From The Land Of Haw: Jan 1, 2017

Santa came during the night (even though he was told to bypass our house this year) and left us each a stocking of goodies.

He knows all kids need a toy to play with Christmas morning - he left us each a set of teeth. What do you suppose is going to happen at our dental appointments this year? Does he know something we don't?

We took a walk to the Jungle Market after opening our stocking and having a light breakfast. Along the way we found Christmas Dinner!

These are the dancing shoes the ladies wear - I didn't know the shoe was embroidered - most artwork is painted but these were actually stitched.

Liz passed out puppets, stuffies and stickers to the children.

The older children and ladies received colourful necklaces "from Knox"

Ana and Gilles - they are both from Quebec and Gilles has Manitoulin connections. Ana was a vendor at the market.

Together - Ana wrote the story and Gilles did the illustrations of their book "The Gloved Bear". The story is about a Polar Bear who left Canada on a mission to Puerto Morelos, Mexico. The children's story is written in French, Spanish and English.

I purchased the book for the Assiginack Public Library and it is autographed by both author and illustrator - I was so fortunate to have them both present for a signing.

Sandra is back for her 11th year at the Jungle Market. She takes great pride in her group of adults and children with their traditional homemade crafts and their dancing.

The day's performance was preceded a

cleaning and peace ceremony.

Then the dancers began performing their traditional dancing.

The hat was passed for tips

On our way home we stopped at the cemetery. This well is new this year,

you can see the water in it.

Shortly after arriving back home our favourite taxi driver - Emilio - stopped by with a delicious lunch for us, fried chicken breasts, rice and mixed vegetables! What a delicious treat!

Later in the afternoon Gaston, Louise and Foxy stopped by for a visit. ! Oh, perhaps that should read Foxy and Louise. LOL

Christmas Dinner was delicious again this year. We had chicken instead of turkey - because of the difference in size and not wanting many leftovers. To accompany the chicken we had jicama instead of potatoes and turnips, peas, carrots, stuffing, gravy and cranberries. Dessert was special gingerbread cookies and short bread cookies all the way from Canada. Liz brought them for this special occasion.

God bless this food we are about to eat!

Boxing Day we took a walking tour of the Botanical Gardens just a few minutes by taxi South of us. For anyone wishing to visit it, the price is about $120. pesos per person and the walk is about 2 1/2 hours in length. There is a lot of shade overhead but is was still a hot walk - we took lots of water to drink along the way.

A Mayan house.

A corn grinder

The last walk through this park was in February, there were very few flowers this year - I can only assume it is because of the difference in the time of year.

We saw a couple of monkeys and were very fortunate to get this photo. The were high above us eating leaves.

The roots of the trees extend deep underground to the water pools for nourishment.

http://www.usmintindustry.com/pdfs/hist1.pdf

This is a gum boiling pot. Chiclets gum originated here.

Shoots from some tree branches grow to and into the ground for water and nourishment

This was a startling find - but is only a tree root.

The walk takes you down to the mangrove swamp.

Liz is very proud of her accomplishment -

she has been doing therapy and working out at the gym back home, she says without it she would never have been able to make this trek today.

From the look out tower you can see Puerto Morelos and the ocean on a clear day.

Once we arrived back in Puerto Morelos we stopped at the red chair restaurant for lunch.

I treated myself to octopus in black ink. Mmmmm- delicious!

Flowers along the road on our walk home.

This little cutie is Sheila - the youngest daughter of Emilo our favourite taxi driver.

A Banana Tree we saw on one of our walks

Did you know that the banana tree is really

a plant and regrows each year?

Did you know that the banana fruit of

the banana plant is of the berry family?

This is the flower or spike of the banana plant.

You can have your grass cut and fertilized at the same time.

On the last evening of Liz' visit we treated ourselves to an evening of food, drinks and music at Xoximilco Park http://www.xoximilco.com/?langRedirect=1

These Mariachis were very talented, not only could they play the usual instruments they could play the tequila bottles and glasses partly filled with tequila as well.

The skiffs were made ready for the arrival of the evening's guests, each one was prepared for 20 people

We were served appetizers -I just had to try the crickets! Crunchy and tasty for sure.

Liz and Allan didn't get into the alcoholic drinks - they tried the non alcohol sangria - you can see by the expression on Liz' face how well she liked it.

The whole evening on the boat lasted 3 hours - we leisurely traveled through a canal with the aid of a gondolero.

We passed a vessel with each meal course and many more with Mariachi Bands

This newly wed couple were enjoying the evening - she was the dedicated driver - to bad they didn't have a taxi so she could have cut loose too.

Our host kept the party on our boat moving. Always dancing, joking and ensuring the evening was a pleasant one for all of his guests on board.

Half way through the night on the water we stopped

for a potty break and gave the staff time to clear

the tables before our return.

The desserts were waiting for us when we returned.

Louise and Gaston always enjoy a good party.

A Mariachi boarded our vessel to sing to us.

The following day was December 28th, the last day

for Liz in Puerto Morelos, later in the

day she caught her flight back to Toronto,

-
El Nicho is a must for brunch. You can see it has good food by the lineup waiting their turn for a good meal.

Liz and I left Allan in the line up holding our space while we took a short walk to the Wednesday Market

The fresh produce has such a satisfying smell - I love their carrots and eggs - can't get enough.

Everything is weighted before you purchase it.

A final walk about the Port before Liz has to leave.

Never a dull moment here at Casa Pura Vida! I finished washing the dishes and let the water out of the to drain when Niagara Falls erupted under the sink - the drain connection disconnected and the lower cabinets were flowing water! I managed to put my hand over the sink drain in the cupboard and get the stopper back in the sink so Allan could fix it. WOW!

Later that evening we went to Ole's for dinner - Ava - you won't believe these delicious stuffed potatoes! OMG they are delicious!

On our walk back home we came upon these dancing creatures in the street. They were having a hoot!

Their audience was enjoying the fun too.

The vegetable marked was closing up for the night.

This little market was still open

Our hair dresser Elizabeth was still open getting the working persons back in shape for tomorrow.

What do you think of a Funeral Home
being open 24 hours a day?

The Extra and Oxo stores are open 24/7

along with the funeral home

The residents of the squatters community are settling in for the night - unless of course they need a funeral home or snacks.

The pool aids in keeping the pool man busy. The temperature was up to 82 degrees this past week.

Allan spent the last day of the year helping others. Our neighbours Maria and Rafael came in from Cancun to find they didn't have any water in the house. With my little bit of Spanish and her little bit of English we identified the problem and the men worked together with body language as their communication and managed to get the problem resolved!