Island Life

11-5-17

The WiFi was so weak I couldn’t get enough of a signal to post my blog with pictures. It will have to be done from home. So these were written in real time, but posted later with the photos. I was able to do Instagram photos, but it’s kinda hard to write anything very interesting with a smart phone :(

Larry and Lisa have joined our little group (on 11-4). They came on Saturday evening. I texted them, “Do you want us to meet you at the ferry or the hotel lobby?” Larry texted back, “The beach!”

Here’s the cycle of island vacations; Work-out, Eat, Beach, Eat, Beach, Nap, Eat, Music, Sleep, Repeat.

I have doubled my caloric intake! I knew I would but it still surprises me what a little piggy I become. For that reason, I start my day with a 30 minute speed walk. On the east side of the island it is very windy and they’ve paved about a mile of the shoreline with a walking path -- a promenade. Even though it’s in the sun, it feels good to have that constant breeze. All the fitness-minded people trot, walk and lunge their way up and down this path all day long.

My seat was on the pink bench with the kids :)

Then the big decision… breakfast. Which one of the hundreds of restaurants shall we try today? I tend to gravitate to the beach places. There’s nothing like coffee, fruit and yogurt while watching the oceans shifting colors.

Next we have to hustle down to the beach and get our favorite chairs. We like the ones under the palm trees and we have them put umbrellas up for us too. The other day an older gentleman stopped in front of Lisa and Larry’s chairs we’d reserved with towels (they had stopped at their room to change). He just stared at the chairs and then at us. Finally he said, “I like chairs in the shade.” I pointed out that they had umbrellas for that purpose. “I like the trees and the umbrellas,” he stated as he stared at us like we should move. I politely pointed to the neighboring palm tree and suggested he pull some chairs under it.

After splashing around in the ocean and oohing and aahing over the fancy yachts, we huddle and decide where we should eat again. Usually a beach place… usually fish tacos and beer. Then back in the water (and we don’t wait thirty minutes like our mom’s told us to do). We walk as fast as we can in the shallow water for a few minutes to reduce the guilt and then flop in beach chairs like we’re exhausted. Nap-time, or reading for those of us that don’t understand the concept of a nap.

Then it’s time for hot showers and clothes. Off to the four-by-four-street town of North Beach. How they can squeeze this many restaurants and bars in such a small town is beyond me. It’s not unusual to stop and listen to 3 or 4 different bands while wandering around. Surprisingly, we agree pretty easily on where to eat. Lobster is a big deal here. Joe had lobster tacos last night. I had filet mignon tacos :)

Isla Mujeres, Round Two

It’s always easy to book the earliest flight out of Sacramento. It’s not so easy to get up at 3:00 am. This time we flew United and that was a good decision. They didn’t wait until 24 hours before our flight to tell us we had to pay a couple of hundred dollars extra to sit together like American Airlines. United lets you choose your seating ahead of time. The only downside is they didn’t give my luggage a seat. My suitcase got left in San Francisco. On a positive note I feel vindicated for all the years that I have packed a full change of clothes, swimsuit, sarong, incidentals and vitamins in my carry-on. I had everything I needed… except the two bottles of wine in my suitcase. Fortunately it arrived at the hotel the next day.

By the way, we’re back on Isla Mujeres. This little tiny island is on the Caribbean side of Mexico. It’s incredible how safe it is here. Obviously you can get in trouble if you look for it, but it doesn’t come to you. I like that. Bill came with us this time, so we treated him to a special dinner at the hotdog stand. These aren’t just any hotdogs… these are wrapped with bacon and grilled until the bacon is crunchy. Then it is placed in a grilled bun and smothered with sautéed onions and jalapenos. That was Monday night.

Karina, my Guatemalan daughter, arrived on Tuesday night on the ferry. She came off the ferry with some guy pulling her luggage for her. As soon as she saw Joe’s face, she snatched her bag out of his hand and said goodbye. She thought Joe was going to be mad at the guy for picking up on his daughter… lol. It was pretty cool to introduce her to the Caribbean. Her reaction was priceless when she followed our lead and took of her shoes off. She stepped down into the silky white sand and said, “Oh wow, oh my gosh… oh,” and then she giggled as she wobbled after us in the shifting sand.

