San Joachim Nursing Home
The work crew for the old folk’s home in Progreso is once again alive. Serge, Tony and I met the Madre Raquel on Wednesday to discuss projects for this year. Most of the work entails painting and repairing the outside walls and furniture of the entrance area, door upgrades on the outside bathrooms, with some smaller jobs like shelf slider repair and lock repair also on the list. We expect to start this year on Tuesday January 8. Hope to see you there.
La Plancha park captures awards at national architecture competition
ByYucatán MagazineDecember 20, 2024
Parque La Plancha in Mérida emerged as a standout winner at the 2024 National Biennial of Mexican Architecture, earning two major recognitions. The 50-acre public space project received both a silver medal for innovative lighting design and an honorable mention for landscape architecture.
Nine other projects from the region received honorable mentions, including the Maya Train station in Campeche, Hotel Sureño in Mérida, and several residential developments. These projects showcase the peninsula’s growing architectural significance, with La Plancha leading the way in sustainable urban development.
The park, designed by architects Javier Muñóz Menéndez and Carlos Eduardo Quesnel Moguel, transforms a former railway yard into Mérida’s newest green space. Its lighting design, developed by the Yucatán College of Architects, integrates landscaping with energy-efficient LED technology to enhance the visitor experience. The project dedicates 85% of its area to green spaces, establishing itself as a crucial environmental feature in the city’s urban core.
La Plancha’s development follows years of community debate and false starts but ended up an ambitious project with two museums, water shows, and an active amphitheater with live entertainment. While critics had envisioned a park that emphasized a natural habitat, walkers, joggers and families with small children have flocked to it.
Its dual recognition at the Biennial indicates its significance in contemporary Mexican urban design.
The Biennial recognized other notable projects from the Yucatán Peninsula, including three additional silver medals: the Quinta Montes Molina Cultural Center, the University of Anáhuac Mayab’s Architecture School expansion in Yucatan, and the Bacalar Ecopark in Quintana Roo. The competition’s highest honor, the gold medal, went to the Yancuic Museum in Mexico City’s Iztapalapa district.
Yucatán Magazine has the inside scoop on living here. Sign up to get our top headlines delivered to your inbox every week.
A quiet anniversary for Teatro Peón Contreras 2 years after fire
ByYucatán MagazineDecember 21, 2024
Shuttered since a ruinous fire two years ago, the Teatro José Peón Contreras is clad in scaffolding, and its stage is silent. And it likely will remain that way until late 2025, according to INAH.
The restoration of the Jose Peon Contreras will continue for at least 10 more months, said Anna Goycoolea Artís, the head of the National Institute of Anthropology and History.
An investment of 120 million pesos, or US$6 million, is budgeted to restore the theater.
The grand Péon Contreras was inaugurated on Dec. 21, 1908 in the city of Mérida. It was designed by architects Pío Piacentini, Enrico Deserti, and Fernando Ceicola.
It replaced the San Carlos Theater, built in 1807 and renamed in 1878 with the name of the Yucatecan playwright José Peón Contreras.
In 1899, the Mérida Theatre Company was established to provide the city with what was considered modern theater. Work on the building we see today began in November 1900.
Construction was suspended in 1902 and resumed in 1906, with new owners, la Sociedad Regil, Portuondo and Co.
The first performance under its roof was “A Musical Literary Evening” by the Spanish actor Enrique Borrás.
But live performances disappeared In 1940, when the theatre became the Peón Contreras Cinema. Its time as a movie theater lasted until 1974, when the building was closed.
In 1977, state lawmakers wrangled federal funds to declare the Peón Contreras Theater a National Artistic Monument. With this measure, it was expropriated by the Yucatán state government in 1979. It has been a public building ever since.
Rehabilitation work began in 1980, and by December 1981, it was reopened and regained its place as the region’s most elegant cultural space for live dance, opera, orchestras and singers.
From 2004 until the Nov. 1, 2022 fire, the theater was home to the Yucatán Symphony Orchestra. Today, the OSY performs at the modern Music Palace auditorium.
The fire has been attributed to a short circuit in the third-floor sound booth. The most difficult thing to restore has been the fresco of the nine muses of Apollo by Nicolás Allegretti in the upper dome. It will have to be repainted, and debate remains over whether the new imagery should replicate the muses or portray a more inclusive and socially relevant theme.
Officials have been quiet about the renovation. Members of the press or public have taken the only photos of the work being done. No date has been set for the theater’s reopening.
With information from Novedades Yucatán
Yucatán Magazine has the inside scoop on living here. Sign up to get our top headlines delivered to your inbox every week.
