwork, so they are not legal board members.

Raymond Branhan is also a board member.

Jose Martinez needed to summon an assembly to remove himself from the board. Only the president can do this. This assembly took place and we think that Grant and Roberto were removed at the same time as Jose Martinez. Tonia Kimsley was ratified but Malena Peon was not since she is the spouse of Jose Martinez. The other two Yucatecans who had been nominated also were not ratified. George Fisher’s status is unclear.

The current associates and members are Chloe Pacheco, Tonia Kimsley, Mitch Keenan, Surratt Williams, Carlos Arias and Raymond Branhan.

All of these changes have been done in secret. The membership does not know whether some of the papers have been filed with Hacienda, but this is public information and an attorney is looking into this.

This is not an editorial piece so I will not wax on about the massive loss to the expat community that this represents.

Please forgive formatting anomalies. Microsoft Word and WordPress are not made for each other.

My understanding at this point is that the library is indeed registered as a non-profit organization, but does not have necessary credentials with Hacienda to raise funds. Membership fees yes, gatherings and events, no. MELL is also not authorized to pay salaries as the payroll tax setup has not been done. The Board structured the non-profit in such a way that there is no input or control from the membership.

Do any of you know for sure what of this is true?

Among the more constructive suggestions to emerge today, has been that the members draft an open petition to the Board, each Board member by name, legal address and business affiliation, requesting their resignations. This petition, signed by as many members as possible, would be widely circulated.

A MELL member is drafting such a petition; it will take a few days. Whether to do this or not is up to the membership.

I hate using the passive voice, but it has been pointed out to me that the Board holds full control of MELL and can do whatever they want right now, including closing the library and selling the book collection. This would be their legal right.

We would appreciate your comments. Make them anonymous if you wish, but you must include your email address which will not be published.

Good luck to us all.

As a member, patron (that has donated thousands of dollars of books over the years to MELL), advertiser and 16 year supporter of MELL, I feel it is time for the present board to resign. No matter what part any or all of the members had in this present situation IT HAPPENED ON YOUR WATCH. There can be absolutely no confidence in the present board and as a result the MELL will suffer greatly.

–

The other day, Bill, Susan, Jessie and I drove to Rio Lagartos, at the northern peak of the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula. Rio Lagartos is in a biosphere, a protected area, with hundreds of bird species and other wildlife. The place is known for its excellent boat trips into the estuaries to see flamingos and other birds. The guide services also take out fishing parties and night-time crocodile observation trips.

We had already arranged to stay at the Hotel San Felipe, in the immaculately neat and very pleasant town of San Felipe, a few minutes away.  We did this because the last time either Bill or I had been to Rio Lagartos, it had been a pit – dirty and worn looking. The only place to stay for many years was the abominably bad but fascinating Hotel Nefertiti, which is now closed and padlocked. The ghost of the eery Nefertiti looms above the other buidings of the charming village, its bare grey cement walls eerily framed among the colorful, happy houses.

Pelicans in San Felipe

Rio Lagartos has changed radically since I was last there. I don’t know why. It’s cheery, clean, and colorful. We were delightfully surprised at the new Rio Lagartos. It is every bit as inviting as San Felipe and a lot livelier. Everywhere we went there was music. Of course, it was the day before Christmas Eve, and everything and everyone was at their best.

Merry Xmas from Rio Lagartos

We made arrangements for our guide the evening before our trip, so we could leave at daybreak. I was pleased to find Pecas, a guide I’ve known for many years, and he agreed to take us out the next morning.

We got up awfully early and stumbled into the boat, drinking cold coffee. Within minutes, we were fully awake. As we entered the estuary and saw the stunning assortment of birds, huge and tiny, Susan said that was like entering Eden.

It was overcast and even rained now and then. At every twist in the mangroves, a new diorama of  beautiful birds appeared, so varied and so multitudinous, they brought tears to my eyes. Most were very still, fishing with their huge bills and sharp eyes, hunting. Pecas slowed the boat at each dramatic scene while some of us riffled through guidebooks and some just gazed.