The next morning she stopped in her tracks when she saw the brilliant turquoise sea. “Look at the colors!” Of course this was followed by boldly walking into the ocean with the three of us… well ‘bold’ might be pushing it. Within fifteen minutes she’d mastered floating on her back and half an hour later she swam all the way out to the buoys.

This is always an interesting time of year to visit Mexico. The day of the dead (Dia de Las Muertas) is important everywhere, but in the more touristy places they combine the American Halloween customs with theirs. Starting on October 30^st the kids begin shamelessly begging for candy at all the gringo hangouts dressed up in ghoulish outfits. On November 1^st the local cemeteries are crawling with family members with buckets of paint and fresh decorations. This is the day devoted to the children who’ve died. Teenage dancing groups perform in the streets… first they sway back and forth like ghouls with heavy serious music. Then they change the tempo and throw back their scarves to reveal skeleton painted faces and whip into a frenzied dance. Nov 2^nd is the day for deceased adults.

We were sitting upstairs on a terrace listening to a singer strumming his guitar, when he was suddenly drowned out by a performing group working their way down main street. He stopped and went to the edge to look over. We all followed suit. We’d just paid our bill so we went down and joined them for a bit as they swayed to somber music and then broke into dance.  Then we went and watched the little children drive tiny motorized cars around the church courtyard. Finally we headed back to the hotdog stands and ate dinner sitting on plastic stools and juggling messy dogs, napkins, Styrofoam plates and a brisk breeze. (It’s a skill developed over many years of travel!) Mind you, this was all after sunset. Because of the island heat, this town doesn’t come out of hiding until dark.

Joe has gotten his usual teasing from the vendors about his cowboy hat, “Hey Texas, hey cowboy! You wanna buy some tequila? Cigars? Dope?” So what’s this mean? Do Texas cowboys come here and drink tequila and smoke cigars or weed? Bill and Joe have a standing bet about how many times someone will ask Joe if he wants tequila. But if he’s not wearing the cowboy hat, they ask him if he wants to go snorkeling or fishing :)

We got to see our friend Mario on Tuesday while we were waiting for Karina to arrive. He is just as on fire for the Lord as always. It was fun to see him get all riled up and excited as he told Bill his testimony. At first Bill was interested, but then Mario kept getting closer and closer. For someone intense like Mario, having them inside your personal space can be too much. When we saw him later, his way of introducing himself to Karina was, “Do you know Jesus?” Karina was a little overwhelmed… hehe.

Heading Home Tomorrow

This part of North Beach is really fun. It’s not extremely crowded on the sand because the water is so shallow. It’s easy for people to stand thigh deep for about fifty feet out and then it’s still chest deep for 100 yards out. The yachts start dropping anchor around ten or eleven in the morning in the chest deep water. There’s probably 30 or 40 yachts there with all of their guests standing around talking, drinking, and even eating. Joe and I go out and walk around the boats like we’re at a car show. It’s a strange experience, especially when you have all the different music blaring from each boat.

So here’s the food recommendations. Lunch: Buho’s has the best ambiance during the day, but the least remarkable food. It’s on the beach and sits directly in front of Cabanas Maria del Mar. Tarzan on the beach has great chicken tacos. It turns out that I don’t like grilled fish tacos… I like the fish breaded and deep fried. At Buho’s and Tarzan’s it’s grilled (plancha). Oceanvs has very good fish tacos and expensive too. Ice cold beer and a good glass of wine. The Mayan bar has the best fish tacos, with excellent sauces to doctor the taco with. They also have a cool vibe with swings at the bar where you can eat.

Dinner: Honestly the hot dogs rank at the top for flavor, ambiance, and price (Scalding hot bacon-wrapped dogs smothered in sautéed onions, sit on the curb, 25 pesos), on Vicente Guerrero is an Italian pizza place with great pizza, but I don’t remember the name. Dopi’s is outstanding and is a must for dinner at least once. They’re famous for their steaks. Pier 7 (Muelle 7) is excellent and very romantic out on the dock. Valentino’s has sub-zero temperature beer and good food. One little bar called Tres Menteros (3 lies) has beer from the only brewery on the island. They have a porter that is pretty darn good if you are just hankering for a craft beer, they have several IPAs too.

