Home and thinking about it

I have more to share about the last couple of days in Xcalak, but I'm not ready to share : )
I'll get to it soon enough...................stay tuned.

La Chimenea and fishing without a pole

Dinner last night was pretty darn good, better than anything we can get at home, which still puzzles me, but never mind. We checked out a local party down by the beach at a bar we've visited a couple of times. It was a mix of locals and gringos, dancing, drinking, singing and all that. This morning I woke at the usual pre-sunrise hour,whatever that is. It leaves me enough time to fall back to sleep for a short time, watch the sun rise over the water, and listen to the birds before I actually get up. It's a rough life. I still get about an hour and a half before we head 5 miles down the beach road to the dive shop. We did only one dive this morning, saving ourselves for fishing in the afternoon. The dive was La Chimenea, one that we had done before and I discribed earlier, I think. It was beautiful and each time we do a dive we take a different approach. This time I explored the cavern a bit more. I didn't realize it last time, but the big pillar of rock in the center has a big space behind it and you can just swim around it, which I did. When we reached the back side, Frank shined his light into a smaller cave at the back and there was a respectable set of sharp white teeth...we'll call him big ass barracuda. If he hadn't had the light , I wouldn't have known he was there. I wasn't sure what barracuda's response would be to being blocked in by 3 divers, so I gave him as much space as I could. The same school of horse eyed jacks circled me again. I think they recognized me. We worked our way down the wall, then up through a crevice and hung out on the top for a long time before heading up. I had inadvertantly set my computer for nitrox, so it spazzed at me when I was down at 84 feet. It's good that I didn't dive this afternoon or it would have told me I was dead. Instead we went fishing out near with reef with Benito. Now this is good fishing. All that is needed is a line, hook, some weights (two metal screws in this case) a piece of a sardine and a knack for tossing it into the water (no fishing poles!). We anchored directly off shore from the the river that divides Quinta Roo, Mexico from Ambergris Key, Belize. Frank and Benito had a riot playing with the fish. They would bait the hook, toss it in and try to time it so they could hook the fish before it stole the bait. Usually the fish managed to get a free meal (or two) but we did end up the with 13 nice little fish. Sauteed in garlic and olive oil tonight, ceviche tomorrow. I was planning to fish as well, but the sun was so warm, the breeze so comfortable and the water so clear and turquoise, I just sat. OK, I took some pictures too...I wasn't completely useless.

Swimming in the dark and lobsters

On Wednesday we were lucky enough to do a night dive. I usually need to be talked into this. It's a little scary and the sun isn't out to warm me up when we're back on the boat, so I usually freeze. Benito announced that this would be a lobster hunt and Frank was totally into it, so I was cooperative. Besides, he needed a minimum of 2 divers to do it and I was number 2. The boat ride was short and we were in the water right away, which felt warmer than the morning dives, so I was happy right from the beginning. Night diving is so peaceful and feels like an adventure whether you're familiar with the site or not, and there is a whole different set of creatures down there in the dark. There was no moon, so it was really black when we turned our lights off and played with the phosphorescent plankton....it makes you feel like tinkerbell. Well, maybe the boys didn't feel like little fairies, but I did. We searched with our lights into every little cranny and when we saw a pair of orange eyes the right size and distance apart (there were many orange eyes) Benito would go after it with a stick about 5 ft. long with a hook on the end of it. Most of the time he would just piss the lobster off and then the chase was on with Frank and I keeping our lights on the little bugger until Benito was able to hook him on the underside. Quite a few got away......... they swim really fast when they know something is after them. We managed to get 6 nice lobster tails and one big crab for the three of us. Frank's job was to carry the bootie and I sure wish I had picture of him swimming around with a big crab in his hand : ) I have more enthusiasm for night diving now, and I'm thankful for that. We headed back, rinsed off and headed over to Benito's cousin's little restuarant where they sauteed the tails in garlic and butter, boiled the crab and put together a fantastic dinner outside under the palm trees with a warm breeze blowing and the sound of the waves breaking on the reef. This is true, I'm not making it up!

