Cabin fever today! After an all day rain yesterday, I’ve got to bust out of this casita and do something! I’ve been wanting to go to Xpu Ha beach for some time, but every time I tried I’d end up at a private, no public allowed resort. That is one thing about the Riviera Maya, it is not readily apparent where the public access points are for the beaches. I only know by virtue of making multiple mistakes of trying to gain access and the last time was given some explicit directions (in English). So I’ll be looking for the sign for “La Playa” (The beach). Once I found it, I noticed that I had to pass through a gate marked private property and I’m thinking here we go again. But this time, no one stopped me and I did notice a sign at the end of the potholed road which said visitors were required to use the restaurant facilities in order to use the amenities. So I guess this is really not public access but more private but tolerate the public as long as they buy something at the restaurant. When I did finally get to the beach side it was spectacular so I did sit down at a table and ordered a beer. No water ; )

This beach had a lot of activities going on. Wind surfing, Kite board surfing, a boat to take scuba divers out and jet skis besides snorkeling. Stayed with what I know best.

It looked like a great snorkeling area so I took a chance and got the mask and fins from the batmobile to give it a try. Turned out that while I didn’t see any sea turtles, I was able to see quite a few fish mostly around the rock formations on the bottom. The snorkeling was good and without a crowd. Only had one other snorkeler in the area. After getting back on the beach, I decided to walk the entire cove just to see what all was there. While there were several resorts on this cove, there were also some abandoned and vacant property. It looked like one new development was starting. Some of the abandoned properties looked like they had been that way for some time, perhaps as a result of their last hurricane. I did find a rather interesting place that looked like someone was trying to turn the place into a piece of art.

Found a sand dog along the way.

This tree had the most brilliant red leaves on it.

End of the cove.

After walking the cove, I decided to do a little swinging before heading back to the Rancho.

Ended the day with a soak in the pool at the Rancho. Felt good to not be confined to the casita because of rain.

Quedarse ileso mi Amigos!

What a beginning to the day! I was awakened at 6:30 am by one of the strangest sounds coming just outside the casita. I rushed to get a t-shirt on and sandals to see what was making this honk then call. To my surprise, I had been graced by a visit from a Mexican turkey, I mean a peacock. I had recently seen some of these in St. Augustine at the Fountain of Youth, but they never made any noises I can remember. Anyway I chased that damn thing all over trying to get a decent photo. He just wasn’t having any of it!

I am not able to post the recording sound of this thing doing it’s honk call, but if you send me a request in the comments, I’ll forward it to you so you’ll get the pleasure of hearing this most unusual call.

It finally jumped over the fence and went on it’s way. I now know why people consider these birds a nuisance. They are very loud and the honk then call they make is a distraction. I went inside for a few minutes try to wake up still and I then hear someone play some kind of tune on a car horn. I initially ignored it, then decided I better check it out since I was expecting the propane gas deliver truck that day. I ran out of propane and couldn’t get a delivery until the next day. Needless to say I didn’t have a warm meal for dinner and a cold shower yesterday. Sure enough it was the delivery guys, so I opened the gate and let them in and pointed in the direction of the empty tank. They had it changed out in 5 minutes or less at a cost of $369.36 pesos (about $28.91 US) for a 30 KGS tank. I think the tank was only a quarter full when I arrived. I went into the casita and checked to see if the stove was working and it was. Then I remembered that the pilot needed to be re-lite on the hot water tank. Now luck! I tried everything and could not get it to light. To top it off, the property manager can’t be contacted until Monday. More cold showers!

Today’s weather was only in the 70’s with wind gust of 20 to 30 mph. No rain just windy. Made doing anything outside difficult so I elected to stay inside most of the day reading, writing, and a little siesta thrown in for good measure.

A couple of things that I would never see in the states that I’ve seen here in Mexico are; a garbage truck running down the road in the dark at 65 MPH with two guys sitting on top hanging on for dear life I would expect. The truck cab must have been full of passengers, I guess. Then, a semi (tractor/trailer) towing a tractor behind the trailer with a tire and web rope used as a hitch. He was doing 50 MPH. Thought it was ingenious but I had visions of it cutting loose and going all over the road. Needless to say, I passed him quickly and got down the road a ways.

Yesterday, I had lunch in Tulum at what seem very authentic Mexican restaurant. I ordered a plate of tacos, which I might add, I have yet to have bad taco meal here. They are excellent and they make them with just about anything (pork, ham, beef, chicken). Haven’t found goat meat yet though.

