Painting with the Kids

I think this is becoming a thing for me.  To offer painting lessons to local kids while on vacation.  
It requires a bit of effort, but it feels pretty special. 

Once again, I brought more art & craft supplies on this trip than I can use.  Including some watercolour painting supplies.  But I don't regret it.  Because it enabled me to offer painting classes to Jorges 3 kids - Mateo, Matias, and Regina.

During a visit, I showed pictures of my art to "La Mama de Jorge" (she refused to tell me her name!) and his son Matias.  Matias seemed especially interested.  I had already met his younger sister Regina.  They both seemed calm and curious.  Good candidates for painting lessons.  So I offered.  Then I found out there's an older brother, Mateo.  Matias must've told Mateo I'd done rooster paintings. And I think Mateo is a very big fan of roosters.  Because he immediately asked about that, when I met him!!  And pretty much every time since! 

On the agreed upon day, we set up on a small table.  Close to the very big chicharron cauldron!   Despite our kinda precarious setup, it went very well.  Jorge seemed like such a proud and caring dad.  He checked on us several times, and helped Regina in such a nice way.  Saying to her, "Mi Amor".  

We're scheduled to do it again soon.  We painted flowers and a kinda fish bowl the first time.  Next time....a cute little bird, and a rooster!  Based on a picture I took of Mateo's most handsome rooster at the farm!! 

Pictures

1) The kids proudly showing their paintings after our first lesson.

2 &3) Farm day pictures that fit in well here...When we arrived, at the agreed time, to go to the farm, the family invited us to participate in birthday festivities for Jorge's dad, Filipe, who turned 70.  They were all so happy!  We sand happy birthday in English for them.  They sang it in Spanish.  After the sparkler, but before they cut the cake, Filipe took a big bite right out of the cake!  There were lotsa pictures.  Fun!  That's "La Mama de Jorge", Filipe's wife, in the yellow t shirt.  She pretended to push Filipe's head into the cake when he took his big bite.  Everyone thought it was very funny!

4) The rooster we're gonna paint next lesson.

5&6) More pictures of the kids with their paintings.  Delight !

   

A Visit to Jorge's Farm

I'm slowly kinda developing a friendship with a local family.  

This week, I got to visit their small family farm.

You might recall my post, Jorge and Flor Make Chicharron, from February 1, 2022.  It turns out they were making the chicharron from animals they raised themselves.  Which makes things a little personal and sad.  But less sad, because I think these animals had a mostly good life, at Jorge's little farm.

When I found out Jorge had a farm, I was excited about the potential of visiting it!  When he found out I work at an agriculture museum, he invited me to do just that.  So cool!! 

The adventure started with a ride in Jorge's very old and well used pickup truck.  I'm not sure who had the best, or safest seat?  Toby sat in the bed of the truck.  He said it was the most dangerous thing he'd done all year!   But since he was riding with two kids, aged about 12 and 6, and they seemed relaxed, he thought it must be ok???  I shared the cab of the truck with Jorge and his very kind wife Maria.  I was pressed against the door pretty tight.  I kept hoping it would stay shut!!  

The farm was small, and a seemed little improvised in spots.  But really, it was pretty well organized practical.  And we could tell that Jorge and his family cared very much about the welfare of his animals.

 

We got to pet his horse Luna, watch the pigs enjoy a shower and meal, pick up some chickens, all while being followed by a big turkey intended for a family member's birthday dinner :(

We also got to chew on some tart, not yet ripe tamarind right from the tree, and see how a spice called achiote grows! 

Pictures

1) Mateo and Regina seem to love the farm.  Mateo was especially proud of his roosters.  He wanted me to take pictures of them for him.

2) This kinda handsome turkey followed us around though most of our tour.  But he didn't want us to pet him :(

3-4) Jorge feeding tortillas to one of the pigs, and Jorge and Regina petting the pig while it eats.  Sweet.

5) The breeding pair of pigs were keen to say hello to us!!

6) A family member giving a welcome shower to the pigs.

7) This hen was lying on about 5 eggs, and 2 very young hatchlings.  Mateo liften the hen a little to show me.  Then he so gently put the hens wing over the young chick.  His tenderness was very heartwarming to see. 

My First Bike Ride to the Wild Side!

I've been wanting to do this for a long time, but I was never brave enough to try.  A big thank you!! To Tom and Toby for helping me make it happen!!!!

Cozumel is an Island, about 48 km long and 16 km wide.  One road, the transversal, goes across the middle from West to East.  Another main road goes around most of the island, following the shoreline.  

The main town is on the West side of Cozumel and faces the mainland.  The East side, The WildSide, as I like to call it, faces the open ocean.  So the wind there is often strong and the waves are big.  It's mostly undeveloped except for one small hotel, about 8 beach clubs and an awesome bike path between the road and the long beautiful wild beach.  