Today we were the only 2 divers, so it was all about us. Jim took us to a couple of really nice sites and we did our surface interval at a little 4 room resort that I think I would stay at the next time we come down here. If you stay there the dive boat picks you up and drops you off right at the dock. I'm more than willing to work with that. The first dive was very fishy with some really interesting coral formations. It's sort of a jungle down there with huge hard and soft corals, sea fans and all sorts of crazy things that look a bit like Dr. Seuss made them up (One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish). I played with a little spider-ish thing and a couple of pink caterpillar thingies. The second dive was absolutely beautiful, and because we were only 3 we were able to make our way through every crevice and swim through that came along. There is nothing cooler than exploring a dark fishy tunnel and coming out into the bluest blue you've ever seen surrounded by fish and beautiful gardens of coral. We were visited by 4 spotted eagle rays, the most graceful creatures I've ever seen.

Tonight we'll have dinner at the Leaky Palapa and tomorrow morning more diving and I think Frank is going spear fishing with Benito tomorrow afternoon. In the meantime,the beach is looking pretty inviting. The owners, Ron and Roberta, are scheduled to arrive today and we're looking forward to meeting them. The produce truck just stopped by, but we didn't need any avacadoes or mangoes today. I sure wish a truck full of fruit and vegetables pulled into my driveway every day.

Getting really relaxed

We've had 3 good days of diving now. Two dives to La Posa, a drift dive through a canyon with big schools of tarpon that ends at a huge pinnacle that we spiraled up, many fish and an interesting structure. Today at the same site I saw 2 Moray eels, a big turtle, sting ray and a spotted eagle ray, as well as grouper. We also did chimnea, a site with many crevices, some that we swam through, and a huge cavern with a round opening in the top, thus the name. It goes into a smaller cavern with another opening and several swim throughs, but I opted to stay in the main cavern with a school of horse eyed jacks swirling around my head. Both dives today were awesome, but it wasn't enough and we're going for lobster on a night dive in a while, then we cook the lobsters!

Yesterday was a no dive day, but that doesn't mean we weren't in the water. I paddled for quite a while, then we took the kayaks out to the reef, secured them and spent a long afternoon snorkeling near one of the cuts in the reef. Huge sponges and corals and hundreds of fish made it a fun spot.
Frank then got in on a palapa building project with the caretaker and the kids, who had a lot of fun with the pictures I took of them. Later we headed to town for a beer and then back to the house because, lucky for us, a new restaurant opened yesterday about 200 yards down the road and it was tamale night! This is a beach road, which means it's made of sand and there are maybe a dozen houses and a several very small inns along the 9 kilometer drive from town to our house, with long stretches of nothing in between. To find a restaurant like that out here is unthinkable. It is a large palapa on the roof of a garage, beautiful spot with excellent food and a bar I couldn't believe. We sampled unique tequilas and awesome mojito's and spent the evening talking with the owner of the house, who just needed a project, so he leased the space to a young couple from Manhattan who wanted to run a restaurant, and the waitress who is down from Alaska with her husband, both fly fishing guides up there when they're not down here. They're only open Sun. to Tuesday, so we'll be going back on Sunday night for sure.

We've had some nice lunches in town after diving and I'm so surprised there are good restaurants in such a small village. Did I say I love this place?

Tulum, then Xcalak

We've made it to Xcalak, all is good. I don't have much to say about the trip down, except that he who is driving, not me, has to pay attention, every second because you don't know what you might run in to, and the lines on the road are vague.

We spent two days in Tulum, right in the town rather than on the beach, at a little inn surrounded by a neighborhood and the usual sounds that come with that. We drove to Coba and explored the ruins on old bikes with a few bent parts. Yesterday we spent the morning at the ruins in Tulum before heading south to Xcalak. Who could blame the Mayans for choosing such a gorgeous place to build their city? The ruins weren't as interesting as those at Coba, which are surrounded by vegetation, but the view and beach were amazing.

