HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY
Today we picked up more garbage, we have a nice looking street now – many are commenting on our work. Makes us feel like our efforts are appreciated.
Following our walk on the beach this morning we returned to our apartment. After a short time a gentleman from one of the units downstairs came for a visit. He had found a wallet in a vacant building next door, upon checking for ID he came across our card with photo and addresses on it – you know the one we pass out as our “Retirement Card”. The fact he recognized our photo brought him to us. When he showed me other items in the wallet I recognized the photo ID as that of Frank the man who writes the forum at “vivapuertomorelos.com” , he lives just 2 doors down from us. Frank holds a meet and greet of his forum members every Friday evening at one of the bars on our street. That is were we met him in person and from there we were able to ID his photo. Needless to say Frank was some what happy to get his wallet back after 2 days missing and only a 2 dollar bill was missing – everything else was intact. How lucky can you be???
Lunch today consisted of the Chicken from the little place on the back street – just as good today as it was the last time we purchased it. Following lunch we went snorkeling again. The water is so clean, warm and calm – what a treat! We saw several fish today perhaps because we had built up our nerve to go out a little further in the water. It is so different swimming in salt water compared to fresh water or sweet water they call it here. We are going to go on a snorkeling tour before we leave – we thought perhaps Sunday but there is a market across in the colona – it is called the Jungle Market, it starts at about 10:00 in the morning – they have entertainment and sell food/produce/souvenirs etc. so I think we may go to that and do the snorkel tour later.
There was no problem with laundry today – everything we dropped off yesterday was in the bag when we picked it up. Oh they are getting better – not so much fun though.
Habanero’s bar had live music tonight. it was nice to sit and have a drink while the entertainer sang. It would have been better had it been Mexican music – we come to Mexico to see Mexico.
Following our drink at Habanero’s we went to John Gray’s for dinner. We made reservations at this Restaurant prior to leaving home. I had pork and Allan had Duck – I keep saying the food here is to die for and it is true. We have eaten in restaurants, street side cafes, ( we haven’t been to them all yet) and we have yet to eat a meal we haven’t enjoyed. The food in this town is great!
Signing out for another day,
Take care,
Anne
Friday, February 15, 2008
february 14th pics of interest
There were lots of restaurants prepared to enteraint the most critical pallet
for Valentine's Day Dinner, this is the English Pub - we ate here one evening
- the food was to die for!
This was the menue at the English Pub- sounds good doesn't it?
During the day we stopped here on the beach for a nice cold drink
This is John Gray's Kitchen where we had our Valentine Dinner. It is one of the upscale restraunts in town - dinner cost us
$40.00 US each. The food was great - an awesome experience!
Thursday, February 14, 2008
"HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY- we love you!"
Happy Valentine's Day to each of you, family, friends and new aquaintances. We
love Peurto Morelos but not near as much as we love all of you!
Día de tarjeta del día de San Valentín feliz a cada uno de usted, de familia, de amigos y de nuevos aquaintances. Amamos Puerto Morelos pero no cerca tanto como amamos cada uno usted.
February 13, 2008 DAY 10!
The day started the same as any other with one exception – we spent the first hour of our morning walk picking up garbage off the street. So many people we have stopped to talk with since our first day here have loved Puerto Morelos but complained about the amount of garbage on the streets. We have shared their concerns and decided perhaps if we did a little bit of garbage pick up it would make a difference. At home everyone is litter conscious, it has been taught in our schools for years. Remember Arbor Day? The term is now “Spring Clean Up Week”. People adopt a portion of roadways and highways and we are recycle conscious. None of that is done here. The beaches and parks are kept clean but other than these areas locals just toss papers, bottles and cans. There are garbage cans in several locations on the street and they have regular garbage pick up however, what is not in the barrel gets left behind to be blown around in the wind. Several tourists stopped and thanked us for trying to make a difference; one lady clapped her hands as she drove by. You guessed it – no one offered to help but that isn’t why we did it – we wanted to make a difference and we have. It feels good to walk down he same section of street and not see the usual clutter.
