Friday fun!

Friends John and Connie from Iowa came to our casa for lunch and a visit today. We were all neighbours in our RVs in 2008 at Acamaya Reef and they are back every year for some fun in the sun. Iowa is some cold this time of year.
Connie brought us up to date on all their family tales, and we had a great lunch courtesy of Guadalupe's great chicken and ribs!
Then it was off to Cancun with Ed and Kevin. First stop was the wild beaches on the Hotel Zone.
Gorgeous breakers, but not exactly a swimming beach, although there was one brave soul out there. The guys had not seen the Hotel Zone in all its excess, so it was an eye opener for them.

Then we headed downtown for some REAL Mexico.

Small town hero!

You may remember this smiling face - Meno, the wonderful bartender/host at Yodi's Biergarten here in PM. Always a smile on his face, no matter how busy he is, and makes you feel welcome and cared for.

A couple of weeks ago, there was a house fire right across from the bar. Memo rushed across the street, got the family - Mom, Dad and a few kids - out of the house, hauled the burning mattress out to the road and put out the fire. This was during our chilly (well, 15 is chilly here at night) period and I am sure they were trying to stay warm with candles, but Meno's quick action saved them and prevented the rest of their home from burning.

When he is reminded of this, he just gives you a shy "aw shucks" kind of smile and changes the subject. But a hero he is, and so typical of Mexicans who go out of their way to help other people. Way to go, Meno!!!!!

Rosie & Martin from Ft McMurray

Our oldest dearest friends, Rosie and Martin, are in Tulum for 2 weeks and rented a car to come see us overnight in Puerto Morelos! We relaxed at our casa for a while, caught up on all the news from frigid Alberta, and had some drinks and appies.

Then we went for a great dinner at Las Palmeras, and enjoyed the company, the food and the sound of the waves during dinner.

Finally, we headed to David Lau's to listen to the Men in Blues and do some long overdue dancing. Had an awesome evening and a nice morning with them today and then they were off to Tulum and we head to the bookstore at 4!

Music in the town square!

Friday night was the first of the 2010 Puerto Morelos Music Festival nights, which will run every second Friday until the end of March. This is a wonderful night of entertainment, as well as a major fundraiser for the community of PM. There are great local entertainers, like Abel, who has an amazing voice, guitarists, local bands and lots of gringo performers, who come here every year and contribute to our wonderful town.



All the concerts are free, but the hat is passed, and there are Festival T-shirts for sale, which are a great hit and are a major part of the fundraising effort.




Local kids did a dance/yoga performance to music - too sweet.



And, of course, the Men in Blue were the final act of the night, getting everyone up and dancing for sure!

New gate and screen door!

We were lucky to have been given (thanks Brenda and JP!!) a lovely screen door which they were unable to use. We contracted with our neighbour to remove our original metal gate across our door, which wouldn't fit once the screen door was installed.






So Ramon removed our gate and welded a new gate which now covers our whole porch, which gives us more porch space as well as a safe place for the catfood bowl when Botas, the dog, is in our yard.





Next, I took Ramon to Playa to buy the wood he needed to build the doorframe. Once the door was installed, Miki stained the raw wood and it looks awesome.















The screen door from inside the house.


























The final product - nice gate, great screen door, and more through air without mosquitos....!!!!!!

Our talented nieghbour and wonderful guy - Ramon! He is a welder, a plumber, an electrician, a builder and a pool guy. What a great neighbour to have 3 doors down - oh, and the whole job, including materials, was $210.

Yalku snorkelling fun

Spent a lovely day with Yasemin and Omar at Yalku - one of our favourite snorkelling places south of Playa del Carmen. Sunny, warm water, loads of fish, calm water - all perfect for hours of snorkelling.





Then off to our favourite Akumal lunch spot - La Buena Vida - for drinks and a great meal overlooking the beach.




Omar and Yasemin are spending the next 2 nights in Playa del Carmen, so we dropped them off at their resort and enjoyed a tour as well. Silly me didn't think to take pics until we were home....!

Critters and music

One of our more beautiful street cats (of course, the are ALL beautiful in their own way!!) is this handsome one, who is obviously tabby, but has a decidedly siamese face. This day he/she had a large sore on one side of his/her face, so I gave it some extra treats to see if I could get close enough to check it out. A little bit of cooked chicken and smoked salmon disappeared so fast he ended up throwing it up later, poor thing. Anyway, the sore looked like it was healing and didn't look infected. Chi'ik is saying hello at the bottom of the shot. So far he is too small to be a threat to any of the cats, so they either ignore him or play with him, depending on how old they are.






After work on Sunday night, friends Roxanne and Evan from Saskatchewan invited me out for a drink at a little taco place around the corner from the bookstore. Had a nice glass of wine and enjoyed some wonderful live music right on the street. He plays beautiful guitar and she has an amazing voice.


Roxanne and Evan are enjoying their time in Puerto Morelos and also took in the Jungle Market this morning.




Ah, yes, another dog - this street puppy has been adopted by a local Mexican man, and a fellow we see at the store all the time, Joe, from the U.S. had him out for a walk. Very sweet and full of energy. Looks very healthy too, which is a treat.