Wishing you a Happy and Healthy New Year

Filled with love, laughter, family and friends

The Hirst Family in Plano, Texas

Damian, Adrienne, Ellie Bellie, Lover Boy Keanan, and Charlie Boy

The Galyon Family in Broomfield, Colorado

Jamie, Eric, Meeko, Aubrey Belle, Alex-eeee

The Baxter Family in Hempstead, Texas

Jamie B and Kelley (MIA)

Cody Mac, Ashly Splashly, #$&! Mia, Buddy Boy and Jemma

New Era

Lots of willing party posers and thankfully a photographer.  Unfortunately the photographer had to leave early to get some sleep after a long day at work.  So no pics of the later arrivals!

Rita, Peggy, Sarah

Roberta, Dick, Laura B., Gwen and Robert

Javier, Chuck, Sarah and Moni

It certainly was not the end of the world and it may have been the end of the Mayan calendar, but we'd like to think of it as the beginning of a New Era. We had an End of the World/End of the Calendar Party on the evening of the 21st. We invited about 30 people- a mix of American and Mexican friends. All celebrated with gusto. We chowed down on homemade Mexican tamales (in corn husks) from Sra. Arcer. Two types: red with chicken and rajas con queso (poblano peppers with cheese). There was lots of discussion about Mexican tamales, Yucatan tamales, Chiapas tamales, etc. Which are the best? Who prefers which? We had pozole from Los Otates restaurant with radishes, cabbage, onions and tortilla chips. All agreed that this was truly fine pozole -even the pozole aficionados!  Edwin came earlier in the day and made a huge bowl of guacamole. Wonderful. He seasoned Peggy's pico de gallo perfectly. Peggy also made great sangria.  Friends brought other drinks and desserts. Chocolate. Fit for Mayan gods. If it is going to be the end of the something, what better way to go out than with your belly full of great food and drink! As usual down here, there was plenty of stress leading up to the party: Where's the tamale lady live?  Shall we pay in full before we get our tamales? Is Otates ever going to acknowledge our order which we texted to them as they speak no English there? Will it really be ready at 5:30PM as the party started at 6PM? On and on. Hand wringing. Nail biting.  Gnashing of teeth.  But, as is normally the case, it turned out fine. Just not on our normal American schedule! Good friends, good food and no rain! The cat even got to have a little guacamole!  No End of the World, for us only a new beginning.

Rainy Day/s Musings

We've had a couple of days now of on and off really good rain. Ed did laundry the other day and hung it out to dry on the roof. This morning during a break in the rain he brought it in and hung it up under a ceiling fan. It was far wetter than it was after the washer's spin cycle! Now, we're doing inside house stuff and trying not to do the stuff that really needs to get done. Our friend Socrates and a buddy stopped by to say hello and, having no work today, were planning on smoking mota all day. Not a bad way to pass the time. We, on the other hand, decided to try and figure out how much rain we've had. The Tracker had left its Carlos 'n Charlie's yard glass on the patio table and it's about filled. So, we started to think about how to compute how many inches of water we've had. First, how tall is the glass? Well, it's raining pretty hard and neither of us wanted to go out and measure. So, we guessed. Now, how do you compute the area of a circle- the top opening of the glass. Pi R squared? Ummm. Then, what's the diameter of the glass's stem? Again, we could go out and measure its diameter, but, it's still raining! This is not a task for us. It's a task for daughter Jamie! We'll send her the measurements and in her spare time (ha!)she can figure it out! Back to being inside on a rainy day. So, let's take photos of the lake which now is the Tracker's new home! Patio Lake empties into Tracker Lake, which has a spillway into Ave. 10 Bis Sur canal. Done. Photos are only possible because the camera is waterproof. Now, let's plan a party! We'll have it on December 21- the end of the Mayan calendar or maybe the end of the world! Let's do dishes! Let's take showers! Let's make a list for the grocery store! But why? It may never quit raining. Let's build an ark! Ummm. No wood. OK, let's join Socrates and his buddy! Ahhh. life is good- even when is raining!