It has been a very hot still day, we didn’t sit on the beach for long but we did some snorkeling. The water is very clear and the bottom is free of dead coral, this is because the reef has been declared a national park. They are very protective of the reef; you can not go diving or snorkeling on it without a guide. We are looking at going out on Sunday if the weather cooperates. Tuesday the winds were so strong they wouldn’t allow anyone out from the pier.
This afternoon we stopped at the Finca Café, here they roast and grind their own coffee which is shipped in from their family owned coffee plantation. The coffee is very good, deserts are out of this world and the waiter/dishwasher/coffee toaster/grinder – you name it is a hoot. His name is Rudy, he speaks English well and he is somewhat of an OCP (Obsessive Compulsive Personality) – Allan says it is something I can relate too – what does he mean by that do you think???
We went back later for dinner and met a young couple from Denver Colorado, they have a time share south of here and dropped in to PM to just look around. They want to have kids but aren’t ready to pass up the party life just yet. It is a major decision for young couples.
The cactus moon flowers were out again tonight – I will attach another picture because there were more blooms showing.
We dropped laundry off again today, it will be ready for pickup tomorrow – I am curious to see what we get this time – can hardly wait!
Podría estar en otras personas bajo desgaste mañana
Adiós para ahora,
Anne
PS – these little blurbs of Spanish can be translated to English at “translator.live.com”
It has been a very hot still day, we didn’t sit on the beach for long but we did some snorkeling. The water is very clear and the bottom is free of dead coral, this is because the reef has been declared a national park. They are very protective of the reef; you can not go diving or snorkeling on it without a guide. We are looking at going out on Sunday if the weather cooperates. Tuesday the winds were so strong they wouldn’t allow anyone out from the pier.
This afternoon we stopped at the Finca Café, here they roast and grind their own coffee which is shipped in from their family owned coffee plantation. The coffee is very good, deserts are out of this world and the waiter/dishwasher/coffee toaster/grinder – you name it is a hoot. His name is Rudy, he speaks English well and he is somewhat of an OCP (Obsessive Compulsive Personality) – Allan says it is something I can relate too – what does he mean by that do you think???
We went back later for dinner and met a young couple from Denver Colorado, they have a time share south of here and dropped in to PM to just look around. They want to have kids but aren’t ready to pass up the party life just yet. It is a major decision for young couples.
The cactus moon flowers were out again tonight – I will attach another picture because there were more blooms showing.
We dropped laundry off again today, it will be ready for pickup tomorrow – I am curious to see what we get this time – can hardly wait!
Podría estar en otras personas bajo desgaste mañana
Adiós para ahora,
Anne
PS – these little blurbs of Spanish can be translated to English at “translator.live.com”
February 13th, 2008
This is Rudy from the Finca Cafe, a visit to Puerto Morelos
would not be complete without a visit to the Finca and meeting him!
The infamous cofee roaster at Finca's
This is the army base in Puerto Morelos - it is inhabited by army personel; we often see them riding around in their trucks with machine guns mounted on the back. Our obvious question was "Why?" Well the answer is simple - this is a major drug channel from Columbia. The ships and high speed boats drop off drugs in the ocean which are picked up by fishermen and brought to shore where they are transported by land to the US. Who'da thought!
Sad to see these vacant buildings, Wilma did a lot of distruction here - Peurto Morelos was the worst place hit along his coast. Many people were unable to replace what they lost.
Here is the cactus moon flower tonight - lots more blooms. I found out these come in a variety of colours, yellow, pink, red too I believe -this one is white
Here is the cactus moon flower tonight - lots more blooms. I found out these come in a variety of colours, yellow, pink, red too I believe -this one is white
This Market is in town every Wednesday from 7:30 in the morning until late afternoon.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
NEW TO THE MARKET - GUARANTEED RESULTS
This was sent to Allan by a friend who is genuinely concerned for the safety of our passports and other items of importance. I do believe it will work - we will be better prepared to make a full report upon the completion of this vacation.
February 12th - Day 9
Tuesday was a beautiful day; we went to Selvatica (selvatica.com.mx), I would recommend it to anyone that might be interested. It is a zip line jungle tour including a bicycle ride to the centos or sink holes for a swim and return back to the reception area for lunch.