The sea moves away from the coast: “Vaciante” attracts visitors Yucatan Times December 4, 2024
The “Vaciante” caused by the effects of the recent cold front caused the sea to move 50 meters away, so there was more beach along the coasts of this port, a phenomenon that was observed on the boardwalk, as well as on beaches in the east of the city. , Chicxulub, and other points.
In Spanish, the phenomenon that occurs when the sea moves away from the sea is called “vaciante”.
The beach panorama is attractive at this time of year, as it motivates numerous inhabitants and foreign residents to walk, jog and run on the beach, routes that extend to the area known as “Pluma y Lápiz”.
Since the weekend, the void has appeared, which has been beneficial for the owners of summer properties. It allows them to carry out work to reinforce the breakwaters and repair breakwaters and walls that have been damaged by the onslaught of storm surges and northwest winds.
Likewise, the beach is free of sargassum due to the free space, which is attractive to locals and visitors.
The most striking thing about the distance from the sea is that you can see the pilasters of the arched viaduct of the former tax dock that could not be seen for a long time, as well as the state of its bases that withstand the surges and wind.
You can even walk under the arches, located on the north side of the closed wooden walkway, and reach the Chocolate Pier, which is a tourist attraction that is closed to the public. According to sources from the Regional Port Captaincy, the vacant marina will persist for a few days.
TYT Newsroom
Progreso will reopen the traditional boardwalk to vehicles
written by Yucatan Times November 23, 2024 0 comment
In 2025, four years after Progreso’s traditional boardwalk became pedestrian-only, that busy tourist area will reopen to vehicles.
As is known, since November 2021, the traditional boardwalk, the most visited area of ??Progreso, has been officially closed to cars and motorized vehicles in general.
The measure shocked the people of Progreso, who were anxiously awaiting its reopening after it was closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
After a few years after it became a pedestrian zone, the traditional Progreso boardwalk will reopen to vehicles.
As the pandemic subsided and public places opened, the surprise was great when, by instruction of the then mayor Julián Zacarías Curi, vehicles were permanently prohibited from passing through that road.
It should be noted that the area was closed before the pandemic arrived due to renovation works.
Since then the site has become pedestrian and now only vehicles belonging to security elements and floats pass through on Carnival days.
This left a bad taste in the mouths of many residents since for many years it was customary for locals and visitors to travel along the boardwalk in their cars.
Now the mayor of Progreso, Erik Rihani González, assured that next year the boardwalk will reopen to vehicles.
Interviewed on the ground floor of the Municipal Palace, he assured that the possibility of an orderly opening with a lot of responsibility is being analyzed.
During the beginning of the following year, access tests will be carried out to verify the necessary conditions for the logistics of reopening.
He assured me that it is very likely that the opening will be during the next Easter holiday period, during the month of April.
“We are working on making improvements to the regulations of public space, in this case on the boardwalk, and strengthening it with infrastructure that ranges from signage, correct planning, and security through the Police to ensure that traffic is not a detriment.”
TYT Newsroom
Surviving Yucatan Read on blog or Reader 2024 Aguinaldo & Vacation Pay Rules for Mexico  By yucalandia on November 20, 2024 Nov. 27, 2023AGUINALDOs … and Vacation Days-Pay … INCLUDING 2023’s Additional ~25% Vacation Pay Premium** As Christmas holiday chatzkies are appearing on store shelves …. as we make our holiday plans … It’s time to remember our beloved household help and employees (including nuestro querido “muchachas” y “mozos”). Please plan ahead to pay them their end of the year Aguinaldos and Vacation Pay by at least December 20’th …. and Plan to also give them paid-Vacation days OFF for the year … Ignore the gringo-myths: The Aguinaldo is NOT a optional bonus. Our Mexican workers and their families count-on and depend on these critical annual payments owed to them, by law. Because the Annual vacation pay & Aguinaldo payments are mandatory, you can pay them whenever you want … like even ~NOW~ … so they can enjoy using those $$ for the upcoming holiday sales ! Aguinaldo Calculation: Basically the Aguinaldo is 15 days of pay. (calculated on a 7 day work wk) – so it formally 2 weeks of pay, plus another day of “Daily Rate Pay”. Specifically, the annual aguinaldo payment is precisely 15 days of “Daily Rate pay”. … Note that “Daily Rate pay” is a bit peculiar, because you take their weekly pay, and divide by 7 days. Example, if your cleaning person is paid $350 pesos each time, for 2 times a week, then their “Daily Rate Pay” is => $700/7 days = $100 per day. This means a 15 day Aguinaldo for her would be: 15 days x $100/day = $1,500 Aguinaldo for the Year It is not a Christmas bonus. It is a mandatory wage payment that is due by the 20’th of December. The aguinaldo is equivalent to at least “15 days wages”, and may be pro-rated if the employee has been working for you for less than a full year. If the person only worked part time or just some months of the year ... One method is to simply divide their TOTAL annual pay $$ by 365 days … to get the “Daily Rate Pay” … and then MULTIPLY that part-year-adjusted “Daily Rate Pay” by 15 days.  