The Jamie Baxters Visit

Jamie B, Kelley, and Cody came down last week for their annual early December visit.  Every year they have more fun, as friendships grow and Cody finds more and more cool things to do. This year we got out on the water a few times, along with the normal hanging out at Blue Angel Resort swimming, snorkeling and, of course, drinking a  few beers! First, we fished with Edwin on his small panga boat a couple of times. First day, we trolled and got nothing! The next time was an all day outing down south to Punta Sur and Cielo, Jamie B and Cody landed a huge 45 pound wahoo! What a magnificent fish! We actually had 3 strikes at about the same time but only hooked one. It took about 30 minutes to land it and did it put up a fight! Cody tried to reel it in, but didn't have the strength. We bottom fished off Punta Sur and caught trigger fish, grunts, and a yellow tail snapper. Pretty hard to get skunked bottom fishing there. We motored back to Cielo where we got off the boat and swam. The fish went to Edwin's family restaurant, El Ferito (The Little Lighthouse) around and we got a huge fresh fish dinner! Most of the wahoo is residing in the restaurant's freezer for other dinners.  After dinner several generations of our families played Mexican bingo which is like American bingo but with pictures instead of lettered numbers like B6. The best evening, so much laughter and making fun.

Two days later we were back on Rita's boat, the Albatros, for a day trip along with a group of a dozen others to snorkel, swim and paddleboard at Cielo and Cardona Reef . Cardona is deeper with lots of pretty corral and fish. Cielo is shallow, has a huge population of starfish and  is perfect for wading. Kelley got up immediately on the paddleboard and Cody paddled around with ease. He went from being tentative about the water to diving headfirst off of the boat several times.  Cody got to drive the boat back to the marina under the watchful eyes of Jamie B and Captain Pedro. He was in heaven.

We also did the usual trips to the grocery store, the shore where Cody netted small minnows and crabs, and, of course, did a bit of shopping. Kelly gave us 2 wine glasses that she bought down here last year and she bought us a matching vase this year. Jamie B muled down fishing stuff as well as scuba stuff. Cody brought down homework which was pretty much ignored! Thank you Baxters for spending your vacation with us and for your kp duty! We love you all and look forward to next December at a huge beach house, Villa Debra, where the whole family will converge next year.  Yippee!

This piece of oceanfront is now called Cody's Shore.

 April got to take the day off of school to go fishing with Cody.

 Another beautiful day.

 Whitty Kitty is going through Cody withdrawal.

 Life is good.

 Life is AWESOME!

 The Baxters' favorite mode of transportation even with a boogie board.

 Looking for a stingray.

 I love this!

Cat Tales

This morning when we got up at 4:30AM to go over to the other side of the island to see sunrise on 12/12/2012, our water pump turned on. Strange, as we weren't using any water or hadn't flushed a toilet. Ummmm. While going downstairs, Ed heard the washing machine start running. And, checking it out, it had indeed filled and had started its wash cycle. A sheepish looking cat, Kitty Whitty (not being too original we name all cats Kitty Whitty), was rubbing the door and Ed's leg.  So, the mystery was solved. The cat sleeps on top of the washer, she must have touched the start buttom or rubbed up against it. You can see from the photo below that the blue start button is located low enough for her to start the machine. From now on, we'll unplug the machine or try to train the cat to load dirty clothes!

The flash on the camera must have been a bit much so early in the morning!

Tracker At Its New Home

For the first time since we bought this house, the gates were opened and a vehicle was pulled into the parking area. The Tracker appears happy and content with it new retirement residence! It seems to have aclimated itself in no time! Hat, blanket, Carlos 'n Charlies yard glass. What else does anyone or any vehicle need? Viva Mexico! Viva Cozumel! Una mas cerveza, por favor! Bien fria! Donde esta el bano?