They have lots of little tiny stores to get a snack with small variety of beers. A larger store near the town square (el centro) has a better selection of stuff and some home necessities, but I wasn’t impressed. Apparently there is a large store called Chuapi or something like that. It’s mid-island and needs a vehicle to get there from North Beach. We never made it. My quest for a decent bottle of wine was difficult, but I finally found a liquor store with a good selection of wine. I think it was on Abasolo near Vicente Guerrero.

We rented a golf cart from our hotel. The prices are pretty close everywhere and convenience speaks loudly. (slather your legs with sunscreen for a road trip because they’re in the sun all day) We went to the southern end of Isla Mujeres and paid the 30 pesos to enter the “park.” (the sign is old and reads 30 pesos or 3 dollars… do the math… :) definitely cheaper to pay the 30 pesos)

As you walk out onto the plain sidewalk, you can’t appreciate the beauty that awaits you! Keep going. Follow the path to your right and go down the stairs. Now you are on a path that winds around the cliff with occasional soakings from the surf.

This is the most eastern part of all of Mexico. The hip thing to do is get there for sunrise, so you can say you were the first person in Mexico to see the sun rise. I wouldn’t know, because there’s no way I’m going anywhere that early :)

We cruised back slowly, mainly because we had the slowest golf cart on the island. We stopped at a marina and had lunch. We ordered chicken nachos and guacamole, which was delicious. Then this couple next to us gave us half a fish and two shrimp tacos because they’d accidentally over-ordered. I thought I was going to be sick, I ate so much! We stopped at a bar with a sign saying “Beer so cold it’ll make your teeth hurt.” It wasn’t even close to the truth. Pretty view though, with lots of resident iguanas.

We got to watch a construction project. It’s hard to imagine being able to get away with their safety standards in California. The building was going up over an existing palapa, so they left the palapa up to use as scaffolding. It really was ingenious.

As most of you know, I like to speed walk for exercise. I also like to do it as a way to explore my surroundings. I love being out in the morning while all the tourists are still sleeping (7:00 or 8:00). The houses all have their doors open wide to let in the cool breezes. Shop doors are being rolling up and trinkets set out on rickety tables. Porches are washed down with soapy water. And best of all it’s shady.

At the other end of the day is the beautiful sunsets. I've always wanted to have my sunset view unobstructed, but this time I found myself fascinated by the humans love of the sunset. it is fun to watch the spellbound people staring into the horizon. It is ritual as old as time.

I’ve been able to write almost every day and finally finished writing my current novel. This one is about a group of teens on a mission trip in Colombia getting kidnapped by a gang. They escape and run to the jungle. With the help of a few locals and the three adults who accompanied them, (Sean, Sport and Pastor Tim) they manage to survive. Of course catastrophe strikes, but they survive. Now it’s time to edit… sheesh, doesn’t it ever end?

So this is my final blog before we head home, though I may do one more for some extra stuff. I have to say, this is the first place I’ve been that I felt I could live.

Second Week on Isla Mujeres

We finally braved the heat and went to the cemetery. It’s only open during the day. I try to always visit at least one cemetery when we travel, if I can figure out where it is. I think cemeteries say a lot about a community. This one is actually quite large and has a couple of resident cats.

Each tombstone is completely unique. Some are enormous, others have intricate detail to make it look like a home (some even have fake grass in front of the little houses),

and there’s some itty-bitty tiny houses with baby's toys.

I always have to include stories about animals, especially dogs and cats. There’re a lot of cats here. Skinny flea infested little things. They cruise constantly in the shadows looking for crumbs and prey. The dogs are split into two groups: collar or no collar. The dogs seem to know the distinction.  The collared dogs seem to be strutting around, as though flaunting that they are indeed pets. The collarless dogs will trot behind them sniffing, but as soon as the chosen one turns on them, they scurry away with their tail between their legs. I saw the smallest Chihuahua I’ve ever seen today… it was a little bigger than a hamster! A Shar Pei got tired of people petting him and took refuge under our table.