Tom, a 72 year old American friend who just retired from operating his coffee shop and lives here, rides his bike around the island twice per week.  About 65 km each time!!  He's been offering to bike with me.  That'd be nice.  But I'm so much slower than him.  So not ideal.

But Toby has a bike like mine.  Good. Not great.  He's faster than me too, but is ok with slowing to my speed.  So this week, we did it!!!!!  

We biked, with a small head wind, from our apartment to The Wild Side on the transversal to Mesacitos, the first beach club there.  Tom passed us along the way.  He met us at Mescalitos.  We drank and ate a little.  Rested.  Tom biked back home.  I rode with Toby to the next beach club, Punta Morena, on the bike path along the shore.  Magic!!!!!  After a swim and rest, we biked home, with the wind in our back.  With only one stop for pastries and milk at a small local corner type store.  

I am so happy we did it!  It was an awesome experience in so many ways!!!!

Pictures

1 & 2)  Me and Toby riding on the wild side.  So incredibly beautiful!  There's something about moving, at bike speed, that makes it all so much more interesting.  Maybe it's the slow change in the view, and finding new delights with each view, like lizards!

3) We rested in these hamaca at Mescalitos for a while.  Mine was such a pretty turquoise colour!!

4) Me and Toby.  Such a fun happy day!

5,6, 7)  Look for the blue elephant!  Tom and Barbara kept saying.  When I spotted this happy guy, I thought this was the blue elephant.  It wasn't.  The intended blue elephant came later, and wasn't as fun.  I'm glad we stopped here though.  We saw these cute dogs, this kind and resourceful lady plating seedlings in old refrigerators, for her nursery, and some kids bouncing on an old mattress.  Delights!

8) A kid playing a video game at a small store on the transversal.  She seemed to be enjoying herself a lot.  Which is great.  But somehow, the existence of a video game kinda in the jungle, captivated us. 

9) We were looking for ice cream and a break on our way home.  This little store didn't have ice cream.  So we shared a litre of whole milk and some pastries.  Delight!!

Night Snorkelling!

I went snorkelling last night!  

With a company called Best Excursions Cozumel.  Our guides were Adolfo and Memo.  Both super professional, kind, patient, and dedicated to giving us the best experience possible.  There were just 2 clients, me and Rosamaria.  One underwater guide, Adolfo, and one guide in a kayak, Memo. 

We each had a sea scooter with a powerful flashlight attached, a mask, snorkel, and fins. We were in the water for about 1 hour.  

My only real worry was about being cold.  Which I was, pretty much from the start.  But it was worth it!

We saw lots of neat things.  The most notable were 

• 
  Many yellow stingrays - easy to spot because their eyes reflected our lights a lot. It was so cool to watch them swim!!  because their bodies are so supple and kinda just ripple over the sea bottom and I was close enough to really see details of their bodies!
• 
  Many puffer fish - easy to identify because of their distinctive box like shape, and so cute mostly because I know they puff up into a big silly looking spiny ball that floats when they're scared.  Happily, none of them felt threatened by us.  They all kept their normal shape :)
• 
  One barracuda - sounds impressive but I wouldn't have know what it was if Adolfo hadn't said
• A couple of impressive schools of fish
• A scorpion fish, which is toxic
• A lobster- really neat to see it!
• AND!  
• About 3 squid - sooo cool the way they're kinda translucent and change colours - we saw kinda bluish/ purple ones with green eyes!
• One wonderful octopus!!  We saw it twice.  The first time, it was totally smooshed onto some coral.  I never would've spotted it.  Adolfo did! He approached it to show us, and to see if it would move.  It did not. I was a bit disappointed.  But I was glad, and respected Adolfo for not harassing it to move for our benefit.  When we swam past that coral again, on our way back to our entry point, the octopus was still there.  This time, moving around so we could see it much better.  So cool!!!!

Thank you Adolfo and Memo!  For a really cool fun experience!

Pictures (all courtesy of google since I did not have a camera with me)

1) A puffed up puffer fish.  So silly and sad looking.

2) The octopus I saw was not these amazing colours.  It was more brown and orange.  The head was about 6 inches long, the legs were about 12 inches long.  It was very cool!!!!

3) The squid I saw were translucent like this one with green eyes.  About 8 inches ling.  Awesome!!!

4) I saw about 12 yellow stingrays in all.  The smallest, a baby, was about 4 inches wide and 8 inches long tip to tip, the biggest was about 12 inches wide and 24 inches long.  

5) Our sea scooters were blue.  But this is how we held them.  They had 2 switches, one for each hand.  You had to press both switches to make them work.  They had neutral buoyancy and were pretty easy to use.