Have to say that this guy is going a little overboard celebrating his retirement!

Thanks for the inspiration, Jame!

Car Ferry Home

We found the entrance to the car ferry. It's also a truck ferry with 18 wheelers lined up to go to Cozumel. We got the Tracker in line and then the folks there have the cars form several lines. We arrived about 1 3/4 hours early, which is good because you want to get on the last ferry of the day! A man comes and inspects your vehicle, writing down the license plate number, type and size of vehicle, number of occupants, etc. He gives you copy and you take that copy of that to the office and pay. We paid about $45 USD. Then, we waited until the loading began. Loading is slow as there are a lot of cars to organize and park. The ferry has 2 parking decks; cars go up to the second floor and large trucks go to the first. The ferry has doors on both ends so that big semi trucks drive on and then drive off. Cars have to turn around a bit. After entering the ship, you see the ramp that cars have to ascend to the upper floor. It's steep and wet. Almost as wet as Peggy's palms were when she saw it and said "Sheee It!". It took some convincing her not to get out of the car!  Cars ahead of us were spinning their wheels on the way up. The smell of burning rubber was present. The car in front of us stopped half way up which is a bad mistake (especially if you have a standard transmission) because you gotta slowly back down the ramp and do it again. Ed told Peggy to close her eyes, hang on tight, and think pleasant thoughts. Not to worry! The Tracker did great- making it up with a minimum of tire spinning and w/o 4 wheel drive. No time to put to lock in our hub caps and really, we never reviewed the manual. We got out of the Tracker before the ship's doors were closed and real monoxide fumes develop. We went to the passenger lounge but  the din raised by playing kids became too much for us and we moved outside to the upper seating area. A pleasant voyage over. It took about 2 hours. The passenger ferry does it in about 35 minutes. Exiting the ferry is slow, but was orderly. First on, last off. But, an exciting trip and the Tracker did great. We loved it.  And we loved writing these last posts, too!

 Sorry we don't have a picture of the ramp.  Peggy's hands kept sliding off the camera.

Back to Cozumel

After breakfast in Valladolid and a quick tour of the central market, we're off to Coba and the Monkey Reserve. Coba has some fully restored ruins which we visited 28 years ago when it was way off the beaten track. We wanted to preserve that old memory so we went north instead to a monkey reserve.  It is about 10 miles from Coba near a small town of Punta Laguna. Punta Laguna has a population of about 150 people, consisting of about 7 families. Everyone knows everyone. Also, everyone either works at or is supported in some way by the Monkey Reserve. The Reserve was started by 3 fellows who originally were looking for a place to grow chicle (the chewing gum ingredient). These guys began to worry about the declining monkey population as a result of over-harvesting by the local Mayans. So, they formed this 10,000 acre reserve. It provides a safe environment for several hundred spider and howler monkeys. We paid our admission and hired a guide for an hour. It turned into a 2 hour tour. We "hunted" and found several families of spider monkeys. What fun. Our guide called (squawked or squealed) to the monkeys and several times they responded! This is real dense jungle and we only walked in a 1/4 mile of so. No howlers, but we certainly weren't disappointed.  We ended our tour by the lagoon.  It was huge!  Our guide was awesome.  We are true believers now in hiring a guide whenever they are available.

Now we had to make a decision: travel slow and overnight in Playa to catch an early moring ferry or travel pretty quickly and catch the late evening ferry to Cozumel. We decided on the latter so we moved on to Akumal.  Akumal was our first Mexican vacation together 29 years ago. It took awhile to find the right road but, there it was- Akumal beach and Las Casitas. Certainly lots of development around the area, but the Casitas and other beach buildings were as we remember. A quick stop but a memorable one. Fun memories such a dinner at the first "knife and fork" sign up the road!  A restaurant with no electricity and the freshest  fish ever.  And the submerged Spanish canons in the water right outside our casita.  And our friends, Ed and Roxanne. And Peggy's parents, Jamie and Adrienne.

