Stannous Flouride's Book of Truthiness

This penitentiary has been turned into a center for the social and health programs for seniors. Note the birds waiting on the roof.

I came upon this building as you see it in the first five photos and spent an hour today trying to find it again to go inside.
It’s a shadow of its grand past but how many Home Despot stores have their own banana plantation or in-ground swimming pool?

The living history museum of a henequen (or sisal) hacienda plantation.
Before plastics put them out of business almost overnight, the hundreds of these plantations made the Yucatán one of the richest places on earth.
This is the only one that has been restored to its glory days. Though everything works and my photos take you step by step through each stage of the process, it no longer produces commercially. So far, one of my favorite tours on this journey.
btw- the plant is called henequen but it was exported from the port of Sisal and thus labeled, giving it that now-common name.

For the coolest hardware store/lumber yard you’ve ever seen?

In the morning I am going to the Hacienda Sotuta Peon, a working henequen or sisal plantation that is also a living history exhibition.
It is a popular destination for tourists and the Hacienda just opened its own tour office here in Merida. I went there today and reserved a spot on tomorrow’s tour.
As in was leaving I discovered that they had opened a small shop in the same building to sell products made there out of sisal.
Light weight, interesting, unique, and quite collapsible for easy packing (& CHEAP) I bought a bunch for gifts and it turns out I was the very first customer!
I told them of the American custom of framing the first bill taken in at a new business for luck.
I asked for the $200 peso note I paid with , wrote ¡BUENA SUERTE! on it and signed it.

I think this was more therapy than indulgence. Riding a bike that is about 6-8″(15-20 cm) shorter than I am used to, along with spending hours hunched over a lab table set at a height that is perfect for a diminutive Mayan, and bed much less firm than the foam on plywood that I am used to has left me seriously aching. I feel great and very relaxed!
And of course that it is 3 doors away from Sorbeteria Colon demanded a quick stop for a Xocolate sorbet.

My first sample gathering expedition to the Bahia de Progreso. VERY muddy (almost up to my knees) and stinky and hot and fun.
I found the large horseshoe crab on a mangrove island and the little one as we were packing to leave.
I will try to get them home but the little guy is so delicate that he’s transparent.

The last few times I was at the Sorbeteria Colon it was too busy to get a close look at this lovely art.
Every part of it is cut from 1/8″ (0.3 cm) thick steel and mounted about the same distance off the wall. It measures about 7’x6′ (215cm x 185cm) Note the Mayan date in the lower left.

Built in1945, the Park is a wonderful melange of Mayan Modern and Deco.