Snorkel Akumal- Turtle Heaven

Well, we're back from the resort portion of the family visit and we're exhausted. We need a vacation from our vacation! We spent a few days in Akumal, a couple hours down the coast and a spectacular destination for snorkelers and divers, particularly if you've got a love for turtles. We stayed at the Akumal Beach Resort (more on that later) and were able to snorkel right off the beach as well as in the nearby Yal Ku lagoon. The whole family got in on the snorkel action, even my mom who is nervous with a mask and tube. By the end of the week Max really had a handle on the equipment and was snorkeling like a pro! We've taken him out before but this was really the first time that he "got" it, he kept popping his head out of the water and screaming that he saw a "giant fishy!" I swear that my first time in the water I saw ten turtles in about ten minutes, I was ecstatic. The Yal Ku lagoon is a great place for beginner snorkelers, it's calm and protected and full of sea life, though in order to see the good coral formations you've got to be a pretty strong swimmer to get out near the ocean.

Here are some of the photo highlights of our snorkeling adventures...

Yal Ku Lagoon

Yal Ku Lagoon

Max getting ready to enter Yal Ku

Mom, the somewhat nervous snorkeler
did a great job in the ocean

Max the Super Snorkeler with Hubby

My Daddy in Yal Ku

Wittle Fishies

Lots of these yellow stripey guys in Yal Ku

Coral Formations in Yal Ku near the sea

Sea Turtle

A Little Guy

Same Little Guy Checking Me Out

Bigger Guy Having Breakfast

And there you have it, just a sampling of snorkeling photos from our adventures down south. I'll have more later this week about the rest of our experience, but I couldn't wait to share these with you.

Now, a wee lecture. It is against the law and a horrible disgusting act to mess with the coral and sea life. I was quite angry to see a tourist taking a piece of coral out of the lagoon and really disgusted to see people standing on the coral, kicking up the ocean floor and trying to touch the marine life. I also witnessed folks slathering on sun screen before getting in the water. PLEASE, please, please, RESPECT the incredible place we have, don't destroy it any more than it has been already. Do NOT touch the coral, do not stand on it, do not use your fins more than necessary (light, gentle, fluttery kicks do you more good than clumsy huge splashes), do NOT wear sunscreen, a t-shirt or snorkel shirt is much better than even the "eco-friendly" brands, do NOT try to touch the turtles or urchins or other sea life. It's sad to see people treat these natural wonders like they were built by Disney, once we lose them, they're not going to come back, no "Imagineers" can fix the damage, do all you can to keep the beauty of the region for years to come. Ok, off my soap box, I figure most of you probably know all this but I felt like I needed to rant for a moment.

More later this week!

Powdery soft sand, shimmering blue sea....

Phew, finished the travel writing project just in time for the parents to arrive! Glad to have a break from writing about beach resort hotels, there are only so many ways to describe the beach and ocean without losing your mind. I'm not complaining, I hope to have many more days writing about luxury, economical, bargain, land sports, water sports, volleyball, snorkeling, diving, swim up bars, jacuzzis, shopping, butlers, room service, restaurants, pillow menus, premium liquor, kids' clubs, adults only, turquoise/multi-hued/sparkling/shimmering seas, soft/powdery/glistening white sand.

The parents arrived yesterday and we couldn't be happier. We took them out to Fish Fritanga, Costco, Walmart (can NOT find a floating pool chair that my mom wants, what kind of beach town is this?) and played dice games all night. Max is beyond ecstatic to have his grandparents here, he's been a great little helper guy, telling them funny stories and making them laugh. I think they're pretty happy to see their grandson too.

Part of their visit will be spent at a resort, part here at the house. This may sound paranoid, but I am not going to say when we'll be away, no need to let the thieves know when we'll be out, not that we have anything worth stealing anyway. We've got a great housesitter/cat/dog sitter coming in (thanks friend, you know who you are!) so I'm not worried, but so many folks said "Oh, don't post on the internet when you are going to be away" that I will heed their advice and not give dates.

So, I'll be taking a little vacation, not checking in to the mail and such for a while, though I will pop in occasionally in case something urgent comes up (yeah right, never anything urgent in my life thank goodness). I'll have lots of tales to tell and photos to share when the parental units head back to Canada, hang in there, and as Arnie says "I'll be back".