All of the restaurants are open air, mostly on the sidewalk and street. The other night a fire dancer put on a really lame show. He twirled it like a kid with a baton, dropping it multiple times. We were sitting where we didn’t have a choice but to watch him. I had Joe snap a picture, so I’d remember to write about it. After the show he comes over to us and asks for money. Lesson learned. The next night he showed up at a different restaurant and repeated his abject performance and again asked for money. I told him absolutely not! Not only was he not good, but his fuel soaked batons put off horrible smoky fumes… yuck. I wonder how many more times we’ll see this act in the next two weeks.

Speaking of restaurants, we recommend Pier 7 (Muelle 7). As you enter from the sidewalk, there’s a bar, then seating, then more tables on the sand, but keep going. Out on the pier itself are more tables. In the evening, it is very romantic and has a nice breeze too. I had the chicken mole (moh-lay). The mole was dark red and sweet. It reminded me of the mole-negro common to Puebla, but it had additional flavors of tropical fruit (very subtle). Joe had red snapper with a little side dish of fried garlic in olive oil. It was crunchy and tasted great on the fish steak. Here’s the catch though; this is a pier for day trip tours. So when the big boats dock, the restaurant is full. I don’t remember the times, but it’s something like 2:00, 4:00 and 6:00 is the last big group, so I’d suggest going after 7:00.

Isla Mujeres has a completely different vibe than Cancun or even Playa del Carmen. It reminds me of PDC fifteen years ago… tranquil, polite, minimal crowds. One of my entertainments is watching the people visiting for the day from Cancun. They try so hard to get a loud party mood going. They curse like sailors and talk as loud as possible. But after awhile the quiet local Mexicans win them over. Usually. Sometimes you just have to put up with their BS until they get back on the ferry. Then Isla Mujeres yawns, pours itself a beer and sits down to visit while listening to the dude playing the guitar solo.

Joe and I just got back from the store to by another bottle of wine (a Spanish wine). On the way back we decided we were starving, so we stopped again at the little cheap hot dog stand by the cemetery. Other places in Mexico may be famous for their street tacos, but here it’s the dog. They grill it with a thin wrap of bacon and then top it with grilled onions. Oh man are they good, and they’re cheap too… 25 pesos!

Isla Mujeres (Women’s Island) is named so because when the

Spaniards arrived they found a lot of statues of women dating back to pre-Colombian times. Apparently the island was the sacred home of Ixchel, the Maya goddess of childbirth and medicine. I’d heard a much more interesting story about women being exiled here for various reasons, but no. According to a tour guide we had a couple of years ago they used to send the infertile woman here in exile. Imagine the conflict of emotions if the woman was sent to live on the island  of the goddess of childbirth and came back successfully pregnant!

I got another tattoo, well a henna tattoo. I’m too fickle for a real one. This time I got a snarling shark. He did a great job and even did some nice shading. Our new friends, Melissa, Luke and Gabriella (mom, son, daughter) have been sitting near us on the beach. Melissa and Gabriela got the tattoo that is on the back of your hand and goes down to the fingers. I think it’s called mandala. It was beautiful, but too much for me. Mine is on the calf.

Cops everywhere! They walk up and down the beach continuously in their dark blue uniforms. It makes me feel like having a heat stroke just watching them… full length pants, combat boots, long sleeve shirts, and a hat. I’m over-heated in a bathing suit! They’re super nice too. The other day Joe dropped his shorts on the beach… Hey-hey, wait a minute! It wasn’t like that. His shorts were hanging off of his backpack as we were going to our beach chairs and the shorts fell on the sand. Joe didn’t notice. Pretty soon we see a cop walking around with Joe’s orange shorts in his hand. His wallet and our room key were in the pocket! We were so thankful that Joe went straight up to the little store and got them a six-pack of ice cold sodas. Unfortunately they’d moved on, so he had to walk a mile to find them. Our key alone would’ve been $50 bucks to replace.

Did you know that the bikini is the new old-lady swimsuit? Yep, and the G-string or thong is the new bikini. I can’t believe how many women wear a thong bathing suit! But what’s even more remarkable is how many photos they have to take of themselves in the thing. Then they hand the camera to a friend and pose in fifty different positions with their rumps sticking out in various poses. I’m not kidding! These girls will literally spend 30-40 minutes taking pictures of each other’s butts. I’ve had to scold Joe a couple of times for pretending to pose for a butt photo :)

We’ve made a couple of friends here. One of my favorites is an eleven year old boy. Alex works at a textile shop selling purses, table runners, etc. Our first English (life) lesson with him was to explain to him that guessing my age accurately, which he did, is not good business. Joe told him to guess low for the man and ridiculously low for the woman. “Oh okay, so you’re 50 and she’s 32?” Quick learner.