On the way back from Tulum, I stopped in Akumal to pick up my weekly laundry. As I passed the lavanderia, I stopped to check what time they opened up again on their overhead sign. Three women were also standing there gazing at the sign, I think trying to read the Spanish. Anyway, they were unaware I had come up behind them at that time. Just as I arrive I heard what seemed to be a familiar sound and one of the women exclaims “Rita, you pig!” as she turned around and saw me standing there. I wasn’t sure what to do at that point, so I just grinned and moved quickly down the sidewalk. Rita probably had been enjoying too many bean tacos?

Luego mi Amigos!

Been off the radar a little bit, but not to worry. I’ve kept busy by doing some reading, studying, snorkeling, cooling off in a cenote, and lounging poolside. Oh, and throw in a couple of siestas too.

Nothing earth shattering to report. The weather has been fantastic. An occasional brief shower occurs, but I’ve been lucky not to get caught out in them. I have notice a slight uptick in high temperatures during the day. We’ve seen highs at 86 and 87 degrees. Still comfortable, but I run around in a bathing suit most days. One day I saw the temperature rise to 86 in the morning, then the sea breezes cooled it back to 84 in the afternoon. Nights are generally upper 60’s low 70’s. I haven’t had the windows shut except once during a storm since I’ve been here.

Just got done with lunch. Cold cut sandwich. Mexico has great delis and bakeries. I noticed that the deli personnel take the time to individually separate the cheese slices using a large sheet of plastic and folding it over and over so the slices don’t stick together. Very nice touch but labor intensive.

As a result of my exterminator activities, spraying the casita with Home Defense, I have woken up to find several expired critters. Mostly spiders and centipedes, but one chameleon did get into it too. Now the lizards are different story. I have been finding these white tips droppings under the thatched roof area of the casita. At first I thought it was cockroaches, but after some internet research, I’ve learned that the culprit are the lizards living in the thatch roof. Apparently, lizards have one hole to release bodily waste from, thus the two color droppings. The other thing I learned from Tim, my retreat leader, is that the clucking sounds I frequently hear are from them. Tim did a great job of demonstrating what they sound like so I could immediately tell he knew what I was talking about. The only redeeming value of these critters are that they eat insects like mosquitoes. Speaking of mosquitoes, they seem to be small down here, making them difficult to spot. I just hate it when I turn out the light at bedtime only to hear that distinctive buzz going past your ear. I’ve turn the light back on several times trying to locate them, but never being able to find the little bastards. So I go to sleep knowing I’ll likely wake up with a new itchy bite.

A little excitement at the ol Rancho this afternoon! Went to do dishes and no water pressure at all. It is well fed and I didn’t know what to think. I immediately went out to check on any shutoff valves being mispositioned, but that wasn’t plausible since I and the pool guy were the only ones here today. I walked by the cistern tank and could hear it filling, then walked by the well pump and it was running full bore. Next I went out to the pool and saw it was about to overfill. For the life of me I couldn’t find the fill shutoff valve, so I rushed over to the property manager’s place to let him know of the situation. It’s always tentative going over there because he’s got two big Dobermans that immediately start barking and approaching. So far, they’ve only barked at me and not snarled. He did say I should probably wait outside the gate for someone to come because they’ve bitten before. Anyway he sent the pool guy back over and all he did was turn off the fill valve and open the backwash to drain down the pool. Everything is back to normal. Pool guy probably got his ass chewed out.

Nobody has eaten that damn rooster yet. 5:30 am this morning before the break of light.

Adios

Going to Cozumel today! First though I need to make a bank stop and TelCel stop at Centro Maya in Playa del Carmen. Thought I’d get a jump on getting more internet gigabytes while I’m up that way. I also had purchased a nifty attachment for the Nexus 7 tablet that I have. It is a short power connection cable to a USB port, so I can plug in the USB modem I have from TelCel to it, but I don’t know if it will work so I thought I’d bring it all along to the friendly, hopefully english speaking TelCel customer service rep.

It seems I got to the mall a little early, things don’t open up until 10 am. So a little McDonald’s free wifi time was in order while waiting. The bank was open before 10 am. It was the shortest line I’ve seen at the ATM since I’ve been using it. Thank goodness the ATM’s are generally subtitled in english!