A hour there and then off to Playa to find the car ferry!

The fruit and vegetable stands are a work of art.

 We're guessing these are pretty fresh, free range chickens.

 We needed our friend D. Ann to take photos that would do the monkey reserve justice.

 Monkeys apparently can eat in any position.  Again,  sorry for the poor quality of photo.

 A cave where the monkeys go during a hurricane.

Yaxcaba and Valladolid

After a great breakfast at Macanche, we checked out and headed to find a hacienda (working ranch) owned by the owners of Macanche. After following a 1 1/2 lane road, we found it but it was closed to the public. We were bummed.  At the end of another "path" however we were blown away by a tiny chapel in the jungle next to a gorgeous cenote.

Reinvigorated we head off to Yaxcaba, where the largest Episcopalian church in the Yucatan was built. It is now a Catholic church. After finding the right road,  we discovered it was under construction. 15 miles of rocky, one lane, pothole filled, dusty and winding road. Glad we had our trusty Tracker. A sedan of any sort would not have worked for us! A few taxis struggled along with us. We made it, albeit very slowly. Several times we held our breaths (along with uttering a few swear words) and wondered if we should read the Tracker's manual and put it into 4 wheel drive! Unfortunately, we arrive at Yaxcaba at 12:30PM when the church was closing! It would reopen at 4:30PM. Way too late for us. Outside the church was certainly impressive- big, thick walls, etc.  There was another church building under reconstruction, more of a chapel, and a cenote nearby. But, again, closed.  We did, though, get an appreciation of how churches are the focal point in small villages.  Lots of kids playing all around the churches.

Next stop? More ruins on the way to overnight at Vallodalid. These ruins were way back on a dirt road with grass growing up between the tire tracks. They were pretty small ruins. No more than a half dozen or so. They had been reconstructed, but not much. We could see that there were more ruins that had been completely covered by trees and jungle. A short stop but it reminded us that this peninsula has hundreds, if not thousands, of "undiscovered" ruins.

The highlight of this day was stopping at the twin cenotes about 1 mile outside of Vallodalid. These cenotes have been improved with sidewalks, changing rooms, bathrooms, vendor stalls, etc. We had our choice of cenotes to visit and we chose the "one with more light" called Samula. An absolutely breathtaking cenote. You walk down about 40 concrete steps to a cavelike entrance. Then, it opens up to a huge cavern filled with water. There's a hole in its top. That hole has a tree growing up out it it and roots stretch down from the ceiling about 80 feet into the cenote's water. The hole allows shafts of light to enter the cenote which is about 100 feet across. The water is blue/green and crystal clear. Deep in spots and shallow in others. Roped off for swimming. There's a small island in the center, the result of the rock from the hole falling down into the cenote. There were about 20 people there. Peggy had gotten her suit on and swam for 20 minutes or so. She impressed the crowd and Ed with ballet legs from her synchronized swimming days!The photos do not do it justice. A spectacular site!

After that we had short drive to Valladolid and and a repeat visit to the Meson del Marquez hotel on the main square. Valladolid has a great zocolo (main square). Wide sidewalks. Thousands of pigeons which were chased by little kids and fed rice and popcorn by others. We sat in the square  (just like old people!) and watched for quite awhile. Fun. Dinner of cochinita pibil and chaya soup on the square. Delicious!

Valladolid has become another old friend.  We love its grace, its friendly people, its step back to a simpler time.

Chapel at the end of a dirt lane.

 Cenote by the chapel.  How lucky we are to see these treasures!

 Episcopal Church

 Newer (1789) section of the church above.

 cenote near the above church

 The grand finale cenote outside Valladolid.  Another piece of heaven!

On to Izamal

On the way out of Motul, we stopped at a cenote named Semola. We paid our entry fee of 10 pesos and climbed down the concrete stairs to the opening of the cenote. A pretty large cave opening that housed the cenote. The pool of fresh water went back aways but then meets the ceiling. There was a young couple (probably high school age boyfriend/girlfriend) there, watching the few fish that swam in the cool water. This is a great place to beat the heat! Especially in the summer. We chatted a bit with them. Nice kids.