When we floated beneath a tall tree under a couple of Blackhawk Eagles, the guide slowed down and began a strange whistling.  The eagles watched carefully as he stopped and threw a fish into the water. One of the eagles swooped down, just a few feet from our boat to retrieve it. Here is my very bad photo of that event, where you see more of Bill’s head than the eagle.

Bill's head and an eagle

At another twist in the water, Pecas dangled a raw fish in front of two frustrated pelicans. They stretched their necks up and down in rhythm with the fish, as if dancing, and we had an opportunity to see them from just a few feet away. 

Frustrated Brown pelicans

The channel is about 80 feet across and lined on both sides with thick mangroves. So many huge birds were flying back and forth over the water and disappearing into the vegetation, we realized that there must be hundreds of thousands of them in there.

Stately Great blue heron

Susan and Bill, the true birders on this trip, identified the Yellow-crowned night heron, Cormorants and Anhingas,  the Great blue heron,  Ospreys, the well disguised Tiger heron, the iridescent Green heron, Cattle egrets, Snowy egrets, Brown and White pelicans, several varieties of Kingfishers, and more. Susan explained how to pick out the Ibis from the thousands of magnificent white birds by their yellow, downward-curved bills. And, of course, the flamingos, although there were relatively few in Rio Lagartos that day.

Blackhawk eagles

We went quite far, past Las Coloradas and the salt flats, where there were a few flamingos feeding and chatting with each other in their low rumbles. We got out of the boat there and Susan and Jessie got as close to the birds as possible without frightening them. It was raining lightly and there was a rainbow.

Jessie, Susan and flamingos

Susan becoming one with the flamingos

At one point in the estuary, there was a massive roiling of the water on one edge and we all knew it had to be a crocodile. A bit later, one of the huge creatures raised his prehistoric looking head quite close to our boat and pretended we weren’t there for a few minutes before diving downward.

Pecas poled the boat in toward some flamingos among the mangroves. There was a mud island there, littered with the remains of giant horseshoe crabs, and we all got out. About 100 feet away was a spit with a lot of vegetation on it. Through the green, as if in another world, was a sight none of us will forget.

A population of hapless brine shrimp, migrating down the waterway, was accosted by hundreds of birds, all in one location. Through a break in the trees that framed the scene, we saw literally hundreds of white birds, including White pelicans and all kinds of white Egrets circling madly, in a feeding frenzy. The flapping of their wings and their cries were nothing short of ecstasy. Standing in the middle of the mad circle, two brightly colored flamingos fed calmly on the shrimp with their beaks buried in the mud. And above, in a tall tree, were two enormous Wood storks and two Roseate spoonbills.

We all watched this magnificent scene for about ten minutes, until the shrimp moved away, taking the circling birds with them.

When they left, one of the Wood storks lazily rose from the tree, exercised his six-foot wingspread, and sailed over to a tree closer to us. He was soon joined by one the the spoonbills, who posed and preened as if to show off his wonderful bill. Then the other spoonbill sailed over to sit on the other side of the stork. He kept his wings open, just showing off how gorgeous his pink feathers looked. (I know perfectly well I am anthropomorphizing, but I don’t care.)

We were all enchanted and came back from the three and a half-hour trip with silly smiles on our faces.

I need to say the trip wouldn’t have been what it was if not for this particular guide. Pecas was born and raised in Rio Lagartos and is passionate about the wildlife.

There are two guide outfits in Rio Lagartos – one, when you first come in, called Isla Contoy, which has quite a good restaurant and professional guides who didn’t appear local. Pecas works through the other group, Rio Lagartos Adventures, located on the quay in front of the La Torreja restaurant and owned by a group of families native to Rio Lagartos.