Well, I found out even though I had placed money into my TelCel account I can’t purchase another 3 gigabytes until I use up the 1 gigabyte I have remaining. The customer service rep. tried to explain how to add the addition gigabytes once the ones I have run out, but in his broken english I’m not sure if I got it. As to the Nexus 7 tablet being able to use the USB modem stick, he explained that the tablet doesn’t recognize it as a modem but as a drive and can’t be used. I’m still not sure of that answer and will investigate further once I get to Cancun.

It was a little warm today and I was feeling the heat by the time I parked several blocks away from the feri (Mexican spelling) docking site to get to Cancun. Purchased a ticket for $310 pesos (about $24 US) and waited for a 1 pm boarding in the large open air palapa. The sea breeze felt pretty good as well as the taste of the bottle of water I purchased from a small shop next to the palapa. I noticed a bar with a pirate theme at one end of the palapa serving beer and tequila. Didn’t think I needed any of that prior to a boat ride. While waiting I took a couple of photos of the Playa del Carmen beach.

Anyway 10 minutes later, the Mexico III waterjet feri arrives and begins the disembarking process. We all line up and as soon as the other passengers were off we boarded. Wow, they had the A/C cranked on the boat. Cooled me right off. For some reason the sun felt a little more intense today. It’s OK in the shade but the sun heats you up quickly. Anyway the seats were similar to those on an airplane without the armrests and were very comfortable. Most everyone was rushing to the back of the boat to the outside deck. I stayed inside where it was cool. After we shoved off they started the video monitors with the safety instructions followed by advertising of different places to go on Cozumel island. This also included Beyonce’ Super Bowl performance, which I watched since I missed it due to the bar dancing Mexican woman during half time. Anyway not one of my favorite artist, but passed the 30 minute transit time. When we disembarked at Cozumel we were accosted by several tour operators wanting business. I did notice a pair of Norwegian Cruise line ships in the port.

My plan was to stroll around the town on foot until it was time to go back at 4 pm. Because carnival had started the town was in the process of setting up food and drink dispensing tents everywhere. Looked like they were expecting some partiers! As I strolled around I noticed a central park area that was especially manicured.

I was also accosted by the various street vendors and shop owners asking what I was looking for. Quite honestly I didn’t know how to let them down easy and tell them nothing. While I’m sure there are some great buys to be had on just about anything. I can’t fit a single thing in the overstuffed luggage I have. Thus, no buying of stuff! But it was nice to do some window shopping. One thing I was looking for was a drugstore to find something to stifle the itch I have on the back of my left hand. Seems I got into something that’s caused contact dermatitis on a couple of my fingers. I’m not a stranger to this condition having gotten into poison ivy on more than one occasion in the past. The itching drives you mad! I did end up finding a farmacia and the recommended a crème that appears to contain some hydro-cortisone. Hoping it helps. People kind of looked at me funny when I opened the package on the street and started rubbing some on my hand as soon as I left the farmacia. I walked for several blocks and noticed that many of the shops and vendors are similar to those in Playa del Carmen. I’m thinking the proper way to visit Cozumel is to plan for a minimum of a three day visit to enjoy some of the other amenities it offers. An afternoon visit will just get you to a very limited view of the island. I’ll have to keep this island on my list of places to visit again.

After roaming the streets I decided to take a break before re-boarding the feri. I saw a little corner bar called “The Thirsty Cougar” offering free wifi and saw some other patrons using laptops and handhelds, so I decided to give them a try with a “Sol” cerveza order. When I ask for the password to the wifi connection, it was “IWANT1BEER”. Ironic, because as soon as I tried to connect, their service failed and never did come back. Needless to say, I only drank one beer.

Hopped on the boat for the ride back which was much more rough and a few people got up because I think they were getting sea sick. I didn’t feel too bad, but had to endure Beyonce’s performance again. Still not a fan, but I could see the young folks mouthing the words to her songs. Guess I’m losing touch with the pop artists.

As I got off the boat and entered the courtyard to the street to get to the batmobile, I came upon this guy sitting on top of a 50 ft. pole playing a flute of some sort while 4 other guys were hanging upside down by some rope and twirling around the pole. Absolutely crazy, but I guess it is a traditional ceremony here in Mexico. You couldn’t pay me enough to do that. Looked worse than bungee jumping. I did a little research online and discovered I witnessed some Voladores performing for the public. According to legend, this ritual was performed as a petition to the rain gods in a time of drought. The old men of the village chose five young men to carry out the ceremony. Afterward the rains returned bringing life back to the earth. Must have worked they are still doing it! Pretty amazing to see though.