Scottish Tourist Missing from Moon Palace

Missing: Julia Howard
(photo courtesy The Scottish Sun)

It's a mystery. A family from Scotland reports that 78 year old Julia Howard went missing at the Moon Palace resort on June 15th. She apparently left the pool area to retrieve a hat from her room and has not been seen since. The family states that the hotel and the authorities did little to help them until earlier this week when the news hit the press. In addition to a lack of appropriate response, the attorney general of the state of Quintana Roo made a completely inappropriate statement about the matter:


"The Quintana Roo AG, Bello Melchor Rodriguez Carrillo, was quoted by Focus Radio in Mexico as stating; “The first presumption is that the Attorney General’s (Office) is against the family, they just had to take care of the management of this person, because we don’t know the clinical history of this person (Julia Howard), who may have mental deficiencies, (we’re) totally unaware of the physical health this person arrived in and this seems to be that the family, her (Howards’) son and daughter were in a recreational area in the pool area of Hotel Moon Palace, and when she said that the case was to return to the room, to find some things, and to join up again with them, and it seems that (she) left for a time, and as I said the people responsible for her, these guests (Howard’s adult children), which apparently they took of no great importance, continued to enjoy their holiday ” . (courtesy Dangers: CancunCasa)

It seems unlikely to me that the woman met with foul play, there have been no reports of ransom demands and no evidence of an attack or robbery, she simply disappeared. I would speculate (as dangerous as that may be) that she fell victim to a crocodile or an accidental drowning in the sea. There seems to be so little information that it is really difficult to guess what exactly happened. The family states that she was a healthy woman, perhaps she simply chose to disappear, stranger things have happened. The police and hotel staff are apparently now conducting an in depth search, utilizing marine police, mounted police and canine units to search the area.

Until such time as real evidence appears, my thoughts go out to the family of Julia Howard. I hope they find answers and something to bring them peace. I know many residents of Quintana Roo read this blog, please look at the picture carefully, more eyes searching may be of benefit to the investigation.

You can keep up with the news on the Trip Advisor Cancun forum or over at Dangers' blog (thanks to him for bringing this to my attention). Click here for today's article from Diario de Quintana Roo (Spanish of course).

Ketchup. Er, Catch Up

Wow, can't believe it's been so long since I blogged, let's play catch up, see if I have some good excuses for not posting lately.

1. The Big Show- Every year Max's school does an end of year production in a theater, fancy costumes, lights, choreography and chaos. Last week we had a rehearsal on the stage during the week and the performance on Saturday morning. I always get so emotional at these events, I guess that's the curse of the parent isn't it? My little guy's class (Kinder 1) did three numbers, the first one was the English song and dance to "Heigh Ho" from Snow White. I personally think they could have picked a better song, "dig, dig, dig, dig, dig, dig" is a bit repetitive, but it was cute. Particularly since it seems most of the kids thought that the words were "I'm HOME" instead of "Heigh Ho", they sure belted out the chorus. The main event for Kinder 1 was their Yucatecan dance , they looked adorable in their traditional costumes and almost no one got hurt in the intricate choreography (yes, almost, Max did bang heads with some poor kid and four of the girls ended up in tears). For an extra special treat, a handful of fathers (Hubby included) did a dance to the "Mariachi Loco", I was almost laughing to hard to take photos.

Max and His Best Friend
(yes, they are the same age but look at the size difference)

Kinder 1- The Yucatecos
(To Max's right, your left is his "wife", he told me
they got married two weeks ago)

The Dads and Their Big Finish

2. The Great Outdoors- We've been getting out of the house a LOT. It has been hot, hot, hot, but the summer season always thrills me, time to get out to the beach and enjoy the breezes. After Max's rehearsal last week we made a last minute decision to go to Isla Mujeres (Wayne, I think I have a wrong number for you!) Max LOVES going to Isla as he gets to ride on the big boat. I was excited to see the "new" ferry (don't know how long it's been in service, but it was new to me!), it seemed to be a faster ride and I love the floor to ceiling windows that give a fantastic view of the Bay of Isla Mujeres. We walked up to Playa Norte and played on the beach all afternoon. Max made friends with a couple of kids who were selling chicles and they frolicked for hours on the giant sandbags that seem to be helping the beach come back. I met a lovely couple from Canada and their baby, and found it very interesting that three Canucks were communicating in Spanish (they were French Canadians and I lost my French years ago). Of all the beaches in Quintana Roo, I think that Playa Norte is by far the best swimming beach, clear shallow waters with almost zero waves, you can float forever!

The New Ferry to Isla

Max's New Amigo and his Starfish Friend

Jumping off the Sandbags
(What? You don't know that game?)