It was a neat experience, we did not ride a bicycle type vehicle as I had thought; you are secured in a harness that puts you in a seated position; you are on a pulley system that takes you from one staging to the next – there are 11 zip lines in total. Prior to leaving on the circuit they explained how to hold yourself in line with the cable, how to brake and how to straighten yourself from a spin. What a neat experience – something I could easily become addicted too. We then rode bicycles to the sink hole or centos – these contain fresh water and are very deep – this one ranged from 10 to 150 feet deep. Yes we both went in – it was not as cold as we expected it to be – it was so refreshing after the long bike ride. We were the seniors on the excursion, one girl from Ottawa said later that she was really proud of us – it was something she would like to see her parents participate in, but she didn’t think her mother would attempt it. We met the bus at 9:15 out at the highway and we were back by 1:30, it is nice to do these things in the morning before the heat of the day.
When we returned to Puerto Morelos we picked up our laundry, got some groceries and went to the beach to do the R&R thing. Upon returning from the beach I decided to put the laundry away. It’s a good thing I have a sense of humour because once I started to take things out of the laundry bag I found the female items were not mine! Lots of underwear but none of them belonged to me! We gathered up the items of the unknown owner and took them back to the Laundromat, much to my delight the person who got my laundry by mistake had already returned it! Now I have clean underwear and it is mine!
In the early evening we met with Cat Brown who is the Chairperson of the local Charity “El Mundo Para Puerto Morelos” and Antonio Auila Morenoa who is a private ambulance operator from Cancun. The purpose of our meeting was to start the initial steps in setting up an ambulance service in Puerto Morelos. This is an interesting story so I am putting in under a separate posting at a later time.
We had a lovely dinner at a new restaurant in town – the Mexican Pub – they serve great steaks (Angus beef). On our walk back to our apartment we had the good fortune of seeing for the first time a Cactus Moon Flower. We were told it only blooms at night and it has a beautiful fragrance. They bloom twice a year so we were pretty lucky to have seen it and to have had someone with us that knew what it was.
Todavía estamos gozando de Puerto Morelos,
Anne
It was a neat experience, we did not ride a bicycle type vehicle as I had thought; you are secured in a harness that puts you in a seated position; you are on a pulley system that takes you from one staging to the next – there are 11 zip lines in total. Prior to leaving on the circuit they explained how to hold yourself in line with the cable, how to brake and how to straighten yourself from a spin. What a neat experience – something I could easily become addicted too. We then rode bicycles to the sink hole or centos – these contain fresh water and are very deep – this one ranged from 10 to 150 feet deep. Yes we both went in – it was not as cold as we expected it to be – it was so refreshing after the long bike ride. We were the seniors on the excursion, one girl from Ottawa said later that she was really proud of us – it was something she would like to see her parents participate in, but she didn’t think her mother would attempt it. We met the bus at 9:15 out at the highway and we were back by 1:30, it is nice to do these things in the morning before the heat of the day.
When we returned to Puerto Morelos we picked up our laundry, got some groceries and went to the beach to do the R&R thing. Upon returning from the beach I decided to put the laundry away. It’s a good thing I have a sense of humour because once I started to take things out of the laundry bag I found the female items were not mine! Lots of underwear but none of them belonged to me! We gathered up the items of the unknown owner and took them back to the Laundromat, much to my delight the person who got my laundry by mistake had already returned it! Now I have clean underwear and it is mine!
In the early evening we met with Cat Brown who is the Chairperson of the local Charity “El Mundo Para Puerto Morelos” and Antonio Auila Morenoa who is a private ambulance operator from Cancun. The purpose of our meeting was to start the initial steps in setting up an ambulance service in Puerto Morelos. This is an interesting story so I am putting in under a separate posting at a later time.
We had a lovely dinner at a new restaurant in town – the Mexican Pub – they serve great steaks (Angus beef). On our walk back to our apartment we had the good fortune of seeing for the first time a Cactus Moon Flower. We were told it only blooms at night and it has a beautiful fragrance. They bloom twice a year so we were pretty lucky to have seen it and to have had someone with us that knew what it was.
Todavía estamos gozando de Puerto Morelos,
Anne
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