Sorry about the derailment of the marmot thread. I did want to answer Marilyn though, some may be interested.
How I got here. I had been spending most vacations over on the Caribbean coast south of Playa del Carmen for 4 or 5 years and had bought a condo in the small town of Akumal. We were scuba divers and there is excellent open water diving there as well as a fascinating linked series of underwater caves called cenotes. When I retired in 2001 we bought an RV to travel down in and started spending winters in Mexico and summers traveling in the US and Canada. After 3 years, we sold the house in Calif as it had become a chore to go there and take care of everything. We had thought we would just drive down and back in the RV and live in the condo all winter. Instead, we fell in love with the RV lifestyle and spent only a month or so in sections at our condo. We traveled throughout Mexico (including Belize and Guatemala with a short stay in Honduras) for 6 years returning to areas we liked and heading into some wild and wooly unknown areas. Of course, this was before the narco violence made many of these areas unsafe. Eventually we decided to find out if we could actually live in the condo and moved in one winter. I realized that you can't lay on the beach and go diving all the time, that I missed having a garden and that basically I got bored pretty quickly in our tourist oriented beach town. Within a few weeks I was browsing the real estate sites in Merida. It's a city we always spent time in when we were down here, even before I retired. On our travels I had always had in the back of my mind that I was looking for the place that we would eventually set down roots. It came down to 2 cities, Merida and Guadalajara. Both are beautiful architecturally, have great access to art, music, food and excellent medical facilities. One was in the area I'd started thinking of as our home base, the Yucatan, and the other is higher in altitude, drier, a bigger city and in the middle of the country. I knew I would want to leave Guadalajara for a few months in the winter as it gets colder than I like, it's only a few hours from the Pacific and that wouldn't be a big problem. Still, here in Merida the weather suits my skin and we already had a beach condo only a few hours away. Plus, I like the culture here which is quite different than other parts of the country. The Maya are still the dominant group and they are a very traditional, polite, and respectful people. They are not very concerned with what other people do as long as it doesn't upset the peace, they are a fairly closed society but generous and kind to outsiders. So, that winter we bought a 100+ year old colonial ruin and got our architect to agree to remodel it. It really was a ruin, there were vines growing down through the ceiling and trees growing on the back wall. It had good bones though, it was structurally sound, with 20' ceilings and 3' thick walls. It took a year to renovate it and we lived partly at the condo and partly in an RV park on the outskirts of the city. We moved in 4 years ago and it was a good decision, the house is probably too large for just 2 of us but it is cool and comfortable and we are happy here. My partner does a lot of animal rescue and works at a local vet that supports free spay and neuter clinics around the area. We have filled the house with dogs and cats and fish and plants and it doesn't seem too large anymore. There is a small but interesting ex-pat community and so many things to do that we have to work to keep the social calendar in restraints. This city is special, it speaks to me. I lived most of my adult life in and around San Francisco and worked there until I retired. That city seemed to have a personality to me, it was distinct and I remember the first time I was there I felt a bond. The same thing happened here in Merida, the first time I came here I felt that it too had a personality, a feeling that I liked. I have a sharp memory of that first night here, sitting at a sidewalk cafe in the warm, soft tropical night with music playing and people laughing and a great feeling of peace and security.
What can't I grow? Ahhh, there is a long list surprisingly enough. Anything that needs chilling for a period is not going to do well here, no lilacs, decorative cherry trees, rhododendrons, I've never seen a hosta or a daylily. Roses will survive but don't flourish because of the heat and the humidity and the bugs. Cold weather fruits don't grow here, apples, pears, peaches, etc. Oddly, azaleas are a popular potted plant but I haven't tried to keep one yet. On the coldest night of the year it is rarely below 60°F, generally the lows are in the low 70's in the winter and mid to high 70's in the summer. Most vegetable crops have to be grown in the winter, they don't survive the heat and torrential rains of the summer. Winter is our kindest season, summers are volatile with monsoon rains, high temperatures and high humidity as well as the threat of hurricanes. This city is not in the usual path of hurricanes as it is inland by 20 miles from the Gulf and farther from the Caribbean. It happens though, the last big one to hit the city was Isidore in 2002. We are overdue for one now.
I wonder if I can find marmot on the menu (barbequed, of course).
We are a diverse group joined by our love of plants, dirt and growing things. I've found the same here, I've joined some local plant and pond groups and the people I've met through them are some of my favorites. We are a good group, gardeners, no matter where we come from or what language we speak.