3. Social media junkie- Oh the addiction of Twitter! I've been "slacking" in my Tweets recently (much like my slacking in the blog department), just checking in once or twice a day. It's all Facebook these days! For a long time I barely checked my Facebook but recently my extended family has found their way on to FB and I have been enjoying myself immensely. After my grandma died, the family really grew apart, it's been at least 15 years since I have been in communication with first cousins and aunts and uncles, 30 years for some of them!! We've been exchanging messages and photos on Facebook and getting to know each other all over again. I think Grandma would be happy (though perhaps flummoxed by the whole internet phenomenon). So, sorry blog and Twitter, I'm currently a FB junkie enjoying some family time!

4. Work- My regular job is going great, I am digging my classes, but in addition to teaching I've been getting some writing jobs. This is oh so good and oh so exciting. It's little jobs here and there, not enough to quit the day job or even pay the bills, but anything extra right now is great, Hubby and I are still working on reduced salaries because of stinky swine flu. Don't get too excited, I'm not writing novels or in depth reports on anything of import, it's mostly commercial travel pieces, ad copy for folks selling all manner of travel related things. But, work is work and I'll take it where I can get it!

And there you have it, my big excuses for not blogging lately. Hopefully I'll get back in the flow of things this week, let's see if I can get some of this work out of the way so I can focus again. Hope you are all well, have a fab day!

Frickin' Mumble- Language Lessons

The language in our house is constantly evolving, a four year old learning new words and phrases everyday and the Canuck trying to improve her Spanish (and occasionally correcting Hubby's English). Max has been having a bit of a language explosion lately, but not always in a positive way. On the plus side, instead of whining and crying and throwing a useless tantrum, he's learned to say "Mommy, I'm frustrated, it's hard being a kid because (insert problem of the moment here)". I'm thrilled that he's learning to communicate his feelings, "Use your words Max!", the mood in the house is much nicer without the foot stomping and whiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiines that can come out of a preschooler. On the other hand, he's far more of a mimic than I like, reflecting some of my own bad behaviour and using some of the more adult words that really shouldn't be coming out of his little mouth. It's hard not to laugh, I still get the giggles when I think of his outburst on the beach Sunday "Mommmmmmmy, where's my FRICKIN' goggles????" I guess it's better than using the real curse word, but I still don't think my parents are going to like it much. I have to stop myself from snickering when he expresses his frustration with another of my phrases "Fine! Just forget it! Never mind lady!" (he doesn't call me "mom" when he's mad, I am "lady", apparently losing my position in the family order).

On my end of the language learning curve, I'm fighting my way through the verb "gustar" and feeling like a four year old. It's one of those weird verbs that doesn't fit a regular pattern and at first it wasn't making much sense to me. "Te entiendo" means "I understand you". "Te quiero" means "I love you". But, "te gusto" means "you like me". Heh? "Gustar" literally means "it pleases me", so what I would consider the object of the sentence is actually the subject of the verb and this gets me twisted in knots. "Me gusta pizza", "pizza pleases me". I would think it should be "le gusto pizza" or "I like pizza", but oh no, they've got to mess with me! I still haven't found an easy to understand explanation of the difference between "por" and "para" either, both mean "for" and I just randomly choose one as I really cannot determine when to use which. Usually I'll just mumble it so it sounds like it could be either (mumbling the parts that I am not sure of is a tactic I use too frequently when speaking, too bad I can't mumble when typing). I find I am working more on my Spanish everyday, especially while using Twitter. I follow both English and Spanish tweeters and I tweet in both languages. I am sure that at times my Mexicano tweeple get a good laugh at my mistakes, but hey, I'm trying! I learn a lot by following Spanish tweeters and reading their blogs, it's a great way to flex those language muscles! Twitter is actually quite useful for language learning, I love it when I receive a correction from a follower, it's always done in a friendly way and I learn a lot.

In attempting to learn Spanish (or any language really), the internet is a vast classroom, some teachers better than others just like when we were in high school. The boring dry teachers and the witty and cool ones, finding the right mix of structure and fun can be difficult. Last week I stumbled on a set of very funny Spanish learning videos, I am not exactly learning from them (some of them are quite basic), but I am having a good laugh! I have to share this one with you, but fair warning, it's a bit PG-13 and not for the kiddie set!

So, what's your language learning goal for the day? How's that second language coming along? Que tengan un buen dia! (Have a great day!)