All in all, I think Cozumel has a lot to offer, but you have to take the time to enjoy her amenities by staying for some duration. I’d like to go back when I can stay longer.

Hasta luego!

Hey, I’ll bet you’re wondering what happened to my blogging? Early in my blogging I said I may not blog everyday. I wasn’t kidding! Anyway these last few days have been rather uneventful around the rancho. Today, however was snorkeling day! First up was Cenote Azul. This was a nice natural setting with both deep and shallow waters. The short trail leading to it had some scenic clear pools on each side of the path. It’s amazing how clear the water was, so much so that I could readily photograph the fish from above the water. This cenote seemed to be a favorite with the locals. Except for me, a Swedish family (guessing), and some European women the rest were Spanish decent. I could tell the women were from Europe because they had their tops off. Anyway it was pretty good snorkeling, saw a lot of fish that looked similar to those I remember from an aquarium I had when I was a kid.

Holy Catfish!

One thing about cenotes is that you’ve got to be careful and kind of steady on your feet getting in and out. The rocks can be slippery at times with algae and moss. I haven’t seen anyone fall yet but I would not surprised it has happened before. Those rocks were pretty jagged too. A lot of people use those rubber water shoes, but I think they would slip on mossy rocks too. I just barefooted it. I felt a little more secure.

Before I left the cenote, this guy came out and bid me farewell.

My next stop was Yal Ku. It’s located on the north end of Akumal along the beach. It’s a bay lagoon that is supposedly a good spot to snorkel. This was definitely a different snorkeling experience than the cenote. I used fins this time because of the larger area to cover, also the water clarity was much less than the cenote. I swam quite a distance to a far side beach, but didn’t uncover any fish. I thought by going near this far side beach where I spotted a pelican I might see fish. Once I was in shallow water of the beach, I finally noticed some schools of fish that the pelican was eying. Every so often he’d take flight only to circle back to cannonball into that school. He didn’t seem to be having success while I was there so I swam toward the other side of the lagoon where it appeared a number of other snorkelers may be viewing some fish. When I got there I did notice the water clarity to improve and you could see a number of fish along the bottom around rocks. The salt water fish are certain more colorful to see, but I guess I was disappointed in the number to see that particular day. I must have gotten spoiled by my first snorkeling experience at Akumal Beach. I think I’ll be going back there soon.

Any way, all in all, it was a great snorkel day!

Adios

Not much going on this weekend so I decided to help out the owners by spiffing up the ol Rancho a bit. I noticed the gardener they hired just swept out the garage and raked up some leaves from the stone walking paths. I could see a lot more was needed in the landscaping area, so I spent the weekend trimming, pruning, raking, and cleaning of the outside areas. I also found some Home Defense bug spray in the garage which I used liberally in and around the casita where I’m staying. I think the owners probably don’t realize how abandoned the place looks to prospective buyers. So hopefully, I changed that over the weekend. There is more to do but spending just this weekend on these activities should make a better impression for the next showing.

I noticed involving water is that I have developed two new daily habits;

Making ice. Miss the ice makers I’ve had in the US. Anyway, with just two trays I’ve got to do this daily to keep up with my ice consumption.
Grabbing a cup of drinking water before going into the bathroom to get cleaned up for the day. I first use it to rinse after brushing and then as rinse water for cleaning my hard contact lenses.

How about that Superbowl game! I went into town to watch it at my favorite hang out, Turtle Bay Cafe. No big screen TV’s but two 36 inch one side by side. Most of the attendees were for San Francisco. A couple of Mexican girls were playing cheerleaders very loudly I might add. The owner who is American was continually asking one of them to quiet down. I don’t believe they were there for the game but to drink and go crazy. At half time, one of them gets up on the bar and does some dancing and strutting.

Pretty funny. Any way as the game went on they seemed to quiet down, too drunk to cheer any more. Anyway, great game even with the 35 minute power outage delay.

Bit of a busy day today. Went into Playa del Carmen to get more gigabytes of internet access. They have got to think that I’m some sort of crazy gringo showing up every two weeks to get more bandwidth. But alas, where I’m located I have no other option. The other kicker is that since I don’t know Spanish, I can’t go online to purchase these gigabytes myself and I have to ask them to do it for me at this main office. They have been very accommodating and helpful thus far, but it’s always a hassle standing in line then hoping the customer service rep half way understands what you want. So one of the important Spanish phrases I’ve learned is “Solo hablo ingles.” (I speak only English.) Once I say that, they always get a look of consternation and I’ll bet their thinking, Oh boy another stupid gringo again! But they always try and understand and be helpful and I’m grateful for that as it is what’s getting me by so far.

