Lagoon and Cenotes and Critters---Oh My!!!

We went to two different types of cenote this visit--neither of them like the sacred cenote at Chichen Itza nor the one we swam in en route to that site in 2007.  This particular cenote is called a 'open' cenote and is ancient. It looks like an "ol' swimmin' hole".  It is probably about 30 meters across and about 20 feet deep.  One can see (under the water) the place where the cenote is connected to the underground water system.  Apparently its younger but much larger cousin is about a kilometer away. That particular cenote was closed because a film was being made there.  But this was an absolute delight.  The bottom was covered with a rich fern-like growth that was host to several different kinds of fish such as a beautiful blue catfish.  Mostly, though, the inhabitants were several different colours of tetras that nibbled at your skin as you floated.  I guess you could say that we 'were feeding da fishes'. There was only our tour there (six of us) and that was amazing.  Later in the swim we did have two more visitors, young people from Germany on their gap year world tour, a charming young couple who now know all about Canada from their week in Montreal.  Oh well, I suppose I can't say I know all about Mexico from four trips to resorts here.

  That day we also stopped at a lagoon in Akumel.  This place did not support as many varieties of fish as Xel ha. but was quite lovely to swim in.  Mike and I lazed in the water and watched a huge eagle wait for, and finally catch, a fish.  I was not bright enough to take a picture of the lagoon itself, but at the site was a large, permanent show of three artists' work.  I spent a long time enjoying the works.  I have no idea who the artists were but it occurs to me if I could check it out on the web as the site is called Yal-Ku.

After Yal-Ku we drove to Akumel to have lunch.  It is all included in the day, and is great to get out of the hotel (that doesn't serve that much Mexican food--more international, including sushi) We stopped off at a Mom and Pop style restaurant and had chicken and tacos.  We finally found out why the bean sauces are so runny in the Yucatan--they are cooked, spiced and then stored, sometimes underground, historically.  The chicken was great, I purchased some of the paste they used to marinade it--just add lime juice.

Yvan and I tried to make this the other night using pork ribs.  We discovered that the taste of the pork overpowers the spice; everybody prefers the home made rub I make anyway.  Next time it will be with chicken and with a little chipotle spice added to zing it up a touch.

After lunch the gang of six plus driver and guide moved off on another cenote, called the Grand Cenote.  It is a cave cenote as well as having open areas.  The water was beautiful as well; not as many fishes as in the first cenote but a few.  It was very large--we could swim quite a way into the cave part which was much deeper than the other part.  We disturbed the bats as we swam around the stalagmites, stalactites and columns.  When we looked back towards the mouth of the cave the light entering made the water turn the most exquisite blue.

Finally I am going to include some of the fauna we saw this time, jut for the fun of it. First I have a lovely iguana from Tulum, overlooking the Caribbean Sea.  He was just resting peacefully, and then another male clambered on to a nearby rock and off it went scrabbling down with his ruff flaring.

I have already mentioned the birds in a previous posting, but there were several that I had not seen before.  One morning I found a couple apparently doing some sort of mating ritual, or exhibiting aggressive behavior -- I don't really know which, but I was having a bit of difficulty deciding on their gender.  At any rate, they kept hopping sideways --if one hopped to its right, the other would hop to its right, and then left, and then right.  It was quite odd and seemed to have been going on for a long time, and would seemingly continue to do so.

Mike woke up eye to eye with this little fellow on the beach one morning.  He thought at first that it was just a grain of sand, but when he looked more closely he saw the tiny shell.  It looks like the uni residence version of a hermit's home.

Finally I have a couple of pictures of the variety of animals we found in our rooms everyday.  Alonso would leave them with us when he left.  Some of them were quite clever. We aren't quite certain why he decided we should have the swan display (reserved for the bridal suite), but it may have been that after finding out that we had been married so long, we needed a little romance.  Que sabe?

Last Day in Akumal

We don't have to leave the hotel until four today, and it isn't noon yet.  I am downloading the paper for Mike to read in the airport while we wait until nine o'clock to take off out of here.  We don't arrive in Ontario until late tonight and will stop over.  We will see Yvan on our way home tomorrow.
Yesterday we took the walk to the cove we saw last year.  Attempted to

go there already this trip, but we were with a couple who were nervous about the No Trespassing signs.  It is quite a rough walk (or tramp) over coral and tourist debris, but worth the trip.  Some good snorkeling although the water had been stirred up by the rain the previous evening and could have been clearer.  Mike and I did an hour or so paddling around.  A couple different kind of pelicans; I am not certain if there were more than one kind or if they were male and female.  I am thinking two sorts--if and when we get to NZ I think I would like to take up 'birding' more seriously.  I will have to get Sue to teach me and do bird tramps. I felt the mad urge to leave my mark here, so I made an Inuktisuk; which I undoubtedly have spelled wrong, and I expect P to correck me. 'bless him.

Roll over darling, and pass me another lotus blossum.....

Saturday went to Tulum for the morning.  Hopped on the collectivo and drove there, paid our three dollars as we got off.  Price has gone up from the last time.  We had a short tour of the site--the place first conquered by Cortez who arrived via Cuba.  Mayans later made a deal with the Brits for Belize for money and arms then took the place back.

