To Belize or not

Our friends, Dick and Gwen, asked us as we were finishing our time at Rita's to join them on a trip to Belize this weekend. After feeling tied to her business and house for a while, we jumped at the chance. Road trip - yeah baby! Well we packed our little bags and were waiting at our gate when they picked us up this morning. We had taken a bike ride earlier and were a little shocked by the ferocity of the wind. It was coming out of the east so we didn't think too much about it. We just thought that we'd get to Playa Del Carmen via the car ferry more quickly with the wind at our back. We were a little disappointed to find that the ferry was cancelled. We didn't pout for long though. As always seems to happen here, the day developed quite nicely. Rita came over as we were mulling over our options with Dick and Gwen. Rita brought some chilled Chardonnay from South Africa and some pistachios and pound cake. After polishing that off, we went to lunch a great Cuban place and then to a movie (Knowing with Nicholas Cage). We had read mixed reviews on the movie. The NY Times thought it was laughable and Roger Ebert thought it was wonderful (we are really confused that he is still doing reviews after he died). We're thinking that there is something to be said for listening to reviews by live people as we sided with the NY Times. Still, though, always a fun experience to go to the movies here. We like trying to read the Spanish subtitles - very often they bear little resemblance to what is being said in English. The popcorn is always good, too.

How did the time slip by?

Can't believe it's been two weeks since we made an entry. We do have an excuse, though. Our friend, Rita, who runs a fishing and diving charter company took a very well deserved vacation to South Africa for almost two weeks. She honored and also scared the heck out of us by entrusting her company, her dogs and her house to us. When Rita first thought about taking a vacation, her business had about 4 trips total booked for the 12 days. By the time she returned, the number had ballooned to over 20. Yikes! We always thought we knew that Rita worked hard and kept ridiculous hours but we really had no clue. Our days normally began between 5 and 5:30 AM and pretty consistently went to 6 or 7 PM. Her employees, especially her Radar O'Reilly of MASH (Henry) and her divemaster/boat captain/mate/communicator (Edwin) were great. They had a lot of patience for our clumsiness with the business and the language. There were only a few times that Henry and I just looked at each other and pulled at our hair in frustration because we couldn't get our point across. The end result was good - no boats sunk, no customers drowned, no boat captains in jail and Rita came home to some money. And we came home to our sweet, uncomplicated life and felt new appreciation for it.

Our last day of fun with Alex

We were so happy that the resident turtles at Rita's house were out on Alex's last day in Mexico. Turtles tend to show up in Rita's yard during hurricanes. So, naturally, the turtles are all given hurricane names. Stan and Phyllis are the oldest and biggest ones. They like bananas, tomatoes and, it looks to us, that little girls may be okay too.

Alex woke up from several naps saying that she wanted to go swimming. How lucky are we to be able to accommodate those wishes in Rita's pool. Aside from being stylin', Alex's goggles provide UV protection. How great is that? A far cry from zinc oxide on our noses when we were young.

We sure hope that this is the first of many visits. It sure is heaven to wake up to a little one's voice added to the songs of the birds in the morning.

water and more water

So sad! Jamie, our dive buddy, couldn't go diving this trip. She had a pretty scary high fever that turned into a cold. So she had to settle for staying on the surface this trip. Spending part of a day at Hotel Barracuda did bring back some wonderful memories of previous dive trips when the girls were in high school. Fun to think about our grandkids joining us in our underwater adventures in years to come! Alex certainly is her mother's daughter. She loves the water! Then again, what's not to like?

Burying Papa's foot in the sand is pretty fun, too, even for a girl who doesn't usually like to have stuff on her hands.

After playing chicken with the waves, we all said our goodbyes to the sun. Jamie then gave Alex a little lesson in astronomy. She said that the sun was going to swim to the other side of the island and be there in the morning for us. That's the engineer that we know and love.

We were happy the sun made it to the other side the next day. This is one of a few protected coves that is perfect for little people. Okay, us big people too!

Cozumel's Zoo Park

This past week when Jamie, Eric and Alexis visited us, we walk a few blocks to the new park near the Palacio Municipal (City Hall). This park, formerly a soccer field, has been paved with walkways, several performing stage areas, some fountains, and 8 or 10 fiberglass animals. This is Alex, Gaga, and Papa with the Hippo. The Hippo is a small slide. Kids walk up the side and then slide out the hippo's backside! We tried to get a picture of Alex being expelled from the Hippo, but she wanted to walk up the slide and then down the stairs.

Alex wouldn't put her head in the Hippo's mouth until Gaga did! Smart girl! No hippo is going to bite her head off unless she has company!

Alex really liked sitting on the back of the reclining tiger. She kept saying "Giddy Up"! Fortunately the tiger ignored her and stayed still.

It took some coaxing, but Alex finally sat on the elephant's trunk. She didn't like it though.... must not be a Republican.