Now getting these gigabytes is no easy process. They only dole out a maximum of 3 gigabytes at a time and the longest I can go on that amount is about two weeks if I’m frugal. (I’m not very good at being frugal with internet access, I hope to tell you.) Any way the first step is to place enough money into your account to cover the internet package purchase. You do this by standing in line in front of a glass security counter waiting for an open cashier. Once you’ve paid your $400 pesos, you then go and stand in line for an open customer service rep. There are at least 18 windows kind of like a bank and it doesn’t look like the reps are paid on the number of customers they help so many time it seems like they are just sitting there with no one being helped. You have to wait for them to wave you over to their window after standing in line. That’s where most of my troubles begin. How to make them understand what I’m needing. I use a lot of animations and hold up the USB stick to help. So far so good, I’m able to get what I wanted.

I didn’t come to realize this process until this visit, however did suspect it. I thought I would just have to pay the cashier and the account would be updated. Not so! I just paid the cashier on this visit then went to the mall McDonald’s to use their free wifi, but also checked to see if I could use the USB stick to get internet access. Good thing I did because no access was afforded. If I hadn’t checked I might well have driven back to the ol Rancho and been pretty pissed off I didn’t when I tried to get online again. Also stood in line at the “fast food” McDonald’s.

Anyway back to the TelCel customer service reps to stand in line to get me set up.

Afterwords, I stopped at a farmacia in the mall to try and get some Benedryl and some hard contact lense solution. No luck at the small one in the mall or in the Soriana grocery store. Decided to try the WalMart in town where I was heading next to get some groceries. Unfortunately, the farmacia attendant didn’t speak english at WalMart, but was able to point to some lense solution. I tried the best I could to discern what I needed. I recognized the brand, Bausch & Lomb, but trying to tell whether it was for gas permeable lenses from the Spanish wording was tricky. I bought one larger bottle that I hoped was cleaner and a smaller bottle I hoped with wetting solution. Later at home on closer examination the smaller bottle was for soft contact lense wearers. The large one was a cleaner, disinfecting and soaking solution all in one. So I got one out of two right and will wait til I get to Cancun to look for the wetting solution when I may be able to get more help. It always takes some time to do the shopping because you’ve got to evaluate everything you’re buying to determine if in fact it is what you want. I’ve already made the mistake of eating button mushrooms for dinner thinking it was a can of garbanzo beans. Finally, finished up and stood in line to get checked out.

On the way home I decided to get some gasolina at the gasolinera and also to check out the farmacia in Puerto Adventuras to see if they had Benedryl. It’s nice to have full service at the gasolinera, but I noticed they don’t do windows or check the oil. I think they leave that to the guy that roams the grocery store parking lot selling his services, changing out wipers, washing windows and headlights, etc. I’m pretty sure he is also responsible for return the shopping carts to the store after the customers use them. He probably does it gratis for the right to sell his services to the shoppers. The farmacia at this small mall in Puerto Adventuras did have an English speaking attendant. He was able to get me some gel tabs of the generic version of Benedryl. So I’m good to go.

After dropping off the groceries at the Rancho, I went into Akumal to have dinner and pick up the laundry I dropped off the day before. All day has been overcast and it wasn’t too busy in town. Had a beer at the Akumal Club on the beach and took a few pictures. The last one bothers me a little bit when you see cats around the beach. Not sure if they are leaving surprises in the sand.

Ate at an authentic Mexican luncheria right across from the laundry and was famished so ordered some grilled beef tacos and what I thought was a side order of quesadillas Turns out, they were both meals, I walked out of there stuffed. I appreciated they had the menu in both Spanish and English. It was so good I’ll likely go back. While dining, I had two feline visitors looking hungry so they helped me eat that last taco. Once again the lavanderia did a great job on my clothes for only $60 pesos ($4.70 US).

Back at the Rancho, after a day of standing in line and running around to three different towns, I slept well that night.