Now as soon as he sees us he pulls out his notebook and asks us at least five different phrases he can use. He writes them phonically and has me spell it in English for him. He and Joe were comparing muscles yesterday while I wandered through his little shop. Another boy working there tried to get the attention of a passing tourist. In Spanish he says, “Hey lady, if you speak Spanish it’s free for you.” Of course she just kept walking, but I said in an excited voice, “It’s free if I speak Spanish?” He whipped around and said, “You speak Spanish!” He vanished, I mean poof the kid was gone! I still chuckle when I think about his facial expression.

I’m not sure how many of you know this, but I used to work at Denio’s Farmers Market in Roseville California. Denio’s is an enormous flea market. Bigger than a large shopping mall. I started working there when I was about 12 or 13. Mom had a jewelry booth that I worked at. Then I worked selling T-shirts, then I got a job with the old-fashioned photography guy. Finally I started my own business at about 14. I opened Heidi’s Dried Flower Arrangements. We all got there early and left late, rain or shine. The reason I bring this up is because Isla Mujeres reminds me so much of those days. The comradery amongst the vendors is so familiar to me: the little toddler being watched over by everyone when her parents are making a sale of jewelry, the pet dog is protected from a stray by the host at the adjoining restaurant… it’s family.

Isla Mujeres, Getting Situated

The journey is worth it, but man what a journey! Monday morning we got up at 3:30. Our buddy, Dave picked us up at 4:00 to take us to the airport. We flew to Phoenix and sat in the plane for ten minutes before disembarking. Then we had to run to the other end of the airport to get our next flight to Cancun. (A quick side note against American Airlines… They now charge you $33/pp to sit together! When I asked the lady at the counter to try to put us together, she replied it was a full flight. In the rows around us every couple had been split up and each said the website showed all side-by-side seats had been booked. After a confusing and time-consuming process the passengers relocated themselves before take-off. What a scam!)

Then we were met by AGI transportation and taken by van to the ferry. If possible I will always do business with AGI. They were very professional. We took a thirty minute ferry ride to Isla Mujeres. AGI met us there and put us in a taxi to our hotel, Cabanas Maria del Mar.

The streets were flooded calf deep in rainwater from the storm we just missed. After the 105+ temperatures of California, the cool breeze felt wonderful. We joined the locals and tourists in our flip-flops and headed out for dinner, slopping through the puddles. It was a lot of fun… really!

We found a restaurant with grass-fed beef from the peninsula. It’s called Dopi’s, El Rincon de Los Sabores. My carne asada street tacos were amazing. Several chalkboards adorn the walls covered with various comments from visitors from around the world. While we were eating this guy came in with his accordion. Nothing unusual about that. A table motioned him to stop and play for them. What made it funny was when he unzipped his back pack with one hand and reached back to turn on a boom box. He then pulled out his cell phone and you could hear a computerized voice state that it had paired with a blue tooth device. He chose his song and suddenly we had a one man band! And oddly enough he had a large coconut nestled in next to his boom box. Such an odd mix of things.

The beer here is incredibly cold. The bars pride themselves in having sub-zero refrigerators, so the beer borders on being a slushee. Every frig has a lit-up indicator of the temperature. The norm is for it to be below zero Celsius. At Lola Valentino’s it was negative four! Joe wasn’t happy because that’s the only time I will drink beer is when his is cold enough :) I won’t order my own, I just drink his.

We’ve traveled a bit and I have to say that the people who live here are nice, super nice. Though you can’t really tap into that if you don’t know Spanish. At one point we were on a mission to find a place to exchange dollars for pesos. So we asked around. Everyplace was closed that does exchanges. (Not a real problem, as most places accept American dollars)  At one restaurant the whole bar joined in the problem solving. We had gotten about half a block away when the bartender trotted up to us to tell us the owner said she’d exchange our dollars if we wanted.

