We are here!

Yes, we're here in Cozumel and are hoping fervently that we can handle this high tech form of communication. We thought a blog might be a little less intrusive than a newsletter. Please let us know what you think. We're a little nervous.

We tiptoed out of daughter Jamie's house at 4:30 AM last Sunday. We've decided our kids truly are grownups. Between being shushed by Adrienne for waking baby Ellie and Jamie getting up of her own accord and without staying up all night, this realization came to be.

We arrived in Cozumel with our four 50 lb bags and bicycle in fine shape. Our friend, Rita, was waiting outside of Customs to take us home to Casa Bella. We were amazed by our garden as we drove up. The lillies we planted last year are now 8 feet tall and the clippings that Ed took on our walks are now bushes and trees!

Thanks to Ed and the Friends of the Cedaredge Library book sale at Applefest, we now have more than enough books and painted crates in which to proudly display them. We are still impressed by our paint job both inside and out from last year. The Easter egg colors are as endearing as ever.

Rita swung by in her pickup early in the week to ask if we wanted to experience the Mega store with her. Wow! It's an amazing Target-like store with wonderful produce, breads, meats, frozen foods, baby aisles galore- way too many items to name. The store is an easy walk or bike ride for us but it was wonderful to have the ride for our first visit.

The Milpa fruit stand continues to be a great way to start the day. After having fresh grapefruit juice the first few days, we now moved on to orange-carrot juice. YUM!

Speaking of food, we have had a few wonderful meals out already. We went to Otates with Burak and Rita. It is a taco and posole place that was packed midweek. On Friday, we were invited to Dick and Gwen's house for homemade pasta with homemade pesto. Now, the juice YUM doesn't hold a candle to our YUM experienced at Dick and Gwen's house. It truly is a wonderful thing to have friends who enjoy doing this type of thing. We are invited there for Thanksgiving. We are thankful, indeed.

Peggy went to power yoga class today with Lynn, Gwen and Becky. Oh my gosh, never ever have I sweated so much. Amazing what 50% humidity will do. The place was packed and I know that I shouldn't compare myself to others but I need extreme improvement. I did survive though and plan on returning next Saturday - who said that?

We have been going on some nice bike rides in the morning and evening. It's great to ride by the shore but riding in the neighborhoods is also a treat. People are actually outside talking with each other, kids are playing and there are little neighborhood stores everywhere. Most are eyeing Ed's 15 year old REI bike, which has no rust on it- yet! By next year it'll look like all the other bikes here.

Our new computer just blows us away. We were listening to KVNF (Paonia's community radio station) the other day while we were reading the DCI. We are loving our Skype account that Damian told us about. We actually have a phone that we can use to make calls. And Peggy has talked with the girls every day. Amazing. Clear, normal phones calls from Mexico. For $3 a month. We're also loving the 4000 songs that we have on the computer courtesy of Eric. Peggy is cleaning windows to Beethoven and Ed is all about Gorrilaz and Mickey Mouse Fun Clubhouse.

We'll be having churros for dessert tonight. A very nice little man sells these custard filled pastries at our gate about twice a week. 10 pesos (o.75 each). Speaking of eating, this may be a very good time to sign off. Dinner is about ready and a cold Leon beer awaits.