Warm day today early, 84 degrees at 9:30 am but the breezes have started up pretty strong so time to get the bed sheets out on the clothesline this morning. The rest of the day was pretty non-eventful. Just as well after that stressful day, yesterday at the topless beach. I did spend some time actually looking around this place and realized Mexico doesn’t have any electrical code enforcement as evidenced by the following examples;

The main tie in to the meter box.

Tie in to feed the A/C unit in casita.

Conduit to the garage lighting.

Later that day, while soaking in the pool, it finally occurred to me why the pool bottom has such an irregular bottom. It was built to be similar to a cenote! I was only able to deduce this after having visited a cenote personally. So it’s a private man made cenote without the fish, algae, and mossy stone.

After getting out of the pool I realized I still had my money clip in my swim trunks. Wet money. So while laying the various notes out to dry, I discovered one note was impervious to water.

Turns out that the $20 and $50 pesos bills are made of mylar plastic. Plastic money? Guess it goes along with plastic credit and debit cards. Plus you can get it wet and dry it off very easily. I would guess it’s much cleaner without dirt and drugs caught in the paper fibers. I think the US ought to try plastic money or maybe just eliminate physical bills and coins and go straight to digital. Just a thought!

The next day I ran into town (Akumal) for some breakfast and to drop off laundry, but ran into Russ the Realtor, the one who has the listing for Rancho Amor, where I am staying. We had a lengthy conversation about possible reasons why the place wasn’t selling and other things about Mexico. Turns out he’s been living down here for 10 years and said he’s not learned the language either. He’s got an ocean view house and his office is right on the beach between two popular restaurants. He said most people buy in this area for the beaches and are not particularly interested in jungle living, but he qualified that there are some who enjoy the privacy. We both agreed the place needs some general upkeep, since it’s obvious that it’s been unoccupied for some time. I told him I may suggest some things to the owner to help out with appearances in order to get a sale.

During breakfast (breakfast burrito w/fresh squeezed carrot juice), I naturally took advantage of the free wifi. Looks like I’ll be going to Playa del Carmen tomorrow to get more Gigabits of bandwidth, just about out. It seems I use about 3 gigabits every two weeks costing $400 pesos (about $31 US). I’ve been constraining my use by reading email off line and not doing as much video stuff.

While finishing my meal I noticed a woman at the table next to me using her phone doing texting rather furiously. A few minutes later, she bursts out crying! This went on for a while in between some more texting. I thought about approaching her to see if she needed help, but it was obvious she was more of the Spanish persuasion and likely didn’t speak English. I figured it was all she needed was for some stupid gringo butting in during her despair. She eventually got control of herself and left. Right after that it started to pour rain and I was stuck in the cafe for a little while longer. The rain did bring some cooler breezes. When I got back at the Rancho it was only 76 degrees. Very comfortable, looks like we’re going to be overcast for the day so I spent most of the day reading. Nothing too exciting.

Adios

Boy 84 degrees at 9:30 am??? What’s this day going to bring? Turns out it never got over that once the sea breezes started up. Anyway went to a park down the highway south of Akumal that I read about in a blog. It supposedly has a good beach and a cenote just off the beach. Looked forward to seeing this place. It’s not highly advertised like many of the other commercial locations where tourist frequent and drop $100’s of dollars. The blog post said to pay the guard $20 pesos, after traveling down the limestone road. Oh, and of course is rife with potholes and washouts. This country tests the suspensions and tires of all the vehicles that travel it’s roadways. What is so surprising is that you seen a lot of these small economical vehicles traveling the roadways. I just don’t see how they stand up to the beatings once they get off the main highway. And another thing one night I was coming home from Puerto Aventuras after a haircut I think and it had rained significantly, well these Mexican highways are not built to consider drainage. It would be uncommon to run into a sheet of water standing on the roadway that easily causes hydroplaning. Anyway I digressed.

Got through the gate (a plastic barrel set in the middle of the road) after handing over a “donation” of $20 pesos. The guard did mention no swimming on the right and swim only on the left. Odd I thought. Looked for some shade to park in since it had hit 84 degrees at 9:30 am, but honestly it didn’t seem that extraordinarily hot. Anyway found some partial shade under a tree.

Once I got on the beach, it was gorgeous as usual so I looked for a place to take some photos since I just recently found some more things this waterproof camera that I can’t get wet yet. Anyway here are some of the shots I took.