Right next to La Torreja is a pleasant looking hotel called Villa de Pescadores that has balconies overlooking the water. Next time I go, I will stay there.

After the boat trip, we went back to San Felipe and had lunch at the Restaurante Vaselina. I mention it only because of its extraordinary name, although the shrimp was not half bad.

Vaselina's beer depot

Jessie, thoroughly enjoying lunch

Every once in a while in Yucatan, I see something so magnificent, so perfect, that in the back of my mind I think it must have been created by Walt Disney. So much beauty can’t be real.

Here is the last glance we got of flamingos, on the way out of Rio Lagartos.

Leaving town

Apologies for my bad wildlife photography that doesn’t do justice to the birds. I use a tiny Leica C-Lux camera with a limited distance lens. It’s also kind of slow.

More about guides:

Pecas does not work directly for Rio Lagartos Adventures although he operates in cooperation with them and can be reached there. If you request him at La Torrejas restaurant, they can call him on his cell. Or, you can call him directly. If you wish to do this, please contact me for the number as I don’t wish to put it online. Reach me at: xberyl@xgorbman.com.  Remove the Xs.

Pecas speaks limited English.

Guide Costs

The going rate (12/2011) for a two-hour trip is 700 pesos at either Isla Contoy or Rio Lagartos Adventures. You will be in a well-maintained motorboat that seats six. The guides expect to be tipped for a job well-done. I put Pecas in a different category and he may just ask you how much you feel you should pay.

This year they are asking for contributions if you are able to make them. Here is information from Patricia Holland, volunteer coordinator.

Spay/Neuter Campaign 2012 

January 8-11 in Mérida & January 13-14 in Progreso

Veterinarians will be travelling from all over the world including the US, Slovakia, and Baja California, as well as local veterinarians to donate their time to this project. This campaign is designed to target lower income families who otherwise could not afford to sterilize their animals, as well as the abandoned animals that so many of us rescue from the streets.

We need people to help with the following supplies.

1. Drinks and snacks. Any of the big box stores have packages of snacks and cases of beverages. Our volunteers work too hard to stop for long, but need sustenance. Help them, please!I Also, fresh fruit would be great.  We will have approximately 150 volunteers, vets and vet techs each day of the clinic.
2. Do you know a restaurant or caterer who would like to help?  We need sponsors for the vets at their welcome and goodbye parties. Free is wonderful but we are also interested huge discounts.  the restaurant logo will be displayed at the event.
3. 40 meals are needed each day of the clinic, ten of them vegetarian for the medical team.  Desserts welcome too.
4. Cash donations.  Bring your cash donation  to the offices of Planned Pethood. (Just off Ave. Technologica between Costco and Sams Club). Calle 10 #344  x 3y y 3c, Col. Gonzalo Guerrero. Call 999-944-23-10. Or make a donation at the clinic.
5. Medical supplies.    Many of these can be picked up in any farmacia or supermarket.

• 39 bottles (480ml) of Agua Oxigenada (hydrogen peroxide)
• 4 bottles (100ml) Bravo spray (against ticks and fleas)
• Large trash bags
• 30 rolls of masking tape

Let us know if you want to volunteer in the clinics in Merida or Progreso.

We need volunteers to hang posters, distribute flyers and help with the animals. If you can help hang posters, please stop by the offices to pick up posters and flyers.   Contact Patricia Holland about the posters at painttheyucatan@gmail.com. Pick up posters at Planned Pethood.

If you are interested in volunteering for the clinic, volunteer meetings will be held both in Mérida and Progreso – dates and locations to be announced.  If you would like to volunteer, please contact:

Mérida:   Jill Benson   snjbenson@yahoo.com  or Mimi Babcock: mimi.babcock@gmail.com  or Silvia Cortes:  slv_cc@hotmail.com

Progreso:   Cindy Wagner:  cindywagner1023@gmail.com  or Karen Cloutier:  klcloutier@hotmail.com  or Maura Garcia:  maugatos@hotmail.com

Below you will find the details on the clinics and how to get to each one. See you there!

