April Tour

While Pete flew back to Texas for business meetings, my sister, Pauline, came to visit! since they are in the middle of building our casita under the palapa, we decided to leave town and do some exploring around the Yucatan. We left Paamul and headed for the little mayan village of Santa Elena and the Flycatcher Inn. The roads were good but it took about 5 hours to finally get there. Beautiful hacienda with old growth trees and bouganvillas everywhere. Fountains and shade..did I mention Hot? I think it was about 95 degrees when we got there. The next day we toured in the vicinity of all the little villages and they were beautiful with the biggest old Spanish churches imaginable. Lots of history revealed here. Entered the Caves of Lotun (rock flower) where the mayans hid to escape the enslavement of the Spaniards in the 50 year caste wars. Saw the beautiful mot-mots that love to nest around the cave entrances.
After coffee on the veranda of the Inn, we retired to sit on the porch and listen to the night sounds and enjoy the cool of the evening. Restful sleep and awoke early for another lovely breakfast at the Inn. Then packed up and headed to Uxmal. What a beautiful jewel of a place. We had a most informative guide named Jorgemish whom we had met the previous day. He is self taught and speaks 5 languages and knows all the history and date of this historic place. It is about 85% restored and is one of Mexico's most treasured sites...ove 2500 years old. One of the sayings is that this ruin could be the poem of Mexico in it's beauty.
Reluctantly, we left Uxmal and headed for the coast and the port village of Rio Legartos. We managed to get a hotel room even though the whole town was full with political rivals driving around with parades and loug speakers. also it was the last night of Semana Santa and the place was booming. We took a panga boat out the next morning with a young man named Juan Luis who took us on a neat birding tour. Saw the orange, not pink, flamingos out near the salt works. Several boats of local fishermen bringing in the sea trout with their hand lines. Saw the herons, storks, tiger herons, ospreys, numberous gulls and shore birds. Left town about noon and drove on to Valladolid. Stayed at the beautiful, old Mansion de la Marque right on the square opposite the church. Once again, HOT. By this time, we were both tired so we cut our walking short and retired early to watch movies and rest in cool A/C. We drove on back to Paamul the next day and it began to rain and has not stopped since! Streets are flooded, the new casa is flooded. Stay inside the coach where it is cool but dry.

Spring Break 2010

Blustery days and cool nights continue here in Paradise. Our daughters, Cindy and Sue came in with 4 grandchildren. Had a great week doing fun things. No frantic running around this time, just beach time, palapa time, and occasional jaunts out of the park. We took the kids to the circus in Playa. What a hoot that was! Right out of the 40s in some areas and then male burlesque in others! Great animal trainer and some good performers. Lots of silliness. It looked like the whole town was waiting in line when we came out of the big top tent.
Trip to the beautiful beach at XpuHa was a good afternoon, tacos at Taco Paco and then swimming at Cenote Azul...what a great day! Akumal was too cloudy for good snorkeling so we did not get to swim with the turtles this time.
The work continues on our Palapa Casa. It is progressing amazingly fast. Papa is ramrodding the venture and he cuts no slack so they are coming along like gangbusters. It is gonna be so pretty! Should be finished by the end of April for sure. Way before we imagined it would be. The Canadians are just about all gone from the park now. Before long, it will be so quiet with only us die hards left. The fishing should improve by mid April and the winds calm down. The mahi mahi should be running by then. Yea! Life continues to be good down in this 3rd world country!!

March already

Here it is the 1st of March and it is still windy and pretty cool. This has been an unusually cold and wet winter. In between we have sunshine and some lovely days. The park is full with lots of winter Canadians that cheered on the Olympians with gusto! The days are filled with lots of book readings, good visits with family and friends. Our girls have each taken time to fly down and spend a few days with us, bringing husbands and grandchildren.
We finally got our FM3's registered in Q. Roo and Playa del Carmen. What an ordeal! Never saw such a beaucracy and useless paperwork! We are now attempting to get our CURP and IMAPAN cards which allow us a senior discount and even more identification as living in PaaMul and Mexico. We are hoping that when it comes time to renew, all this work will make it easier. LOL.
Mrs. Aguti has a new baby! Precious little piglet that I saw this morning for the first time. She wouldn't let him come out of the forest so he kept in the background while she came out to eat.
We are hoping to start on our "boxito casita" or permanent casita under the palapa soon. We don't want to leave our Motorhome here any longer than possible as the corrosion and salt makes the wear and tear really bad. So..we are building a little house underneath. Basically the same size as the MH but a little shorter. Several palapaowners have already built permanent structures and love them. This way, we can fly back and forth and even have the family fly down when we are not here. Best of both worlds.
Still painting on the wall mural. Ongoing labor of love. Still hunting for the art store in Cancun. We go back this Wed and have better directions this time! Every trip is a challenge. Life is good.