Then, off to the ruins in Ake. After a couple of wrong turns we asked a man and a woman on a scooter who happened to be going there too.They led the way. Right at the entry to the ruins, there's a small hennequin factory that processes the strong fibers from this plant into ropes. At one time, hennequin or sisal was a huge industry on the peninsula We stopped to let a horsedrawn cart piled high with hennequin fibers pass. It was small cart on a miniature set of railroad tracks that lead to the factory. There, the fibers were unloaded and the horse was led off to load up again. We regret we didn't get a photo of horse, but we took a couple of the factory on the way out. A very noisy and busy factory.

After paying our entry fee, we entered Ake. Ake is a set of Mayan ruins built between 300 and 600 AD that are distinquished by a raised platform that contains 37 columns. These columns are about 3-4 feet in diameter and are about 10-15 feet tall. This was a place of importance! Another area was in the process of being excavated and restored. About 30 workers were replacing rocks. There was a young man in charge so we walked over and talked to him. His name was Roberto Rosada, an LSU (Yep, Louisiana State University) graduate with an advanced degree in anthropology with emphasis on archaeology. He and another archaeologist were in charge of the reconstruction. Roberto had wanted to do this type of work since he was 12 years old in Merida.  For his 15th birthday present, he asked for a trip to Ake which his parents made happen.

He explained they were doing the reconstruction by relying on Stevens and Catherwood drawings,  old photos, whatever they can find before removing anything. They take photos. Then, they set up a grid, numbering each stone within a grid section before its removal. They pile the stones from each grid section in a separate pile before excavating the dirt behind the stones. After forming the dirt they reset the stones grid by grid into what was the original structure- stairs, walls, platforms, etc. Painstaking and very slow work. There's never enough money or grants so they do what they can do for now. Hopefully over time it'll get done.  He said that he worked for US based World Foundation.

On to Izamal and our stay at Macanche. We were here last year and the hotel is a series of small bungalows in  "jungle" setting. Of course, immediately Peggy was in her swimsuit and headed to the swimming pool which is made out of large limestone rocks. Swim and a shower and then off to the square for dinner and a beer. On the way we passed a pickup truck full of mandarin oranges. We bought a large bag for 10 pesos. That bag lasted us our entire trip. The square was being set up for Izamal Days, a festival. Lots of booths, food vendors, and loud fireworks!  We couldn't bring ourselves to stay awake until 10 PM when the regional dancers performed.

After a sweetbread for dessert we're back at Macanche for bed. This driving, crawling around ruins and looking at 16th century churches is tiring!

Cenote in Motul

How in the world did they transport and then place these huge stones?

An idea of just how huge these suckers are!

Reconstruction site

Roberto and Mayan engineer.

The old hennequen factory near the ruin.

The hennequen fibers.

Progreso to Motul

The Tracker is full of gas and we're ready to go. So, we decide to take the coast highway east from Progreso and then head south to Motul. We thought that it would be a great senic drive, as on the map the highway follows the coast. And, it does, but it's not too senic. The road is anywhere from a few hundred yards to about 1/2 mile inland! Gotta save the ocean frontage for houses and villas! A pretty boring drive. Great views of  the driveways leading to beachfront houses, but that's about it. Since we picked up the car at about 1:30PM we stopped at a hotel for lunch. Nice lunch. No other folks around, as it's offseason along the coast. High season is the summer months when folks from Merida try and escape the city heat and head to the beach. Exactly the opposite of what we expected. It's getting late now and we don't want to be driving past sunset- too much potential to run into an unlighted bike, trailer, or livestock- so we head off to Motul to find a place to spend the night. We pass through several small towns with ruins and old churches, but we can't stop.Gotta get there.