 

Murals

I love the murals here! 

Cozumel does not have a particularly strong arts scene.  There is only one local artist, that I know about, that has a store. Galo.  Fairly deep in the neighbourhood. 

But there are lots of really neat murals all over the city.  Some quite old. Some seem brand new it seems.  Some really neat or pretty, a few a bit disturbing.

I'm hopeful that the arts scene here will grow.  Cause these murals tell me there are many talented people here.

1) The raccoon is awesome!  It's on the side of one of the cruise ship admin buildings. 

2 & 3) I don't remember where they are.  But they show a wide range in style.

4) I'm not super fond of the look of this mural.  But holy smokes!!!! Look at the detail!  And how the mural doesn't skip a beat when interrupted by the utility pole and box.

5, 6, 7) These are on a large wall near the cemetery.

8) I think this jaguar (?) has been here for a while.  But he still looks great to me!

9-10) There's a whole series of similar dog images on the wall outside a doggy day care business.  It's definitely a thing here.  There are at least 2 that I know about!

11-12) There are, of course, many underwater scene murals. Given that this is an island and a very popular scuba destination.  I especially like how the water was rendered in the last mural!  And the tiger. I'm not sure why a tiger underwater...

 

 

    

Tacos! Delicious and Interesting

I like tacos.  They're tasty and fun.  But now that I know their history, I have a whole new appreciation for them!

In the late 1800's, miners in the town of Hidalgo, drilled holes in the mine walls, wrapped dynamite in cloth, and put the wrapped dynamite in the holes to blow up/separate the rock.  They called the wrapped dynamite "tacos".  Likely influenced by the Spanish who had long ago invaded Mexico, and used the word "taco" to mean a plug, rod, wedge, and other similar things.  

The wives and daughters brought the miners their lunches.  The traditional beans and meat in tortillas, carried in baskets lined with warm steamy towels.  This food, which resembled the dynamite tacos, came to be know as tacos too!  

By 1895, the word taco to describe a tortilla folded in half and filled with meat, beans, avocado, etc. was officially in the Mexican dictionary.  

Pictures

1) Tacos Y Mas- Tacos and More.  A new discovery in the neighbourhood!

2) We got to eat all this for 120 pesos, about $7.  You get to pick your main filling, then add a bunch of toppings, like a salad bar.  I discovered that 2 tacos is enough.

3) This little taco place is really well organized and clean!  They even have a recycling station!  It's the only working recycling station I've seen so far on this trip

4) This has nothing to do with tacos.  But this little restaurant made me smile.  The young woman in the window said she had been doing the painting.  I asked her about what kind of paint is best for this kind of thing.  She didn't know.  She was just using what was available.  But she was so pleasant!

5) Just fun Valentines donuts :)

  

A Norte!

It's not snowing here or minus anything!  I've worn my sandals and a skirt every day.  But it is still winter.  Which brings Nortes.  

Nortes are cold winds from the Northeast of Mexico, along the Gulf of Mexico. They can bring a lot of rain and winds from 60 to 100 km per hour.  They can last from a few hours to a few days.  They happen mostly from November to February.

Because I'm in Cozumel for an extended period of time, I kinda like a good Norte.  They're a bit exciting, cools things down, and can be a relief from the heat.  

I don't know what the locals think of them, really.  But I have seen several people wear long sleeves, pants, puffy winter jackets, and scarves during Nortes.  It's tempting to laugh.  Cause maybe it feels chilly enough for a sweater with my skirt and sandals, but a puffy winter jacket???  Not so fast, Gringa!!  These folk are made for heat.  I'm sure many of them think their summer is a little too hot.  But I'd be a gigantic overheated sad mess!!  

There have been several Nortes since I've been here this year.  Including 2 days ago, and this evening.  It'll be a great sleep! 

Pictures

1& 3) Some of the puddles left after the rain were pretty impressive!  I watched a lady, wearing nice shoes, try to figure a path around this puddle.  I didn't watch long she seemed kinda unhappy...

2)  Look carefully.  You can actually see the raindrops in this picture!  Big and lots! 

4 &5) I'm so glad I went out while it was raining!  I never would've noticed otherwise.  Look at these creative downspouts!  They make the extreme sidewalks that much more of an adventure! 

6) The drop at the bottom of this light bulb, on my patio, caught my eye. Then I noticed how pretty the orange palm leaf was in contrast to the green ones.

7) At most grocery stores, there's a spot where you can park your bike or scooter and there's someone to watch it, for a few pesos.  At the grocery store closest to my apartment, these industrious people will also wash your car.  I noticed one of the workers carrying a whole bunch of new windshield wipers.  Smart!  Likely a lot of customers only knew they needed new wiper blades once the rain started!