The vets will be performing surgeries officially from 9 – 5, although they typically stay later.

PLEASE MAKE AN APPOINTMENT IN ADVANCE FOR YOUR ANIMAL’S SURGERY. For the Merida clinics, call 253-1262 or 920-5019
for the Progreso clinics, call 969-935-7687 or 999-178-9548

DATES AND LOCATIONS

January 8 and 9, the clinic will be at:  

Location 1: Centro de superacion Sera Mena, Calle 57 x 56, Co. Fidel Velazquez.

Directions: From Centro, heat east on Calle 59, about two miles from Calle 50. Cross the Circuito Colonias, and Calle 59 will become Fidel Velasquez. Sta on this street until you reach Calle 46 (watch for sign on L), and turn left. Go to Calle 57 ( just a few blocks) and you will see basketball courts on the right. Turn right on 57 and you will see the large blue and white building where we will hold the clinic.  

From the Periferico to Location 1: Take the sailda for Calle 59, which is the same as Calle Fidel Velasquez.  Stay on this .7 miles until you get to to Calle 46.  Turn right on Calle 46 for just a few blocks to calle 57.  On the right you will see some basketball courts.  Turn right on c. 57 and it is the large blue and white building.  

January 10 and 11, the clinic will be held in Merida at: 

Location 2. Centro de dessarollo communitario, Col/ Emiliano Zapata Sur II. 

Directions:  From La Ermita Park (66 y 77), go south on 66 to Circuito Colonias 1.6 miles.  (you will go past the cemetery).  Then turn left on Circuito Colonias.  (there is an Oxxo on the corner).  Go 1 mile to calle 60 (there is a bicycle shop on the corner).  Turn right on 60.  Go .3 miles, the road will curve to the left.  This is 121.  Go to the stop sign (there is a Farmacia Similares on the right corner).  This is calle 54, turn right.  The airport wall will be running alond the right hand side.  Go .4 miles to 127.  Turn right on 127. Go approx 1 mile to 86.  On the corner is a store that says “Tienda Los Esquina”.  Turn left.  Follow this road for about 1 mile to 161.  Turn right on 161 and go 4 blocks to 88B.  Turn left, and the clinica is on the right side.

Whew!

When leaving, it may be dark, so here are directions back into Centro from Location 2:

From the Clinic:

From the stop sign at 88B and 163 which is the clinic location, turn left.  Go 4 blocks to 86.  Turn left onto 86.  Go approx .8 mile, then the road will veer off to the right. This is calle 84 and it will change to 82.  You will be on this road .3 mile until it ends at the stop sign.  This is 127.  Turn right on 127.  Go approx 1 mile to the stop sign. This is calle 54.  Turn left onto 54 and continue for .4 miles.  Turn left onto 121 (Farmacias Similares is on the left corner).  Continue on 121 for .3 miles, it will curve to the right and change into calle 60.  Go .3 miles to Circuito Colonias.  Turn left on Circuito Colonias and go 1 mile to calle 66 (there is an Oxxo on the corner), turn right onto 66 and this will head you back into Centro.

January 13 and 14 we will be in Progreso, at the Local Social El Ejidal, which is right in front of the agua potable.  I guess if you live there you know what that means. If you don’t, contact us for more info.

Thanks, Anne, for clarifying. 