Once in a blue Moon

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We took advantage of that Old blue Moon for a delightful way to celebrate the New Year....a Catamaran twilight cruise on the Acamaya out of Puerto Aventuras. Most of the guests were Paamulians and a few of the younger set from the hotels. Everybody had a good time and the lobster and steak was delicious.
The weather has been really lovely. It has been so cool at night that we have not used the A/C in a few days. In the evening you need long pants and perhaps a coverup. I finally dragged out my paint case and started doing the mural on the back wall. I had to change walls and design because of another project we may undertake this summer. It was so good to dig out those paints again. have not painted in about 4 years. Hard to believe. I hated to quit.
Got to make a trip into Home Depot in Cancun tomorrow. Pop has a list! Got to get that bedroom screened before the girls come in mid month. We just had our first guests come in for about 5 days. Sure hope they enjoyed it here.
Our running battle with the marauding raccoons continues. I now have to tie the kitchen cabinet door that holds the trash...they learned how to open that door. I am finding muddy pawprints every morning.
The Saga continiues here in Paradise.

The Palapa Party

We were part of a Holiday Open Palapa Party with neighbors on either side of us. Must of had over 100 Paamulians come by and bring food and libation. Wonderful evening! We really have a truly eclectic, intelligent, warm group of people here in our part of the world. Close to midnight before the last guests went home. We have been asked several times if this is to be a yearly event. Time will tell. We tried to plan it before most of everyone's guests arrived for the Christmas holidays. Lots of friends and family coming and going this year.
Having a problem with the coons raiding the kitchens at night and sometimes in broad daylight. Sorry rascals. We tried to feed them our vegetable scraps and they don't know when to quit! No more scraps! The orioles are feeding on the berries in the back jungle garden. The blue morph butterflies have emerged and are everywhere! On the road to Yanten, they flutter so quickly I have yet to photograph one. They are still taking core samples at Yanten for some hotel org. Don't know what is going on...lots of tongues wagging..just hope it goes away. That is one inhospitable looking area. I feel it should be left alone...but what do I know.
Pop was one of several guys that helped drag Cecil's big boat back off the beach where it landed after it's bow rope broke. Took some manpower to drag that thing out into the southside bay. But they finally got it tied off and secure, I hope. Cec and Bill worked all day long trying to get all it's parts sorted out and attached. The mast is up. He hopes to have it ready to sail soon. Now comes the hard part...learning to sail that thing. I certainly give him E for effort.
We are looking forward to being part of the Park's generous gifts to the community here. Most of the donations start this Friday with a trip to Champon to the school. I can just imagine how the children must look forward to this time of year and the Gringo's Christmas gifts.

Back in Paradise!

We have been back in PaaMul for 2 weeks now. How wonderful it is to be back in our spot of Paradise. The weather is cool most days and there have been several good rain showers. The jungle is so green and pretty. My little jungle garden has grown like topsy. We have repainted furniture and cleaned up the buggy upstairs room to get it ready for incoming family later on. The winter vacationers are coming in and filling up the park. It is good to see so many old friends again. We had Thanksgiving dinner at the church with some 200 people or more. What a feast day that was. We pack Christmas boxes for the children at the Indian school on the 14th. So glad that we can be here to help this year.
We have new animal visitors this year. 2 foxes have discovered the food we sometimes put out at the jungle edge. Mr. Aguti is still around and the raccoons have become a problem. They just walk up on the porch deck and demand food. Too much! We brought down the little Kawasaki mule and it is really wonderful for trips to YanTen beach and just visiting around the park. Life is good down here on this Mayan Riviera.

Water Logged

What a soggy, mushy, mess our place has become. Will it never quit raining ??! All the grandkids ballgames this week have been cancelled, Some were cancelled last week as well. And this is their band concert season in High School. They have placed "ones" across the board and "sweepstakes" band.Both of our 2 grands in town play so we are so proud of them. Grandson Jake has the flu but is feeling better with the Tamiflu. There is no vaccine available in the entire town.
I photographed this bedraggled hawk the other day searching for food ....in our trash can! Not very dignified! He had perched on top of the motorhome and I could hear him scratching around up there.
Ordered Pop's tuxedo today for his "Phantom Ball". I am so proud of him..he is being honored for all his years of working with the Easter Seals program in our town. He loves the kids and has helped with his time and money to help those who need a little extra help along the way. Never wanted any thanks so this is extra special thank you from his peers.
Will start to repack this weekend. supposed to be sunny and turn colder. At least the rain is supposed to get out of here! Yea.