I also learned about Mayan creation story--woman created first, needed someone to birth humanity; 13 levels of heaven and nine levels of hell. Lots of reading up for that.  Beautiful beach but one has to go down via quite steep risers.  Consequently, I passed as coming up would have not appealed to the hip.  Yesterday, Mike lay on the beach and I indulged in a little retail therapy.
We have a great beach here--the surf is rather high so they have built baffles out of tarp and sand.  The waves crash into them -- not just to slow them down, but to prevent the undertow from sweeping the bather out to the middle of the Caribbean.  We, of course, use them for muchos fun.

I spend some time writing out my Christmas cards, and actually enjoying do them.  We have run into several Critters that we can't photograph, either because they are too quick or because  it is night time.  In the early morning we have seen a small animal about the size of a muscrat but without a tail and with longer legs in the wild area just to the right of our unit (see picture from Nov. 25.)  I am still searching for what it is, but no one here seems to know anything about the fauna around here.  The front desk type employees seem all to be from some other place in Mexico.  The Mayans of the area are here only for cleaning and waiting table, the caste system is alive and well in the Yucatan.
The other critter looks to be of the coon family, but with a thinner, longer nose.  We saw one dining the other night as we were en route to La Tortuga (a Brazilian a la carte where the menu was solidly for carnivores). Yesterday, en route to La Hacienda Dona Isabel, (the hotel run mini mall and tourist trap) I took the photo just above.  The critters are called coati, and according to Wikipedia are indeed also known as Mexican hog nosed raccoons, Brazilan aardvaks, or "Snookum bears"  I am going for snookum bears, personally. Here is a link to a Wikipedia photo.   http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/71/CoatiNosara.jpg
Coming soon will be birds. 

Day Five in Mexico

                  6 o'clock in the morning, after a storm

                                                              something in a shell....

 

It has been a very quiet trip....the weather has been muy humido this time around with a couple of thunderstorms, quite spectacular.  The first few days it really doesn't matter to me what the weather is like. If it is warm I am zonked out under an umbrella.  If it is wet, the same thing happens only am zonked on the bed in the room.  All good.  We have done a lot of swimming, as usual, and walking.  We were planning on taking the collectivo from out front of the hotel to go to Tulum, but the weather was rainy, so we chose not to go today.  We lounged about and read books.  To night we are going to "l'arlequin', a restaurant on the site for dinner.  We have taken a walk towards the bay we saw last time, (on our last day here) but we didn't go as far as we could have -- the couple we were walking with were afraid of the "no trespassing signs" on the beach.  I understand that it means not to trespass into the property, which is federal, but there were people strolling around the point.  It was still a good walk as there were several tide pools to examine.

Its all very well, to write them, but they have to be posted appropriately...Thanksgiving as Evensong

St. Matthew's Thanksgiving was the final one, held the Sunday evening after thanksgiving at four o'clock--lots of singing and a wonderful speaker,  Debbie Bodkin. . Debbie, an officer with the Waterloo regional police force has spent many of her leaves in places like Chad, Kosovo and the Sudan  not as a tourist but working collecting information.  I don't have the words to tell you about Debbie, so check out her page at http://www.debbiebodkin.com/.  If you have some real time on your hands, "Google" her name, and find all the articles, videos and radio and television interviews.
I have been preaching, over the Harvest season on the need to give thanks in actions, not just necessarily in words and/or money, and Debbie (it was the wardens' idea to ask her to speak for the special service) shows us that a woman living in Canada can do something about the horrors of the world around us.
What was really helpful for the parish was for the hard working folks to hear about meeting her 'adopted child'  (through World Vision).  Debbie told us how she had seen first hand how the money she donated helped the child, family and village.  Operation Christmas box is gearing up again, and the parish has taken heart from hearing from Debbie that the boxes actually get into the hands of the intended recipients.

We have tramps here too!

Yesterday and today are our to be our last gasps of summer, apparently.  My plans were to finish my sermon and clean the front windows before going to work out at the gym.  By the time I had finished 'puttering about' -- making French Canadian pea soup, read the paper, had breakfast etc., the day had developed into a beautiful breezy Indian summer event.  I got my cornstarch and warm water mixed along with the clean rags and headed out to clean the front windows--a thing of beauty.  By the time I had finished them, I realized that the sheers in the living room were filthy; I tried to remember the last time I had cleaned them and it isn't a thing I want to share with anyone but Mike.  Feeling guilty about all the window 'treatments', I took down the stuff from the patio doors, and the downstairs windows and threw them all in the washer. Of course, it was then noticible that ALL the windows in the house were dirty (is this beginning to sound like the bread and gravy game?), so more cornstarch and water were prepared, and they all had their dirty faces washed. 
I called a colleague, En, and after she had finished her nursing home service, off we headed to the Lorne Henderson Conservation Area, just outside of town to walk for an hour there.  It is a lovely site with three weirs and beautiful paths, and a great place to wander with a friend.

Pit Stop

We have a lemon bay tree to the side of the back patio.  This year, the squirrels left the seed pods alone, so they were available for the robins traveling south.  We had one late-comer this year who was here every day for the last week in October.  He had us worried that he wasn't going to make it to Florida before the snow fell here, but he has been nowhere to be seen the last couple of days. Vaya con Dios, mi amigo.