Posts

Monday

 Dave again. I'm glad Paula took up the slack when I just felt like blogging was too much effort. Isaac's phone could not be revived. As for my hearing aids, I rinsed them in plain water and let them sit for two days, and they are working. I hope they continue to work. Paula and Steve and Isaac have been very patient with me, so I wasn't too left out of conversations. Well, except for the conversation about baseball... We ate many of our lunches at the restaurant by the pool--I think it's called La Hacienda. They have the absolute best fish I have ever had. The spices, yes, but also something about the way it's grilled, so that it's soft and so moist it's almost mushy. In my free time (that is, not eating or swimming) I've been cramming as much Spanish into my head as I can. It goes in easily but also slips out easily. There is so much about the language that's easy to like, and the grammatical constructions mostly feel very natural. I hope/intend to...

Sunday

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 Nice slow day, late breakfast, hung out at the gorgeous pool, then ventured into the Caribbean.  The beach is lovely sand.  The sea has breakers a little way out; at the first row of breakers it's only about waist-deep.  It was very warm :-)   I didn't venture farther out; Steve and Isaac say after the first row of breakers the bottom is rocky.  Grabbed a couple of hot dogs from the nearest restaurant, pool some more.  Then an early dinner at La Marina, the resort's seafood restaurant.  Nice open room, very pretty food, also very good. The restaurant had an interesting device I at first took for a short coatrack,  but turned out to be a  purse/bag/cane holder.  Every restaurant should have them! The path to the restaurant has now been dubbed "Camina Iguana"; we saw as may as half a dozen at once, some even bigger than the one I posted yesterday.   One down spot in the vacation; both Dave and Isaac have managed to dun...

Dolphin pics.

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 Downloaded Saturday's "swim with dolphins" pics.  I'll upload them to something reachable by all when we get home.  In the meantime:

Friday

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 Friday, brief.  Hanging out day, relaxing after our marathon driving on Thursday.  Dinner at A'Akat, one of the resort's fancy restaurants.  Sangria with a watermelon heart as a greeting, because Valentine's day.  Interesting foods:  Dave had guacamole with fried grasshoppers, Steve had shrimp on noodles cooked in squid ink.  And I got a red  rose on the way in.  Also, there are small tone statues all over the resort, and I had time to capture a couple.  

Saturday

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 Saturday, and we haven't had much chance to post.  Diving was scheduled for this afternoon but it was too windy, so we ended up "swimming with dolphins". That turns out to be a very scripted show, with well-trained dolphins and careful handlers.  Dolphin swims by a line f 8 people standing on a platform roughly waist-deep, and everybodu strokes them as they swim by.  Then you're shown the hand signals for verious tricks like putting out your hand to be touched and dancing.  Then into the water, and the dolphin swims around everyone and you get some more chances to  stroke them.  Finally, back on the platform and one by one the dolphin comes up for a kiss.  Or, in my case, because I couldn't kneel down low enough for ths kiss, to "shake" her fins,  They (of course) took some great photos, but we have't downloaded them yet, so they get posted tomorrow.  Pool and sun  before and after that, and a nap before a rather late dinner. ...

Thursday, el cenote de dos ojos

 I got a fair amount of sleep last night, even though I had to get up at 7 this morning. Yesterday we arranged for two dives, today and Saturday. For today, Steve and Isaac dived and Paula and I just snorkeled. In a cenote, which is basically a water-filled cave. Paula had doubts at the last minute, but I talked her into trying it. The problem was 27 steep rocky steps down into the cenote. But she made it. The unexpected problem was the requirement to wear life vests, which she really didn't need, and it was impossible to get hers to stay in place rather than under her chin and around her ears. So she decided to skip the mask and snorkel (since she couldn't get her face in the water anyway) and just paddle around. But she enjoyed it anyway. The trip to the cenote should have taken an hour and a half, but took three. Apparently there was a bus accident and someone was killed. And beyond that was highway maintenance. After snorkeling, we sat around for another hour or so while St...

Tuesday to Wednesday

 This vacation did not get off to a good start. I had to get up two hours earlier than usual to go to the airport. I left Paula's wegovy behind in Malvern. She left her pill casebehind in Ellicott City (but fortunately had a sufficient emergency supply in her purse.) Isaac left his backpack in the van that took us from Cancun to Puerto Morelos (but the resort recovered it and got it back to him the next day.) Today (Wednesday) I got up an hour earlier than I should have. I have been wiped. I got a nap today, and that helped. Spent quite a while in the pool, which was lovely--ald large enough that we could get away from the loud music at one end. Tomorrow Paula and I are going to snorkel in a cenote, while Steven and Isaac scuba. The bad news is that we'll be gone from 8 until 4, so I will have to get up by about 7.