I just wanted to give a bit of context to the forum and also answer the questions above. The International Community Foundation has met with the Secretary of Tourism several times on the topic of sustainable tourism (better coastal development) and quality of life for expats (“aging in place” and infrastructure improvements). The government’s desire was to hear directly from the expat community and they agreed to co-host the forum with us to do that.Because our research focused on the U.S. retirement community, we focused mainly on U.S. participants for this forum. We have three years of data on U.S. retirees, but little or nothing on Canadians. Having said that, however, there were two Canadians there, and the forum was called the “North American Forum” not the “U.S. Forum.” Although we cannot speak to specifics about the Canadian retiree community, we are not deliberately trying to exclude them. Similarly, we focused on coastal communities primiarly, which is where our grantees are. Merida was one of the only inland communities represented at the forum for that reason. But again, we are not deliberately trying to exclude people, but rather trying to reflect the demographic that was presented in our research.

To select participants, we reached out to those people that answered the survey in 2009 and again in 2012. We only had space for 50 people and we filled the group quickly.

I don’t know if this will be an annual event. We need to follow up on this one first! ICF has committed to work with the Secretary of Tourism on state-level meetings with governors, to document working relationships with retirees in places where there are good relations (like San Miguel de Allende), and also to follow up on some of the specific recommendations from the forum. I know it will take some time to do that so I don’t want to commit to another forum yet.

“Engagement in Local Communities” — for ICF, this means civic engagement or volunteering as well as charitable giving. How does the retiree community spend its time in Mexico? We have a whole report on trends in this area on our website.

I hope this is helpful! Thank you Beryl for the venue to respond.

Best,
Anne McEnany
CO-Author, “U.S. Retirement Trends in Mexico” and
Senior Advisor, Conservation Program ]]> http://gorbman.com/2011/12/20/guest-post-from-ann-mcenany-international-community-foundation/feed/ 0 http://gorbman.com/2011/12/19/a-day-in-a-yucatan-village/ http://gorbman.com/2011/12/19/a-day-in-a-yucatan-village/#comments Mon, 19 Dec 2011 15:52:50 +0000 BG http://gorbman.com/?p=7035 Continue reading →]]>

Making a hammock

Beryl Gorbman

An extended family lives in this compound in the center of the state of Yucatan. There are three generations here and the two elders, the grandmother and grandfather, are 88 and 90 respectively. They both still cook, pick crops, take care of chickens, and maintain their home. They are skinny and agile and in full posession of their faculties.

One of their sons lives in the compound with his wife and their two enthusiastic boys, in a cement house close to the road.

Akeh-Tun home

This house was probably originally pole and thatch, but now sections of it are filled in with scrap timber, linoleum, corrugated fiberglass, and other materials.

This is the laundry. I mean, if you need to do your laundry outside in a batea (tub), this would be the prettiest setting I could imagine.

The laundry

The general tone of the compound is happy and productive. The children are screaming with fun and bursting with health.The animals are alert and tolerant of humans. Even the chickens and ducks were unfazed by my approach.

Each person has well-defined chores and activities. The households share food, a laundry, the “bathroom,” and parts of cooking areas. Although they weren’t expecting visitors (there is no phone), everyone appeared freshly scrubbed and was dressed nicely.

Today, we went there with a daughter of the older couple, a woman who lives several hours away and finds it difficult to visit her parents as often as she would like. She brought her two daughters. We brought some modest Xmas food gifts and watched the kids play.

I’d been told it would be a brief visit, but there was an intense conversation among the women that lasted close to an hour. I couldn’t understand any of it because it was in Mayan, but it sounded important and I didn’t want to interrupt, so I wandered around the compound talking to children and small animals.

Cat guarding hammock loom

Below is an uncontrollably wild kitty who attacks and kills all other small animals, including cats. He is tied up. His future is uncertain.  He and I got along well.

Wild thing

At night, everyone sleeps in hammocks, but during the daytime, the hammocks are tied up overhead to make sitting space for the living room. The chairs and tables are all hand made from pieces of timber.

Elena and Damaris

The four children entertained themselves with this ball for nearly two hours.

Notice the hose in the background of the above picture. Although almost all the villages now have “agua potable,” what they do not have is pipes running from the central water pump to the homes. The water goes to the houses through a series of rubber hoses and there are nests of them everywhere.