Then came our first disappointment with our trusty Hunter travel guide.  It said that Motul was a quaint town with horse drawn carriages and a nice hotel on the main plaza.  We made it as the sun was going down.  We parked on the plaza, walked back into a dark hallway and found a dive of a hotel.  Peggy wasn't going for it so we walked out to the plaza wondering about our next move.  We asked a taxi driver about other hotels and he told us there was an "expensive" hotel   about a half block up from the square.  We walked into a piece of heaven when we arrived at the Posada y Restaurante Maria Jose!  A young man from the kitchen (Evan) took us up to this perfect room that was quiet and graceful.  Ed asked about parking and the young man said it was out front - that meant that when the first customer left the restaurant, he would place bar stools in the parking spot to reserve it.  By the time, Ed came back with the Tracker, voila, the space was open!

After paying $48 for the room (clean, modern, king size beds, A/C, TV, etc.) and showering, we came down to a darkened restaurant.  The chef, Solidad, said that we could find a beer at the store down the street. We drank our beers listening to wonderful Handel water music that was playing on Youtube at the computer behind the front desk while we checked our own computer for any urgent messages.  I told the man at the desk that it was time for Handel's Hallelujah Chorus.  After depositing the computer in our room, we came back down to the Hallelujah Chorus blaring.  Solidad, the reception man, a few other folks together with us both sang our hearts out!  Then we found a flash mob of Beethoven's Ode to Joy on Youtube and did the same.  What an incredible experience.
Dinner of yogurt and sweet breads at a bakery, a walk around the plaza and off to one of the best sleeps ever!

Breakfast by Solidad was gorgeous and huge!  We asked Solidad and Evan if we could take their picture in front of the hotel.  They both pointed to themselves and said "us?"  They didn't understand what a fantastic experience they had created for us.  They both insisted on going back to the kitchen to change their shirts!

Our sweet room!

Motul's colonial church.

Peggy, Solidad and Evan spruced up!

Tracker Arrives

Our little Tracker buddy "in jail".

Peggy, our agent and, of course, the Tracker outside of the port

After confirming the shipping/arrival date of the Tracker from Panama City, FL to Progreso, we took the first class (no stops) ADO bus from Playa del Carmen to Merida. ADO buses are clean, new, with bathrooms and movies! There were lighted signs on the front of the bus indicating whether the male and female bathrooms were "occupado" or not. Just like an airplane. We enjoyed the Disney movie "The World's Greatest Game" in English. It made the 4 1/2 hour trip go pretty quickly. We checked into the del Gobenador Hotel in downtown Merida which was close to our agent's office. A bit of shopping at the tiny shop of our favorite vendor in Merida, 75 year old Estaquio.  A nice walk around this beautiful city with pocket parks and old, old churches topped with a great meal at the Chaya Maya resturant. It felt as if we were back with an old friend!  Next morning we were picked up at 9:30 by our agent for the 30 minute drive to the port city of Progreso. We went to the shipping company's office and picked up all the documentation. That went smoothly. Then a trip to Banjercito to pay our temporary import deposit. That did not go so smoothly, as the bank had recently gotten a new machine to process deposits and it had to be "reprogrammed". It took several telephone calls to Mexico City and a wait of about 1 3/4 hours! As with most things in Mexico, it may take awhile longer but it usually gets done. Finally we were off to the port to retrieve the Tracker. The waters off Progreso are very very shallow and the pier extends out 4 1/2 miles to water deep enough for container ships. At the end of the pier, there was the Tracker! It looked pretty lonely sitting behind a chain link fence with only a couple of vehicles keeping it company. More paper work and some time, but well worth it.  It survived its first and probably last ocean voyage in good shape. No damage. Just lots of stickers on its windows, indicating its destination, the ship's name, customs inspections, etc.  Back down the 4 1/2 mile pier to check out. Finally- "Free at last, free at last!" We filled up with gas at the Pemex station and we were off on our 4 day Tracker Yucatan Adventure!