{"id":437,"date":"2009-02-09T08:18:52","date_gmt":"2009-02-09T14:18:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/saskatchewangypsy.wordpress.com\/?p=437"},"modified":"2009-02-09T08:18:52","modified_gmt":"2009-02-09T14:18:52","slug":"chelem-puerto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/pilgrim\/index.php\/2009\/02\/09\/chelem-puerto\/","title":{"rendered":"Chelem Puerto"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Mexican<\/a>

Mexican flag above the town administration centre in Chelem.<\/p><\/div>\n

Last week, we walked down the sandy dirt beach road to the town of Chelem Puerto, a distance of about eight kilometres from our villa. Nothing unusual for us, this business of long walks. We were just curious about seeing what was along the way. The destination was not important, it was the journey. That said, we finally ended up in the pueblo of Chelem, one of the major towns along the beach coast before one arrives at Progreso. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The town is a bit threadbare like the Mexican flag that flies above the town’s administration centre. The winds of fall and winter have muted the colours. Flying sand and salt spray have added to the erosion and weary aspect of the town. It would be hard to guess that this is one of the prefered locations for foreigners to buy and build and rent their Mexican winter homes.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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\"Men<\/a>

Men waiting their turn for a chance for a job.<\/p><\/div>\n

As we wandered into the town we got to say \u201cbuenas tardes\u201d to quite a few local people.\u00a0 There is a real sense of Chelem being a friendly place.\u00a0 It didn\u2019t take long to reach the \u2018z\u00f3calo\u2019, the central plaza found in almost every town in Mexico. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>In front of one of the administration offices, a small gathering of local men had gathered in search of jobs.\u00a0 We listened for a while as the loudspeakers would inform all of a job and then watched as one man would enter into the building following the announcement.\u00a0 The process was repeated again and again, each man taking his turn.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\"dsc03943\"<\/a>\u00a0As usual, the town’s z\u00f3calo was ringed by the town’s administration centre, a church and a number of business enterprises.\u00a0 One thing different for Chelem was that at the centre, the street that goes north and south off the z\u00f3calo were festive in appearance with small strips of banners strung across the street for the full length of the street.\u00a0 At the end of both the north end and the south end water could be seen from the town’s z\u00f3calo.<\/p>\n

Of course, we decided that it would be a good idea to walk down the boulevard in both directions.\u00a0 Strange how we never noticed the boulevard each time we have travelled through Chelem en route to Progreso or M\u00e9rida.\u00a0 As we walked along, we were able to see into most of the homes as they had their doors open.\u00a0 Most of these homes were also small businesses selling fish, junk food, advertising painting services or like this lady, selling fresh fruit and vegetables.<\/p>\n

\"dsc03946\"<\/a>Since we walked down the south branch of the boulevard, we arrived at the laguna where there was a small port of sorts for the smaller boats that were used for shallow fishing using nets.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"dsc03948\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The main catch on the laguna side was shell fish and shrimp which are the main ingredients for many of the seafood dishes that make up the daily diet of both Mexicans and foreigners who live along the coast.<\/p>\n

\"dsc03950\"<\/a>At the end of the northern boulevard was the Caribbean Sea which is lined with beach homes from Chuburna to Progreso and beyond going east.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"dsc03952\"<\/a>When we returned to the z\u00f3calo, we checked out the local mercado, a market selling fruits, vegetables, meats as well as a number of small shops and restaurants.\u00a0 As usual we saw a number of gaming machines which were busy with young men.\u00a0 Life in a Mexican town along the coast is a curious mixture of modern and traditional.\u00a0 Why traditional?\u00a0 Economics.\u00a0 Unfortunately we toss out the traditional when we have the money to embrace the modern.\u00a0 It is no different in Canada or anywhere else we have ever travelled so far.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week, we walked down the sandy dirt beach road to the town of Chelem Puerto, a distance of about eight kilometres from our villa. Nothing unusual for us, this business of long walks. We were just curious about seeing … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/pilgrim\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/pilgrim\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/pilgrim\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/pilgrim\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/pilgrim\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/pilgrim\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/pilgrim\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/pilgrim\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/pilgrim\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}