While I walked around, playing with the kids, taking pictures, petting dangerous cats (just to prove that I was a cat whisperer), I was getting hungrier by the moment as it was by now after 2 p.m. However, the conversation inside the house was nothing if not more animated than when it had begun some time ago.

Family conference

As my friend (the daughter) explained to me later, the topic of concern was that the old guy, the 90 year-old patriarch, had wandered off into the selva (forest) recently and was gone for two days and one night. The family feared he had died of exposure as it had been an unusually cold night. The State police joined family and friends searching for him and finally located him on the second day, about five miles from his home, deep in the jungle. He was sitting peacefully against a tree, none the worse for wear except that his shirt was ripped to shreds by the rough foliage.

This was not the first time this had happened. I remembered a similar episode about a year ago. No one in the family thought that old Sr. Tun was losing his mind or that he was depressed. They accepted that he loved the selva and happily walked into it, open to anything that could have happened to him there. Of course, they are concerned that they will eventually lose him this way, but realize that this is what he may want to do. When he was found, by one of his other sons, he smiled and said, “I wasn’t afraid.”

Sr. Tun didn’t participate in the conversation the day we visited and seemed to feel sad that he had caused so much concern.

Abuelita Eusenia A., wife of Sr. Tun

Abuelita Eusenia and Tia Manuela

Sr. F. Tun

After our visit, we had lunch at the dependably fabulous Restaurante Tutul Xiu in Mani which was mobbed and as delicious as always.

Elena and Damaris eating Queso Relleno

We turned down a minor road. A battered sign said “San Fernando” and the small village was adjacent to a ruined hacienda that is surely more stupendous in its current state than it ever could have been when it was new. There is so little of it left, that we were surprised to hear that the Owner, who lives in Merida, was trying to sell it.

shell of desfibradora (machine shop)

Some of the local residents had moved into corners of the hacienda wreckage, which is unusual because villagers usually avoid the haciendas. However, in this case, the owner was engaged in kicking them out, having them destroy the lean-tos they had built, apparently wanting the place to look more pristine.

Quite pristine

Perhaps the owner can picture the pool and gift shop here.

Lush seting beckons to the guest

In all fairness, there us an unusually small, deteriorating  Casa Principal a bit away from these structures. It is soundly locked. Perhaps it has a few intact rooms, but it is notably unnatractive.

Here is a part of the hacienda where an older woman lives.

Residence in ruined hacienda

This is one of those villages where it is hard to understand how anyone makes a living of any kind. I asked a woman whether there was a school there and she was vague. There is no medical facility – you have to go to Maxcanu. I’m trying to remember whether there were any vehicles in San Fernando. There are no stores, no businesses.

Further down this empty road was another, more contemporaray ruin, fenced off with barbed wire.

Another 15 minutes down this road we found a treasure of a village, which shall remain nameless. It was like the places we saw twenty-five years ago. People looked healthy and were smiling. There was a lot of pride in the houses, which some of the home-owners had made themselves. It’s amazing what a difference a few miles can make. I imagine it has a lot to do with ejidal laws and how they are bent, giving absentee “landlords” dominion over space that could be used to good advantage.

Neatly thatched home

At this point, the editing function of iPhoto has ground to a halt, but I am putting in un-edited pictures anyway. I think some, like the one below, look kind of cool.

When I started seeing some of the magnificently made pole and thatch houses, I almost screamed. They haven’t been making these new since forever. Since “the hurricane” when many were destroyed all over the peninsula, about 99% of these lovely buildings, which know how to breathe, to absorb wind, and to keep bodies venilated, were replaced by those abominable concrete block houses, which “the government” slapped together quickly to provide people with shelter. It is highly unusual to come across a community where these skills are still being practiced.

Beautiful work

Pole and thatch artistry

The boy in the picture below is Miguel. His grandfather, standing shyly in back of him, made these walls himself.

Miguel in his house