Note that if they work only a part year, and you don’t know the total amount paid during the whole year:An alternate way of calculating the aguinaldo is determined by multiplying the total days they worked in current year … times 15 … then divide by 365 days .. and then finally … multiply that value by the daily rate: For a part-year worker coming in for 2 days a month for 9 months => 18 days total worked … x … 15 days of Aguinaldo = 270 270 / 365 = 0.7392 … 0.74 x $Daily Rate ($100 pesos/day?) = $ 74 pesos ================================== Vacation Pay – 2023 Update ! 4 pesos ================================== Vacation Pay – 2023 Update ! Vacation pay starts with a basic minimum payment of 12 days of Daily Rate pay, plus a 25% bonus.** … => Daily Rate pay x 1.25 x # of Vacation Days. **Further, as of 2023, Mexican labor law requires employers to pay a vacation premium, a bonus of **at least 25 percent of the base salary**, so that vacation days are paid at a 125 percent salary rate at a minimum, https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/global-hr/pages/mexico-paid-vacation-days.aspx 1st year – 12 days of Daily Rate pay** 2 years – 14 days 3 years – 16 days 4 years – 18 days 5 years – 20 days 6 to 10 years – 22 days 11 to 15 years – 24 days 16 to 20 years – 26 days 21 to 25 years – 28 days 26 to 30 years – 30 days 31 to 36 years – 32 days **Daily Rate pay is based on a 7 day work-week calculation. Either divide their weekly pay by 7 to get their Daily Rate pay … and then … **Increase that Daily Rate pay by MULTIPLYING it by 1.25 for Vacation Pay calculations. or .. Calculate the full year pay, and divide by 365 days to get the Daily Rate pay, and Increase that Daily Rate pay by MULTIPLYING it by 1.25 for Vacation Pay calculations. Happy Holidays ! * * * * See more details at our Full Articles: https://yucalandia.com/answers-to-common-questions/labor-law-for-household-employees-in-mexico-what-must-we-pay/ … and https://yucalandia.com/answers-to-common-questions/mexicos-new-2012-labor-law-and-the-effects-on-expats-with-household-help/ * * * * Feel free to copy while giving proper attribution: YucaLandia/Surviving Yucatan. © Steven M. Fry Read on, MacDuff. Comment Like  You can also reply to this email to leave a comment. |
Repeat Updated Information
Happenings at David”s Restaurant
Apartments for Rent, with pool and patio
My grandson Moises, 19 is managing the apartments and has posted them on Airbnb. If you would like to rent direct, please contact Moises at 998 257 3034.
Plans for the restaurante next season: We are going to offer some of our special recipes as a frozen portion pack: Butter chicken, Beef Bourguignon, Red lentil dal, to mention a few. We will also cook special recipes. This is in response to many requests we have received.
Aches and Pains
Maybe a Spa: Last season a Canadian neurologist suggested I try Sea Salt Therapy for a painful leg muscle condition. I bought a 50 kilo bag of sea salt and started a routine of a 20 minute jacuzzi morning and evening. The results have been very positive. I put 2 kilos of salt in every jacuzzi. Sea salt comes from the coast nearby. I’m considering the possibility of a Spa, that would have individual jacuzzis. Your comments and suggestions would be appreciated.
google sea salt therapy…ask your doctor
Saludos cordiales from the Chicxulub Crater
David Andrew Henry
for the backstory google
radio canada international restaurante chicxulub
For folks interested in Mayan history here’s a link to a recent NYTimes
article.
From The New York Times:
Ancient Genomes Reveal Which Children the Maya Selected for Sacrifice
Thousand-year-old DNA from Chichén Itzá offers eye-opening details of the religious rituals of ancient Maya.
San Joachim Nursing Home and Baseball with kids
As there was no interested volunteers in leading the exercise group at San Joachim or the kids baseball team it has been discontinued. Hope it comes back!!
I want to give a big thank you to all the volunteers who over the years have made the programs successful. Here is a testamonial from one of the long term ladies from te nursing home!! ” I volunteered at the nursing in the exercise program for 10 years, I thoroughly enjoyed it, you do not need to know much of the language, it helps if someone knows some, Sharron Rathier and I did it for 5 years without knowing much and we got along just fine. Paula joined us for the last five years ..there were others helping when they had time or felt like coming in. It was very rewarding and the residents became part of your family and they looked forward to your coming . We knew nothing when we started there was an instruction tape set up by some company that was helpful but by the time we retired we had set up a good and fun program and it and some of the things that we had purchased were left at the home, sure hope someone decides to take this on as it is very rewarding.”
Recent Comments