We arrived in Xcalak yesterday in time to run into the road crew on the beach road heading north to the house we rented. We were confronted with a stretch of road with at least a foot of new sand yet to be packed down and, unfortunately, a few nice sized rocks, one of which damaged something underneath our rental car. We then stood on the side of the road drinking cerveza with a couple of local guys while the big thing smoothed things out a bit. We should probable have the piece that came off the car reattached before we return it.

Our house is fine, we slept well and spent the morning on 2 leisurely dives out beyond the reef. The first was a mini-wall and the second a series of coral fingers. If we'd done the second dive first we could have explored some nice canyons, but as it was we'd been down long enough and couldn't spend any more time at that depth. May be worth a second dive. Lunch in town was
the way to end diving for the day. Now it's time for a siesta, Frank seems to have gotten a head start. Things move very slowly here.
I'm having a bit of trouble posting pics to this blog or face book and don't want to figure that our right now, so keep an eye on my Picasa pics, I'll post more later to there. See ya!

Filling in the spaces: Kauai and Hawaii

So this is the part where I start to fill in the spaces left when I didn't keep a travel journal. In March, 2007 we headed for the middle of the Pacific Ocean for two weeks. The first week was spent on the absolutely gorgeous island of Kauai. We rented a house, which was an organic fruit and orchid farm. It wasn't on the water, but it was such a peaceful place, except for the roosters. Our daughter, Dana traveled with us, as well as our friends Mark and Patty. This house is situated adjacent to the path the water took in 2006 when the dam burst and a few house were taken out and unfortunately lives were lost - a sad and horrible event. We were there for the one year anniversary and 6 large bouquets of flowers were gathered from the gardens around our house and placed along the highway as a memoriam. Also growing in the yard were trees weighed down with tangerines, oranges, grapefruits, avocados - all amazing. I put one of the grapefruits on the counter, sliced into it and the juice literally burst out of it, sending a river of the sweet stuff over the edge of the counter, making a puddle on the floor....oh darn, do we have to eat that? We made juice from the tangerines and oranges and I can say I've never had anything close to it and probably never will. It was so rich you could only handle the smallest glass or you'd go into orbit. I drool when I remember it. There was a lovely green house on the property filled with blooming orchids. Our week there was lovely. There was quite a bit of rain and the waterfalls were gushing down the sides of the green mountains. I wouldn't want it any other way. We hiked on two different days. The highlight was our trek along the Napali coast on the Kalalau trail and up to the 300 foot Hanakapiai falls. It was a crazy hike with many crossings of a swift creek, climbing on all fours over and around huge boulders and mud galore, but worth every bit of work to be the first people to arrive that morning. The hike back down was rather funny with all sorts of ill prepared hikers covered in mud and misery whose only questions were related to how much further it might be. Perhaps a mini skirt and flip flops weren't the right choice that day : ) One of our favorite sites on the north shore was the Limahuli Botanical Gardens. It is a stunning terraced garden featuring plants brought by the Polynesians as well as plants native to the island, all surrounded by jagged, green mountain peaks where the ancient men used to climb to the tops and throw flaming spears in hopes they would land in the Pacific Ocean. That I would love to see. Those are a few of the things I liked best about Kauai. I hope to go back, as there are some amazing backpacking and kayaking opportunities. I've created an album from the trip, you can go to the Picasa link to see them. You'll see that we visited the island of Hawaii the second week. I'll get to that later.

Not Mexico

I just spent the week end in not Mexico, that is, up north playing in the snow, which is almost as good. I skied 8.7 miles on Friday ( I thought it was kilometers!) and a few more yesterday with some good friends and some more this morning with Patty. Actually, this morning was a blast skiing on the trails Mark made with the sled. Patty and I wiped out with style....repeatedly! All in all, a fantastic week end. Here are a couple of pics from this morning when it was peaceful and before I found Mark's new trails and started landing face first in the snow.