Our Street

Missing are the obnoxious condo salesmen from the mainland. The next day we wandered the through the tiny town unmolested. The salespeople from the little tiendas politely invite you in. One place asked Joe if he wanted a cigar. “No thanks.” “Tequila?” “I don’t drink tequila,” Joe answered. “Cocaine?” We laughed. Someone who doesn’t smoke cigars and drink tequila might prefer cocaine? Too funny :)

The North Beach is popular for its gorgeous sand and calm shallow water. We were still chest deep at about fifty yards out. But if you go around the tip of the island to the east the water is rougher and the beaches form in little half circles edged by jagged coral. We’re staying at Cabanas Maria del Mar on the beach.

Today is day two on our quest to find wine. No easy task, I tell you. First of all is the fact that no one wants to admit they don’t have the answer you seek. They would rather send you the wrong direction than to see that disappointed look on your face. But Joe and I were prepared for this. It’s the same everywhere in the Latin culture. I don’t mean to say that I can always tell whether or not the directions are correct, I’m just saying I am not surprised when we are led astray. One thing I’ve learned is to listen to the directions and if they are very detailed, then it’s probably correct. “Turn left, not at this next street, but the next one. Go one block down to the OXXO and turn right. Go about halfway down the block and it’s on the right.” It was true and I came away with a bottle of Argentinean Malbec.

The next difficulty is deciding where to eat lunch. This island is small, and the northern tip is maybe a half mile round. There’re lots of choices of places to eat though. We usually decide based on what type of beer they have. Joe likes Bohemian Obscura or Negra Modelo (Just don’t ask for a Negro Modelo, unless you want a black man that is, then ask). We discovered a great beach bar by the marina. The bartender named Mike (Miguel) is an absolute sweetheart. They have the best beef tacos I’ve ever had. We went back today and met Mario.

Mario had a t-shirt that had the superman logo on it, but he’d added Jesucristo, Superhombre, Dios Verdadero on the three sides of the big S. He mentioned he’d lived in the states for most of his life. Naturally I asked where he’d lived. He named several places, but all that stood out to me was San Quentin and Folsom Prison. He proceeded to give the best, most impassioned testimony to his becoming a Christian I’ve ever heard. It was truly an amazing experience to see the ferocity of his love of Christ. We’re going to get together with him next week on his day off.

Then a tropical storm swept the flat little island. The wind came out of nowhere. Rain came in the stores like someone was throwing buckets of water sideways! People ran, laughing, for shelter. A young boy held my hand as I stepped up into his store. Golf carts slopped through the roads that had temporarily become rivers. I understand now why the central street going down the middle of the island is the most popular… it’s at the top of the tiny hill, so the water flows down the streets to the sea.

This brings up the daily question… raincoat or no raincoat? An umbrella would be nice, but it’d have to be a very strong one. Mine isn’t. So I wore an adorable bright pink raincoat and discovered it’s not color-fast. Now my white tank top is tie-died pink. So I’ve progressed to the huge orange poncho I bought for Costa Rica. Now I’m dry, but I look ridiculous! I usually just go with getting soaked by the rain… I dry off pretty fast.

So that leads to the word Humidity. There’s hot and humid and there’s cool and humid. I’ve only known the hot and humid one, which isn’t entirely true because I was born on the northern coast of California. That’s cold and humid. Right now, here on Isla Mujeres, it’s cool and humid. Everything is wet and sticky. Because of that we use the air conditioner. It pulls moisture from the air. I wasn’t thinking about that today. All I thought was how nice and cool the breeze felt, so I turned the AC off and opened the windows. I propped my feet up on the bed and read Tarzan for awhile. When I went to stand up, I almost fell. The stone tile floor was covered with a thin layer of water. The room was like an iced over lake and I was like a 101 Dalmatian puppy! I dried the whole thing with a towel while Joe safely took his nap. Five minutes later it was an ice rink again. I shut the doors and turned on the AC. Lesson learned.

This Malbec tastes good.

The story I’ve always been told is that Isla Mujeres is Golf carts and scooters only. Not true. They have cars here, especially taxis. It’s not terrible, but they do have plenty of cars. I was disappointed because I thought it would be so cool to have the quiet of no cars