The surf was pretty rough and they had posted the beach on the right side with black flags meaning no swimming and a red flag on the left. I did notice not too many were in the water. Since I wasn’t going to get in that rough water. I must have looked pretty stupid carrying my fins and googles, but I thought maybe I could snorkeling the cenote that was supposedly here. Off I went down the beach in search of the path into the jungle for the cenote. On the way, in the distance I noticed what looked like two young boys frolicking in the waves but the closer I got it was apparent those weren’t boys. Topless chicks. Whoopy!! I’m setting up camp just on the other side of them while photographing the first surfers I’d seen since arriving here further down the beach. They got wise and one put their top back on.

So the dirty old man left looking for that path to the cenote. I did notice the waves were so rough the surfers were having trouble getting up and it didn’t take long before they gave up. Finally found what appeared to be a path into the jungle. Here is what it looked like.

Anyway after negotiating a rock path it opened up to a swimming hole in the jungle. There weren’t too many there, but it was obvious it had been discovered. After getting closer I was amazed at how clear the water was. The looking along the edge of the pool, you could see hundreds of fish 1 to 4 inches long. I moved pretty carefully since the walkway was paved with tree limbs covered in moss, but did find an open spot to drop my fins and don my mask. Fins not needed in this small pool. The water was cool but enjoyable. I think these cenotes are the secret of how the Mexicans cool off in the heat. I noticed an American looking couple and commented that it look like the hardest part is getting in and out. Moss and algae make things a little slippery and there wasn’t any real hand or footholds. Somehow I did manage to get in with out just falling in. As I said the water was clear to the bottom about 10 to 12 foot. Saw a lot of small aquarium fish and a school of guppies. This cenote was about the size of a big swimming pool.

I spoke with that American lady I saw earlier and she and her husband turned out to be from Vancouver and frequently come down here to escape the cold Northwest winters. She provided quite a few tips on where to go. Her husband was a firm believer in not drinking the water, as he had a beer in hand from the cooler he brought. I did comment to the Canadian lady that I didn’t seen any large fish in my once around lap of the pool with my snorkeling goggles. She said there were some large cowfish likely at the other end. Well, I had to look for them. No luck ended up siding on a rock ledge on the other end while being exfoliated by the little fish, that apparently women pay money for in spas these days. I got the job done for $20 pesos!

After emerging from the jungle to the beach again, I came across a couple sunbathing with their caps pulled over their eyes. Both were topless! At this point, I’m thinking I’ve discovered the Mexican topless beach because as I continued to walk there were countless numbers of young woman sunbathing topless. My lucky day!

Funny I didn’t see any topless women at the cenote?? Water must have been too cool.

Adios

Today is off to a great start and I felt a little road trip was in order. Decided to travel down to Tulum. I took off in great weather and excited to see what was there. I knew that since it was a Saturday the town itself was probably going to be busy, so I decided to drive the coast line and went so far on that road I ended at Siam Ka’an bio-reserve. I had known about this place and really didn’t know what to expect. The limestone road into the park of course was full of potholes and washouts. I couldn’t see through the jungle to the beach area and I was very surprised to see residences along the beach side of the road. Most were fenced/walled off affording no view at all. I finally came to an opening to the beach where the road veered toward it. What a sight. I jumped out and took a few photos. The houses in this area were obviously off the grid indicated by the multiple wind turbines at each home. I went in further to the preserve and stopped at the 7 km mark seeing an opportunity to jump out and walk the beach. It was deserted except for an older couple strolling and looking for a place to have lunch I think. I haven’t walked a beach in sometime so I took the opportunity to make it a trek. Ended up walking another two kilometers or so. Didn’t really get too far front people as there were still residences along the beach. Some of them had lights out probably to help find their way back after dark. I probably could have kept going further into the jungle but decided against it. The likelihood of spotting some wild animal was remote so I turned back toward town. The beach in that area was really something to see and my photos don’t do it any justice. One thing that bothered me was the amount of plastic trash that is on the shores. Property owners clear their portion of the beach, but it’s really incredible what has washed on shore. We really need to be using biodegradable plastics in our lives. I traveled north along the coast and ran into some public beach areas. I spotted a parking spot and decided to get out to take a few pictures. Then I continued North until I ran into the entrance of the Inah Aztec ruins site. I forgot to turn my camera off and the battery was drained so I was forced to take the ruins photos with my iPod camera. I took so many I have posted the majority on Picasa, but here are a few of the best. After touring the ruins until late afternoon, I called it a day. Great day that it was. Saw a lot of incredible things. Maybe next time I get to Tulum, I’ll actually go into the town.