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!

 

Finding Delight

They say....if you look for it, you will find it.  

On the whole, I think I'm a happy person.  But like pretty much everyone else, I can be less happy sometimes.  Even here in this beautiful warm sunny place.  

One of my sources of wisdom, to combat my personal poop, are podcasts.  A thing I learned recently, and am trying out a little, is this.  When you see something that is delightful. Anything.  Put your finger in the air and proclaim, out loud, delight!  Even better, have a delight partner.  Call, text, message them however, to share the delight.  Delight shared is delight amplified!  

I don't always remember to say delight.  Or to even think it.  When I do, I usually say it in my head and picture my finger in the air.  But I'm working on it.   

I think too, that this delight habit fits well with the thought, if you look for it, you will find it.  

I've been on this island for 7 seasons now.  So there aren't as many new things for me to discover.  Which is partly why I'm not blogging as much as in the first years.  But, my goal is to continue to look for the beauty here, and be delighted by it.  Thank you to everyone who reads my blogs for sharing, and making it more delightful!!  These pictures are random delightful things :)

1) I watched a man bring these figures to the garbage.  I imagine they were from a Carnaval past.  They were a little damaged and dirty.  But still cute.  I was so happy to see the man in the picture pick one up, on his scooter!!  I think he said for a niece.  When I passed by again later that day, they were all gone.  I was delighted by the figures.  Even more delighted that they would get a new life!

2) More stuff from Carnaval past.  It would've been a big fun float!  I just thought they were so fun, delightful!  I hope they reuse some of the materials when Carnaval finally gets to happen again.  It's been cancelled for the second time in a row.  TheCovid...

3) It never gets old for me.  A pretty drink with a cherry!!

4) On the waterfront, there's a restaurant called Hemingway.  I think the name is a bit pretentious, and the dance music is soooo not for me!  But they do have this pretty archway and wedding thingy.  I was delighted enough to by it to take a picture :)

5) I love these pink washing machines!!!  I love how so many household items here are fun colours.   But they seem expensive.  About 6,500 pesos or $360 CDN.  That's a lot for the average Mexican

6) In the tourist zone, there's a main square and pedestrian mall, like Sparks St at home.  They have these pretty lights and flags.  It delighted me enough to stop for a drink!  

Jorge and Flor make Chicharron

I'm biking home and see a man with a big pot on a fire.  May I ask what this is?  I say.  Yes, he says. With pride and joy!!

The man is Jorge.  He was making chicharron. Which I thought was "just" rendered pork fat.  But I had so much to learn!  

First.  What is rendering anyway???  I'd heard of it.  Didn't know exactly what it meant.  Google says it's cooking fat to evaporate all the water in it, to make it keep / not rot.  Soooo....basically, put chunks of (pork) fat in a big pot.  Cook.  Until lots of the fat is melted & all the water is evaporated.  To make chicharron, cook until the remaining / not melted chunks of fat are golden brown and crispy.  The crispy bits are the chicharron.  Which means "crackling" in Spanish. 

Jorge offered me a piece of his chicharron to try.  I'd had it before.  It's very keto (lo carb, hi fat diet) And can be really tasty. But Jorge's fresh chicharron was the best ever!!!  I'm not eating keto these days, so I didn't want to eat too much of it.  Sad :(

Jorge was so pleasant, I asked if I could take his picture.  He was so keen!  He posed! With his mixing stick! And smiled so proudly!  

It was such a fun encounter, and such an awesome picture of Jorge, I printed it.  And went back to his house to offer him a print.  

Jorge wasn't home.  But his sister Flor was.  She was super pleasant too!  And offered some tastes of the chicharron she was making. That's when I learned chicharron is NOT always just pork fat.  To my delight, and less delight, I tasted chicharron made from....beef skin/fat - very good!  Beef tripe- pretty good!  And beef lung - ouch!!  A little too real for me :(

 Pictures

1) Jorge posing with his giant pot of pork chicharron.  So delicious!!!

2) Flor posing with her pot of beef chicharron, and a piece of beef tripe chicharron in her hand.  She had a very good laugh, at my expense, when I said beef lung (the dark chunks in the bin that look like dried poop) is not for me.  I thought her laughing at me was very funny! 

3) This is Sebastian. He guards bicycles and scooters that park in "his area" at the Mega grocery store.  The service is pay what you want like  5, 10, 20 pesos (30 cents to $1.20) He's been there since I've been coming to Cozumel.  He's always so cheery.  I gave him a print of this picture.

4) A cute little dog hanging out at Jorge and Flor's house.  Their dog?  Maybe.  I'll ask next time I go there.

5-6) This hippo has a kinda surprised look on its face.  Maybe cause it has that weird thing coming outta his back end???  Ohhhh....it's a slide! :)  The little girl in the picture was cute.  The woman, a grandmother? (Abuela), was patient.  The little girl had a deformed arm.  Not much there after the elbow.  It took her a little time to get up the ladder.  But she seemed to enjoy her slide!   

7) Cupcakes in the bakery section at Mega.  Too cute! About $0.60 each!  Nope.  I didn't buy one.  I'm not eating keto.  But I am trying to be reasonable...