social week

AVATAR!!!!! We took Jill and Lisa and went into Cancun to see the amazing Avatar movie - yes, in 3D. I was there begrudginly, not being a sci fi fan, but the special effects were wonderful. Reclining seats, good popcorn, cold drinks - great thing to do for 3 hours in the afternoon - and for half the price of a Canadian movie.




Last night Lauren came for dinner and sadly had to leave today to go back to cold old NY state.


Today we had friends Yasemin and Omar over for lunch and a visit. It has become sunny and hot again - YAY - so we had appies and drinks by the pool and then had our main meal inside, as it was too hot outside.


Our littlest street cat of the 10 we feed, the 5 week old Latte, has a new name, courtesy of friend Lee from Ek Balam. Lee stayed with us for 3 nights last week and watched this delightful kitten leaping around and said he looks just like a coatamundi, with his long striped tail up in the air. So his new name is Chi'ik - (pronounded cheek) which is Mayan for coatamundi. Here he is doing quality control to make sure Miki's water is safe to drink.....! He is the one of our charges who lives in the house, and who sleeps with us every night.





For anyone who reads the blog, you will remember the distressing pics of Botas, our street dog, full of mange, parasites, fleas, worms and terribly underweight. Well, here is is today, after a series of 6 injections for the parasites (thanks, Diane, for doing those), a mange bath every 2 weeks, and daily food and water. Kind of a handsome lad, don`t you think...!!

Farewells and hellos!

Monday night after work was a farewell party for Madame, otherwise known as Dominique, to my right, and also for Valerie and Ken, beside Madame and Miki, who are here again from Victoria. Dominique, from Paris, is heading off to other parts of Mexico in search of more heat....and Ken and Val are heading home to rainy BC.




Yah, yah, this little girl came to visit the bookstore with her owners and was just too cute to leave out.



Omar and Yasemin from Santa Barbara are in town again, so we got together at their lovely suite at Casita Blanca again and enjoyed an amazing feast of fresh fish, pasta, grilled veggies, lentil soup, salad, and wonderful carrot cake, courtesy of dear Diane of Mama's Bakery.




The weather is starting to warm up, but it was still cloudy. Didn't change the beautiful view and the wonderful energy being with old friends. Welcome back you two!!!

Friendships!

Our friend Lauren, who we met last year and who is now a proud owner at Casita Blanca, invited us to her lovely suite for drinks and snacks......and a lovely spread it was, too.










Of course, if there is a cat anywhere who can be included in the blog, you know it will show up, and here at Lauren's there are not one but 2 very happy WELL FED healthy cats, who are very well looked after. Here is the orange tabby, a fat loveable cat.









The second one is a soft dark grey and also very loveable.







Like many parts of Mexico, it has been unusually cold here - down to 10 one night - good grief - and only about 20 as a high during the day. Still so much better than anywhere else in Canada and the U. S., but still, we all have our fans off, our windows closed and 2 quilts on the bed at night. Diane even pulled out a wool hat and scarf, sent by her daughter in law. The next night she came to the bookstore she had on a down coat!!! I was so stunned I forgot to take a picture!

The Blues is back in PM!

After a long hot summer, the Men in Blues are back in Puerto Morelos for the winter!! They are playing at David Lau's every Saturday night and at another place on Wednesdays. Sadly, it rained yesterday, so the band and all its devoted fans were all squeezed into the restaurant itself, instead of the large lovely courtyard at the back.


Jimmy, from Montreal, has an awesome group of musicians with him again this year, and I will make sure to get all their names over the next couple of weeks.




The town square was filled with the sound of fabulous raunchy familiar blues music, and the sidewalk and street were full of folks enjoying the sounds. The rain stopped almost at the moment they started playing, so you can tell how powerful this Men in Blues are!!!



Our friend Jill and sister in law Lisa, were there soaking up the music and the energy from the crowd.

the critters...!

Our feline menagerie has grown to 10 street cats and our 1 dog, botas. Here is our black kitten, Negro (which is Spanish for black, and is pronounced Naygro) with one of the new arrivals - a tabby and white cat, of whom there are 2 who have to be litter mates, as they are identical.





On the way to lunch yesterday, this beautiful friggate bird was cruising overhead - they are such amazing fliers.











The wee kitten Latte has a new name - Chi'iki - (pronounced Cheekee) courtesy of Lee, who said he reminds her of the coatamundis, or in Spanish Tejone. The Mayan word for tejone is chi'ik, and with his long tail and stripes, he does indeed look more like a coati than a cup of coffee.... : P

Here is another quick shot of one of the tabby sister...or brothers.....???? They are terribly skittish, so as soon as this one heard the camera turn on, she was already turning to bolt.

Social times!

We set up some visits with friends that Lee, staying with us from Ek Balam, also knows.



Diane dropped in to John Gray's Mother in Law's for lunch and a visit, and then had to head back to bake for Mama's.






Rob and Joanne dropped by for a visit and a drink too.






Now, I have to apologize for this photo. We attended a video and Q & A about the research our friend Jill has done on the caves in the area. Here is the brief explanation of the presentation - Crustacea is a submerged cave, located near Puerto Morelos. It is full of a rare crustacion called a remipede, which was discovered and named by Jill. In addition, a number of other endangered creatures inhabit this cave. Because of this biodiversity, this cave, and others in the area, are in danger from the developments happening in the region. In addition to (Dr.) Jill, Olmo Torres Talamente from the local university, UNAM, and other cave specialists attended this meeting and answered many questions from the audience.













After the film, we headed over to David Lau's to listen to Kathy's band, and were joined by Lauren. Had supper there and enjoyed visiting and listening to the music.

3 Kings Day

On our day off, we did our usual WalMart/Costco run, but on the way out of our neighbourhood, here is one of the local horses, tethered in a grassy field. They are all over the Colonia - wherever a vacant grassy space is, there is usually a horse tethered there, enjoying his food.







Today is 3 Kings Day, a big celebration day and the day when most Mexican children are given their Christmas presents. There are huge family dinners, and on one corner, here were a group of men preparing a whole pig for the feast later in the day. Every Mexican family in Walmart were buying Rosca cake, to be served tonight. Inside the cake a tiny figure of Jesus is buried and whomever gets the figure in their piece of cake has to prepare a feast on Feb. 2, which is the last day of Christmas celebrations.







Then it was off to the airport to meet our friend Lee, coming back from the Ontario cold after visiting her family for Christmas. The Cancun airport is very spiffy these days - a big change from 10 years ago when we first flew in here. We had lunch at a little cafe, watching the arrivals board, as her flight had been delayed an hour and a half.






But here she is, finally, glad to be back in the heat of Mexico!!!! Had a quiet evening at home, getting caught up and being entertained by the kitten Latte.